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John Kerry: U.S. 'On The Road' To Defeating ISIL By JONATHAN TOPAZ 2/8/15 Secretary of State John Kerry is defending the administration’s progress in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, saying the U.S. is “on the road” to defeating the terrorist group. In an interview airing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Kerry urged patience in what he called a long-term mission. Story Continued Below Asked by host Chuck Todd whether the U.S.-led coalition is winning in its goal of degrading and destroying ISIL, Kerry said: “I believe we are on the road to, yes....

Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he has not ruled out launching a presidential bid in 2016, maintaining he's been too busy to give the prospect any thought. Asked by "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd if he'd consider another run, the 2004 Democratic nominee said he can think of "no scenario whatsoever" where he would launch another bid. "I haven't thought about it and I'm, as you can tell, pretty busy," he said, chuckling, during a trip to Germany this weekend meeting foreign leaders at the Munich Security Conference. Pressed if he'd...

Violent extremists killing children and others in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria and other parts of the world may cite Islam as a justification, but the West should be careful about calling them Islamic radicals, Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience of opinion leaders Friday at the World Economic Forum. In a speech calling for a global effort against violent extremism, Kerry said it would be a mistake to link Islam to criminal conduct rooted in alienation, poverty, thrill-seeking and other factors. 'We have to keep our heads,' Kerry said, according to the Associate Press. 'The biggest error we could...

President Obama hailed late Saudi King Abdullah, who died at age 90 after a battle with pneumonia, as leading the kingdom “through its emergence as a critical force within the global economy and a leader among Arab and Islamic nations.” “He took bold steps in advancing the Arab Peace Initiative, an endeavor that will outlive him as an enduring contribution to the search for peace in the region,” Obama said of the Saudi plan that would recognize Israel in exchange for concessions including pulling back to pre-1967 borders. “At home, King Abdullah’s vision was dedicated to the education of his...

- video at link - John Kerry listens on as his friend James Taylor performs You've Got A Friend at an event in Paris after the terror attacks.

<p>PARIS (AP) — Pledging "to share a big hug with Paris" and show American solidarity with the French people after last week's deadly terrorist attacks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has touched down in the French capital.</p> <p>Kerry arrived in Paris on Thursday from Sofia, Bulgaria, where he said his trip to France is not an apology for the Obama administration's failure to send a senior official to last weekend's unity march. Rather, he said it is to express the "affection" Americans have for France, which has been on edge since the attacks.</p>

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry defended the Obama administration against criticism for not having a high level official attend a unity march in Paris and said he will head to France on Thursday. Kerry called the criticism "quibbling" when asked about the absence at the anti-terrorism rally Sunday. At least 3.7 million people attended the event -- including 40 world leaders -- in a show of solidarity against the terror attacks in France over the past week. "The U.S. has been deeply engaged with the people of France since this incident occurred," Kerry told reporters, adding that the United...

John Kerry’s going to Cuba. The Secretary of State praised President Barack Obama’s announcement of the normalization of relations with Cuba, the neighboring country under an embargo for over fifty years, in a statement Wednesday. As Obama did in his noon remarks, Kerry likened the thaw of relations to those that followed with Vietnam after the Vietnam War, in which Kerry served. “This new course will not be without challenges,” Kerry said, “but it is based not on a leap of faith but on a conviction that it’s the best way to help bring freedom and opportunity to the Cuban...

In its latest personal attack on a prominent official from a rival country, North Korea on Wednesday called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a wolf with a "hideous lantern jaw." North Korea has unleashed a slew of crude insults against leaders in Washington and Seoul this year, calling President Barack Obama a monkey and South Korean President Park Geun-hye a prostitute.

US Secretary of State John Kerry continues to baffle observers by insisting that "global warming is, by far, the greatest threat mankind faces in the 21st century." "The reason should be obvious from the term 'global' warming," Kerry said. "This means that it affects everyone. This has to put it ahead of dangers that afflict necessarily narrower categories of victims. The beheading of innocent children by ISIS in Iraq, for example, only affects thousands of people." "The threat to wipe Israel off the map and exterminate the Jews, at worst, would entail the deaths of only a few million," Kerry...

BERLIN — German weekly Der Spiegel reports that the country's foreign intelligence agency eavesdropped on calls made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his predecessor Hillary Clinton. Der Spiegel reported Saturday that the agency, known by its acronym BND, tapped a satellite phone conversation Kerry made in 2013. The magazine says the agency also recorded a conversation between Clinton and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan a year earlier. Without naming its sources, Der Spiegel says the calls were collected accidentally and the three officials weren't directly targeted.

According to the article, a visitor to Nantucket took a picture of John Kerry riding a little pink girl's bike. If this turns out to be real and not photoshopped, could we ask for a more humiliating and pathetic Secretary of State?

Let’s concede for a moment that most of us don’t believe the United States should be taking sides in conflicts abroad. Even so, most Americans would probably agree that at a minimum our diplomatic efforts should not cause unnecessary harm. Which brings me to Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent misadventure in the Middle East. It seems like a rather big deal that Egypt, Israel, Fatah, Jordan, Saudi Arabia—ostensibly, all allies of ours—agree on anything. This development, one imagines, might be something the United States would be interested in fostering rather than destroying. Certainly, the idea that Hamas’ power should...

The United States suspended operations at its embassy in Libya Saturday and evacuated its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under U.S. military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said. “Due to the ongoing violence resulting from clashes between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, we have temporarily relocated all of our personnel out of Libya,” spokeswoman Marie Harf said. No news on how well the president shot.

John Kerry Files (sic) to Tel Aviv Despite FAA Ban AP and ABC NewsTEL AVIV, Israel — Jul 23, 2014, 4:12 AM ET The top U.S. diplomat defied a Federal Aviation Administration ban and flew into Israel's main airport Wednesday in a sign of sheer will to achieve a cease-fire agreement in the warring Gaza Strip despite little evidence of progress in ongoing negotiations. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry planned to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during what appeared to be a crucial day in the...

The New Republic has a longish piece on how John Kerry got the latest iteration of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process restarted and how it fell apart around him. It involved a lot of talking and self-importance on all sides. The article includes a lot of reporting on the details of conversations between John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and other Israeli and Palestinian officials. Among the reported conversations is this one that started about Palestinian incitement: Kerry pressed on: "When I fought in Vietnam, I used to look at the faces of the local...

Juggling foreign policy hotspots from Israel to Iran to Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry strongly defended the Obama administration’s foreign policy to Meet the Press host David Gregory, arguing that the administration had successfully used diplomacy to further peace whereas certain previous administration (a-HEM) were “trigger happy” to the point of starting wars. “What [Obama] faces is a problem with a bunch of critics who want to jump to conclusions without looking at the facts,” Kerry said. “The facts could not be more clear. The United States of America has never been more engaged, helping to lead in more...

ISLAMABAD: Even though US Secretary of State John Kerry succeeded in brokering a deal to resolve the deadlock over the Afghan presidential election run-off, confusion still persists about the proposal of forming a “government of national unity”. On July 12, Kerry announced the agreement in the presence of both rivals Dr Ashraf Ghani and Dr Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul. “The winner of the election will serve as the president and will immediately form a government of national unity,” said Kerry. However, the top US official failed to explain the composition of the unity government. Kerry’s vague proposal has caused uproar...

The details of how Kerry defused the stalemate, based on accounts from a half-dozen officials familiar with the talks, reveals an Afghanistan closer to the brink than many outsiders may appreciate. It also illuminates rare foreign policy win for Kerry and for an Obama administration staggered by months of setbacks,