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tv   [untitled]    May 21, 2012 4:30pm-5:00pm EDT

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about. and it is through that i discovered my passion for russian studies. thank you, mr. chairman for this opportunity and i'd be happy to answer any questions. >> thank you very much. mr. wood, please proceed with your statement. >> it is a federally funded program by the u.s. department of state that has allowed me to do unimaginable things. without the support, i would not have been granted the opportunities that i have experienced such as going to beijing, china, twice in my lifetime along with speaking in front of you today. additionally, i would not have pursued learning the chinese language. this program highlighted the importance of language, especially the chinese language and how learning the language can benefit me and others. prior to graduates from high school, i had no interest in learning another language. as a student who attended roosevelt high school in washington, d.c., my opportunities were very limited. however during my 10th grade
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year, i was granted an opportunity that changed my life forever. after much convincing from my a.p. government teacher, applied for the americans studying abroad program also known as apsa. i figured this would be a way to view the world outside my local periphery, but i took a chance and it paid off. i was offered the opportunity to study abroad in beijing, china, for six weeks to study chinese language and culture. i am forever grateful that the funding granted me the opportunity to go to china as a student who had never been on a plane prior to going to beijing, this was a life-changing experience. i appreciate that america's promoting study abroad targets students that live in underrepresented communities across the nation because that's where dire attention needs focused now. it's not just the students who can afford these opportunities that are deemed globally aware because of their travel experiences, but through the lenses of students like me and
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ones in underrepresented communities because every student deserves a global experience. since my experience, i have decided to pursue a future career in the foreign service working either in an international development organization or in igo or ngo. i recently finished my freshman year at george mason university where i am pursuing a double major in global affairs with concentration of international development and a major in chinese. i am also currently in the chinese language buddy program at my college where you chat and build relationships with native chinese citizens that come to study at mason. i probably would've pursued a career different from the one i'm pursuing now if i didn't go to the program. these types of programs are very necessary for the development of our future young generation. because without them, we have very limited views on the world.
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as the united states becomes more diverse, more interactive, more developed technology wise, we have to understand that the only barrier that we have to break is through communications. especially through languages such as chinese. improving the foreign language capacity of the nation is crucial to the united states' success over this lifetime. in order to become powerful, we have to learn to adapt and learn new knowledge. through language and immersion, you achieve both requirements. thank you for your time. i'm happy to answer any questions that you have. >> thank you very much. major mitchell, please proceed with your statement. >> chairman ochoa, i thank you for the opportunity to discuss my experiences as a born fellow and the impact it's had on my career as an army officer. my fellowship afforded me the opportunity to spend a semester at the american university in
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cairo's arabic language institute. it was an experience which significantly shaped my decision to enter the military and has significantly impacted my career as an army officer specialized in the affairs of the arab world. i have served a total of 48 months in the middle east as both a combat arms officer and a foreign officer. throughout my career, i have leveraged my arabic language training to build partnerships as a tactical, operational, and strategic levels with our partners in the region. i have studied arabic in a variety of venues to include the foreign field service, in my alma matter washington university in st. louis. however, it was a semester i spent in cairo as a fellow where i laid the groundwork for a high degree of spoken arabic proficiency. i first put my language skills to work in 2003 when i served with the third armored cavalry
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regimen. understood the valuable role with local iraqi officials and placed me in charge of the government support team. the rapport i built in cities such as fallujah saved american and iraqi lives and helped my unit develop the successful counterinsurgency strategy. in 2004, i took command of a tank company in the third armored cavalry and trained my men for a second tour beginning in april 2005. because i could speak arabic partnered with an iraqi army of battalion in the province. our tour was successful and recognized as one of the strongest tactical partnerships at that time. i was able to plan and execute tactical operations with my iraqi counterparts without an interpreter.
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i have the national education security program to thank for that. because of my fellowship, i came to the army with a unique skill set that i have leveraged to build and strengthen strategic relationships with our partners in the middle east. currently serving across the department of defense and other governmental agencies. language enabled and regionally astute ready to address complex problems and build lasting partnerships across the globe. and sir, i want to thank you for your continued interest in this very important capability. >> thank you very much. when i was a youngster, my dad spoke chinese and hawaiian in hawaii.
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but at that time, people thought it was bad for children to learn multiple languages. so my parents did not teach me. as a matter of fact, they said speak english. you're very lucky. because now we understand that it is good for students and very important for a country to teach foreign languages. my question to you is what do you like most about learning a different language? and what made you want to learn it? >> what i like most about learning chinese is how it is taught to us. through fun activities but still
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learning. i guess my parents inspired me to learn another language because i was already learning one because of my religion. and i just like learning more about the other cultures, and i guess that inspired me to learn chinese. >> i see. and did -- did you have an opportunity to go to a chinese community or to china? >> not yet, but i'm hoping to when i get -- when i'm older to go to china and learn more about the culture and the way of life. >> yes, and as you know, there are different dialects in china. when i said my father spoke chinese, he spoke cantonese. so it's a little different from the major language now in china.
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thank you very much for your responses, shauna. ms. patrick, i'm impressed with your achievements. >> thank you. >> in educating young students in foreign languages. and i like your maholo, as well. >> thank you. >> do you know how often students continue their language study after they finish your program? and how the program has influenced their career goals. >> i think the key is when you start language learning at an early age, students don't really look at it as being a difficult language or really even an academic subject, they look at it as a communicative tool. and we now have all of our language lessons that are related to content. so they're using language to problem solve in the area of
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math, science, and social studies. and so to continue on as you heard today, it just seems like the natural next step. you're learning the language through sixth grade, continue on through seventh until you hit a higher level of proficiency, which we are seeing in our students. the students -- it's interesting, we don't encourage them to only think of two languages. we want this to be the foundation of multiple languages. and so sometimes we see our students take on even another language in middle school or high school and continue on with two or three languages in college. so i think because we're developing that fearlessness of language, there are they are more encouraged to continue at the higher level of education. >> thank you.
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this question is for ms. dresdner, mr. wood, major mitchell. how is learning a foreign language and about a different culture shape your perspective about the world we live? >> well -- i feel that learning a language and learning about the culture is critical to language learning in general because it gives you a basis for understanding. and you can really connect more to the language and have a reason for continuing to learn the language. and i believe that that's growingly important in this day in age when the world needs language speakers and needs people to be able to communicate cross culturally. thank you. >> thank you. mr. wood? >> i think that it allows me to
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think outside of my own -- i think learning a new language and about their culture allows me to learn about the language and the people within the culture as the people and what they do and how they interact with each other. and it allows me to see them as -- i guess the point is -- it allows me to -- it allows me to interact with them in a way where i couldn't have before if i didn't learn their language and with their language it helps me develop a relationship with them. >> thank you very much. major mitchell? >> yes, sir. i think that language is sort of the hard science of understanding people who come
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from different places than onesself. i find that emphasizing the common things between things that are common to myself to my peers in the army and the people that we work with -- learning a language helps you to emphasize those common factors, you know as human beings. so i'm a big advocate, maybe of language determinist in the sense that i think it really -- a lot of the way that we think is done in language. if i want to know another way of thinking about a topic to learn to do that in a different language gives me a different perspective. so i'm a big advocate of language training. >> i -- i should tell you that
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i'm a world war ii veteran. and during that time, i served out in the pacific. and at that time, our country used our japanese citizens who were male at the time -- because they just drafted males. and to use them to deal with the japanese. and so they became a part of what we call mis, which was military intelligence service. but it has claimed that their work out in the pacific during that period of time and because the language, they were able to
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shorten the world war ii. by years. and so even at that time the language made a difference, and i knew some interpreters of general mcarthur at that time who served in the philippines as well as in japan after the war. japan surrendered. and learned a lot from that that the language speaking ability really made a difference with the japanese and were able to help stabilize the government at that time. and even to the point where it helped to bring japan about so
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that it could become as it has one of the top industrial nations. the language from our citizens makes a difference. and i'm so glad we're moving in that direction. but we -- from my position, i want to be sure that we have adequate resources and programs to help bring this about. and at this point in time, your experiences with help us bring it about. and this is why we have you here in our panels and everything you've said will be part of the record. and we'll make a difference to us and to our country.
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so i would like to say thank you to our witnesses for being here today. it is clear that we have made good progress to improve our nation's language capabilities. however, as you know, more work remains to be done. i look forward to working with administration and my colleagues in the senate to make sure we have robust language capabilities. and you're helping us to do that. the hearing record will be open for two weeks for questions other members may have. and again, i want to say thank you so much for your responses and your statements. it is helpful. this hearing is adjourned.
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. richard nixon secretly recorded his phone conversations and meetings. this weekend on c-span radio, hear more of the nixon tapes. saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern, with conversations between the president and cia director richard helms. and also fbi director j. edgar hoover. >> some people think that now that i ought to make a statement about freedom of the press, and that we aren't trying to censor them and so forth. my inclination, for whatever it's worth is not to say so. >> i think you're right. >> i kind of think i should stay out. what's your public relationship that you're -- >> i'm predicting the government, mr. president, is that he should remain absolutely silent about it. >> you would, huh? >> i would. >> in washington, d.c. listen at
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90.1 fm, nationwide keer on xm channel 119. and streaming at cspanradio own organize. >> i think this is one of those markets that i think people vote for the -- don't vote for the paeft. i think this is the city of wichita votes for the candidate. i think you've seen a lot more of that, even though it's heavily republican, midwest, which is dynamic, and it's great. but i think you're seeing more of that in the recent years here in the midwest, they're really voting a little bit more for what the person stands for. >> june 2nd and 3rd, book tv and american history tv explore the heritage and literary culture of wichita, kansas. >> the first question i want to show you is the monger house. it is the only remaining original structure from the 1865 to 1870 time, and it was a very important building in our history in that it is a residence, but it's also the headquarters of the wichita town
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and land company that came down here to create, shall we say, the city of wach tao. >> watch for book tv and american history tv in wichita on june 2rd and 3rd on c-span 2 and 3. >> last week homeland security acting inspector general charles edwards said that corruption and misconduct within the department is a threat to national security. he was joined by representatives of the tsa, customs and border protection and immigration and customs enforcement. during this house hearing. looking into instances of criminal activity and misconduct by agency employees. this is just over an hour. >> this meeting will come to order. >> the purpose of this hearing is to examine the ethical policies, conduct, and alleged criminal activities within the department of homend security. i now recognize myself for an opening statement.
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may 6th through the 12th was public recognition week. we set aside time each other to honor our public servants who keep us safe, care for our veterans, patrol our borders, and find cures for rare diseases. they make our country stronger and make a difference in the world. most of our employees understand that public service is a public trust. each one has a responsibility to the united states government and the citizens they all serve to place loyalty to the constitution, laws, and ethical principles above private gain, and most public servants adhere to this trust. however the pew research center interviewed more than 3,000 adults about their views of our government. 54% said the federal government is mostly corrupt while 31% said mostly honest. 11% said they don't know either. the survey also showed just a third of americans has a favorable opinion of the federal government, the lowest positive
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rating in its 15 years. a measure of dissatisfaction these days is to be expected. the country is in economic trouble, and our leaders promise things they cannot deliver. what compounds this dissatisfaction, government scandals, there have been reports of federal employees wasting taxpayer dollars and in some cases committing crimes. which erodes the trust american people put in our government. the general services administration employees spent over $800,000 on a conference in las vegas. the department of homeland security spent nearly $1 billion on the secure border initiative network with little return on this investment. we've also found criminal activity within our bureaucracies. custom and border protection personnel collaborating with drug smugglers, cartels and immigration and custom enforcement personnel filing fraudulent travel claims, and
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tsa personnel stealing personal belonging of passengers. since 2004, over 130 agents of the united states custom and border protection have been arrested, charged, or otherwise prosecuted on corruption charges. allegations and convictions include alien and drug smuggling, money laundering, and conspiracy. the dhs acting inspector general mr. charles edwards, states that mexican drug cartels attempt to corrupt dhs employees and this impacts our national security. the inspector general also reports that since 2004, there's been a 38% increase in the number of complaints against cbp employees, as recently as february 2012, an i.c.e. agent pled guilty to 21 counts to obstruction and corruption violations. these charges include illegally obtaining and disseminating government documents to
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individuals with ties to drug trafficking organizations. there have also been allegations of convictions of i.c.e. agents accepting thousands of dollars in bribes from immigrants seeking u.s. documentation. a former intelligence chief for u.s. immigrations and customs enforcement is accused of embezzling more than $180,000 stemming from a travel voucher fraud and kick-back scheme that defrauded the government of more than $500,000. four other i.c.e. employees pled guilty for involvement in a scheme to defraud the government. in the past year alone, there have been numerous incidents of alleged misconduct on the part of tsa officers and employees, thousands of dollars of cash and items have been reported stolen. dozens of tsa officers were fired over improper luggage screening, because they had allowed thousands of pieces of luggage on to flights without
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proper screening. tsa officers have allowed passengers expedited security checks. a number of additional allegations range from racially charged statements and actions to inappropriate sexual harassment. a recent 22-count indictment alleges tsa employees took payments to provide direct curriers unfettered access through los angeles international airport so that drugs could be smuggled into the united states. executive branch employees are subject to executive orders issued by the president and ethics regulations issued by the u.s. office of government ethics. some agencies also have issued supplemental ethics regulations that apply to their employees. and even though there are stacks of government manuals, training materials, and yearly briefings about ethics, these lapses continue. and they not only waste taxpayer dollars, they are a threat to the security of our nation. while the majority of
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bureaucratic personnel are law abiding, this hearing will examine the ethical policies and procedures of selected components of the department of homeland security, and attempt to understand why these ethical lapses continue. and what is to be done to prevent them from happening in the future. one final note, it is unfortunate the department of homeland security and the face of such a serious ethical mishaps refuses to provide witnesses from leadership to discuss these matters in open before the american people. we request the leadership from cbp, i.c.e., and tsa, however, only cbp recognized the importance of these issues. with that, i now recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i want to thank you for holding today's hearings examining the ethical standards at the department of homeland security. in the beginning, i'd like to point out, there are over
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220,000 department of homeland security employees who work every day to secure our homeland from dangerous threats and natural disasters, so before i begin, i'd like to thank them for their service. unfortunately, there are some among them that use their position of public trust for their own personal gain. in doing so, they put the very nation they were sworn to protect in harm's way. since october 2004, 137 u.s. customs and border protection, cbp, employees, have been indicted or convicted of corruption-related charges, many coming in recent years as the border patrol tripled in size. and during fiscal years 2010 and 2011, there were at least 33 incidents of corruption or mission-compromising corruption at cbp. furthermore, the u.s. immigrations and customs

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