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A veteran US diplomat who headed the Kabul embassy twice - including in 2002 soon after it reopened after five years of Taliban rule - said he has 'grave' concerns over President Joe Biden's ability to lead the United States after Afghanistan fell to the insurgent group once again on Sunday. Former Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker on Monday called the Taliban's takeover a predictable 'self-inflicted wound' to US foreign policy. 'That's why this is all so sad,' Crocker said.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and his top advisers have decided, for now, against launching a war to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the next phase of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, according to senior U.S. officials and Western diplomats. With the al-Qaeda terrorist network all but vanquished in Afghanistan, speculation has been growing that Bush would turn his sights on Hussein, a longtime U.S. nemesis who is known to have chemical and biological weapons. Iraq also is believed to be working on obtaining nuclear weapons. But the officials and diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Bush's ...

Earlier this week, the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., seized upon a column in the New York Post that described Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as having urged Iraqi leaders in a private meeting to delay coming to an agreement with the Bush administration on the status of U.S. troops. "Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a drawdown of the American military presence," Post columnist Amir Taheri wrote, quoting Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who told the Post that Obama, during his meeting with Iraqi leaders in July, "asked why we were...

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urged the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear programme, according to US documents leaked by WikiLeaks and published Sunday by daily newspapers. According to a leaked US cable, published by the New York Times, King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz made the call during an April 2008 meeting with US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and US General David Petraeus. "He told you to 'cut off the head of the snake'," Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, told the US embassy in Riyadh two days after the high-level talks, according to the...

ISIS is the most serious threat to American interests in a decade. Why we must counter it Ryan Crocker, who probably knows the Middle East better than any other living American diplomat, recently cut to the chase about the situation in Iraq. “This is about America’s national security,” he told the New York Times. “We don’t understand real evil, organized evil, very well. This is evil incarnate. People like [ISIS leader] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have been in a fight for a decade. They are messianic in their vision, and they are not going to stop.” We’ve been in the fight...

(CNSNews.com) - Ryan Crocker, who was a career diplomat with long experience in the Middle East, and who served as the U.S. ambassador to Syria from 1998 to 2001, says “there’s every chance we’ll lose aircraft” if U.S. planes enter Syrian airspace. During an August 23 National Public Radio (NPR) interview Crocker was asked about possible U.S. military action against Syria. “I was in Lebanon when the Israelis invaded in June of 1982, and the entire Syrian air force was basically just destroyed in a matter of hours because of inadequate air defenses,” said Crocker. “The Syrians learned from that...

Earlier this week, I wrote about the dirty tricks campaign against journalist Amir Taheri following his revelation that, in a private meeting in Iraq last July with Iraqi leaders, Barack Obama tried to persuade them to delay the agreement being hammered out with the US government on a draw-down of the American military presence. According to this account, which quoted Iraq’s foreign minister Hoshya Zebari (pictured), Obama had thus privately sought to undermine an American government foreign policy initiative – an explosive revelation. Taheri subsequently dismissed as tendentious Camp Obama’s response which he said deliberately confused two separate agreements under...

SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. - Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, was twice the legal limit when he side-swiped a semi-truck at an intersection in Spokane Valley on August 14, according to Trooper Troy Briggs with the Washington State Patrol. Crocker, 63, who's from Spokane, was arrested for DUI and hit and run after a collision with the semi at the intersection of Sprague Ave. and Pines Road at 2:05p.m. Crocker's blood alcohol content (BAC) was .160 and .152 following two breathalyzer tests. The legal limit in Washington is .08.

SNIPPET: "A leading US expert on the Mideast has told Congress that the US should break with its policy and begin talking to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group that the US calls a terrorist organization. Ryan Crocker..

Christopher Hill, whom US President Barack Obama has named as the new ambassador to Iraq, has a reputation as a shrewd career diplomat who has tackled some of the thorniest international problems. Hill, a media-friendly diplomat, has served as the lead negotiator in efforts to scrap North Korea's nuclear programs and as a top negotiator for the Dayton Peace Accords ending the war in Bosnia. In announcing his appointment Friday, which must still be confirmed by the US Senate, Obama said "Ambassador Hill has been tested, and he has shown the pragmatism and skill that we need right now." Unlike...

This is translated from Arabic. Crocker has done such an excellence service to the US. His great command in the Arabic language provides him with a talent rarely matched by other diplomats. BAGHDAD / VoI: U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker on Monday announced the end of his mission in the country after two years of service there. Crocker said during a meeting with some heads of local newspaper editors, that “his mission as ambassador to the United States ended after two years of work with the Iraqi government,” adding that “ what has been achieved by joint action for...

Today George W Bush visited the State Department for the last time as President where he presented the Medal of Freedom to Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented the President with a memento displaying the flags of European nations that entered NATO during his time as President during the ceremony to commemorate foreign policy achievements at the State Department during his Presidency. Later this evening the President will address the nation for the final time. The Vice President took part in a mock swearing-in ceremony for Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and United...

The Talk Shows Sunday, June 29th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa.; former Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Bob Barr, Libertarian presidential candidate.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., Dave Freudenthal, D-Wyo., and Bill Ritter, D-Colo.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; retired Gen. Wesley Clark.THIS WEEK (ABC): Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.; Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; Ralph Nader, independent presidential candidate.LATE EDITION (CNN) : U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Govs. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and Bobby Jindal, R-La.; Terry McAuliffe, campaign...

Sunday, April 13, 2008 Posted By:MAF Blogger DannyPermalinkPatraeus testifies again: Liberals pile on Helen Thomas has written another scathing opinion dripping with contempt for General Petraeus, Ryan Crocker and of course, we can’t forget, the President. Surprisingly even Democratic would-be presidents Obama and Hillary could not escape her livid criticism. In their disappointing comments, the Democratic rivals were as cautious as Petraeus. Clinton said “it’s time to begin an orderly withdrawal of our troops.” Obama told Petraeus that while he wants U.S. troops out of Iraq, he “would not initiate a precipitous withdrawal.” Watching the testimony myself, and looking at...

Petraeus, Crocker and Mike Monsoorby Roger D. Carstens Posted 04/11/2008 ET This week I had the opportunity to attend two very important events: General David H. Petraeus’ testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Medal of Honor Ceremony for Navy SEAL MA2 Michael Monsoor.  While both events were markedly different, I came away with the same thought: that honor lies not in leaving one’s comrades behind, but rather in staying to do the hard job in the face of great sacrifice. The two events had one fundamental difference. The Congressional hearing was politics, not substance.  Precisely the opposite...

Petraeus and Crocker Meet the Real Enemy By Michael Reagan FrontPageMagazine.com | 4/11/2008 There must have been times when Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker thought they were back in embattled Sadr City when they faced Democrats on Capitol Hill this week -- no Iraqi insurgents or al Sadr militiamen could have been more hostile. No wonder. The goals of the Democrats and both al Qaeda and al Sadr insurgents are the same: the defeat of the United States in the war in Iraq. From the opening statement by Sen. Carl Levin -- a vitriolic tirade against the war...

The hours of congressional testimony, the speeches and the press conferences this week were all, nominally, about Iraq. But another, equally explosive question - what to do about Iran - loomed over the presentations by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the American military commander in Iraq, over U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and over U.S. strategy for the Middle East. Petraeus and Crocker, arguing that there has been progress in stabilizing Iraq since President Bush ordered a troop build-up there last year, fingered Iran's support for Shiite militias in Iraq, which they called "special groups," as the No. 1 threat...

Washington Dispatch: The Iraq general's testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee was predictable: progress is real, we must stay the course. But committee Democrats missed an opportunity to undercut the White House story. By David Corn April 8, 2008 As General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday and pitched a story of success in Iraq, a news update flashed on the television screen: Sadr threatens to end cease-fire. Meaning that civil war between the Shiite-dominated government of Baghdad and the Shiite movement led by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr could...

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2008 – The top U.S. military commander in Iraq presented Congress a comprehensive Iraq progress update in a grueling two days that comprised nearly 20 hours of testimony. "To be candid, we’re trying to get through this week,” said U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus. But keeping Washington officials informed and discussing critical issues with Iraqi leaders on a daily basis is standard for Petraeus, who answered wide-ranging questions from reporters today here at the news conference at the Freedom Forum’s Newseum. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq, described the flux...

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2008 – U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman has a gavel, and he’s not afraid to use it. At the fourth appearance in front of a congressional audience by the United States’ top military commander and envoy to Iraq, Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, cut to the chase. Already, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker had both seen more than 12 hours of combined testimony before the start of their final appearance on Capitol Hill this afternoon. Berman asked for only a summary of their previous testimony so the committee members...