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Rice heads back to Mideast

Sometimes even secretaries of state get bigfooted. For two days, it has been obvious to all of us traveling with Condoleezza Rice this week that she would end up in Jerusalem this weekend and also deal with the leaders of Lebanon -- but Rice found artful (diplomatic?) ways to dance around committing herself. Today, it became clear why: she didn't want to preempt the boss, and that meant giving President Bush something to announce at his just-concluded White House news conference with Tony Blair. 

Rice's two top Middle East advisors, David Welch and Elliot Abrams, have been in Israel since yesterday in non-stop meetings to lay the groundwork for further talks. They called her tonight (it's now after Midnight here in Malaysia) to give her a progress report. (What is she doing in Malaysia? She'd previously committed to an annual Asian summit -- requiring 30 hours of flying and a detour from Middle East diplomacy.)

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Rice arrives in Rome

We've just landed in Rome, the next stop on the Condoleezza Rice World Tour. What does the secretary of state have to show so far for her diplomacy? Today, an agreement that Israel will permit aid deliveries at Beirut's airport, plus try to open a ground corridor for relief supplies. More importantly, from talking to the Rice team, a clear sense is emerging that they see the current conflict as a proxy war with Iran. It is Iran's hand that they see  encouraging Hezbollah to take steps it knew would provoke Israel into using force. Rice clearly thinks the future of Lebanon is at stake and with it the future of moderate governments in the Middle East. Key to a solution? Tomorrow's summit on how to create an international force. Who will contribute troops? Will they take charge of the ports? Which comes first, the troops or a cease-fire? A top official just told me on the plane, "Well, they can't fight their way in."

By the way, I'm writing this as our motorcade races from the airport in Rome... my head buried in my BlackBerry. How crazy is that?

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On the road with Madame Secretary

As we left Andrews AFB yesterday, we picked up hints that we might be making an unscheduled stop in Cyprus, presumably to review the evacuation efforts. There was also talk of Beirut, but officials weren't talking. Only after a Midnight refueling stop in Ireland did top officials turn on the lights and tell us we were going to Lebanon.   

I've been to Beirut with several secretaries of state, including Condoleezza Rice, but never this way -- boarding military helicopters into a war zone, snaking through streets in a hair-raising motorcade at breakneck speeds, and then scrambling as Lebanese camera crews almost body tackled Rice to get a picture of her going into a meeting with their prime minister. A U.S. embassy official told us, "please understand, they are desperate for any solutions, she's the first person to arrive that might have some answers."

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Rice headed to Mideast

After criticism that the administration has not been involved enough in seeking a diplomatic solution, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will announce at the State Dept. in two hours that she is leaving Sunday for the Middle East with a first stop in Jerusalem and will outline her expectations for a durable peace plan.

According to a senior U.S. official, she will say that there are no quick fixes and that the U.S. wants a permanent, long-term solution - NOT an immediate cease fire. 
She will say that she is serious about this effort, but she will not lower the bar in order to get a quick solution. Aides say Rice does not want  "innocent lives to be lost as a down payment for future conflict." Before leaving Sunday, she may meet with the Saudi Foreign Minister who will be coming to Washington this weekend. While in Israel, she is likely to make a side trip to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

At this hour, State is organizing a wider summit on Lebanon to take place Wednesday in Rome and to include Russia, European leaders, Egypt, Jordan Saudi Arabia and Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora. Following that meeting, Rice would go on to an Asian summit in Malaysia, and stand ready to return to the Middle East if developments warranted.

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Harmony in Vienna?

VIENNA, Austria -- Condoleezza Rice walked into our interview this morning at 3 a.m. Washington time, ready to explain the Iran initiative that may become her foreign policy legacy. The former National Security Advisor, who acquiesced when George W. Bush declared Iran a charter member of the "Axis of Evil" rogue nations, had spent her first year and a half as secretary of state moving the administration toward this moment: a united front with the U.S., Europe, Russia and China -- all taking a more or less common approach to Iran. 

The "money shot" of their joint statement after hours of talks the night before took place in the cold, windy garden court of the British ambassador to Austria's stately home. But behind all this diplomacy was a tedious, sometimes difficult game of superpower scrabble. What's a five-letter word for "sanctions" that won't scare the Iranians off before they even read the proposal? How about "steps?"

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House, White House disagree on Hamas aid

Only hours before the president meets with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -- today's House vote mandating an end of aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government goes too far, according to the administration. While the administration supports the idea of blocking aid from getting into the hands of Hamas, it says the legislation ties the president's hands in making foreign policy decisions -- giving him no leeway at all to  try to influence Hamas' posture toward Israel. Similar legislation is pending in the Senate. At today's State Department briefing, spokesman Sean McCormack said: "Certainly, the president as chief executive needs to retain certain authorities to be able to fully exercise his responsibilities as the person who implements our foreign policy." Translation: the administration is leaning toward the Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, and Joe Biden, D-Del., which gives the White House waivers to assert presidential authority.   

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Remembering Chernobyl

It's now a distant memory -- a long flight to Bali, 20 years ago tomorrow. I was on the White House press plane, accompanying President Ronald Reagan on a trip to an Asian summit in Indonesia. To give you an idea of how much has changed, the press charter was arranged by Pan Am. En route, the press corps was in an information vacuum and obsessing over a media dispute: Indonesia had banned two Australian broadcasters credentialed to the White House press corps from that portion of the trip because a Sydney newspaper had criticized Indonesian dictator Suharto's corrupt regime.

We were seized with the issue of censorship, banding behind our fellow journalists, especially because President Reagan's summit theme was that the "winds of freedom" were blowing on Southeast Asia. It was becoming a major embarrassment, despite the best efforts of then U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz to negotiate a solution.

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Negroponte: Year One

It's been a year since John Negroponte - former United Nations Ambassador, former Ambassador to Iraq - took over sixteen often-feuding agencies as America's first Director of National Intelligence.  Predictions at the time were that Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld would "run right over him." But in his first television interview since becoming "intelligence czar" (why do we persist in comparing U.S. officials with Russian monarchs?) John Negroponte insists that the bureaucrats have learned a lot of lessons from the mistakes made before 9/11 and before the Iraq war.

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Abdul Rahman to be set free?

A diplomatic source tells NBC News:  In response to what the Afghan government is calling "the unprecedented international outcry," the Afghan government intends to release Abdul Rahman by Monday barring any unforseen circumstances. That would mean he would be out by Sunday U.S. time. This comes after a very tough call yesterday from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In particular, Rice wants the issue resolved quickly before she has to testify at scheduled congressional hearings next week. The controversy threatens to blow up politically for the president at a time when billions of dollars in supplemental aid to pay for the Afghan war and reconstruction are pending.

The primary basis for the release would be the Afghan's claim that Rahman is not mentally competent to stand trial. However, Rice has warned Karzai that that is not an appropriate solution. In any case, he would probably be given security and taken out of the country -- most likely to Germany. 

Secondly:  NBC News has learned that Karzai will submit nominees for a nine-member Afghan Supreme Court to parliament for confirmation, along with his new, 26-member cabinet. The Supreme Court -- once confirmed -- would help avoid future conflicts between the Afghan Constutition's guarantee of free speech and the underlying premises of Islamic law. However, that is long-term -- the court would likely not be confirmed by the parliament for at least a month.

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Remembering Reuven

For all of us at NBC News, there is one name that encompasses the history of this network and our industry - Reuven Frank.  In an era of cathode tubes, long before the digital age, Reuven understood that television news was destined to transmit "experience," not only information.  In his words, "pictures are the point of television reporting."

He was the originator of network news coverage of political conventions, pairing Chet Huntley and David Brinkley in 1956 to co-anchor NBC's coverage. That launched them to fame and became the  precursor to their long run on weeknight television as hosts of the Huntley-Brinkley Report.   

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