Archive for the ‘Obama’ Category

Barack Obama Couldn’t Look Happier Hanging Out With Prince …

While most of us were getting our grill on this past Memorial Day weekend, two of the worlds most popular figures were also hanging out.

Prince Harry hosted world travelerand former POTUS Barack Obama at Kensington Palace on Saturday. The two were photographed together wearing nearly identical suit jackets and white collared shirts, a look Obama has perfected post-presidency.

Though the two were all smiles in their photo together, Prince Harry and Obama spoke about serious topics, according to the official Kensington Palace Twitter account.

They discussed support for veterans,mental health, conservation, empowering young people and the work of their respective foundations, the tweets said. @BarackObama also offered his condolences to the victims of the Manchester attack and support for those recovering from injuries.

The two have met a few times over the past couple of years and its clear they enjoy each others company:

Carlos Barria / Reuters

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Last year, the Obamas collaborated on a cheeky video for Prince Harrys foundation, called the Invictus Games. The queen herself even let out a little trash talking!

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Barack Obama Couldn't Look Happier Hanging Out With Prince ...

House Subpoenas Flynn, Cohen, and Unmasking Requests by Obama Trio – NBCNews.com

Michael Flynn,National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump, attends a press conference on Feb. 10, 2017 in the East Room of the White House. Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA file

When intelligence agencies are surveilling the electronic communications of foreign individuals and come across a U.S. citizen, either as a name mentioned during a monitored conversation or as a participant in the conversation, the identities of the U.S. citizens are protected. Their names are normally redacted in intelligence reports.

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The identities can be "unmasked," or revealed, however, to a small group of government officials with the proper clearance if they request unmasking.

Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R.-Calif., recused himself from the Russia probe after it was revealed that he had a secret meeting at the White House with an official who provided him with information about unmasking. He is still signing the committes's subpoenas, however.

The other four subpoenas issued by the House Intel Committee Wednesday were for former Trump National Security Adviser Mike Flynn and his company, Flynn Intel Group LLC, and for President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his firm, Michael D. Cohen & Associates.

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Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R.-Calif., has recused himself from the Russia probe, but is still signing the subpoenas.

"As part of our ongoing investigation into Russian active measures during the 2016 campaign, today we approved subpoenas for several individuals for testimony, personal documents and business records," said committee member Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, and ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff, D.-Calif. "We hope and expect that anyone called to testify or provide documents will comply with that request, so that we may gain all the information within the scope of our investigation. We will continue to pursue this investigation wherever the facts may lead."

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House Subpoenas Flynn, Cohen, and Unmasking Requests by Obama Trio - NBCNews.com

Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett Reflects On Role in WH – NBCNews.com

Former President Barack Obama walks with first lady Michelle Obama and White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett after visiting the Coral Reef High School in Miami, Florida, March 7, 2014. Yuri Gripas / Reuters file

"I think that the worst thing that a college or university can do is try to ignore it," said Jarrett. "Now you also have to recognize freedom of speech, but there are clear lines between freedom of speech and hate crimes. And hate crimes are crimes that should be prosecuted."

Speaking on her success, she also touched on her climb up the ladder and the importance of being a mentor and an advocate for younger women.

"What I try to tell young peopleI say young women mostly because frankly, men don't need a promotion in this space because most of you think you are deserving of a promotion your first day of your job," she said to laughs from the audience. "And you're not shy and this is a big stereotype, so don't frown at me guys in the audience. But I do think sometimes women need to be nudged a little bit."

Reflecting on her early career, she shared a personal story of a female mentor who pushed her, encouraging her to ask for her first promotion.

"I thought it was unseemly. I was like, 'Well when my boss recognizes that I'm worthy well of course he'll give me a promotion.' And she said, 'Well that's ridiculous why would he do that unless you tell him you're deserving?' And she just kept pushing me and really without her I might still be in that cubicle."

Former President Barack Obama, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, left, and Senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett, speaks during a Democratic Governors Association Meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016. Carolyn Kaster / AP file

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Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett Reflects On Role in WH - NBCNews.com

Trump Considers Rolling Back Obama’s Opening With Cuba – New York Times


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Trump Considers Rolling Back Obama's Opening With Cuba
New York Times
WASHINGTON President Trump is considering reversing major pieces of the Obama administration's opening with Cuba and reinstating limits on travel and commerce, citing human rights abuses by the Castro government as justification for a more punitive ...
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Trump Considers Rolling Back Obama's Opening With Cuba - New York Times

Trump may return compounds taken from Russia by Obama over election interference – Chicago Tribune

The Trump administration is moving toward handing back to Russia two diplomatic compounds, near New York City and on Maryland's Eastern Shore, from which its officials were ejected in late December as punishment for Moscow's interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Then-President Barack Obama said Dec. 29 that the compounds were being "used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes," and gave Russia 24 hours to vacate them. Separately, Obama expelled from the United States what he said were 35 Russian "intelligence operatives."

Early last month, the Trump administration told the Russians it would consider turning the properties back over to them if Moscow would lift its freeze, imposed in 2014 in retaliation for U.S. sanctions related to Ukraine, on construction of a new U.S. consulate on a certain parcel of land in St. Petersburg.

Two days later, the U.S. position changed. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a meeting in Washington, that the United States had dropped any linkage between the compounds and the consulate, according to several people with knowledge of the exchanges.

In Moscow on Wednesday, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Russia was "taking into account the difficult internal political situation for the current administration," but retained the option to reciprocate for what he called the "expropriation" of Russian property, "if these steps are not somehow adjusted by the U.S. side," the news outlet Sputnik reported.

Senior Tillerson adviser R. C. Hammond said that "the U.S. and Russia have reached no agreements." He said the next senior level meeting between the two governments, below the secretary of state level, will be in June in St. Petersburg.

Before making a final decision on allowing the Russians to reoccupy the compounds, the administration is examining possible restrictions on Russian activities there, including removing the diplomatic immunity the properties previously enjoyed. Without immunity, the facilities would be treated as any other buildings in the United States and would not be barred to entry by U.S. law enforcement, according to people who spoke on the condition anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.

Any concessions to Moscow could prove controversial while administration and former Trump campaign officials are under congressional and special counsel investigation for alleged ties to Russia.

Changes in the administration's official posture toward the compounds come as Russian media recently suggested that Kislyak, about to leave Washington after serving as ambassador since 2008, may be proposed by the Kremlin to head a new position as U.N. undersecretary general for counterterrorism.

Kislyak, who met and spoke during the campaign and transition with President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump's White House adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others, is known to be interested in the post. His replacement as ambassador, current Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Antonov, was confirmed last month by the Russian Duma, or parliament. Officials in Moscow said Russian President Vladimir Putin will officially inform Trump of the new ambassador when the two meet in July, at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg. It will be Trump's first meeting with Putin as president.

The U.N. General Assembly must first approve establishment of the counterterrorism slot, part of a larger U.N. reorganization and the first new post at that level for decades.

Russia will almost certainly claim the slot as the only member of the five permanent members of the Security Council without one of its nationals in a senior U.N. position. Jeffrey Feltman, a former senior U.S. diplomat, is currently undersecretary-general for political affairs; comparable jobs for peacekeeping, humanitarian affairs and economic affairs are held, respectively, by nationals from France, Britain and China.

Secretary General Antnio Guterres will decide who fills the new job, although both Russia and the United States are expected to make their views known.

Kislyak has repeatedly rejected descriptions of him in the U.S. media as a spy. Asked whether U.S. intelligence considered him to be one, James Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence, told CNN Sunday that, "Given the fact that he oversees a very aggressive intelligence operation in this country - the Russians have more intelligence operatives than any other nation that is represented in this country, still even after we got rid of 35 of them - and so to suggest that he is somehow separate or oblivious to that is a bit much."

The Russian compounds - a 14-acre estate on Long Island, and several buildings on secluded acreage along the Corsica River on Maryland's Eastern Shore - have been in Russian possession since the days of the Soviet Union. According to a Maryland deed in 1995, the former USSR transferred ownership of the Maryland property to the Russian Federation in 1995, for a payment of one dollar.

Russia said it used the facilities, both of which had diplomatic immunity, for rest and recreation for embassy and U.N., employees, and to hold official events. But U.S. officials dating back to the Reagan administration, based on aerial and other surveillance, had long believed they were also being used for intelligence purposes.

Last year, when Russian security services began harassing U.S. officials in Moscow - including slashed tires, home break-ins and, at one point tackling and throwing to the ground a U.S. embassy official entering through the front of the embassy - the Obama administration threatened to close the compounds, former Obama officials said.

In meetings to protest the treatment, the Obama administration said that it would do so unless the harassment stopped, and Moscow dropped its freeze on construction of a new consulate to replace the one in St. Petersburg, considered largely unusable because of Russian spying equipment installed there. Russia had earlier blocked U.S. use of a parcel of land and construction guarantees in the city when sanctions were imposed after its military intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.

The threat of closing the compounds was not pursued. In late December, after U.S. intelligence said there had been election meddling, and in response to the ongoing harassment in Moscow, Obama ordered the compounds closed and diplomats expelled. "We had no intention of ever giving them back," a former senior Obama official said of the compounds.

Trump, then at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, appeared to disparage the Obama administration sanctions, telling reporters, "I think we ought to get on with our lives."

Surprisingly, Russia did not respond. It later emerged that Flynn, in a phone conversation with Kislyak, had advised against retaliation and indicated that U.S. policy would change under the Trump administration.

The Kremlin made clear that the compound issue was at the top of its bilateral agenda. Russia repeatedly denounced what it called the "seizure" of the properties as an illegal violation of diplomatic treaties.

On May 8, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, Thomas Shannon, traveled to New York to meet with his Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on what the State Department described as "a range of bilateral issues" and what Russia called "irritants" and "grievances."

Ryabkov brought up the compounds, while Shannon raised St. Petersburg and harassment, suggesting that they deal with the operation of their diplomats and facilities in each others' countries separate from policy issues such as Syria, and proposing that they clear the decks with a compromise.

Russia refused, saying that the compound issue was a hostile act that deserved no reciprocal action to resolve, and had to be dealt with before other diplomatic problems could be addressed. In an interview with Tass, Ryabkov said Moscow was alarmed that Washington "carries on working out certain issues in its traditional manner, particularly concerning Russia's diplomatic property in the states of Maryland and New York."

Two days later in Washington, Tillerson told Lavrov that the United States would no longer link the compounds to the issue of St. Petersburg.

Immediately after their May 10 meeting at the State Department, Tillerson escorted Lavrov and Kislyak to the Oval Office. There, they held a private meeting with Trump. The night before the president had fired FBI Director James Comey, who was then heading an FBI investigation of the Russia ties.

Comey, Trump told the Russians, was a "real nut job," and his removal had "taken off" the Russia-related pressure the president was under, the New York Times reported. Later in May, the Justice Department appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller III as special counsel to oversee the federal investigation.

In a news conference at the Russian Embassy after his meetings with Tillerson and Trump, Lavrov said of the compound closures, "Everyone, in particular the Trump administration, is aware that those actions were illegal."

"The dialogue between Russia and the U.S. is now free from the ideology that characterized it under the Barack Obama administration," he said.

The Washington Post's Julie Tate contributed to this report.

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Trump may return compounds taken from Russia by Obama over election interference - Chicago Tribune