Briefing Skipper: Libya, Libya, Libya, and more Libya
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. These are the highlights of Tuesday’s briefing by spokesman Mark Toner: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at the World Bank offices in Washington Tuesday in honor of World Water Day. The theme this year is "Water for ...
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department’s daily presser so you don’t have to. These are the highlights of Tuesday’s briefing by spokesman Mark Toner:
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at the World Bank offices in Washington Tuesday in honor of World Water Day. The theme this year is "Water for the Cities–Responding to the Urban Challenge." Other speakers at the event included World Bank President Robert Zoellick, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero and Hilton Foundation CEO Steven Hilton. Clinton’s remarks are here.
- Clinton did not talk to her French counterparts Tuesday but did speak over the phone with Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, a member of the African Union. Why talk to Bongo? "It was certainly to discuss Libya and to recognize their help," Toner explained.
- Toner confirmed that the U.S. and Turkey have signed an agreement to establish Turkey as America’s "protecting power" in Libya, following the evacuation of the U.S. embassy there. "We’re indeed very grateful for Turkey for accepting that role," Toner said. "We’re also extremely grateful for Turkey’s efforts to get four missing New York Times journalists safely out of the country."
- No comment on France’s proposal to create a new "political steering committee" made up of western and Arab foreign ministers to run the Libya war. "I’m not going to discuss it here. That’s for discussions that take place at NATO," Toner said. "We’ve said all along that we’re going to transition into a broader coalition. I think what that coalition looks like and — including its structure — is still being discussed and evaluated."
- Toner confirmed that the western forces are enforcing the arms embargo and that there is still fighting going on in Benghazi as well as in several other small cities. "And so they’re taking steps. And those include, obviously, you know, boarding ships and cutting off that mercenary supply and that arms supply that’s been fueling the Libyan army," he said. Toner is not aware of any military aid to the Libyan rebels.
- The State Department is having just as much trouble as the White House explaining how the military mission can be limited to protecting civilians while the overall U.S. policy is to call for Qaddafi to step down. "It’s absolutely our policy. What we really want to see here is a delegitimized leader who has turned weapons against his own people step aside," Toner said. "There is a transitional national council in the east that represents, we believe, the opposition’s aspirations. And we ultimately want to see a democratic process take place that, again, recognizes the aspirations of all the Libyan people."
- Clinton told ABC news that there are signs people in Qaddafi’s inner circle are breaking with the regime, but Toner said he wasn’t aware of that. "I don’t have any clear indications that that’s happened," he said. "I mean, again, we’re extremely limited… We have no eyes and ears in Tripoli. I mean, we now have a protecting power, but we don’t have a mission there."
- How long will it last? "I can’t predict an end date right now," Toner said.
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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