one more in a number of emerging differences that we have seen over the last several , aroundround syria where it is issues, probably appropriate for us to take a pause, reassess where it is that rush is going, what our core interests are, -- where it is that russia is going, what thatore interests are, what we're doing is good for for the united states and hopefully good for russia as well but recognizing that there are just going to be some differences and we will not be able to completely disguise them. and that's ok. keep in mind that, although i am not attending the summit come i will still be going to st. petersburg because rush is also in the g-20. that is important business in terms of our economy and our jobs and all the issues that are of concern to americans. the one question that has been raised is how do we approach deal of picks? i just -- how do we approach the olympics? i just want to make clear that i do not think it is appropriate to boycott the olympics. we have a lot of americans out there who are working hard and doing everything they cap to -- they can to succeed. n

continues to develop nuclear weapons, to test missiles, to supply weapons to countries like iran and syria. mr. chairman, we've tried many strategies, i think only one has worked, really, and that was financial pressure. when an n 2005 undersecretary of the treasury caught north creequa counterfeiting $100 bills and so -- caught north korea counterfeiting $100 bills and so what he did was use the power of the u.s. economic system to cut off jim jong il's - cut off kim jong il's access to his foreign banks. suddenly he did not have access to those fortune banks anymore to that money when the sanctions were put on the bank of delta asia. blocking those accounts denied kim jong il the cash he needed to sustain that vast police state, to sustain that million man army, to pay for his nuclear weapons and his luxurious lifestyle and for a while, the world has his attention. far while he wanted to come back to the table. i think that approach worked. i suspect north korea will only change when it's forced to change. and i think we must resurrect a successful strategy of financial pressure. but mr.

a discussion on this arming syria hoskin ago weapons hosted by the wilson center. at 2:00, a defense department briefing on its plans for a potential government shutdown. >> and 1998, book tv has shown over 40,000 hours of programming with top nonfiction authors, including bob woodward. >> we were going to do the book after he died. >> i always felt that people are more alike than they are different. the artist in me rose to that occasion that if i can create something that is so moving and permits the kind of distance that you sometimes need for modest painful, people understand. understanding is what is fundamental. >> nowhere good -- no argument is given to that effect. none of the relevant facts are considered and this is regarded as one of the half-dozen cases theory entailsr that the use of force was -- and throughout the fall, we are marking 15 years of book tv. a senate intelligence committee hearing on the government surveillance programs with testimony from national intelligence director james clapped her -- clapper. members focused on a proposal to allow

dhost: we touched on iran an syria. now a question on egypt on twitter -- guest: the lot is the law. the law of the land and we need to respect it. sometimes lawmakers themselves need to be reminded of that. thatssed a number of laws element i found to be unconstitutional. ametimes i feel like i waging a one-man war in washington. theave to show respect for wall. under any reasonable definition of the word coup, that is what happens. the law is clear on that point. you can say this particular case serves american interests, but the law is the wall. it must be a nation of laws, not a nation of people. >> one last call for our guest. mike from laguna words, california. am a libertarian, but i respect all men and women of principle and conscious. i certainly respect you, sir. james madison wrote no nation could preserve freedom in the midst of continual warfare and strikes me as this strikes the military obama military abroad with the police stayed at home. with respect to the global war on terror, after decades of war, hu

of our countries with increased threats from iran, hamas, hezbollah and al qaeda and instability in syria, egypt, and jordan. we must do all we can to strengthen israeli defenses and that is why this amendment to increase funding for these defense systems is so timely and so necessary. support for israel has always enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support so i urge my democratic and republican colleagues to come together on this important amendment to support israel and promote stability in the mideast. i thank you, madam speaker, and i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> madam speaker -- mr. young: i rise in opposition to the motion. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. young: there's no doubt that iron dome is an extremely effective missile defense system and because of that, the committee fully funded this bill at $220 million. for iron dome. which is fully in line with the president's request and the recently passed def

for photographers >> i didn't see the same going on in libya most recently and now syria. we didn't like it, those who were living there full time dealing with the security risks every day, we didn't like it when a freelancer or someone cab and and does the go out. it puts us all at risk. they got kidnapped, and there is a ran some, and it feeds that industry. there was such a backlash against that, one of my colleagues decided, and they were army of this or army of that, he said i propose we make an army of the journalists. we are going to go kidnap them, throw them in a trunk and teach them a lesson so they don't put all of us at risk. [laughter] it was serious. we didn't want them coming in and getting us all killed. >> sometimes the new arrivals who just came to iraq for the first time, they don't know anything about what is happening on the ground. they have no experience in dealing with the people. they think that it is an easy task, they can do whatever they want, they can take to whoever they want and they can go wherever they want. sometimes they don't have anyone

as does the conflict in syria. it is important to ensure the intelligence community can give us a clear reading into these hot spots and what may arrive over the horizon. cyber espionage and intrusions are growing every day. if we are going to prevent the syphoning off of hackers and nation states alike, congress must work with the private sector in a cooperative way. we must pass voluntary information sharing legislation that completely protect companies from the threat of lawsuits. the government must put its own cyber house in water and we must make sure our criminal penalties are sufficient to punish and deter a cyber intruders. today is your opportunity to give the country a real glimpse of what it means to be on the front lines of the intelligence community. spending cuts combined with the verse threats is a threat. i am confident the men and who worked so hard every day in defense of the nation will rise to this challenge and not only get the job done, but, under your leadership, they will do it well. i than

in our country, specifically, around the vote to intervene in syria, which took many of our politicians by surprise. [applause] so will that were we're in this that war wariness -- their interests come first? not likely. unfortunately, and parr has learned many times how to cope with war-where he citizens, and that is important why we are seeing the rise of the drone wars. it is part of the strategy to ipass they need to -- to bypass the need for good telegram. it is part of the strategy to bypass the need for public affirmations for such military adventures. and it is part of the strategy and mediapublic scrutiny of military action overseas. and this is not just speculation on my part. a british terry policy document -- a british military policy document was released a few we cigar that shows u.k. military thinking on how to deal with -hat it called a casualty adverse public, and they of course mean our casualties, not casualties, and that includes lowering the profile of repatriation ceremonies, the hiding of the body bags and the coffins when the comeback, reader use of military, pri

when we look at what's going on in iraq today, what's going on in syria, the amount of people killed from 1 september to 3 december is over 5,000 from terrorist related acts in iraq, syria and several other countries around the world. in iraq alone, in 2012 the total number killed was 2,400. from 1 september to 3 december, that has risen to 2,200 plus in a three-month period. it's on the verge of a sectarian conflict. the crisis in the middle east is growing. and the threat to us from terrorist activities or safe havens and those being radicalized are growing. what we found out in 9/11, and i go back to senator grassley, your comments. we can't go back to a pre-9/11 moment. sir, i absolutely agree with that. so we have to find out what is the right way for our nation to defend ourselves and our allies and protect civil liberties and privacy. i think the way we're doing section 215 is actually a good model, not just for our country but for the rest of the world. it has the courts, congress and the administration all involved. why do i say that? the reason is, if you look at all the in

for an update on the situation in syria. from syria ging continue to grow worse by the day. he death toll grows and is nearly 75,000 according to the latest reports. he refugee and internally displaced populations are growing rapidly with estimates lags ir combined pop yule in the millions. the internal battle between extremist elements of the opposition is not moving in the right direction. and the security of syria's chemical weapons stock pile can deteriorate. in addition, president assad and increasingly small inner ircle are resorting to the use of scud missiles, air strike, other capabilities more and more. the employment of proxy militias kill his fellow citizens -- his fell 4r0e syrians. sad's syrian operations are enabled by two international and russia. iran's financial and material upport have been critical to helping has sad's military to remain operable and russia's syria's more advanced toitary weaponry is critical ha asad's continuing ability to project power to areas of the he no longer controls. syria's political and military opposition have introduced their

is this a plan b for syria? >> well, let me refer first to the -- that's clever, first to the question about jordan. jordan is a close friend and ally and our militaries in particular have a long-standing relationship. in reference to your question a ssile and f-16 are in jordan and that is again an annual exercise, so it is not related to syria or proposed options in syria. on the first question as i noted earlier, there is concern here and elsewhere about the deteriorating situation there, about the involvement of hezbollah and iran in the fight in syria on behalf of assad. and the president is reviewing the options available to him when it comes to american policy and working with our allies and partners on ways that we can assist the syrian people and assist the syrian opposition in trying to achieve the goal that we have stated, which is a peaceful transition to a post-assad syria, to an authority in place in syria that respects the rights of all syrians and protects conventional and unconventional weapons,

there are a number of key components with respect to what is going on in syria. everyone is troubled by the comments. i think what united states senators want to know is what is the endgame here? he is highlighting the finding that the government believes he is more resilient than he originally thought. there are components of the policy in syria that i supports, particularly this. you are going to see this in light of the quite sobering statement made last week on the resiliency of mr. assad that it will factor in prominently. >> as you know, the dempsey letter did not bring up the option of aiding the syrian rebels with arms. do you support giving arms to the rebellion? >> i could see a role for assistance to the rebels. there are a host of questions. who exactly are they? how does it fit into a plan? when you do that, the logical next question is what will be the future step? i put this in the context of those kinds of consideration. >> i guess this prompted some tough decisions. the senate finance committee told them if they had ideas on reform they could sub

when syria started up. was saying -- that money could have been used on bridges, on infrastructure, the roads, highways. thank you for calling in. from "the hill close quote this morning -- hill" this morning -- this is the schedule for the house today. they're coming in at 9:00. then they are going to vote on naming some courthouses. they think the last vote should be 1045 -- 10:45 a.m. this morning. aey also printed here that weekend session is possible. the senate schedule, they are coming in at 9:30 today to work on the continuing resolution and at 12:30 p.m. eastern time is when the senate is scheduled to begin a series of votes on the continuing resolution. from politico -- here is a little bit from harry reid -- [video clip] this niche and i want to get out of it. but they keep digging deeper and deeper and deeper. i don't know what they are going to do. they don't know what they are going to do. in tea party has put them this whole and keep sticking it deeper and deeper. we want to finish this legis

the archduke francis ferdinand and his wife were in syria though. that was the capital of bosnia. they were on a two or. it was a bad day to come. it was a holiday. serbia, the neighboring company, was furious. it was a serious provocation. build --been trying to he was one of the people within austria-hungary and they decided to kill him. there have been warnings that something was approached. they shot one of -- one of the conspirators shot the archduke of his life. archdukesassination of francis ferdinand and his wife and the events leading up to world war i. margaret macmillan, sunday night at 8:00 on c-span. >> the other thing that we could do, whether it made a difference or not, is use counterfactual history text. key, the the low- moderate republican -- wendell w ilke, the moderate republican. suppose they had chosen charles lindbergh. he was very isolationist, and quite sympathetic. if you have had to take president lindbergh instead of president roosevelt, i think history would have turned out differently. i doubt he would have made the preparations that roosevelt made.

the easiest ways to go in and out of syria is the turkish border with syria, northern syria. it is the cash money that would be moved to turkey and then literally sort of walked over the border by one of these guys. that is the involvement that i am aware of from turkey. i personally do not report on turkey, so i do not know the specifics. from my reporter colleagues, i know that the border has become sort of a wild wild west. there are shops set up with military fatigues, and i think you have a good story. >> yes. two comments on turkey. first, an anecdote. this chap i know works for an ngo and he was telling me how he goes to instanbul to buy suitcases to carry cash down to the border. coming back to turkey, it is in an interesting position because turkey was another country that was under treasure from fatf to -- under pressure from fatf to upgrade its compliance with that regime. i think turkey demonstrates to some extent how much power these recommendations have. because if you read some of the reports from the credit rating agencies, fitch referred to the fact had turke

thank you. >> well, with respect to syria? well, syria wasn't the topic of our conversation. the topic of our conversation was their nuclear program. >> [inaudible] >> we have not seen a significant change in that period of time with respect to syria. and needless to say, it was certain -- it would certainly be welcome and it would be a very important sign with respect to good faith in terms of resolving the regional issues and showing a desire to have stability over business as usual. so we would certainly welcome that. but it was not a topic of the conversation. and i want to stress that. we were unique lie talking about how we would proceed with respect to the nuclear negotiations. assad and the time frame, it means what it says. the language is very clear. there, uage says that you know, should be no delay in this process. that this will not be open-ended. and that it ought to, if you're acting in good faith, be able to be completed in, you know, within months, within some period of months. that gives you a time frame. and, you know, i think that it would be wrong to prej

all of us were horrified by the appalling chemical weapons attacks in syria. when i became your leader, i said we would learn the lesson of iraq. it would have been a rush to war. i said no, it was the right thing to do. [applause] you see, the real test of leadership is not whether you stand up to the weak. it's when you stand up to the strong. i remember a woman called molly. molly was in her 70s. she was in her front room, sipping tea, and she said to me, how can you possibly understand the lives of people here, their hopes, and their struggles? it was the right question, and here is the answer. to me it has to do with the values i have been brought up with. in my house, it was my mum who taught me about values. she is the most patient, generous person i have met in my life. she taught me never to be contemptuous of others. she was teaching me a lesson in life. you have got to leave -- some people say you have to leave these and see behind, but i have to say they are wrong. [applause] only if you reach out and listen can you do the most important thing a le

syria. this question relates to arming syria. should we now provide lethal assistance to the syrian opposition and -- let me start with that. should we provide lethal assistance? >> the situation is so complex i have to get some degree of confidence that the weapons we're arming them with are not going to people who are our enemies. that would be the one caveat i would put on military advice to go forward on those lines. we don't want to inadvertly, with the best of intentions arm people who are our sworn enemies. >> you say you would have to get some degree of confidence to make that recommendation. as of this time, do you have that level of confidence yet? >> i do not, chairman. i have not been tasked at this mission so i have not looked deeply into this yet either. >> thank you. >> there's a real threat of violence in the christian communities in iraq. my question to you is, whether or not that the iraqi security forces are taking the threat of violence against those christian communities seriously? if not, i believe they are

as the situation around syria has indicated and also iran, central point, any problem must be solved politically without resorting to power. as far as the iranian nuclear program, the breakthrough has been achieved this year, but it is just the first step, and the search must be continued for a broader solution that guarantees iran's inalienable right to develop peaceful nuclear energy and also region including israel. now what is happened? the iranian nuclear program is -- problem is going away but the adm system is still there, not just there, but the situation is developed further. more on that later. once again, russia is prepared to join any and all partners in the interest of securing shared, equal, and individual security. and fighting drug trafficking, enhancing the mpt, fighting international terrorism and other things is what we will continue to do this year. we will be guided by the same principles in the course of preparing the summit that russia will host in 2015. we are entering the final stage of reparation of the agreement on eurasian economic union. we believe that b

and then i do have another question on syria. we -- we've learned that assad is being provided with anti- ship cruise missiles and that the russians are putting a dozen or so extra ships in the med off tartus. do you consider this a provocative act designed to sort of push the u.s. out of involvement in syria? >> well, i'll start on your first question. we're looking at everything. and we are listening to victims carefully, closely. and i addressed this in my -- in my first answer to -- to bob's question about the rights of victims and what goes through their minds before they come forward. and are they afraid? are they intimidated? obviously, yes, yes, yes, on all those questions. so we're looking at everything. we're not taking anything off the table. and we want to understand all that's best. so that -- that's what i've said, that's where i come down. as to your syrian questions, just a couple of general responses. one of the reasons -- one of the primary reasons that secretary kerry went to moscow to meet with president putin

with house foreign affairs committee member gerry connolly about this week's g8 summit, the iran.ct in syria then an update on the national security agency data collection program with pennsylvania congressman scott perry. and our spotlight magazine series continues later. "christian science monitor" correspondent will discuss his article on school prayer in the u.s., 50 years after the supreme court banned the practice. first, we will take your phone eets., e-mail, and tweake [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] host: welcome to "washington wednesday, june 19. work on an immigration bill continues in the senate. tea party patriots are gathering in washington for an audit the irs rally. in europe, president obama will give a speech later today at the brandenburg gate. yesterday the director of the national security agency told congress that programs have prevented more than 50 terrorist lot. it -- we would like to get your reaction to this story.

ambassador to syria testifies about the two-year conflict. 945 eastern on c-span during. then, the chairman bernanke holds a news conference after the federal reserve's meeting on the economy wraps. live coverage is on 2:30. fbi director margaret miller they have to implement furloughs for agency staff due to spending cuts. robert mueller is trying to exhaust all other options. he made these remarks at a hearing on the fbi budget for 2014. >> we have votes coming up. i will not have an opening statement. i want to take this opportunity now the you in your --an -- you in a minimum of you and the men and the women of the bureau. i think you have done an excellent job. i think you have done an outstanding job. i wanted to know that i personally appreciate it. i think the members up here and the american people as well. i want to thank you and your family and the men and women of the bureau. i think you're represented well. we owe you a debt of gratitude. >> i will also for the opportunity of a -- of an opening statement in lieu of the directors time. i join in the remarks of

our ability, iran possibility, to ship what is happening in syria, egypt, yemen, bahrain, is limited. there is a strong temptation in our parts to try to do so or clan, and that is the case on the iranian part. the reality is we all know that these countries are being driven by forces internal and inherent to themselves. it is -- it goes to the point that thomas nike, which is what is going on in the region ought to give both of us more of an incentive to come to an agreement. what concerns me is if we are not able to reach an agreement, it is going to drive us to a place that will be much harder for but the iranians and americans. on the american side, the choice is obvious, is if we did not get a deal, that we are going to face the worst choice of all, the choice between going to war with iran or living with a nuclear iran. i have my preference between ms. two options, but both of those are terrible options, and the greatest incentive for coming to this kind of an agreement is that we do not have to face that, and my fear is that the very incremental thinking of i do not like this c

. >> a peace conference on syria has been scheduled for mid- november in geneva. it is likely -- groups will attend. by friday, a discussion of the moderate opposition from the johns hopkins school of international studies. 11:00 a.m. eastern here on c- span. friday, remarks by actor and gay-rights activist george takei. you can see this live from the national press love at 1:00 eastern on c-span. film aspeople think of stories that you see in theaters. the truth is that film, cinema is a much rudder carried great -- category. the movies you see in theaters are only a small part of the total national world production of films. when you begin to broaden out and look at these poorly , you are ablems to get a much broader sense of what our country's history is. >> i think in the neighborhood of 200,000 educational films were produced in the united states. ,hey range from works of art consciously produced as films with some sort of special production value and creativity, to tremendously banal films about how to brush your teeth or how to ask for a date. the value of

we are also planning live coverage of the british house of commons hearing on the situation in syria and north africa. we will join it live in progress after our coverage of the house at noon eastern today. later, the senate commerce, science, and transportation committee will hold a hearing on the fcc. that gets underway at 2:45 eastern. right now, a portion of that meeting today on gun control issues at the senate judiciary committee. here is a brief segment from that meeting. 374.e have before us >> i thank you for the opportunity for us to consider this legislation and other pieces. bill i have circulated resembles the fixed gun checks at i introduced last congress. i do not want to see too much, because the chairman has asked us to keep our statements short and because i am working on compromise legislation. the fixed gun checks contains my ideal approach to expanding background checks to all gun sales. a concept over 90% of americans support. it is not the only way to do it. i've been talking and continue to talk with colleagues across the political spectrum and across the aisl

washington journal" we will talk to house foreign affairs member gerald connolly about the conflict in syria and a new president being elected in iran. then we will speak to republican scott perry of pennsylvania. we will talk to later, or spotlight on magazine series continues. a christian science monitor discuss will discussion his article about prayer in schools, 50 years after the supreme court banned the practice. they we will take your calls live on c-span. >> let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our differences and the means by which those differences can be resolved. and if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. all freeree men are -- en are citizens. >> from west berlin we see a much different kennedy to the cuban missile crisis. then we see another one who is preparing the ground for a real shot at the times and his nuclear test ban treaty that was agreed to in the fall of 1963, while at the same time also building up defenses and seeking a way toward piece peace with this american university

"no war in syria." supporters of the war in syria. give us a sense from your perspective what's happening in this country, what's the debate all about? guest: you know, i think there are at least two d debates and there's the one large debate about whether we should be involving ourselves in another middle east conflict based on chemical weapons. that's a huge debate and it's important and it's also overwhelming. there's another debate which is probably more in the long term is more important, which has to do with whether or not the president of the united states is actually bound by the constitution to seek approval from congress when he wants to use military force unless somebody is actually attacking us directly or is about to. and i think that that's great, that this is something obviously obama didn't want to do but in seeking -- going to congress for authorization, there's a couple hundred house members have asked and a bunch of senators have, you know, loudly called for, i think that's a major step forward in terms of actually

position on syria. its policies toward syria have been largely focused on diplomatic isolation of the regime, economic sanctions, assistance to the opposition in terms of both trying to help bridge some of these gaps that i mentioned, as well as training and technical assistance to those elements of the opposition or those on the ground who are already involved in some level of government on levels beyond the regime control. the u.s. has been a huge provider of humanitarian assistance. the united states is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to syrian refugees. but as many in the room probably know, the united states is also approached syria with a great degree of caution when it comes to the question of any sort of military intervention. whether it is arming the rebels or the question of establishing a no-fly zone or targeting military strikes. all of these military options, i think my colleague will be talk about, the u.s. has opted at this point not to pursue those. i think it's in large

a thought, hasis block, our data, and syria -- hezbollah, iraq, and syria. the other, is what would be the purpose now of an attack. it seems to me that the time between the actual chemical weapons attack and the response is so delayed that it seems to me it is almost -- does not serve a purpose now. and the other thing is what good is the cia? if they cannot give us the intelligence to target the actual individuals involved in using the chemical weapons. ,ost: i lot out there, caller let's let our guest respond. guest: in terms of the early chemical weapons used by saddam hussein in the 1980 for the, there is actually some evidence that the u.s. knew about this and looked the other way. because it supported saddam in that war. again, i run as it is today, the islamic republic was an enemy of the united states. today, theit is islamic republic was an enemy of the united states but if it is true, sort of a schimmel -- a shameful episode in the u.s. history. the reagan administration did not take on chemical weapons use of saddam hussein according to the evide

their willingness to help us on syria, to follow our lead on syria, will depend in good part on all getting our act together. especially in terms of dealing with iran, iraq, arab-israeli negotiations. these things fit together in the real world. as far syria itself is concerned, we do have no strategy. i think all of you touched on that point very well. wanting to get rid of assad. we did not take any effort, either militarily or diplomatically to get rid of him. we drew red lines and then we did not do anything about them. we walked away from them. where it in a position seems we are just going to let this worker gone. there will be terrible consequences. well the horrors of the. what i would like to do is get you to think about another possibility. one that can some promise in some shape or form. that is this. think we can supply rebels,rms to the good the sunni moderate rebels, the secular rebels, for them to prevail. that some added to kind of american bombing presence which our military does not want and which would be very costly indeed, and we do not know how effective it would be, e

mccain andnator graham talk about syria. after that we will talk about the war parent -- war powers act. then we will talk about rights with supreme court justice stephen breyer. of firstcial preview ladies: influence and image. politics ande style and how the role of first lady's continues to evolve. an hour.bout >> you have to be honest exactly how you feel, and i felt it was the best thing in the world when the supreme court voted to legalize abortion and put it in the hospitals where it the longest. belongs.it >> somewhere there may be someone who follows in my footsteps. i wish him well. of the firstthree ladies we will be exploring. evening, and thanks for being with us. set the stage are two of our academic advisors of the series. with a recapstart after we left things season one. settart with the woman who the stage for everyone. did the rolee, how of first lady change? to look at how it remained the same, and that was the woman as hostess for the nation. i think the role grew to encompass preserving the white house,

first, tell us, the family in syria? yes, and so far i lost my mom and dad's side, 14 -- 14 people got slaughtered with knives. knives, people. guest: i think there is no doubt -- we hear these numbers about 100,000 people dead and they tend to watch over us. and obviously he has filled the personal effects of us. no doubt so many of the deaths have been innocent people who have just been slaughtered in various ways. and the humanitarian aspects of this are significant. ofhink he makes a number interesting and good point about the centrality of fear get in the middle east. i was the president -- centrality of syria in the middle east. i wish the president will make this point. nobody in congress -- even if you are john mccain, you can't that isthe leadership needed in this situation, now or in the past. so, the president is going to propose we do x, y, and z. he needs to explain why it is important and how it would make a difference. he seems reluctant to do that. it seems like he is divided in some way. part of him want

we did have an opportunity to discuss syria. as you know, we are horrified by the loss of life and brutality. if this continues as we are seeing, there will be increasing fragmentation of syria which obviously will have disastrous consequences for decades to come. it is important to have an immediate political transition to end the conflict. obviously, we have an urgent need for the international community to help in humanitarian assistance to catch up to the challenges we are facing. we need to have the ability to stockpile through the same people, and also to be able to assist those outside. jordan today is hosting by far today the largest number of syrian refugees. we have over 460,000 syrians. that is 10% of our population. the alarming trend continues as we see today. it will probably double by the end of the year. it is possible that number could go up to 60 million by the end of the year. the refuge camp is the fifth largest city in jordan. and the economic cost due to the influx as further stressed an economy already und

we finished up with syria, commentary on that. it has been all syria, all the time. a lot of time on the hill and intense interest on the hill about all of this. is, itary i would make was around in the intelligence community. i was part of the intelligence community when the infamous weapons of mass destruction in october published in 2002. i can attest, i think, to the huge improvements we made to integrity, red teaming, and things like that that we have done since that milestone publication. , and this gets back to the transparency theme, not only how we do our business, but also the results of that is missed. you may have seen the page on classified case that we put out on what our best assessment of what happened on the 21st of august in syria. it was pretty forthcoming. more classified assessments. it is the sort of thing we in the intelligence community need to do. people have some appreciation for all the investment and what do we get out of it? it was a great example of integration. if i sound like a broken record, i am sorry. compelling case of melding all

the second big problem we have is syria. i don't think it will be possible deal with iran without solving syria. syria has a deeper relationship with iran. it's deeper even between two members of nato. they really have a very intense relationship. we thought solving that problem would be very difficult to get to the negotiations. for tehran, syria is a very important factor. for that we need to have russia. we have two problems. the link between iran and syria. and we. -- and we have the p5. so we have a pretty bad situation. what we have in front of us is that. the other thing i like to mention is sanctions. sanctions to be reviewed before the end of this summer. today we have been able to put tough sanctions on iran that are hitting their economy, but they are still maintaining the price of oil at a level that is supportable. that's because the production is there. imagine for a moment the economy goes a little better, there are more needs of oil. iran is selling gas to china at a very low cost. if the economy grows global

a potential plan in dealing with syria? thank you. the smaller footprint approach you discussed that would have been a better plan in dealing with afghanistan and how that is viable with syria. if at all. thank you. start with that. thet, syria and again is area of central operation. my responsibility is to provide special operations forces to he builds the as military plan that he will provide to the secretary and president. and is not as easily as it might -- easy as it might appear. we have contingencies and plans we can provide the secretary in president when they are needed. i did not intend to go into details on that today. anything else on that? issues in myplex portfolio. i didn't have anything to add on syria. >> i think u.s. boots on the ground in syria in any format, whether big or small, is an unlikely outcome. i think the issue the government is wrestling with is whether to provide arms to some folks with the opposition we trust on the ground or not. the president, my guess is, will make that decision in the ne

i cannot emphasize what ambassador ross said about syria. it is going to be the role on the of our time. -- the rwanda of our time. the people who have been there, say it is the worst conflict they have ever seen. you're talking about war reporters who have seen bosnia, no shortage of horror. the united states is not being perceived as doing anything that makes a difference for syrian's on the ground. from the military point of view, i think the biggest challenge is for this administration to think about rules governing the next generation of warfare. we are investing in drones and special forces, but so is everybody else. there are 80 countries that have drones already. i do not think we want a world in which other countries can imagine taking out their enemies the way we have done with our own, without some kind of global rules. on cyber, we are thinking about that. with the social challenge, getting immigration done is critical. it is a matter of domestic politics and it is critical to building on what is one of our greatest strengths as

second, what's going on in syria. the spillover effects are substantial. the reason i laid that out is while boots on the ground are something that no one wants. may be that we have to have a capacity on the ground in syria post-assad should that come about. how that's going to be organized question.n a bill out of the senate recently approved $250 million interior, but we don't know who would spend it. that is just an indicator for the need for the kind of reform from iraq, learn that we propose in learning from thankfully is recognized in this most recent piece of legislation. -- that's what we've learned at sigir for 9 1/2 years. honored, again, to be here with you, kim, and with the institute and thanks to all of and happy to entertain any questions you might have. >> we have some wonderful -- wonderful people here with the expertise and a variety of areas and i look to having them have their questions, introduce themselves and the organization they're with. i'd like to start with taking my moderator's prerogative. to ask what are the impacts that thes

non governmental groups or individuals in syria can also gain access to such materials. countries are experiencing levels of violence and political back slidings. extremist parties will probably solidify their employ this year. after almost two years of conflict in syria, the erosion of the capability is accelerating. we see this in the regime's territorial losses and logistic shortages. they're aggressive violence and security conditions have led to increase civilian casualties. this violent off the company's-- violence causes major political upheaval being protected by the leaks trying to retain control. this violence and economic dislocation has led to more than 2 million syria is being displaced, internally and the externally. in iran, leaders are exploiting to spread influence abroad and undermine the united states and our allies. iran continues to be a destabilizing force in the region, providing weapons and training for syrian forces and standing by the syrian opposition. iran's efforts to secure regional dominance achieve limited results in the fall of the assad

we have the civil war in syria , the latest dimension of the and sauditween iran arabia. look at who is providing the money to rebels. only one thing you need to know about international politics. is follow the flow of money. look from whose pocket the money comes out. pay attention to whose pocket it goes into. , we have the civil war. on the one sign, the saudis and the turks. on the other side, iran, russia. riyadhow, saudi arabia, is concerned about the potential between iranement and saudi arabia. the is a natural power in persian gulf. 80 million people, more than all the countries combined multiplied by 5. it has the second-largest natural gas reserves in the world. the third-largest oil reserves in the world. it has largest middle class, it has a glorious history. and thew that if iran u.s. can manage a conflict, iran is going to become once again the undisputed power in the region. that is unacceptable to the saudis. i wisely believe, this is going -- ieate problems for me, honestly believe, this is going to create problems for me. i am going to say something tha

-- the iranian influence in syria and lebanon was somewhat exaggerated. think they were striving to be influential. but the lebanese and syrians are not willing to be dominated by the iranians so it was a marriage of convenience in which they collaborated but i never got the feeling that iran was pushing the buttons in teheran and things happened in had lebanon and syria. but it doesn't change the fact their involvement in both places is not constructive and very serious. >> there is no gain saying the fact that lebanon is totally dependent on lebanon as a supplier of weaponry and dependent on syria as the channel which they arrive. so this whole setup is critical to the power in lebanon. they are really -- they are the power in the country and so it is very critical in that respect. >> i agree with that. i just never know who needs who more. >> i would say hezbollah needs iran more than iran needs hezbollah. >> how about russia? they portray iran as a friend or ally. how about iranians? do they take russia seriously? what is their sense of ussia? >> russ

as it works to get rid of syria's chemical weapons. car bombs and mortars have exploded close to the damascus hotel where the inspectors are staying. the senior official at the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons says the team is almost half done making syria's chemical weapon production facilities inoperable. walk free foundation says slavery is far from a thing of the past. a new global index released today finds mauritania, haiti, and pakistan rank among the modern countries with the highest prevalence of slavery. nigeriahina, pakistan, are among the worst. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> before becoming first lady, she traveled the globe can. -- the globe. >> she collected the chinese porcelains, the blue and whites. they tended to focus on the ming and -- periods. they collected them their whole lives. they developed what was probably the best collection in the united states of chinese porcelains. they started collecting pewter. here are some pieces of british pewter which would have bee

now we moved to syria. hillary clinton has been the mother of the terrace that are terrorizing syria now. -- terrorists that are terrorizing syria now. she made sure that they got training to blow up civilians in syria. she has been an utter failure. host: columbus, ga., on the democrats want -- georgia, on the democrats line. caller: i have lived a portion of my life abroad. i have learned to see my country, america, through the eyes of those who view us from the outside in, instead of the inside out. i am also a bureaucrat. i am retired bureaucrat. one of the things i learned as a child is that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. i also learned that my feelings, my emotions and not mean that i know. it just means that i feel, i think, and i believe. host: to your question? caller: hillary clinton and barack obama are both minorities. in the united states. most women and black men have had very, very much difficulty -- host: what would be the success of hillary clinton? what would be one of her succes

the only ally that iran has in the region is syria. and certainly in and of itself, syria, bars are outside -- bashar al-assad is killing thousands of his own people. the instability risk the entire region. the other countries in the region are contributing. the problem is, we want to make sure that none of the aid is going to go to radical islamists who will be anti- u.s. if they become the next rulers of syria. it is a complicated to tuition. but the u.s. has a self interest -- it is a complicated situation. but the u.s. has a self- interest in the ousting of bashar al-assad. host: janice chicago -- janice schakowsky is serving her eighth term. she is a member of the steering and policy committee and one of the chief deputy whips in this congress. she sits on select intelligence and its ranking democrat on oversight and also sits on the energy committee. prior to her service in the u.s. congress, she served on the illinois state assembly for eight years and was the program director for illinois public action to on the state's largest

of course we spoke about syria -- the forthcoming 2014 events. of course we spoke about syria. we spoke about bilateral cooperation, ways to intensify our contacts. we agreed to step up cooperation between future . nisters of the two countries we spoke about how we could give incentive to practical cooperation such as military exercise, both naval or special forces exercise. we also spoke about the need for more transparency. that ld like to make sure major events such as exercise and others hosted by the minister of defense in the russian federation, would like to invite u.s. colleagues, and we will to that timely. first we would like to invite ot just military at sheas, attache's. we started talking about miss defense, but missile it was should probably be discussed in the way we have gather today. i would like to thank my u.s. colleagues for organizing the meeting. i hope it was as krukive as my meeting with secretary hagel was. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. minister. again, we emphasize the importance of this conversation. and in order to to it properly, we regrett

what we are seeing in syria, what linda and i saw in belfast when a bomb went off, we are not experiencing that today. because of the commitment to peaceful settling of our grievances. peaceful resistance. standing up and fighting and going to jail, but not resorting to violence. that is a legacy that we ought to thank everyone who produce a paid it in this movement. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen majority leader of the united states house of representatives, eric cantor. [applause] >> it is a great honor to be here today. it was a great honor to accompany my colleagues and friend steny hoyer, the democratic whip, at the invitation of representatives and the alabama delegation to go on that emigrant ship -- pilgrimage to retrace the steps of the euros of the civil rights movement -- of the heroes of the civil rights movement. we commemorate the lives of these four little girls -- addie mae, denise, carole, and cynthia. it is a strong reminder of the horror endured by those who fought so hard in the civil rights movement in america. for the most basic of freedoms, the most ba

we had a good discussion as well with respect to syria, and i think concern of all of civilized humanity, with the horrors going on and the huge challenge and problem of chemical weapons. i appreciate the chance to talk about human rights and our strong commitment to working to support and defend freedom around the world. the fight against international terrorism is the great struggle of our generation, and we are strong and solid partners with the united states. [speaking in french] thank you again for your time and your leadership. >> thank you, sir. [indiscernible] >> we will start with cnn, thank you. >>the vast majority of top security officials in the previous administration supported the syrian rebels. were you briefed about this plan when you were in the senate, and what do you think about the plan? do you think is time to start arming the rebels? what do you think of the mixed messages coming from iran, the foreign minister, where the president has said he would be open to talks with iran? the foreign minister had some nice things to say about you, but the supreme leader said di

i reckon if a next-door neighbor can hide three women in his house for years, i reckon syria can hide wmd's. just like charles ramsey was able to uncover the truth about his nasty neighbor, the truth will be the failure of the obama administration him and ghazi. >> you have got some big testicles to pull this off, broke. bro. >> your reaction? >> it -- one thing it had that web the the -- let videos do not -- web videos do not often have is humor. a lot of people up try that. we have tried that at politico. the comedy world has seen this, as well. people think with youtube, you can post a video of yourself and people will think you are a committee and -- comedian. there have not been a lot of daily show type political humor or parity. occasionally, you see it. it comes down to the whole idea of, when you give everybody a camera, not everybody is camera quality. not -- that tillman is good in front of the camera, but in terms of the next generation of john stewart's, sometimes, the barrier to entry can be a good thing. >> what do you say to the old- timers who say, this is really bad f

. >> [indiscernible] syria puts the numbers that 80 million now displaced. do you have any kind of new plan? theever is being done for last four years is not working. ?o you have anything new >> the president will, in these meetings, discuss the tragic situation in syria, there is no question, as well as other topics. the united states, as you know, is the single largest donor of humanitarian aid to the syrian people, who have been tragically affected by bashar al-assad's brutal repression of his own people. we will continue to work with our partners in the effort to provide assistance to the syrian people. we also will continue the effort in support of the syrian opposition. we have provided substantial non-legal aid to the opposition. tore working with partners help the opposition help itself and we will continue to do that. the president will be having with leaders from the region will focus on a number of issues, including, of course, syria, which is very important, and on which the president is really focused. this is a problem and a situation we are co

assad led attacks his own people in syria. governments throughout the gulf took steps to restrict freedom of expression both online and off. these struggles are not confirmed to the middle east, especially violence against the most marginal group in society. discrimination against of member of religious and ethnic as rities, including jews well as others, even persons with disabilities and gay and lesbian and transgender people around the world. from afghanistan to the democratic republic of congo. women and girls were targets of repression as they were trying to live their daily lives and exercise the fundamental freedoms that is the birth right of all human beings. not all news was diss couraging. we're encouraged what is happening in berma. the government has released more than 700 political prisoners tins 2011 many have been in prison for more than a decade. 4 members of theiona league of democracy was elected to parl i willment in elections. in elections. however the authoritarian someuct remains in tact in areas. in addi