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| Africa Subsaharan | |
| Zimbabwe police arrest British and American diplomats at gunpoint | |
| 2008-06-05 | |
A group of British and American diplomats were detained at gunpoint in Zimbabwe today after being stopped at a police roadblock.
Details of the incident are unclear but the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee - who was himself briefly detained with other diplomats last month - gave some details to CNN in a telephone interview from Harare. "My people were stopped, detained," he said. "The police put up a roadblock, stopped the vehicles, slashed the tires, reached in and grabbed the telephones from my personnel. And the war veterans threatened to burn the vehicles with my people inside unless they got out of the vehicles and accompanied the police to a station nearby." Mr McGee said that any dispute with the diplomats should have been taken up with the ministry of foreign affairs. "Instead in this lawless society that we call Zimbabwe the police decided to take action into their own hands and detaining my people for almost five hours now," he said. A Foreign Office spokesman in London was unable to confirm the news, saying only: "We are urgently investigating these reports." | |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #25 Please kindly accept the insert. Besoeker, please cite where the US DoS continues to support the Mugabe regime. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-06-05 23:22 |
| #24 We don't have DoS in Cuba, Nork, Somalia, or Iran. First, you have to have a host nation willing to accept an ambassador and/or consul. Given the history of relations between the US and those countries, think any of those are going to say 'yes' if asked? It is beyond my why we have them in Zimbobway, Syria or the Sudan. Maybe you'll figure it out someday. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-06-05 22:19 |
| #23 #8 Its called job security for the State Department Officials. Once you create a feckless black totalitarian communist dictator you must keep feeding and grooming it, even though it can do absolutely NOTHING! Posted by Jim W 2008-06-05 15:42|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top Totally agree Jim. Please kindly accept the insert. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-06-05 21:38 |
| #22 Those good people volunteered to sit in those shit holes of the world but still the question remains - why are those people there and what can they do? |
| Posted by: Glitle Ghibelline2636 2008-06-05 21:02 |
| #21 We don't have DoS in Cuba, Nork, Somalia, or Iran. Doesn't seem to have caused a problem. It is beyond my why we have them in Zimbobway, Syria or the Sudan. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-06-05 20:01 |
| #20 Maybe it is time to load up a little diplomatic pouch into a B-52. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-06-05 19:45 |
| #19 You DO know what the most common cover for folks from Langley tends to be, doncha? Jehovah's Witnesses? |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-06-05 19:19 |
| #18 >>In case you folks don't know, we have an ambassador-with-balls (James McGee)there. He's done a pretty good job of pissing off Mugabe's government. When this story broke this afternoon European time, he was on CNN-I a half hour later, going after the ZimBob government hammer and tong. No squishy diplomat is he. I was impressed. |
| Posted by: Mizzou Mafia 2008-06-05 18:30 |
| #17 Why do we have people there? 1. To ensure that US interests are represented in Zimbabwe? 2. Because other nations whose interests don't coincide with the US' interests are there? 3. Because if we have to pay the Swiss to represent US interests in every country our illustrious foreign-policy experts here at Rantburg think the US shouldn't have an embassy in, we'd be subcontracting our foreign service to Geneva? We have an ambassador-with-balls (James McGee) there. He's done a pretty good job of pissing off Mugabe's government for the right reasons. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-06-05 18:22 |
| #16 And the names of those two people are? We DO have friends in that country. It's important we support them any way we can. |
| Posted by: HammerHead 2008-06-05 17:58 |
| #15 Before we beat up on the striped pants brigade too much, let's remember that we have embassies out there for a reason. We have diplomatic, intel, and business interests just about everywhere in the world, including Zim-bob. A lot of the people in State are good people, particularly the ones who end up in the shitholes of the world. I don't envy them one little bit, and you couldn't pay me enough to sit in Harare. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-06-05 17:18 |
| #14 You DO know what the most common cover for folks from Langley tends to be, doncha? Avon salespeople? |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-06-05 17:03 |
| #13 I thought they worked for front companies. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-06-05 16:58 |
| #12 NS - You DO know what the most common cover for folks from Langley tends to be, doncha? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-06-05 16:55 |
| #11 It's important we support them any way we can. And you expect DoS to do that? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-06-05 16:33 |
| #10 >#7 Why do we have people there? We DO have friends in that country. It's important we support them any way we can. |
| Posted by: Mizzou Mafia 2008-06-05 16:31 |
| #9 The Carter Doctrine would make US grateful that our officials were ONLY held for five hours - my, oh my, how generous. Of course, that is much shorter than the 444 days of captivity in Tehran in 1979, 1980 and 1981 under the Carter "administration!" |
| Posted by: Jim W 2008-06-05 15:46 |
| #8 Its called job security for the State Department Officials. Once you create a feckless bureaucracy you must keep feeding and grooming it, even though it can do absolutely NOTHING! |
| Posted by: Jim W 2008-06-05 15:42 |
| #7 Why do we have people there? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-06-05 15:36 |
| #6 Right after Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, a traveling Methodist minister came to our church and talked about the peaceful nature of Mugabe even though the minister said he was "only" a Socialist. In my mind, the word dictator suddenly flashed before me. Now the chickens have come home to roost in Zimbabwe and Mugabe's true character, or lack thereof, has been revealed for what it is - Dictator of a country that his going to hell in a broken hand-basket. Ian Smith is probably saying, "I told you so!" to the world community, if anyone is ever listening. Zimbabwe has become just one more Uganda as if it were under the hob-nailed boots of Idi Amin and his wrecking crew! Sometimes our hunches are pretty good looks into the future. |
| Posted by: Jim W 2008-06-05 15:33 |
| #5 Told Ya two days ago, "Make Jimmuh Ambassador to Zim-Bob-Land" Larn'em to grow Goobers. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-06-05 14:55 |
| #4 Can you say "act of war"?... |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-06-05 14:12 |
| #3 Under the Carter Doctrine, any action against diplomats does not constitute an act of war. Even occupying the embassy. So we should be grateful that the diplomats were only held for five hours. /sarcasm |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-06-05 13:27 |
| #2 Reminds me of "The Mouse That Roared". It seems like they are just BEGGING to be invaded. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-06-05 12:33 |
| #1 Act of war. Needs a proper response. I think a Marine regiment would be enough to take down the yahoos running Zimbabwe. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-06-05 12:22 |