Secretary Clinton: October 2011 » Interview With Christiane Amanpour of ABC’s This Week

Interview With Christiane Amanpour of ABC’s This Week

Interview

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Intercontinental Hotel

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

October 23, 2011

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QUESTION: Madam Secretary, thank you for joining us. Are you in Herman Cain’s famously designated Beki-Beki-Beki-stan?

SECRETARY CLINTON: (Laughter.) Well, there’s a zero-zero-zero chance I’m going to comment on Republican politics, but I am in Uzbekistan.

QUESTION: Let to turn to something more serious. You were actually in Libya earlier this week, and this week we all saw the video of the bloodied and dazed Muammar Qadhafi. We saw him now lying in a freezer while Libyans take a look at him. What was your reaction to that video, your gut reaction?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Christiane, obviously no one wants to see any human being in that condition, yet I know what a great relief it was to millions of Libyans that the past was finished, and now they can move into a different future without fear and intimidation and try to make up the lost time of 42 years to develop a country that has so much natural wealth and deserves to have a democracy and prosperity.

QUESTION: Do you think it was obvious that that was going to happen to him, or do you think that he should have been treated any differently?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I think everyone would hope that he could have been captured and brought to justice, and I am very pleased that the Transitional National Council has called for an independent investigation along with the United Nations. I fully support that, because I think that the new Libya needs to start with accountability, the rule of law, a sense of unity and reconciliation in order to build an inclusive democracy so people who supported the former regime – unless they do have blood on their hands – should be safe and feel included in this new country.

QUESTION: What about the bomber of Pan Am 104, al-Megrahi, who was freed and brought back to Libya. Do you want to see him recaptured, re-imprisoned, and if so, where? In Libya or in the United States or in Britain or Scotland?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Christiane, I never thought he should have been released in the first place. I’ve raised this with the highest levels of the TNC. I will raise it with the new Libyan government. We want to see him returned to prison, preferably in Scotland where he was serving the sentence, but if not, elsewhere, because we thought it was a miscarriage of justice that he was released from the sentence that had been imposed for the ghastly bombing of Pan Am 103.

QUESTION: Let’s turn to Iraq. President Obama at the end of this week has announced that all troops will be out by the end of the year. It’s well known the military wanted to keep 20 to 30,000 in and that the Iraqi forces, while they’ve made progress, really still need American logistical help. Are you not concerned that some of the gains that have been made are at risk?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Christiane, remember that it was President Bush who set the timetable in motion by agreeing with the Iraqis that all troops would be out by the end of this year. And of course, President Obama promised the American people that the troops would be out by the end of this year.

But we’re always open to discussing with partner countries what their needs are. And as you know, we have a lot of presence in that region. So no, we’re not going to have bases in Iraq, but we have bases elsewhere. We have security relations from Jordan to Colombia. So we’re going to be present in Iraq, supporting the Iraqis, and continually discussing with them what their needs are. And no one should miscalculate our commitment to Iraq, most particularly Iran.

QUESTION: Let’s just move to Afghanistan, where you’ve also just from, and Pakistan. You have confirmed that you’re talking to the Haqqani Network, also you’re trying to get talks with the Taliban. Is the United States prepared and does the United States have the responsibility to make sure that when it leaves, if the Taliban is being brought back in, that it does not commit the same kind of atrocities against the women and others that it did in the past?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, let me take each piece of that very quickly. We’re going to fight where we need to fight. We will talk if there’s an opportunity to talk. And we will keep building toward a more secure, stable future for Afghanistan. And to that end, we have redlines for any talking or any agreement. With whomever we talk, they have to abide by the following: They must renounce violence, they must renounce any and all ties to al-Qaida, and most importantly, for the future of Afghanistan, they must commit to abide by the laws and constitution of Afghanistan, which protect the rights of ethnic minorities and women.

So I am very clear, as I was on my just recent visit to Afghanistan, that I am not going to support any peace agreement that gives up the hard-won rights of the Afghan people, and in particular, I have a commitment to the women of Afghanistan.

QUESTION: I wonder if you can, finally, just give us what you know about the latest message from the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, which has issued a warning to Americans that it has credible evidence of an imminent terror attacks against terrorists there?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, as you know, Christiane, we follow this very closely, and it is our responsibility, first and foremost, to take care of Americans everywhere in the world. We’ve been getting threats from al-Shabaab against Americans and Westerners. So it’s a very dangerous, uncertain situation, and we want to be sure that whatever information we have, we immediately present to Americans who live, work, or may be visiting in Kenya.

QUESTION: So al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida offshoot, that’s who’s threatening?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I’m not going to get into specifics, but they’ve been public in their threats. You can look at coverage over the last weeks that they’ve threatened Kenya, they have threatened Westerners. So al-Shabaab remains a very serious threat, which is why we have taken action against them and are supporting further action.

QUESTION: Secretary Clinton, thank you very much indeed.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, Christiane. Good to talk to you.

Watch the full episode from April 24th by clicking on the image.

Interview With Christiane Amanpour of ABC’s This Week

Interview

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

January 30, 2011

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QUESTION: Perhaps no one is watching this situation more closely than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and she joins us this morning from the State Department. Has the United States Administration, whether yourself, whether the President or Secretary Gates, told the Egyptian Government specifically that any military crackdown will result in a cutoff of U.S. military assistance?

SECRETARY CLINTON: No. Right now, we’re monitoring the actions of the Egyptian military and they are, as I’m sure your contacts are telling you, demonstrating restraint, working to try to differentiate between peaceful protestors, whom we all support, and potential looters and other criminal elements who are obviously a danger to the Egyptian people. We have sent a very clear message that we want to see restraint. We do not want to see violence by any security forces. And we continue to convey that message. There is no discussion as of this time about cutting off any aid. We always are looking and reviewing our aid.

But right now, we are trying to convey a message that is very clear – that we want to ensure there is no violence and no provocation that results in violence, and that we want to see these reforms and a process of national dialogue begun so that the people of Egypt can see their legitimate grievances addressed.

QUESTION: Madam Secretary, do you believe that what President Mubarak has done already, which is to appoint a first-ever vice president and to shuffle the government – does that amount to enough reform? Is that all you’ve asked him to do?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh, of course not. But there has been, for 30 years, a both public and private dialogue with the Egyptian Government – sometimes more public, sometimes more private, but all with the same message from Republican and Democratic administrations – that there needs to be reform. One of the items on that long list was appointing a vice president.

That has happened, but that is the beginning, the bare beginning of what needs to happen, which is a process that leads to the kind of concrete steps to achieve democratic and economic reform that we’ve been urging and that President Mubarak himself discussed in his speech the other day.

QUESTION: There are people still on the streets in great numbers. On Tuesday, you said that the U.S. Government’s assessment is that the Government of Egypt is stable. Do you believe that was a mistake or do you think today that the Government of Egypt is stable?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Christiane, I know that everybody wants a yes-or-no answer to what are very complicated issues. Obviously, this is a volatile situation. Egypt has been a partner of the United States for over three decades, has been a partner in achieving historic peace with Israel, a partner in trying to stabilize a region that is subject to a lot of challenges. And we have been consistent across those three decades in arguing that real stability only comes from the kind of democratic participation that gives people a chance to feel that they are being heard.

And by that, I mean real democracy, not a democracy for six months or a year and then evolving into essentially a military dictatorship, or a so-called democracy that then leads to what we saw in Iran. So we’ve been very clear about what is in Egypt’s long-term interests, and we continue to be clear. And that is what we want to see come from this very – this great outpouring of desire for the people of Egypt to have their universal human rights recognized. And that is what we hope will come.

QUESTION: A lot of the people here on the streets are telling us that they’re angry, they think the U.S. is hedging its bets.

SECRETARY CLINTON: I just want to reiterate what both President Obama and I have been saying. I said it in Doha, I’ve said it before, President Obama said it himself when he was in Cairo at the beginning of his Administration – we believe that democracy, human rights, economic reform are in the best interests of the Egyptian people. Any government that does not try to move in that direction cannot meet the legitimate needs of the people. And in the 21^st century, it is highly vulnerable to what we have seen in the region and beyond. People are not going to stand by any longer and not be given the opportunity to fulfill their own God-given potential.

So what I’m hoping is that there can be a very difficult set of decisions made, that the government will be able to maintain a peaceful relationship with peaceful protestors, that where there is criminal activity, looting and the like, that can be handled in an appropriate way, respecting human rights. But then we can see a national dialogue begin where the Government of Egypt recognizes that it must – that it must take those concrete steps that many of us have been urging for democratic and economic reform.

I think that is the best way for Egypt to navigate through this without unforeseen consequences that could further undermine the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people.

QUESTION: Secretary Clinton, thank you very much for joining us.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you.

Take a Thanksgiving Day story on The NBC Nightly News called, “Giving Thanks”.   This story reported on how scientists are putting gratitude and acts of kindness under the microscope only to discover than “humans are genetically wired to be kind” — that people who do acts of kindness are doing what comes naturally.  This field of study is called positive psychology, also known as the science of happiness, and a slew of scientists and scholars are providing growing evidence that humanity’s natural state is one of generosity, compassion and empathy.

Also on Thanksgiving weekend an entire hour of ABC’s This Week with Christiane Amanpour was devoted to something called, “The Giving Pledge” — an initiative led by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, inviting the wealthiest billionaires to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy (promoting the welfare of others, expressed by the generous donation of money to good causes). The people who signed the pledge said it was their moral responsibility to give.

Bill Gates describes his experience with the initiative this way: “There’s a certain momentum in terms of the more you hear about other people doing giving, it will encourage you to do more.  And certainly all of us who got involved have been inspired by each other’s stories, and that rededicates us to getting this money to have the most positive impact.”

Mr. Gates could well be talking about the point of RebootTheMedia:  the more you hear about being grateful and doing good, the more you are encouraged and inspired to make a difference.  And, hopefully, those responsible for media content will rededicate themselves to getting the media to have its most positive impact.

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.