FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Obama Describes Core US Interests in the Middle East
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2013 - In a speech at the United Nations today, President Barack Obama described key United States' interests in North Africa and the Middle East and made clear America is prepared to use force to back them up.
"The United States of America is prepared to use all elements of our power, including military force, to secure our core interests in the region," Obama told the General Assembly in New York.
The nation, he said, will confront external aggression against allies and partners in the region.
"We will ensure the free flow of energy from the region to the world," Obama said. While the United States is reducing its oil imports, the world still depends on Middle Eastern oil and gas. A severe disruption could destabilize the global economy.
"We will dismantle terrorist networks that threaten our people," the president said. "Wherever possible, we will build the capacity of our partners, respect the sovereignty of nations, and work to address the root causes of terror. But when it is necessary to defend the United States against terrorist attack, we will take direct action."
And, the United States will not tolerate the development or use of weapons of mass destruction. "Just as we consider the use of chemical weapons in Syria to be a threat to our own national security, we reject the development of nuclear weapons that could trigger a nuclear arms race in the region, and undermine the global nonproliferation regime," Obama said.
It is in U.S. interests to see a peaceful, prosperous, stable and democratic Middle East, Obama said, but the United States cannot force this.
"We can rarely achieve these objectives through unilateral American action, particularly through military action," he said. "Iraq shows us that democracy cannot simply be imposed by force. Rather, these objectives are best achieved when we partner with the international community and with the countries and peoples of the region."
The president illustrated the U.S. position using Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and the Arab-Israeli conflict as examples.
"While these issues are not the cause of all the region's problems, they have been a major source of instability for far too long, and resolving them can help serve as a foundation for a broader peace," Obama said.
The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since 1979. Mistrust between the two nations has developed over the years.
"This mistrust has deep roots," the president said. "Iranians have long complained of a history of U.S. interference in their affairs and of America's role in overthrowing an Iranian government during the Cold War. On the other hand, Americans see an Iranian government that has declared the United States an enemy and directly -- or through proxies -- taken American hostages, killed U.S. troops and civilians, and threatened our ally Israel with destruction."
Resolving the issue of Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons could go a long way toward an improved relationship between the two countries, Obama said.
The United States is resolved to not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. "We are not seeking regime change and we respect the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy," the president said. "Instead, we insist that the Iranian government meet its responsibilities under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and U.N. Security Council resolutions."
On the Iranian side, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons, and new Iranian President Hasan Rouhani has just recently reiterated that the Islamic Republic will never develop a nuclear weapon.
"These statements made by our respective governments should offer the basis for a meaningful agreement," Obama said. "We should be able to achieve a resolution that respects the rights of the Iranian people, while giving the world confidence that the Iranian program is peaceful. But to succeed, conciliatory words will have to be matched by actions that are transparent and verifiable. After all, it's the Iranian government's choices that have led to the comprehensive sanctions that are currently in place. And this is not simply an issue between the United States and Iran."
The president has directed Secretary of State John Kerry to pursue this effort with the Iranian government in close cooperation with the European Union, Russia and China.
The conflict between the Palestinians and Israel is also a flashpoint that needs to be dampened, the president said. "I've made it clear that the United States will never compromise our commitment to Israel's security, nor our support for its existence as a Jewish state," he said.
The United States also remains committed to the belief that the Palestinian people have a right to live with security and dignity in their own sovereign state, he said.
Now is the time for the entire international community to get behind the pursuit of peace in the area, Obama said. Israeli and Palestinian leaders are meeting. Current talks are focused on final status issues of borders and security, refugees and Jerusalem.
"So now the rest of us must be willing to take risks as well," the president said. "Friends of Israel, including the United States, must recognize that Israel's security as a Jewish and democratic state depends upon the realization of a Palestinian state, and we should say so clearly. Arab states, and those who supported the Palestinians, must recognize that stability will only be served through a two-state solution and a secure Israel."
The nations of the world must recognize that peace will be a powerful tool to defeat extremists throughout the region, and embolden those who are prepared to build a better future, Obama said.
Real breakthroughs on the Iranian nuclear program and Palestinian-Israeli peace would have a profound and positive impact on the entire Middle East and North Africa, the president said.
"But the current convulsions arising out of the Arab Spring remind us that a just and lasting peace cannot be measured only by agreements between nations," he said. "It must also be measured by our ability to resolve conflict and promote justice within nations. And by that measure, it's clear that all of us have a lot more work to do."
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
DOMINICAN NATIONAL SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR ROLE IN IDENTITY TRAFFICKING SCHEME
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Friday, September 20, 2013
Dominican National Sentenced to 42 Months in Prison in Puerto Rican Identity Trafficking Scheme
A Dominican national was sentenced today to serve 42 months in prison for her role in trafficking the identities of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens and corresponding identity documents, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Rosa E. Rodríguez-Vélez of the District of Puerto Rico; Acting Director John Sandweg of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); Chief Postal Inspector Guy J. Cottrell of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); Director Gregory B. Starr of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS); and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Chief Richard Weber.
Arelis Abreu-Ramos, formerly of Philadelphia, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí in the District of Puerto Rico. In addition to Abreu-Ramos’s prison term, Judge Gelpí ordered her removal from the United States to the Dominican Republic after the completion of her sentence.
On June 13, 2013, Abreu-Ramos pleaded guilty in Puerto Rico to one count of conspiracy to commit identification fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit human smuggling for financial gain.
Abreu-Ramos was charged in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Puerto Rico on March 22, 2012. To date, a total of 53 individuals have been charged for their roles in the identity trafficking scheme, and 42 defendants have pleaded guilty.
Court documents allege that individuals located in the Savarona area of Caguas, Puerto Rico (Savarona suppliers), obtained Puerto Rican identities and corresponding identity documents. Other conspirators located in various cities throughout the United States (identity brokers) allegedly solicited customers and sold Social Security cards and corresponding Puerto Rico birth certificates for prices ranging from $700 to $2,500 per set. The superseding indictment alleges that identity brokers ordered the identity documents from the Savarona suppliers, on behalf of the customers, by making coded telephone calls. The conspirators are charged with using text messages, money transfer services, and express, priority or regular U.S. mail to complete their illicit transactions.
Court documents allege that some of the conspirators assumed a Puerto Rican identity themselves and used that identity in connection with the trafficking operation. Their customers generally obtained the identity documents to assume the identity of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens and to obtain additional identification documents, such as legitimate state driver’s licenses. Some customers allegedly obtained the documents to commit financial fraud and attempted to obtain a U.S. passport.
According to court documents, various identity brokers were operating in Rockford, Ill.; DeKalb, Ill.; Aurora, Ill.; Seymour, Ind.; Columbus, Ind.; Indianapolis; Hartford, Conn.; Clewiston, Fla.; Lilburn, Ga.; Norcross, Ga.; Salisbury, Md.; Columbus, Ohio; Fairfield, Ohio; Dorchester, Mass.; Lawrence, Mass.; Salem, Mass.; Worcester, Mass.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Nebraska City, Neb.; Elizabeth, N.J.; Burlington, N.C.; Hickory, N.C.; Hazelton, Pa.; Philadelphia; Houston; Abingdon, Va.; Albertville, Ala.; and Providence, R.I.
Abreu-Ramos admitted that she operated as an identity broker in the Philadelphia area, and that she was a manager and supervisor in the conspiracy. According to court documents, in June 2011, an unauthorized alien in Arlington, Va., applied for a U.S. passport using legitimate Puerto Rico identity documents that had been supplied by Abreu-Ramos. Law enforcement agents uncovered the fraudulent application and prevented the issuance of the U.S. passport.
Abreu-Ramos is the 29th defendant to be sentenced in this case.
The charges are the result of Operation Island Express, an ongoing, nationally-coordinated investigation led by the ICE Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) Chicago Office and USPIS, DSS and IRS-CI offices in Chicago, in coordination with the ICE-HSI San Juan Office and the DSS Resident Office in Puerto Rico. The Illinois Secretary of State Police; Elgin, Ill., Police Department; Seymour, Ind., Police Department; and Indiana State Police provided substantial assistance. The ICE-HSI Assistant Attaché office in the Dominican Republic and International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center (IOC-2) as well as various ICE, USPIS, DSS and IRS-CI offices around the country provided invaluable support.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys James S. Yoon, Hope S. Olds, Courtney B. Schaefer and Christina Giffin of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, with the assistance of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, and the support of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Northern District of Illinois, Southern District of Indiana, District of Connecticut, District of Massachusetts, District of Nebraska, Middle District of North Carolina, Southern District of Ohio, Middle District of Pennsylvania, District of Rhode Island, Southern District of Texas and Western District of Virginia provided substantial assistance.
Potential victims and the public may obtain information about the case at: www.justice.gov/criminal/vns/caseup/beltrerj.html . Anyone who believes their identity may have been compromised in relation to this investigation may contact the ICE toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (1-866-347-2423) and its online tip form at www.ice.gov/tipline . Anyone who may have information about particular crimes in this case should also report it to the ICE tip line or website.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Dominican National Sentenced to 42 Months in Prison in Puerto Rican Identity Trafficking Scheme
A Dominican national was sentenced today to serve 42 months in prison for her role in trafficking the identities of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens and corresponding identity documents, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Rosa E. Rodríguez-Vélez of the District of Puerto Rico; Acting Director John Sandweg of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); Chief Postal Inspector Guy J. Cottrell of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); Director Gregory B. Starr of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS); and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Chief Richard Weber.
Arelis Abreu-Ramos, formerly of Philadelphia, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí in the District of Puerto Rico. In addition to Abreu-Ramos’s prison term, Judge Gelpí ordered her removal from the United States to the Dominican Republic after the completion of her sentence.
On June 13, 2013, Abreu-Ramos pleaded guilty in Puerto Rico to one count of conspiracy to commit identification fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit human smuggling for financial gain.
Abreu-Ramos was charged in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Puerto Rico on March 22, 2012. To date, a total of 53 individuals have been charged for their roles in the identity trafficking scheme, and 42 defendants have pleaded guilty.
Court documents allege that individuals located in the Savarona area of Caguas, Puerto Rico (Savarona suppliers), obtained Puerto Rican identities and corresponding identity documents. Other conspirators located in various cities throughout the United States (identity brokers) allegedly solicited customers and sold Social Security cards and corresponding Puerto Rico birth certificates for prices ranging from $700 to $2,500 per set. The superseding indictment alleges that identity brokers ordered the identity documents from the Savarona suppliers, on behalf of the customers, by making coded telephone calls. The conspirators are charged with using text messages, money transfer services, and express, priority or regular U.S. mail to complete their illicit transactions.
Court documents allege that some of the conspirators assumed a Puerto Rican identity themselves and used that identity in connection with the trafficking operation. Their customers generally obtained the identity documents to assume the identity of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens and to obtain additional identification documents, such as legitimate state driver’s licenses. Some customers allegedly obtained the documents to commit financial fraud and attempted to obtain a U.S. passport.
According to court documents, various identity brokers were operating in Rockford, Ill.; DeKalb, Ill.; Aurora, Ill.; Seymour, Ind.; Columbus, Ind.; Indianapolis; Hartford, Conn.; Clewiston, Fla.; Lilburn, Ga.; Norcross, Ga.; Salisbury, Md.; Columbus, Ohio; Fairfield, Ohio; Dorchester, Mass.; Lawrence, Mass.; Salem, Mass.; Worcester, Mass.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Nebraska City, Neb.; Elizabeth, N.J.; Burlington, N.C.; Hickory, N.C.; Hazelton, Pa.; Philadelphia; Houston; Abingdon, Va.; Albertville, Ala.; and Providence, R.I.
Abreu-Ramos admitted that she operated as an identity broker in the Philadelphia area, and that she was a manager and supervisor in the conspiracy. According to court documents, in June 2011, an unauthorized alien in Arlington, Va., applied for a U.S. passport using legitimate Puerto Rico identity documents that had been supplied by Abreu-Ramos. Law enforcement agents uncovered the fraudulent application and prevented the issuance of the U.S. passport.
Abreu-Ramos is the 29th defendant to be sentenced in this case.
The charges are the result of Operation Island Express, an ongoing, nationally-coordinated investigation led by the ICE Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) Chicago Office and USPIS, DSS and IRS-CI offices in Chicago, in coordination with the ICE-HSI San Juan Office and the DSS Resident Office in Puerto Rico. The Illinois Secretary of State Police; Elgin, Ill., Police Department; Seymour, Ind., Police Department; and Indiana State Police provided substantial assistance. The ICE-HSI Assistant Attaché office in the Dominican Republic and International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center (IOC-2) as well as various ICE, USPIS, DSS and IRS-CI offices around the country provided invaluable support.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys James S. Yoon, Hope S. Olds, Courtney B. Schaefer and Christina Giffin of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, with the assistance of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, and the support of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Northern District of Illinois, Southern District of Indiana, District of Connecticut, District of Massachusetts, District of Nebraska, Middle District of North Carolina, Southern District of Ohio, Middle District of Pennsylvania, District of Rhode Island, Southern District of Texas and Western District of Virginia provided substantial assistance.
Potential victims and the public may obtain information about the case at: www.justice.gov/criminal/vns/caseup/beltrerj.html . Anyone who believes their identity may have been compromised in relation to this investigation may contact the ICE toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (1-866-347-2423) and its online tip form at www.ice.gov/tipline . Anyone who may have information about particular crimes in this case should also report it to the ICE tip line or website.
SEC CHARGES THREE IN PRIME BANK OFFERING AND PONZI SCHEME
FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") has charged Jenifer E. Hoffman and John C. Boschert, the former principals of Assured Capital Consultants, LLC - a now-dissolved Florida company - and Bryan T. Zuzga, the company's purported escrow agent, for their involvement in a fraudulent prime bank offering and Ponzi scheme.
According to the Commission's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, between approximately January and September 2009, Assured Capital, through Hoffman, Boschert, and Zuzga, raised at least $25 million from investors, through false representations and fake documents. The complaint alleges that Hoffman and Boschert represented to investors that their money would be invested in Assured Capital's offshore, confidential trading program which, in turn, would invest in blocks of medium term notes. As the complaint further alleges, Hoffman and Boschert enticed investors with claims of exorbitant profits and with the illusion of safety by telling them that the investment would provide weekly returns of up to 50% and that it was performing, safe, and guaranteed. In addition, Hoffman and Boschert represented to investors their money would remain safe in an Assured Capital escrow account that would be used to secure a line of credit for investing in the company's offshore trading program. Furthermore, Hoffman, Boschert, and Zuzga told investors that Zuzga controlled the escrow account as Assured Capital's escrow agent and that he was a licensed attorney. Moreover, Hoffman provided investors with fake bank documents and a sham verification letter, notarized by Zuzga, purporting to confirm Assured Capital had $500 million at a Panamanian bank.
As the complaint alleges, none of these representations were true and the investment program was purely fictional. Zuzga was not Assured Capital's escrow agent and has never been a licensed attorney. Hoffman and Boschert used investor funds to make payments to other investors in Ponzi fashion, and stole investor funds along with Zuzga for their personal use. Assured Capital has since gone out of business.
The Commission's complaint alleges that Hoffman of Clermont, Florida, Boschert of Apopka, Florida, and Zuzga of Coldwater, Michigan, all violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission is seeking financial penalties, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and permanent injunctions against all the defendants.
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") has charged Jenifer E. Hoffman and John C. Boschert, the former principals of Assured Capital Consultants, LLC - a now-dissolved Florida company - and Bryan T. Zuzga, the company's purported escrow agent, for their involvement in a fraudulent prime bank offering and Ponzi scheme.
According to the Commission's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, between approximately January and September 2009, Assured Capital, through Hoffman, Boschert, and Zuzga, raised at least $25 million from investors, through false representations and fake documents. The complaint alleges that Hoffman and Boschert represented to investors that their money would be invested in Assured Capital's offshore, confidential trading program which, in turn, would invest in blocks of medium term notes. As the complaint further alleges, Hoffman and Boschert enticed investors with claims of exorbitant profits and with the illusion of safety by telling them that the investment would provide weekly returns of up to 50% and that it was performing, safe, and guaranteed. In addition, Hoffman and Boschert represented to investors their money would remain safe in an Assured Capital escrow account that would be used to secure a line of credit for investing in the company's offshore trading program. Furthermore, Hoffman, Boschert, and Zuzga told investors that Zuzga controlled the escrow account as Assured Capital's escrow agent and that he was a licensed attorney. Moreover, Hoffman provided investors with fake bank documents and a sham verification letter, notarized by Zuzga, purporting to confirm Assured Capital had $500 million at a Panamanian bank.
As the complaint alleges, none of these representations were true and the investment program was purely fictional. Zuzga was not Assured Capital's escrow agent and has never been a licensed attorney. Hoffman and Boschert used investor funds to make payments to other investors in Ponzi fashion, and stole investor funds along with Zuzga for their personal use. Assured Capital has since gone out of business.
The Commission's complaint alleges that Hoffman of Clermont, Florida, Boschert of Apopka, Florida, and Zuzga of Coldwater, Michigan, all violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission is seeking financial penalties, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and permanent injunctions against all the defendants.
CARBON SINK
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Tropical forest carbon sink hinges on 'odd couple'
A unique housing arrangement between a specific tree species and carbo-loading bacteria may determine how well tropical forests can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, says new research today in an advance online publication of the journal Nature.
The findings suggest that the role of tropical forests in offsetting the atmospheric buildup of carbon from fossil fuels depends on tree diversity, particularly in forests recovering from exploitation.
Tropical forests thrive on natural nitrogen fertilizer pumped into the soil by trees in the legume family, a diverse group of plants that includes beans and peas, the researchers report.
"Fast-growing nitrogen-fixing trees are not common outside of the tropics, but are found in surprisingly high diversity there," said Henry Gholz, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.
"These findings place the trees' ability to capture atmospheric nitrogen and to use it to stimulate growth in the context of long-term tropical forest development," Gholz said. "This process not only allows these trees to get out of the gate quickly after a disturbance, but to maintain dominance decades to centuries later."
The researchers studied recovering forests in Panama that had been exploited five to 300 years earlier.
The presence of legume trees ensured rapid forest growth, and thus a substantial carbon sink, in the first 12 years of recovery.
Tracts of land that were pasture only 12 years before had already accumulated as much as 40 percent of the carbon found in fully mature forests. Legumes contributed more than half the nitrogen needed to make that happen.
These fledgling woodlands had the capacity to store 50 metric tons of carbon per hectare, which equates to roughly 185 tons of carbon dioxide, or the exhaust of some 21,285 gallons of gasoline.
That much fuel would take the average car in the United States more than half a million miles.
Though the legumes' nitrogen fertilizer output waned in later years, the species nonetheless took up carbon at rates that were up to 9 times faster than non-legume trees.
The legumes' secret is a process known as "nitrogen fixation" carried out in concert with infectious bacteria known as rhizobia, which dwell in small pods, known as root nodules, inside the tree's roots.
As a nutrient, nitrogen is essential for plant growth, but tropical soil is short on nitrogen and surprisingly non-nutritious for trees.
Legumes use secretions to invite rhizobia living in the soil to infect their roots, and the bacteria signal back to initiate nodule growth.
The rhizobia move into the root cells of the host plant and--in exchange for carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis in the tree--convert nitrogen from the air into fertilizer plants need.
Excess nitrogen from the legume eventually creates a nitrogen cycle that benefits neighboring trees.
By nurturing bigger, healthier trees that take up more carbon, legumes have a newly realized importance when it comes to influencing atmospheric carbon dioxide, said paper co-author Lars Hedin of Princeton University.
Scientists recently assigned numbers to track how much carbon forests as a whole absorb, suggesting that the world's forests took up 2.4 quadrillion tons of carbon from 1990 to 2007.
"Tropical forests are a huge carbon sink," said Hedin.
"If trees could just grow and store carbon, you could have a rapid sink, but if they don't have enough nitrogen they don't take up carbon," he said, adding that nitrogen-fixing trees are uncommon in temperate forests such as those in most of North America and Europe.
"Legumes are a group of plants that perform a valuable function in tropical forests, but no one knew how much they help with the carbon sink," Hedin said. "This work shows that the level of biodiversity in a tropical forest determines the size of the carbon sink."
First author Sarah Batterman of Princeton said that legumes, or "nitrogen-fixers," are especially important for forests recovering from agricultural use, logging, fire or other human activities.
The researchers studied 16 forest plots that were formerly pasture and are maintained by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).
Forest degradation, however, comes with a loss of biodiversity that can affect nitrogen-fixers, too, even though legumes are not specifically threatened, Batterman said.
If the number and diversity of nitrogen-fixers plummet, the health of the surrounding forest would likely be affected for a long time, she said.
"This study shows that there is an important place for nitrogen-fixation in these disturbed areas," Batterman said.
"Nitrogen-fixers are a component of biodiversity and are important for the function of these forests, but we don't know enough about how this valuable group of trees influences forests. While some species may thrive on disturbance, others may be sensitive to human activities."
The researchers found that the nine legume species they studied did not contribute nitrogen to surrounding trees at the same time.
Certain species were more active in the youngest forests, others in middle-aged forests, and still other species went into action mainly in 300-year-old tracts, though not nearly to the same extent as legumes in younger plots.
The researchers found that individual trees reduced their fixation as nitrogen accumulated in soils, with the number of legumes actively "fixing" nitrogen dropping from 71 to 23 percent between 12- and 80-year-old forests.
"The diversity of species present in the forest is critical because it ensures that there can be fixation at different time periods of forest recovery," Batterman said.
"If you were to lose one of those species and it turned out to be essential for a specific time period, fixation might drop dramatically."
Such details can improve what scientists know about future climate change, Batterman said.
Computer models that calculate the global balance of atmospheric carbon dioxide also must factor in sinks that offset carbon, such as tropical forests.
And if forests take up carbon differently depending on the abundance and diversity of legumes, models should reflect that variation, she said.
"Other researchers can now put this role of nitrogen-fixation into their models and improve predictions about the carbon sink," Batterman said.
Batterman and Hedin worked with Michiel van Breugel and Jefferson Hall at STRI, Johannes Ransijn at the University of Copenhagen and Dylan Craven at Yale University.
The work was also supported by grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; and the Cooperative Institute for Climate Science and the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, both at Princeton University.
-NSF-
Tropical forest carbon sink hinges on 'odd couple'
A unique housing arrangement between a specific tree species and carbo-loading bacteria may determine how well tropical forests can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, says new research today in an advance online publication of the journal Nature.
The findings suggest that the role of tropical forests in offsetting the atmospheric buildup of carbon from fossil fuels depends on tree diversity, particularly in forests recovering from exploitation.
Tropical forests thrive on natural nitrogen fertilizer pumped into the soil by trees in the legume family, a diverse group of plants that includes beans and peas, the researchers report.
"Fast-growing nitrogen-fixing trees are not common outside of the tropics, but are found in surprisingly high diversity there," said Henry Gholz, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.
"These findings place the trees' ability to capture atmospheric nitrogen and to use it to stimulate growth in the context of long-term tropical forest development," Gholz said. "This process not only allows these trees to get out of the gate quickly after a disturbance, but to maintain dominance decades to centuries later."
The researchers studied recovering forests in Panama that had been exploited five to 300 years earlier.
The presence of legume trees ensured rapid forest growth, and thus a substantial carbon sink, in the first 12 years of recovery.
Tracts of land that were pasture only 12 years before had already accumulated as much as 40 percent of the carbon found in fully mature forests. Legumes contributed more than half the nitrogen needed to make that happen.
These fledgling woodlands had the capacity to store 50 metric tons of carbon per hectare, which equates to roughly 185 tons of carbon dioxide, or the exhaust of some 21,285 gallons of gasoline.
That much fuel would take the average car in the United States more than half a million miles.
Though the legumes' nitrogen fertilizer output waned in later years, the species nonetheless took up carbon at rates that were up to 9 times faster than non-legume trees.
The legumes' secret is a process known as "nitrogen fixation" carried out in concert with infectious bacteria known as rhizobia, which dwell in small pods, known as root nodules, inside the tree's roots.
As a nutrient, nitrogen is essential for plant growth, but tropical soil is short on nitrogen and surprisingly non-nutritious for trees.
Legumes use secretions to invite rhizobia living in the soil to infect their roots, and the bacteria signal back to initiate nodule growth.
The rhizobia move into the root cells of the host plant and--in exchange for carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis in the tree--convert nitrogen from the air into fertilizer plants need.
Excess nitrogen from the legume eventually creates a nitrogen cycle that benefits neighboring trees.
By nurturing bigger, healthier trees that take up more carbon, legumes have a newly realized importance when it comes to influencing atmospheric carbon dioxide, said paper co-author Lars Hedin of Princeton University.
Scientists recently assigned numbers to track how much carbon forests as a whole absorb, suggesting that the world's forests took up 2.4 quadrillion tons of carbon from 1990 to 2007.
"Tropical forests are a huge carbon sink," said Hedin.
"If trees could just grow and store carbon, you could have a rapid sink, but if they don't have enough nitrogen they don't take up carbon," he said, adding that nitrogen-fixing trees are uncommon in temperate forests such as those in most of North America and Europe.
"Legumes are a group of plants that perform a valuable function in tropical forests, but no one knew how much they help with the carbon sink," Hedin said. "This work shows that the level of biodiversity in a tropical forest determines the size of the carbon sink."
First author Sarah Batterman of Princeton said that legumes, or "nitrogen-fixers," are especially important for forests recovering from agricultural use, logging, fire or other human activities.
The researchers studied 16 forest plots that were formerly pasture and are maintained by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).
Forest degradation, however, comes with a loss of biodiversity that can affect nitrogen-fixers, too, even though legumes are not specifically threatened, Batterman said.
If the number and diversity of nitrogen-fixers plummet, the health of the surrounding forest would likely be affected for a long time, she said.
"This study shows that there is an important place for nitrogen-fixation in these disturbed areas," Batterman said.
"Nitrogen-fixers are a component of biodiversity and are important for the function of these forests, but we don't know enough about how this valuable group of trees influences forests. While some species may thrive on disturbance, others may be sensitive to human activities."
The researchers found that the nine legume species they studied did not contribute nitrogen to surrounding trees at the same time.
Certain species were more active in the youngest forests, others in middle-aged forests, and still other species went into action mainly in 300-year-old tracts, though not nearly to the same extent as legumes in younger plots.
The researchers found that individual trees reduced their fixation as nitrogen accumulated in soils, with the number of legumes actively "fixing" nitrogen dropping from 71 to 23 percent between 12- and 80-year-old forests.
"The diversity of species present in the forest is critical because it ensures that there can be fixation at different time periods of forest recovery," Batterman said.
"If you were to lose one of those species and it turned out to be essential for a specific time period, fixation might drop dramatically."
Such details can improve what scientists know about future climate change, Batterman said.
Computer models that calculate the global balance of atmospheric carbon dioxide also must factor in sinks that offset carbon, such as tropical forests.
And if forests take up carbon differently depending on the abundance and diversity of legumes, models should reflect that variation, she said.
"Other researchers can now put this role of nitrogen-fixation into their models and improve predictions about the carbon sink," Batterman said.
Batterman and Hedin worked with Michiel van Breugel and Jefferson Hall at STRI, Johannes Ransijn at the University of Copenhagen and Dylan Craven at Yale University.
The work was also supported by grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; and the Cooperative Institute for Climate Science and the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, both at Princeton University.
-NSF-
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S REMARKS AT UN LUNCHEON
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE PRESIDENT
Remarks by President Obama at a Luncheon Hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
United Nations
New York, New York
1:37 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Ladies and gentlemen, as is always the case with these lunches, I exceeded my time this morning, and so you've heard enough from me. (Laughter.) But as President of the host country, I do simply want to say thank you to all of you and express my appreciation for Secretary Ban for his principled leadership as well as the extraordinary hard work of his team.
Mr. Secretary-General, you continue to provide the moral vision that we seek from the United Nations as well as a practical sense of how we can achieve that vision. And so on behalf of all of us, we want to say thank you very much.
I also want to salute all who help sustain our United Nations, often unseen and unheralded. This includes the dedicated U.N. inspectors in Damascus who set out into battlefield conditions. They braved sniper fire. They worked diligently with great professionalism. They uncovered the truth, and they have the thanks of the world. Meanwhile, we see thousands of peacekeepers in blue helmets standing watch around the world from Haiti to the DRC to Cyprus, so that people in countries recovering from conflict and strife can have the chance to build a more hopeful life.
After the Yalta Conference, shortly before the United Nations was founded, President Roosevelt spoke of what it would take to achieve a lasting and durable peace. "The structure of world peace," he said, "cannot be the work of one man or one party or one nation. It cannot be an American peace or a British, a Russian, a French, or a Chinese peace. It cannot be a peace of large nations or of small nations. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world." These words are more true today than ever, whether it's preventing the spread of deadly weapons, promoting democratic governance, or fighting daily battles against poverty and hunger and deprivation. International peace, development, and security will not be achieved by one nation or one group of nations. It must be the work of all of us.
So I want to propose a toast to our host and great friend, Secretary-General Ban, to all those here in New York and around the world who help sustain the United Nations, and to the spirit that we need the cooperative effort of the whole world. Cheers. Salud.
Remarks by President Obama at a Luncheon Hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
United Nations
New York, New York
1:37 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Ladies and gentlemen, as is always the case with these lunches, I exceeded my time this morning, and so you've heard enough from me. (Laughter.) But as President of the host country, I do simply want to say thank you to all of you and express my appreciation for Secretary Ban for his principled leadership as well as the extraordinary hard work of his team.
Mr. Secretary-General, you continue to provide the moral vision that we seek from the United Nations as well as a practical sense of how we can achieve that vision. And so on behalf of all of us, we want to say thank you very much.
I also want to salute all who help sustain our United Nations, often unseen and unheralded. This includes the dedicated U.N. inspectors in Damascus who set out into battlefield conditions. They braved sniper fire. They worked diligently with great professionalism. They uncovered the truth, and they have the thanks of the world. Meanwhile, we see thousands of peacekeepers in blue helmets standing watch around the world from Haiti to the DRC to Cyprus, so that people in countries recovering from conflict and strife can have the chance to build a more hopeful life.
After the Yalta Conference, shortly before the United Nations was founded, President Roosevelt spoke of what it would take to achieve a lasting and durable peace. "The structure of world peace," he said, "cannot be the work of one man or one party or one nation. It cannot be an American peace or a British, a Russian, a French, or a Chinese peace. It cannot be a peace of large nations or of small nations. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world." These words are more true today than ever, whether it's preventing the spread of deadly weapons, promoting democratic governance, or fighting daily battles against poverty and hunger and deprivation. International peace, development, and security will not be achieved by one nation or one group of nations. It must be the work of all of us.
So I want to propose a toast to our host and great friend, Secretary-General Ban, to all those here in New York and around the world who help sustain the United Nations, and to the spirit that we need the cooperative effort of the whole world. Cheers. Salud.
DOD PREPARES FOR GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Memo Prepares DOD Employees for Government Shutdown
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2013 - Although Defense Department officials believe a government shutdown can be avoided when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, they want DOD employees to be prepared for the possibility, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a memo issued to the workforce today.
The fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and Congress has not passed a budget. If Congress does not approve a budget or pass a continuing resolution, the portions of the government funded via appropriated funds will be forced to close.
"The department remains hopeful that a government shutdown will be averted," Carter wrote in the memo. "The administration strongly believes that a lapse in funding should not occur and is working with Congress to find a solution."
Congress still can prevent a lapse in appropriations, but "prudent management requires that we be prepared for all contingencies, including the possibility that a lapse could occur at the end of the month," the deputy secretary wrote.
The absence of funding would mean a number of government activities would cease. "While military personnel would continue in a normal duty status, a large number of our civilian employees would be temporarily furloughed," Carter said. "To prepare for this possibility, we are updating our contingency plans for executing an orderly shutdown of activities that would be affected by a lapse in appropriations."
President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel understand the hardships such a shutdown could cause civilian employees, the deputy secretary wrote.
"The administration strongly believes that a lapse in funding should not occur and is working with Congress to find a solution," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters today. "The secretary has made it clear that budget uncertainty is not helpful for us in executing our budget efficiently, and a shutdown would be the worst type of uncertainty. A shutdown would put severe hardships on an already stressed workforce, and is totally unnecessary."
Carter vowed to provide more information as it becomes available. T
Memo Prepares DOD Employees for Government Shutdown
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2013 - Although Defense Department officials believe a government shutdown can be avoided when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, they want DOD employees to be prepared for the possibility, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a memo issued to the workforce today.
The fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and Congress has not passed a budget. If Congress does not approve a budget or pass a continuing resolution, the portions of the government funded via appropriated funds will be forced to close.
"The department remains hopeful that a government shutdown will be averted," Carter wrote in the memo. "The administration strongly believes that a lapse in funding should not occur and is working with Congress to find a solution."
Congress still can prevent a lapse in appropriations, but "prudent management requires that we be prepared for all contingencies, including the possibility that a lapse could occur at the end of the month," the deputy secretary wrote.
The absence of funding would mean a number of government activities would cease. "While military personnel would continue in a normal duty status, a large number of our civilian employees would be temporarily furloughed," Carter said. "To prepare for this possibility, we are updating our contingency plans for executing an orderly shutdown of activities that would be affected by a lapse in appropriations."
President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel understand the hardships such a shutdown could cause civilian employees, the deputy secretary wrote.
"The administration strongly believes that a lapse in funding should not occur and is working with Congress to find a solution," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters today. "The secretary has made it clear that budget uncertainty is not helpful for us in executing our budget efficiently, and a shutdown would be the worst type of uncertainty. A shutdown would put severe hardships on an already stressed workforce, and is totally unnecessary."
Carter vowed to provide more information as it becomes available. T
NAVY RECOMMENDS SECURITY CHANGES FOLLOWING NAVY YARD SHOOTING
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Navy Recommends Security Changes in Wake of Navy Yard Tragedy
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2013 - The Navy has recommended three changes to security procedures following the Washington Navy Yard shooting Sept. 16 in which a Navy contractor killed 12 people at the facility.
Juan M. Garcia, the assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs, studied the service record of the shooter – Aaron Alexis – to see how his conduct "did or did not meet the threshold for the sustainment of his security clearance and fitness for Naval duty."
One recommendation, which must go to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for approval, is that all Office of Personnel Management investigative reports include any available police documents related to the subject being backgrounded.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has already approved two other recommendations. The first will require command security manager responsibilities be assigned to executive officers or other senior members of commands. Currently, junior officers hold those responsibilities.
The second is to "require senior-level accountability on all detachment of individual evaluations/fitness reports."
A senior Navy official discussed the timeline of Alexis' service and what the Navy knew about security problems during a Pentagon background briefing. Alexis' service went from 2007 to 2011.
"Looking individually at the events, as we knew them at the time, it's very difficult to see a glaring indicator that there is any kind of potential for the events that took place last week, the senior Navy official said.
Many questions were raised about how Alexis, a former sailor and Navy contractor at the time of the shootings, received a secret security clearance. Three years prior to his enlistment, Alexis shot out the tires of a construction worker's vehicle in Seattle. No charges were filed.
Upon entering the Navy Reserve in 2007, OPM initiated an investigation. The check turned up Alexis' fingerprints in the FBI system and investigators became aware of the incident in Seattle. OPM sent investigators to speak to Alexis at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Ill. There was no mention of the incident involving firearms in the OPM report to the Navy.
The OPM report to the Department of the Navy Central Adjudication Facility determined Alexis was eligible for a secret clearance with one caveat – he had negative credit information.
During his Navy service, Alexis received a non-judicial punishment for an unauthorized absence during service with VF-46 in Atlanta, Ga. His unauthorized absence coincided with a brief stay in jail after being arrested for disorderly conduct outside a nightclub.
There were other incidents, but there were no further Article 15s. In one, Alexis discharged a firearm in his quarters. He stated he accidently discharged the weapon while cleaning it.
His commander initiated actions to administratively separate Alexis from the service, but once the charges were dropped, that process stopped.
On December 2, 2010, Alexis requested separation from the service in accordance with a reduction-in-force program. On Jan. 31, 2011, he received an honorable discharge with a reentry code of RE-1 – the most favorable code.
SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT EQUAL FUTURES PARTNERSHIP MEETING
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at a Meeting of the Equal Futures Partnership
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
New York City
September 23, 2013
SECRETARY KERRY: (In progress) and to the distinguished ministers, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for being here, all of you, very, very much. We appreciate it.
As Cathy mentioned, this is the third high-level meeting of the Equal Futures Partnership, and we’re delighted to have former heads of state as well as some other distinguished leaders, foreign ministers. All of you are so (inaudible) to this mission.
Some of you may not be sports aficionados, (inaudible), but I’ll tell you, I can tell you from just common sense that no team can ever win if half of its players are on the bench. And that is effectively where we are in so many parts of the world with respect to women and women’s ability, opportunity, capacity to be able to take part and share in all aspects of society. We know that a country’s economic competitiveness increases as the gender gap decreases, and that’s clear to us in health and education, political participation, and in economic inclusion. And while we’ve made remarkable progress in the first two areas, health and education, I think everybody understands that we’re still far from where we need to be when it comes to civic involvement and also economic opportunity for women. Even here in our country, we still have a huge differential in pay for the same work – the same work, less pay. Those are the barriers that we need to try to continue to break.
And the State Department, which I am very proud to say, has been led by smart, capable, female diplomats for many of the past years – Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright, my immediate predecessor Hillary Clinton. Indeed, I joked that when I came into the building, that part of my task was to prove that a man could still do the job. (Laughter.) But each of those individuals are clear examples of the very powerful impact that women who are involved in civic enterprise and government can have throughout the world. And I’m proud to say my wife here, Teresa Heinz, is here, who is one of the champions of that notion and has been for a long period of time.
The same is true in business. When researchers from the Harvard Business Review conducted a global study of business leadership, they found that women were rated by their peers in fully 12 of the 16 competencies that go into outstanding leadership ahead of men. And despite this fact – pretty good ratio, 12 out of 16 – despite that fact, the study also found that more than 60 percent of business leaders are still men. And the higher you go up the career ladder, the more men you find.
In joining Equal Futures, our nations have committed to taking bold steps to close the gender gap and to sharing the progress that we make with each other so that local practices can be replicated all over the world. And we’ve taken a commitment to try to increase our work with private and public sector partners to remove the obstacles that make it harder for women to get an equal seat at the table.
President Obama and I share powerfully – if you look at our families, we both have two daughters, and two strong wives. I firmly believe, as he does, that the opportunities for women in all of our countries, as they grow, so will the possibility for prosperity, for stability, and most importantly, if you look around the world, for peace. That’s exactly what this partnering here is all about.
And today, I am very pleased to welcome Japan – Fumio, Fumio Kishida, the Foreign Minister of Japan here – thank you very much, Fumio; Italy – Emma Bonino, the Foreign Minister – thank you for being here, Emma; Switzerland, and Mexico. We are delighted to have everybody aboard. These are the newest nations to join this effort, and I know that each of our member countries are going to significantly benefit from your participation.
I also want to welcome Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who – did I get it close to --
MS. MLAMBO-NGCUKA: Close.
SECRETARY KERRY: Close? All right. (Laughter.) Ngcuka – that’s how you say it – who recently became the Executive Director of UN Women, and Dr. Jim Kim, who is the head of the World Bank. And both organizations play really critical roles in the work of the Partnership, and their insights are going to be particularly important as we chart the future for the program.
We are particularly interested in examining how we can better address sexual and gender-based violence. Up to seven of every 10 women in the world report having experienced physical or sexual assault sometime in their lives. Think about that – seven out of 10. It’s plain and simply, flatly unacceptable. It’s an insult. And for women and girls to take advantage of new opportunities, first and foremost they must be able to live free from the fear of violence.
With that goal in mind, I’m proud to announce today, on behalf of President Obama, a new U.S. initiative called Safe from the Start. And our initial commitment of $10 million will help the ICRC, the UNHCR, and other organizations to hire staff to develop new programs to protect women and girls in the face of emergencies and implement these programs as quickly as possible. And I hope this will be one more initiative which brings us all together and that we can all cooperate on.
I want to emphasize that high-level meetings like this are critical to our ability to be able to identify where and how we can generate systemic change. It helps all of us to organize and coordinate our energies to that end. And so I regret that, because of the schedule, I’ll be leaving here to go – I’m meeting shortly with President Obama – but I ask that all of you to feed in in the course of this meeting so that we can have your sense of direction as to how we can best implement this and support the work of Equal Futures over the course of the next months and years.
We look forward very, very much to working to develop a strategic plan for the partnership and to create working groups that break out and pull together a roadmap, if you will, for all of us to embrace and work on over the course of these days. And I – it goes without saying that I think all of us who have come here with this one purpose long for the day when our daughters’ dreams are just as valued as our sons’.
Let me introduce Valerie Jarrett, who has led an extraordinary career through her life. She was the chairman of a business called Habitat Chicago. She was the Commissioner of Planning and Development for the city of Chicago. She was the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Mayor. And somehow, in the course of all of that, she found time to be at two law firms and a whole bunch of other things. Everybody knows she is a very close friend of the President – more importantly, perhaps, in terms of this work, a huge collaborator and leader with respect to these issues, and it’s my privilege to introduce her now.
Thanks, Valerie.
MS. JARRETT: Thank you very much, Secretary Kerry. I want to begin by showing my appreciation for your commitment and strong leadership in promoting the role of women and girls around the world. And good afternoon, everyone. It’s just a pleasure to be here with all of you. It’s good to be back.
This time last year, many of you would recall that I was here with Secretary Clinton, and together we announced Equal Futures with just 12 original nations. And so I’m so happy to return after a year of collective progress and to welcome now 23 additional nations. I’m delighted to report that the United States has made great headway since we gathered at the World Bank in April, and I look forward to hearing about the tremendous work being done by all of our member countries.
It has been a true pleasure for me to work with the President, who really understands the value of empowering women and girls. Whether assessing complex social policy, public safety, or setting economic priorities, President Obama understands the importance of women and girls not just as a President, but as Secretary Kerry alluded to, but as a husband, a loving father of two little girls, and as a son of a single mother. That is why he formed the White House Council on Women and Girls, which I am so proud to chair, and why he is committed to the success of Equal Futures.
Today, I’d like to begin by announcing that in addition to the Safe from the Start initiative just announced by Secretary Kerry, that there are several new efforts that will be launched by the United States to strengthen our Equal Futures commitments and to move us closer to our collective goals.
First, I am thrilled to announce that next spring, President Obama will convene a summit on working families at the White House. In preparation, we are already holding discussions with working families, employers, business leaders, economists, and advocates to seek new ideas for ensuring fair pay for women – women in the United States still only earn 77 cents on the dollar, far less for women of color – encouraging family-friendly workplaces, increasing productivity, and strengthening our economy, all of our goals for the working family summit. Our summit will be an important event, and I’m confident, will lead to bold, concrete actions to strengthen opportunities for working families.
On other fronts, Girls Inc. and Discovery Education are working together to help girls receive science, technology, engineering, and math education that they will need to prepare for high quality, high-paying jobs in the future. NASA and the National Science Foundation are also working in pursuit of this important goal.
Our federal agencies are supplying survivors of domestic violence with the support and the tools that they need to achieve economic independence and regain their lives. The federal government along with our civil partners from George Washington University and MissRepresentation.org are working together to ensure women and girls receive the education and training they need to reach the highest ranks of leadership in government and in elected office.
Private sector partners are also stepping up, and we’re excited to announce a few of those new partnerships here today. Just this month, USAID and the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, signed a Global Memorandum of Understanding committing to work together in support of women’s economic empowerment. The partnership will kick off in Bangladesh, helping 40,000 women farmers there play a more prominent role in agricultural production and marketing.
The Cherie Blair Foundation – and I see Cherie Blair is here with us, thank you for being here – WEConnect International, Intel, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, and the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and the Bluedrop Performance Learning company will help women obtain education, training, and mentoring that they need to start and grow their own businesses in many Equal Future partner countries, including right here in the United States.
I’d like to ask all of our private sector and civil society partners to please stand so that we can recognize you and show our thanks. Please stand. Thank you. (Applause.)
We sincerely look forward to your continued partnership and to the growth of this group as more and more governments and private sector stakeholders commit and invest in the political and economic empowerment of women and girls. I want to thank you all for an impressive first year, and I cannot wait for the years to follow.
And now I’d like to turn it back over to Secretary Kerry.
SECRETARY KERRY: Again, my apologies. I really would like to be here. I think Teresa’s going to stay here and represent me and come back with all the goodies that you’re going to put on the table. But I generally appreciate the expansion of this group in a short period of time and the commitment that has been made here. And to our friends from Mexico and Bangladesh and Belgium and elsewhere, thank you so much for being part of this.
With that, I need to join the President for a meeting, but thank you very much.
MS. JARRETT: Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Madam Ambassador, it’s yours and Valerie’s. Thank you. (Applause.)
As Cathy mentioned, this is the third high-level meeting of the Equal Futures Partnership, and we’re delighted to have former heads of state as well as some other distinguished leaders, foreign ministers. All of you are so (inaudible) to this mission.
Some of you may not be sports aficionados, (inaudible), but I’ll tell you, I can tell you from just common sense that no team can ever win if half of its players are on the bench. And that is effectively where we are in so many parts of the world with respect to women and women’s ability, opportunity, capacity to be able to take part and share in all aspects of society. We know that a country’s economic competitiveness increases as the gender gap decreases, and that’s clear to us in health and education, political participation, and in economic inclusion. And while we’ve made remarkable progress in the first two areas, health and education, I think everybody understands that we’re still far from where we need to be when it comes to civic involvement and also economic opportunity for women. Even here in our country, we still have a huge differential in pay for the same work – the same work, less pay. Those are the barriers that we need to try to continue to break.
And the State Department, which I am very proud to say, has been led by smart, capable, female diplomats for many of the past years – Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright, my immediate predecessor Hillary Clinton. Indeed, I joked that when I came into the building, that part of my task was to prove that a man could still do the job. (Laughter.) But each of those individuals are clear examples of the very powerful impact that women who are involved in civic enterprise and government can have throughout the world. And I’m proud to say my wife here, Teresa Heinz, is here, who is one of the champions of that notion and has been for a long period of time.
The same is true in business. When researchers from the Harvard Business Review conducted a global study of business leadership, they found that women were rated by their peers in fully 12 of the 16 competencies that go into outstanding leadership ahead of men. And despite this fact – pretty good ratio, 12 out of 16 – despite that fact, the study also found that more than 60 percent of business leaders are still men. And the higher you go up the career ladder, the more men you find.
In joining Equal Futures, our nations have committed to taking bold steps to close the gender gap and to sharing the progress that we make with each other so that local practices can be replicated all over the world. And we’ve taken a commitment to try to increase our work with private and public sector partners to remove the obstacles that make it harder for women to get an equal seat at the table.
President Obama and I share powerfully – if you look at our families, we both have two daughters, and two strong wives. I firmly believe, as he does, that the opportunities for women in all of our countries, as they grow, so will the possibility for prosperity, for stability, and most importantly, if you look around the world, for peace. That’s exactly what this partnering here is all about.
And today, I am very pleased to welcome Japan – Fumio, Fumio Kishida, the Foreign Minister of Japan here – thank you very much, Fumio; Italy – Emma Bonino, the Foreign Minister – thank you for being here, Emma; Switzerland, and Mexico. We are delighted to have everybody aboard. These are the newest nations to join this effort, and I know that each of our member countries are going to significantly benefit from your participation.
I also want to welcome Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who – did I get it close to --
MS. MLAMBO-NGCUKA: Close.
SECRETARY KERRY: Close? All right. (Laughter.) Ngcuka – that’s how you say it – who recently became the Executive Director of UN Women, and Dr. Jim Kim, who is the head of the World Bank. And both organizations play really critical roles in the work of the Partnership, and their insights are going to be particularly important as we chart the future for the program.
We are particularly interested in examining how we can better address sexual and gender-based violence. Up to seven of every 10 women in the world report having experienced physical or sexual assault sometime in their lives. Think about that – seven out of 10. It’s plain and simply, flatly unacceptable. It’s an insult. And for women and girls to take advantage of new opportunities, first and foremost they must be able to live free from the fear of violence.
With that goal in mind, I’m proud to announce today, on behalf of President Obama, a new U.S. initiative called Safe from the Start. And our initial commitment of $10 million will help the ICRC, the UNHCR, and other organizations to hire staff to develop new programs to protect women and girls in the face of emergencies and implement these programs as quickly as possible. And I hope this will be one more initiative which brings us all together and that we can all cooperate on.
I want to emphasize that high-level meetings like this are critical to our ability to be able to identify where and how we can generate systemic change. It helps all of us to organize and coordinate our energies to that end. And so I regret that, because of the schedule, I’ll be leaving here to go – I’m meeting shortly with President Obama – but I ask that all of you to feed in in the course of this meeting so that we can have your sense of direction as to how we can best implement this and support the work of Equal Futures over the course of the next months and years.
We look forward very, very much to working to develop a strategic plan for the partnership and to create working groups that break out and pull together a roadmap, if you will, for all of us to embrace and work on over the course of these days. And I – it goes without saying that I think all of us who have come here with this one purpose long for the day when our daughters’ dreams are just as valued as our sons’.
Let me introduce Valerie Jarrett, who has led an extraordinary career through her life. She was the chairman of a business called Habitat Chicago. She was the Commissioner of Planning and Development for the city of Chicago. She was the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Mayor. And somehow, in the course of all of that, she found time to be at two law firms and a whole bunch of other things. Everybody knows she is a very close friend of the President – more importantly, perhaps, in terms of this work, a huge collaborator and leader with respect to these issues, and it’s my privilege to introduce her now.
Thanks, Valerie.
MS. JARRETT: Thank you very much, Secretary Kerry. I want to begin by showing my appreciation for your commitment and strong leadership in promoting the role of women and girls around the world. And good afternoon, everyone. It’s just a pleasure to be here with all of you. It’s good to be back.
This time last year, many of you would recall that I was here with Secretary Clinton, and together we announced Equal Futures with just 12 original nations. And so I’m so happy to return after a year of collective progress and to welcome now 23 additional nations. I’m delighted to report that the United States has made great headway since we gathered at the World Bank in April, and I look forward to hearing about the tremendous work being done by all of our member countries.
It has been a true pleasure for me to work with the President, who really understands the value of empowering women and girls. Whether assessing complex social policy, public safety, or setting economic priorities, President Obama understands the importance of women and girls not just as a President, but as Secretary Kerry alluded to, but as a husband, a loving father of two little girls, and as a son of a single mother. That is why he formed the White House Council on Women and Girls, which I am so proud to chair, and why he is committed to the success of Equal Futures.
Today, I’d like to begin by announcing that in addition to the Safe from the Start initiative just announced by Secretary Kerry, that there are several new efforts that will be launched by the United States to strengthen our Equal Futures commitments and to move us closer to our collective goals.
First, I am thrilled to announce that next spring, President Obama will convene a summit on working families at the White House. In preparation, we are already holding discussions with working families, employers, business leaders, economists, and advocates to seek new ideas for ensuring fair pay for women – women in the United States still only earn 77 cents on the dollar, far less for women of color – encouraging family-friendly workplaces, increasing productivity, and strengthening our economy, all of our goals for the working family summit. Our summit will be an important event, and I’m confident, will lead to bold, concrete actions to strengthen opportunities for working families.
On other fronts, Girls Inc. and Discovery Education are working together to help girls receive science, technology, engineering, and math education that they will need to prepare for high quality, high-paying jobs in the future. NASA and the National Science Foundation are also working in pursuit of this important goal.
Our federal agencies are supplying survivors of domestic violence with the support and the tools that they need to achieve economic independence and regain their lives. The federal government along with our civil partners from George Washington University and MissRepresentation.org are working together to ensure women and girls receive the education and training they need to reach the highest ranks of leadership in government and in elected office.
Private sector partners are also stepping up, and we’re excited to announce a few of those new partnerships here today. Just this month, USAID and the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, signed a Global Memorandum of Understanding committing to work together in support of women’s economic empowerment. The partnership will kick off in Bangladesh, helping 40,000 women farmers there play a more prominent role in agricultural production and marketing.
The Cherie Blair Foundation – and I see Cherie Blair is here with us, thank you for being here – WEConnect International, Intel, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, and the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and the Bluedrop Performance Learning company will help women obtain education, training, and mentoring that they need to start and grow their own businesses in many Equal Future partner countries, including right here in the United States.
I’d like to ask all of our private sector and civil society partners to please stand so that we can recognize you and show our thanks. Please stand. Thank you. (Applause.)
We sincerely look forward to your continued partnership and to the growth of this group as more and more governments and private sector stakeholders commit and invest in the political and economic empowerment of women and girls. I want to thank you all for an impressive first year, and I cannot wait for the years to follow.
And now I’d like to turn it back over to Secretary Kerry.
SECRETARY KERRY: Again, my apologies. I really would like to be here. I think Teresa’s going to stay here and represent me and come back with all the goodies that you’re going to put on the table. But I generally appreciate the expansion of this group in a short period of time and the commitment that has been made here. And to our friends from Mexico and Bangladesh and Belgium and elsewhere, thank you so much for being part of this.
With that, I need to join the President for a meeting, but thank you very much.
MS. JARRETT: Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Madam Ambassador, it’s yours and Valerie’s. Thank you. (Applause.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)