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With much of the Obama administration's foreign policy in tatters, John Kerry is clear on at least one goal he hopes to achieve by the end of his time as secretary of state: having lesbian, bisexual, and transgender ambassadors representing the United States. In remarks to a GLIFAA (formerly Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies) Pride event in the Ben Franklin Room at the State Department, the secretary ran through a litany of accomplishments by the Obama administration that benefit the "LGBT/gay community." During his speech, Kerry said that, if confirmed, Ted Osius (nominated by President Obama for the...

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki says she has become a Twitter meme in Russian circles because she is a woman, claiming they "have a bit of a tendency to focus on the outfits I’m wearing and the colors I’m wearing." Psaki accused Russian outlets like Russia Today of sexism and spreading false rumors that she was fired from the State Department because she has not been at the podium lately. (Psaki's deputy Marie Harf conducted the State Department daily press briefing all last week.) Russia Today responded, saying the shots fired at Psaki on Twitter from Russians are for the...

CNSNews.com) – “Children” should not be in charge of foreign policy, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said Thursday, responding to a State Department spokeswoman’s comments earlier this week about claims by some former squad members that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had deserted. “I think children are wonderful, but I don’t think they should be in charge of foreign policy,” Bolton told Fox Business’ Stuart Varney. “That’s very strong stuff,” said Varney. “Not as strong as I might say off-camera,” Bolton replied. He said the department’s spokespeople under Secretary of State John Kerry “have been more partisan than any...

In February, CNN reported that “U.S officials strongly objected to the release of men who they said pose a threat to security forces and civilians. [...] At the time, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said,“These individuals are dangerous…They pose threats to the safety and security of the Afghan people and the Afghan state.” It is unclear why the release of those Taliban prisoners, under the authority of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, was more dangerous than the release of five high-ranking Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay under the authority of President Obama.

The State Department’s Counter Terrorism (CT) Bureau promoted on Friday a controversial Muslim scholar whose organization has reportedly backed Hamas and endorsed a fatwa authorizing the murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The CT bureau on Friday tweeted out a link to the official website of Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, the vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), a controversial organization founded by a Muslim Brotherhood leader “who has called for the death of Jews and Americans and himself is banned from visiting the U.S.,” according to Fox News. Bin Bayyah is reported to have been one...

President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are being accused of ignoring the plight of a U.S. Marine imprisoned in Mexico on gun charges -- with no indication whether Kerry even brought up the case during high-level meetings this week in Mexico City. "I don't think Kerry gives a damn about this guy," Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told FoxNews.com on Thursday. The case of Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi is notable for the lack of public attention it's gotten from administration officials. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out in 2011 on American hikers imprisoned in Iran, and her husband even...

In an interview with Bloomberg News [URL at link], Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asserted that Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland had meetings with the Ukrainian neofascist group Right Sector in Washington DC. The Right Sector has been involved in numerous killings including the burning of pro-Russian supporters in Odessa. ... Whether Nuland met with Artyomenko or any other representative of the Right Sector to help with fundraising and support is unknown. What is known is that the US is supporting the gang in Kiev's "interim government" which includes Svoboda an openly neofascist party...

C4, blasting equipment destined for embassies?The U.S. State Department has ordered hundreds of pounds of plastic explosives and thousands of containers of liquid explosives, WND has discovered, shipping them to the location of U.S. centers that typically send sensitive materials to overseas embassies. According to procurement documents WND obtained through routine database research, State recently put in four separate orders for high explosives – purchases accompanied by tens of thousands of feet of detonating cords with hundreds of blasting caps and fuse igniters. The ultimate destination of these products and their cost is unknown, but the government contracting office responsible...

When congressional leaders asked the State Department to tailor American assistance to Nigeria in a way that would protect Christians from religious persecution at the hands of Boko Haram, an extremist group that kidnapped hundreds of Christian girls last month, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's team dismissed the idea on the theory that the organization was not motivated by religion. "This religious tension, while real, should not be mistaken as the primary source of violence in Nigeria," David Adams, assistant secretary of legislative affairs, wrote to Congress in an Oct. 4, 2012 letter. "Similar to the United States, Nigeria's religious...

In one of the clearest statements by the White House that they are completely engulfed in their own worldview, the State Department on Sunday cited both Daily Kos and Think Progress while defending Secretary of State John Kerry's offensive apartheid statement. This previous Friday, Mr. Kerry stated that Israel risked becoming an "apartheid state" if they did not give in to Palestinian demands during peach talks between the two groups. The State Department quickly went on defense to protect the asinine statements. Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the State Department, tweeted out two articles in which other people had warned that...

The US State Department itself is becoming a news organization, packaging propaganda messages into an easily consumable format, and accusing others of propaganda is at the very least hypocritical, media critic Danny Schechter told RT. Following Kerry’s attack on RT over its coverage of the Ukraine crisis, on Thursday the US State Department posted its own version of events in a video entitled “Sanctions: How Did We Get Here?” – blaming Russia for the whole crisis. The description of the video reads: “An overview of the steps that have led the United States and the international community to apply sanctions...

Secretary of State John Kerry brought his dog Ben to a State Department Take Your Child to Work Day event. During the event, Kerry surprised the audience by approaching the podium with his dog on a leash. “Come on, Ben. Sit. Sit. Sit,” he said, trying to get the one-year-old dog to cooperate. “There’s one rule in show business: Don’t do anything with kids or animals,” he said sheepishly as he began his press conference. “I’m breaking those rules today big time.” The dog jumped on Kerry as he spoke. And he jumped on the interpreter, too. Kerry remarked that...

Critics say the project's underlying objective is to convert non-Muslim children to Islam by bringing proselytizing messages into public schools under the guise of promoting multiculturalism and fighting "Islamophobia." The group recently ran an advertisement promising to pay 250 Czech korunas ($13 dollars) to any student aged 15 to 18 years who would attend a two hour presentation about Islam. More recently, Muslims in the Czech Republic have tried to ban a book they say is Islamophobic, and have filed a ten-page criminal complaint against its formerly-Muslim author. The Czech government has approved a new project aimed at promoting Islam...

Fact Sheet Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC April 13, 2014 “No amount of propaganda can make right something that the world knows is wrong.” – President Obama, March 26 Russia continues to spin a false and dangerous narrative to justify its illegal actions in Ukraine. The Russian propaganda machine continues to promote hate speech and incite violence by creating a false threat in Ukraine that does not exist. We would not be seeing the violence and sad events that we've witnessed this weekend without this relentless stream of disinformation and Russian provocateurs fostering unrest in eastern Ukraine. Here are...

Russia claimed Tuesday that 150 specialists from an American private military group are in eastern Ukraine, the region where pro-Russia protesters are clashing with government forces. A woman who identified herself as an employee of the group, the security contracting company Greystone, declined comment. She also declined to provide her name. Greystone, on its website, identifies itself as a “provider of aviation and protective support services and training” formerly part of Xe Services, the security contracting company once known as Blackwater. A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Americans were wearing the uniforms of Sokol, a Ukrainian...

The profound and pervasive crisis in Ukraine is a matter of grave concern for Russia. We understand perfectly well the position of a country which became independent just over 20 years ago and still faces complex tasks in constructing a sovereign state. Among them is the search for a balance of interests among its various regions, the peoples of which have different historical and cultural roots, speak different languages and have different perspectives on their past and present, and their country's future place in the world. Given these circumstances, the role of external forces should have been to help Ukrainians...

U.S. subsidizing massive in-person surveyIn the latest addition to the Obama administration’s growing aid-to-Kenya portfolio, the U.S. will help subsidize a nationwide citizen-health assessment in every Kenyan county without exception. While the estimated project cost remains undisclosed, a separate Kenya-based trade-promotion project unveiled late last week came with an additional $70 million price tag. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, with U.S. taxpayer help, will implement the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, or KDHS. Kenya will coordinate the efforts with United Nations agencies, the U.S. government and “other partners.” The U.S. will fund a KDHS requirement to deploy contractor...

The Obama administration wants to spend $400,000 on a camel sculpture for a new embassy building in Pakistan, according to a report Monday. BuzzFeed broke the news that the State Department has plans to commission the camel sculpture from John Baldessari, an American artist. The art is called, “Camel Contemplating Needle.” According to a government document posted by BuzzFeed, the sculpture is a “large 500lb fiberglass aluminum, stainless steel, acrylic and painted contemporary art piece.” “Public art which will be presented in the new embassy should reflect the values of a predominately Islamist country,” the document states. While the United...

IG report reveals incomplete, lost contract files worth $6B The State Department misplaced and lost some $6 billion due to the improper filing of contracts during the past six years, mainly during the tenure of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, according to a newly released Inspector General report. The $6 billion in unaccounted funds poses a “significant financial risk and demonstrates a lack of internal control over the Department’s contract actions,” according to the report. The alert, originally sent on March 20 and just released this week, warns that the missing contracting funds “could expose the department to substantial...

<p>The State Department has no idea what happened to $6 billion used to pay its contractors.</p>