>> you know, it's a very interesting question because if you talk to a development specialist, they will say to us, you know, what we need to do to rein in extremists thinking is we need to give people an opportunity. we need to create jobs where they don't exist. we need to give people hope. and this is undeniably true. but as this particular case has shown, the bomber himself as a physician. he scored very highly honored secondary school exams. he received a scholarship to continue his studies in medicine. he was married. he had two young girls. and so the material advantage had no bearing on his decisions to become affiliated.

and it raises the deeper question of why, you know, how can the violence of the form that is used by any party doesn't have to come from the middle east, can come from any region. why should it develop the currency? i often think that we don't really understand ourselves the way that we think we understand. one way we understand ourselves. i think when you look at the 20th century and one way it's done us a disservice because it led us to think that we have included, we have answers to many of the vetting phenomenon before a. and i would contend that many of the so-called conclusions are only conduction. and no, i give you an example for instance. soon after the terrible, dramatic events of 9/11, there was much discussion as to why it

halfpence, who these people were and why they did it. but there was something in my mind that's missing here. it's sort of occurred to me that the actions of 9/11 were distant cousin to the shooting at columbine high school a couple of years earlier. you know, the two disgruntled youths marched into the school. it was clearly a suicide mission, there were certain people they wanted to murder and then the rest were just murdered randomly. before they kill themselves. and i have watched various programs and read various accounts of this, but to me it doesn't quite adequately explain why they did it. there is a pathology about us humans which i don't really understand and i don't think that we fully understand. we don't understand why we do these things, especially if they're not driven by fear. fear can turn off your cerebral

functions and perhaps a certain circumstances you do things which you couldn't possibly have perceived as possible. i still have my doubts about this, but in cases regarding like the bomber, it's rather people during and i have a cousin who of course was lost in the bombing and he was a very gentle, kind man. he would never perceived i.t. could be an evil to anybody and i think he served his country well and we mourn his loss of course. >> this question asks that you look in the rearview mirror as well as the front window. it has to do with the february 1989 establishment of the arab cooperation council among jordan, iraq and the yemen and egypt. it was short-lived.

where's this concept now? none of the four countries are part of the sub regional organization as they once were. and there was a dynamism to it, and nationality to it, a logic to it as the idea still under consideration? if so, how and why? and if not, how and why? >> did anyone ever tell you you have a great radio voice. it's very deep. and i used always enjoy speaking after simoneau at a high voice because i have a deep voice, but i can't outdo you. so now, it's a good question. i think that was simply overcome by the events themselves. we have the case of the invasion by iraq and the subsequent developments and that we moved quickly into madrid and oslo and

it didn't really progress beyond that. and then we had the application of economic sanctions on iraq and i think they are a quickly perished as an idea. >> how would you assess the effectiveness of special envoy, george mitchell's efforts to resolve the issues between arab and palestinian scored and what more and should be done? >> i once had a discussion with the late the ativan no, you know was killed in 2003 the in baghdad kivas the u.n. special envoy who is a special representative of the secretary-general. and he observed in almost every conflict since the 1971. andy said the toughest

negotiations he said were always with and between the parties in the middle east. so one cannot underestimate how difficult this has been for senator mitchell notwithstanding his enormous credentials and qualifications, which of course became the first set for this job. fish is so difficult for anyone undertaking this exercise. and so we think that understanding the many trips, we think he's laid the foundations for now the launching of discussions and i think that's something to be commended. >> and bringing the session to a close, there is one fact that he didn't mention in the introductory remarks and that is that they are our blocks of within the united nations and there is an arab lock for various needs and purposes.

but prior to the most recent election of the current incumbent of the united nations secretary-general, all 22 arab countries voted for this individual to be their representative and their candidate for the secretary general shape of the major nations. no small honor. [applause] the last question is not so much a question, it's a statement. it says i am in eighth grade and i enjoyed listening to your speech about peace. and i think on behalf of this audience, we can say that the rest of us are in kindergarten and we too enjoyed it and learned a lot. >> thank you so much. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

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>> the postal service this week suggested that saturday delivery should be eliminated to save money. we talked about that another issues facing the post office on "washington journal." this is 40 minutes. >> host: and introduce you to ruth goldway, chairman of the postal regulatory commission joining us live from los angeles, where for the very early hour in the morning. thank you so much for being here. would you explain us to begin what is the authority of the postal regulatory commission is. >> guest: the postal regulatory commission is the oversight regulatory agency that oversees the postal service. the postal service is a wholly owned government enterprise, but it functions independent of the government. so when the law was established to create it's in the finance, the law also created a regulatory oversight commission. and our job is to assure that

the postal service, while it operates and it seeks to meet its cost also provides a universal service at a fair and efficient way for everyone in the country. >> host: i would imagine everyone watching this morning has been out of the news that the postal service is anticipated ending saturday delivery and a measure to cut cost and increase its ability to survive. it's been described as one of the most far-reaching decisions of the postal service has had to make. would you explain why. >> guest: well, it's not a decision. i think the public has to understand this. the postal service is requesting a change in his service requirements. the postal service under the law now has to provide service six days a week. and in order to change that, it has to come to the postal regulatory commission, which will review its request to determine if they didn't pack still meets the standards of universal service obligation and give them an advisory opinion on

whether we think it the right thing to do. in addition they have to make their case to congress to see if congress agrees that it's okay to reduce service from six days to five days. so it's happening now is the beginning of a process to consider this proposal in review of the ethics of it and determine whether in fact the postal service should cut service. it's not a done deal by any means. >> host: and how in fact with the decision finally be made and by whom? the two entities working together? >> guest: it is a multipronged process. the poster radio trade commission is going to hold a series of hearings, town meetings across the country, do a lot of research and analysis willmaker proposal to the postal service as to where we think the best way for them to proceed is. in addition, the congress will be looking at our reports and our analysis while it talks to the postal service and the two of us at different times probably, but in some

coordination will make a decision as to whether the postal service should proceed with reducing service and to what degree. you know, they have come forward with a rather specific land to reduce service on saturday saw through the year. there is some congresspeople who are saying well just reduce the total to figure. their other people who say, why not when they? so we're going to be looking at different options and different impacts on the postal service and on the whole economy in the community that the postal service served and will tell the postal service will be think. if we think they should cut saturday service, then the postal service will have to look at other ways in which it can economize. >> host: corruption here this morning is here for lots of c-span viewers by e-mail, by twitter and by phone that. i would like to put all those different venues on the screen so we can get to public comment as soon as we can.

i was interested to see if a headline in this morning's "washington post" sure what the reaction to this. even the postal service had to use e-mail and delivering proposal. and it suggests here that postmaster general, john potter, told reporters on monday that the post of radio trade commission requires him interested in his prints electronically and a postal service spokesman said privately officials had considered having potter delivered his plans in person, but figured reporters who criticize it as a staged photo op. but does doesn't act that might suggest the challenges facing the postal service today? >> guest: there's no question that the role of mail in our society is changing and how we use it is changing. and that digital communications is becoming very important for a bus. but it's true that the role of the hard copy mail is still essential in some areas. and when it comes to things like

packages or pharmaceutical drugs that have to be delivered to senior citizens in a timely fashion, when it comes to what we call the high-tech high touch of communication, hard copy is really important. i believe that there's a role for it in that war maybe hindered if we remove saturday service. so that's what we're going to talk about, but one of the reasons that it's difficult to communicate among government agencies is because of the anthrax scare, which occurred so many years ago, which we continue to try and prevent by delay e-mail within the government system. post go before we get to calls for worth gold way, we have to tell you one hint about her biography. she is a cinch to be full-time cynic come from within the executive branch. she was first appointed by president clinton in 1998 two it was the predecessor agency of

the regulatory commission, was called the postal rate commission and twice reappointed by president bush. we are pleased to have her with us today -- >> guest: you can see how much of a postal worker. post over pleased to have her here today to talk about the feature of the postal service. that begin with the call from the bronx in new york. this is dion are democrats find. good morning, d. >> caller: good morning, god bless you all. postcode to have a question or comment about the postal service? >> caller: yes, i have a comment. at first the delivery on saturday, the citizens of the hard copy, a lot of the citizens don't have access to internet and they're not computer aware. it would be a dutch are meant to them and to the rest of the country, i believe, especially in the rural areas. post over the old way. >> guest: i think the caller

has some arguments. now, the polls and to indicate that when you ask people in general, would they give a saturday service, there seems to be a strong majority who said they'd be willing to do that. in fact, there is a stronger majority that said when they pulled in 1977 or 79, so i think the public in general is flexible about delivery. but their segments of the society who really depend on it. and one of the things are going to have to ferret out in this process of hearings and information we get is how dependent senior citizens are or people who don't have access to the internet, people who work all week and meet saturday service. how dependent they are and what the size of the impact would be on them before we balance the fiscal needs of the postal service and their needs. >> host: tucson, this is fritz on the independent blind. good morning, fritz. >> caller: good morning. i'm a letter carrier here in

tucson and a lot of people don't realize the mail this 24 hours a day, seven days a week. if you take one day i wake of saturday's delivery, everybody will be like a day after a holiday as far as volume and things would slow down quite addictive it would be overturned for monday, tuesday wednesday probably for the carriers. so i don't know how much money that would save and also the pre-funding of health benefits. >> host: fritz, before you go offline, since you're a career professional the postal service and he notes that economic challenges, what would your answer be? >> caller: well, if you address the pre-funding of the health benefits for retirees, which no government agency has to do according to the literature that i received the union and from the postal service that would pay all of our debts and then some. >> host: ruth goldway. >> guest: yes, the letter carriers, as i am very involved in the postal world she knows a

lot of the details. the major problem that the postal service is facing is not the cost of the saturday delivery. it's the burden of providing a prepaid health care fund of $5.5 billion each year in legislation that was passed in 2006, the postal service is required to pre-funded health care retiree benefit. and no other government agency does that very few private-sector companies do. and for the last three years, the postal service has been putting $5.5 billion into a fund here to mullets doing that extreme units of resources to operate so it doesn't have capital to innovate and now is concerned about actually meeting of payroll. if the congress can work with the postal site are to eliminate or alleviate that health care retiree benefit fund, that would go a long way to help in the

postal service with its financial difficulties. and i think all of us in the community think that's the first area in which we should help the postal service. we should try and get some relief from that $5.5 billion payment that goes from one government agency to another government fund and is hurting the postal service. with regard to the savings for the saturday delivery, that's one of the things we're going to investigate very carefully. it's one of the expertise we have in our agency. while the postal service did the $3 billion that it says it's going to save by eliminating saturday service? if in fact he wind up having extra cost on monday to deliver the mail they would have delivered on saturday, then maybe they won't get as much money as they think they would. if people choose not to mail at all because there's mail that's going on saturday and they feel it was important, then they may lose money because they'll lose revenue that comes in from the volume of the mail. so there are issues with regard

to potential savings that the postal regulatory commission is going to look at and will report back to congress to say yes the postal service can pay 3 billion or no, we'll see. maybe the postal service will only save a billion dollars and isn't worth it for a billion dollars to disrupt the patterns of service that we've had for almost the last century. >> host: discussing the economic health of the postal service. next come the atlantic, sam, republican line. >> caller: yes, i think we've got two problems. i think a lot of your mailers mail out to have weekend sales and staff that would be really cutting off a lot of revenue. if you're going to cut out, cut up monday, tuesday, or wednesday. number two, the other problem is union and retiree problems. at a pre-funded or when you

don't pre-funded it doesn't matter. you got the application. the fact that your pre-funded come in the future with a when tricky declare bankruptcy or give us generous to retirement, otherwise you're going to continue to raise money here and coming euro. join a declining industry. but like your comment, please. >> guest: well, the postal service has already pre-funded its retiree benefits good in fact, there's some dispute as to whether they've overfunded their retiree benefits. so those are all set regardless of what the future of mail is. the question is the health care retiree benefits. and you're right, the postal service and the u.s. government because these are government employees are obligated to pay that regardless of whether there is a fund to fight for it. at the moment, the fund is estimated to cover about 30% to 35% of the cost of health care retiree benefits.

that's as much as most private companies carry, to one, the few that do carry health care retiree benefit fund. so it's not as though the postal service is being irresponsible about the future of its health care retiree benefits, but it does need some of these. it does need some provisions provision for the economy has really gone down in volumes are down for it to be able to make some relief. in order for it to survive in the future. and yes, it's an industry that's changing and likely that volumes will decline, but i think as we saw with for instance, the innovations with netflix, which is a whole new product that hasn't existed 10 years ago, though ropey products and services that require hardcopy delivery and we ought to have that system in place in america and be sure that it's available for everyone who needs it. post o'reilly, north carolina, john, democrat, your question please. >> caller: yes, records and

corporations who reference america ineffably do not and we make quite a bit of profit competing against a nonunion company and postal service that is subsidized by the government. my question is, why is the postal service competing against to private enterprises enterprise business that make rockets? >> guest: well, the postal it was one of the major responsibilities of government to provide post offices and post roads. in the postal service has been doing that in one form or another since the founding of the country. so the package service businesses that came up later in the middle of this last century that began to compete with the postal service and they've done a great job. but the postal service provides a kind of basic service for

small packages and for inexpensive, longer delay delivery that most people feel is an essential to maintain. sure the private sector should be delivering things and doing it really well, but there's a certain basic service that needs to be provided by government. you know, you can think of the postal service of the configurations that work, like roads are like telephones. and you've got to make sure that in some way or another they are provided here at the postal service is that measure provisions, but it doesn't interfere with the private sector. in fact, there a lot of partnerships now, fedex and ups work with the postal service and they figured out that it's more efficient for the postal service to deliver small packages to everybody found, what we call the last mile of delivery and ups and fedex to what they do really well, which is logistics and fast delivery around the

country with lots of business parcels. in the products have grown together. and in this day, actually the internet, where more and more people are ordering online, the coordination of these companies to deliver packages efficiently do something that everyone thinks is going to grow in the future. that's not declining. but the growth part of the sector that we are talking about. >> host: does the postal service admission approved the operating budget of the postal service? >> guest: no come to postal service is an independent agency that operates on its own. we used to in the old days, before this new law specifically regulate their rates to make sure that the rates cover their cost. now we look at it after the fact, every fiscal year we review the postal service to make sure that its operations are sound and that the rates it's charging our fair, that they cover costs. and unfortunately, in this last

year, the report that we just issued last week shows that the financial situation of the postal service is grim. and without relief in regard to the help retiree benefit and in some form to which sets rates and develops products, the postal service is in trouble. there's no question about that. >> host: next call, is the dad in pennsylvania? i thought he had not come were going to move on to a call from austin, texas. vincent, republican line. >> caller: yes, good morning. >> host: good morning. would you please turn on the volume on your tv set, we're getting feedback. >> caller: yeah, i was wondering if you were going to do more internet sales and have full training and mentor to how your new employees to the post office with e-commerce?

>> host: thank you. >> guest: i think that's a really good question. the postal service has announced that its going to try and do what is called hybrid mail, which is creative product for the digital communications and hardcopy connect with one another. and i think there's a great deal of promise in that and i believe that they probably need to bring some people in from the outside who have done that to help them develop those products. the postal service -- you know, with all the complaints people have come you have to understand is the largest postal service in the world. half of the world's mail is delivered here. in the united states. it is still 170 billion peace industry and it's enormously efficient. it gets people mail to one end of the country from the other at 44 cents, the least expensive postal rates in the world.

>> host: is the concept of the hybrid sort of like the old western union telegram that the message would travel electronically and then a paper copy would be delivered? >> guest: something like that, but it might be something that involves track and trace of a letter. it might be something great you are printing a flyer or a pamphlet at one end or the other. you know, you don't have to rely on simple dots and dashes for western union telegrams anymore. there are many different ways in which technology could work with hardcopy and the postal service is trying to develop some unique products in that regard. >> host: next call is from canton, illinois. joe, democrat line. >> caller: good morning c-span, good morning ladies. i hope you give me the opportunity to finish what i say. but in 1986 while working for the postal service i came up with an employee suggestions that was turned down, that would've dropped the postage and half.