The secretary of State is pressing the case that she should have control over policies related to China, not economic officials, as they did under Bush. She may raise touchy issues with Beijing.

Reporting from Washington and Beijing -- When Hillary Rodham Clinton needed a way to restore her reputation after the failure of her 1990s healthcare initiative, China provided the opportunity.

As first lady, Clinton delivered a fiery speech on human rights at a women's conference in Beijing in 1995, winning a worldwide following while dismaying her Chinese hosts, who banned coverage in the country's official media.

In her overture to the East, Clinton may have decided that the U.S.-China relationship offers a special opportunity to build a lasting diplomatic record, said Asia specialists inside and outside the government.

An emphasis on China "makes a lot of sense," said Drew Thompson, an analyst at the Nixon Center. "She could create a legacy there."

Looking across the diplomatic landscape, China has more of an upside than the seemingly intractable foreign policy problems elsewhere -- Iran, North Korea, Middle East. In those regions, the administration is assigning "super envoys" to tackle thorny problems.

The Bush administration generally has been given high marks for its handling of China. But Clinton said recently that during the Bush years, the relationship became "an economic dialogue."

"That's a very important aspect of our relationship with China," she said. "But it is not the only one."

Clinton's more comprehensive approach, however, will require the Obama administration to air issues that the Bush team generally soft-pedaled in the interest of harmony.

Clinton wants a new focus on issues such as climate change, energy, human rights and China's repression of Tibet. She wants to engage with the Chinese on difficult economic issues, including currency values, a sore subject after Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner accused China during his confirmation hearing last month of manipulating its currency.

She is seeking to forge a new U.S.-Chinese agreement on climate change at a moment when the Chinese fear that any threat to the economy could jeopardize social stability. Clinton is bringing the administration's new climate change envoy, Todd Stern, on the trip to show her seriousness.

But on the question that defined her early involvement in China, Clinton plans to raise the difficult subject of human rights issue only in passing, if at all, on this trip, officials said. Nonetheless, they said, she considers it a top concern.

In her 1995 speech, Clinton accused China of curtailing women's rights, including through its one-child policy. Last spring, after China's crackdown on Tibetan protesters, she urged then-President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

She has also been tough on Chinese leaders on economic issues, complaining about their trade and currency practices. She said China's huge holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds was causing "a slow erosion of our own economic sovereignty."

Beijing is well aware of Clinton's record, but Chinese analysts said leaders are pleased with her decision to make Asia her first stop as secretary of State. They hope that what they see as a positive relationship through the Bush years can continue, analysts said.

Chu Shulong, director of the Institute of Strategic Studies at Qinghua University in Beijing, said Chinese anxiety about Clinton after her 1995 address eased after a 1998 trip in which she accompanied then-President Clinton on a state visit.

"The Chinese leadership, including [then-President] Jiang Zemin, got along very well with her," Chu said.

Clinton's campaign statements are unlikely to affect the leadership's view of her, said Jin Canrong, deputy director of People's University's Center for American Studies in Beijing.

"I think people fully understand the gap between campaign rhetoric and the real policy of the new officeholders," Jin said.

Still, Beijing's relationship with the Obama administration has had a rocky beginning.

The first policy position articulated by the new administration was Geithner's charge of Chinese currency manipulation.

On top of that, Chu said, moves by Congress to include potentially restrictive "Buy American" provisions to the recently passed economic stimulus package have raised concerns in China -- as in other countries -- that the United States may be moving toward protectionism.

For Clinton, there are risks to pushing contentious issues. The Chinese could downgrade the dialogue, so that her conversations are not with a vice premier but with a lower-ranking official who has far less leverage, said the Nixon Center's Thompson.

But the Chinese could be urged to play a larger role in world affairs, as Washington believes befits their size, he said.

Although China historically has limited its involvement overseas, it has begun edging in a new direction. Under Western pressure, it has used its leverage with the Sudanese government to try to ease the Darfur crisis and, in a move that surprised State Department officials, mobilized its navy last year to fight piracy near Somalia.

If Clinton succeeds in encouraging more such involvement, Thompson said, "that could be her big contribution."




By Paul Richter and Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times, February 14, 2009

Preparing for her first trip as secretary of State, she says she will value 'what others have to say,' which she cast as being in contrast with Bush administration policy.

In Tokyo, where she lands Monday in her first stop, she will meet families of Japanese abducted by North Korea.

In Beijing, Clinton will visit a church and talk with women and nongovernmental groups. But senior U.S. officials said that though Clinton would broach human rights issues, such as repression in Tibet, she won't push hard for changes. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about the trip.

Any public discussion of human rights would be dimly viewed by China's leaders, with whom she will also meet.

In Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, Clinton plans to seek ways to strengthen ties.

Clinton's speech outlined a North Korea policy that closely mirrored the Bush approach.

She said the Obama administration would normalize relations with North Korea if the country "completely and verifiably" eliminated its nuclear weapons program. The administration also would be willing to replace armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty and provide aid.

But she warned that North Korea should "avoid any provocative action."





By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, February 14, 2009

Her first overseas trip as secretary of State acknowledges the growing significance of the region and the need to adjust America's global priorities.

When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visits Asia next week, she will fundamentally and profoundly change the trajectory of U.S. foreign policy. The "Iraqification" of foreign policy under President Bush permeated strategic thinking during the last eight years and undermined the United States' standing around the world. As the tides of power shift from the West to the East, the United States has been stuck in the sand. Clinton's decision to go to Asia for her first overseas trip underscores the growing geopolitical significance of the region and a strong desire to rebalance American engagement.

All but one of the last 10 secretaries of State have taken their maiden voyage to Europe or the Middle East. Until now, only George P. Shultz, who served in the Reagan administration, broke this trend when he chose to focus on the Americas. His decision was not popular.

However, the depth of the financial crisis has now triggered massive fallout in Asia as its export-dependent economies face an oversupplied, low-demand market.

Compounding Asia's growing financial uncertainties are looming security challenges that could catalyze conflict and even war. Territorial disputes over post-colonial occupations in the Pacific waters continue to animate interstate relations between Japan, South Korea and China. And North Korea's nuclear weapons program and China's continued military buildup pose traditional security concerns that, if not properly managed, could ignite war. All the while, a caldron of emerging nontraditional security challenges -- such as radicalism in Southeast Asia, climate change and pandemic diseases -- could induce conflict.

Last, the United States seeks to engage in a civil dialogue with Muslims in Southeast Asia and around the world. One of the many lessons learned from the Bush administration is that military force alone is insufficient to counter terrorists and their radical ideology. Clinton's decision to go to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, underscores how serious Obama is about enhancing U.S. public diplomacy and outreach efforts in the Muslim world. This may prove to be the most significant leg of Clinton's journey, as she attempts to orchestrate a major shift in the United States' overall approach to the war on terrorism.

It is no secret that Clinton has great admiration for Shultz. And just as her decision to first travel to Asia has been debated, Shultz's tour through the Americas also was initially subject to demarches by Washingtonians who felt his trip reflected poor strategic judgment about the contours of Cold War geopolitics. In the end, many naysayers of Shultz became his biggest advocates as he helped engineer the peaceful collapse of the Soviet empire and the expansion of American values. Clinton's trip to Asia represents a similar diplomatic spirit that sees a region ripe with opportunities for bold departures and strategic gains.





By Nirav Patel, Los Angeles Times, February 14, 2009

U.S. Emphasis on Seizures by N. Korea in '70s, '80s Accompanied by Peace Outline for Pyongyang

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that when she visits Tokyo next week, she will meet with the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents, highlighting an emotionally sensitive issue at the same time she extended an olive branch to the government in Pyongyang.

During a speech in New York before the Asia Society, Clinton said the Obama administration was willing to grant North Korea a range of benefits -- including normalized relations, a peace treaty and energy and economic incentives -- "if North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably eliminate their nuclear weapons program."

Although those elements of a final agreement had been embraced by the Bush administration as far back as 2005, it was rare for any Bush official to lay out the terms as clearly as Clinton did in her speech. Clinton's phrasing -- "if North Korea is genuinely prepared" -- also suggested the Obama administration might be willing to take some of these steps before North Korea's nuclear program is completely eliminated.

The six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program were stymied for months after the Bush administration in October removed North Korea from the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism in the hope of securing an agreement to verify aspects of its nuclear program. But North Korea balked at publicly committing to terms that the Bush administration claimed had been reached in a private deal.

Bush's delisting decision was highly controversial in Japan, because for many years, the United States had said it would not remove North Korea from the list as long as the abductee issue was unresolved. Japan has insisted that North Korea first provide details on the abductions of Japanese citizens by the reclusive nation during the 1970s and '80s, apparently to obtain Japanese teachers. North Korea leader Kim Jong Il has conceded the abductions took place and returned five Japanese, but the North Korean government has refused to provide details on others, who it says have died.

Bush had met at the White House with the mother of Megumi Yokota, a 13-year-old who vanished more than three decades ago. But the pleas of Japanese officials that the president not remove North Korea from the list were brushed aside in a bid to secure a final diplomatic victory. Indeed, because of the sensitivity of the issue in the North Korea talks, sources said there was resistance in the State Department to Clinton's interest in holding the meeting.

After her speech, Clinton told reporters she wanted to meet with the families "on a very personal and, you know, human basis. I don't know that I'll be meeting as a secretary of state any more than I will be meeting with them as a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister." Clinton said she attaches "great importance to the abduction issue," and "it's important that their plight not be forgotten."

Since President Obama took office, the North Korean government has heaped invective on the conservative government in South Korea, and there are near-daily reports out of Tokyo and Seoul that Pyongyang appears to be preparing a missile test. "It is incumbent upon North Korea to avoid any provocative action and unhelpful rhetoric toward South Korea," Clinton warned in her speech.

By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, February 14, 2009

Signaling a new, more vigorous approach to China, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Friday that the United States had nothing to fear from an economically ascendant Beijing and that it would press Chinese leaders on delicate issues like human rights and climate change.

In her first major speech as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton drew a clear line between the Obama administration's approach and that of the Bush White House, which viewed China more as a rival than a partner and kept relations fixed on economic matters like exchange rates.

"Some believe that China on the rise is by definition an adversary," she said at the Asia Society in New York on the eve of a trip to China and other Asian countries. "To the contrary, we believe the United States and China benefit from, and contribute to, each other's successes."

At the same time, Mrs. Clinton called for "rigorous and persistent engagement," not just with China, but with Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, which are also on her itinerary. And she took note of Tibet, saying that Tibetans had a right to practice their religion without persecution.

Climate change will figure high on Mrs. Clinton's agenda in Beijing, where she said she would emphasize how the two countries must work together. She plans to visit an energy-efficient power plant near Beijing that is a joint venture of General Electric and a Chinese partner.

While Mrs. Clinton noted that China had recently surpassed the United States as the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, she was critical of American policies, too, saying that the stimulus package just passed by the House was lacking measures that would promote more energy efficiency.

"The idea that we just continue putting off the future, when we are supposed to be the country of the future," is puzzling to non-Americans, Mrs. Clinton said, sounding less like a diplomat than a presidential candidate.

Not since Dean Rusk in the 1960s has a new secretary of state flown west rather than east on a first trip. But Mrs. Clinton, who has already sent special emissaries to the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, said, "There has been a general feeling that perhaps we didn't pay an appropriate amount of attention to Asia over the last years."

In one sign of a fresh start, Mrs. Clinton said the United States and China would resume middle-level exchanges between their militaries, which China suspended because of American arms sales to Taiwan.

Mrs. Clinton said that in Japan she would meet with families of people abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, addressing an issue that has long agitated the Japanese, but which the United States has viewed as a distraction to talks with the North about its nuclear program.

Mrs. Clinton is also looking beyond Asia, preparing to dive into some of the thorniest issues on the diplomatic agenda. She said she would attend a donors' conference in early March, held in Cairo and convened by Egypt, to help Palestinians in Gaza. She is also expected to go to Israel.

With Israeli leaders horse-trading over their next government after inconclusive elections this week, the United States is putting its near-term focus on the plight of civilians in Gaza.

Any broader initiative on the Arab-Israeli conflict, officials said, will have to wait until either the Israeli opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, or the foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, is able to form a governing coalition.

Most analysts believe that Mr. Netanyahu has a better chance of doing so, a prospect that worries some in Washington, particularly if he is able to cobble together only a right-wing coalition rather than a broad one. That could dim prospects for a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

The State Department has been careful not to signal a preference in the jockeying for a new Israeli government, partly, analysts said, because President Clinton's administration was criticized for favoring Shimon Peres over Mr. Netanyahu during the 1990s.

"The U.S. tried to intervene to get Peres elected, and it was counterproductive," said Martin S. Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel, who described Mr. Netanyahu's subsequently rocky relations with President Clinton in his new book, "Innocent Abroad."

Mr. Indyk, who has advised Mrs. Clinton, said the Obama administration should use this transitional period to begin a dialogue with Syria, which has indicated it is eager to talk to the United States and which is viewed as a central player in the effort to broker a peace agreement.




By Mark Landler, The New York Times, February 13, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is urging North Korea not to take any "provocative" actions that could undermine peace talks.

Clinton told the Asia Society it is incumbent on North Korea to avoid any provocative actions if it hopes to improve relations with the U.S. and join the international community.

She said the Obama administration would "normalize" relations with North Korea if it agrees to verify that it has abandoned its nuclear weapons program.

Clinton spoke Friday on the eve of a tour of Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China.

The Associated Press, February 13, 2009

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana says U.S.-Russian relations are looking up. He says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov next month to look for ways to improve cooperation.

Tensions flared between the former Cold War rivals in recent years over disagreements on missile defense, NATO expansion and Moscow's invasion of Georgia last year.

Solana met with Clinton Thursday and was in Moscow this week as well. He says U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's call to "hit the reset button" on relations was well received in Moscow.

The U.S. State Department has not yet announced the meeting with Lavrov. Solana said the two would meet in Geneva after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers early next month.

The Associated Press, February 13, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first overseas trip, a four-nation tour of Asia, will require her to offer comfort to Asian countries reeling from economic distress and worried about America's ability to deal with the crisis.

The visit next week to Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and China will cover traditional diplomatic and security issues, including the North Korean nuclear threat and U.S. military alliances.

But as Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, famously understood in his 1992 White House run, "It's the economy, stupid."

The mission of the top U.S. diplomat "probably starts with the number one security issue for all of us right now, which is global economic security," said Wendy Sherman, who served at the State Department in the Clinton administration.

"Without it, it's hard to do any of the things that we are talking about" in terms of diplomacy and security, she said.

Each of the four export-dependent countries Clinton will visit has been hit hard by the global economic turmoil that started in the United States, which has remained the market of last resort for Asian goods.

Leaders of those countries have complained about the U.S. financial policies that helped bring about the worst economic downturn in decades and many there worry about protectionism in a country that has preached loudly to them about open markets.

"It is a challenging time for Clinton to travel to Asia, because there is the sense that the world economic order has been upended by the financial crisis that emanated from the U.S.," said Eswar Prasad, a former International Monetary Fund economist, now at Cornell University.

COMPETENCE, PROTECTIONISM

Asian unease has been compounded by the unhappy realization their countries are not in good enough fiscal and financial shape to withstand the U.S. meltdown. Many are hurting just as badly, if not worse, than the United States.

"The tsunami has eventually sucked up the Asian economies in its wake and they have turned out to be much less resilient than they had anticipated," said Prasad.

As the first face of President Barack Obama's team her hosts will see, Clinton needs to give assurances an administration that has yet to fill such important Cabinet slots as commerce and trade can competently weather the crisis and not make things worse, analysts said.

"She's not the economic spokesman, but what is paramount now is go out there and start talking about some of the policies that are designed not just to pull the U.S. out of slump but to get back to global growth," said Michael Auslin of the American Enterprise Institute.

"Countries in the region are nervous both about the U.S. ability to pull out of this slump in a timely manner and about protectionism that would hurt them," he said.

Sparking protectionist concerns are the "Buy American" provisions of the U.S. economic stimulus package.

Final details of the provision were still not available late on Thursday, but the executive director of a U.S. manufacturing alliance said he was told by congressional aides that House and Senate negotiators agreed on a provision that requires public works projects funded by the plan to use only U.S.-made goods.

The final provision also includes language that requires the United States to implement the provision consistent with its trade commitments, the manufacturing group official said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said negotiators had struck the right balance, after Obama urged them last week not to include any provision that could trigger a trade war.

Analysts said Clinton could provide a big service by explaining Obama's thinking on the issue to anxious trade partners.

"I hope that the secretary of state knows the president's exact mind and can take that to all of our trade partners, all of whom are concerned about Buy American, and say this is the administration's exact position," said Derek Scissors, a trade expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

By Paul Eckert, Reuters, February 13, 2009

During Hillary Clinton's failed presidential run, she cited the China relationship as Washington's most important.

As secretary of state, she is moving to establish China as a priority, making her first trip abroad to China and three other Asian nations. It's a break with the tradition among secretaries of state of visiting Europe first.

In Beijing, Mrs. Clinton is expected to discuss a gamut of economic, security and environmental issues with her hosts, including China's response to the global financial crisis and its role in curbing North Korea's nuclear program.

While officials in Washington don't plan dramatic shifts in Asia policy, Asia experts see opportunities for advancing U.S.-China relations during Mrs. Clinton's Beijing trip.

Among them is resuming military-to-military talks frozen by Beijing last year after the Bush administration approved new arms sales to Taiwan.

The U.S. and China are also expected to outline a joint strategy to address global warming and other environmental issues. Mrs. Clinton may announce U.S. funding of green projects in China, such as environmentally friendly buildings, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Mrs. Clinton is expected to build on the Bush administration's foundations in dealing with China. Under President Bush, the U.S. established two formal engagement channels with Beijing -- the "senior dialogue" focused on security issues and a "strategic economic dialogue" led by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Mrs. Clinton has said the Obama administration will seek "a more comprehensive approach" to engaging Beijing, without specifying the issues to be addressed. China analysts said these comments have piqued the interest of Chinese leaders who fear they could signal more U.S. attention to Chinese human rights, Tibet and Beijing's support for dictatorial governments in Myanmar and Sudan.

Trade is another potential flash point. During the campaign, President Barack Obama was critical of some Chinese trade practices, and his treasury secretary has accused China of manipulating its currency.

Chinese officials are seen as interested in learning who in the Obama administration will be driving China policy.

Mrs. Clinton's trip to China is also stoking speculation that she intends to take the lead in overseeing U.S.-China relations. Some U.S. officials have said Vice President Joe Biden could also emerge as the official to take that role.

Mrs. Clinton will need to balance the advancement of U.S.-China relations during her trip with reassuring Washington's traditional Asian allies, Japan and South Korea, that their interests are being protected by Washington. Tokyo and Seoul are her first stops on the seven-day trip, which starts Sunday.

By Jay Solomon, The Wall Street Journal, FEBRUARY 13, 2009

Clinton's eight-day mission will take her to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China. The far East "was a logical choice for her to focus on," and "signals that the U.S. recognizes the growing importance of Asia," said Paul Stares, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

It also made sense, Stares said, because other senior Obama administration officials have already traveled to Europe, the Middle East and South Asia.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country where President Obama lived as a child, Clinton may lay the groundwork for a presidential visit later this year, Stares said. Visiting Jakarta is also "part of this attempt to reshape the United States' image in the Muslim world, said Rodger Baker, director of East Asian analysis at Texas-based Stratfor, an intelligence company.

In China, Japan and South Korea, Clinton will focus on the future of the "six-party" talks about North Korea's nuclear program, said Michael Green, a former senior director for Asian affairs in the Bush administration's National Security Council. Russia and North Korea round out the six nations in the talks.

"I think it's very important that she's on listening mode," said Green, who was among experts briefing Clinton at a Feb. 4 dinner.

Clinton will hear that Tokyo and Seoul, in particular, are still dismayed by what Green says was the Bush administration's "dramatic shift from a very hard-line policy" to a gentler approach, with little to show for it.

The governments of Japan and Korea "believe that we just don't think we can denuclearize North Korea and we'll be happy to contain the problem," he said. "That's a serious matter."

However, Clinton said during her Senate confirmation hearings that the Obama administration's goal was to "end the North Korean nuclear program" and "end North Korea as a proliferator."

"It is our strong belief that the six-party talks, particularly the role that China is currently playing, along with our close allies South Korea and Japan, is a vehicle for us to exert pressure on North Korea in a way that is more likely to alter their behavior," she told senators.

North Korea agreed two years ago to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for promises of aid, diplomatic ties with the United States and a formal peace agreement to end the 1950-1953 Korean War. But the deal has stalled as North Korea refused to let inspectors collect soil and nuclear waste samples needed to verify its compliance.

North Korea has also recently threatened to "wipe out" South Korea's government and repudiated a 17-year-old North-South non-aggression pact. Recent satellite images suggest North Korea is preparing for a ballistic missile test, Stratfor says.

Clinton this week cited "North Korea's attitude in the last weeks" and said her talks will help "determine the most effective way forward."

By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY, February 12, 2009

To help Obama win a Senate vote on emission caps, she needs to have China take action on global warming, too.

Hillary Clinton chose Asia, particularly China, for her maiden voyage next week as secretary of State. While the most urgent issue is Beijing's help to end a global recession, Mrs. Clinton's more planet-saving goal is to enlist China to set curbs on its carbon emissions. Without that, President Obama may not be able to win enough Senate votes for a cap on US greenhouse gases.

As the world's two largest emitters, China and the US will set the pace this year among all nations in make-or-break negotiations for a post-Kyoto treaty on global warming. The talks end this December with a summit in Copenhagen.

If the world is to make a commitment to fight climate change, each of these giant polluters needs to know the other will jump into the same chilly pool of obligatory curbs on their tailpipes and smokestacks.

But if China isn't making much of a sacrifice, many US senators, especially those from coal states, may not support CO2 cuts or a treaty seen as reducing US competitiveness. China says it and other developing countries deserve to be allowed to pollute for a while to catch up to modern standards.

Mrs. Clinton must break this standoff. The bleak future that each country faces in a warming planet isn't all that different. And working together on climate change might even draw them closer.

Both countries have taken a long time to wake up to the task. Mr. Obama's election ushers in a drive for a "green" economy. And since 2005, Beijing has made some efforts to rein in its worst polluters, if only for the sake of not letting the local damage hinder growth or to quell rising environmental protests that challenge the party itself.

But China has two problems that may keep it from satisfying the US.

Rather than slow its economy with emission caps, it wants the West to give it advanced energy technology, such as "clean" coal plants. That's a cost the US may not be willing to bear given the energy investments it needs.

The second is that the Communist Party, despite its green intentions, seems unable to control local chiefs in the provinces who are rewarded for growth and often ignore party mandates. And many of them are part owners in polluting factories.

A top-down campaign against CO2 is likely to fail. Until Beijing allows local democracy – and full freedom for citizen activists - there won't be enough public pressure on these local chiefs.

While Beijing has tolerated a blossoming of environmental groups since 1994, it keeps a rein on them, fearing they may spark a "green" revolt against the regime. Clinton needs to push China to loosen those reins and allow political and media freedom.

She can start by asking for the release of Wu Lihong, a prominent activist who was given a three-year sentence in 2007 after leading a campaign against pollution in the home province of President Hu Jintao. His release would signal a new freedom for eco-advocacy.

Just as millions of Americans now pressure their leaders for action on global warming, China needs millions of courageous activists like Wu Lihong.

For want of a dissident released, a planet should not be lost.

The Christian Science Monitor, February 13, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior Egyptian official says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will attend an international donors conference in Cairo next month to raise money to help rebuild Gaza after Israel's recent military operations against Palestinian militants there.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters on Thursday that Clinton had accepted his invitation to go to the March 2 meeting. The State Department has not yet announced the trip but says the United States will be represented at a high level.

The meeting will focus on reconstructing Gaza after Israel's 22-day offensive and on ways of sending aid into the area.

The Associated Press, February 12, 2009

She'll talk with China and three other nations about climate change, the financial crisis, and more.

Washington - The Obama administration may have come out of the blocks with quick action on the Middle East, but Hillary Rodham Clinton's maiden trip as secretary of State to China and three other East Asian countries underscores the importance the new administration places on a rising Asia.

The countries that Secretary Clinton will visit, beginning Monday, reflect the variety in the kinds of relations the United States has in Asia: There are longtime allies Japan and South Korea, bridge-building to the Muslim world represented by Indonesia, and management of China's rise as global power.

That the administration views East Asia as a key participant in addressing the world's most pressing challenges can be seen in the issues Clinton is preparing to take up - everything from the global financial crisis to climate change to nuclear proliferation.

"Historians will judge this administration and our generation on how we managed the rise of the East," says Michael Green, who was senior director of Asian affairs in the Bush National Security Council and is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. They will "look back at this [trip] as an important signal to the region."

No secretary of State since Dean Rusk under President Kennedy has made Asia his or her initial destination. But beyond the mere choice of Asia, Clinton has offered few advance hints on what she wants the week-long trip to accomplish.

She has said she is intent upon laying the foundation for a "comprehensive dialogue" with China - one that expands beyond what she describes as an "economic dialogue" under the Bush administration.

The tricky part for Clinton is that she will be seeking to broaden the discussion with a rising global power into areas it is reluctant to address - human rights and greenhouse gases. And this comes at a time when the US needs China's cooperation in the financial crisis.

A new secretary of State is always watched for the signals she or he sends with a first overseas trip, and that is especially true when the message-sending is also on behalf of a new president. The usual choice of destination is Europe or the Middle East - but those places were already spoken for. President Obama had already named special envoys to the Middle East and to Afghanistan and Pakistan, while Vice President Joseph Biden was tapped to address the new administration's relations with Europe at a major security conference in Germany last week.

But beyond those factors was Clinton's sense that a number of the administration's top priorities will require dialogue and strong cooperation with Asia, State Department officials and Asia analysts say.

The problem of nuclear proliferation, which Mr. Obama emphasized during his campaign, will require a quick focus on North Korea and an effort to restart stalemated international talks aimed at dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear program. North Korea pronounced itself a nuclear power during the second Bush term and has recently stepped up its belligerent rhetoric and actions despite concessions from the Bush administration.

But Clinton is not expected to signal any overtures to Pyongyang. The issue, in fact, was pointedly absent from the State Department's announcement of her Asia trip. She instead will focus on hearing out and coordinating the positions of the capitals she will visit, regional analysts say.

"It would be extremely destabilizing and unnerving for our allies if the major headline in North Korea out of this trip was that the first priority is engaging North Korea and not sewing up our relationship with our allies and making sure we're on the same page," says Mr. Green, who was among several experts to brief Clinton before the trip.

Contemplating the "Why Asia?" question for a destination, some regional experts say Clinton had both strategic and tactical motivations. "The Obama administration is fully aware of the global shift in power eastwards," says Michael Fullilove, director of global issues at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, Australia.

He also sees Clinton making a quick "claim" on the China file. It will be "the most important bilateral relationship of the US in the coming decades," says Mr. Fullilove, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

China policy was largely turned over to former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in the second Bush term, he notes. Now, Clinton is signaling Obama's Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, "like a lion putting its paw right on the bone," he says. By heading right out to Beijing, "she's saying, like that lion, 'It's mine. Are you going to do something about it?' "

Clinton will be watched for how she broaches with Beijing her intention to broaden Sino-American relations. Some economists note the record trade deficit with China - $266 billion in 2008 - and insist that China must be pressured on its monetary policy.

In a new report, the Asia Society calls for climate change to become the center of US-China relations, while some human rights activists want democratization, religious freedom, or the impact of China-Sudan relations on Darfur to top Clinton's priorities.

But some big-picture security experts say the secretary of State has to be pragmatic, especially in the midst of a global financial crisis and when the US needs Beijing's cooperation on issues like Iran and North Korea.

"If Clinton thinks, 'I'm going to push the democracy agenda on China no matter what,' she's going to get a quick education," says Thomas P.M. Barnett, author of the recent book "Great Powers: America and the World After Bush." China continues to hold 70 percent of its foreign reserves in dollars, he - says, but if miffed Chinese leaders "shift just 10 percent of what they hold to another currency, believe me, we are going to notice."

Indeed, observers like Green of CSIS predict that Clinton will greet her Asian hosts "with a large dose of humility" - in part because she will arrive representing an economically weakened and chastened America. "This is not like the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, when the US was up and Asia was down," he says. "This time, the crisis started in the US market, and I think it's appropriate for our officials - and I think this is the tone the secretary will set - to make it clear we have problems we have to fix."

Yet within that spirit of humility, Fullilove sees Clinton reminding Chinese leaders of what he calls "the Spider-Man dictum - with great power comes great responsibility." An American goal initiated by the Bush administration to peacefully manage China's rise to superpower will also be pursued by President Obama, whom Fullilove describes as more of a pragmatist than Bush, with none of the former president's "visceral mistrust of nondemocracies."

The challenge for Obama and his secretary of State, these Asia experts say, will be working toward a China exercising its global-power responsibilities without making US allies in the region nervous.

By Howard LaFranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, February 13, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hopes to appoint a special envoy to deal with U.S. policy on North Korea before she leaves on a trip to Asia next week to demonstrate the Obama administration's commitment to addressing North Korea's nuclear weapons program, The Associated Press has learned.

Clinton leaves this weekend on a tour of Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China. Clinton could make the announcement on Friday when she is to give a speech in New York outlining the administration's view of Asia and its growing global importance, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointment has not yet been made public.

The officials said Stephen Bosworth, a former senior State Department official and U.S. ambassador to South Korea, has been offered the job. Bosworth currently is dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

The officials said Clinton would like to make the announcement before her Sunday departure for Asia, although they stressed that details of the timing and specifics of the job were still being worked out.

Bosworth's office did not respond to a message seeking comment about the post.

By MATTHEW LEE, The Associated Press, February 11, 2009

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration plans to realign the United States' relationship with China by putting more emphasis on climate change, energy and human rights, widening the focus beyond the economic concerns of the Bush years, according to senior administration officials.

With Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton scheduled to visit Beijing next week as part of her first foreign trip in her new job, the administration is said to believe that a broader relationship with the Chinese could create opportunities for collaboration - not only on a response to the global economic crisis, but also on the environment and on security issues like the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs.

Yet the new focus, which is being championed by Mrs. Clinton, carries risks, experts said, because it could aggravate tensions on delicate issues like China's repression of Tibet and its position as the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases.

An added hurdle for Mrs. Clinton, these experts said, is that the United States urgently needs China's support on the economic front. Putting new issues on the table now may complicate efforts to seek Beijing's help in areas like financial regulation and stimulus campaigns.

"The difficulty is not just that the timing is off," said Minxin Pei, a China expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Rebalancing the relationship means introducing elements that have friction. Those areas that have been ignored are precisely the more contentious ones."

Mrs. Clinton said recently that relations during the Bush administration "turned into an economic dialogue," adding, "That's a very important aspect of our relationship with China, but it is not the only aspect."

Speaking last week to reporters, she said, "We want it to be part of a broader agenda, and that's what we're working to achieve."

Mrs. Clinton has not yet publicly declared her priorities for China, and she must square her ambitions with those of the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. geithner, and other senior Obama administration officials, like Carol M. Browner, the White House's coordinator of energy and climate policy.

But Mrs. Clinton has moved to reclaim the role of the State Department in making China policy after years in which the Treasury, led by Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., dominated the issue. Mr. Paulson initiated and led the so-called Strategic Economic Dialogue that covered a wide variety of topics but, according to critics, limited American scrutiny of issues like Tibet.

China's crackdown on protesting Tibetan monks last year led Mrs. Clinton, then a Democratic presidential candidate, to call on President Bush not to attend the Beijing Olympics. Mr. Bush went to Beijing anyway - a decision in keeping with his administration's practice of pushing China harder on its exchange rate than on its human rights abuses.

The Obama administration, officials said, will start softly, too, focusing initially on climate change and energy efficiency. Mrs. Clinton is expected to bring along her new special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, who has written about the need for countries that are major emitters to work together.

The United States is likely to emphasize joint research projects over harder issues like cuts in Chinese emissions, an approach that largely echoes that of the Bush administration. Even so, climate experts warned that progress could easily be derailed by other jolts between Beijing and Washington.

"We need to be willing to set aside other things that could poison the relationship: conflicts over Iran, conflicts over Africa, conflicts over the currency," said David G. Victor, an energy expert at Stanford University.

Mrs. Clinton, whose weeklong Asian tour also includes stops in Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, is unlikely to confront the Chinese on her first visit. But given that she often cites her 1995 speech to a women's conference in Beijing and its hostile reception by the Chinese, it is hard to imagine that she would soft-pedal human rights abuses in Tibet or elsewhere.

Officials said Mrs. Clinton was determined to engage the Chinese on North Korea, pushing for a resumption of multiparty talks with the North Koreans. Outside experts have urged the secretary to name a lead American negotiator for North Korea before her trip, to underline her urgency.

Christopher R. Hill, the current negotiator, is expected to be appointed ambassador to Iraq, though he will travel to Asia with Mrs. Clinton. Among the people rumored to be in line for the North Korea post is Stephen W. Bosworth, a former American ambassador to South Korea.

Mr. Bosworth, now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, returned Saturday from a private visit to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, telling reporters that he detected some willingness on the part of North Korean officials to talk to the Obama administration.

Mrs. Clinton's greatest challenge in seizing China policy, some experts said, is that she is not the Treasury secretary. "What's more important right now than economics?" said Nicholas R. Lardy, a China expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

By Mark Landler, The New York Times, February 10, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has started a suggestion box on the State Department's internal intranet site called "The Sounding Board," which appears to be a message board where ideas can be raised and commented on. Ideas can also be emailed privately to the "Secretary's Suggestion Box."

Employees who open up the State Dept's intranet homepage are greeted with a graphic declaring "The Sounding Board, The Secretary is Listening." A similar space is in the works for USAID.

Oddly, the site, which appears to have been launched Monday, has not yet been announced internally and it seems very few employees here know it is up and running.

"The Sounding Board is a place where I hope we can all engage in sharing creative and collaborative ideas to make our agency smarter, more efficient, and more effective," Clinton wrote yesterday in an opening post, a screen shot of which was provided to ABC News.

"Ideas will be reviewed to determine their potential and will be presented to Department management for consideration and formal response. Secretary Clinton and other senior Department officials will consider both the initial proposal and the management response to determine if additional action is necessary," the site says.

"This is your space to start this conversation. Secretary Clinton is listening and wants to hear from you," it adds.

Secretary Clinton pledged to run a department that is open to new ideas during remarks to employees when she first entered the department's Foggy Bottom headquarters as Secretary of State, an idea that was met with whoops of approval.

Clinton hinted at the site's creation during a Town Hall meeting with employees last week. "I want and need to hear from you, and that is not an idle invitation but an urgent request. We want to continue the dialogue we're beginning today, and in fact, we're creating a space on the Intranet website for you to generate your own ideas and engage in conversations with the whole Department," she told the assembled.

Employees are encouraged to submit ideas (which can be done anonymously) about how to improve the department. "The Sounding Board is designed to solicit your ideas and suggestion for Department innovations and reform. The goal is to provide clear and well-defined proposals for review and action by Department management," according to the "Guidelines" section of the site, which is maintained by the Bureau of Information and Resource Management's Office of eDiplomacy.

What are they looking for? Ideas that have "enterprise-wide application," according to the same section. "Who will benefit? How will it improve overall performance? What savings with the Department or posts realize?"

Just before telling employees to avoid "gratuitous acronyms, jargon, and inside references" in posts to the site, it offers this clunky warning: "During this exciting time of change and innovation there are still existing challenges and obstacles. Remember -- it's good to think outside the box. But in a world composed of multiple boxes, one nestled inside another, it is important to check around and see why the box you want to bust out of is already re-taped on one side or another. This is the challenge."

"The Sounding Board is not a chat room, venting forum, or advice column," it continues. "It is a place to begin discussing solutions."

By Kirit Radia, ABC News, February 10, 2009

WASHINGTON - The U.S. and Iran have a chance to "work out a way of talking" that could lead to understandings on a range of issues, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday.

In a hopeful assessment of prospects for improved relations with Tehran, Clinton told reporters at the State Department that the U.S. remains opposed to Iran getting nuclear weapons. She added that the Obama administration hopes the two nations can work out "a better understanding of one another."

During an appearance with her Czech counterpart, Karel Schwarzenberg, Clinton was asked about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement that Iran would welcome talks with Washington if they are based on mutual respect. Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic relations for nearly 30 years.

"There is an opportunity for the Iranian government to demonstrate a willingness to unclench their fist and to begin a serious and responsible discussion about a range of matters," Clinton said.

"We still persist in our view that Iran should not obtain nuclear weapons, that it would be a very unfortunate course for them to pursue, and we hope there will be opportunities in the future for us to develop a better understanding of one another and to work out a way of talking that would produce positive results for the people of Iran."

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference that he would encourage the Obama administration to start talking to Iran as soon as possible to try to resolve the nuclear issue.

Clinton said the prospect of Iran obtaining ballistic missiles capable of striking central and western Europe was the driving force behind U.S. efforts in recent years to extend its missile defense system to Europe. She did not say whether the Obama administration would go ahead with plans laid by the Bush administration to install missile interceptors in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic.

Clinton said that if Iran were to change course on the development of missiles and nuclear weapons, then the U.S. "will reconsider where we stand," on the missile defense issue. "But we are a long, long way from seeing any evidence of a behavior change."

Asked whether the U.S. and global financial crisis would have an impact on the administration's plans to proceed with missile defense in Europe, Clinton said, "Our concerns about missile defense are primarily technical," adding that economic calculations might figure in the administration's thinking, too.

Those remarks were in line with Obama's oft-repeated campaign stance: Missile defense would be worth pursuing as long as the technology is proven and the system can be shown to be cost-effective.

"We expect any system that we deploy to be able to operate effectively to achieve the goals that are set," Clinton said.

The system proposed for Poland and the Czech Republic would be designed to shoot down a small number of long-range ballistic missiles outside the Earth's atmosphere; the silo-based interceptor rocket that would be used in that mission is a newer, two-stage version that has not yet been tested in full.

By raising questions about the technical feasibility of the European system, the Obama administration could be signaling an intention to put it on the back burner or use it as a bargaining chip with Russia.

A dimension of the discussion about missile defense in Europe not mentioned by Clinton is Russia's strong objection to it being placed in the Czech Republic and Poland, in what had been a Soviet sphere of influence.

By ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press, February 10, 2009

The secretary of State should push for Beijing's help on the economy, nuclear proliferation, climate change and pandemic disease.

The debate about whether to engage China is over -- we are now about 20 years into a common-law marriage. The debate about whether China will join the international community is also over. Beijing has been signing up for multilateral forums as if they were going out of style. The great challenge for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when she visits Beijing next week is to influence China to play a larger role in preventing global catastrophes in these areas: the economy, nuclear proliferation, climate change and pandemic disease.

China deserves high marks for acting quickly on the global economic crisis. Beijing turned on a dime from trying to cool down its economy last summer to enacting potentially potent stimulus measures over the last months. Some measures, such as a plan to invest $123 billion in universal health insurance over the next three years, could lay the foundation for a social safety net that will help establish a broad Chinese middle class, which would support the growth of the American middle class by fostering a robust market for U.S. exports. Moreover, working with the International Monetary Fund, Beijing is helping to bail out Pakistan, whose economic stability the United States is concerned about, to put it mildly.

That brings us to climate change. Global warming will demand the most creative and intense diplomacy the Obama team has to offer. China's energy demand is mind-blowing in scale. From 2001 through 2007, China's consumption increased by an amount equal to energy use in all of Latin America, according to Asia energy expert Mikkal Herberg.

China is firmly opposed to hard targets for reducing its ballooning greenhouse gas emissions, arguing, with reason, that the West caused the global warming crisis and bears the burden of responsibility. But without China on board, the world will not be able to reduce greenhouse gases to the level that scientists think is necessary to avoid catastrophic effects.

You know things are bad when avian flu seems like a bright spot. But there's reason for guarded optimism that China will handle outbreaks responsibly: A Chinese doctor heads the World Health Organization, more money is headed for rural healthcare in China, and Beijing learned from the SARS crisis earlier this decade that the potentially devastating effect of a pandemic is exacerbated when its early cases are covered up.

What tack, then, should Clinton take in her first trip abroad as secretary of State to maximize the chances of progress in preventing these global catastrophes?

First, while making plain our differences (on human rights, China's military buildup, currency, Darfur, Tibet and other issues), she should make clear that China is a strategic partner in crucial areas and that the United States welcomes China's integration into the international system as a responsible, respected and engaged stakeholder.

She also should pave the way for new, bold initiatives based on "strategic collaboration." One potentially fruitful area is clean energy research, with the United States and China, or a group of the major energy consumers, joining forces.

In her confirmation hearing, Clinton indicated that in dealing with other nations she would maintain her focus on the entire relationship and not allow single issues to set the tone and direction. That is the right approach, but that does not prevent her from prioritizing U.S. interests around these four challenges in her talks in Beijing. It is in the nature of our deeply interdependent relationship to have a long list of issues that we want action on from China, but we are likely to see more progress if we can be clear about which are most important.

Negotiating with China is never easy. But neither China nor the United States can prevent these catastrophes alone.





By Nina Hachigian, Los Angeles Times, February 10, 2009

One of the most obvious differences thus far between the Obama administration's approach to foreign policy and that of the Bush administration has been its appointment of special envoys for the Middle East and for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In her first interview since becoming America's top diplomat Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reveals the genesis of her belief in the need for a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and for envoys in general.

"I do believe, in general, in the utility of special envoys. I have seen the importance of zeroing in with all tools at our disposal on problems from the Irish Troubles to the Balkans, and I knew that the use of special envoys can be very helpful," Clinton told the New York Times.

"In 2007, I went as a senator to Iraq and Kuwait, Pakistan, Afghanistan, with two of my colleagues, Senator Bayh from Indiana and Representative McHugh from New York. And we had a series of meetings in both Afghanistan and Pakistan that illustrated dramatically the breakdown in communications between President Karzai and President Musharraf, between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan," she said.

Clinton said that when she returned from her trip she pressed then-National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley to appoint such an envoy to the region, but was rebuffed.

"That was just not an idea that the Bush Administration thought was worth pursuing," she said.

Secretary Clinton says she told President Obama she wanted to appoint special envoys in key areas during their first conversation when she interviewed for the Secretary of State job.

"So when President Obama - President-elect Obama asked me if I would be Secretary of State, I told him in the very first conversation that I can recall that I had some ideas if I were to accept the job that I thought would be important to explore, and among those were the idea of immediately moving on someone for the Middle East and someone for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was positive about the idea. He told me to pursue it, work it up, get back to him," she said.

"I wanted to nominate our two envoys for the Middle East and Afghanistan and Pakistan as soon as possible," Clinton told the New York Times. "From the beginning, I recommended that Richard Holbrooke be the person that I and the President would send to Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Clinton was asked, delicately, about "the art of managing Richard Holbrooke," a man with a reputation for a larger than life personality.

"Gee, I’d never heard that he could be any of those things before," Clinton said sarcastically, before adding quickly: "You know, personally, because I do know him so well, I understand what drives him."

"And obviously, you know, like any, you know, really focused and passionate person, occasionally he has to be, you know, brought down to earth and reined in so that he, you know, doesn’t levitate or, you know, levitate the rest of us," she added.

The two have known each other for years when Holbrooke served in the Clinton administration. Their families are friends and frequently dined together, though Clinton provided only a few details about their get togethers over the years.

When asked about a rumor that Clinton first recommended to Obama that Holbrooke would be a better Secretary of State than she, Clinton responded flatly: "I never comment on conversations with presidents."

When asked, Clinton didn't deny that there will now be even greater collaboration between the US embassies in Kabul and Islamabad, and that Holbrooke might act as the go-between. "I expect everyone to work together. And you know, we're going to be, you know, looking to, you know, Richard to provide, you know, leadership," she said.

By Kirit Radia, ABC News, February 09, 2009

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

People Skills

U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke arrived in Pakistan Monday for talks with government and civil leaders. Holbrooke is known around Washington as a man with a huge portfolio and a comparable ego - something even his new boss acknowledges.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked last week by Jodi Kantor of The New York Times how she could manage Holbrooke - given his reputation as "overbearing." Clinton's diplomatic response:

"Gee, I'd never heard that he could be any of those things. (Laughter) ... Obviously, you know, like any, you know, really focused and passionate person, occasionally he has to be, you know, brought down to earth and reined in so that he, you know, doesn't levitate or, you know, levitate the rest of us."

Not So Free Speech

The leader of the opposition political party in the Netherlands is being prosecuted by the government for insulting Muslims.

Geert Wilders is charged with inciting hatred and discrimination. Wilders advocates banning the Koran, which he calls "the Islamic 'Mein Kampf'" - referring to Adolf Hitler's political manifesto.

The Washington Times reports Wilders produced a documentary last year juxtaposing verses from the Koran with scenes of violence from Islamic militants.

Last month, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution that would make this kind of prosecution commonplace. The draft urges U.N. members to take action against what it calls "defamation of religion" and "incitement to religious hatred."

Arms Control

An Arizona rancher, whose property is described as the avenue of choice for illegal immigrants coming into the U.S., is being sued by some illegals he detained at gunpoint.

Roger Barnett is accused of violating the immigrants' civil rights and inflicting emotional distress. Barnett stopped a group of immigrants five years ago and held them for authorities. He claims to have turned in thousands of illegals since 1998. He says he started doing that because the immigrants tore up his land, killed his livestock and vandalized his property.

The lawsuit is seeking $32 million in damages from Barnett.

Free Parking

There have been some court rulings in Europe that you might find interesting.

The Daily Mail reports a man in East London who refused to pay four parking tickets successfully sued police, claiming emotional distress was inflicted when the city sent someone to collect the fines. So when the cops didn't pay their damages, he sent bailiffs to the precinct to seize the cops' computers. The police quickly paid up and eventually won on appeal.

And a Swedish newspaper reports that a suspected drunk driver claimed upon being stopped by police that his car had actually been driven by a Swedish cartoon character named "Skybert" - who of course is the secret friend of the wildly popular character named Alfie Atkins.

He won. And now he's suing for loss of income during the six months his drivers license was suspended.

By Bret Baier, Fox News, February 09, 2009