Preeti Aroon's blog

In a recent Time magazine article, journalist Joe Klein lists three qualities that could make Clinton "a memorable Secretary of State":

1. "She brings a vision of departmental reform -- the need to elevate foreign aid programs to the same status and rigorous scrutiny as diplomacy -- that could change striped pants into chinos in the developing world."

2. She is also the first elected politician to hold the office since Edmund Muskie briefly did during the Carter Administration, which has enabled her to better understand and interact with the politicians who run places like Afghanistan and Pakistan."

3. "But most important, she is an international celebrity with a much higher profile than any of her recent predecessors and the ability -- second only to the President's -- to change negative attitudes about the U.S. abroad."

And change negative attitudes she has. During her recent visit to Pakistan, she visited a Sufi mosque that been attacked by Sunni extremists. It made quite an impression on many moderate Pakistani Muslims, including one who told Klein, "We saw her praying there, and, for the first time, I'm thinking, 'The Americans have hearts.'"

Clinton also made herself available for students, talk-show hosts, and Pashtun elders, who asked her all sorts of difficult questions, and as Klein puts it, "her candor, her willingness to listen to and acknowledge criticism, had begun to undermine the prevailing Pakistani image of the U.S. as arrogant and bossy." A government spokeswoman and member of Parliament told Klein:

In the past, when the Americans came, they would talk to the generals and go home. … Clinton's willingness to meet with everyone, hostile or not, has made a big impression -- and because she's Hillary Clinton, with a real history of affinity for this country, it means so much more."

Although Klein offers constructive criticism for Clinton (saying that the controversy she sparked about settlements shows she needs "a few lessons in Middle East Haggling 101"), he does praise her as "the second most popular American in the world, an eternally compelling and supremely talented character, … a walking headline."

Klein writes that with her "three qualities," Clinton could become a memorable secretary of state. But for her fans worldwide, she already has become one.

Photo: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images

Secretary Clinton talked with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo today to help smooth out the controversy she sparked this weekend when she made comments that suggested the United States might be backpedaling from its earlier call for a settlement freeze in the West Bank.

After meeting with Mubarak, which appeared to go well based on the smiles in the photo above, Clinton clarified herself on the settlements issue by saying of U.S. policy:

Our policy on settlements has not changed. We do not accept the legitimacy of settlement activity, and we have a very firm belief that ending all settlement activity, current and future, would be preferable."

Referring to Israel's offer to restrain, but not halt, settlement construction, she said:

It is not what we would prefer, because we would like to see everything ended forever. … But it is something that I think shows at least a positive movement toward the final status issues being addressed."

Whether her efforts will get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks going anytime soon remains to be seen. Arabs and Palestinians have demanded a complete settlement freeze as a precondition for talks.

Photo: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images

In an interview with Al Jazeera today, reports the Politico's Laura Rozen, Secretary Clinton said she was the first American associated with any U.S. administration to call for the creation of a Palestinian state. She said,  "I was the first American associated with any admin to call for the establishment of a Palestinian state when I first did it 10 years ago. A lot of people thought that was very radical, now there is consensus we must get to a Palestinian state."

Clinton, seen above today in Marrakech, Morocco, at the Forum for the Future conference, is clearly trying to get back on track after her controversial remarks this weekend about West Bank settlements. The New America Foundation's Daniel Levy dissects the controversy in today's FP piece, "Unsettling Questions."

A few other tidbits of Clinton news:

•After attending the conference in Morocco, Clinton flew to Cairo today, and on the plane she served Lenôtre chocolate to the press. See the photo here.

•Japan apparently scheduled and then canceled a Friday meeting between Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Clinton. The reason: infighting within the Democratic Party of Japan.

•Over at the AfPak Channel, a contributor states that Clinton was insensitive when, two days after a terrible terrorist attack in Pakistan, she told a group of Pakistanis, "Al Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002. I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to." As the New York Times put it, "The remarks upset her hosts, who have seen hundreds of soldiers and civilians killed as Pakistan has taken on a widening campaign against militant groups that have threatened the country from its tribal areas." Well, it certainly isn't the first time Clinton has been hard on Pakistan.

Photo: ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP/Getty Images

Last week, Secretary Clinton penned a piece exclusively for FP. In it, she discusses how the United States is working to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote disarmament, and facilitate the peaceful use of nuclear energy. An excerpt is below, but read the whole thing here.

The most effective way to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism is to ensure that nuclear materials that can be used to build weapons are well protected against theft or seizure. That is why the United States has proposed a plan to secure all vulnerable nuclear material worldwide within four years -- a plan that has now won the endorsement of the U.N. Security Council.

We will use financial and legal tools to better disrupt illicit proliferation networks, including by tightening controls on transshipment, a key source of illicit trade. We will seek to strengthen Nuclear Suppliers Group restrictions on transfers of enrichment and reprocessing technology. And we will also promote multilateral nuclear fuel supply and spent fuel arrangements so that states embarking on or expanding nuclear power programs can pursue their civil nuclear plans without going to the great expense and difficulty of building their own enrichment or reprocessing plants.

Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Just for fun, here's an edibly sweet version of Bill Clinton, who was in Pristina, Kosovo, yesterday for the unveiling of a larger-than-life statue of himself on a boulevard named after himself. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority holds Clinton in high esteem for his role in the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, which helped stop the Serbian forces' crackdown on ethnic Albanians.

Photo: Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty Images

Over the weekend at a news conference, seen above, Clinton hailed Israel's "unprecedented" concessions on settlement construction in the West Bank. That didn't go over well with Palestinian and Arab leaders because Clinton had previously called for a total settlement freeze. Today, Clinton appeared to downplay her previous remarks, reports Laura Rozen over at Politico, who's in Morocco, Clinton's location for the day. As usual, anything related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict stirs mass controversy.

Photo: DAN BALILTY/AFP/Getty Images

Secretary Clinton, above talking with Pakistanis in Islamabad today, will be on PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer tonight (check local listings for the exact time). She was interviewed in Islamabad today by the NewsHour's Margaret Warner. I've read the transcript, and Clinton says a lot of important things about her time in Pakistan this week and U.S. and Pakistani efforts to go after extremists. I'm not allowed to post the entire transcript, but here's how the interview begins:

Warner: Secretary Clinton, thanks for being with us. Now you've been to Pakistan many times but never as Secretary of State, never at such a volatile time.

Clinton: Right.

Warner: Was there anything unexpected that you found here? Something that you didn't imagine?

Clinton: Well, Margaret it, it wasn't that I found here anything unexpected. It was that I knew before I came that we had our work cut out for us, that there was a level of um, mistrust and misunderstanding uh that I wanted to tackle head-on. I have a great deal of admiration uh, for uh, the culture and the history and the struggle of the people of Pakistan. But what became clear in the time that I've been Secretary of State, is that there was an enormous number of questions about our motive, our intention, our actions that had been built up over the last 8 years. So I wanted to try to address those and go out and meet people and hear and listen and have a really, a good dialogue which I think we've had.

Secretary Clinton arrived in Pakistan today. Here's a photo summary of her day so far. (Also, posting will be light this week; I've been given some large projects that I have to prioritize.)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton receives flowers from Pakistani girls upon her arrival at the Chaklala military air base in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on Oct. 28. Clinton kicked off talks in Pakistan on a day when a car bomb ripped through a crowded market in the northwest city of Peshawar, killing at least 90 people. Clinton, promising new investments while fending off bitter criticism of Washington's policies, arrived within hours of the blast.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani speaks with Clinton during a meeting in Islamabad. The United States will stand shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan in its fight against "brutal extremist groups," Clinton said after the day's massive bomb blast.

Clinton stands next to the Pakistani flag at the prime minister's house in Islamabad.

Pakistani demonstrators with Hizbul Tahreer shout anti-U.S. slogans during a protest in Lahore. The car bomb in Peshawar underscored the gravity of the extremist threat destabilizing nuclear-armed Pakistan. The explosion, which brought down buildings in Peshawar, coincided with Clinton's arrival in Pakistan to bolster the troubled U.S.-Pakistan alliance against the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Photos, top to bottom: STR/AFP/Getty Images, AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images, AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images, Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images