“THE MARK LEVIN SHOW”– Hey Hey it’s RAY FRIDAY, October-26-2012

from State Dept briefing today:

QUESTION: Benghazi? Defense Department officials say they received no request for help on the night of September 11th. Can you explain why the State Department did not make such a request?

MS. NULAND: Wendell, I think they’ve spoken to this with regard to what we did or didn’t do before, during, and after. As you know, that is the subject of a full investigation by the ARB here, and the FBI has pieces of this as well. So I’m just not going to have anything further on any of that until we have a full picture.

QUESTION: If they’ve spoken to that, by that you mean Secretary Panetta’s comments yesterday?

MS. NULAND: Correct. Correct.

QUESTION: Okay. Thank you.

MS. NULAND: Thanks.

QUESTION: Just related – this arrest in Tunisia, do you know anything more?

MS. NULAND: Not that we are going to share at the moment.

QUESTION: So you do know more?

MS. NULAND: Do I know more?

QUESTION: Yeah.

MS. NULAND: I don’t have anything to share here from the podium.

QUESTION: But you do know more?

MS. NULAND: I don’t have anything to share here from the podium.

QUESTION: I know – you know what? That’s cute. I’m – but I’m not – that’s not what I’m asking.

MS. NULAND: I understand.

QUESTION: You do know more. The government – the U.S. Government is not ignorant about the situation in Tunisia.

MS. NULAND: Well, we’ve certainly seen the press reporting.

Anything else?

QUESTION: Yes.

MS. NULAND: Please. (Inaudible.)

QUESTION: For the upcoming trip to Algeria next week, will the Secretary of State try to convince the Algerians to support an ECOWAS force? Or more concretely, will she ask them to provide a military assistance with troops and intelligence? And do you believe that the U.S. has more influence and leverage on the Algerians than the French have?

MS. NULAND: Well, first of all, as I said yesterday, we do expect that the subjects of Mali and AQIM will certainly come up when the Secretary is in Algeria on Monday and Tuesday. We will share further information about our thinking as we get ready to go, but I’m not obviously going to prejudge the conversation before it happens, and I’m also not going to compare influence with an ally. We all have strong relations with Algeria, and it’s important that we all work on these issues together.

Okay?

QUESTION: I’ve got one last one – one brief one.

MS. NULAND: One more.

QUESTION: Do you know if the Secretary – this is back on the OSCE – do you know if the Secretary has responded to the second letter from the Attorney General?

MS. NULAND: I don’t think so, because I think it came in late last night. But we are, obviously, looking at it.

Thanks.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:03 p.m.)

from State Dept briefing 10/25/12

QUESTION: The story in Libya and Bani Walid continues to grow in its cruel brutality. And the matter at hand is a systematic slaughter of Bani Walid’s population by what used to be anti-Qadhafi rebels for not towing the party line and not supporting Libya’s new rule and government quickly enough and with quite open heart. Only yesterday, on Wednesday, 600 local residents —

MS. NULAND: Is there a question here, or is this a political statement that you’re making here in the briefing room?

QUESTION: No, no, just a – I wondering, 600 people, local resident, were allegedly killed yesterday —

MS. NULAND: Can you tell me what news organization you’re from?

QUESTION: — and why this – and local appealing for the international aid and an international call, but why this call? Why these massacre completely ignored by the Western community and the – particularly by the U.S.?

MS. NULAND: Where are you from, please? What news organization?

QUESTION: Vera Volokhonovich, RT.

MS. NULAND: From Russian TV.

QUESTION: Russia. Yeah. Yeah.

MS. NULAND: Well, first of all, we haven’t ignored this at all. We talked about it a number of times here, and we’ve spoken about it very clearly. We have been urging restraint on all sides, respect for human rights and humanitarian law. We’ve been calling on Libyan authorities and rebel groups to provide access for humanitarian organizations who are trying to provide humanitarian assistance. And frankly, we can’t confirm any of these press reporting of what is actually ongoing there, but we are calling on all sides to exercise restraint.

QUESTION: But why Washington blocked – why did Washington block the statement – draft statement proposed by Russia for the United Nations Security Council resolution, which called for a peaceful solution for this conflict?

MS. NULAND: Well, I can’t speak to what may be going on at USUN. I’m not aware of what the Russian statement might have been. I will send you up to our people in New York to discuss that. But our position on this is absolutely clear: We support the efforts of the Libyan Government to get control of militias and to provide security throughout the country, including in Bani Walid, and to do so in a way that is respectful of the human rights of all citizens, and allows humanitarian organizations to get in. So we are watching this situation very closely.

Please, Scott.

QUESTION: Sudan. Do you have anything that you could tell us today about who you think blew up the arms factory outside of Khartoum?

MS. NULAND: I don’t have anything new for you on that. I would send you to the Sudanese authorities. We don’t have anything particular to say.

QUESTION: Right. Do you have anything old for us on that?

MS. NULAND: I don’t have anything old for you on that.

QUESTION: Ah. Okay, so you basically have nothing at all on that. You are aware that it happened, correct?

MS. NULAND: We are aware that it happened. Yes.

QUESTION: And not just from press reports.

MS. NULAND: We are aware that it happened. In fact, after the explosion happened, there was – there’s some misreporting as to our – the status of our mission there, so why don’t I take this opportunity to clean that up.

I think all of you know that we have been in a reduced staffing pattern in Khartoum since we had the anti-U.S. protests around our mission. So we’ve been in reduced operational status since about September 12th. The Embassy has been operating, but it has not been open to the public since that time. We got our first reports in the Embassy of the explosion at about 11:30 local time on the 23rd, and at that – soon thereafter, our mission suggested that Embassy staff not come into work the next day, that the mission be closed, and it has been closed since then. It’s now closed for the Eid holiday.

We also simultaneously issued an emergency message to all U.S. citizens who were registered with the Embassy apprising them of the explosion and urging them to stay home as well.

QUESTION: You’re not aware of an untoward incidents at the Embassy since —

MS. NULAND: No. In fact, there have been none. No.

Okay. Andy.

QUESTION: Algeria. Just saw you announced the Secretary’s trip next week to Algeria. I’m wondering if you could tell us – stating the obvious, perhaps – but if Mali (inaudible) potential intervention is going to be on the agenda. And we’re hearing now from various sources in Algiers and Paris that the Algerians are sort of okay with this idea. Have you received any notice from them that they are more open to the idea of an African-led military intervention in Mali?

MS. NULAND: Well, in addition to bilateral issues and general regional issues, Mali is one of the subjects that the Secretary does want to talk to Algerian officials about, as well as the general issue of al-Qaida in the Maghreb. I’ve seen the press reports today that the Government of Algeria seems to be more open to supporting the ECOWAS force. I think we look forward —

QUESTION: Wait, wait. The Government of Algeria or the Government of Mali?

QUESTION: Algeria.

MS. NULAND: It was the Government of Algeria, actually. And so we look forward to continuing that discussion when we’re there on Tuesday.

Please.

QUESTION: Lebanon?

MS. NULAND: Yeah.

QUESTION: Yourself and the Secretary have been warning about the vacuum in Lebanon for the past few days. Is there anything in particular you’re concerned with?

MS. NULAND: Well, we talked about this at some length yesterday, and I don’t think I have anything further to say to what the Secretary said yesterday and what we said here yesterday and the day before. We’re looking at this process that President Suleiman is conducting, and we want to see it be a Lebanese process; we want to see it be successful and result in a new government. But we don’t want to see a vacuum between now and then.

QUESTION: But nothing in particular —

MS. NULAND: This is —

QUESTION: — by any particular party you would be concerned with? It’s not —

MS. NULAND: I think we are affirmatively saying this is not for us to decide; this is for the Lebanese to decide. We’re not going to be picking and choosing. Lebanese people have to work this through.

QUESTION: No, no, it’s just about concerns of a vacuum.

MS. NULAND: Well, I think the concern was we want to have these negotiations be successful; we want to have a new government emerge. But between now and then, we don’t want to have a vacuum.

Please, Scott.

QUESTION: Do you have anything on the arrest of the Russian Left Front activist Leonid Razvozzhayev?

MS. NULAND: Well, I think we’ve talked about this a couple of days ago, but let me just say again that we’ve seen these press reports about the disappearance of Russian opposition activist Leonid Razvozzhayev in Ukraine and then his subsequent arrest in Russia. We are quite concerned about allegations that he was forced to confess, that he may have been subjected to torture, and we take – we are – concerns about this and other arrest actions taken against the May 6th protestors very seriously, including against Aleksei Navalny, Sergei Udaltsov, Konstantin Lebedev, and now Razvozzhayev. And we continue to support the rights of all Russians to exercise freedom of expression and assembly regardless of their political views. And we have shared our concerns with the Russian Government, including about the Razvozzhayev case.

QUESTION: Do you have anything to add to the nothing that you had to say yesterday about the arrest of this Benghazi suspect in Tunisia?

MS. NULAND: No.

QUESTION: And there were reports from Cairo yesterday about another suspect being killed. Do you know anything on that?

MS. NULAND: I don’t have anything on that either.

Okay? Way in the back, please.

QUESTION: Yeah. If I can change the topic, do you have any update about the situations with the OSCE observers and this conflict in Texas? As I know, they sent a letter to Madam Clinton.

MS. NULAND: Yes. Can you tell me where you’re from? I haven’t seen you before.

QUESTION: Dmytro Anopchenko, Inter television channel, Ukraine.

MS. NULAND: Well, we talked about this a couple of days ago, that since 2002 the OSCE has regularly sent observers to U.S. general elections and midterm elections, that this one isn’t any different than that. Since the initial issue with Texas, we’ve received a letter both for Secretary Clinton and one for Texas authorities from the OSCE assuring us and Texas authorities that the OSCE observers are committed to following all U.S. laws and regulations, as they do in any country where they observe elections, and they will do so as well in Texas.

QUESTION: So did you ever get the answer to my question on this about the support that you offer? And can you —

MS. NULAND: Yes, I got a little bit more.

QUESTION: Can you —

MS. NULAND: So Matt had asked a couple of days ago about the role the State Department plays when the OSCE or other international observers come. We provide letters of introduction to the state secretaries of the states where these OSCE observers want to be active. And since 1996, we have also given the observers privileges and immunities when they come into the United States, certain diplomatic privileges and immunities, as we do for diplomatic personnel.

I think we also had a question about whether we knew of any other organizations – international organizations looking to observe our elections. We understand that the NGO International Foundation for Electoral Systems, better known as IFES to many of you, has invited more than 200 election administrators to watch how the U.S. does elections. These are not observers strictly. They are coming to look at how we do administration of our elections for lessons learned purposes, and we do expect that individual embassies and countries may send parliamentarians, diplomats, politicians to observe elections, but not in a organized fashion necessarily.

QUESTION: Sorry, back to the OSCE team.

MS. NULAND: Yeah.

QUESTION: They all get diplomatic immunity?

MS. NULAND: No, they get certain privileges and immunities.

QUESTION: Which ones?

MS. NULAND: I don’t have a list here of exactly what we’re giving them, but in general, we give them protected status, as we expect of our people when we participate in OSCE delegations.

QUESTION: Okay. And – but who are these people?

MS. NULAND: Generally, they are parliamentarians from OSCE countries. They’re usually the ones who —

QUESTION: They’re members of parliament, they’re lawmakers —

MS. NULAND: — make up the bulk – they are lawmakers from OSCE countries.

QUESTION: — who would normally or not normally have diplomatic status if they traveled to the United States?

MS. NULAND: Again, it depends on how they came. If they came to bring their grandchildren to Disneyland, they’d be on a tourist visa. If they came in their parliamentary capacity, or in this case, in an OSCE capacity, then they would have some protected status.

QUESTION: Okay. And I’m sorry, I didn’t understand the – you have gotten – the question about Texas – you got a letter from the OSCE; is that correct? Or the Secretary got a letter from —

MS. NULAND: The Secretary got a letter and the authorities in Texas got a similar letter.

QUESTION: And you said that you have responded to the OSCE? I didn’t understand the rest of that.

MS. NULAND: The Texas authorities expressed their concern by letter, through us —

QUESTION: Yes.

MS. NULAND: — and directly to the OSCE.

QUESTION: Yes.

MS. NULAND: The OSCE has now responded both to Texas and to the Secretary.

QUESTION: Oh, okay.

MS. NULAND: Okay?

QUESTION: And the concern was what from Texas?

MS. NULAND: I think you can see the Texas letter, but they were concerned about whether this observer delegation would obey Texas electoral law.

QUESTION: Texas is still part of the union, is it not?

MS. NULAND: It is.

QUESTION: Yeah? The Republic of Texas has long, long ago gone away even though it still has an embassy in Paris?

MS. NULAND: But under our Constitution, as you know, there’s a thing called states rights, and they – and states administer their own elections, right?

QUESTION: Well, has there ever been a problem in the past?

MS. NULAND: I can’t speak to that. I don’t know.

QUESTION: Did the – I’ll look for the Texas letter, but are you aware of any problems that there were in Texas?

MS. NULAND: No.

QUESTION: All right.

QUESTION: Is it normal procedure for states to be in touch with international organizations directly, not through the State Department or the federal government?

MS. NULAND: Yeah. I mean, it’s common practice in the same way, as I said, that we are providing introductions to the secretaries of state in the states for this international organization, in the same way when states have an international problem they can work with us, they can work with other federal agencies, whether Department of Justice, et cetera.

QUESTION: Yeah. But would they go to any international body without going through you, or through the federal government?

MS. NULAND: Generally, they do better if they work with us, but sometimes they can go directly. There’s no law against it per se.

QUESTION: Do you have or do you know if it’s on, like, the OSCE website where they’re going to be going?

MS. NULAND: We had, I think, about 15 states that they were going to go to. I think the list was still being worked up. We’ll get that for you, Matt.

QUESTION: And Texas was the only one that had reservations or concerns?

MS. NULAND: To my knowledge, it’s the only state that came forward and said please reassure us that you’re going to follow our state electoral law. And they have now been reassured.

Okay. Thanks, everybody.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:44 p.m.)

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