Briefing Skipper: Shah to Haiti, China-Google, Ma to San Fran, Cannon misses his flight
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. Here are the highlights of Friday’s briefing by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley: USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah will travel to Haiti tomorrow with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. He’ll meet with Haitian officials and attend the funeral of the ...
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. Here are the highlights of Friday’s briefing by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley:
- USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah will travel to Haiti tomorrow with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. He’ll meet with Haitian officials and attend the funeral of the archbishop of Port-au-Prince Joseph Serge Miot before coming back to Washington tomorrow night. "Dr. Shah will be getting his second, you know, firsthand look at the U.S. operations there," Crowley said.
- United States Ambassador Ken Merten and the special representative of the United Nations secretary-general in Haiti, Edmond Mulet, signed a statement of principles on field coordination between the United States and Haiti Friday.
- As of Friday morning, about 9,300 Americans had been evacuated from Haiti. There are 46 confirmed American deaths and 24 unconfirmed American deaths. Between 4,000 and 5,000 Americans, including 4 U.S. government officials are still missing. "There will be a point at which the government of Haiti will signal that it is appropriate to move to the recovery phase of the operation, and we will follow their lead," said Crowley.
- The State Department has "noted" the harsh Chinese reaction to Clinton’s new policy of enforcing internet freedom in the wake of the Google attacks. State has not issued a formal demarche, despite that they said they might. Will this hurt U.S.-China relations? "The impact will depend on the (Chinese) response," Crowley said. Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell met with the Chinese ambassador about the issue Thursday night, but not over dinner.
- Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou will transit through the San Francisco en route to Central America next week and through Los Angeles when returning from Central America at the end of next week. AIT Director Raymond F. Burghardt, will meet him in both places. "We approved President Ma’s request based on long- standing practice," Crowley explained. "San Francisco is not exactly a direct line between Taiwan and Central America," noted a sharp reporter.
- Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon couldn’t meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday because his flight was cancelled (he flies commercial?), so they chatted on the phone. No worries, Clinton will see him in Montreal Monday when she goes there to prep for the Haiti donors conference.
- Special Envoy George Mitchell met today with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah and will meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad tomorrow. "He may have additional meetings in the region before coming back to the United States," Crowley said.
- Clinton and Moldvan Prime Minister Vladimir Filat signed a five-year economic development agreement between Moldova and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
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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