Demonized in Damascus? Kucinich protests
One of the Obama administration’s sharpest critics on the left is coming in for some sharp criticism himself after what appeared to be a friendly visit to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich — an Ohio Democrat who has proposed ordering Obama to halt U.S. participation in NATO airstrikes in the Libya conflict — sat down with Assad in Damascus over the weekend and emerged to face accusations that he was getting too cozy with an autocrat whose security forces have killed some 1,300 people as they attempt to crush a revolt against his rule.
Kucinich said he made the trip, which also included a stop in Lebanon, on his own accord after being requested to go by his constituents.
“I don’t support the violence, I don’t condone the violence and by direct appeal to President Assad and in supporting those who are seeking freedom and serious reforms, I am working to end the violence. I appealed to President Assad to remove his forces from the cities. He told me he would, and today we learned that he has begun to do just that,” Kucinich said in a statement on his official website .
Kucinich’s statement came one day after the Washington Post’s editorial board accused him of “taking the side of Syria’s murderous dictator” in an editorial that blasted him as being too quick to believe Assad’s vague promises of reform.
“The only people who take the regime’s rhetoric seriously are those who wish to defend it, who excuse its horrendous crimes and who oppose genuine democracy in Syria. Mr. Kucinich has just made himself one of the more conspicuous members of that camp,” the Post said.
Washington Extra – Not enough
The word is not enough. That was the message from the United States to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who pledged reforms in a speech at Damascus University.
“What’s important now is action, not words,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
White House spokesman Jay Carney concurred: “President Assad needs to either lead that transition or get out of the way … I’m not saying the words are meaningless, but he needs to act on them … But first, he needs to stop the violence.”
The White House also announced Vice President Joe Biden and lawmakers will meet three days this week — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — to see if they can move any closer to an agreement on the budget deficit and debt limit.
We’re guessing a week is not enough to lock up a deal. But will the talks be more meaningful than just three days of the meander? (OK so we stretched for a rhyme with condor for movie buffs).
Here are our top stories from Washington…
Clinton doesn’t want Iran taking ‘one iota of credit’ for Mideast revolutions
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says when it comes to the pro-democracy movements sweeping through the Middle East give credit where credit is due. And that means not to Iran.
The United States has long been at loggerheads with Iran over its nuclear program — the West suspects Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, Iran says it is trying to provide energy for its people.
Now the United States, which sees Iran as a major threat to the region, is also suspicious that Tehran is trying to capitalize on the Middle East revolutions.
“We see Iran trying to take advantage of what is going on, which is the height of hypocrisy, but that has never stopped the regime before,” Clinton said. “And what they are doing is trying to somehow connect their failed revolution in 1979 with the movements for aspiration and change that are now moving through the region.”
The United States has a lot of friends in the region, she said at the State Department in a conversation with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger moderated by Charlie Rose which will be broadcast later Wednesday on PBS.
“What we are saying both publicly and privately is don’t do anything that gives any ammunition, so to speak, to the Iranians,” Clinton said.
“Because we don’t want the Iranians to be given one iota of credit for what is a non-Iranian phenomenon. It is an Egyptian phenomenon, a Tunisian phenomenon, a Libyan phenomenon.”
Riiiiight. And Russia “invaded” Georgia. Might she be a pathological liar?
Washington Extra – Same page
Alarm over Japan’s nuclear crisis prompted a slumping stock market to slump some more in a third day of selling.
The United States and Japan weren’t quite on the same page in terms of advice to the public. The State Department recommended that Americans living within 50 miles of the Fukushima nuclear plant evacuate or stay indoors, while Japan asked residents within 18 miles to do the same.
Republicans and Democrats are still not on the same page as far as spending cuts go, which means back to the drawing board with a three-week reprieve from the sixth stopgap spending bill expected to pass Congress by Friday. Talks will get an added kick when the latest temporary funding bill is passed, but in a divided Congress bipartisan deals become a fairly lofty goal.
“I understand the world we live in right now,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas told us in an interview. “I’m going to attempt to work in a very bipartisan way” to slow down the implementation of Dodd-Frank, the Republican said about the financial reform measure named after two Democrats.
House Speaker John Boehner knows it won’t be easy, but he’s confident a bipartisan deal will be found to fund the government for the rest of this fiscal year — somehow, some way — congressional correspondent Thomas Ferraro blogs.
Some wise words from Lucas on trying to reach agreements in Washington when you don’t quite see eye-to-eye: “It’s a town where it’s always a challenge to draw the distinction of speaking with each other and to each other.”
Be sure to look at congressional correspondent Andy Sullivan’s special report — On borrowed time: budget delays start to hurt.
Washington Extra – Women of power
Were the cosmic pranksters having a laugh when the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day happened to fall on the same date as Fat Tuesday?
Washington showed off its woman power. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard expressed their delight at meeting on such an auspicious day.
Britain’s former first lady Cherie Blair was also at the State Department for the 2011 International Women of Courage Awards ceremony.
And the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, started her remarks with high praise for Hillary Clinton: “She is one heck of a Secretary of State. She has been an amazing gift, not just to our country but to the rest of the world.”
Clearly bygones are bygones when it comes to the woman who tried to beat her husband in the 2008 presidential race.
Looking ahead to the 2012 election, very few women are mentioned as potential presidential candidates. Republican Sarah Palin is the one who usually pops up in the mix of who might try to challenge President Barack Obama.
Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party favorite, told CNN today that she will make a decision early this summer.
Tweet like an Egyptian — Hillary Clinton tries it out
Young Egyptians, who famously used Internet services like Facebook and Twitter to launch their recent revolution, turned their focus to Hillary Clinton on Wednesday. They peppered the top U.S. diplomat with skeptical questions about longtime U.S. support for former President Hosni Mubarak and what many felt was its slow embrace of the movement to topple him.
Clinton, taking a personal spin at what she has called “21st Century Statecraft”, fielded a selection of some 6,500 questions that young Egyptians posed through Twitter, Facebook and the Arabic-language website www.masrawy.com — and many reflected deep suspicions about the U.S. role in Egypt.
“My question is: Does America really support democracy? If yes indeed, why the U.S. was late in its support of the Egyptian revolution?” one questioner asked Clinton.
“The attitude of the U.S. during the Egyptian revolution was to support the Egyptian regime first. Then, when the revolution turned successful, the U.S. switched sides and supported the Egyptian youth and the youth revolution, and the U.S. said that we learn from Egyptian youth. Why was such delay?” another wondered.
Clinton gamely took them on, stressing that the United States used its influence in Egypt to help press for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and the launch of a reform process that would lead to “an Egyptian model of democracy.”
“So I think that we were walking a balance, because we wanted to be sure that our messages did not push anyone into doing something that we disagreed with, namely violence, which we tried to, in every way possible, prevent,” Clinton said.
Young people think they are invulnerable. They do not understand that if we had moved in too fast it could have triggered a response not only from Mubarak & company but also from other Dictators such as Iran.
U.S. State Dept. figures out how to say “Twitter” in Arabic
It took a while, but the U.S. State Department is now tweeting in Arabic.
With unprecedented political turmoil rocking Egypt and protesters turning to social media such as Twitter and Facebook, the mouthpiece of U.S. foreign policy wants in on the game.
Its first message? #Egypt #Jan25 تعترف وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية بالدور التاريخي الذي يلعبه الإعلام الإجتماعي في العالم العربي ونرغب أن نكون جزءاً من محادثاتكم
(Translation: “We want to be a part of your conversation!”)
The new State Department Arabic Twitter feed, @USAbilaraby, joins a growing chorus of Twitter feeds describing and commenting on events in Egypt and across the Arab world, where social media is helping to broadcast political ferment.
The feed, which currently has a scant 161 followers, has passed along messages including President Barack Obama’s statement that the future of Egypt is in the hands of the Egyptian people and Vice President Joe Biden’s demand that Egypt immediately stop harassing journalists and scrap its emergency law.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has directed the State Department to spare no effort to harness the power of the Internet to spread the U.S. message, and has repeatedly emphasized that Internet freedom — like freedom of speech — is an inalienable right. She has drawn the lines at Wikileaks, but there the rationale is that the leaked State Department cables are stolen property belonging to the U.S. government.
The U.S. message can be quite snarky. Current top tweet: “Iran’s words regarding Egypt are empty; Iran should give its people the same rights of assembly and speech as in Cairo” (translated, obviously).
Diplomatic storm leads to question: what was Wisner?
Frank Wisner created a bit of a diplomatic tempest when he went off message in Munich on Saturday and said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should stay in place to oversee the transition. “We need to get a national consensus around the pre-conditions for the next step forward. The president (Mubarak) must stay in office to steer those changes.”
That set the State Department and White House into scramble mode, trying to downplay Wisner’s role, after actually sending him on Jan. 31 to personally deliver a U.S. government message to Mubarak to take more action in response to mass protests.
Administration feathers got so ruffled that the White House tried backpedaling on whether Wisner had actually in fact been an envoy.
The Cable blog on foreignpolicy.com quoted National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor saying: “He is not and was not a U.S. envoy. He was not sent to negotiate. He is an individual who has a long history with President Mubarak and thus could deliver a clear message. He spoke to President Mubarak once, reported on his conversation, and then came home.”
On Monday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also tried distancing: “I want to be clear that, as I think many of us told you, former Ambassador Wisner is not an employee of the government. He was, based on his broad experience in Egypt, asked by the State Department — and I would direct you to the State Department on the specifics of anything regarding him — to travel to Cairo and have a specific conversation with President Mubarak. He did, and reported that back to us.”
“But his views on who should or shouldn’t be the head of Egypt don’t represent the views of our administration. The views of our administration are that those are decisions that will be made by Egyptians.”
Gibbs at Tuesday’s briefing steadfastly stayed on message to emphasize that the United States had not changed its view that Egyptians will decide who should lead their country, and when.
Have patience!
Wikileaks will answer the question of this headline, “what was Wisner?”
Hillary wants a break, but maybe just a little one
Hillary Clinton is committed to remaining U.S. secretary of state through Barack Obama’s first term. What will she want then? The answer seems to be “spare time”. But maybe just a little.
Hillary’s future has long been the subject of swirling speculation. Would she run for president against Obama in 2012? Join his ticket as the vice presidential nominee? Replace Bob Gates at the Pentagon?
The only sure bet is that she’s content to remain in the Obama administration through 2012.
“I have committed to President Obama that I will stay with him this first term and I intend to do so,” Hillary tells NBC’s Today show.
Asked specifically about a second term at State: “That is not something that I’m in any way committing to or even thinking about.”
In fact, what interests her most seems to be of a personal nature.
“I am looking forward to returning to private life, something that I haven’t had the experience of for a long time now,” Hillary says.
Washington flatfooted by return of Haiti’s “Baby Doc”
He departed Haiti in 1986 aboard a U.S. Air Force plane, winging to stage-managed exile after weeks of pressure from the Reagan administration.
Haiti’s infamous “Baby Doc”, Jean Claude Duvalier, made a surprise reappearance in his homeland this weekend, and Washington’s planners had less than an hour to prepare.
“We were informed about an hour before the point that he landed this weekend,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. “If I look at the list of challenges that Haiti faces today having a former dictator return to Haiti just adds to Haiti’s ongoing burden.”
It’s a burden that has direct implications for the Obama administration, which has staked considerable political capital on the faltering effort to get Haiti back on its feet following last year’s earthquake disaster and a political crisis caused by inconclusive elections in November.
Crowley said the French government informed the United States that Duvalier — who was aboard an Air France jet — was about to make landfall on the Caribbean island. “We were given a heads-up roughly an hour before he landed,” Crowley said, adding that he believed the French had passed along the information as soon as they had it.
Crowley declined to stake out a U.S. position on Haiti’s move to charge Duvalier with corruption, theft and other crimes during his 15-year rule over the impoverished island nation, which is remembered as an especially violent and chaotic period in the country’s turbulent history. The White House, for its part, urged Duvalier to work with other Haitian politicians to begin resolving Haiti’s problems.
“Any political leader or any former political leader should focus not on him or herself but on making progress toward a set of important elections and dedicate their time and their energy to a reconstruction of the country,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Does the Haitian government really want to sent baby doc to prison? What have they really accomplished since baby doc left Haiti?
What are the standards and the morals of Haitian government right now; what progress did they accomplish? I left Haiti 34 years ago, I never heard any progress. With baby doc, there were no burning tires on the street, kidnapping people for money, or raping young children on the street. Fifty percent of the Haitian population does not know how to observe and respect the law, and the government is no different. Haitian government makes and breaks the laws for their own interest. Finally, with baby doc, people did not have any worries with theft, they could walk at any time on the streets of Haiti. Duvalier was truly, truly good, he kept them in line. There are lot of educated Haitian people in diaspora or in Haiti, they need an hierarchy with good structure for my brethren to follow. We need a leader who can take care of the people and create an assembly of an organized government. For instance, in the case of the aftermath of the earthquake, if there was an organized committee delegated to make decisions in times of catastrophe, there would have been a more favorable outcome.
