WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rang in the new year still saddled with $5.9 million in debts left over from her unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign, according to records filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission.

The nation's top diplomat has been steadily chipping away at unpaid campaign bills since suspending her White House bid in June, when her debt peaked at $25.2 million.

That amount included both $12 million owed to vendors and the $13.2 million she loaned her campaign from personal funds.

Clinton's campaign was unable to repay that personal loan by the time the Democratic National Convention convened in Denver, Colorado, in August, the deadline mandated by the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

The former New York senator has since forgiven the entire loan amount, leaving only the $5.9 million owed to vendors on the campaign's books.

Clinton and her supporters had been in a race against time to pay off as much of the debt as possible by the time of her confirmation and swearing-in as the nation's 67th secretary of state on January 21.

As of that date, Clinton became subject to a federal law known as the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from personally soliciting or accepting political contributions.

Clinton's mother, Dorothy Rodham, sent out the last of a series of e-mail fundraising pitches January 16, specifically asking for donations to help retire the debt before her daughter took her new post.

"Now I have to ask you -- for the very last time -- to give her your help. This is our last chance to help Hillary pay down the debt from her history-making campaign," Rodham wrote in a note distributed to Clinton's campaign distribution list. "I know how much it would mean to her to have your help this one last time. Please take this opportunity to show Hillary your support by making a contribution today."

The Hatch Act does allow others to continue raising funds on Clinton's behalf, though without her direct involvement.

The FEC report did not indicate how much debt the campaign carried as of January 21. That report will not be available for several months.

The $5.9 million in remaining campaign debt is owed to five creditors, down from 16 creditors a month earlier.

The bulk of this debt, $5.4 million, is owed to Penn, Schoen & Berland, a political consulting and polling firm that advised Clinton during her presidential bid. The firm's president, Mark Penn, was Clinton's senior campaign strategist until he stepped down in April amid revelations that he lobbied on behalf of the Colombian government for a U.S.-Colombia trade deal that Clinton opposed.

Penn did remain involved with the campaign, though

The other creditors are the Washington-based firms of MSHC Partners, which is owed $397,114 for printing costs, and D.H. Lloyd & Associates, which is owed $147,987 for insurance costs; Financial Innovations Inc. of Cranston, Rhode Island, which is owed $31,452 for printing costs; and the Mayfield Strategy Group of Palo Alto, California, which is owed $4,552 for consulting and Web site expenses.

Clinton raised $1.3 million in contributions in December and had an end-of-year cash-on-hand amount of $1.6 million, which can be applied toward the debt.

By Robert Yoon, CNN, January 31, 2009

WASHINGTON - In her first days as America's top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton found the Middle East portfolio handed off to a special envoy. Afghanistan and Pakistan were assigned to a special representative. And administration officials expect another special envoy to be tapped soon to deal with Iran.

So with much of her turf already parceled off, Mrs. Clinton made a bid to take over the China file, which in recent years has been primarily the responsibility of the Treasury Department since the major issues with Beijing tend to be economic. Mrs. Clinton said the administration needed "a more comprehensive approach." The only trick is Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has no intention of giving that up.

The opening phase of any administration involves a certain amount of jockeying as new players struggle to define their territory and establish boundaries with colleagues. The lines and boxes in organization charts are only the starting point. Force of personality, political heft and relationships among the power elite can be just as important in determining who really takes the lead in various priority areas under a new president.

Under Mr. Obama, that may prove even more complicated. More than any president in years, Mr. Obama came into office creating new White House czars and special envoys to supervise various hot-button issues at home and abroad, overlaying an additional set of actors upon a bureaucracy already scratchy about who's in charge. Mr. Obama concluded that new high-powered figures were needed to force change but they pose a delicate management challenge for a president with no real management experience beyond his presidential campaign.

"I think it's actually quite a workable model," said John D. Podesta, who helped design it as Mr. Obama's transition co-chairman. "It doesn't subjugate the cabinet officers." While there will be multiple players in every key arena, Mr. Podesta said the new White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, would be a firm umpire. "It puts a burden on Rahm to discipline the intramural sports," Mr. Podesta said, "but he's a strong chief of staff and I don't think it's going to be a problem."

In addition to naming special envoys for critical regions, Mr. Obama also created a new White House office to oversee health care, a new White House office to oversee climate change and energy, a new White House office to oversee urban policy and a new White House office to oversee technology. He also created a new group of economic advisers to go along with the two economic councils the president already has. He plans to name a czar to oversee the economic rescue of the auto industry. And on top of all that, he formed a task force to focus on economics specifically for the middle class, this one headed by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Moreover, many of the players bring long, interwoven histories to the table. Mrs. Clinton, for example, reportedly once got Mr. Emanuel demoted when he worked in Bill Clinton's White House, though they later grew closer. And when Mr. Clinton considered making former Senator George J. Mitchell secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton was believed to have favored Madeleine K. Albright. Now Mr. Mitchell is the special envoy to the Middle East.

The economic arena had the most potential for overlap overload, particularly because Mr. Obama appointed Mr. Geithner to be Treasury secretary but recruited Lawrence H. Summers, a former Treasury secretary himself, to head the National Economic Council in the White House.

In theory, Mr. Geithner has the more prominent position - a cabinet post, his name on the money, fifth in the line of succession. Mr. Summers, who once had all that, now officially has a staff job charged with coordinating policy across agencies. But anyone who knows Mr. Summers understands the outsize role he will play.

With Mr. Geithner delayed in taking office because of confirmation problems, Mr. Summers asserted himself as the architect of the economic recovery package now working its way through Congress. It did not go unnoticed in Mr. Geithner's circle when Time magazine reported last week that Mr. Summers "has expanded his turf so that it touches on nearly every area of domestic and international policy."

But Mr. Geithner is no pushover. Taking his cue from Robert E. Rubin when he was Treasury secretary under President Clinton - and from Mr. Summers himself after he succeeded Mr. Rubin - Mr. Geithner has made a point of attending White House senior staff meetings each morning, something other cabinet secretaries do not do. He also has taken the lead in determining the next stage in the financial bailout and formulating new regulations for the markets.

Mr. Obama's new czars for health care, climate change, urban policy and technology also will have to figure out relationships with their cabinet counterparts. Like Mr. Summers, Carol Browner served as an agency head under Mr. Clinton, in her case the Environmental Protection Agency. Now she serves as Mr. Obama's climate change director in the White House, coordinating not only the E.P.A. but also the departments of energy, interior and others.

Her brief ranges over so much territory that it could be one of the most expansive positions in the new administration, which is what the Obama team said was necessary to tackle such a complicated issue crossing bureaucratic lines. Like Mr. Geithner, who once worked for Mr. Summers at Treasury, the new E.P.A. director, Lisa P. Jackson once worked for Ms. Browner.

Former Senator Tom Daschle may have proved the wiliest player in the organizational structure. When Mr. Obama approached him about becoming secretary of health and human services, Mr. Daschle insisted on having a second hat as the head of a new White House health care office. Like Mr. Geithner, he understood that he had to be in the White House to make policy changes - although, like Mr. Geithner, his cabinet nomination is threatened by his failure to pay all of his taxes.

Just as the attendance at senior staff meetings helps determine pecking order, so does the map of the West Wing. Mr. Daschle is slated to have an office in the West Wing, as does Mr. Summers. Ms. Browner, on the other hand, is working out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door, where most White House aides work.

With so many czars and senior advisers, the Obama team is trying to stuff more people into the West Wing proper than its predecessor did. That prompted Karl Rove, who was President George W. Bush's deputy chief of staff, to needle the Obama team in the Wall Street Journal last week, writing that there would be four people in the modest-size office he once occupied. Mr. Obama, Mr. Rove wrote, is likely to "create a more centralized and possibly incoherent policy process."

Mr. Obama's advisers scoffed at that, saying they do not want the results produced by Mr. Bush's policy process. And they expressed faith that the no-drama edict of the Obama campaign would overcome any friction. Many of those unpacking boxes in the White House complex and the various departments across town worked together in the past, either in the Clinton administration, on Capitol Hill or at Mr. Podesta's research organization, the Center for American Progress.

"There are things that cut across agency lines that needed real powerful White House cohesion, direction and leadership," Mr. Podesta said. "The structure that was built was done with due regard for the fact that there could be conflict. But the team we built was done with the idea that these people could work together."





By Peter Baker, The New York Times, January 31, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Diplomacy now trumps defense as the main instrument of American foreign policy.

At least that is the intent that President Barack Obama and his change-minded secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, spelled out on their first days. They made clear that the military will be a prominent - but no longer dominant - tool for achieving U.S. goals abroad.

The message was reflected clearly in Obama's decision, on his second full day in the White House, to close the military-run prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to include the State Department in a broad government study of how to proceed with terrorist detentions in the future.

In a subtler but equally telling way, the commander in chief's decision to visit the State Department before stepping foot in the Pentagon indicated his intention to elevate the role of diplomacy.

Setting the stage for what amounted to Obama's first foreign policy address since his inauguration, Vice President Joe Biden told State Department employees on Thursday that Clinton's charter is to "put diplomacy back in the forefront of America's foreign policy," and to do so immediately.

"For too long, we've put the bulk of the burden, in my view, on our military," Biden said.

Obama put it this way: "A new era of American leadership is at hand, and the hard work has just begun. You are going to be at the front lines of engaging in that important work."

Biden didn't say so, but it will be difficult to bulk up the State Department's capacity for stronger diplomacy.

The reality is that the Defense Department is vastly better equipped, with far bigger budgets, greater reach and a more committed constituency on Capitol Hill. Thus it often will be called on first to take the lead abroad, even if Obama manages to begin to shift the balance back in favor of the diplomatic corps.

One measure of the disparity: The military has more band members than the State Department has diplomats. Or as Defense Secretary Robert Gates has noted, the 6,600 people in the foreign
service equal roughly the number of personnel aboard a single U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group at sea.

Against that backdrop, Clinton's arrival at the State Department last week was a feel-good moment for a diplomatic corps that felt neglected during the Bush administration. But she wasted no time warning all to temper their cheers with the sobering knowledge that the foreign policy road will be rough.

"I don't want anybody to leave this extraordinarily warm reception thinking, `Oh, good, you know this is going to be great,'" she told a welcoming ceremony attended by hundreds of department workers. "It's going to be hard."

That includes not only the Guantanamo Bay headache but also others that the president and secretary of state will be confronting in the weeks ahead, from the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace effort to nuclear dangers in Iran and North Korea.

Then there are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Obama has promised that diplomacy and perhaps development aid will play a more prominent role in seeking to stabilize those countries, not to mention the challenges of a rising China, an assertive Russia and a chaotic Horn of Africa.

In her caution against excessively high hopes, Clinton also cited her pledge to reinvigorate the State Department by grabbing more resources, expanding the diplomatic corps, widening the role of development aid and building a civilian capacity to work alongside the military overseas.

"This is going to be a challenging time and it will require 21st century tools and solutions to meet our problems and seize our opportunities," she said. "I'm going to be asking a lot of you. I want you to think outside the proverbial box."

Unconventional approaches will be much in demand. But Clinton seems determined to begin with basics, such as bigger budgets, reclaiming some of the clout that the State Department has ceded to the Pentagon in recent years, and restoring morale in an institution that has been derided as idle and placid.

In remarks on Jan. 23, Clinton lamented the migration of funds and authority from the State Department to the Pentagon. She noted that young officers in Iraq and Afghanistan are given millions in cash to spend as they see fit to build a school, open a health clinic or provide other nonmilitary aid.

"Our diplomats and our development experts have to go through miles of paperwork to spend 10 cents. It is not a sensible approach," she said.
Clinton has already shown some of the ways in which she will change direction at Foggy Bottom:

* Obama will include the State Department not only in meetings of the National Security Council but also the National Economic Council. "The State Department will participate in both, not just one," Clinton told her confirmation hearing Jan. 13. "We will be very much involved in the crafting of international economic efforts."

* She intends to make more use of special diplomatic envoys, in part to move the U.S. away from its recent practice of increasing the power of military commanders to interact with foreign leaders. "I believe that special envoys, particularly (as compared to) military commands, have a lot to recommend in order to make sure that we've got the civilian presence well represented," she told senators.

* She says she agrees with Gates that in fighting against Islamic extremism, military action should take a back seat to efforts to promote better governance, spur economic development and address the grievances among the discontented - roles tailor-made for the diplomats and development experts.

"I think that our foreign policy has gotten way out of balance," she told her confirmation hearing. "It's going to be up to us to try to get back into more equilibrium, which will be good for our government and for the image of our country around the world."




By Robert Burns, The Associated Press, February 1, 2009

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is clearly itching to hit the road. But to where?

"We'll let you know as soon as we get it organized," she told reporters earlier this week. "I'm looking forward to it."

A secretary of state's first foreign trip is always an event - steeped in symbolism and parsed for clues about how the new boss will conduct diplomacy. Mrs. Clinton's celebrity lends the maiden voyage added glitter, but also the burden of great expectations. The choice of the itinerary has been further complicated by the fact that the White House appointed two special emissaries who wasted no time booking their own foreign travel.

George J. Mitchell, the special envoy for the Middle East, is halfway through a weeklong tour of the region, visiting Cairo; Jerusalem; the West Bank; Amman, Jordan; and tacking on a stop in Paris. Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, is headed to those countries next week, stopping en route at a security conference in Munich.

Other senior officials are footloose, too. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Gen. James l. Jones, the president's national security adviser, are also heading to the Munich conference. President Obama is traveling to Canada next month for his first foreign trip as president. And in April, he will go to London for a summit meeting on the financial crisis and a NATO meeting jointly hosted by France and Germany.

With so many old-world capitals and gritty hot spots spoken for, what's left for a restless secretary of state?

Asia, according to the latest State Department scuttlebutt.

While no final decision has been made - and travel schedules are fickle - Mrs. Clinton is leaning toward a trip that would include Japan and China, according to officials. That would allow her to check in with a staunch ally and take stock of an economic rival. A stop in South Korea would put Mrs. Clinton close to one of her looming challenges: North Korea's nuclear program.

Asia is not an obvious choice: her two most recent predecessors, Condoleezza Rice and Colin L. Powell, started off in Europe and the Middle East. Ms. Rice felt obliged to go to Paris and Berlin, one former adviser said, to mend fences after the invasion of Iraq.

The Obama administration, officials said, is determined to spread its senior people around. With so many big names trooping off to Europe, they said, Mrs. Clinton can deliver a greater diplomatic punch by going to Asia. Besides, said one old hand, if no one of her stature shows up in Tokyo by April or so, the Japanese will wonder what is wrong with the relationship.

The political calendar plays a role, too: Israel is holding elections on Feb. 10, and analysts said it would not make sense for Mrs. Clinton to travel there before a new government was in place.

Secretaries of state have traveled abroad since 1866, when William Henry Seward sailed to the Virgin Islands. But their wanderlust has varied: Ms. Rice racked up more than a million miles on 86 trips. General Powell, who was criticized for being a homebody, still managed 68 trips.

Mrs. Clinton is expected to fall somewhere in between. She told a recent meeting of senior State Department staff members that she wanted to go on the road only when her presence could make a difference, according to people in the session. That would suggest fewer trips than Ms. Rice, who practically commuted to the Middle East and, critics said, had little to show for it.

But maybe not that many fewer: Mrs. Clinton, her aides like to note, visited all 62 counties in New York State during her first Senate campaign. And now she will have a bigger plane.





By Mark Landler, The New York Times, January 30, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The politician's art of balancing combat and compromise should prove to be a crucial asset for new U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she tackles a daunting array of foreign policy challenges.

The former first lady and U.S. senator traded two-party politics for six-party talks when she took the role of top U.S. diplomat, but many of the same skills apply -- sharp elbows, loads of patience and the ability to close a deal.

"To be successful, politicians have to be comfortable in the use of power and know when it's time to sit politely and listen and when it's time to make something non-negotiable," Hunter College professor Kenneth Sherrill said.

"The legislative process takes lots of bargaining and lots of work to establish credibility and trust. She will get plenty of that in her new job," he said.

President Barack Obama's choice of Clinton, his fierce rival for the Democratic presidential nomination and a well-known global figure, was a throwback to a bygone era when presidents frequently made prominent politicians their secretary of state.

In recent decades, the job has more typically gone to lawyers, academics, business leaders and, in Colin Powell, a former military officer. The last elected official in the job was former senator and presidential candidate Ed Muskie in 1980 in the final months of Jimmy Carter's administration.

Clinton's work in the Senate, where she won respect even from Republican foes for her willingness to reach across the aisle, and eight years in the White House, where the spotlight never left her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, give her a rare background for the post.

Decades of campaign experience, including her grueling 17-month nominating struggle with Obama, also give her an instinct for the political pressures that inform foreign policy debates over areas like the Middle East.

Any peace initiative there will face intense examination by Jewish voters at home and by Israelis, who hold their own elections next month, and Arabs throughout the region.

'UNIQUE VANTAGE POINT'

"She has a unique vantage point to understand the political requirements of the job. A politician's touch can only benefit her and the United States," said Democratic consultant Doug Schoen, a White House pollster for Bill Clinton.

The personal experiences of a campaign -- months of public scrutiny, long travel days with little sleep, and hours spent dealing with a fractious staff and shifting political allegiances -- also could prove a good warmup.

Newly named Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell, a former senator who headed peace negotiations in Northern Ireland, is the most recent model of a successful politician turned diplomat.

"I once heard Mitchell credit his ability to sit through periods of intense disagreement between the two sides in the Irish peace talks to his years of sitting through legislative debates," Sherrill said.

After her Senate confirmation last week, Clinton plunged into a broad strategic review of U.S. foreign policy in hot spots like Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan, proclaiming a larger role for diplomacy and development in U.S. foreign policy.

At State Department welcoming ceremonies that had the feel of campaign rallies, she said her political experiences gave her an appreciation for debate and opposing views -- up to a point.

"Maybe because I have been in the public eye and in the political world for what seems like a very long time now, I welcome debate and I am respectful of dissent," Clinton told workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development during her second day on the job.

"Then I expect everybody, once we've made a decision, to work as hard as you can to get the job done," she added.

Analysts said Clinton's contacts and high profile could help her expand the State Department's clout at home, where it steadily lost ground to the Pentagon under former President George W. Bush, and give her more weight in internal administration battles over policy.

"She has one terrific Rolodex. You can see with the envoys she has appointed, some of them go back a long way with her. She knows the players," said Stephen Hess, an analyst at the Brookings Institution.

Her experience and global celebrity also could help open doors for her in foreign capitals, Schoen said.

"She'll understand how far she can push people, she'll understand the requirements of the international community, and being a Clinton and having run for president gives her a stature that means she will be taken more seriously than any other secretary of state since Henry Kissinger," he said.

By John Whitesides, Reuters, January 30, 2009

Most of the Cabinet members and nominees own real estate worth more than $1 million and some, like Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, own more than one million-dollar home, according to public property records.

Federal ethics laws require top presidential appointees to file disclosure reports listing assets and debts in broad ranges. The Office of Government Ethics released Cabinet appointees' reports this week.

Obama has said he wants to put a premium on ethics. He signed an executive order the day after he took office that includes a two-year ban on allowing administration officials to participate in any matter involving former employers or clients.

The disclosure forms offer details of Cabinet members' personal ties to their departments:

* Education Secretary Arne Duncan was on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and a director for 16 other education-related non-profits.

* Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, got $7,552 from the department last year for not farming some of the fertile land he owns.

* Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, served on a scientific advisory board for Seeo, a company developing technology for rechargeable batteries that could be used in electric cars.

Chu is one of five Cabinet secretaries who augmented their incomes by serving on corporate boards of directors. For example, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, a retired Army four-star general, reported earning $327,663 last year for his service on eight corporate boards. Shinseki also earned $35,000 last year consulting for EDS, which, according to federal contracting records, had more than $30 million worth of contracts with the VA in fiscal 2008.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made $411,000 last year as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, his disclosure shows. The bank also paid him $435,000 in severance and $63,000 as a lump-sum payout of a retirement plan. Geithner has between $785,000 and $1.8 million in personal assets. New York state property records show he purchased his suburban home for $1.6 million in 2004.

Geithner drew fire during Senate confirmation hearings because he had to repay more than $34,000 in back taxes to the IRS, an agency he now oversees.

Former president Bill Clinton's speaking and business deals have made the former first family wealthy, with between $6.1 million and $30.3 million held in a blind trust, Hillary Rodham Clinton's disclosure form shows. That may represent an increase from 2007, when Clinton's Senate disclosure report listed the account as worth between $5 million and $25 million.

Cabinet officials, like members of Congress, are not required to disclose the values of homes they own but do not rent out to tenants. However, property records show the Clintons own two 5,000-square-foot homes in affluent areas of Washington and suburban New York, both worth more than $1 million. Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar each also own more than one million-dollar home.

On the other end of the spectrum, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor, owns a condominium in Phoenix she bought for $165,000 in 2004, property records show. Her total assets: $186,000 to $740,000, almost all in retirement accounts. Her only other asset besides a savings account is an art collection worth between $15,000 and $50,000.

By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY, January 29, 2009

EW YORK (AP) - Leading backers of Hillary Rodham Clinton's failed presidential bid announced Wednesday the creation of a new online network for her supporters to stay connected and pursue policy goals she has championed.

The organization, NoLimits.org, is headed by longtime senior Clinton aides Ann Lewis and Sarah Nolan. The group has solicited the members of HillaryClinton.com, Clinton's presidential campaign e-mail list, to be part of "a new community dedicated to speaking up, sharing ideas and solving problems in our communities, our cities, our states and our world."

NoLimits.org has been incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and is not intended to be partisan even as it keeps Clinton's most politically active supporters engaged, Lewis said.

"Our goal is to use social networking tools to enable people to stay in touch," Lewis said. "This is about policy and working together to make a difference."

As Barack Obama's new secretary of State, Clinton must abide by strict federal laws that limit her political activity. To comply with the new rules, Clinton dissolved HillPac, her political action committee, and cannot take an active role in paying off the more than $6 million her campaign still owes to vendors.

Lewis said Clinton, the former New York senator, is not connected to NoLimits.org even though the group is using her name, supporter list and activism on issues to recruit members.

For example, in the solicitation e-mail, Lewis cites Clinton's role in passage of a bill in Congress this week that makes it easier for women and others to sue for pay discrimination. Obama is scheduled to sign the bill into law Thursday.

"Remember when Hillary led the fight for equal pay? Democratic women senators picked up that fight," Lewis wrote in her solicitation letter.

By BETH FOUHY, The Associated Press, January 29, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that Israel had a right to defend itself and that Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza on the Jewish state could not go unanswered.

Clinton spoke as a fragile cease-fire ruptured between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza on the same day as President Barack Obama's special envoy George Mitchell arrived in the region to try and shore up the truce.

"We support Israel's right to self-defence. The (Palestinian) rocket barrages which are getting closer and closer to populated areas (in Israel) cannot go unanswered," Clinton said in her first news conference at the State Department.

The top U.S. diplomat, whose comments may be seen by some as giving Israel a green light to once again pound Gaza, accused Hamas of "offensive" action against the Israeli Defence Forces on the border.

"It is regrettable that the Hamas leadership apparently believes that it is in their interest to provoke the right of self-defence instead of building a better future for the people of Gaza," said Clinton.

An Israeli soldier was killed by a bomb on the border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Israeli troops later killed a Palestinian, raising fears of renewed conflict after a 10-day truce that followed Israel's three-week ground and air offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Clinton said the short-term U.S. objective was to get a durable cease-fire, adding that the Obama administration was concerned about civilian casualties on both sides and the humanitarian suffering.

Asked about the humanitarian plight of Palestinians in Gaza, Clinton said the United States was looking to increase assistance there but did not indicate how much more funding was available or when the aid would be delivered.

"The United States is currently the single largest contributor to Palestinian aid and we will be adding even more because we believe that it's important to help those who have been damaged and are suffering," she said.

By Sue Pleming, Reuters, January 27, 2009

The Obama administration is promising stronger diplomatic engagement with China but also warns that the United States is ready to handle any Chinese military threat.

In her first comments to reporters at the State Department, new Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged a broader U.S. approach toward a country crucial to U.S. interests in Asia and around the world. Her comments Tuesday appeared to be a criticism of the Bush administration's China policy.

"We need a comprehensive dialogue with China," Clinton said. "The strategic dialogue that was begun in the Bush administration turned into an economic dialogue," she said — a reference to former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's Strategic Economic Dialogue, high-level discussions that have been held twice a year starting in late 2006. "That's a very important aspect of our relationship with China, but it's not the only aspect of our relationship."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, assured lawmakers Tuesday that U.S. forces "have the capability in place to be able to deal with any foreseeable Chinese threat for some time to come."

The global financial crisis has dominated recent discussions between the two countries, and trade ties often cause tension. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said last week that President Barack Obama believes China is manipulating its currency. American manufacturers say Beijing keeps its yuan currency cheaper than it should be so that its goods become cheaper for U.S. consumers and American products more expensive in China.

The United States has pushed China to live up to what U.S. officials consider Beijing's duties as an emerging global superpower and a veto-holding member of the U.N. Security Council. Still, Washington and Beijing find themselves increasingly intertwined in a host of crucial economic, military and diplomatic efforts.

Clinton said the Obama administration is working to design "a more comprehensive approach that will be more in keeping with the important role that China is playing and will be playing."

"The economy will always be a centerpiece of our relationship, but we want it to be part of a broader agenda," she said.

Another prime worry in U.S.-China ties is a possible military conflict; Taiwan is a potential flash point. China and Taiwan split in 1949 during the civil war that brought the communists to power, but Beijing considers the self-governed island a part of its territory and is determined to get it back, by force if necessary. Washington is required by law to provide the island with weapons to defend itself and has hinted it would come to Taiwan's aid if mainland forces attacked.

Beijing has built up a huge arsenal of missiles opposite Taiwan and maintains double-digit annual percentage increases in the budget for the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army.

After the Bush administration announced last year a $6.5 billion arms sale for Taiwan that included Patriot III missiles and Apache helicopters, Beijing suspended some senior-level visits and other planned exchanges.

Gates said that despite China's anger over the sale, opportunities for cooperation remained: he and his Chinese counterpart have opened a military hot line and the countries have begun a strategic dialogue, similar to U.S.-Soviet talks in the mid-20th century, meant to "avoid mistakes and miscalculations" through better communication.

"A new administration here, a fresh start, perhaps creates opportunities to reopen the aperture, if you will, on military-to-military contacts." On the arms sale, Gates said, "they knew that it was going to happen, and it's just a matter of getting past that and on to the longer-term interests of both states."

The Defense Department, he said, is making good progress toward developing a "number of programs" meant to counter Chinese technological advances that could "put our carriers at risk."

He did not elaborate on those programs but said U.S. forces are well positioned in the region. Among those he mentioned are the nuclear-powered USS George Washington — a floating air base with 67 aircraft and an armory carrying about 4 million pounds (1.8 million kilograms) of bombs, which has a new home port in Japan.

The Associated Press, January 28, 2009

After calling dozens of world leaders, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks of their 'appreciation' for the Obama foreign policy team's new direction.

Reporting from Washington -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that world leaders were joining in a collective sigh of relief as President Obama's foreign policy team begins dismantling the policies of the Bush administration.

"There's a great exhalation of breath going on around the world as people express their appreciation for the new direction that's being set, and the team that's put together by the president to carry out our foreign policy goals," Clinton said after telephoning dozens of world leaders in her first five days on the job. "We have a lot of damage to repair."

"In areas of the world that have felt either overlooked, or not receiving appropriate attention for the problems they are experiencing, there's a welcoming of the engagement that we are promising," she said.

She also said the administration was reviewing past approaches and would be "rolling out ideas and plans as we go forward." And she hinted that the new administration might change at least some aspects of its predecessor's diplomatic approaches to Iran and North Korea.

She said the administration would "monitor" international talks over Iran's nuclear program, which are to reconvene next week. Regarding North Korea, she said the six-party negotiation process put in place under President Bush remained "essential." But she stopped short of endorsing his approach.

"We are going to pursue steps that we think are effective," she said.

She avoided saying whether the United States intended to make a diplomatic overture to Syria, saying that, for the moment, the administration was focused on working on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

She promised continuity from the Bush years in some areas. In a phone call with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, she reinforced the U.S. commitment to a "democratic and sovereign Iraq" and the importance of the provincial elections scheduled for this weekend.

On China, an area where the Bush administration generally has been praised, she said a more "comprehensive" approach was needed. She didn't elaborate.

Clinton had called 37 world leaders by midday Tuesday, including four from Israel. She denied that the Obama foreign policy team, which includes skilled and strong-willed figures who were on opposing sides of last year's presidential primary campaign, could get bogged down in feuding.

"We've already established a collegial, effective working relationship," she said.




By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2009

Citing the "complex, urgent and global threat of climate change," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today appointed a special envoy for climate change, who will lead the United States in international climate negotiations.

Todd Stern, a climate negotiator during Bill Clinton's presidency and more recently a fellow at the Center for American Progress, will assume the role.

"We have no shortage of evidence that our world is facing a climate crisis," said Mrs. Clinton, who went on to attribute a large part of the problem to the burning of fossil fuels.

The appointment caps off a day of aggressive environmental moves by the Obama administration. Together they signal a sharp break from the Bush administration, which took little action to mitigate climate change. Earlier in the day, President Obama called for swift action on California's bid for stricter tailpipe emissions standards in automobiles, and to accelerate the timetable for raising national fuel-efficiency standards.

Mr. Stern called for a new multilateral agreement on climate change.

"A new day is dawning in the U.S. approach to climate change and clean energy," he said.





By Kate Galbraith, The New York Times, January 26, 2009

Two days before she will be sworn in as New York's junior senator, a smiling Kirsten E. Gillibrand said Sunday that she planned to "hit the ground running."

"It's thrilling," said Ms. Gillibrand, the 42-year-old Congresswoman from the sprawling 20th Congressional district around Albany. "You will see me everywhere in the state. You will see me wherever you want to see me."

Ms. Gillibrand spoke to reporters after finishing a congratulatory lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York with the newly minted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles E. Schumer, the state's senior senator, and New York Governor David A. Paterson, who appointed Ms. Gillibrand on Friday to fill Ms. Clinton's vacated senate seat.

Ms. Gillibrand said that the four discussed foreign policy and how to best stimulate the flagging economy, and Ms. Clinton had offered her some practical advice on how to be an effective senator. The governor joined Ms. Gillibrand at the news conference that followed, but Ms. Clinton and Mr. Schumer did not appear.

"The senator knows that she has very big shoes to fill," Governor Paterson said, adding that while the state would miss Ms. Clinton, "we will be in a position where we are well served, because Ms. Gillibrand, as a congresswoman, has been outstanding."

Mr. Paterson hand-delivered the paperwork for Ms. Gillibrand to become senator to the Secretary of Senate in Washington on Sunday afternoon, said Marissa Shorenstein, a spokeswoman for the governor. Her actual swearing in, however, won't take place until Tuesday, an aide to the Congresswoman said.

At the news conference, Ms. Gillibrand defended her pro-gun legislative stance, saying that she "very much believes in protecting hunter's rights" and that the pastime is part of "heritage and culture" of New York state.

But she also said that now that she represented the entire state, urban gun control issues would become part of her advocacy work.

"There's a lot of concerns in many of our city communities about gun violence, about keeping our children safe and keeping guns out of the hands of criminals," she said. "Those are concerns I share."

One of her immediate priorities, she said, is making sure the state benefited from President Obama's $825 billion stimulus plan that is due to come before Congress this week.

With Ms. Clinton and Mr. Schumer, Ms. Gillibrand said she discussed the possibility of creating a high-speed rail line that would run north up the New York State Thruway corridor, cross the state to Buffalo, then head back south, forming a triangle that would allow more jobs to move to the state's northern regions.

While much of the high-speed rail plan would not be "shovel ready" within a few months' time - a requirement to be considered under the Obama stimulus bill, she said - "there are some things we can do."

The bulk of Ms. Clinton's advice to her, she said, was about how to organize her office to best serve the many requests that come from constituents across the state. She said she would follow Ms. Clinton's example so that she could "hit the ground running."

On Saturday, Ms. Gillibrand went to Harlem and southeast Queens, meeting with black leaders and seeking to win over a constituency that might have been skeptical of an upstate congresswoman whose district is 2.7 percent black. Her down-to-earth style seemed to make a good impression on those she met face to face.

Mr. Paterson also broadly addressed the ongoing speculation over why Caroline Kennedy had withdrawn her name from contention for the Senate seat, but he did not say whether she would have been his choice had she remained in the running.

"She had gotten no signal from me that she had to withdraw, and no signal from me that she wouldn't be selected," he said. "The reality is that she is a great New Yorker, a great friend of mine, and there was nothing that would have prohibited her from serving."

By Sharon Otterman, The New York Times, January 25, 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has phoned a slew of leaders since taking office on Thursday, reaching out to key allies in the Middle East, Asia and Europe as the Obama administration reviews foreign policies.

Clinton, who was sworn in Wednesday, has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan's King Abdullah and the foreign ministers of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, according to acting State Department spokesman Robert Wood.

The calls were "introductory" and did not delve into the nuances of Middle East policy, despite a simmering crisis in Gaza and Thursday's naming of former Sen. George Mitchell as a special envoy to the Middle East.

President Obama said Mitchell will help implement a cease-fire between Israelis and Hamas and support anti-smuggling efforts to prevent the latter from re-arming.

But he added, "Lasting peace requires more than a long cease-fire, and that's why I will sustain an active commitment to seek two states living side by side in peace and security."

By naming Mitchell as his personal envoy, Obama is sending a diplomatic heavyweight to the region.

"He's neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian," Martin S. Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told The New York Times. "He's, in a sense, neutral."

Clinton also spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and India's foreign minister, Wood said.

On Friday, Clinton met with a group of visiting female Afghan legal professionals.

The fourteen judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys were in Washington on a State Department training program on justice reform in Afghanistan.

The State Department issued a statement about the meeting late Friday. It was not on Clinton's public schedule, and Wood did not mention the meeting at his daily press briefing when he discussed the secretary's second day in office.

According to the State Department, Clinton praised the women's "bravery and courage" for bringing reform to Afghanistan and reaffirmed President Obama's commitment to stabilizing Afghanistan.

At her confirmation hearing, Clinton also pledged to focus more attention on women's issues, especially in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, Obama and Clinton named Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as a special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke negotiated the 1995 agreement at Dayton, Ohio, that ended the war in Bosnia.

Holbrooke called his latest mission "a very difficult assignment."

"Nobody can say the war in Afghanistan has gone well, and yet, as we speak here today, American men and women and their coalition partners are fighting a very difficult struggle against a ruthless and determined enemy without any scruples at all," he said after his appointment was announced.

Holbrooke said, "If our resources are mobilized and coordinated and pulled together, we can quadruple, quintuple, multiply by tenfold the effectiveness of our efforts there."

Amid an administration review of North Korea, Clinton also spoke to the foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea, China and Australia -- key allies working to disarm Pyongyang, the spokesman said.

She also spoke with the foreign ministers of India, Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, Wood said.

The administration is also reviewing policy toward Iran, with Obama promising more engagement. Wood said that Undersecretary William Burns would be seeking input from Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, partners in the so-called "P5 plus one" group dealing with Iran's nuclear program.

Sources said Dennis Ross, a Mideast peace envoy for previous administrations, will be an envoy in charge of engaging Iran, but it is unclear what role he'll play.




By Elise Labott, CNN, January 23, 2009