Madeleine Albright mistaken for the cleaning lady !
John Crawford
Report: Albright Livid
When Mistaken for Maid
By Eric Wagner
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/mattersofstate.html
W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 4
- When a bunch of Albanians mistook Madeleine Albright for a hotel cleaning
lady, the secretary of state spewed a most-undiplomatic, and untranslatable,
stream of invective, a newspaper reports.
A State Department spokesman wouldn't comment on the New York Daily
News report that Albright was mistaken for a maid during last year's peace
negotiations for Kosovo in Rambouillet, France.
Albright at first wasn't recognized by the Albanian delegation when she
walked into their room, it said.
"One member of the delegation, who didn't realize who she was, and
probably thinking she was some cleaning lady because it was after midnight,
simply said to her, 'Give us five minutes and please go away,'" recalled
Albanian diplomat Dugagjin Gorani in War on Europe, a British TV program.
Instead, Albright exploded in rage, swearing at the group, according to
the reports.
"Mrs. Albright started using explicit language which the translators
never could translate into Albanian," says Veton Surroi, another member of
the delegation.
Lockerbie Families Call Trial Suspect
The families of victims of Pan Am Flight 103, which was blown up over
Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, are upset over the secrecy of international
negotiations that made a trial of two Libyan suspects possible.
They've focused their suspicions on a letter of assurances that U.N.
chief Kofi Annan wrote to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi last year.
The letter details the special legal and procedural arrangements agreed
to by Libya, the United States and the United Kingdom after months of
negotiations. But the most controversial part states that the trial would
not be intended to "undermine the government of Libya."
"This is an assurance to Gadhafi that this trial will be kept to the
two indicted terrorists," and not reach to get at him or senior Libyan
officials who may have ordered the bombing, says Susan Cohen, whose daughter
was killed in the bombing. In all, killing 259 passengers and crew -
including 189 Americans - and 11 people on the ground were killed.
Why would Gadhafi agree to a trial now after enduring almost a decade
of international isolation in the case, Cohen asks, unless he is sure that
his regime is insulated from prosecution?
John Bolton, an assistant secretary of state during the Bush
administration, says the letter is "a real restraint on the prosecutors and
certainly on the United States."
I asked the State Department, which a U.N. official said "consulted
with Annan on every word of the letter," if I could see the letter for
myself.
But the letter isn't ours to share with you, I was told; it is a
private communication signed by Annan.
Yes, we do have a copy of the letter, one senior U.S. official
admitted, but we got it from our own sources. Annan refused to share it with
us, fearing we'd leak it, the source said.
The State Department has also turned down a Freedom of Information Act
request for the letter. There are actually two documents matching the letter
's description at the State Department, said a letter from the FOIA office.
But they can't be released either. They are "classified."
Even Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., the chairman of the House
International Relations committee, hasn't been able to get a copy. And he's
asked for it on three separate occasions.
But a former official who has read the Annan letter said that after it
was faxed to Washington from the U.S. mission at the United Nations, it was
widely distributed inside the administration. American officials even read
portions of it to victims' families and to reporters.
The former official also said the letter was originally unclassified
and that the United States can't really make U.N. documents secret. A
current State Department official said the decision to classify was made
recently.
So I asked Annan's office about the letter.
"For diplomacy to succeed," says Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard, "you
need a degree of confidentiality." And U.N. rules prohibit release of
"internal documentation."
So what about the victims' families, who worry that the letter promises
justice will go not farther than the two Libyans now being held in The
Hague?
"At no stage were any guarantees seen or approved by the U.S.
government in any communication that gave anyone immunity from prosecution,"
says a State Department official.
But doesn't that statement allow the possibility that guarantees about
immunity were given that weren't "seen or approved" by the United States?
"The charge is that we signed off on a deal," the official said. "We
did not sign off on a deal. This trial will be conducted according to the
rule of law."
"If the letter is as innocent as they say," Cohen asks, "why are they
fighting so hard to keep it away from us?"
Gilman will be asking the same question on Wednesday, when Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright testifies before his committee.
Diplospeak: Love, Saudi Style
Last week we featured a word in "diplospeak" - words and phrases only
diplomats can utter with a straight face.
This week we'd like to offer somewhat the opposite, that is, words
diplomats would rather never say. We found an appropriate sample right on
the State Department's own Web page.
A big chunk of American diplomatic resources go towards helping and
advising Americans overseas. The Office of Children's Issues, which helps
Americans with hundreds of international child custody and abduction cases
every year, has a Web page that provides general information about the
relevant legal standards in dozens of countries.
In some Islamic countries women do not have the same rights as men,
including over the fate of their own children.
Apparently the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh was asked to prepare a report on
the situation in Saudi Arabia, considered to be a rather conservative
Islamic state, where most domestic matters are settled by religious law.
So the embassy interviewed a number of American wives in Saudi Arabia
about their experiences and created a pamphlet called "Marriage to Saudis."
The eight-page document includes important discussions like "Can an
American mother flee the Kingdom with her dual national children?" and "Will
you be permitted to travel separately from your husband?" It provides a
great deal of information of the practical aspects of a woman's life in
Saudi Arabia, which provides none of the equal protections of American life.
But the embassy also felt it was important to include the following:
"To a much greater degree than in the West, Saudi children are
indulged. Little girls are dressed in miniature prom dresses, little boys
wear the latest in Western sport togs. Both wreak havoc."
And
"American wives must suffer silently when the children of various
relations run riot through the house."
And
"Every family member feels free to give an opinion on any facet of
another family member's life."
And
"Children are not expected or encouraged to leave the nest; rather,
extended adolescence can occur well into a man's early 30s."
All that is well and good, and may describe households outside of Saudi
Arabia as well.
But when the pamphlet was brought to the attention of the State
Department, an official said it would be taken off the Web site while it is
being revised. (We have saved a copy of the page here.)
"In general, it does present an accurate picture of what American women
could face when marrying into the Saudi culture," the official said.
I wanted to know what the Saudis make of the State Department's
matrimonial advice.
A man at the Saudi information bureau in Washington who didn't give his
name took it all in stride.
"Individuals have a choice if they fall in love," the official said.
"They have a choice if they want to marry."
"As a government agency, the State Department has the right to issue
warnings about what to expect," the Saudi added.
"We cannot expect the Japanese to be British or the British to be
American."
Now that's diplomatic.
j
>- When a bunch of Albanians mistook Madeleine Albright for a hotel cleaning
>lady, the secretary of state spewed a most-undiplomatic, and untranslatable,
>stream of invective, a newspaper reports.
Once her pal Bubba is out of office, Maddie might wind
up BEING a cleaning lady.
Lone Haranguer
j wrote:
>
> "John Crawford" <Craw...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
> >- When a bunch of Albanians mistook Madeleine Albright for a hotel cleaning
> >lady, the secretary of state spewed a most-undiplomatic, and untranslatable,
> >stream of invective, a newspaper reports.
>
> Once her pal Bubba is out of office, Maddie might wind
> up BEING a cleaning lady.
I doubt she is smart enough to get the job.
LZ
R. Wiley
The name sounds familiar. Is she the Clinton
spokesliar who told us "The President has told
the truth."
rw
Wavle
>The name sounds familiar. Is she the Clinton
>spokesliar who told us "The President has told
>the truth."
Being mistaken for a cleaning lady insults the cleaning ladies of america.
Richard
dick...@my-deja.com
fat-assed, ugly broad who loves mini-skirts and bizarre cowboy hats. Is
there a diplomat anywhere who hasn't had to look at her butt? She must
be doin' the Rapist-in-Ch
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.