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I seem to recall reading a law somewhere stating that ordinary U.S. citizens were not authorized to enter into negotiations with foreign governments on behalf of the United States, and that only the U.S. government had that power alone. I keep thinking I remembered reading something to that affect in the Constitution, but cannot seem to find it. I haven't looked yet in the U.S. Code but will do right after I post this. Does such a law exist or am losing it?

SEOUL (Reuters) - A former U.S. cabinet member who has held discussions with North Korean officials in the past over the North's nuclear ambitions may be planning a fresh trip to Pyongyang, Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday. Richardson had been in discussions with the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York about the visit, Yonhap cited the source as saying.Richardson was unlikely to travel as an official U.S. envoy, the source said, but added that he had acted as a conduit for the Bush administration before.

The U.S. is engaged in a bloody war in Iraq for the purpose of eliminating the remnants of a terrorist regime, foreign terrorists, and bringing democracy to Iraq and the region. It is a big gamble that has put radical Islam on the defensive around the world. But shocking evidence demonstrates that controversial former U.S. Marine and former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who now writes for the anti-American Arab "news" organization Al Jazeera, was involved in a controversial effort to stop the war by enlisting prominent personalities in a "peace" campaign.

Campaign '04: As in most presidential elections, a through-the-looking-glass quality has taken over this one. Actually, as Sen. John Kerry flails about on the Iraq war, it has sailed straight into the surreal. Before taking in the Dali-like dreamscape that is the Kerry campaign, voters should soberly study the high-minded standard set by Sen. Zell Miller. High-minded? According to the punditocracy, the Georgia Democrat who keynoted the Republican National Convention descended to new lows of campaign rhetoric. Why, he even challenged his own party's patriotism. He did not, of course. But when Miller carefully distinguished between patriotism and judgment, other...

WASHINGTON - The White House, seeking to raise credibility questions about Democrat John Kerry, suggested Monday that the presumptive nominee had lied when he said some foreign leaders privately back his candidacy. Kerry should identify the leaders who purportedly hope he beats President Bush in November, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "Either he is straightforward and states who they are, or the only conclusion one can draw is that he is making it up to attack the president," the spokesman said. McClellan put a sharper point on a response offered a day earlier by Secretary of State Colin Powell,...

Article: Good Intentions, Bad Idea HONOLULU: Some unsolicited advice to professors, congressmen, former diplomats and anyone seeking a Nobel Peace Prize nomination: If you really want to help resolve the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula, stay home. Such delegations are always well intentioned but generally not very helpful in actually resolving the crisis. True, former President Jimmy Carter's mission to Pyongyang in 1994 did help save the day, moving the Clinton administration and Kim Il Sung, father of North Korea's current leader, back from the brink of sanctions and possibly war. But 2004 is not 1994 and heads...

It was a good day for democracy – Saddam Hussein caught at last. Just weeks ago, though, democracy had a bad day, when a freelance "peace" agreement was unveiled in Switzerland by an unelected Israeli citizen – an instance of anti-democracy abetted by arch anti-democrat, Jimmy Carter. I doubt that anyone would characterize Carter as a mass murderer, though as president he ushered in the era of Islamic fanaticism responsible for more murders than one would care to count. But Hussein and Carter both have a history of treating democracy with contempt – one through violence, the other through a...

An initiative for the Knesset to legislate a law, similar to the US's Logan Act, to prohibit citizens from interfering in the government's foreign relations is to be expedited. Yuli Edelstein (Likud) received permission Monday to advance a private member's bill on the subject. Edelstein and Moshe Kahlon (Likud) initiated the legislation in reaction to the Geneva Accord reached between a group of leftist politicians led by Yossi Beilin and a Palestinian Authority team headed by former information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. The document is to be signed Monday in Geneva. Edelstein is aiming to bring the bill for a...

President Bush has decided to postpone a trip to Canada next month because of the Iraq war, U.S. and Canadian officials said Sunday. News of the postponement came about two weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien canceled a trip to Washington following criticism from the U.S. ambassador to Canada. The ambassador, Paul Cellucci, said the American government was upset and disappointed that Canada failed to join the U.S.-led military coalition fighting in Iraq. Bush's one-day trip to Ottawa, tentatively scheduled for May 5, was meant as a forum for cross-border issues. Two White House officials said Bush would push...

Ex-President Clinton Says He Favors Getting U.N. Backing for Use of Force Against Iraq W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 27 — Former President Clinton said Friday he favors getting United Nations backing for the use of force, if necessary, to disarm Iraq's President Saddam Hussein. "He's got a very dangerous (weapons) program. We need to eliminate it," Clinton said on ABC's "Good Morning America."Interviewed from Africa where he is on tour, the former president said, "I think we ought to go to the United Nations. I think we ought to get a tough resolution...

(From a) Speech by His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to commemorate the opening of The Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institute, Tel Aviv. May 13, 2002. Made possible by a generous founding grant from Mr. Haim Saban of Los Angeles, the Saban Center will permit the Brookings Institution to dramatically expand its research and analysis of Middle East policy issues at a time when the region has assumed a dominant position on the U.S. foreign policy agenda. MR. INDYK: Your Majesty, the last question is on Iraq. You'll be glad...