By Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf’s (R-Va.) objection to a Sudan lobbyist presence in Washington, D.C. didn’t find much of an audience Thursday, but the Congressman moved past the small crowd, calling on President Barack Obama to reject the Sudanese government’s prospective representation at the Capitol.

“Today, I am sending a letter to President Obama urging him to make it clear, in no uncertain terms, to both the State Department and the Treasury Department’s office of Foreign Assests Control, that under his administration, the government of Khartoum, will not be granted the necessary waiver to hire a lobbyist,” Wolf said. “A modern day accused war criminal is sitting as a head of the state of government of Sudan.”

Wolf noted Sudan President Omar al-Bashir’s March 2009 arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, and said in June 2004, he was part of a delegation of Congressmen who went to Sudan, where he witnessed what he described as “the nightmare.”

When al-Bashir was issued an ICC warrant, the Sudan government said they did not recognize the ICC as a legitimate agency.

Wolf said new consideration of Sudanese representation in the nation’s capital, “would be a disgrace and must not be permitted to take place under any circumstances.”

The Sudan government has not been represented in Washington, D.C. for more than four years, largely due to what the U.S. government once said was genocide in the country’s Darfur region.

by Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico

The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. held a conference Friday calling for more public and private participation to stop internet “hackers.”

At the conference, former U.S. director of the National Intelligence organization Mike McConnell said that internet hacking isn’t a laughing matter, that instead, hacking could have a global effect.

“I’m not worried about someone, some hacker, turning off your refrigerator and spoiling tomorrow night’s dinner,” McConnell said. “I’m worried about some terrorist group that has the capability to attack the U.S. money supply.”

McConnell said “destroying data, not stealing data” could have worldwide effects because it could contaminate the country’s accounting system.

McConnell and other experts said public support through increased firewall use and knowledge about hacking could help decrease the number of “hack jobs” in the country.

James Lewis, director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, added that hacking includes spying. He said in the United States, like it or not, spying is a part of people’s everyday internet use.

Lewis noted that current proposed legislation aims to provide more internet protections, but said as of now, spying and a weak U.S. defense toward hacking are “a big problem.”

Controls such as Sen. John Rockefeller’s (D-W.V.) proposed cyber security bill S.773 has drawn some support for its safety measures, but many people believe the potential of decreased internet access as granted by the President is a step too far.

By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed Friday the U.S agenda for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), touching on issues such as the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, the conflict in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation and the threat posed by Iran.

While she read her speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., she discussed the “ambitious” intentions of the Obama administration at next week’s UNGA in New York, and alluded to a long term goal of a world “with no nuclear weapons.” While fielding questions, she reflected on the state of American foreign policy today.

“For many years, [the U.S] outsourced our policy and concerns about the nuclear program to others to try to intervene with and persuade Iran to change course,” she said. “So we were on the sidelines…we were just trying to figure out how to get other people to go on the field and deal with this problem and look where we are today. We’re really nowhere.”

Clinton also discussed the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, which was retooled to focus on defending the United States and its allies in Europe from short and mid-range missile attacks. The strategy rejects the Bush administration’s plan to station interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland that were intended to stop long-range missiles that the current administration believes Iran does not have. Since Poland and the Czech Republic will no longer have land-based interceptors, the new plan eases pressure on Russia, displeasing some Republican members of Congress upon Obama’s announcement of the strategy on Thursday.

“This decision was not about Russia,” she said. “It was about Iran and the threat its ballistic missile program poses. Because of this position, we believe we will be in a far stronger position to deal with that threat and to do so with technology that works and a higher degree of confidence that what we pledge to do we can actually deliver.”

She later discussed Iran and the repercussions the country must face for not revealing its intentions to the international community for nuclear technology.

“Our concern is not Iran’s right to develop peaceful nuclear energy, but its responsibility to demonstrate that it’s program is intended exclusively for peaceful purposes,” she said. “This is not hard to do. The Iranian government seeks a sense of justice in the world, but stands in the way of the justice it seeks.”

In response to a question from Brookings Institute President Strobe Talbott, Clinton also discussed the U.S. government’s strategy for restructuring the country’s health care policy.

“It’s interesting that what we are proposing is fundamentally so conservative compared with so many of our friends and allies around the world, who do a much better job then we do in covering everybody and keeping costs down,” Clinton said. “And yet some of the political opposition is so overheated. We have to calm down here, take two aspirin, go to bed, think about it in the morning. But I’m optimistic.”