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By James Morrison

The Washington Times

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

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Question of the Day

The FBI admits it now uses drones for surveillance. Will an armed drone ever kill an American on U.S. soil?

The diplomatic dispatch, first reported by the India Times on Tuesday, was among the thousands of cable released recently by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

IS JONATHAN BAD LUCK?

The former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria warned that the current president, Goodluck Jonathan, was a corrupt and ambitious politician waiting for his predecessor to die before assuming power last year.

Mr. Jonathan has a “chequered past as a corrupt and ineffective” governor of the Nigerian state of Bayelsa, U.S. Ambassador Robin Renee Sanders says in a December 2009 cable to Washington.

Mr. Jonathan was governor from 2005 to 2007 and served as vice president until the death of Umaru Yar'adua on March 5, 2010.

Ms. Sanders reported on Mr. Jonathan’s growing influence as he served as acting president while Mr. Yar'adua was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia with a terminal illness.

She said the “country is in a real mess, as Yar'adua has been in and out of a comatose state since his arrival in Saudi.”

The cable was among those released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and was first reported Tuesday by AllAfrica.com.

• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297 or email jmorrison@washingtontimes.com. The column is published on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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About the Author

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 ...