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Rift between UK diplomats and Army in Basra By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 1:13am GMT 29/03/2008 British forces are facing increasing pressure to intervene in fighting in southern Iraq after government efforts to defeat Shi'ite militias in Basra ground to a halt. Signs of a rift were growing among British officials as diplomats said that UK forces "stand ready to support" Iraqi soldiers as and when requested, contradicting military statements that UK forces would be confined to "niche" roles. Fighting in Basra, Baghdad and the central town of Kut has claimed at least 100 lives this week...

WASHINGTON - More and more, top government diplomats are straying from official Bush foreign policy as the administration wanes, leaving Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice struggling to keep them in check. Twice just this week, Rice and her aides had to rebuke, disavow or otherwise try to explain away public words or actions by three top officials on delicate affairs ranging from North Korea and Iran to the violence in Kenya. The trouble began on Jan. 17, when Jay Lefkowitz, the special U.S. envoy for human rights in North Korea, delivered a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think-tank...

A senior United Nations official and the acting head of the European Union's mission in Afghanistan were expelled from the country Thursday after the government accused them of holding talks with the Taliban and giving the group cash. UN officials have denied the allegations. Analysts say the incident reflects divisions over growing efforts to neutralize the Taliban by negotiating with their tribal alliances. The two men, whose expulsion was announced Tuesday, left Kabul Thursday morning, reports Reuters. UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said the UN staffer had left on Thursday morning on a regular chartered flight to neighbouring Pakistan. Diplomats in...

The State Department expects to announce, perhaps as early as today, that volunteers have filled all 48 open jobs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for next year and that it will not order any foreign service officers to work there against their will, officials said yesterday. Volunteers for the last three or four positions are currently being vetted. Once that process is completed, a senior department official said, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will ask personnel officers to assure her that everyone selected "does in fact have the right skill sets" and meets all requirements before an announcement is...

The State Department is backing down for now from forcing diplomats to serve in Iraq this summer because enough have volunteered to work in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and in outlying provinces, officials said Thursday. Three foreign service officers who signed up for the last of the 48 vacancies have won tentative approval. Once personnel panels give a formal OK, the department will announce it will not need to enforce a plan for the forced assignments, the officials said Thursday. That word could come as early as Friday, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because...

The ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee has called on the President to fire State Department personnel who refused to be deployed to Iraq and replace them with wounded veterans at Walter Reed and Bethesda Hospitals. “We have a lot of wounded warriors at the [military] hospitals -- a pool of great talent,” Rep. Duncan Hunter (R.-Cal.), the last Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and now a candidate for his party’s presidential nomination in ’08, told me outside the White House last week. Hunter was going to a meeting with President Bush as well as...

WASHINGTON — In the largest call-up of U.S. diplomats since the Vietnam War, the State Department is planning to order some of its personnel to serve at the American Embassy in Iraq because of a lack of volunteers.Those designated "prime candidates" — from 200 to 300 diplomats — will be notified Monday that they have been selected for one-year postings to fill the 40 to 50 vacancies expected next year. They will have 10 days to accept or reject the position. If not enough say yes, some will be ordered to go to Iraq and face dismissal if they refuse,...

Fearing Iraq Pullout, State Boosting Private Chopper Force August 01, 2007 4:59 PM Kirit Radia Reports: Fearing an imminent drawdown of U.S. troops and equipment from Iraq amid escalating violence, the State Department is hiring its own private helicopter squad to ferry its personnel around the country. Government military contractors Blackwater, DynCorp and Triple Canopy are the only three companies competing for the contract, possibly valued at more than $100 million a year for up to the next five years, sources tell ABC News. The requirements call for approximately 20 helicopters with maintenance, storage and crew to ensure 24-hour availability....

Four UK diplomats expelled as Russia retaliates By Matthew Moore and agencies Last Updated: 4:47pm BST 19/07/2007 Russia has expelled four British diplomats from Moscow, in tit-for-tat retaliation for the expulsion of four of its own officials earlier this week. Moscow will also halt co-operation in the war on terror David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, branded the move "completely unjustified" and said the Government would be doing all it could to ensure their families are properly looked after. Moscow also announced that it would withhold future co-operation with Britain in the war on terror, and stop issuing visas to British...

Putin vows revenge as Britain expels diplomats By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent, and Adrian Blomfield in Moscow Last Updated: 3:07am BST 17/07/2007 Russia threatened Britain with "serious consequences" last night after David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, revived memories of the Cold War by announcing that four Russian diplomats were to be expelled from London. President Vladimir Putin: emboldened by Russia’s growing economic strength The decision showed how Anglo-Russian relations have sunk to their lowest ebb since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. Mr Miliband said that Britain had no choice but to send a "clear and proportionate signal" to Moscow...

Britain is poised to expel Russian diplomats for the first time in a decade in protest at Moscow's refusal to extradite the chief suspect in the murder in London of a KGB defector.The option is one of several being considered by Downing Street after Moscow formally refused to hand over Andrei Lugovoi, a suspect in the poisoning of the former agent Alexander Litvinenko last November. The expulsions would be reminiscent of former Cold War rows between Moscow and London and almost certainly prompt similar retaliation by the Kremlin. Incensed by Russia's refusal to co-operate in the inquiry into Mr Litvinenko's...

Text of report in English by Iranian news agency IRNA website Baghdad, 20 January: Five Iranian diplomats arrested in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil nine days ago could be released this week, an Iranian envoy said here Saturday [20 January]. Speaking to IRNA, Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hasan Kazemi-Qomi said that the Iraqi government has promised to free the diplomats. "The host country is responsible for safeguarding diplomatic bureaus and missions. The Iraqi government has made efforts to release the Iranian consular officials since the early hours of this incident," he said. US forces broke into Iran's consulate in...

THE ZOA MIDDLE EAST REPORT Wednesday, Jan.03.07 Join us as we speak with Amb. Moshe Arens, about his latest (and brilliant, as always) article in which he discusses the issues Israel must consider in responding to Syria; and Scott W. Johnson,of POWERLINEBLOG.com. Scott has been pursuing a story for more than a decade: that the US had factual, timely proof that Yassir Arafat was behind both the murder of two US diplomats in Khartoum in 1972, and the Munich Massacre, 6 months earlier. Scott has finally been vindicated - we'll discuss how, and why the US lied about it for...

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) -- The U.N. said Monday it had launched a military operation to rescue foreign diplomats inside the besieged home of a Congo presidential candidate.

MOSCOW -- Russian lawmakers yesterday unanimously blamed the United States for the deaths of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, highlighting growing tensions between the two countries ahead of a meeting of Group of Eight foreign ministers in Moscow today. Moscow also demanded in a proposed U.S. Security Council resolution that coalition forces in Baghdad provide better security for diplomats. The United States and Britain resisted the resolution. President Vladimir Putin instructed Russian security services to find the killers and "destroy" them. "The tragedy that occurred recently in Iraq was only possible because of the growing crisis in the country as...

Baghdad. In a statement published in Internet by the organization Mudjahidin Shura announced that the Russian diplomats had been executed, CNN reports. The info has Echo of Moscow Radio announced.

American diplomats have been instructed not to keep classified material on 16,000 newly purchased computers because the manufacturer is partly-owned by the Chinese government.Richard Griffin, the assistant secretary of state, told Congress he would ensure that the machines did not "compromise our information and communication channels". The row erupted when a congressman raised questions about the purchase of machines from Lenovo, the world's third biggest personal computer maker. The company is 28 per cent owned by a state-controlled Chinese entity. At least 900 of the computers were to be used by diplomats at embassies around the world and would have...

BERLIN, April 20 (Reuters) - European diplomats on Thursday dismissed as unacceptable a suggestion that Iran take a brief "technical pause" from its nuclear enrichment activities in an attempt to revive collapsed negotiations with the EU. Several diplomats told Reuters that Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), discussed this idea with Iranian officials during a visit to Tehran last week and hoped it could revive collapsed negotiations with the "EU3" -- France, Britain and Germany. But European Union diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unacceptable and reiterated that Iran had to...

LONDON, April 17 (IranMania) - Tehran is replacing 60 of its ambassadors, or around half the total, Iran's deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying, while rejecting any talk of a purge by ruling hardliners, AFP reported. "Some media said the changes were due to political reasons while it is not true. Rotating the diplomats every year is natural in the foreign ministry," Mehdi Mostafavi said. Following the shock election win of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2005, authorities had announced that around 40 of Iran's most senior diplomats posted abroad were being changed. Many of these diplomats were seen...

Peoria man pleads guilty in diploma mill case Latest News more>> Truck pulling horse trailer full of illegals crashes SPOKANE, Wash. An Arizonan has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors for his role in a gigantic diploma mill operation. Richard John Novak pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Spokane, Washington, to conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Novak, who formerly lived in Spokane and now lives in Peoria, could face up to ten years in prison and (m) millions of dollars in fines. Novak is the second person to reach a plea agreement with the Justice Department...

Diplomats Visit Panjshir Reconstruction Team The Panjshir team is the first of its kind -- a joint effort between Combined Joint Task Force-76 and the U.S. Embassy. By U.S. Army Maj. T.G. Taylor 20th Public Affairs Detachment BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Feb. 2, 2006 — Diplomats from around the world visited the new Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team in Panjshir Province on Jan. 21 to view the progress of the reconstruction efforts. "This was an excellent opportunity to see how [the team] worked on the ground. The visit was a good opportunity to see this new type of integration of military...

Washington is planning to move hundreds of its diplomats from Europe to the Middle East and the Asian powers, such as China or India. "America must begin to reposition our diplomatic forces around the world," the US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice said in a speech to students at Georgetown University on Wednesday (18 January), the BBC reported. She pointed out that it is not normal to have as many diplomats in Germany, with 82 million people, as in India with 1 billion people. Adding that there are still almost 200 world cities of over a million inhabitants without any...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2006 – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today highlighted the importance of promoting a more cooperative working relationship between American diplomats and the U.S. military in order to achieve global objectives. "Over the past 15 years, as violent state failure has become a greater global threat, our military has borne a disproportionate share of post-conflict responsibilities because we have not had the standing civilian capability to play our part fully," she said in a speech at Georgetown University here. "This was true in Somalia, in Haiti, in Bosnia, in Kosovo and it is still partially true in...

US moves diplomats out of Europe Rice said the US must be "where the action is" The US is to reduce the number of its diplomats posted to Europe, and will send more to other countries, including China, India, Nigeria and Lebanon. "America must begin to reposition our diplomatic forces around the world," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday. She said it was an anomaly that the US had the same staff levels in Germany as in India, more than 10 times the size. She said the redeployment would help foster democratic and economic change. Ms Rice told...

Pope Benedict XVI condemned terrorism as a "moral perversion" and demanded religious freedom around the globe in an annual speech Monday to Vatican-based diplomats outlining the Vatican's foreign policy priorities.Benedict stressed the need for forgiveness and reconciliation to bring about peace in conflicts from the Middle East to Africa. And he told the ambassadors that wealthy countries must do more for the world's poor, saying that even half of what they spend on weapons "would be more than sufficient to liberate the immense masses of the poor from destitution."The pope mentioned a few conflicts in particular, reaffirming that Israel has...

Diplomacy may be the art of lying for one's country, but Mexican diplomacy requires taking that art to virtuosic heights. Mexican officials here and abroad are involved in a massive and almost daily interference in American sovereignty. The millions of illegal Mexican immigrants in this country are here thanks in part to Mexico's efforts to get them into the U.S. in violation of American law and to normalize their status once here in violation of the popular will. Mexican consulates are engineering a backdoor amnesty for their illegal migrants and trying to discredit American immigration enforcement – activities clearly beyond...

VIENNA (AFP) - Iran started a new round of converting uranium ore into the feedstock gas for making enriched uranium, a move likely to complicate diplomacy over Iran's disputed nuclear program, diplomats said. UN inspectors "are reporting that the first drums of new uranium ore were fed into the process at the uranium conversion facility in Isfahan this morning," a diplomat who asked not to be identified told AFP. Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for a civilian nuclear reactor or as atom bomb material. The conversion into the precursor gas is a second round after Iran already processed...

LONDON -- The United States is engaged in a diplomatic spat with the city of London over its refusal to pay for its embassy staff to drive on the British capital's streets -- and other nations are threatening to follow suit. At the heart of the row is London's so-called "congestion charge," a daily $14-per-car toll the city levies for using the roads in central London. The fee was introduced nearly three years ago to try to reduce the city's chronic traffic jams. But the United States says it is a tax that it no longer intends to pay. A...

US President George Bush may have launched a failed drive to isolate Iran diplomatically and force it to face United Nations sanctions if it refuses to give up its efforts to develop its own nuclear technology, according to senior officials of the State Department. Amid the widespread belief that Washington’s efforts at this juncture might be too little, too late, Mr Bush has lobbied in this regard with Chinese President Hu Jintao as well as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. He also intends undertaking a similar exercise with the Russian President Vladmir Putin on Friday. At the very core are Iran’s...

Challenging the White House, 59 former American diplomats are urging the Senate to reject John R. Bolton's nomination to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "He is the wrong man for this position," they said in a letter to Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Indiana Republican has scheduled hearings on Bolton's nomination for April 7. "We urge you to reject that nomination," the former diplomats said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press and dated Tuesday. The ex-diplomats have served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, some for long terms...

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...

I rec's this email from an "asscoiate"...can anyone help to verify/dispute it? She says she thinks she saw it on Fox. Thanks for the help. I saw an interview with the mother of a woman who was caught in the tsunami. The woman & her husband happily survived with minimul injuries. They worked through the night assisting others to hospitals, aid stations, shelters, etc. They managed to get to the airport a Bangkok, Thialand. Countries who had large numbers of citizens in Thialand had set up at the airport to assist their citizens on their journey home. This included replacing...

A couple things stand out about the U.S.'s assessment of Cuba these days. Number one, the U.S. diplomats in Havana have started openly stating that Castro is on his last legs. We don't usually see this kind of bluntness from these guys. What does it mean? Is there a new Cuba diplomatic offensive coming up? Forget that, we've had those, to little effect. It can only mean that he really is. Diplomats are predictable creatures, but they don't like to get surprised by events. These statements are for us, not Castro, and I think they're just telling us they're on...

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!

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran may be hiding equipment from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, foiling efforts to police a freeze of all programs that Tehran could use to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Thursday. The diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran has yet to respond to a request by the International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. nuclear watchdog - for a full list of the components used at the suspected military site of Lavizan-Shian after handing over a partial inventory in October. The incomplete inventories are particularly worrying because they reflect purchases by Iran's Physics Research Center,...

New Delhi, Nov 15 : They come to India from all over the world - middle-level career diplomats and those just entering the world of diplomacy - to learn the finer points of a profession that ultimately determines the state of international relations. Saudi diplomat Hashim Bin Abdullah Shatta and Josephine Frantzen of the Netherlands were among the middle-level diplomats from 20 countries, who concluded a two-week Advanced Course on Asia for Foreign Diplomats (ACAFD) in October-end at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). Others were from Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Fiji, France, Ireland, Kenya, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Sudan...

It was in the spring of 2003 when David J. Dunford, a 29-year foreign service officer, concluded that President Bush's war in Iraq was a failure. He could feel it. He could hear it. Dunford could see the troubles that continue to vex American forces and planners in Iraq. For several months after the March 2003 invasion, he served with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, the U.S.-created agency that governed Iraq after Saddam Hussein's fall. "I predicted it would go badly," said Dunford, a retired ambassador who is supporting Sen. John Kerry for president. Dunford is one of nearly...

What follows is personal correspondence from my cousin, a retired Foreign Service Officer, and my reply to his circular email. He has authorized me to reprint his letter to the editor. I have removed names for privicy. You will also see my reply. ------------- Dear local newspaper: (Note to editor:  both campaigns have deluged people with canned language to send to editors as purported readers' letters.  What follows is not canned but my own thoughts.  The text numbers 298 words.) I offer a former diplomat's perspective.  In 2000 I voted for Mr. Bush as seemingly the more equilibrated candidate.  W....

p>To: Assignment Desk, Political Reporter Contact: Mark Kitchens of Kerry-Edwards 2004, 202-464-2800 News Advisory: United by a deep concern about the mounting failures of the Bush administration's foreign policy, more than 175 former United States Ambassadors who have served under Republican and Democratic presidents are endorsing John Kerry for president. On Monday, October 4, at 10 a.m., Ambassadors for Kerry will hold a news conference at the National Press Club to release a statement and announce their endorsement. What: News conference with United States Ambassadors Endorsing John Kerry, including: -- Douglas "Pete" Peterson, former Ambassador to Vietnam, former U.S. Congressman...

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...

WASHINGTON (AP)--A South Korean man who met with John Kerry's fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall's election. South Korean officials and U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service. A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid "speculation" he became involved with the Kerry campaign and...

A South Korean man who met with Sen. John Kerry's fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall's election. South Korean officials and U.S. officials said that Chung Byung-man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service.

Bahrain expels Iraq diplomat for alleged blast link MANAMA, April 2 (Reuters) - Bahrain on Wednesday expelled an Iraqi diplomat it accused of having links to a blast that occurred near a U.S. Navy base in the capital Manama last week. The official Bahrain News Agency said the foreign ministry asked Iraqi First Secretary Nadim Jawad Ali to leave the kingdom because of his alleged ties to an Iraqi man suspected of carrying out the March 24 blast. There was no immediate comment from the Iraqi embassy. A small cooking gas cylinder exploded near the gateway of the headquarters of...

Confusion at Colorado College Posted: September 4, 20021:00 a.m. Eastern © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com On Sept. 12, the second day of the second year of America's war on terror, Colorado College will host a symposium titled: "September 11: One Year Later." The symposium may not yield much insight into the war, but it tells us all a great deal about the moral confusion that dominates this campus and, I suspect, hundreds of others. As the first speaker on the first day of the conference – the "keynote speaker" according to the college – Colorado College has selected Hanan Ashrawi, a longtime spokeswoman for...

John Kerry would have you believe that America's diplomats as well as the career leftists ensconced in the State Department support his brand of anti-sovereignty globalism. This newly released letter from Diplomats for a Nonpartisan Foreign Service shows otherwise: In the face of massive danger, over 1100 American Foreign Service officers recently volunteered for the 145 openings in our embassy and other diplomatic offices across Iraq. Former Foreign Service officers Ambassador L. Paul Bremer and now Ambassador John Negroponte agreed to take on perhaps the single most dangerous position in the world as head of the U.S. effort in...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A group of former US diplomats scolded some colleagues for violating the US foreign service's traditional political neutrality by condemning President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s foreign policy. In June, a group of 27 former diplomats and military officials, called Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, condemned Bush's policies in Iraq (news - web sites) and the Middle East. The group said then in a statement that Bush had failed to meet the "responsibilities of world leadership. It is time for a change." In response, Thomas Boyatt, a former US ambassador to Colombia, said at...

The revolt of the old farts. That is the best description of the statement by "a concerned group of former service chiefs and Australian diplomats" on Sunday. No longer involved with the formulation or implementation of Australian policy, and rarely if ever consulted, this group is suffering from what Gareth Evans aptly named "relevance deprivation syndrome". The world is out of joint, and no one asks them how to set it right. The statement is, in fact, based on a lie. It is a lie widely disseminated, but a lie nonetheless. This is that Australia's participation in the Iraq war...

<p>June 30, 2004 -- Two security guards working at Iran's U.N. mission were kicked out of the country for spying last week after they were caught videotaping New York City landmarks, authorities said yesterday. It was the fifth incident in less than three years involving Iranian guards.</p>

NITED NATIONS, June 29 - The United States has expelled two security guards at Iran's United Nations mission after they were seen filming and photographing New York landmark buildings and parts of the city's transportation system, American officials said Tuesday. "They were asked to leave because we were very concerned about their activities, which weren't compatible with their stated duties," said Richard A. Grenell, the spokesman for the American mission. The language is common diplomatic wording for espionage cases. The two men were ordered out last weekend after pairs of Iranian guards had been seen for the third time in...

June 16, 2004 JINSA Report #417 Pots and Kettles: “Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change” There are 27 names on a high-profile statement released today by a group calling itself “Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change” denouncing current U.S. foreign and defense policy. It reads in part: American policies have failed... instead of building upon America's great economic and moral strength to lead other nations in a coordinated campaign to address the causes of terrorism and to stifle its resources... insensitive to the concerns of traditional friends and allies, and disdainful of the United Nations... The United States suffers from...