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The State Department has acknowledged that five U.S. personnel killed in Afghanistan, including 25-year-old diplomat Anne Smedinghoff, were on foot when they were attacked by a suicide bomber, and not in an armored vehicle, as officials had told bereaved relatives earlier this week. The violent deaths of U.S. diplomatic personnel — and the State Department’s changing account of how they died — harken back to the debacle in Benghazi, Libya, where Islamist extremists killed four Americans in assaults on the U.S. diplomatic compound on Sept. 11. “We are able to clarify at this point that they were

SANAA: A Saudi diplomat was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported, citing diplomatic sources. The station give no further details. Yemen has been grappling with a number of security problems including the local offshoot of al Qaida.

@mrubin1971Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared: Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. “The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members...

.....(12:54:09 PM) vile_rat: assuming we don't die tonight. We saw one of our 'police' that guard the compound taking pictures....

The American ambassador to Libya and three other US diplomats were killed overnight in an attack on the American consulate in Benghazi by Islamist militants. Chris Stevens, who had completed several missions to Libya since 2007 and was appointed ambassador in March, was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade launched by gunmen from Islamist group, Ansar al Sharia, according to a Reuters report. -snip- The consulate was set on fire in the attack, while video footage of a lifeless Caucasian man thought to be Stevens, later appeared on YouTube.

A UK diplomat has been mugged, leaving him blind in one eye, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has said. George Fergusson, 56, was assaulted and robbed at about 19:30 BST on Friday while walking in Margravine Cemetery and Park, in Hammersmith, west London. Metropolitan Police officers are appealing for information. Mr Fergusson, who lost a small amount of cash in the mugging, works for the Foreign Office and is due to take up the post of governor of Bermuda. The governor acts as the Queen's official representative in Bermuda. A spokesman for the FCO said Mr Fergusson had had...

From the Danish show Detektor, here's a telling showcase of President Obama's mannerisms when he's wheeling and dealing in the foreign-relations arena. This isn't to say that we don't have good relationships with each of these countries, but... the words "indiscriminate" and "disingenuous" do spring to mind (h/t Ace):

The Jewish Week reports that a speech last week by Stuart Appelbaum, president of the left-wing Jewish Labor Committee, prompted Israel’s deputy consul general to walk out of its gala dinner after Appelbaum criticized Israel in blunt, undiplomatic terms. Though Appelbaum also noted “new expressions of contempt for Israel within the Arab world,” he launched a vitriolic attack on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu: …[S]adly, Israel is cursed with a right-wing coalition government that’s regularly giving credence to it. We all know Benjamin Netanyahu talks a good game about a two-state solution, but, at the very same time, his administration...

President Obama plans to maintain a significant number of employees in the US embassy in Baghdad in order to protect US diplomats who could be targeted after the US military departs from Iraq. The President elaborated further on this issue during a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday_ "With respect to the embassy, the actual size of our embassy with respect to diplomats..., there are still some special security needs inside of Iraq

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- U.S. and British diplomats discussed exerting pressure on Pope Pius XII to be silent about the Nazi deportations of Hungarian Jews, according to newly discovered documentation. The British feared that the wartime pope might make a "radio appeal on behalf of the Jews in Hungary" and that in the course of his broadcast would "also criticize what the Russians are doing in occupied territory." Sir Francis D'Arcy Osborne, the British ambassador to the Vatican, told an American diplomat that "something should be done to prevail upon the pope not to do this as it will have...

As pointed out previously in I Can See Russia, one of Sarah Palin’s roles was that of Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard. While she wouldn’t have been charged with making decisions concerning the military, she would have been kept informed of any possible threats to the state. While Border States in the U.S. Southwest have to deal with the invasion of illegal aliens, Alaska has to contend with the ominous threat of Russian “Bear” bombers. Should these military airplanes penetrate our defenses, they could quite possibly disrupt the flow of oil by bombing the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System...

Pakistan on Saturday said its legal process should be respected after the U.S. embassy called for the immediate release of an American diplomat who was arrested after he killed two Pakistanis this week. The American, identified by Pakistani police as Raymond Davis, told a court on Friday he had acted in self-defense after fleeing what he said was a robbery attempt in the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday. Davis has been remanded in police custody for six days for questioning. "This matter is sub judice in a court of law and the legal process should be respected," a Pakistani...

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - A U.S. official being held in the fatal shooting of two Pakistani men told a court in the eastern city of Lahore on Friday that he had killed them in self-defense. The official, based at the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, said the men had tried to rob him while he waited at a busy intersection in his car. A second consular vehicle that he summoned for help struck and killed a motorcyclist as it sped to the scene, police said. A judge ordered the official held in custody for six days for further questioning. Pakistani officials insisted...

An Iranian former diplomat says Iran is working toward developing a nuclear bomb with the help of scientists from North Korea and other countries worldwide, the Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday. Mohammed Reza Heydari, formerly of the Iranian embassy in Oslo, Norway, told the British newspaper that he had helped North Korean technicians and military experts enter Iran while he was working for the Iranian foreign ministry office in Tehran's airport. Heydari said the North Korean experts helped Iran develop nuclear bomb capability and increase the range of Iran's ballistic missiles.

Wednesday 1st December, 2010 (IANS) France's top diplomat in Hong Kong was suspended and recalled to Paris after allegedly stealing two expensive bottles of wine, a news report said Wednesday. Marc Fonbaustier, 46, was recalled after he was reportedly caught on security cameras taking bottles of Bordeaux from the elite Hong Kong Country Club, the South China Morning Post reported. Beijing officials sought his removal after security video showed him slipping a bottle of wine into his jacket at the prestigious club in early November, according to the newspaper. An investigation was under way into the theft when Fonbaustier allegedly...

(Reuters) - Libya has ordered a diplomat at the United States embassy in Tripoli to leave the country within 24 hours for breaching diplomatic rules, two Libyan newspapers reported on Sunday. The Libyan authorities gave no confirmation of the reports while a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, contacted by Reuters, said he had no comment. In Washington, the State Department said it had no immediate comment. "The Libyan authorities asked the Political Affairs Secretary at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli to leave Libya within 24 hours," the Internet edition of the Oea newspaper reported. Citing what it called...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama met with activist-actor George Clooney at the White House on Tuesday to discuss U.S. involvement in Sudan ahead of a critical election early next year in Africa's largest nation. Clooney recently returned from Sudan, and is asking the U.S. and world community to use international pressure and robust diplomacy to prevent violence ahead of the Jan. 9 election. The election is an independence referendum on south Sudan that is likely to split the country in two, and there are fears that the vote could lead to a new outbreak of north-south civil war.<>

A top Nicaraguan diplomat was found murdered in his Bronx apartment Thursday morning when his driver came to take him to the United Nations General Assembly, police sources said. Consul César Antonio Mercado Pavón, 34, was found with his throat slashed around 10:30 a.m. in his apartment at 2070 Grand Concourse near E. 180th St. A neighbor reported hearing loud noises in the sixth floor apartment overnight. Mercado had been the Nicaraguan consul for eight years. Mercado's driver told police he waited for the diplomat to come downstairs. Then he went up and discovered the body, fully clothed and covered...

New York City police say a Nicaraguan diplomatic official was found dead in an apartment with his throat slit. Police say the 34-year-old man was found by his driver at about 10:15 a.m. Thursday.

China's top-ranking UN diplomat embarked on a drunken rant against the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, telling his boss he'd "never liked" him, and adding for good measure that he didn't like Americans either.The outburst by Sha Zukang at a retreat for top UN officials in the Austrian ski resort of Alpbach left senior UN officials cringing in embarrassment as others tried to convince him to put down the microphone, according to Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine. "I know you never liked me Mr. Secretary-General – well, I never liked you, either," said Mr Sha as Mr Ban looked on, smiling...

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was said to no longer be capable of functioning in his position. Diplomatic sources said Mubarak's condition has rapidly declined over the last month and his schedule was severely restricted. They said Mubarak was avoiding meetings with most non-Arab leaders to prevent leaks of his true condition. "He is a walking corpse," a senior Arab diplomat who recently attended a meeting with Mubarak said In July, the sources said, Mubarak underwent a lengthy examination at a French military hospital outside Paris. They said the examination took place amid alarm by presidential aides and close relatives over...

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Europe must follow through on its pledge to impose sanctions on Iran's energy sector in order to coax Tehran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear activities, a top US diplomat said Tuesday. Robert Einhorn, the US coordinator for Iran sanctions, said he held meetings in Brussels with European Union officials to discuss the measures being drafted after EU leaders agreed this month to impose new sanctions. "What we hope is that stronger measures on the pressure side, on the sanctions side will give leaders in Iran strong incentives to come to the negotiating table and...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli media say the Foreign Ministry has ordered the families of its diplomats in Turkey to leave that country because of the uproar over Israel's deadly naval raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. State-run Israel radio and other stations and newspapers say the diplomatic mission itself will remain in Turkey.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQzlIT9zDlI "Indian diplomat turns spy" Video Description - quote: ndtv — April 27, 2010 — Madhuri Gupta, an IFS officer, has confessed that she sold secrets for love, money and because "service conditions were bad". Category: News & Politics Tags: Barkha Dutt diplomat IFS officer India Madhuri Pakistan spy NDTV 24x7

U.S. officials say a Qatari diplomat whose remark caused a bomb scare on a commercial flight over the United States was on his way to visit an imprisoned al-Qaida terrorist. The officials say the diplomat, Mohammed Al-Madadi, was going to a prison in the western state of Colorado to visit Ali Al-Marri, a Qatari citizen serving an eight-year jail term for conspiring to support terrorism. Madadi has been released from U.S. custody and will not face charges after being restrained Wednesday by U.S. air marshals on a flight from Washington to Denver, Colorado. Officials said he is expected to leave...

Note: The following text is a quote: Ali Al-Marri Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Al-Qaeda Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, a dual national of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda. Al-Marri entered his guilty plea at a hearing this afternoon before Judge Michael M. Mihm in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In so doing, al-Marri admitted that he agreed with others to provide material support or resources to al-Qaeda in the form of personnel, including himself, to work under al-Qaeda’s...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Qatari diplomat who caused a bomb scare after sneaking a smoke in an airplane bathroom was traveling for a consular visit to see an imprisoned al-Qaida agent. A State Department official and another person close to the matter say Mohammed Al-Madadi was going to meet Ali Al-Marri for an official visit. Consular officials frequently visit foreigners held in the United States to make sure they are being treated well.

A veteran Iranian diplomat based in Norway has resigned his post, denounced his government and urged colleagues around the world to do the same after the regime’s brutal suppression of huge opposition demonstrations last month. Mohammed-Reza Heydari, Iran’s consul in Oslo, is the first Iranian diplomat to publicly quit and condemn the regime. He revealed that it sought to lure him back to Tehran after rumours of his defection surfaced last week. At the time, the Iranian Foreign Ministry insisted that the rumours were baseless. In an interview with the Norwegian television channel NRK, Mr Heydari said that he decided...

ITALIAN MEDIA sources last weekend reported that the Holy See has rejected the possible appointment of Caroline Kennedy as US Ambassador to the Vatican. Milan-based daily Il Giornale, owned by the family of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said that the Vatican has rejected three possible choices by the Obama government for the post of US ambassador, including that of Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F Kennedy. Il Giornale claims that the appointment of a new US ambassador to succeed Mary Ann Glendon has proved difficult because of the “strained” relations between the White House and the Holy See,...

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway's ambassador to the United Nations has accused Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of weak, ineffective and at times counterproductive leadership during recent crises, the daily Aftenposten reported on Wednesday. Aftenposten published what it said was a letter from Ambassador Mona Juul to Norway's Foreign Ministry, where she said Ban was late in handling challenges and that his abrasive style irked even seasoned diplomats. "At a time when the need for the United Nations and for multilateral solutions to global crises is greater than ever, Ban and the United Nations are conspicuous in their absence," Aftenposten quoted the letter...

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- An appeals court commuted the death sentences for four men convicted of killing an American diplomat and his Sudanese driver after the driver's family decided to pardon the murderers, a news agency reported Thursday. Sudanese law stipulates that if a victim's family chooses to pardon the murderer, the person cannot be sentenced to death and the prison term cannot exceed 10 years. The case will be referred back to the initial court for a new sentence, said the Sudan Media Center.

Britain sparked controversy yesterday by sending its second most senior diplomat in Tehran to the ceremony at which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, officially endorsed President Ahmadinejad’s hotly disputed re-election. Iran’s opposition leaders, who say the election was rigged, boycotted the event. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) sent Patrick Davies, the British Embassy’s deputy head of mission, even though the regime has repeatedly accused Britain of fomenting the turmoil that has engulfed Iran since the ballot, arrested Iranians working for the Embassy and expelled the BBC’s Tehran correspondent. The FCO said that it sent Mr Davies to the...

An Afghan diplomat was charged Friday with beating his wife "like a dog" for more than 15 hours in their Queens home, prosecutors said. Mohammed Fagirad, 30, a vice consul at the Afghanistan Consulate, brutalized his wife inside their Flushing home from about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday until nearly midnight, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. During the attack, Fagirad bit, slapped, choked and beat the 22-year-old woman with a belt, pushed her down a flight of stairs and sat on her chest, prosecutors said. At one point, prosecutors said, Fagirad threw his wife up against a wall, held her there...

NOTE: The following text is a quote: https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=94759 YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Yemen Kidnapping Alert CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Middle East / N. Africa - Yemen 16 Dec 2008 Printer Friendly Email Article RELATED REPORTS 12 Dec 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: YEMEN ALERT FOR WESTERN HOTELS 8 Dec 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: CONTINUED THREATS, YEMEN 18 Sep 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: YEMEN AUTHORIZED DEPARTURE 17 Sep 2008 U.S. EMBASSY SANA'A ATTACKED 17 Sep 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: U.S. EMBASSY SANA'A ATTACK U.S. Embassy Sana’a issued the following Warden Message on December 16: The U.S. Embassy...

Similar State Department call-up last year sparked revolt among officers The State Department warned U.S. diplomats they may be forced to serve in Iraq next year and said it will soon start identifying prime candidates for jobs at the Baghdad embassy and outlying provinces, according to a cable obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. A similar call-up threat last year caused a revolt among foreign service officers who objected to compulsory work in a war zone, although in the end the State Department found enough volunteers to fill the jobs. Now, the State Department anticipates another staffing crisis. "We face...

The family of Ameriquest Mortgage founder Roland Arnall says he has died at UCLA Medical Center. He was 68. The billionaire helped create and later emerged as a symbol of the struggling sub-prime mortgage industry. A family statement said Arnall died Monday morning but did not give the cause of death. Arnall was appointed ambassador to the Netherlands in March 2006 after an approval process that was slowed by unsettled issues regarding Ameriquest. the California-based lending company he founded in 1979. A major Republican financier, Arnall's fortune was estimated at $1.5 billion by Forbes magazine last year.

China: Japan diplomats were spies / Court links reporters to espionage The Yomiuri Shimbun A final ruling handed down by the Higher People's Court of Beijing Municipality in September 2006 concluded that two Japanese diplomats were spies for the Intelligence and Analysis Service of Japan's Foreign Ministry, which it ruled was an espionage organization, sources in Tokyo said Monday. According to the sources, the ruling said that a current high-ranking ministry official, who had worked at the organization, and the then first secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing were spies. The ruling was part of the Beijing higher court's...

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — A U.S. Foreign Service officer stationed in Brazil and Congo used his status to pressure female visa applicants for sex, according to federal charges. Gons G. Nachman, 42, is charged in U.S. District Court with misuse of his diplomatic passport, making false statements and possessing child pornography. The charges were unsealed Friday. Nachman was ordered jailed pending a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday. Court records reflect that a defense lawyer has not yet been appointed. According to the affidavit, Nachman made a habit of pressuring and pursuing sexual relationships with attractive female visa applicants while stationed in...

Khartoum (4 January) - A hitherto unknown Sudanese Islamist group has claimed responsibility for the murder of an United States diplomat and his driver. They were shot dead in Khartoum on New Year's Day. The group, Ansar al-Tawhid, made the claim on the internet, saying the men were killed because the Americans were trying to establish Christianity in Sudan. The chauffeur was said to have bartered away his religion.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - An American diplomat and his driver were shot to death Tuesday in the Sudanese capital, the U.S. Embassy said, a day after a joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region. It was not immediately known if the motive for the attack was political or a random crime. "This afternoon, the American officer succumbed to his injuries and passed away," said Walter Braunohler, the spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum. Braunohler said the diplomat, whose name was not released, worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry identified...

Hundreds of US diplomats have protested against a government move to force them to accept postings in war-torn Iraq. About 300 angry diplomats attended a meeting at the state department, at which one labelled the decision a "potential death sentence". If too few volunteer, some will be forced to go to Iraq - or risk dismissal, except those exempted for medical or personal hardship reasons. Iraq postings have previously been filled on a voluntary basis. 'Prime candidates' The meeting was called to explain the "forced assignments" order made by state department human resources director Harry Thomas. Last Friday, he notified...

Wrong drug combination may be behind S. Korean diplomat's death (Kyodo) _ A mistake in the administration of intravenous drugs by a Beijing clinic may have been behind last week's death of a senior diplomat at the South Korean Embassy in the Chinese capital, a source informed about the incident said Monday. Whang Joung Il, 52-year-old minister for political affairs, died July 29 after receiving intravenous solutions at the clinic he visited for treatment of abdominal pain. As part of his treatment, Whang received Ringer's solution and an antibiotic that should not be administered simultaneously with calcium-containing solutions, according to...

BAGHDAD - The top U.S. general and diplomat in Iraq warned on Thursday against cutting short the American troop buildup and suggested they would urge Congress in September to give President Bush's strategy more time. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, in separate Associated Press interviews at their offices in the U.S. Embassy on the banks of the Tigris, were careful not to define a timeframe for continuing the counterinsurgency strategy — and the higher U.S. troop levels — that began six months ago. Still, Petraeus' comments signaled that he would like to see a substantial U.S. combat force...

Lt. Col. Thomas Mooney, a Cranston native and the U.S. defense attaché in Cyprus, was found dead in a remote rural area of the Mediterranean island Monday, four days after he disappeared with his diplomatic car, according to wire reports and a statement from U.S. Ambassador Ronald L. Schlicher.

The US embassy's defence attache in Cyprus was found dead on Monday on a hilltop in a remote part of the Mediterranean island after apparently stabbing himself in the neck, officials said. Thomas Mooney "died as a result of haemorrhaging after the infliction of an injury to the neck," an official involved in the post-mortem told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The injury was compatible with self-infliction. There was no evidence of foul play whatsover," the official said, adding that the wound was caused by a sharp instrument and that the body was in a state of decomposition.

NICOSIA (Reuters) - A senior U.S. diplomat stationed in Cyprus has gone missing, the United States embassy said on Saturday. "U.S. embassy employee Thomas Mooney has been missing for the past 48 hours," a U.S. embassy spokesman told Reuters, adding that police had been informed.

N. Korea retracts order to being back offspring of diplomats abroad: sources SEOUL, June 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea recently retracted its order that all offspring accompanying its diplomats stationed abroad return home in the face of strong resistance from them, sources here said Sunday. It is rare for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to reverse a decision amid reports of loosening discipline in the isolated, impoverished communist state with the influx of capitalism and Western culture after the inter-Korean rapprochement following the unprecedented inter-Korean summit in 2000.

Diplomacy: Not content with coddling Syria's terrorist regime, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made a fool of herself pretending to be a messenger for Israel's prime minister. But the Israelis were quick to expose the charade.

Report: North Korea Diplomats Defy Orders to Send Children Home Tuesday , April 03, 2007 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean diplomats and officials stationed overseas have refused a recent government order to send their children home, a news report said Tuesday, marking an unprecedented backlash against the communist leadership. About 4,000 children were supposed to return home by the end of last month, South Korea 's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed person well-versed in North Korean affairs. The North has delayed the deadline by a month. Each official was allowed to keep one child at their overseas...

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2007 – The Iraqi people have a “renewed sense of hope,” a senior U.S. diplomat said in Baghdad today. At a news conference, Daniel Speckhardt, charge d’affaires for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, said he has been assigned in Iraq for almost two years, and that part of the sense of hope is due to increasing confidence in the Baghdad security plan. Speckhardt added that this sense of hope goes beyond Baghdad, noting that people in Anbar province are getting this sense from local tribal sheikhs who are joining Iraqi security forces and banding with coalition...