Daily Archives: February 12, 2009

Bosworth – The New Six-Party Talks Guy?

February 12, 2009 By in Ambassadors, People, Political Appointees, State Department, Transition

The IHT is reporting that Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is expected to be named as the U.S. envoy to six-party talks on curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Bosworth has served three times as U.S. Ambassador, most recently to the Republic of Korea (1997-2000), previously to the Philippines (1984-1987), and initially as Ambassador to Tunisia (1979-1981). He has been the Dean of the The Fletcher School at Tufts University since 2001.

Ambassador Bosworth was the guy who delivered President Reagan’s call for a “peaceful transition to a new government” to Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos during the 1986 People Power Revolution.

Gosh, that is 23 years ago this year!

According to one account in Time magazine, one of Marcos’ men went to see Michael Armacost, who was then “P” and was given a blunt message: Marcos had lost control of his army, the troops under General Ver were ineffectual, and if Marcos did not step down, the country could be heading for civil war. A similar statement was sent to the U.S. Ambassador in Manila, Stephen Bosworth, who took it to Marcos.

Last year, Bosworth co-wrote with Morton Abramowitz (former assistant secretary of State) a piece on North Korea for Newsweek, Reaching Out To Pyongyang urging on a strategy toward Pyongyang that addresses both the nuclear program and the long-term question of how to deal with the weak but dangerous nation.

“What North Korea wants more than anything is “political compensation,” a relationship with Washington, in which the United States would stop making threats, drop all sanctions and start treating North Korea as a friendly country. As Pyongyang sees it, such moves would finally allow it to join the global economic community—key to its survival. Until then, North Korea will hold on to its nuclear weapons as an insurance policy against a U.S. attack and, more important, the threat that Washington will simply ignore North Korea and allow it to starve in the dark. What this means in practical terms is that Pyongyang won’t give up its nukes until it’s sure Washington has permanently abandoned its “hostile policies,” and “mutual trust” has been established. This will require, among other things, establishing diplomatic relations and striking a peace agreement that formally ends the Korean War. […] There are no guarantees, but this approach would be far better than waiting around and hoping North Korea will collapse. That is no real policy at all, and rest assured North Korea knows how to get our attention.”

The appointment has not been officially announced but AP is reporting that officials said Secretary Clinton would like to name Bosworth before her departure Sunday for Asia. Ambassador Bosworth would replace Ambassador Christopher Hill as chief U.S. envoy to the Six-Party talks with North Korea. Click here to read about Ambassador Hill’s talk on North Korea at Harvard earlier this month.


Update: 2/14: The Secretary asked about the appointment of the U.S. envoy had this to say yesterday: “As to the envoy, we’ll be ready to announce our envoy to North Korea soon. But again, I think you’ll understand that we would like to consult with our partners in the Six-Party Talks before we do so.”

Bosworth – The New Six-Party Talks Guy?

February 12, 2009 By in Ambassadors, People, Political Appointees, State Department, Transition

The IHT is reporting that Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is expected to be named as the U.S. envoy to six-party talks on curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Bosworth has served three times as U.S. Ambassador, most recently to the Republic of Korea (1997-2000), previously to the Philippines (1984-1987), and initially as Ambassador to Tunisia (1979-1981). He has been the Dean of the The Fletcher School at Tufts University since 2001.

Ambassador Bosworth was the guy who delivered President Reagan’s call for a “peaceful transition to a new government” to Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos during the 1986 People Power Revolution.

Gosh, that is 23 years ago this year!

According to one account in Time magazine, one of Marcos’ men went to see Michael Armacost, who was then “P” and was given a blunt message: Marcos had lost control of his army, the troops under General Ver were ineffectual, and if Marcos did not step down, the country could be heading for civil war. A similar statement was sent to the U.S. Ambassador in Manila, Stephen Bosworth, who took it to Marcos.

Last year, Bosworth co-wrote with Morton Abramowitz (former assistant secretary of State) a piece on North Korea for Newsweek, Reaching Out To Pyongyang urging on a strategy toward Pyongyang that addresses both the nuclear program and the long-term question of how to deal with the weak but dangerous nation.

“What North Korea wants more than anything is “political compensation,” a relationship with Washington, in which the United States would stop making threats, drop all sanctions and start treating North Korea as a friendly country. As Pyongyang sees it, such moves would finally allow it to join the global economic community—key to its survival. Until then, North Korea will hold on to its nuclear weapons as an insurance policy against a U.S. attack and, more important, the threat that Washington will simply ignore North Korea and allow it to starve in the dark. What this means in practical terms is that Pyongyang won’t give up its nukes until it’s sure Washington has permanently abandoned its “hostile policies,” and “mutual trust” has been established. This will require, among other things, establishing diplomatic relations and striking a peace agreement that formally ends the Korean War. […] There are no guarantees, but this approach would be far better than waiting around and hoping North Korea will collapse. That is no real policy at all, and rest assured North Korea knows how to get our attention.”

The appointment has not been officially announced but AP is reporting that officials said Secretary Clinton would like to name Bosworth before her departure Sunday for Asia. Ambassador Bosworth would replace Ambassador Christopher Hill as chief U.S. envoy to the Six-Party talks with North Korea. Click here to read about Ambassador Hill’s talk on North Korea at Harvard earlier this month.


Update: 2/14: The Secretary asked about the appointment of the U.S. envoy had this to say yesterday: “As to the envoy, we’ll be ready to announce our envoy to North Korea soon. But again, I think you’ll understand that we would like to consult with our partners in the Six-Party Talks before we do so.”

Happy Darwin Day!

February 12, 2009 By in Current Stuff, Memorial, People

I am pleased to see that the Royal Mail has released some new stamps to commemorate Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday.

Ten stamps are issued to mark the birth of scientist Charles Darwin in Shrewsbury. Royal Mail said it is celebrating him and the studies that inspired his theories on evolution – zoology, botany, geology, ornithology and anthropology. Jigsaw-shaped stamps symbolise how his studies of different disciplines came together to form new ideas on evolution, the Royal Mail said. It has also produced a special sheet comprising four stamps illustrating the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands. Read more here.

We are apparently a divided and confused lot according to the Pew folks. But I’m still glad that the Brits have put his private papers online — check it out at Darwin Online.

For decades available only to scholars at Cambridge University Library, the private papers of Charles Darwin, one of the most influential scientists in history, can now be seen by anyone online and free of charge. This is the largest ever publication of Darwin papers and manuscripts, totalling about 20,000 items in over 100,000 electronic images.

This vast and varied collection of papers includes the first draft of his theory of evolution, notes from the voyage of the Beagle and Emma Darwin’s recipe book.

We are extremely grateful for the kind permission of Cambridge University Library to reproduce these online. They are presented in the same sequence as the original catalogue, which was divided mostly into bound volumes, each with a library classmark.

Also check out the Charles Darwin Foundation, an organization that has carried out research for the conservation of the Galapagos ecosystem for almost 50 years.

Happy Darwin Day!

February 12, 2009 By in Current Stuff, Memorial, People

I am pleased to see that the Royal Mail has released some new stamps to commemorate Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday.

Ten stamps are issued to mark the birth of scientist Charles Darwin in Shrewsbury. Royal Mail said it is celebrating him and the studies that inspired his theories on evolution – zoology, botany, geology, ornithology and anthropology. Jigsaw-shaped stamps symbolise how his studies of different disciplines came together to form new ideas on evolution, the Royal Mail said. It has also produced a special sheet comprising four stamps illustrating the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands. Read more here.

We are apparently a divided and confused lot according to the Pew folks. But I’m still glad that the Brits have put his private papers online — check it out at Darwin Online.

For decades available only to scholars at Cambridge University Library, the private papers of Charles Darwin, one of the most influential scientists in history, can now be seen by anyone online and free of charge. This is the largest ever publication of Darwin papers and manuscripts, totalling about 20,000 items in over 100,000 electronic images.

This vast and varied collection of papers includes the first draft of his theory of evolution, notes from the voyage of the Beagle and Emma Darwin’s recipe book.

We are extremely grateful for the kind permission of Cambridge University Library to reproduce these online. They are presented in the same sequence as the original catalogue, which was divided mostly into bound volumes, each with a library classmark.

Also check out the Charles Darwin Foundation, an organization that has carried out research for the conservation of the Galapagos ecosystem for almost 50 years.

CRS Reports on WikiLeaks Now

February 12, 2009 By in Congress, Govt Documents, Transparency


This came from Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica on February 10, 2009: WikiLeaks Publishes CRS Reports; Gov’t Still Doesn’t. Reprinted here under creative commons license.

In making many of its decisions, Congress relies on hundreds of analysts to study issues from stimulus spending [1] to alternative fuel vehicles [2] to human cloning [3].

But the department that does those analyses, the Congressional Research Service, does not make the hundreds reports it generates each year available to the public. (But the public does pay: The CRS’s annual budget is about $100 million.)

Many of those reports [4] have just been made available to the public via the pro-transparency site WikiLeaks [5], which has posted 6,780 CRS reports. The folks at WikiLeaks won’t say how they got the reports: “As for getting, everyone wants to know which member of Congress or their staff is our source. Naturally we can’t talk about that,” a WikiLeaks staffer told us in an e-mail.

WikiLeaks says its collection does not include older reports that are available only on paper.

CRS can’t offer up the reports because they are required by statute to make its reports available only to members of Congress. According to an April 2007 memo [6] (PDF) from CRS director Daniel Mulhollan, CRS lacks the “authority to make its products available to anyone other than the Congress of the United States.”

“Needless to say, I don’t find the arguments persuasive,” said Stephen Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. “The CRS’ sister congressional organization, the Government Accountability Office [7], publishes new reports online each day without any detrimental effect. But the decision to publish is for Congress to make, not CRS.”

Aftergood’s organization, FAS, has its own archive [8] of CRS reports dealing with national security, intelligence and foreign relations.

Others have published the reports too: The University of North Texas Libraries has an extensive CRS collection [9] as does the Thurgood Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland School of Law. And OpenCRS [10], a project of the Center for Democracy and Technology, has a directory to CRS collections around the country. One of the few natural outlets that doesn’t offer CRS reports: the U.S. government.

Just in time for an early Valentine’s Day gift for nerdy wonks all around!!

WikiLeaks in its editorial titled Change you can download dated February 8, 2009 says that “the 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S. relationship with Israel to the financial collapse. Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices. The CRS is Congress’s analytical agency and has a budget in excess of $100M per year.”

The State Department also has a collection of CRS reports and issue briefs available here. The CRS reports in WikiLeaks are available here.

CRS Reports on WikiLeaks Now

February 12, 2009 By in Congress, Govt Documents, Transparency


This came from Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica on February 10, 2009: WikiLeaks Publishes CRS Reports; Gov’t Still Doesn’t. Reprinted here under creative commons license.

In making many of its decisions, Congress relies on hundreds of analysts to study issues from stimulus spending [1] to alternative fuel vehicles [2] to human cloning [3].

But the department that does those analyses, the Congressional Research Service, does not make the hundreds reports it generates each year available to the public. (But the public does pay: The CRS’s annual budget is about $100 million.)

Many of those reports [4] have just been made available to the public via the pro-transparency site WikiLeaks [5], which has posted 6,780 CRS reports. The folks at WikiLeaks won’t say how they got the reports: “As for getting, everyone wants to know which member of Congress or their staff is our source. Naturally we can’t talk about that,” a WikiLeaks staffer told us in an e-mail.

WikiLeaks says its collection does not include older reports that are available only on paper.

CRS can’t offer up the reports because they are required by statute to make its reports available only to members of Congress. According to an April 2007 memo [6] (PDF) from CRS director Daniel Mulhollan, CRS lacks the “authority to make its products available to anyone other than the Congress of the United States.”

“Needless to say, I don’t find the arguments persuasive,” said Stephen Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. “The CRS’ sister congressional organization, the Government Accountability Office [7], publishes new reports online each day without any detrimental effect. But the decision to publish is for Congress to make, not CRS.”

Aftergood’s organization, FAS, has its own archive [8] of CRS reports dealing with national security, intelligence and foreign relations.

Others have published the reports too: The University of North Texas Libraries has an extensive CRS collection [9] as does the Thurgood Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland School of Law. And OpenCRS [10], a project of the Center for Democracy and Technology, has a directory to CRS collections around the country. One of the few natural outlets that doesn’t offer CRS reports: the U.S. government.

Just in time for an early Valentine’s Day gift for nerdy wonks all around!!

WikiLeaks in its editorial titled Change you can download dated February 8, 2009 says that “the 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S. relationship with Israel to the financial collapse. Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices. The CRS is Congress’s analytical agency and has a budget in excess of $100M per year.”

The State Department also has a collection of CRS reports and issue briefs available here. The CRS reports in WikiLeaks are available here.