SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON'S SOUTH AFRICAN SPEECH ON "GOING GLOBAL"

State Dept Image / Aug 07, 2012

Secretary Clinton participates in the US-South Africa Strategic Dialogue Plenary Session, in Johannesburg, South Africa

　
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
The United States - South Africa Partnership: Going GlobalRemarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
University of Western Cape
Cape Town, South Africa

August 8, 2012
Thank you all. Please be seated. I want to thank the Archbishop for those introductory remarks and to say Amen, because what he has set the stage for is a time of reflection that I am honored to share with you about the kind of future that we seek for the students of this great university and for all the young people of South Africa and the world. So thank you, Archbishop, and thanks to all the other distinguished guests, including

Ambassador of the United States to South Africa, Ambassador Gips and the Ambassador of South Africa to Washington, Ambassador Rasool, a native of the Western Cape and someone closely associated with this university. In fact, when it was suggested that I deliver a speech in South Africa and we asked the South African Embassy in Washington, there was only one answer – (laughter) – the University of the Western Cape. (Applause.)

And of course, it is a most fitting institution despite the Ambassador’s prejudice – (laughter) – because this distinguished, diverse, and storied university has played such an important role in birthing a new South Africa. At a time when apartheid was deeply entrenched, the faculty and staff of Western Cape took a brave stand against division. Over the years, they were in the vanguard of the struggle for justice, even giving thought to a new constitution. It’s only appropriate that this university and this area of South Africa, which has known both the despair of apartheid and the birth of new freedom, was once called the Cape of Storms before it became the Cape of Good Hope.

I first came to South Africa in 1994 for the inauguration of Nelson Mandela, someone who is of course a great leader and a hero to many, including myself. I sat at the inauguration and watched as jets from the South African Defense Force streaked across the sky, their contrails tinted with all the colors of the new national flag. For decades, those jets had been a powerful symbol of the system of apartheid. But on that day, they dipped their wings in salute to their new commander in chief.

For those of us who witnessed the ceremony, it was a searing moment. Here was a man who had spent 27 years as a political prisoner not far from here, now being sworn in as president. And President Mandela’s journey represented something even larger – his country’s journey, the journey of your parents and grandparents and great grandparents, a long but steady march toward freedom for all its people. Being present at the birth of this new democracy was an experience that not only I, but the world, will never forget.

We are now 18 years removed from that iconic moment. If you’re a student here at UWC, you were probably just a toddler back then. A few of you might not even have been born yet. You didn’t just grow up in a democratic South Africa – you grew up with a democratic South Africa. Today, your country is different from the one I visited in 1994, and so too are the challenges you must confront and the opportunities that are there for the seizing.

In this pivotal time, the United States of America is committed to supporting you. As President Barack Obama said so memorably in Ghana in 2009, the nations of Africa need partnership, not patronage; not strongmen, but strong institutions. And the United States seeks to build sustained partnerships that help African nations, including this one, to fulfill your own aspirations.

I am here on a trip that has taken me from West Africa, to East Africa, to the Horn, and now to the south. In each place, I have seen America’s partners taking charge of solving tough problems. In South Sudan, the new government of a nation only a year old, made a courageous decision to restart oil production for the benefit of its people. In Uganda, I met with soldiers fighting terrorists in Somalia and working to end Joseph Kony’s reign of terror with the Lord’s Resistance Army. In Malawi, I met not only a new female president, Joyce Banda, but also a group of remarkable teenage girls building their skills and confidence, and a group of village women improving their incomes and their families’ futures through banding together in a dairy cooperative.

At every stop, I’ve described how the Obama Administration’s comprehensive strategy with Africa rests on four pillars, which the Archbishop just mentioned: first, promoting opportunity and development; second, spurring economic growth, trade and investment; third, advancing peace and security; and fourth, strengthening democratic institutions.

We are working with your country on all four of these. I have just finished the second Strategic Dialogue between our countries with Foreign Minister Mashabane. During the year, many officials of both of our governments, across many agencies, work together on important issues.

And then we meet annually to review progress in our cooperation. Let me give you just a few brief highlights that help paint a picture of the depth and breadth of our bilateral relationship.

Today at the Delft South Clinic, the United States signed a document with South Africa that marks a major transition in South Africa’s continuing fight against HIV/AIDS. South Africa will become the first country in Africa to plan, manage, and pay for more of your own efforts to combat the epidemic, while the United States will continue to provide funding and technical support through our PEPFAR program.

We also brought a delegation of leaders from American companies like FedEx and Chevron and Boeing and General Electric that are looking to expand their work in South Africa. They met with their counterparts from the South African business community, nearly 200 representatives looking to strengthen our ties commercially.

We launched a new $7.5 million public-private partnership to improve teacher quality that brings together our governments, foundations, and businesses. We announced the start of an opportunity grants program that will help disadvantaged South African students study in the United States. We established a Global Disease Detection Center that will be jointly led by health experts from our two countries. We established a new program to help judges and court systems more effectively combat gender-based violence, and to help South Africa support other countries in the region trying to do the same. And later today, we will complete an agreement with the City of Cape Town to provide high-speed internet access in Khayelitsha Province – or Township.

Now that’s quite a list and there is more to be said, but in short, it represents the work we are doing together, work that goes to the heart of our relationship that is aimed on improving the lives of people, working to eradicate disease, ameliorate and end poverty, working with you to help you solve the challenges you face.

But there is a different aspect of our relationship that doesn’t get nearly enough attention, and that’s how we can work with South Africa and all the nations of Africa to solve those challenges and problems not just within your borders, but across the continent and indeed throughout the world.


Our shared mission is essential to our common security and prosperity and to the fundamental character of the world of the 21st century. This is about your world, the one you will inherit.

Consider some of the problems we face today – an anemic global economy, transnational crime and terrorism, climate change, disease, famine, nuclear proliferation. None of these problems can be solved by any one country acting alone or even by several countries acting together. Each one calls for a global network of partners – governments, businesses, international and regional organizations, academic institutions, civil society groups, even individuals all working in concert. And there cannot be a strong global network unless there are strong African partners.

Now I’ve often heard it said that African problems need African solutions. Well, I’m here to say that some of our global problems need African solutions too. (Applause.) And few nations on this continent can carry as much weight or be as effective partners and leaders as South Africa. (Applause.) You are a democratic power with the opportunity to influence Africa and the world. You have led on nonproliferation at the International Atomic Energy Agency and on climate change at the Durban conference. You’ve led on economic cooperation at the G-20. You’ve led on women’s participation in politics. And a South African woman will soon become chair of the African Union Commission, a first in the history of that organization. (Applause.)

Now all of this is good news for the people of South Africa, this continent, and the world. But respectfully, I say that we and you can, should, and must do more. Two days ago, I had the honor of visiting President Mandela and his wife Graca Machel at their home in Qunu. The man who did so much to shape the history of a free South Africa has never stopped thinking about the future of South Africa. You, the young generation, are called not just to preserve the legacy of liberty that has been left to you by Madiba and by other courageous men and women. You are called to build on that legacy, to ensure that your country fulfills its own promise and takes its place as a leader among nations and as a force for peace, opportunity, equality, and democracy, and to stand up always for human rights at home and around the world.

This is a journey that my own country knows well. Although America and South Africa are certainly different nations with different histories, we have a deep and abiding connection. Like you, Americans know what it takes to begin healing the wounds of oppression and discrimination. We have had leaders, and the Archbishop quoted one – our first president, George Washington – but also Soujourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and so many others who both inspired us and challenged us to live up to our values, to keep faith with the ideals set forth and enunciated at our beginning. We know this work is hard, and it is not only ongoing, it is never-ending. But like you, we are compelled by the arc of our nation’s history to stand up around the world for the values we ascribe to and advance at home.

Now discussions about the rise of emerging powers like South Africa usually start and too often stop with people simply saying, "With great power comes great responsibility." It is worth considering what this really means. Some critics are quick to say, when America says emerging powers have great responsibility, they mean great responsibility to do whatever America wants. Well, I do believe that because of your history, South Africa has an obligation to be a constructive force in the international community just as the United States does. But that obligation has nothing to do with what America or anyone else wants you to do. It has everything to do with who you are. Here in South Africa, you achieved something that few countries have ever done. You proved that it doesn’t take an all-out civil war to bridge the divide between people who grew up learning to hate one another. You showed that the rights of minorities can be protected even in places where the majority spent decades and decades living in oppression. You reminded the world that the way forward is not revenge, but truth and reconciliation.

Of course, you know better than I how much work needs to be done. South Africa faces daunting economic, social, and political challenges, but you have laid the foundation for a society that is more prosperous, more inclusive, more peaceful, more democratic. And the world needs you to contribute much because you already have accomplished much. For nations like ours, the United States and South Africa, doing these things that reflect our values, our histories for our own people can never be enough. We have to look beyond our borders.

So let me highlight some of the ways the United States and South Africa can work together to promote opportunity and development, spur economic growth, trade, and investment, advance peace and security, and strengthen democratic institutions. First, opportunity and development. Even as South Africa responds to your challenges at home, you are supporting your neighbor’s efforts to fight poverty to improve health, to create conditions for more sustainable inclusive growth. You’re working with the Government of Malawi to help farmers learn to use their land more efficiently and raise their incomes. You’re supporting South Sudan in efforts to train judges and strengthen their judicial system and so much more.

The United States and South Africa can share our experiences, pool our knowledge, leverage our resources so both of us get more and better results. For example, we are partnering with the University of Pretoria to train leaders from the public and private sector in other African countries in developing agricultural strategies. This is the kind of partnership we want to see more of, not just with South Africa but with other African countries that are becoming donors as well as recipients of assistance. Tanzania and Ghana, for example, are improving food security throughout East and West Africa. Nigeria has released food supplies to help its neighbors in the Sahel. We are only limited by our imagination. But of course, our goal must be opportunity for all, development for those most in need of lifting themselves and their families and communities out of poverty. If that remains our goal, there are limitless ways we can collaborate together.

The second pillar of our strategy – economic growth, trade, and investment – is another where the world looks to South Africa to play a constructive role in promoting a global economic architecture that benefits everyone. Now of course, that is easy to talk about and the devil is always in the details, whether we’re discussing unfair tariffs or the speed of trade liberalization or local content and ownership share requirements. But our shared interests are greater than any differences. We both want domestic and international rules that protect our workers while attracting investment from abroad. We both want clean and sustainable growth that does not pollute our water or our air. We both want transparency and a level playing field free of corruption. We both want to create jobs at home while promoting a global economic recovery that, as President Kennedy said, lifts all boats.

That’s why the Obama Administration remains committed to renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act with South Africa included before the act expires in 2015. (Applause.) We’re pleased that Congress acted last week to extend the Third-Country Fabric Provision through 2015, which will have enormous benefits for entrepreneurs, especially women, in many of South Africa’s neighbors, and also create jobs in the United States. President Obama will sign this bill as soon as it reaches his desk.

But measures like the African Growth and Opportunity Act will not their reach their full potential, and Africa will not reach its full promise unless African countries break down the barriers with their neighbors. As we have seen from North and South America to East Asia, everyone benefits when neighbors open their markets to each other and take steps to spur regional trade and investment.

But unfortunately, there still is less trade among the countries of sub-Saharan Africa than in any other region of the world. South African leaders have said encouraging words about regional integration; now the region looks to them to help lead the effort to tear down the barriers that often make it easier to export goods halfway around the world than to your neighbors on the continent. President Zuma is picking up the mantle by championing an ambitious north-south infrastructure corridor, enlisting governments, the private sector, and regional organizations to realize that vision that has so often remained elusive – the highway from Cape Town to Cairo. Well, with South Africa in the lead, perhaps I will be able to come back in a few years and actually drive it. (Laughter.)

The third area of our shared agenda is peace and security. Now, South Africa and the United States have not always seen eye-to-eye in this area, particularly at the height of the crises in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire. But the differences we have between us in these moments are over tactics, not principles. And that should not obscure our many shared goals, from supporting the political transition in Somalia to combating piracy, from addressing the threat of terrorism and violent extremism across the Sahel to reinforcing the peace between Sudan and South Sudan.

In one especially crucial area, South Africa has set the standard for the world, stopping nuclear proliferation. As the first country to voluntarily give up nuclear weapons, South Africa speaks with rare authority. You can most convincingly make the case that giving up nuclear weapons is a sign of strength, not weakness. And you can help ensure – (applause) – and you can help ensure that any country that pursues nuclear weapons programs will invite only more pressure and isolation. This means South Africa can play an even greater role on issues like curbing Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons or preventing nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists.

And South Africa also is supported by and supports Africa’s regional institutions in advancing peace and security. We have worked closely with the African Union, which has emerged as an increasingly active force in addressing security challenges from Somalia to Mali to Sudan and South Sudan. And I thank the AU for all their efforts, led by former President Thabo Mbeki, to help broker the oil agreement reached by the two sides last week. Regional organizations like SADC or ECOWAS are engaged as we speak in peace and reconciliation efforts in Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau. More informal arrangements, like the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, are bringing leaders together to tackle the conflict in the Eastern Congo. South Africa plays an important leadership and supportive role in all of this.

Now, the fourth area is protecting human rights and democracy. Americans and South Africans alike pledge ourselves to the proposition that all people everywhere should live with dignity, pursue their dreams, voice their opinions freely, worship as they choose. We want to see all of that come to fruition.

Now, living up to these principles is not easy. No country’s record is spotless, including my own. Right now, many democracies in the global south, including South Africa, are engaged in a vigorous debate. On the one hand, they want to promote democratic values and respect for human rights in other nations. But on the other hand, they are wary of intervention that bears on the internal affairs of those other nations.

Ultimately, we are all called to answer the question about how we live up to these principles that we share, and there are no easy solutions, and one country may not answer that question the same way as another. But we all have to recognize that anywhere in any place where human rights are abused and democracy – true democracy – denied, the international community must apply pressure to help bring about positive change. No one understands that better than the people of South Africa.

So we welcome South Africa’s support last week for the resolution at the UN General Assembly condemning Syria and the Assad regime’s brutal reign of terror. I hope this vote can be the foundation for a new level of cooperation on one of the more urgent questions of our time.

More broadly, at the UN Human Rights Council and other venues, we look to you to help lead the effort to protect universal human rights for everyone. When old friends in power become corrupt and repressive, a decision by South Africa to stand on the side of freedom is not a sign that you’re giving up on old allies. It’s a reminder to yourselves and the world that your values don’t stop at your borders. And I particularly appreciate the leadership role that South Africa and other southern African democracies like Zambia and Botswana can play in supporting the newest democracies. Egypt, Tunisia, South Sudan, Libya, Kyrgyzstan, and others are looking for advice and models. And you can point to a university like this one, which insisted on the freedom to teach whomever and however they saw fit. You can point to the independent trade unions that stood up for workers’ rights and the civil society groups that provided legal counsel and other essential support. You can point to the courageous journalists who insisted on telling the truth even when it invited the government’s wrath.

And here in Africa, the international community has made it clear that the people of Zimbabwe deserve the right to have their voices and votes heard and counted in a free and fair election. Thanks to the efforts of President Zuma and SADC, along with Zimbabwe’s civil society, a draft of a new constitution is nearly complete. Now these same leaders can help accelerate progress toward finalizing and adopting that new constitution through a credible referendum and holding a free and fair election monitored by the international community. (Applause.) And if Zimbabwe’s leaders meet these commitments, the United States is prepared to match action for action. (Applause.)

So in each of these four areas – development, economic growth, peace and security, democracy and human rights – South Africa already embodies so many of the values that the world is looking for. And we look forward to deepening our cooperation. But let us remember no country’s influence is a birthright – not America’s and not South Africa’s. (Applause.) We have our own work cut out for us to keep moving toward and trying to achieve the unachievable more perfect union, to live up to our values, to use our influence and power to help others achieve their own dreams. And if South Africa is to achieve the full measure of your own ambition, you too must face and solve your own challenges in health and education, economic inequality, unemployment, race relations, gender-based violence, the issues that you live with and must address.

These are areas that we too face, and we stand ready to work with you, but only the people of South Africa can make the decisions about how you will solve these problems and overcome these challenges.

Only South Africans can fight corruption. Only South Africans can prevent the use of state security institutions for political gain. Only South Africans can defend your democratic institutions, preventing the erosion of a free press and demanding strong opposition parties and an independent judiciary. Only South Africans can truly preserve and extend the legacy of the Mandela generation.

And these are tasks not just for governments. These are tasks for every citizen – political leaders, teachers, civil servants, entrepreneurs, community activists. And there is a special responsibility for the young people of South Africa, including all the students here today.

Someday soon, you will be making decisions about your future – choosing your career, thinking about whether to start a family. These are deeply personal choices that will shape the life you lead.

But you will also be called on to define the very nature of your citizenship and your country’s approach to your fellow citizens and the world. You will decide whether South Africa moves forward and not backward. You will decide whether South Africa seeks to erase old dividing lines in global politics. You will decide whether South Africa seeks to set aside old suspicions and instincts and embrace new partnerships.



But you will also be called on to define the very nature of your citizenship and your country’s approach to your fellow citizens and the world. You will decide whether South Africa moves forward and not backward. You will decide whether South Africa seeks to erase old dividing lines in global politics. You will decide whether South Africa seeks to set aside old suspicions and instincts and embrace new partnerships tailored to 21st century challenges. Our own partnership – not only between our governments, but between our people – can grow deeper and stronger if both of us remember our respective histories and the obligations they impose if we keep focused on the future and move toward it together.


Nearly 50 years ago, Robert F. Kennedy – a United States senator, attorney general, and champion of civil rights – came to Cape Town and gave a heartfelt speech about South Africa’s place in the world. He painted a vivid picture of the future he envisioned, one where every nation respects universal human rights, promotes social justice, accelerates economic progress, liberates all people to pursue their talents.

South Africa, he said, can play an "outstanding role" in creating that world. And he called in particular on the young people of that time, saying, "This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity."

One of my personal heroines, and a former predecessor as First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt once said that human rights really starts in the small places close to home. It’s easy to talk about the big, sweeping issues, to pledge ourselves to the abstractions of human rights. It’s harder – much harder – to reach deep inside of our hearts and minds to truly see the other, whether that other is of a different race, ethnicity, religion, tribe, national origin, and recognize the common humanity.

I have been in and around politics for a long time. It’s easy to lose sight of the common humanity of those who oppose you. You get to feeling that your way is the right way, that your agenda is the only one that will save the people. And all of the sudden, you begin to dehumanize the opposition and the other.

The greatest lesson I learned about this came from Nelson Mandela. When I came to that inauguration in 1994, it was a time of great political conflict in my own country. My husband was President. People were saying terrible things about us both – personally, politically, every way you could think of. (Laughter.) And I was beginning to get pretty hard inside. I was beginning to think, "Who do they think they are? What can I do to get even?" (Laughter.)

After that inauguration that I described in the beginning, I, along with other dignitaries from all over the world were invited to a great lunch under a huge tent at the President’s house. I had had breakfast there in the morning with President de Klerk, and I came back to have lunch with President Mandela. (Laughter.) Oh, there were so many important people there. Our delegation was led by our Vice President. There were kings and prime ministers and presidents, and just a glittering assembly.

And President Mandela stood to greet us all and welcome us to that lunch. And he said, "I know you are all very important people, and I invite you all to our new country. I thank you for coming. But the three most important people to me, here in this vast assembly, are three men who were my jailers on Robben’s Island." I sat up so straight. (Laughter.) I turned to the person next to me to say, "What did he say?" (Laughter.) He said that the most important people here were three of his jailers.

And he said, "I want them to stand up." And three middle-aged white men stood up. He called them by name. He said, "In the midst of the terrible conditions in which I was held for so many years, each of those men saw me as a human being. They treated me with dignity and respect. They talked to me; they listened. And when I walked out of prison, I knew I had a choice to make. I could carry the bitterness and the hatred of what had been done to me in my heart forever, and I would still be in prison. Or I could begin to reconcile the feelings inside myself with my fellow human beings."

That is the true legacy of President Mandela, calling all of us to complete the work he started, to overcome the obstacles, the injustices, the mistreatments that everyone – every one of us – will encounter at some point in our lives. That is truly what South Africa is called to do, to continue the struggle, but the struggle for human dignity, the struggle for respect, the struggle to lift people up and give children a chance – every boy and girl – to fulfill his or her God-given potential in this beautiful land that has been so blessed.


It’s a burden being an American or a South African, because people expect you to really live up to those standards. People hold us to a higher set of standards, don’t they? And we owe it to all who came before, all who sacrificed and suffered, to do our very best to keep working every single day to meet those standards. But we mostly owe it to our future.

Many things have changed since Robert Kennedy came to Cape Town and Nelson Mandela left Robben’s Island. But some have not. The world we want to build together still demands the qualities of youth and a predominance of courage over timidity. So in that spirit, let us work together so that the values that shaped both our nations may also shape a world that is more peaceful, more prosperous, and more just.

Thank you all very much. (Applause.)

　
SPEECH VIDEO OF SEC. CLINTON LINKED BELOW
http://bcove.me/vgptojbr

The slimmer college grad

The slimmer college grad

NSF ARTICLE ON RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SNOWBELT AND WATER SUPPLIES

Credit: NSF Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory/Jenny Park
FROM: U.S. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Research at NSF's Southern Sierra CZO links snowmelt with downstream water supplies
Discovery
A Tree Stands in the Sierra Nevada
A coniferous view of the link between snowmelt and water supplies in the U.S. West
White fir, ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine. Sugar pine, incense cedar, red fir: These are conifers of the headwater ecosystems of California's Sierra Nevada.

If trees could talk, what tales they might tell of the health of the forests, of the winter snows that fall on their branches and of how much water they transpire to the atmosphere.

Now one tree may be poised to do just that, or at least to offer new insights into a place called the critical zone: the region where rock meets life between the top of the forest canopy and the base of weathered rock.

The Critical Zone Tree, this white fir is called. It's a scientific totem pole that stands tall in the forest of the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (CZO).

The Southern Sierra CZO is one of six such observatories supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Scientists there recently found that winter snow from Sierra blizzards foretells how much water will be at the base of the mountains during the summer.

This is important for people downstream who toil in California's multi-billion-dollar agricultural industry and depend on water from Sierra snowmelt. That water is the source of more than 60 percent of California's supply.

In addition, without torrents of melting snow cascading across hillsides, wildflowers won't bloom, and the birds and bees that need the flowers' nectar can't thrive.

But more and more, the rivers are running dry, running late or running early.

"NSF's CZOs are providing scientists with new knowledge of the critical zone and its response to climate and land use change," says Enriqueta Barrera, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences, which funds the network of six CZOs.

"They're the first systems-based observatories dedicated to understanding how Earth's surface processes are coupled," says Barrera. "The results will help us predict how the critical zone will affect the ecosystem services on which society depends."

The water cycle; the breakdown of rocks and eventual formation of soil; the evolution of rivers and valleys; patterns of plant growth; and landforms we see all result from processes that take place in the critical zone.

"The CZOs are fostering an investigation of the critical zone as a holistic system," says Barrera.

NSF's CZOs are located in watersheds in the southern Sierra Nevada; Boulder Creek in the Colorado Rockies; Susquehanna Shale Hills in Pennsylvania; Christina River Basin on the border of Delaware and Pennsylvania; Luquillo riparian zone in Puerto Rico; and the Jemez River and Santa Catalina Mountains in New Mexico and Arizona.

At the Southern Sierra CZO, "we investigate how the water cycle drives critical zone processes," says lead scientist Roger Bales of the University of California, Merced. "Research focuses on water balance, nutrient cycling and weathering across the rain-snow transition line."

Society has long recognized the importance of water, soil, landforms and rivers to human welfare, says Bales, "but has only recently begun to look at their workings as a coupled system."

Water, vegetation and geochemistry are all interrelated, Bales and other scientists have found, with feedbacks from each influencing the others. But, how are they interrelated?

Enter the Critical Zone Tree--or trees. "In actuality," says Bales, "there are several of them."

The white fir and its coniferous relatives observe Sierra forests from the headwaters of the Providence Creek Basin. The trees and forest floor around them are covered with instruments that measure soil moisture, temperature, snow depth, solar radiation, sap flow and snowmelt patterns.

Beneath them are crisscrossing streams that course through a series of meadows. These rivers and creeks fan out across the mountains, carrying water across hill and dale--water that eventually sustains California's food-producing Central Valley.

The Critical Zone Trees play a starring role in the southern Sierra CZO story. They've become frontrunners for a series of wireless sensors that dot the forest like wildflowers in spring, transforming our understanding of the mountain water cycle.

The network of sensors tracks snowpack depth, water storage in soil, stream flow and water use by vegetation--information that's important for the wise use of water in the arid Mountain West.

"This type of wireless sensor network will revolutionize the way we understand our most important source of water in California--and far beyond," says Bales.

Natural resource managers often lack accurate estimates of precipitation, and the loss of water from the soil from direct evaporation and by transpiration from the surfaces of plants in the mountains. Therefore, they struggle to know how much water to retain in reservoirs, how much to release--and when.

In a future that holds even more uncertainty, the Southern Sierra CZO wireless sensor network will provide water officials with a way to better predict snowmelt runoff.

"This observation system is our window into the future of water availability in the southern Sierras," says Jun Abrajano, NSF acting deputy assistant director for Geosciences.

Climate warming means that more rain and less snow will fall in the Sierras and plant growth will change accordingly. How long will we be able to rely on the Sierra snowpack as a "water tower"?

"An understanding of 'water balance,' made possible by the CZO, is what's needed to predict how whole-scale changes in vegetation cover will affect the future amount and timing of water availability in this region," says Abrajano.

Scientists at the Southern Sierra CZO are finding answers by teasing apart the interconnected strands of critical zone processes. They're asking questions such as: how do variations in landscapes affect the way soil moisture, water use by vegetation, and stream flow respond to snowmelt and rainfall?

Bales and colleagues have found that small temperature differences between rain- and snow-dominated Sierra watersheds result in significantly different timing of runoff in the region's coniferous forests.

For every one degree Celsius increase in long-term average temperature, the scientists believe, runoff will happen seven to 10 days earlier in some locations.

"We've also found that across a broad range of elevations, forests transpire water year-round," says Bales, "with much higher water use than previously predicted."

The results highlight a new link between climate and the deeper subsurface beneath trees.

Getting to the root of water availability, it turns out, may fall in the domain of not one Critical Zone Tree, but across--and under--a whole forest of them.

Follow snowfall and snowmelt in the Sierras beneath The Critical Zone
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_images.jsp?cntn_id=125091&org=NSF

AIR FORCE PILOT FROM THREE GENERATIONS OF COMBAT AIRMEN

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Rose does a preflight check on an F-16 at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, June 28, 2012. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Stephen Hudson
Face of Defense: Third-generation Pilot Flies in Enduring Freedom

By Air Force Tech. Sgt. Stephen Hudson
169th Fighter Wing
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Aug. 6, 2012 - With each sortie that Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Rose flies over Afghanistan, he adds to his family's rich history. As an F-16 pilot assigned to the 157th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron here, he is the third member of his family to fly in combat for the Air Force. His father and grandfather also flew Air Force combat missions.

A 1992 graduate of Texas A&M University, Rose became an Airborne Warning and Control System weapons controller after he received his Air Force commission. He flew with AWACS until he was accepted into pilot training in 1999, and he earned his wings in Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training.

Rose said his father and grandfather have been instrumental in his career and have celebrated his achievements with him. His father commissioned him after college, and his grandfather pinned his original World War II pilot's wings on him at his pilot training graduation. "That was pretty cool," the F-16 pilot said.

His father, retired Air Force Col. Gene Rose III, flew two tours in the Vietnam War. His first tour was as a forward air controller in an OV-10, flying out of the central Vietnamese city of Pleiku and over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. His second deployment was as a B-52 pilot flying out of Thailand.

His grandfather, retired Army Air Corps Capt. Gene Rose Jr., flew C-47s during some of World War II's largest battles in the European theater. As a pilot for cargo carriers, he dropped airborne forces in Sicily and 82nd Airborne Division soldiers during the Normandy invasion on D-Day. Rose said his grandfather died shortly after the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" aired, and had been moved to see the airborne drop scenes were portrayed as he recalled them from his own experience.

Rose said his interest in aviation and the Air Force came from his grandfather, who took him fishing as a child and would tell him stories. He added that while stationed in Italy, his wife took him to Normandy as a birthday surprise. They had a private tour of the area that included sites of the airborne invasion. His guide used a metal detector to find spent U.S. shell casings of American soldiers from where his grandfather's plane would have dropped men.

"I like to think they're from his stick," Rose said.

While deployed here, Rose has been providing close air support to coalition forces on the ground. Rose said the highlight of his current deployment has been working with those troops.

"Hearing the sense of relief in their voice when they need airpower and we're there for them" is the highlight of this deployment, he said.

When his deployment is over, Rose will return to the 169th Fighter Wing at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, S.C., where he will resume his duties as commander of Detachment 1, 20th Operations Group for the active association with the South Carolina Air National Guard and the active duty Air Force.

RECENT U.S. NAVY PHOTOS

FROM: U.S. NAVYSecretary of the Navy (SECNAV) the Honorable Ray Mabus observes nighttime flight operations aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65). Mabus embarked Enterprise during the ship's final deployment as part of a larger visit throughout the region to meet with military and civilian leaders and speak with Sailors and Marines to thank them for their service. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Sam Shavers (Released) 120806-N-AC887-011

Sailors and families leave the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) after the ship moored at Naval Station Norfolk. Abraham Lincoln deployed as part of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 9 to support maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th , 6th and 7th Fleet areas of responsibility. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joshua T. Rodriguez (Released) 120807-N-NX489-200
　

AFGHANISTAN: MARINES PUSHING INSURGENTS OUT

Major General David H. Berger
Commanding General, 1st Marine Division (Forward)FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Marines Continue Pushing Enemy, Teaching Afghan ForcesBy Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2012 - As Marines keep pushing insurgents out of Afghanistan's Helmand and Nimruz provinces, Afghan soldiers and police are taking the reins and protecting the population, the commander of 1st Marine Division (Forward) said today via teleconference from Camp Leatherneck.

The biggest change on the ground in the area is the drawdown of coalition surge forces and the simultaneous buildup of Afghan forces, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. David H. Berger said.

"We're pushing the insurgents out of the populated areas into the periphery and assisting the Afghan police and Afghan army -- helping them get closer to the Afghan people," the general said.

Afghan forces have made tremendous progress in the region, Berger said. When Marines first went into Helmand, he noted, the province had a lot of Marines and a few Afghan forces. "Then, it was an equal partnership," he said, noting Afghan forces will soon be leading operations in the area.

This means the Afghans will decide where to go, they will develop the plans and they will work jointly with coalition forces to "determine what they need in terms of extra equipment, extra forces," Berger explained. The Marine role, he added, is one of support.

Afghan security forces will grow to roughly 352,000. They have the numbers and are developing the expertise to plan, conduct and lead operations, the general said. U.S. and Afghan leaders always compare notes on the insurgent threat in the region.

"We openly share the intelligence we have, and then we decide where we think we can have the most effect on the insurgency, and then decide where we want to use their forces against the threat," he said.

American and coalition forces will continue to work with Afghan forces to develop their capabilities, and the Afghan forces will continue to keep pressure on the insurgents, Berger said. The Afghans, he added, need help in combating improvised explosive devices, the means to evacuate their casualties, and calling in air and fire support.

"All these [tasks] they rely on us, right now," the general said, "but in the future, they will develop their own capabilities, and we will only provide it in extremis when they can't do it themselves.

"We're on the right track," he added. "We have a great working relationship with the Afghan security forces. Everyone here is absolutely confident we are headed in the right direction."

GEN Ray Odierno speaks on where the Army is going

GEN Ray Odierno speaks on where the Army is going

ISAF NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN AUGUST 8, 2012

Photo:  Afghanistan.  Credit:  U.S. Air Force
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Combined Force Arrests Taliban Leader

Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2012 - An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban leader in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Afghanistan's Helmand province today, military officials reported.


The Taliban leader controlled an insurgent cell responsible for multiple attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout the region, officials said.


At the time of his arrest, officials said, the Taliban leader was in the process of acquiring heavy weapons and explosives for future attacks.


The security force also detained one suspected insurgent during the operation, officials said.


In other operations today:
-- In the Chimtal district of Balkh province, a combined force detained one suspect during a search for a senior Taliban leader. The senior leader funds insurgent operations and coordinates attacks throughout the district.

-- A combined force detained numerous suspects during an operation to arrest a Taliban leader in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province. The Taliban leader oversees insurgent activity in the area and provides heavy weapons, improvised explosive devices and ammunition to Taliban-associated insurgents throughout the district.

-- A combined force detained several suspects during an operation to arrest a Taliban leader in the Muqer district of Ghazni province. The Taliban leader is responsible for coordinating Taliban attacks throughout the area.

In other news, officials announced yesterday that Haji Shakur, a Taliban leader in the Chora and Baluchi districts of Uruzgan province, was one of the suspects arrested during a July 31 operation in the Tarin Kot district of Uruzgan province. The operation was conducted by an Afghan security force supported by coalition troops.

Shakur was a mid-level Taliban leader who controlled dozens of insurgent fighters and is responsible for conducting a number of insurgent attacks in both Chora and Baluchi districts. He provided those under his control with ammunition and weapons, and was involved in recruiting local Afghans from the area for the Taliban.

Shakur was also an explosives expert responsible for building IEDs used to attack Afghan and coalition forces.

In operations around Afghanistan yesterday:

-- A combined force detained an insurgent during a route clearance operation in Ghanzi province's Gelan district.

-- In Ghanzi province, a combined force killed an insurgent during a small-arms engagement in the Muqer district.

-- In Kapisa province, a coalition airstrike killed 10 insurgents in the Tagab district.

-- In Khost province, a combined force found and cleared an IED in the Sabari district and another in the Terezayi district.

-- A combined force killed six insurgents during a small-arms engagement in Logar province's Kharwar district.

-- In Logar province's Baraki Barak district, a combined force killed an insurgent who was emplacing an IED.

-- A combined force found and cleared an IED in Nangarhar province's Rodat district.

-- A combined force found and cleared an IED in Paktika province's Bermal district.

Tuskegee Airman donates Congressional Gold Medal to Alaska Reserve unit

Tuskegee Airman donates Congressional Gold Medal to Alaska Reserve unit

UNITED INSTITUTE OF PEACE CHIEF PLEADS GUILTY TO FRAUD IN DEALINGS IN IRAQ

Map Credit:  U.S. State Department

FROM: U.S. SECURITES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Former Chief of Party in Baghdad for the United States Institute of Peace Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Conspiracy

WASHINGTON – The former chief of party in Baghdad for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Robert Nathan Boorda, pleaded guilty to an information unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for conspiring to enrich himself by having USIP award a security contract at a fraudulently inflated price in exchange for a purported monthly consulting fee of $20,000 paid by the contractor, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Boorda was charged by information on Sept. 19, 2011, with one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud, and he pleaded guilty to the charge on Oct. 7, 2011. According to plea documents, Boorda admitted that, from about April 2009 through about June 2009, he and the owner of a security services contracting firm conspired to enrich themselves through Boorda’s recommendation that USIP award a $1.165 million contract for the lease of a villa in Baghdad and security services to that security services company at a fraudulently inflated price, in exchange for Boorda’s receipt of a purported consulting and marketing agreement with the company for a monthly fee of $20,000 for the term of the USIP contract. Boorda admitted that he concealed this agreement from USIP. According to plea documents, the contract was inflated so that Boorda could receive his payment by representing to USIP headquarters that the villa owner would not agree to a monthly rental payment of less than $22,000, when in fact the owner had agreed to $13,000.

The case was investigated by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the Inspector General for the Department of State. It is being prosecuted by Fraud Section Special Trial Attorney Catherine Votaw of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, on detail from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

GUARDSMAN QUALIFIES AT 2012 LUCAS OIL INDIANA GOVERNOR'S CUP

FROM:  U.S. AIR NATIONAL GUARD
U-57 Formularboats.com qualifies at the 2012 Lucas Oil Indiana Governor’s Cup, 62nd Annual Madison Regatta, July 6, 2012. N. Mark Evans, driver, has been behind the wheel since 2010. H1 Unlimited is partner with the Air National Guard Hydroplane Series. (National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Kurt Skoglund/Released)

U.S. AIR FORCE GIVES MEDICAL HELP IN BOTSWANA

FROM: U.S. AIR FORCE
THEBEPHATSWA AIR BASE, Botswana -- Family and community members of Malwelwe village gather to receive medical treatment during a humanitarian civilian assistance Aug. 7, 2012. The HCA was provided by MEDLITE/SOUTHERN ACCORD 12, a key element in a broader series of military-to-military activities that demonstrate the strong partnership between the U.S. and BDF forces. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Lausanne Morgan)

THEBEPHATSWA AIR BASE, Botswana -- U.S. Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Latoya Turner, dental assistant, organizes dental equipment during a humanitarian civilian assistance at Malwelwe village, Aug. 7, 2012. The HCA was provided by MEDLITE/SOUTHERN ACCORD 12, a key element in a broader series of military-to-military activities that demonstrate the strong partnership between the U.S. and BDF forces. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Lausanne Morgan)

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

U.S.-SOUTH AFRICA RELATIONS

Map Credit:  U.S. State Department
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENTThe United States established diplomatic relations with South Africa in 1929, following the United Kingdom's recognition of South Africa's domestic and external autonomy within the British Empire. Until the 1990s, the South African Government followed a policy of white domination over the majority-black population and racial separation (apartheid). From the 1970s through the early 1990s, U.S.-South Africa relations were severely affected by South Africa's racial policies.
Since the abolition of apartheid and 1994 democratic elections, the countries have enjoyed a solid bilateral relationship. South Africa is a strategic partner of the United States, particularly in the areas of security and trade. The two countries share development objectives throughout Africa, and South Africa plays a key economic and political role in the African continent. The United States seeks opportunities for increased U.S.-South African cooperation on regional and international issues. In 2010, the United States and South Africa launched a strategic dialogue aimed at deepening cooperation on the entire range of issues of mutual interest and/or concern.
U.S. Assistance to South AfricaSouth Africa has made remarkable strides toward building a prosperous and peaceful democracy since 1994, but faces many challenges, including unemployment, HIV/AIDS, crime, and corruption. U.S. assistance focuses on improving healthcare, increasing education standards and teacher training, building capacity in agriculture to address regional food security, and developing clean energy to adapt to global climate changes. Improving the capacity of South Africa's security force will enable it to take a lead role in regional stability and security efforts.
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs seek to strengthen small- and medium-sized enterprises, create employment, improve learning and job skills, promote basic education, combat gender-based violence, and promote HIV/AIDS care, prevention, and treatment. In 2010, Secretary Clinton and South African Prime Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane signed a Partnership Framework, creating a five-year plan to tackle HIV/AIDS in South Africa through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Bilateral Economic RelationsU.S.-South African economic and trade relations are strong. South Africa is eligible for preferential trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The country belongs to the Southern African Customs Union, which has signed a Trade, Investment, and Development Cooperative Agreement (TIDCA) with the United States. The TIDCA establishes a forum for consultative discussions, cooperative work, and possible agreements on a wide range of trade issues, with a special focus on customs and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and trade and investment promotion. The United States and South Africa have a bilateral tax treaty eliminating double taxation. A bilateral trade and investment framework agreement has been signed, and discussions on it were renewed in 2011.
South Africa's Membership in International OrganizationsSouth Africa's principal foreign policy objectives are to promote the economic, political, and cultural regeneration of Africa; to promote the peaceful resolution of conflict in Africa; and to use multilateral bodies to ensure that developing countries' voices are heard on international issues. South Africa and the United States belong to a number of the same international organizations, including the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, G-20, and World Trade Organization. South Africa also participates as a key partner in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Enhanced Engagement program.

HEALTHCARE CLINIC ALLEGEDLY UNREPORTED INCOME TO INCREASE MEDICAID REIMBURSEMENT

FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
United States Joins Lawsuit Against San Francisco Area’s North East Medical Services
Federally Qualified Healthcare Clinic Allegedly Failed to Report Income to Increase Medicaid Reimbursement
　
The United States has joined a whistleblower action pending in the Northern District of California against the federally-qualified health center (FQHC), North East Medical Services (NEMS), alleging that the center under-reported income it received from a managed care organization in order to artificially inflate reimbursements it received from the California Medicaid program, the Justice Department announced today. North East serves the San Francisco Bay area.
FQHCs are "safety net" community clinics certified under federal law and licensed under state law to provide medical care to poor and under-served populations. As such a health center, North East Medical Services is entitled to special payments from the California Medicaid program (Medi-Cal) that are significantly more generous than typical Medicaid payments. However, in order to receive these additional payments, NEMS must submit annual reports to Medi-Cal stating the total amount it actually received during the preceding year from any source for treating Medi-Cal enrollees. Medi-Cal then subtracts that amount from the amount that NEMS is entitled to receive as an FQHC and pays NEMS the difference. The government alleges that NEMS significantly under-reported payments it received from a managed care organization for treating Medi-Cal beneficiaries in order to artificially inflate the payments it received from Medi-Cal.
"As health care costs continue to rise, it is more important than ever that health care providers report accurate information to federal and state health care programs," said Stuart Delery, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. "The Department of Justice is committed to cracking down on improper accounting practices such as those alleged in this case, which undermine the integrity of these health care programs and increase the costs of health care for the rest of us."
"Filing claims that improperly inflate reimbursement amounts means there are less funds available for people in need," said Melinda Haag, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. "My office views the actions this defendant allegedly committed as a serious breach of the responsibilities healthcare organizations owe to people in need of medical care and also to the taxpayers who fund these programs. We are committed to doing everything in our power to protect the integrity of the healthcare system."
The whistleblower action, captioned United States ex rel. Trinh v. North East Medical Services, Inc. Civil Action No. 10-1904 (N.D. Cal.), was filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. The False Claims Act allows for private persons to file actions to provide the government information about wrongdoing. Under the statute, if it is established that a person has submitted or caused others to submit false or fraudulent claims to the United States, the government can recover treble damages and $5,500 to $11,000 for each false or fraudulent claim filed. If the government is successful in resolving or litigating its claims, the whistleblower who initiated the action can receive a share of between 15 percent to 25 percent of the amount recovered.
The whistleblower action contained additional allegations. However, the United States is intervening only with regard to allegations that NEMS failed to report certain income on annual reports to Medi-Cal.
The investigation was conducted by the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the California Attorney General’s Office.
The claims asserted in the complaint against NEMS are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

SEC. OF STATE CLINTON'S REMARKS IN SOUTH AFRICA

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at Meeting With U.S. and South African Business Leaders
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Department of International Relations and Cooperation
Pretoria, South Africa
August 7, 2012
Thank you very much, Deputy Director General, and thanks to the two ministers who together, I think, have laid out a very ambitious and promising framework for this growing relationship on the business, trade, and investment side to continue to do so. I want to thank the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and my friend and colleague, Minister Mashabane, and the Department of Trade and Industry and Minister Davies for hosting today’s meeting. I’m delighted to see so many high-ranking American officials and American representatives of business here today.
I appreciate Minister Davies reminding us what I do believe is the keystone to our relationship, and that is that the United States, in our strategy towards Sub-Saharan Africa, is working to build partnerships that add value rather than extract it. And that means that we want to spur efforts for greater economic growth through increased trade and investment in the region. Now we don’t come at this from some kind of altruistic prospectus. We actually think that this is good for American business. We think a strong, thriving economy in South Africa and in the region is good for the people in those countries, and that helps to build a more prosperous, peaceful region and world. That’s in everyone’s interests.
We think increased trade and investment will help create jobs and strengthen economies, and at the same time, help us to reduce poverty and create stability. It also gives us a chance to undergird our very broad strategic relationship with South Africa by the kind of economic growth that is necessary in any democracy. We believe in democracy, our two countries. We’re committed to it. But we also know democracy has to deliver, and when it doesn’t deliver, that raises questions in people’s minds. The best way to answer those questions is for government and business working together in a public-private partnership to deliver the kind of results that both of our peoples deserve.
I’d like to describe just a few steps that we’re taking to strengthen our relationships and why our ties to South Africa are central to this effort. As you’ve already heard, we share a strong economic relationship to build on. The United States exported more than $7 billion to South Africa in 2011, a 30 percent increase from the previous year. This country is obviously our largest export market and largest recipient of foreign direct investment in Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, South African exports to the United States are also increasing by double-digit percentages on a yearly basis. And that 22 billion that represents our two-way trade in 2011 is a 21 percent increase over the prior year.
We’ve heard the number 600 representing the American businesses that have put down roots in this country, but that is growing and we encourage that growth. For instance, Amazon.com recently opened a new customer care center in Cape Town employing 500 people, and Amazon plans to hire 1,000 more by 2013. Or One World Clean Energy, a renewable energy company based in Louisville, Kentucky. One World has built a biorefinery that can simultaneously produce electricity, natural gas, ethanol, and biodiesel from organic material. And this project will employ 250 people in South Africa and also teach us both more about what we need to do to achieve clean, renewable energy. We also know that more American companies are ready to do business here, as the people in this room clearly represent. And as the South African Government works to meet its own infrastructure and energy challenges, there are many new opportunities for trade and investment.
Over the next 20 years, the South African Government aims to double its energy production capacity, more than 40 percent of which they intend to have coming from renewable energy sources. Significant investments will be needed during that time to achieve these kinds of energy goals and also to achieve the goals focused on improving South Africa’s transportation infrastructure.
For our part, the United States Government is taking steps to help American businesses play a role in that effort. A wide range of government stakeholders is helping to strengthen our economic relationship, from USAID to the Trade and Development Agency to the Foreign Commercial Service. And we are working on what I call economic statecraft, trying to bring our entire government together so that it works in a more seamless way to achieve the goals that we have set. That’s why the Export-Import Bank signed a $2 billion declaration of intent with the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa to provide financing of U.S. clean energy exports to South Africa to support the infrastructure improvement efforts.
Additionally, USAID recently announced $150 million of support for small and medium enterprises. This initiative targets our development assistance where it will do the most good for the South African economy. SMEs represent 50 percent of South African GDP and nearly 60 percent of the workforce, and too often we have a kind of split picture. We work with large corporations, some of whom are represented here, who are able to really have an impact in a market. We support microfinance for very small enterprises, often one/two people. But we don’t pay enough attention to where most of the business comes from, and most of the people are employed in so-called small and medium sized enterprises. And we intend to work with you to try to overcome that.
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the South African Department of Transportation are also launching the U.S.-South Africa Aviation Partnership. This effort aims to build South Africa’s aviation workforce and build closer ties between our aviation sectors.
And finally, just last month our Overseas Private Investment Corporation approved $65 million in financing for a new private equity investment fund for South African small businesses. The fund will be managed by one of this country’s most experienced middle market private equity funds managers with strong black economic empowerment credentials.
So we will continue to look for more ways to deepen our economic partnership with South Africa. And I look forward to working with all of you in the future, because I really believe that this kind of effort of meeting and working and networking and building those relationships is really at the core of being able to achieve what both ministers and I have talked about in broad strokes today. Ultimately it’s up to you, the businesses you create, the people you employ, the profits you make that then get plowed back in to creating even more growth and prosperity. And that’s the goal that we all seek.

Thank you. (Applause.)

THE PATTERNS NATURE OF PLANET EARTH AND LIFE

Photo:  Huricane Irene.  Credit:  NASA
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Tale of Two Scientific Fields--Ecology and Phylogenetics--Offers New Views of Earth's Biodiversity
Patterns in nature are in everything from ocean currents to a flower's petal.
Scientists are taking a new look at Earth patterns, studying the biodiversity of yard plants in the U.S. and that of desert mammals in Israel, studying where flowers and bees live on the Tibetan plateau and how willow trees in America's Midwest make use of water.
They're finding that ecology, the study of relationships between living organisms and their environment, and phylogenetics, research on evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms, are inextricably intertwined.
Results of this tale of two fields are highlighted in a special, August 2012 issue of the journal Ecology, published by the Ecological Society of America (ESA). Most of the results reported are funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The issue will be released at the annual ESA meeting, held this year from August 5-10 in Portland, Ore.
Melding information from ecology and phylogenetics allows scientists to understand why plants and animals are distributed in certain patterns across landscapes, how these species adapt to changing environments across evolutionary time--and where their populations may be faltering.
"To understand the here and now, ecologists need more knowledge of the past," says Saran Twombly, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology. "Incorporating evolutionary history and phylogenies into studies of community ecology is revealing complex feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary processes."
Maureen Kearney, also a program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology adds, "Recent studies have demonstrated that species' evolutionary histories can have profound effects on the contemporary structure and composition of ecological communities."
In the face of rapid changes in Earth's biota, understanding the evolutionary processes that drive patterns of species diversity and coexistence in ecosystems has never been more pressing, write co-editors Jeannine Cavender-Bares of the University of Minnesota, David Ackerly of the University of California at Berkeley and Kenneth Kozak of the University of Minnesota.
"As human domination of our planet accelerates," says Cavender-Bares, "our best hope for restoring and sustaining the ‘environmental services' of the biological world is to understand how organisms assemble, persist and coexist in ecosystems across the globe."
Papers in the volume address subjects such as the vanishingly rare oak savanna ecosystem of U.S. northern tier states, revealing an ancient footprint of history on the savanna as well as how it has fared in a 40-year fire experiment.
Other results cover the influence of ecological and evolutionary factors on hummingbird populations; habitat specialization in willow tree communities; growth strategies in tropical tree lineages and their implications for biodiversity in the Amazon region; and the characteristics of common urban plants.
"The studies in this issue show that knowledge of how organisms evolve reveals new insights into the ecology and persistence of species," says Cavender-Bares.
Plants in urban yards, for example, are more closely related to each other--and live shorter lives--than do plants in rural areas, found Cavender-Bares and colleagues.
Their study compared plant diversity in private urban yards in the U.S. Midwest with that in the rural NSF Cedar Creek Long-Term Ecological Research site in Minnesota.
Cities are growing faster and faster, with unexpected effects, says Sonja Knapp of the Hemholtz Center for Environmental Research in Germany, lead author of the paper reporting the results.
"Understanding how urban gardening affects biodiversity is increasingly important," says Cavender-Bares. "Urbanites should consider maintaining yards with a higher number of species."
In the special issue, researchers also look at topics such as what determines the number of coexisting species in local and regional communities of salamanders. Kenneth Kozak of the University of Minnesota and John Wiens of Stony Brook University report that variation in the amount of time salamanders occupy different climate zones is the primary factor.
Evolution of an herbaceous flower called goldfields, and how that led to the plant's affinity for certain habitats, is the subject of a paper by David Ackerly, Nancy Emery of Purdue University and colleagues. Emery is the paper's lead author.

SEC CHARGES PFIZER INC. WITH VIOLATING THE FOREIGN CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES

FROM:  U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C., Aug. 7, 2012 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Pfizer Inc. with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) when its subsidiaries bribed doctors and other health care professionals employed by foreign governments in order to win business.
The SEC alleges that employees and agents of Pfizer’s subsidiaries in Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Serbia made improper payments to foreign officials to obtain regulatory and formulary approvals, sales, and increased prescriptions for the company’s pharmaceutical products. They tried to conceal the bribery by improperly recording the transactions in accounting records as legitimate expenses for promotional activities, marketing, training, travel and entertainment, clinical trials, freight, conferences, and advertising.
The SEC separately charged another pharmaceutical company that Pfizer acquired a few years ago – Wyeth LLC – with its own FCPA violations. Pfizer and Wyeth agreed to separate settlements in which they will pay more than $45 million combined to settle their respective charges. In a parallel action, the Department of Justice announced that Pfizer H.C.P. Corporation agreed to pay a $15 million penalty to resolve its investigation of FCPA violations.
“Pfizer subsidiaries in several countries had bribery so entwined in their sales culture that they offered points and bonus programs to improperly reward foreign officials who proved to be their best customers,” said Kara Brockmeyer, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit. “These charges illustrate the pitfalls that exist for companies that fail to appropriately monitor potential risks in their global operations.”
According to the SEC’s complaint against Pfizer filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the misconduct dates back as far as 2001. Employees of Pfizer’s subsidiaries authorized and made cash payments and provided other incentives to bribe government doctors to utilize Pfizer products. In China, for example, Pfizer employees invited “high-prescribing doctors” in the Chinese government to club-like meetings that included extensive recreational and entertainment activities to reward doctors’ past product sales or prescriptions. Pfizer China also created various “point programs” under which government doctors could accumulate points based on the number of Pfizer prescriptions they wrote. The points were redeemed for various gifts ranging from medical books to cell phones, tea sets, and reading glasses. In Croatia, Pfizer employees created a “bonus program” for Croatian doctors who were employed in senior positions in Croatian government health care institutions. Once a doctor agreed to use Pfizer products, a percentage of the value purchased by a doctor’s institution would be funneled back to the doctor in the form of cash, international travel, or free products.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Pfizer made an initial voluntary disclosure of misconduct by its subsidiaries to the SEC and Department of Justice in October 2004, and fully cooperated with SEC investigators. Pfizer took such extensive remedial actions as undertaking a comprehensive worldwide review of its compliance program.
The SEC further alleges that Wyeth subsidiaries engaged in FCPA violations primarily before but also after the company’s acquisition by Pfizer in late 2009. Starting at least in 2005, subsidiaries marketing Wyeth nutritional products in China, Indonesia, and Pakistan bribed government doctors to recommend their products to patients by making cash payments or in some cases providing BlackBerrys and cell phones or travel incentives. They often used fictitious invoices to conceal the true nature of the payments. In Saudi Arabia, Wyeth’s subsidiary made an improper cash payment to a customs official to secure the release of a shipment of promotional items used for marketing purposes. The promotional items were held in port because Wyeth Saudi Arabia had failed to secure a required Saudi Arabian Standards Organization Certificate of Conformity.
Following Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth, Pfizer undertook a risk-based FCPA due diligence review of Wyeth’s global operations and voluntarily reported the findings to the SEC staff. Pfizer diligently and promptly integrated Wyeth’s legacy operations into its compliance program and cooperated fully with SEC investigators.
In settling the SEC’s charges, Pfizer and Wyeth neither admitted nor denied the allegations. Pfizer consented to the entry of a final judgment ordering it to pay disgorgement of $16,032,676 in net profits and prejudgment interest of $10,307,268 for a total of $26,339,944. Wyeth also is required to report to the SEC on the status of its remediation and implementation of compliance measures over a two-year period, and is permanently enjoined from further violations of Sections 13(b)(2)(A) and 13(b)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Wyeth consented to the entry of a final judgment ordering it to pay disgorgement of $17,217,831 in net profits and prejudgment interest of $1,658,793, for a total of $18,876,624. As a Pfizer subsidiary, the status of Wyeth’s remediation and implementation of compliance measures will be subsumed in Pfizer’s two-year self-reporting period. Wyeth also is permanently enjoined from further violations of Sections 13(b)(2)(A) and 13(b)(2)(B) of the Exchange Act. The settlements are subject to court approval.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Michael Catoe and Charles Cain of the Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit. The SEC acknowledges the assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in this matter.

LOUGHNER PLEADS GUILTY IN TOCSON SHOOTING

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Jared Lee Loughner Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges in Tucson Shooting
Loughner Faces Life in Prison Without Possibility Of Release
Jared Lee Loughner, 23, of Tucson, Ariz., pleaded guilty today in federal district court to charges stemming from the January 8, 2011 shooting outside a supermarket that killed six people and wounded 13 others. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Loughner will be sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole.

　
"It is my hope that this decision will allow the Tucson community, and the nation, to continue the healing process free of what would likely be extended trial and pre-trial proceedings that would not have a certain outcome. The prosecutors and agents assigned to this matter have done an outstanding job and have ensured that justice has been done," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "In making the determination not to seek the death penalty, I took into consideration the views of the victims and survivor families, the recommendations of the prosecutors assigned to the case, and the applicable law."

　
"Given the defendant’s history of significant mental illness, this plea agreement, which requires the defendant to spend the remainder of his natural life in prison, with no possibility of parole, is a just and appropriate resolution of this case," said U.S. Attorney John S. Leonardo. "I hope that today’s resolution of this case will help the victims, their families, and the entire Tucson community take another step forward in the process of healing and recovering from this sad and tragic event."
　
"Today, we remember the victims and their families who tragically lost their lives on January 8, 2011, as well as those in the Tucson community who were greatly affected by this senseless tragedy," stated FBI Special Agent in Charge James L. Turgal Jr., Phoenix Division. "I would like to thank the Pima County Sheriff’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office who we worked side-by-side with on every aspect of this joint investigation. I would also like to thank all of our federal, state and local law enforcement partners for their tireless efforts in this case. The partnerships that we have throughout Arizona enabled the FBI to have a coordinated response which resulted in a comprehensive and thorough investigation—all which has led up to today’s plea agreement."
　
According to the plea agreement, on Jan. 8, 2011, Loughner showed up at Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ "Congress on Your Corner" event outside the Safeway grocery store in Tucson armed with a loaded semi-automatic pistol and carrying three additional magazines containing 60 rounds of ammunition with the intent of killing Congresswoman Giffords and others attending her community event.

　
Shortly after arriving at the event that Saturday morning, Loughner shot Congresswoman Giffords in the head, and then shot several other people who were in attendance. As a result of the shooting, six individuals were killed and 13 people, including Congresswoman Giffords were injured, some seriously.
　
Through a plea agreement, Loughner pleaded guilty to 19 counts of the superseding indictment handed down March 3, 2011, consisting of the following crimes:
　
· The attempted assassination of U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle D. Giffords;
　
· The murders of federal employees U.S. District Court Chief Judge John M. Roll and Congressional Aide Gabriel M. Zimmerman;
　
· The attempted murders of federal employees and Congressional Aides Ronald S. Barber and Pamela K. Simon;
　
· Causing the deaths of Christina-Taylor Green, Dorothy J. Morris, Phyllis C. Schneck, and Dorwan C. Stoddard, all of whom were participants at an activity provided by the United States;
　
· Injuring through the use of a Glock pistol Bill D. Badger, Kenneth W. Dorushka, James E. Fuller, Randy W. Gardner, Susan A. Hileman, George S. Morris, Mary C. Reed, Mavanell Stoddard, James L. Tucker, and Kenneth L. Veeder, Sr., all of whom were participants at an activity provided by the United States;
　
Loughner also admitted that in committing these offenses, he knowingly created a grave risk of death to Carol A. Dorushka, Robert C. Gawlick, Daniel Hernandez, Mark S. Kimble, Patricia R. Maisch, Emma E. McMahon, Owen A. McMahon, Thomas J. McMahon, Sara M. Rajca, Faith M. Salzgeber, Roger D. Salzgeber, Doris Tucker and Alexander J. Villec.
　
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Loughner will be sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences, followed by 140 years in prison, as follows:
　
Loughner will be sentenced to a term of life in prison for each of the following crimes:
　
· The attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle D. Giffords;
　
· The murders of federal employees U.S. District Court Chief Judge John M. Roll and Congressional Aide Gabriel M. Zimmerman; and
　
· Causing the deaths of Christina-Taylor Green, Dorothy J. Morris, Phyllis C. Shneck, and Dorwan C. Stoddard, all of whom were participants at an activity provided by the United States.
　
Loughner will also be sentenced to the maximum term of 20 years in prison for each of the attempted murders of Congressional Aides Ronald S. Barber and Pamela K. Simon.
　
Finally, Loughner will be sentenced to the maximum term of 10 years in prison for injuring through the use of a Glock pistol each of the following:
Bill D. Badger;
· Kenneth W. Dorushka;
· James E. Fuller;
· Randy W. Gardner;
· Susan A. Hileman;
· George S. Morris;
· Mary C. Reed;
· Mavanell Stoddard;
· James L. Tucker; and
· Kenneth L. Veeder, Sr.
　
Convictions for the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, the murder of a federal employee, and causing the death of a participant in a federally-provided activity each carry a maximum sentence of life in prison ( or death in the case of murder), a $250,000 fine or both. A conviction for the attempted murder of a federal employee carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. A conviction for injuring a participant in a federally-provided activity carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. In determining an actual sentence, U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns will consult the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.
　
Sentencing is set before Judge Burns on November 15, 2012, at 10:00 am in Tucson.
　
The investigation in this case was conducted by the FBI and the Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Office. The prosecution is being handled by Wallace H. Kleindenst and Mary Sue Feldmeier, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, District of Arizona, Tucson, with the assistance of C.J. Williams, who served as trial attorney with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Christina M. Cabanillas, Appellate Chief, and Bruce Ferg, Assistant U.S. Attorney (Appellate), District of Arizona, Tucson.

HHS SAYS MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG PREMIUMS WILL REMAIN STEADY

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Medicare prescription drug premiums to remain steady for third straight year
Coverage improves and out-of-pocket savings grow as a result of the health care law

Coverage basic premiums for Medicare prescription drug plans are projected to remain constant in 2013, Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius announced today. The average 2013 monthly premium for basic prescription drug coverage is expected to be $30. Average premiums for 2012 were projected to be $30 and ultimately averaged $29.67. At the same time, since the law was enacted, seniors and people with disabilities have saved $3.9 billion on prescription drugs as the Affordable Care Act began closing the "donut hole" coverage gap.

"Premiums are holding steady and, thanks to the health care law, millions of people with Medicare are saving an average of over $600 each year on their prescription drugs," said Secretary Sebelius.
Today’s projection for the average premium for 2013 is based on bids submitted by drug and health plans for basic coverage during the 2013 benefit year, and calculated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary.

The upcoming annual enrollment period -- which begins Oct. 15 and ends Dec. 7, 2012 – allows people with Medicare, their families and their caregivers to choose their plans for next year by comparing their current coverage and quality ratings to other plan offerings. New benefit choices are effective Jan. 1, 2013.

Because of the Affordable Care Act, out-of-pocket savings on medications for people with Medicare continue to grow. Last month, CMS announced that more than 5.2 million people with Medicare have saved over $3.9 billion on prescription drugs in the Medicare Part D donut hole since the law was enacted. In the first half of 2012, over 1 million people with Medicare saved a total of $687 million on prescription drugs, averaging $629 per person this year.

As a result of the Affordable Care Act, coverage for both brand name and generic drugs in the coverage gap will continue to increase over time until 2020, when the coverage gap will be fully closed. This year, people with Medicare received a 50 percent discount on covered brand name drugs and 14 percent coverage of generic drugs in the donut hole. In 2013, Medicare Part D’s coverage of brand name drugs will begin to increase, meaning that people with Medicare will receive a total of 52.5 percent off the cost of brand name drugs (a 50 percent discount and an additional 2.5 percent in coverage) and coverage for 21 percent of the cost of generic drugs in the donut hole.

MOST AMERICANS ARE WALKING ACCORDING TO THE CDC

FROM: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
Six in 10 adults now get physically active by walking

Less than half get enough physical activity to improve their health

Sixty-two percent of adults say they walked for at least once for 10 minutes or more in the previous week in 2010, compared to 56 percent in 2005, according to a new Vital Signs report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, less than half (48 percent) of all adults get enough physical activity to improve their health, according to data from the National Health Interview Survey. For substantial health benefits, the CDC recommends at least 2 ½ hours per week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity, such as brisk walking. This activity should be done for at least 10 minutes at a time.

"More than 145 million adults are now getting some of their physical activity by walking," said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "People who are physically active live longer and are at lower risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression and some cancers. Having more places for people to walk in our communities will help us continue to see increases in walking, the most popular form of physical activity among American adults."

The Vital Signs report notes that increases in walking were seen in nearly all groups surveyed. Walkers were defined as those who walked for at least one session of 10 minutes or more for transportation, fun or exercise. In the West, roughly 68 percent of people walk, more than any other region in the country. People living in the South had the largest increase in the percentage of people who walk, up by nearly 8 percentage points from about 49 percent in 2005 to 57 percent in 2010. The report also found that more adults with arthritis or hypertension are walking; there was no increase in walking among adults with type 2 diabetes.

"It is encouraging to see these increases in the number of adults who are now walking," said Joan M. Dorn, Ph.D., branch chief of the Physical Activity and Health Branch in CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. "But there is still room for improvement. People need more safe and convenient places to walk. People walk more where they feel protected from traffic and safe from crime. Communities can be designed or improved to make it easier for people to walk to the places they need and want to go."

The report highlights ways to provide better spaces and more places for walking. These include:
State and local governments can consider joint use agreements to let community residents use local school tracks or gyms after classes have finished.
Employers can create walking paths around or near the work place and promote them with signs and route maps.
Citizens can participate in local planning efforts that identify best sites for walking paths and priorities for new sidewalks.

CURIOSITY HAS LANDED: LETS PARTY

FROM: NASA
Landing Event
On August 5, 2012 thousands of NASA enthusiasts turned out to support the
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) event at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett
Field, Calif. Photo Credit: NASA Ames Research Center / Eric James

STATE DEPARTMENT DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFYzDlKeLL_IMEm7XBQrYQa1f17Zg

U.S. CONTRIBUTES $41 MILLION TO UN FOR REFUGEES

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
State Department Contributes Additional $41 Million to the United Nations High Commissioner for RefugeesMedia Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
August 7, 2012
The United States is pleased to announce its third contribution this fiscal year toward the 2012 operations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). With this contribution of more than $41 million, the United States is providing to-date approximately $720 million to the organization, including more than $100 million toward emergency appeals for vulnerable populations from Syria, Sudan, and Mali. These contributions are funded through the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, and help advance UNHCR initiatives worldwide.
U.S. funding will support protection and life-saving assistance as well as refugee repatriation, local integration, and resettlement. U.S. funding supports the provision of water, shelter, food, healthcare, and education to refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and other persons under UNHCR’s care and protection in countries such as South Sudan, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Chad, Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon.
The most recent contribution will support UNHCR’s Annual and Supplementary Program activities listed below:
AFRICA $25 MILLION, SYRIA REGIONAL $9.6 MILLION, GLOBAL OPERATIONS $1.5 MILLION, HEADQUARTERS $2.8 MILLION AND,  ASIA/PACIFIC $1.9 MILLION

We continue to salute the vital work of UNHCR, its many partner non-governmental organizations (NGO), and refugee-hosting countries in providing protection to displaced populations around the world.

LIBERTARIAN LEADER CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL WARNS OF WAR WITH SYRIA

FROM: CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL'S WEBSITE
Moving toward War in Syria
Last week the House passed yet another bill placing sanctions on Iran and Syria, bringing us closer to another war in the Middle East. We are told that ever harsher sanctions finally will force the targeted nations to bend to our will. Yet the ineffectiveness of previous sanctions teaches us nothing; in truth sanctions lead to war more than they prevent war.
Until last year, Libyan sanctions were touted as a great success story. The regime would change its behavior. Yet NATO bombed the country anyway.
Last week we learned that President Obama signed an intelligence "finding" directing the CIA to covertly assist rebels in Syria. The administration seems determined to fight yet another war in Syria that has nothing to do with American national interests.
We already know that a similar "finding" was signed under the latest Bush administration directing US intelligence to undermine the Iranian government and promote regime change there. Neoconservatives have long demanded that we overthrow the Syrian government before moving on to war against Iran. This bellicosity continues regardless of which party is in the White House.
In Syria we see once again we see how our interventionist policies backfire and make us less secure. Recent news reports point to ties between the Syrian opposition and al-Qaeda (and other extremist groups). A recent article in the Guardian, a British newspaper, exclaimed that, "Al-Qaida turns tide for rebels in battle for eastern Syria." The article quotes an al-Qaeda leader in Syria saying that he meets with the main US-backed Syrian rebel organization, the Free Syrian Army, "almost every day." So by promoting civil war in Syria we end up fueling al-Qaeda.
According to another recent press report, German intelligence services estimate that nearly 100 terrorist attacks have been committed by al-Qaeda or related organizations in Syria over the past six months. Last month a suicide bomber in Syria killed a defense minister and several top government officials. The US government, which has been fighting a "War on Terror" for more than a decade now, refused to condemn that act of terrorism.
This raises the question of whether the US administration is supporting the same people in Syria that we have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed these same concerns earlier this year when asked whether the US has been reluctant to arm the Syrian rebels. She answered, "To whom are you delivering them? We know al-Qaida. Zawahiri is supporting the opposition in Syria. Are we supporting al-Qaida in Syria?"
That is a very good question. It clearly demonstrates that the United States has no business at all being involved in the Syrian civil war. In the 1980s we supported a resistance movement in Afghanistan that later gave birth to elements of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. When will we learn our lesson and stop intervening in conflicts we don’t truly understand, conflicts that have nothing to do with American national interests?