Reuters: Powell Cancels Plans to Visit Athens

Powell cancels plans to visit Athens
Sat 28 August, 2004 07:21

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will not visit Athens to attend the Olympic Games closing ceremonies because of the "press of business" in Washington, the U.S. State Department says....

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=573069§ion=news

they do something right.

They've snubbed so many millions of protestors, why stop now?

ATHENS, Greece - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Power (sic) canceled a weekend visit to Greece on Saturday, just hours after demonstrators staged a protest march.

Greece's foreign ministry said Powell informed his Greek counterpart, Petros Moliviatis, that "urgent responsibilities" prevented him from carrying out the visit to attend the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympics on Sunday.

Powell thanked Moliviatis in a letter "for the especially successful and secure organization of the games."

On Friday, riot police used tear gas to disperse about 1,500 demonstrators from reaching the U.S. Embassy to protest Powell's visit.

Come on, couldn't they come up with a better lie?

where's the urgency?

Colin wants to spend more time with his family.

Like not making the chimp and his administration look even worse than they already do.

Hoping for a feel good photo op from the "popular" member of chimp's team, he runs and hides when he realizes that it devolve into an embarrassing session of boos and possibly being pelted with rotten fruits and eggs.

Every last one of them is an international disgrace.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin Powell canceled his trip to Greece at the last minute partly because of concern his presence -- expected to be met with anti-war protests -- might have disrupted the closing ceremony at the Olympics, State Department officials said Saturday.

Powell's decision, announced just hours before he was to depart, came after anti-American protests in Athens on Friday that featured "Powell Go Home" placards.
<snip>

"It is an enormous victory of the anti-war movement that managed to cancel the visit of the arch-killer Powell," protest organizer Yiannis Sifahakis told The Associated Press.
<snip>

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/gen/news/story?id=1869913

:grouphug:

What a PR disaster. If it was this bad for Powell can you imagine what might have occurred if Bush had gone? There were rumors that he was.

Jay

the closing ceremony.

Wouldn't that be wonderful? I am sure the crowd would know how to make the most of it...
:evilgrin:

More probable is, however, that the vocality of the "Kenteris" crowd during the 200m finals convinced them of canceling the trip. Greeks sure know how to protest...

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=573069§ion=news

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will not visit Athens to attend the Olympic Games closing ceremonies because of the "press of business" in Washington, the U.S. State Department says.

"Secretary of State Colin Powell informed Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis that due to the press of business in Washington the secretary would not be able to travel to Athens to attend the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement on Saturday.

I am glad he backed out. Greece deserves to have a great ending to their Olympics.

I have ferrrets that will tear a new orofice for4 Powell in the place of his choosing.


:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

Those were pretty impressive street demonstrations.

Well, Colin, you wanted to set records in the history books. Are you the first head of state booed away from the Olympics?

Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qutar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan ...

This spy thing's going to have him pretty damned busy over the next few days. BTW, has Tony made any formal statements?

Fucking up the Olympics with political showboating? Nooooo, dude.

Oh, the glorious power of protests--the bushes know it too well.
Didn't bush have some eggs thrown at his limousine at some point during his shoved-down-our-throats inaugural parade back in 2000?
Colin Powell loves adulation--he saw he wasn't gonna get it. He bailed out of Athens like Poppy out of the Barbara II over the waters of ChiChi Jima back in WWII.

Who wants to bet Powell would be attending, had Iraq won a medal in Olympic soccer?

Plus with the shit hitting the fan over this spy thing, Colin's got to get home to do some shredding.

Wonder why they didn't accurately read the sign?
Could it be because they are whores??

Good for them! Powell is a disgrace and a sell-out! Harry Belafonte was right. x(

Do we still have a State Department? Boy, have they been castrated by the neocon fascists in the DOD.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/040828/photos_wl_afp/040828064319_43tor9uo_photo0&e=1


Powell cancels trip to attend closing ceremony of Olympic Games
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/oly_2004_greece_us

Truth hurts huh colin?!?

"DONT FORGET: In Najaf they are massacring civilians, in Palestine they are building wall."

KKE or "KouKouEh" is the Greek Communist Party.

And to be fair, Greeks equally hated Clinton, the "butcher of Kosovo".

There was an article on one of Japan's tabloid weeklies recently about anti-American sentiment in Hellas. Apparently, there was quite a bit before bu$h, but bu$h has been pouring gasoline on the fire.

maybe Bush realizes his prime-time lineup has all the appeal of watching paint dry. Powell could get numbers, ratings.

we shall see

if he does attend, will he be the only black in the bldg.?

What will Mr. GoFuckYourself say? :scared: :scared: :scared:

And they are afraid to go to a well secured event.

Just heard that MSNBC reprterd the POWELL KILLER part.

That is another pt. for MSNBC.

Despite Dire Warnings of Possible Terrist Activity (but we have no specific threats), this Olympics has been VERY peaceful. But let a member of the Regime announce plans to attend, and protesters spring from the very SOIL of Greece--as if Dragon's teeth had been sown!

Note well that nobody protested the appearance of the American athletes. It was the appearance of a member of the bu$h REGIME that set them off!

In other words: yo, Little George! The whole fucking world hates your lying, thieving, murdering ass. And they ain't too fond of yer boyz either!

:evilgrin:
dbt

This must be Greeks telling Powell he's persona non grata, that his presence at the Olympic Games is not wellcomed.

They don't wan't this fuckwit to fuck up their beautifull games with inevitable violent protests against Powell. I'm glad Greeks got their priorities right, and I hope there will be more to follow their example in diplomatic embargo against US war-criminals.

We'll only lose good negative press if he doesn't go. Oh well, still funny!!

Did he really?

What a jerk!

"Keep good relations with the Grecians."
Quoted in the Economist, June 12, 1999

Maybe that's how he got the idea.....it certainly shows his ignorance.

it might be behind this decision.

Many of the protesters in Athens were carrying Communist flags and the large anti-Powell banner on the Parthenon also had the symbols of the Greek Communist Party on it. So, how embarrassing would such a protest be in the eyes of the average American voter? And how much of the protest would have been shown on TV anyway? Five seconds?

The fact that he doesn't go now gets much more media attention and is much more embarrassing for him.

On the other hand, there is a long-standing power struggle about the right Iran policy going on in Washington with Powell and Douglas Feith on opposite sides of the aisle.

"The senior official and another Administration source said the ultimate objective of Mr Feith and a group of neo-conservative civilians inside the Pentagon is change of government in Iran.

The immediate objective appeared to be to "antagonise Iran so that they get frustrated and then by their reactions harden US policy against them".

The official confirmed that the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, complained directly to the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, several days ago about Mr Feith conducting missions that went against US policy."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/08/1060145871467.html?oneclick=true

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2273474#2273698

Perhaps he stays in Washington because he sees the chance to deal a severe blow to the "Gestapo office" of neoconservatives directed by Cheney.

:bounce:

"However, I strongly suspect that as this story develops the bigger deal will be less the alleged recipient of the information, Israel, than the country that is the subject of the information, Iran.

I don't mean to imply that it's an either/or. It can very much be both. But the reportage thus far has understated the degree to which this is an Iran story -- it grows out of the simmering and unresolved administration battle over policy toward Iran."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_08_22.php#003364

I'm pretty sure it was Greek governement telling Powell to keep away in order to keep things calm during Olympic Games.

There's world outside US domestic politics, you know, even if that is hard to see sometimes.

The Iraqi football team lost to Italy (and a chance at medal) and Powell lost a chance to bask in the teams glory.

A victory for Greece's protestors!

His book is a real big hit in Ireland.

Once Clinton returned early from Greece for security reasons and even cancelled a trip. But the story always gave the REAL reason for the change in plans, unlike this deceptive, irresponsible mess that is the current admin.

Greeks harbor anti-American feelings primarily over U.S. support of the 1967-74 military junta, which persecuted its leftist opponents. Many Greeks also believe Washington ignores the concerns of smaller and weaker countries.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040828/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/powell_protest_6

Disgraceful! Most people forgot about things in a couple years and Vietnam, Cambodia are examples of that.

But that doesn't make them "anti-American".

I listened to one protester today who told the BBC that the protest was directed against the policies of the US government, not against the American people.

Greeks have lot of reasons to hate US policies from the Junta to Cyprus, Turkey, Kosovo and Iraq etc.

But note also that the most popular politician in Greece, George Papandreou, son of Andreas and current leader of PASOK, is half-American, and that most Greeks have American relatives.

That was one of the shortest news stories I ever saw.

Greek food anymore?

Half the restaurants in NY will have to close if they do that.

People who are just as fed up with this administration as we are.

upon hearing of his impending arrival and they took to the streets--something we don't do anymore in this country when something upsets us--- we just grab the remote and change the channel.

I'm more and more embarrassed by these Rethuglicans. The rest of the world can see through them, but our own sheeple can't. Well, we here at DU can:)

Demonstrators make their way past Syntagma square in Athens. The group, shouting anti-war slogans, was protesting the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell. ALAN GRETH, Contra Costa Times





WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell canceled his trip to Greece at the last minute partly because of concern his presence - expected to be met with anti-war protests - might have disrupted the closing ceremony at the Olympics, State Department officials said Saturday.

Powell's decision, announced just hours before he was to depart, came after anti-American protests in Athens on Friday that featured "Powell Go Home" placards.

The secretary was not concerned about his own security but felt Greek organizers were entitled to carry out the Sunday night ceremony without the potential for distraction that his presence might have caused, said two State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Many Greeks had wondered why Powell planned to visit this weekend, knowing his presence would likely provoke protests. Until Powell announced his visit, there had been none of the anti-American demonstrations that were feared in the run-up to the games.

He discussed the situation on Friday with Greek Foreign Minister Petros Moliviatis. Powell said he hopes to travel to Athens in October.

The officials said a contributing factor was the U.N. Security Council's debate this week over the performance of the Sudanese government in carrying out a council resolution last month on Darfur.

The council set Monday as the deadline for Sudan to demonstrate it is acting to improve security and humanitarian access in Darfur and to curb Arab militias in the western Sudanese region.

Some council members, notably China and Pakistan, have been reluctant to take strong steps against Sudan. It is not clear what the United States will recommend during the upcoming deliberations.

In Athens, the Greek foreign ministry said Powell decided against the trip because of "urgent responsibilities."

The State Department said initially that the situations in Iraq and Sudan led to the cancellation. Later, however, officials said Sudan was the primary foreign concern this weekend for Powell.

On Wednesday, a department spokesman, Adam Ereli, said officials were aware of protest plans. "We are committed to visiting our Greek friends and sharing in this very important occasion," he said.

In a letter, Powell congratulated Moliviatis "for the especially successful and secure organization of the games."

Friday's protest was directed largely against U.S. policies in Iraq. Greece, along with about 10 other members of NATO, is not a part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

more....
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/sports/special_packages/olympics/9521136.htm

Bush's favorite fellatio partners.

The American people need to know that even one of the more well-liked members of the Bush administration can't or won't attend an international sporting and goodwill event because of the unpopularity of his administration's policies. How the hell do we "win hearts and minds" when even Powell is shown hostility?

Wake the hell up, America. We are losing everything, and it's basically due to the short-sighted policies of the current administration.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

"Secretary of State Colin Powell canceled his trip to Greece at the last minute partly because of concern that his presence - expected to be met with anti-war protests - might have disrupted the closing ceremony at the Olympics, State Department officials said yesterday."

<...>

The secretary was not worried about his own security but felt that Greek organizers were entitled to carry out tonight's ceremony without the potential for distraction that his presence might have caused, said two State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031777597393&path=!nationworld&s=1037645509161

Funny. It was clear that there would be protests, so why did he want to go anyway?