PRESS RELEASE
British Apoplectic Over Hillary Clinton's
Dealings with Argentina
March 11, 2010 (EIRNS)—Both the City of London's mouthpiece, the Times, and enraged Daily Telegraph blogger Nile Gardiner let it all hang out today in fulminating against the U.S. State Department's "crime" of referring to the Falkland Islands as the Malvinas, as Argentina calls them.
The Times reveals that the Foreign Office has issued three complaints, in phone calls and e-mails, to the State Department—tantamount to a formal protest—to "restate Britain's position on sovereignty over the islands, and seek clarification of the U.S. position," after State Department official Phillip Crowley answered a British reporter's Feb. 25 question about the U.S. stance on the islands, by saying "Or the Malvinas, depending on how you see it." And he dared to repeat the dreaded 'Malvinas' word twice!
Gardiner included the text of the Feb. 25 State Department exchange in which Crowley repeatedly stated that the U.S. "remains neutral" on the sovereignty issue, and added that, the dispute between the U.K. and Argentina should be handled "through normal diplomatic channels, and we support dialogue"—which the British, of course, reject.
Gardiner notes that the Times article doesn't even mention Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent crime against the empire, in Buenos Aires, when she accepted President Cristina Kirchner's invitation to mediate between Argentina and the UK over the Malvinas. This, Gardiner rants, was a "strategic error in judgement by Washington, and yet another demonstration of a poorly conceived foreign policy doctrine that attaches little importance to preserving friendships and alliances, while currying favor with anti-American regimes."
Complaining that Washington "has not taken on board British sensibilities," the Times reports that British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's refusal to call Clinton after a brief appearance in Boston today, was no doubt a deliberate snub of the Secretary, with whom he claims to have a close personal relationship.
