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“Regardless of the ongoing litigation I am not in a position — nor should I be expected to — to speak of the scheduling habits of a previous secretary of State,” Kirby told reporters. “I’m not able to do that.” “It’s a case of ongoing litigation and I’m simply not able to discuss it further.” ======================================= During the State Department’s daily press briefing on Friday, Kirby said that Secretary John Kerry’s calendars “are being maintained and preserved as they should be.” “I can’t speak to how it was done in the past,” he sad. “But the secretary’s calendars are being...

A State Department spokesman on Friday said that a Hillary Clinton donor’s appointment to a top secret federal advisory board despite having no experience with its activities is “not unusual” because he represented “a broad range of views.” ABC News reported earlier on Friday that in 2011, Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills directed career diplomats to appoint Rajiv Fernando, a high-frequency stock trader from Chicago, to the International Security Advisory Board (ISAB). Mills’ move — which was likely okayed by Clinton — surprised the career staffers, according to emails obtained by the legal advocacy group Citizens United. Fernando...

The State Department admitted 80 Syrian refugees on Tuesday and 225 on Monday, setting a new single-day record, as President Obama surges to try to meet his target of 10,000 approvals this year — sparking renewed fears among security experts who say corners are being cut to meet a political goal. Officials insisted they’re moving faster because they’re getting better at screening, and say they’re still running all the traps on applicants. But the new spike in numbers is stunning, with more people accepted on Monday alone than were approved in the entire months of January or February.

As with every other scandal in his administration, President Obama learned about Hillary Clinton’s private stash of emails via the newspaper. You have to give Valarie Jarrett credit, she does a bang up job keeping bad news from Obama until it’s already in the hands of the press. You would think the President would have been aware that Hillary was using a private email address considering he emailed her at it. Nevertheless, the President knows nothing. No doubt he’s disappointed and outraged over the lack of transparency. No one could be more upset than the President. In reality he had...

Marie Harf, the embattled State Department deputy spokeswoman who insisted this week that helping ISIS jihadis find gainful employment was a better strategy than killing them, is not in line for a promotion when her boss moves to the White House on April 1, a State Department official said Thursday. Harf said Monday night on MSNBC that 'lack of opportunity for jobs' in the Middle East should be America's focus in the war against the ISIS terror army. She refused to back down Tuesday night on CNN, insisting that the Obama administration should 'get at the root causes' of terrorism....

The US State Department condemned the killing of the three kidnapped Israeli teens following the discovery of their bodies Monday night. "The harm that has been done to these teenagers is a tragedy," said State Dept. spokeswoman Jen Psaki at a press briefing. Psaki said the department continued to urge restraint on both sides "in spite of the tragedy and the enormous pain on the ground as a result."

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf engaged in a heated exchange Tuesday with a reporter over the circumstances surrounding Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s capture five years ago, saying she does not think his squad mates have the best idea of what happened when he disappeared. When Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson asked, “Does the State Department consider Sergeant Bergdahl to be a deserter?” Harf replied, “The State Department — no, Lucas. Look, what we’ve said is we are going to learn the facts about what happened here.” “He’s been in captivity, Lucas. I think he’s probably the person who knows...

When pressed for details Tuesday about whether Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl deserted his post before being captured by the Taliban, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf had some advice: "Go Google it on the Web," she said. Harf, who had earlier said State does not consider Bergdahl to be a deserter, noted that "nobody knows exactly what happened that night [Bergdahl was captured]" and told reporters not to resort to hearsay in their reporting. When pressed further on the issue, Harf stated that she did not think the soldiers serving alongside Bergdahl knew the conditions under which he was captured, and...

Congressman Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, said today on the House floor that survivors of the Benghazi terror attack have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements: "On Tuesday I raised the question of why none of the Benghazi survivors, whether State Department, CIA, or private security contract employees have testified publicly before Congress," said Wolf. "According to trusted sources that have contacted my office, many if not all of the survivors of the Benghazi attacks along with others at the Department of Defense, the CIA have been asked or directed to sign additional non-disclosure agreements about their involvement in...

Secretary of State John Kerry spent time lounging around on his yacht Wednesday while the Egyptian military was deposing their country's democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi, according to various reports. When Kerry was first spotted on his yatch, called "Isabel," near his vacation home in Nantucket, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki called the report "completely inaccurate" saying that the Secretary of State had been "working all day and on the phone dealing with the crisis in Egypt," according to CBS News. Psaki even went so far as to deny that Kerry was even on the boat.

A fifth person died as a result of the attack on our outpost at Benghazi, say sources familiar with events that took place there on 11 September 2012. "This is not being reported by State or White House," said one source, who has knowledge of events surrounding the attack that killed former SEAL Glen Doherty, computer tech Sean Smith, Ambassador Chris Stevens, and former SEAL Tyrone Woods. The source did not specify whether the fifth person killed was American, nor in what capacity the person worked. "There were people stationed there in a clandestine capacity," the source said. A second...

The State Department has refused to cancel or delay the delivery of several American-made F-16 fighter jets to Egypt, claiming that the arms deal serves America’s “regional security interests,” according to an official State Department document obtained by the Free Beacon. The news that the Obama administration would uphold an aid package to Egypt that included the military hardware prompted concern on Capitol Hill from lawmakers who said the deal was not prudent given the political situation in Egypt, where Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohammed Morsi has clashed with democratic protestors. “Sixteen F-16s and 200 Abrams tanks are to be given...

The size and "lethality" of the attack on the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya, that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead was "unprecedented," a senior State Department official said today. Senior State Department officials today gave the most detailed account to-date of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other diplomats. One official said the nature of the assault was unparalleled in recent history. "The lethality and number of armed people is unprecedented," one of the officials said. "There was no attack anywhere in Libya...

State Department officials on Monday confirmed Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Imam of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, will soon be going on a trip of the Middle East and the U.S. government will be picking up the tab. The planned construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City has set off a contentious national debate over religious freedom in the U.S., drawing impassioned opposition from some families of 9/11 victims. Rauf has emerged as a controversial figure because of his refusal to acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist organization, which is how the U.S. government classifies the group....