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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, Cyprus (AHN) - A senior U.S. envoy in Cyprus who had been missing since Thursday has been found dead in a remote part of the Mediterranean island. Tom Mooney, a U.S. defense attaché and army attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus was reported missing on Thursday. A search on Mooney led authorities to a remote area in Cyprus where they found his lifeless body. He has the rank of lieutenant-colonel. A local radio station said authorities found the U.S. diplomat near the capital Nicosia. Although police have yet to establish the cause of his death. Cyprus is one...

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...

An illegal immigrant from Ghana was driving a tractor-trailer that rear-ended a car on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Westmoreland County on Thursday, killing a Honduran diplomat. Trade specialist Nuria Ortiz Navarro, 31, a passenger in the back seat of a 1996 Volkswagen Jetta driven by her brother-in-law, was pronounced dead at the scene by Deputy Coroner F. Christopher O'Leath, according to state police in New Stanton... The truck driver, Sam P. Thompson, 32, of Gaithersburg, Md., an employee of Transcare Systems Inc., of Bowie, Md., was arraigned on multiple criminal charges, including homicide by vehicle, following vehicles too closely, driving...

BAGHDAD, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped a senior Iranian diplomat in Baghdad on Sunday, an Iraqi government official said on Tuesday. "We are dealing with this as a kidnapping," the official told Reuters. The official said the diplomat, the second secretary at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, was snatched in the central Karrada district by 30 gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms.

A former high-level State Department official was sentenced to a year in prison yesterday for keeping more than 3,500 classified documents at his Fairfax County home and concealing his relationship with a Taiwanese intelligence agent. Prosecutors said Donald W. Keyser possessed far more unauthorized classified documents than any government employee ever prosecuted by the Justice Department. Keyser, 63, is one of the nation's leading experts on China and was a top adviser to Colin L. Powell, former secretary of state. "What I was doing was to further U.S. interests," Donald Keyser said. "It was not to further Taiwan's."

BAGHDAD, Oct 22 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. diplomat who said the United States has shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq said he "seriously misspoke" in an interview aired on Sunday after U.S. President George W. Bush said he was flexible on tactics, if not strategy. In an attack that highlights the problems Washington faces in recruiting and training Iraqi security forces, 13 police recruits were killed and 25 wounded in an ambush on a convoy of buses near the town of Baquba on Sunday. U.S. military deaths in Iraq in October have reached 83, making it the most deadly...

NEW YORK - (KRT) - A prominent Yemeni cleric is suspected of raising money for terrorists at a Muslim charity and several mosques in Brooklyn, it was disclosed yesterday. An FBI agent pulled back the veil on a secret investigation of Sheikh Abdullah Satar at the trial of an associate who is charged with lying about the cleric's activities. The agent, Brian Murphy, said in Brooklyn Federal Court that Satar was under surveillance during a fund-raising swing through Brooklyn in early 2000. At the time, the feds were conducting an investigation into the financing of terrorist groups. After Satar -...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Authorities seized several U.S. diplomatic bags at Venezuela's main airport on Thursday, prompting protest from embassy officials and a probe into the Americans' actions by prosecutors. Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez said prosecutors would investigate U.S. officials for allegedly sidestepping official regulations and checkpoints when bringing the diplomatic bags into the South American country. Rodriguez made the announcement after Venezuelan National Guard troops seized the bags earlier Thursday from four U.S. embassy vehicles stopped outside Caracas' Simon Bolivar International Airport. The vehicles had just picked up the bags from a U.S. military aircraft on the tarmac, he said.

Shut up, Chinese diplomat tells US By Harry Mount in New York (Filed: 18/08/2006) One of China's most senior diplomats has made an extraordinary attack on America, saying that it should "shut up" about China's growing military capacity when America dominates global military spending. Sha Zukang, China's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, launched his diatribe in an interview with the BBC yesterday during a progamme about China's booming economy and military strength. "It is much better for you to shut up, keep quiet," the ambassador said, referring to America, raising his voice to a high-pitched yell. "Are you the...

India and Pakistan in expulsions India and Pakistan have expelled diplomats from each other's countries after Pakistan accused an Indian visa official of "undesirable activities". Pakistani officials said Deepak Kaul, who worked at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was caught "red-handed" with sensitive documents. India denied the allegation and expelled a Pakistani diplomat in return, India's foreign ministry said. Relations have soured since train bombings in Mumbai (Bombay) last month. More than 180 people died in the bombings, which India said were carried out by militants with support in Pakistan. Pakistan denied the allegation. An unnamed Pakistani government official...

Genghis Khan, law giver, free trader and diplomat, is back with a new image By Richard Spencer in Ulan Bator (Filed: 11/07/2006) The Mongolian capital has been swamped with images of its former potentate, Genghis Khan, in honour of the anniversary of his unification of the nation in 1206. At the climax of celebrations in Ulan Bator yesterday, soldiers in traditional uniform and bearing yaks' tail standards heralded the unveiling of an enormous statue of the Great Khan in the main Sukhbaatar Square. The monument in which it is set contains earth and stones from the holy and historic places...

KARACHI, Pakistan - A suicide attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a vehicle carrying an American diplomat in Pakistan’s largest city, killing four people — including the diplomat — just days before President Bush’s visit to Pakistan, officials said.

U.S. President George W. Bush said Thursday an American diplomat was among several people killed in a bombing earlier in the day near the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi. "We have lost at least one U.S. citizen in the bombing, a foreign service officer," Bush said at a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minster Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. "Terrorists and killers are not going to prevent me from going to Pakistan," he said, two days before his scheduled arrival in Islamabad for talks with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. At least four people...

Israel: Ariel Sharon Near DeathBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem-----February 11.......Israel has been praying for a miracle. For Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to wake up from a stroke induced coma, smile and tell us that we should not be worrying about his health. But on this sunny and cold day in Jerusalem, the news is not good. And most of Israel will not know that Sharon may be living his last hours until they switch on their TV or check their e-mail tonight. A hospital spokeswoman in Jerusalem has just stated that the Israel Prime Minister's "life is in danger."...

Berlin (dpa) - Four kidnappers who abducted a retired German government deputy minister this week have been arrested in Yemen, a spokesman for the Yemeni embassy in Berlin said on Saturday. The spokesman said the four alleged kidnappers would be brought before a court. The announcement came as Juergen Chrobog, 65, his wife Majda and three adult sons were being flown to safety in the port city of Aden after their release by tribesmen. The spokesman added that leaders of the tribe had signed an accord with the Yemeni government that led to the release of the family. The accord...

HAVANA - Fidel Castro on Thursday called the top American diplomat to Havana a "gangster," stepping up his communist nation's attack on the new U.S. mission chief and dissidents. Castro referred to new U.S. Interests Section chief Michael Parmly as "that little gangster," and his predecessor James Cason as the "former gangster," in one of several addresses at a regular session of Cuba's National Assembly. "I don't know which one is worse," Castro told lawmakers during a session that dealt primarily with year-end economic reports. Castro's comments were broadcast on state television Thursday evening, after the American mission had closed...

UNITED NATIONS - A Russian U.N. official accused of money laundering was released on $500,000 bail posted by his government on Friday, Russia's U.N. Mission said. Vladimir Kuznetsov, 48, who chaired the powerful U.N. budget oversight committee, had been jailed since Sept. 1 on charges that he conspired with a U.N. procurement officer to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign companies seeking contracts with the world body. He has pleaded innocent to the charges. Maria Zakharova, press secretary at Russia's U.N. Mission, confirmed that Kuznetsov was freed after the Russian government paid his $500,000 bail. Moscow is keeping...

Diplomat held in oil-for-food inquiry By Colin Randall (Filed: 12/10/2005) France's former ambassador to the UN, Jean-Bernard Mérimée, has been detained in connection with an investigation into the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal, French officials said yesterday. Mérimée, 68, who is suspected of having been allocated oil vouchers by Saddam Hussein's regime, will be questioned by an investigating judge in Paris today. He is the latest in a series of top French public figures, companies and institutions to be drawn into the controversy. Mérimée's name appeared in last year's report by the senior US arms inspector Charles Duelfer. He was alleged to...

Photo sourceCorporal Cason wears a pink robe and with a swing of his magic wand -- poof! -- the cartoon character converts one of Cuba's free medical clinics into a private hospital adorned with Mastercard logos. The character in the comic strip Transition Man is the Cuban government's answer to James C. Cason, the outgoing top U.S. diplomat in Havana and thorn in Fidel Castro's side since his arrival there in 2002. ''Dictatorships are not good at humor,'' Cason said during a recent speech at the University of Miami. ``The cartoons inadvertently reminded all Cubans that a transition is...

A top diplomat at the Libyan Embassy in Stockholm was found dead in his apartment and investigators believe he committed suicide, police said Wednesday. The victim was a temporary charge d'affaires at the embassy, police and the Foreign Ministry said, but authorities did not identify him. Investigators found some injuries on the body and started a murder investigation, which is standard procedure in Sweden when the cause of death is not clear, police spokeswoman Diana Sundin said. But she added there were no immediate indications of foul play. "Right now we are considering this as a suicide," Sundin said....

Third Chinese defector turns up in Australia Thu Jun 9, 7:33 PM ET SYDNEY (AFP) - A third Chinese official has defected in Australia and already been granted refugee status after revealing he witnessed a dissident being tortured to death in China, his lawyer said. The unnamed official was a senior officer in a branch of the Chinese security service known as "610" and defected after witnessing repeated human rights abuses by other agents, lawyer Bernard Collaery said on ABC television late Thursday. Collaery, a prominent lawyer and former attorney-general of the Australian Capital Territory, said the official's assertions backed...

Diplomats in Washington believe that UN sanctions against Iran will prove to be illusive if the EU decides to end its negotiations to reach long-term arrangements with Tehran on its nuclear program, according to the Financial Times. Like Iran, the daily also said Thursday that sanctions against North Korea may also be unachievable as breaking negotiations with either country could 'exacerbate the divisions between the US and its allies that hindered diplomacy in the first place'. "Despite US rhetoric, neither the EU nor the Asian allies were convinced that the Bush administration was willing to make the concessions they saw...

WASHINGTON - A former colleague of John R. Bolton says President Bush's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations "has none of the qualities needed for that job." Bolton "has all the qualities needed to harm the image and objectives in the U.N. and its affiliated international organizations. If it is now U.S. policy not to reform the U.N but to destroy it, Bolton is our man," Frederick Vreeland, a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, said in an e-mail to the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The administration stood firm Monday in its support of Bolton....

BAGHDAD, April 10 (Reuters) - A Pakistani diplomat has gone missing in Baghdad, Iraqi police said on Sunday. They said the man had failed to return from prayers at a mosque near his home on Saturday. Scores of foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past year, some by insurgent groups with political demands and others by criminals seeking a ransom. An Egyptian diplomat was seized by insurgents on his way home from prayers last year but was freed a few days later.

AGAINST GEORGE F. KENNAN, who died last week at the age of 101, "there was no official complaint, / And all the reports on his conduct agree / That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint." He was not just "the nearest thing to a legend that this country's diplomatic service has ever produced" (Ronald Steel), but "a phenomenon in international affairs" (the New York Times), as well as "our greatest diplomat" (Richard Holbrooke). Even in an age of casual superlatives, this is high praise indeed. And not least among Kennan's long list of distinguished...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sol M. Linowitz, a diplomat, lawyer and businessman who played key roles in Middle East peace negotiations and the Panama Canal treaty during the Carter administration, died Friday. He was 91. The one-time chairman of Xerox Corp. died at his home in Washington, said the Academy for Educational Development, the nonprofit group where he had served as honorary board chairman since 1990. Linowitz was ambassador to the Organization of American States during the Johnson administration and in 1977 helped negotiate the historic transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama. He also represented President Carter in Middle East...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryFebruary 19, 2005 President's Radio Address      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Tomorrow I leave on a trip to Europe, where I will reaffirm the importance of our transatlantic relationship with our European friends and allies. Over the last several weeks the world has witnessed momentous events -- Palestinians voting for an end to violence; Ukrainians standing up for their democratic rights; Iraqis going to the polls in free elections. And in Europe, I will talk with leaders at NATO and the European Union about how we can work together to take advantage of...

The girl of the Noriega General named with the consulate from Panama in Miami PANAMA - One of the girls of the former strong man of Panama, the Manual General Noriega, was named as diplomat with the consulate from Panama in Miami, announced the minister panaméen Foreign Affairs Samuel Lewis. His/her father is imprisoned there since 1990. Sandra Noriega "is a qualified person who has the right to serve her country", affirmed Friday the minister. The father of the diplomat directed Panama of 1981 to 1989, after death in an air crash of the president panaméen Omar Torrijos, father...

In April 2004, followers of Iraqi Shi‘ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched a well-coordinated uprising across southern Iraq. While Western media focused on events in Sadr City, Najaf, and Karbala, violence occurred elsewhere as well. A Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) source forwarded the following after-action report regarding violence in the town of Al-Kut, the capital of the Wassit governorate and home to the Ukrainian contingent.The unclassified report, written by a coalition security contractor, highlights dysfunction between regional coalition offices and the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters in Baghdad, as well as tension between diplomats and security officers. The summary faulted a British...

Monday, January 03, 2005 almost fUNnny . . . Day 9 of the tsunami crisis. I know I had promised to lay off the UN for a bit . . . but I can't. As one reader commented on a previous Diplomad posting on the UN, "it's like watching a train wreck" -- you know it's horrible, but you've just got to look at it. In this part of the tsunami-wrecked Far Abroad, the UN is still nowhere to be seen where it counts, i.e., feeding and helping victims. The relief effort continues to be a US-Australia effort, with Singapore...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Norway has expelled a diplomat from the Russian Embassy in Oslo. The Russians have reacted by declaring the Vice Consul at the Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk persona non grata. The reason for the diplomatic conflict is not known, NRK reports. Foreign Office press spokesman Karsten Klepsvik is reluctant to comment on the case. However, he does however confirm that on January 27th this year the Russian chargé d'affirs in Oslo was told that one of his staff members was persona non grata in Norway. He had been involved in activities inconsistent with his diplomatic status, Klepsvik says. He underlines...

Zaka reports the wife and son of the UK Consul-General in Israel are among the injured at the Taba Hilton attack .

Curb spread of WMD in U.S. By HUGH CORTAZZI LONDON -- The failure of Congress to renew a 10-year ban on the sale of assault rifles and other dangerous weapons may seem to politicians a simple price to pay to win the support of the National Rifle Association in the forthcoming presidential election. This powerful lobby is backing the re-election of President George W. Bush and considers bans on the sale of such weapons to be an infringement of the constitutional right of American citizens to bear arms. This is not an interpretation accepted by all U.S. experts and constitutional...

On the one hand we have a major television network racing to broadcast news about 30-year-old ``documents'' - now proven to be fraudulent - all in an effort to discredit President Bush [related, bio]. On the other hand we virtually have all of the networks ignoring a real, fresh-as-today, scandal involving the Kerry campaign's fund-raising. The Associated Press reported this past week that a South Korean national who met with John Kerry's fund-raisers and discussed setting up a new political group for Korean-Americans was actually an intelligence agent for South Korea. Chung Byung-Man, a counselor official in Los Angeles prior...