Condi Rice's Disgraceful Adventure

[MrBenchley]

Ever think you'd see the day when a coward and weakling in the White House would let the Secretary of State of the United States of America get insulted and his/her entourage get roughed up by a tinhorn dictator in a third world country in front of the entire world...and do NOTHING about it?

George Washington was President when the US was war-weary, weak, small and poor...but it's hard to imagine he would have done nothing if an American diplomat had ben treated like Rice was...

What's even more telling, there's nobody in public life who even EXPECTS pResident Weaksuck's going to do anything about it except dodge questions until he goes on another month-long vacation in August and the media forgets about this.

"ABU SHOUK, Sudan, July 21 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's official visit with President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan on Thursday turned ugly after Sudanese security officers manhandled members of her delegation and the news media, blocking their way to the meeting in the presidential palace.
After Ms. Rice entered the meeting with Mr. Bashir, they sat in awkward silence for almost 10 minutes because Mr. Bashir speaks only Arabic and his security guards refused to admit Ms. Rice's interpreter.
After the meeting, American and Sudanese reporters and photographers were allowed to enter the room to take pictures and observe. Mr. Bashir was telling Ms. Rice about the historical significance of his ancestral home when Andrea Mitchell of NBC News shouted a question to him: "Why should Americans believe your promises" regarding Darfur, when "your government is still supporting the militias?"
Two Sudanese security officers grabbed her from behind and dragged her from the room. Mr. Bashir did not respond to the question or otherwise comment. Ms. Rice boarded her plane a short time later for the 90-minute flight here, the site of the second largest refugee camp in Darfur. Her face grim, she said: "I am about the only person they did not rough up. I expect an apology before we land."
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail called just before she landed to apologize for "the mistreatment of our delegation," an aide to Ms. Rice said. But when Ms. Rice stepped off the plane in El Fashir a few minutes later she was still not smiling."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/international/africa/22sudan.html

Condosleeza might not be smiling, but I'll bet Osama and his chums are laughing their asses off.

[SHRED]

1. But they got oil

Get it?
http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/11/sudan112503.htm

[MrBenchley]

4. Guess we're lucky

that Bashir didn't whip his johnson out and whack it in her face in public...not that pResident Weaksuck would have said "Boo" about that either...

[ewagner]

2. Under the "old rules"

of diplomacy, this would have sparked an international incident akin to the assassination of Prince Ferdinand....

The media, however ignored it...........why?

And as far as Andrea Mitchell is concerned....isn't it a bit rude that she blurted out her question to a foreign ruler ON HIS TURF?

This was a boondoggle from the giddyup!

[Wabbajack]

3. It's never "rude" to

challenge some dictator. The "turf" belongs to the people of Sudan.

[MrBenchley]

6. Well said!

Toast to the Post!

[Wabbajack]

9. Thanks n/t

[Imagevision]

23. Condi Rice? the last place she wants to be is in Washington right now

Condi, stay "on tour" it's a wiser move - especially after giving the pda to Bush with the tile " Osama Bin Laden preparing to strike buildings in the United States.

[MrBenchley]

5. Imagine the uproar that would have happened

if this had happened to Madeline Albright?

Wonder why Andrea can't ask Republicans rude questions over here?

[raccoon]

8. you took the words right out of my mouth! nt

[MrBenchley]

13. You'd be hearing

"America is weak, Clinton is a draft dodger, conuntries have no respect for the serial adulterer, yadaa yadda yadda" 24/7...

But not a peep with this....not even from "poor Andrea" herself.

[gratuitous]

11. That's the exact question that occurred to me

Andrea Mitchell didn't have a problem bearding the lion in his den in the Sudan, but she and her media cohort all seem to have lockjaw when it comes to challenging the received wisdom from the corrupt Bush administration, even when they know some administration mouthpiece is lying in their faces.

[MrBenchley]

14. For that matter...

NBC almost never mentions to their viewers on air that she's Greenspan's wife....which ought to be a disclaimer they mention whenever she speaks about domestic matters, as she often does on Press the Meat.

[MrBenchley]

15. For that matter...

NBC almost never mentions to their viewers on air that she's Greenspan's wife....which ought to be a disclaimer they mention whenever she speaks about domestic matters, as she often does on Press the Meat.

[MrBenchley]

7. By the way, at least one right wing blogger wants LIBERALS to act...

Guess even he knows pResident Weaksuck isn't going to do a thing....

[A Simple Game]

10. We need to get used to this kind of treatment.

I can remember when we were respected.

Now we are not even feared, all of our troops seem to be preoccupied.

[MrBenchley]

16. We haven't even got enough troops for the quagmires we're in now

and our allies are sick of this corrupt clown and his bullying ways.

[Neshanic]

12. "It's all about Andrea" Expect a mini-series on her experience.

Gee Andrea, it's not like you have not been given the bum's rush out of a room, or maybe a bedroom before. To bag Allen must of taken some multiple trys.

[MrBenchley]

17. But it's really all about Chimpy and the GOP

and how they have reduced the nation that was the beacon of the free world to a second rate power, so weak and friendless that even toiletfish like this genocidal thug in the Sudan can spit on us publicly without fear...

Real quick: Do you think Condi getting the cheese in public makes al Qaeda more timid or bolder? Do you think Condi and pResident Weaksuck passively taking it in silence endangers our troops or makes them safer?

You're right though...I expect a miniseries starring Sharon Lawrence any minute...

[MrBenchley]

18. Kicky wicky

[Supersedeas]

19. Picture some of the * events where folks are escorted out for questioning

[MrBenchley]

21. Remember this?

"The mother of a soldier fallen in Iraq was arrested last Thursday for daring to "interrupt" a campaign speech given by Laura Bush. Sue Niederer of Hopewell, N.J. was arrested for protesting against the presence of First Lady Laura Bush.

The mother of the martyred soldier was wearing a t-shirt that read, "President Bush, You Killed My Son!" at a Republican rally at a firehouse.

Fanatical Republicans repeatedly shouted "Four More Years", but the slain soldier's mother interrupted this by standing in the middle of the crowd of some 700, shouting, and demanding to know why her son, Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin, 24, was killed in Iraq in February 2004. Secret Service agents and policeman immediately dragged her out, handcuffed her, threw her in the back of a police van, and drove her for 40 miles away from the scene, in an effort to hide her from journalists and suppress what she had to say, curtailing her freedom of speech and her right to protest."

http://www.acpendragon.com/content/view/43/135/

[XemaSab]

20. What foreign languages does the SS usually know?

I'm somewhat surprised that Condi speaks no Arabic whatsoever... seems like it would be a goodwill gesture to her Saudi masters.

[MrBenchley]

22. She goes to the Sudan with only one person who speaks the language?

That's planning!

[XemaSab]

27. Considering that it would be news to *

that they speak Arabic in the Sudan... he probably thinks they speak Ebonics.

"Do they have black people there?"

[MrBenchley]

28. So true...

but then everything this benighted assministration does is to get a rise out of dittoheads, not actually DO anything...

[XemaSab]

29. so cynical

but you're right...

[TheFarseer]

24. why didn't she just play the piano for them?

she's classically trained you know. And I though she was a genius that graduated college while still in the womb or something, she could have at least taken a crash-course in Arabic when all this started?

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. Did anyone notice Condi just sitting there grinning

while this whole incident took place. At no point did she protest or intervene. She can't react without a script or an earworm. What a joke.

[MrBenchley]

30. Wow...that sums our Secretary of State up in a nutshell

she;s so stupid she can be insulted to her face...and only finds out when someone explains it to her later...

[CJCRANE]

26. Condi hairstyle trivia:

Just saw Condi Rice on TV in Lebanon...and her hairstyle looked like Zorg's (the bad guy) in the movie "Fifth Element".