Briefing Skipper: Lima, Wikileaks, Yemen, Gaza, Iran
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. These are the highlights of Monday’s briefing by spokesman P.J. Crowley: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Lima, Peru on Monday, attending the general assembly of the Organization of American States. She also had meetings with Peruvian ...
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. These are the highlights of Monday’s briefing by spokesman P.J. Crowley:
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Lima, Peru on Monday, attending the general assembly of the Organization of American States. She also had meetings with Peruvian President Alan Garcia, Mexican Foreign Ministers Patricia Espinosa Castellano, the foreign ministers of Panama and Bolivia, as well as the deputy foreign minister of Brazil Antonio de Aguilar Patriota. She urged the OAS to readmit Honduras, over the objections of Brazil and others. The OAS is going to study the issue.
- Clinton heads to Ecuador Tuesday to meet with President Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado, the man who shut down the U.S. base that was a major drug interception hub there.
- The State Department sent a note to Canada informing them they we will accept their offer 300 meters of ocean boom to help out in the Gulf oil spill. Still no word on the over a dozen other offers of international assistance. The U.S. government is going to pay, but "We anticipate that BP will in turn reimburse the government for this expenditure," Crowley said.
- No real comment on the reports that 250,000 plus diplomatic cables were leaked to the website Wikileaks, allegedly by a young, disgruntled Army intelligence analyst named Bradley Manning. "Everywhere there’s a U.S. post, there’s a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed," Manning wrote. "It’s open diplomacy. World-wide anarchy in CSV format. It’s Climategate with a global scope, and breathtaking depth. It’s beautiful, and horrifying."
- The State Department is aware that Yemeni authorities have arrested some people linked to al-Qaeda, including 12 American citizens, but "I’m not going to talk about specifics," Crowley said.
- The State Department is hoping to head off Iran’s effort to bring relief supplies into Gaza. "We certainly are looking, ourselves, at trying to find ways of increasing the amount of assistance that goes to the people of Gaza," Crowley said, adding, "I don’t think that Iran’s intentions vis-a-vis Gaza are benign." State also is not objecting to Egypt’s opening of their border with Gaza.
- Iran sanctions vote in the UN Security Council will be "this week," Crowley said. Clinton is warning that Iran might pull another "stunt."
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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