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For what he said, the context doesn't matter. To compliment hamas is nothing short of a disgrace.

If he had been taken out of context or in any misrepresented, there would have been follow-up pieces. Feel free to scroll up and click on the Google link I provided, which shows all news matches (in the last month) for "Powell"+"hamas"+"social wing" and go from there.

news.google.com is a very useful research tool for news from the last month or so -- they don't go back any further than that. If you can find any follow-up pieces which show or even claim that he was taken out of context, I'd love to see them. I'd really rather not have this sick feeling in my stomach about our Secretary of State, especially one appointed by a Republican President.

Powell's job is to be a diplomat and he is supposed to represent the president's foreign policy. It is not Powell's job to set foreign policy and it is not his job to decide what positions to take concerning foreign policy. Why would you think he is doing anything but representing the president as a diplomat?

Two recent statements from Powell;

[Powell]:"It is no longer possible to separate one part of Hamas from another part of Hamas".

[Powell]: "If an organization that has a terrorist component to it, a terrorist wing to it, totally abandons that, gives it up, and there is no question in anyone's mind that is part of its past, then that is a different organization."

What problem do you have with these two statement?