way. >> did you see other peers six discomfort in other ways when you try to confront mr. blaser? >> it would be hard to characterize it that way. if we've reached out and when we reached out to talk to other national association, other federation, once again where one of 35 voting members and there really wasn't anybody else that had the same feeling that i did on a personal level or that we did as an organization. we operate as best we could within the framework. we are by virtue of being a member of fifa. we have to find a way to participate, work our way through and fortunate enough 18 to 17 was the lack to the fifa's

deep in april of 13. we think that was a step in the right direction, a step towards reform and that is the model that is in the best interest of moving our sport forward in a very difficult and tricky environment. >> one final question and i will wrap up here. back on women's soccer on a happier note the most match soccer match in u.s. history as game seven world series. i was looking at the financial numbers here with the united states soccer federation. looking at the investment amendment national team versus the women's national team as the father of two sons and two daughters. you see where i'm headed with this good spending of the men's

national team is up 50% fiscal 14 over 13 yet the spending for women soccer went down 13% of fiscal 13 versus 14. in broad strokes of many reasons women soccer went up 50% in women down 13%? >> let me first say thank you for your comment about the women's national team. we are proud of our track record with women's soccer. we are recognized as a world leader and they give you a few small facts. u.s. soccer's writing campaign is the reason women soccer was admitted to the olympics in 1996 and continues to this day. we are the top 18 in the world by far on the women's side. in 2003 with a host the women's world cup there were no winnings for any team, first

second third, fourth. this time is $2 million could be continued to push fifa in the right direction. related to your direct question if that was 2014 i don't have the exact numbers in front of me. could be -- i'd be more than happy to follow up and provide in writing, it could be because of the 2014 men's world cup is a peak year and would create more dignity. >> it is what i was sent to be adjusted in a sense of investment hopefully we will invest in a women's soccer program. the men's program is growing significantly. we are so proud of what the living dead and one and make sure we continue to invest appropriately. >> as father of three daughters we are quite proud unfortunately failed professional women's league three years ago we took it upon herself to the

federation. we actually run the women's league. rather than fund 25 to 30 women and cut the team down to 23, we are providing a first edition women's soccer league for 180 women's professional soccer players in this country and we think with the success we had in canada 10 days ago that it will have additional ownership and investment as well. >> we are about out of time. thank you for that reply. senator klobuchar. >> thank you to all of you. i want to follow up on senator klobuchar questions. we are all proud of the u.s. women's team. are you aware we are putting together a resolution asking for equal compensation between men and women in fifa soccer? >> i was not aware of that. >> be ready for it. given the u.s. emerging role in

fifa and given what we've seen in the last few years with corruption, while i appreciate you say changes are being made i don't think enough changes made. i have additional dollars from a senator daines is talking about. the u.s. women's team is compensated $2 million. is that right? >> that's correct. >> the men's team and 2014 compensated $35 million. >> i think it was 32. >> so it is 2 million versus $32 million. the losing team at $8 million. >> i believe it was 9 million. >> 9 million. okay. we have a situation where the losing team cup four times the amount of money than the winning women's team. >> let me point out the winning

just as the point of reference the winning payments go to the federations. so the payment to our players are guided and governed in agreements between the men and women. that is one point as a matter of background that's important. >> sometimes they say women's sports don't get as much attention. we have a situation here where there is record attendance and tv ratings. fox broke tv records in the u.s. making the world cup final the most-watched soccer telecast ever in the u.s. male or female. and yet you had this disparity 32 million versus 2 million. that argument would be the u.s. should be taking the lead in pushing quality here. in tennis they have a quality.

promoted last year decided to have a quality of prizes. wimbledon seems pretty old school and soccer was supposed to be so nouveau and types and the core progressive sport and yet you have this disparity that i think it's outrageous. >> we do agree and we will continue to push for greater payments on the women's side without question. >> i really appreciate that. could you comment on why the world cup was played on artificial turf in the men's world cup was played on grass. >> i'll give you a little background. for canada to receive the bid, senator, they went through a process. canada was the only nation that submitted a bid to host. as part of debate from our point of view unfortunately it included playing on artificial services. it is not something we like. we appeal to fifa in the canadian soccer association to

no avail. when our players came to us and wanted to participate legally in the day, we that. at the end of the day we posed the question to her women's team. if this is what we are faced with do we want to move forward and play or do we not want to play? the women unanimously decided it's not perfect. we don't like the lack of respect but we were moving forward and the menu is extensive and says we're pretty happy we move forward under some not rest of circumstance is but coming away with their third world cup was worth the investment. >> the salary range of women and men. the men may men's salaries is 3000. >> 50,000 -- >> for a male player.

>> i am not sure what the references for that. >> this is professional soccer. >> i can't speak to major league soccer starts with the reference point is that that's collected by a bargaining agreement. the women's national team players to play in our league is well above $6000. into play for their country as well as their clubs as well above $6000. i'd be happy to follow up and give you more detail on that. >> going back to the corruption and everything that's happened and my colleagues have done a good job. i'm sure there's a lot more mr. jennings would like to talk about going through all that as a former prosecutor i'm glad the cases are pursued.

it seems in general the region i bring up the women's issue is the u.s. has a shorter history that has significant internationally major corporate sponsorships of u.s. companies. so what i'm advocating here is using that for a noxious reforms and the and the international governance structure that we don't see the corruption and that it gets taken care of but also so women get treated fairly and equally as men. if they can do it at wimbledon, they can do it with soccer. >> thank you senator. can i make one point? for women's soccer in the world just as a point there were 24 teams in this year's world cup. 2011 there were 16. we were strong advocates and took a leadership position to expand.

the men's that has 32 teams that compete. a greater number of games and a bit of a different commercial impact. we continue to push fifa to expand opportunities for women and as a father with three daughters, rest assured it is top of mind with me every single day. >> you can imagine the women and how we feel when our women players that everyone was watching got less than a fourth of what the losing team did last year for the men and it's just not right. >> it has been in the public debate, but the women are playing in the world cup in competing this year will receive $300,000. i'd be more than happy to give you additional information. >> thank you to all of you and senator leahy is winning the resolution. >> senator club which are -- klobuchar, thank you.

you heard the testimony of mr. flynn as he is involved in the domestic side of the issues involving the u.s. soccer federation. i think his testimony would reflect that he and his colleagues, no one reported concerns our knowledge of corruption, bribery, racketeering and i think his testimony would suggest he had no -- he was unaware of the activity that led to the indictment. that suggests to me and i don't know what mr. flynn does, that he is the ceo. what is it that needs to change structurally that this kind of behavior at fifa would be known by the u.s. soccer federation? what is missing?

>> thank you for the question. you have to understand the nature of the beast. fifa was like no other organization that had an opportunity to consult with on issues related to government compliance. i want to correct the statement mr. bery said earlier. it is not an ngo. it's not a corporation. it doesn't follow any guidelines or standards. what it simplifies is a small clique, powerful individuals who sell feeling was kept very secret at the top level of the organization. it is no surprise to me that an individual federation like the u.s. soccer federation didn't know, didn't understand what was going on. the organization has pointed out by the justice department had

systematic corruption. and for years now for over 10 years in the midst of many scandals in going back before 10 years when mr. jennings was aggressively reporting on micro-trains. see an accountability the organization answer to one man and one man alone and not men control the organization with an iron vest and an iron grip. that was the president of the organization, says blatter. when he wanted someone to know something, he would let them know. otherwise they would be in the dark. it is discouraging to me that president blatter sits in the same seat today. let there be no mistake. he has not resigned. he has said he will step aside when a new election is called. he has said twice in the past in recent history that he would not run for office again and change

his mind. i am very concerned he will do the same thing again for six months from now he will say the reform initiative is now complete. i succeeded in the federation from africa, federation survey ship want me to continue so i decided to stay as president. that would be the worst thing that could happen for fifa. >> mr. hirschman in your opinion your testimony is the best thing that could happen to cleanup ftse is for the departure of mr. blatter? >> not only mr. blatter. there are executives who don't believe in reform. let me say this. we are going to see next week at the executive committee meeting, fifa executive committee meeting adopt the reforms that we

recommended years ago to be adopted and were put aside. it is not what is on paper. it is not the compliance program for the change in government berkshire. it is the culture of the organization that has changed but you can't have a change in culture unless you have people in the leadership that believes in ethics and values. >> what is the motivation for the change to occur? what needs to happen through the u.s. soccer federation, others around the globe. does it have been a consequence on the issue because i assume the opponent to change is financial. there is apparently significant amounts of money that surround fifa and those involved in what you describe is culture.

what steps need to be overtaken today, tomorrow in the future. >> number one the sponsors have got to take -- not only the sponsors, big media outlet on media rights have got to take a stand. when an individual athlete, the attacker was for ray rice do something wrong, the first thing that happens is that walks away from that relationship. scandal after scandal after scandal in no sponsors have taken the lead in withdrawing support based on the scandals. sponsorships and media outlets have got to stand up and say if you don't reform, if you don't do the right thing we will walk away. the u.s. soccer federation has got to come together. those with similar beliefs and

transparency and accountability and i do believe that is the belief that the u.s. soccer federation has got to come together from the bottom up and force change at the top and finally government provide sustenance to sports federations. not necessarily in the united states that oversees government spend taxpayer money supporting their organizations. they've got to intervene and let them know the time is ripe for change even here in the united states while they don't spend taxpayer money on supporting our domestic sports organizations we provide them with tax exempt status exemptions from antitrust laws and so governments have got to influence rights organizations

to undertake transparent accountable governance. >> let me ask you mr. jennings what needs to transpire? what needs to transpire today tomorrow that would give you hope that the corruption you have described would be resolved internally within fifa and perhaps a laser based upon your testimony is fifa has no future it has to be with lace. is that different from what mr. hirschman is saying? >> yeah fifa has to be dissolved. they don't want reform. we despise her perform. got arrested, went home for years as members of his family got off the operation went on. i am quite astonished at what i

hear. that would be the third one because when mr. blazer and mr. warner were out they had reform meetings. they placed transparent they and two men from the corrupt sports marketing company in a few years later the fbi. so now they are doing it again. horse corral a man to put a scarf framing to those in the congress in a team 98. they are so corrupt. the uss communities they federation has been cowardly. not a powerful country had the guts to stand up and say jack warner is stealing tens of millions of dollars of trade to money that should be supported

in the caribbean. he had the guts to say it. warner and place are turned on him. he just survived that he had the courage to do it. where was america? >> let me ask mr. flynn in your testimony had just made note so this won't be identical to what you said. your testimony was you could encounter a potential political impact that you indicated you oppose the reelection of mr. blatter. you indicated the u.s. soccer federation posed voted for someone other than mr. blatter to chair. your testimony had something along these lines that could cause potential political impact and chances to host the world cup. that suggests to me that there is an awareness that the decision about where he world

cup soccer matches going to be played, you would admit is not necessarily based upon the merits. if you are worried about a vote for the chairman of fifa have been a consequence on site selection, that suggests to me that you are aware something is not above the board. >> i think it reflects a management style. that is what i was trying to impart. mr. blatter yelped as others have said a lot of influence in the organization and taking our position to not position to battle the vote open that could nominate prince ali had worked hard for a selection. we know that many, if difficulties down the road in terms of seeking support for

hosting the 2026 world cup as part of the management style. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. jennings, would you agree based on your experience that american corporate sponsors like nike nick donald, fifa and coca-cola have bad in some sense into you players? >> they've had terrible attacks when the rest of the world has been categorizing listing corruption and documented. we only support the world cup. we don't support fifa. >> maybe i should have my

question that they would be enablers now. >> they should withdraw unless the money should be withheld until something radical happens for an interest of the grassroots. >> there is precedent, for example in the way that an aikido but tiger woods following the regulations and public disclosure >> that's a very limited case. we've got huge for both the because it dealt with the private life of a celebrity and a lot of tabloid coverage. >> private life and morality or in this instance public corruption should be addressed. >> admit that capacity. they have the brains and the

experience to chicago and they haven't done anything. they should be apologizing because mr. flynn has talked a lot about the organization of american folk all. not particularly relevant to the issues at hand about corruption or fifa. nevertheless, the moms and dads my granddaughter plays football in the park in seattle. you know the sort of people i'm talking about. not just the stars of the teams they have been betrayed by an organization with the glamour of the brilliant by name and then doing better at every world cup you'd notice. without actually doing it to say we are america. >> mr. bery, which are the great american corporate sponsors have turned a blind eye to feel like

human rights abuses and potential death of migrant workers involved in human trafficking and the world cup host nations should they have known ?-questionstion -mark should they have done something? >> of course the answer is yes. >> mr. bery. >> there is definitely been a startling lack of attention by many parties involved with fifa and the world cup to be serious problems of labor exploitation today. thousands upon thousands of foreign migrant workers are forced into a terrible terrible system that can lead up to forced labor in some cases and it is time for the sponsors of the world cup. it is time for the contractors and businesses involved as well as the host government at all to start taking action in doing something about the way price crisis. >> they can have an impact by virtue of their power of the

purse and dollar investments. >> the sponsors of the world cup can play a serious and constructive role in averting the labor rights crisis happening in the next placation spiking the world cup in 2022. >> do you agree? >> i do agree. look the sponsors spend tens of billions of dollars to protect their brands. they themselves adopt governance programs and compliance with the best practice recognize globally. what does it say about them and they're willing to partner with organizations that have the record the fifa has. >> mr. flynn, do you agree with the views stated here? >> we are happy to have the sponsors weigh in on this particular issue.

as the point that is worth making from the perspective when these things come to light we have spent a lot of time a sponsors explaining the difference between u.s. soccer and fifa and the sponsor welcome the opportunity of discussion with us and we are happy if they weigh in on these items and issues. >> in your view mr. jennings, is fifa salvageable? >> salvageable? no, not at all. corruption is so deeply embedded america has to america has to with its moral bias join with other countries is similar moral values and say you are out of here. we have a bunch of organized crime experts. that is what fifa is. very good to see your fbi has a

system like that. you don't go to john gotti and say there's too much on the streets. could you cut back a bit? thank you. that's all right. that is not how you dealt in boston. you went after them. >> mr. flynn is fifa salvageable? >> i would address that by looking at the recent reforms as they've been sweeping. i would like to give it hope that the footprint could be used. i am not an organizational expert but i think that is one option and i can tell you the weekend of the women's world cup final, there are two other confederations around the world that were represented in vancouver that were very well

aware of the sweeping reforms, were please and hopefully the footprint is at least one step in the interim, excuse me, and the sharp turn to reform fifa. apart from what comcast has done, have you seen a tangible meaningful effort at reform and does not have to happen for today's salvageable? >> i have seen attempts and unfortunately they have come up short and we continue once again as one of 209 nations to build coalitions more of a like-minded association. given our structure, who we are that is a good model for us to move forward. we are open to other discussions

as always and will be doing so with the candidates on branding for the presidency moving forward for fifa as well. that is going to be an interesting opportunity to see what platforms the candidates bring. >> with u.s. soccer withdraw from the structure that supports fifa if it fails to take meaningful reforms? >> as i said before the opt-out is a difficult and severe -- has severe ramifications to our model for the sport. i would like to think we can push for reform given new platform and level of an entity not only from the u.s. senate, but other parts of the world that field now is the time to make many changes that need to be made in terms of reform for

fifa. >> as a fan as well as a public official, as a parent, let me just suggest sometimes an action and silent signal complicity and there'll be a point where in effect u.s. soccer is complicit in the ongoing in the reaction i respectfully suggest that maybe something you want to consider. something has happened in the wake of the salt lake city scandal. >> we will cooperate with any inquiry brought to our attention. >> i am suggesting you take action the u.s. soccer take action to conduct the inquiry. you certainly have those sources

and i respectfully suggest the responsibility. >> i think one of 209 whether we initiated that it would be safe to say we need the assistance and help of other like minded nations. we are committed to certainly have those dialogs in those discussions. >> are you committed to see an inquiry? >> committed to work with other associations to reform fifa. >> my time has expired. i have additional questions but i have to go vote. we are staggering our terms here. if my chairman will take over and asked the questions i will see you again. thank you.

>> thank you for your patience. i think some other members want to join us. this may turn out to be our last round. there's another committee hearing in this room later this afternoon. let me go back to initiate that i mentioned in my opening statement on export a moment ago with mr. bery because i don't want this issue of loss of life to get lost in the conversation about governance. i think they are related. i'm not trying to prioritize one over the other but i want to make the americans in the world about what you discovered in your investigation leading up today games of the future. let me ask you again if you want to describe in more detail the findings of what is transpiring their and what you requested via

far as to make certain that these practices come to a conclusion. what role can we play as the united states? >> thank you chairman. the report promising little delivering less is the latest report that goes into the massive problem of labor exploitation. the problem as we've heard starts with laws that prevent migrant workers from leaving their employees, leaving the country when they are put in situations that arise to the risk of starvation. it goes beyond that. as you've alluded to today there are serious health risks a lack of accountability and due diligence when it comes to the site are doing the hard work and putting in the sweat of putting in the sweat of all the construction, hundreds of billions of dollars in construction in the country today. there have been numerous reports about dads that the governments

of india reported in 2014 over 400 nationals have died and a whole host of ways for a whole list of reasons. one is highly problematic is the government of qatar has not put an effort to do in serious investigation to how migrant foreign workers are dying and why. the lack of any investigative interest are after reveals the answers as well as the next that's. they need to take steps to investigate the death happening today, deaths and of the lives of many foreign migrant workers who came from qatar from many parts of the road to earn money and send the money back home to communities and families in poor parts of the world or they do

not have employment opportunities they need. >> let me ask mr. jennings an additional question. you are the witness from outside the united states. what influence do you think america has in regard to reforming fifa? >> i would rather say change. i suddenly learned today america is a little country that is terrified of countries not agree with it. when the united states senate committee were last they had a massive moral problem of its relationship with the croaks, it didn't go in ask anybody else. you don't have to s. arrest of the world. is it alright if we have an inquiry in america to our own people? please. i find this very dispiriting about this view of america as being gutless because that is what is being suggested. get on and do it.

don't ask permission of some other countries. it is your country and your screwed up. i hear talk about reforms. i don't believe that. this same bunch of crooks who've been there for 20 years. but you can do it. you've got the sponsors you got the media. you've got the moral power had this huge country. they just need some leadership and they're not getting it. >> mr. jennings, you must think there's a sufficient value in this hearing taking place right now here the u.k. for britain to the united states to testify. what do you hope comes from this hearing today? what can you expect or desire to be to accomplish?

>> the independent inquiry similar to the first essential because you look in the mirror with u.s. soccer and see you are dramatically wrong. they can go back into how you've walked away from problems of fifa. america doing that would have other countries that only we can do this as well. i would hope you do set up independence, not with the permission of tanzania, which earn commission of inquiry. that's the first thing. second thing is going to side a day possibly for congress. i will tell you there are no congress has said he spoke for the rest of the year by fifa in zürich. he will stay there, way for us all to get tired and go away. you can walk away or you have no

perspective on the rest of the world. i don't think that's true yet. >> mr. hirschman, to poke into the right words numbers of fifa's independence committee. what didn't occur? it appears to me there was an effort at changing previously. you were involved in the effort to make a change but it didn't happen. is that an inaccurate analysis? >> it is an accurate analysis. we came in as compliance experts in sports expert to look at the internal checks and balances of fifa, to look at their compliance and governance procedures. we did so. we made a number of recommendations, many of which were adopted by fifa.

for example establishing an ethics committee with two cochairs come independent outsiders, want to do investigations in an adjudicatory chamber. we established an independent chair of the audit committee of fifa. when it came to recommendations that i consider to be no-brainers because they are common standards around the world, including term limits for executive committee members and the president, including transparency of compensation. to this day no one knows that the president of fifa is paid to the members of the executive committee are paid. when it came to having them create an independent outside oversight.e. to ensure governance and compliance programs that we recommended for being insulated, they turned

that down as well. a number of key recommendations that might have made a difference were turned down. having said that i want to emphasize i don't believe even if they had adopted the recommendations of that a change in leadership, without a change in culture, we would've seen much different. >> thank you. mr. flynn, the u.s. soccer federation had a greater role to play. i want to make certain you have a chance to tell us anything you would like for us to know to set the record straight if you feel there's something needs to be said. also to ask you the question, is there something you would ask for months as we tried to ally in the efforts for change reform improvement? >> thank you senator. one point i would like to crystallize his u.s. soccer was supporting inquiry at the national association and have

the authority to do so under the current governance. as it relates to your question with the u.s. senate could possibly do we welcome any opportunity for the u.s. senate to weigh in with counterpart in qatar or russia or whoever it may be for any issue. we would welcome now to be ready to work with you on that as well. >> do you know if there's any ongoing conversations with fifa and his allegations. do you know whether our government is associated with countries trying to facilitate change. >> senator, i am unaware of any committee. >> excuse me just one moment. i am going to recess the hearing

just for a moment. mr. blum at all is on his way back from it though. i will cast the next vote and i will be back. we'll have a brief recess which might be of value to those of you sitting there for a bit. the subcommittee is recess till the call of the chair. [inaudible conversations] >> the chair caused the meeting back toward her. i was a rather quick recess. this'll be a brief few questions. mr. flynn, would you commit to establish a better system of accountability within u.s. soccer through some kind of internal expect or general a watchdog protection system?

>> i'm sorry. we actually threw our outside counsel have hired someone to look at all fair ways in in which we govern ourselves and that process has been guarded and supported by our board as well. >> when will that process be completed? >> it just started so be a better first to get back to you with your time frames with the discuss in more detail. the mac mr. hirschman can be tested by hirschman can attest to that sports are undermined by lack of accountability and i agree. would you say that voluntary system is sufficient to bring some higher degree of integrity

to a corrupt system are at these u.s. soccer has been involved in a corrupt system or should sports entities be in some way overseen or scrutinized or regulated by a public authority. >> i don't want to see government take away total autonomy from sports organizations. i don't think that would be the right way to go. i do think it's voluntary standards and principles are not adopted and in that dead debra mech is that at some sort of regulatory protocol to ensure that sports organizations are keeping best practices and standards. there is a tremendous threat to sports worldwide. it hasn't completely hit the shores of the country yet. it totals about $500 billion a

year. let me repeat that. $500 billion a year is spent on sports illegally. that has led to an increase in match fixing, which has become endemic in europe africa asia, latin america. while we haven't experienced this year, it is rearing its ugly head. six weeks ago a gambler from detroit was sentenced to six years in prison for pain college basketball players to matches. but i am hoping the committee will do and what our government will do is get ahead of the curve too began to see that certain vendors are put in place voluntarily or otherwise in order to bring some of the well-known. he backed her sport.

>> mr. hirschman county said members of the fifa committee should expose of their salaries. >> that is correct. >> mr. gelati is on fifa's executive committee. do you agree he should disclose its earnings? >> i believe would push for change on the do not believe u.s. soccer and we would support that yes. >> if i might interrupt senator before he was appointed to the executive committee he served with me on the independent governance committee and he voted favor of our recommendation for common haitian transparency. >> can we expect that will happen then, mr. flynn? >> will do everything we can within the power of the united states cyberfederation.

ultimately that will be a fifa executive committee vote. >> one will fifa know that though? >> i don't know the answer to that. i'd be happy to follow up and get you that. >> mr. bery can you tell the committee what more you think fifa can do more specifically and directly to stop human rights abuses including human trafficking, exploitation and the horrific of the illegal holding a passport in effect involuntary confinement of workers and other abuses involved in construction and host facilities, hotels. the breadth of these violations have been somewhat inadvertently

lost in these proceedings which have focused more on the corruption committee over criminal corruption and yet the humans rights abuses are real and unspeakable. there are two big pieces of the puzzle fifa can solve when it comes to addressing major problems of labor exploitation and potentially future countries that there will be future host countries for the fifa world cup. the first piece of the puzzle is the question of what the evaluation process is during the bidding process to be a potential host of the world cup. fifa has said it is going to include human rights requirements as the bidding process. it is unclear as to what the human rights will be in any initiative must result in fifa having adequate due diligence systems in place so fifa can

become aware of and prevent abuses at the consequences of world cup event in the future. that is the first piece that evaluating the bids to be a host country. any evaluation in the context of qatar, for example would reveal serious problems when it comes to labor exploitation and as we spoke earlier in the hearing the risk of injury and death for a mac the country. the second piece of the puzzle is what happens when it raises an issue verbally by the host government dan says we will do xyz and a year later amnesty international largely fails to address the issue. verbal assurances are not enough. there is a real question for fifa as to what happened now. the clock is ticking and it's not enough to wait five years to

have serious reforms when it comes to labor rights in qatar. every day that goes by is the day that hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure for the 2022 world cup are built-in completed. every single day that goes by without labor reform is another day in which a foreign igra worker is subject to potentially subject to forced labor and puts their life at risk in an eighth construction facility, potentially comes home to a filthy to a filtered set of housing accommodations or simply denied pay other families at risk of being evicted from their home. the real question is what are they going to do now when a year after they have claimed it will take steps to address the problem. some of the worst human rights violation not enough has been done. >> i want to add one question with an issue raised by my

colleague senator klobuchar. i was astonished in troubled to learn that men's teams that exit in the first round of competition were paid 8000000.400% greater than what a winning world champions were awarded. mr. flynn, what can be done and what are you planning to do to address this pay disparity? >> thank you. we are a strong advocate for the game. during the championship weekend i met with the soccer association, my counterpart who is the operating officer for the world cup. we address other things in terms of after action report being compensation what i would call

team environment types of hotels, all of those things should be included in an after action report. we will continue with their committee member to push for continued development on the women's side and continue one of those items to be an increase in compensation for those competing and participating teams in the world cup in other competitions potentially as well. >> thank you. i will have more questions for you on this issue. i will submit them in writing. i think your testimony has been helpful and informative. in my view, this hearing is only the beginning of an inquiry to conduct and that inquiry is only ones that in a larger very

intensive and critical scrutiny that has to be given to the responsibility of the united states sports organization. we have spent a good deal of time over the last 24 48 hours talking amongst ourselves about issues of actual security in the agreement that has been reached by the administration to stop nuclear proliferation. the power of the 90s dates consist not only with the military, but exceptionalism derived from values and acceptance. the fans here and around the world deserve better from the sports organizations that have responsibility to oversee and organize the game of soccer.

corruption is not a game. it is deadly serious. it is criminal and betrays the trust of fans u.s. soccer as i said earlier had a responsibility to know or should have known and the fans can judge which is worse. i want to thank you again for being here today and i hope that you will continue to cooperate with our inquiry. thank you. >> mr. blumenthal, thank you very much. i will bring this hearing to a conclusion, particularly under the assumption i may have suggested you need to reassess. we'll give you one and adjourned. let me first say before i do that, thank you for your testimony. this is in my view something that is an important issue a serious matter. i particularly thank you for your testimony and that what you

and our audience, witnesses, those paying attention that we want absolute best for u.s. soccer. the points i would make is we can't tolerate the status quo and that there are serious consequences from the status quo. they are real and in some instances life-threatening or perhaps life taking. we don't want another decision to be made for the next site for the world cup that is subject to allegations for the reality of corruption continues to occur. so from an individual senator, i offer to you, mr. flynn, to the u.s. soccer federation to in any way they can assist you estimate the effort to make certain status quo is not continued. thank you for being here as i

would say to all the witnesses thank you for the serious nature which we treated this topic. with that, let me say a few significant words necessary for the record and that is that the hearing record, the record of this hearing will remain open for two weeks. during that time senators are asked to submit any questions in writing to have for the record. upon receipt by you the witnesses, we request written responses to the committee just as soon as possible. with that, i will conclude this hearing and again thank the witnesses. this hearing is now adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> investigative journalist from the u.s. and europe will be discussing what they know about the downing of alesia airlines flight team in eastern ukraine a year ago. u.s. officials have concluded that a missile struck the airliner that killed all 298 passengers and crew on board, but a final report has yet to be

released. we are at the atlantic council of the nation's capitol. the u.s. senate will gavel went for a brief pro forma session at 10:40 a.m. eastern in rake away briefly for that and come back live for the remainder of the discussion which should get underway shortly here on c-span2 . "the new york times" writing this morning about the issues that president vladimir putin of russia pushed back forcefully thursday against calls for an international tribunal to investigate the downing of the malaysia airlines flight even as other world leaders he writes for demanding accountability for the deaths of the 298 people in "the new york times" this morning. i'm not -- [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> good morning. thank you for coming today. we have quite a program for you. we have colleagues here from "new york times" magazine, from the osc monitoring mission in

ukraine, and the ballet group in england and from kurt teeth. we are here to talk about the shootdown of elation -- trained to airliner 17 on july 17 last year. i remember that day vividly because within 20 minutes of the shootdown of the airliner, i saw something in the media that fsb colonel skier crossed has put something up unannounced in a some satisfaction to shootdown of the military plane. there is no shootdown of a military plane, it was clear what had happened.

i was in berlin a week and a half after that and i learned a new phrase as i was preparing to go to berlin which meant people who understood sympathetically prudent and his policies, which is something that characterize the german political system and society pretty much through the summer before and that to the summer of 2014. and in our conversations with germans at that time we were told you feel the residue of putin as we discussed the kremlin objection in eastern ukraine. but an official someone who worked with three in moscow when i was a diplomat in the mid-80s said to me that the german public was becoming quite

concerned about what was going on surrounding the remains of the airline. the reports, if you recall of the leading of the bodies the fact the bodies were left in place for days and days and in fact weeks. she said to me, this is how the authorities they are in the russian occupied parts of the russian controlled parts of eastern ukraine if that is how they treat their dad how did they treat their living? that in a phrase highlights how the shootdown was a turning point in the war of ideas or the war of understanding in europe about the kremlin that aggression in the east. ..

they were horrifying, bodies raining down on this village had

already been part of an active war zone. and in the news just grew only more horrifying, the looting of the bodies, the meddling of the crime scene or every year later the situation, it seemed like a game changer at the time, that's something so horrible couldn't, in seemingly random, couldn't change the course of events in a conflict in ukraine. and a year later the situation does look profoundly different. i would argue that the event helped shape european resolve to get behind more robust sanctions. at that couple with a precipitous economic decline and russia really froze the conflict in place to i think russia was willing and ready to go further in eastern ukraine which was fine difficult to supply. instead we have this strange

conflict nobody seems to want this region anymore. i feel like the way the conflict stands in ukraine now can be traced back to that morning one year ago when people flying through, find out were on vacation which is shot out of the sky. it's been as we all know part of a fight over basic facts and what happened. and we will hear from speakers today whose work intelligence has tried to keep people focused on what actual facts, what are actual images to try to keep an ear to focus on what happened rather than embedding of the waters and evolution into a gray

zone. no man's land. without further ado -- >> good morning. it's a real honor to be here today alongside some fantastic -- my name is iggy ostanin. we been doing investigation into 17. i would like to talk to you about one of the central things that we were able to find in a report producing last year. so on this later you can see an image produced. this was a book, missile system from outside on the 17th of july last year. and this was really the starting

point for something that i've worked on lester's will and this is something we used in our investigation. there were numerous images and videos taken by local people and occupied separatists area in ukraine. g. locating these images and videos, so being able to compare their location with open source is like google street on the google satellite view me to identify this as to identify this is a separatist controlled area and this also meant we could prove the separatists had a book on that particular day in their possession. there was also video produced that showed a book missile system with at least one missile missing a day after the attack seemingly returning back to russia. in september last year i started

doing some investigation for bellingcat that would evolve into a report. it was a privilege working with our contributors. i will talk to a little bit about how it was able to discover the book had come from russia and action company specific military union and russia. this is what at first images i was able to find just by searching for things like books in russia. what shows is that at the end of june last year there was a large column of military vehicles traveling, and this column have books in it. it's quite interesting image to find because by narrowing down that particular timeframe, more and more videos showing the same

thing in different areas it was possible established chronological order of the location. this leading to find an interesting video which was a by local person uploaded to the russian website, the russian equivalent of facebooking june last year. it was quite interest because there was a book that was similar to a we are seeing into paris march image. there was a remnant of a number of what we have seen. from what we know the russian military have been sitting military equip into ukraine with identifying marks. will this lead me to find this particular image which was a really important high resolution

image that they so came from instagram and was uploaded by a local just showing him the shooting down of mh17. this was uploaded by someone weeks before the attack had taken place. it was possible to go and make comparisons from their on the left you see the image from russia in june. on the see the image from outside don't ask -- done ask. and numerous markings come it wasn't just the thought of a number. it was actually an entire set of identifying features that showed this was the same book at it was evidence that come from russia. alongside this analyzing the plates of the military in the column was particularly useful because it actually led to a

particular unit in russia that used the same area codes and was armed with books. and it was actually possible to go and find like a russian facebook page for russian soldiers from particular military unions, the 53rd but grade come and look for the profiles of those soldiers. it was possible than to get confirmation. much license plates of vehicles seen in the column traveling toward ukraine, and those they had uploaded themselves. this is the page that it comes from. this was a really important link because it has actually shown this column was originally verified by other things.

for example, the first chronologically video that was able to uncover was taken outside of that area. it was possible to look a certain serviceman in that unit and analyze the images images that showed it was a link between that unit and the truck that shut down mh17. and so the bellingcat we started eventually looking at all these similarities. weser look at the way it was order, the damage to the side skirt of the book basically bits of rubber over the tracks of the book. and were able to confirm 100% this was the same vehicle. we tried these other things as well. for example, this is an image from a russian form for the

wives, mothers a russian soldiers. this was a post relating to somebody can related relate it to somebody in the units. and they were saying this unit was being sent toward ukraine to the russian border. and this post itself had meant we would uncover more videos, for example, showing the units have gone there at anti. so these were just a number of different things that would verify that the unions have traveled toward ukraine at that time weeks before mh17 was shot down. and as well as that by looking closely at the post and developers. it is then possible to go and find images from within about column posted by soldiers from the union and possible again to gain information. this actually did take place this actually did happen.

and in the end, essentially build up chronological order, what had happened, when it took place, and about the exact route taken by the convoy. this in turn allowed us to then look at the dates after the attack and able to find there was some movement of books belonged to taxing units going back to the unit after the attacks had taken place. i feel tremendous a privileged to have worked with the bellingcat team to uncover this. i'm proud to present this to you today and i hope those of you who have not seen have seen the mh17 report reproduced and hopefully this will then add to the narrative of what has happened on that day. thank you so much. [applause]

>> thank you so much, iggy. we are not going to give us one second. we are being and david crawford of the investigative group from berlin. >> -- beaming in. >> hi, david. how are you? >> thank you for inviting me. first of all i'd like to explain something about what we were trying to do. we are a nonprofit investigative newsroom. we are funded by a german foundation that was created as part of the legacy of the

founders -- [inaudible] what we need to do our investigations and the public interest. we do stories when there's something important to say. we want to do stories whether visual say i didn't know that. we try to create a positive impact for change. so when we started this story went to look at it could we say that would be in the public interest. we thought that this was a star that could be done in the public interest because there was a war going on in eastern ukraine and part of it, and gives the company but a war of words in which the mh17 disaster played an important role. so we thought that we should try and do is to fact check the information that was about it and try to create or to put

together information that people could rely on. so we started reviewing statements initially by the russian government, the ukraine government separatists from even the netherlands investigators, the osce, the u.s. government, nato the german government of course since we were based in germany. and initially we looked for facts that everybody agreed on. and one of the fact that everybody surprisingly enough agreed on was that if it was shot down by a ground to air missile that had to be a book, a type of missile that was initially built in the soviet union and then in russia. and everybody, the u.s. government said it had to be a book. russian government said it was theaground to air missile that had to be a book.

ukraine government was saying that. everybody seemed to agree on that. so we were looking for different information but we also discovered something very strange in our investigation, and iggy you just heard is part of that. because we realize there was someone else we had to do fact checking and that's bellingcat. for us that was very, very strange because here we had a bunch of countries or government come institution with very, very strong reputations and all of a sudden we realized we have to be looking at a fairly internet website called bellingcat. and to our astonishment we discovered that actually the information that bellingcat was putting out there was really come to large degree more useful than many of the covers. because they were making their

data very transparent. so anybody themselves to go and check it out one of the first things that i did was went and visited iggy in the netherlands. and i said to him how do you how are you putting this together? how can i believe you asked and he pulled out his tablet and he conjured up in -- a keyboard for any started just doing the different stuff that he was going to put his information together. i very quickly realized that i had to taken seriously. so actually put them on the same pedestal with all of these other institutions and decided that one of the problems is bellingcat has a weakness, one of its weaknesses is that it's new and people generally are proud to say okay, anything that appears in unit you have to put in debt. so we decided that we should

start fact checking things. so we began to look at what everybody was saying. we saw that the russian government was saying the first of all they put up two different versions of the attack. they said they could have been from a buk missile fired by the ukrainians were could have been done by an air to air missile. well the two versions basically exclude one another. so in essence what they felt was they were basically saying we don't know. the americans said that it was a buk missile but they didn't say how they knew that. they just said they had intelligence from information that they believed in. but this doesn't help the discussion because for a lot of people because they just say okay but we would like to fact

check this ourselves. so we begin to try and look at other sources of information and we could use to fact check it. we did some of the similar stuff to what iggy was telling about. we ended up downloading entire websites of, for example, social media website of the 53rd air defense brigade. we downloaded the entire website. we collected their profiles of as many soldiers as we could. we put them into a database, which included the e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers are the soldiers so that we could call them an e-mail been because we thought that was something we could do to add value to the store that other people were not doing. we also began looking at the military logic of running the other systems. and that was something we thought was missing from the discussion. why are those missiles of there?

we talked to military experts, air safety experts come and crash investigators to air traffic controllers. we reviewed satellite pictures and create a map of the key locations and we get ready to go to visit the location. but one of the things that the military experts were telling us is that both missiles basically only have one function, that is to protect russian tanks. they said that russian tanks to go anywhere without the buk. when i decide to call the german ministry of defense and ask them what they thought about that and the spokesman i got on the phone said you don't need to tell me this. i said why not? he said, i am from tank you know, the officer, lieutenant colonel in the tank, from a tank regiment originally. he said we to go anywhere without our air defense either that it's a basic rule of the

military combat strategy is that tanks can protect themselves from air attack. and less than a ground to air missiles that they can take with them. so we begin look at that and that we had looked at what are these buks and what are the strengths and failures? one of the things that we learned was that buk basically, lisa the russian version of it it's not able to differentiate between friendly aircraft and enemy aircraft, except for anything that isn't russian military aircraft is from and anything that isn't whether it's a civilian or whether, or it's an enemy military. they all look the same to it. we talk to air traffic control to said that when they start work each day they go into a room come efforts while they just stand there for three to

five minutes trying to get a three-dimensional image of the sky around them. and then when they think they have that picture, then they say to the person who was before them come in front of them initiate, okay, i've got it, and they would take over. but when we talk to buk operators, people had -- people who have been trained in the soviet union who had been trained in ukraine they said to us they only have 40 seconds to get this picture. because within 40 seconds you can't beat the radar of the buk operating system on for more than 40 seconds because the enemy planes can see your precise location based on this and you're going to be destroyed. and so they begin to tell us about sort of a dual like in the wild west we have an airplane up here and a tank on the bottom, both of them know they're looking at each other, both of them don't have exact same location of the location of the other, and whoever shoots first

is from has a much better chance of surviving. as we have a situation whether it's a very, very little time where you have opposing interests, both groups want to survive. the pilot wants to survive. the tank operator, the buk operators want to survive, it is very, very little time to make a decision. we came to the conclusion that this was one of the big problems there, that you had a system that wasn't able to clearly differentiate between civilian planes it didn't look like like enemy planes come and join people doing to make a decision very, very quickly or the they felt himself would die. so this leads to mistakes. we came to the conclusion that's a mistake like this was bound to happen at some point, when was going to happen within three weeks before or five weeks

after. we didn't know but it wasn't a situation that was prone to run into complete to a disaster at some point. then we started looking at how does russia make its decisions as far as these buks were concerned. we ended up having to look at this because when we are talking to soldiers in the you know, and when we are talking to other people because we were phoning people from the 53rd air defense brigade and were talking to people and writing them what we heard was that these decisions are only of whether to fire a buk missile is only made by officers that the people who run these systems for years at a military college basically they are engineers. and that normal soldiers are not allowed to far than. one person said to us that i

think four months of training before he's even allowed to drive one of the trucks that pulls these systems around with them. so these are very technical system. also the keys of the run these systems have to work very closely together. you have different units. you have a launch ramp which is mounted on the back of the tank. you have radar systems mounted on the back of a tank. you have a control center which is within the tank and then you have assortment of other trucks and other vehicles. they all have to coordinate and cooperate together. ..

so a - this is something you don't outsource because you defend the nation notion the stinks are trying to serve and that's important to the general staff sending people into this war zone and so we were able to comfortably conclude that this could only - this operation

could only be run by regular soldiers and we were able to when we were fact checking what alleycat were doing into finding information the various governments were concerned. for example the ukrainian government and the russian government both agreed that the launch that he was showing just a few minutes ago is what was actually in the region. they disagree on the exact location but they agreed to about 30 kilometers of another that is long was within the region and we then actually went to the location and were able to determine that location was actually correct.

we actually talked to the separatist leaders that they needed air defense systems because the fighting was going on. the ukrainian government has put out information that they had destroyed tanks a couple days before and one of the separatist commanders whose interview he posted on the website said they have to put the defense to the north and west because he said what russia was to the south and east so we didn't need any difference. we went to the north and to the

east and found a group that basically traumatized everybody in this room that knew what had happened and new the missile had been launched. they gave the ten pieces and we found other people who were able to tell us a lot more that they saw come in object flying past to them that that looks like an airplane but didn't have any windows and one person was able to say this was the missile that destroyed the na 17. we also posted it on the on the website so people could look to see exactly. we also found one of the civilian separatist leaders who

basically the person he said was firing the missile he said this wasn't a ukrainian soldier. the closer you got to the launch site the more they said it was going to missile. nobody within 10 kilometers of the sites would say it wasn't because everybody knew and this one civilian leader of soldier was sitting there with wet hands, he was frightened, he only had a few seconds to make a decision is that an enemy come is it not come and finally he decided he had to shoot it so he launched the missile. he claimed this was a ukrainian soldier doing this for why they

would have a conversation he was in the position because he was one of the senior civilian people in the area to have said i want to report about? ackley happened. we never got to the bottom of whether his story is true but it fits with the military people. we basically looked at the site and found what he was saying about them was true if we looked at other sites the government was talking about and found that they would say that a missile launched from there.

we talked to the people buried determined that nobody had actually seen what the russians recorded was there. so what we try to do is get feet on the ground to go and talk to people as much as possible to talk to people outside of russia and outside of ukraine, but also to try to piece this together as much as possible and then we tried to put our information out as transparently as possible. if you go to the website, you can see a great majority of the information is available to be downloaded from, pictures, videos audio. and we invite anybody that wants to come at the exact address

that we found this anybody else can go and talk to the people i cleaned - like we did. i will finish up here. thank you for listening. >> thank you so much david, for joining all the way from berlin. i would say a few words about why these particular groups are the ones invited here today. i think that is a great example of how journalism investigative journalism can work together. so they are free to pick up just outside. they were able to shield locates the positions of the site, chase the movement coming and what they were able to complement its sending his sending people on the ground to the information and piece together provide incredibly compelling evidence

of what actually happened on the ground and who was behind the na 17 shoot down. now i would like to ask michael to come up. michael is a spokesperson on the first respondents on the ground last year during the shoot may 17 and also i would like to invite all of you watching online to join the conversation at #acukraine. >> i would like to thank the organizers for inviting us here today. it is a privilege especially on a day like today. i also want to start by taking a brief moment - this is important of of course the patriots to the families of the victims. just a few minutes ago the mission in kiev did come to a

standstill and weak at the moment of silence at exactly 4: 20 p.m. to commemorate the 298 lost souls. a statement issued by the ambassador said that this tragedy into the lives of 219 people in the most perfect - horrifici manner. the memory of the victims will stay with a special monitoring mission and i would remind all of us of our important tasks to contribute to normalizing the situation in ukraine. now we are going to pause for a moment if we can and run three or four minutes of a the video from the canadian broadcasting corporation done by a dear friend and one of canada's best

investigative journalists and one of the first on the scene on july 17 and 18th and i think it's a good setup to the work the special monitoring session did. i will be right back after the video. >> the wreckage was still smoldering in a small team got there. a ukrainian canadian was thrust into the heart of the disaster. countries including canada but it ended up being much more. no other officials arrived and they became the eyes and ears of the world. we crossed paths many times and finally found a calm place and time to reflect.

>> you've been hearing out of that site almost dalia the last ten days. what stands out for you among your observations about what happened? >> how people's lives have been tragically ended abruptly interrupted. there were a lot of people on the plane on their way to vacation. the other day i found a piece of literature that looked like it had been taken to the conference in melbourne. it said one of the things i want to do is have a good vacation and not blow my budget but have a good time. if i can say on a personal level

we have become familiar with that site we are able to notice going to the that seem - when we first arrived there the cockpit appears to have slammed down and was pretty much impact. over the days we have seen that spread out. and hacking into it with a power saw. it could have been involved in active recovery but even then i would say the past three days it's been spread out even more. the other striking thing of course when they arrived here the day after there were a lot

of bodies lying there exposed to the elements. it was a horrifying thing. >> who was in control of the bodies left in the field to long and finally they were collected and placed in refrigerated cars for transport. the site was difficult and cold and lonely. today, cold and lonely and dark. when the forensics experts came they did the best they could to increase the level of dignity if we could even put it that way. it was very difficult. the one thing that has powered us through this is knowingly are doing it for the family in this conflict zone where anything we could do to provide some order.

it's not only the bodies of the loved ones. the days have been very long. >> they spent more time than anyone finding debris over 37 square kilometers. they have a release of eight of the monitors in all of this in his first three months of the job. >> to use it back sometimes and wonder how you landed in this hot spot at the start of your job? >> i do. my roots go back to ukraine and canadian and i've been here and feel like my life may never be the same again.

>> thanks for watching that. it sounds chills down my back to watch some of those images. the report is available online if you want to have a look at that. now in a statement by the ambassador i just granted, he did mention that heavy toll by the civilian population and i think it's important to give a small snapshot if i may on the current security situation as reported by the monitors. violence continues unabated in the situation and it has deteriorated over the past weeks and months. heavy weaponry continues to be moved around and utilized and this is a stark statistic and we have almost 2000 explosions that have been recorded by the monitors in iran.

by the way, while i'm reading this we have some folders from the scene of the crash. we've been developing logistics capabilities. they are very close to what appears to be a functioning railway station and as most of you know we have drones and unmanned aerial vehicles and in previous weeks they went to speak [inaudible] we are talking about things like battle tanks and sophisticated weaponry such as the surface to air whistle systems and

assessing. also, while there are many challenges to operating in such a conflict zone and they've also been subject to systematic jamming up the video and gps and we are talking about a very sophisticated military going on. also in terms of people on the ground what we have also been observing is the so-called dpr have seemed not able to provide for basic human and societal needs in the areas they control. for example the judicial system seems functional where people who are under detention have to wait almost indefinite periods to be seen by the court. now our colleagues have been doing a fabulous job in terms of trying to document the toll and the numbers again are very stark

and horrifying. the latest numbers indicate almost 7000 since the conflict began and by the way that number doesn't include the victims of the ma-17 and almost 17000. a number hard to believe comes from 2.3 million people have been uprooted since the conflict began in april of 2014. and this is an important member because remember, a year ago ukraine had virtually no displaced people, no displaced population. according to the un, it is the top ten country in the world with the largest number of displaced people. and all of this people's livelihoods have been affected industry and commerce has choked and access to supplies and market our increasingly cut off.

we arrived in reporting finding ourselves reporting on the situation of checkpoints on the front line. and people are forced to wait sometimes days days of checkpoints that unfortunately are subject to frequent shelling were those that are blind. another huge problem is they've rendered water in the pipes come and we've been very active recently in the area north of dpr where we've been able to arrange for daylight cease-fires which has allowed access for repair workers and others to get their water flowing again and this has potentially benefited 2.5 million people and continue

to face unacceptable restrictions that the monitoring mission remains the same international instrument and we will continue to conduct by the way the mandate has been extended to march of next year and we've been present without interruption on both sides of the contact line and we will continue to do so. at the moment we have around 500 monitors from 40 different participating states. shifting quickly to ma-17 one of the latest developments is in jail and the june domitian was informed that they lead in expedition team to discontinue that suspicion temporarily due to lack of access in areas controlled. but up until then the special

monitoring mission had been facilitating access for experts and more recently investigators. we facilitated towards the video repatriation of human remains, personal belongings and aircraft debris. now the main pieces are back in the netherlands and are being deconstructed. going back to one year ago today the mission was under seem 24 hours after the bombing trouble 47 came down and it indicated parts of the error craft were still smoldering, bodies in the field exposed and there were no parameters and security whatsoever. the first days were difficult when we arrived on the afternoon of the 18th we were greeted if

we can put it that way by a small group of rebels that were seen trying to intimidate us and restrict our access. fortunately though in the days after that the access data and prove and we were able to facilitate access for experts from ukraine, australia and the netherlands and it was during the first few weeks reported that 57 participating states by extension to the world over are the dalia reports and countless other media. we also held many from the press conferences at the site of the crash and also because the media could access areas controlled we held many remote briefings to the media center in the kiev.

by the way the lack of access for the ukrainian journalists was in the rebel controlled areas. i also want to note as a kind of footnote where the plane came down and the railway station was it was a well-known goal for us and that is the same area where four of the colleagues were cabinets and they were held for months and there were some of them harmed and unconditionally just a few weeks before may 17 came down. the other important fact includes the senior representatives from the russian federation and this group regularly by video link communicates with the rebel

group and on the evening after may 17 came down, the trilateral group did meet and was able to speak to the rebels by video link and what we agreed upon is the site of the crash to provide safe access to the site for the rescue teams and to cooperate. again we felt very privileged to have been there at the right time to do the work we did and i just wanted to read a quote to you from the foreign minister from december, 2014. he said without the efforts. to make the progress of the

repatriating remains of belonging and personal wreckage from the flight i want to say on a very personal note this disaster as any disaster such as us in many ways the crash site arriving there and working there for weeks as heart-wrenching the things we saw. in january, and i will end on this note a very young, talented impressive young man from his uncle glenn thomas like myself a former journalist and he was about to turn 50 fun

loving, love to travel. his nephew appeared in a documentary and spoke very highly. going to the other relatives on the plane to read a line of what they had to say to him. there was no uncle or brother like him in the world. he was the most generous and kind person. he loved life and was doing what he does best traveling. thank you very much. [applause] thank you so much for joining us

today i know it wasn't easy to be there at those first few days and hours on the ground and people who risk their lives to be in the zone to report what's happening in the ground have sapped america's and change the conflict in ukraine but the media has been trying to put forth ever since and if i could point out the investigative groups have put out photoshop images in the truth behind this terrible tragedy. i would like to ask j-juliett to come up to set the stage for the last two speakers.

>> the investigations have been unprecedented in the sense that usually this kind of work tracking satellite imagery and troop movements or movement of military material have been behind closed doors. this is an experiment being replicated before our eyes. you are seeing this investigation unfold in real time. very transparently. the thing is when you look at the information space, people knew exactly what happened and very quickly the political narrative kickstand and both sides kind of dug in on what they thought happened wanted to think happened.

it's bringing the narrative back not whether or not satellite imagery was doctored or not but two bodies on the field are falling on people's roof to guidebooks and children's books luggage constantly bringing us back to the human cost but the fact is as he said in one of the reports in russian roulette this tragedy brought to the conflict with everybody was sleeping outside to the international community and the two realized they had to do something about this so they had to pay attention because it's in a very strange bizarre way a year ago affecting them as well so i want to introduce the