By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: February 1, 2008 Filed at 3:21 a.m. ET
Incidents of U.S. diplomats straying from official foreign policy lines, prompting rebukes from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top aides:
NORTH KOREA
Jay Lefkowitz, the special U.S. envoy for human rights in North Korea, gave a Jan. 17 speech in Washington in which he trashed the six-nation negotiations aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs. Rice responded with an unusually blunt and sharp disavowal of the comments, saying Lefkowitz ''has nothing to do with the six-party talks.''
IRAN
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad violated administration policy on contact with Iranian officials by appearing onstage Jan. 26 with Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki at a World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The State Department said Khalilzad did not seek permission to participate.
KENYA VIOLENCE
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer described postelection violence in Kenya as ''ethnic cleansing'' while speaking to reporters on Jan. 30 at an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack distanced the administration from the emotionally charged phrase, refusing to repeat it and saying it was too soon to characterize the situation in such terms.
