Mike Pumpo interview with Hugh Haiute from Hugh Haitian program
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Interview
Michael R. Pompeo
Secretary of State
Via Telephone
July 19, 2018
QUESTION: Secretary Pompeo, in fact, joins me. Good morning, Mr.
Secretary. Good to have you back.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Hugh, it’s good to be with you. It’s been too long.
QUESTION: Well, I want to talk about religious liberty with you, but a
first question. You’re just back from Korea, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates,
Brussels, and of course Russia. Last time we talked you stressed that we know
everything about everyone who attacks us. And I just want to make sure, for
deterrence purposes, is that the case? Are we aware with certainty of the
origin of cyber attacks, because it’s so essential to deterrence that we do
know that?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Hugh, it’s not always the case every day that we do. But with great
frequency, we can do attribution in a way that
gives U.S. policymakers an enormous advantage in understanding the
threat.
QUESTION: David Sanger has a new book out stressing why we need to be
able to pinpoint people and speak about it, because otherwise the whole world
will attack us with impunity. Did you take the message to friend and foe that
we are watching and we have the tools?
SECRETARY POMPEO: They do know, Hugh. But David’s comments are a little bit naive to
be honest with you. It’s the case that we can’t always publicly do what David
described. It would be foolish for America to consistently announce
everything we know. It would betray how we came to know it; it would share with
them information that we don’t want them to have about our capabilities and our
skillsets. And so, make no mistake about it, we are very clear with our
adversaries, when it’s in our best interest, to share with them what we’re
doing.
QUESTION: Now after a major week of events – and I mean, you went
through a week that culminated in the Helsinki controversy – then Andrew
Brunson does not get released. How hard is it to refocus a department that is
convulsed by stories on the ministerial next week and on the individuals like
Pastor Brunson? Can you get everyone to get back on the page of focusing on
religious liberty next week?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Hugh, thanks for the question. We’ve got a religious freedom
ministerial that is going to have 80-plus delegations. It’s historic. It’s the
first time the State Department has taken on this mission. We believe religious
freedom is central to the world and to, frankly, America’s place in
the world. We make it a real priority. Pastor Brunson in particular has been a
priority of mine since even before I had this current role. The entire
administration is focused on getting his return.
But one of the reasons we’re conducting
the ministerial, Hugh, is because not every country shares our same
understanding of religious freedom, and our effort in holding this ministerial
here, where we have 40-plus foreign minister level visitors coming to attend,
is to move each country in the direction where increased religious freedom
around the world can thrive.
QUESTION: Now, Secretary Pompeo, for the benefit of the Steelers
fans and others, a ministerial is a term they may not be familiar with. You
just alluded to what it means. It means people like the Secretary of State of
the United States and your counterpart in the United Kingdom and
across the world coming to Washington. So what’s on that agenda?
SECRETARY POMPEO: It’s a broad agenda. We’re going to talk about how religious freedom
fits into a democratic society, how it makes sense for each country, how it can
improve economies in the world by having this religious freedom, by allowing
all persons of every faith – or those who have no faith – to have the freedom
to worship or choose not to in the way that they prefer. We believe that
improving respect for religious freedom requires more than just talk, and so
we’re bringing people together. We’ll announce several new initiatives over the
course of the two days of the summit. And we’re very much looking forward to
it. We’re hosting a huge gathering here at the State Department that I think
will advance the cause of religious freedom around the world in a way
that America has not done for too long.
QUESTION: Every year, we put out a list of Countries of Particular
Concern, CPCs. At the top of that list every year is Iran, which may
be the most anti-Semitic and the most repressive of other religion countries in
the world. I don’t imagine Iran is sending anyone to this conference.
But what can we do to encourage an extremist, fanatical regime
like Iran to leave their indigenous other religions alone?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Iran is a huge challenge. They would be a perfect exemplar for
the absence of religious freedom inside of a country. There are others too.
With respect to Iran, a key component of this is exactly what we’re
doing at this gathering. We’re talking about it; we’re raising it. We’re
raising the awareness. You referenced the report that the State Department puts
out. It’s just a piece of paper; it’s just words, for sure. But calling it out
and trying to articulate the rationale for why it matters and those that are
behaving badly, whether it’s by anti-Semitism or persecuting Christians, these
are incredibly important concerns to the United States and to President Trump.
And our mission in holding this gathering is to get the world to unite behind
this fundamental concept of religious freedom for every individual.
QUESTION: Now Secretary Pompeo, last week the forces of Daniel
Ortega opened fire on a Catholic church. They actually kept up a gun battle
aimed at a Catholic church all night long. What do we do in response to that?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Nicaragua has got enormous challenges today. The Ortega regime,
including his wife, are behaving – it’s not just about the attack on the
church. Their activities – the violence level has been raised. We are working
to bring all of the elements of U.S.power to bear there. The State
Department is at the front of trying to convince Ortega that it’s time for a
democratic process to begin and a solution to be achieved there and that
violence is not a mechanism that’s going to result in success for either he,
his family, or the elites around him.
QUESTION: Well, let me close, Mr. Secretary, by going back to the
Helsinki summit. Just a factual question: Were you consulted by the Department
of Justice before the indictments were filed?
SECRETARY POMPEO: I can’t talk about that, Hugh.
QUESTION: And while – and theoretically, would it be useful for the
Department of State to be consulted before such matters as important as that
are conducted, on a theoretical basis?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yes, Hugh. It is common practice that when the Department of Justice
is going to take action that has diplomatic implications or foreign policy
implications that we would be notified of those actions.
QUESTION: And then back to Pastor Brunson. Do we have any reason to
hope, in the week ahead, that he gets out, Secretary Pompeo?
SECRETARY POMPEO: I – as a man of faith, Hugh, I am always of the belief that good
things will happen. And you should know that theUnited States Government
is working diligently to ensure the release of Pastor Brunson. And then there
are others being held in Turkey too that we’re working hard on.
QUESTION: Secretary Pompeo, thank you for joining me. And good luck
with the ministerial next week. It’s vitally important that people pay
attention to it. And I appreciate your taking the time this morning.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, Hugh. It’s wonderful to be back with you. So long.
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