at the web site which is. >> it is u.s. hmm.org. >> u.s. holocaust memorial museum.org. >> abbreviated with the letters. >> geoffrey megargee is the editor of volume -- the entire project but here volume one is now out, encyclopedia of camps and the ghettos 1933 -- 1945. thank you. >> thank you very much.

that you came out despite this rainy weather which stops on lead washingtonians so we must have a lot of people from the midwest here. how many people from the midwest to? that's how we have such a turnout here. thank you for being here. to let you know those that are new to us we are the association for higher education folks who work on international student mobility. we bring the students here and send our students out, and we also have a lobbying group,

public policy advocacy group that speaks to issues from the immigration policy student visa policy, h1b issues and our flagship project at the moment to secure passage of the simon abroad foundation act which would have as a goal sending 1 million american students to study abroad every year from the year 2020. so really important legislation. it's passed the house, it in the senate. so when you talk to your members or say your prayers, whatever you do to activate the universe do something on behalf of the senator paul simon study abroad aboard. so, we believe that the exchange of students is an e essential part of developing a healthy foreign policy for this country. we believe the students who come here and go there are doing the

most important part of citizen diplomacy in the here and now and in the future they are the young people who become the diplomats, the business leaders, the doctors, the attorneys, those people who build a society that believes in a strong foreign policy and participate actively in a foreign policy. so this is our part of contributing to that larger mission that this organization is all about. so it is a pleasure for me today to welcome patricia ellis, the founder. >> thank you. good evening, everyone. we are so pleased you could join us this evening. as marlene said on patricia l. less, the founder of the women's policy group that promotes

women's races on pressing international issues of the day. thank you so much, marlene, and to nafsa for having us here this evening. it is just a great pleasure to be here for our first partnership particularly with one of our institutional members. we really appreciate that. and we are very much looking forward to this author series even with professor allison stanger, director of the written center for international affairs and middleware college and author of the new and very timely book "one nation under contract the outsourcing of american power and the future of foreign policy." i just wanted to mention in addition i will introduce our speaker a little bit more in a few minutes, but i just wanted to mention something very timely. she has recently briefed the senior leadership of the state

department and aid including secretary clinton on this very issue that we will be discussing tonight. so i think that that is quite exciting. i also wanted to welcome thank you team members, nafsa members and alums from middlebury college, and i think we have quite a number of them here. and our author series is one of our really popular series. most recently we had an event on iran with hallah esfandiara who wrote about her imprisonment in iran. she's the director of the middle east program at the woodrow wilson center for scholars, and once again, we have another very timely program tonight. i also wanted to mention one other upcoming and extremely timely yvette that we will be

holding with ambassador richard holbrooke. it is obviously on afghanistan and pakistan. he is the u.s. representative for afghanistan and pakistan. this is of november 16th. and we hope that you can join. and we hope that we will all be able to join the wfpg as well. so just a little bit more, and i just going to give you the highlights because dr. stanger has a very impressive background , and i will just mention a few of her many partner ships. she is the russell lange professor of economics and politics, chair of the political science department, and the director as i mentioned of the rohatyn center for international affairs at middlebury. she is a prolific writer in addition to her current book, she was co-editor and co

translator of irreconcilable differences explaining czechoslovakia's dissolution. she has authored many articles, essays, op-ed that have appeared in "the new york times," financial times, "washington post," and she has had numerous fellowships' i will mention a few. overseas she had fellowships' in prague and moscow and she has been a fellow at harvard center for european studies, harvard center for science and international affairs, brookings institution and contributed to a number of very important studies including the princeton project on national security. so, after we hear from dr. stanger we will open it up to q&a, and then she has agreed to stay here and sign her books. so we hope that you will all

take it vantage of getting a book. thank you once again for joining and for having us. [applause] >> thanks very much for that very generous introduction, and it's great, it is absolutely great to see so many of my former students in this audience as alums of middlebury college in american foreign policy i know i'm going to get some good questions. wonderful to see you here despite the bad weather. i wanted to start with a rhetorical question to get us warm up. why do the firm's who recently benefited from government handouts and loans continue to have so much power in the contemporary political system? there are a lot of potential explanations floating around out there. one might be that there's some sort of wall street conspiracy

against main street. others point to the revolving door between business and government, which allows market values to reign supreme in washington. what most americans, however, do not realize is that one big reason money has captured our politics is because our government, our federal government today is but a shadow of its former self. let me cite one statistic to capture that for you. the size of the federal executive work force in 1963 is exactly the same as it was in 2008. the same number of full-time employees. yet in that same period of time, the size of the federal budget in real terms has more than tripled. that gap is of least in part filled by contractors.

that we have become what i call one nation under contract means that there is no longer any vigorous and disinterested government to turn to for help. and this is not a partisan problem. democrats and republicans alike increased outsourcing the work of government to the private sector whenever possible both as a way to cut costs and as a way to chase that elusive goal of efficiency. my book focuses on just a small or slice of what is a much larger problem. it tells the story of how contractors came to dominate our foreign policy across the so-called three d's, of diplomacy, defense, and development. and what it really argues, just any michelle i will give you an initial version first, is that the core business of the foreign policy has changed, yet our

strategies and frameworks for thinking about foreign policy have lagged behind. the result is that outsourcing as presently practiced is scandalous. but turning the clock back and reasserting top-down government control, tempting though it may be, is no solution. it's no solution because outsourcing done right can fuel both innovation and efficiency, expanding opportunities for individuals to make a difference especially in the development realm. so we don't need in sourcing or what some on the right would call socialism. we need what i call smart sourcing, and i will say a bit more about what i mean by that. from a foreign policy perspective, turning the clock back is no solution either. because the threats of the 21st century differed so radically from those of the cold war. so what i argue is a full-scale

reinvention of what we mean by forcing policy is what is required. you might say that we don't need a new prescription for our glasses, we need a new eye chart. so, if we are going to talk about the outsourcing of american power, that immediately brings us to the situation in iraq and afghanistan, which are our first to contractors war. according to the congressional research service, and 2009, they accounted for 48% of the department of defense work force in iraq and 65% in afghanistan. just to give a sense of contrast at the height of the vietnam war the account for just 13% of our presence on the ground. in vietnam.

keep in mind the figures i cited are for the pentagon. the pentagon is not the only government agency that is outsourcing. the state department and usaid make extensive use of contractors for construction in iraq and afghanistan as well. so both in iraq and afghanistan today contractors on the ground out number american men and women in uniform and this is an unprecedented situation. yet in washington we think of contacting as a tactical issue. in reality it's become a strategic one. consider this if i haven't convinced you already. if we take the department of defense and state department's budget in 2008, we can add up contracts and see what percentage of the budget that amounts to to read and what we do is we find that 82% of the

pentagon budget went out the door and contracts and grants out the door and 2008. 83% of the state department's requested budget in 2008 did the same. sufis numbers really mean that the core business of both the state department and the pentagon have changed. so that's the landscape. there are both positive and negative aspects to the outsourcing of american power. and i want to start with the positive because i think it tends to be covered in the news as all of these tales of waste, corruption and fraud, and i think what can be lost is the positive dimension that is quite important. globalization mix of sourcing more attractive to government, but it also expands the possibilities for independent action that has significant foreign policy impact. it is no exaggeration to say that today it is possible for individuals to make their own

foreign policy when government falls short or lacks interest. a couple of examples of this and there are many. one would be sam on's nuclear threat initiative. anybody familiar with the nuclear threat initiative? it is a great organization. the nuclear threat initiative is successfully intervened abroad to fill a vacuum that would typically have been filled or covered by the u.s. government. in belgrade for example nti financed the flying of more than 100 pounds, excuse me, yeah, 100 pounds of potent nuclear material to russia for blending them. there were a huge range of bureaucratic obstacles that kept the government from blending down these materials. nti stepped in and provided $5 million to clean up that nuclear reactor. and it's also pursued a similar action in kazakhstan. another example nonproliferation

issue, warren buffett, on his own, pledged $25 million to fund a nuclear fuel bank under international supervision, if, if the u.s. government matched it. you may not have heard of it, but the bush administration matched him, $25 million. other countries have ponied up and raised the $100 million to make this move toward reality. so that shows some of the difference just one individual can make in foreign policy terms. that's a new development. second example, kiva, this means agreement in swahili. it shows potential for innovative individuals to in a sense make diplomacy without any explicit government authorization. kiva uses the power of the internet to connect directly via pay pal, private citizens, who want to lend money to aspiring entrepreneurs in the developing

world. so, in may of 2007 for example kiva added the first iraqi entrepreneurs to the website. with this disclaimer and i want to read it to you, quote col d'izoard entrepreneur is from a volatile region with security situation remains unsettled. lenders to the business should be aware that this may represent a higher risk and accept this additional risk in making their loan. despite this warning, all of the loans were fully funded within a few hours, largely by american citizens who apparently wanted to land a personal hand to the iraqi reconstruction effort. and there are many other examples of the positive aspects of the privatized power. think of the work of the gates foundation. think of the work of the clinton global initiative. what about the rahm main bank or ngo like mothers to mothers who receive 60 to 70% of its budget from the government through pepfar? all of these have the virtue of

a smaller u.s. footprint even though american philanthropy and tax payer dollars fund the work. so that's the positive dimension. i have to mention the negative aspect of the outsourcing american power house well beyond i think the biggest is what i call laissez-faire outsourcing. laissez-faire outsourcing is what happens when government outsources oversight as well as implementation. it turns out entirely over the private sector and the biggest example of laissez-faire outsourcing was the coast guard's deep water program. anybody here of that? the deep water program? let me bring you up to speed on that quickly. this is all floating around. it's interesting when you gather it together you begin to see patterns. deep water was launched into the center, and it was a 25 year plan, but most comprehensive in the service history to modernize

and update the coast guard's fleet of boats and aircraft. the coast guard did something unprecedented with this program. they delegated overall management of the project to a contractor. that is integrated coastguard systems, icgs, which was a joint with lockheed martin and northrop grumman, i think we have someone from northrop grumman, correct me if i did this wrong. the assigned the task who should perform the work as well as the task of evaluating itself. not surprisingly, and the coast guard systems they chose, guess who, lockheed martin and northrop grumman to do most of the work. and the results for catastrophic. for years into the program the coast guard had fewer operational boats and ships that had been in deep water was first launched, and what had originally been a 17 billion-dollar project ballooned up to $24 billion with no end in sight. one former lockheed martin

project manager did something i've never seen before. he got so frustrated with this whistleblowing efforts through official channels that he resorted to posting a series of whistle-blower videos on youtube to try to get the word out about the waste and fraud that he's all surrounding him. so that's laissez-faire outsourcing. as you might imagine, it has some pretty serious consequences, and i think there are three we need to get on here. the first big consequence is really what i would describe as an accountability and oversight crisis of unprecedented proportions. the seriousness of the accountability challenges reflected in disturbing war stories from iraq. they were over 300 reported cases of contacting the stakes or abuses from iraq from 2003 to 2007. yet, they're has not been a single instance to date of anyone being fired or denied promotion in connection with

those cases. the pentagon in "the new york times" has publicly acknowledged that $8.2 billion, $8.2 billion of taxpayer money flowed through contracts into iraq, and stacks and pallets of cash without appropriate record-keeping or oversight. just to give you an example, and this is again, you know, confirmed, 68.2 million went to the united kingdom, $45.3 million to poland, and $21.3 million to correa, yet pentagon auditors were unable to determine why the payments were made. second negative consequence of laissez-faire outsourcing is what i would describe broadly as an overly ambitious international agenda. this is something we've only just begun to start talking about but it deserves enunciation that contractors facilitate overextension.

they allow us to throw money at problems without really suffering as you would if you have to institute a draft to execute the war which is what we would have to do if we didn't rely on contractors. finally, i think one of the biggest and most pernicious consequences of the practices is what i would call lost sense of government purpose. of those things that only government can do well. this has a highly demoralized an impact on people who work in government to see the real action flowing out the door, but i think it also leaves us paralyzed in the face of our biggest challenges today like health care, like the financial crisis, reform of the financial system. because there is a lost sense of those things that only the government can do. which is only the government cannot hold the public interest. the private sector will not do

that. it's not it's job. and these three things up from the perspective of the foreign policy, and i think when you wind up with is what i would call a militarized foreign policy. that's what our addiction to outsourcing has facilitated. what do i mean by that? by militarization i simply mean the pentagon has become the go to institution for getting anything you want done. under both the clinton and the bush administrations. it has the biggest budget, and since many of the things the pentagon has asked to do were beyond its standard purview, guess what it did. it contracted out. if you don't know how to do something, hire someone. and that is what the pentagon has done. in the process the dod has become contracting central. now, i think that dod's faithful execution of government wishes is that marble. but just because the pentagon is able to do something doesn't mean that it should be doing it. and i would submit that

promoting american values through the u.s. military overseas, the u.s. military being a massive symbol of coercion rather than usually undercuts the very values we seek to promote, and i think i would just offer you as exhibit a afghanistan and the cause of reconstruction there today. that's a pretty depressing picture. and in my book i didn't want to just cite problems, i wanted to point to solutions. so let me sketch in broad strokes some things i talk about in the last chapter of my book which is called a post industrial foreign policy, which is what i think we need. i will throw out three banks here. there's a lot more we can talk about in the q&a. i think the biggest thing we need to do is pretty obvious. we need to demilitarize american foreign policy. and i think we are in the process of doing just that. here not only talking about reallocating resources, but we are talking about beefing that

the civilian component of our foreign policy apparatus. second, with respect to outsourcing we need smart sourcing, not in sourcing. and here i would focus on to components. first, we need to acknowledge the centrality of contracting and our foreign policy. that's step one. and then once we've done that we need to recruit, train, and retained a work force that perhaps government hasn't seen before. it's going to be a work force of what i would call 21st century network managers who can ensure quality work at all stages of a given project and manage the relationships across the public/private to fight. we don't have that today, and we desperately needed. i think another thing we can do, and this is a debate is on going, there will be hearings in the senate tomorrow, is we can talk about what things we might have outsourced that should never have been outsourced. and here i would point to the

use of armed contractors in iraq particularly guarding the indices'. there's been a number of scandals surrounding the contractors, particularly in afghanistan recently. the majority of them not speaking english for example which is usually an important component to ensuring the security of the american compound. but i think the biggest reason that using armed contractors in the war zones is a bad idea is that it blurs the line between legitimate and illegitimate use of force and that is precisely what terrorists want. they seek to blur the line between legitimate and illegitimate use of force. they say we have the right to choose force just as the state has the right to choose force. why should we give them what they want? third plank of the post

industrial foreign policy would be to embrace radical transparency. in theory the information age has made transparency easy and there are all sorts of efforts at work to do that. you can simply post the relevant contracts on a user-friendly web site and i will provide a clear fond of how the tax payer funds were expended. and i feel that the obama administration understands that and indeed senator obama as a senator was responsible for passing legislation that created usa spending dak of which shows you where the taxpayer dollars go and you can check it out. there's also a new one for the stimulus package. because much of that as contracts, too we contract that. there's lots more work that needs to be done. and i think that the obama administration sees this clearly because one of the first things the president did march 4, 21 negative issued a presidential

memorandum that called for a government-wide review of contract in. our practices across the agencies. there was an interim report in july and the final report is due any day now and that is what some of the hearings in the senate tomorrow are about. so we will hopefully be hearing more from the white house on how to move forward on this issue but i would just point out to you hear that some light always challenges the powers that be. so this will be a long struggle but i think that's where the positive aspect of the privatization of american power give cause for hope. when we look at foreign policy today as it really is we see there are plenty of things that we can do even when government falls short. strategies that can be pursued by the general public over the heads of both business and government. when you can make your own foreign policy individuals matter. and so organizations like nafsa

and the women's forum policy group matter. in conclusion, the outsourcing of american power ultimately means we need a brand new template for thinking about how the government and private sector should interact in the digital age. the key players however are not washington and wall street. but each and every one of us. i think i will stop there and see what sort of questions you have. i welcome them. thank you for the time. [applause] >> so, we will open enough to q&a, and i am going to take moderator's prerogative to ask the first question following up on what you were just talking about. since outsourcing and the public-private partnerships are here to stay, can you give a little more of a sense of how you envision things becoming more accountable, transparent?

you gave a few examples, and also reduce talked about attracting new talent to government. and in the most practical sense, contractor firms pay so much more for all the different things and services that they offer. so how can the government compete with this? >> she asked the toughest question first and you conflated, too but let me take them apart and maybe deal with the easier one first which is how can we increase transparency. we are in the process of doing that under the obama administration. much of the information on contracts is available on the web both for the stimulus package but also not for the tarp. you can go to the website and see how we're spending the

money. there's room for improvement and greater detail. there was a poster of the information on subcontracting available by january, 20 only. if you go there today you're going to see a sight that is under construction. it's important to get that done because every contract promises chain of contract that has the net effect of rendering governmentally opaque. so, lots of work to be done that a step in the right direction. you're absolutely right that this is a vicious circle. you've got this revolving door between business and government that needs to not be close but be monitored more closely and the obama administration took positive steps in that direction i think with some difficulties making it impossible for someone who leaves the administration to come back and lobby that same administration it seems to me pretty straightforward but it still leaves with a hard question how do you attract the best and brightest public

service, so that is a 64 million-dollar question. and i think one of the things we can do is just by making the people in charge overseeing this outflow of funds give their positions greater prestige and acknowledge their strategic dimension right now it is seen as something peripheral and filling the forms and in triplicate. when you talk about acquisition reform everybody wants to pick up a pillow and go to sleep. but we can't go to sleep because that's the business of government today is largely in these flow of funds to the private sector. we just need to see that they are put to better work and getting the best people that government is key. >> one more question before i open up. there is lots of talk about getting more civilian control back in terms of running foreign policy and i would like to get your thoughts on this because you talked so much about the militarization of the foreign policy. so, how does one proceed?

>> that's a big question. we have the civilian search going on in afghanistan where there is a heroic effort on the part of the state government to fill those positions but it's tough for all sorts of reasons. anybody apply for a federal government job recently? did that take a long time? you see part of the problem. it might be a lot easier to get down to work on serious issues. if you work for a contractor rather than u.s. government so there's things we can fix in the hiring practices that are important, but there is a larger question of media i will put that aside but the larger question is what we are attempting to accomplish in these places and what i would throw out is whether we are overly ambitious and what we are attempting to do. that is things that might have worked in 1945 and a radically transformed information environment will probably turn

out differently and 2009. i can say more about that if anybody is interested. >> how do you see, and please get -- >> can you hear us okay? >> this is my last question -- [laughter] this is a public-private partnership how do you see the partnership between the public and ngo sector in terms of getting control back and also implementing more civilian control? >> it's a great question and we will throw that out because the stakes as to the development realm and i think most of you are probably aware that usaid has more or less become a contracting agency. the question of its future is before us. our city the economic crisis comes opportunity. can you go back? isn't this letter size here different than what we just had? >> yeah, that's the way it came

to me. >> this will also help us in our goal to decrease crime and improve public safety. in terms of education, it's the first time we've brought together superintendents of the city to discuss the challenges that we are facing in our city. people's livelihoods hang in the balance. i can't read and talk. i'm not good at both. that's my weakness when i try to read and do that. >> ladies and gentlemen, join me in giving a rock and roll welcome for the 55th mayor of the city of sacramento, mr. kevin johnson. >> i'm not asking you to always follow everything i say. as i said earlier, sometimes i'm gonna be wrong, sometimes i'm gonna miss a shot, but what i am asking you is, if you

disagree with me, challenge me, but challenge me on the merit of the idea, not because it flies in the face of the way things have been done in the past. our attitude and our perspective is going to to be the difference on how we navigate through all of these challenges. it is our ability to give back, to serve, especially for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. thank you very much for your time, and god bless each and every one of you. (applause) >> really a great job. >> thank you. >> at some point did your heart take over that speech? >> yeah, you know, early on, i was trying to just get my thank yous and my formalities out of the way, but i started off by saying i'm living a dream. i love this. there is nothing else i would rather do, and somewhere through the speech, you know, it just became the kid from sacramento talking to people in his city and saying, look, i want to do all i can, and i need your help and we can

collectively get through this, but we're going to need everybody to be on the same page. and you did great. >> hey, thanks. we also wants to actage the special guests who are with us this evening. mayor kevin johnson, the mayor of the city of sacramento. >> i want you to put your hands together for mr. jim brown. (applause) >> governor arnold schwarzenegger! >> (applause) >> thank you very much karen for the wonderful introduction. also thank you for inviting me to be part of this great operation here. tonight it's about honoring those who break down the

barriers and to promote social justice. tonight's heros have excelled in all walks of life. i think that each and every one of those honorees are also, at the same time, a great inspiration to millions and millions of people. and i will say especially for the young people, because that's the important thing. they need this extra push to know that the american dream is also there for them,. that they can reach whatever dream that they have, and so this is why we have inspired them to show them that there's more out there than just gangs and violence and drugs and alcohol and those things. there are positive alternatives. >> i have felt very strongly that athletes have a responsibility, whether they like it or not, or whether we like it or not, to be role models. those who had the biggest impact on us as kids growing up are the people we came in contact with every day. >> i would like to thank the governor for his remarks, and speaker bass for hernandez, and

the legislative black caucus for being here today. i do want to poke fun at a couple of people really quickly. one of our honorees joe morgan. joe, raise your hand. and i saw joe morgan few minutes ago and said how are you doing? and he said i want you to know that even though i don't live in sacramento, i voted for you, so thanks joe. (laughter) >> i get a chance to spend a little time with our governor here, and i don't know if you know this, the governor has a little rhythm, got some dance moves. i think we might have to think about inducting him next year as an honor airy african- american. thank you very much. (laster and applause). >> reporter: a day of accomplishment here is concluded. but there is still time to

reflect on the magnitude of what has happen, and what is still to come. >> even in a day among days, that has to be a big highlight. >> like i said, i'm living a dream. effect i get to do is somehow beyond my wildest expectations. jim brown. i couldn't even mess with him, that's too emotional. >> at some point, you realize there's not enough people that are doing good work in elected office, and i shouldn't stand on the sidelines and complain. if not now than when the? all of those things led me to saying i need to get in the ring and do my part to not just make sure the neighborhood i grew up in, but the city i'm so proud of, reaches its potential. >> thanks, matt for that report. by the way, you saw govern toker schwarzenegger featured in that piece, as well. but this generation may not even realize that in 1970, at the age of 23, schwarzenegger

became the youngest person to be named mr. olympia. he would go on to win that competition six straight years. of course schwarzenegger was elected governor of california in 2003. you may also remember former nfl quarterback heath schuller who is now making his rounds in the u.s. capital. he was the third overall pack in the 1994 draft by the washington redskins. he played just three short seasons before finally retiring in 1997 because of a foot injury. well, he is now congressman schuller, and he represents north carolina's 11th district. still to come on net impact, one athlete recall as vivid memories of war as a youngster in war-torn bosnia. >> they kidnapped us and took to us where my dad was staying, which, and we just kind of hid there for a couple of months. >> now that same athlete is living his dreams out on the

soccer field right here in the united states. and the husband saving his wife's life, but they say the philadelphia phillies played a major role in her recovery. we'll tell you how that happened, and you'll hear her amazing story. you're watching net impact on

here is another tidbit for you. former president dwight eisenhower, gerald ford, and ron at reagan all reached the highest office in our land, but before they were president, they were each standout athletes in college. wow. now this. what a year it's been for this next athlete. his name is bofgio. the chicago fire welcomed the rookie mid-fielder to her roster, and being all to play in front of his own hometown

has been. a a dream come true, especially when you consider that his journey began in another country where his memories of death and destruction still remain a big part of him. josh mora has gee or geo's story. >> i spent a lot of time playing with my family, so that's really basically it, that i remember, is just playing around with my cousins, running in the wood, and that sort of thing. >> reporter: peaceful life. >> yeah, very nice, very peaceful. >> reporter: until he was 7 years old, he lived an idealic life in bosnia with his parents and older brother. his family owned land and had money, but wars a all around them. >> it's war, you see people dead. i lost my brother to, you know, yes, i lost my brother. yes, a lot of people dead, you can see it right there, bombed everything, you know, it's war. >> there are stores like they

held up father, you know, rained the mom and just kind of left the kids. >> reporter: they left behind their family, their money, their home, their lives. >> had worked in the office 17 and a half years, she worked in the office, too, and war come, and we lost everything. and how she say, we left august 20, '94. just take a couple of bags in car and we stop at the border. >> my dad paid off a soldier, or i think he gave him our car to let my dad come across, and he stayed with his niece, who was located in croatia. so my mom told me and my brother to fake that i had a

ear ache, and my brother had an eye problem. so when they let us come across, because, i mean, there was no way we could get across, you know. i remember they would read off names for like nurses to come take and you bring you in, and wire kind of in the middle of the line, they & they read our names off, and they wouldn't allow us -- you know, other people were in line, had been waiting there for days, you know, just like everyone else, and i reme the guards shooting, like, guns in the air, and they kind of ran away, and the guards came and grabbed me and my mom and my brother and took us across, and while we were there, a soldier who my dad paid off to, like -- he kidnapped us, and, like, took us to where my dad was staying, and we just kind of hid there for a couple of months, you know, and it was like we were, like, we had nothing. >> reporter: for a short time,

germany accepted bosnian refugees. >> it was pretty hard. there was a lot of racism going on. we were an easy target for a lot of the kids. we were all put together with nothing, you know. you know, you could tell the way we dressed and everything, we had nothing. and we were made fun of so much, i mean i was fighting every day after school. three years later, the german government ended its program for families who didn't have visas, so the husidics had a choice, go back to boss the kneia, or end up in the united states. they went to chicago. >> that's when i finally felt like you can enjoy life now, we've made it. you can relax now. you know, it's yours, so, you know, i always, like, wanted to have a house i could have friends over and stuff, and every day, like, since we had the house, i always have people over, there's not like one day where my mom is not cooking for

everyone. but in bosnia, it's just like that. you always have family over, friends over, you're grilling. >> reporter: and from there, life was good. boggio starred in soccer, and now he's getting plenty of playing time for the fire. >> i can't really describe like how you feel, like -- because you, like, you remember, when you go back, it all comes back to you like everything happened yesterday, and its just like, you know, it's -- you try to make it happy where you get to see your family again, but as soon as like that goes away, like, wow, like i left all of this behind. what if i didn't have this sort of future? >> reporter: and so you can understand when the practices get long and the guys get sweaty and the work seems difficult that boggio doesn't seem to find site hard. he is living a life that years

ago simply didn't eve exist for him, not even in his dreams. >> when we played columbus, it was like a pretty packed house, and starting in that game, i it was like the best feeling work like such a big feeling of accomplishment, like everything my family and i have been through. >> you watch him after 15 years behind, i will show you he was involved, unbelievable. not just one, almost two guys, you know, oh, feel good. >> it has been a pretty good year for the chicago fire, they may have had in the playoffs, and the team is hoping for bigger things in their future. now let's talk baseball. what a season it was for the philadelphia phillies. one of the things that always feeds the philadelphia phillies is their fan support, which is always off the chart. by the way, they had more than 50 sellouts at sipsens bank park this past season, but this next story takes fan support

you might say to a whole new level. as sportsnet philadelphia reports, one couple's love of the phillies truly became a matter of life and death. >> reporter: don has seen hundreds of phillies games, but it's the one he didn't see that he'll always remember. don and his wife sandy had tickets to see the phillies play the angels last june in what turned out to be a forgettable 7-1 loss. the events that drains spired that night, however, they will never forget. >> i went upstairs to get ready, and i got a splitting headache like i've never had before. i mean, this was the most intense pain i've ever had. he came upstairs and found me rolled into a fetal position on our bed, and all he could decipher from what i was saying was bad pain, hurts bad. >> i was just totally -- you know, company can see your life just flash in front of you. i took her into the hospital, they took her in for a cat scan, the doctor came out and

said we have a helicopter dispatched from the university of pennsylvania coming down to pick her up, and this was, like, three hours after this first when i came home that this happened. it's, like, what is going on here? the skull is full of blood, it's a bleed, we have to get her up there immediately. she came in between annal and a 9 and 10 is fatal, and usually they don't make the flight, but they said we have her stabilized, next morning they twenty in and operated on her, and long, long road to recovery, and 50% of then people don't make this, they told me. >> reporter: if he was not at home to find his wife, it she likely would have not survived what turned out for a brain aneurysm. with that, they believe the phillies saved her life. >> don came home from work three hours early. the only time don comes home from work is when he's going to a phillies game. otherwiseny stays the rig rather time >> if it wasn't for me going to watch the phillies game that night, she would.

>> reporter: be here for this interview. >> reporter: a speech and language therapist by trade, she's had to deal with the harsh irony of struggling with basic communication. under normal circumstances, degrees may have completely ravaged their lives, but a phillies title drive proved to have therapeutic powers. >> she followed the phillies games through the playoffs, light late in the year, and he was able in the hospital bed to to watch that, the world series. her sister came down and watched her for game four, which i winter up to see, and she weighed in the hospital bed in our house, and she watched the whole game there, and it just played out that the phillies won that world series that year, and it was almost like, you know, somebody was watching up above there. >> one of the things that they would do is every day they would come in asking what day it was, you know, what's the next holiday, things like that, to see if my brain was functioning. so when the phillies were there in the playoffs, they would come in every day and ask me,

okay, who won last night? so i would have to remember who won, what the score of the game was, because they knew i was watching the phillies. so it was a big part of my recovery watching the games during the playoffs. >> and you can't blame them for believing that the greatest save in fills hist -- phillies history didn't take part of the field. >> they were just a major part of her recovery, and for sure part of my recovery. >> my neurosurgical team knows what they did to save my life. the phillies have no idea what what they did to save my life, but i consider them my heros now inspect >> and we certainly wish her the best on her recovery and for the philly, be a speedy return to the world series. coming up next, there are hockey fans who take obsession to a whole new level. we'll explain. south africa,

an 8-year-old boy picked up the game of golf from his father. by the age of 9, he was already outplaying him. the odds of this gentle lad winning the junior world golf championships at the age of 14? 1 in 16 million. the odds of that same boy then making it to the u.s. and european pro-golf tours? 1 in 7 million. the odds of the "big easy" winning the open championship once and the u.s. open championship twice? 1 in 780 million. the odds of this professional golfer having a child diagnosed with autism? 1 in 150. ernie els encourages you to learn the signs of autism at autismspeaks.org. early diagnosis can make a lifetime of difference.

finally, you know their names, crews by, ovechkin, preair. they are among the les of the top selling jerseys in the national hockey lead, but as chuck found out, blackhawk fans take their passion for hockey jerseys to a whole new obsession. >> reporter: blackhawk fans love their jerseys. how many blackhawk jerseys do you have? >> i have about probably 20. >> reporter: 20 jerseys? >> at least. >> reporter: from pure hockey passion to borderline addiction. you have your own separate closet for them? >> i actually do. >> reporter: that's sick. >> it's very sick, and i'm horribly embarrassed right now. >> reporter: so if you can't actually be them, you might as well ware them, even if you

can't spell them. put you on the spot, how do you spell -- >> how do i spell it the american way or the right way? >> reporter: the way it's on the back of your jersey. >> byful -- let's see here, byfug -- >> oh, okay. du. >> reporter: no, no,llu. ien. but hawks fans really remember those special ones from the past. >> this is signed by bobby hull, 1983, the year got in as a hall of famer. >> reporter: and who on the back? >> stan mckeithia, number 21. >> that's awesome. >> if i could get him to sign it, that would pretty much take the cake. >> dennis hull, you're the only person i've ever seen besides dennis hull to wear a dale

earnhardt this hull jersey. why dennis hull jersey, why is that? >> to be different. >> reporter: i'm looking here, there's a kane number 14. i hate to say this, but past 88 what happened here? >> no, i'm 14, i'm pat kane, the real pat kane. >> reporter: you were born on the 14th? >> exactly. >> reporter: you were born april 14th, 1960? >> yeah, exactly. >> reporter: do you have your driver's license? let me see this. i need more on that within sense of license. your plummer's license. that says pat kane. okay -- think i'm gonna believe him. but then you might not believe this. you show up showing whose jersey? >> eric, my favorite. >> reporter: and he happens to be here.

>> he happens to be here, i came here with my three nephews, they government me the jersey, and he hannans to be here. it's awesome. >> reporter: have you ever seen a fan wear one of your jerseys? >> no, it's the first one, i'm serious. >> i figured what better way to honor him than to get his jersey. that's the way to go. >> reporter: why were you named after hem? >> my dad's favorite player on the blackhawks. he said he was the best on the pk, swooping up and down the ice. >> reporter: ask and here you are today, and he's right over there, the guy you were named after is signing autographs right over there. >> what better way to come in here and get an autograph, and i added some research to do. i asked him if he tipped in bobby's 50th. so i heard it from the horse's

mouth. >> reporter: what did he say? >> absolutely. >> reporter: so at your next hawks game, remember, everybody can be somebody, and we mean anybody. >> i don't normally ask people this, but can i have of have your autograph? >> sure. >> reporter: i really appreciate this. >> where do you watch me to sign? >> caller: just sign my sweater. thank you, i appreciate pit. >> and that will do it for another edition of net impact. i'm art fennell, thanks for joining us. coming up next months on net impact as the year comes to an end, we'll take a look back at some of our top sports stories that shaped 2009. and to find net impact in your area and for the law enforcementest breaking local