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As US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embarked on her maiden voyage, it was reported that she departed from America armed with a new policy paper on how to implement the Quartet's road map produced by the James Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University......One of the things that make the paper significant is that it bears former US secretary of state James Baker's name. Not only did Baker serve under the president's father, he now plays a formal role in mobilizing international support for Iraqi reconstruction efforts. As well, the team that composed the report included senior policy...

ERUSALEM, Feb. 6 - Just before leaving on her first trip as secretary of state on Thursday, Condoleezza Rice joked at a "town hall" meeting with State Department employees: "I'm going to go to 10 countries in seven days or something like that. I think they're not actually telling me. They don't want me to know." But as Ms. Rice heads toward the halfway point of a grueling schedule - highlighted by her arrival on Sunday for intensive talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders - it is clear that the trip was planned down to the minute by the secretary...

Condi's policy speech should be occuring within a few hours. Is it being broadcast on any cable channels? I checked C-Span and it appears that the Senate and House are in session all day.

Iran's press hit back at George W. Bush as Washington increases the pressure on the Islamic Republic, with one hard-line daily accusing the US president of being a war-monger. Jomhouri Eslami, in an editorial alluding to the US-led invasion of neighbouring Iraq two years ago, said an assault on Iran would be like "falling out of the frying pan into the fire". It said: "Iranians do not seek war, but if Bush Junior fancies invading Iran, they will face him with an iron will to bury him and his remaining superpower government. The editorial called Bush "stupid, wicked, a war-monger"....

There were many "signs" immediately following the announcement that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was planning a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, during her inaugural trip abroad in her new role in the Bush administration. "It is not certain she will actually come," the reporters were told in a whisper by government officials. This is a blatant sign that Israel is not happy with the visit. The whole thing became more puzzling as these same officials spoke with excitement at the increased involvement of Egypt in the talks between Israel and the PA, and the invitation...

If you missed it earlier, it's about to re-air on A&E. Hope they do a fair and accurate job.

Since midsummer, the Senate Intelligence Committee has been attempting to solve the biggest mystery of the Iraq war: the disparity between the Bush Administration’s prewar assessment of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and what has actually been discovered. The committee is concentrating on the last ten years’ worth of reports by the C.I.A. Preliminary findings, one intelligence official told me, are disquieting. “The intelligence community made all kinds of errors and handled things sloppily,” he said. The problems range from a lack of quality control to different agencies’ reporting contradictory assessments at the same time. One finding, the official went...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 - Scientific tests have led American intelligence agencies and government scientists to conclude with near certainty that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya, bolstering earlier indications that the reclusive state exported sensitive fuel for atomic weapons, according to officials with access to the intelligence. The determination, which has circulated among senior government officials in recent weeks, has touched off a hunt to determine if North Korea has also sold uranium to other countries, including Iran and Syria. So far, there is no evidence that such additional transactions took place. Nonetheless, the conclusion about the uranium transfer...

Another election, another smashing setback for the Democratic insurgency. How long will it take for the party of George McGovern, Sidney Blumenthal and Edward Kennedy to recover from bloody Sunday? Ol' George and young Sid have long been fla-fla, but for Ted the huge turnout yesterday was particularly devastating. Last week he thought he'd be hailed as the new Chamberlain, the next Benedict Arnold, the white Jesse Jackson, the Irish Jacques Chirac, the trans-gendered Jane Fonda. Alas, he remains the Crown Prince of Chappaquiddick, a perennial bottom feeder and all-purpose lout. "Johnny, we hardly knew ye," a hanger-on once said...

WASHINGTON — Documents seen by FOX News suggest a conflict of interest may exist between Kofi Annan's (search) son, the Swiss company he worked for and the United Nations. Congressional investigators are examining those records and thousands of pages of others as part of their probe into the controversial U.N. Oil-for-Food (search) program. FOX News was permitted to review some documents but not make copies. Kojo Annan (search), the son of the U.N. secretary general, claims he has never been involved directly or indirectly with any business related to the United Nations. And Cotecna Inspection S.A., the company Kojo worked...

  For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryJanuary 28, 2005 President Thanks Secretary of State Rice at Swearing-In Ceremony U.S. Department of State 9:58 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. Laura and I are honored to be here. Over the past four years, America has benefited from the wise counsel of Dr. Condoleezza Rice and our family has been enriched by our friendship with this remarkable person. We love her -- I don't know if you're supposed to say that about the Secretary of State. (Laughter.) Condi's appointment and confirmation of Secretary of State marks a remarkable...

WILLIAMS: Oh, let me just tell you something. The phone has been ringing off the hook with people saying, wait a second. Why are they beating up on Condoleezza Rice (search) in terms of the president’s policy in Iraq? What’s going on? Why don’t they take on the big boy and go after the president. That is who they want to go after. But why go after someone who is imminently qualified?

WASHINGTON - Condoleezza Rice took the oath as secretary of state - a second time - with President Bush's assurance to the world that she will lead by "character and conviction and wisdom." Rice pledged, in response, to use diplomacy to widen the community of democracy. "You have given us our mission and we are ready to serve our great country and the cause of freedom for which it stands," she said. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a neighbor in Washington's Watergate apartment building, administered the 137-year-old oath in the State Department's formal dining room Friday. Rice's uncle Alto...

I have a couple of audio sound bites I'd like you to listen to: Condoleezza Rice, addressing the staff of the state department today. You know, before we get to that, just a couple of observations here. Remember, Colin Powell was actually the secretary of state when he testified before Congress and the UN, and what did he say? He said emphatically the same things that Condoleezza Rice and the president and Prime Minister Blair and Bill Clinton said about weapons of mass destruction. Yet, Democrats in Washington would never call Colin Powell a liar, nor would they mount a...

The first black woman and the second woman to occupy such a high position in a president's cabinet, Condoleezza Rice deserves praise for remaining dignified and calm in the face of blatantly racist, envious and old-haggish attacks on her character and intelligence. She's a better woman than I. I could use some serious counseling on how to control my temper in case my integrity is ever questioned by the likes of Ted "water torture" Kennedy or John "war hero" Kerry. And if I weren't a Christian woman, the things I would say to Barbara Boxer... I know you were expecting...

Condi Rice has garnered the scorn of her Democratic colleagues, not because of what she has accomplished, but because of who and what she is. She is a black American, who is guilty of an unspeakable crime in liberal eyes. Her crime? She does not worship at the altar of the Democratic Party. Condi Rice has committed the unpardonable sin. She has dared to carve out her own political path while black.

It is rare to have books exploring the legacy of a presidential administration still in its first term. It is rarer still to have the number of insider accounts that Americans have access to in 2004. “These books appear to be painting history before our eyes,” said Charlotte Abbott, news editor of Publishers Weekly. “No one in the industry of publishing can remember a time since Watergate when so many political books have come out and the public has been interested – and a lot of those Watergate titles came out after.” One of the reporters who first exposed Watergate,...

Sweetness and RiceBy Fraser NelsonJanuary 24, 2005 The Scotsman  http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=87552005 ALABAMA GIRL: Condoleezza Rice learned from a very young age to aim high.THE BOMB shook the floorboards where Condoleezza Rice stood: two miles away, one of her schoolfriends was already dead under the rubble of the church wall blown up by the Ku Klux Klan. This was Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 - the most bitterly segregated town in America, where restaurants, bars, buses, schools and shop fitting-rooms were out of bounds to kids with the wrong skin colour. "Fight them with your mind," Rice’s parents taught her. Four decades later,...

Yes folks, I know it's a couple of hours away, but for you loyal C-Span listeners, the debate will be carried live on C-Span 2 today. Live streaming on C-Span 2's server for those of you with high bandwidth carriers. Box-o-Rox has asked for a full hour in which to call Dr. Rice a lying slut. Meantime, the senior Senator from the state of West Virginia has brought some friends of his down to testify to Rice's unfitness for her office: Other Dhimmis have asked for time to object to Dr. Rice as well. Meantime, I wonder if McCain...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An important part of President Bush's second-term plans went slightly off the rails during an inauguration week that ran pretty much on time. If the White House had its way, Condoleezza Rice would have been confirmed by the Senate as secretary of state on Thursday, when Bush took the oath of office and gave his inaugural address. Rice easily won a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but Democrats stalled a vote by the full Senate on her nomination. The delay probably says something about Rice's sometimes indignant responses to tough questions during two days of...