Secretary Clinton's Interview With Erica Hill of CBS's The Early Show

Interview With Erica Hill of CBS's The Early Show

Interview

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Melanne Verveer
Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues

International Women of Courage Awardees Henriette Ekwe Ebongo, Agnes Osztolykan, Eva Abu Halaweh, and Ghulam Sughra

Washington, DC

March 8, 2011

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QUESTION: Madam Secretary, if I could – just a couple of quick news-of-the-day items --

SECRETARY CLINTON: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: -- before we focus on the ladies here and the efforts today. There were some reports this afternoon perhaps the tides were turning a little bit in certain areas in Libya in Muammar Qadhafi’s favor. When we see everything that’s happening, are there plans sometime soon for a coordinated international effort there, and if so, what would it look like?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, there is an international effort going on. The British and French Governments are going to the United Nations with a draft resolution that would authorize international action. We think it’s very important that there be a UN decision on whatever might be done. The Gulf countries put out a statement yesterday saying that they would support a no-fly zone, and yesterday too, the Arab League, through its secretary general, said that they would not object to that.

So we believe it’s important that this not be an American or a NATO or a European effort; it needs to be an international one. And there is still a lot of opposition, as you probably know, within the Security Council. But we’re working to try to come up with a good, solid international package.

QUESTION: Do you hear any opposition from U.S. allies in the region when it comes to U.S. involvement? I mean, as you stated, it sounds like it needs to not be a U.S.-led movement.

SECRETARY CLINTON: That’s exactly right, because this was about the Libyan people, just like Egypt was about the Egyptian people, Tunisia was about the Tunisian people. And we don’t want there to be any room for anyone, including Colonel Qadhafi, to say that “This is not about my people; this is about outsiders.” Because that would be doing a grave disservice to the sacrifice of the people in Libya. So we think it’s important that there be international support and that there be a broad acceptance by the international community, particularly the Arab world, that something needs to be done on behalf of the opposition in Libya.

QUESTION: When you were speaking this morning to the importance of women in the uprising that we’ve seen in --

SECRETARY CLINTON: Right.

QUESTION: -- the Middle East and that these women continue to have a voice and that they must be a part of this heading forward --

SECRETARY CLINTON: Right.

QUESTION: -- as you look at all the women that were honored today and you hear their stories, what gives you hope that those voices will be heard long-term?

SECRETARY CLINTON: I think times are different today than they were even 10, certainly 30 or 40 years ago. Social media, the technology that now connects people, connects both men and women. And like the young woman from Cuba who wasn’t permitted to come that we honored today, she is influencing opinion because she has access to the internet. Many of the young women that were in Tahrir Square were there because they were organizing on the internet.

I don’t think that that clock can be turned back. Now, I do believe that there are still attitudes that are very traditional, so people are happy to see young women in the square, but when they go indoors to make the decisions, the young women are not invited in. So I was very proud of groups of Egyptian women who said, “We’re going to be in that room. We have lawyers and professors and doctors and businesswomen. We are part of what is important about Egypt’s future.”

So we’re going to stand up for those women, and it’s not for us to decide what they would be arguing, but to make sure that everyone knows we want them in that room helping to make the decisions.

QUESTION: Eva, I’m hearing you – as the Secretary is speaking, I can hear you agreeing with so much of what she’s saying. (Laughter.) As you – when you go back to Jordan and you bring back with you the recognition of this award, this International Women of Courage award, how does it help move things forward for you in your country?

MS. HALAWEH: First, I’m very glad to be awarded today because – on behalf of Jordanian women and Arab women, especially on this very special time, that we have the recognition in Tunisia and Egypt. I’m representing these courage women, and also Libya, the courage woman in Palestine who has been fighting against the occupation for more than (inaudible) years. In Jordan, I think this will help also other women to work more. This will encourage them, because someone one day will tell – talk to them, thank you, and appreciate their work.

QUESTION: When it comes to the next generation, I know this is something that’s especially important to you. You’ve fought so hard to represent the Roma people, but the next generation – there’s a lot of poverty and that can lead to so many other issues. How are you fighting for that?

MS. OSZTOLYKAN: Before I went to the Hungarian parliament to be a politician, I spent a lot of time in the countryside in Hungary and I saw a lot of young kids in very poor circumstances. So my task as a politician, to go back to my community and to explain that kids – that the education is the only way they can achieve their goals and targets.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) you tell such an incredible story. With your story, you were tortured for years.

MS. EBONGO: Mm-hmm, yeah.

QUESTION: And yet you never gave up, you never stopped having your own voice, giving a voice to other people.

MS. EBONGO: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Talk to us a little bit about how you ended up in this chair today and the struggle you went through.

MS. EBONGO: As you said, you don’t know why you became this kind of struggle. You just see that things are not working in your society and you have something to do about it. I think that this is the way everywhere in every part of history, people start something and they just continue whatever the price to pay. And we have – in French-speaking Africa, we have (inaudible) colonialism. I mean that we were independent but the French Government was still deciding. Even now, our currency is linked to France.

So this dictatorship in my country didn’t do anything for development, so we have to start fighting against the one-party dictatorship. And after the one-party system, we have to fight for a general democracy. And I told people that the U.S. Embassy in my country has been part of this democratic process from the beginning in 1990, and even in the fight against corruption and public funds embezzlement. So it’s important for us to fight, and it’s important for us to have support from some country who can lay pressures on some governments like ours.

QUESTION: And you said this award brings with it an incredible amount of support for you, and that you’re not as fearful for you own life when you go home now.

MS. EBONGO: Yeah, I think that this award – I’m so happy to have it because when you fight, you go through isolations, humiliations, and such things. And when the Ambassador called me to say you have been given this – you are – you’ll take this award in Washington, people called me from everywhere after the press release. They say, okay, I hope that now they will not harass you anymore. And I think that the press will protect me. And when we walk out from the hall, I saw the representative of my Embassy here in Washington. So this is a beginning. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: And Ambassador, as you travel around and you learn these stories from all of these women and you bring them home, what do you bring back with you? How do you effect change? I mean, you have such a large job in front of you.

AMBASSADOR VERVEER: Well, there are many ways to effect change. These women are the agents of change around the world. And I think part of our responsibility is to really enable them to have the resources and the support to give them voice but enable them to raise their own voices, and other women like them to raise their voices. So whether we can be instrumental through our diplomatic channels and working with leaders in their countries, whether we can be supportive on the grassroots level, whether we can work with our own Congress and our own officials, who recognize that today, no country is going to get ahead, as the Secretary says over and over, if it leaves half of its people behind. So we really do have an obligation, those of us now in the business of really trying to create a better world for everybody, to invest in women like these women.

QUESTION: Madam Secretary, have you seen a change, in all the different roles that you’ve played in government – as first lady, as senator, now as Secretary – you’ve said multiple times human rights are women’s rights and vice versa. Have you seen a change throughout the world in that perception?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes, I have, and I’m very pleased about that. I think that a lot of the issues that were either ignored or swept under the carpet in the past are now front and center. They cannot be ignored. They may still be resisted, and I see that in many countries. In Pakistan, there is still great resistance to educating girls and to giving girls and women equal rights. Unfortunately, it’s very deep in the culture. But there is no justifying it. It’s just that people don’t want to change to accommodate it.

So I have seen changes in laws, I’ve seen changes in attitudes, but I am not by any means comfortable, because I worry that there are still so many forces that try to turn the clock back on women. Why it is that people fight their political battles over the status of women, I don’t understand. But you will see governments, you will see powerful forces in religion and elsewhere all over the world that try to send women back as a way of lifting themselves up. It makes no sense to me, but it is what they do. So we have to be very vigilant. We cannot ever rest until we see a lot more progress than I’ve seen so far.

QUESTION: Perhaps they are feeling a threat of all these powerful women.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, they ought to take advantage of all the intelligence and all of the hard work and the contributions that women can make.

MS. SUGHRA: (Inaudible) very inspired by her work and also by many American women whom we met in the last few days, like also the Ambassador Melanne Verveer.

AMBASSADOR VERVEER: But they have to learn (inaudible). If they want strong economies and prosperous countries, this is where the investment is.

Did you want to add something?

MS. SUGHRA: Yeah. I received the award. I am very happy, but in Pakistan many issues for woman, so I welcome woman empowerment, but there is no education, there is no (inaudible) by the woman, there is no equality rights. So I have been to work and I will go to work and will work, hard work. But we’ve earned the support from U.S. Government and the State Department. They support us morally and financially. So it is a real need. We want to make a happy Pakistan, so – I can’t do it alone, so I will trust the U.S. Government and Madam. So I want the support here.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you for your time.

PARTICIPANT: Thank you.

PARTICIPANT: Thank you.

Video: Secretary Clinton's Interview With Erica Hill

Erica gets the prize today for wasting precious, expensive airtime by asking the most useless final question in the least creative manner.

Interview With Erica Hill of CBS's The Early Show

Interview

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

January 18, 2011

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QUESTION: And joining us now is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Madam Secretary, good morning.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Good morning, Erica.

QUESTION: The state visit, as we know, gives China the recognition and really a little bit of the pomp and circumstance that it’s been craving. It’s now the world’s second-largest economy, obviously a crucial partner for the U.S. I know it’s a relationship that the Administration has been working on. But you also said very clearly last Friday that distrust lingers on both sides. How will this state visit work to eliminate some of that distrust?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Erica, it’s a great question, and I have to say that even though we live in a world of virtual reality a lot of the time where people communicate with the flick of a mouse or the touch of a screen, we believe strongly that you still need to have face-to-face, relationship-building opportunities. And I have seen that so clearly in the last two years as Secretary of State. We’re proud to welcome President Hu Jintao for a state visit to Washington. It is the continuation of two years of the Obama Administration’s efforts to build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship with China. And we think it is one of the most consequential relationships for the future of our country and the future of the world.

So we will be working to find common ground wherever we can to enhance cooperation, but there will remain differences. Obviously, first and foremost, I stand for America’s interests, Americans’ values, America’s security; the Chinese stand for theirs. And we do not always see the world the same way, which is to be expected, since we have very different histories and cultures. But it is imperative that we work not only government to government, but people to people, to build a foundation of better understanding and trust so that where we can agree, we will do so and work together.

QUESTION: One of those major issues, and especially for a lot of the American people as they look at this, is, of course, human rights, which you also brought up as you were speaking about – in fact, referencing specifically Liu Xiaobo from talking about the Nobel Prize, and you said – and I’m quoting here – talking about how that chair remaining empty at the ceremony in Oslo was a symbol of a great nation’s unrealized potential and unfulfilled promise. China, though, has repeatedly dismissed U.S. calls for greater human rights as interference. How do you work on that issue of human rights while also balancing out the need for working on things like trade agreements?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Because we want a comprehensive relationship in which these various issues are not eliminated because they are troubling, but are wrapped into our overall strategic and economic dialogue. I think everyone in the world knows that the United States and China have differences when it comes to human rights. That doesn’t prevent us from raising it in private and public, and it – and the fact that we have these differences doesn’t prevent us from working together on the economic prospects for the global economy.

So what I believe is that the United States must always stand for our values, and therefore, we must raise human rights, which remains at the heart of American diplomacy. But we cannot say that that’s all we’re going to be talking about, or the fact that we disagree there eliminates the need for us to work together on climate change, North Korea, Iran, and so much else.

QUESTION: You mentioned North Korea there, and the Korean Peninsula seemed to be on the brink of war not very long ago with, of course, the attack on a South Korean island and then South Korea’s military maneuvers that we saw. Will you and will the President be speaking with – and as you speak with your counterpart, your Chinese counterpart, asking them to be more firm when it comes to North Korea?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we are engaged in an ongoing discussion with the Chinese, as well as the South Koreans and the Japanese and the Russians, all who are members of the so-called Six-Party Talks, about what we must do in order to restrain North Korea’s nuclear program and end its provocative behavior. China was helpful in this last series of incidents in helping to restrain North Korea in responding to what was a legitimate exercise by South Korea to demonstrate its defensive capacity. And we’re going to continue to work with our Chinese counterparts.

The fact is that a stable, nuclear-free Korean Peninsula is in both Chinese and American interests. Now, how we get to where we want to end up is what diplomacy is about. So we have an ongoing discussion and we are looking for the best way forward, and I believe we will have some productive talks about North Korea during the state visit with President Hu Jintao and his delegation.

QUESTION: The benefit, again, of those face-to-face meetings.

SECRETARY CLINTON: That’s right.

QUESTION: There is so much attention, of course, on China and on the state visit, but there are other pressing issues at this point across the world. And last week on Thursday, you talked about the Middle East and stagnant governments there and you warned that the region’s foundation could be sinking into the sand. On Friday, we saw the president of Tunisia, President Ben Ali, who had been in power for 23 years, flee the country. Do you believe that that situation is serving, perhaps, as a wakeup call to other nations in that region?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, that certainly is what I’m hearing from my counterparts throughout the region. And as I said in the meeting in Doha, in the 21^st century where people communicate constantly with one other, the old rules are not going to work. You can’t keep people in the dark, because everybody has a cell phone or a PDA. They have a way of communicating what they see going on and taking their own video and posting it to the internet.

Governments have to be aware that the rules have changed. And the best way to deal with the pent-up desires on the part of the huge number of young people in the world today, and particularly in the Arab world who don’t have jobs, who feel that they aren’t given neither economic nor political freedom, is to begin to look at how you create inclusive, participatory government that can deliver results for people. And of course, I understand the legitimate concerns of many of the governments which say if we open up, it’s the extremists who are going to rush in. And my response to that is: Not if you are giving support to NGOs and others who are looking for democratic participation where voices are heard, not silenced the way the extremists eventually choose to do. So this is a delicate, difficult time of change in much of the world, and particularly in that part of the world.

QUESTION: Extra, extra delicate, as you point out. I do want to ask you as well about former Haitian dictator “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who, of course, has reemerged at this point, coming out of exile. The State Department is saying it was surprised by his return. Will the State Department put – push, rather, for prosecution?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we are very clear going back many years about the abuses of that regime. And certainly, we believe that his record is one of repression of the Haitian people. Ultimately, a decision about what is to be done is left to the government and people of Haiti. But we’re focused on trying to maintain stability, prevent chaos and violence in this very unpredictable period with his return, with cholera still raging, with the challenges of reconstruction, with an election that’s been challenged. It sometimes seems as though the Haitians just never get a break; they just don’t get enough of a period where they can regroup and take the necessary actions that will give them a stronger future.

So we stand with the Haitian people and with their aspirations, and we hope that we can get through this difficult period and get back to a more stable relationship within Haiti and between Haiti and the rest of the world.

QUESTION: Lastly, before we let you go, of course, the campaign season is already heating up for 2012. I know you’ve said that you plan to stay in your current position at least through this first term. Any thoughts, though, on ever looking again at perhaps running for an elected office?

SECRETARY CLINTON: No, I’ve been very clear that I think that is part of my very happy past, where I had a wonderful opportunity to serve the people of New York, to work beside my husband when he was president, to run for president myself, but I feel very good about the service I’m rendering now and will continue to do that.

QUESTION: And what about those rumors that we could see you over at the Department of Defense?

SECRETARY CLINTON: As far as I know, those are just rumors. I’m happy where I am, and I’m doing everything I can to persuade Bob Gates to stay as long as he can where he is.

QUESTION: All right. Secretary Clinton, thanks so much for your time this morning.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Great to talk to you, Erica. Thank you.