Diplomats

Sen. Rand Paul is recruiting plaintiffs - and seeking donations - for a class-action lawsuit against the National Security Agency. “Dear Patriot,” the Kentucky Republican wrote Thursday in an e-mail to supporters. “I'm looking for ten million Americans to stand with me and sue the federal government and TAKE BACK our rights. “Can I count on your help? “Without it, I truly fear where our fragile Republic could be headed …” Paul, who is expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, told a Fox News interviewer this week that he would be asking Internet providers and telephone companies to join him in a lawsuit against the electronic eavesdropping agency based at Fort Meade.

Whether the House investigation into the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is a political witch hunt aimed at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her possible run for president in 2016, as Democrats allege, or a principled effort to uncover a shocking scandal on par with Watergate, as Republicans seem to believe, further review of what happened that night in Libya appears to be a worthwhile pursuit. That's not to suggest the American people should buy the narrative presented by Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, that there's been some grand, conspiratorial cover-up before, during or after that fateful night.

Ambassador W. Nathaniel Howell and seven other American diplomats who kept the flag flying over the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait for 110 days after they were ordered out by the Iraqi invaders are American heroes in the finest tradition.They followed the orders of their president. They also used their ingenuity, in such matters as digging a well. They suffered privation. (How many contemporary Americans are prepared to live without electricity or hot water for one day, much less 110, some of them among the world's hottest?

Friends and former classmates gathered Saturday at Johns Hopkins University to remember Anne Smedinghoff, a Foreign Service officer who was killed in a bombing in Afghanistan earlier this month, sharing stories of a too-short life marked by adventure. As photographs of Smedinghoff in front of monuments and ruins around the world flashed by on projector screens, friends recalled her various escapades, including a coast-to-coast cycling trip, which saw the young woman eat a live bug to fulfill an item on a scavenger hunt list.

There will be only one American Soccer League team in the Baltimore-Washington area next season -- the Maryland Bays.Yesterday, the Bays, American Professional Soccer League champions, and the Washington Stars merged, and the Washington Diplomats folded. The new franchise, which will continue to play its home games at Cedar Lane Park in Columbia, still will be known as the Maryland Bays.The team will be governed by a three-man board of directors, John Koskinen and Gordon Bradley, owners of the Stars, and John Liparini, owner of the Bays.

AMMAN, Jordan -- Iraq ordered yesterday the expulsion of three U.S. diplomats and military attaches from 11 Western European countries as it warned the nations allied against it in the Persian Gulf, "Let everybody understand that this battle is going to become the mother and father of all battles."It also restricted the movements of diplomats remaining there in an action that appeared to be retaliation for similar diplomatic moves by Western European countries earlier this week.The expulsions came a few hours after Iraq issued a warning that seemed to accept all-out war as inevitable.

LONDON -- U.S. and European diplomats prepared yesterday to consider possible new sanctions in the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, even as Iran's top nuclear negotiator signaled again that Tehran would be willing to engage in "constructive and logical" negotiations with the U.S. As representatives of the U.N. Security Council nations plus Germany met here in the wake of Iran's latest refusal to halt its uranium-enrichment efforts, there were signs...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the stately French Embassy, the paper shredder had stopped for a moment.At the Canadian Embassy, Ambassador Christopher Poole pondered whether it was worth a long and dangerous drive through the desert to haul classified communications equipment out of Baghdad.At the U.S. Embassy, the chief diplomat, Thomas C. Wilson, waited in a florid purple necktie and alligator-skin shoes for the final orders to fly out of Iraq tomorrow morning.And at another embassy, a blond, red-cheeked Western woman wondered what would become of her Iraqi-soldier husband and her two children when the war started.

Franklin & MarshallDiplomatsCoach: Tom Gilburg, 17th yearAssistant coaches: Glenn Adamire, Al Brooks, Tom Caterbone, Tony DiPaolo, Ken Pederson, Mark Snyder, Don Hess, Jim McMahonLast year's record: 3-7-0 overall, 2-5 and tied for sixth in Centennial Football ConferenceTop returnees: Seniors, running back Jake Kolen, offensive linemen Paul Kelly, Steve Carroll, Pete Spinner, defensive end Alberto Mascaro, defensive linemanKevin Murray; juniors, defensive back...

TEHRAN, Iran -- There is only limited evidence to support President Clinton's depiction of Iran as a country bent on terrorism and rushing to acquire nuclear arms, according to diplomats closely studying developments here.Iran might hope to develop nuclear weapons in a decade, the diplomats say, and does give rhetorical and some financial support to outlaw groups.But the diplomats and other analysts in the region suggest that the threat from Iran is exaggerated by the United States, and that the U.S. plan to isolate Iran may only increase the regime's radicalism.

There was a time when a president and the opposition party in Congress could agree on certain basics, such as the right of the chief executive to select members of his cabinet with no fuss or bother. The president's most important choice in this regard was of his secretary of state, the first among supposed equals in the cabinet and once at the top of the ladder in terms of presidential succession after the vice president. That pecking order was changed by statute to elevate the speaker of the House and then the Senate president pro tem on the list, on the premise that anyone ascending to the presidency under the Constitution ought to have first been an elected official.

After a long drive from Arizona, prosecutors say, Dmytro Holovko pulled up to a meeting spot on Liberty Road and unloaded hundreds of pounds of marijuana - another successful shipment for a drug ring accused of using Baltimore as a hub in a distribution network that brought in $1 million a month. Holovko, a 54-year-old Czech national, stands accused of being a courier for the violent organization, in a case that brought a consul from the Czech Embassy to a federal courtroom in Baltimore on Tuesday amid complaints about the defendant's court-appointed lawyer.

Franklin & Marshall built a 14-point third-quarter lead and held off a late rally to pull off a 14-12 upset over visiting Johns Hopkins on Saturday. The win, Franklin & Marshall's first against Johns Hopkins since 2007, ends the Blue Jays' 22-game regular-season winning streak and their 20-game Centennial Conference winning streak. The Blue Jays (8-1, 7-1) trailed 14-6 late in the fourth quarter before Braden Anderson directed a 14-play, 84-yard drive that Jonathan Rigaud capped with a 7-yard touchdown run with 27 seconds remaining.

The most frightening, harrowing aspect of this raid on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi has to do with the presidents of Libya and the United States ("Libya guards: We were overwhelmed, outgunned," Oct. 11). The Libyan president said that our entire government lied out loud. He knew. President Barack Obama blamed Libya for not securing diplomats in their borders. Do you agree that this is beyond frightening? What have we done? Who do we believe? I am inclined to believe the President of Libya rather than my own. How did we come to this?

Speculation in Israel about the possibility of a strike on Iran's nuclear program in the coming weeks has intensified, and not just because of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's tough talk in Jerusalem. Mr. Romney called for the U.S. and Israel to use "any and all measures" to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons - a position repeated virtually verbatim by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta when he visited Israel a few days later. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that "time to resolve this peacefully is running out," even as theU.S.

Today's decision by Russia and China to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on the brutal regime in Syria is, at most, a hollow victory for President Bashar Assad. Russian officials say they opposed the measure for fear that it would lead to regime change, possibly with the assistance of western military forces, as in Libya. But given the events on the ground this week in Syria, the veto appears likely only to ensure that regime change comes through blood and chaos, not diplomacy.

BEIJING -- China is going forward with plans to detonate a hydrogen bomb at its underground test range at Lop Nor, Western diplomats say, and the test could come within days of President Clinton's expected decision to renew China's favorable trade access to the U.S. market.Communist Party leaders appear to be delaying the explosion for political, not technical reasons. Western diplomats believe that it could come at any time.The military purpose for this test is not regarded as threatening by Western governments, which see it as a predictable upgrade of China's relatively small strategic nuclear force.

UNITED NATIONS -- Iraq demanded yesterday that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad supply the names of non-diplomats who may be hiding in embassy compounds, reiterating its earlier threat to execute anyone protecting foreigners.Secretary of State James A. Baker III swiftly rejected the demand and said it would not affect U.S. policy."We've received a note to that effect. . . . It falls under the heading of the principle of the three R's, I think: We've read it, it's repugnant and we reject it."The communication came in the form of an Iraqi government circular.

Whenever I get the chance to show love to a Diplomats member - whether it's a lowly alum like Un Kasa or the king of kings himself, Cam'ron - I'm going to do it. This is because the Diplomats (better known as Dipset) will go down as one of the best rap cliques of all time, a distinction that, at least for me, requires no second-guessing. It was the Dips' timeless hits, outsized personalities and the insane Harlem flair they brought to everything they did that made them rap's hottest crew for a few years.

At a time when we're all concerned about the gridlock in Washington, do we really want a president who models civility and collaboration by talking about his "friends" - other Republican presidential primary candidates - in terms of their "reprehensible behavior?" How much less would Newt Gingrich respect the people who come out of the gate disagreeing with him? Jon Shorr