Kerry made the detour on his way back from Japan, the final leg of a 10-day overseas tour which started with tragedy when he learned of Anne Smedinghoff‘s death while readying to depart for Turkey on April 6.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/politics/~3/cPY-l75JOvs/
By Matt Cantor 
John Kerry will today meet with the parents of Anne Smedinghoff, the young diplomat killed earlier this month in Afghanistan while carrying textbooks from a military base to a school. The secretary of state is making a stop in Chicago as he returns from Japan, the AP reports. Smedinghoff was…
From: http://www.newser.com/story/166237/kerry-to-visit-slain-diplomats-parents.html
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will stop in Chicago to visit the parents of the young U.S. diplomat killed while delivering textbooks in southern Afghanistan.
Kerry is stopping on his way back from Japan, the last leg of a 10-day overseas tour which started with tragedy when he learned of Anne Smedinghoff‘s death while readying to depart for Turkey on April 6.
At the time, a clearly affected Kerry contacted Smedinghoff’s parents, Tom and Mary Beth, from Andrews Air Force Base. On Monday, he will fly in directly to see them.
Smedinghoff was just 25 when she and four other Americans were killed while walking from a military base to a nearby school.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/6g0Ji4LrQ3U/
New details emerged Friday about last week’s terrorist bombing in Afghanistan that killed a young U.S. diplomat and four other Americans who were delivering textbooks to a school in the country’s south.
A senior State Department familiar with the investigation into the attack told The Associated Press the group was walking, not driving, from a military base to the nearby school in Zabul Province when the explosion hit.
Initial reports that members of the group were in vehicles, as well as subsequent media reports that they were lost, are incorrect, the official said.
The official was not authorized to speak to news media and provided the details on condition of anonymity.
An FBI probe into the incident that killed 25-year-old foreign service officer Anne Smedinghoff and the others is still preliminary.
But the official said on-foot travel for the group was approved because of the short distance — about 100 yards — between the base and the school compound and was in keeping with past visits to the site, which also houses a Ministry of Agriculture office.
Because of the proximity, the group would have had to get out of their vehicles at the military base, the official said.
He said the group used the shortest and most direct route from the base but were told on arrival that the entrance they wanted to use, and had been used previously, no longer provided access to the school.
The group was moving past the military base to another entrance to the compound when the explosion, apparently from a suicide car bomber, occurred. That was followed by a second blast, apparently from a roadside bomb.
However, the official stressed that the group was not lost, disputing at least one published account citing an eyewitness. And he said that Smedinghoff’s family had been informed of the circumstances of her death immediately after Secretary of State John Kerry called them to express his condolences for their loss. Smedinghoff was from River Forest, Ill.
The official said the State Department is examining the incident to determine whether it needs to make any changes in operational procedures.
On Thursday, State
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/XoKghzTJQno/
The family of an American diplomat who was among those killed in a terrorist attack in southern Afghanistan is taking solace in knowing she died doing what she loved.
Anne Smedinghoff, who was killed Saturday, was the first American diplomat to die on the job since last year’s attack in Benghazi, Libya.
The 25-year-old suburban Chicago woman was remembered as having a quiet ambition and displayed a love of global affairs from an early age. She joined the U.S. Foreign Service straight out of college and volunteered for missions in perilous locations worldwide.
Smedinghoff grew up in River Forest, Ill. — an upscale suburb about 10 miles west of Chicago — the daughter of an attorney and the second of four children.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
The United States accepts that a diminished but resilient Taliban is likely to remain a military threat in some parts of Afghanistan long after U.S. troops complete their combat mission next year, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday.
In an Associated Press interview at this air field north of Kabul, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he is cautiously optimistic that the Afghan army will hold its own against the insurgency as Western troops pull back and Afghans assume the lead combat role. He said that by May or June, the Afghans will be in the lead throughout the country.
Asked whether some parts of the country will remain contested by the Taliban, he replied, “Yes, of course there will be.”
“And if we were having this conversation 10 years from now, I suspect there would (still) be contested areas because the history of Afghanistan suggests that there will always be contested areas,” he said.
He and other U.S. commanders have said that ultimately the Afghans must reach some sort of political accommodation with the insurgents, and that a reconciliation process needs to be led by Afghans, not Americans. Thus the No. 1 priority for the U.S. military in its final months of combat in Afghanistan is to do all that is possible to boost the strength and confidence of Afghan forces.
Shortly after Dempsey arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, the Taliban demonstrated its ability to strike.
It claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed five Americans — three soldiers and two civilians, including Anne Smedinghoff, a foreign service officer and the first American diplomat killed overseas since the terrorist attack Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya.
A NATO airstrike Saturday, which came after a joint U.S.-Afghan forced encountered heavy fire from militants during an operation against a Taliban leader, killed 11 Afghan civilians, including 10 children, Afghan officials said.
There are now about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. That number is to drop to about 32,000 by February 2014, and the combat mission is to end in December 2014. Whether some number — perhaps 9,000 or 10,000 — remain into 2015 as military trainers and counterinsurgents is yet to be decided.
Dempsey spent two days talking to senior Afghan …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Polly Davis Doig Among the six Americans killed in Afghanistan yesterday was 25-year-old foreign service officer Anne Smedinghoff, reports CNN , the first US diplomat to be killed since Chris Stevens died in September. John Kerry led the mourning for her today, saluting the “vivacious, smart” up-and-comer who assisted him during a visit just… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Secretary of State John Kerry is mourning the first death of an American diplomat on the job since last year’s Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya.
Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was one of six Americans killed in an attack Saturday in Afghanistan.
Smedinghoff, an Illinois resident, was on her second tour in Afghanistan after returning last summer. She aided Kerry on his visit there last month.
Visiting Istanbul, a clearly emotional Kerry told consulate workers on Sunday that Smedinghoff stood for everything America stands for.
He says she died trying to make a difference by providing young Afghans with education.
Smedinghoff previously served in Venezuela.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News