Word: rice
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...security companies like Blackwater to augment its own, internal Diplomatic Security office that protects U.S. diplomats overseas. What was viewed as a short-term need has extended into a six-year investment. When asked if the State Department should reconsider its reliance on such companies to secure U.S. personnel, Rice said not yet. "It's very early to try to do that kind of analysis, I think." In the meantime, the State Department has just announced the formation of a new, joint U.S.-Iraqi commission that will handle details of the Blackwater episode, an apparent attempt to defuse the growing...
...scheduled bilateral meeting next Tuesday in New York they will discuss the recent episode in Baghdad involving the Blackwater security firm, which is critical to the way American diplomats operate in Iraq. Already, during a telephone conversation on Monday night, Maliki and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice agreed that U.S. diplomats must be free to travel around Iraq, but how they will do that is now a point of contention. Since Iraq suspended Blackwater's license following the Sunday firefight, American diplomats have not been able to travel outside the Green Zone to visit ministries and other Iraqi sites...
...Rice told the press traveling with her on a Mideast mission that the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission in Baghdad met with Maliki's office on Tuesday and the two governments are negotiating a way for the embassy to operate safely and allay Iraq's concerns about what it says is a pattern of excessive use of force by Blackwater. "They are working toward mechanisms that might allow us to address these issues together," she said during an overnight flight to Jerusalem, where she is meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the run-up to a possible November summit...
...decision by Israel's security cabinet Wednesday to declare Gaza a "hostile entity" could not have come at a worse time for U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She had arrived in Israel the same day hoping to drum up support for an Israeli-Arab summit this November, which nobody outside the White House seems to want. But Israel's latest move, in retaliation for rocket fire into southern Israel from Palestinian militants in Gaza, is unlikely to help promote her mission...
Iraq's apparent decision to move forward with the suspension of Blackwater's license could have serious repercussions for the ability of U.S. diplomats and others to function in Iraq, since they depend heavily on Blackwater and other security companies for their protection. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose State Department depends on Blackwater to protect its Iraq-based staffers, called al-Maliki on Monday to say that the U.S. has launched its own investigation into the matter...