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.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I- Conn.) says that there is bipartisan support for preventing Iran from establishing a nuclear weapons program. He says there is commitment from members of both parties to halt these developments. (0:26)

 

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The United States needs a dramatic increase in defense spending as well as a massive overhaul of its national security decision-making process in order to avoid a catastrophe, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Monday.

“[We need] a national security budget and a homeland security budget driven by meeting the capabilities of our opponents, not by meeting their intentions. We are today running very big risks in the name of saving a few billion dollars that may end up killing several million Americans. The time to fix that is before the disaster happens,” said Gingrich.

He described several threats to national security such as nuclear, biological, and cyber attacks, as well as electromagnetic pulse attacks that could wipe out most of the country’s electrical structure. Gingrich stated that the U.S., like Japan, should start militarizing outer space in order to protect the massive amounts of communication technology orbiting the Earth.

Gingrich also criticized the federal government’s inability to act decisively and quickly, explaining that bureaucracy hinders the country’s ability to move at the speed of the modern world or sustain its defense system.

“We have been the most fortunate generation in history…We are still today the richest, freest, and safest people in the history of the world. That will only remain true if we have the courage, the discipline, and the foresight to insist on the kind of changes we need in order to maintain safety as the highest single value of the American people, a base on which you can then build prosperity and freedom,” said Gingrich.

President Obama stated at the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy Friday that the world has “opened a door” to welcome Iran into the international community. Now, Iran must hold up its end of the bargain by discontinuing its nuclear weapons program (1:05).

 

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By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

In the midst of a global crisis, two wars and nuclear threats, it is crucial that the United States reinforce its relationships with its European allies, especially Russia said Philip H. Gordon, assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. Gordon’s remarks came during testimony he issues in front of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Gordon argued that the United States should put its past difficulties with Russia “behind us to the extent possible.” However, in a reference to last July’s conflict between Georgia and Russia, Gordon said that the U.S. “will not abandon our principles or ignore concerns about democracy and human rights…We don’t recognize any privilege sphere of influence for Russia in Europe [and] we will also continue to support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia’s neighbors.”

“The U.S. and Russia can still work together where our interests coincide while seeking to narrow our differences in an open and mutually respectful way.”

Said Gordon, “the greatest success we have in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, the less there is a need for a missile defense system in Europe. If that threat goes away, the need for the system also goes away,” adding that a nuclear North Korea and nuclear Iran also pose great threats to Russia’s security as well.

Four members of the French Parliament were present in the audience during the hearing.

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Last week’s diplomatic trip to China, the bi-partisan congressional delegation led by the U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that the government of China was very attentive to what the delegation had to say on the environmental issue and that they were eager to find common ground policies with the United States to resolve the climate change crisis, Pelosi said

“On our way to China, we visited Alaska. And in our own country, we saw the impact of climate change and of the global warming crisis. We saw that the polar cap is melting, the thermal control of the planet is affected… It is urgent to meet the issue of global warming crisis,” said Pelosi today at a press conference in the Capitol.

Pelosi pointed out that the Chinese have observed the same kind of effect in their own country with the melting of the glacier in Himalaya which made the finding of solutions more urgent between the two country.

The focus of the trip was “on climate change and what we can do between our two countries to help reach some agreement that will help serve us all well in the multilateral decision that will be made” in the United Nations – Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen from December 7-18, Pelosi said.

The passing on May 21 by the Energy and Commerce Committee of the American Clean Energy and Security Act had equipped the U.S. delegation “with the assurance to the Chinese that action will be taken by the Congress of the United States on this subject” and that a significant movement is already underway said Pelosi.

Another issue that was dealt by the U.S. delegation was human rights and the twentieth anniversary’s of the Tiananmen Square protest. The memory of this event was raised by a great majority of Chinese during the trip said Pelosi.

The delegation delivered a letter to the President of the People’s Republic of China, Hu Jintao, and the Chinese government “for the release of prisoners of conscience in accordance with the principles of the Chinese constitution,” said Pelosi.

Pelosi recalled how, 18 years ago, she held a banner “in memory of those who were so brave and courageous” during the Tiananmen Square protest, and now as Speaker of the House, she was able to discuss directly to the President of China and “express to him the concern in Congress on a bi-partisan basis of concern for human rights in China and Tibet.”

On the issue of North Korea, the delegation has worked with the Chinese government to “help bring North Korea back to the six-party talks. In light of the tests that happened while” the delegation was in China, “it came even more urgent for them to exercise their good offices… and to get the six-party talk moving again,” said Pelosi.

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

In a Bi-Partisan congressional delegation trip to China, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) talked with the Chinese government on the issue of North Korea and bring it back to the six-party talks. Pelosi stated that it is in no country’s interest to have the Korean peninsula being nuclearized. (0:43)

 

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By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

The United States is facing the risk of losing ground on the science and technology field if no adequate funding are given to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and to the laboratories, according to a report by the Stimson Center’s Task Force. Entitled “Leveraging the Nuclear Weapons Laboratories for 21st Century Security”, the report shows that a more successful cooperation needs to be sought between bureaucratic entities and the laboratories dealing with nuclear technology.

“If the entities that are intended to make strategic investments have to stand in line, you are not going to get where you need to go,” said Dr.Elizabeth Turpen, co-Director of the Cooperative Nonproliferation Program at the Stimson Center.

But, Turpen said, this collaboration can not occur while significant declines in the Defense Department funding limit growth.

“The relationship between the Department of Energy (DoE), NNSA and the labs is pretty fractured, if not completely broken… Laboratories definitely feel like they are not part of the decision making progress” and that will “impact their future,” said Turpen.

The lack of funding will ultimately result in the “potential for cascading unintended consequences to the detriment of U.S. national security,” Turpen said.

The report proposed the establishment of a “new and fully autonomous agency with multiple financial sponsors to provide broad national security, science and technology mechanisms and oversight to achieve the envisioned transformation,” which will make the agency less a victim of bureaucratic authority and having a more direct link with the laboratories.

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Israeli President Shimon Peres spoke today in favor of peace in the Middle East, but some in the audience likely couldn’t hear his call, as protesters within the room shouted him down. Three eruptions of protesters in the audience were stopped by police. The protesters shouted from tabletops and waved signs saying “stop the occupation” and “free gaza.” This all transpired at the Washington DC Convention Center, at a conference led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Peres spoke of his commitment to the peace process, saying that one of the big challenges they all faced was to “disconnect religion from terror”, so extremists are not killing in the name of a higher power.

“History is on the side of peace… history’s on our side,” Peres said. He continued that the extremists leading Iran “are on the wrong side of history.” Peres acknowledged that most Iranians are good people whom he respects, but pointed his finger at extremists like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as being the problem.

“Iran is not threatened by anybody,” Peres said, and continued that Iran’s new missile programs are unnecessary. He said that Iran’s missile development and nuclear program are a threat to Israel “and the global community at large.”

Peres said that he trusts President Obama to make meaningful bilateral negotiations, and to contribute significantly to the peace process.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony today of two experts on foreign policy dealing with Iran: Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Carter, and Gen. Brent Scowcroft, former national security adviser to Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush. Their purpose was to advise on the strategy which the United States should take when dealing with negotiations with Iran.

Dr. Brzezinski stated in his testimony that a nuclear Iran would be a “disaster,” as would a military collision with Iran. He then noted that there are two ways to approach negotiations: The first is to design the negotiation to fail, and to make Iran appear to blame. This would be achieved by setting preconditions, threatening with sanctions and force, calling for regime change and labeling the Iranian government as a “terrorist entity.” The second approach to negotiation is to, “Seek to engage the Iran in a process in which there emerges the possibility of some consentual arrangement.”

Gen. Scowcroft stated that the real threat from a nuclear Iran is the road to nuclear dissemination in the region. If Iran gets nuclear capability, Turkey, Egypt and other countries in the region will want to follow suit. He noted that in the past, the U.S. and even Israel have had good relations with Iran, and it is important not to view the current situation as permanent. When asked if he thought that negotiations would actually work, he stated, “It seems to me that it is worth a try because in the process of trying, if the United States is really sincere, we are likely to get on board people who suspect now who say we’re sitting off in the corner throwing rocks at them and asking for sanctions; not trying to solve the problem.”

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) concluded the hearing with the sentiment of productive negotiations, stating, “We’ve got to be smart, restrained, thoughtful and skilled in our diplomacy so that we have an opportunity to really pursue every avenue with the greatest potential for success.”