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I've never liked the word diss—not as a verb, much less as a noun. But watching the Obama administration get the diss treatment the world over, week-in, week-out, I'm beginning to see its uses. Diss: On Sunday, Bloomberg reported that Hasan Rouhani named Hamid Aboutalebi to serve as the ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Rouhani is the Iranian president the West keeps insisting is a "moderate," mounting evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Mr. Aboutalebi was one of the students who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Here's the kicker: The State Department—the very institution whose diplomats were...

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday proposed Andrew Schapiro as the new ambassador to the Czech Republic.... Like the present ambassador to Prague, Norman Eisen, Schapiro stands close to Obama. They studied together at the Harvard University ....

U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated businessman and Greek-American George James Tsunsis from New York to become the new U.S. ambassador to Norway. During the formal U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing, it became clear that the candidate does not know anything about Norway – which is probably why he has accepted the position. During the hearing he said, among other things, that the Norwegian government is opposed to the Progressive Party, and he referred to “Norway’s president”. Facts are that the Progress Party is part of the current coalition government and that Norway always has been a monarchy....

Argentinia's Ketchup Crisis must not go to waste. It requires immediate Senate confirmation of President Obama's appointment of Noah Bryson Mamet as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. It has not been a good start of the year for Argentineans [sic.]: a collapsing currency value, rampant inflation, Lionel Messi losing out on his fourth straight FIFA Ballon d'Or and, maybe worst of all, the great McDonald’s ketchup shortage of 2014. The fast food giant sent a message out via Twitter earlier this week apologizing for the inconvenience that Argentineans [sic.] will have to suffer through their Big Mac and French fries without the pre-requisite...

This is why a future president might finally do away with the practice of nominating a top political donor to be an ambassador. Here’s how the White House described wealthy executive George Tsunis when President Barack Obama nominated him to be the top U.S. diplomat in Norway in September 2013: “George J. Tsunis is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell Hotels, LLC. From 1999 to 2009, Mr. Tsunis was of counsel at Rivkin Radler, LLP and served as partner since 2005. Mr. Tsunis was Special Counsel to the Town of Huntington Committee on Open Space Preservation as...

Philadelphia USA — Athens, Greece---- The mystery surrounding US Marine, Brian LaLoup’s missing heart has already drawn two nations into a Philadelphia federal court. Aug. 12, 2012, in a Greek government-run hospital in Athens, cut out their son’s heart. U.S. military officials never informed Brian's parents that their son’s remains were incomplete until well after his burial —Defense Department later located a heart and sent it back to the United States, but it was not Brian LaLoup’s. Dan Smith, US ambassador to Greece, “From the outset, this matter was a high priority for me. Three times before the procedure occurred,...

The Palestinian Authority's ambassador to the Czech Republic has died of wounds sustained in an explosion which rocked his house in the capital Prague. Jamal al-Jamal was rushed to hospital in a serious condition following the explosion, which apparently occurred as he was opening a safe or container of some kind. Contrary to initial reports that his family were unharmed despite being in the building at the time, it has been confirmed that al-Jamal's wife was also hurt in the blast. A spokeswoman for Prague Emergency Services told CNN that the 57 year-old ambassador has been taken to Prague military...

Fifteen months after the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, the narrative of the attack continues to be shaped, and reshaped, by politicians and the press. But a New York Times report published over the weekend has angered sources who were on the ground that night. Those sources, who continue to face threats of losing their jobs, sharply challenged the Times’ findings that there was no involvement from Al Qaeda or any other international terror group and that an anti-Islam film played a role in inciting the initial wave of attacks. “It...

...U.S. Ambassador James "Wally" Brewster brought one thing with him this week that's a first for a male U.S. ambassador in the Caribbean nation: a husband. High-profile Catholic Church leaders have decried the new diplomatic appointment as a sign of a lack of respect from Obama. "He has not considered the particularities of our people. The United States is trying to impose on us marriage between gays and lesbians as well as adoption by these couples," said Father Luis Rosario, director of youth ministries for the church. A major fundraiser for Obama's 2012 campaign who most recently worked as a...

US Envoy Caroline Kennedy Meets Japan's Emperor TOKYO November 19, 2013 New U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy traveled by horse-drawn carriage into the Imperial Palace to present her credentials to Japan's emperor on Tuesday, giving the public a rare look at a diplomatic tradition. Thousands of onlookers lined the avenues near the moat-ringed palace to snap pictures and wave as Kennedy, the 55-year-old daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, waved back from inside the carriage.

Western Investigators: Muslim Brotherhood Assassinated The US Ambassador In Libya James and Joan Moryalti Western Investigators In Libya: The Libyan Security provided documents to Washington which revealed involvement of Morsi Former President of Egypt and Brotherhood Organization for the assassination of ” Chris Stevens US Ambassador in Libya on 11/9/2012.Barack Obama financed Brotherhood terrorist activities in Egypt. James and Joan Moryalti were interviewed on “Voice Of Russia” Radio station and they are Western Investigators who stayed in Libya during the NATO invasion. They are a part of a non-governmental organizations. They are observers and informers of war crimes in Libya....

Is there an idiom in Arabic for cutting off your nose to spite your face? Saudi Arabia's abrupt rejection on October 18 of the UN Security Council seat to which it had just been elected was described as "bizarre" and "baffling," a "perplexing" decision that that left diplomats "gasping" and was "met with incredulity." No member of the United Nations had ever done such a thing, and the Saudi government's explanation was about as subtle as an uppercut. "The … double standards existing in the Security Council prevent it from performing its duties and assuming its responsibilities," the Foreign Ministry...

LUXEMBOURG: France called in the US ambassador on Monday to protest at allegations in Le Monde newspaper about large-scale spying on French citizens by the US National Security Agency, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said. "I have immediately summoned the US ambassador and he will be received this morning at the Quai d'Orsay (the French Foreign Ministry)," Fabius told reporters at a European Union foreign ministers' meeeting in Luxembourg.

Gunmen have shot dead a German employed as a bodyguard at his country's embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. The man was killed by attackers in an apparent unsuccessful kidnap attempt on the German ambassador. Germany’s ambassador to Yemen appeared to have escaped a kidnapping attempt in the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday in which a bodyguard was killed. The pan-Arab news channel al-Arabiya reported that the guard had been killed as the attackers tried to kidnap the German ambassador, Carola Müller-Holtkemper.

Hicks – who had a brief phone conversation only hours before with Stevens before the line went dead — was informed of his death by Libya’s prime minister. snip Hicks said he doesn’t understand why more military resources were not sent to Benghazi after he notified State Department officials in Washington that the consulate was under attack. “I don’t know exactly what was available…And I still don’t quite understand why…they couldn’t fly aircraft over to Benghazi,” he said. “When I was a kid, I grew up watching western movies… the cavalry always came,” Hicks said in an interview taped Friday...

Former French ambassador Boris Boillon (pictured) was arrested on July 31 at Paris’s Gare du Nord station, it emerged on Friday, as he attempted to board a train to Brussels with more than 350,000 euros in cash. Former French ambassador Boris Boillon was arrested on July 31 at Paris’s Gare du Nord station, as he attempted to board a train to Brussels carrying more than 350,000 euros in cash, it emerged on Friday. It seems like a spectacular fall from grace for a man who enjoyed such an illustrious political career. Fluent in Arabic, he served as his country’s ambassador...

US AMBASSADOR to Australia John Berry has married his long-term partner of 17 years in a private same-sex ceremony in Washington D.C. The 54-year-old former head of the Office of Personnel Management - which oversees the US public service - is the first openly gay US ambassador to serve in a Group of 20 nation and the highest ranking openly gay man in United States history. In a short statement, Mr Berry confirmed the nuptials, telling news.com.au, "John Berry and Curtis Yee, partners of 17 years, were formally married on Saturday August 10, at St Margaret's Episcopal Church in Washington...

President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he is nominating former first daughter Caroline Kennedy as U.S. ambassador to Japan, offering the most famous living member of a prominent American family a new role of service to country. Kennedy, an attorney and bestselling book editor, is being rewarded for helping put Obama in the White House where her father served until his assassination 50 years ago. If confirmed, she would be the first woman in a post where many other prominent Americans have served to strengthen a vital Asian tie. … Kennedy, 55, doesn’t have any obvious ties to Japan, a...

Ron Dermer Appointed As Israel's Next US AmbassadorBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel --- July 9, 2013 …Part of the following was communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser to the Israel News Agency. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Ron Dermer as Israel's next Ambassador to the US. Over the past four years, Dermer has served as Prime Minister Netanyahu's senior adviser and previously (2005-2008) served as the economic attache' at the Israel Embassy in Washington. Dermer is 42, married and the father of five children. Ron is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School...

Embassy Row: Gay diplomat an ‘insult’ Church leaders in culturally conservative Dominican Republic are outraged that President Obama nominated an openly homosexual activist to serve as ambassador to the Caribbean nation. Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez, the Roman Catholic archbishop of the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, Bishop Pablo Cedano and the Rev. Cristobal Cardozo, leader of the Dominican Evangelical Fraternity, are urging President Danilo Medino to reject the nominee, Chicago lawyer James Brewster. “It’s an insult to good Dominican customs,” Father Cardozo said last week. Bishop Cedano denounced the nomination for showing “a lack of respect,” and added cryptically:...