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The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all but essential travel to Iraq. Travel within Iraq remains dangerous given the security situation. On June 16, the Department of State began relocating some staff members from the Embassy to the Consulates General in Basrah and Erbil and Iraq Support Unit in Amman. The Embassy remains open and is operating. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning dated June 11, 2014, to update information on security incidents and to remind U.S. citizens of ongoing security concerns in Iraq, including kidnapping and terrorist violence. The ability of the Embassy to respond to...

The USS Mesa Verde with 550 Marines on board entered the Gulf on Monday to support possible U.S. action to help Iraq's Shi'ite-led government combat a Sunni Islamist insurgency that has overtaken large areas of the country's north, CNN reported. The USS Mesa Verde joins the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which the Pentagon ordered on Saturday to move into the Gulf. President Barack Obama has said he is considering military action, short of putting U.S. troops in Iraq, to aid that government's efforts to stop the insurgency.

Iraq Travel Warning June 11, 2014 The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all but essential travel to Iraq. Travel within Iraq remains dangerous given the security situation. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning dated March 6, 2014, to update information on security incidents and to remind U.S. citizens of ongoing security concerns in Iraq, including kidnapping and terrorist violence.  The ability of the Embassy to respond to situations in which U.S. citizens face difficulty, including arrests, is extremely limited. U.S. citizens in Iraq remain at high risk for kidnapping and terrorist violence.  Methods of attack have...

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, has hoisted the gay pride flag over the embassy building in Tel Aviv.  Todd Starnes grabbed the pic from the embassy's Facebook page. “Proudly flying the colors,” Ambassador Dan Shapiro wrote on the embassy’s Facebook page. He posted a photograph showing a rainbow colored flag flying alongside the American flag outside the embassy in Tel Aviv.  “For the first time in history, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has raised the Pride flag together with our American flag,” Shapiro wrote. “We are proud to join with the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo and its residents...

Despite the latest security concerns in Libya - due to the recent escalation of violence in the terrorist infested country - and despite the recent decision by several other countries to shut down their embassies there, the Obama administration, thus far, has refrained from taking similar action, presumably because the apparent urgency to close down the embassy would reflect poorly on the administration's failed policies there. A defense official told CNN early last week that the decision to evacuate the embassy is "minute by minute, hour by hour," which means that the safety and security of US embassy personnel there...

Ecuador's government has ordered everyone in the US Embassy's military group, about 20 Defense Department employees, to leave the country by month's end. The group was ordered to halt operations in Ecuador in a letter dated April 7, embassy spokesman Jeffrey Weinshenker said Thursday. The Associated Press was alerted to the expulsions by a senior Ecuadorean official who refused to be identified by name due to the information's sensitive nature.

Germany is to offer Israeli citizens consular assistance in states such as Indonesia or Malaysia where Israel has no official diplomatic representation, under a new deal to be signed by Angela Merkel when she visits Jerusalem next week.

Barack Obama has been an indefatigable and unstinting supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, as well as of its proxies in the U.S. Thus it is not surprising that U.S. Embassy employees in Cairo would be Brotherhood allies as well. Obama was the target of vociferous criticism during the anti-Brotherhood demonstrations last summer for his uncritical support of the Brotherhood. “US Embassy confirms one of its local employees detained,” by Rabab Fathy for Youm7 via the Cairo Post, February 11 (thanks to Joyce): -more detail at source

Italian police say they are searching for the sender of pig heads to Rome’s main synagogue, the Israeli Embassy and a city museum hosting an exhibit on the Holocaust. […] The deliveries were made Friday, three days before an international memorial day for Holocaust victims. …

On Egypt's third anniversary of the 25 January 2011 revolution, the US embassy warns its citizens from 'gathering in both celebrations and protest' The US Embassy in Cairo has released a security message warning its citizens of potential clashes on Saturday, the third anniversary of the 25 January 2011 revolution. The embassy told its citizens "there might be groups gathering in both celebrations and protest" in the areas of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Rabaa Al-Adaweya Mosque in Nasr City, Nahda Square by Cairo University in Giza, as well as other universities and governmental institutions.

A US official downplayed on Thursday a Shin Bet announcement of an uncovered al-Qaida plot to attack the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, calling the cell's plans "aspirational," although the official did not rule out the possibility of danger. On Wednesday, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said it had arrested three Palestinian suspects - two from east Jerusalem and one from the West Bank city of Jenin - who were preparing to bomb multiple targets in Israel, including the US mission and the Jerusalem Convention Center. "The detainee probably said it but I don't think we give a lot...

EU countries have informally told the European Parliament they want the Union’s foreign service to open an embassy in Iran. Tarja Cronberg, a Finnish Green MEP who chairs the parliament’s Iran delegation, said member states’ ambassadors in Tehran backed the idea when she met them in the Iranian capital on an official trip earlier this month. […] The EU already has embassies in other pariah states, such as Belarus. But Iran and the EU remain wary of each other despite the Geneva breakthrough. …

Federal law enforcement authorities have charged nearly 50 past or present Russian diplomats and their spouses in a $1.5 million Medicaid fraud scheme, an unusual twist in what has become a familiar criminal story line in New York. An F.B.I. investigation revealed “the systemic fraudulent submission of falsified applications for Medicaid benefits” by the diplomats and their spouses, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday in United States District Court in Manhattan. The diplomats and their spouses obtained the benefits for pregnancies, births and first-year-of-life medical needs, generally applying at the same New York hospital, which was not identified,...

The U.S. State Department is blaming its decision to close the U.S. embassy at the Vatican on the Benghazi terrorist attack, saying that the Vatican—which is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the home of the pope—is not safe enough for U.S. diplomats. “Security is our top priority in making this move,” the State Department said in a statement sent to CNSNews.com by department spokesperson Nicole Thompson. … “This move will also save the U.S. government money,” said the department’s statement. “The Embassy to the Holy See will move into unused space on the U.S. government compound in...

Unlike DC, right Beelzebub? If there's anything we weary clingers have learned from the living Hell that is the Obama era, it's 'Ignore what he says- watch what he does'- how else to try and get a handle on such an oily reptile... one that lies habitually without a trace of compunction? So while the Bolshevik Boy Wonder's claiming to be friends with Israel, he's putting the screws to Israel... and when he talks bipartisanship and fiscal responsibility, Obama's actions consistently betray severe hostility towards both of these disingenuously-claimed ideals.  And this is a guy who still says he's 'a Christian'...

Hasan Faraji, 31, was arrested by Azerbaijani police after displaying “suspicious behavior” while wandering around the Israeli embassy in Baku on October 31. Faraji, who resisted arrest, was sentenced to 30 days of administrative detention, according to the APA news agency. According to Channel 10, Faraji is a part of the Iranian Quds Forces, a special unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that, among other oles, is tasked with planning and executing terrorist attacks against Israeli targets overseas. On Thursday an Iranian diplomat said Faraji denies he was planning any attack... Iranian embassy officials met Faraji in custody... Azerbaijani police raided...

Steps are reportedly being taken to relocate the U.S. embassy to the Holy See onto the grounds of the American embassy to Italy. <-- Advertising --> Although no official decision has been announced, the move appears likely and is being justified on grounds of enhanced security.Previous American ambassadors to the Holy See contacted by the National Catholic Reporter have said they are opposed to the plans.Ambassador James Nicholson, who served as ambassador during the presidency of George W. Bush, said the proposed relocation would be a “massive downgrade” that would turn the embassy into “a stepchild of the embassy to...

Blasts target Iranian embassy in Beirut, killing 23 By Laila Bassam and Erika Solomon BEIRUT Tue Nov 19, 2013 6:29am EST (Reuters) - Two explosions, at least one caused by a suicide bomber, rocked Iran's embassy in Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 23 people, including an Iranian cultural attaché, and hurling bodies, cars and debris across the street. A Lebanese-based al Qaeda-linked group known as the Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for what it described as a double suicide attack on the Iranian mission in southern Beirut. Lebanon has suffered a series of bomb attacks and clashes linked to...

At least 23 people were killed and 146 were injured Tuesday morning in two strong explosions near the Iranian Embassy in Lebanon. A senior Lebanese official said the cultural attaché at the embassy was among the dead. According to one report, several rockets were fired at the area and at least one of them hit the building. The area of the blasts in southern Beirut is considered a Hezbollah stronghold. The Shiite organization is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is helping him in his war against Syrian rebels. …

Terrorist planned attack on nuclear warhead stockpile By Philip Delves Broughton November 17 2002 The Sun-Herald An Al Qaeda terrorist has confessed that he planned to drive a giant explosive device into a United States air force bunker in Belgium believed to contain nuclear warheads. News of the plot came as the US warned that a broadcast thought to contain the words of Osama bin Laden foreshadowed a likely attack. The FBI said national landmarks and the aviation, oil and nuclear industries were all possible targets. In an interview with a Belgian radio station, Tunisian Nizar Trabelsi, 31, a former...