How Tough is Condi Rice?

She'll go to the mat with Sudanese thugs on behalf of the reporters who'd love nothing more than seeing her boss, her colleagues, and herself clapped in irons:

Security forces in the Sudanese capital manhandled U.S. officials and reporters traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, marring her round of meetings with leaders of the new unified government. Rice demanded an apology, and got it.

"It makes me very angry to be sitting there with their president and have this happen," she said. "They have no right to push and shove."

Rice made her remarks to reporters Thursday after she and her entourage boarded an airplane to fly from the capital to a refugee camp in the Darfur region. At the camp, she said the Sudanese government must prove its promises are credible and she would hold the government to account if it fails to end the refugee crisis.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Sudanese foreign minister responded to Rice's demand for an apology by telephoning her aboard the plane to express regret for the incidents at the ultra-high-security residence of Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir.

Twice, Sudanese guards' hostility toward members of Rice's entourage devolved into shouts and shoving.

As Rice's motorcade arrived at the residence, armed guards blocked three vehicles from entering, including those carrying Rice's interpreter and other aides who were supposed to attend her meeting with el-Bashir. ADVERTISEMENT



When the officials were finally allowed through the gate, 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 pulled him, and at one point he was shoved into a wall.

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

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.

Why do I suspect Colin Powell would only have said something had it imperilled his opportunities to anonymously smear the Bush administration?