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The senators claimed the reason for the State Department's interference was because of ongoing negotiations related to the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal, which former President Barack Obama signed in 2015. Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson unveiled evidence on Wednesday that former Secretary of State John Kerry's State Department "actively interfered" with the FBI's attempts to arrest people suspected of being in the United States illegally to support Iran's efforts to create weapons of mass destruction. Whistleblowers allegedly told the senators and shared unclassified documents with them that supported their claims, and showed that the Justice Department and...

Banner headline events almost always flow from quieter real-life causes, and the worst attack on Israel in fifty years is not an exception. The coordinated raids and massacres on October 7 were possible only because of more subtle interventions over two and a half years in rooms at the State Department and the White House, with indirect help from nonprofits like the Soros-funded International Crisis Group. These interventions were driven by a small network of government and interest group insiders whose actions have gone unreported in establishment media. Though their further consequences aren’t yet clear, they’ll almost certainly involve a...

In a rare move, the Biden administration summoned Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog over a bill striking down parts of a “discriminatory and humiliating” 2005 law that call into question Israel’s historical right to the land. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told Herzog (pictured) during the summons at the State Department that the decision to “rescind important aspects of the 2005 Disengagement Law, including the prohibition on establishing settlements in the northern West Bank,” could further “inflame tensions leading into the Ramadan, Passover, and Easter holidays.” The summons comes on the heels of scathing statements about...

In France strike plans forming for Thursday in opposition to "pension reform" planned by President Emmanuel Macron... In Ukraine tonight a US delegation has arrived led by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman... Meanwhile the International Atomic Energy Agency has established a permanent presence at the "South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant"... US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to travel to China next month... Protests in Peru continue opposition to the ouster of Leftist President Pedro Castillo... Monday night in Germany means protest walks... Israeli Politics: Massive Opposition Protests And Calls For "Compromise Talks" On Judicial Reform... US politics and...

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s military chief has reportedly sought help from the United Sates in securing the early disbursement of an International Monetary Fund loan as the high price of energy imports pushes the cash-strapped South Asian nation to the brink of a payment crisis. General Qamar Javed Bajwa spoke by phone to Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Wendy Sherman earlier this week and raised the issue, government sources told VOA late Friday on condition of anonymity. Pakistan last week reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF for the revival of a multibillion-dollar bailout package. However, the deal is subject to...

The US government has formally declared that members of the Russian armed forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday. The official US declaration that Moscow has violated the laws of conflict comes after Blinken, President Joe Biden and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman all said it was their personal opinion that war crimes have taken place. "Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine," Blinken said in a statement.

A top Biden administration diplomat admitted Sunday that it is “hard to understand” why the U.S. and other world powers are negotiating a new nuclear deal with Iran, as Tehran claimed responsibility for a Sunday rocket attack that struck near the American consulate in Irbil, Iraq. Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was pressed on the administration’s continued push to secure a new nuclear deal with Tehran. Officials have said the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna are nearing completion, despite Iran’s aggression toward Americans in Iraq and even amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As Vladimir Putin mobilizes forces on the Ukraine border and Chinese submarines patrol the Taiwan Strait, President Joe Biden’s State Department has made its priorities clear: The slave-made solar panels must flow. Republican senator Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Democratic senator Jeff Merkley (Ore.) introduced a bill in January prohibiting the importation of goods made with forced labor from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where a genocide perpetrated by the Chinese government is afoot. It passed the Senate in a voice vote in July. It was more controversial at Foggy Bottom, where we now know that Deputy Secretary of State Wendy...

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman cited "some bilateral differences" between the two Asian allies of the U.S. "that are continuing to be resolved, unrelated to today's meeting" as the reason she appeared alone in front of reporters. Historical grievances between Japan and South Korea resurfaced in September, when a South Korean court ordered assets seized from Japanese industrial group Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to be sold as compensation for women forced to work for the company during World War II. Sherman and her counterparts, Choi Jong-kun of South Korea and Mori Takeo of Japan, discussed North Korea's nuclear program and...

A senior Chinese diplomat on Monday bluntly warned the visiting American deputy secretary of state, Wendy R. Sherman, that the Biden administration’s strategy of pursuing both confrontation and cooperation with Beijing was sure to fail. China’s assistant foreign minister, Xie Feng, told Ms. Sherman that the United States’ “competitive, collaborative and adversarial rhetoric” was a “thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China,” according to a summary of Mr. Xie’s comments that the Chinese foreign ministry sent to reporters. Ms. Sherman’s meetings offered the latest gauge of the Biden administration’s strategy of stepping up pressure against the Chinese government on...

For a few days, the band was back together. Following President Trump’s decision to target Qassem Soleimani, the media’s favorite go-to critics featured members of Barack Obama’s administration who crafted and sold the failed nuclear deal with Iran. John Kerry, Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Wendy Sherman and Leon Panetta gave interviews or popped up on social media to defend their tenure and declare that Trump was a reckless fool for poking the mullahs’ nest. Naturally, the Obama alums were in perfect sync with the dominant media narrative in the four days between the Soleimani strike and Iran’s feeble retaliation. They...

On July 29, President Trump tweeted: “Just remember, Iranians never won a war, but never lost a negotiation.” In just 12 words, Trump leveled a multi-layered, ahistorical insult against both his predecessor, Barack Obama, and Iran. More importantly, the remarks betray a dangerously ignorant understanding of Iran that could result in another careless Middle East war of choice. The tweet invokes a clichéd, colonial-era stereotype that Iranians, like other Middle Eastern peoples, are wily swindlers—rapacious, greedy bazaar merchants who aim to take advantage of honest and unsuspecting Westerners. Trump is hardly the first American leader to dabble in such denigrating...

House Democrats will hear from former CIA Director John Brennan about the situation in Iran, inviting him to speak next week amid heightened concerns over the Trump administration’s sudden moves in the region. Brennan, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, is scheduled to talk to House Democrats at a private weekly caucus meeting Tuesday, according to a Democratic aide and another person familiar with the private meeting. Both were granted anonymity to discuss the meeting. The invitation to Brennan and Wendy Sherman, a former State Department official and top negotiator of the Iran nuclear deal, offers counterprogramming to the...

A former top diplomatic official for the Obama administration on Tuesday said President Trump granted Kim Jong Un more power than he deserved by flying the American and North Korean flags side-by-side over their recent summit. She also slammed Trump's team for not knowing "what they're doing." Wendy Sherman, a former undersecretary of State for political affairs, said on MSNBC that she was "a little taken aback" by the backdrop when Trump first shook hands with Kim, a historic first for the leaders of the two countries, earlier on Tuesday. "I was a little taken aback by the North Korean...

This is just too rich. Seriously. From the insufferable Iran deal… to the appeasement “Russian Reset”… to the Libya fiasco… to the rise of ISIS… to installing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt… to the explosion of terrorism in Yemen… to civil war in Syria… to the crisis in Ukraine… to the 2010 State Department apology tour (WikiLeaks cables scandal)… to their inability to stop North Korean nuclear ambitions and the rise of China as an influential power… there were/are zero foreign policy successes in eight years of the Obama administration. There was not a single Obama foreign policy initiative that...

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is warning of a looming worldwide political threat. In her new book, "Fascism: A Warning," she argues contemporary world leaders are turning to the same tactics used by fascists like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini nearly a century ago. "We should be awake to the assault on democratic values that has gathered strength in many countries abroad and that is dividing America at home," she writes. Albright pointed to politics in countries like Hungary, Turkey, the Philippines, Poland and Venezuela. She also addresses President Trump in her book, writing: "If we think of fascism...

Thirteen years ago, Samantha Power made a name for herself with her Pulitzer prize-winning book, “‘A Problem from Hell’: America and the Age of Genocide.” In this book, she explored the history of America’s reluctance to intervene to stop or prevent genocides. Prescribing American intervention as justified on grounds both “moral” and in service of “enlightened self-interest,” Power asked how something so clear in retrospect as the need to stop genocide could “become so muddled at the time by rationalization, institutional constraints, and a lack of imagination.” It appears that on Monday morning, Power herself is going to demonstrate exactly...

The Obama administration's top negotiator on the Iran nuclear deal - and a candidate for secretary of state in a Hillary Clinton administration - told the FBI that hacking attempts were made on her personal email account several years ago during a negotiation session. The bombshell revelation comes from FBI notes taken during a Feb. 3 interview with a former State Department official. Though the official's name and sex are redacted throughout the notes - which were compiled as part of the Clinton email investigation - other clues in the document strongly suggest that it is Wendy Sherman.

'Justice for Palestinians cannot be attained without the lifting of the occupation,' Cornel West was quoted as saying by 'The New York Times' on Wednesday. The Democrat party is facing a possible dilemma as supporters of the two candidates vying for the nomination gear up for a debate on what to do with its Mideast policy. The Israel issue is threatening to tear the party apart as Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who has mounted a considerable presidential campaign that has earned him greater clout within the left-wing camp, has tapped two individuals to a key committee who seek to...

The Democratic party has revamped the way it appoints members of its platform committee, apportioning representation based on votes in the primary. As a result, Hillary Clinton has appointed six members of the platform committee, Bernie Sanders has appointed five, and party Chaircritter Debbie Wasserman Schultz ('I wear my support for Israel to work on my sleeve every morning') has appointed four. One of Sanders' appointees is longtime anti-Israel activist James Zogby. Sanders’s choices include James Zogby, a pro-Palestinian activist who is president of the Arab-American Institute in Washington and a frequent commentator on Arab-Israeli issues. On Saturday Zogby...