Free Republic

By BETH GARDINER, Associated Press Writer LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair fired his law and order chief Friday and chose a new foreign secretary in a wide-ranging Cabinet shuffle a day after his party took a pounding in local elections. The Labour Party pulled 26 percent of the vote to the Conservatives 40 percent, a result that renewed calls from some quarters for the prime minister to step down. Home Secretary Charles Clarke, embroiled in a politically damaging furor over the failure to deport foreign criminals, confirmed that Blair had removed him from office. Defense Secretary John Reid was...

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was rapped for ungentlemanly conduct after reportedly commandeering US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's private quarters on her official jet. ADVERTISEMENT Rice was reported in a number of British newspapers to have graciously offered her British counterpart the use of her bed and cabin on the Boeing 757 plane and Straw ungallantly accepted, leaving her to sleep on the floor. What one newspaper called "Bedgate" is said to have happened as the political bedfellows flew to Kuwait at the weekend before transferring to a military flight bound for Baghdad.

The President spent the weekend in Crawford Texas. Today the President threw out the first pitch of the Cincinnati Reds opening day baseball game in Cincinnati, Ohio. Before the game he presented Eugene Goss, a junior at Clark Montessori High School in Cincinnati, the Volunteer Service Award as he arrived at the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Ky. The First Lady visited schools today. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in England back end of last week and spent Sunday and part of today in Baghdad with Jack Straw, she returned to London today with Jack Straw for...

By Sue Pleming and Mariam KarounyBAGHDAD (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Britain's Jack Straw flew in secret into Baghdad on Sunday in a dramatic bid to break a deadlock over forming a unity government that can halt a slide to civil war.Pressure on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari looked almost irresistible as a leader of the biggest party in his ruling Shi'ite Alliance joined others in publicly breaking ranks and calling on him to step aside in the name of national consensus.Though they refused to say so in public, it was a message certainly conveyed, too, by Rice...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday to discuss efforts to form a unity government. British embassy spokeswoman Lisa Glover said Straw was "here to talk about government formation." Straw and Rice are due to meet Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and President Jalal Talabani and other leaders during the day. The visit comes as Jaafari faces mounting pressure from both within his ruling Shi'ite Alliance and rival politicians to step down.

The Dean of Blackburn is a holy man and, as such, is not generally touched by earthly desires. He has serious misgivings about the Iraq war. He is a sensible, mild-mannered sort of fellow, not given to unnecessary exaggeration. But that was yesterday. That was BC. Before Condoleezza. "Oh, I thought she was charming," says the Very Rev Christopher Armstrong, reflecting on his hour-long meeting with the US Secretary of State in Blackburn Cathedral. He pauses. A playful half-smile curls his lips. His eyes glaze over slightly and gaze into the middle distance. It is as if he is recalling...

Tuesday, March 14, 2006The Straw Man Yesterday I turned on CNN International and promptly saw British Foreign Minister Jack Straw once again equivocating the Iranian nuclear threat with the "threat" posed by Israel's nuclear weapons and saying that once Iran is dealt with Israel will have to be dealt with. I don't know if this was merely a rebroadcast of his statement last Thursday or something new since I didn't catch the story from the beginning. Last week he added: If you want to see a nuclear-free Middle East, you've got to remove that threat from Iran, including the rhetorical...

British FM: Israel and Iran Both Potential Threats 23:51 Mar 11, '06 / 11 Adar 5766 By Ezra HaLevi England's Foreign Minister Jack Straw says that the world should worry about disabling Israel's nuclear capabilities as much as it is concerned with preventing Iran from going nuclear. Straw said Thursday that Britain is seeking a "nuclear-free Middle East." He said that Iran and Israel were the only two countries left that posed "potential threats" now that Iraq and Libya's nuclear aspirations have been neutralized. The foreign minister, who has made headlines in the past criticizing the Jewish state, conceded that...

Straw risks US fury over 'gulag' Guantanamo By George Jones (Filed: 22/02/2006) The confusion within the Government over Britain's attitude to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp deepened yesterday when Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, compared it to a Soviet-style "gulag". It was the most critical description yet by a member of the Cabinet of the camp where terrorist suspects are held indefinitely by the United States authorities. Jack Straw: comments are likely to anger the US Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, called last week for its closure, but Tony Blair said only that it was an "anomaly" which would...

The UK Foreign Secretary has said that talks aimed at resolving a dispute over Iran's nuclear programme must allow Iran to maintain its national dignity. "We must have a bargain which enables both sides to come out of it with their head held high," Jack Straw said. He was speaking in a seminar at the World Economic Forum in Davos, after talks with IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei. The US, UK, Germany and France want Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council for censure over its programme...

On Wednesday night's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Andrea Mitchell filed a story in which she turned to Bush administration critic and former National Security Council member Clint Leverett, "who quit in protest before the war," to contribute a soundbite charging that the Bush administration "had decided to fight back" against Joseph Wilson in response to his criticism of the Iraq invasion. Mitchell also, without challenge, relayed Wilson's contention that his trip to Niger discredited the possibility that Iraq had tried to acquire uranium from Niger, as she merely passed on that he concluded "it wasn't true." Absent was the argument...

Military action against Iran is inconceivable and diplomacy could still end the international standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country plays a key role in negotiations. Iran insists its nuclear program is designed for generating electricity, but the Bush administration believes Tehran intends to produce atomic weapons and has refused to rule out military strikes. "All United States presidents always say all options are open. But it is not on the table, it is not on the agenda. I happen to think that it is inconceivable," Straw told British Broadcasting Corp. radio on Wednesday....

During his visit to Washington last week, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told his American interlocutors that the European Union’s initiative on Iran, of which his government is a part, was heading for an impasse. But when asked what the next move should be, all that Straw had to say was: Keep talking until after the Iranian presidential election. ... The leadership in Tehran is acting in accordance with its own agenda that is aimed at securing the technological and industrial base that would enable Iran to develop a nuclear arsenal... The Europeans are victims of their own delusions. Their...

Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Nazif and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw met separately with President Bush at the White House. A grenade thrown toward President Bush in the former Soviet republic of Georgia was live, but failed to explode because of a malfunction, the FBI said today. President's remarks at the RNC Presidential Gala last night. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island!

The British government is to try again today to secure an internationally binding treaty to regulate the arms trade. A similar UN initiative four years ago, aimed at curbing small arms, was blocked by the US president, George Bush, who feared confrontation with the US gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, one of the biggest vested interests in the country. The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, will today set out details of a proposed treaty to regulate trade in conventional weapons, estimated to be worth about £500bn a year. Saferworld, a UK-based pressure group pushing for control of the...

FOREIGN SECRETARY STRAW: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It has been a very great pleasure to welcome to London Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on her first official visit as the United States Secretary of State. And Condoleezza Rice has had a very good discussion this morning with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and we too have had a very good bilateral discussion. And both the Prime Minister and I opened by congratulating Secretary Rice on her appointment and her endorsement by the Senate. In those confirmation hearings before the United States Senate, Secretary Rice said, and I quote,...

Straw raps war 'antis' Lashed out ... Jack Straw     FOREIGN Secretary Jack Straw last night savaged anti-war hypocrites now applauding Iraq’s spectacular election triumph. He accused them of wanting to leave Saddam in Baghdad, free to carry on crushing his people. And he lashed those who want allied troops to go home and leave Iraqis in the lurch. Mr Straw told MPs: “That would be tantamount to ensuring the new forces of democracy are weakened and the forces of terror are strengthened.” He tore into Lib-Dems, telling them: “The consequence of your position was that there would...

LONDON - Lawyers for the singer once known as Cat Stevens said Friday that they have asked American officials to remove his name from a "no fly" list. The musician, now a peace activist named Yusuf Islam, was expelled from the United States last week after authorities diverted his London-to-Washington flight to Maine to remove him, saying he was suspected of ties to terrorism. The Carter-Ruck law firm said it had asked the U.S. government to explain why it considered Islam a security risk. "I remain bewildered by the decision of the U.S. authorities to refuse me entry to the...

The siege at the school in Russia shows that terrorists are prepared to attack anyone, anywhere, Jack Straw said today. Setting out the United Kingdom's position on the reform of the United Nations, the Foreign Secretary called the siege a "horrible reminder that international terrorism is a present danger to all of us, wherever we are". "The Security Council last night was therefore absolutely correct, in calling for the unconditional release of the hostages, to reaffirm that terrorism is one of the most serious threats to international peace and security." He added that the UN needed to be able to...

<p>June 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. diplomats are meeting Iranian government officials to try to secure the release of three Royal Navy patrol boats and eight crew members seized yesterday by Iran in the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq.</p>