Geithner approved by Senate committee; Clinton takes helm at State, special envoys named; Obama admin. holds first press briefing…
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Timothy Geithner, whose nomination for secretary of Treasury has been questioned due to a tax-filing mistake he made years ago, which has been accounted for and paid in full, has been approved by a Senate committe vote, clearing the way for an approval vote before the full Senate in coming days.
Sec. of State Hillary Clinton took the helm at the Dept. of State, to rousing applause from staffers. She declared her arrival the beginning of a new era in smart power and the exercize of a more comprehensive, more effective, more intelligent diplomacy. The commitment to using “diplomacy and development” —which could almost serve as a substitute title for Dept. of State, according to the philosophy professed by Sec. Clinton— as part of the exercise of “smart power”.
In a major event held to celebrate the beginning of Clinton’s tenure at State, the new administration introduced Sen. George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East, to help work for a negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Mitchell helped to negotiate the Good Friday agreement that led to the 1998 ceasefire in the conflict in Northern Ireland.
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Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was introduced as the new special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Holbrooke has a long and acclaimed career in diplomacy and has worked through some of the most pressing and intractable conflicts in recent decades, principally during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
He said one of the aims of his work will be to establish a more “comprehensive” strategy for dealing with the “infinitely complex” situation in the two very distinct countries. Holbrooke dealt with the problems of tribalism and ethnic rivalry in what is considered exemplary work as a diplomat and was one of the principal architects of the Dayton accords that helped bring an end to the ethnic cleansing in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Pres. Obama said Sec. Clinton is a gift to American diplomacy and believes she will be effective in all the complex areas she will be tasked with addressing or assisting the foreign service staff in addressing. Obama told the diplomatic staff gathered for Sec. Clinton’s first day on the job:
We are proud of you; you are carrying out a vital task for the safety and security of the American people … and you will be critical to our success in the years to come … not just in projecting America’s power, but in projecting America’s values.
Obama also told the staff he had signed 3 executive orders this morning and that he could say “without equivocation or exception, the United States will not torture”, that the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay will be closed and that the US will abide by its obligations under the Geneva Conventions, so that “our actions in defense of liberty will be as just as our cause”, that “America’s moral example must be the bedrock and beacon of our global leadership”.
Obama took on the brutal complications of the Israel-Palestine crisis and said that just as loss of civilian life in Israel, due to hostile rocket fire into civilian neighborhoods is unacceptable, so is the situation in which Palestinians live, subjected to unending hardship and overwhelming military force in civilian areas.
He said he was personally disturbed by the loss of life and mass suffering among Palestinian civilians in the recent Israeli offensive against Gaza. He said that the Arab peace initiative contains “constructive” elements that can help achieve a lasting state of peace and security, backed by official Arab recognition of Israel’s “rightful place” in the community of nations.
The Obama White House also held its first official press briefing today, with the new press secretary Robert Gibbs dealing effectively with some probing questions about security of information, freedom of information, the risks of closing Guantánamo, and the degree of effectiveness in Obama’s first meeting with the military chiefs yesterday.
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