Arabs lavish jewels on Secretary of State Rice

Can you say corruption.... How is this even remotely allowed?

www.comcast.net...

Snip
"WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush's foreign policies may be unpopular in the Middle East, but Arab leaders showered his top diplomat with jewelry worth far more than a quarter of a million dollars last year. While Bush himself didn't fare nearly as well, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raked in at least $316,000 in gem-encrusted baubles from the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia alone, making her one of top recipients among U.S. officials of gifts from foreign heads of state and government and their aides in 2007.

In January, Jordan's King Abdullah II gave Rice an emerald and diamond necklace, ring, bracelet and earrings estimated to be worth $147,000, according to the State Department's annual inventory of such items released Monday just in time for Christmas.

The king and his wife, Queen Rania, also gave Rice a less expensive necklace and earrings along with a jewelry box valued at $4,630, the document shows.

Not to be outdone, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia presented Rice with a ruby and diamond necklace with matching earrings, bracelet and ring worth $165,000 in July. The inventory also includes a $170,000 flower petal motif necklace the Saudi monarch gave to Rice in 2005, which the department says was not previously "

This may be a perk of the job but I dont think she should be able to keep them. If they are giving her gifts like this it may be for political favours she has given them. All gifts politicians receive should be auctioned off and the money given to charity.

If you was a politician and you had to broker a deal between two parties and Mr X always gave you a warm welcome in his palace and showered you with jewels. But Mr Y threw his shoe at you and makes you stop in a hotel when you visit him, who you argue the most for.

It leaves her open to bribery.

Snip
"The inventory, prepared by State Department's Office of Protocol, catalogues all gifts given to top administration officials. The presents range from the modest — a $6 assortment of nuts and dried fruit from the Dalai Lama to Mrs. Bush — to the extravagant — Rice's jewelry — and the odd — a $570 Brush Cutter with "comfort grip handles" from the Swedish prime minister to the president, presumably for use at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Bush got a $150 bronze platypus paperweight from an Australian official. The prime minister of Singapore gave Bush $450 worth of fitness equipment, including a "uSurf Wave Action Exerciser" and an "iGallop Core and Abs Exerciser," according to the documents, which offer a window into the tastes of foreign leaders.

The wife of Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe appears to be an animal lover, having given Laura Bush two red, white and blue hand-embroidered pillows with American flag designs and the names and images of first dogs Barney and Miss Beazley worth $100 last year.

She also gave the first lady a $700 porcelain Limoges box with the two pets painted on it and a stuffed black fleece Scotty toy valued at $100, the inventory shows."




Is it just me or does anyone else find Bush's gifts to be particularly lame. Now to most, they would think that this would imply a dislike for our president by many foreign heads of state. However, this would be naive given the lavish gifts bestowed upon his underlings. How could one explain this? I think I can.

It would not surprise me if once disassembled or cut open, one would find the real gifts given to Bush. I mean, one could cleverly hide cash, diamonds, any assortment of jewels, barabonds, or any other valuables inside of any of the gifts given to Bush and his family. To me, this makes a lot more sense than them giving him all these crappy gifts that I am sure he would just throw away.



[edit on 23-12-2008 by BluegrassRevolutionary]

I believe Rice is in violation of Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution by accepting these items without Consent of Congress.

Specifically;

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.

Found at this link

And according to the U.S. Code, here,

-CITE-

5 USC Sec. 7342 01/03/2007

-EXPCITE-

TITLE 5 - GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION AND EMPLOYEES

PART III - EMPLOYEES

Subpart F - Labor-Management and Employee Relations

CHAPTER 73 - SUITABILITY, SECURITY, AND CONDUCT

SUBCHAPTER IV - FOREIGN GIFTS AND DECORATIONS

-HEAD-

Sec. 7342. Receipt and disposition of foreign gifts and decorations

-STATUTE-
(h) The Attorney General may bring a civil action in any district

court of the United States against any employee who knowingly

solicits or accepts a gift from a foreign government not consented

to by this section or who fails to deposit or report such gift as

required by this section. The court in which such action is brought

may assess a penalty against such employee in any amount not to

exceed the retail value of the gift improperly solicited or

received plus $5,000.

So if the items are not deposited by the accepting party as a US asset, the party may be prosecuted up to the above mentioned penalty.

If there are say multiple items worth close to a million, add 5K to each item in addition to the items values and pay up.

Probably a drop in the bucket for Rice, but how flauntingly arrogant to commit yet another crime.

I'm sure she turns them over to the proper state officials after wearing them once or twice to state events so as not to hurt the feelings of the foreign officials who gave them to her. It's diplomacy.

Nothing illegal has been done as far as we know.

All gifts go to the government to be sold to unburden the
bailouts.

This problem occured with Clinton and Reagan administrations.

The article states that the items were turned in to the state department, it wouldn't let me copy and paste but it's there they wont get to keep these gifts, so quit claiming illegal action and read the article.