Obama Meets With Cabinet on Oil Spill

Statement from Robert Gibbs on the meeting:

The Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill presents us with challenges on a number of fronts – from capping the flow at the well head and containing the spill on the ocean’s surface, to controlling the impact of the oil on the coastal shoreline and on the precious wetlands and fisheries in the area. President Obama remains committed to bringing any and all available resources to the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier today the President met with a number of Cabinet members and senior staff in the White House Situation Room to review BP’s efforts to stop the oil leak as well as to decide on next steps to ensure all is being done to contain the spread, mitigate the environmental impact and provide assistance to affected states, including individuals, businesses, and communities.

As we continue to evaluate different options to stop the flow of oil, the President impressed upon his team two things in the meeting today: first, the importance of engaging independent experts in the fields of science and technology; and, second, bringing every perspective to the table to identify potential solutions.

The President was pleased to hear that some of Energy Secretary Chu’s ideas have helped us better understand the dimensions of this serious problem and he asked Secretary Chu to lead a team of top administration officials and government scientists to Houston this week for an extensive dialogue with BP officials to continue to aggressively pursue potential solutions. Throughout the week, the President will continue to dispatch additional Cabinet officials to the region. As the President has made clear before, BP will be paying for all costs of stopping the spill and cleaning it up, and we will aggressively pursue full compensation for damages.

In addition, to deal more generally with the harms created by oil spills, the President has requested that we send legislation to Congress to toughen and update the law surrounding caps on damages.


The principals participating in the meeting included:

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
United States Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen (National Incident Commander for this event)
Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen
Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security John Brennan
National Security Advisor General Jim Jones
EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe (Administrator Jackson is currently in Louisiana)
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco
Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli
Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner
OMB Director Peter Orszag
Assistant to the President for Science and Technology John Holdren
DPC Chair Melody Barnes
CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley
Assistant to the President for Cabinet Affairs Chris Lu

No oil on Mississippi beaches but no beachgoers:

Karzai Visits White House May 12

Via Politico:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s May 12 visit is “absolutely” happening, said National Security Council chief of staff Denis McDonough. Jones called Karzai a “strategic partner” and said a letter from Obama was delivered to him this week, thanking him for his hospitality when Obama visited Afghanistan.

Another tidbit from the AF1 gaggle with Obama's security advisers:

National Security Adviser Jim Jones said the White House understands that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can’t attend next week’s nuclear summit because it will coincide with a day for remembering the Holocaust. The deputy prime minister will attend instead.

Obamas To Host The Pacific Screening March 11

Update March 13: Watch video of Hanks and Spielberg at the WH

Update: While visiting the White House, Hanks checks out the coffee machine.
Movie time at the White House. The Pacific, an HBO series about three Marines during WWII, premieres Sunday. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are executive producers.
Attending, according to Politico:

National Security Adviser Jim Jones, actor Tom Hanks, producer Gary Goetzman, director Steven Spielberg, HBO President Richard Plepler and unspecified members of Congress, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Jim Jones Speaks on Security Review to be Released Today

Obama To Speak on Security Review Summary Jan. 7

Update: See Obama's remarks here.

Live stream. Up next Janet Napolitano.

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

Update: Obama's remarks have been postponed until 4:30 pm.

Obama has a lot of meetings today, including one with Bill Clinton, and at 3 pm eastern, he will speak about the unclassified security review on the failed underwear bomb plot. Obama's remarks will be live streamed at WhiteHouse.gov. I'll post video later. Janet Napolitano will speak at the daily press briefing, which will be live streamed at 3:45 pm at WhiteHouse.gov. More information is trickling out, including the fact that the CIA discovered who the bomber was while he was on the plane. Apparently, the report will be shocking.

White House national security adviser James Jones says Americans will feel "a certain shock" when they read an account being released Thursday of the missed clues that could have prevented the alleged Christmas Day bomber from ever boarding the plane.
President Obama "is legitimately and correctly alarmed that things that were available, bits of information that were available, patterns of behavior that were available, were not acted on," Jones said in an interview Wednesday with USA TODAY. Read more.

Contrary To Media Reports Obama Hasn't Decided on Troops

Yesterday, CBS and others said Obama had made his decision about how many troops to send. Today, Jim Jones says it's just not true:

"'Reports that President Obama has made a decision about Afghanistan are absolutely false. He has not received final options for his consideration, he has not reviewed those options with his national security team, and he has not made any decisions about resources. Any reports to the contrary are completely untrue and come from uninformed sources.'" Politico

Meanwhile, ABC takes another crack at it:

Senior administration officials tell ABC News that President Obama at his war council meeting tomorrow will assess four different specific strategies for Afghanistan and Pakistan, including two different options put forward by Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
At his meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, October 30, President Obama asked Pentagon officials to assess in detail two other strategy options, including the missions, troop requirements and cost.
All four options increase the levels of US troops in Afghanistan. The president has not yet been presented with those new assessments.
All four options will be discussed in detail when the Joint Chiefs and other senior officials meet with the President tomorrow.

Jim Webb Says McChrystal's Actions Confusing

It's clear, Gen. Stanley McChrystal needs to remember that he's on a team--Team America. Obama reminded staff at the National Counterterrorism Center this morning that there is one mission and one team. The precedent McChrystal is setting is potentially dangerous. The military can't be the boss of the President. Chain of command is crucial.

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McCain Says Jim Jones Was Wrong in Iraq

Thousands of troops are at stake and McCain and the war mongers have made Afghanistan a political thing. By publicly saying more troops is the only way in Afghanistan, McChrystal has over stepped his bounds.
McCain, who agrees with McChrystal, thinks he's right as always. The surge! The surge! The surge! McCain may be right. But he's not the president. McCain then goes on to say Jim Jones was wrong on Iraq. Nice dig. What's his point? That Jones is always wrong? On Sunday's Face the Nation, Jones said that the president should be presented with options on Afghanistan.

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Jim Jones on Face the Nation Oct. 4

Sen. Carl Levin, Rep. Ike Skelton and General Anthony Zinni talk about the coming decision on Afghanistan. Levin says we don't need more troops. Zinni says hurry up with the troops. It's too bad politics has to play a part in something as important as sending our troops to war:

Obama More Successful Battling Terrorists Than Bush-Cheney

Responding to criticism from former Vice President Cheney that President Obama is making the nation more vulnerable to terrorism, the president’s National Security Adviser, Gen. Jim Jones (Ret.), told ABC News in an exclusive interview that actually the reverse is true: President Obama’s greater success with international relations has meant more terrorists put out of commission.
“This type of radical fundamentalism or terrorism is a threat not only to the United States but to the global community,” Jones said. “The world is coming together on this matter now that President Obama has taken the leadership on it and is approaching it in a slightly different way – actually a radically different way – to discuss things with other rulers to enhance the working relationships with law enforcement agencies – both national and international."

Jake Tapper points out that Jim Jones doesn't provide any numbers. I don't know why Tapper doesn't do that. That would be something to follow up on. I guess he's just lazy:

The former Marine General didn't provide any specific numbers to back up his claim, but he said “there is an increasing trend and I think we seen that in different parts of the world over the last few months for sure.” He added that he was not “making a tally sheet saying we are killing more people, capturing more people than they did -- that is not the issue.”

Jones objects to Cheney's assertion:

“Obviously the former Vice President feels strongly about certain things,” Jones said, “I don’t know if it is a question of legacy.” “I take exception” to assertions “that something that we decided or the president decided will make the country less safe,” Jones said. “I just don’t agree with that. We are about making this country safe. I think that we are fashioning global relationships with other countries around the world.”
“We are doing everything to make this country safe every single day,” Jones asserted. Read it all here.

Obama and Bill Clinton Meet on North Korea

There won't be any media coverage.

It’s only the second time the two presidents, who are not particularly close, have spoken about Clinton’s efforts to bring home two American journalists who were sentenced to hard labor after being discovered in the country.

"This will be the first chance that the two presidents have had the chance to have a long conversation about this issue," Gibbs said, adding that Obama views this as a "crucial opportunity" to speak directly with Clinton about his effort.

There will be no media coverage of the meeting, which is scheduled at 4 p.m. in the Situation Room and is expected to last an hour.

Attending the meeting:

Bill Clinton’s advisers Doug Band and Justin Cooper will be with the former president. Both traveled to North Korea with him.

Also on the guest list from the White House: National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones, Denis McDonough, Tom Donilon, Jeff Bader, Danny Russell and arms proliferation adviser Gary Seymour. Politico

Jim Jones Speaks on Afghanistan Strategy

New strategy in Afghanistan began in March, Jones said. More troops won't be ruled out.

Bloomberg and Booker Talk Stimulus, Guns, Healthcare on Meet the Press

The show starts off with Jim Jones who talks about Bill Clinton's successful mission, overshadowed by the fringe and their problems with health care and underlying problems with a changing society. On the Chris Matthews Show this morning, the roundtable said a lot of the fringe that we're seeing in the media, thanks to the Internet, ugh, are feeling insecure and worried about the economy. But moreover, they're worried about life as they know it passing them by as the country becomes more diverse and their white world crumbles around them. Glenn Beck calls it "white culture." They're afraid that minorities are taking over.
The roundtable also concluded that the fringe will continue to run the dwindling GOP. Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker says Sarah Palin is making a run for the presidency and the GOP is very afraid. I'll always blame John McCain for propping up an inadequate person for such a big and important job. It will be a sad, sad day if Palin is the republican choice for president in 2012. Although it would be kind of fun to watch her.
On the Meet the Press roundtable at the end of this clip, David Brooks calls Sarah Palin's recent remarks about Obama's "death panel" nuts. He also says Limbaugh's nazi remarks are insane.

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Release of Journalists Was a Team Effort

The NY Times has a good story telling everyone's role in freeing Euna Lee and Laura Ling. It was a team effort and no egos stood in the way:

Mrs. Clinton was deeply involved in the case, too. She proposed sending various people to Pyongyang — including Mr. Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore — to lobby for the release of the women, before Mr. Clinton emerged as the preferred choice of the North Koreans, people briefed on the talks said.
.....
North Korea signaled its desire to have Mr. Clinton act as a special envoy in conversations with Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee, who relayed that message to their families in the middle of July, according to a senior administration official. The message was passed to Mr. Gore, who contacted the White House, which then explored whether such a mission would be successful.

Mr. Obama did not speak directly with Mr. Clinton before the mission. But his national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, contacted the former president to sound him out. The senior official said the administration did “due diligence” with the North Koreans to ensure that if Mr. Clinton went, he would return with the journalists. He also denied that Mr. Clinton apologized as a condition of obtaining the pardons from the government.

As president, Mr. Clinton had sent Mr. Kim a letter of condolence on the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, according to a former official. For Mr. Kim, the former official said, freeing the women was a “reciprocal humanitarian gesture.” Read the whole thing.

The Obama administration seems to have separated itself from Clinton's efforts so that it could get back on track with credible six party talks. Not mixing the two was brilliant if you ask me.

Lee and Ling will address the media tomorrow.

Jim Jones on Don't Ask Don't Tell

Obama Makes Surprise Stop in Iraq to Give Medals of Valor

Obama made a surprise stop in Baghdad to give out 10 Medals of Valor to the troops. He stopped in Iraq instead of Afghanistan because of proximity. Listen to Obama address the troops here (apparently there's only audio). We need to transfer control to the Iraqis, he said.

On a trip shrouded in secrecy, President Barack Obama flew into Iraq on Tuesday for a brief inspection of a war he opposed as a candidate and now vows to end as commander in chief.

"There is still a lot of work to do here," he said.

Obama's motorcade rolled past troops standing at attention, en route to a meeting with several hundred men and women among the 139,000 American forces stationed in the country.
....
Obama was expected to award 10 medals of valor to U.S. troops, meet with generals and speak with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by telephone. The president had originally been scheduled to meet with al-Maliki in person but officials said dusty conditions meant helicopters were unable to fly to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. MSNBC

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Obama, restricted in travels in Baghdad by a dust-storm, was welcomed by Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, at Camp Victory near the airport. About 600 troops awaited the president at he Al Faw Palace at Camp Victory, where Obama met with Odierno and other officials.

The president said he was there "to say thanks to the troops. They are doing extraordinary work... They're just putting their heart and soul into this.''

The president emerged from a meeting with Odierno and National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones to a main, chandeliered room where troops were assembled for their visitor.

"Hail to the Chief'' was piped into the palace, with huge American flags draped for a backdrop.

"Thanks to all of you,'' Obama said. "I am so honored,'' and, as one called out, 'I love you,' the president replied: "I love you back.''

The president thanked the troops for their strain, their sacrifice and the controversy and difficulty that they had confronted, calling the transformation of Iraq to a fledgling democracy an "extraordinary achievement."
.....
Acknowledging the repeated tours of duty that many have served, the president said, "Michelle and myself are with you every day'' and he pledged: "As long as I'm in the White House, you are going to get the support that you need...."

Army Spec. Joshua Tisdale, 24, of Pekin, Ill., making his second tour, has been at Camp Liberty for three months. "It makes me feel like he actually cares to where he'd come out here and talk to us.,'' Tisdale said of Obama's visit.

Sgt. First Class Floyd Robinson, 38, of Bessemer, Alabama, said: "Soldiers need to see their commander in chief... It gives everybody great pride knowing that he just took office, but he still stopped by to say a few words."
Read more at the Swamp

Cheney Praises Obama's Picks

What did you think of the shoe incident? "He had some good moves," Cheney said. Who knew the shadowy one, with no regrets, had a sense of humor. He said he loved being vice president. At least he loved his time in government.

CNN: In an interview with ABC News, Cheney called the team — to be headed by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, National Security adviser Gen. Jim Jones, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates — "pretty good."

"I must say, I think it's a pretty good team," Cheney said in an interview that aired Tuesday morning. "I think the idea of keeping Gates at Defense is excellent. I think Jim Jones will be very, very effective as the national security adviser."

"While I would not have hired Sen. Clinton, I think she's tough," he also said of Obama's choice for secretary of state. "She's smart, she works very hard and she may turn out to be just what President Obama needs."

Video here.

Obama's National Security Team Announcements

These folks have already been in the news for what seems like weeks, but the official announcement comes tomorrow. Obama's cabinet is expected to be in place before Christmas. 

The Obama transition team announced Sunday that Obama will unveil the full team at a press conference in Chicago, Illinois, around 10:40 a.m. ET.

CNN and CNN.com will carry the event live.

The officials said Obama is also expected to finally confirm that he is keeping Defense Secretary Robert Gates in his current post. Obama plans to name retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones as his national security adviser at the White House, the officials said.

Also, two sources close to the transition said Obama will nominate Susan Rice as United Nations ambassador; Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary; and Eric Holder as attorney general.

Annual book author's show on Face the Nation

Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Stay On

Robert Gates has agreed to stay and Hillary will be announced as secretary of state next week, according to Politico:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to stay on under President-elect Barack Obama, according to officials in both parties. Obama plans to announce a national-security team early next week that includes Gates at the Pentagon and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state, officials said.

Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, former Marine commandant and commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, will be named national security adviser, the officials said.

The national security adviser heads the National Security Council, which is the part of the White House structure that deals with foreign policy, and varies in influence from presidency to presidency. Jones insisted on – and got – a commanding role, the sources said.