Few weeks ago I wrote about speculations on potential return of Samantha Power to Obama’s foreign policy team. Samantha Power is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and renowned anti-genocide and human rights activist. She is pretty influential and considered as “pro-Armenian”. In February 2008, Samantha Power has taped a “powerful 5-minute video reviewing presidential hopeful Barack Obama's support for Armenian issues, and encouraging Armenian Americans to vote for him in the upcoming primaries”, as reported by the Armenian National Committee of America.The main impediment to her return was an incident during Obama’s pre-election campaign, when Samantha Power called Hillary Clinton a “monster”. She then resigned from Obama’s presidential campaign team.
However, according to the reports coming out from the US, Samantha Power is back on board of Obama’s foreign policy team. The Huffington Post reports:
“WASHINGTON — An adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign who was forced to resign earlier this year after calling Sen. Hillary Rodham Cllinton a "monster" is now working on the transition team for the agency Clinton is expected to lead.
State Department officials said Friday that Samantha Power is among a group of foreign policy experts that the president-elect's office selected to help the incoming administration prepare for Clinton's anticipated nomination as secretary of state. The Obama transition team's Web site includes Power's name as one of 14 members of the "Agency Review Team" for the State Department.
Clinton's role at State is expected to be announced after the Thanksgiving weekend. Power's apparent rehabilitation is another sign of that impending move.
Clinton's office declined to comment on Power's inclusion in the State Department transition, but an official close to the Obama transition team said Power had "made a gesture to bury the hatchet" with Clinton and that it had been well-received.
Power has been given an official State Department e-mail address and has been seen in the building, said the State officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the transition. A State Department spokesman referred questions to Obama's transition team, which later declined to comment.”
*photo - via Mail Online
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Those looking to find just where the hatchet has been buried should probably look at Bill Clinton's skull ;) Girl power is underappreciated!
Anyway, now that everybody's apologized to everybody else, perhaps they can do like Armenians and stand around drinking glasses of champagne--at least nobody accused anybody else of trying to kill them....
Armenian Bloggers Hail Power Return (Voices without Votes):
While most people know Samantha Power as an Obama adviser who has called Hillary Clinton a “monster,” many genocide awareness and prevention activists consider the Harvard professor a hope they can believe in. The Associated Press has noticed that Power, who officially resigned from Obama’s campaign during the Democratic primaries, is on US President-elect Obama’s transition team. This news has encouraged several Armenian bloggers who now feel assured that the author of “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide” (2002) will remind President-elect Barack Obama to keep his promise of officially recognizing the WWI Armenian Genocide committed by Ottoman Turks. More...
Is there no justice in this universe?
I mean, how the hell am I going to cope with politics if Obamas foreign policy adviser gives me an erection?
You see, Armen, hope really does "spring" eternal... ;)
Finally (almost, anyway)--Samantha Power has an official Obama Administration job:
http://tinyurl.com/dlzmce
Samantha Power, the Harvard University professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who earned notoriety for calling Hillary Rodham Clinton a "monster" while working to elect Barack Obama president, will take a senior foreign policy job at the White House, The Associated Press has learned.
Officials familiar with the decision say Obama has tapped Power to be senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council, a job that will require close contact and potential travel with Clinton, who is now secretary of state. NSC staffers often accompany the secretary of state on foreign trips.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Power's position, as well as that of other senior NSC positions, have not yet been announced. One official said the announcements would be made in the near future.
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Well, that should be fun!
Good news indeed ...and here is Turkish Hurriyet's reflection on the news of Power's appointment:
Samantha Power gets a top White House job, backs Armenian claims
U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Samantha Power to a senior foreign policy job at the White House. Power supports the Armenian claims regarding the 1915 incidents, a move likely to create concern in Turkey.
Officials familiar with the decision told the Associated Press that Obama has tapped Power to be senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council.
Power has resigned from the Obama campaign after calling Hillary Clinton a "monster" and made some pro-Israel activists unhappy with her past criticism of Israel.
Her new post will require close contact and potential travel with the Secretary of State Clinton.
Power is an expert on human rights and foreign policy. She is currently a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
She also known as a fierce supporter of the Armenian claims regarding the 1915 incidents. [...]
MOST PRO-ARMENIA ADMINISTRATION
The new US administration became the most pro-Armenian claims administration in the history with the appointment of Power, Hurriyet daily reported on Saturday.
Obama had pledged to recognize the Armenian claims regarding the 1915 incidents during the election campaign. Vice President Joseph Biden, Clinton and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi also support Armenian claims.
Also the new director of CIA, Leon Panetta, also backs the Armenian claims on this highly controversial issue on which the historians and experts are divided.
Hurriyet said it is worried that Obama will use the term "genocide" in his statement on April 24 or a new legislation will be pushed to the Congress to recognize the Armenian claims, such moves likely to spark crisis between Ankara and Washington.
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