Briefing Skipper: Goldberg, Goldstone, Mugabe, Nemtsov
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. Here are the highlights of today’s briefing by Department Spokesman Ian Kelly: Amb. Philip Goldberg will lead a delegation to Beijing next week that includes Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Danny Glaser and representatives from the National ...
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department's daily presser so you don't have to. Here are the highlights of today's briefing by Department Spokesman Ian Kelly:
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. Here are the highlights of today’s briefing by Department Spokesman Ian Kelly:
- Amb. Philip Goldberg will lead a delegation to Beijing next week that includes Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Danny Glaser and representatives from the National Security Council and the Defense Department to discuss implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions regarding North Korea. Seems timely considering Beijing stands accused of violating Resolution 1874 after Wen Jiabao went to Pyongyang earlier this month.
- The U.S. voted "no" during the Human Rights Council debate over the Goldstone report. The council only mentioned Israel in its criticisms. "We think that a better approach would have been to give the parties adequate time to study the report and establish accountability measures, through credible domestic processes," Kelly said.
- The State Department is "pleased" that the British government plans to appeal a decision by its high court to release U.S. intelligence documents that outline allegations of torture of Binyam Mohamed, a guest of the U.S. military in Morocco, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay.
- The State Department is expecting an announcement about that Afghan presidential election "in a day or two," Kelly said. Afghanistan’s ambassador says the runoff election, if necessary, should be held within 2 to 4 weeks.
- No real comment on the news that Zimbabwe’s main opposition party will leave the unity government it formed with longtime strongman Robert Mugabe. "I think that everybody needs to continue to put pressure on Mr. Mugabe to implement the agreement," said Kelly, "We understand the frustration of the opposition in the lack of progress on this."
- Kelly confirms that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met in Moscow with Boris Nemtsov, a vocal critic of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "It was more of a social setting, what we would call an off-the-record event," Kelly said. I guess that’s what Putin gets for refusing to meet with Clinton himself.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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