Free Republic

In a bid to jump-start talks to end Iran's nuclear program, the Bush administration is sending the State Department's No. 3 diplomat to Geneva to meet with Tehran's top arms negotiator Saturday, the closest contact between the two countries since the Iranian revolution of 1979. The White House's decision breaks sharply from Washington's long-held policy of refusing direct contacts with Tehran until it agrees to freeze its nuclear program. It is the latest backtracking from the unilateralist character of the first Bush term, and follows a recent deal with North Korea over its nuclear program. U.S. officials said President George...

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...

Sources say Bush expected to send Assistant Sec. of State William Burns to represent the U.S. at Arafat`s funeral (Reuters)

<p>Speaking to a group of Palestinians and left-wing Israelis in Israel last week, a high-ranking State Department official took the time to disparage the "conservative" and "Christian" supporters of President Bush, his ultimate superior. The incident is revealing, not just in showing the contempt members of the Foreign Service have for Mr. Bush, but how urgent the need is for the White House to finally address systemic problems at Foggy Bottom.</p>

LONDON (Reuters) - Libya reached agreement with the United States and Britain on Tuesday to accept civil responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and compensate victims' relatives, a source close to the talks said. The deal would end a lingering dispute between the West and an Arab state shortly before a likely U.S.-led war against Iraq. "History is in the making. A deal could be announced at any moment," the source said after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns met Libyan and British officials in London. Under the arrangement, Libya would compensate families of the 259 mostly American passengers...

WASHINGTON, May 25 — An intense debate among President Bush and his top advisers over whether to press for the removal of Yasir Arafat as the leader of the Palestinian Authority has effectively frozen the nation's Middle East policy, according to some administration officials. It has also prompted George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, to delay his mission to the region until the policy is worked out. For more than two weeks, Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell have said that Mr. Tenet will go to the Middle East to work to restructure Palestinian security...