WASHINGTON (AFP) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refrained from comment Monday on the reelection of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but pointed to a "credibility" gap for Iran's leadership.

"I'm not going to speculate on, you know, what happens with their internal regime," the top US diplomat said.

"Obviously, they have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process, and I don't think that's going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively small number of ballots," Clinton added.

Clinton made the comments at a press conference after Iran's Guardians Council confirmed the results of the June 12 presidential election following a partial vote recount.

Ahmadinejad has demanded that the United States recognize him as the democratically elected president of Iran, but Clinton said United States would refrain from drawing conclusions.

"We're going to take this a day at a time. We're going to watch, and carefully assess what we see happening," she said.

"This is a historic moment for Iran and for the Iranian people, and I don't want to, you know, speculate on how it's going to turn out," Clinton added.

The partial vote recount was intended to put an end to accusations of large-scale fraud that have been leveled by three of Ahmadinejad's electoral opponents -- Mir Hossein Moussavi, Mehdi Karoubi and Mohsen Rezai.

But the three refused to delegate representatives to participate in the recount, casting doubt on its impartiality, particularly because of the extent of the voting irregularities alleged.

AFP, June 30, 2009

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the action taken against Honduras' president should be condemned by everyone.

President Obama's selection of Hillary Clinton to serve as his Secretary of State prompted two primary questions: How would they get along, and how big a role would she really play in formulating the administration's foreign policy? At the five-month mark of the Obama presidency, we still don't have particularly good answers to either one.

Whether because their relationship is really harmonious, or because this White House doesn't leak much, there has been almost no evidence in the media of friction between Clinton and Obama. Policy divides between different camps of advisers, when they do happen, rarely spill out into public. And so the initial subplot that made the Clinton pick interesting -- former primary foes, forced to work together! -- hasn't borne much fruit. The lack of leaks has also made it difficult to read significance into administration personnel shifts. What was the real meaning of Dennis Ross' move from the State Department to the National Security Council? Why would Clinton bring Sidney Blumenthal to Foggy Bottom? It seemed that reporters were left to speculate on the reasons behind the Blumenthal hiring because no one actually knew the answer

The most surprising aspect of Clinton's tenure so far has been her public role, or lack thereof, in advancing the administration's diplomatic aims. As Ben Smith wrote in Politico last week, Clinton took the job as a huge celebrity but now has ushered in "an era of grindstone leadership at the State Department" and "has about as low a news-making profile as is possible for someone who is arguably the most famous woman on the planet." On Iran, Clinton has spoken out on occasion but Obama himself has taken the clear public lead. When Obama was taking heat from critics for his "realist" approach to Iran, what did Clinton think? Did she endorse his approach, or push for something else behind the scenes? We don't know for sure.

By Ben Pershing, The Washington Post, June 29, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says cooperation between the United States government and the government of India should keep pace with the robust people-to-people and economic ties between the two democracies.

At the U.S.-India Business Council's, "Synergies Summit," in Washington, D.C., Secretary Clinton noted, "Today our trade between our nations has doubled since 2004 and now exceeds $43 billion; there are over 90,000 Indian students studying in the United States; and the new Fulbright-Nehru program strengthens educational exchanges between India and the United States with both countries acting as full partners in governance and funding."

"As we pursue an enhanced bilateral partnership, we should recognize that compared to other metrics of our cooperation, our official ties are past due for an upgrade," said Secretary Clinton.

Secretary Clinton travels to India in July to discuss security, economic, climate change and cultural issues. Looking ahead to upcoming G8 Summit in Italy, Secretary Clinton said President Barack Obama has made it clear that the United States will not use the global financial crisis as an excuse to implement protectionist trade policies. "We hope India will work with us to create a more open, equitable set of opportunities for trade between our nations," she said.

Secretary Clinton said the United States is fully committed to implementing the landmark U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement, approved in October 2008. The agreement gives India access to international commercial nuclear sources, and provides a framework for economic and technical cooperation between the United States and India.

The U.S., said Secretary Clinton, wants enhanced cooperation with India in the fields of education, women's empowerment and health. She also noted India's expanded role in helping to resolve international security challenges and that the United States should be prepared to adapt the structure of international institutions to India's new responsibilities.

"We see India," said Secretary Clinton, "as one of the few key partners worldwide who will help us shape the 21st century."





Voice of Ameirca, June 27, 2009

There is no end to the complaints about the way the two political parties select their presidential nominees. As the litany goes, the process begins too early, gives undue influence to a handful of small, unrepresentative states and has encouraged a disorderly leapfrogging by other states that has resulted in an unseemly, virtual national primary early in the season.

Over the years, the nominating process has been examined repeatedly by the political parties, by distinguished commissions, by academics and by secretaries of state, all with the goal of building a better mousetrap. Virtually all have resulted in disappointment or unintended consequences.

Now a new effort to fix a broken system has begun. A commission established by the Democratic National Committee to review the nomination process held its first public meeting yesterday in Washington. A panel set up by the Republican National Committee to examine its process met privately a week ago.

There is a sense of deja vu about all this. As one weary Democrat said yesterday as she and others gathered at a downtown hotel, "If it's an off year, there must be another commission." But this time there is a twist. With both committees working simultaneously -- and in some ways cooperatively -- reformers hope that real improvements in the timing and sequence of the primaries and caucuses could result.

If the two parties are successful, the 2012 presidential campaign will probably begin later than it did in 2008 -- February rather than January -- with most contests not starting until March. That alone would be a significant improvement.

If the ambitions of some are met -- and this is far less likely, given the limited ability of national parties to impose order on states -- a dramatically revamped system might emerge. And if the provocative idea of one expert is adopted, Democrats would cut all superdelegates in favor of a system that relies on the people's votes.

There is an inevitable wonkiness to these efforts. But there's no disputing that the rules governing the nomination process can affect candidates' fortunes. Just ask supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton. The DNC's decision to punish Florida and Michigan for staging their contests in violation of party rules, particularly the penalty against Florida, robbed her of victories that could have changed the outcome. The Obama campaign's mastery of the nominating rules clearly contributed to his victory over Clinton.

It's difficult for anyone to argue that the chaos and controversies over the 2008 calendar discouraged voters from participating. Democrats especially enjoyed huge turnouts in state after state.

Nor did the front-loading of the calendar -- there were nearly two dozen contests on Super Tuesday in February 2008 -- end the Democratic nomination battle early. But 2008's battle is not likely to be repeated in the near future.

Even if the 2008 system did not prevent a long, spirited and gripping Democratic contest, controversies over the calendar nonetheless played havoc with candidates' strategies and budgets through much of the year. In the end, Iowa's caucuses were held Jan. 3, 2008, followed five days later by New Hampshire's primary, disrupting the holiday season and leaving everyone looking for a better system.

The role of Iowa and New Hampshire at the front of the nominating calendar remains controversial but appears less likely to dominate the latest calendar debate. The GOP already has exempted New Hampshire and South Carolina (Iowa doesn't need one, because its GOP caucuses are technically nonbinding). In 2008, Democrats added Nevada and South Carolina to the list of states authorized to hold early contests in a bid to bring more regional balance and demographic diversity.

Democrats in some big states still aren't happy with this system, but the likelihood of major change is limited. The question will be how to reward states who go later to give their voters added weight in the process. The first order of business will be overall timing, rather than who goes first.

The Democrats have been charged with looking not only at the timing of the calendar but also at the role of superdelegates. This became a source of genuine controversy during the Obama-Clinton battle over whether these elected officials and party leaders might override the will of the voters, and hand the nomination to Clinton.

At least one student of the process, Elaine Kamarck of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, recommended yesterday that it is time to eliminate superdelegates. Kamarck, author of "Primary Politics," a forthcoming book on the nominating process, argued that the selection of presidential nominees is now a public process and has eliminated the need for elites who could assert themselves in the equivalent of a back-room role.

She made her case before an audience that included many past and potential superdelegates. The response was skeptical. Instead, the goal of leading members of the DNC panel appears to be a more limited role for superdelegates.

Democrats will also examine the role of the caucuses. The goal is to establish standards for the states to ensure that these events are conducted in a more orderly fashion.

But inevitably the question of whether caucuses are exclusionary -- because they are held at a fixed time and in a limited number of places -- and therefore need to be modified will arise.

Some Republicans seek a grand realignment of the nominating process -- a series of primary-caucus days with groupings of states for each day. Others on the RNC's committee think those goals are too ambitious. They hope to ensure that the 2012 GOP nominating battle begins later and avoids the crackup of a virtual national primary of the 2008 kind.

The more ambitious the redesigns, the less probable are big changes. But the climate is different, and the ingredients now exist that could produce modest, but valuable, changes in a process that

By Dan Balz, The Washington Post, June 28, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - One week after surgery to repair a broken right elbow, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday had not resumed a full work schedule at the State Department, officials said.

Her spokesman, P.J. Crowley, told reporters that Clinton, who broke her arm in a fall at the State Department on June 17, was keeping an "aggressive schedule," including meetings at the White House on Thursday and Friday.

He also said she was doing "a significant amount" of her work from home, including making official phone calls. On Friday she spoke from home by phone with the foreign minister of Argentina, Crowley said, and she met at the State Department with Crown Prince Sheik Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa of Bahrain.

Clinton had surgery on June 19. Afterward the State Department said doctors told her she was expected to recover without lasting damage to her arm. No timetable for a full recovery has been made public.

Clinton has limited her public appearances since the injury. On the advice of her doctors, she canceled a planned trip to Trieste, Italy and to Corfu, Greece, to attend international meetings this week.

"Obviously, given the reality of ... her injury and the operation, she is, you know, fast working her way back to, you know, to reintegrate herself into the daily activity of the bureau," Crowley said. "I think we have travel coming up in the near future. So I think she will be visible as we continue on."

Late Friday afternoon the State Department released two official photos of Clinton in her meeting with the Bahraini crown prince. They showed her right arm in a cast from about the middle of her upper arm to near her wrist. She is right-handed.

The Associated Press, June 26, 2009

The U.S. government has provided about 40 tons of weapons and ammunition to shore up the besieged government of Somalia in the past six weeks and has sent funding to train Somali soldiers, a senior State Department official said yesterday, in the most complete accounting to date of the new American efforts in the strife-torn country.

The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the military aid was worth less than $10 million and had been approved by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the National Security Council.

"We do not want to see Somalia become a safe haven for foreign terrorists," the official said.

Hard-line Islamist rebels allegedly linked to al-Qaeda have launched an offensive to topple Somalia's relatively moderate government, which has appealed to the United States and other African countries for help. The fighting has killed 250 civilians and forced more than 160,000 people out of their homes in the past month, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

In an indication of the rebels' growing power, they held a ceremony Thursday in the capital, Mogadishu, in which they chopped off a hand and foot from each of four men convicted of stealing cellphones and other items, according to news reports from the region. The punishment was in line with the rebels' harsh version of Islam. The United States considers the rebel group, al-Shabab, a terrorist organization.

Somalia has been racked by violence since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. U.S. officials say the bloodshed and lawlessness in the country have caused a massive outflow of refugees and contributed to an upsurge in piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The country has also become a haven for al-Qaeda operatives alleged to have carried out attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, U.S. officials say.

The African Union has sent troops from Uganda and Burundi to help Somalia's fragile government keep order.

The U.S. aid does not involve the deployment of any troops to Somalia, where 18 American soldiers were killed in the 1993 raid depicted in the movie "Black Hawk Down."

In order to strengthen Somalia's military, the U.S. government is providing cash to its government to buy weapons, and has asked Ugandan military forces there to give Somali soldiers small arms and ammunition, the official said. The U.S. government is then resupplying the Ugandans, he said.

The U.S. government will also help pay for the Kenyan, Burundi and Ugandan militaries to train Somali soldiers, and is providing logistical support for the African Union troops, the official said.

Clinton called Somalia's president, Sharif Ahmed, in recent weeks to consult on the crisis, according to another U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.

He said the U.S. aid would likely encourage other African countries to do more to help Somalia's government.

U.S. officials accuse Eritrea of supporting the Somali rebels as part of a proxy war with its rival, Ethiopia. But efforts by State Department officials to meet with the Eritrean government have been fruitless so far, the official said.

The US State Department has appointed its first Special Representative to Muslim Communities.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Farah Pandith would play a leading role in US efforts to "engage Muslims around the world".

She said Ms Pandith, who was born in Indian-administered Kashmir, would bring years of experience to the role.

The appointment is part of President Barack Obama's attempts to improve relations with the Muslim world.

Mrs Clinton said Ms Pandith "sees her personal experience as an illustration of how Muslim immigrants to the US can successfully integrate themselves into American society".

The State Department said Ms Pandith, who is a Muslim, would be responsible for helping US efforts to "engage with Muslims around the world on a people-to-people and organisational level".

The statement said Ms Pandith was previously the senior adviser on Muslim engagement in the European and Eurasian region at the State Department and had worked in the Afghan capital, Kabul, with the US Agency for International Development.

In a speech in Cairo earlier this month, Mr Obama said there had been "years of distrust" between the West and Islam but he was seeking "a new beginning" in the relationship.

BBC News, June 26, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not attend international meetings in Italy and Greece this week because of an injury to her arm, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

The top U.S. diplomat had surgery on Friday to repair her right elbow, which she broke on Wednesday when she tripped and fell in the State Department's basement.

Clinton was to travel to Trieste, Italy for a Group of Eight foreign ministers meeting and to the Greek island of Corfu, where she was to take part in an Organization for Security and Cooperation gathering and meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a NATO-Russia meeting.

Clinton decided to skip the meetings on the advice of her doctor, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters, adding that she had come to the department on Monday and was "on top of her game" despite wearing a cast and sling.

"The secretary is doing better. She successfully came through her surgery. She was able to come by and visit with us in the department this morning ... but she does have a road to travel in terms of her recovery and rehabilitation," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg said at a news conference with Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze.

Undersecretary of State William Burns will represent the United States at the G8 discussions in Trieste.

U.S. special representative Richard Holbrooke will also be in Trieste to take part in talks on Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Obama administration is trying to defeat al Qaeda and Taliban insurgencies.

U.S. special envoy George Mitchell, who helped end the Northern Ireland conflict, will also be in Trieste for talks on Israeli-Palestinian peace, including a planned meeting of the Middle East peace mediators that groups the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.

Steinberg will take Clinton's place in Corfu for the OSCE gathering and for the NATO-Russia ministerial meeting, the first to be held since last year's war in Georgia.

Russia pulled out of a ministerial meeting with NATO planned for May because of the alliance's expulsion of two of Moscow's diplomats in a spy scandal. NATO has previously said such meetings are hard to arrange given Clinton and Lavrov's packed schedules.

Asked about the Corfu NATO-Russia ministerial, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said: "We continue to plan for the meeting to ... be held as scheduled."

Reuters, Jun 22, 2009

The U.S. and Israel reached a clear understanding about natural growth.

Despite fervent denials by Obama administration officials, there were indeed agreements between Israel and the United States regarding the growth of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. As the Obama administration has made the settlements issue a major bone of contention between Israel and the U.S., it is necessary that we review the recent history.

In the spring of 2003, U.S. officials (including me) held wide-ranging discussions with then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem. The "Roadmap for Peace" between Israel and the Palestinians had been written. President George W. Bush had endorsed Palestinian statehood, but only if the Palestinians eliminated terror. He had broken with Yasser Arafat, but Arafat still ruled in the Palestinian territories. Israel had defeated the intifada, so what was next?

We asked Mr. Sharon about freezing the West Bank settlements. I recall him asking, by way of reply, what did that mean for the settlers? They live there, he said, they serve in elite army units, and they marry. Should he tell them to have no more children, or move?

We discussed some approaches: Could he agree there would be no additional settlements? New construction only inside settlements, without expanding them physically? Could he agree there would be no additional land taken for settlements?

As we talked several principles emerged. The father of the settlements now agreed that limits must be placed on the settlements; more fundamentally, the old foe of the Palestinians could -- under certain conditions -- now agree to Palestinian statehood.

In June 2003, Mr. Sharon stood alongside Mr. Bush, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas at Aqaba, Jordan, and endorsed Palestinian statehood publicly: "It is in Israel's interest not to govern the Palestinians but for the Palestinians to govern themselves in their own state. A democratic Palestinian state fully at peace with Israel will promote the long-term security and well-being of Israel as a Jewish state." At the end of that year he announced his intention to pull out of the Gaza Strip.

The U.S. government supported all this, but asked Mr. Sharon for two more things. First, that he remove some West Bank settlements; we wanted Israel to show that removing them was not impossible. Second, we wanted him to pull out of Gaza totally -- including every single settlement and the "Philadelphi Strip" separating Gaza from Egypt, even though holding on to this strip would have prevented the smuggling of weapons to Hamas that was feared and has now come to pass. Mr. Sharon agreed on both counts.

These decisions were political dynamite, as Mr. Sharon had long predicted to us. In May 2004, his Likud Party rejected his plan in a referendum, handing him a resounding political defeat. In June, the Cabinet approved the withdrawal from Gaza, but only after Mr. Sharon fired two ministers and allowed two others to resign. His majority in the Knesset was now shaky.

After completing the Gaza withdrawal in August 2005, he called in November for a dissolution of the Knesset and for early elections. He also said he would leave Likud to form a new centrist party. The political and personal strain was very great. Four weeks later he suffered the first of two strokes that have left him in a coma.

Throughout, the Bush administration gave Mr. Sharon full support for his actions against terror and on final status issues. On April 14, 2004, Mr. Bush handed Mr. Sharon a letter saying that there would be no "right of return" for Palestinian refugees. Instead, the president said, "a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel."

On the major settlement blocs, Mr. Bush said, "In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949." Several previous administrations had declared all Israeli settlements beyond the "1967 borders" to be illegal. Here Mr. Bush dropped such language, referring to the 1967 borders -- correctly -- as merely the lines where the fighting stopped in 1949, and saying that in any realistic peace agreement Israel would be able to negotiate keeping those major settlements.

On settlements we also agreed on principles that would permit some continuing growth. Mr. Sharon stated these clearly in a major policy speech in December 2003: "Israel will meet all its obligations with regard to construction in the settlements. There will be no construction beyond the existing construction line, no expropriation of land for construction, no special economic incentives and no construction of new settlements."

Ariel Sharon did not invent those four principles. They emerged from discussions with American officials and were discussed by Messrs. Sharon and Bush at their Aqaba meeting in June 2003.

They were not secret, either. Four days after the president's letter, Mr. Sharon's Chief of Staff Dov Weissglas wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that "I wish to reconfirm the following understanding, which had been reached between us: 1. Restrictions on settlement growth: within the agreed principles of settlement activities, an effort will be made in the next few days to have a better definition of the construction line of settlements in Judea & Samaria."

Stories in the press also made it clear that there were indeed "agreed principles." On Aug. 21, 2004 the New York Times reported that "the Bush administration . . . now supports construction of new apartments in areas already built up in some settlements, as long as the expansion does not extend outward."

In recent weeks, American officials have denied that any agreement on settlements existed. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated on June 17 that "in looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or oral enforceable agreements. That has been verified by the official record of the administration and by the personnel in the positions of responsibility."

These statements are incorrect. Not only were there agreements, but the prime minister of Israel relied on them in undertaking a wrenching political reorientation -- the dissolution of his government, the removal of every single Israeli citizen, settlement and military position in Gaza, and the removal of four small settlements in the West Bank. This was the first time Israel had ever removed settlements outside the context of a peace treaty, and it was a major step.

It is true that there was no U.S.-Israel "memorandum of understanding," which is presumably what Mrs. Clinton means when she suggests that the "official record of the administration" contains none. But she would do well to consult documents like the Weissglas letter, or the notes of the Aqaba meeting, before suggesting that there was no meeting of the minds.

Mrs. Clinton also said there were no "enforceable" agreements. This is a strange phrase. How exactly would Israel enforce any agreement against an American decision to renege on it? Take it to the International Court in The Hague?

Regardless of what Mrs. Clinton has said, there was a bargained-for exchange. Mr. Sharon was determined to break the deadlock, withdraw from Gaza, remove settlements -- and confront his former allies on Israel's right by abandoning the "Greater Israel" position to endorse Palestinian statehood and limits on settlement growth. He asked for our support and got it, including the agreement that we would not demand a total settlement freeze.

For reasons that remain unclear, the Obama administration has decided to abandon the understandings about settlements reached by the previous administration with the Israeli government. We may be abandoning the deal now, but we cannot rewrite history and make believe it did not exist.

By Elliott Abrams, The Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration has rescinded an offer for Iranian envoys to attend U.S. embassy Fourth of July parties as the violent crackdown in Tehran continues.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday notified diplomats and other department employees overseas that her earlier invitations had been withdrawn.

"Unfortunately, circumstances have changed and participation by Iranian diplomats would not be appropriate in light of the unjust actions that the president and I have condemned," she said in her message sent overseas. "For invitations which have been extended, posts should make clear that Iranian participation is no longer appropriate in the current circumstances. For invitations which have not been extended, no further action is needed."

Clinton had authorized U.S. envoys abroad some weeks ago to invite Iranian diplomats to attend the annual celebration. Her authorization was required because Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with Iran, department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs noted earlier in the day that the invitations were withdrawn.

"Given the events of the past many days, those invitations will no longer be extended," Gibbs said.

Postelection protests and violence have rocked Iran since the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The past 10 days in Iran have posed the strongest challenge to that nation's clerical rule since the system was established in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

President Barack Obama condemned the violence against protesters Tuesday and lent his strongest support yet to their accusations the hardline victory was a fraud.

No Iranian diplomat had accepted an invitation from U.S. diplomatic posts abroad to attend embassy Fourth of July parties, according to the State Department.

The Associated Press, June 25, 2009

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in talks with one of her family's staunchest political loyalists, the journalist and former White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, to serve as a consultant to the State Department, an administration official said Tuesday.

Mr. Blumenthal, who worked as an aide to President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001, would work with Mrs. Clinton's speechwriting team, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the appointment was not yet public and could still fall through.

Mr. Blumenthal declined to comment, referring questions to the State Department. The State Department spokesman, Ian C. Kelly, also had no comment. The potential appointment was first reported by The Cable, a blog of the magazine Foreign Policy.

A prominent journalist who has recently worked as Washington bureau chief for the Web site Salon.com, Mr. Blumenthal has been a passionate defender of the Clintons through some of their most trying times. In 2007, he was an adviser to Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign. Mrs. Clinton has put a handful of aides from her White House days into senior posts, including Cheryl Mills, her chief of staff.





By Mark Landler, The New York Times, June 23, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has canceled plans to travel to Italy and Greece this week because she is still recovering from surgery on her broken elbow.

Clinton fell at the State Department last Wednesday and had surgery on Friday.

She had planned to travel to Trieste, Italy, for meetings with her Group of Eight counterparts on Iran, the Middle East peace process and the war in Afghanistan. She also planned to attend a gathering of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Corfu, where talks were expected to center on the Russia-Georgia dispute.

The cancellation was announced by Deputy Secretary of States James B. Steinberg. He said that he would represent the United States at the Greek forum while Undersecretary of State William Burns will attend the meetings in Italy.

By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, June 22, 2009

Back last fall, when Barack Obama sprang his surprise about naming former rival Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state, many people assumed she would be the Cabinet's brightest star - a celebrity at large on the world stage, the face of American foreign policy while the president was consumed back home by domestic issues and a troubled economy.

Few commentators predicted the reality: an era of grindstone leadership at the State Department.

But that's exactly what Clinton has fashioned at Foggy Bottom. She has become a disciplined loyalist who jostles for White House influence just like any Cabinet secretary and who has advanced her cause by striking some key internal alliances.

Most surprisingly, she has about as low a news-making profile as is possible for someone who is arguably the most famous woman on the planet. When she slipped and broke her elbow last week, it was the most press coverage she had gotten in months. A Nexis database search showed she had fewer mentions last month than any time since she launched her presidential bid in January 2007.

It is an arrangement that, by all appearances, seems to suit Clinton and the Obama White House just fine, even as it has contributed to increasing chatter in foreign policy circles about her clout.

By some lights, no one should be surprised by the former presidential candidate's latest reinvention. It is an encore performance - a revival of the same strategy Clinton used when arriving to a chamber of skeptical colleagues after being elected to the Senate in 2000. Then she brushed aside national publicity and immersed herself on such issues as regional dairy compacts while waiting years for the right moment to re-emerge.

But the Cabinet represents a different challenge than the Senate. Like that of all her colleagues in the administration, her power is, in the end, derivative - depending on her relationship and access to Obama himself.

Some close observers think she has not done enough to preserve her department's influence, in part because several key issues-the Mideast peace process, Iran and Afghanistan - are steered by high-level envoys who work directly with the White House, albeit with coordination by State.

"You've got the empire of envoys that she acquiesced in, which sent into motion these little fiefdoms," said Aaron David Miller, a former longtime Middle East negotiator. "The general proposition is that in diplomacy and strategy, all power seems to be flowing away from the State Department.

Both the State Department and the White House are eager to rebut this perception before it takes deep root in either elite foreign policy circles or the news media.

In the reporting for this article, an array of senior officials got on the line - including many who do not ordinarily give interviews or do so on background rules - for on-the-record singing of her praises.

"Her star power has been an enormously effective tool for us," Tom Donilon, the deputy national security adviser with a central role in running foreign policy day to day, told POLITICO, describing the attention she commands abroad and her access to foreign leaders.

"She's a pretty tough customer in private negotiations, as you would imagine, and expects partners to behave like partners and expects people to do what they say they're going to do."




By Ben Smith, Politico, June 23, 2009

The star power of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has played a subordinate role to the power of the White House in foreign policy, analysts say.

Interviews conducted by the Washington publication Politico indicated Tuesday Clinton has played a surprisingly secondary role to President Barack Obama in the formulation and carrying out of U.S. foreign policy, despite expectations that Obama's former presidential rival would be the brightest star in his Cabinet.

The publication said the arrangement appears to suit Clinton and the Obama White House. But it has reportedly contributed to chatter in foreign policy circles that Clinton doesn't have much clout within the administration, with some close observers saying she hasn't done enough to preserve the State Department's influence.

But Politico said an array of senior officials lined up to say that wasn't the case.

"Her star power has been an enormously effective tool for us," said Tom Donilon, deputy U.S. national security adviser. "She's a pretty tough customer in private negotiations, as you would imagine, and expects partners to behave like partners and expects people to do what they say they're going to do."

United Press International, June 23, 2009

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is thanking the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan for their assistance in ensuring a New York Times reporter's safe return.

David Rohde was abducted Nov. 10 along with an Afghan reporter and a driver south of the Afghan capital of Kabul. He and Afghan reporter Tahir Ludin escaped by climbing over the wall of a compound in Pakistan.

Clinton said throughout the ordeal her prayers were with Rohde's family as the State Department sought to secure his release. She says she is "greatly relieved" that he will be reuniting soon with his family and is grateful to journalists who put their lives at risk to report the news.

The Associated Press, June 20, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday highlighted the plight of refugees as a challenge to global security, health and economic development.

In remarks prepared to coincide with World Refugee Day on Friday, Clinton said the fates of an estimated 34 million refugees and internal displaced people had "broad repercussions for their families, their countrymen, and all people everywhere.

"The plight of refugees has an impact on regional and global security; the threats that cause people to flee their homes en masse are dangers to the world at large," she said.

"Their plight impacts economic development; most refugees have no means to support their families or contribute to their nations' prosperity."

"Their plight impacts health and education; disease is rampant in many camps, while educational resources for refugee children are limited."

Her comments come as the international community and aid agencies struggle to cope with refugee crises in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chad, the Central African Republic and Darfur.

AFP, June 20, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had two hours of surgery Friday to mend a fractured right elbow.

Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman, said doctors expect Mrs. Clinton to make a full recovery with no permanent damage. The injury occurred when she tripped and fell at the State Department on Thursday.

Mrs. Clinton will rest over the weekend at home, but remains "fully engaged," Mr. Kelly said, adding that she did not hand over any duties to other department officials during the operation at George Washington University Hospital.

Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to travel to Italy and Greece next week, then to India in July.
"She'll consult with her doctor," Mr. Kelly said, adding, "We'll take it from there."




By Ashley Southall, The New York Times, June 18, 2009

Pain, bruising, swelling and numbness are just a few of the symptoms Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is probably feeling after fracturing her right elbow during a fall Wednesday.

Clinton, who took a tumble Wednesday on her way to the White House, is facing surgery to repair her elbow and could be looking at several weeks to a few months of physical therapy depending on the extent of the injury.

Dr. Frank Alberta, an orthopedic surgeon at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey who has not treated Clinton, said there are many types of elbow fractures, but Clinton probably suffered one of the two most common kinds of fractures, depending on how she fell.

"The most common fracture you get from a standing-height fall will either be an olecranon fracture or a radial head fracture," Alberta, who specializes in shoulder and elbow surgery, told FOXNews.com. "If she landed on her elbow and fell back on the point of her elbow, she most likely fractured her olecrenon, which is the bony point of your elbow. If she fell with her hand stretched out to catch the fall, then it may be a radial head fracture."

In a statement released late Wednesday, chief of staff Cheryl Mills, said Clinton would undergo surgery in the coming week.

"We like to do surgery within a week depending on the type of fracture," Alberta said. "We usually don't do it immediately because we want the swelling to go down."

In general, elbow surgery can last anywhere from 45 minutes to a couple of hours.

"There'll be an incision depending on where the fracture is, and we'll use anything from a plate and screws, all the way up to replacement of the joint to repair the injury," Alberta said.

As far as recovery, Clinton is facing anywhere from six weeks to three months of physical therapy.

"We like to get patients moving sooner rather than later," Alberta said. "We encourage movement right away because one of the biggest complications is stiffness, and we want patients to move early and get them going."

In the meantime, you can plan on seeing Secretary of State Clinton with a splint and sling to complement her pant suit.

The elbow joint is made up of three bones including the humerus, which is the bone between the shoulder and the elbow; the radius, which is one of the forearm bones between and elbow and wrist; and the ulna. The ulna is the other forearm bone between the elbow and wrist.

Alberta said these injuries can be thorny to treat.

"These kinds of fractures can be complicated in terms of getting the motions right," he said. "You have the flexion-extension movement, which is the hinge motion, and then you have the rotation of the forearm - and again these motions are provided by different bones and different joints."

By Karlie Pouliot, Fox News, June 18, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will have to undergo surgery later this week to repair a fractured right elbow, caused when she slipped and fell on her way to a White House meeting on Wednesday evening, the State Department said Thursday.

Mrs. Clinton, 61, was taken to George Washington University hospital, where doctors determined the break would require an operation, said a State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley. "She is at home, resting comfortably or uncomfortably," he said.

Mr. Crowley said Mrs. Clinton was reading papers and making calls. But she cancelled her public schedule, which included an appearance with the actress Angelina Jolie at an event marking World Refugee Day and an awards ceremony at the American Foreign Service Association.

The mishap occurred just before 5 p.m. when Mrs. Clinton was walking from an elevator to her car in the basement of the State Department. She was headed to a meeting with President Obama, accompanied by the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke.

After Mrs. Clinton fell, Mr. Holbrooke said, "She struggled to get up to go the meeting, but the pain was very intense." Still lying on the ground, she instructed Mr. Holbrooke to go without her, and reminded him to brief the president about an upcoming visit to Afghanistan by the State Department's new ambassador for women's issues, Melanne Verveer.

"She said, 'Go to the meeting, that's an order,' " said Mr. Holbrooke, who told Mr. Obama about the accident.

Mrs. Clinton returned to her 7th floor office before deciding to get treatment at George Washington, a few blocks from the State Department. She was at the hospital for several hours. While painful, the injury appeared to be a "fairly simple, straightforward fracture," Mr. Crowley said.

Former President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton flew to Washington together on Wednesday evening to be with Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Obama called Mrs. Clinton at home around 10 p.m.

Her surgery has not been scheduled yet, officials said, throwing Mrs. Clinton's travel plans into doubt. She is scheduled to go to a meeting next week of foreign ministers of Group of Eight countries in Trieste, Italy, as well as a European security meeting on the island of Corfu, Greece.

The mishap is the second to befall the Obama administration in recent weeks. The president's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, tripped and broke her ankle while running to catch a plane at LaGuardia Airport. In addition, Robert M. Gates noted on Thursday that his tenure as defense secretary has been injury-prone.

Mr. Gates offered his sympathies to Mrs. Clinton. "Having broken my right arm as secretary of defense, and had the left arm operated on, I think I can truthfully say, I feel her pain," he said at a news conference.




By Mark Landler, The New York Times, June 18, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Facing a world of diplomatic woes from Iran to North Korea, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had the opportunity to get some heavyweight advice at a dinner held by eight of her living predecessors.

Tuesday night's private dinner at former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's Washington home gathered top U.S. diplomats from five previous administrations with decades of hands-on experience in some of the most difficult foreign policy crises America has faced.

A spokeswoman for Albright says all but one living former secretary of state attended the event to honor Clinton: Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, Warren Christopher, Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

The only one missing was Alexander Haig. No details about the conversation or menu were immediately available.

The Associated Press, June 17, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post today emphasizing the importance of combating human trafficking.

"To some, human trafficking may seem like a problem limited to other parts of the world. In fact, it occurs in every country, including the United States, and we have a responsibility to fight it just as others do," writes Clinton.

The op-ed follows the State Department's release yesterday of the ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP).

Clinton describes a young Russian female, Oxana, who was forced into prostitution and killed after trying to escape. The secretary explains that victims of trafficking are people who are manipulated into leaving their families and moving abroad, after which they are sold into manual and/or sexual labor.

"They labor in fields and factories under threat of violence if they try to escape. They work in homes for families that keep them virtually imprisoned," Clinton explains.

According to Clinton, the victims are often held very far from home, with no money or connections in order to prevent cries for help. Because human trafficking is so discreet, the secretary further warns that there are more than the estimated 12 million worldwide victims.

Ambassador Luis C. de Baca, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, echoed the same themes in a statement accompanying the report.

"When the trafficking report first began, it was a relatively modest undertaking with about 82 countries. Now the report is up to 175 nations and is truly becoming the global snapshot of the modern slavery problem," said de Baca.
Citing the economic crisis, Clinton acknowledged that the current hardships faced by families make them even more vulnerable to trafficking predators.

"The problem is particularly urgent now, as local economies around the world reel from the global financial crisis. People are increasingly desperate for the chance to support their families, making them more susceptible to the tricks of ruthless criminals," writes Clinton

Clinton said the Obama administration has placed a high priority on the problem. The U.S. currently funds 140 anti-trafficking programs in almost 70 countries and 42 domestic task forces, all aimed at fighting modern day slavery.

The TIP was released by the U.S. State Department on Tuesday and covers nations that are currently on human trafficking watchlist, showing an increase in number of countries facing modern slavery.




By Anna Aulova, CBS News, June 17, 2009

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is urging greater counterterrorism cooperation among the United States, India and Pakistan and says she'll visit India next month as the Obama administration moves to strengthen ties with New Delhi.

Speaking to the U.S.-India Business Council on Wednesday, Clinton welcomed this week's meeting of the leaders of India and Pakistan - their first since last November's terrorist attacks in Mumbai that inflamed tensions between the nuclear armed rivals.

Clinton said she hoped that dialogue, along with Pakistan's recent moves to target extremists, would boost security in South Asia and around the world. She said she would visit New Delhi in July to build on recent improvements in U.S.-Indian cooperation on civilian nuclear energy, work on developing clean energy technology and perhaps begin negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement.




The Associated Press, June 17, 2009

Israeli opposition to a complete freeze of settlement activity in the West Bank is likely to evolve into a stance that will lead to creation of a Palestinian state, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

"If one looks at Israel's history, there have been prime ministers going back to the beginning of its statehood who have staked out positions which have changed over time," Clinton told reporters in Washington today after meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Clinton said that through past negotiations, Israeli leaders "have moved to positions they never would have thought they could have advocated."

U.S. officials are trying to lay the foundations for talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as part of a broader regional peace effort.

The U.S. special envoy for the region, former Senator George Mitchell, said yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's acceptance of Palestinian statehood and the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program have created a "realistic" chance for Middle East peace.

Netanyahu said in a June 14 speech that a Palestinian state would have to be demilitarized and its establishment contingent on its recognition of Israel as a Jewish homeland and Jerusalem remaining the capital of Israel.

Clinton predicted a compromise on settlements was possible after Lieberman said his government "cannot accept" the principle of an absolute freeze.

"We must keep natural growth," he said, referring to marriages and deaths that compel changes in West Bank settlements that are a major impediment to a peace agreement with the Palestinians and Arab nations in the region.

By Bill Varner, Bloomberg, June 17, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday defended a US request to Twitter to postpone a planned maintenance shutdown as a way to allow Iranians to speak out and organize.

"The United States believes passionately and strongly in the basic principle of free expression," Clinton told reporters when asked about the State Department's request to the social networking firm Twitter.

"We promote the right of free expression," the chief US diplomat added.

"And it is the case that one of the means of expression, the use of Twitter is a very important one, not only to the Iranian people but now increasingly to people around the world, and most particularly to young people," she said.

"I wouldn't know a twitter from a tweeter, but apparently it is very important," she said, sparking laughter.

"And I think keeping that line of communications open and enabling people to share information, particularly at a time when there was not many other sources of information, is an important expression of the right to speak out and to be able to organize," she said.

The US government took the unusual step of asking Twitter to delay a planned maintenance outage because of its use as a communications tool by Iranians following their disputed election, a senior official said Tuesday.

The request highlighted the Obama administration's Web-savvy and the power of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook in organizing protests over the election results in the face of a ban by Iranian authorities on other media.

But it also seemed to run counter to President Barack Obama's public efforts not to appear to be meddling in Iran's internal affairs.

Twitter delayed Monday's scheduled tune up, which would have taken place during daylight hours in Iran, and rescheduled it for Tuesday but said the decision was made with its network provider, not the State Department.

AFP, Jun 17, 2009