but >> the state department took questions on the leak of state department documents by wiki links on whether secretary of state clinton should resign over it. this briefing is 45 minutes. >> sorry to be late. good afternoon and welcome to the department of state. the secretary, as you may know, has arrived in boston on a, kazakhstan and i think has this morning hundred town hall event with about 580 representatives and also had a meet and greet with women leaders and kazakhstan, prior to starting the formal proceedings of the osce. just a few other things to mention before taking your questions. tomorrow, here in washington we will host the fifth round of talks with russia, regarding an agreement -- a legally binding agreement covering adoptions between the united states and russia. obviously, this is a process that has been undertaken between our two sides, based on an agreement between president obama in the dead of. officials have met four times in washington and moscow to negotiate this agreement that provides better safeguards for children, families and the adoption process betw

nothing in the role of a diplomat at the state department changed because of any one document for any one event. what we do here at the state department, we've done at the same way for a number of years. and our role in helping to formulate and execute the foreign policy of the united states did not change on 9/11. >> on a dna basis, nothing changed? >> again, nothing in any document that is allegedly in the tranche of wikileaks or the accession of wikileaks changed the role of any diplomats anywhere in the world. [inaudible] describe them as wet? >> this information was stolen? >> while -- at the information -- the passing of classified information to someone to have it is a crime. >> my question is, why shouldn't mr. assange be pursued as a burglar, as a bandit? you issue an arrest warrant and say he burglarized and we bring him to task? >> the attorney general said yesterday, there is an ongoing investigation regarding anyone who has been potentially implicated by the situation. >> just to be clear, the clarity that were taken about someone who is neither a u.s. citizen or u.s. res

was transferred to another county office to continue to work out his service for the united states department of agriculture and they gave him a big party. a big retirement party. so i can tell you that this discrimination is real and i invite mr. king to walk in my shoes, and other black farmers' shoes in this country before he pass judgment and refer to them as johnny or someone that has a drug problem. and i'll tell you that, anderson, these farmers have proven their case and they deserve to have their cases heard based on its merit.

. >> we're concerned about al-queda's plans to carry out attacks and the department of state issued andvisory about europe and about plans by al-queda to try to carry out attack there is. >> a suspicious package outside the ukrainian embassy in rome turned out to be a false alarm. >> still ahead, an antioch businessman makes a generous offer and challenges fellow residents that can make city streets safer. plus remember the purse that was used as a weapon during a florida school board shooting. how much it sold for on an online auction and where that money is going.  what do people know about kim? people know a lot about kim. they know she does her own make up. ♪ she can not set up a music stand... oh, they know that she always forgets where she puts her "magic wand"... but when she finds it, she makes magic happen. ♪ [ kim ] people know a lot of things about me, but no one needs to know about my condition. and thanks to depend®, they don't. [ female announcer ] now the best protection also comes in new prints and colors. honey, i can't find my internet cord. oh, i'll borrow hailey's

the department of state might be afraid of the not me but they might try to but year if i was scared of what people might write about me i would never go onto the internet or watch television or some other person who has this kind of responsibility has to understand that people don't praise the authorities too often and probably for a good reason for it is have to work efficiently with you but no i'm not afraid of what people might write about me as for the consequences of the publication might have an effect on other countries relations but not on our relationship with the us we all understand the general attitude of the media and the public we get that information from television and newspapers open sources so we saw nothing new this reminds me of the story that happened to a soviet diplomat he served as ambassador in a european country and had been granted an audience with the queen and after the audience he sent a cable back home saying the queen asked me about dissidents i had to bring it down a peg that's what happens with diplomats they show each other how tough they are putti

. >> we're concerned abo al-queda's plans to carry out attacks and the department of state issued andvisor about euro and about plans by al-queda to try to carry out attack there is. >> a suscious package outsi the ukrainian embas in rome turnedut to be a false alarm. >> still ahead an antioch businessman makes a generous offer and challenges fellow residents that can make city streets safer. plus remember the purse that was used as a weapon during a florida school board shooting. how mu it sold for on an online auction and where that money is going. [ male announcer ] whether you'reew to california or you've been goving here for some time now, you know that value comes many forms. for some it's a classic car, for others a professio that lets them give backto. for many californians, it's a medicare plan that ves them more for their money. with anthem blue cross, you can get a medicare advantage ppo plan that offers $0 premiums d prescription drug coverage, you can see any door who accepts medicare, even the ones you already ow and trust. plus members alwaytalk with a real person when

investigators have slammed the paragon of department of state for knowingly allowing shady jet fuel deals for an american air base in the central asian republic of kyrgyzstan the report released on tuesday showed fuel worth nearly two billion dollars was purchased from russia for civilian use allegedly to avoid higher tariffs it was then shipped to the manasseh air base which is a key supply hub for the u.s. led campaign in afghanistan. eurasia democracy they should have the deals were a factor in sparking the unrest that ousted former president bakiev in april. the congressional subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs. dealt with in the report was allegations of corrupt dealings between the subsidiaries of the pentagon which were supplying fuel. to prosecute the war effort in afghanistan and members of the family of the deposed former president of bed but key of the same report stated that these subsidiaries namely the mena corps and red star back in two thousand and nine tempted to reach out to the former president's saw on the scene but has subsequently followed his fathe

all the powers of the state housing law are vested with the department of housing and community development. the state housing law, item four, the department has been held with the state housing wall, staff investigates complaints and allegations of not enforcement, including over enforcement of the code by local building departments, housing department, health department, fire department, or fire districts anyone who is getting an injustice before the billing department, the planning department, or before this board can file a complaint to housing and community development. it could you leave this on, please? here is the e-mail, their website. if you do a search under the department of housing and community development, you look at this site. if anyone would like any information from me, i have a lot of information about what is happening here. i have proven already that this board does not meet the required qualifications remanded by the state, and they keep on going on and making judgments on all of these cases, and they are really not legal. thank you very much. >> thank you. any other

to me is that what it looks like to you because there seems to be very little coming out of the state department of the u.s. about the authenticity of it they actually even don't really doubt the authenticity that they i mean because he said well on that i won't talk about that issue and won't talk about that issue so i mean it this is kind of a state of denial we just have to make sure we can't we can't have whistleblowers that's the most important thing protect national security irrespective of content. well it whether it's national security or national embarrassment for the matter but yes this is a classic response that you shoot the messenger and you don't address the message i mean i certainly it threw that in a whistle blowing is back in the one thousand nine hundred k. and i've seen that time and time again as well with subsequent whistleblowers that if you can discredit and destroy the organizations or the people involved then you don't have to address the very serious message that they're putting out and the pushback from some of these american politicians that they should assassinate s

how big of a whole does this leave inside of the state department? particularly thinking of his active role as an envoy >> absolutely. he was a central figure in the development of the strategy of the obama administration for afghanistan and pakistan. personally bringing together many of the people on his team. academics, military experts, people devoted to the issues. he brought them together two years ago at the state department. in a way he was the glue that kept it together. this will possibly complicate efforts in the short term. leaving a big hole in the state department. the latest complication in an effort that has already been very complicated. the american public, skeptical in afghanistan, facing the relationship between the u.s. and pakistan he put together a very good team. the upcoming review of the strategy will have his mark all over it. in many ways he was indefatigable. he never stopped. often on the plane traveling to pakistan and afghanistan he would still be reading while we were all sleeping in the back of the plane. he was at hom

now, i hold in my hand a fact sheet written by the department of state bureau of verification, compliance and implementation, dated august 11, 2010, and i ask that this fact sheet consisting of two pages be admitted into the record at this point. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wicker: the fact sheet mentions on more than one occasion that change is -- that changes adopted by the b.c.c. cannot affect substantive rights or obligations. it says under background, the new start treaty authorizes the parties to use the bilateral consultive commission, b.c.c., to reach agreement on changes in the protocol of the treaty, including its annexes, that do not affect substantive rights or obligations. further down, under authority of the b.c.c., the state department fact sheet says in addition to making technical changes to the protocol, including its annexes, that do not affect substantive rights or obligations, the b. b.c.c. may -- and then it lists six bullets. first, resolve questions relating to compliance with the obligations assumed by the parties. secondly, agree upon constituti

welcome to the department of state. we are doing a double-header. we'll have the main state briefing here this morning. then, we will have a briefing at the foreign press center in new york. this afternoon. those of you credited with the washington foreign press center can participate in and those of you, you know, on the domestic side can certainly listen in. anyway, just to start off, the united states is pleased to announce that will host unesco's world press freedom day in 2011 from may 1 to may 3 here in washington, d.c. unesco is the only u.n. agency with the promotion -- promote freedom of religion and freedom of the press. the theme will be new frontiers, new barriers. obviously we decided upon this before the latest round of news. the united states places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. certainly is an irony here. new media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events at exchange of environment information and environments some

beatings with electric batons and sexual assault of monks and confiscation of property and forced avicks. while the state department has documented some of these abuses, real action is needed. by relisting vietnam as a c.p.c., the state department could bring about real change. in addition to the naming and shaming aspect of the report, a wide rank of sanctions from limitations on foreign aid to denial of visas to those in the government could be levied on the regimes that carry out these abuses. the obama administration hasn't used this tool. this will make that tool available. some will ask if a c.p.c. redesignation could have an impact. let's look at the experience, the prior experience on this. after being listed as a c.p.c. in 2004, vietnam released several prominent diss i had events and advocates and issued ordinances that prohibited the forced renuns yation of faith. these were results achieved with a c.p.c. designation and more can be achieved. sadly after vietnam was permanently removed from the list in 2006, religious freedom and tolerance has been on a continuous downward slide. the vietnam war is histo

change of plans at the state department. , the brand new move that could mean thousands more government jobs. and why the secretary of state hillary clinton says it's time for her department to take back some power. plus, a police officer gets into trouble during a traffic stop. and it's a passer by who runs to the rescue. that's coming up. [ s. greenlee ] i would love to have been a musician but i knew that i was going to need a day job. we actually have a lot of scientists that play music. the creativity, the innovation, there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas. it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy with fewer emissions. stella: hmmm. we're getting new medicare benefits from the new healthcare law. jane: yea. most people will get free cancer screenings. and 50 percent off of brand name

san francisco police department, on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, to retroactively accept and expend grant funds in the amount of $424,107 from the united states department of justice/national institute of justice "solving cold cases with dna" grant program; and amending ordinance no. 191-10 (annual salary ordinance, fy2010-2011) to reflect the addition of three (3) part-time positions (1.50 fte total) in job classification q4 police officer iii in the san francisco police department. supervisor chiu: thank you, madam clerk. this is an acceptable spend grant regarding grant money from doj and we have a representative from the police department to explain. >> this is very timely based on the topic of dna. i will give you a brief background to let you know what this project entails. the background is that there was a grant applied on march 11, 2010. by then the commander and national institute of justice award, the san francisco police department has 1151 unsolved homicides over the last 25 years and 900 reported but unsold rates over the past 10 years. there is a 10 year statute of limitations for rape cases. meaning that we would look at cases

it is, of course, a very sad day here at the state department. we have lost one of our own and a ledge dare figure in richard holbrooke, who could show a rooming -- who could fill a room, including this one, and took great pleasure in engaging the press, advancing whatever he was working on, whether it was peace in the balkans, peace in the congo as u.n. ambassador or most recently peace in south asia in the context of afghanistan and pakistan. a number of world leaders have already checked in today to express their condolences to the department and to the holbrooke family. obviously we'll have more details as they determine funeral arrangements and memorial services for richard. he was always known as richard. but first to start off our briefing today, we have another special envoy, todd stern, who has returned from the climate change negotiations in cancun and wants to put what happened last week in perspective we'll start off with todd. >> thank you, p.j. i second what p.j. said about richard holbrooke a good friend of mine and actually very su

i continue to work for the state department part-time, and i'm not speaking for or on behalf of the state department. one other thing i have done recently is teach a course on cable writing, and yes, i have updated by powerpoint. paul mentioned a couple of things that are spot on. first, how can you download a quarter of a million documents and a huge alarm bell does not go off? i have to assume they are fixing bad as we speak. -- fixing that as we speak. that is an incredible oversight. the other thing is access. you need embassy cables from baghdad, but venezuela does not make sense. i think that system is already in place. but i would check into a new place and set up my account, i would tell technicians that i need access to certain kinds of cables certain areas of the world. that one is going to work, too. the one i don't think will work is the idea that we could have a revised security clearance procedure which would identify people like pfc manning. i was a counterintelligence officer and netted thousands of security clearances -- i did thousands of security clearances. you will ne

the state department of water >>> with all that rain and snow, has it had an impact on our snow surveyrtment of water resources says yes and described it as, quote, phenomenal. it shows water content is well above 100% of normal for the northern sierra. in the southern sierra, that number is 267% above normal. the survey chief says the results are surprising because we are in a la nina condition and that usually means drier conditions in northern california. >>> new this morning, pg&e has launched its gas savings program. customers can get bill credit when they reduce gas usage during the next two months. last year, nearly two million customers took part saving about $37 million. >>> people in atherton may soon have to pay up for leaving garbage cans out too long. town leaders are considering an ordinance that would limit the amount of time neighbors can leave their bins at the curb. there have been complaints about garbage and recycling containers sitting outside for days. it's not clear when the ordinance would take effect or how much a violation would cost. >>> visiters to an east b

resolution authorizing the department of the environment to retroactively accept and expend a grant in the amount of $249,555 from the united states department of health and human services, centers for disease control and prevention to support the bayview hunters point healthy homes project by developing policies and services to improve indoor air quality in public housing. supervisor chu: thank you very much. we have representatives from the department of the environment. >> in implementing the healthy homes project we are trying to work with housing developments we performed a service with, finding that 38% have mold, 40% cockroaches, 18% rodents. there is a hidden use with toxic products and indoor air quality. this grant will fund existing staff and community groups to educate on less toxic cleaning products. supervisor chu: a grant that would not require additional positions at the department? >> correct. supervisor chu: this is to address alternative to toxins for control of mold? >> absolutely. supervisor chu: let's open this up for public comment. are there any members of the public that wish to speak? seeing no one, publi

driven by oil interests, and that is led by saudi arabia primarily with the backing of arabists in our state department, diplomats with a particular view of u.s. policy that is based on the idea that the most important thing for the united states is securing the supply of oil, and that in order to secure that supply, we have to keep the saudis happy at all costs. there's some other aspects of their interest that i'll get to. in addition to that, there's, of course, the oil companies with their own profit-oriented interests, and to a large degree also defense contractors as doris mentioned having an interest in selling as many weapons as possible to the saudis and other gulf states. the other element of the lobby is the one i described as the domestic lobby compromised primarily of arab-american and muslim-american organizations, some of the nonevangelical christians and same state department arab uses. the part of this lobby is on the palestinian issue, and to a large extent, they are a lobby that is not propalestinian or proarab, but antiisrael. that is, if you look at their resolutions and lobbying a

of 1994, he was with the vice president. he was in berlin. and the cables flew back and forth. it was richard holbrooke against half the state departmenthe pentagon and richard holbrooke won and the united states policy shifted from no nato enlargement to support nato enlargement. and of all the things he did, including peace in the balkans, maybe in the long term, the vision he had for u.s. diplomacy and leadership was the most powerful gift that he left us with. and it was epitomized in the process of nato enlargement, which is now seeing nato basically sweep across eastern europe and provide security for 27 nations. >> and to build on that point it wasn't just that nato as an alliance expanded, it is an alliance that believed in democracy and spread of economic system that has brought millions and millions of people under the core values as jamie said that the united states believes in. this is diplomacy that has had a genuine impact on an enormous part of the world. >> i think it's not just that richard holbrooke was a problem solver. he was certainly that but he was a real visionary. i can tell you from working side by side with h