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If James Rubin's lies were not so dangerous, he would be funny. This comes straight from the State Department. Does anyone understand the expression "Well, it's a little bit out of left field maybe". It sounds extremely ingratiating. ---------------------------------------------- Excerpt: U.S. Delegation to Northern Iraq State Department Noon Briefing, March 9, 2000. State Department Spokesman Jamie Rubin briefed. Q: Well, it's a little bit out of left field maybe, but the Iraqi Foreign Minister is complaining to the UN Security Council that an American State Department delegation has gone into northern Iraq. They don't like it. And I wonder if you could respond to that? Have they got their facts right? And do they have a cause for complaint? MR. RUBIN: Yes. We have from time to time sent delegations to Northern Iraq from the regional bureau there, to work with the Kurdish officials in Northern Iraq, to promote reconciliation between the officials there to ensure that they comply with and live up to the agreement they reached in Washington that the Secretary of State negotiated with them. So those visits do occur from time to time, and they generally occur without the support of the Iraqi Government. And we're aware that the Iraqi Government doesn't support such visits. But we have made clear, while we recognize the territorial integrity of Iraq, that we think it's important and appropriate for us to meet with Kurdish officials in northern Iraq, and we will continue to do so as we see fit. Q: You mean reconciliation between Kurdish groups? MR. RUBIN: Right. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov) -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi