John Kerry - Secretary of State, United States HARDtalk


John Kerry - Secretary of State, United States

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Baghdad. HARDtalk is next. This is a HARDtalk special coming you from

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the University of Addis Ababa with the Secretary of State John Kerry.

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Many are hoping this Golden Jubilee will mark a new golden hero for

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Africa. We have invited an audience of young Africans to put forward

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questions and we also have questions from the BBC audience

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US Secretary of State John Kerry, welcome. It is a big world out

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there and you have many pressing demands, objectives and goals but

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when you look around the world, highlight what your main areas of

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concerns are? First of all, thank you to the University of Addis

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Ababa and for you all taking part in these. Thank you to the Prime

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Minister and ministers of Ethiopia. I think, for anybody looking at the

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world today, as we measure the challenge us and as you young

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people I getting out of universities for people already out

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and working. The greatest concern has to be the lack of a fulfilment

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by governments in many country of the aspirations of people.

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Particularly the creations of jobs and the educational opportunities

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needed for this new modern world. We are living in a very different

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age. You know it better than anybody. Their instant

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communications, more information to prices. In Egypt, that was not a

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revolution that was roo by Islamism or any ideology - it was young

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people. That was moved to buy. People that texted each other,

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emailed. In this world of connectedness, we are really

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looking for an opportunity. What I see in Africa, what I see around

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the world, are explosive numbers of young people. In Africa, you will

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have 100 million young people who need to go to school in the next 12

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years. It is a huge challenge. Over the next 35 years, Africa will

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become 40% of the entire world's workforce. We need to provide jobs

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and develop. Do not look at this and say, we cannot do it. There is

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a world of things to do out there. Six of the 10 fastest growing

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countries in the world are in Africa. So we're looking at these

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explicit opportunity and, frankly, you are all going to defined and

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can define, if you choose to, how we respond to these. That is how

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you see the situation in Africa and everybody would agree that youth

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unemployment is a problem here but all over Africa. 10 million jobs

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every year have to be found for Africans. But giving an olive

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review of your foreign policy priorities, when you look around

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the world, what are some of the key areas and regions? President Obama

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and I share the believes that the values of human rights - freedom,

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choice and opportunity - a universal values. Everybody aspires

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to those. Our objective is to address these concerns. We are

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forced to deal with a certain number of crisis. When North Korea

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starts to friend and nuclear confrontation, we are obliged to

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try to reduce that tension and deal with it. When a leader like

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President Assad refuses to listen to the people of his country and

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decides to kill them and destroy his country simply to hold on to

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power, then we have to try to work with other countries. The US is

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both blessed and challenged to be in a position to try to help move

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people towards stability and peace and opportunities. That is what we

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tried to do. I am sure there are people who want to ask him

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questions. (INAUDIBLE). question was about whether the US

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wants to talk to Taleban. And he thinks it is nonsense. We should

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not talk to terrorists. His ago people thought we should not talk

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to China because of its prime minister but Henry Kissinger and

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Richard Nixon thought otherwise and today we worked with China. They

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try to prevent Iran from trying to have a nuclear weapon. You can work

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things. You cannot do say if you're not willing to explore the

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possibility of changing views. The requirement for the Taleban to come

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to the table was that they agree that they will not engage in

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violence against other people, against other countries not engaged

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in terrorism that they will not threaten Afghanistan constitution

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and so forth. If they meet those standards, we believe we should sit

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down and explore. We do not give up anything until you say, yes.

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have also had so many questions - hundreds and hundreds - from all

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over the world - pleasure, Arabia, picking up on the point - one

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question from Afghanistan is what has the US gained from the presence

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in Afghanistan. Is your mission accomplished and what have you

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achieved? It is a great question. We went to Afghanistan and to

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destroy the threat of Al-Qaeda coming from Afghanistan and

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Pakistan. They attacked us. They killed more than 3,000 people in an

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absolutely unexpected, totally motivated by them attack against

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the US. That was Osama Bin Laden. We went to Afghanistan to hold them

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accountable for that act. The answer is, yes, we have achieved

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that mission. We have destroyed the fundamental capacity of Al-Qaeda.

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They still remains some threat, they are still continuing but we

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have a hugely reduced the ability of Al-Qaeda to friend how Hyman.

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Some of them have moved to the Arabian peninsula, to Mali but

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people are taking them on over there. Has anybody else have.

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Linked to these region and terrorism? So that we stay with one

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topic. My question is. More innocent people are being killed

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not from terrorism. How long does this man has continue. My question

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is, with regards to the US foreign policy and human rights concerns -

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concerns for security. And the US has been accused of a double

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standard. What you say about that? I know the US war on terror has led

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to the relocation of terrorist movement in Africa - specifically

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in Mali. I would like to know what is the US going to do in order to

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help these countries to rebuild or to resist against these movements.

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They were a clump of questions. First of all the use of US and

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France in countries like Yemen, Pakistan. Counter-productive,

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killing innocent people and anti-US sentiment? Let nuclear with

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everybody here. You said they are killing more civilians - the answer

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is, no. They are not. They have been very few drone strikes in the

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past year because we have been so successful in a rooting out Al-

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Qaeda in Pakistan. Secondly, the only people that we fire a dry and

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at up confirmed terrorist targets at the highest level. After a great

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deal of a vetting that takes a long period of time. We do not just fire

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a drone at somebody who we think our terrorist. Sometimes it takes

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the year to build the authority to know we are correct. We do not fire

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when we know there are children or collateral damage. We just do not

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do it. We have absolutely not shot at high-level tigers that we know

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when we see there would be collateral damage. I will tell you

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that the extremists who put bombs in those mosques and blow up 100

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people never engaged in the kind of clear, and discretion, there we

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have exhibited in this programme. There is a lot of mythology about

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this programme. That is why the President went public this week in

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an unprecedented effort to create a policy and we have shifted the

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policy - out of the intelligence community into the Defence

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Department where it is totally accountable. And that is what we

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want - accountability. You'll never see that kind of accountability

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from terrorist who blow up people in the street. I ask you to be very

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careful in comparing that. When I came in as Secretary of State are

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wanted to review this programme because in my tenure of wanted to

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make sure I knew what the standards were and what we were doing and I

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will tell you, and I think people know my reputation over 29 News in

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the Senate, I am an advocate for openness and for accountability - I

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am convinced that we have one of the strictest, most accountable and

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ferrous programmes out there. We would prefer to capture some body.

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We prefer to get the information. But sometimes, like with the summer

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of Bin Laden, it does not happen that way. -- Osama Bin Laden. We

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are helping in Mali. We are very sensitive to these movement of

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terrorism. But I say this to you, please do not just ask what are you

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doing, ask what are you doing. You need to help. Everybody needs to

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help. This is where we need to build and governance, the capacity

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that has the ability to resist these. It should not be the

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responsibility of the US, way across the ocean, to come over here

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and say we have to do this. We need to build the internal capacity and

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people here have to want to fight for their definition of their

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future for their country. We are helping in Mali. Marley will have

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an election. It has assistance from the French and from us. But all you

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are really the best antidotes to these. Young people against these

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violence. Secretary of State, we had from social media all over the

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world this issue of terror. It was very big. It is not just foreign

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policy but you need to look at your own domestic terror threat.

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Absolutely. And we do. The bottom line is, the threat comes from

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within as from without. We are spending an enormous amount of

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money building a capacity and working very hard internally. Some

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of it is home grown. Some of it is not. In Syria, they run 2000 plus

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foreign fighters coming from Europe, a couple them from America, a

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couple from Great Britain, and many from the Middle East. From Yemen,

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and other places. So we all have a part. A meeting come back quickly

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to the young African leaders initiatives - it gives you an

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opportunity to make your voices heard at present a different

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alternative. Any questions on On talking about the situation in

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Libya. More people recently around 70,000 people Syrians have died

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since the conflict started. You've done nothing. But things are

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escalating quickly. What They Think about the Libyan situation?

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heard a lot about Syria through social media. Do you think you're

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listening to 'The Voice' of the Syrian people and their true

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desires echoing what would have? How many more lives must be lost

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before the US and the UN intervenes? You acted quickly in

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Libya. Have you verify the claims from President as sad about the

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rebels using chemical weapons? Many people have suggested that is the

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forces of President Al a sad who had used chemical weapons.-

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President al-Assad. I thought we had to helping Libya. The leader of

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the country, he stood up and said, we are going to go to Benghazi and

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we're going house-to-house to kill you like dogs. I thought the

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international community had an obligation, knowing that was

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happening and going to happen, to try to make a difference and we

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were able to because we had a different situation in Libya. There

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was no sectarian division. There was tribal divisions but no

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sectarian divisions. It was more complicated in Iran. In Syria. We

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had Hezbollah coming from Lebanon and Iran and Russia were involved

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with support and it was more complex and different than in Libya.

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In Libya, we need an important thing. We gave the Libyan people an

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opportunity to make a choice. They had a government who had been

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chosen and they had elections. They knew the future they wanted. In

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Syria it's much more complicated. President al-Assad is trying to

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cling to power. He was given an opportunity to bring people in to

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make the reforms. He wanted to have an election? No, he chose missiles

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and artillery. Bombs. There is some evidence which raises the question

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about chemicals against his own people. That is a war crime, a

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violation of international war. you think he has used them? We have

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evidence from intelligence community assessment. At the

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assessment is not evidence that you would be prepared to take to the

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world and the President said he would deliberately and carefully

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examined this case and he has made clear, if that determination winds

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up in the affirmative, he will believe that he has crossed the

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line. There's a number of different options as to what he would then do.

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The point I'm making is that Syria, because of the complications, we

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need to have Ensis to the questions about Russia, Hezbollah, the

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Australians, it's a much more complex equation. Make no mistake.

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We are on the side of the Syrian people. The opposition at large, is

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representative of the Syrian people. President al-Assad has decided. His

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father killed many people and held on to power. There is a secret

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police. There's a system of spying and arresting people and torturing

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people and killing people putting them in jail. I know deep the world

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should stand by and allow somebody to violate matters of conscience

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and standards of morality the way he has. Universally, within the

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region, Climate another President and he believes President al-Assad

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must go. Also from Turkey, the Prime Minister, he used to be a

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friend of his. Also the Gulf states and the members of the community.

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The Europeans. We believe that we are moving in a thoughtful and

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sensitive way to get negotiation to see if we can implement a peaceful

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resolution but we will support the opposition as we go along if that

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is not possible. Now the question of supporting the opposition. We

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received a message on social media. Could the US at least harm the

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opposition groups or at least help impose a no-fly zone over Syria?

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Turkey is ready. Are those options under consideration? After a

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meeting in the Senate. They may armed groups in Syria? It will be

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considered by the Senate. The constitutional process works better

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when the Congress of the US is engaged in this kind of decision.

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We welcome the Congress being ready to debate this. The President has

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many options on the table. So such as? A will not discuss them. They

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had not taken off. We have to see about working with the Russians to

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produce a dialogue bringing about peace. Countries like China and

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Brazil, should there be a new strategy in US diplomacy to help

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progress the democracy within Africa? How the economic crisis is

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affecting the overall foreign policy in general. Especially

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towards Africa. I'd like to know about what you would do in your

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legacy towards Africa. What is your personal aspiration for women in

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Africa? Any questions there. Possibly the first question about

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the point of that China and Brazil are gaining more influence a

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economically and politically at the expense of the United States.

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That's very perceptive, you are correct. There is no argument.

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China and Brazil have been investing more in Africa then we

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have. That must change. President Obama is coming to Africa next

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month. He will look forward to his visit. He will go to Tanzania and

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South Africa. I am here now. We are going to be engaged here and we

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need to be. I am not kidding you. As a huge future to be written here.

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Obviously we want to continue Our relationship. I am concerned,

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though, that some of the involvement of some countries it is

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not as transparent as the United States is. Some of it can undermine

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democracy depending on how it is done. Are you talking about China?

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( LAUGHTER ) we need to be thoughtful about the standards.

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don't want to lose your sovereignty or opportunities. They were as a

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question about your legacy for Africa. What are your final

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thoughts about the John Kerry doctrine? I'm not trying to declare

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doctrines. I'm not getting into legacies. It's a question of your

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legacy. What is your legacy for Africa? I am here to try to help.

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The President wants to hell. Maybe the legacy will be what we do to

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try to help. What we have done, so far, the legislation, the

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legislation in the 90s. It was a bipartisan approach. Now we have

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saved millions of lives and a generation of people will be free

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from AIDS because of it. That's a legacy for everybody. What we need

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to do is to continue to do these things. I hope it will be with

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President Obama and his administration stepping up his

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efforts in Africa to help educate and to provide job opportunities

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for younger people and work with younger people so the next

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generation will feel that the United States helped them to define

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the future of Africa. You are the ones that can make it happen.

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due to everybody from social media and to the people here at the

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