“Diplomacy” on The Daily Caller

When a YouTube video featuring Marines urinating on Taliban corpses surfaced earlier this month, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta responded quickly and clearly: “I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.” The directness contrasted with the more indefinite conclusion of an eight-month Air Force investigation into the motive of an Afghan pilot who killed eight of his U.S. Air Force mentors in a suicidal shooting spree at Kabul International Airport (KIA) last April. The report found that shooter Ahmad Gul — who spent 18 months at a fundamentalist mosque in Pakistan before recently returning to Afghanistan because he “wanted to kill Americans” — prayed all night before the attack at his pro-Pakistan Kabul mosque and shouted in between shots for “good Muslims [to] please stay away.” Yet even with the writing seemingly on the wall — indeed, he wrote “Allah is one” on a wall with his blood and died of his self-inflicted wounds chanting “Allah, Allah” — the report found no conclusive motive. It did, however, partially rule out one: “none of the co-workers believed subject was a religious radical.” (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending a small team of diplomats to Tripoli this weekend to prepare for the eventual opening of the U.S. Embassy in Libya. (more)

WASHINGTON- Diplomacy took a backseat to head-to-head competition Tuesday night as chefs from 12 countries vied for the title of top embassy chef. (more)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A “blood money” deal to free a CIA contractor who killed two Pakistani men removes a major thorn in relations between the United States and Pakistan, but bruising from the incident and disagreements over Afghanistan mean the alliance will likely remain stormy. (more)

The recent celebrations of President Reagan’s legacy of service on what would have been his 100th birthday have brought back memories. It was one of the greatest honors of my life to serve under this remarkable man as both secretary of defense and national security advisor, working to keep America safe and secure and to liberate millions from the tyranny of communism. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hoping to widen the audience for its mini-pronouncements of U.S. policy amid growing unrest in the Middle East, the State Department has begun sending Twitter messages in Arabic. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a supporter of presidential candidate Barack Obama, Cynthia Stroum was a superstar whose financial backing of the campaign landed her a plum diplomatic posting in Europe. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreign leaders showered President Barack Obama and his family with hundreds of thousands of dollars in art, jewelry, rare books and other presents during their first year in the White House. (more)

The United States lost an exceptional public servant last month with the passing of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and I lost a friend and mentor. I came to know Holbrooke during the negotiations that ended the war in Bosnia and brought a diplomatic solution to a war-torn people. He masterfully directed a peace agreement that demonstrated the true importance of civilian-military cooperation with a team that included me, General Wesley Clark, and Ambassadors Chris Hill and James Pardew. (more)

HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama is quietly but strategically stepping up his outreach to Africa, using this year to increase his engagement with a continent that is personally meaningful to him and important to U.S. interests. (more)

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s military, the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel, is in decline, according to American diplomats, who blame the Arab nation’s top brass for failing to modernize and adapt to deal with new threats. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dared the U.S. to expel his ambassador in retaliation for his move to reject the U.S. envoy to the South American country. On Wednesday, that’s just what the Obama administration did. (more)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Anna Nicole Smith may have been just a “B-list celebrity,” but she hit the Bahamas like a hurricane, spreading scandals that toppled a string of officials and endangered the whole government, according to newly leaked U.S. diplomatic cables. (more)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — World powers trying to defuse tensions between North and South Korea met in an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday, but diplomats said China objects to the North being singled out for criticism over two deadly attacks this year that have helped send relations to their lowest point in decades. (more)

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, posing a threat to its neighbors, and the United States is “very ready” to counter Iran should it make a move, the top U.S. military officer said Saturday. (more)

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban-American exiles in Florida may be eagerly awaiting the death of Fidel Castro, but U.S. diplomats in Havana don’t expect the revolutionary icon’s passing to generate any immediate unrest on the communist-run island, or even an upsurge in Cubans seeking to leave, according to a newly released diplomatic cable. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke received telephone calls from the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan as he recovered from lifesaving surgery, correcting a tear in the large artery that moves blood from his heart. (more)

HAVANA (AP) — A newly released confidential U.S. diplomatic cable predicted Cuba’s economic situation could become “fatal” within two to three years, and detailed concerns from other countries’ diplomats — including China — that the communist-run country has been slow to adopt reforms. (more)

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s foreign minister said Thursday it was unacceptable that the country’s ambassador to the United States was patted down by a security agent at a Mississippi airport, and said he would complain to Washington. (more)

CAIRO (AP) — As it dismantled its nuclear weapons program, Libya sparked a tense diplomatic standoff with the United States last year when it refused to hand over its last batch of highly enriched uranium to protest the slowness of improving ties with Washington, leaked U.S. diplomatic memos reveal. (more)