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To give a sense, though, in more detail, which I’ve been asked to do, let me just look at the last three days, starting with Friday, and I think that might give you a sense of the pacing here and some of the decisions that the President has been making.
At 9:00 a.m. on Friday, I chaired a secure conference call with Secretary Gates, Secretary Clinton, and Admiral Mullen on the diplomatic and military planning. At 9:30 a.m. that morning, I held a secure video conference with my counterparts from the United Kingdom and France on the planning, both in terms of our military planning and in terms of the Paris meeting the next day.
At 10:15 a.m. on Friday, we had our daily briefing with the President, which obviously focused on developments in Libya, including military and diplomatic efforts. At 11:00 a.m. on Friday, the President met with -- to review diplomatic and military plans with the Vice President; Secretary Gates; Admiral Mullen; Secretary Clinton; myself; Denis McDonough, my colleague at the Secretary Council; Tony Blinken from the Vice President’s office; Jim Steinberg and Bill Burns. That was in the Oval Office, and that lasted for one hour, again, to review the detailed planning and a presentation by Admiral Mike Mullen and a detailed plan for the events of the next day in Paris presented by Secretary Clinton.
At 12:30 p.m. on Friday, the President met in the Situation Room with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders on Libya for one hour. There was a group in the Situation Room and there was a larger group of the leadership on the telephone.
At 2:30 p.m., as you know -- or 2:22 p.m., they tell me -- the President delivered a statement on Libya to the press. At 7:00 p.m. that evening -- that’s the meeting I mentioned a little bit ago about the President conducting a final review of the planning with the group that I mentioned. And that evening, Secretary Clinton went to Paris with our team and the President was wheels up from Andrews at 10:30 p.m., as you know.
On Saturday, at around 7:00 a.m. in the morning on Air Force One, we provided the President with a full briefing on the situation on the ground and planning and the Paris conference. At 9:00 a.m., I provided additional briefing to him at the hotel here. At 9:45 a.m., the President placed a call to -- and had a telephone call with UAE Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed, on Libya and the enforcement of the Security Council resolution.
At 12:00 p.m., I chaired a call with Secretary Clinton, Gates, Admiral Mullen and Denis McDonough. The President joined that call at 12:17 p.m. This went -- this was a call for about 30 minutes where the final orders were given. At 12:30 p.m., Bill Daley and I had an additional call with Secretary Gates, and we had briefings throughout the day. And as you know, at 5:00 p.m., the President made his statement.
Today, at 9:15 a.m. this morning, the President had a secure -- 9:30 a.m. today -- sorry -- the President did a secure conference call in our secure offices here with myself, Bill Daley, Secretary Gates, Secretary Clinton, Admiral Mullen, General Ham -- who as I mentioned earlier is the commander of AFRICOM for the United States and is the current coordinator of the effort over Libya; Denis McDonough and Tony Blinken.
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