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James Morrison

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James Morrison

jmorrison@washingtontimes.com

James Morrison joined the The Washington Times in 1983 as a local reporter covering Alexandria, Va. A year later, he was assigned to open a Times bureau in Canada. From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Morrison was The Washington Times reporter in London, covering Britain, Western Europe and NATO issues. After returning to Washington, he served as an assistant foreign editor until his transfer to the Metro desk as the Virginia editor. Mr. Morrison returned to the Foreign Desk in 1993 to launch the Embassy Row column, a diplomatic news column primarily focusing on foreign ambassadors in the United States and U.S. ambassadors abroad. The column is the only one of its kind in U.S. journalism.
Mr. Morrison was born on Nov. 27, 1950, in Charleston, W.Va. His father worked as a printer for the Charleston Gazette and later relocated to Washington to work as a photo engraver at The Washington Post until his retirement. Before joining The Washington Times, James Morrison was a reporter for the Springfield, Va., Times, the Northern Virginia Sun and the Alexandria Gazette. He attended American University.

Articles by James Morrison

Embassy Row

The top U.S. diplomat for Africa faced a revealing question at a press conference in Uganda that exposed African suspicions about the American role in Somalia, a failed state threatened by Muslim terrorists loyal to al Qaeda and plagued with pirates who attack ships in the Indian Ocean.

August 1, 2010

Embassy Row

John Roos will be the first U.S. ambassador to Japan to attend the annual commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima.

July 29, 2010

This is an undated file photo, issued by the Crown Office, of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Libyan man found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing. (Associated Press/Crown Office, File)

Embassy Row

President Obama's top counterterrorism aide denounced Scotland's decision last year to release the Lockerbie bomber as a "travesty" and categorically denied a widespread report that the United States secretly endorsed the decision to free the Libyan terrorist, who was sentenced to life in prison.

July 27, 2010

**FILE** Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (Associated Press)

Embassy Row

The chairman of a key congressional human rights panel is complaining that Kazakhstan is failing to promote democracy as promised when the Central Asian nation won U.S. support to lead a major European civil rights council.

July 25, 2010

Embassy Row

The British government is defending its ambassador in Washington against predictions that he will be the scapegoat in the embarrassing, tangled web involving Libya, the Lockerbie bomber and a massive contract for the London-based BP oil giant.

July 22, 2010

Embassy Row

A major Armenian-American organization is raising conflict-of-interest questions about Matthew J. Bryza, who is scheduled to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday for a hearing on his nomination to serve as ambassador to Azerbaijan, Armenia's deadly rival.

July 20, 2010

Embassy Row

Houston, you have a problem.

July 18, 2010

Embassy Row

"Nobody is happy to leave this country."

July 15, 2010

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi

Embassy Row

The British ambassador is defending the decision last year to release the Libyan terrorist serving a life sentence for the Lockerbie plane bombing, after four U.S. senators demanded an investigation into reports that Libya paid a British doctor to claim he had only three months to live.

July 13, 2010

Al-Otaiba

Embassy Row

The ambassador of the United Arab Emirates is not the kind of diplomat to speak carelessly, especially when talking about endorsing a U.S. military strike on Iran to stop it from developing a nuclear bomb.

July 11, 2010

Embassy Row

The deputy foreign minister of Greece readily concedes the irony of a socialist government slashing the budget and cutting treasured social programs - actions that send thousands of union workers into the streets, denouncing the ruling party as a lackey of "bankers and bosses."

July 8, 2010

Embassy Row

The U.S. ambassador in Australia is not afraid to call a terrorist a terrorist, despite the politically correct climate at the White House.

July 6, 2010

**FILE** Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Associated Press)

Embassy Row

Foreign visitors in Washington this week include Prime Minister Benjamin Netyanhu of Israel, who meets President Obama to discuss sanctions on Iran, Israel's policy toward Hamas terrorists in Gaza and other Middle East issues.

July 4, 2010

**FILE** President Barack Obama (Associated Press)

Embassy Row

Morton Klein, the head of a major Jewish American group, believes he made an impact on his visit to Washington this week, as public opinion polls in the United States and in Israel show a growing dislike for President Obama and his Middle East policies.

June 30, 2010

**FILE** President Obama (Associated Press)

Embassy Row

Nine months after caving in to Russian demands to scrap a U.S. missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, President Obama is proposing to cooperate with Moscow on a global missile defense, according to the U.S. ambassador to Russia.

June 28, 2010

**FILE** Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the United States (AP Photo)

Embassy Row

Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren shocked legislators in Jerusalem and forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to correct his envoy in Washington after Mr. Oren appeared to be rewriting history this week in a 25-year-old Israeli spy case.

June 23, 2010

Bernardo Alvarez (Courtesy of venezuela-us.org)

Embassy Row

The ambassador of Venezuela, whose government is widely criticized for civil rights abuses, denounced a House subcommittee for holding a hearing into press censorship under socialist President Hugo Chavez, calling it a "sad spectacle" and vilifying a Latin American human rights official for appearing before the U.S. Congress.

June 21, 2010

**FILE** Maleeha Lodhi (The Washington Times)

Embassy Row

bemoaned the "roller-coaster relationship" between the two countries, as Pakistan repeatedly seesaws from being the "most allied of allies to the most sanctioned" one.

June 16, 2010

Susman

Embassy Row

In London, U.S. Ambassador Louis Susman is fending off criticism that President Obama displayed an anti-British attitude in his attacks on BP over the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

June 14, 2010

**FILE** Rep. Kay Granger (Associated Press)

Embassy Row

The co-chair of the House Human Trafficking Caucus is urging the South African government to crack down on the country's widespread sexual slave trade during the World Cup this month, when a half million foreigners are expected to attend the international soccer tournament.

June 9, 2010