Diplomatic Briefing

Newsline: Foreign minister apologizes for stock-rigging scandal involving diplomats

diplomaticbriefing — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:30:53 +0000

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan apologized to the nation for allegations of a stock-rigging scandal involving diplomats, after prosecutors raided his ministry in a widening probe over the accusations. “I sincerely apologize to our people for letting this sort of thing happen,” Kim said. “I hang my head in shame,” a stern-faced Kim said, adding he will “take responsibility for anything I must be held accountable for.” The ministry has been rocked by the scandal linked to CNK International, a local company developing a diamond mine in Cameroon, after state auditors last week asked it to sack a senior diplomat for playing a role in releasing a fallacious official press statement in December 2010. The statement said that Cameroon authorized CNK to develop a diamond mine in the African country and the mine was estimated to have 420 million carats, more than twice the global diamond production. After the ministry’s statement was issued, shares of CNK jumped more than five-fold in 16 trading days. State auditors found that brothers and associates of the senior diplomat, Ambassador Kim Eun-seok, who is in charge of energy and resources, pocketed financial gains by investing their money into CNK shares during the period. According to audit results, the senior diplomat had learned that the estimated volume of diamonds was exaggerated, prior to the issuance of the press release. The ambassador Kim has insisted on his innocence. Early on Monday, prosecutors seized computer hard disks and documents at the offices of Ambassador Kim and public relations officials, marking the first time that the ministry has been subject to a search by prosecutors.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2012/01/30/39/0301000000AEN20120130010300315F.HTML

Newsline: Mexican Ambassador Freed After Abduction In Caracas

diplomaticbriefing — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:22:39 +0000

A Mexican diplomat in Venezuela says the country’s ambassador has been freed by captors hours after he and his wife were kidnapped. Mexican Embassy spokesman Fernando Gondinez tells the Venezuelan news website Noticias 24 that Ambassador Carlos Pujalte was kidnapped Sunday night in Caracas and was freed hours later. Gondinez says both the ambassador and his wife are in good condition. He did not offer details about how the abduction occurred or about the liberation.

http://news.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=209301

Newsline: 2 more Russian diplomats return home from Canada

diplomaticbriefing — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:16:03 +0000

Two more Russian diplomats have left Canada in the wake of an espionage scandal involving a junior Canadian naval officer. Sources say a defence attaché in Ottawa and a consulate worker in Toronto have been sent back to Russia. The Russian embassy says they left simply because their contracts had ended. Sub.-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle, 40, was charged two weeks ago with leaking information to a “foreign entity” and breach of trust. Shortly after Delisle’s arrest, four Russian embassy staff were sent back home. Moscow denied their return had anything to do with the espionage allegations. Sources say that the leaked information could include data on underwater dead zones, which would allow Russian submarines to penetrate sensitive areas. Weapons system information may also have been leaked.

http://m.ctv.ca/topstories/20120130/2-more-Russian-diplomats-return-home-120130.html

Newsline: US embassy drones patrol Iraq, angering officials

diplomaticbriefing — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:15:05 +0000

A month after the last US troops left Iraq, the State Department is operating a small fleet of surveillance drones here to help protect its embassy and consulates, as well as US personnel. Senior Iraqi officials expressed outrage at the program, saying the unarmed aircraft are an affront to Iraqi sovereignty. The program was described by the department’s diplomatic security branch in a little-noticed section of its most recent annual report and outlined in broad terms in a two-page online prospectus for companies that might bid on a contract to manage the program. It foreshadows a possible expansion of unmanned drone operations into the diplomatic arm of the US government; until now they have been mainly the province of the Pentagon and the CIA. US contractors say they have been told that the State Department is considering future plans to field unarmed surveillance drones in a handful of other potentially “high-threat’’ countries, including Indonesia and Pakistan, and in Afghanistan after the bulk of US troops leave in the next two years. State Department officials say that no decisions have been made beyond the drone operations in Iraq. The drones are the latest example of the State Department’s efforts to take over functions in Iraq that the military used to perform. Some 5,000 private security contractors now protect the embassy’s 11,000-person staff, for example, and typically drive around in heavily armored military vehicles. When embassy personnel move throughout the country, small helicopters buzz over the convoys to provide support in case of an attack. Often, two contractors armed with machine guns are tethered to the outside of the helicopters. The State Department began operating some drones in Iraq last year on a trial basis and stepped up their use after the last American troops left Iraq in December, taking the military drones with them.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2012/01/30/united-states-drones-patrol-iraq-angering-officials/6KeQTRrJBLK2VIPNrK8YrK/story.html

Newsline: Canada’s ambassador to China does a little drive-by diplomacy

diplomaticbriefing — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:14:25 +0000

A Toyota Camry isn’t usually the type of car that turns heads. It certainly isn’t considered a flashy ride on the streets of Beijing, where Audis, BMWs and Mercedes SUVs dominate where three-wheeled rickshaws once ruled. So when David Mulroney, Canada’s ambassador to China, posted online photos of his official car – a silver Camry hybrid – the reaction from the Chinese Internet was something close to shock. Especially when he explained that even cabinet ministers in Canada only have a budget of $32,400 for their official car. “A vice-minister in Beijing drives the Audi A6, which costs over 500,000 yuan (about $80,000), and they also have a full-time driver. A local township official might drive a Benz,” wrote one of more than 1,100 people who responded to the ambassador’s posting on the Canadian Embassy’s official Weibo site. All of which provided kindling for the debate over Mr. Mulroney’s relatively modest wheels. Even the Global Times, a newspaper closely affiliated with the Communist Party, used the online discussion of the official Canadian Camry to raise the sensitive topic of government officials and their cars. “Government vehicle issue in China is a mess, and our government is the most unwilling in the world to talk about it,” Ye Qing, a member of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament told the paper. Mr. Ye has in the past argued that the country could save more than $150-million a year by capping official spending on cars the way Canada and other countries do. Mr. Mulroney told the Global Times that he had decided to post about his official car on Weibo because “we get a lot of questions about how we operate at the embassy, what rules govern our work, and how much money we spend.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/canadas-ambassador-to-china-does-a-little-drive-by-diplomacy/article2320247/

Newsline: Bomb squad called to embassies in Australia

diplomaticbriefing — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:42:56 +0000

Bomb squad officers were called to the French and Israeli embassies in Australia on Monday following the discovery of suspicious packages that were later found to be harmless. Police said a bomb response team dispatched to the diplomatic posts in Canberra determined that the items were not suspicious and road closures around the embassies were lifted, a police spokesperson said. It was not clear if the incidents were linked. The French embassy said the drama was sparked by a courier parcel delivered on Monday morning. The building was evacuated while police officers examined the parcel but it was deemed not to be dangerous, she added. The embassies are near one another in Yarralumla, a suburb of Canberra that is home to a large number of foreign missions.

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Bomb-squad-called-to-embassies-in-Australia-20120130

Newsline: American workers shelter at US embassy in Cairo

diplomaticbriefing — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:42:14 +0000

Several American workers facing prosecution at the hands of the Egyptian government took shelter at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, fearing they could be detained. “A handful of U.S. citizens opted to stay at the U.S. embassy compound while waiting for permission to leave Egypt,” State Department spokesman Noel Clay told FOX News Channel. The irregular action, which effectively protects the Americans from being arrested (because the embassy is considered to be on U.S. soil), was taken after several U.S. workers at non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were barred from flying out of Cairo a week ago. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s son Sam LaHood, the director of the Egyptian program for the International Republican Institute (IRI), is among those on the Egyptian government’s “no fly list.” Egyptian authorities raided more than a dozen offices belonging to local and foreign rights groups in late December, including at least two American ones, drawing a sharp rebuke from the State Department, which said it was “deeply concerned” by the actions. The raids, part of an investigation into alleged illicit foreign funding, targeted the American groups National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the IRI — an NGO operating throughout the world that has close ties to GOP congressional leadership. A State Department official told The Washington Post, who first reported the story, that it was not believed the “handful” of NGO staff who had decided to take shelter at the Cairo embassy were in “immediate physical danger.” Sam LaHood told FOX by phone Friday that an Egyptian judge claims he, along with the other Americans barred from leaving the country, worked for an unregistered NGO and took a salary.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/30/fearing-detention-american-workers-shelter-at-us-embassy-in-cairo/

Commentary: Police cowed by abusive, arrogant diplomat

diplomaticbriefing — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:41:40 +0000

Early this month, an abusive Korean-American, Dean Chang, a “second secretary” (or a member of the diplomatic staff) of the US Embassy in the Philippines, while driving to a Korean restaurant, almost bumped a young Filipino woman. Because of this, he vituperated her and challenged her uncle to a fistfight. When confronted by responding police officers, Chang refused to show his “diplomatic ID” and just asked the police to check on his identity with a phone number he himself gave to the police. An authentic diplomat, American or not, would readily produce his diplomatic ID anytime upon request by proper authorities. He is duty-bound to respect local laws. He knows that diplomatic immunity attaches only to acts of an envoy in the course of the performance of his official functions. He is aware that diplomatic privileges would be lost if abused. In extreme circumstances, the diplomat may be declared persona non grata and sent back home. The police officers should have taken him to a judge before whom Chang would be obliged to prove whether he was a real American diplomat and not a fake. But the police failed to do their duty, fearing, no doubt, that if Chang were proven to be a real diplomat, they would have a problem—not with the US Embassy but with their own superiors—for disregarding a claim to “diplomat immunity,” and not following a bias honed by a deep-seated “colonial mentality.” Recall that not too long ago, any Caucasian, especially American, need not produce any ID to identify himself. Things have not changed much, indeed.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/22057/police-cowed-by-abusive-arrogant-diplomat

Newsline: Libyan government to review its ambassadors

diplomaticbriefing — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:33:55 +0000

The Libyan government is reassessing its ambassadors worldwide and will dismiss those who had ties with ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, a foreign ministry official said. The move appears to be a bid by the National Transitional Council (NTC) to quell growing discontent from Libyans who fear that the corruption of Gaddafi’s rule did not die with him and that his cronies continue to hold positions of power. Libya is trying to rebuild and reconcile after 42 years of rule under Gaddafi, and a civil war last year that toppled and killed him. Many Libyan ambassadors defected from Gaddafi during the war and still hold their posts under the new leadership. “These are the people whose jobs will be reassessed,” the official said, adding that ambassadors is some countries have already resigned in anticipation of the move.

http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E8CT02Y20120129

Newsline: Syrian opposition urges Russian embassy protest

diplomaticbriefing — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:33:03 +0000

The opposition Syrian National Council urged Syria’s diaspora to protest outside Russian embassies against Moscow’s opposition to a draft resolution on Syria at the UN Security Council. “We call upon all Syrians abroad to show solidarity with our people inside the country and protest against the Russian position by holding sit-ins in front of the embassies of the (Syrian) regime, Russian embassies, and at UN centres,” Samir Neshar, a member of the SNC’s executive committee, said at a news conference in Istanbul. He also announced that the SNC would send a delegation to the United Nations on Sunday to demand the protection of Syrian civilians and accused Iran of taking part in the crackdown on protests by the Syrian regime. European and Arab countries submitted a new draft resolution to the UN Security Council but Russia rejected the text on Thursday, opposing any form of sanctions or arms embargo against its former Syrian ally. The SNC also condemned the alleged “participation of the Iranian regime in the killings of Syrians who demand freedom and call on it to stop taking part in the repression of the Syrian revolution in order to protect relations between the two peoples,” Neshar said. Turkey, which cut ties with the Damascus regime, has hosted numerous meetings of the Syrian opposition and deserters from the Syrian army who are leading the armed opposition.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jwitpGjYKCILuRY55jKMyifNMfYw?docId=CNG.1e1deb6f2b7d184453e7a7321dc2fe0f.821