INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -- RICE MEETS WITH BRUTAL AFRICAN DICTATOR, CALLS HIM 'GOOD FRIEND' OF U.S.: Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema is a "somewhat unsavory and corrupt character who seized power in a 1979 coup" and "runs a regime regularly condemned by the State Department for human rights violations, including torture, beatings, abuse and deaths of prisoners and suspects." According to one human rights official, he is "one of the most brutal, most corrupt and unreconstructed dictators in the world." He's also a "good friend" of the United States, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with Nguema on Wednesday. The meeting was a reminder of the Bush administration position on reform in Africa: you have to be democratic, fight corruption, and promote market liberalization and transparency -- unless you have oil. Equatorial Guinea is Africa's third-largest oil exporter, though the crude has "done little to help Equatorial Guinea's 540,000 people, some 400,000 of whom suffer from malnutrition," the Washington Post editorializes. "The meeting with Mr. Obiang was presumably a reward for his hospitable treatment of U.S. oil firms, though we cannot be sure since the State Department declined our invitation to comment."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...701368_pf.html

I guess that just puts him on America's Friendship list with Saddam and Arafat.

__________________

The job description of the Secretary of State says that she is the head of the United States Department of State originally called the Department of Foreign Affairs. That means her job is specifically to deal with foreign governments including many that do not have policies that are in keeping with ours.

On the other hand, the job description for the speaker of the house states that the position of the Speaker includes the following: "the institutional role of presiding officer and administrative head of the House, the partisan role of leader of the majority party in the House, and the representative role of an elected Member of the House." Nowhere in any of that is there anything that can remotely be construed as giving her the authority to go off on her own and reach out to foreign governments and their leaders behind the President's back as Pelosi has done this week.

With that said, it seems to me that this whole article was written as a rather lame attempt at pointing a stinky finger in any direction away from Pelosi and her unauthorized visit to Syria where she made friends with a few bad people as well. The only difference between what she's done and what Sec. Rice did is that it's Sec. Rice's job and Nancy just wishes it was hers.

I think there is a difference. Pelosis says she is trying to open dialogue. Do you know who else has visited Syria? Do you think Bush policy for the past 6 yrears has been successful regarding Syria and insurgents coming into iraq? Syria has a lot at stake.. I think we should begin dialogue. Someone has to be a leader and it has not been Bush or Cheney.

Rice had a meeting about oil and called the dictator a good friend.

Which member are you nunya?

Sorry link is not working I will copy and paste.


Wednesday, December 27, 2006
By The Associated Press



DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria's president wants to resume peace negotiations with Israel, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said yesterday after meeting with Bashar Assad.
"Assad stated an interest in negotiating with Israel to try to bring a peaceful settlement to the Syrian-Israeli dispute under the U.N. doctrine of land-for-peace," the Pennsylvania Republican said at a news conference at Damascus airport before leaving the country.
Mr. Specter, who visited Syria despite loud objections from the Bush administration, did not say what conditions Mr. Assad gave for restarting talks with the Israelis. Syrian officials were not available for comment.
Peace negotiations between the neighbors broke down in 2000. Syria has said it would resume negotiations but only within the framework of a comprehensive peace process.
Damascus wants the return of the entire Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday he would like to renew peace talks with Syria, but insisted that Damascus first end its support of anti-Israel militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Syrian officials could not be reached for comment on Mr. Olmert's statement.
Mr. Specter said he discussed with Mr. Assad how Syria could use its influence with Hamas to urge the Palestinian militant group to give up its refusal to recognize Israel. Mr. Specter also met with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.
Syria's official news agency, SANA, reported that the Assad-Specter talks focused on the situation in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and the issue of terrorism and ways of combating it.
Mr. Assad told Mr. Specter that all the region's problems should be solved, stressing that the solution to these problems is a political one, rather than a security issue, SANA said.
It added that Mr. Specter stressed the importance of reactivating the dialogue between the United States and Syria to achieve security and stability in the Middle East.
A bipartisan panel on Iraq recommended earlier this month that the United States engage Syria, Iraq's neighbor, toward returning stability to Iraq.
The United States has limited diplomatic ties with Syria because of its support for Hezbollah and Hamas, which the United States deems terrorist organizations. President Bush has expressed reluctance to seek help from Damascus on Iraq until the Syrians curb that support and reduce their influence in Lebanon. Mr. Specter said before he left that he and other Republicans are concerned that the administration's policies in the Middle East are not working and that other GOP members may follow in his footsteps.

The article said that Condoleeza Rice called him a good friend, but then when they quoted her it does not show she said that. Her language seems to be language that diplomats use when meeting with foreign leaders. Truth is, nobody knows what they talk about, and this article is a year old, so nunya is wrong there, it wasn't written in response to Pelosi's visit to Syria. But I think it was posted on this forum in response to her visit.

thats got to be poster none of your buisness

__________________
Dwight D. Eisenhower warned this country of a "military industrial complex" pulling the strings

Well it is interesting you agree with our current unregistered poster. I posted this not because of Pelosi but because I think it mirrors our beginning with Saddam. "Nunya" brought Pelosi into it. If I wanted to compare to pelosi I would have put it on the pelosi thread. I think rice should visit every dictator in the world but I hope she would not refer to them as a "Good Friend".

Here is a paragraph from the Washington Post link and it was on all the cable the news stations.



So reporters were alerted to stand by at the Obiang meeting. Rice appeared with our pal Obiang, even called him "a good friend," then said she would take "one question" from reporters. Of course that question would be about Iran, giving Rice the opening to take a whack at Tehran.
And Obiang certainly went home happy.

No way. This person actually spells things correctly and is a different ideology. After Sam brought it up I tried to find other posts to see if I could figure it out. I am not sure it is a registered member as a registered member wouldn't need to hide to say something like that. Usually I think people post as unregistered when they want to personally attack someone but are too cowardly to do so under their own name. At first glance, the writing style looks like either me or flaja, and not that myself and flaja are a lot alike. But it isn't me and after reading most of what flaja has written I am pretty sure it isn't him. Especially since he is argueing with conservatives just as much as he is fighting with the liberals.