US envoy flags up a snub for Madrid

[emad]

The Times
By David Sharrock

A ROW between Washington and Madrid deepened yesterday when George Argyros, the US Ambassador, claimed that he had stayed away from Spain’s National Day military parade in protest at the Prime Minister’s lack of respect for the US flag.

Mr Argyros, appointed by President Bush to Madrid in 2001, said that he had been angered last year when José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero — who was then the socialist Opposition leader — failed to stand as the US flag passed the VIP stand during the parade. Señor Zapatero was the only person who had failed to stand, the ambassador said.

This was the principal reason for Mr Argyros not attending the parade last Tuesday in Madrid. His absence reignited a row first sparked when Señor Zapatero withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq immediately after winning the general election. Later he urged other nations to follow suit. President Bush responded by accusing the Spanish leader of emboldening terrorists within Iraq.

This year, for the first time since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Spanish Government did not invite the US to participate in its annual military parade. The French were invited instead.
More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1312361,00.html

At least Spain HAS a US Ambassador, unlike Poodle Land UK where Ambassador William "Stamps" Farish III beat a hasty retreat last July without so much as an explanation.......

[izzie]

1. You have to be kidding me. I saw this happen in NH once.

Queen of England son was in town and they did the same thing to the Union Jack. Not the people of the town but the towns leader. Prince Charles did not do the same to our flag. I guess he was raised right.

[Kellanved]

2. aha

-snip
...
According to Spanish newspapers, the ambassador was out of Madrid, but in the country, on a hunting expedition with James Baker, the former US Secretary of State. An official at the US Embassy in Madrid confirmed that the ambassador was hunting, but declined to give details. “He did not plan to attend the military parade. He did plan to attend the reception, but there were problems with his transportation and he was unable to return to Madrid in time,” he said.

Yesterday Señor Bono rejected suggestions that the American envoy’s absence was a calculated insult, but added that “carrying one’s national flag on three previous occasions doesn’t mean that it is a right to do so for ever”.

Although the United States was a “friend and ally of Spain”, the minister said, this year “we are absolutely not” in the right circumstances for including the US flag in the parade.

To those who “rend their clothing” over the affair, he said, they should ask themselves “how many times has the Spanish flag” been seen in a US national parade? Last month the Prime Minister angered Washington by urging other countries to follow Spain’s example and withdraw their troops from Iraq.
...
--snap
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1308231,00.html

It seems diplomatic skill isn't high on the list of requirements for US ambassadors these days. Ours (Coats) is just as incompetent.

[sugus]

3. We need to improve our Diplomacy

It would be better be friends of our friends, trying to be more respectful instead of so arrogant in the World.

91% of spaniards was against the invasion in Iraq for oil.
Could we be more tolerant with this reality?

Yes, I believe it.

We need a change, inmediately.

Perhaps I could be wrong but...ARROGANCY and PREPOTENCY could be origin of terrorism and irrational hate around the World.
Iraq is being a big school of this now. Or not?

[asjr]

4. I could be wrong also but I believe Kerry has

had talks with the European heads of state. Kerry has said he will get the Europeans to help us when he becomes president. I don't know of a country in Europe who doesn't want to see Shrub defeated. They will work with Kerry--no Shrub.

[madrchsod]

5. WHAT ABOUT POLAND

[emad]

6. Poland is 100% solid behind Bush because Poppy did a cold

war deal to keep the lid on some very nasty pedophile abuse cases that Poland wanted to gag.

EG Cardinal Marcinkus who got immunity from prosecution over the Banco Ambrosiano affair/murder of Roberto Calvi.

Also the whitewashing of the sex crimes history of newly elevated Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, see here with JP2, whose CIA records were wiped by Poppy and whose UK entry on a sex offenders register was erased on Thatcher's orders:

[mitchtv]

7. you should change your "is" to "was"

there is little support now.

[sugus]

8. BETTER DELEGATIONS IN THE WORLD, PLEASE

BETTER DELEGATIONS IN THE WORLD, PLEASE


http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/ambassadors/argyros.asp

http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/ambassadors/index.asp

[question everything]

9. Aha, but "King George," as he is known in Orange County, is used to

have his way

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/02/05/a-coker.php

Thousands of poor and middle-class former residents in some of Arnel’s 5,000 apartments in Orange and LA counties allege Argyros’ company swindled them out of millions of dollars in security deposits and cleaning charges over the past several years.

The case against Argyros had once seemed a slam-dunk for prosecutors. In addition to the alleged victims, several ex-Arnel employees were prepared to testify they were ordered—in some cases by Argyros himself—to pad tenants’ bills and unjustly withhold deposits. The Orange County district attorney’s office had been set to seek a $5.3 million judgment, a figure one DA’s investigator called "conservative because the potential violations would be many times that amount."

Some of those former tenants told the Weekly that the settlement will provide little relief because the Arnel experience permanently destroyed their credit histories. One said, "Big surprise: You can’t fight city hall." Others reportedly told the Times they were pleased to get anything, no matter how little.

OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has to be cheered by the decision. It was his own investigators who alleged that Argyros directed a massive "rip-off" scheme through Arnel. But Argyros is a major Republican donor, and Rackauckas, also a Republican, sought to derail the case, saying that Argyros had nothing to do with his company’s alleged unlawful tactics. When a civil war broke out in his office, Rackauckas kicked the case to the state attorney.