https://twitter.com/bettemidler
Do I look like John Kerry?
https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2012/04/187304.htm
Interview With Clarissa Ward of CBS News
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State, Istanbul Congress Center, Turkey, April 1, 2012
QUESTION: – taking the time to talk with us. I wanted to begin by talking about former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s six-point plan. During the week since Bashar al-Assad claimed to accept the plan, there’s been no let-up in the violence, and I just wanted to ask you, at what point do we say that this plan has been a failure? What is the deadline?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Clarissa – excuse me, let me start over again – Clarissa, let me say that the plan is a good plan. It’s getting it implemented, as you point out, which is the real challenge. And we’re going to hear from Kofi Annan to the Security Council tomorrow, so we’ll get a firsthand report. But as you saw coming out of this conference, there does need to be a timeline. We cannot permit Assad and his regime and his allies to allow what is a good faith negotiating process by a very expert, experienced negotiator to be used as an excuse for continuing the killing. We think Assad must go. The killing must stop. The sooner we get into a process that ends up there, the better. And I think former Secretary General Annan understands that.
QUESTION: But how do you enforce that timeline?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I think it’s self-enforced. I think he has to be the one who says, within a relatively short period of time, we’re not getting any results, I was given promises, they’re not kept. Because then we would go back to the Security Council. Now, what will Russia and China say? Kofi Annan has gone to Moscow, he’s gone to Beijing, he’s met with them. They support his plan. They have urged publicly that Assad follow the plan. So if we have to go back to the Security Council to get authority that would enable us to do more to help the Syrians really withstand this kind of terrible assault and get the aid that they need to get the humanitarian assistance they require, I think we’ll be in a stronger position than we would if he hadn’t had a chance to go and try to negotiate.
QUESTION: So one of the primary functions of the Friends of Syria is to provide support for the opposition, but up to this point, we still don’t see any real coordination and communication among the different both armed and political opposition groups inside Syria. How much of a frustration is that for you as you go through this process?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I’m encouraged by what we heard today, and I met privately with representatives of the Syrian National Council. They are making progress. They have unified around a compact, a national pact, about what they want to see in a new Syria, which is important, because then that sets the parameters for the kind of opposition that will be under their umbrella. They have reached out and included a much more diverse group of Syrians than when I met with them in Tunis or the first time in Geneva. They’re making progress. This is quite difficult, but I am encouraged.
What they need is what we are now offering. We are offering assistance to them, and it’s a variety of different sorts of assistance. The United States will be offering – in addition to significant humanitarian aid – will be offering technical and logistical support. You mentioned communications. They have a great deal of difficulty communicating inside Syria. You were there. You know how hard it is. We think we have some assets that we can get in there which we would try to do that will enable them to have better communication. So everyone’s looking to see what they can provide that is value-added for the opposition.
QUESTION: But no clear leader has emerged who can articulate what the opposition’s political vision for their country is.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I think that leaders have emerged who have played a very important role, and I thought the presentation by Professor Ghalioun was good today in how he set forth what their objectives were. But in this kind of fast-moving event, more people will come to the forefront. I met a very impressive young woman who just left Homs who is now active in the Syrian National Council. She looks to me to be an up-and-coming leader.
So I don’t think we can sit here today and say who is the leader, but by assisting the Syrian National Council, we are assisting the leadership, and there will be leaders within the civilian side of that, and there will be leaders within the military side.
QUESTION: We were recently inside Syria in the north in the city of Idlib, and the rebels who we were staying with now tell us that they have no ammunition left, they have no money left, and that their only recourse for self defense is to build IEDs or bombs. Obviously, there is a host of very complex issues associated with arming the opposition, or rebel groups specifically, but are you not concerned that if no support comes from the outside, that this could really devolve into a very bloody, ugly insurgency, and that if we aren’t the ones to provide that help, other non-state actors like extremist groups such as al-Qaida might be the ones to fill that void?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I think that’s why you heard today that a group of nations will be providing assistance for the fighters, and that is a decision that is being welcomed by the Syrian National Council. The United States will be doing other kinds of assistance. Other countries will as well. So we have evolved from trying to get our arms around what is an incredibly complex issue with a just nascent opposition that has now become much more solidified with a lot of doubts inside Syria itself from people who were either afraid of the Assad regime or afraid of what might come after to a much clearer picture, where we are now, I think, proceeding on a path that is going to have some positive returns.
QUESTION: Do you see any signs that Bashar al-Assad is starting to crack, that his regime is starting to feel the pressure, that conferences like this one are really having some kind of an impact?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, today, we heard from a deputy oil minister who defected, and certainly, his presentation to the large group suggested that, because the pressure that is being put on those who are still allied with the regime from outside and inside is increasing – the sanctions, the travel bans, the kinds of reputational loss, the fears that people are having, because as you are engaged in this kind of terrible authoritarian crackdown, people get paranoid and they start worrying about the guy sitting next to them. We do see those kinds of cracks. We think that the defections from the military are in the thousands. We know that there are perhaps two dozen high officers –
QUESTION: But there haven’t been more defections in the way that we saw in Libya from Assad’s inner circle.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, partly because when there were a couple of defections, the regime has cracked down and was basically holding families hostage. In fact, the man who spoke to us today, his family had gotten out ahead in Jordan, so he was free to leave. But that is an unsustainable position. You cannot turn the whole country into a giant prison. People are not going to put up with that after a while. So we think that there are cracks. I can’t put a timeframe on it, but we think that that is beginning to happen.
QUESTION: Madam Secretary, thank you so much for your time.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Great to talk to you.
QUESTION: Likewise.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Be safe.
>If they aren't curious by now, they won't be until it knocks them down.
https://apnews.com/article/shootings-kenosha-f3728531963341a2e137fdcb4b7cdc11
Man shot during Kenosha protest still remembers screams
A Wisconsin man who was shot during a protest against police brutality in Kenosha last month says he still remembers the screams that night and he’s in constant pain.
Prosecutors say 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch, Illinois, shot and killed two men during a chaotic protest Aug. 25. They’ve also accused Rittenhouse of shooting 26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz, of West Allis, in the arm.
Grosskreutz and his attorney, Kimberly Motley, told CNN for a story posted online Friday that he relives the shooting in his head every day. He said he still hears the gunshots and screams.
“I play it back in my head, I think about it all the time,” Grosskreutz said, his right arm still in a sling. “I think about everything all the time.”
The Associated Press has asked Motley to arrange an interview with him but she said she would have to speak to Grosskreutz.
The protests began after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, in the back seven times as Blake walked away from officers Aug. 23. The shooting sparked days of protests in Kenosha, a city of about 100,000 halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago. Some of the demonstrations turned violent. More than 20 businesses were set on fire.
Grosskreutz told CNN that he traveled to the protest because video of the Blake shooting disturbed him. He said he worked as a paramedic before going back to college in Wisconsin and he packed medical supplies in a small backpack in case he needed to treat people at the protests. He also brought his pistol with him, saying he has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He said he was worried after seeing a call to arms from a group called the Kenosha Guard on Facebook.
Rittenhouse has been charged with multiple felonies, including two counts of homicide in the deaths of 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum, of Kenosha, and 26-year-old Anthony Huber, of Silver Lake. Rittenhouse is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin.
According to court documents, Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse through a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him before trying to wrestle his rifle away. Rittenhouse shot him during the struggle and then ran away. Video shows Rittenhouse tripped in the street. As he was on the ground Huber hit him with a skateboard and tried to take his rifle away. Rittenhouse opened fire on him. Grosskreutz then approaches Rittenhouse with his pistol in his right hand. Rittenhouse shot him in the arm and Grosskreutz ran away screaming for a medic.
Video from earlier that night shows police giving Rittenhouse and other armed men water bottles and telling them that they appreciated them. Video shows Rittenhouse walking right by police with his rifle over his shoulder after the shootings even as people yelled that he had just shot people. He was arrested the next day in Illinois. Asked why officers let Rittenhouse leave the scene Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said sometimes police get “tunnel vision.”
Grosskreutz stressed to CNN that he has a legal right to carry a weapon.
“Everybody was there exercising their right to protest,” he said. “And there were some people who were exercising their right to bear arms, including myself. I never fired my gun. I was there to help people, not hurt people.”
He said he used his own medic bag to apply a tourniquet to his arm before police drove him to the hospital.
“That was a grievous wound. Had I not had my training and proper equipment . . . to treat a gunshot wound, I might not be here doing this interview,” he said.
He’s still being treated by doctors in the same hospital where Blake is convalescing from his wounds.
“I’m missing 90% of my bicep,” Grosskreutz said. “I’m in constant pain, like, excruciating pain, pain that doesn’t go away,” he said.
Rittenhouse isn’t old enough to legally possess a weapon in Wisconsin but his attorneys have argued he acted in self-defense. President Donald Trump has defended Rittenhouse’s actions.
Grosskreutz said he and his family, including his 65-year-old grandmother, have been getting death threats online from Rittenhouse supporters.
“Nobody should have been hurt or died that night,” he said. “We’re Americans. We’re human beings. We’re better than that.”
>Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse through a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him before trying to wrestle his rifle away. Rittenhouse shot him during the struggle and then ran away. Video shows Rittenhouse tripped in the street. As he was on the ground Huber hit him with a skateboard and tried to take his rifle away. Rittenhouse opened fire on him. Grosskreutz then approaches Rittenhouse with his pistol in his right hand. Rittenhouse shot him in the arm and Grosskreutz ran away screaming for a medic.