this is a question that even us today, by the time alger hiss had left the state department in 1946, i believe was he left the state to take over as president. the carnegie endowment for international peace, which was a big deal a big job. and he always portrayed this is simply a movement from his standpoint to a better job, even a more important job. in fact, we now know that the state department security people were very skeptical about alger hiss. they couldn't prove anything, but they had they had had the information from whittaker chambers, they the information from bentley known as the red spy queen, who in 1945 came up with a list of 45 names, another ex-kgb agent and alger hiss and his brother donald hiss also in the state department, were on her list. so alger hiss left the state department because the security people wanted him out of fact, that was known at the time and that obvious alger hiss never about it. so to answer your question, a lot of the state department secure files on the communist stalinist penetration disappeared over the years. great controversy about this

looking to come out of sudan, but again, in the days ahead we'll stay closely coordinated with the state department, they are in the lead and we'll be prepared to support them. back to kaseim here. >> two questions on sudan. secretary blinken today said the united states is going to facilitate american citizens to take part in the convoys travelling from khartoum to port sudan. will the dod provide aid cover to the convoy, because blinken mentioned also some robberies and looting some of the convoys. >> are you talking about the u.n. convoy? >> u.n. convoy. >> to my knowledge, the u.n. convoy made it to port sudan. my understanding, i would refer you, but my understanding is they largely made it there without incident. we did provide isr overwatch of that and so that's the extent of the support that we provided. >> and also today at the state department during the press conference with secretary blinken, the kenyan foreign minister mentioned some middle east allies partners and also russia specifically citing with the parties to the war in sudan. did you have any visibility on what the russians are

the department of state has. and i am extremely glad to see the administration budget request prioritize diplomacy and development. ensuring we have the tools necessary to lead on the global stage and leverage the united states soft power, soft power the better positions united states to address global challenges, deepen our alliances and advance our u.s. interests. the fact of the matter, mr. secretary, at not president biden led we talk about particularly, ukraine, led by having our allies join with us, if we had jumped out there by ourselves putin would have been right. but have been divided. nato would not be strong. the eu would not be where it is working collective together to fight back the aggression of vladimir putin and russia. that unity put us there where we are today. with ukraine at the time no one thought we would be here a year later with ukraine sales and it is the leadership the biden administration showed in holding our allies together. we are able to say we are going to stay and continue to gi

and now you have within the state department, the relevant regional bureau. you had the consular affairs bureau, you had the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs right of carson's in his office. and you have the office, the legal advisor, all contributing into an analysis of whether the very specific, very particular facts and circumstances of a new detention of an american abroad. ah, qualify it as, as a wrongful detention case that can take time gathering those facts and circumstances can take time. and sometimes we hear from families that they want to where they are in that process, understandably, but at the same time, you want that process to be careful to be deliberate, into evaluate the sort of complexities you, steve, are raising, which is these sorts of assessments. these sorts of evaluations need to be done against the backdrop of foreign legal systems to understand whether this treatment of a particular american, in a particular circumstances reaches that very rare. but again, very important category of being deemed a wrongful detention c

cohen in cuts were imposed on the state department? >> i think across the board when comes to all other priorities ii laid out in my opening statement to try to advance the security of the united states at american citizens around the world, to strengthen even further our alliances and partnerships totr deal with challenges coming from russia and china, to deal effectively with the many transnational threats are having a direct impact on the lives and livelihoods of americans, to make sure that our own institution is a strong as it can be including from cyber threats that are personal are secure and safe even as a work to expand ourrs footprint abroa. across the board these cuts would have, in my judgment, devastating consequences. and i'm happy as well to lay out in detail for members of this committee to what we see these consequence been. >> thank you, mr. secretary. yield back. >> the chair recognizes the taliban from new jersey, mr. smith. >> thank you very much, mr. cha. i have four questions mr. secretary. welcomeai to the commit

i don't i don't want to state department that thinks about the world like me i want a state department that when secretary who is duly confirmed tells them to left, they're going to go left and they're going to give me their ideas just like i did the president. but in the end, you an instruction, you should execute it. and we are long ways from that today. my first question from the audience, will you consider running for president. yes. yeah, i like that's a good question. yes. when will you make that decision? that was mine. when susan tells me i may i exactly, yeah. let me pause for a moment because gail wilson, the former first lady of california, is here. are you, gail? i just want you to stand up as a first lady. he had a wonderful first lady at the state department. how important? now you're first. oh, my goodness. all the difference in the world kept me humble when i thought i was all that and brought me up when the what and probably up when the washington post told me. i was a no good bum. okay. oh, good. very important. and daily. just the daily job. what has happened to our

that the state department and agency within the state department that monitors gun, firearms and weapons exports is not able, does not require that and that the exporting companies don't have the capacity to do that. so basically washing their hands of any kind of end-user control for those firearms exports. so we are looking for the identification of them, but also an exclusion of the end-users that have been implicated in human rights violations, inclusion with organized crime and the version of firearms which any of those three conditions is extremely common among any other t police agencis as well as many of the military units in mexico and central america. there is some legislation that is about to be introduced by joaquin castro that will require that identification of end-user units and we would say in addition that there needs to be the same criteria as applied to said background checks and the united states for purchases of firearms, or that are applied to foreign military police assistance that excludes assistance to units of foreign military police that are implicated in gross

said and you know, totally disagree with the state department. it was interesting to me and i was a website, the state department put up and i was the only person on the website. it was called the misinformation pro site and it sold a lot of books for me to say, and i always wondered, so why are they saying this kid is obviously not true. they said the only job of the, of the national security agencies to encode and decode message as well. we know as a huge agency, the probably the biggest buy agency in the united states, maybe in the world. it does a lot more than encoding and decoding messages. and everybody knew that. and i had a television producer who came to united states several times to interview me. he was from athens, you did a program in athens, it was like 60 minutes of greece. i was told and he at one point he asked me said, do you know how the state department did this? and i said, i have no idea selling a lot of books and it's obviously a fabrication. he said, well, i know i said after i did the 1st program with you, the us ambassa

i mean, you have state department perkins, the claims the u. s. national security agency recruited them to be an economic hip and it appears to be a total fabrication that's from the us. thank to problem 20 or 6. what. how do you respond diary these have been so many years of this that you've given up on it now . well, you know, wanting the near to major article that in that, looking at that exactly what the state department said and you know, totally doesn't create a state department. it was interesting to me that was a website, the state department put up and i was the only person on the website. it was called a misinformation site and it sold a lot of books for me. i got to say, and i always wondered, so why are they saying this is obviously not true. they said the only job of the, of the national security agencies to encode and decode message is what we know is a huge agency. the probably the biggest buy agency in the united states, maybe in the world, it does a lot more than interesting and decoding messages. and everybody knew that. and i

earlier in the week , one of the top state department officials told congress that the situation on the ground was just too violent for them to carry out this evacuation. but of course, with the approval of the secretary of state and president biden on saturday night, they went ahead. and with this operation, it was quick. they went in. there were about 100 special forces who flew into sudan on the ground for less than an hour getting out. as sam said less than 100 people, most of them us diplomats and their family members, a few other diplomats from other countries and then they flew them out to ethiopia on these us military helicopters , aircraft out of the country what this means that there are no u. s diplomats in the country anymore, and the u. s embassy is temporary. early suspended operations. it's effectively closed for now, of course, the state department would like to reopen it when conditions allow for that, but obviously we don't see that happening right now, when it comes to those americans who are still in the country that you guys were discussing earlier, there are a numb

because of the, it's interesting because the state department, the publication is considered a state ment publication, but it is really an inter agency publication. it represents the entire branch, those involved with foreign relations. our guiding principles the proposed documents, the highest level decision-making, behind u.s. policy, so with the, congress getting involved with that locked give us gravitas that it was back in before. in addition to that, for temperature, -- the historical advisory committee, the department of state, which existed since 1957, to oversee the foreign relations series, but that law gives the historical advisory committee composed of nine members, six of them exempt from major organizations, their snorkel, political science and also legal scars. that also is an important player in the production of foreign relations series. from 1861 and its commitment to transparency in government the law in 1991, which gives its backing that was lacking before, it has created a series that has given not only the american people but 25% of our readership if all of the f

we are glad she is spearheading this effort at the department of state to involve the u.s. business community in pursuing our national interests abroad. as we have heard today that partnership can lead to profound and positive change. prior to joining the department of state she served as a national policy survivor for the no kid hungry campaign. a cause she advocated for as the first lady of virginia. please join me in welcoming dorothy mccullough. [applause] ♪ >> good afternoon. what a day it has been. thank you so much for being here this afternoon and this morning. lots of reflection from an incredible day of incredible meaning and import. what we have seen today has been truly remarkable. it is hard not to be inspired by the commitment from so many across the public and private sector. rebuilding ukraine from the horrors it has faced since february of 2022. we know it will take all of us working collaboratively to rebuild the country that has suffered's such loss of lives and livelihood. i'm proud of the work of the office of global partnership, the lead state departmen

i do that in front of our media in a state department briefing room to make sure that people understand that this really comes from the secretary of state on behalf of the president of the united states. and it's something we attach tremendous importance to. >> thank you mr. secretary for your leadership and for two hours of high energy and engaging testimony. i know you have another session in front of her authorizing foreign relations committee later today. i think most importantly you make a compelling case for the urgent national security need to invest more robustly in our diplomacy and development. i look forward to working with you together, to see where we can move forward and get past this year. i will say to the colleagues who have joined, we have a dozen senators participating at different points, this was a great constructive hearing. senator hagerty had information related to the vulcan seizure of a port and he would like to add it to the record, so ordered. the hearing record will remain open for written questions until 5 p.m. wednesday, march 20 ninth. with that this hear

for the state department in usaid. i think as he bows laid out in different, ways we're meeting at an inflection point. the post cold world era is over. and there is an intense competition underway. to shape the determine what's acts not. we the united states have a positive -- it's a world that's free, secure, open. and prosperous. the budget that puts forward that -- and deliver on issues that actually matter to the american people. particularly, by preparing us to effectively meet two broad sets of challenges. the first, is the challenge posed by our strategic competitors. the immediate acute threat posed by russia's autocracy, and aggression, most destructively of course throats brutal aggression against ukraine. and the long term challenge from the people's republic of china. the second, set of challenges is really posed by shared global tasks including the climate crisis, migration, food and energy and security, pandemics, all of which directly impact alive and livelihoods of americans, and people around the worl

whose job it is to tell the story of some of the great work that is done at the department of state at the fbi the department of defense. so, to my left is adam howard he's the director of the u.s. department of states office of the historian. which publishes the foreign relations of the united states 2012 until 2019, doctor howard served as a general editor of the series prior to that he served from 2009 until 2012 as the chief of the middle east and asia division supervising production covering these geographic regions. also an adjunct professor at george washington university in their history department for he has a phd from the university of florida. to his left doctor john fox. doctor fox has served as fbi historian since 2003 and is also an adjunct instructor at the catholic universities school department of politics and has been the 2018. he has a phd in modern history from the university of new hampshire and political science from boston university. and finally on the end, doctor erin she is chief historian of the office of the secretary of defense. and director of the pentagon

miss shar, you are the idea the department of state. are you aware of the obstruction from department of state employees towards the inspector general over afghanistan? >> i've read john sopko's testimony. for our part we've not experienced the same sort of -- >> i'm not asking if you with your role of having oversight over state. i'm talking about are you aware of state department employees willfully ignoring and obstructing the investigations that are lawfully authorized by congress from the missus office -- are you are state department employees ignoring and obstructing investigations? >> i'm aware of john sopko's statement, yes. >> you are the ig at usaid. >> i'm acting in that role. >> are you aware of usaid employees willfully obstructing cigar's ability to conduct congressional oversight which is their legal mandate? >> i would say the same as miss shar. i'm aware of john sopko's letter. i would say we've not had any access and i am happy to partner with any oversight to do joint work or get access to any documents or people at us

in any unclear situation, we do that we look at this or that statement of the pentagon or the state departmenttates or british intelligence. well , here we had a completely official position, so with on the other hand, we understand that the situation has changed. and in the state department, in particular, when it comes to ukraine , there are many other additional, more complex questions about their freedom of speech, but at the same time we remember that the american constitution freedom of speech does not lie somewhere, you know , 100 km from the essence of the processes that they evaluate both within the state and outside its borders. well, if they give such alarm bells or bells, it means that maybe they really have certain questions or should we rely on the state department in any case because all the problems of ukrainian women and men should be solved first of all by themselves and that is what i will tell you. yes, the espresso tv channel and some others did not give up, they continue to work . you work, you make, in my opinion, interesting and useful programs and so on. i said: we los

they should get sanctions from the state department. from, uh, other departments, the americans continue to hand over the image of the enemy from russia. this means that the russian representatives are some kind of demons, and it is better to refrain from communicating with them in the information space. america is crammed with anti-russian reports, full of false information, not a single positive word , our attempts to break through on the e page and electronics of local media, for the most part end with a refusal, for example, for a long time the embassies have been unable to get the publication of an article reporting answers to questions outlining the russian position on biosecurity. i offered to bet to talk, but with official officials. on this account, he turned to the largest media and expressed his willingness to listen to counter-arguments. in response, he received only a rude refusal or silence, this topic, which reveals the illegal activities of us a in the cis space in the world. in general, she is not interested here, so it

the thing that went to the state department only showed the army end-users. the case in 2019 there are eight people killed by the state police unit just over the border from texas. these are some of their family members. at again, the certificate that shows where the weapon which goes to the producer to the exporter show after the massacre, after police agents were identified that being responsible again, or more legal exports went to that unit. but the state department was not notified, only the producer was notified. i just want to note that certificates that we obtained from the mexican military with public information request we cannot obtain these three u.s. government freedom of information act request because that is restricted information. but through mexico we were able to obtain that documentation. so, this is the police units that was responsible for this massacre. in addition, in 2020 and the height of the united states that the direction of the mexican president for brown to get migrants in different parts of the country. so you can see directly h

the state department has said, first of all, that — out?tate department has said, first of all, that although that - out? the state department has said, first of all, that although that us - first of all, that although that us embassy convoy came under attack, they don't believe that americans themselves are being deliberately targeted. it sounds like they were caught up in a very dangerous situation, although i should say we just had a confirmation from the state department that one us citizen has been killed. they confirmed one has been killed. they confirmed one has been killed, although they have not named it. it is something they've been grappling with for several days and they have also got notjust several days and they have also got not just the several days and they have also got notjust the us embassy personnel and us aig people there and so on, they have got american citizens there. —— us aid. they do not tell us how many there are, it is hard to figure out. they had quite early on as things started to get more and more dangerous

sudan and has the state department i was due _ sudan and has the state department i was due to _ sudanrocess? —— asked you — was due to begin the process? -- asked yog— was due to begin the process? -- asked ou. �* ., ., ., asked you. i'm not going to comment on operations — asked you. i'm not going to comment on operations specifically _ asked you. i'm not going to comment on operations specifically but - asked you. i'm not going to comment on operations specifically but i - on operations specifically but i will say— on operations specifically but i will say that our task and commitment to ukraine was to provide the training _ commitment to ukraine was to provide the training and equipment for up to nine brigades, armoured brigades, to conduct _ nine brigades, armoured brigades, to conduct offensive and defensive operations and those brigades are trained _ operations and those brigades are trained and manned and equipped and they are _ trained and manned and equipped and they are prepared for combat operations. so whenever and wherever they choose _ operations. so whenever and whereve

i wonder how are we deepening these with other departments like the department of state. space has become this new and niche exciting thing. i wonder what developments have been made by the space force in helping the department of state. >> wise everybody looking at me? -- why is everybody looking at me. >> secretary frank rose worked to this problem part is i believe he was working in the state department. try to get norms established and peopled to agree on norms. as mentioned, we are not there yet. it is a worthy effort to push that through. once you have that, as someone mentioned, when someone violates it. you have the ability to throw to marshmallow. that is the state department sending message that you signed up to this, you violated this, and that diplomatic pressure matters. it really matters. i am a big fan of come to some level of consensus on rules of the road in peacetime. they go out the window in any conflict, once the balloon goes up. it is important to help deterrence by holding nations accountable for their behavior. enabling the state department to fulfi

, hundreds of communists in the state department alone and the state department knows the secretary of state knows why are they letting 200 known communists operate in the state department. well, he must be a communist himself. he must be a communist agent. now, he made this up. he didn't have a list, and he would go on to these unfounded, reckless accusations for the next several years at his this. the conspiracy theory that he offered and this was in 1951, a speech, the floor of the senate in, which he said he started talking all of the foreign policy that the united states had suffered, the communist one, the civil war in china the soviets tested an atomic bomb. and he said, how can we account for our present situaon and unless we believe that high in this government are concerning, deliver us to disaster, this must be the product of a great conspiracy. copiracy on a scale s immense as to dwarf any such venture in the history of man, a conspiracy of infamy so black when it is finally exposan its principles shall be forever deserving of the malady, actions of all honest men. it's a c

s. state department's reaction to the violence. well, there is great concern, a boat from officials here at the us state department, as well as over at the white house. so there had been a glass of fear that to a given the gal convergence of ramadan of passover, which is the 1st day and of a holy week in the western christian calendar. that there would be an increase of violence around alex, on mosque. this is a some of what the a spokesperson for dont patel told reporters here at the state department earlier on thursday. we are concerned by the scenes out of jerusalem, and it is our viewpoint that it is absolutely vital that the sanctity of holy sites be preserved. we emphasize the importance of upholding the historic status quo at the holy sites in jerusalem. and any unilateral action that jeopardizes the status quo to us is unacceptable. and we call for restraint coordination and calm during the holiday season. now there haven't been any, a direct conversations between state department officials and israeli and palestinian offic

of that ongoing heavy fighting, and when we spoke with senior department officials from the state department and the department of defense last night , they described that there were about 100 people who are part of this evacuation. so that includes us diplomats, government personnel, their family members, and if you diplomats from other countries what they said this operation was fast and clean. it was conducted in less than an hour. it was about 100 special forces that came in to conduct this operation. got these u. s personnel onto evacuation flights, department of defense aircraft and got them out of the country. now one of the things that we need to think about is what's going to happen to this. u s embassy in khartoum, the secretary of state that said that operations there are going to be temporarily suspended. they do have local staff who are able to be at that embassy. see but for now, there are no operations running out of there, and all the u. s. diplomats are out of the country. so let's talk about the private american citizens. now what are we hearing from the state department as

will the authors of the state department report claim the i c. c warrant was issued after their research was published, but no actual evidence was provided with the report other than open media sources and satellite footage. it also confirms that quote, many children were sent to so called re education camps with their parents consent and were reunited with their families as pre arranged. now the report did not document any missed treatment. all of which contradicts i. c. c. claims are news of the report comes a week after the hague based court issued warrants for president putin. on the commissioner for children's rights. over the claims russia forcibly removed children from dunbar and other conflict areas. moscow denies the allegations saying it had to evacuate children from a war zone, who were under threats. always good to welcome live on to the program, max bloom, and tell max is gray's own editor in chief and co author of this latest investigation max. good to see you. can i put to 1st, if the i see, see, warrant is based on the why didn't

outer violence because we do not know if it can be contained in the country that the you know the state departit has talked about concerns for regional conflict that does not benefit anyone. even if those countries are not consistent in their interest in sudan, so we know russia, china, the united states to a lesser extent, even israel of have been, um part of and involved with sudan in the past, their common interest is no regional conflict. and that is that is why we're seeing this cooperation. all right. we'll leave it there for now. juliette kayyem. thanks so much. thank you. all right, now that the u. s supreme court has issued an 11th hour ruling protecting access to a widely used abortion pill, while a federal court appeal appeals court rather reviews the case lawmakers are weighing in on the decision today. republican senator lindsey graham, who has called for a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks, told cnn the fda went too far when it approved mifepristone and says the court should be looking at restrictions to block the medication from being sent by mail. sending the abortion drug

the us state department have called on beijing _ --?department have called on beijing not to _ --? the us state department have called on beijing not to split - --? the us state department have called on beijing not to split this i called on beijing not to split this visit. they have called for restraint and there is no change in the status quo, but they also say they are monitoring the situation closely, and they have also spoken about some level of firepower, saying they have sufficient resources and capability in the region to ensure peace and stability. as you mentioned this as part of the similitude encirclement. we have seen for simmo beijing approached taiwan from all four sides, both in the air, with those 70 aircraft that you mention, on saturday as well as 11 ships approaching by c as well. all elements of the military being deployed here. that includes long—range rockets, naval destroyers, boats as well as the air force. from taiwan we have heard they are enraged by this. they say for example that this seriously undermines pe

shot you are the ig at the department of state are you aware of the obstruction from department of statemployees towards the inspector general over afghanistan? >> i have read mr. sopko's testimony i can say for our part we have not experienced the same. >> i'm not asking for u.s. inspector general is your role of having oversight over state. i are you aware of state department employees woefully ignoring and obstructing the investigations that are lawfully authorized by congress from sigar mr. sopko office are you aware of state department employees ignoring his investigations? >> i am aware of mr. sopko statements yes. >> miss angarella you are the ig. >> i'm acting in that role, yes it. >> acting similar line of question are you aware of usaid employees woefully obstructing sigar's ability to can correct congressional oversight which is her legal mandate? works i was in the same as ms. shaw i am aware of ig sopko's letter. we have not had any access and i would say further i am happy to partner with any oversight ig to do joint work or get access to any documents or people and assist