James Morrison
Articles by James Morrison
Embassy Row: Showering praise
Zimbabwe's state-owned newspaper was effusive praising U.S. Ambassador David Bruce Wharton after he expressed kind words for President Robert Mugabe, the longtime authoritarian ruler who tortures opponents and brutalizes civil rights activists. Published June 6, 2013
Embassy Row: Paid to play?
The Indonesian ambassador is denying claims that he paid demonstrators to show support for Indonesia's president when he received an award for religious tolerance in New York. Published June 4, 2013
Embassy Row: No tax haven in Ireland
The Irish ambassador is tangling with two powerful U.S. senators over whether his nation is an illicit tax haven attracting American companies that want to avoid the world's highest corporate tax rate. Published June 2, 2013
Embassy Row: ‘Excuse for attack’
A vice president of the European Parliament is complaining that comments by two State Department officials are being used for propaganda by Iran as it tries to crush exiled dissidents in Iraqi refugee camps. Published May 30, 2013
Embassy Row: Punjab front-runner
A Pakistani journalist who has received death threats from Islamic terrorists is widely regarded as the front-runner to serve as the next ambassador to the U.S. from the terrorist-infected and impoverished South Asian nation. Published May 28, 2013
Embassy Row: Repressive Cuba
Cuba is still politically repressive, poor and largely cut off from the Internet two years after the communist government adopted modest reforms such as term limits on politicians and allowing the sale of private property, a U.S. survey has found. Published May 26, 2013
Embassy Row: Pressure on Iran
The House and Senate this week advanced bills to broaden sanctions against Iran because of its suspected nuclear weapons program and continued abuse of human rights, as the theocratic regime in Tehran took steps to manipulate its June 14 presidential election. Published May 23, 2013
Embassy Row: ‘Preaching to the choir’
The U.S. ambassador to India is urging business executives to press politicians to lift trade barriers and encourage foreign investment to raise the country out of the grinding poverty that infects most of its 1.2 billion people. Published May 21, 2013
Embassy Row: ‘Cognitive disconnect’
Pakistani Ambassador Sherry Rehman doesn't mince words. She rolls them out like fresh dough, pounds them into heaps and injects them with a "cognitive disconnect" or a "bilateral trajectory." Published May 19, 2013
Embassy Row: After Afghanistan for NATO
"In together, out together," Hungarian Defense Minister Csaba Hende explained when asked how long his country's combat troops would stay in Afghanistan after U.S. forces leave next year. Published May 16, 2013
Embassy Row: Pakistani ambassador quits
Pakistani Ambassador Sherry Rehman resigned Tuesday, citing her party's loss in parliamentary elections as she plans to return to her South Asian nation where she faces a police investigation on charges of blasphemy. Published May 14, 2013
Embassy Row: ‘War’ on Bahrain
Lawmakers in the tiny but strategic nation of Bahrain are outraged with the United States and accuse the U.S. ambassador — apparently a mild-manner professional diplomat — of waging "war" against the Persian Gulf kingdom, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Published May 12, 2013
Embassy Row: Former ambassador says Benghazi debacle will hurt ability to recruit diplomats
A former U.S. ambassador with extensive knowledge of terrorist operations in North Africa warned Thursday that the Benghazi debacle will hurt the State Department's ability to recruit diplomats for dangerous duty if they fear Washington will ignore their concerns about security. Published May 9, 2013
Embassy Row: Ambassador at risk
Frank Duggan is worried about the fate of Libya's ambassador to the United States, after reading the latest news from Libya and recalling the adage that no good deed goes unpunished. Published May 7, 2013
Embassy Row: Grave situation
A leading member of Congress is accusing the Iraqi government of failing to protect unarmed Iranian dissidents from terrorist attacks in a refugee camp near Baghdad. Published May 5, 2013
Embassy Row: Drugs and terror
Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren is warning about the links between Latin American drug lords and Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorists. Published May 2, 2013
Embassy Row: Dutch treat
With his home festooned with peonies, orchids and, of course, tulips, the Dutch ambassador treated Washington journalists Tuesday to an elegant luncheon to celebrate the investiture of the first king of the Netherlands in 123 years. Published April 30, 2013
Embassy Row: The Seventh Floor
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is faulting a flawed bureaucratic system for the State Department's failure to blame top U.S. officials for ignoring pleas for more security before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya. Published April 28, 2013
Embassy Row: Shadow democracy in Africa
A small but stable democracy lies in the shadow of Somalia in the volatile and terrorist-infested Horn of Africa. Published April 25, 2013
Embassy Row: Pipeline and protests
Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer is traveling the United States to promote the Keystone XL project as U.S. environmentalists threaten President Obama with civil unrest if he approves the proposed oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas. Published April 23, 2013
