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VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran may be hiding equipment from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, foiling efforts to police a freeze of all programs that Tehran could use to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Thursday. The diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran has yet to respond to a request by the International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. nuclear watchdog - for a full list of the components used at the suspected military site of Lavizan-Shian after handing over a partial inventory in October. The incomplete inventories are particularly worrying because they reflect purchases by Iran's Physics Research Center,...

New Delhi, Nov 15 : They come to India from all over the world - middle-level career diplomats and those just entering the world of diplomacy - to learn the finer points of a profession that ultimately determines the state of international relations. Saudi diplomat Hashim Bin Abdullah Shatta and Josephine Frantzen of the Netherlands were among the middle-level diplomats from 20 countries, who concluded a two-week Advanced Course on Asia for Foreign Diplomats (ACAFD) in October-end at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). Others were from Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Fiji, France, Ireland, Kenya, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Sudan...

It was in the spring of 2003 when David J. Dunford, a 29-year foreign service officer, concluded that President Bush's war in Iraq was a failure. He could feel it. He could hear it. Dunford could see the troubles that continue to vex American forces and planners in Iraq. For several months after the March 2003 invasion, he served with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, the U.S.-created agency that governed Iraq after Saddam Hussein's fall. "I predicted it would go badly," said Dunford, a retired ambassador who is supporting Sen. John Kerry for president. Dunford is one of nearly...

What follows is personal correspondence from my cousin, a retired Foreign Service Officer, and my reply to his circular email. He has authorized me to reprint his letter to the editor. I have removed names for privicy. You will also see my reply. ------------- Dear local newspaper: (Note to editor:  both campaigns have deluged people with canned language to send to editors as purported readers' letters.  What follows is not canned but my own thoughts.  The text numbers 298 words.) I offer a former diplomat's perspective.  In 2000 I voted for Mr. Bush as seemingly the more equilibrated candidate.  W....

p>To: Assignment Desk, Political Reporter Contact: Mark Kitchens of Kerry-Edwards 2004, 202-464-2800 News Advisory: United by a deep concern about the mounting failures of the Bush administration's foreign policy, more than 175 former United States Ambassadors who have served under Republican and Democratic presidents are endorsing John Kerry for president. On Monday, October 4, at 10 a.m., Ambassadors for Kerry will hold a news conference at the National Press Club to release a statement and announce their endorsement. What: News conference with United States Ambassadors Endorsing John Kerry, including: -- Douglas "Pete" Peterson, former Ambassador to Vietnam, former U.S. Congressman...

On the one hand we have a major television network racing to broadcast news about 30-year-old ``documents'' - now proven to be fraudulent - all in an effort to discredit President Bush [related, bio]. On the other hand we virtually have all of the networks ignoring a real, fresh-as-today, scandal involving the Kerry campaign's fund-raising. The Associated Press reported this past week that a South Korean national who met with John Kerry's fund-raisers and discussed setting up a new political group for Korean-Americans was actually an intelligence agent for South Korea. Chung Byung-Man, a counselor official in Los Angeles prior...

WASHINGTON (AP)--A South Korean man who met with John Kerry's fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall's election. South Korean officials and U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service. A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid "speculation" he became involved with the Kerry campaign and...

A South Korean man who met with Sen. John Kerry's fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall's election. South Korean officials and U.S. officials said that Chung Byung-man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service.

Bahrain expels Iraq diplomat for alleged blast link MANAMA, April 2 (Reuters) - Bahrain on Wednesday expelled an Iraqi diplomat it accused of having links to a blast that occurred near a U.S. Navy base in the capital Manama last week. The official Bahrain News Agency said the foreign ministry asked Iraqi First Secretary Nadim Jawad Ali to leave the kingdom because of his alleged ties to an Iraqi man suspected of carrying out the March 24 blast. There was no immediate comment from the Iraqi embassy. A small cooking gas cylinder exploded near the gateway of the headquarters of...

Confusion at Colorado College Posted: September 4, 20021:00 a.m. Eastern © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com On Sept. 12, the second day of the second year of America's war on terror, Colorado College will host a symposium titled: "September 11: One Year Later." The symposium may not yield much insight into the war, but it tells us all a great deal about the moral confusion that dominates this campus and, I suspect, hundreds of others. As the first speaker on the first day of the conference – the "keynote speaker" according to the college – Colorado College has selected Hanan Ashrawi, a longtime spokeswoman for...

John Kerry would have you believe that America's diplomats as well as the career leftists ensconced in the State Department support his brand of anti-sovereignty globalism. This newly released letter from Diplomats for a Nonpartisan Foreign Service shows otherwise: In the face of massive danger, over 1100 American Foreign Service officers recently volunteered for the 145 openings in our embassy and other diplomatic offices across Iraq. Former Foreign Service officers Ambassador L. Paul Bremer and now Ambassador John Negroponte agreed to take on perhaps the single most dangerous position in the world as head of the U.S. effort in...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A group of former US diplomats scolded some colleagues for violating the US foreign service's traditional political neutrality by condemning President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s foreign policy. In June, a group of 27 former diplomats and military officials, called Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, condemned Bush's policies in Iraq (news - web sites) and the Middle East. The group said then in a statement that Bush had failed to meet the "responsibilities of world leadership. It is time for a change." In response, Thomas Boyatt, a former US ambassador to Colombia, said at...

The revolt of the old farts. That is the best description of the statement by "a concerned group of former service chiefs and Australian diplomats" on Sunday. No longer involved with the formulation or implementation of Australian policy, and rarely if ever consulted, this group is suffering from what Gareth Evans aptly named "relevance deprivation syndrome". The world is out of joint, and no one asks them how to set it right. The statement is, in fact, based on a lie. It is a lie widely disseminated, but a lie nonetheless. This is that Australia's participation in the Iraq war...

<p>June 30, 2004 -- Two security guards working at Iran's U.N. mission were kicked out of the country for spying last week after they were caught videotaping New York City landmarks, authorities said yesterday. It was the fifth incident in less than three years involving Iranian guards.</p>

NITED NATIONS, June 29 - The United States has expelled two security guards at Iran's United Nations mission after they were seen filming and photographing New York landmark buildings and parts of the city's transportation system, American officials said Tuesday. "They were asked to leave because we were very concerned about their activities, which weren't compatible with their stated duties," said Richard A. Grenell, the spokesman for the American mission. The language is common diplomatic wording for espionage cases. The two men were ordered out last weekend after pairs of Iranian guards had been seen for the third time in...

June 16, 2004 JINSA Report #417 Pots and Kettles: “Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change” There are 27 names on a high-profile statement released today by a group calling itself “Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change” denouncing current U.S. foreign and defense policy. It reads in part: American policies have failed... instead of building upon America's great economic and moral strength to lead other nations in a coordinated campaign to address the causes of terrorism and to stifle its resources... insensitive to the concerns of traditional friends and allies, and disdainful of the United Nations... The United States suffers from...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Angered by Bush administration policies they contend endanger national security, 26 retired U.S. diplomats and military officers are urging Americans to vote President Bush out of office in November.</p> <p>The group, which calls itself Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, does not explicitly endorse Democrat John Kerry for president in its campaign, which will start officially Wednesday at a Washington news conference.</p>

Reflecting the perverse logic that has guided the U.S. State Department for decades, sixty former diplomats have written an open letter to President Bush denouncing the currentadministration’s “unabashed support” for the sole democracy in the Middle East: Israel. The hyperbolic screed, released this week, is chock-full of gross overstatements and pure myth.   Yet far more important – and what the media will almost surely overlook – is the stench of bias emanating from almost all of the signers, particularly from the man who organized the effort, former Ambassador Andrew Killgore, who served in Qatar from 1977-1980. The two-page letter follows the...

After the price of oil quadrupled in 1973, Syria and other Arab states put pressure on Saudi Arabia to use its new wealth against Israel. Part of the Saudi government's response was to lead a campaign against support for Israel in the U.S. On their own, however, the Saudis lacked the connections and savvy to affect American-Israeli ties. To make up for this, the Saudi state recruited help. In "The American House of Saud" (Franklin Watts, 448 pages, $18.95), Steven Emerson, a journalist and former staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chronicles anti-Israeli activities undertaken in recent years...