Briefing Skipper: DSK, North Korea, Syria, Burma, Pakistan
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 gave remarks Tuesday at the opening event for the Global Diaspora Forum, which is "a new public-private collaborative platform designed to engage ...
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 gave remarks Tuesday at the opening event for the Global Diaspora Forum, which is "a new public-private collaborative platform designed to engage diaspora communities, the private sector and public institutions." This forum is organized by the secretary’s Global Partnership Initiative, which is headed by Special Representative for Global Partnerships Kris Balderston, in collaboration with USAID as well as the Migration Policy Institute. And for more information, go to www.diasporaalliance.org.
- Deputy Assistant Secretary Joseph Yun will travel to Burma from May 18 to 21 and he’ll meet with senior government officials, political parties, nongovernmental organizations, ethnic minorities, as well as the business community. "There’s nothing Pollyannish about this," Toner said. "We recognize that there’s some fairly serious challenges to address in this relationship. But we’re going to continue to pursue a dual-track policy that involves pressure but also principled engagement.
- Special Representative Marc Grossman departed May 17 for travel to Astana, Bishkek, Tashkent, Dushanbe, Islamabad and Kabul and meet with senior officials in each nation. "The special representative will reaffirm Secretary Clinton’s message on her February 18th speech to the Asia Society during each visit," Toner said.
- After refusing to say anything on the subject Monday, Toner finally gave the State Department’s opinion on whether accused rapist Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s immunity. "Our understanding is that the immunities relevant to this particular case actually belong to the IMF and not to the individual in question," said Toner. "What I’m trying to say here is that our understanding is that IMF officials have stated that Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s immunities are limited and not applicable to this case, but that IMF documents would be fully protected by their immunity."
- No comment on whether Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Robert King will go to North Korea this week, but Ambassador Stephen Bosworth is in South Korea working on the food aid issue. Former President Jimmy Carter and his gang wanted to come to State this week to discuss food aid, but nobody was available to meet with them.
- No details on exactly what EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton was talking about Tuesday when she said a number of new measures against the Assad regime were coming soon. Clinton did say, "President Asad talks about reform, but his heavy-handed brutal crackdown shows his true intentions." Still waiting to see what the administration intends to do about it.
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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