Free Republic

Having a celebrity socialite run the huge embassy was as foolish as it looked. [Caroline] Kennedy came to her ambassador’s post with no foreign policy experience, no particular background in Japan or Asia generally, and apparently not much skill at running the $93.6 million-per-year operation that is the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. [Snip] [A]lmost two years into Kennedy’s ambassadorship, the U.S. Embassy in Japan is a mess.

Britain is to reopen its embassy in Tehran, four years after it closed. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond will visit Iran at the weekend with a delegation of business leaders, a senior government source said. The embassy was closed in 2011 after it was stormed by Iranian protesters during a demonstration against sanctions imposed by Britain. The visit comes weeks after Tehran reached a deal with six world powers aimed at curbing its nuclear program. …

What’s next after the Obama administration’s opening to Cuba? Why, an embassy in Tehran, of course. On Aug. 14, in a ceremony replete with pomp and circumstance, Secretary of State John Kerry presided over the formal re-opening of the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba. The occasion marked the culmination of nearly two years of quiet diplomacy between the White House and the Castro regime. The initiative had been launched following Kerry’s fall 2013 address before the Organization of the American States, in which he had announced with great fanfare that the “era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.” That pronouncement...

Why would Cuba change when the U.S. is giving them everything they want without requiring anything in return? When Donald Trump says Obama and Kerry are terrible negotiators, you think this might be what he’s talking about? For more than 50 years, the U.S. has been trying to get Cuba to restore political freedom and human rights, and we’ve cut off diplomatic relations and instituted an economic embargo until they do. They refuse. So what do Obama and Kerry do? Not only do they restore diplomatic relations, but they also push the Republican Congress (which is having none of it)...

“It [the Cuban embassy opening] is going to be a celebration on our part,” gushed Gustavo Machin, deputy director for U.S. affairs at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry. “Many Americans who have supported the Cuban Revolution will be among the 500 celebrants at the new Embassy.” Despite the innocuous professional title the mainstream media insists on using for Gustavo Machin, he’s actually a KGB-trained Cuban spy who was burnt and booted from the U.S. back in 2003 shortly before the invasion of Iraq. He was among 14 other Cuban spies suspected of trafficking in U.S. military secrets (more on this shortly.) The...

The red, white and blue Cuban flag was raised over the island’s embassy in Washington on Monday for the first time since 1961 — a fluttering symbol of the historic thaw taking place between the Cold War foes. As pro and anti-Cuban protestors gathered outside the gates of the embassy chanting “Fidel” and “Justice” — the flag was was raised at about 10:35 EST. The ceremony came after the United States and Cuba reestablished diplomatic ties early Monday after a 54-year gap. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez led a delegation of 36 Cuban officials and members of Cuba’s cultural world...

Diplomatic ties between Havana and Washington have been restored after Cuba officially reopened its embassy in the US capital after 54 years. The two nations had severed ties in 1960. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez attended the flag-hoisting ceremony in the US capital on Monday, calling the diplomatic thaw “an opportunity … to establish new bilateral relations, quite different from whatever existed in the past.” The Cuban flag was hoisted over Havana’s embassy in the US, known only as the Cuban Interests Section prior to the formal resumption of diplomatic relations on Monday. DW TV’s correspondent in Washington, Richard Walker,...

Just days away from the historic reopening of the US embassy in Havana, the Cuban regime shows no sign of slowing down on the number of human-rights activists they arrest. On Sunday, July 12, Cuban police detained at least 120 dissidents, including 40 members of the Ladies in White, while a protest in solidarity took place in Miami. For 13 consecutive Sundays, Cuban authorities have arrested members of the Ladies in White dissident group either before or after traditional mass at the Santa Rita church in Havana. Last Sunday, the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) arrested the group’s leader, Berta Soler,...

The blast happened days after Egypt leading prosecutor Hisham Barakat was killed in a car bomb. A huge explosion occurred in front of the Italian consulate in central Cairo on Saturday, wounding two policemen, state news agency MENA said. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear but one security official said it was a car bomb. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. MENA cited a senior security source as saying preliminary investigations indicated that attackers had placed a bomb underneath a car near the consulate and remotely detonated it. MENA earlier cited a security source as saying...

Exemplar of the Obama administration – a US embassy hire, is ….. a terrorist. This is hardly the first time. Just like the “security force” the Obama administration hired to “protect” the consulate in Benghazi. They were savage jihadists, too. Now imagine this – the Obama administration is importing hundreds of thousands of Muslims –“refugees”– from this war torn region. If this is how the treasonous administration vets security personnel, what hope do Americans have that these “refugees’ have been properly vetted? None. On the contrary … “Security Guard at U.S. Embassy in Egypt Arrested as a Terrorist”, OODA Analyst,...

US President Barack Obama invoked a waiver on Wednesday postponing the relocation of the American embassy to Jerusalem for at least another six months. Despite Congressional legislation mandating that the US move its mission to the Israeli capital, successive administrations dating back to the Clinton regime have used presidential authority to postpone implementation of the law by citing “national security interests.” Jerusalem is not recognized as Israel’s capital, and the international community’s position is that its status is to be negotiated in talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel's annexation of the eastern half of the capital is also not...

INTELLIGENCE agents from Prague to Swansea are uncovering a trail of clues that point to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq having a hand in al-Qaeda’s terrorist missions. Iraqi ministers have spent the week protesting Baghdad’s innocence to the United Nations, but will not say why some of its diplomats who met Mohammed Atta, one of the suspected September 11 hijackers, disappeared from their European posts after that date. Nor will Baghdad explain why Saddam’s agents were spotted at various times this year with Atta in Germany, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic. Many in the Pentagon are sure Saddam ...

U.S. officials said Sunday they will halt operations at the embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia for the next couple of days, in response to “heightened security concerns.” Embassy officials in Riyadh issued the statement, saying telephone lines at the facilities will be down Sunday and Monday and encouraging U.S. citizens in Saudi Arabia to “be aware of their surroundings and take extra precautions when travelling throughout the country.” The message did not cite a specific security concern or threat nor call for the evacuation of the facilities. However, an intelligence source told Fox News that the threat is serious...

Riyadh: The US embassy in Saudi Arabia said it had suspended consular services in the kingdom for two days due to “heightened security concerns”, after warning of threats against Western oil workers. All services in Riyadh and at the consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran have been cancelled for Sunday and Monday, it said in a statement posted on its website Saturday. The embassy warned US citizens to take extra precautions and keep a low profile if they were out in public. “All US citizens are encouraged to be aware of their surroundings, and take extra precautions when travelling throughout the...

Drones have been seen flying over several sensitive landmarks in Paris in a night-time mystery that French police say is being taken seriously. At least five of the unmanned aerial machines were spotted between midnight on Monday and 0600 on Tuesday, and none of the operators has been caught. The first appeared over the US embassy and there were later sightings near the Eiffel Tower and Place de la Concorde. French police believe the drone flights could be linked. Small drones are easy to buy but their appearance in recent months over sensitive locations has worried French authorities.

Germany announced Friday it had temporarily closed its embassy in Yemen and were pulling staff out because of ongoing violence in the troubled country. […] “The situation is anything but stable,” said a German foreign ministry spokeswoman, calling the ouster of the government by Shiite militiamen known as Huthis “unacceptable, dangerous and with consequences for the region”. …

Another US-friendly regime has folded completely, and after bumbling US foreign intervention in Libya and Egypt made the countries into terrorist breeding grounds where Americans are kidnapped on sight or worse, it is now Yemen's turn: another country in the Middle East whose president until recently was backed by the US government, and which will now be nothing more than civilian casualty fodder for remote-controlled US drones. YEMENI EMPLOYEES SAY US AMBASSADOR IN YEMEN INFORMS STAFF THE EMBASSY IS CLOSING DOWN COMPLETELY, AMBASSADOR TO LEAVE BY WEDNESDAY For those Americans who are still on location, fear not: you are in...

An Iranian 'diplomat' who was caught gathering intelligence on the Israeli embassy in Uruguay has fled that country. Ahmed Sabatgold, 32, a political consultant in the Iranian embassy in Montevideo, was suspected of being involved in placing an explosive device near the new Israeli embassy in early January, the Uruguayan El Observador newspaper reported Sunday. Haaretz reported on Friday that the Uruguayan government had expelled an Iranian diplomat on suspicion of involvement in the attempted bomb attack on the Israeli embassy. The publication caused a great deal of embarrassment in Montevideo, where the government had tried to keep the...

The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Libya on Tuesday, overriding the previous warning issued in July 2014. In July, the U.S. embassy suspended all operations in Libya and relocated staff due to “ongoing violence between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the Embassy.” On Tuesday, the State Department said that “the security situation in Libya remains unpredictable and unstable.” Pointing to the inability of the Libyan government to “adequately build its military and police forces and improve security following the 2011 revolution,” the State Department said that crime levels remain high and various groups have called...

The U.S. Embassy warns all U.S. citizens to avoid the areas around 50 and 60 Meter Road near the Presidential Palace, Presidential residence, and Haddah Area in Sana’s due to heavy fighting. While the fighting appears to be politically motivated and an internal domestic dispute not directed against foreign interests, all U.S. citizens should be vigilant of the continued high risk of kidnapping and terrorist attacks throughout Yemen. U.S. citizens living in Yemen should take extra precautions and consider leaving the country. The U.S. Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens of the high security threat level in Yemen...