Condi Gets Gangsta

I'm not sure why she would have expected more from a government that has spent years raping women and slaughtering men, but Condi wasn't having it! I actually cannot recall an incident where American officials have been bullied like this but, in a rare instance of agreement, I am glad that Ms. Rice called them on their thuggish behavior and demanded an apology.

"Problems began when guards held up part of Rice's motorcade, stranding her Arabic-language translator, some senior aides and reporters at the gate.

When the officials were finally allowed through, some found themselves barred from entering the building for the meeting. As Rice senior adviser Jim Wilkinson tried to get in, guards repeatedly pushed and jostled him, and at one point he was shoved into a wall.

'Diplomacy 101 says you don't rough your guests up,' Wilkinson said afterward.

Reporters, whom guards reluctantly allowed into the meeting for a planned photo session, were harassed and elbowed, and guards repeatedly tried to rip a microphone away from a U.S. reporter.

Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed, head of the Sudanese mission in Washington, attempted to smooth over the situation on the spot. 'Please accept our apologies,' he told reporters. 'This is not our policy.'

But there was another scuffle moments later.

The reporters were told not to ask questions, over State Department objections. When NBC diplomatic reporter Andrea Mitchell tried to ask el-Bashir about involvement with alleged atrocities, guards grabbed her and muscled her toward the rear of the room. Other reporters and a camera crew were also pushed out as Rice and el-Bashir watched.

'It makes me very angry to be sitting there with their president and have this happen,' Rice told reporters afterward. 'They have no right to push and shove.'"

Honestly! Who the heck do these hoodlums think they are (and do they know who they are messing with)?