***

I refrained from giggling throughout the news conference, but admit I nearly lost it when Obama said, “We went into Afghanistan not because we were interested in entering that country or positioning ourselves regionally, but because al Qaeda yada yada,” then bragged about how, “… the minute I came into office we initiated a review, and even before that review was completed, I ordered 21,000 additional troops into Afghanistan.”

***

At 6, Senior Council on Foreign Relations Fellow and now Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs, Michael Froman dropped by to take bloggers’ questions, all of which were climate-related (and answered with the same vague commitments to do something, somehow, at some point, moving forward, but cautiously), save mine, which pertained to central bank and G-20 secrecy.    Froman basically responded there was no time for the G-20 to discuss trifles like central banks submitting to audits and “coming clean”, as Obama insisted Iran do about their nuke program, and that the G-20 isn’t secret because, look, I’m here talking to you, Obama just said a bunch of stuff, and a lovely Leaders’ Statement was issued summarizing all the stuff the G-20 discussed in secret.

For more, including photos and video by Jessica Silver, visit Pittsburgh Alpha to Omega.

Related posts:

1. Climate at the G20: Obama to press cuts in fossil fuel subsidies
2. 2009 Freedom Conference, G. Edward Griffin speech, David Powell interview