Committee Hearings today: 3/15/06

[TayTay]

Post-Palestinian Election Challenges
in the Middle East
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HEARING
before the

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

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Time: 9:30 AM
Place: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Lugar

Witnesses:
Panel I
Mr. James Wolfensohn
Quartet Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement
Washington, DC

Panel II
Lieutenant General Keith W. Dayton
U.S. Security Coordinator
Department of State
Washington, DC


Panel III
The Honorable Dennis Ross
Counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Washington, DC
Mr. Robert Malley
Middle East and North Africa Program Director
International Crisis Group
Washington, DC

[TayTay]

1. Innovation & Competitiveness hearing 1:30 pm

Sen. Kerry is Ranking Dem Member of the Technology, Innovation & Competitiveness Sub-Committee here. This is one of his signature issues and should figure heavily in any platform going forward in 2008.

Innovation and Competitiveness Legislation
Full Committee Hearing
Wednesday, March 15 2006 - 1:30 PM - D-562


Webcast: Click here to view a live webcast of this hearing. http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=1781
Description: The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a Full Committee hearnig on Innovation and Competitiveness Legislation for Wednesday, March 15 at 1:30p.m. in room 562 of the Dirksen Building. This hearing will discuss innovation and competitiveness challenges facing the United States and explore legislative action that can be taken by the Commerce Committee to address these challenges.

Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.) will preside.

The scheduled witnesses are:

Panel 1:

Dr. Craig Barrett
Chairman of Board, Intel Corporation

Mr. Norman Augustine
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (Retired), Lockheed Martin Corporation

Dr. John E. Kelly, III
Senior Vice President of Technology and Intellectual Property, IBM Corporation

Ms. Deborah Wince-Smith
President, Council on Competitiveness

[karynnj]

2. Wasn't Wolfensohn the one Kerry mentioned

when speaking about Abbas not being given what he needed.

[TayTay]

4. You are right, in the most recent hearing with Condi

KERRY: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I really didn't expect to say anything on this subject at all, but I just wanted to pick up very quickly on what Senator Chafee said. Holding elections themselves, Madam Secretary, doesn't mean you have a democracy. An election does not mean democracy.

And there was great, intense desire on the part of Israel as well as President Abbas not to have that election at that period of time. And it was our insistence that we proceed forward.

I happen to agree with the position that you can't deal with Hamas. I think that's absolutely correct. You can't sit down with people, negotiate water rights and moving across the borders and all the other things with people that are blowing you up at the same time.

So I agree with that.

But there really is a serious question here about the overall approach.

I met with President Abbas the day he was elected, January a year ago.

And he looked at me, and he said, "Senator, I know what the expectations are, but I don't have the capacity. I don't have police cars. I don't have radios. I don't have trained people. I don't have the ability to do what they expect of me. And I need help."

And I've talked to Jim Wolfensohn, as have others, and a lot of other people. And the bottom line is, I regret to say, the West, not just us, the West didn't come through. And Hamas had a greater ability to deliver in the streets a year and a half ago than Fatah.

Now, Fatah had its corruptions. We all understand that. But I believe that there is a measure of responsibility for the West's lack of adequate response with respect to trying to help.

We're not responsible for the outcome, but we certainly are responsible for our actions in between.

What I want to ask you, a number of questions, one about Iraq -- a couple about Iraq. But before I do, we learned last week that Lewis "Scooter" Libby authorized -- was authorized by his superiors, reportedly Vice President Cheney, we don't know the answer, to leak classified information from the pre-war national intelligence estimate on Iraq to the press in the summer of 2003.

[whometense]

3. Webcast

here: http://foreign.senate.gov/hearing.ram

Anyone watching? Is JK there?

[TayTay]

5. Not yet, but I think he will be.

They started the hearing early because of the stacked vote-a-rama today again in the Senate. (Kerry was not on the list of speakers that Frist read out last night for the Budget debate today. So, I guess he is good to go on the hearings today.)

(The Senate has a joint session today to hear the new Pres of Liberia speak at 1:40. I wonder if that other committee hearing might get cancelled or pushed back to 3:00.)

Boy is Wolfensohn smooth. It's a pleasure to hear him testify. And Sununu is a big Sunu-nothing.