In yet another display of disdain for the Anglo-American Special Relationship, the Obama administration has weighed in on the mounting tensions between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Just two days after Prime Minister David Cameron issued a robust statement in the House of Commons vowing to defend the sovereignty of the Falklands, the US State Department has undercut Britain yet again with a deeply unhelpful statement that plays into Argentina’s hands. In response to a question on the Falklands at Thursday’s State Department press briefing, a US government spokesman supported direct …
In the wake of President Obama’s decision to shut down the Keystone XL pipeline on Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has scheduled a hearing to review legislation that would restart the project, and give oversight responsibility to an agency the bill’s proponents say is less politically motivated than the White House. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be invited to testify at the hearing, scheduled for Jan. 25, to discuss her department’s environmental review procedures. The hearing will focus on a bill introduced by Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), …
Philip H Gordon, US Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, has just delivered a speech in Berlin outlining “the state of transatlantic relations”. His remarks, given at the Korber Foundation on January 11, are a scene-setter for the Obama administration’s European policy in “its final year in office before elections this November.” Like most pronouncements on Europe coming from the Obama presidency, it is fixated on Washington’s dealings with the European Union, as well as with Hillary Clinton’s “reset” of relations with Moscow. This is hardly surprising coming from a …
Bradley Manning, the Army private who allegedly leaked classified information to WikiLeaks, starts his trial process today with an Article 32 hearing at Fort Meade in Maryland. Under military law, this is essentially the equivalent of a preliminary hearing in the civilian justice system. Based on the hearing, the investigating officer will make a recommendation to the convening authority whether Manning should be sent to a general court martial for his actions that led to the worldwide disclosure of highly sensitive military reports and intelligence, as well as State Department …
Back in August, the Philippine Navy christened its newest flagship, the 115-meter Gregorio del Pilar, a refurbished former U.S. Coast Guard vessel built in 1965. Philippine Navy Chief Vice Admiral Alexander Pama stated that this Hamilton-class cutter “symbolizes the revival of the Philippine Navy.” And that revival will soon continue with a second U.S. cutter, exactly like the first and delivered virtually free of charge. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the announcement during an alliance-boosting visit to Manila following the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Hawaii. Celebrating the …
In its never-ending efforts to be hip, the U.S. State Department last week launched a new Web site called “Discover Diplomacy.” It has video clips, it has audio tracks, it has interactive maps and images—it has it all. The site is the work of the U.S. Diplomacy Center, an office in the Bureau of Public Affairs. But instead of being aimed at foreigners, it targets U.S. high school and college students as well as their professors, for whom the site is billed as a teaching tool. Possibly due to the …
Consider it a warning from the highest levels of the U.S. government. Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta held a joint press event in Washington in which they cautioned that U.S. debt is jeopardizing America’s ability to ensure national security and preserve its interests abroad. Under the Budget Control Act of 2011—the debt ceiling agreement enacted earlier this month—$350 billion in cuts to defense spending must be made over 10 years. But if Congress doesn’t reach an agreement on $1.5 trillion in deficit savings, $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts would …
During a joint press event today in Washington, the Secretaries of Defense and State agreed that politicians must tackle the elephant in the room to reduce America’s crushing debt: mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which account for more than 60 percent of the entire federal budget. As the Secretaries correctly suggest, America cannot afford to allow these programs to consume ever larger portions of the federal budget and the nation’s income, and delaying reforms would inevitably add to the pressure to shortchange national security funding. This threat …
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is famous for approaching her various jobs with discipline, and discipline was the message she repeatedly conveyed at the National Defense University Tuesday morning in her “conversation” with Secretary of Defense (and former chief of staff to her husband) Leon Panetta: The world needs U.S. leadership, even in tough budgetary times. Many of Clinton’s remarks were directed at the congressional “Super Committee” looking at budget cuts. She urged Congress not to let the deficit get in the way of U.S. global engagement, and not to …
Though the best-known controllers of Internet freedom are China, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea, other countries also attempt to limit Internet access for a variety of reasons. The Turkish government is a case in point, banning more websites than any European nation. In late 2009, the Turkish government stopped releasing statistics, but the number of blocked websites could be as high as 12,000. Turkey blocks access to Google, claiming that Google does not comply with Turkish tax law, which Google disputes. YouTube has also been blocked since May 2008. The …
