WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has moved aggressively and quickly to secure a stronger role in what she has called the world's most important relationship: U.S. dealings with China. But military and economic tensions between the two powers keep getting in her way.

As the international financial crisis worsens, the two colossal economies have bickered over their intertwined interests. China is nervous about its position as Washington's biggest foreign creditor, holding an estimated $1 trillion in U.S. government debt.

Beijing and Washington also have sparred over military matters, including a confrontation between American and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea and harsh words over Pentagon claims that China's rapidly growing military strength could allow it to win short, intense conflicts against high-tech adversaries.

These issues will demand high-level attention from the Treasury and Defense departments. Clinton is pushing, however, to ensure that her diplomatic corps is not marginalized as the United States engages a country the Obama administration needs as a partner in efforts to solve the world's major problems.

Clinton began staking out her claim on China early. A week after President Barack Obama's Jan. 20 inauguration she signaled her determination not to stand on the sidelines in her first comments to reporters at the State Department.

"The strategic dialogue that was begun in the Bush administration turned into an economic dialogue," Clinton said. "That's a very important aspect of our relationship with China, but it's not the only aspect of our relationship."

In Beijing last month, on her first foreign trip as secretary, Clinton said she and new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner "will both be fully engaged" in discussions with China. Clinton then pleasantly surprised China by saying the Obama administration would not let its human rights concerns interfere with cooperation with Beijing.

Clinton's efforts mark a change from the Bush administration. George W. Bush's treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, led the main discussions with China; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice relied on her deputy to handle another set of talks.

Inevitably, with the world economy in danger, treasury will continue to play a top role in dealings with China.

Elizabeth Economy, Asian studies director at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Clinton moved quickly in "capturing the China portfolio, but given the nature of the relationship between China and the United States, there's no doubt that trade, currency and investment issues are going to be front and center."

Geithner is consumed with efforts to lift the U.S. economy, and this might allow Clinton to take an early leading role. But, Economy said, the State Department lacks "the depth and the breadth to manage the full range of economic issues with China."

The global financial crisis has dominated recent discussions between the countries, and it will top talks between Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao at the London meeting of leading economies next week.

In addition to numerous smaller forums, the Bush administration set up two major dialogues with Beijing: the Strategic Economic Dialogue, which were high-level, twice-a-year discussions, led by Paulson; and the Senior Dialogue, led by the deputy secretary of state, the No. 2 department official.

Despite all the talking, Bonnie Glaser, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said there remains a "profound level of distrust between the sides."

The Obama administration has not yet outlined specifics for official dealings with China, although it seems likely that Clinton will take over the Senior Dialogue.

Still, it is unclear how much time Clinton, who must address tensions in the Middle East, South Asia, North Korea and Latin America, will be able to devote to the China relationship.

And then there is the matter of what China wants.

Economy said China would be happiest with a long-running dialogue that does not require major policy changes.

"The United States usually comes to China with a pretty long list of what we want China to do, and, for the most part, what China wants is to be left alone," Economy said.

By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press, March 27, 2009

MONTERREY, Mexico - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that Iran has a role to play in the region that includes neighboring Afghanistan and she hopes it will be constructive.

Clinton told reporters in Monterrey, Mexico, that the United States will continue to reach out to Iran, even though earlier efforts were unsuccessful. President Barack Obama's outreach to Iran in a video message recently was rebuffed by Iranian leaders.

Iran has accepted an invitation to a conference on Afghanistan next week at The Hague, Netherlands, that also will be attended by the U.S.

U.S. State Department officials have said no substantive meetings are planned between the U.S. and the Iranians.

But Clinton reaffirmed U.S. hopes that Iran will help in stabilizing Afghanistan.

"Iran borders Afghanistan," she said. "It has a role to play in the region and we hope it will be a constructive role."

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected Obama's outreach, saying Tehran was still waiting to see concrete changes in U.S. policy. Obama spoke out to Iran on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian new year, and expressed hopes for an improvement in nearly 30 years of strained relations. Clinton said those efforts will continue.

"We are doing what President Obama said we would do. We are reaching out to the Iranian leadership, but equally importantly, to the Iranian people. That was certainly the spirit in which the president extended new year's greetings," she said.

"We have a long-held view that there are going to be difficult obstacles to engaging in the short run with the Iranians, but we are going to continue to reach out," she said.

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press, March 26, 2009

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton placed a bouquet of white roses at a basilica and watched police storm an airplane in a mock hostage rescue as she ended a two-day visit to Mexico on Thursday.

The incongruous images illustrated the complexity of the relationship between the United States and Mexico, countries bound by many cultural and family ties but also by the illegal drug trade and its deadly violence.

In a series of appearances on her two-day trip, Clinton tried to paint the U.S.-Mexican relationship in more subtle shades than the stark headlines about gangland murders and turf wars among drug traffickers that dominate the news headlines.

Mexico is facing brutal violence between rival drug gangs and the army in a battle that killed 6,300 people last year.

Clinton began her day at Mexico City's Basilica of our Lady of Guadalupe, a vast circular church built in the 1970s near the site where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared before an indigenous peasant, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, in the 16th century.

Clinton placed a bouquet of white roses near the altar where Juan Diego's apron is displayed in the church, which has a moving sidewalk to help the millions of faithful who visit each year.

An hour later, she stood on the flatbed of a police truck at a sprawling police base in Mexico City's rough Iztapalapa neighborhood where she saw helicopters, bomb-sniffing dogs and scores of police recruits.

She then watched two dozen masked, black-clad police officers creep up to an airplane, scale it with metal ladders and punch in its doors in a simulated hostage rescue aimed at showing her Mexican police training.

"These two days have cast in sharp relief the breadth and depth of the U.S.-Mexico relationship," Clinton told a news conference in the northern city of Monterrey.

Clinton ended her day in Monterrey, a prosperous manufacturing and services city close to the U.S. border that has seen a spike in drug violence over the past six months.

Speaking to students at the city's TecMilenio University, Clinton said the United States would work with Mexico to address the drug trafficking "that has terrorized Mexican communities, especially those along the border.

"This situation is intolerable," she said.

"We have to have better surveillance along our border going both ways," she added. "We should worry about what is coming north but the Mexican people are worried about what's coming south: assault weapons, bazookas, grenades."

By Arshad Mohammed, Reuters, March 26, 2009

MEXICO CITY - The U.S. bears much of the blame for violent drug wars roiling Mexico because of its demand for drugs and its failure to stop illegal weapons from crossing the border, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday, accepting "shared responsibility" for the problem.

Clinton, on an inaugural visit to Mexico to pave the way for an April trip by President Barack Obama, rejected the notion - put forward by some of U.S. government intelligence analysts - that Mexico could lose control of parts of the country to the drug cartels.

"I don't believe there are any ungovernable territories in Mexico," she told a news conference, while lauding Mexican President Felipe Calderon's "great courage" in battling the drug traffickers.

She announced that Obama would seek $80 million, most of it in an upcoming supplemental budget request, to provide Mexico with three Blackhawk helicopters. Mexican officials, along with some members of Congress, complain that U.S. anti-narcotics aid under a program called the Merida Initiative has been slow to arrive.

More than 7,000 Mexicans have been killed in drug wars here since January 2008. The violence, while brutal, has been mostly localized to a handful of cities. Most of the
dead are drug traffickers involved in turf battles and Mexican security forces.

Clinton's acceptance of U.S. responsibility appeared designed to address Mexican complaints that its drug wars have deep roots north of the border and to avoid a blame-game that might distract from the counter-narcotics effort.

Clinton offered the bluntest comments to date by any senior U.S. official that Americans' habits and government policies have stoked the drug trade and the accompanying violence.

"How could anybody conclude any differently?" she said. "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians."

U.S. domestic drug-control strategies during the past three decades have largely failed, she said, suggesting that the Obama administration will try to reduce demand and emphasize treatment more than its predecessor.

"We have certainly been pursuing these strategies for . . . a long time. I remember Mrs. Reagan's 'just say no,' " Clinton said, referring to former first lady Nancy Reagan's exhortation to young people to refuse drugs. "It's been very difficult."

The White House announced Tuesday that it will dispatch hundreds of additional federal agents and deploy new technologies to the U.S.-Mexico border. The steps are designed to help border states deal with the spillover effects of the violence and to interdict drugs coming north and cash and weapons flowing south.

Obama held off a decision on a request by the governors of Texas and Arizona to deploy National Guard troops to the border.

The Mexican government views that move warily, seeing it as a prelude to a wider militarization of the border.

At a news conference with Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, Clinton, in response to a question from a Mexican journalist, acknowledged the difficulty of gun control in the U.S.

She noted that as first lady and as a senator, she supported an assault weapons ban. "But it was passed with an expiration date, and it expired 10 years later," she said. "We're exploring approaches that might work."

Espinosa said Mexico welcomes the new steps announced in Washington this week, but grittily rejected the idea that the country could become a "failed state" - a phrase that has infuriated many Mexicans.

"It's very clear to anybody who comes to this country . . . that this is a democratic country, with strong institutions," Espinosa said. While there are parts of Mexico where she might not escort Clinton, she said, the reverse might be true in the U.S.

Clinton's remarks on U.S. responsibility for drug trafficking and drug-related violence continue a more humble tone toward the rest of the world that Obama has adopted. The Bush administration, in contrast, was often seen abroad as hectoring friends and adversaries alike.

While the headlines from Clinton's two-day visit here are sure to be dominated by the drug violence, which she acknowledged is "horrific," she went out of her way to stress that the U.S.-Mexico relationship goes beyond a single issue.

Also on the agenda are environmental protection, clean energy and climate change; immigration; the global economic recession and the upcoming G-20 meeting in London in which Mexico will participate; and trade - including disputes involving the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Clinton announced that the administration has set aside $720 million to modernize border crossings and streamline commerce.

On the drug front, Congress has approved $700 million to help Mexico fight drug traffickers and build more effective security forces. However, lawmakers cut back the first installment of aid under the Merida Initiative to $300 million from $450 million.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent Democrat from Connecticut who's chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said on Wednesday that the additional White House steps announced Tuesday was "a significant first step forward. But I don't think it is enough."

By Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers, March 25, 2009

MONTERREY, Mexico - In her years on the political stage, Hillary Clinton wasn't always seen as the most humble of national figures.

Yet in a two-day trip through Mexico that ended Thursday, Secretary of State Clinton has served up humility at every stop.

She's acknowledged in no uncertain terms that the bloody drug wars here are, in part, America's fault.

She's compared the 7,000-plus deaths in drug violence over the last 15 months to the crime wave that hit the U.S. in the 1980s and '90s.

"There are problems in any country. I spend my time thinking about the problems in my country as well," Clinton told students and faculty in Monterrey on the campus of Universidad TecMilenio, a high-tech private university with campuses, real and virtual, across the country.

Clinton's tone is part of a conscious public diplomacy effort by the Obama administration to change world opinion of the U.S., which sank deeply during his predecessor's eight years, due to the war in Iraq , the treatment of detainees and other actions.

The approach by Clinton, who's on her first trip as top U.S. diplomat to Latin America, seemed to be playing well.

Mexico , like many other countries in the hemisphere, has often bristled at what it sees as arrogance and hypocrisy from its larger, richer and more populous neighbor.

Mexicans have objected to U.S. news coverage of Mexico that's focused solely on the drug problem - and to statements by top American officials suggesting this country is on its way to becoming a failing state, not in control of all of its territory.

"It seems to me, it starts with tone," former U.S. ambassador to Mexico James Jones said in an interview before Clinton arrived here. "The tone should be, the U.S. and Mexican governments have one common enemy, that's organized crime."

A U.S. military report warned in January that drug-fueled violence threatened to topple the Mexican government. Dennis Blair , the national intelligence director, told reporters on Thursday, however: " Mexico is in no danger of becoming a failed state." He said the growing violence is a result of the Mexican government's campaign against drug traffickers, and added: "The Mexican campaign is our campaign."

In her speech at the university in Monterrey , Clinton tried to steer the discussion of U.S.- Mexico relations away from the drug issue, speaking about the commercial ties and global interests that increasingly bind the two nations.

To reinforce the point, she later visited a modern biogas plant that's producing renewable energy.

"I think it has been unfortunate that the courageous fight that Mexico has waged against the drug cartels has gotten so much attention, to the exclusion of all the other issues," she said in response to a question.

The drug wars, however, were never far from the surface of Clinton's trip.

Monterrey has been the scene in recent months of at least two anti-U.S. attacks that have been linked to narcotics traffickers.

In the most serious, assailants struck the U.S. consulate here in October, firing guns and throwing grenades over the wall, although they didn't explode. Mexican officials have arrested a suspect who's allegedly tied to one of the country's leading crime barons.

In Mexico City , Clinton visited the modern new Iztapalapa base for Mexico's federal police. With U.S. financial help, the federal police is trying to improve its ability to confront organized crime, a task now largely undertaken by the military. During her brief stay, Clinton saw a simulated hostage rescue and was briefed on missions undertaken by U.S.-made Blackhawk helicopters, which were on display.

By Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers, March 27, 2009

MEXICO CITY - Seeking to ease a cross-border relationship strained by drug trafficking, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here Wednesday and offered the clearest acknowledgment yet from an Obama administration official of the role the United States plays in the violent narcotics trade in Mexico.

"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," Mrs. Clinton said, using unusually blunt language. "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians."

Mrs. Clinton's remarks were coupled with a pledge that the administration would seek $80 million from Congress to provide Mexican authorities with three Black Hawk helicopters to help the police track drug runners.

She also came bearing a new White House initiative, announced Tuesday, to deploy 450 more law enforcement officers at the border, and crack down on the smuggling of guns and drug money into Mexico.

The diplomatic offensive, which will include visits by several other senior American officials ahead of President Obama's visit next month, was calculated to mollify Mexican officials, who have chafed in recent years at what they regard as Mexico-bashing in Washington. It seems to have worked.

Patricia Espinosa, Mexico's foreign secretary, said the new measures were "much along the line of cooperation that we have been trying to build upon." But, she added, "there is always room for improvement in the U.S."

Indeed, some of the Obama administration's measures are likely to run squarely into American political realities. For example, early indications that Mr. Obama will push for stricter controls on the sale of assault rifles have already set off an outcry among gun-control opponents.

"Politically, this is a very big hurdle in our Congress," Mrs. Clinton conceded.

Since last year, battles between law enforcement authorities and cartels, and other drug-related violence, have resulted in more than 7,200 deaths in Mexico, raising doubts about the government's control over parts of its territory. The violence has also begun to spill across the border.

Mrs. Clinton met with the President Felipe Calderon and praised his campaign to root out corruption in the police force and the courts. She said Mr. Obama had not decided whether to post National Guard troops along the border, an issue that has aroused opposition in Mexico.

On Wednesday, the Mexican Army said it had arrested one of the country' most-wanted drug smugglers, Hector Huerta, near Monterrey, the northern city Mrs. Clinton will visit Thursday.

Mrs. Clinton said that in addition to sending the helicopters, the United States would help supply Mexican law enforcement officers with night-vision goggles, body armor and other equipment to battle the cartels, which are heavily armed.

"We've got to figure out how to stop these bad guys," she said. "These criminals are outgunning the law enforcement officials."

Drugs are not the only issue vexing relations between the United States and Mexico. Congress recently canceled funds for a pilot program to allow Mexican trucks to haul cargo on American highways. Mexico retaliated by imposing $2.4 billion in tariffs on 89 American exports.

Mexican officials complain about mixed signals from the United States, noting that even as the administration steps up law enforcement help on the border, Congress has cut back funds for a three-year, $1.4 billion drug countertrafficking campaign called the Merida Initiative.

Even small slights rankle. When Forbes magazine put the Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, known as El Chapo, on its list of the world's richest people, it elicited more attention, and offense, in Mexico than when Mr. Obama acknowledged that the drug trade was a two-way street.

"There have been lots of different voices from the Obama administration," said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "Hillary Clinton's mission is to make sure there is a single voice."

Mrs. Clinton said the administration was retooling the truck program to get it through Congress, and she expressed optimism that lawmakers were receptive but did not give details.

She defended the decision of Congress to withhold funds for the Merida Initiative, saying the lawmakers were watching to see that the $700 million already spent was being used wisely. The administration, she said, was weighing whether to ask for more money for the program.

The agreement between the nations was most vivid in comments by Ms. Espinosa and Mrs. Clinton on the need to crack down on gun smuggling. In December, Ms. Espinosa stood by as Condoleezza Rice, then the secretary of state, denied a link between the expiration of an assault weapons ban and drug violence.

"It is shocking to hear an American politician admit there is an issue," said Denise Dresser, a prominent Mexican commentator and political scientist.

There were echoes of the presidential candidate in Mrs. Clinton's discussion of America's fitful war on drugs. She mentioned many failed efforts, going back to the "Just Say No" campaign.

"Clearly what we have been doing has not worked," she said.




By Mark Landler, The New York Times, March 25, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's official news agency says two Americans have been detained for illegally crossing its border and are under investigation.

The Korean Central News Agency says Saturday that the two Americans were detained on March 17 "while illegally intruding into the territory of (North Korea) by crossing the (North Korea)-China border."

KCNA says authorities are now investigating the case. The brief dispatch gave no further details.

State Department officials say Washington is in contact with North Korea about the two detained journalists.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "is engaged on this matter right now," spokesman Robert A. Wood told reporters Friday.

The Associated Press, March 21, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration has accepted an invitation to attend a Russian-hosted conference on Afghanistan next week at which Iran is also expected to participate.

The State Department said Thursday that it would send a senior diplomat to a special conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization being held in Moscow on March 27 to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. Patrick Moon, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia affairs, will attend, it said.

The United States is not a member of, nor an official observer to, the organization, but it is among several NATO and G-8 countries that were invited as guests, department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. Iran is an observer and is expected to send a delegation, but Wood said Moon had no plans to meet with the Iranian delegation.

"We're glad we were invited and we look forward to attending and hopefully we can get something constructive out of this conference," he said.

"The reason why we think it's important to go to this conference is that it's about Afghanistan and how the international community can try to better the situation on the ground, better coordinate activities (and) see what types of things we can do together to help make things better for the people of Afghanistan," Wood said.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as members. Along with Iran, India, Mongolia and Pakistan are observers. The group has traditionally been used by Russia and China to limit Western influence in energy-rich Central Asia.

The Moscow meeting will take place just ahead of a larger U.N.-chaired conference on Afghanistan to be held in the Netherlands on March 31. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to attend that meeting, to which Iran has also been invited.

The Obama administration is reviewing its policies on both Afghanistan and Iran and is likely to roll out its Afghan strategy next week ahead of the March 31 conference in The Hague. The Iran review is expected to be complete in the coming weeks, U.S. officials say.

The Associated Press, March 20, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has no immediate plans to meet separately with Iran's delegation at a March 31 international conference on Afghanistan, the State Department said on Wednesday.

Clinton proposed the conference while at NATO headquarters in Brussels earlier this month and the meeting is set to be held in the Hague under U.N. auspices.

The Obama administration, in a shift from President George W. Bush's isolation policy towards Iran, has said it would be prepared to engage Tehran on a range of issues.

The invitation to the conference was seen as the first public overture to Iran, which Bush famously described as being part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea.

Iran's government spokesman said on March 7 that Iran would consider an invitation and was willing to help in Afghanistan. It is not yet clear which officials Iran would send to the meeting.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood did not rule out a possible meeting with the Iranians but he said no bilateral talks were planned between Clinton and her counterpart from Tehran.

"I will not rule out the fact that there could be some kind of a, you know, a greeting of some type, but there's no plan, as far as I know, for there to be a meeting between the two delegations," Wood told reporters.

He said the goal of the Afghanistan conference was to help devise a "coherent international policy" in dealing with the situation on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the United States and allies are fighting militant groups like al Qaeda and the Taliban.

"This conference is more than just the U.S. and Iran. It's -- as I said, it's about Afghanistan and the situation in the region. And that's where we need to keep our focus," said Wood.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended several conferences aimed at stabilizing Iraq, where Iran was also invited. Rice exchanged pleasantries with Iran's foreign minister at those events but never had a substantive conversation with him.

The United States is at loggerheads with Iran on a range of issues, from its support for militant groups to a nuclear program which Washington says is aimed at building an atomic bomb. Tehran says its program is for peaceful power purposes.

Wood said the Obama administration was in the midst of a full review of its strategy towards Iran and he could not give details of how engagement with Iran might ultimately unfold.

"Before we engage in a real dialogue with Iran on a number of these issues, we need to finish our review. And I think that's only fair," said Wood.

Clinton plans at the Hague conference to give details on a U.S. review of its strategy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is expected to be rolled out in the next week.

Clinton, with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband at her side, told reporters on Wednesday she would have a "thorough discussion" with allies leading up to the March 31st meeting in the Hague on how to move forward on Afghanistan.




By Sue Pleming, Reuters, March 18, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman held talks on Wednesday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a US official said.

"She met him," the State Department official told AFP on the condition of anonymity without elaborating on the substance of the meeting.

Suleiman, who has not spoken to the media, met Tuesday with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell as well as with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, officials said.

An Egyptian official who declined to be named said Suleiman was in Washington to seek a softer stance on the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, so that it can participate in an internationally-recognized Palestinian unity government.

Hamas and the Western-backed Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas have been bitterly divided since Hamas, after winning a majority in a 2006 parliament election, seized Gaza in a week of deadly fighting in June 2007, limiting Abbas's authority to the West Bank.

During her March 4 visit to Israel, Clinton said the administration of President Barack Obama would not work with a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas, unless the Islamist movement recognizes Israel and renounces violence.

"If there is to be a unity government that includes Hamas, then we would expect that Hamas would comply with the principles as set forth by the Quartet," she said.

The Middle East Quartet, comprising the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union, has set conditions on dealing with Hamas that require the movement to recognize Israel, renounce violence against the Jewish state and comply with past Palestinian-Israeli agreements.

Hamas says those conditions are unacceptable.

Senior delegations from the Islamist movement Hamas, Fatah and other groups began work in Cairo on March 10 to resolve their differences.

But negotiators said the talks continue to stall on the future government's program.

AFP, March 18, 2009

Rep. Ellen Tauscher confirmed today that she has accepted a State Department post in the Obama Administration, subject to Senate confirmation.

"For the past 13 years, I have had the honor and privilege of serving you in Congress. Representing California's 10th Congressional District always has been and remains - especially in these trying times - my first priority," she said in a statement. "Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asked me to serve as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. While her offer is both generous and flattering, I did not take the decision lightly. I accepted it after much soul searching and long discussions with my family and friends."

Tauscher, D-Alamo, said that in her seven terms in Congress, she has "worked hard to make sure that families can get to work and travel safely on our roads, bridges, airports and waterways. I also have worked on national security issues, including working closely with officials at the Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories."

"Keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, making sure other countries do not obtain them and, one day, I hope, ridding the world of these terrible weapons, has become my passion and, I hope, my life's work," she said.

If confirmed, Tauscher would serve as a senior adviser on arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament issues to President Barack Obama and to Clinton, whom she supported in last year's Democratic presidential primaries.

Tauscher noted the confirmation process "is fraught with uncertainty and can take weeks, if not months," and while it progresses, she and her staff will continue working for her 10th District constituents. "No matter where I am serving in government, I always will remember those who sent me to Washington and I always will be grateful for your support and the trust you placed in me."

Potential candidates to succeed Tauscher in the House already are warming up for special elections to fill the rest of her two-year term, ending January 2011 - an abbreviated but intense primary election, followed by a general election.

"I've talked to three different people already, two of whom have done essentially countywide races before," California Republican Party Vice Chairman Tom Del Beccaro of Lafayette, also a Contra Costa County GOP committeeman, said Wednesday afternoon; those potential candidates don't want their names made public until they've finished their "due diligence" in gauging their support and willingness to run, he said.

Del Beccaro said some people have asked him to consider running too, and "I will honor their request to look at it as well."

"I think we are going to have a candidate with broad name identification who has some standing in the county, and I think we're going to make an interesting race out of it," he said.

Republican Nicholas Gerber, a Moraga small business owner who challenged Tauscher in last year's general election and got 31.1 percent of the vote, said he's "absolutely" ready to run again: "The people of CD 10 are ready for a change. We tried to bring word to moderate Republicans last time and we had some traction - we had nearly 90,000 people vote for me."

"We're not Berkeley, we're not San Francisco," Gerber added. "We are a bedroom community and we like things like fiscal conservatism and social responsibility, we don't want the government to be spending left and right, and on the other hand we don't want the government in your bedroom."

But the district's voter registration, at last report, remains about 47 percent Democrat, 29 percent Republican and 20 percent decline-to-state, meaning the Democratic nominee will be hard to beat.

Former Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg, who already has formed a committee to explore a 2010 run for state Attorney General, said Wednesday he'll not rule out a bid for Tauscher's seat should she leave it vacant. Having been out of office since 2006, he said, "I needed and deserved a little bit of a break, but it wasn't getting out of politics for the rest of my life. We'll see - there's a lot to consider, it's an interesting district.

"I don't know that commuting to Washington, D.C. as a freshman in a Congress where it takes 20 years to build seniority in a meaningful way is something I'm sure I want to do," he added, but the district's diversity and the call of public service remain alluring. "I'm not going to foreclose anything at this point."

His wife, Pittsburg Unified School District trustee Laura Canciamilla, ran for the Assembly in 2006 but said she has no designs on Tauscher's seat: "I certainly don't have any intentions, I figure I'm just keeping my nose above water in the school board right now. & You can put me down as a definite 'no.'"

The Contra Costa County Registrar of Voters already has two special elections scheduled: a May 5 vote on a San Ramon Unified School District ballot measure, and the May 19 statewide vote on ballot measures related to the state budget. It's far too late to consolidate a vote on replacing Tauscher with either of these, Assistant Registrar Candy Lopez said Wednesday.

Lopez said once Tauscher is confirmed and leaves the seat vacant, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger within 14 days must set a date for a special general election; that date can't be less than 112 days from the governor's proclamation. The special primary election will then fall eight Tuesdays before that general election date, she said, and the nomination period will be based on that primary date.

"If the state won't give us some kind of relief and pay for the election, it could be very bad for our budget, which is out of the county's general fund," Lopez said. "We're hoping we can work with our legislators ... but we're not far enough along to know if that will happen."

About 251,000 registered Contra Costa County voters live in the 10th District - just under half the county's total registration, and roughly 60 to 70 percent of the district's total registration. Besides much of eastern and central Contra Costa County, the district includes Livermore in Alameda County; Dixon, Fairfield, Suisun City and Elmira in Solano County; and Isleton and Walnut Grove in Sacramento County. Those other counties registrars' will have to conduct the special election for 10th District voters, too.

By Josh Richman, San Jose Mercury News, March 18, 2009

The father of imprisoned Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi says she is upset and frustrated that she is still being held in Iran, where she may be in prison for at least two more weeks while the government shut downs for the Iranian New Year.

"Roxana doesn't feel very well," Saberi's father, Reza, said Wednesday from his home in Fargo. "She's very upset, frustrated and disappointed."

Reza Saberi said he is worried the ordeal is taking a toll on his daughter's health. He said he plans to write a letter to Iran's supreme leader and work with members of the Japanese Embassy.

"Her mother is Japanese and the Japanese have good relations with Iran," Saberi said. "We'll see what they can do. All of this will take time."

Iranian authorities say Roxana Saberi was arrested for working as a journalist after the government revoked her press credentials. Reza Saberi said his daughter was doing mostly feature stories and was not writing about any government business.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and North Dakota's congressional delegation have appealed for Saberi's release. Executives of major news organizations have demanded that Iran specify how she allegedly broke the law, and that the country allow an outside group to evaluate her health and living conditions.

Roxana Saberi, 31, grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. She is a freelance journalist who has worked for National Public Radio, the British Broadcasting Corp. and other news organizations.

Reza Saberi said he had hoped for a breakthrough before the Iranian holiday.

"We don't want anything to happen to our daughter. She's young and she hasn't had this kind of experience in life," he said. "It's hard on her. I'm worried she may have a nervous breakdown."

The Associated Press, March 19, 2009

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's economy is being dragged down by the recession to the north. American addicts have turned Mexico into a drug superhighway, and its police and soldiers are under assault from American guns. Nafta promised 15 years ago that Mexican trucks would be allowed on American roads, but Congress said they were unsafe.

United States-Mexican relations are in the midst of what can be described as a neighborly feud, one that stretches along a lengthy shared fence. That border fence, which has become a wall in some places, is another irritant.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives in Mexico on Wednesday for what will be the first in a parade of visits by top administration officials, including President Obama himself next month, to try to head off a major foreign policy crisis close to home. They will find a country mired in a deepening slump, miffed by signs of protectionism in its largest trading partner, and torn apart by a drug war for which many in Mexico blame customers in the United States.

There is plenty of angst on the other side as well. Many American communities are worried about drug violence spilling over the border, and about Mexican immigrants taking scarce jobs. That is forcing the Obama administration, already managing two wars and a deep recession, to fashion a new Mexico policy earlier than it might have wished.

Mr. Obama, like President George W. Bush before him, is finding that these foreign challenges touch on some of the thorniest issues in domestic politics, including immigration, free trade and gun control. The Bush administration disturbed relations by failing to deliver on its promise of immigration reform. And the Obama administration, in its first weeks in office, has set off new tensions with a series of conflicting signals and false starts.

Some in the administration have suggested that the Mexican government is not in control of all of its territory, even as other officials praise President Felipe Calderon's resolve to fight the drug trade. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. urged and then backed away from reinstituting a ban on sales of assault rifles, which are fueling the drug violence.

Mr. Obama acknowledged contingency plans to deploy troops to the border if too much of the violence spilled over into the United States, but he said almost in the same breath that no such deployment was imminent.

"I think it's unacceptable if you've got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens," Mr. Obama told reporters when asked if he might deploy troops. "I think if one U.S. citizen is killed because of foreign nationals who are engaging in violent crime, that's enough of a concern to do something about it."

The bloody drug war, which has caused 7,000 deaths in 16 months, has become the principal sore point between the countries. Although addiction rates among Mexicans are on the rise, the vast majority of the drugs flowing through Mexico will be sniffed, smoked or injected by Americans. On top of that, 90 percent of the guns used by Mexican drug cartels originated in the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The suggestion by Mr. Obama that American troops might be moved toward the border to combat drug cartels prompted Gen. Guillermo Galvan, Mexico's defense secretary, to assert that no deployment of foreign soldiers would be allowed on Mexican soil. History was at the root of the concern here, as even Mexican schoolchildren know of the war a century and a half ago in which the United States seized half of Mexico's territory.

Also riling the Mexicans was Congressional testimony by Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, suggesting that drug cartels controlled some parts of Mexico. The Calderon administration reacted angrily, with Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont saying that such remarks "are unfortunate and don't contribute to generating a climate of confidence that is indispensable to win this fight."

For his part, Mr. Calderon has spoken of an American "campaign" against Mexico, and has pointed out that the murder rate is higher in New Orleans than in his country. Mexico's battered image, as outlined in State Department travel advisories, is of particular concern to Mr. Calderon because it scares off potential investors and tourists.

The litany of angry rebuttals from Mexico has grown so fierce that an American diplomat here, Leslie Bassett, wrote a column in a Mexican newspaper the other day, saying, "No Obama appointee has referred to Mexico as a failed state; every Obama appointee posed the question has acknowledged the existing security challenges, commended President Calderon's fortitude, and dismissed the idea out of hand."

State Department officials said that one of the critical goals of Mr. Obama's visit would be to "open the aperture" of the bi-national agenda so that the relationship was not limited - some say, held hostage - to a single issue.

"It is important to underscore that this is a big relationship," Assistant Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon Jr. said in an interview. "It is very broad and deep. And it should not be narrowed down to a couple of issues."

Few of those issues are simple, however.

After the United States shut the border to Mexican trucks, in violation of a promise it made under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico placed tariffs on 89 American products, from grapes to dishwashers, in some cases appearing to select items from the districts of well-connected members of Congress to increase the action's impact.

Mexico is reeling from the recession in the United States. Although Mr. Calderon speaks often of how well prepared his country is for the global downturn, Mexico's export factories have lost some 65,000 jobs since October, one of many tangible effects. Exports fell 32 percent in January, and automobile exports fell 50 percent in the first two months of 2009. Mexico's central bank expects the economy to contract no more than 1.8 percent this year, but some investment banks forecast shrinkage of as much as 5 percent.

Last week, Mr. Obama made clear that many problems, including the drug trade and immigration reform, will have to be dealt with together.

"I don't think we can do this piecemeal," Mr. Obama said during a town hall meeting in California. "I'm going to be working with President Calderon in Mexico to figure out how we get control over the border that's become more violent because of the drug trade. We have to combine that with cracking down on employers who are exploiting undocumented workers."





By Marc Lacey and Ginger Thompson, The New York Times, March 24, 2009

Clinton has put to rest early concerns as she demonstrates ability at the State Department

Hillary Clinton has put the concerns of President Obama and his advisers to rest about her loyalty to the man who defeated her for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, according to senior Democrats with close ties to the White House.

"They are very happy with Hillary," says an Obama administration insider, referring to members of Obama's inner circle. "She is a real team player. And with her work ethic and competence at the State Department, there's one less thing for them to worry about."

Another advantage is her popularity in many nations around the world - popularity that has remained strong over the years since she was first lady. "She represents America very well," the insider says, adding that Secretary Clinton is expected to be on the road "a lot" in the coming months with a message that the Obama administration is far more interested in working with its allies than was the administration of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.

By Kenneth T. Walsh, U.S. News & World Report, March 18, 2009

Congressional sources have confirmed that Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) is going to be tapped for a top State Department post under Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Tauscher, the current chairwoman of the centrist New Democrat Coalition and chairwoman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, is set to become the undersecretary for Arms Control and Nonproliferation.

Tauscher was a Clinton superdelegate during the Democratic presidential primary and is a close ally of the former New York senator.

But Tauscher is also a key ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Earlier this month, Tauscher was instrumental in saving a mortgage reform bill - a top Democratic priority - from obliteration from the more conservative wing of the Democratic Caucus.




By Jared Allen, The Hill, March 18, 2009

President Obama plans to appoint a close adviser and retired general to be his special envoy to Sudan as the administration ratchets up pressure against the government in Khartoum for expelling humanitarian relief organizations from the ravaged region of Darfur, administration officials said Tuesday.

Mr. Obama will tap Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, a Swahili-speaking retired Air Force officer who grew up in Africa as the son of missionaries, to take on one of the most delicate diplomatic missions of his presidency, according to three administration officials, who were not authorized to discuss the selection before the official announcement on Wednesday.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton escalated the administration's oratory on Tuesday, vowing to hold President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan responsible for the expulsion of aid groups.

"This is a horrendous situation that is going to cause untold misery and suffering for the people of Darfur, particularly those in the refugee camps," she told reporters. "The real question is what kind of pressure can be brought to bear on President Bashir and the government in Khartoum to understand that they will be held responsible for every single death that occurs in those camps."

The sharper tone and the appointment of General Gration come after criticism from activists who once saw Mr. Obama and his team as allies in the struggle to save the people of Darfur. During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama lamented the "stain on our souls" left by the mass death in Darfur and vowed "never again." Mrs. Clinton called for a no-flight zone. And Susan E. Rice, a top Obama adviser, even envisioned a bombing campaign to save victims.

But with the first major new humanitarian crisis on Mr. Obama's watch, advocates complained that the urgency of the campaign trail had given way to inertia, infighting and inaction. More than one million Darfuris are at risk while the new administration debates what to do, the advocates said. "Why is there a disconnect?" asked Jerry Fowler, the president of the Save Darfur Coalition, an umbrella organization, recalling Mr. Obama's strong words as a candidate. "We need presidential engagement and we need it now."

The latest crisis in Darfur represents an early foreign test for a new president consumed by economic strife at home. Advocates and policy makers said the administration appeared to be locked in a struggle over who would take charge of the issue and how it should be approached. Rather than taking firmer action now, they said, the administration is still waiting for a comprehensive review of Sudan policy.

"If the president believes the rhetoric he used, and I think he does, he's being ill advised by not moving on this," said Richard S. Williamson, the last United States special envoy to Sudan. "Drift works in the favor of those who are committing atrocities."

Administration officials rejected the criticism, pointing to what they called quiet diplomacy, working with governments from France, Britain, Uganda and Egypt to put pressure on Sudan to reverse the expulsion of the aid groups. The more muscular tactics they advocated before joining the government, they said, are still on the table for the broader review of Sudan policy, but would not be effective in the current humanitarian crisis.

"I feel as a former activist and current official that we have focused on the right thing here, which is trying to save lives," Ms. Rice, now the ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview. "The notion that we haven't been active - it is just false, downright false. Quite the contrary. What we haven't done is a lot of bluster and public threats."

The latest crisis began March 4, when the International Criminal Court in The Hague charged Mr. Bashir with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the slaughter of 300,000 people in Darfur, the first such indictment of a sitting head of state by the tribunal.

Mr. Bashir then expelled 13 nongovernmental organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, CARE, Oxfam Great Britain and Save the Children, accusing them of spying for the court. Some groups had offices broken into and equipment seized.

As a result, relief groups said, more than one million people are without adequate food, clean water and health care as a meningitis outbreak looms. United Nations workers remain, but Mr. Bashir said Monday that he wanted all foreign relief organizations out within a year. The Obama administration denounced the expulsions. After a meeting with Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, Mr. Obama called the Darfur crisis one "that we care about deeply" and said it was important "to send a strong, unified, international message that it is not acceptable to put that many people's lives at risk."

Mr. Obama came to office with a team particularly versed on Darfur. Aside from Mrs. Clinton and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., both of whom dealt with the issue in the Senate, Mr. Obama installed Ms. Rice, a vocal advocate for tougher action on Darfur, at the United Nations. Analysts said Mr. Bashir was trying to stare down Mr. Obama and get the indictment suspended.

John Norris, executive director of the Enough Project, an antigenocide group, said the administration must decide whether to force Sudan's government to let the relief agencies back in. "Or is it going to be willing to accept talking about the situation and seeing if that's enough?" he asked. "There's a real decision moment for a new president."




By Peter Baker, The New York Times, March 17, 2009

KABUL (AP) - An improvement in Iran's relationship with the United States would have no effect on Afghanistan's Taliban militancy or the country's booming drug trade, an Iranian diplomat said Tuesday.

The comments came ahead of a conference to discuss the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta has said that any decrease in tensions between Iran and the West would benefit Afghanistan.

But Feda Hussein Maliki, Iran's ambassador to Kabul, said he wasn't even sure that Iran would attend the March 31 conference, adding that Tehran has yet to receive an invitation. Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Christoph Prommersberger says an invitation has been delivered by the Dutch embassy in Tehran and to the Iranian Embassy in The Hague.

"Our relation is a strategic relation with Afghanistan ... a deep relationship that has no links with other relations, whether America would or wouldn't be in Afghanistan," Maliki said on the sidelines of a ceremony marking a trade pact to import Iranian cars to Afghanistan.

The invitation to Iran to a U.S.-proposed conference was seen as a new emphasis on diplomacy by the administration of President Barack Obama. The U.S. and Iran haven't had diplomatic relations in almost 30 years.

Clinton told the BBC this month that Iran was "helpful" during the early days of the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, a conciliatory gesture at the beginning of a new administration. Clinton said the Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan had "almost daily" contact with the U.S. ambassador in the early stages of the war.

Adrian Edwards, the top U.N. spokesman in Afghanistan who traveled to Iran this month, said top Iranian officials expressed interest in the conference, but he said it wasn't yet clear they would attend.

"I think they'll wait until the last minute before deciding," he said.

But Edwards also said that in conversations with Iran's director of counternarcotics and top Foreign Ministry officials, he got the impression Iran is interested in more regional cooperation. Iranian officials expressed interest in helping train Afghanistan's fledgling police force, he said, a job now mostly undertaken by the U.S.

"They speak the same language, they're from this region," he said. Iranian expertise is "cheaper than bringing people from further afield who may not know Afghanistan as well."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week he would open the one-day conference.

Malek Sitez, an international law expert in Kabul, said Iran, the U.S., Europe and Russia all have a common desire to reduce the opium and heroin trade in Afghanistan but can't maximize their cooperation due to political disagreements.

"This is a big problem for Afghanistan and the international community," he said.

An increasing role for Iran in Afghanistan could also vastly alter the regional power balance, he said. Pakistan has long had a strong hand in Afghanistan, particularly in support of the country's Sunni Pashtuns. Iran, a Shiite country, could alter that dynamic, throwing more support to Afghanistan's minority Shiites, Sitez said.

"If Iran undertakes a stronger role, the role of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will be weakened," he said. "If a balance of power can be found ... it will help Afghanistan's push toward ethnic equality."

The governor of Nimroz - a province in southwest Afghanistan that shares a 60-mile (100 kilometer) border with Iran - said he hopes U.S.-Iran relations improve so the fight against the Taliban might be strengthened.

"When the relationship gets better, then the enemy has no rear support," said Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad.

By JASON STRAZIUSO, The Associated Press, March 17, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Veteran diplomat Christopher Hill on Tuesday won the support of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar to become the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq, even as other GOP senators bluntly urged President Barack Obama to reconsider his nomination.

Lugar's backing is considered crucial to Hill's nomination because it would provide other moderate GOP senators political cover to vote for him. Indiana's Lugar is the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee and widely respected on foreign policy matters.

Two administration officials said Tuesday they were counting on Lugar's support for Hill to overcome Republican opposition and secure the 60 votes that would ensure his confirmation. The Senate is divided, with Democrats typically able to count on 58 votes at most. The officials spoke anonymously because Hill was meeting with GOP senators on Tuesday.

Hill's nomination has been in trouble since last week, when several Republicans, including Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Sam Brownback of Kansas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, warned that Hill, a career diplomat, lacked enough experience in the Middle East.

Hill is best known for his role in the Bush administration as chief U.S. negotiator in disarmament talks with North Korea. The negotiations stalled on a technical issue and GOP critics said Hill was too willing to make concessions to the Communist regime.

One administration official said the White House might try to assuage other Republican senators' concerns about Hill by appointing one of their former colleagues, ex-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, as special envoy to Sudan.

Hill met privately on Tuesday with several senators, including Lugar, McCain and Brownback. McCain had no immediate comment after the meeting.

Brownback has been the most outspoken opponent of Hill because of a long-running dispute over how to handle human rights abuses by the North Koreans.

Following his Tuesday meeting with Hill, Brownback circulated a letter among his colleagues asking Obama to pull the nomination. Among those who signed the letter was Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, and Sens. John Ensign of Nevada, James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Christopher Bond of Missouri.

Other Republican critics, including McCain, have focused on what they say is a lack of expertise on issues facing Iraq.

On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton dismissed that argument as baseless, pointing out that John Negroponte, who served as Iraq Ambassador during the Bush administration, did not have direct experience in the Middle East or Arabic language skills when he took the job.

McCain, Brownback and the other GOP senators opposing Hill had supported Negroponte's confirmation in a 95-3 vote.

Clinton also defended Hill's handling of the six-party talks with North Korea.

"It is our perspective that he made a lot of lemonade out of some pretty bad lemons, and he was able to get the North Koreans on record as agreeing to certain obligations," Clinton told reporters. "We now have to follow through on those obligations."

By ANNE FLAHERTY, The Associated Press, March 17, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sudan, by expelling foreign aid agencies, has created the conditions for "untold misery and suffering" among hundreds of thousands of victims of the six-year-old war in the Darfur region, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday.

Clinton called on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to reverse his decision to expel the relief groups, or, short of that, to replace them with personnel and resources sufficient to address the humanitarian crisis.

"This is a horrendous situation that is going to cause untold misery and suffering for the people of Darfur, particularly those in the refugee camps," Clinton told reporters at the State Department. She added that she intends soon to name a special envoy to the region.

"But the real question is what kind of pressure can be brought to bear on President Bashir and the government in Khartoum to understand that they will be held responsible for every single death that occurs in those camps, because by their expulsion of the aid workers ... they are putting those 1.4 million lives at risk."

In expelling 13 large foreign aid agencies, most of them operating in Darfur, Al-Bashir accused them of spying for an international court that issued an arrest warrant against him on March 4 for war crimes in the western Sudanese region. He also shut down three local aid groups, including one of the largest operating in Darfur.

Clinton said the blame lies with Al-Bashir and his government.

"They have now assumed an even greater sense of responsibility and infamy in the eyes of the world by turning their backs on these refugees, who they created in the first place," Clinton said.

Sudan's Arab-led government has been battling ethnic African rebels in Darfur since 2003. Up to 300,000 people have been killed, and 2.7 million have been driven from their homes.

The State Department said Tuesday it is consulting with other United Nations member countries in an effort to persuade Sudanese leaders to reverse the expulsion decision.

For now, Sudan's allies on the U.N. Security Council - Russia and China - oppose any sanctions against Sudan. Earlier this month, China, which is a top trading partner with Sudan, teamed with Libya to block a council statement condemning Sudan's expulsion of aid workers.

By ROBERT BURNS, The Associated Press, March 17, 2009

The unrest rooted in the rivalry between President Asif Ali Zardari and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif distracts from the threats of a weak economy and a strengthening Islamic insurgency.

In Islamabad, it's not only "the economy, stupid," it's the Islamic insurgency. Those are the most urgent threats to Pakistan, and yet it was the country's weak democratic institutions and political rivalries that nearly provoked sweeping civil unrest this week. Though partly responsible for the crisis, President Asif Ali Zardari nonetheless pulled the nation back from the brink of violence, inadvertently offering glimmers of hope in the process.

Pakistan is struggling to find an equilibrium among its executive, legislative and judicial branches of government and the powerful military that has run the country through much of its short history. One casualty in that struggle had been the country's chief justice, who was removed from the Supreme Court two years ago by the former president and military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Street protests over the court led to Musharraf's resignation, and when the country returned to civilian rule, Zardari promised to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and four other justices. But Zardari delayed for more than a year, apparently fearing that Chaudhry would dig up old corruption charges against him. He also enjoyed the fact that a friendlier court had banned leaders of the rival political dynasty from office in Punjab province, thereby neutralizing Zardari's nemesis. Or so he thought.

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif responded by taking up the popular demand for Chaudhry's reinstatement, and led a week of street protests on his behalf that were headed for a violent confrontation in the capital. After calls from U.S. special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and quiet pressure from the head of the Pakistani military, Zardari backed down. The justices are to return to the bench on Sunday, and Sharif and his brother are to resume leadership of Punjab. And this is why we are hopeful: The Obama administration made clear that it would not back Zardari at all costs, as the Bush administration had once done for Musharraf. The military, led by Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, signaled that it was not willing to support Zardari in an internal political dispute. Nor did the general launch a military coup, as others have before him. And although prodded by Sharif, the Pakistani people demonstrated effectively on behalf of the rule of law.

Zardari is weakened now, and Sharif will be emboldened. But we hope that the two will keep their rivalry in check long enough to turn their attention to the more pressing issues of Pakistan's economic collapse and the Islamic militants who are gaining ground. Average Pakistanis put aside their personal concerns to take a stand for democracy. Perhaps their leaders could do the same.





Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2009

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said Monday that those behind the renewed violence in Northern Ireland are trying to undermine his party for its support of the peace process.

Adams spoke at the National Press Club ahead of St. Patrick's Day celebrations and meetings with Obama administration officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday.

On Monday, police in Northern Ireland arrested two suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents in addition to nine arrest last week in an investigation into this month's killings of British soldiers and police.

"Sinn Fein itself is as a much a target of the perpetrators as those that they killed," Adams said. He called the attacks "a full frontal assault on the peace process."

Speaking at a news conference with Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin Monday, Clinton also had harsh words for the perpetrators of the attacks, which she called "an affront to the values of everyone community, every ethnicity, every religion and every nation that seeks peace."

Clinton cut off a reporter who referred to opponents of the peace process as dissidents.

"Not dissidents," she said. "I'm all in favor of dissidents, I'm not in favor of criminals."

Adams said that the vast majority of the people in Northern Ireland reject recent violence and support the peace process.

"It's important that we don't minimize what occurred, but we don't exaggerate what occurred," Adams said.

It appears that dissidents are trying to undermine the IRA's 2005 decision to renounce violence and disarm and Sinn Fein's efforts to persuade Catholics to cooperate with the police force - once overwhelmingly Protestant but now more than 25 percent Catholic.

Analysts have said that the dissidents - who have mounted more than 20 gun, bomb and rocket attacks since late 2007 - hoped this month's killings would undermine the current U.S. visit of Northern Irish leaders, including, Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson, the Protestant leader of the power-sharing government. McGuinness, a former IRA commander, is now the senior Irish Catholic in the power-sharing government.

The Northern Ireland leaders twice delayed their trip last week, but are expected to meet President Barack Obama at the White House and congressional leaders on Capitol Hill on St. Patrick's Day, an annual event cherished by Ireland's leaders north and south.

The Associated Press, March 16, 2009

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has harsh words for violent opponents of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Speaking at a press conference with Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin, Clinton praised Northern Ireland's leaders for unity in condemning recent violence.

She called attacks this month that killed two British soldiers and a policeman "an affront to the values of everyone community, every ethnicity, every religion and every nation that seeks peace."

Clinton also cut off a reporter who referred to opponents of the peace process as dissidents, saying "Not dissidents. I'm all in favor of dissidents, I'm not in favor of criminals."




The Associated Press, March 16, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that Pakistan's reinstatement of a fired Supreme Court chief justice will allow Islamabad to return its attention to the crucial fight against Taliban and al-Qaida militants operating along the Afghan border.

As part of intense American diplomatic efforts over the weekend, Clinton called both U.S.-allied President Asif Ali Zardari, who had refused to restore the independent-minded Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, whose followers had threatened to march on the capital, raising fears of political instability in the nuclear-armed country.

Clinton told reporters that Pakistan's decision was "a first step of what has to be an ongoing reconciliation and compromising of political views that can stabilize civilian democracy and rule of law, both of which are essential to ... preventing extremism and violence from stalking the Pakistani people and the country."

When asked if the political turmoil was distracting Pakistan from the fight against extremists, Clinton said, "I think they understand what's at stake."

The United States, Clinton said after meeting at the State Department with Ireland's foreign minister, will continue to work closely with Pakistan, part of "an ongoing effort to make our services available and to help the Pakistanis fight against our common enemies."

Sensitive to the perception that U.S. pressure had forced Zardari's hand, Clinton was careful to say that the "Pakistanis themselves resolved the difficulties" - without any U.S. threat or demand.

Earlier, a senior State Department official said that Clinton, in her calls, raised the prospect that U.S. lawmakers could back away from U.S. economic aid for Pakistan because of the turmoil. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private diplomatic exchange.

Former President Pervez Musharraf sacked Chaudhry in 2007 after he took up cases challenging Musharraf's rule. A subsequent wave of protests helped force the former general from office in 2008.

Zardari had pledged to restore Chaudhry, but he reneged, apparently fearing the judge might examine a deal that gave Zardari and his wife, slain politician Benazir Bhutto, immunity from prosecution over alleged corruption.

Also Monday, militants torched vehicles and supplies meant for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan - the second such assault in northwest Pakistan in two days.

Rising Taliban attacks have raised doubts about the reliability of critical supply routes through Pakistan, prompting the United States and NATO to seek alternatives.

By Matthew Lee, The Associated Press, March 16, 2009