TRUMP AGENDA - Warning From UN Ambassador Power

"UN Ambassador Power warns against ‘historical amnesia' in future Russian relations" PBS NewsHour 1/17/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power used her final speech to focus on Russia as a major threat.  Judy Woodruff sits down with Power during her last days in office to discuss troubling actions by Russia and the future of Russian relations under the Trump administration, as well as the Obama administration's complicated decision not to intervene militarily in Syria.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  President-elect Trump's nominee to be U.S.  Ambassador to the U.N., South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, plans to question why the U.S. contributes 22 percent of the U.N.'s budget.

In prepared remarks for her confirmation hearing tomorrow, we also learned that she will criticize the recent vote condemning Israeli settlements.

Earlier today, I sat down with Samantha Power.  She's the outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.  We spoke at the State Department.

And I began by asking why, in her final speech, she focused on Russia as a major threat to the U.S.

SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations:  There is a fair amount of competition, obviously, with ISIL and the terrorist networks around the world, China also posing a different kind of threat to the rules-based order.

But I thought it was very important before leaving to draw on my eight years, our eight years here in these jobs of privilege that we have had, to take note of the pattern that has developed, particularly in the last few years, starting with the decision by President Putin to go into Ukraine, to lie about it, to take Crimea, to try to annex it, involved with that regime, itself resorting to tactics that were outlawed 100 years ago, and then systematically, in Europe, backing these illiberal parties whose world view is closer to this kind of populist authoritarian, anti-Muslim, anti-diversity kind of line that has been pursued in Moscow.

All of that plus, of course, the most recent and most egregious example that hits close to home for us, which is interfering in our elections through hacking, through fake news, and with an eye to trying to help one candidate win.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  And so, when the President-elect speaks, as he has often, about wanting a better relationship with Russia — and, in fact, one of his advisers has just said in the last day or so, he said, the U.S. needs to find a way to get along better with Russia.  He said, we need to focus less on combating communism and more on rejecting radical Islam.

How do you react to that?

SAMANTHA POWER:  Well, let me raise my hand and say at no point have I been fighting the last war and seeking at the U.N. to combat communism.

I think we do have an interest in combating states that try to cross borders and steal parts of other people's country.  We have an interest in combating tactics in war that are abhorrent and that only fuel terrorism because they incite people on the ground.

And we, as Americans, have an interest in ensuring that the only people who get to vote for our elected leaders are our citizens, and not some foreign people who think that they have an interest in skewing our election in one direction or another.

Look, I think the point that we all agree upon is that we have to engage with Russia.  I have spent, you know, as much time with my Russian counterpart as I have probably with anybody else, including close family members, over the course of the last four years.  And we have done really important work together.

At the same time we're at each other on Aleppo, on Ukraine, we're authorizing peacekeeping missions, putting sanctions in place on North Korea for its nuclear tests.  We need to find means for cooperation.

I think the potential difference or the issue that is going to need to be adjudicated is, on what terms?  Are we going to bring historical amnesia and pretend as though history is just starting on January 21, or are we going to take into account egregious violations of the rules of the road that may have — in the first instance have predated the administration, but that are inevitably going to continue if Russia believes that there are no costs to its actions, as if all it has to do is just wait out the United States, and then eventually we will soften our positions and forget about what happened?

REFUGEES - Plight and Misconceptions

"Taking on the plight of refugees — and the misperceptions" PBS NewsHour 6/30/2016

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SUMMARY:  Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, says the tens of millions of refugees around the world should be embraced, not feared.  But she also said it's important for screening systems to be in place.  She notes that more than 800,000 refugees have been taken in by the U.S. since the 9/11 attacks and none has been involved in domestic terrorism.  Judy Woodruff sits down with Power.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now to my interview with the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power.

She was here in Washington yesterday to speak on the plight of refugees, now a record 65 million worldwide.  I spoke with her yesterday afternoon at the State Department.

Ambassador Susan Power, thank you very much for talking with us.

SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. Ambassador to the UN:  Great to be here.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  You are calling this situation right now the greatest refugee crisis the world has known since World War II.  And yet you see this rising, enormous backlash in Europe, in the United States.  It says that a lot of people, maybe most people, don't share your view about what to do.  How do you deal with that?

SAMANTHA POWER:  Well, I think there's a lot of latent public opinion that also doesn't necessarily get airtime during presidential elections, for instance.

But there are fears.  I think those fears are stoked.  We have seen those in history at different times, whether it's on whether we let in Jewish refugees during the Second World War or Vietnamese refugees after the Vietnam War.

So there's nothing new in that set of fears.  I think some of the fears are warranted.  People are wondering, could ISIL potentially sneak through?  And we have to answer those fears.  And I think we have by putting in place these incredibly strenuous vetting processes that have the FBI and the Center for Counterterrorism and the Department of Homeland Security at the table vetting the time it takes.

But we also need to do a better job lifting up, I think, the voices of those people who, again, aren't necessarily running for office, but who have welcomed refugees into their homes, into their communities, or giving small amounts of money, donating toys.  And I see that all over the place in going to meet with refugees around the country, is just how much generosity there is at the same time.

WAR ON ISIS - Anti-ISIS Coalition, Ambassador Power

"Ambassador Power:  More progress needs to be made in uniting anti-ISIS coalition" PBS NewsHour 12/4/2015

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SUMMARY:  There's been a dramatic uptick in the number of people fleeing civil war in Syria, while the number of countries intervening in the conflict has also increased.  U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power sits down with Judy Woodruff to discuss developing a unified international approach to fighting the Islamic State, as well as the U.S. role in relieving the migrant crisis.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The civil war in Syria entered a new phase in recent months.  Millions of refugees have been displaced, as more countries like Russia, France, and the United Kingdom enter the fight against ISIS.

And, as we saw this week, the threat of radicalization became real here at home.

So, how does all this look to America’s top diplomat to the United Nations?

I spoke with Samantha Power just a short time ago.

Ambassador Power, welcome.

I want to ask you first about, in the wake of this confirmation by the FBI today that it’s looking into the San Bernardino shooting as an act of terrorism, is their concern on the part of the administration that it was late to recognize the threat here on U.S. soil?

SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations:  Well, look, DHS, FBI, Department of Justice professionals have been working 24/7.

There have been a huge number of plots around the world and a number here that have been disrupted.  These are the most professional people around in terms of looking out for American security.  I think the investigation is still progressing, so it’s a little premature to go beyond what has been said, and once we have come to some conclusions, I know people will be looking back, and the President will insist we do an after-action to make sure that everything we can do is being done.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Well, I’m sure you know that observers, critics, even including some even Democrats, are saying that the administration needs to have a more defeat ISIS strategy rather than a contain ISIS strategy, which was the language the President was using until just a few days ago.

SAMANTHA POWER:  Well, from the beginning of the campaign, our slogan, as it were, has been degrade and destroy, degrade and defeat.

The challenge, of course, internationally, is that ISIL has rooted itself in populations that need to be contested on the ground.  Their financing has to be cut off, which we have made, I think, significant progress on even in recent days, and hope to make more progress on actually later in the month here at the Security Council, when Jack Lew chairs a session of the Security Council and brings the world together around tightening the screws on ISIL financing.

We have got to deal with the messaging.  And then in communities where people are alienated, it’s going to be not only a whole of government effort.  It’s got to be a whole of nation effort, where citizens and family members are also much more attuned to what might be going on in their own households, never mind in their own communities or cities.