If it's true, would it fit the legal definition of treason?

Wow.

The State Department always has its priorities fucked up. They're always more interested in maintaining friendly good relations with countries involved in terrorism than the national security of the US.

Like when they fought to keep the Express Visa policy open for Saudis after 9/11, or hassled the FBI in its investigations of the 1998 embassy bombings and the 2000 USS Cole bombings, because they didn't want to embarrass the countries the terrorists operated in.

This reminds me of a story I've heard about George Schultz when he was Secretary of State under Reagan.

He would call diplomats into his office before they went off to their new posts and ask them to point to the country they'd be working for on a map of the world.

Nearly every time, they would point to the country they were heading to, and Schultz would have to remind them that the country they were actually working for was the USA.

Seems like little has changed in 20 years.

If we had to depend on our ambassadors for anything, "Red Dawn" would have been history instead of fiction. bin laden will stay hidden as long as his money lasts, whether our ambassadors actually work for us or not. What would be nice if douchebags like this would get fired when they pull this sort of crap...

This is reminiscent of Ambassador Barbara Bodine sabotaging John O'Neill's investigation of the USS Cole bombing.

FRONTLINE

NARRATOR: For six years at the center of the FBI's counterterrorism effort, O'Neill and his team had built the evidence on the mounting bin Laden threat: failed plots to kill hundreds of Americans in Jordan, Ressam's explosives headed to LAX, an aborted Al Qaeda plot to blow up another American warship, the USS The Sullivans, and now the Cole. The Yemenis finally agreed to let the FBI join in the interrogation of one of their most prominent suspects, Fahad al Quso.

O'Neill and his agents believed al Quso knew about bin Laden's desire to videotape the destruction of the Cole, and possibly a whole lot more. O'Neill worked his newly developed Yemeni police officials and old allies in the CIA. He had come to believe that some Yemeni officials were not being forthcoming about information from al Quso and other suspects. It was the Khobar Towers investigation all over again.

But the weeks were taking their toll. O'Neill needed a break. He'd get back to al Quso after he returned from New York at the first of the year.

In New York, he plotted his return to Yemen. He had taken a Yemeni police delegation on a tour of Elaine's and other hotspots. He was working them, trying to get unfettered access to al Quso and what he knew. But then he was told he wouldn't be allowed to return to Yemen. Ambassador Bodine denied his visa.

CHRIS ISHAM, ABC News: I mean, John was not rational on the topic of Ambassador Barbara Bodine. He was -- I mean, "livid" would be putting it mildly. I mean, one can't forget that John was -- he very American, but he was also very Irish.

INTERVIEWER: And that means?

CHRIS ISHAM: That means when he got hot, he got hot. And he was hot. There's no question about it. I think he felt that she was on the wrong side.

We don't know what would have happened if John could have done his job in Yemen and had really had the full back-up to go and to really push in Yemen and what kind of networks he could have exposed. But you know, we do know there were Yemenis involved in the attacks of September 11th. So is it possible that if he had been able to really open up that network and really expose that network, that he could have in some way deterred the tragedy of September 11th? I don't think we know, but it's sad because we won't know the answer to that. But I think there is a fighting -- he would have had had a fighting chance if he'd been able to do his job.

I say we line this jerk up for a nice peaceful Terri Schaivo style execution. Scumbag.

[would it fit the legal definition of treason]

Dimmy, the question is not whether this will fit, but when we as a country are going to get serious about this and start calling treason treason. I go into this very reluctantly, but when it's time to get serious, most of the people on this list should be tried for treason.

It is one thing to disagree, rant, rave, demonstrate, but still act for the good of the nation. It is another to be openly seditious.

DDG

Sun story is here.

It's Nancy Powell, "now serving at the State Department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters in Washington D.C."

Surprise meter: zero.