Guardian
Thursday November 4, 2004 3:16 PM
By GEORGE GEDDA
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell has been evasive about his future, skirting questions about the timing of his widely expected departure after four rough-and-tumble years as America's chief diplomat.
In dozens of interviews, Powell has dismissed questions about his plans by saying with a smile, ``I serve at the pleasure of the president.''
Powell has long been considered to be a one-term secretary of state, irrespective of whether Bush was re-elected. Speculation has been rife for months about possible successors in a second Bush term. Among those mentioned are national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Ambassador John Danforth.
Last July, Bush suggested during an appearance in Philadelphia that he would be happy if Powell were to remain on. The remark went virtually unnoticed by the media but caught the attention of Powell aides.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4595773,00.htmlLAST MONTH the London Evening Standard ran a story saying Powell will be next US AMBASSADOR TO UK.
Mystery still remains about the bizarre exit of William Stamps Farish III last June/early July who fled his appointment and left the US without an official ambassador in London for the first time inliving memory.