Free Republic

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) has chosen a White House veteran to succeed Richard Boucher, who became a public face of U.S. Iraq (news - web sites) war policy, as the State Department's chief spokesman, the White House said on Thursday.   Bush will nominate Sean McCormack as assistant secretary of state for public affairs, which will make him one of the most visible mouthpieces for U.S. diplomacy. McCormack, 40, served as spokesman for then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) and as deputy White House press secretary for foreign policy before Rice...

Clintonista Boucher Backs Powell's 'Demeaning' Aide Top spokesman Richard Boucher, one of many Clintonista leftovers afflicting the Bush (more accurately, anti-Bush) State Department, has only positive spin on Secretary Colin Powell's controversial underling Emily J. Miller. "I think she's great, and she's doing a good job for us," Boucher is quoted as saying in the Washington Post today. "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert is said to be still seething that Miller ordered a cameraman to stop filming an interview with Powell that ran late. "Russert went on and on and on. We asked the cameraman to help us cut...

Bush's WMD Interception Initiative 'Accelerating' By Patrick Goodenough CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief December 18, 2003 Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - President Bush's initiative aimed at intercepting and seizing non-conventional weapons in transit is steadily winning more international support, with another five countries in Asia and the West joining the original line-up of 11. Two days of talks on the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) in Washington ended with participating nations agreeing to hold six more joint exercises during the first half of next year. Joining the 11-nation core group at the "operational experts" meeting were Turkey, Singapore, Canada, Denmark and...

Dozens of countries face the loss of United States military aid, because they have not met a Tuesday deadline to grant American soldiers immunity from prosecution for war crimes, the US says. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the protection of US citizens from the threat of being hauled before the new International Criminal Court (ICC) was a significant matter in relations with other countries. The US does not recognise the ICC, saying its forces could be subjected to politically-motivated prosecution. The court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, can try individuals for war crimes committed after 1 July...

May. 20, 2003 US supports Palestinian premier despite terror wave By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington A rash of deadly terror attacks on Israel has not shaken the Bush administration's confidence in Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas as a leader who will strive to get the violence under control. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday that he had "seen nothing to put in doubt his commitment," although he urged Abbas to take immediate and decisive action to eradicate the terrorism infrastructure. "We recognize that this is a very difficult task," Boucher said. And yet, he said, "it's imperative that the...

CNSNews.com) - After a heated debate, the U.N. Human Rights Commission dropped discussion of a resolution to add "sexual orientation" to the U.N.'s definition of discrimination. But family groups warn that supporters of the issue, which include most European countries and Canada, will lobby harder to pass the resolution when it comes up for a vote again next year. "This issue never goes away," said Douglas Sylva, director of research at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute in New York, which opposed the resolution. Brazil and 19 other nations co-sponsored a resolution calling on member states "to promote and...

Egypt has told the United States that Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Abbas is not in the country, contrary to some media reports, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Thursday. Boucher said: "This is a dangerous man. I don't know the exact legal status, but certainly he's not a person that we believe should be allowed safe harbor or easy passage." Abu Abbas, also known as Mohammed Abbas, is the leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, which hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro in the eastern Mediterranean in 1985. A disabled elderly American, Leon Klinghoffer, was killed during the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration renewed its opposition Tuesday to Israel's assassination of terror suspects, even after a U.S. missile killed a top al-Qaida operative and five other people in his car in Yemen. Sunday's strike in Yemen was the first such overt attack outside Afghanistan and could signal a new U.S. strategy against anti-Western terrorists. Israel, which pioneered targeting militants for assassination, sometimes also killing and injuring civilians in the attacks, has been admonished publicly and regularly by the State Department for the tactics. On Tuesday, while declining to discuss the U.S. operation in Yemen, spokesman Richard Boucher...

London (CNSNews.com) - European plans to replace U.N. Population Fund money withheld by the United States were attacked Tuesday by pro-life groups on both sides of the Atlantic. Congress voted to give UNFPA $34.5 million this year, but President Bush froze the funds in January after concerns were raised that the agency was supporting coercive population control methods in China. The move set off a war of words between pro- and anti-abortion activists. Last week, the Bush administration announced that the money would not be released to the U.N. and would instead go to family planning programs run by the...