February 27, 2003

• Ariel Sharon presents the new politically right-wing Israeli government. Part of his coalition are Sharon's Likud bloc, the National Religious Party, the National Union and Tommy Lapid's secular Shinui party.
• Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar personally asks United States President George W. Bush to silence Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, indicating that Rumsfeld's numerous public remarks on European countries' Iraq policies are generally viewed as inflammatory and overwhelmingly counterproductive within the European diplomatic community. Aznar indicated a preference for Secretary of State Colin Powell. [1]
• Career diplomat John Brady Kiesling resigns from the U.S. Foreign Service with a sharp public rebuke for the Bush administration's foreign policy, asking "Has oderint dum metuant really become our motto?" and "Is the Russia of the late Romanovs really our model, a selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction in the name of a doomed status quo?" Full text
• Fred Rogers, the host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, dies of stomach cancer in his Pittsburgh home at the age of 74.
• An internal investigation by the Washington, D.C. police department indicates that hundreds of people arrested for failure to obey a police order to disperse at Pershing Park on September 27, 2002 during protests against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were never actually ordered to disperse before being arrested. MPDC Chief Charles Ramsey was unapologetic, indicating that the actions of the police were necessary to protect the city. [2]
• Iraq crisis of 2003: Regarding the disarmament of Iraq, the chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, says "The results in terms of disarmament have been very limited so far."
• Rowan Williams is enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
• U.S. presidential election, 2004: Senator Bob Graham of Florida announces his candidacy for the Democratic Pary nomination of President.
• Rauf Denktash, chief of the Turkish Cypriots, rejected the latest version of a United Nations plan to reunite Cyprus.
• Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, announced his support to the United States and United Kingdom campaign against Iraq.