>> so we are the state department. it's hard for me to talk necessarily about -- >> it hasn't come up in your discussions? >> it's something that's -- i would just say that, you know, the mayors that we talk with, domestically and internationally, you know, they are looking -- i think that they recognize, you know, they recognize our role, the state department's, and it's just to say that -- it's just an issue that, you know, i think we talk on a more minute level, more of a working level about issues. and for some people it's not a concern. and when people have concerns, we note them. and it's just to say that, you know, for us, our programs, they are focused on the tactic, the ideology, and not kebticonnecti necessarily to the muslims or islam. so i would say for us, i think that any conversation we have regardless of what one person or another says, you know, there are challenges. and we try and work through them. >> thank you very much for a very interesting presentation. i have to say i never knew anything about t

state department and this new york times journalist if one looks over the words and the reporting done by scott shane in november four out of ten of his articles were about the issue of allegations of trumped russia collusion however there seems to be quite a record of collusion here between hillary clinton and the press if one looks over the fact that glenn thrush a reporter for politico is actually sending his articles to the clinton campaign for approval before they were published has been hired by the new york times and so there seems to be quite a bit of collusion going on between hillary clinton and the press there's ample evidence of that extensive evidence in the wiki leaks predestiny e-mails talking back and forth the you know the friendly journalist list that's referred to now it's virtually i think impossible to control it because you've got so many elements you've got to trump administration seated now with trump people in most of the key jobs you've got you've got now i think a newly energized maybe not mainstream press but independent journalist press going at this diggin

state department when i'm overseas. i don't represent the state department or know. >> surely people must ask you what's going on. >> they tell me, because they observe themselves, they say that their colleagues are disspirited. there is no ambassador in this place or that. they have not been able to get a meeting with anybody in the u.s. government in the state department to discuss a matter of diplomatic consequence. i know from my colleagues who have served in the state department, including at the highest levels there, that they are worried about the brain drain here. remember, you accumulate in the course of a state department career, very deep knowledge of many parts of the world. you know people. you know how -- and you can work america's interests because you know a place and you know the people. we have interests that we need served, and we need professionals who can do it. you know, my wife always says when somebody says, well, we don't need washington people, she always says, ash, if i'm sick, get me somebody

the most telling detail for me was that thursday night at the state department, two state department officials briefed us, and they were unable to say how much aid was actually going to get suspended. that is completely atypical. and a couple of officials told us that as of thursday night, january 4, the state department didn't have a national security council decision memo. normally, that's a memo that's written that lays everything out in precise detail what's going to happen when, and it's all sort of tied up in a bow. and as of thursday night, they were still waiting for that memo. that shows-- that's the clearest indication of how surprised, caught off guard, and unprepared the broader washington bureaucracy was for the president's tweet. >> sreenivasan: all right, arshad mohammed of reuters joining us from washington wash. thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: rex tillerson has said that ukraine is the single most difficult obstacle to establishing normal relations with russia. and just a few weeks ago, the trump administration decided to provide additional a

i think it is disgraceful and impeachable and i think it is just damaging in the state department and is in the justice department. you cannot have the organizations that make the foreign policy of the united states and protect justice and law enforcement in the united states under unrelentless attacks by a president who doesn't respect the rule of law and doesn't help our place in the world at the state department. it is a disgrace and i think they are going to pay a price for it politically and it is costing america today on law enforcement, justice, and diplomacy around the world. >> we will see if an investigation in this particular area does, indeed, follow. jack and brent, we appreciate you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. >>> the best in the music business. they will share the stage with the me too movement at tonight's grammy awards. how musicians plan to show their solidarity on the red carpet. that is next. ♪ are you reluctant to eat in public because of your denture? try super poligrip® not only does it hold for 12 hours to reduce denture movement, it also helps provide be

>> we're the state department. it's hard for me to talk and necessarily -- >> come up in your discussion? >> it's something that i would just say that the hay your-- ma with we talk with, they're looking -- i think they recognize -- they recognize our role, the state departments and it's just to say that it's just an issue that the, you know, i think we talk on a more minute level about -- more of a working level about the issues and for some people it's not a concern. the when people have concerns we note them. it's just to say that for us, our programs are focused on the tactic, the ideology and not connecting it necessarily to the muslims or islam. i would just say that for us, i think any conversation we have regardless of what one person or another says, there are challenges and we try and work through them. >> thoouank you. i'm wondering ho ining how your intersects with the state department and is focused on counter terrorism but specifically countering violent extremism. thank you. >> thank you. we work clo

the state department says the united states and canada invited countries that joined the u.s. effort in the korean war more than 60 years ago. that means china and russia were not invited and will not be here. china accounts for 90% of north korean trade. the state department says it has coordinated with those governments ahead of the meeting

graham bannerman former middle east analyst at the state department welcome to you all now mark i want to start with you what is the way forward now for palestinian leadership well the way forward is clear for the palestinian leadership it is. continuing on with believing and investing in the peace process that is based on international legitimacy on international law on the u.n. resolutions and their will long terms of reference as well as the continuing to defend the palestinian people's rights at all fronts including the international level by using peaceful and legitimate tools caro i want to ask you about the humanitarian impact tell us about the immediate effects on the ground from a decision like this. we are we are extremely concerned that the impact of this decision is going to be spread felt across the region from gaza the west bank to lebanon jordan and syria were millions up to five million palestinian refugees depend on. they is the only lifeline for these families a half a million children across the region go to schools i was just in touch with my colleagues in lebanon a

state. for the bureau of western hems fear. todd brown. the department of state. and the medical director of the bur reof medical services. for the department of state. thank you all again for being here. there are two goals to the hearing today. the first, is to accompliestabl facts of what occurred. the second is conduct over sight over the conduct and the activities of the united states state department. here are the facts as will be testified to today. by our panel. late 2016, staff at the united states embassy in havana began complaining of strange noises and among the scription they complained of high pitch beam of sound. baffling sensation. a kin to driving with windows open in the car. or intense pressure in one ear. at the time of the report, the post leadership and the supporting office here in washington dc viewed this activity as harassment from forces hostile to the united states. or to u.s. presence in cuba. later, those information gathered from additional individuals including some of these which suggest the events that led to these complaints actua

he is the guy in jail, his personal laptop, judicial watch, the organization that's due the state departmento get the emails is reporting that five of

we the state department don't necessarily have to be involved. it doesn't have to necessarily -- if two cities want to connect on this topic, and they don't want to be part of the strong cities network, that's fine. if there is a way for us to facilitate those connections, great. it's just to say that logistically it's difficult to bring everybody on an exchange. with that being said i think that there's a way -- obviously whether it's skype or google hangout or something, we do need to have forums where a larger contingency from a city can connect with international counterparts. i mentioned the western balkans ivlp we did in april. we met with community called clarkston. a suburb of atlanta. they have accepted somewhere around -- if you google them you'll see a lot of articles around the world about this tiny little community, one square mile. 10,000 people. they have accepted 40,000 refugees over the last four decades. apparently once people -- they spend a year or two and move somewhere nearby. we met with everybody in the community. not all

more from the state department. >> reporter: hi, christine and dave. the first thing that jumped out at you was how badly the state department was blasted. both democrats and republican senators accusing the state department of dragging its feet in the investigation in dealing with this to the point it may have broken the law which the state department denies. also striking is how severe and similar the symptoms are among the 24 american diplomats and their family members affected while you were working in havana cuba through august. the state department doctor was asked flat out, could this be some kind of mass hysteria going on and he said no. he said the symptoms mimic those of traumatic brain injury like concussions, they would be very hard to fake and in fact, he said he's never seen symptoms like this, physical documented symptoms outside of something like head injuries. so what we're no closer it seems to finding out even after more than a year of this happening is who did this, how they did it and why. we know that there have been some developm

you bring up an interesting point about whether the obama state department may have known christopher steele, may have anything to do with any way to do with the dossier. >> all of our talk about the dossier investigation has focused on the department of justice and the fbi. what did they know? did they use it for a fisa warrant? but there's apparently another angle here which is the state department around the same time, we do know that christopher steele, the former british spy who compiled the dossier, we know we had contacts with the fbi because he had taken part in the world soccer investigation in 2014. we also know is that he had a lot of contacts at the state department too. he had written papers, research papers, for some client for a private client but he was giving them on ukraine, the conflict in ukraine. he was giving them to the state department. there was a book published that said they were read all the way up to the john kerry level which is as high as you can get in the state department. did the state department know anything about this dossier research he was doing

a growing number of state department, u.s.ate department employees are hiring lawyers over what they say is punishment for past assignments. specifically work that was associated with the obama administration. cnn global affairs correspondent elise labbot has been doing the reporting on this. what exactly is driving them to hire attorneys? >> this all kind of centers around secretary of state tillerson's redesign of the state department. he inherited about 70 special envoys offices. a lot of them created during the obama administration. and as he kind of folds those offices into other bureaus at the state department and also closes them, a lot of these people are left in limbo. he inherited a backlog of 30,000 requests of freedom of information act documents. a lot of those had to do with secretary of state hillary clinton's e-mails. while a lot of these employees are left in limbo, they don't have a next post, they're assigning them to this office. a lot of them are saying they're doing data entry, clerical work, that is way

aboutr reid asked morale at the state department. the world still looks to the united states about leadership and i am concerned that we are not there to answer the call. ask, what impact does the apparent downsizing of the state department have on our national security and on advancing our interests around the world? would you like to start, dr. kissinger? sec. shultz: -- sec. kissinger: i do not look at the state department primarily into -- in terms of its size. i look at it in terms of its missions. missions should be to supply us with a correct analysis of where we are functioning, developing a group to do things strategically side-by-side with the pentagon. this must have a minimum size. i would eliminate downsizing as a principal objective. there are a lot of special and technical assignments that can probably be dispensed with. the sizet thought that of the state department is a diplomacy. would downsize it for the need for our general foreign policy. little this year's is a too dramatic. me muchltz: you told earlier, when we

state department is down now. the whole of government approach has to embrace friends and allies. for us to do everything alone is wrong in my view. has to be seen that the whole of government is also diplomacy, also getting coalitions together. >> thank you very much. dr. shultz: a very important point that rich made. it is not only us, but our allies that we have to work with. >> thank you all very much. you have signaled the proliferation issue absolutely critical. and korea if it continues on its trajectory, that may be a way we can get the chinese and the russians to work together because my sense is they fear a proliferation problem. i will leave that to the next round. senator wicker: thank you very much. this has been valuable to members like me. dr. kissinger, let me ask about nato, and after you follow up, i will ask our other witnesses to comment. you said nato needs to be clear about its strategic purposes. what outcomes other than violations of territorial integrity does nato seek to prevent? what sho

my last assignment before retiring from the state department, i was u.s. ambassador to senegal, and we worked closely with our friends from japanese and korean governments because we had a lot of shared interest there. for example, the united states had a large peace corps presence in senegal with 250 volunteers. nexto next -- the two largest country sending volunteers were korea and japan. a were doing many of the same things american peace corps volunteers were doing. as i traveled around, i enjoyed meeting young koreans and japanese, who are sacrificing two years of their lives to try and make the world a better place. me how theed to three countries share common inues and how young people japan, korea, and united states see themselves as global citizens contributing outside of the countries. will have good conversations today and you are already having good conversations. it is important to acknowledge wildly my car -- while we have differences, there is tremendous potential for partnership as we advance our common interests around the world. programs l

and the conduct and activities of united states state department. here are the facts testified to by the panel. in late 2016 staff of the united states embassy in havana complaining of strange noises and among the descriptions they complained of, high-pitched sound incapacitating sound, akin to driving windows partially open or intense pressure in one ear. and in washington dc viewed this activity as harassment from forces hostile to the united states or us presence in cuba. later, the information gathered from additional individuals that suggested the events that led to these complaints in november of 2016. the initial events occurred in diplomatic residents. later these occurred at hotels. and an evaluation conducted in 80 members of the embassy community. 16 of these were identified with symptoms and medically verifiable findings with combinations similar to patients that had mild traumatic brain injury, in early july in the state department, panel of epidemic efforts for case histories, and arrived at a consensus and the consensus is, quote, patt

state department coordinating with the spokes first and for hillary clinton who was then secretary of state back in two thousand and ten when the cable gate scandal was going on now you'll remember cable gate that was you know two thousand and ten to twenty eleven wiki leaks was releasing diplomatic cables from the u.s. state department showing malpractise all kinds of scandalous things well according to wiki leaks at this point they are revealing that apparently scott shane of the new york times actually handed over the schedule of the planned documents released from wiki leaks to the state department and then this gave them in some cases up to nine days to prepare for the release of documents to create distractions to spin and to just weaken the overall impact of the cables that were being released now wiki leaks has accused scott shane of the new york times of betraying them let's take a listen to the exchange between wiki leaks and scott shame this is known since check with the wiki leaks volunteers who would turn this project you live in wiki leaks created an online reduction eng

state department designates hamas leader ismail haniyeh a global terrorist and announce sanctions against him. this is the e.u. steps up with an extra fifty three million dollars of aid for palestine after the u.s. decision to withhold funding. and i'm glad this is al jazeera live from london also coming up in the program donald trump signs an order to keep the guantanamo bay prison camp open and possibly send i still faces that. judge says usa gymnastics dog larry nasir is non-dangerous of sexually abused two hundred sixty five. and a triple treat for stargazers as parts of the sea a blue moon a super moon and a total lunar eclipse all rolled into one. so the u.s. state department has designated the political leader of hamas it's not a global terrorist and has slapped sanctions on him it means any u.s. based assets he holds will now be frozen amasses the palestinian faction which is de facto ruled the gaza strip since two thousand and seven it's already considered a terror organization by the united states of the hamas officials have also been added to the list. this is not. just for a b

. >> the state department putting a brave face on things, claiming the united states remains in close consultation with south korean officials who will ensure north korean participation in the winter olympics do not violate the sanctions imposed by the u.n. security council. for south koreans, the next few months might be a welcome pause in hostilities and threats. state department confirming the u.s. will be sending a high-level delegation to the olympics here in south korea and that could include vice president pence. >> bret: greg palkot live in seoul. thanks. it's the mystery in havana. tonight lawmakers are trying to get to the bottom of what really happened to american diplomats in cuba who ended up with serious medical conditions. correspondent rich edson has the latest night from the state department. >> months of investigation, multiple trips to cuba, and the state department says it still cannot explain what caused these symptoms. >> sharp, localized ear pain. dull unilateral headache, ringing in one ear, vertigo. >> the u.s. has 24 americans are experiencing this. they work

state department in the u.s. treasury will not be targeting russia itself but rather entities companies and countries around the world that do business with russia's defense or intelligence sectors interesting stuff caleb maupin in new york thank you. now islamic state says it carried out monday's attack on a military academy in the afghan capital kabul killing eleven servicemen and injuring sixteen local journalist bill also ari reports there were five suicide attackers two of them killed by afghan national security forces and another two of them did renewed that explosives and one of them was detained sue said jack had a rocket propelled grenade in for forty seven's were seized the. almost two about four hours residence in that area reported hearing loud explosions there was the use of having small weapons so the fact that these militant groups can't really strike could well in target these key military institutions as well.

state department philip crowley when hillary clinton was secretary of state now if you'll remember back in two thousand and ten in two thousand and eleven there was cable gate wiki leaks was releasing a number of diplomatic cables from the united states now according to this e-mail and according to wiki leaks it seems like shame scott forwarded the schedule of when these cables would be released giving the state department time to prepare and minimize the damage what has accused chain scott of essentially betraying them this is this is the exchange between shane scott of the new york times and wiki leaks this is known since check with the wiki leaks volunteers who would turn this project we can leaks agreed on a consultation with the state department wiki leaks agreed to pose questions to the u.s. government forty eight hours prior to publication the new york times pushed for four days wiki leaks subjected the motion as the new york times betraying the entire day by day thematically publication plan to secretary clinton spokesman p.j. crowley not asking questions. now one of the most fa

what is the state department doing? what are these robust security plans? what's the state department doing to try to protect our people in the event that this announcement leads to the kinds of events that the king of jordan and others have suggested it might? >> lt safety and security of american citizens both our american citizens working for the u.s. government but also the safety of thousands of troops that we have throughout the world are paramount concern for this administration, especially for secretary tillerson who starts all of his staff meetings with focus on security sochlt this is something that we have been weighing very carefully. we have been meeting internally. we have been sending messages out to our embassies and consulates throughout the word to asking them to think about these issues. and also talking to our partner of governments to make sure we are doing everything possible to ensure the safety of our american citizen's throughout the world. >> do you know whether we have deployed, for example, additional marine security guards or ot

the state department, i feel you can give us so many thoughts about this state department, everything from north korea and how the president has responded to kim jong-un's nuclear program, to the moving of the embassy to jerusalem, to what another reporter called the tillerson deathwatch, just all of those things, anything you want to comment on on how the state department's handling -- literal deatht a watch. ms. azari: you talked about when is rex tillerson leaving, and also the fact that him and the president and nikki haley, the u.s. ambassador to the united nations, do not seem to be on the same page. ms. psaki: yes, there is a lot there. i will talk a little bit -- and we can talk about any of those substitute issues that substitute issues -- substantive that is a key part about how impactful you can be around, and it is a part you do not always see unless you have worked in state or treasury and know how maybe it should be working. was thehn kerry secretary of state, and worked not always perfectly. not always does. role should be you are the chief settlement for the united sta

the state department combination of reorganization and rethinking in one respect. military are used to dealing with strategy because they have to have an ultimate objective. organized tois make decisions in a conceptual framework. the state environment is more organized to have conversations. various officials in their experience abroad, much of the time they have to deal with immediate current problems. tendency to look for the immediate solution and not so much for the strategic outcome. there are great exceptions. of thes a reorganization leads moretment that systematically to strategic reoccupationless with the very immediate problems. or the undesirable. people reflection of the . it has to do with the nature. douldn't that mean everything you can to improve the stature of the policy staff they're supposed to be people thinking strategically with the secretary. there have been some outstanding times, some not so good. that's ok. problemed to solve the to some extent by making sure every action decision ultimately is a policy plan instead. of the in the training

what are we hearing from the state department?the state department says the united states is fine with north and south korea talking on the telephone to perhaps discuss north korean athletes participating in the olympics. though this is while the united states is leading this pressure campaign to isolate north korea. that has analysts saying that this is north korea's attempt to try to drive a wedge between the united states and south korea. the state department says that the u.s. and south korea still have the same aims here, but the u.s. has different conditions on whether it would talk to north korea. the u.s. and u.s. officials have been saying that north korea would have to change its approach, change its attitude, stop firing missiles before the u.s. would sit down and talk about this. though the u.s. has had an open line of communication with north korea since the earlier part of last year, shep. >> shepard: rich, moments ago the state department spokeswoman, heather nauert talked about suspending aid to pakistan. >> yes. t

local television stations this is of the current spokesperson but it is a mistake by the current state department. >> yes. from the state >> is an indispensable power player at a global event. at some of these other gatherings. >> i think it is fair to say there's a lot of confusion especially these kind of questions. me personally something i cared about a great deal and still do care a lot about. when i say people are confused they think things are very hard mind against china. and to all the world tpp look like one of the great clues to stand against china to force china to adhere to western standards of trade and business operations. to be seen as a hardliner in china and pulled the plug on tpp, a lot of people are confused. >> will take two from over here. for some reason, all the ladies are lined on the side. >> there quick to the fight. i was hoping you could speak to the rate of staff turnover in the administration. how has this different from previous administrations and what is it say about the current administration? >> there are many ways to answer this, i'll just say i don't really k

the state department says the move is aimed at reforming the human agency and encouraging other states to share the burden. devastatinghave repercussions for hundreds of thousands of people. the u.s. state department notified the united nations released and works agency's that it will withhold $65 million in aid for palestinians. the u.s. state department the state department spokesperson denied the decision was taken in retaliation for palestinian opposition to trump's decision to recognize jerusalem as israel'l's capital. >> its money that's being frozen at this time. it's not being canceled. it's just being held for future consideration. one of the things the united states would like to do is see some revisions made and how it operates. >> early in january donald trump questioned the utility of providing aid to palestinians. nikki haley had suggested a total freeze of u.s. aid. provide $60 will aid out of a planned 100 25 million. a palestinian official has said the budget cut could generate further instability in the region. the u.s. administration seems to be following netanyahu's

protecting hillary clinton, no surprise to us we are litigating against the justice department, the state departmentfbi, director of national intelligence whether they will do a damage assessment, national security damage by hillary clinton's mishandling, the justice department is defending hillary clinton saying it wasn't that serious. after learning what was on and weiner's laptop the president should demand damage assessment and tell appointees to start with a fear-based decisionmaking, they are taking on the clinton machine and enforce the rule of law. >> not just the classified emails showing pay for play as well. >> what happens in that investigation was going on last year. was it closed? it out to be reinvigorated if necessary, emails that show pay for play, the go-between between the clinton foundation and the game for clinton foundation donors in the state department. >> we look forward to hearing from you more because something else is down the pike. thank you for joining us, appreciate it. the tax plan paying off big, the major bump airline employees are seeing and it is the reason americ

state department and this new york times journalist if one looks over the words and the reporting done by scott shane in november four out of ten of his articles were about the issue of allegations of trumped russia collusion however there seems to be quite a record of collusion here between hillary clinton and the press if one looks over the fact that glenn thrush a reporter for politico is actually sending his articles to the clinton campaign for approval before they were published has been hired by the new york times and so there seems to be quite a bit of collusion going on between hillary clinton and the press. let's dig a little bit deeper into this story i'm happy to say that charles or tell a political analyst joins us live on the program hello to you charles. do you expect more media and clinton collusion stories to break or is this simply just one new york reporter doing this is a bigger than not. i think it's much bigger than that i mean what we've really had here is we've had longstanding collusion between the mainstream press and certainly the obama and the clinton people

two questions. >> one question. >> how is the state department taking this? and what do you do about a state department that has clearly been on the wrong side of history for a very long time? >> it's a good question in the sense that you have the permanent bureaucracy and then you have administration policy and political appointees and permanent bureaucracy. they offer resistance from time to time and you probably had close to as unanimous as possible an opposition. i'm not saying every single one. >> if there's not, there are people in the congress that can conduct the oversight and make sure that the policy is being followed. the state department works for the american people, not the other way around. when we have an election and have policies implemented, it's the job of the department to implement those policies and shouldn't matter your personal views. in kabul on election night, 2016, the state department at the embassy, they had a trump pinata to break open and that's their views and that's fine, but you have to follow the policies that are handed do

but that is it our role here at the state department. >> with me now. elise, congratulations on a huge, huge interview, my friend. >> thank you. >> and what was your main takeaway? >> look, brooke, i mean, i think everyone can see that the secretary has had a rough year, kind of finding his footing here in washington. he's not a creature of washington. he's not a power player. and i think he was very reflective in this interview about how he's finding his footing here in washington. but he said the reports of his demise, that he's leaving any time soon, are greatly exaggerated and we spoke about his future in the coming year. take a listen. >> we had a very successful, in my view, year in 2017 pivoting our policies and helping our partners understand those policies. we are now into the implementation and execution of those policies. i think we'll have a very productive 2018. again, the state department gets stronger every day understanding what we are trying to do. and i look forward to having a very, very successful 2018. >> for the whole year? >> i in

state department says put the cd a political leader of hamas ismail haniya on its terra black list his financial assets in the united states have been frozen and he's now the subject of a travel ban. us president donald trump has signed an executive order to keep the kuantan of the military prison open reversing an order by his predecessor to shut the facility down. and a u.s. judge says more than two hundred sixty five people have come forward to say they were victims of convicted sportstalk to larry who's back in cold to be sentenced for more sexual abuse charges. to british lawyers is seeking to get saudi arabia suspended from the u.n. human rights council over its own human rights record the kingdom is accused of arresting dozens of political activists detaining them without charge so yeah as this report. it's a case that has been given little attention given the recent state of affairs in saudi arabia thirty of its citizens detained without charge another thirty one who have apparently simply disappeared no one knows where they have gone or whether they're being held nor have they

context we had a position in an emergency appeal for the west bank in gaza and the united states state department made a pledge only last month that it would provide forty five million now it's withdrawing that pledge as you heard there the state of the spokesman there saying quite clearly that this was not definitely going to be a cut it was being withdrawn so that decision could be with with reversed but we have a position where this is coming on top of swinge in cuts already announced back last tuesday against the agency which has been a target of the israeli administration in terms of its role within particularly guards aware in a series of conflicts it's actually being targeted by u.s. forces which is a major. controversy over that in terms of targeted in the sense that it's been targeting a elements of resistance which the israeli administration says has been present in buildings and so on but basically this is affecting more than five million refugees and this is really really colossal so on jerry the thousands of see already angry at the u.s. over its recognition of jerusalem as israel's

department of state. and when the great east japan earthquake and tsunami struck japan in 2011 ambassador zumwalt will serve as a deputy chief of mission a u.s. embassy tokyo. he also has a 36 year foreign service careers spanning across the globe, and so it is our great pleasure to have them hie today. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. i wanted to start by thanking you all for coming today braving the snow and cold. it just shows how important i think we all feel it is to talk about u.s.-japan-korea relations. so it's wonderful to see you all today. i, too, wanted to take linda butcher because i know such a conference is not easy to put on. it's really important that it requires a lot of effort, and so i want to thank you linda and i see for all the work you've done in assembling such an august group of students who can come and talk together. briefly on sasakawa peace foundation, we are also a nonprofit based in washington, d.c. and our mission is to strengthen us-japan relations through education a

state department is urging turkey not to invade african in syria turkish forces are massing on the border and are preparing action against the kurdish why p.g. considers the y.p. g a terrorist group but its fighters have been a key ally for the u.s. elsewhere in syria stephanie decker has more from. the turkish army is steadily increasing its presence along this stretch of the syrian border present one has been threatening to attack the kurdish run area baffling for almost a week now there has been sporadic shelling. inside africa and thousands marched on thursday in protest to turkey's aggression how the feeling of the us is the goal of this large demonstration is to send a message to the world and especially to turkey concerning the turkish threats we will not be a fright. in the human body we came here to protest against the attacks on africa and we will stand by a free and outreach that. is one of three autonomy as kurdish enclaves controlled by the syrian kurdish p y d party and its armed wing the y p g turkey sees the y.p. g. is an offshoot of the kurdistan workers' party or p k k w

state for the bureau of western hemisphere affairs. the diplomatic assistant director of international programs of the department of state, and the medical director at the bureau of medical services for the department of state, thank you all again for being here. there are two goals. the first is to establish the facts. second is to conduct oversight over the conduct and the activities of the united states state department. here are the facts as will be testified to today by our panel. in late 2016 staff at the united states embassy in havana began complaining of strange noises and among it descriptions they complained of, high pitched beam of sound, incapacitating sound, akin to driving with windows partially open in the car or just intense pressure in one ear. at the time of this report the post's leadership and the supporting office here in washington d.c. viewed this activity as harassment from forces hostile to the united states or to u.s. presence in cuba. later there was information gathered from aditional individuals, including some that suggested the complaints to november. the initial events that were reported occurred at diplo