Danish PM Named New NATO Head

Anders Fogh Rasmussen was named the new NATO chief over the weekend, over a series of public objections made by a few NATO members and led by Turkey, who as late as Thursday night were said to be blocking Rasmussen's ascension to that post. The reason for those objections was a perceived insensitivity to Muslims underlined by his actions during the 2006 Danish Cartoons Controversy. The new NATO head spoke earlier today about keeping those general concerns in mind as he goes about performing the duties expected of him in that position.

I'm a little confused that Rasmussen gets painted as such as hard-line free speech advocate, because my memory is that he was fairly moderate during the actual run of riots and protests -- not in a way where anything said about him is untrue, but it seemed to me he negotiated that period in a way that a different set of actions/statements could be emphasized if someone went back and collected that information. My memory could be faulty. Cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, him I remember being adamant throughout, and remains so today.

The irony of Turkey driving a protest based on an event related to cartooning when their Prime Minister seems to cuff them about the head and body with lawsuits and the threat of lawsuits is probably lost on every single person not a huge comics nerd.

photo copyright World Economic Forum and used under this arrangement. At least I think I'm doing that correctly.
 
posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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