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Insurgent violence has taken a heavy toll on the U.S. in Iraq. A series of attacks earlier this month pushed the total of American fatalities past 1,800. The mounting casualties have shaken American confidence. Terrorism has hit Iraqis even harder. On Capitol Hill, there are bipartisan calls for the White House to establish a timeline for withdrawal. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has been floating trial balloons. Senior military officials and diplomats, meanwhile, seek to deflate the insurgency. They urge Iraqis to embrace and engage former Baathists, Islamists, and Arab Sunni rejectionists. If the Sunnis can be brought into the fold,...

"Real Men Moisturize." So begins an article on "Sharp Dressed Men" that appeared in a State Department funded magazine aimed at youth in the Arab world. The magazine, called "Hi" is published in Arabic and English. A State Department website explains that Hi is published "with the hope of building bridges of greater understanding among our cultures."

WASHINGTON — When John R. Bolton charged into the State Department in 2001 as President Bush's top arms control official, he thought of himself as a loyal Republican soldier on a mission into hostile political territory, according to friends and colleagues. That assessment became a self-fulfilling prophesy. In the course of the four years Bolton ........he had a succession of ideological and personal clashes with subordinates, colleagues and superiors. Eventually, Colin L. Powell, secretary of State at the time, ordered his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, to keep tabs on Bolton and prevent him from alienating allies, three current and former...

CAIRO, April 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The US State Department has drawn up a memo calling for direct and permanent political dialogue with the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a leading Arabic newspaper reported on Sunday, April 3. The US administration sees the Muslim Brotherhood as one of the most powerful opposition movements in Egypt, unnamed Western diplomatic sources in the Egyptian capital told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. The memo recommends inviting the group’s representatives to the United States for better communication and common grounds on Egypt’s reform policies and the pressing issues in the region, they added. The State Department believes...

Bush gave a transformational speech Tuesday at the National Defense University at Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC. I am sure we will see the Europeans and their like minded US compatriots in the Democratic Party and the Main Stream Media claim what he said there was just blather and nothing new if they comment on it at all. But this speech was quite a thing, really. Along with affirming that the USA has entered into a new century with a new foreign policy direction that Bush is not going to waver from, he also aimed a shot across the...

MIDDLE EAST REPORT Nightmare at Foggy Bottom: Arabists panicked at prospect of Rice's appointments U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns stands in front of a picture of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Nov. 21. Colin Powell has long operated on the principle, "Don't rock the boat." It was his credo at the State Department where he usually sidestepped appointments and diplomacy. But Powell is gone, to be replaced by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Foggy Bottom is scared. Nowhere is the fear more palpable than in the department's Near...

Reigning in Foggy BottomBy Ben JohnsonFrontPageMagazine.com | November 17, 2004 This week, George W. Bush put an end to civil war in one of the world’s most important locales: his Cabinet. With the nomination of Condoleeza Rice to succeed Colin Powell – an heroic man and a patriot – as secretary of state, the president acted to replace internal gridlock with a smoother implementation of his anti-terrorism policies. This shakeup will have one vitally important effect on foreign relations, according to columnist David Gergen: “When Rice travels as secretary of state to other capitals, everyone will know that what she says...

WASHINGTON, October 16 (Itar-Tass) - The United States and Russia could build solid partnership, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said. The U.S. secretary of state gave a speech in Washington on Saturday in which he outlined key aspects of the U.S. Administration’s foreign policy. In addition to Europe, the United States built solid partnership with its previous enemy, which was earlier called the Soviet Union and now the Russian Federation. U.S.-Russian partnership is solid and embraces all fields of cooperation – from the energy sector to healthcare. Both sides closely cooperate in security and the fight against terrorism, within...

Islamic Influence Runs Deep in American Culture Cowboys, food, architecture, language carry Islamic markings By Phyllis McIntosh Washington File Special Correspondent Washington -- On the surface, it may seem like the United States and the Middle East are worlds apart, two separate cultures with little in common and no historical connections. In fact, there is considerable evidence to the contrary. Though little known, Islamic influence runs deep in American culture. A number of the words Americans speak, foods Americans eat, buildings Americans design, decorative items Americans create, and traditions Americans treasure can trace their roots to the Islamic world. In...

Several days ago, over 50 former diplomats, led by former Ambassador Andrew Killgore, who served in Qatar from 1977-1980, wrote an open letter to President Bush denouncing his administration’s "unabashed support" for Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. Writing in the Washington Times on May 3, Arnaud de Borchgrave claimed that "it was the first time in living memory so many former envoys to the Middle East had acted as a group to denounce the government’s foreign policy. They said they spoke for many serving diplomats, as well." The letter to the president claimed, among other things, that...

GQ Magazine, in it's latest issue, details Sec. of State Colin Powell's frustration with the Bush administration, his battles with the Pentagon, his 'real' relationship with Vice President Dick Cheney, and whether he'll return for a second term. The magazine issued a press release saying the following: Secretary of State Colin Powell is exhausted, frustrated, and bitter, uncomfortable with President George W. Bush's agenda, and fatigued from his battles with the Pentagon, reports GQ magazine writer-at-large Wil S. Hylton in the June 2004 issue of GQ magazine. Hylton's exclusive article, "Casualty of War," in which he talks with Powell and...

Some of the most prominent former diplomats who condemned Tony Blair's policies in the Middle East have business links with Arab governments, The Telegraph can reveal. In a letter published last week, 52 former British diplomats condemned the invasion of Iraq and the Government's support for Israel. The letter failed to disclose, however, that several of the key signatories, including Oliver Miles, the former British ambassador to Libya who instigated the letter, are paid by pro-Arab organisations. Some of the others hold positions in companies seeking lucrative Middle East contracts, while others have unpaid positions with pro-Arab organisations. The disclosure...

WASHINGTON — A State Department (search) employee was found dead outside the agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., Friday around 5 p.m., Fox News has confirmed. Police said the official cause and manner of death is to be determined by the D.C. medical examiner, the Post reported.

<p>WASHINGTON — A State Department employee was found dead outside the agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., Friday around 5 p.m., Fox News has confirmed.</p> <p>State Department sources told The Washington Post that John Kokal (search) worked in a unit that dealt with intelligence and research. Sources said he handled classified documents regularly but was not involved in intelligence analysis.</p>

Television evangelist Pat Robertson defended remarks made on his show in which he suggested the State Department's headquarters be blown up with a nuclear weapon. Pat Robertson At his daily briefing Friday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called the comments made two weeks ago on Robertson's "700 Club" program "despicable," and a senior official said Secretary of State Colin Powell was extremely outraged. But Robertson explained on his program yesterday he simply was trying to characterize, in a "laughing fashion," the negative tone of author Joel Mowbray's book "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens American Security." In his clarification,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) Oct 13, 2003 Just days after being harshly criticized for on-air comments suggesting the US State Department be obliterated with nuclear weapons, prominent conservative televangelist Pat Robertson renewed his attack on Monday, calling for the agency to be "gutted." An apparently unrepentant Robertson did not retract his earlier comments -- although he allowed they had been "rather graphic" -- and maintained they had been intended to be lighthearted. The one-time Republican presidential hopeful also said he had mistakenly attributed the sentiment to columnist Joel Mowbray, author of a scathing critique of the State Department. "I was trying to...

<p>Foggy Bottom's Friends Why is the State Department so cozy with the Saudis?</p> <p>The date was April 24, 2002. Standing on the runway at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, the cadre of FBI, Secret Service and Customs agents had just been informed by law-enforcement officials that there was a "snag" with Crown Prince Abdullah's oversized entourage, which was arriving with the prince for a visit to George W. Bush's Western White House in Crawford, Texas. The flight manifest of the eight-plane delegation accompanying the Saudi would-be king had a problem. Three problems, to be exact: One person on the list was wanted by U.S. law enforcement authorities, and two others were on a terrorist watch list.</p>

VIRGINIA BEACH , Va. (AP) -- The U.S. State Department has condemned an on-air suggestion by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson that the agency ought to be blown up with a nuclear device. Robertson, who heads the Virginia Beach -based Christian Broadcasting Network, made the remark while interviewing author Joel Mowbray on "The 700 Club" television program last week. Mowbray wrote a book called "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Endangers America's Security." "I read your book. When you get through, you say, 'If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that's the answer.' I mean,...

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher threw a tantrum Thursday.  The cause of his ire?  Not foreign dictators or nuclear-armed tyrants.  Boucher’s wrath was targeted at Pat Robertson, whose recent remarks the State Department has blasted as "despicable."  The Washington Times further reports that State’s protest — lodged with Robertson directly — has been “made at the highest level.” What had the normally staid diplomatic corps worked up into a lather? Robertson's flippant "suggestion" during an interview with me last week on his 700 Club TV show that "If I could just get a nuclear device inside (the State Department)... We've...