Interesting Fact About Bolivia

I would like to ask you about Iran and the IAEA and Under Secretary Bolton's comments last night, and if what he said about it being impossible to believe the conclusion of the IAEA report, does that mean that the United States has decided that regardless of what happens at the meeting on the 20th in Vienna, you want the Board to refer the Iran nuclear issue to the UN Security Council? ...

QUESTION: Can you explain then, Adam, exactly what arguments you're -- given the fact that your allegations, similar allegations that you made in the past about Iraq have not yet been able to be proved, why anyone should believe you when you say that this report is not -- is not believable? What's the argument here? ... [Read More]

USIS Washington File: TRANSCRIPT: WORLD BANK CORRUPTION FIGHTERS TALK OF WORK

This year we started with 46 sub-national workshops. David came to one of these. It was out in the countryside. We had 300 people show up. They came on bicycles. We didn't have electricity. We had trouble finding the place. We had 300 people coming out of nowhere and discussing the central question: what is the driving force? Is it poverty or is it corruption, the reason that people are having such a bad time? There was a lot of anger there. These people were criticizing the government and starting to challenge the leaders. We had the inspector general of the government who came there to speak and we had the event broadcast live on television. Someone in the audience stood up and pointed his finger and said, "You talk about fighting corruption. What about the corrupt people in your office? Your second in command is crooked. What are you going to do about that, sir?" ... [Read More]

US Dept of State - Progress Cited in Global Counter-Narcotics Trafficking

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CHARLES: You know, it's interesting. I mean, I really care about this issue area. I am a guy who's here because I really care. And solutions are what I'm all about. And what you find, going back to 2002 -- I'm not saying anything couldn't work -- but if you go back to 2002, you see compensated eradication not working well. That's a different, slightly different, point of reference, but you see it really not working well. ...

It is the 18th INCSR report. And just for evolutionary purposes, this project started at about 350 pages or 370. This year, I think you'll find it's about 1,000 pages and it's a pretty thick read. It's got a lot of statistical backup for the things that it concludes. It has about 520,000 words in it, which is lengthy. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Transcript: State Department Noon Briefing, November 13

MR. ERELI: On this subject today, Iran has a nuclear weapons program and has been deceiving the international community about that program for a long time, and it will certainly be interesting to note whether, and to what extent the IAEA report documents what we've been saying for many, many years. ...

QUESTION: I have a question, returning to the Middle East, apparently, the compound that was blown up at Riyadh about a week or so ago, they're saying that religious police came in three months earlier and were complaining to the people living in that particular compound area about their westernized style or lifestyle. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Transcript: State Department Briefing, June 7

I would note that we have, I believe, $1.1 billion in the supplemental that is now coming on-line.  That money is starting to make its way to the pipeline and some of that assistance is destined for the south in humanitarian assistance.  I would just note one interesting fact, that is, that the United States currently at the moment provides about 90 percent of the humanitarian food aid to the south. ...

QUESTION:  What about the China pressure?  Any indication that China did, in fact, pick up what Rumsfeld asked for in implied pressure, subtle or otherwise? ... [Read More]

State Department's Air Wing and Plan Colombia

The second reason is because we have a new Assistant Secretary, Robert Charles, who was sworn in on October 6th, who brings with his new responsibilities a vision and some ideas that he wants to share with you not only about the Bureau but about America's efforts to eradicate coca production and reduce consumption and deaths in the United States of drugs. So he has some good ideas that we're going to talk about today. ...

On safety, I think it's important to remember that, as they fly in a difficult environment, I am very concerned about safety. In fact, I would say the three things that I am most concerned about in the overall Air Wing are safety of the pilots, accountability of the program, and the generation of the results that we have this program for, namely, on the ground. ... [Read More]

Briefing en Route Curacao, Netherlands Antilles

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we have already had many conversations about the region, about regional stability, about challenges to democracy in the region, and I expect that we will have those discussions. This is not an issue of whether the United States wishes to have good relations with Venezuela. We have a long history with Venezuela. We have economic ties with Venezuela. We want to have good relations with Venezuela. We’ve had concerns about the behavior of the Venezuelan regime in terms of its own domestic development and adherence to the OAS Democratic Charter and in terms of relations with its neighbors. But, I think that will come as no surprise to anyone and it’s one issue that we will discuss, but we have a lot of issues to discuss. And our commitment to democracy, our commitment to non-interference in the affairs of neighbors, our commitment to trying to spread prosperity is a commitment that’s really shared with the states of the region and that’s really what I’m going th ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Transcript: State Department Briefing, October 21

MR. ERELI: But you're asking me what we think about talking to Iran about things that might or might not obtain once they comply with requirements. And what I'm saying is that let's see them fulfill the requirements first, and until they do, it's premature to talk about next steps down the road. Now, if -- ...

QUESTION: Adam, can you talk about how intimately involved or briefed Secretary Powell was on this trip, the discussions before, the discussions after? Was the -- were the Europeans going there on behalf of just those three countries, or was the United States kind of a silent partner in this? And if you can talk about any calls that he has received after the visit. ... [Read More]

2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report

In 2004, a number I can give you, Colombia's spray and manual eradication efforts set a record.  There were more than 135,000 hectares of coca sprayed and 3,000 hectares of poppy eradicated by spray and an additional 1,400 by hand.  These gains, again, are going to be sequentially, I predict, smaller over time because you necessarily get more and more and more of the crop, and at the end of the day, what you're doing is you backfill it with alternative development.  And we can talk region by region; we can talk about Putumayo, we can talk about Bolivia, we can talk about other countries and what they've been able to do. ... [Read More]

Counternarcotics Initiatives for Afghanistan

(2:30 p.m. EST)MR. CASEY: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the State Department. A pleasure to have you all with us this afternoon. This afternoon, we'd like to give Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Robert Charles an opportunity to talk with you today about some of the positive developments, as well as some of the other challenges confronting us in Afghanistan, as we move forward and work with the international community on dealing with the narcotics issue in that country. Assistant Secretary Charles. ASSISTANT SECRETARY CHARLES: Thank you. It's amazing, with the Secretary away, it's a surpri ... [Read More]