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(Continued from page 45)
Kerry says shutdown no sign of US weakness but warns Congress about message it sends
• BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Congress on Saturday to think "long and hard" about the negative message that the partial government shutdown is sending around the world, even as he disputed the perception that the deadlock in Washington is a sign of weakness.
• The seemingly contradictory points underscored one problem the Obama administration faces as it tries to convince lawmakers to end the shutdown: arguing that it hurts the national security interests of the United States and its friends while at the same time telling nervous allies that it does no such thing.
• "I believe that those standing in the way (of a resolution) need to think long and hard about the message that we send to the world when we can't get our own act together," Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
• "End it now, end it today," he said.
• Kerry noted that security assistance to critical allies like Israel may be affected and that the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees sanctions on rogue countries like Iran, may be forced to furlough nearly all its staff.
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Analysis: Allies worried US turning inward to handle political chaos at home
• An unmistakable sense of unease has been growing in capitals around the world as the U.S. government from afar looks increasingly befuddled -- shirking from a military confrontation in Syria, stymied at home by a gridlocked Congress and in danger of defaulting on sovereign debt, which could plunge the world's financial system into chaos.
• While each of the factors may be unrelated to the direct exercise of U.S. foreign policy, taken together they give some allies the sense that Washington is not as firm as it used to be in its resolve and its financial capacity, providing an opening for China or Russia to fill the void, an Asian foreign minister told a group of journalists in New York this week.
• Concerns will only deepen now that President Barack Obama canceled travel (Continued on page 47)
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