From NBC's Courtney Kube
A State Department spokesperson says that the U.S. "welcomes the general principles announced earlier today by the Israeli government," about easing the blockade of goods into Gaza.

"They reflect the type of changes we've been discussing with our Israeli friends and Senator Mitchell, who is in the region, will continue working on them in the coming days," Mark Toner, director of the State Department's press office, said today. "As these principles get further developed and implemented, we're hopeful that the situation in Gaza will improve. We want to see an expansion of the scope and types of goods allowed into Gaza to address the Palestinians' legitimate needs for sustained humanitarian assistance and regular access for reconstruction materials, while addressing Israel's legitimate security needs."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting with Quartet Representative Tony Blair this afternoon, but the event is not open to press.

From NBC's Courtney Kube
Three members of the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan met with detained American Gary Faulkner in Islamabad earlier today. A State Department spokesperson could not say much about the meeting, citing privacy concerns, nor could he talk about Faulkner's health or whether the Embassy is arranging dialysis for him (his family has said that the Colorado man has kidney problems).

State Department spokesperson Mark Toner would not speculate on why Faulkner was in Pakistan, nor confirm whether he was in fact hunting Osama bin Laden

"It's unclear what he was doing in Pakistan and this is a legal matter for the Pakistanis to determine," Toner said.

From NBC's Scott Foster
On the eve of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Washington, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry told White House reporters today that he expects the talks will lead to a "better alignment" in what's become a frayed relationship between the two countries.
 
Eikenberry, who made headlines last November when secret memos he penned were leaked expressing concerns about the build-up of American forces there and Karzai's leadership abilities as a strategic partner, declined to say today whether those concerns about Karzai have been eased.
 
Eikenberry told reporters, "President Karzai is the -- he's the elected president of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a close friend and ally. Of course, I highly respect President Karzai in that capacity."
 
The U.S.-Afghan relationship has been strained lately over Afghan concerns about American military attacks that have resulted in civilian casualties, as well as accusations by the United States that the Afghan government isn't doing enough to fight corruption.
 
Ambassador Eikenberry, a retired three-star Army general who served two tours in Afghanistan, sought to downplay the apparent diplomatic rift, saying that all relationships "experience ups and downs." He added, "But what measures true partnership is the ability, when the stakes are as high as they are for Afghanistan and the United States of America to be able to work our way through our difficulties."
 
Reporters pounced on his less-than-ringing endorsement of Karzai, but Eikenberry declined to respond to a follow-up question over whether his specific concerns about Karzai have been allayed.
 
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who also attended the press briefing, interjected, saying: "I think he answered."
 
With parliamentary elections in Afghanistan later this year, Eikenberry said he expects "serious dialogues" focused on strengthening Afghan security forces and judicial institutions.
 
Eikenberry and Karzai, along with numerous top Afghan government officials shared a flight to Washington from Afghanistan earlier today.
 
President Obama and Karzai are set to have talks at the White House on Wednesday.

From NBC's Andrea Mitchell, Courtney Kube, and Mark Murray
President Obama isn't the only one who has had to scrap overseas plans due to the volcanic ash emanating from Iceland.

Because of the continuing aviation problem in Europe, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has canceled a trip tomorrow to Helsinki, where she was to give a speech. 

The State Department says she may still leave for a NATO meeting in Estonia -- but would not depart DC before Wednesday.

"Because of the continued aviation complications in Europe, the Secretary's stop in Helsinki has been cancelled; she will not be leaving tomorrow for Finland," a State Department official says. "We will let you know about the Tallinn portion of the trip when a decision has been made. IF we were to go to Tallinn, we would not leave Washington before Wednesday."

From NBC's Courtney Kube
After the State Department announced that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at State at 2:45 p.m. today, the meeting was just moved to the nearby Mayflower Hotel.

And, despite the fact the meeting was open to the media, now only "official" media are allowed to cover it.

Asked about the last-minute decision, State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley said the change in location was the "Israeli's prerogative," and that he "doesn't know why the shift was made."

Crowley warned "not to read too much into" the move, and side-stepped a question about whether the change had anything to do with Clinton's speech to the AIPAC Conference this morning.

At the speech, Clinton condemned new settlements in Jerusalem saying, "New construction in East Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines that mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks," and "it exposes daylight between Israel and the United States that others in the region hope to exploit."

Making these statements to the powerful Israeli lobbying group, Clinton said that "as Israel's friend, it is our responsibility to give credit when it is due and to tell the truth when it is needed."

While Crowley denied that Clinton's strong statements impacted the Israeli's decision on today's meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State, Crowley did admit that the Israelis did NOT receive a copy of Clinton's speech before this morning's event. They did not know what she would say about settlements.

From NBC's Courtney Kube
State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley said that everything is being done to minimize the potential loss of civilian lives in Afghanistan.

Asked about the most recent incident that killed more than two dozen civilians, Crowley said that, "I think it's a reflection, first of all, of our refined strategy, that we are placing significant emphasis on reducing, you know, the impact of these operations on the Afghan population, which is not to say that we're not going to make mistakes."

Crowley went on to say, "In conflict, mistakes are made, or there are unfortunate, you know -- you know, impacts that could not have been anticipated."

He added, "Everything is being done to minimize the potential loss of life as we continue to, to take back, you know, control of Helmand province and turn it over to -- to Afghan sovereignty."

And: "There is, you know, ongoing loss of life in Afghanistan, and much of that loss of life is the responsibility of the Taliban. I have yet to hear them apologize."

From NBC's Courtney Kube
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today that she is "not satisfied" with the procedures that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to travel to the U.S., despite his father's warnings.

"We are not satisfied. We are conducting an internal review," Clinton said during a joint press availability with her counterpart from Qatar.

Clinton said that based on the information that she has now, the State Department "fully complied with the requirements set forth in the interagency process" about what should be done when information is provided about a threat. 

She added that they are now "looking to see whether those procedures need to be changed, upgraded."

From NBC's Chuck Todd
State Dept. spokesperson Ian Kelly was hammered in an on-the-record briefing Monday on the issue of the 2008 visa the government issued to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Northwest airplane on Christmas Day. At points during the briefing, Kelly seemed so determined to protect the State Department's role in this that he may also have set off a government agency finger-pointing game.

Kelly said while the State Department had the authority to revoke a visa, it was not the department's responsibility. Kelly said when it comes to revoking visas, it's a question for the Nat'l Counter-terrorism Center (NCTC) and then they determined there was "insufficient evidence" to revoke the visa, despite the cable from the U.S. embassy in Nigeria sent to the State Dept. and NCTC on November 20, 2009.

Kelly would not elaborate on how it was determined that there was "insufficient evidence," saying it was a question for NCTC. When pressed, Kelly wouldn't say whether the State Department cable to the NCTC included the relevant information tat Abdulmutallab had a visa. Here's the exact Q&A on THIS topic:

QUESTION: Ian, did the State Department know when it sent the cable on the 20th, or subsequently before the 25th, that the individual had a U.S. visa?

MR. KELLY: Once he had the visa, once he got the visa in June of 2008, it goes into a system, a database that the counterterrorism community has access to and every consular officer here at the State Department and overseas has access to. The visa - the VISAS VIPER cable, it doesn't require the embassy to report that the person has a visa. It requires them to report on the person's name, date of birth, place of birth. If they have other information like passport information, they report that as well.

So while not DIRECTLY answering the question about whether the cable from Nigeria had the relevant visa information, it certainly sounds as if the cable did NOT include that information. Kelly, not surprisingly, was pressed on this issue. This is where Kelly seemed to attempt to point the finger at NCTC: "But everybody has access to this database, or everybody who wanted to check could see that this individual had a visa."

Kelly, later in the briefing, indicated that the State Dept. would likely change its procedure when it comes to reporting out visa information.

"Clearly, we need to review all of our procedures, and that's what the President has ordered the interagency community to do. And Secretary Clinton is also going to ask the State Department, primarily our consular division, to review all of our processes. We did what we were supposed to do under this Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act. But as you know, the President has ordered a complete view, and we'll have to see what comes out of that. One of the issues we have to deal with is that we get thousands of pieces of information that are not always completely accurate. I mean, you have a lot of - what do you call them, poison pen messages, of people trying to pass on derogatory information. So, I mean, we have to be careful about when we put somebody on a watch list."

As for whether NCTC knew before the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack whether Abdulmutallab had a valid U.S. visa, intelligence sources hinted to NBC News that they did NOT know this information. Pressed about whether it is standard procedure to cross-check active visas with foreign nationals entered into the terrorist database, a source in the intelligence community in a position to know the answer ducked the question.

Bottom line: when Abdulmutallab's name was entered into the terrorist database, either the entry did NOT include the fact that he had an active U.S. visa or it was determined that despite the warnings from Abdulmutallab's father, it was determined that his visa should not only be revoked but that he didn't deserve inclusion on the secondary screening or no-fly list.

From NBC's Libby Leist
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stopped just short of saying that the Obama administration's outreach toward Iran has been a failure.

"I don't think anyone can doubt that our outreach has produced very little in terms of any kind of positive respones from the Iranians," she said in a news conference today with Spain's foreign minister.

She also signaled that a push for sanctions may be coming soon.

Clinton called on the Iranian government to free the three American hikers "as soon as possible" and she called the charges against them "unfounded."

"With respect to the three hikers -- we consider this a totally unfounded charge," Clinton said. "There is no basis for it. The three young people who were detained by the Iranians have absolutely no connection with any kind of action against the Iranian state or government. In fact, they were out hiking and unfortunately, apparently, allegedly, walked across an unmarked boundary. We appeal to the Iranian leadership to release these three young people and free them as soon as possible."

Clinton was also asked about reports that Iran is testing a trigger for a nuclear bomb and she said she would not comment on any intelligence.

As far as how the treatment of the hikers may effect U.S. efforts to engage Iran on their nuclear program, Clinton said U.S. concerns "have been heightened already" in recent months, with the exposure of the Qom nuclear facility,  Iran's    apparent backpeddaling on its initial agreement to ship its low enriched uranium out of the country for reprocessing and its recent announcement that it intends to build 10 to 20 more nuclear plants.

These developments "should raise deep concerns among all people," Clinton told reporters.

From NBC's Mark Murray
In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the Obama administration's decision to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, as well as to set July 2011 as the date to begin transferring authority to Afghan forces.

On the difficulties in Afghanistan, like that the government is weak and corrupt:
"I think it's important to recognize that despite all of the difficulties that exist in Afghanistan, there are some positive steps that have been taken in the last several years that we can build on. There are certain ministries and cabinet members who are just first rate. They're getting the job done... We've also made it very clear to President Karzai and all of his allies that this is it. We have no more time to waste. We feel like the last eight years didn't produce the outcome it should have."

On selling the 30,000 troops to Congress and the American people:
"I think that the president conveyed both resolve and urgency last night. The resolve was clear. That you know, if he could have walked away from this responsibility, that would have been the easy political call to make."

On GOP criticism that the July 2011 date will embolden the enemy:
"I think that if you re-read what the president said last night, he very clearly said that he wants to see the transfer of authority begin in July 2011. It needs to be done in a responsible way. That is conditions-based. He has said to us, he has said to others, we're not talking about falling off a cliff and beginning to, you know, bring troops home."

Clinton added, "The advantage is to say clearly to the Afghans themselves, 'You have got to start stepping up and taking this responsibility. We will be there with you in the future -- not necessarily with combat troops, but with trainers, with logistics, with other ways of supporting you. But you cannot just stand back and let others try to defend your country.' And I think that's an important message. It does combine resolve and urgency. And I think that is exactly what the president intended to communicate."

From NBC's Libby Leist
Discussion about Afghanistan won't only take place with President Obama's speech tomorrow night at West Point.
 
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Clinton is expected to testify before the Senate Armed Services and House Foreign Affairs committees -- along with Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mullen.
 
On Thursday, Clinton is expected to testify before Senate Foreign Relations -- again with Gates and Mullen. Clinton leaves for Brussels and NATO meetings on Thursday afternoon. She will not appear before House Armed Services because of her travel to NATO.

From NBC's Libby Leist
Secretary Clinton and Australian Prime Minister Rudd held a brief photo-op earlier at the State Department. The two leaders made short statements and took no questions.

Clinton called the Rudd-Obama meeting at the White House this morning "excellent and comprehensive." They discussed Afghanistan and climate change among other topics. Clinton said Rudd was one of the most "creative thinkers" about the worlds problems.

Rudd said it was a "good discussion" with the president. They discussed "common challenges" in Afghanistan.

"Australia takes its alliance with the United States very seriously," Rudd said. "That's why we have been with America for a long time in Afghanistan and why we will be with America for the long haul."

Clinton ignore a shouted question on Iran.