Bordallo meets with President Obama, discusses Guam issues

MONDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER 2011 01:03 BY THERESE HART | VARIETY NEWS STAFF

GUAM Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo, vice chair of the Congressional Asian-Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), met with President

President Barack Obama meets with members of the Congressional Asian-Pacific American Caucus in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Contributed photo

Barack Obama at the White House last week to discuss issues important to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

Federal-territorial issues were discussed with the President. Bordallo thanked Obama for his past support of Guam war claims and asked for his continued help to help pass the bill in Congress. The Obama administration continues to support Bordallo’s efforts to resolve Guam war claims. The Departments of Defense and the Interior have testified before Congress about their continued support.

However, the climate in Washington to grapple with a record high deficit and the recent talks to cut more than what is being proposed has Guam leaders questioning whether Bordallo can push forward with war reparations at this time.

“Let’s be realistic. It’s rather difficult to even try to bring it up in Congress, given what’s being discussed with regards to cuts. I haven’t given up hope, but at this point, I believe it’s something that Congress isn’t ready to deal with yet,” said Speaker Judi Won Pat.

Won Pat said she and her colleagues are certain of federal cuts which will affect Guam; cuts which Guam must be ready to handle.

“We are literally waiting to see what decisions are made in Washington regarding Guam, because whatever those decisions may be, we have to plan appropriately,” said Won Pat.

Parole

During her meetings, Bordallo also spoke about the need to extend parole authority to Guam for Chinese and Russian visitors. The White House committed to ensuring a continued dialogue with the Department of Homeland Security on the status of extending parole authority to Guam.

The delegate expressed her appreciation for these efforts and conveyed her hope that the White House will continue to provide policy direction on the importance of this initiative to DHS.

The meeting also focused on the need for tax considerations for the territories when the Obama administration is developing national economic policy.

Bordallo and the delegates recently sent a letter to Obama, requesting that he include cover over provisions for the territories in his American Jobs Act. Bordallo thanked the President for listening to the delegates’ concerns and for including cover over provisions in his bill.

“President Obama showed that he is sensitive to the needs of Guam and all Pacific Islanders,” said Bordallo.

“I made the point that our visitor industry will grow with the inclusion of Chinese and Russian visitors. I also told him that Guam’s goals are similar to those expressed by Vice President (Joe) Biden last month in China to make it easier for Chinese tourists to visit the United States. I thanked the President for including cover over provisions in the American Jobs Act and for his concern for the economies of the territories.”

Bordallo also shared with Obama: “We were disappointed that he had to cancel his scheduled visits to Guam last year and that our invitation still stands and our welcome mat is always out.”

Russians "Buzz" Guam

Russia boasts buzzing U.S. base in Cold War-style assertiveness
Andrew Borowiec
Washington Times
August 10, 2007



GENEVA —Russian long-range bombers buzzed a U.S. naval base at Guam, Russian military officials said yesterday, the first such sortie since the Cold War and just the latest example of Moscow's growing assertiveness in reclaiming some of the prerogatives of its Soviet superpower days.

Russian Maj. Gen. Pavel Androsov boasted in a Moscow press conference that the pilots of the two TU-95 turboprop bombers flew close enough to the U.S. jets that scrambled to track them Wednesday that the Russian pilots were able to "exchange smiles" with their American counterparts.

The unannounced, 13-hour flight was just the latest in a series of incidents that have given rise to fears across Europe that Russia's post-communist opening to the world is increasingly giving way to a more inward-looking, nationalist fervor under President Vladimir Putin.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler confirmed the flight of the two Russian bombers, but said they did not come as close to U.S. assets as the Russians suggested.

"We were prepared to intercept the planes, but they never came close enough to a U.S. ship or to the island of Guam to warrant an air-to-air intercept," he said.

Russia under Mr. Putin rejects Western criticisms of its economy and political freedoms and shows a growing official appreciation in government, the press and education for the achievements of the communist era, according to Western analysts.

Recent Russian films reaching Western Europe portray Josef Stalin not as a brutal dictator responsible for the deaths of millions of Russians, but as a heroic leader who defeated Nazi Germany.

"In Russia today, any call to restore former Cold War greatness and stature is applauded," according to Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian military analyst for the Jamestown Foundation, though Mr. Felgenhauer questions whether the Kremlin has the resources and will to match Mr. Putin's grandiose rhetoric.

Russian government officials have been conspicuously absent from events this year marking the 70th anniversary of Stalin's Great Purge of 1937, when millions of citizens were killed or shipped off to labor camps.

Mr. Putin, in remarks earlier this summer, did not defend the Stalin purges, but said Russians today should not wallow in shame or guilt because "in other countries even worse things happened" — including the U.S. atomic bomb strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Liberal opposition leader Grigory Yavlinsky said at a memorial ceremony south of Moscow on Wednesday that the Putin government was "almost completely ignoring" the Great Purge anniversary, "one of the most convincing pieces of evidence that Russian authorities sympathize with Stalin's regime," according to the Associated Press.

Disclosures of Stalinist purges and massacres are being discouraged, analysts say, and school textbooks are being rewritten to include the "positive sides" of the communist era.

The back-to-the-Cold-War sentiment can be seen particularly in Russian military policy, with the Guam mission part of a pattern of events that call to mind the Soviet Cold War era.

Russian explorers who planted a flag on the North Pole seabed to strengthen Moscow's territorial claims received a heroes' welcome earlier this week in the Russian press, despite angry rejections of the Russian claim by the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway.

Last week, Russia's navy chief, Adm. Vladimir Masorin, sounded another echo of the Soviet era when he said that Russia "must restore a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea" — a presence Moscow has not had since the Cold War.

The Russian reassertiveness is being felt even in the arts.

According to Russian movie producer Nikita Dostal, plans for films depicting Soviet setbacks or events such as Stalin's massive ethnic resettlements or the 1937 purges are "simply set aside."

In some recent films, Stalin is not portrayed as the short man with a pock-marked face he was, but as a dignified, handsome leader who inspired victory.

The resurgence of nationalism reflects the popular feeling that the United States and the West exploited Russia's weakness after the Soviet collapse and the fact that the Kremlin's coffers are now bulging because of energy revenue, according to Ariel Cohen, a Russia specialist at the Heritage Foundation.

"Flush with cash, Russia today is constantly looking for avenues to boost its geopolitical muscle," he said. "That has translated into some very ambitious strategic programs."

• David R. Sands contributed to this article from Washington.