April 23rd, 2012
01:44 PM ET
Obama targets technology in human rights abusesWashington (CNN) - President Barack Obama announced Monday that he has signed an executive order allowing new sanctions against companies that enable Syria and Iran to use technology such as cell phone monitoring to carry out human rights abuses. The order is part of a broader strategy intended to strengthen the administration's ability to prevent atrocities, including creation of an Atrocities Prevention Board, Obama said in somber remarks at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. "These technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them," Obama said of the measure, which targets the Syrian and Iranian governments, as well as companies that provide them with high-tech equipment to use against their own people. More HERE 
April 23rd, 2012
01:42 PM ET
President and re-election team make push for younger votersWashington (CNN) – Call it the battle for the youth vote. As President Barack Obama heads to three battleground states this week to push for an extension of a law that cuts interest rates on a popular federal student loan program for low and middle income undergraduates, and to energize young voters, his re-election campaign is also pushing for the extension with national and state events. The president will visit the University of North Carolina, the University of Colorado and the University of Iowa on Tuesday and Wednesday. The three universities are in states Obama narrowly won in the 2008 election and are considered battleground states again in 2012, meaning they are expected to be heavily contested by both parties in the general election. More HERE  Karski, pictured in 2000.
April 23rd, 2012
11:07 AM ET
Obama to award Medal of Freedom to Holocaust resistance figure (CNN) – Speaking at the United States Holocaust Museum, President Obama announced on Monday he will award a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, the former Polish officer who escaped Nazi imprisonment and provided first-hand accounts to the Western Allies of atrocities he witnessed in Warsaw. “We must tell our children about how this evil was allowed to happen—because so many people succumbed to their darkest instincts; because so many others stood silent. But let us also tell our children about the Righteous Among the Nations. Among them was Jan Karski—a young Polish Catholic—who witnessed Jews being put on cattle cars, who saw the killings, and who told the truth, all the way to President Roosevelt himself,” Obama said in remarks observing Holocaust Remembrance day. Karski, who later immigrated to the United States and earned a Ph.D from Georgetown University, died in 2000. The Medal of Freedom is the highest honor a president can bestow on a civilian and is awarded to individuals “who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” according to the White House. 
April 23rd, 2012
07:58 AM ET
POTUS' Day Ahead: A visit to the Holocaust MuseumPresident Obama kicks off the week with a visit to the United States Holocaust Museum where he will tour the facility and give remarks. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor, will introduce the president. Back at the White House, the president will welcome the Air Force Academy Football team in the Rose Garden to deliver the presidential trophy. Air Force secured the honor this year by beating both Army and Navy. Full Schedule: |
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