State Department daily press briefing

U S State Department ^ | September 9, 2009 | Ian Kelly

[don-o]

QUESTION: On the MCC meeting, Ian --

MR. KELLY: Yeah.

QUESTION: The Honduras – what – is there anything more that can be done? I was under the impression that this had already been dealt with.

MR. KELLY: Well, the board has to decide – you know how we feel. We terminated our assistance to Honduras last week.

QUESTION: Is there more than the 11 million that --

MR. KELLY: Well, there is MCC money, too. I keep looking over at Arshad, because I know Arshad is an expert on this. But the MCC board has to decide on what to do with the Honduras contract.

QUESTION: Right. But --

QUESTION: As I recall last week, you had told us that the MCC – that the 11 million, as Matt referred to, had been terminated.

MR. KELLY: Yeah.

QUESTION: That was from the MCC. And then in the background conference call, you guys kind of danced around the question as to whether it had actually been terminated or not.

MR. KELLY: Yeah, right.

QUESTION: And nobody was able to answer my questions.

MR. KELLY: Right. Well, the answer is that that’s for the board to determine.

QUESTION: So it wasn’t terminated last week, but it could be at this board meeting?

MR. KELLY: Yeah. We will make a decision today.

QUESTION: Is there more than 11 million at stake?

MR. KELLY: I don’t have the exact figures in front of me right here, but --

QUESTION: Could you get that clarified, because --

MR. KELLY: Yeah. We will.

QUESTION: -- there was some conflict last week. I wasn’t here, but apparently there was a conflict between you guys saying 11 million and someone else – I don’t know if it was the MCC – saying it was 24 million.

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Let’s sort this all out, and we’ll get it out to you.

QUESTION: And then one --

QUESTION: Can you preview a little bit what Secretary Clinton will tell the board, apart from cutting the aid?

MR. KELLY: Well, I – our position is clear. I mean, we’ve already – she’s already done what’s the – what’s under her purview, and that’s to terminate the aid that’s USAID aid. And the Defense Department has made a similar decision. The MCC money is – the disposition of that money is determined by this board of directors that she’s the chairperson of, so they’re meeting today to vote on that.

QUESTION: And one other thing about this, Ian. You said that they would announce the results after the meeting. Will that be in a statement?

MR. KELLY: I believe they’re planning to put out a statement, yes.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. KELLY: They did something similar – they made some decisions relating to the MCC compacts with Nicaragua and Armenia in June, and they did something similar to this. They put out a statement right after.

QUESTION: I’m still not sure I understand why exactly the building can’t get us a straight answer on this.

MR. KELLY: On what?

QUESTION: On how much money the MCC board is going to be looking at for Honduras today --

QUESTION: And whether it was terminated last week or not.

QUESTION: -- and whether it was, in fact, terminated last week, as we --

MR. KELLY: It was not terminated last week.

QUESTION: Well, then why were we told that it was?

MR. KELLY: Well, we may have misspoken. But the MCC programs, as I say, are under the purview of the MCC board.

QUESTION: So the decision wasn’t even made by the MCC last week to terminate?

MR. KELLY: No. The decision will be made today.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. KELLY: And I apologize for any confusion that we may have caused last week.

QUESTION: Okay. Thanks for the apology, but this is – it came up repeatedly last week, and it really should have been possible, I think, by the end of the day, to have a clear answer.

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Fair enough.

QUESTION: Can we move on to a new subject?

MR. KELLY: Sure.

[don-o]

Everything but, "The dog ate my homework."

[don-o]

ping

Freepmail me to be added to / removed from Honduras ping list. Please ping me to threads of interest.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“Everything but, “The dog ate my homework.” “

That would have been preferable.

[shalom aleichem]

The much bigger problem is why are we still trying to bury a tiny latin american country that only followed the rule of law and “impeached” their Marxist dictator wannabe? We are much nicer to China and Iran ferkrisakes! Hillary should make her break from Bambi on this issue.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Why? Because we have a communist in the White House, and a Sec. of State who is a Marxist. Honduras has more chutzpah than we do!

[watusa1775]

The
building is the white house?