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<p>JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell arrived in Israel last night for meetings aimed at getting Israel to withdraw from West Bank cities and Palestinians to halt suicide bombings and other attacks.</p> <p>There was little reason to hope he would succeed on either count.</p>

In his years as a general, the national security adviser and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell honed management precepts he called Powell's Rules, among them this upbeat assertion: "Optimism is a force multiplier." "I don't like wallowing with pessimists," Secretary Powell declared this morning as he left Madrid for a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan before arriving in Jerusalem tonight. "I'm going there because it's necessary for me to go." Facing the most daunting diplomatic challenge of his career, Secretary Powell will need all the optimism he can muster....

This is Arafat's last chance - US official By Herb Keinon JERUSALEM (April 12) - The IDF was poised late last night to withdraw from a number of Palestinian villages, in an apparent attempt to ease the atmosphere for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's talks this morning with US Secretary of State Colin Powell. A senior administration official told The Associated Press that Powell intends to warn Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat the United States is prepared to sever ties with him unless he renounces terrorism. "The message is: This is it. Last chance," said the official, who cautioned that Powell...

<p>We thought the Mideast was a quagmire. Were we too optimistic?</p> <p>When President Bush took his plunge into the Arab-Israeli conflict last week, we worried that he was heading into a quagmire. Judging from a week's worth of evidence, maybe we were optimists.</p>

NEWSCommittee on International RelationsU.S. House of RepresentativesHenry J. Hyde, ChairmanCONTACT: Sam Stratman, (202) 226-7875, April 11, 2002 For IMMEDIATE ReleaseHyde, Others Seek Immunity from ICC Jurisdictionfor U.S. Servicemembers in UN Peacekeeping Operations (WASHINGTON) - The United States should seek immunity from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for 3,000 U.S. servicemembers deployed in Bosnia when the United Nations (U.N.) mandate for that peacekeeping operation is renewed in June, U.S. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-IL) suggested Thursday.Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and a bipartisan group of House and Senate members made the request to Secretary of State Colin...

George W. Bush has not changed his mind. Removing Saddam is the key to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict To read the European papers, you would believe that the US administration reversed itself this past week on the Middle East conflict. After looking away when Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, went after Yassir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, the US then changed its mind and sought to put Mr Sharon on a leash. This, though, is not the only interpretation of President George W. Bush's Thursday speech. Indeed, many in the administration view the speech in a different way: as the...

<p>The U.S. government facilitated a payment of $300,000 through a third party in a bid to gain the release of two Americans held by the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.</p> <p>The transaction was completed before Easter, two senior administration officials said this week, but Abu Sayyaf as of yesterday had not shown signs of releasing Martin and Gracia Burnham, two American missionaires who were kidnapped 10 months ago.</p>

After defending Israel's campaign to crush terrorism for exactly one week, US President George W. Bush turned around and said, "enough is enough." From this moment on, America's war on terrorism has plunged into a free fall, as its champion has put himself in the position of protector of Palestinian terrorists from Israel's military thrust. What on earth would induce such a determined leader to engage in such a stunning reversal on the defining mission of his presidency? Bush's reversal cannot be attributed simply to a media picture of Israel as Goliath opposite the Palestinian David. David, after all, did...

<p>April 10, 2002 -- Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday said he intends to meet Yasser Arafat later this week - prompting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to say that's a "tragic mistake."</p> <p>And in another strain of U.S.-Israel relations, the White House made it clear that President Bush isn't satisfied with Jerusalem's withdrawal from two Palestinian towns and wants more.</p>

GOTTA SEE THIS -- OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM 4/10/02 REPORT FROM THEATRE 1 - Afghanistan (click here) = Update : REPORT FROM THEATRE 2 - Near Israel Bus Attack in Haira, Op.Defensive Shield, Retreat from Jenin, Bethlehem, Nablus, Weapons found in Ramallah, Lebanon Hezbollah attack again ======================== In Haifa, after the IDF pull out and leave several terrorists nests alive, after obeying Colin Powell's latest pro-terrorist demands, and even after Palestinian militants killed 13 Israeli soldiers in an ambush in Jenin, yet another ~8 Israelis are killed and ~14 wounded in the new bus attack this morning 4/10/10. ======================== In Bethlehem,...

Yemen Accuses US Ambassador of Interference in Domestic Affairs; Threatens to Expel Him Yemen's ruling General People's Congress (GPC) party on Tuesday accused United States ambassador Edmond Hull of “interfering” in domestic affairs and threatened to expel him. “Since he was appointed (last September), ambassador Edmond Hull has behaved like a high commissioner, not like a diplomat in a country which is opposed to any form of interference” by a foreign state, said the Al-Mithaq weekly, a GPC mouthpiece. “Edmund Hull adopts a very haughty behavior, far-removed from his diplomatic duties, when he speaks to certain Yemeni officials,” the newspaper...

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday he may meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during his visit to the Middle East to try to end violence in the region. Powell told NBC's "Meet the Press" he would meet the Palestinian leader who has been confined to his Ramallah offices "if circumstances permit." Powell who leaves for the region late Sunday is to make stops in Morocco, Egypt and Spain before reaching Israel to try to end the fighting that has intensified over the past two weeks despite calls for calm from the international community. On Saturday, President Bush called...

Powell Talks to Trilateral GroupBy VANESSA PALO Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON(AP) — Between celebrating his 65th birthday and embarking on a trip to the Middle East, Secretary of State Colin Powell found an hour Saturday to outline U.S. diplomatic policy at the annual meeting of The Trilateral Commission. Characterizing Powell's private remarks, a senior member of the commission said he gave a ``commanding sense of U.S. diplomacy and the importance of its diplomatic role.'' Delivering unprepared and off-the-record remarks, the secretary gave a review of the problems facing the Western world and discussed some details of the Mideast tour, the...

I don't know if this still qualifies as 'breaking news' but I just heard him saying it on Fox. He was talking about the 'peace efforts' needed to prevent the loss of life of innocent Israeli civilians and innocent young Palestinian suicide bombers. Perhaps someone can find the transcript. I don't have it word for word but this was the general idea.

Saturday, April 06, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Reid criticizes Bush's foreign policyBy JANE ANN MORRISON REVIEW-JOURNAL Sen. Harry Reid had nothing good to say Friday about President Bush's foreign policy, particularly regarding the Middle East, where he said Bush needs to "get in touch with reality." "I try not to be critical of Bush. I say nice things about him on occasion. But his foreign policy has been so bad, especially regarding the Middle East," Reid said at a luncheon meeting at the Review-Journal. Bush should have engaged in this issue far sooner, said Reid, the Senate's assistant...

The Trilateral Commission — long viewed by critics and conspiracy theorists as a secret world-government-in-waiting — will begin its annual meeting today in Washington to discuss the future of the world's three main industrialized continents post-September 11. Under the chairmanship of former House Speaker Thomas S. Foley, the conference will gather 250 political, business and academic leaders from Europe, North America and Japan, who will analyze the global response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States' foreign policy and the situation in the Middle East. "The running line at this meeting is definitely going, 'What do we do...

Powell may not meet Arafat  -  White House   CRAWFORD, Texas, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell may not meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on his upcoming Middle East tour, the White House said on Friday, calling again on Arafat to crack down on perpetrators of violence against Israelis. "Secretary Powell has no plans to meet Chairman Arafat at this moment," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters covering President George W. Bush's talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the president's Texas ranch. "He is looking forward however to meeting with leaders in the region who work for peace. ......

<p>President Bush yesterday ordered Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to the Middle East and pronounced Yasser Arafat a "failure" who should be replaced with "responsible Palestinian leaders."</p> <p>The president also asked Israel to stop its operation against Palestinian suicide attacks, urging withdrawal from occupied towns now that Israel has spent a week clearing out terrorists. He specifically requested a pullout from the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Israeli forces have laid siege to Mr. Arafat's bombed-out headquarters.</p>

The president seeks peace without abandoning principle. Well that was one big, broad, bold statement from our president on the Mideast yesterday. His Rose Garden speech seemed to come late in the drama, but it may turn out that George W. Bush spoke at the right moment--when the action had reached its peak, with the Church of the Nativity surrounded, the tanks rolling through Nablus and on to Hebron, the watching world exhausted, and the rush of adrenaline that had sustained both sides the past week wearing off, leaving some combatants shaky and wondering no doubt if there wasn't a...

they are calling it a rescue..few details so far