Wednesday, July 16, 2014

ASSISTANT AG CALDWELL TESTIFIES BEFORE SENATE COMMITTEE ON "BOTNET" THREAT

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell Testifies Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism
Washington, D.C. ~ Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Good afternoon, Chairman Whitehouse, Ranking Member Graham, and Members of the Subcommittee.  Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee today to discuss the Department of Justice’s fight against botnets.  I also particularly want to thank the Chair for holding this hearing and for his continued leadership on this important issue.

The threat from botnets—networks of victim computers surreptitiously infected with malicious software, or “malware,” that are controlled by an individual criminal or an organized criminal group—has increased dramatically over the past several years.  The computers of American citizens and businesses are, as we speak, under attack by individual hackers and organized criminal groups using state-of-the-art techniques seemingly drawn straight from a science fiction movie.  Unfortunately, this cybercrime wave is all too real.  Botnet attacks are intended to undermine Americans’ privacy and steal from unsuspecting victims.  If left unchecked, they will succeed.

The Department of Justice, working through highly trained prosecutors and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, recognizes this threat, and is working day and night to protect our citizens, our national security interests, and our businesses.  We responsibly employ the investigative and remedial tools Congress has given us, and we leverage our strengths by teaming up with partners across the federal government and, where appropriate, in the private sector and foreign law enforcement.  As in the recent disruption of the Gameover Zeus botnet, which I will discuss more later, we find ourselves matched against increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals, and must evolve our tools and tactics minute-by-minute to prevent further harm to innocent victims.

Our successful effort to suppress the Gameover Zeus botnet should remind us that those who use botnets to cause harm are increasing in number and sophistication, and we cannot expect continued success if we merely rest on our laurels.  The Department is armed with the laws and resources that we have been granted, but those tools must be updated and enhanced.  If we want to remain effective in protecting our citizens and businesses, our laws and our resources must keep pace with the tactics and numbers of our adversaries.  Our adversaries are always adapting.  So must we.  In my testimony, I will outline several legislative proposals that will assist the Department in its efforts to counter the threat posed by botnets.  Finally, I will outline our resource needs—in particular the need for additional specialized criminal prosecutors.

Current DOJ Anti-Botnet Activities

Cybercrime overall has increased dramatically over the last decade, and caused enormous financial damage and innumerable invasions of Americans’ privacy.  The advances in computing technology that have powered our economy have also empowered those who seek to do us harm.  Today, cyber criminals can steal personal and financial information from tens of millions of citizens in a single breach.  To be sure, thefts of such information were committed long before the digital revolution.  But stealing ten million credit card numbers previously would have required burglarizing thousands of stores, whereas now it can be done from a basement with a laptop.  And some crimes have been uniquely adapted in the digital age.  For example, in a new, disturbing twist on extortion, hackers have secretly activated the cameras on victims’ laptop computers, taken compromising pictures or videos, and demanded payments not to expose those pictures or videos to the public.  All the while, technological advances, including advances designed to protect privacy, such as anonymizing software and encryption, are being used to frustrate criminal or civil investigations and, perversely, protect the wrongdoers.  Our cyber crimefighters must be equipped with the tools and expertise to compete with and overcome our adversaries.

Over the same time period, botnets have emerged as a major threat.  Sometimes called “botmasters” or “botherders,” cyber criminals who control botnets can use advances in communications technology to take control of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of victim computers, or “bots.”  They can then command the computers they control to, for example, deluge an internet site with junk data, overwhelming it and knocking it offline.  They may conduct such distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks out of malice, as ideological attacks on those with whom they disagree, or even as a paid service to other criminals.  They can also use the infected bots to steal banking credentials, credit card numbers, and other financial information.  They can use them to send spam—email messages that range from advertising for illegal and dangerous pharmaceutical products, to fraud schemes aimed at artificially inflating the price of stocks, to “phishing” messages that gather sensitive information.  Moreover, cybercriminals can use botnets to engage in other online crime by using their networks of infected computers as “proxies.”  This activity allows such criminals to conceal their identity and location while they commit crimes that range from fraud and theft of data to drug dealing and the sexual exploitation of children.

Botnets pose a threat to the United States, our citizens, and our businesses that must not be underestimated.  By hijacking numerous victims’ identities, credit cards, and bank accounts, criminal groups already have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars.  And every day cyber criminals violate the privacy of Americans on a staggering scale, by stealing financial information, personally identifiable information, login credentials, and other information from victims who often do not even realize their computers have been compromised.  Because botnets can be so lucrative, their designers use sophisticated code, locate their servers in countries around the world, and employ the latest in encryption methods—all designed to frustrate personal and corporate cybersecurity efforts, and to prevent law enforcement from responding effectively.  Indeed, recent cases and ongoing investigations reveal that botnets are used by criminals halfway around the world to commit crimes of a scope and sophistication that was difficult to imagine only a few years ago.

To counter this significant and complex threat, the Justice Department is vigorously responding to botnets and other cybercrimes through the tenacious work of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, also known as CCIPS, and the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Coordinators and National Security Cyber Specialists in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country.  These prosecutors, along with colleagues in the National Security Division (NSD), form a network of almost 300 Justice Department cybercrime prosecutors.  In addition, the FBI has made combating cyber threats one of its top national priorities, working through Cyber Task Forces in each of its 56 field offices and continuing to strengthen the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force.  The FBI has also moved aggressively to counter the botnet threat through Operation Clean Slate, a major FBI initiative designed to identify and eliminate the most significant criminal botnets.  The United States Secret Service also focuses on cyber threats to financial networks and the personal financial information of Americans.  Through a network of 35 Electronic Crimes Task Forces across the country and in key foreign countries, Secret Service investigations have resulted in the arrest and successful prosecution of the criminals responsible for some of the largest data breaches.  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), through the HSI Cyber Crimes Center (C3), has also dedicated significant resources to equip its Special Agents with the tools and knowledge necessary to combat transnational cybercrime.

The Department’s response to botnets takes two tracks, often at the same time.  First, whenever possible, we seek to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate the criminals who use botnets to victimize Americans.  For example, in January 2014, Aleksandr Andreevich Panin, a Russian national, pled guilty in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia to conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud for his role as the primary developer and distributor of the malicious software known as “SpyEye.”  According to industry estimates, SpyEye has infected over 1.4 million computers in the United States and abroad.  SpyEye secretly infected victims’ computers and enabled cyber criminals to remotely control them through command and control servers.  Designed to automate the theft of confidential personal and financial information, such as online banking credentials, credit card information, usernames, passwords, PINs, and other personally identifying information, SpyEye was the preeminent malware toolkit used from approximately 2009 to 2011.  Panin sold versions of the SpyEye virus to other criminals for prices ranging from $1,000 to $8,500.  Panin is believed to have sold the SpyEye virus to at least 150 “clients” who, in turn, used it to set up their own botnets.  One of Panin’s clients alone was reported to have stolen over $3.2 million in a six-month period using SpyEye.  Panin is awaiting sentencing, and four of his clients and associates were arrested by foreign law enforcement agencies.

Similarly, in federal court in New York in May 2014, Michael Hogue pled guilty, and an indictment was unsealed against Alex Yucel, in connection with their development of a particularly insidious piece of computer malware known as Blackshades.  This malware was sold and distributed to thousands of people in more than 100 countries and was used to infect more than half a million computers worldwide.  Once installed on a computer, the malware could collect the user’s financial information and even turn on the computer’s camera to spy on the unsuspecting user.  An individual who helped market and sell the malware and two Blackshades users who bought the malware and then unleashed it upon unsuspecting computer users were also charged and arrested in the U.S.  The charges and guilty plea were part of a law enforcement operation involving 18 other countries.  More than 90 arrests have been made so far, and more than 300 searches have been conducted worldwide.  

Arresting and convicting key players can disrupt criminal enterprises, but such actions are not always sufficient to counter the threat, particularly given the transnational nature of cybercrime.  They also will not always remedy the harm caused by a botnet.  Accordingly, the Department has pursued a second approach to botnets:  the use of seizures, forfeitures, restraining orders, and other civil and criminal legal process to dismantle criminal infrastructure.  In cases such as Gameover Zeus, Blackshades, and a 2011 case involving the Coreflood botnet, the Department used these legal authorities, with judicial authorization and oversight, to wrest domains and servers from cyber criminals’ control, prevent infected computers from communicating with the criminals’ command and control infrastructure, and liberate hundreds of thousands of computers.

In May of this year, CCIPS, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the FBI, in partnership with other federal and private-sector organizations, disrupted a botnet that illustrates the magnitude of the threat.  Before it was disrupted, the Gameover Zeus botnet was widely regarded as the most sophisticated criminal botnet in existence.  One common and sinister method used by Gameover Zeus was a “man-in-the-middle” attack, in which victims trying to access websites for purposes such as online banking were tricked into entering login credentials, passwords, and other personal information that communicated that information to criminals at the same time they were passed onto their destination.  With the click of a mouse, the botmasters then used this stolen information to rob small businesses, hospitals, and other victims, transferring funds from victim accounts to their own accounts.  From September 2011 through May 2014, Gameover Zeus infected between 500,000 and 1 million computers and caused more than $100 million in financial losses.  In one case alone, nearly $7 million was fraudulently transferred from a regional bank.  Other victims included an Indian tribe, a corporation operating assisted living facilities, and a composite materials company.

Gameover Zeus was also used to install Cryptolocker—a type of malware known as “ransomware”—on infected computers.  Cryptolocker enabled cyber criminals to encrypt key files on the infected computers.  Victims then saw a splash screen on their computer monitors, telling them that their files were encrypted and that they had three days to pay a ransom, usually between about $300 and $750, if they wanted to receive the decryption key.  The victims found themselves confronted with the loss of critical data, such as family photographs or essential business records.  In the short period between its emergence in mid-to-late 2013 and the disruption action in May 2014, the Cryptolocker malware infected more than 260,000 computers worldwide.  Many victims simply paid the ransom that was demanded of them.  These victims included the police department of Swansea, Massachusetts, which paid approximately $750 to recover its investigative files and arrest photographs.  Others refused to pay the ransom and tried to defeat the malware.  A Pittsburgh insurance company was eventually able to restore data from a backup, but only after incurring an estimated $70,000 in losses and sending employees home during remediation.  A Florida company lost critical files, which resulted in an estimated $30,000 in loss.  And a North Carolina business, whose main files and backup were both encrypted, lost its critical files despite engaging a computer forensics firm to try to restore its access.  That company has lost about $80,000, and the owner told the FBI that he may have to lay off employees as a result.

Disrupting and mitigating these threats requires determination, technical skill, and creativity.  In response to previous efforts to disable botnets, the creators of the Gameover Zeus botnet designed a novel and resilient structure, including three distinct layers of command and control infrastructure that rendered the botnet particularly difficult to overcome.  The Department’s successful disruption began with a complex international investigation conducted in close partnership with the private sector.  It continued through the Department’s use of an inventive combination of criminal and civil legal process to obtain authorization to stop infected computers from communicating with each other and with other servers around the world.  The operation simultaneously targeted all three command and control layers of Gameover Zeus, and stopped Cryptolocker from encrypting additional computers.  The investigation and court-authorized operation ultimately permitted the team not only to identify and charge one of the leading perpetrators, but also to stop the botnet and ransomware from functioning.  Moreover, the FBI was able to identify victims and, working with the Department of Homeland Security, foreign governments, and private-sector partners, facilitate the removal of malware from many victim computers.  Disclosure to, and engagement with, the public was critical to this remediation effort.  DOJ and DHS released a technical alert to raise awareness of the botnet and lay out resources available to help affected entities minimize the damage.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance to our anti-botnet efforts of the cooperation of foreign governments and our U.S. government and private-sector partners.  In every case I have mentioned, foreign law enforcement services took carefully coordinated steps worldwide to disrupt the scheme and investigate the offenders, by seizing servers, interviewing subjects, making arrests, and providing evidence to U.S. investigators.  The Department has devoted substantial resources to building the relationships with foreign law enforcement partners that made these coordinated efforts possible.  The FBI, for example, maintains more than 60 legal attachés in embassies around the world.  The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provides immeasurable legal support to evidence collection and extradition.  CCIPS conducts training programs to help our allies develop cyber laws, and our federal law enforcement partners work to improve investigative capacities.  Due in large part to our extensive engagement with, and training of, foreign criminal prosecutors and law enforcement officers, we have developed highly productive international relationships that are critical to the success of our investigations and prosecutions.

One factor has harmed our relationships with foreign law enforcement agencies, however:  our inability to rapidly respond to foreign requests for electronic evidence located in the United States.  Our capacity to do so simply has not kept up with the demand.  The President’s budget for fiscal year 2015 requests additional prosecutors, together with support personnel, to be assigned to the Criminal Division and to United States Attorneys’ Offices to streamline and facilitate the process of handling Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) requests between the United States and its law enforcement partners around the world.  The FY 2015 request, if granted, will enable the Department to meet the Administration’s commitment to cut MLAT response times in half by the end of 2015 and reduce the amount of time to comply with legally sufficient requests to a matter of weeks, as well as to strengthen the Department’s relationships with our foreign law enforcement partners, particularly in regard to cyber investigations.

Like the value of our relationships with foreign law enforcement, the expertise, dedication, and cooperation of private-sector entities have been crucial to our success.  For example, security researchers develop highly specialized expertise in particular botnets and help develop countermeasures that match the botnets in sophistication.  Their technical contributions are truly astounding.  Private-sector companies also serve a critical function when they notify victims that their computers have been compromised and supply the tools needed to clean up those computers.  Because the vast majority of the internet is owned and operated by the private sector, we simply could not conduct anti-botnet operations without the firm commitment of network service providers to protecting their customers.

Proposals to Enhance Anti-Botnet and other Cyber Capabilities

The Department is dedicated to using innovative means to target increasingly complex botnet threats as they emerge.  But there is a lot more work to be done, and we ask that Congress continue its support of these critical efforts.  I would like to highlight some of the Department’s legislative and budgetary proposals that would enhance our ability to identify botnet perpetrators, bring them to justice, disrupt their criminal enterprises, and protect the security, privacy, and property of Americans.

Department prosecutors rely on criminal statutes to bring cyber criminals to justice and to halt their criminal activity.  One of the most important of these laws is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, also called the “CFAA.”  The CFAA is the primary Federal law against hacking.  It protects the public against criminals who hack into computers to steal information, install malware, and delete files.  The CFAA, in short, reflects our shared baseline expectation that people are entitled to have control over their own computers and are entitled to trust that the information they store in their computers remains safe.

The CFAA was first enacted in 1986, at a time when the problem of cybercrime was still in its infancy.  Over the years, a series of measured, modest changes have been made to the CFAA to reflect new technologies and means of committing crimes and to equip law enforcement with tools to respond to changing threats.  But the CFAA has not been amended since 2008, and the intervening years have again created the need for the enactment of modest, incremental changes.  The Administration’s May 2011 legislative proposal proposed revisions to keep Federal criminal law up to date.  We continue to support changes like these that will keep up with rapidly evolving technologies and uses.

In addition, our investigations of those responsible for creating and using botnets and our efforts to disrupt botnets rely substantially on the availability of legal investigative process pursuant to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”).  ECPA governs the Department’s access to much of the electronic evidence necessary to investigate botnets, hold perpetrators accountable, and develop methods to free unsuspecting victims.  It is essential to the success of our anti-botnet initiatives, and to our efforts against cybercrime as a whole, that the government maintain the ability to obtain relevant electronic evidence in a responsible, timely and effective manner.

Selling Access to Botnets

In the years since 2011, experience has revealed additional shortcomings in the criminal law.  For example, while botnets can be used for various nefarious purposes, including theft of personal or financial information, the dissemination of spam, and DDOS attacks, the creators and operators of botnets do not always commit those crimes themselves.  Frequently they sell, or even rent, access to the infected computers to others.  The CFAA does not clearly cover such trafficking in access to botnets, even though trafficking in infected computers is clearly illegitimate, and can be essential to furthering other criminal activity.  We thus propose that section 1030(a)(6) of the CFAA be amended to cover trafficking in access to botnets.

In addition, section 1030(a)(6) presently requires proof of an intent to commit a financial fraud.  Such intent is often difficult—if not impossible—to prove because the traffickers of unauthorized access to computers often have a wrongful purpose other than the commission of fraud.  Indeed, sometimes they may not know or care why their customers are seeking unauthorized access to other people’s computers.  This reality has made it more challenging in many cases for our prosecutors to identify a provable offense, even when we can establish beyond a reasonable doubt that individuals are selling access to thousands of infected computers.  We therefore recommend that Congress amend section 1030(a)(6) of the CFAA to address this shortcoming.

Enhancing Judicial Authority to Disrupt Botnets and other Malware

Under current law, two federal statutes, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1345 & 2521, give the Attorney General the authority to bring civil suits against defendants who are engaged in or “about to” engage in wiretapping or the violation of specified fraud crimes. [1]   See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1345(a), 2521.  The court is then empowered to enjoin the violation, “or take such other action, as is warranted to prevent a continuing and substantial injury to the United States or to any person or class of persons for whose protection the action is brought.”  18 U.S.C. § 1345(b); see also 18 U.S.C. § 2521.  Due process is ensured by the balancing test applied by the court to determine whether an injunction is appropriate and by the applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

These authorities played a prominent role in the Department’s successful disruptions of the Coreflood botnet in 2011 and the Gameover Zeus botnet in 2014.  These botnets collected online financial account information as it was transmitted from infected computers, thus violating the Wiretap Act, and the criminals used their access to steal from victims’ bank accounts, which constitutes wire and bank fraud.  Because these botnets violated statutes against fraud and wiretapping, courts were authorized to issue orders under sections 1345 and 2521 that permitted the United States to take corrective action necessary to disrupt them.

No analogous statutory authority exists, however, for violations of the CFAA that do not involve fraud or the interception of communications.  As a result, the law does not provide a clear statutory remedy for the government to use against botnets or other types of malware that criminals employ for other purposes, such as DDOS attacks.  Similar to frauds and illegal wiretaps, these types of computer hacking—which are prohibited under section 1030—present serious threats that can cause severe and continuing damage as long as they persist.  We would welcome the opportunity to work with the Committee to ensure that the law appropriately addresses this challenge.

Criminalizing the Overseas Sale of Stolen U.S. Financial Information

To ensure that we can take action when cyber criminals acting overseas steal data from U.S. financial institutions, we also recommend a modification to what is known as the access device fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1029.  One of the most common motivations for criminal hacking is to obtain financial information.  The access device fraud statute proscribes the unlawful possession and use of “access devices,” such as credit card numbers and devices such as credit card embossing machines.  Not only do lone individuals commit this crime, but, more and more, organized criminal enterprises have formed to commit such intrusions and to exploit the stolen data through fraud.

The Department of Justice recommends that the statute be expanded to enable prosecution of offenders based in foreign countries who directly and significantly harm United States financial institutions and citizens.  Currently, a criminal who trades in credit card information issued by a U.S. financial institution, but who otherwise does not take one of certain enumerated actions within the jurisdiction of the United States, cannot be prosecuted under section 1029(a)(3).  Such scenarios are not merely hypothetical.  United States law enforcement agencies have identified foreign-based individuals selling vast quantities of credit card numbers issued by U.S. financial institutions where there is no evidence that those criminals took a specific step within the United States to traffic in the data.  The United States has a compelling interest in prosecuting such individuals given the harm to U.S. financial institutions and American citizens, and the statute should be revised to cover this sort of criminal conduct.

Enhancing Resources to Combat Botnets and other Cyber Threats

This last May, the Department submitted to Congress a multiyear cyber threat strategic plan.  The report identified six strategic initiatives:

Ensure that all of DOJ's investigators and attorneys receive training on cybercrime and digital evidence.
Increase the number of digital forensic experts and the capacity of available digital forensic hardware.
Enhance DOJ's expertise in addressing complex cyber threats.
Improve information sharing efforts with the private sector.
Expand and strengthen relationships with international law enforcement and criminal justice partners on cybercrime to enhance the sharing of electronic evidence.
Enhance capacity in the area of cyber policy development and associated legislative work.
The plan repeatedly highlighted the disruption of botnets as a key priority.  In order to properly address the threat of botnets and other cybercrimes, components across the Department, such as CCIPS, NSD, and the United States Attorneys’ Offices, need additional resources.

The Department confronts an increasing demand for its anti-cybercrime expertise.  CCIPS, for example, conducts its own prosecutions, receives requests for consultation of its attorneys or digital investigative analysts, provides advice to law enforcement agencies, engages with the private sector regarding the implementation of investigative authorities, and delivers domesic and international training.  This escalation in activity is due in part to the ever-expanding nature of the cyber threat.  Prosecutorial needs have also resulted from the expansion of investigative efforts, as the FBI has increased its resources in support of the Next Generation Cyber Initiative to enhance the technical capabilities of investigative personnel, increase cyber investigations, and improve cyber collection and analysis.

The Department would like to thank the Senate for its continued support of our national security-related cyber efforts, including fiscal year 2014 funding increases that are allowing the Department to hire more than a dozen additional national security cyber professionals, including attorneys, in furtherance of our efforts to combat cyber-based terrorism and nation state-sponsored cyber intrusions.  Just this summer, thanks in part to your support, those efforts yielded historic results, with the indictment of five members of the Chinese military on charges of cyber-based economic espionage.  Cyber threats to the national security continue to evolve, and to outpace our growth, but the Department is committed to following the facts and evidence where they lead to detect, deter, and disrupt them.  We look forward to continuing to work with you on this front.

Conclusion

I very much appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you the Department’s efforts to combat botnets.  We are committed to using all available tools to disrupt these networks and bring perpetrators to justice, as we seek to protect Americans’ security, privacy, and property.    
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Department’s work in this area, and I look forward to answering any questions you might have.

MILK PRODUCTION RESEARCH AT USDA

USDA Week in Review July 11

ATTORNEY TO PAY ALMOST $4 MILLION FOR ORCHESTRATING PRIME BANK INVESTMENT SCHEME

FROM:  U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 
Florida-Based Attorney Ordered to Pay Nearly $4 Million in Court Judgment of Prime Bank Investment Scheme Case

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a federal judge has ordered a Miami-based attorney to pay nearly $4 million in a consent judgment of an SEC case against him for orchestrating a prime bank investment scheme. The money will be returned to harmed investors.

Bernard H. Butts Jr. was charged by the SEC in September 2013 for acting as an escrow agent for a supposed international trading program that raised approximately $3.5 million from investors. However, the program didn't really exist, and Butts instead doled out investor funds to enrich himself and others. The SEC obtained an emergency order in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to freeze the assets of Butts and his companies Bernard H. Butts Jr. PA and Butts Holding Corporation before investor proceeds could be fully dissipated.

The Honorable Jose E. Martinez issued an order dated July 10, 2014, requiring Butts and his companies to pay $1,691,608 in disgorgement and $96,232.99 in prejudgment interest as well as a penalty of $2,059,284.19. Butts and his wife Margaret A. Hering also must pay an additional $100,000 in disgorgement and $4,570.82 in prejudgment interest.

The SEC will return the money to investors through a Fair Fund. More than $1.9 million already has been deposited from accounts belonging to Butts and his companies into the registry of the court following the asset freeze instituted at the SEC's request last year. And the court's order requires the transfer to the court of more than $2 million separately seized by the U.S. Secret Service from accounts belonging to Butts and his companies. The SEC will then submit a plan to the court for distribution of these collected funds back to investors.

Butts has consented to be barred from the securities industry or offering penny stock, and agreed to be suspended from practicing as an attorney on behalf of any entity regulated by the SEC.

For additional information, please see Litigation Rel. No. 22792 (Sept. 9, 2013).

AG HOLDER DELIVERS REMARKS AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY FOR 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 
Attorney General Holder Delivers Remarks at Howard University for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Civil Rights Act
~ Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Thank you, President [Wayne] Frederick, for those kind words – and thank you all for such a warm welcome.  It is a pleasure to be here on the beautiful and historic campus of Howard University – one of our nation’s great historically black institutions of higher learning, and home to generations of leaders and role models.  I’d like to thank the Howard University Color Guard for being a part of this celebration, and Bert Cross II for that exceptional rendition of the national anthem.  I also want to recognize Ambassador [Andrew] Young – a tireless advocate for the rights of all Americans and a proud graduate of this university.  And I want to thank every member of the Gay Men’s Chorus, who will share their talents with us later this morning, for helping to make this event so special.

I am also mindful, as we gather today, of the leader we lost this past Friday.  John Seigenthaler was a passionate journalist, a lifelong defender of the First Amendment, and a fierce civil rights advocate.  He was a top aide to my predecessor as Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, and later served as his pallbearer. He risked his life alongside the Freedom Riders and called forcefully for civil rights protections at a time when most Southern journalists turned a blind eye.  He was a remarkable man and a singular voice for the cause of justice; a guiding light and an inspiration to many – including me.  I count myself as extremely fortunate to have known John Seigenthaler, and extend my heartfelt condolences to his family.  He will be dearly missed.  But his critical work goes on.

It’s a privilege to be among so many distinguished guests, including fellow members of the President’s Cabinet; Howard faculty and administrators; accomplished trailblazers in the fight for civil rights; and young people who will carry on the work we commemorate – and build on the singular achievement we celebrate – here today.

Half a century ago this month – with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others at his side – President Lyndon Johnson marked an inflection point in a struggle that predated our Republic when he signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.  It was a struggle that had begun more than three centuries earlier, in 1619, with the arrival of roughly 20 captive Africans in Jamestown, Virginia.  And it continued through the expanding colonization of North America.

By 1763, the colonial population included roughly 300,000 Africans, the overwhelming majority of whom were slaves.  Yet it wasn’t until a century later that our greatest president issued an Emancipation Proclamation providing a legal framework for the eventual release of many slaves – and secured the Thirteenth Amendment, which finally struck this evil from our Constitution.  Even then, Jim Crow laws and other measures were engineered to keep millions of African-Americans effectively in bondage, slavery by another name, for a century more.  And intimidation and violence were routinely employed to prevent them from becoming educated, to keep them from voting, and to stop them from mixing with the white majority.

Finally, 60 years ago this May, when Chief Justice Earl Warren led a unanimous Supreme Court to declare, in Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation was unconstitutional, our nation took an important step to reconcile not only two races, but two histories –  two Americas – that had been intensely separate, and profoundly unequal, since long before the American Revolution.  And ten long years after that – as long-simmering injustice gave way to activism and principled action – the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was adopted to forever enshrine American equality into American law.

This historic measure barred discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and national origin.  It instituted critical employment protections.  It outlawed discrimination in public accommodations, including schools and workplaces, and prohibited unequal application of voter requirements.  In so doing, it greatly expanded the mandate of the Department’s Civil Rights Division, which to this day is committed to enforcing the Civil Rights Act and upholding the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans –  particularly society’s most vulnerable members.  The new statute also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as well as the Community Relations Service, which assists vulnerable populations and promotes healing in times of disorder and distress.

Securing this law was an extraordinary undertaking – born of a consensus wrought by decades of hard work and profound sacrifice.  It required two great presidents – John F. Kennedy, who called on us to confront a moral crisis and fulfill a national promise; and Lyndon Johnson, who took action, after President Kennedy’s assassination, to make that promise real.  It required a Congress with the fortitude to stand up to those who defended a way of life founded on bigotry and oppression.  It required leaders of conviction – from Medgar Evers to Dr. King; from John Lewis to Andrew Young – who were willing to risk, and even to give, their lives in order that others might live free.  And most of all, it required men, women, and even children of tremendous courage – and unwavering faith – to endure the unendurable and advance the cause of justice.

These are the heroes whose legacy we celebrate on this milestone anniversary.  These are the pioneers on whose shoulders we now stand.  And these are the trailblazers to whom we pay grateful tribute this morning.

Of course, like all who are old enough to remember those days – when northern cities erupted and Mississippi burned – I will never forget the turmoil, and the violence, that characterized the Civil Rights Era.  I will never forget watching, on a black-and-white television in my childhood home in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York, as countless people – rich and poor, black and white, famous and unknown –  braved dogs and fire hoses, billy clubs and baseball bats, bullets and bombs, in order to secure the rights to which every American is entitled.

These extraordinary citizens streamed into Birmingham and marched on Washington.  They stood up in Little Rock and sat-in in Greensboro.  They faced riots in Oxford and walked through a schoolhouse door in Tuscaloosa.  They dared, during America’s “long night of racial injustice,” to dream of a more equal society.  And they risked everything they had to make it so.

This was the fight that, half a century ago, brought nearly a thousand students to Mississippi for a voter registration campaign called Freedom Summer – as the battle for civil rights was waged in the halls of Congress and thundered across the streets of America.  Inch by inch, the nation as a whole moved slowly forward towards equality.  But Mississippi and other states continued to stand in stubborn, racist opposition.  Registrar offices instituted voting tests and other measures that made it almost impossible for black men and women to go to the polls and vote.  Citizens – and even sworn police officers – fought racial equality and threatened African Americans who dared step into voting booths.  Newspapers published the names of registered black voters so they could be targeted – and terrorized – by those who harbored hatred.  Yet hundreds of young people came to Mississippi – in defiance of these threats and in the face of deadly violence – to help extend our democracy’s “most basic right” to people of color.

In the ten weeks of Freedom Summer, more than 65 buildings were bombed or burned.  Hundreds of civil rights workers were beaten and arrested.  And three brave young men – Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner – were brutally murdered.

Yet violence did not send the activists running, as its perpetrators had hoped.  Instead, it galvanized them – and the nation.  More and more brave Americans joined the cause – both residents of these communities and students of all races from across the country.  When they saw that African-Americans were being deprived of quality educational opportunities, they established Freedom Schools to teach black history, to facilitate discussion, and to encourage political activism.

 These young people devoted themselves to the hope – as Michael Schwerner’s widow, Rita, once wrote – that they could pass on to the next generation “a world containing more respect for the dignity and worth of all men than that world which was willed to us.”  The senseless murders of Rita’s husband and his two colleagues, one black and one white, in a case that became known as Mississippi Burning, and which remains open to this day – captured headlines and sparked outrage across the country.  Their tragic deaths moved public opinion, spurred cautious politicians to take long-overdue action, and intensified support for the Civil Rights Act. But their efforts also made possible the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the Fair Housing Act of 1968; and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, along with countless other movements for progress.  And although Michael and Rita Schwerner never had the chance to have children of their own, their work – and the efforts of their friends and fellows – left a better world for me, for my children, and for millions more.

As we mark this anniversary, I am especially mindful that, without the Civil Rights Act, the protections it codified, or the monumental progress that followed, few of us would be here this morning.  And without the sacrifices of countless activists and citizens, I would not stand before you as Attorney General of the United States, proudly serving in the Administration of our first African-American President.

I am just as mindful that none of this progress was preordained.  We know from our history that advances toward equality and inclusion have never been inevitable.  Every step forward has been hard-won.  The words of our founding documents were not automatically imbued with the force of law.  And our nation’s future continues to be defined, and its destiny determined, by men and women of both character and conviction; by courageous people who are unafraid to stand up for what they know to be right;  and by patriots who never shrink from the responsibility to draw this country ever closer to its highest ideals.

Like you, my colleagues – at every level of today’s Department of Justice – and I are determined to do everything in our power to further these efforts, to protect and expand the work of those who have gone before, and to extend America’s promise to new generations and populations that have been too long disenfranchised, overlooked, and oppressed.  Half a century after its passage, the Civil Rights Act continues to provide an arsenal of singularly useful tools in waging this struggle.  And as we speak, the Justice Department is using provisions of this important law both aggressively – and innovatively – to confront civil rights challenges old and new.

Earlier this year, our Civil Rights Division relied on the 1964 Act to reach a $99 million employment discrimination settlement with the New York City Fire Department – the largest such employment settlement to date – ensuring that all applicants can fairly compete for jobs, and that New Yorkers are protected by the best-qualified among them.  In 2012, the Department used provisions of the Act to address harassment against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students in a Minnesota school district, establishing a model for other districts to follow.  We are currently employing other provisions to fight for gender equality in education and in the workplace.  And we’re finding that, in a variety of cases and circumstances – from ensuring that schools provide safe and equal opportunities to all of our sons and daughters, to guaranteeing access to state courts for those with limited English proficiency – the Civil Rights Act offers powerful enforcement authorities to address contemporary challenges and safeguard vulnerable people.

Beyond the Act itself, the Justice Department has worked with our partners throughout the Administration – most notably the Department of Education, led by Secretary Arne Duncan, and the Department of Labor, led by Secretary Tom Perez, who not long ago led – and, in fact, helped to revive – our own Civil Rights Division, ushering in what I’m confident will be considered an era of historic achievement for the Division.  Alongside these other agencies, we have worked hard to build on the spirit of the law by winning new legislation – and judicial rulings – that extend the promise of equality to others.  We’ve secured additional protections for women, Latinos, Asian Americans, American Indians, and people with disabilities.  And we’ve achieved historic progress in ensuring the civil rights of LGBT individuals across the country – so they can finally receive the equal opportunities, equal protection, and equal treatment they deserve.

All of this is important, life-changing work.  It speaks to the timelessness of the Civil Rights Act itself, the continuing relevance of its core provisions, and the need to keep expanding upon the safeguards it provides.  But it also shows that our work is far from over.  Significant challenges remain before us.  And each one of us – every American – has a great deal more to do.

Although we can be proud of the progress that’s been made even within our lifetimes, we cannot accept these advances as an indication that our work is complete, that our long journey has been successfully concluded.  Progress is not an end; it is a measure of effort and of commitment.  As we speak, in far too many neighborhoods, far too many people of color and far too many LGBT individuals are denied credit and housing.  In the workplace, far too many women are deprived of the opportunity to perform equal work for equal pay, earning on average only 77 cents for every dollar earned by their male colleagues.  In our education system, students of color are far more likely than white children to attend poorly-funded schools. In the criminal justice system, African-American men are routinely subjected to sentences averaging 20 percent longer than those served by white men convicted of similar crimes.  And when it comes to our most treasured democratic institutions, many vulnerable populations – including young people, the elderly, and communities of color – are now facing a range of new restrictions, leveled under the dubious guise of voter fraud prevention, that create significant barriers to the ballot box.

If these and other conditions – from lower social and economic mobility, to reduced educational opportunities, to unequal justice and unfair outcomes – were felt so acutely by the majority of Americans, I believe our national dialogue, and our responses to these problems, would be very different.  As it stands, our society is not yet colorblind; nor should it be, given the disparities that still afflict and divide us.  We must be color brave and must never forget that all are made better and more prosperous if all are given equal opportunities.

That’s why, today – together – we must resolve once again to act not out of self-interest, but out of national interest.  We must take into account not only the considerable steps forward we’ve seen over the last 50 years, but the entirety of the experience that people of color have faced.  And we must never hesitate to confront the fact, the undeniable truth, that in too many places across this nation that I love – and have served throughout my life – that the echoes of injustices stretching back nearly four centuries continue to reverberate.  These echoes from times past are still heard by too many.

In addressing these lingering effects, there is a need for personal responsibility.  Too many individuals act in ways that are negligent or counterproductive.  But there is also a need for societal responsibility; for collective engagement and common effort.  We must be willing to acknowledge the problems we face, to talk frankly about inequality, and to examine its causes and its impacts and, most importantly, to act to eradicate it.  And we must look at our great nation, and reflect on its history, with clarity and with honesty – with open eyes and deep understanding of who we have been, who we aspire to be, and who we are today.

This is the key to perfecting our Union – and formulating policies that will lead to a better, brighter future for all of our citizens.  This is what drives the Obama Administration’s sweeping efforts to ensure that every American has the chance to succeed based on his or her skills, talent, and potential –  not by the circumstances of their birth.  But this is something we’ll never be able to do on our own.

Today, I am calling on Congress to renew the spirit of the Civil Rights Act – by updating fair housing and lending laws to address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital status;   by strengthening workplace protections to prohibit pay discrimination against women and to finally end discrimination against LGBT individuals; by ensuring equal access to education and promoting nondiscriminatory learning environments; and by passing updated voting rights legislation that will enable every voter, in every jurisdiction, to exercise – unencumbered – the rights that so many have fought and died to defend.

After all, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an attempt – and a highly successful one – to confront fundamental questions that had bedeviled this nation since its inception, and that justifiably generate controversy even today.  This morning, we are reminded that carrying on this work; advancing the cause of justice; and ensuring the civil and human rights of every person – no matter where they come from, who they are, or who they love – continues to constitute our most solemn obligation.

The true greatness of this country lies in our limitless capacity for innovation and invention – for rebirth and renewal; for forging greater societies and reaching new frontiers.  As a people, we have never been content to tie ourselves to an unjust status quo, no matter how many individuals may find it acceptable.  We challenge; we question; we struggle; we quarrel.  We bind ourselves to the ongoing quest for a better future.  And ultimately, we move forward together – as one nation, indivisible – driven by our pursuit of a more perfect Union and determined, come what may, to achieve it.

That, at its core, is what defines us as Americans: a people born of revolution and tested by civil war.  A nation founded on equality but built by those in chains.  A country first imagined, centuries ago, by imperfect people driven by a near-perfect vision – a vision conceived by patriots who dared to reach beyond themselves and defended later by activists who fought for equal justice – and who challenge us, even today, to make this promise real.

To them – as to generations yet to come – we owe our best efforts and our deepest resolve.  We must take up this challenge and implement this vision.  And we must build, in their honor, a world that is worthy of their passion, their sacrifice, and their humanity.

Like you, I have no illusions that this task will be easy.  But as I look around this crowd today – of passionate men and women, dedicated to truth and devoted to service – I am confident of our ability to reach that promised land.  I thank you for your commitment to progress and to the pursuit of justice.  And I look forward to all that we must, and will, accomplish in the months and years ahead.  As a nation, as the beloved community, as a united people, we shall overcome.

Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY'S PRESS AVAILABILITY IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Press Availability in Vienna, Austria
Press Availability
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Vienna, Austria
July 15, 2014

SECRETARY KERRY: Good morning, everyone. I want to first thank the extraordinary team of diplomats and experts who have been on the ground here for weeks and who have been working tirelessly, actually, for many months in these negotiations. And I’m talking about both our American team as well as our colleagues from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China, and Iran, and particularly I would like to thank Baroness Cathy Ashton of the European Union and her team, whose stewardship of these negotiations has been indefatigable and superb.

In today’s world, it’s an understatement to say that diplomacy is difficult. But diplomacy is our preference for meeting the challenges that we do face all over the world, knowing even as we do that solutions are rarely perfect and nor do they all come at once. But that has never deterred us from pursuing the diplomatic course, and that is exactly what we are committed to doing and doing now.

President Obama has made it a top priority to pursue a diplomatic effort to see if we can reach an agreement that assures that the Iranian nuclear program is exclusively peaceful. In that effort, we have built a broad coalition of countries, including our P5+1 colleagues, to ensure that the international community is speaking with one voice. Despite the difficulties of these negotiations, I am confident that the United States and our partners in the P5+1 remain as squarely focused as ever on testing whether or not we can find a negotiated solution to this most pressing international security imperative.

Over the past few days, I have had lengthy conversations with Foreign Minister Zarif about what Iran is willing to do and what it needs to do to not only assure the community of nations, but to adhere to what the foreign minister himself has said repeatedly are Iran’s own limited objectives: not just to declare that they will not obtain a nuclear weapon, but to demonstrate in the actions they take beyond any reasonable doubt that any Iranian nuclear program, now and going forward, is exclusively for peaceful purposes.

In these conversations, and indeed over the last almost six months since the Joint Plan of Action took effect, we have made progress. We have all kept the commitments made in the Joint Plan, and we have all lived up to our obligations. We have all continued to negotiate in good faith. But after my conversations here with both Iran and with our P5+1 partners in particular, it is clear that we still have more work to do.

Our team will continue working very hard to try to reach a comprehensive agreement that resolves the international community’s concerns. I am returning to Washington today to consult with President Obama and with leaders in Congress over the coming days about the prospects for a comprehensive agreement, as well as a path forward if we do not achieve one by the 20th of July, including the question of whether or not more time is warranted, based on the progress we’ve made and how things are going.

As I have said, and I repeat, there has been tangible progress on key issues, and we had extensive conversations in which we moved on certain things. However, there are also very real gaps on other key issues. And what we are trying to do is find a way for Iran to have an exclusively peaceful nuclear program, while giving the world all the assurances required to know that Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon.

I want to underscore: These goals are not incompatible. In fact, they are realistic. But we have not yet found the right combination or arrived at the workable formula. There are more issues to work through and more provisions to nail down to ensure that Iran’s program will always remain exclusively peaceful. So we are going to continue to work and we’re going to continue to work with the belief that there is a way forward.

But – and this is a critical point – while there is a path forward, Iran needs to choose to take it. And our goal now is to determine the precise contours of that path, and I believe we can.

With that, I’d be happy to take a few questions.

MS. HARF: The first question is from Jo Biddle of the AFP. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. You said that you’re returning to Washington for further consultations with President Obama, but you did say that the July 20th deadline is still on the table. How confident are you that you can get an agreement by July 20th? And if we’re talking about an extension, have you any idea how long that could be?

And I wanted to ask you about reports that – today quoting Mr. Foreign Minister Zarif that the Iranians are proposing a freeze on a nuclear program for a few years in return for being later treated as a country with a peaceful nuclear energy.

SECRETARY KERRY: I’m sorry. That got garbled in – take – hold the mike a little bit away.

QUESTION: Sorry.

SECRETARY KERRY: A little bit away, sorry.

QUESTION: There was a report in The New York Times today, an interview with Foreign Minister Zarif, in which he suggested that the Iranians have proposed freezing their nuclear program for a few years in return for being treated later as a country with a peaceful nuclear civilian energy program. Does this meet any U.S. demands or is this one of the real gaps that you’re still talking about?

And if I may, can I just ask you about the crisis in Gaza as well? Did you talk with Foreign Minister Zarif about this? Are you asking the Iranians to use their leverage with Hamas? And what could the United States do to try to achieve an implementation of a ceasefire which Hamas appears to have rejected? Thank you very much.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, with respect to the issue of July 20th, yes, it’s obviously still on the table and we’re still working, and we’re going to continue to work. The team will be here. They’ll continue to meet. And I will, as I said, go back to Washington to talk to the President and also our team back there in order to assess where we think we are with respect to the progress that we have made.

As I said, we have made progress, and there is work still to do, and we believe there is a path forward, so let’s see what happens in the next hours and days. I’m obviously prepared to come back here if we have the team say to me that there’s a reason to do so, but I have no plans to do so as I leave to go back to Washington to consult with the President.

With respect to the issue of the – what was in The New York Times and the question of a gap or no gap, I am definitively not going to negotiate in public. I’m not going to comment on any stories with respect to substance one way or the other. The real negotiation is not going to be done in the public eye; it’s going to be done in the private meetings that we’re having, and it is being done there. And I might add these are tough negotiations. The Iranians are strong in their positions. They understand what their needs are, we understand what ours are. Both are working in good faith to try to find a way forward.

And as I said, I think we’ve made some progress. Obviously, there’s more work to do. We’ll assess where we are in the next few days and make judgments at that point in time. And we don’t do this, obviously, exclusively. We are part of a team, the P5+1. Our partners, all of them, weigh in equally in this decision, and we need to be consulting as we go forward.

With respect to Gaza, let me say a few words. I cannot condemn strongly enough the actions of Hamas in so brazenly firing rockets in multiple numbers in the face of a goodwill effort to offer a ceasefire in which Egypt and Israel have joined together, and the international community strongly supports the idea of a ceasefire, the need – the compelling need to have a ceasefire. At the same time, there are great risks in what is happening there and in the potential of an even greater escalation of violence. We don’t want to see that – nobody does – and nor does Israel.

But Israel has a right to defend itself, and it is important for Hamas not to be provoking and purposefully trying to play politics in order to gain greater followers for its opposition, and use the innocent lives of civilians who they hide in buildings and use as shields and put in danger. That is against the laws of war and that’s why they are a terrorist organization. So we need to remember what is at stake here, and we will continue to work for a ceasefire.

Now at the moment, one of the reasons I’m going to Washington and not to Egypt, just to answer possibly another question ahead of time, is because there was this offer on the table, and we believe that it was important to give this offer an opportunity. And I still think perhaps reason could prevail if the political wing can deal with the military wing and Egypt can have some leverage. Let’s see what happens.

But we are prepared, as the United States is always prepared – and President Obama has said this again and again – to do everything in our power to help the parties come together to work to create a climate for genuine negotiations to be able to deal with the issues that truly separate these parties, and we stand prepared to do that. I am prepared to fly back to the region tomorrow if I have to, or the next day or the next, in order to pursue the prospects if this doesn’t work. But they deserve – the Egyptians deserve the time and the space to be able to try to make this initiative work, and we hope it will.

We urge all parties to support this ceasefire, and we support and we ask all the members of the Arab community, as they did yesterday at the Arab League meeting in Cairo, to continue to press to try to get Hamas to do the right thing here, which is cease the violence, engage in a legitimate negotiation, and protect the lives of people that they seem all too willing to put to risk.

MS. HARF: Our next question is from Lou Charbonneau of Reuters.

QUESTION: Thank you. Mr. Secretary, I wanted to return to the issue of Iran first. The Supreme Leader of Iran last week had a major speech in which he spoke of Iran needing the equivalent of what some see is as many as 190,000 older-generation centrifuges over the long term, a kind of massive industrial scale. How did you respond – how did you react to this speech? And in your meetings here with the Iranians, have you seen any sign of a new and substantial flexibility on the Iranian side since your Washington Post op-ed two weeks ago, enough progress that could, in theory, justify an extension?

And then I wanted to add on a question about Libya, where the situation is quite alarming. The UN is pulling out its staff and there has been shelling of as many as 90 planes at the airport. Thanks.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, with respect to the Supreme Leader’s speech on the 190,000 centrifuges, that’s not a new figure. It didn’t come as a surprise to me or to others. And what it is is it’s a reflection of Iran’s current ambitions with respect to a nuclear power program, and it reflects a long-term perception of what they currently have in their minds with respect to nuclear plants to provide power. It is not something, I think, that’s meant – and I think it was framed that way, I believe, in the speech.

Obviously, that’s not – I’m not going to get into what we’re talking about in numbers or whatever, but we have made it crystal clear that the 19,000 that are currently part of their program is too many, and that we need to deal with the question of enrichment. And so all I will say to you is that we will continue to press.

Now I do want Iran to understand, I want the Supreme Leader to know, that the United States believes that Iran has a right to have a peaceful nuclear program under Article IV of the NPT – there’s no question about that – a peaceful program. And what we are now working on is: How do you guarantee that what they do have is in fact purely peaceful and that it adheres to the stated intentions of the Supreme Leader and other leaders of Iran never to have a nuclear weapon?

Now, the Supreme Leader has issued a fatwa. We take that very seriously. The fatwa issued by a cleric is an extremely powerful statement about intent. But it is our need to codify it. We can’t take any declaration because that’s not what a negotiation nor a nuclear agreement is about. It’s about verifiable, specific steps by which parties that have disagreed can agree that they know each of them what they’re doing and how they’re living up to their responsibilities. And that’s what we’re seeing in this particular effort.

So Iran can have a peaceful nuclear program and they know how to get there. It’s by living up to the demands of the international community, the United Nations Security Council; the IAEA questions need to be answered, the additional protocol needs to be adhered to; and a specific set of verification and transparency measures need to be put in place among other things that make the promises real. That’s the nature. It’s not specific to Iran. Any country would be in the same place and need to do the same thing, as they do with respect to any kind of agreement.

Libya: We are obviously deeply concerned about the level of violence in Libya, and every single day in the State Department, we make assessments about the level of violence, about our personnel who are there, about our Embassy, about the overall nature of the violence. And that is why President Obama has appointed a special envoy, David Satterfield, a diplomat with a great deal of experience who most recently filled in in Egypt. And he has been working very closely with Jonathan Powell, the British special envoy, and with other special envoys – France, Italy – all of them focused on how we can transition Libya away from this militia violence, which is what is threatening the airport at the moment. It is not violence that has broken out every single day, all day. It’s mostly fighting at night and it is not threatening broadly every interest within Libya, but it is dangerous and it must stop. And we are working very, very hard through our special envoys to find the political cohesion, the glue that can bring people together to create stronger capacity in the governance of Libya so that this violence can end. And we’ll continue to stay very, very precisely focused on it.

MS. HARF: And our final question is from Amir Paivar of BBC Persia.

QUESTION: Thank you very much, Secretary Kerry. Many Iranians wonder – I would like to be very specific – why the U.S. and the world powers would not accept Iran maintain, say, 10,000 centrifuges. And here, I’m not haggling over numbers, but if the other terms of the deal are secure, numbers capped, degree of enrichment low, inspections intrusive – if trust is an issue, they say, both Iran and the United States have their checkered history when it comes to nuclear capability.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, as I said earlier, when you start asking about specific numbers of centrifuges and so forth, you get into a zone of public disclosure that is just not helpful to the negotiations at this point in time. So I’m not going to talk about a specific number, what number might work, not work, what we will accept, won’t accept. All of those questions belong at the negotiating table, and that’s where they are.

But let me just say, in general terms, this is not an issue of trust. This is an issue of factual process by which you can verify on a day-to-day basis what is happening. Now why do we need to do that? Why are there P5+1 at the table? Why is China joining with Russia, joining with the United States, joining with Germany, France, and Britain – all of them together at the table demanding the same thing, as well as the rest of the world through the United Nations Security Council and the resolutions?

This is not a fabricated issue. The reason that trust has to be built and a process of transparency and accountability has to be created is because over the years, a secret program has been pursued in a deep, under-the-ground, mountaintop facility that was concealed for a long time until it was discovered, and levels of enrichment have been going on on a regular basis and serious questions raised about weaponization in that context.

Now we’re working to answer those questions, and I want to – Foreign Minister Zarif is a tough negotiator. He knows how to fight for what he is fighting for. But he’s been clear, as we have been clear, about what we need to do to try to arrive at a fair, reasonable way to meet both parties’ rights and interests in this situation. And I believe that, as I said, we’ve made progress, and I think both of us can see ways in which we could make further progress and hopefully answer those questions.

But I’m not going to get into why Iran might have done that or who pushed who in what direction or what mistakes were made in the past. You can go back to the 1950s and find lots of things that have happened that have given rise to the relationship we’re in today. What we want to do is try and see if that’s changeable, put that to the test. The first test is to answer the questions and come up with a formula that says to the world this is a peaceful nuclear program, and it cannot be used to make weapons and we know that to a certainty. The test is: Can we know whether or not Iran is able to and is or might be building a nuclear weapon?

Now we’re going to continue to do what we are doing here. We’re going to work hard to try to find this agreement. This is not just important to the United States, Iran, and the P5; it’s important to the world. And it is important for us to try to work hard in order to see if we can find success, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.

MS. HARF: Great. Thank you, everyone.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you all. Appreciate it very much. We’ll see you again at some point, I’m sure.

U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTS FOR JUNE 15, 2014

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

CONTRACTS

ARMY

Johnson Controls Building Automation Systems, LLC, Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded a $450,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement and installation of utility monitoring and control systems and similar services such as heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems with an estimated completion date of July 14, 2019. Funding and work location will be determined with each order. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W912DY-14-D-0063).

General Atomics - Systems Integration, LLC, San Diego, California, was awarded a $38,781,663 modification (P00019) to contract W58RGZ-13-C-0124 to acquire continued operations, sustainment, and integration of two deployed Highlighter fixed wing aircraft. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $8,873,018 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is July 13, 2015. Work will be performed in San Diego, California; Bridgewater, Virginia; and Afghanistan. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

Northrop Grumman, Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded an $18,258,765 modification (P00107) to contract W31P4Q-08-C-0418 for the Integrated Air and Missile Defense S280 transition from the baseline M1085 mounted Command Post Platform Shelter to an M1148 Load Handling System Family of Medium Tactical Vehicle mounted S-280 Shelter. Fiscal 2014 research, development, testing and evaluation funds in the amount of $18,258,765 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2015. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, LLC, Oak Brook, Illinois, was awarded a $17,027,415 modification (P00003) to contract W912DS-13-C-0045 for dredging shoaled material. Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $17,027,415 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Sept. 7, 2014. Work will be performed in New York harbor along Newark Bay Port Elizabeth Channel, Newark Bay north and south areas, and along Kill Van Kull in the vicinity of Constable Hook and Anchorage Channel. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York, New York, is the contracting activity.

U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND

Federal Express Charter Programs Team Arrangement of Memphis, Tennessee, was awarded an estimated $57,810,843 modification (P00012) to previously awarded contract HTC711-13-D-CC02. The modification brought the total cumulative face value of the contract to $1,176,792,312. Team members include: Air Transport International LLC, Wilmington, Ohio; Atlas Air, Inc., Purchase, New York; Delta Air Lines, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia; Federal Express Corporation, Memphis, Tennessee; Polar Air Cargo Worldwide, Inc., Purchase, New York; and MN Airlines, LLC, doing business as Sun Country Airlines, Mendota Heights, Minnesota. Work will be performed at worldwide locations with an expected completion date of Sept. 30, 2014. Fiscal 2014 transportation working capital funds will be obligated on individual task orders. This was a competitive acquisition and 28 offers were received under the initial procurement. The U.S. Transportation Command Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity.

NAVY

BAE Systems Land and Armaments, Weapons Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is being awarded a $43,245,218 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-12-C-4221) for research and development activities associated with Integrated Power Systems power load modules, to be used for electromagnetic railgun pulse power containers design, and for the fabricating and testing of prototypes. Work will be performed in San Diego, California (75 percent); Minneapolis, Minnesota (15 percent); and Dayton, Ohio (10 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2016. Fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $14,502,272 will be obligated at award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.

BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair, Norfolk, Virginia, is being awarded a $29,773,261 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-11-C-4403) for the USS San Jacinto (CG 56) fiscal year 2014 drydocking selected restricted availability. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by January 2015. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $28,857,059 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Norfolk Ship Support Activity, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Walsh Construction Co. II, LLC, Chicago, Illinois, is being awarded a $26,947,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of electrical capacity and cooling towers at Naval Support Activity Bethesda. The work to be performed provides for the construction of electrical upgrades to improve the capacity of the power distribution infrastructure. The proposed new construction includes the demolition and reconstruction of three existing cooling towers, and the construction of a fourth cooling tower cell to accommodate future loads. Work will be performed in Bethesda, Maryland, and is expected to be completed by January 2016. Fiscal 2013 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $26,947,000 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 12 proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N40080-14-C-0158).

General Atomics, San Diego, California, is being awarded a $10,267,000 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N68335-09-C-0573) for the integration and installation of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System CVN 78 shipboard software and support. Work will be performed in San Diego, California (79 percent), and Waltham, Massachusetts (21 percent), and is expected to be completed in October 2015. Fiscal 2011 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $10, 267,000 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.

MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY

Lockheed Martin Mission System and Training, Moorestown, New Jersey, has been awarded a $20,000,000 option exercise modification (P00148) to previously awarded contract (HQ0276-10-C-0001) for support of advanced concept initiatives by the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (ABMD) Program Office to identify technology for introduction into present and future ABMD Baselines and upgrades. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $1,808,932,405. Work will be performed at Moorestown, New Jersey, with an expected end date of Dec. 15, 2015. Fiscal year 2014 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $500,000 are being obligated at time of award. The Missile Defense Agency, Dahlgren, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Merchants Food Service, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, has been awarded a maximum $7,220,745 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for full line food distribution for Louisiana and Mississippi areas. This contract was a sole-source acquisition. Location of performance is Mississippi, with a Nov. 15, 2014, performance completion date. This is a four-month bridge contract with no option periods. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-14-D-3015). (This contract was awarded on July 11, 2014.)

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

READOUT: PRESIDENT OBAMA'S MEETING WITH CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS ON PROMOTING EXPORTS

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Readout of the Obama Administration’s Meeting with Members of Congress and their Constituents on Promoting Exports

Today, senior Administration officials met with Members of Congress and their constituents to discuss policies, Administrative initiatives, and legislative efforts to help businesses increase exports and create jobs in their districts.  The Members and their constituents shared some of the best practices that business owners in their communities have put forward to increase their own exports, and Administration officials, Members, and their constituents discussed how the Administration can best partner with Members and businesses moving forward. Participants also discussed the critical importance of reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank and securing trade agreements to help American businesses grow their markets abroad.
Members of Congress who attended the meeting included:
  • Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington
  • Representative Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut
  • Representative Denny Heck of Washington
  • Representative Scott Peters of California
Senior Administration officials who attended the meeting included:
  • Secretary Penny Pritzker, Department of Commerce
  • Ambassador Michael Froman, United States Trade Representative
  • Anne Wall, Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs and Senate Liaison

U.S. CONGRATULATES IRAQI PEOPLE ON ELECTION OF A PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

U.S. Congratulates Iraqis on the Election of a Parliamentary Speaker

Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
July 15, 2014


We congratulate the Iraqi people on the election of a new parliamentary Speaker and two Deputy Speakers. The election of a Speaker is the first step in the critical process of forming a new government that can take into account the rights, aspirations, and legitimate concerns of all Iraq’s communities.

We urge Iraq’s leaders to follow this achievement with rapid formation of a new government pursuant to Iraq's constitutional timelines. We further urge the international community to support Iraq's democratic political process, which reflects the aspirations of the nearly 14 million Iraqis who voted for new representatives from all parts of the country. These representatives are now charged, through the Iraqi parliament, to form a new government with leaders who reflect a broad national consensus.

As I said in Baghdad, this is a moment when the stakes for Iraq’s future could not be clearer as much depends on the ability of Iraq’s leaders to come together and take a united stand against ISIL. Iraq faces an existential threat and Iraq’s leaders need to confront that threat with the urgency that it demands. As they do, the United States will remain a steadfast partner in support of their fight for the democratic process and against ISIL.

NASA | COLLIDING NEUTRON STARS CREATE BLACK HOLE AND GAMMA-RAY BURST

NSF REPORTS OCEAN MICROBES HAVE DAILY CYCLES OF ACTIVITY

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 
Ocean's microbial megacity: Like humans, the sea's most abundant organisms have clear daily cycles
Coordinated timing may have implications for ocean food web

Imagine the open ocean as a microbial megacity, teeming with life too small to be seen.

In every drop of water, hundreds of types of bacteria can be found.

Now scientists have discovered that communities of these ocean microbes have their own daily cycles--not unlike the residents of a bustling city who tend to wake up, commute, work and eat at the same times.

Light-loving photoautotrophs--bacteria that need solar energy to help them photosynthesize food from inorganic substances--have been known to sun themselves on a regular schedule.

But in new research results published in this week's issue of the journal Science, researchers working at Station ALOHA, a deep ocean study site 100 kilometers north of Oahu, Hawaii, observed species of bacteria turning on cycling genes at slightly different times.

The switches suggest a wave of activity that passes through the microbial community.

"I like to say that they are singing in harmony," said Edward DeLong, a biological oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an author of this week's paper.

"For any given species, the gene transcripts for specific metabolic pathways turn on at the same time each day."

The observations were made possible by advanced microbial community RNA sequencing techniques, which allow for whole-genome profiling of multiple species at once.

DeLong and colleagues deployed a free-drifting robotic Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) as part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) research expedition to Station ALOHA.

Riding the same ocean currents as the microbes it follows, the ESP is equipped to harvest the samples needed for this high-frequency, time-resolved analysis of microbial community dynamics.

What the scientists saw was intriguing: different species of bacteria expressing different types of genes in varying, but consistent, cycles--turning on, for example, restorative genes needed to rebuild solar-collecting powers at night, then ramping up with different gene activity to build new proteins during the day.

"It was almost like a shift of hourly workers punching in and out on a clock," DeLong said.

"This research is a major advance in understanding microbial communities through studies of gene expression in a dynamic environment," said Matt Kane, a program director in NSF's Directorate for Biological Sciences, which co-funds C-MORE with NSF's Directorate for Geosciences.

"It was accomplished by combining new instrumentation for remote sampling with state-of-the-art molecular biological techniques."

The coordinated timing of gene firing across different species of ocean microbes could have important implications for energy transformation in the sea.

"For decades, microbiologists have suspected that marine bacteria were actively responding to day-night cycles," said Mike Sieracki, a program director in NSF's Directorate for Geosciences.

"These researchers have shown that ocean bacteria are indeed very active and likely are synchronized with the sun."

The mechanisms that regulate this periodicity remain to be determined.

Can you set your watch by them?

DeLong said that you can, but it matters whether you're tracking the bacteria in the lab or at sea.

For example, maximum light levels at Station ALOHA are different than light conditions in experimental settings in the laboratory, which may have an effect on microbes' activity and daily cycles.

"That's part of why it's so important to conduct this research in the open ocean environment," said DeLong.

"There are some fundamental laws to be learned about how organisms interact to make the system work better as a whole and to be more efficient."

Co-authors of the paper are Elizabeth Ottesen, Curtis Young, Scott Gifford, John Eppley, Roman Marin III, Stephan Schuster and Christopher Scholin.

The research also was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

-NSF-


Media Contacts
Cheryl Dybas,

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT TRI-MISSION VIENNA MEETING WITH STAFF/FAMILIES

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks at the Tri-Mission Vienna Meeting With Staff and Families
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Vienna, Austria
July 14, 2014

AMBASSADOR MACMANUS: (In progress) working the last several days, and have probably seen more of the Secretary than the three ambassadors up here. (Laughter.)

So if anything, this is a great honor for us to be with you, Mr. Secretary, and of course with this combined staff of S staff coming from Washington with you and the Vienna missions staff. If there’s a great opportunity – I learned – I’m an old staff guy. The Secretary knows this. And if I learned an important lesson, it’s that you can determine the leadership of a principal, of a leader, by the staff that are around them. I know that Dan and Alexa and I have been amazingly well-served by the people in this room who work for us, and that you have served by your staff, and together they make an incredible combination.

So for all of you, you made the three right decisions. One, you worked hard and you worked well with each other; two, you showed the Secretary that Mission Vienna is exactly the right place to come to get a job done, which it better be, because I think we’ll see him again and again. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY KERRY: I know you’re just saying it to get a job. (Laughter.)

AMBASSADOR MACMANUS: Well, I’m working on that.

And the third thing is the staff was smart enough to keep the three ambassadors away. So we’re happy to be here; we’re happy to join all of you in welcoming our leader, our boss. We all get up in the morning and say, “I work for the Secretary of State.”

SECRETARY KERRY: Yeah, yeah. (Laughter.)

AMBASSADOR MACMANUS: Now you can say when you get up in the morning, “Me, I work for John Kerry.” (Laughter.) Mr. Secretary, welcome.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Joe. I’ll take it all, I’ll take it all. (Applause.)

(In German.) Nice to see you all. (In German.) It’s nice to be with all of you. And one thing that’s for certain after that introduction: With the name Macmanus, you know there’s a lot of blarney there too. (Laughter.) And you just heard some of it, but anyway.

I am really happy to be here in this incredible city, and especially with the three missions that we have here. I’m deeply appreciative for the work that all of you do. I’m very grateful to Dan, Dan Baer, and all of the work that the folks at the OSCE have done. It’s been so critical to our ability to be able to try to have a hand in working things out in Ukraine, among other places and other things, but that’s been the most recent crisis. And Dan has been there every single minute and helpful, and the folks there on the front lines have been really making a difference. As he just said to me, I talk to Lavrov, Lavrov and I work it out, and we dump it on Dan and other people to figure out after that. (Laughter.)

And Alexa, thank you so much for your leadership of the flagship mission, in a sense – our representation in the country, to the country. We appreciate that, and I expect to see you out on your bike tomorrow morning early with me. (Laughter.) She’s a – I’ve been told by everybody – I’ve been warned don’t ride with her, because she’s going to crush you. (Laughter.)

AMBASSADOR WESNER: John can keep up.

SECRETARY KERRY: Yeah, not at all. Not at all.

But we went out for a ride this morning. Actually, I had a wonderful time. I went out in the complete peace and quiet of about four motorcycles and 15 cars, all – (laughter). It was really fun, and I rode through the streets and by – hit all this fabulous architecture, obviously, and history. And then across the bridge and down onto the island, and we rode up and down the island, which is really beautiful. So I think we’ve got to plan more trips here, staff. Where the hell are you? It’ll be fun.

And Joe – this guy is very, very special to the Department, as all of you know. And we are in the middle of the – in talks about nuclear proliferation and reining in Iran’s program, which is really tough negotiation, I will tell you. And the IAEA plays such a central role, not just there but all over the world, in holding people accountable. And he’s done a tremendous job, so much so that I am dragging him back to Washington to the Department to be the executive secretary for me. He’s worked there with Condi Rice, worked there with Hillary Clinton, and he does such a good job that he keeps getting called back, I’m afraid. But thank you, Joe, for (inaudible). (Applause.)

And is Charlie Slater here, by any chance? Charlie. Charlie’s worked for 36 years for the Department here, right?

PARTICIPANT: Yes, sir.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Everybody wants to say thank you (inaudible). Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)

And Marianne Spitzer. Is Marianne Spitzer here? Marianne, 40 – how many years?

PARTICIPANT: Forty-three.

SECRETARY KERRY: (In German.), right?

PARTICIPANT: Yeah.

SECRETARY KERRY: Incredible. Thank you very, very much. We thank you. (Applause.) Thank you.

And then I understand that Jodie, Julia, Josh, and Jennifer – do we have Jodie, Julia, Josh, and Jennifer? They’re probably all over at – you are obviously Josh, not --

PARTICIPANT: Actually, I’m Jodie, sir. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Oh, you are? (Laughter.) I screwed that up. (Laughter.) Okay. Well, I want to thank you. Will you tell the others – they’re probably off with my team, but they’ve been the key link to my team. And obviously, your name has to begin with J to work for Wendy Sherman or something. I don’t know. Thank you for what you guys have done. Our team could not survive here without all your effort, and I really appreciate it. Thank you. (Applause.)

It’s really special to be back here. I have to tell you, years ago – it’s too long, too quickly, I will tell you – I was in Budapest for a conference when I was a senator, and I had my kids with me. Then – I can’t really – I think they were about 15 and 11 or something like that, and we took the boat back from Budapest up the river to Vienna and spent a couple days here. Really had a very, very special time, and it’s wonderful to come back here. I know western Austria a lot better than I know the east because I was lucky enough as a kid to have a dad who was in the Foreign Service who was passionate about skiing, and so he dragged me to the mountains of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg. I got to fall in love with the place.

But it’s fun to be back, even though it’s very brief and I’m in and out. It gives me a chance to be able to say to you on behalf of President Obama and myself a very deeply felt and real thank you for what you do. This is tough work – not as tough in Vienna – (laughter) – as it is in a lot of other places I’ve been recently like Kabul or Cairo or other very difficult parts of the world. And many of you have spent time in those places, which is part of the reason you’re here now.

But it’s – I just did live conference from Kabul the other night with this group of moguls who assemble in Ketchum, Idaho, Sun Valley every year, the so-called Allen Conference. And it’s a lot of media moguls, people like Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller and whole bunch of names well known in the media world. And Charlie Rose was doing this interview with me, and he asked me about sort of the world, where we are now. And I will tell you, I had to explain all of – that America is not retreating, we are not disengaging. There is a very disingenuous narrative that is being pushed by some people in the course of politics to try to somehow fault President Obama for the Arab Spring or for the aspirations of people in Syria who’ve been met by a brutal dictator and so forth.

But I am confident – and I’m particularly confident as former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as well as a 29 member – year member of that committee – never have I seen the United States of America as engaged on as many fronts that are as critical to us at a time where the world is in as much conflict and turmoil and transformation as it is today. This is a tough time, complicated time. What happens with Russia in helping us to get chemical weapons out of Syria is affected by what we do and respond to their aggression in Crimea and in Ukraine, and what happens in Egypt affects whether or not we can move forward with the peace in the Middle East or what happens on the border of the Sinai and what happens with Gaza and a ceasefire, and all of these things are interrelated.

And you see this sectarianism being released in parts of the world, which has been bottled up for years in the Cold War, in the press of dictatorships that were able to tampen these aspirations down, the former Yugoslavia and Tito classic example of that. And when the Iron Curtain fell, when the wall came down and the world changed, all of the sudden all of those forces had been released in a world where globalization is also changing everybody’s connection to each other. Everybody is connected to everybody all the time now, and the news is coming at you at such a volume, it’s hard for the average person to digest it and to make sense of it and understand where things are going.

It’s harder to build consensus, I will tell you, in politics than it ever was before. When I was a kid growing up, you could listen to Richard Nixon or Lyndon Johnson if you wanted to – (laughter) – I did – on what was it, four channels – ABC, CBS, NBC, and public television. That was it. That’s it. And so the whole country stopped and listened. And the next day at work around the coffee counter or the water cooler or whatever, that was the topic of conversation. Today people will go to the shopping channel or to HBO or whatever it is, and it’s hard to find an audience, and that makes it harder to communicate and harder to build a political understanding of the choices that we face.

So all of this I say not by way of prolonging my presence here, but just to tell you this is complicated, tough stuff, and made the more so by the fact that there are more economic powers than there ever were previously, feeling their oats, and lots of people who are jealous or angry or pressured or humiliated by one part of history or another, and we’re an easy target.

So I ask all of you to think about that every day as you do get up to go to work – not about John Kerry being your Secretary of State, but about what you’re doing, your work. And I really want to say thank you to you for this, because it’s not a lot of jobs in today’s world where you can get up in the morning and really make a difference in the lives of other people, make a difference for your country, have an impact on people. And whatever you do in here, it doesn’t matter who you are, whatever your role is, you are an ambassador, not just these folks up here. You are. You may be the only person sometimes some people will ever meet – less so here in a place like Vienna, but in a lot of posts that’s true, when they come for an interview for a visa or where they come in and they have a problem, so think about that. And think about how we take the values that we cherish so much about our country and protect our interests.

And for those of you who are local employees, I thank you particularly, because you have sort of joined us. You’ve become part of the family, even as you are a proud of and will always be a citizen of your own country, but you’re helping us in this mission, and we can’t possibly do this without you. So I thank you very, very, very much for that. (Applause.)

And (inaudible) have a chance just to shake a few hands and say hello to everybody. But as I leave here, just remember – I said this – I was privileged to speak to the graduating class of Yale this year, and it was particularly a pleasure because it happened to turn out to be, literally, I hate to say it, 48 years to the day that I was privileged to speak as a graduating senior to my own class. And I talked to them about sort of the world we’re in right now, but at the end I tried to remind them all, which I remind you of, we are – I get always a little uptight when I hear politicians say how exceptional we are – not because we’re not exceptional, but because it’s kind of in-your-face and a lot of other people are exceptional, a lot of other places do exceptional things.

But we are exceptional in a certain way that no other nation is. We are not defined by thousands of years (inaudible) of history. We are not defined by ethnicity. We are not defined by bloodline or by anything except an idea. And that idea was expressed in the Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution, the idea that people are created equal and that all people have a chance to aspire for greatness, for anything they want. Pretty amazing, right? So think about that. It’s the only country that is literally united and formed around and whose rule of law is based on that idea, one idea, and it’s pretty special. So thank you for representing it. Thank you. (Applause.)

JAPAN LOOKS TO REINTERPRET COUNTRY'S MILITARY ROLE

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
Hagel, Onodera Discuss Reinterpretation of Japan’s Constitution
DOD
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2014 – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has held his first meeting with his Japanese counterpart since the government in Tokyo announced it would reinterpret the country’s pacifist constitution to allow Japan to take on greater military responsibilities beyond self-defense.

Hagel met at the Pentagon today with Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and in a joint press conference afterward said the United States strongly supports the move, calling the decision by Japan’s government bold and historic. If approved by parliament, Hagel said the change would enable the U.S. ally “to significantly increase its contribution to regional and global security and expand its role on the world stage.”

The United States and Japan will work together now to revise U.S.-Japan defense guidelines. “Today, we confirm that these new guidelines should be in place by the end of this year,” Hagel said. The revisions will allow Japan to participate more fully in such areas as ballistic missile defense, counterproliferation, counterpiracy, peacekeeping, and a wide range of military exercises.

The two countries also will be able to work more closely together on maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and other areas, Hagel said. “We can raise our alliance to a new level, and we intend to do that,” he said.
The two said they discussed what the United States and Japan will do to modernize the alliance to ensure it is prepared to address emerging threats and challenges. Onodera said he and Hagel also discussed security in the broader Asia Pacific region.

Hagel reiterated the longstanding U.S. position on a territorial dispute that the Senkaku Islands, also claimed by China, are under Japan’s administrative control and fall under the U.S.-Japan mutual security treaty.

“The United States opposes any attempts by any country to change the status quo through destabilizing unilateral actions, and we oppose any effort to restrict overflight or freedom of navigation,” Hagel said. China declared an air defense zone over the islands last year.

Both defense leaders stressed the importance of good relations with China.

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