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While Vice President Cheney has publicly defended the Bush administration's use of enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, other senior decision-makers at the time have remained silent. But former secretary of State and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice -- who declined to comment last week on the release of Justice Department memos authorizing the practice -- was caught on video tape this week giving a finger-wagging defense to a persistent Stanford University student.

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Memo From Colombia: So much for anti-Americanism. Condoleezza Rice went to Medellin last week to support free trade, and people unexpectedly lined the streets to applaud. Can it be that free trade appeals to ordinary people? You wouldn't know it from reading media reports about the secretary of state's two-day visit to the city once ruled by fearsome drug lords. But a funny thing happened on the way to the hotel last Thursday. As Rice's automotive entourage of eight Democratic lawmakers filed through the vast industrial city, outpost soldiers started saluting the VIP caravan. As if in chain reaction, civilians...

JERUSALEM (AP) - President Bush, seeking to pull Israel and the Palestinians toward serious negotiations, said Wednesday that despite ongoing land squabbles and fears of violence he has high hopes that a Mideast peace pact can be achieved before he leaves office at the end of the year. "I come as an optimistic person and a realistic person - realistic in my understanding that it's vital for the world to fight terrorists, to confront those who would murder the innocent to achieve political objectives," Bush said as he began his first presidential visit to Israel. His first formal meeting was...

The resolution offered by the gentleman from Ohio reads sensibly. It alleges crimes high and low, misdemeanors galore -- all of them representing an effort to mislead the American people and take them into war. It is Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment directed at Dick Cheney. The vice president will, of course, deny being a liar. As long as Kucinich is at it, add that to the articles. The congressman's case is persuasive, although his remedy may be too radical. He calls for Cheney to be impeached by the House and tried by the Senate, just as Bill Clinton was...

In fact, a 1999 Clarke after-action memo - the one top Clinton aide Sandy Berger later stole from the National Archives - identified national-security weaknesses so "glaring" that only sheer "luck" prevented a cataclysmic attack back then. And, as Clarke told the 9/11 Commission publicly, there was nothing the Bush administration could have done that would have prevented the attacks. Sure, he tells a different story now. But that, he admitted, is because of his opposition to the Iraq war, which he believes distracted from the War on Terror. Secretary Rice was a lot more honest, explaining yesterday that there...

Hand it to Secretary of State Rice. She knows how to make lemonade out of lemons. When asked on CNN this week her reaction to a communique signed by Iraqi leaders on Monday that recognized a "legitimate right to resistance," she said, "I think what they were trying to do was to get a sense of political inclusion while recognizing that violence and terrorism should not be a part of resistance." 'snip' The State Department, according to Iraqi officials I've spoken with, put tremendous pressure on elected leaders to attend this parley in Cairo. And the see-no-evil reaction to the...

MOSUL, Iraq -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a personal appeal Friday for Iraqis to bridge sectarian differences, venturing to a majority Sunni Arab region of the country to ask for cooperation in the coming election.

      Princeton University's Celebration of the 75th Anniversary Of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Secretary Condoleezza RicePrinceton University New JerseySeptember 30, 2005   (3:00 p.m. EDT)   SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. Thank you very much. Madame President, other distinguished members here on the dais, and especially to Anne-Marie Slaughter who I know not just as a fine Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School but also as an extraordinary scholar whose expertise I've tapped on a couple of occasions since I've been Secretary, thank you for your leadership of this great university and your leadership in...

Should the U.N. be lord of the oceans? Posted: February 28, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc. "Sovereignty. The issue is huge. The mere mention of Kofi Annan in the U.N. caused the crowd to go into a veritable fit. The coalition wants America strong and wants the American flag flying overseas, not the pale blue of the U.N." So George W. Bush confided to friend Doug Wead before he declared his candidacy. And, twice, President Bush has acted to defend U.S. sovereignty against the encroachments of global government. He rejected both the International Criminal Court, which...