Brazil

Brazilian Prostitute To Sue U.S. Gov't Over 'Attempted Murder'

Eric Lach | April 27, 2012, 11:21AM

Romilda Aparecida Ferreira, a Brazilian woman who has accused US embassy personnel of intentionally trying to harm her. (Reuters)

Another day, another reported incident of American government personnel having run-ins with prostitutes abroad.

A lawyer for a Brazilian "sex professional and dancer" says his client plans to sue the U.S. government, three Marines, an American staff member, and one of the Embassy's Brazilian drivers for injuries allegedly sustained in an incident in Brasilia late last year, the Associated Press reports.

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Seth P. Waxman

Officials Caught Up In MEK Probe Hire Clinton Solicitor General

Ryan J. Reilly | March 30, 2012, 9:47AM

A Washington lawyer who served as Solicitor General during the Clinton administration is representing a group of former public officials who have been caught up in a federal investigation of speaking fees paid on behalf of Iranian opposition group the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, TPM has learned.

Seth P. Waxman, a partner in WilmerHale's D.C. office who served as Solicitor General from 1997 through January 2001, has been retained to represent a group of former government officials who accepted speaking fees for appearing at events and advocating for the State Department to take the People's Muhajedin of Iran, or the MEK, off the terrorist list. Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former FBI Director Louis Freeh organized the legal representation after the subpoenas were issued.

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MEK

Feds Say Court Shouldn't Interfere With MEK Terror List Review

Ryan J. Reilly | March 27, 2012, 12:05PM

MEK supporters rally outside the State Department as former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) speaks.

The Obama administration said Monday that an appeals court shouldn't interfere with the government's review of its designation of an Iranian opposition group as a terrorist organization.

The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, also known as MEK, wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to make the U.S. State Department purge the group from its list of designated terrorist organizations or require it take specific actions within a certain timeframe, Reuters reports.

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Nicole Avant

Obama Fundraiser Turned Ambassador Was Largely Absent From Bahamas Post

Ryan J. Reilly | February 24, 2012, 11:35AM

Nicole Avant (right), former U.S. ambassador to The Bahamas, speaks during a press conference.

The last time we checked in on a big Obama donor who got appointed to an ambassador gig was when a State Department Inspector General report found the Ambassador to Luxembourg had made most of her staff spend their time finding her a temporary residence that met her standards, tried to be improperly reimbursed twice for a queen mattress she insisted on buying and left her staff so demoralized that some of her top staffers chose to go to embassies in war zones rather than continue to serve under her.

Now another State Department IG report examines issues with the leadership of Nicole Avant, who was an Obama fundraiser and served as Ambassador to the Bahamas from late 2009 until November of 2011. The new report released this week said that Avant presided over "an extended period of dysfunctional leadership and mismanagement, which has caused problems throughout the embassy."

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Contractors

Soldiers May Be Leaving Iraq, But Contractors Will Remain

Ryan J. Reilly | October 21, 2011, 3:33PM

American troops may be leaving Iraq before the end of the year, but U.S. contractors aren't going anywhere soon.

ABC News reports that the State Department "is expected to have about 5,000 security contractors in Iraq as of January 2012 (they already have about 3,000 in country)." There will also be 4,500 "general life support" contractors to provide food and medical services.

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Julian Assange

Wikileaks Blames The Guardian For Leak Of Unredacted State Dept Cables

Jillian Rayfield | September 1, 2011, 11:09AM

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

Wikileaks is blaming the British newspaper The Guardianfor a security breach that resulted in the release of over 251,000 unredacted diplomatic cables, calling it "the guardian's hacking scandal."

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State Department

State Dept. IG: Diplomats In Athens, Greece Don't Need A Vacation Bonus

Ryan J. Reilly | May 11, 2011, 1:40PM

Hong Kong, Valletta, Malta and Athens, Greece.

Diplomats in Athens, Malta and Hong Kong might soon have to say sayonara to the rest and relaxation benefits they were getting for enduring hardship postings thanks to a State Department Inspector General report which found the conditions at those locations no longer justified the benefit.

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Doug Kmiec

Republican Obama Supporter Resigns As Ambassador, Says State Dept. Nixed Reagan Article

Ryan J. Reilly | April 22, 2011, 12:25PM

Doug Kmiec, a prominent conservative supporter of President Barack Obama who submitted his resignation as the U.S. ambassador to Malta earlier this month, says the State Department improperly clamped down on articles he wrote about his Catholic faith and his admiration for President Ronald Reagan.

The former Justice Department official, one of Obama's most prominent conservative and pro-life supporters, spoke to me on Thursday by phone from the Malta embassy. He said it was the first time he had spoken to a reporter since his resignation letter was accepted out of respect to the request of the State Department that he not comment to the media until the President had a chance to act on his letter.

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Kabul Embassy

Contractors Who Made Vodka Butt-Shots Famous Still Guarding Kabul Embassy

Ryan J. Reilly | February 17, 2011, 10:55AM

U.S. Embassy in Kabul

The security firm that guards the Kabul embassy and got caught up in a scandal that "introduced the world to vodka butt-shots" is still on the job and doesn't appear to have plans to leave Afghanistan anytime soon, Mother Jones reports.

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Bahrain

Does The Administration Have A Bahrain Problem?

Eric Lach | February 16, 2011, 3:24PM

The spirit of popular uprising that in a matter of weeks has toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt has now spread to several other countries in the region. Iran, Libya and Yemen have all seen protests this week. But the trickiest situation for the American government to react to could be the one in tiny Bahrain.

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Raymond Davis

Video Shows Pakistani Police Questioning Accused U.S. Shooter (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | February 10, 2011, 9:41AM

On Wednesday, Pakistani TV news aired what is apparently video of Pakistani police interrogating Raymond Davis, the American who allegedly shot and killed two men in Lahore, Pakistan last month, and whose continued detention has touched off a diplomatic crisis.

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Cynthia Stroum

Ambassador: 'Caught Off Guard' Over Criticisms Of Management Style

Ryan J. Reilly | February 7, 2011, 9:50AM

Cynthia Stroum

Former ambassador to Luxembourg Cynthia Stroum -- a big-time Obama donor who was criticized in an inspector general's report for treating her staff poorly, obsessing over a bathroom remodeling, improperly spending money, wasting employees' time and propelling "Embassy Luxembourg to a state of dysfunction" -- says she's proud of her work.

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Cynthia Stroum

Luxembourg Ambassador Demoralized Embassy; Had Staff House Hunt, Splurged On Mattress

Ryan J. Reilly | February 4, 2011, 8:30AM

Cynthia Stroum

The now-former U.S Ambassador to Luxembourg, Cynthia Stroum, had members of the small staff of the embassy spend the majority of their time on the important task of finding her a temporary residence that met her high standards; made refurbishing the bathroom at the ambassador's residence a top personal priority; told them that she could snoop on their e-mails; and left her office so demoralized that some top staffers volunteered to serve in two war zone embassies rather than continue to work under her leadership.

That's all according to a State Department Inspector General report, which concludes that Stroum's "confrontational management style, chronic gaps in senior and other staffing caused by curtailments, and the absence of a sense of direction have brought major elements of Embassy Luxembourg to a state of dysfunction."

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MEK

State Dept. Refutes Ridge Claim That MEK Has Special Protection Under Geneva Convention

Eric Lach | February 1, 2011, 8:48AM

Fmr. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge (R)

When a who's who of Washington heavyweights spoke at a panel two weeks ago on behalf of the MEK, an Iranian opposition group currently considered a terrorist organization by the State Department, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge made a claim that the members of the group who currently reside in Iraq enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention. But the State Department tells TPM that's not true.

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MEK

MEK Event Sponsor: Iranian Group Is Not A Terror Organization

Eric Lach | January 31, 2011, 2:36PM

Neil Livingstone

The D.C. insider whose firm sponsored an event in support of an Iranian opposition group which is currently considered a terrorist organization by the State Department admits that the group, known as the MEK, is unlikely to be the successor to the Khamenei regime. Neil Livingstone, the Chairman and CEO of Executive Action, LLC, told TPM in an interview that his group was supporting the MEK for the sake of "the Iranian opposition in general."

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Contractors

State Dept: No One Touched 'Dancing Boy' At DynCorp Party

Rachel Slajda | December 9, 2010, 3:48PM

A still from Frontline's documentary on dancing boys.

Of the Wikileaks cache of diplomatic cables, one of the most potentially salacious is about the entertainment at a party thrown by DynCorp, a U.S. contractor training Afghan police, in April 2009. A 17-year-old boy was hired to dance.

In Afghanistan, hiring "dancing boys" is a long-held practice in which Afghan men hire young men and boys to dress like girls and dance at weddings and other parties. They don't hire girls, because in Afghan society men and women don't mix socially.

The dancing is one thing. But there are other practices associated with the dancing boys. As detailed in a Frontline documentary earlier this year, the boys are sometimes brought to hotels after the parties and prostituted. In some cases, their families sell them to warlords and other prominent Afghanis.

The implication in some of the stories being published now, thanks to the cable just released by Wikileaks, is that the boy hired by DynCorp was likely abused. The cable recounts a meeting in which the then interior minister of Afghanistan begs U.S. diplomats for help keeping the story out of the press, worried, he said, that lives would be in danger.

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Wikileaks

Columbia U To Students: Never Mind, It's Cool If You Look At Wikileaks

Rachel Slajda | December 6, 2010, 1:32PM

Australian journalist Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks.org

As TPM reported on Friday, Columbia University's School of Public and International Affairs sent an email to its students warning them not to link to or comment on the Wikileaks cables if they plan on trying to get a job at the State Department after graduation.

The email was sent by the office of career services and, not surprisingly, caused a stir. Now Threat Level reports that the school has sent a second email to students reassuring them that Columbia fully supports the freedom of expression.

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Wikileaks

Library of Congress Blocks Access To Wikileaks

Rachel Slajda | December 3, 2010, 1:19PM

Inside of the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has blocked access to the Wikileaks site on its staff computers and on the wireless network that visitors use, two sources tell TPM.

The error message reportedly reads:

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Wikileaks

Bomb, Bomb Iran: The Top 5 Most Shocking Things About The Wikileaks

Megan Carpentier | November 29, 2010, 8:43AM

Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.

Yesterday, Wikileaks released a selection of more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables dating from the mid-sixties to the present day -- widely presumed to have been provided to them by the currently-incarcerated Private Bradley Manning -- accessed through the military's SPIRNET system that was intended to reduce the bureaucratic "siloing" on information deemed partially responsible for the intelligence failures in a pre-9/11 world. Those cables were provided earlier under embargo to five international media outlets: the New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais, La Monde and Der Spiegel. For most readers, it made for a dizzying array of information: the cables themselves incorporated both banal gossip and important intelligence, and each media outlet attempted to give as much context to their release (and the reactions to their release) as to the nuggets of information found therein.

But for all the Administration's condemnations and the muted international response to date, there were five astonishing revelations uncovered by the 120 reporters given early access to the documents.

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DynCorp International Inc.

IG: Single Staffer Assigned To Oversee $2.5 Billion Dyncorp Iraq Contract

Justin Elliott | January 25, 2010, 9:33AM

Iraqi police officers stand at attention

It's hardly news that U.S. government contracts in Iraq have been a mess of fraud, abuse, and lax oversight for years. But a new Inspector General report that reveals the State Department assigned just one oversight officer to a $2.5 billion police training contract still manages to shock.

The report (.pdf) released today by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction is the second study in the past few years that showed lax or nonexistent oversight on the large police training contract of Virginia-based Dyncorp.

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Haiti

U.S. And Cuba Showing Signs Of Cooperation In Haiti Relief Effort

Justin Elliott | January 22, 2010, 9:43AM

Marines with the 22nd Marines Expeditionary Unit in Leogand, 25 miles outside of Port-au-Prince

The United States is prepared to give medical supplies to a team of Cuban doctors in Port-au-Prince who reportedly ran out of anaesthetic this week, a State Department spokesman tells TPMmuckraker.

"The United States has communicated its readiness to make medical relief supplies available to Cuban doctors working on the ground in Haiti as part of the international relief effort," said spokesman Darby Holladay.

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FBI

FBI Still Using Bearded, Turbaned Version Of Dubious Bin Laden Photoshop

Justin Elliott | January 19, 2010, 11:15AM

Osama bin Laden, FBI "aged" photo.

The bearded version of an "age-progressed" image of Osama bin Laden that was the source of international embarrassment for the FBI because it was photoshopped from facial features of a top Spanish politician is still posted on a most wanted Web site, days after the FBI said it would be removed.

The bureau apparently did scrap one permutation of its "aged" bin Laden, a beardless version that bore a striking resemblance to left-wing Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares.

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D'oh

FBI Photoshopped Spanish Pol For 'Aged' Osama bin Laden Picture

Justin Elliott | January 18, 2010, 9:06AM

Osama bin Laden (center), FBI "aged" photos (left and right)

When the FBI released its "aged progressed" pictures of Osama bin Laden last week, the top official in the bureau's Science and Technology Branch hailed the images as "powerful examples of how advances in technology and science can be used to help find and bring to justice wanted persons."

The official, Louis Grever, also referred in a joint FBI-State Department press release to "cutting-edge forensic, biometric, and technical capabilities."

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Northwest Flight 253

State Dept. Didn't Think Abdulmutallab Had Visa -- Because Of A Misspelling

Justin Elliott | January 7, 2010, 5:31PM

Flight 253 suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

The Flight 253 review just released by the White House reveals that a "misspelling" of Umar Abdulmutallab's name led the State Department to believe he did not have the U.S. visa that he did in fact have -- but the implications of this revelation are not immediately clear.

Here's the nugget from the second-to-last page of the six-page report:

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War In Afghanistan

Blackwater, Already On The Ground In Afghanistan, Now Gunning For More Contracts

Justin Elliott | December 21, 2009, 12:23PM

A Blackwater Aviation crew member prepares to drop supplies to an outpost in Bandar, Afghanistan, in 2007.

It looks like the Obama Administration just can't quit the company formerly known as Blackwater.

A Xe official told the Commission on Wartime Contracting Friday that the company has contracts for security as well as for training Afghan police and a "drug interdiction unit." Xe is also in the running for more work in Afghanistan. The comments of Xe Vice President Fred Roitz were first reported by the Virginia Pilot.

It's been a difficult year for Xe, with several former guards facing manslaughter charges over the shootings in Baghdad's Nisour Square that left 17 civilians dead, and company founder Erik Prince declaring he plans to leave the business.

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