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The U.S. State Department is protesting "at the highest level" evangelist Pat Robertson's comments on his television program suggesting its Foggy Bottom headquarters be blown up with a nuclear weapon. Pat Robertson Richard Boucher, spokesman for the State Department, called the remarks, made last week on Robertson's "700 Club" program, "despicable." "I lack sufficient capabilities to express my disdain," Boucher told reporters when asked about the comments. "I think the very idea, though, is despicable." Robertson is aware of Secretary of State Colin Powell's extreme outrage at the tone and content of the remarks, a senior official told Agence France-Presse....

WASHINGTON (AFP) Oct 09, 2003 The US State Department has lodged a vehement complaint with prominent conservative televangelist Pat Robertson for comments suggesting that its Foggy Bottom headquarters should be destroyed with nuclear weapons, officials said Thursday. Spokesman Richard Boucher called the remarks -- which Robertson made last week on his nationally televised "700 Club" program -- "despicable" and a senior department official said a protest had been made "at the highest level." "I lack sufficient capabilities to express my disdain," Boucher told reporters when asked about Robertson's comments. "I think the very idea, though, is despicable." The senior official...

The State Department threatened by the rats The diplomats of the American State Department have to prepare to drive back an invasion of rats and mouse which, according to an internal memo, could break in a building of the seat in work. "Unfortunately, of work (in a wing of the building) temporary openings in the external walls caused which are easy access roads for small rodents", it is underlined in this note which was distributed to the diplomats in Washington. "Even if it (State Department) has an internal service of fight against the noxious animals using the least possible...

<p>Former ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke entered the State Department debate last week, attacking former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and defending Foggy Bottom. But being a product of the Foreign Service himself, Mr. Holbrooke appears unwilling to address the real issue: the State Department's corrosive culture.</p>

Speaking to a group of Palestinians and left-wing Israelis in Israel recently, a high-ranking State Department official took the time to disparage the “conservative” and “Christian” supporters of President Bush, his ultimate superior.  The incident is revealing not just in showing the contempt members of the Foreign Service have for Bush, but how urgent the need is for the White House to push for reform at Foggy Bottom.  At a May 4 meeting attended by several Labor Party officials, activists from left-wing Peace Now, and several officials from the Palestinian Authority, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns...

<p>Walk the halls of the State Department's main offices in Washington these days, and you'll encounter an abundance of political cartoons — something you could not have found even three years ago. It's not that the diplomats at Foggy Bottom have suddenly developed a sense of humor, but rather a newfound contempt for the leader of the free world. The cartoons overwhelmingly lampoon President Bush as a simpleton who doesn't understand the "complexities" of the foreign policy.</p>

WASHINGTON, May 20 (UPI) -- The State Department is taking steps to clean upits international visitors program stung by scandal last week when a delegationof East Asian academics, government officials and non-governmental organizationworkers made an unscheduled visit to a Carson City, Nev., brothel. Here's the catch: the delegation was invited to the United States to studystrategies on ending the scourge of sex trafficking. "The State Department does not condone the visit to the brothel ranch on May14, 2003, or in fact any meeting that may have taken place between the visitorsand representatives of the ranch," Brooke Summers, a State...

An unlikely dispute has broken out between the commonwealth of Virginia and communist Vietnam--and the U.S. State Department is siding with Hanoi. Throughout Virginia, public school officials often fly various countries' flags in classrooms and at school functions. I saw this firsthand on "International Day" when I was a student at George Mason University in Fairfax. The student union would be decorated with "celebrate diversity" signs and scores of different flags. And on this day the stars and stripes would fly at the same level as all the other banners--in clear violation of flag etiquette. Northern Virginia is home to...