Bucking tradition, Clinton to head for Asia
Hillary Clinton will bypass Europe and travel to Asia on her maiden voyage overseas

From Elise Labott
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bucking tradition, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will bypass Europe and travel to Asia on her maiden voyage overseas, diplomats familiar with the planning said Tuesday.


Bill Clinton looks at his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she is sworn in on February 2.

Clinton is expected to visit China, Japan and South Korea on her first trip overseas. The diplomats said she may also add other stops, including one in Southeast Asia.

The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because Clinton's schedule was still being finalized. The State Department has not commented on her travel plans.

Making Asia Clinton's first overseas destination illustrates the Obama administration's desire for a broader partnership with China and its commitment to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, as well as strengthening ties with Tokyo and Seoul, the diplomats said.

The White House said President Barack Obama told Chinese President Hu Jintao in a Friday phone call that he looked forward to "to early contacts and exchanges between senior officials of our two countries."

Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month she hoped to make an early trip to Southeast Asia, in particular Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation where Obama spent part of his childhood. Clinton said she wanted to restart Peace Corps programs there, which were suspended in the 1960s.

However British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and German Foreign Secretary Walter Steinmeier will be Clinton's first foreign guests to the State Department on Tuesday.

Clinton was sworn in as America's 67th secretary of state on Monday -- for a second time. Watch Clinton being sworn in »


Biden administered the oath to Clinton in a ceremonial star-studded gathering at the State Department, with actor Chevy Chase and designer Oscar de la Renta among those on hand.

"It is an overwhelming honor ... to assume this position," Clinton said. "We have a lot of work to do [to ensure that] America's future can be even brighter than our storied past."

Holder becomes attorney general

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Eric Holder was sworn in Tuesday as U.S. attorney general, becoming the first African-American to lead the Department of Justice on a permanent basis.


Vice President Joe Biden swears in Eric Holder, left, as attorney general Tuesday at the Justice Department.

Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath of office after reading the Justice Department's mission statement.

"There's no mention of politics in that statement. There's no mention of ideology," Biden said. "And that's as it should be."

Loud cheers and long applause followed Holder's taking of the oath.

"Nowhere but in this great country could a person like me or the president hope to achieve the positions we are now so fortunate to hold," Holder said.

By a 75-21 vote, the U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed President Obama's nomination of Holder.

Holder, 58, is a former federal prosecutor and served as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration. He was briefly acting attorney general in early 2001.

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Senate confirms Holder nomination
Holder takes over a Justice Department battered by a series of controversies during the Bush administration, from questions about how it laid legal groundwork for harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists to the firings of top federal prosecutors in several cities.

"There's a big job to do, and it's going to be Mr. Holder's duty to turn this department around and restore its credibility," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California.

During confirmation hearings, Republicans questioned his role in former President Bill Clinton's widely criticized last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich and questioned whether he would be independent of the White House.

Holder had a testy exchange with the Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican, Arlen Specter, who questioned Holder's "fitness" for the office.

Holder shot back that Specter was "getting close to the line in questioning my integrity," and Specter ultimately supported the nomination. But Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, cited the pardons and what he called Holder's insufficient support for gun rights in opposing the nomination.

"Mr. Holder is supportive of old ideas for gun control that have never made people safer at the expense of taking away their rights," Bunning said.

All 21 of the "no" votes were Republicans, but more than a dozen GOP senators joined Democrats in confirming Holder. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Missouri, said Holder convinced him he would be "looking forward to keeping the nation safe."

Bond, the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, raised concerns that the administration would seek to prosecute U.S. officials involved in using what the Bush administration called "alternative" interrogation techniques, measures that critics said involved the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody.

Holder unambiguously called the use of waterboarding against suspected terrorists a form of torture that violated the Geneva Conventions, but he has said that prosecuting intelligence officials who followed Justice Department guidance would be "difficult."

Bond said that while Holder's answer focused on U.S. officials who were following the administration's legal advice, "I told him, and I believe he understood, that trying to prosecute these lawyers or political leaders would generate a political firestorm."