Newsmotion - Foreign Policy

Weekly Wrap Up: “What Our Families Deserve”

feed — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:08:28 +0000

Weekly Wrap Up: “What Our Families Deserve”

Fri, 05/17/2013

Obama Cares: On the Friday before Mother’s Day, President Obama explained how the Affordable Care Act is helping women. For example, the law prevents insurance companies from charging women more than men and requires insurance companies to cover preventive services like mammograms free of charge.

Thanks to the women in this room and people all across the country, we worked really hard -- and it’s now been more than three years since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act and I signed it into law. It’s been nearly a year since the Supreme Court upheld the law under the Constitution. And, by the way, six months ago, the American people went to the polls and decided to keep going in this direction. So the law is here to stay.

The President asked Americans to learn the facts about the Affordable Care Act and the wide array of benefits the law is already providing. You can visit WhiteHouse.gov/HealthReform and HealthCare.gov to see what the law does for your family.

Make sure you know what the actual facts are, because you stand to benefit if you’re not already benefiting from this thing. Don’t let people confuse you. Don’t let them run the okiedoke on you. Don’t be bamboozled.

The nearly 85% of Americans who have health insurance are already benefiting from the Affordable Care Act. Now the White House is asking Americans from across the country to speak now in support of health care reform. Lend your name, share your story, and be part of making the law a success here.

Story URL:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/17/weekly-wrap-what-our-families-deserve

President Obama and Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey Hold a Press Conference

feed — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:35:40 +0000

President Obama and Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey Hold a Press Conference

Thu, 05/16/2013

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey hold a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 16, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Following their bilateral meeting this morning, President Obama and Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey held a press conference in the Rose Garden this afternoon.

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey hold a bilateral meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, May 16, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The President highlighted three areas of focus the two leaders discussed: expanding trade and investment between the U.S. and Turkey, mutual security, and the issue of Syria.

Read the remarks here or watch the press conference below.

Story URL:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/16/president-obama-meets-prime-minister-e...

President Obama Meets with Prime Minister David Cameron

feed — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:02:17 +0000

President Obama Meets with Prime Minister David Cameron

Mon, 05/13/2013

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom hold a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House, May 13, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Today President Obama welcomed British Prime Minister David Cameron to the White House, where the two leaders discussed issues ranging from economic development to the unfolding conflict in Syria.

"[T]he great alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom is rooted in shared interests and shared values, and it’s indispensable to global security and prosperity," President Obama said. "But as we’ve seen again recently, it's also a partnership of the heart."

The President thanked the people of the United Kingdom for their support in the wake of the bombings in Boston. In London, marathoners observed a moment of silence and dedicated their race to the victims in Massachusetts.

Prime Minister Cameron echoed the President's sentiments on the strength of the alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom.

"[The] relationship between Britain and the United States is a partnership without parallel," the Prime Minister said. "Day in, day out across the world, our diplomats and intelligence agencies work together, our soldiers serve together, and our businesses trade with each other."

In his remarks today, Prime Minister Cameron made a point to focus on three issues under discussion: the economy, the G8, and Syria. The United Kingdom currently holds the presidency of the G8 and will host the group's next summit in June -- in Northern Ireland.

Watch the full video of the press conference here:

Story URL:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/13/president-obama-meets-prime-minister-d...

Weekly Wrap Up: “We Move Forward”

feed — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:53:29 +0000

Weekly Wrap Up: “We Move Forward”

Fri, 05/10/2013

Watch the West Wing Week here.

Launching the Jobs & Opportunity Tour: On Thursday, the President was in Austin to launch his Middle Class Jobs & Opportunity Tour. Austin is leading the nation in manufacturing and tech job growth and is a benchmark for “a thriving, rising middle class and a dynamic, cutting-edge economy.” The President met with high school students, local residents, and entrepreneurs as he toured the city.

The President also announced two executive actions to help make America a magnet for jobs and manufacturing. The Administration is launching competitions to create three new manufacturing innovation institutes and is also requiring government data to be more open and accessible to fuel entrepreneurship and economic growth.

President Park of South Korea Visit: On Tuesday, President Obama was joined by South Korean President Park Geun-hye for a joint press conference. Park is South Korea’s first female president and the visit was her first foreign trip as head of her nation. The visit marked the 60th anniversary of our alliance, and both leaders made it clear they will not tolerate North Korea’s threats and provocations.

The United States and the Republic of Korea are as united as ever. And faced with new international sanctions, North Korea is more isolated than ever. In short, the days when North Korea could create a crisis and elicit concessions -- those days are over.

South Korea has been a strong economic partner, and in part due to the the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, American automobile exports are up almost 50 percent. The agreement is projected to boost U.S. exports by $10 billion and support tens of thousands of American jobs, while also creating jobs in Korea.

Story URL:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/10/weekly-wrap-we-move-forward

The danger of our shoot to kill terrorist policy

feed — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:39:02 +0000

The danger of our shoot to kill terrorist policy

Wed, 05/08/2013

‘Beyond the Manhunts: How to Stop Terror’ – a GPS special premieres 10 a.m. & 1 p.m. ET this Sunday

By Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr., Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr. is the former chief of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center and head of the National Clandestine Service and author of Hard Measures. The views expressed are his own.

When I first published my memoir Hard Measures, How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives, a year ago, I got lots of requests to participate in documentaries. I turned most of them down. But I agreed to be interviewed for Greg Barker’s Manhunt because of a promise he made – and kept – to tell the story using only the voices of the people involved in the search for Osama bin Laden. Too many filmmakers and journalists come to this story with their own agenda. They arrive with all the answers and only seek snippets of quotes to bolster the conclusions they have previously made.

Barker took another approach and let the men and particularly the women of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center explain their reasoning and actions. Viewers hear directly from those who were central to raising the alarm about bin Laden and long before most Americans had heard of him – and those who contributed to bringing down the al Qaeda leader and most of his henchmen.

Reasonable people can and do disagree about the tactics we employed. But no one should doubt the sincerity and motivations of these intelligence officers. Manhunt does an excellent job of illuminating not only the meticulous work done by CIA officers, but also the pressure we all felt to prevent follow-on attacks.

The recent tragedy in Boston, in which four people were brutally murdered by terrorists, provided a small reminder of how this country felt after 9/11. Immediately after the marathon bombing, there were public questions of why our security services had not done more to prevent such a heartless act.

Now think back to the days just after 9/11, when nearly 3,000 lives were lost. CIA officers who had been on the forefront of raising the alarm about al Qaeda found themselves blamed for the country’s lack of preparedness. Time and again they were told to do whatever was necessary to prevent a repeat of the World Trade Center attacks.

As awful as the Patriot’s Day attack was, we must not lose sight of the fact that CIA officers have been successful not only in cornering bin Laden in Abbottabad, but also in capturing most of his top aides. In the process, they have made it difficult, if not impossible, for others to match the horrors of September 11.

We did so by tracking down key leaders of al Qaeda one-by-one. Where possible, we captured them and elicited from them by sometimes tough – but always legal means – information that allowed us to largely dismantle the terrorist organization and thwart follow-on attacks.

There have been recent press reports about a lengthy so-called nonpartisan review of U.S. interrogation programs and an even lengthier, still-classified, Senate Intelligence Committee report, which suggest that our enhanced interrogation methods did not produce valuable intelligence. Both reports are fatally flawed because they failed to take a basic step. Unlike the director of Manhunt, they did not factor in the views of people who actually worked on the program.

As time passed and the smoke cleared, many Americans forgot the sense of anger and grief that was pervasive in the aftermath of 9/11. Some dismissed the victories achieved in dismantling of al Qaeda cells around the globe as insignificant or somehow inevitable. And our elected officials forswore our efforts to capture, hold and interrogate a handful of the known worst terrorists on the planet. Instead, out of a sense of “compassion,” the current administration’s policy has evolved into one of killing large numbers of suspected terrorists (and those unfortunate enough to be near them).

While I have no objection to the use of drones when absolutely necessary and when there is no viable option for apprehending top terror suspects, the default option now seems to be to kill them remotely. When we do so, we not only inspire many new terrorists, but just as importantly we lose the opportunity to find out what potential detainees know about the intentions of others planning terrorist attacks.

As a country we have allowed political correctness to tie our own hands and recreate a pre-9/11 atmosphere. If we are really serious about protecting American lives, shouldn’t our premier intelligence service be empowered to do all that is permissible under the law to protect the homeland?

The initial reports about the Boston bombers suggest that the two young men allegedly involved were not part of some massive plot orchestrated by al Qaeda central. But first reports are often wrong and we should not assume that they were rogue independent actors, simply because that explanation would be the most comforting. I think it likely that dead suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev received some kind of training, inspiration and perhaps direction during his trip to Dagestan last year. As I explain in Hard Measures, one of the benefits of having held a group of al Qaeda operatives at CIA black sites was the fact that we could go back to them and ask what they knew about other potential terrorists who came onto our radar.

But now, the U.S. government cannot question other recently captured terrorists about the current relationship between al Qaeda and Chechen jihadists (many of the 9/11 hijackers initially went to Afghanistan for training with the intent of going to fight in Chechnya – it was only later that bin Laden diverted them to attack the United States.) The U.S. also cannot ask recently captured terrorists whether they have heard of Tsarnaev, whether they have seen anyone matching his description or whether they know of any of his associates.

We can’t do any of these because we don’t capture terrorists anymore. In order to avoid the challenges of detention and interrogation – and to escape the harsh judgment of human rights activists – by and large we simply kill them.

Story URL:

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/08/the-danger-of-our-shoot-to-ki...

President Obama Meets with President Park of South Korea

feed — Tue, 07 May 2013 21:39:28 +0000

President Obama Meets with President Park of South Korea

Tue, 05/07/2013

Watch this video on YouTube

Today, President Obama welcomed President Park Geun-hye of the Republic of Korea to the White House to mark 60 years of bilateral partnership between our two nations.

Established following the Korean War, the US-ROK Alliance is a linchpin of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the Asia Pacific region. And today, the two leaders affirmed that they would continue building on the past six decades of stability by strengthening and adapting the alliance to meet the security challenges of the 21st century.

“Guided by our joint vision, we’re investing in the shared capabilities and technologies and missile defenses that allow our forces to operate and succeed together,” President Obama said. “And we’re determined to be fully prepared for any challenge or threat to our security.”

President Barack Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President Park Geun-hye of the Republic of Korea, in the Oval Office, May 7, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and President Park also agreed to continue implementing the historic trade agreement between the United States and South Korea, which is already yielding benefits for both countries, President Obama said.

Story URL:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/07/president-obama-meets-president-park-s...

Weekly Wrap Up: “We’ll Meet That Task”

feed — Fri, 03 May 2013 22:21:24 +0000

Weekly Wrap Up: “We’ll Meet That Task”

Fri, 05/03/2013

Watch the West Wing Week here.

Mexico & Costa Rica Trip: On Thursday, President Obama started a three day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica for his first visit to Latin America of the second term. During the trip, the President hopes to reinforce the deep cultural, familial, and economic ties we share with Mexico and Central America.

Yesterday, the President had a bilateral meeting with Mexican President Peña Nieto at Palacio National in Mexico City. The bulk of his discussions in Mexico will cover the economy, and in Costa Rica, the President will meet with Central American leaders, who are important partners in improving foreign policy and the economy.

Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, previewed the trip before leaving Washington. Check out the video on YouTube.

Transportation Secretary Nominated: On Tuesday, the President nominated the Mayor of Charlotte, Anthony Foxx, for Transportation Secretary. As mayor, Foxx modernized the electric train service to Charlotte’s downtown area, expanded the international airport, and extended the city’s light rail system. The President hopes cities can mimic the work done in Charlotte to attract more business, create more jobs, and stay competitive in the global economy.

Our top priority as a nation right now is doing everything we can to grow our economy and create good jobs and rebuild opportunity for the middle class. And one of the best ways we can do that is to put more Americans back to work rebuilding our infrastructure.

Story URL:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/03/weekly-wrap-we-ll-meet-task

Ben Rhodes Previews President Obama's Trip to Mexico and Costa Rica

feed — Wed, 01 May 2013 22:10:41 +0000

Ben Rhodes Previews President Obama's Trip to Mexico and Costa Rica

Wed, 05/01/2013

On Thursday, President Obama leaves on a three day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica, where he will meet with key leaders to discuss a range of issues. In Mexico the President will meet with his counterpart, President Peña Nieto, on ways we can deepen our economic and commercial partnership.

In Costa Rica, President Chinchilla will host a meeting with President Obama and heads of state of the other Central American countries and the Dominican Republic, where the leaders can discuss our collective efforts to promote economic growth and development in Central America and our ongoing collaboration on citizen security.

We asked Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, to preview the upcoming trip and some of the issues the President would be discussing in his meetings. Check it out below or watch the video on YouTube:

Story URL:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/01/ben-rhodes-previews-president-obamas-t...

Update on Atrocity Prevention Strategy Implementation

feed — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:01:25 +0000

Update on Atrocity Prevention Strategy Implementation

Wed, 05/01/2013

President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., April 23, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

On April 23 of last year, President Obama visited the Holocaust Museum, and unveiled a comprehensive strategy to prevent mass atrocities.

In his remarks at the Museum, the President reflected on places where the United States’ efforts had helped prevent or mitigate surges of violence – and had saved innocent lives. He spoke of our efforts surrounding the South Sudan independence referendum, the measures we had taken to counter the Lord’s Resistance army in Central Africa, and the coalition that we and our allies formed to protect the people of Benghazi.

The President also noted that for every success we have in preventing and stemming violence, there will always be more work to be done. And he made clear that, for all the challenges we will face, we must continue to do what we can. We must strive for a future where there is a “place for dignity for every human being,” and make this, “the work of our nation and all nations. “

Story URL:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/01/update-atrocity-prevention-strategy-im...

President Obama Takes Questions from the Press

feed — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:22:30 +0000

President Obama Takes Questions from the Press

Tue, 04/30/2013

Today, President Obama held a press conference in the briefing room at the White House. He answered questions from reporters about Syria, the sequester, implementation of the Affordable Care Act and more.

President Obama said that the United States has been deeply engaged and involved in bringing about a solution to the “slowly unfolding disaster for the Syrian people.”

“What’s happening in Syria is a blemish on the international community generally, and we've got to make sure that we're doing everything we can to protect the Syrian people,” he said.

"And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I've got to make sure I've got the facts,” President Obama said. “That's what the American people would expect.”

But even if chemical weapons were not being used in Syria, we’d still be thinking about tens of thousands of people, innocent civilians -- women, children -- who’ve been killed by a regime that’s more concerned about staying in power than it is about the well-being of its people. And so we are already deeply invested in trying to find a solution here.

Story URL:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/30/president-obama-takes-questions-press