Daily Archives: March 4, 2015

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert injured in attack by armed assailant (updated)

March 4, 2015 By in Ambassadors

Posted: 15:18 EST
Updated: 17:40 EST

 

According to Yonhap, the U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Mark Lippert was injured today after a knife attack by an armed assailant.

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Via Twitter

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Via CNN:

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was attacked in Seoul, possibly by more than one person, according to U.S. government sources in the U.S. and South Korea.   Lippert was injured by a small razor blade, according to Seoul police. His injuries are not life threatening, according to Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman.  A U.S. embassy spokesperson said he is in stable condition.

“The President called U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Mark Lippert, to tell him that he and his wife Robyn are in his thoughts and prayers, and to wish him the very best for a speedy recovery,” said Bernadette Meehan, National Security Council spokesperson.

Click here for an update  from CNN with additional details on the attack and the alleged perpetrator. The Associated Press also has an updated story here.

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Sending our  get well wishes to  & , Sejun and !

Watch: Hillary Clinton talks use of email in 2011 TODAY interview

March 4, 2015 By in Controversies, Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, Spectacular, State Department, Technology and Work Tags: , , , , , 2 Comments

Posted: 08:22 PST
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“I have a lot of security restraints on what I can and can’t do,” the then secretary of state tells Savannah Guthrie in an October 2011 interview.

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 SOURCE: Today Show
03/04/2015   00:33

 

The following excerpted from the Daily Press Briefing of March 3, 2015:

 

QUESTION: Why is she using a personal account?

MS. HARF: Uh-huh. Well, let’s – I just have a couple points, sort of top lines, and then follow up with many questions, okay?

QUESTION: Okay.

MS. HARF: First, the notion that the Department didn’t have the content of these emails until she turned them over isn’t accurate. A vast majority of them were to or from State.gov addresses or to addressees. So they were obviously retained and captured in that moment. So that notion is just not accurate and I wanted to put that out there first.

A couple other points: There was no prohibition on using a non-State.gov account for official business as long as it’s preserved. So obviously, that’s an important piece of this. When in the process of updating our records management – this is something that’s sort of ongoing given technology and the changes – we reached out to all of the former secretaries of state to ask them to provide any records they had. Secretary Clinton sent back 55,000 pages of documents to the State Department very shortly after we sent the letter to her. She was the only former Secretary of State who sent documents back in to this request. These 55,000 pages covered her time, the breadth of her time at the State Department.

Secretary Kerry is the first Secretary of State to rely primarily on his State.gov account. So what Secretary Clinton did was by no means unusual. In fact, it had been the practice before Secretary Kerry. So certainly, I know there’s a lot of interest in this. I would also point out that the notion that she had this email account is certainly not news; it’s been reported on for more than two years at this point. So I was a little surprised – although maybe I shouldn’t have been – by some of the breathless reporting coming out last night, but I guess that’s the nature of where we are today.

QUESTION: Okay. So just to address one of the things you said. You said there was no prohibition on using —

MS. HARF: Correct.

 

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Our American Ambassadors — Just Saying Hello Collection (Videos)

March 4, 2015 By in Ambassadors, Foreign Service, FSOs, Political Appointees, Social Media, State Department, U.S. Missions, Video of the Week Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted: 00:50 EST
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U.S. Ambassador to Moldova James Pettit

 

U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa Mark Gilbert

 

U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Verma

 

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Insider Quote: “It’s a good thing that I treated them well …”

March 4, 2015 By in Foreign Service, Quotes Tags: , ,

Posted: 00:46 EST
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“Oh, yes. I’ve been traveling. I went back to doing what I started out doing 35 years ago. I take courier trips. And the people that used to work for me I now work for them and it’s a good thing that I treated them well.”

— Richard E. Thompson
Diplomatic Courier
Interviewed by Raymond Ewing on April 16, 2001 for the ADST Oral History Project (pdf)