Category Archives: Foreign Policy

John Kerry Confirmed as Secretary of State

  By Pamela Leavey | January 29, 2013 10:14 pm - 10:14 pm | , , , , , , , , ,
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Longtime readers of The Dem Daily know that I hold John Kerry in the highest regard and had the honor of working on his ’04 presidential and for his PAC in ’06. So yes, I’ll just admit it, I’m biased. I am so pleased for John Kerry that he has been confirmed as our next Secretary of State.  I have great faith in his abilities to be a fantastic Secretary of State who will use his great skills of diplomacy for the better of the United States and the world: The 69-year-old Kerry, a veteran of the Vietnam War, has deep roots in foreign service. His father, Richard, was a Foreign Service officer, and Kerry noted at his confirmation hearing … Continue reading →

Kerry’s Senate Confirmation Hearing Draws Some Heat

  By Pamela Leavey | January 24, 2013 7:50 pm - 7:50 pm | , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Senator John Kerry’s confirmation hearing as Secretary of State was held today. Kerry drew some heat on his Syria policy and he also spoke on Iran’s nuclear program. “The president has made it definitive–we will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” he said in his opening statement to the committee. “I repeat here today: our policy is not containment. It is prevention and the clock is ticking on our efforts to secure responsible compliance.” He added, “No one should mistake our resolve to reduce the nuclear threat.” He said Obama “knows that American foreign policy is not defined by drones and deployments alone. We cannot allow the extraordinary good we do to save and … Continue reading →

Senate Foreign Relations Committee to Hold Nomination Hearing for Secretary of State Nominee John Kerry

  By Pamela Leavey | January 17, 2013 9:44 pm - 9:44 pm | , , , , , , , , , ,
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The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. to consider the nomination of the Honorable John F. Kerry, to be United States Secretary of State. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) will preside. With terrorism heating up in Algeria and the U.S. and Europe agreeing “to provide new support for the fight against al Qaeda-backed rebels in Mali,” it will be interesting to see what Kerry as Secretary of State will bring to the table on the issue of terrorism.

Susan Rice Withdraws for Secretary of State Nomination

  By Pamela Leavey | December 13, 2012 8:49 pm - 8:49 pm | , , , , , , , , ,
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After months of criticism from Republicans, U.N. envoy Susan Rice has dropped out of the running for the nomination for Secretary of State, leaving the door wide open perhaps for Senator John Kerry to be the first in line for the nomination. Rice was facing  “relentless opposition from Republicans in Congress over her role in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya.” In an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, Rice said: “Today, I made the decision that it was the best thing for our country, for the American people that I not continue to be considered by the president for nomination of secretary of state. I didn’t want to see a confirmation process that was very prolonged, very politicized, … Continue reading →

Kerry Statement on Document Release by House Oversight Committee

  By Pamela Leavey | October 20, 2012 9:02 pm - 9:02 pm | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Via Foreign Policy: House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) compromised the identities of several Libyans working with the U.S. government and placed their lives in danger when he released reams of State Department communications Friday, according to Obama administration officials… …Issa didn’t bother to redact the names of Libyan civilians and local leaders mentioned in the cables, and just as with the WikiLeaks dump of State Department cables last year, the administration says that Issa has done damage to U.S. efforts to work with those Libyans and exposed them to physical danger from the very groups that had an interest in attacking the U.S. consulate. Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement … Continue reading →

Attacking American Sovereign Soil Diminishes the Rights of Religion

  By Walter Brasch | September 20, 2012 7:51 am - 7:51 am | , , , , ,
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  by Walter Brasch   The terrorists who attacked the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt, and the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, claimed the attacks were retaliation for the publication on You Tube of an anti-Muslim film. That YouTube video was a 14-minute trailer for a one-hour film, “Innocence of Muslims,” that was not only a vicious bigoted attack against Islam but also of no artistic merit.   One of the extremist political parties in Egypt plucked the trailer from obscurity and used it as part of a newscast, inflaming the people of Egypt, who mounted a demonstration against the U.S. embassy. Within a week, the trailer had more than 10 million hits on YouTube. An attack upon the consulate in … Continue reading →

Kerry Statement on Embassy Attacks, Death of Ambassador Stevens

  By Pamela Leavey | September 12, 2012 1:55 pm - 1:55 pm | , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry, made the following statement today in response to the violence that took place at the Egyptian and Libyan Embassies, resulting in the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other American embassy personnel.   “The deaths of Ambassador Stevens and his team are heartbreaking. It’s easy for a lot of people to forget that our diplomats are on the frontlines of the world’s most dangerous places and they’re there trying to make the world safer at great risk to themselves and their families. Chris Stevens was all that and more. He was a foreign service professional down to his toes, a guy who had served on the Foreign … Continue reading →

George Clooney Arrested in Protest Outside Sudan Embassy in D.C.

  By Pamela Leavey | March 16, 2012 11:19 am - 11:19 am | , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Actor, activist George Clooney was arrested and handcuffed a short time ago, outside of the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C. for protesting Sudan’s blockage of “food and aid from entering the Nuba Mountains area of the country, as well as its treatment of its people.” Clooney’s father, journalist Nick Clooney, 78, was with him and was also arrested, as were Martin Luther King III, NAACP President Ben Jealous, Rep Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and former Rep. Tom Andrews (D-Mass.). They were taken away in a Secret Service van. Speaking before the large crowd that gathered to watch the protest, Clooney said the group wanted “the (Sudanese) government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent … Continue reading →