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tv   Public Affairs Events  CSPAN  October 26, 2016 10:41am-12:42pm EDT

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so there's really no substitute for that. now, that said, as i said, as they lose territory, as they -- to use your term, move to sort of a post-caliphate entity, whenever that entity may look like, it does become incumbent upon us to look even harder. we're looking at it pretty hard now, but to focus our efforts even more on the ability of them to generate wealth through the more traditional -- i say traditional, you know, methods that we see al qaeda using, whether it's deep pocket donor, charities, ngos, whether it's other criminal activity. and you know -- and i do think, as i said before, i think that that's as they lose the ability to gain wealth from the territory they control, we need to make sure that these other sources are deprived from them and we'll do that. those sources will never equal what they could make
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domestically now. with respect to your question about affiliates, it's a really interesting question. the affiliates themselves do not have the ability to generate resources the way isil within syria and iraq do. the only one that people are even a little bit concerned about would be libya because they see a lot of similarities between, you know, isil controlling territory within libya, taking a city within libya, there being an oil sector within libya. but we're talking a fraction, a fraction of the wealth. they don't make any money off of the oil, the oil sector with libya to the extent that they are focused on the oil sector. it is to destroy its capacity, not to take advantage of its capacity. with respect to their ability to extract wealth from territory within libya, as i said, when they went into mosul, there was in excess of half a billion dollars primarily in dinars available to them. when they went into sirte, there
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was approximately $4 million available to them. i don't want isil to have $4 million but that's a qualitatively different problem than $500 million. so even in a scenario like libya, they do not have the ability to generate wealth. again, that brings us back t what we, you know, what we were just talking about. so it's about identifying networks. this is what we do. this is what you did, matt. it's about identifying networks and it's about them taking action to dismantle those networks to undermine those networks. that's something we are working quite hard on. we're working quite hard within the u.s. government on it and we're working quite hard with various countries in that region on it. >> excellent.
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thank you very much. and really that whole question was a plug for a washington institute study on the islamic state provinces that's about to come out with some focus on the financial side and so there was that plug. so i'd like to open it up to questions and answers from the audience now. there will be plenty of time to get to everybody. we're going to take the prerogative starting with a former washington institute research assistant, a.j. beloff. >> hi. thank you very much. a.j. beloff, now at bank of america. so as you see isis kind of resorting to a more traditional financing model, do you believe u.s. financial institutions are doing enough to combat this sort of fundraising? >> again, i do want to emphasize that isil currently makes the vast majority of their wealth and continues to make the vast majority of their wealth from internal sources. i think it's fair to assume that again, as those internal sources are there deprived access to those, they will turn to more traditional terrorist financing models. with respect to u.s. banks, i think banks around the world this gets to international anti-money laundering standards as articulated by the financial action task force.
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i think the u.s. regime is a stronger or stronger than any regime in the world in that regard. and i think our banks take it quite seriously and i think that we've demonstrated that when we don't feel that the banks are doing the right thing, we're prepared to fine them and to ensure that those deficiencies are addressed. so yes, i'm comfortable that our banks are doing what they need to do. one thing i'll note, because maybe people might think i'm biased on this question, is next week financial action task force is having one of its big plenary sessions in paris and a number one item on the agenda is the mutual evaluation of the united states. and that will be publicly released at the end of next week. and that will be an objective
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assessment of where the u.s. is on mlcft issues warts and all. so if you really want to know what people think, you should look at that. i think we're going to do well on that review. >> are there any words you're anticipating out of that? >> the issues we have identified. have deficiencies in customer due diligence particularly with respect to beneficial ownership. these we're working hard to address. but i anticipate they'll remind us of those deficiencies. >> here please. >> good afternoon. thank you, sir glaser. center on sanctions and illicit finance. really enjoyed your remarks. could you give your assessment on the state of play for the particularly the informal financial sector in syria and affiliate places like libya and in syria and other places like
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libya -- also your assessment of you already mentioned that these affiliates can't raise money but what about their ability to receive money from the home base through these informal -- through the informal sector? >> yeah, sure. with respect to your question about syria, we obviously have less insight into syria than we do in iraq because we have in iraq a willing and enthusiastic partner that we don't have in syria. in fact, in syria it's quite the opposite. we have the assad regime which through gas deals is actually providing financing to isil. that's a fundamentally different set of challenges that we have with respect to syria. fortunately, syria, the syrian financial system has been effectively cut off from the international financial system for some time based on international sanctions on syria that have been long-standing.
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so access to the syrian formal financial sector i'm not saying theoretically is -- i'm not saying that we could theoretically rule it out, but i don't think -- i don't think it's very attractive if i were a financial emir within isil. i don't know that that would be the most attractive way of getting to the financial sector. of course of, informal -- other forms of informal money remittance in syria and else is one of the important things we don't have a partner in syria, this is one of the important things that we talk to the countries in the region about. whether it's jordan or whether it's lebanon, countries with traditional -- that traditionally have large trade with syria, there are pre-existing and formal networks. it's important that we identify and crack down on. that's something we work actively with the countries in the region on.
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with respect to your second question in terms of the ability of isil to fund its affiliates from sort of its central base, if you will, in iraq and syria, we have seen some of that. i think you know, and again, this just this is classic counter-terrorist financing. identifying the networks, dismantling the networks. and without getting into too many details on it, it's something that we're aware of and something we're working very hard on. but it is -- it's a tough nut to crack. it is very, very hard to identify financial networks. it's hard to understand them. but we're doing -- we're doing our best on that. i will say that these -- that i think that these affiliates have the ability to self-finance to a certain degree, not as i said on the isis model that i was talking about with respect to libya, but with respect to local extortion rackets, criminal activity, things that, you know, that terrorist organizations and
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criminal organizations do to sustain themselves. >> thanks. >> barbara up here. >> thanks, matt. i'm from the atlantic council. nice to see you. a couple questions. do you have an estimate for how much isil makes by selling -- is it just gas or also oil to the assad regime? and how that number has been affected by u.s. action? can you talk a little bit about how nusra is funded, where do they -- because that's a more traditional terrorist organization. where do they get their money from? and finally, i can't resist, can you comment on how much progress iran is making on satisfying fatah, if they had an action plan? the countermeasures have been suspended. i just interviewed their economy minister who says they're doing a great job on this now.
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i'd love your assessment on that. thanks. >> if he says so. i'm sorry, what was the first part? >> the first question was how much money they get from selling oil and gas to assad. >> so it's just gas. it's not oil at all. it's gas. that's what they do. and it's a very complex relationship and it involves barter and exchange of services, and there's probably some money involved there also, but no, i don't have an estimate on sort of the dollar figure. i don't have an estimate to give you on that. the second question was nusra. thank you for asking that question because i normally mention it in my prepared remarks and i didn't this time. so i'm glad you raised the question because i don't want to give people the impression that this campaign is just about isil. it's not just about isil. we talk about isil. and people say al nusra. and it sounds like it is very
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exotic sort of thing. al nusra is al qaeda in syria. that's what we should call them, al qaeda in syria because that's what they are. and we have to treat them as such. and they are dangerous. and they are threatening. and they are something that we do focus on. they do have -- so they have the ability to extract a certain amount of wealth from territory that they control, but it's not the same sort of thing. and as a result, as i think your question implied, this gets to classical terrorist financing. this gets to working with our friends and partners in the gulf to make sure that gulf-based donors and organizations are cut off from al nusra. it's about working with banks and other institutions to make sure that al nusra and al nusra related fronts don't have access. it's our standard set of issues but it's very, very important. i'm a frequent visitor to the gulf. i'll be going to the gulf as i
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said in a couple weeks. one of the issues that we talked to our friends in the gulf about quite a bit is al nusra. so yes. >> country that's qatar, kuwait, any of these countries that are -- >> i don't think there's a particular country. i think that -- you know, i'd be happy to talk about individual countries if somebody would like me to. i think that -- i think that there's been a lot of progress in the gulf. i think there's been a lot of progress in countries like qatar and kuwait, but i also think that there are individuals operating in that region that need to be addressed pretty urgently. so i think it's a mixed bag. but i do want to emphasize iraq with respect to qatar and kuwait that they have made -- that we've seen a lot of positive steps from them recently to include criminal prosecutions of terrorist financiers in qatar, which is not nothing, which is actually a
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real sign of political will. third question was on iran and fatf. so there's really no update on it. in june, iran agreed to and made a high level political commitment to implement an action plan to address the concerns that fatf had identified and as a result of that fatf temporary suspended countermeasures. at the same time and in the same statement, fatf stated that it remain concerned about the terrorist financing risk emanating from iran and said it continued to fall upon countries around the world to exercise in enhanced due diligence with respect to transactions involving iran and said that call for due diligence would remain until they address all
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the issues in their action plan. they've not met since then. there's no developments to report. have you spoke to the iranian government about that and they told you they're making progress on their action plan, i suppose that's good news. that's not until that's recognized by fatf, that's not going to be considered progress. >> just to follow up on one quick thing, danny. a great question just now about nusra. technically nusra fund doesn't exist anymore. and i wonder if there's any plan by the u.s. government to designate an aka for this organization and if you think th's necessary or important. >> well, as you know, can't talk about plans on future designations. but i can assure you whatever al nusra fund is calling itself is not going to limit our enthusiasm in pursuing it. >> yes, ma'am, right over here. >> hi, thank you.
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i'm with the weekly standard. i also had an iran-related question. i read the new ofaq that came out recently and i was a little bit confused. the new wording seems to allow businesses to work with companies that are wholly owned by the irgc or or irgc controlled entities. is that true? is that an accurate reading? >> so i'm sorry. i'm not talking about the nuclear deal. what i am here to talk about is terrorist financing and if you -- if you would like me to talk about iran with respect to fatf, i'll be happy to. also happy to talk about our concerns with respect to iran in regards to terrorist financing, but i'm not going to talk about the nuclear deal. >> the ofacfaq. thank you. >> what concerns do you have then about iran and terror financing? >> my concerns about iran is that they're a state sponsor of terrorism.
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and that they are the chief financier of hezbollah, and you know, almost single-handedly keep hezbollah afloat. this is a grave issue. it's an issue we take very seriously. it's an issue that i -- nobody's more of an expert on hezbollah financing than matt levity. >> i'm done. >> but it's something that as you know, matt, i work very hard on and we work very hard with the lebanese on it, and we work very hard around the world on it, in particular on implementing the new legislation enacted by congress that's designed to exclude hezbollah from the financial system around the world. but this is something that is a priority first at the treasury department and it's something that we are going to continue to pursue quite aggressively and frankly, it's something i think we're having some success on. i think that hezbollah is having a tremendously difficult time gaining access to the lebanese financial system.
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and i think that that's attributable to the hard work of the people who participate in the lebanese financial system and the cooperation and partnership we have with them because they understand how important it is for their own access to the international financial system to make sure that hezbollah does not gain access through those institutions. and we've seen that -- we've seen all various manifestations of hezbollah's concerns about that. >> that answer has led to hand waving in the back from the lebanese analyst. in the back. >> thank you very much. you just said that you were having -- you can see some success when it comes to hezbollah financing. you're talking probably about the hezbollah international financing prevention act, right? >> right. >> and it's true that it's causing a lot of nuisance for hezbollah especially close to charity institutions, social and media institutions but the money is still coming.
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and they're not going to go broke because of that. the problem they're having is not really about like the banks closing their accounts in as much as the spending policy shifted within the institutions. so are you going to do more about that? are you going to have more extreme measures to stop the financing coming from iran or this is it, the prevention act is like all you're going to do? thank you. >> so a couple reactions. first of all, to the extent that i implied that terrorist financing is a silver bullet with respect to hezbollah, it's not. our terrorist financing efforts aren't going to uproot hezbollah from south lebanon. we understand that. but what we can do and what we've demonstrated that we are doing and what we are going to continue to do is challenge hezbollah's access to the lebanese financial system. that's something frankly people never thought we would be able
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to do. that we could -- but we've shown in the area of illicit finance whether it's with respect to hezbollah or north korea or iran, whether it's with respect to any of our targets, what we've consistently shown is that we can reach out and make our adversaries feel uncomfortable in areas in which they always thought they were safe. that's what we're doing with respect to our efforts with respect to hezbollah financing. i wouldn't characterize any of the efforts that we've done as extreme. i will say that our efforts against hezbollah financing and hezbollah financial access within lebanon predate hipaa. hipaa is a relative new act. our work with the lebanese financial system and financial institutions and lebanese financial authorities predate hipaa. it's another arrow in our quiver. it's not the only arrow in our quiver, and it's not the only
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one that we use and that we will continue to use moving forward. but we've shown with the actions we took in 2011 with respect to lebanese canadian bank under section 311 of the patriot act, we've shown with respect to our classic executive order 13224 terrorist financing. we've shown with various law enforcement actions that have been taken that we have a wide range of authorities that we are going to continue to bring to bear to deprive hezbollah of access to the financial system. i should say this is not just about lebanon. lebanon, the word lebanon doesn't even appear in hipaa. this is hezbollah's access to the international financial system. we will pursue that throughout the world. it's important that i emphasize that. this is not about lebanon, and it is not about the lebanese financial system. obviously hezbollah is quite present in lebanon so it impacts the lebanese financial system disproportionately.
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it's not about lebanon. it's not about the lebanese financial situation. it's about hezbollah's access to the financial system broadly. we will pursue that throughout the world. >> patrick lawson, and then we'll come over here. >> if i understood you properly, you were saying that part of u.s. government counter-terrorism strategy is to block the access of terrorist organizations to the international financial system. one of the organizations which the u.s. government i believe has designated as a terrorist organization is the guard corp. i'd be interested in your comments about u.s. efforts to block irgc access to the international financial system and in particular access by companies that are partly owned or controlled by the irgc. how would you -- what would you say as to the u.s. government efforts to block access to such companies to the international financial system? >> to be clear as far as designated terrorist
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organization, the qods force is treated as a terrorist organization, and all of our terrorist financing laws and rules apply. i think we have a fairly good track record of demonstrating zero tolerance for qods force access to the financial system in any way, shape, or form. obviously, we are also tremendously focused on the ability of the irgc to access the financial system. there's a variety of sanctions that remain in effect with respect to the irgc. and frankly, the fact that the irgc has -- operates through front companies and through other forms of nontransparent owrsou know, problems for the iranians. so it's something that we understand and it's something that we continue to be focused
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on. >> right here, and then the gentleman right next to him. >> thank you very much for coming. i'm at the washington institute. i have two quick questions bringing the conversation back to iraq. if i understand correctly, it seems that you identified the structural issues of terror financing in iraq being the cash economy that iraq has. and you also mentioned that you have good contacts inside the iraqi government and good relationships with the central bank. is there any effort to help the iraqi government have a better financial system and away from a cash economy as we start having the conversation about stability in a post-isis iraq and as the liberation of mosul nears? on a related note to the stability in a post-isis iraq, any efforts on curbing the financing of the militias that are slated to be next in line for more instability in iraq? thank you. >> so with respect to your first question about broader iraqi financial system, i think you
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put your finger right on it. it's a primarily cash economy. and that causes a wide range of problems related to terrorist financing and not related to terrorist financing. and modernizing that economy needs to be job number one for the financial authorities in iraq. as i said, i think we understand that. we at the treasury department are providing assistance to iraq in this area in a number of ways. which i could rattle off but it's probably not the best use of our time. they work with the imf, they work with the world bank, with a variety of countries around the world. this is a problem i think that's understood. it's easier to understand the problem than it is to solve the problem because we're talking
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about building a modern financial system. i don't want to say from scratch but we're talking about building a modern financial system that doesn't exist right now. that's going to be a long-term effort as i said even with respect to the exchanges houses which is just the beginning of the issue. that's an aspect of the issue. it's going to take years to get that sector where needs to be and we're starting right now. starting right now. so i guess the short answer to your question is yes, we're providing assistance, the international financial institutions are providing assistance, the iraqis have recognized this as something they need to do and it's something that will happen over the course of years. with respect to militia financing, certainly any entity that's designated as a terrorist organization we will pursue with vigor. our priority right now is on isil and on al nusra and making sure those entities which have demonstrated a will and an ability to threaten americans throughout the world is where we're focusing our effort right now.
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>> right here. >> ken myer. a year or so ago, it was announced that the treasury department was going to look into where the islamic state obtain the funds to purchase all the toyotas it used to take over iraq. this is before the three sources of financing that you mentioned were available to them, before it was called the islamic state. whatever came of that investigation? >> so it wasn't before it became the islamic state and wasn't before the sources of finance were related to. those trucks and those videos or those trucks go back to like last summer. so the summer of 2015, if i remember correctly is when there was a lot of focus on those trucks. to be honest with you, i'm less concerned about those trucks
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right now than i am about their ability to generate vast amounts of wealth. there's a number of theories which have been put forward as to how they got those trucks. there have been a number of investigations which are continuing. but i don't have any update for you on those truck videos. but that was from about a year and a half ago, not even. >> come over here to david all the way at the edge here. >> good afternoon. special agent david kane with homeland security investigations. three-part basically intertwined questions. you spoke about the exchange houses. are you finding that the exchange houses are basically doubling as hawaladars or are they separate? second part to the question for the hawalas, are they as effective in their structure in
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instances within the territories of syria and iraq as they were externally? and lastly, what is the typical transactional capacity for these entities? how much cash do they have on hand? what are we seeing? >> so with respect to your first question, so technically exchange houses are not supposed to be conducting remittances but it is obvious that through many of these exchange houses there's an ability to transfer wealth. that's -- that gets to some pretty fundamental regulatory and supervisory issues which is going to be very difficult for the iraqis to tackle as long as there's 1900 exchange houses which is why as i said, that's the long-term. short term we're trying to identify which exchange houses have the ability to provide these services to isil or are in fact providing them and making sure those are publicly identified. and then there's other ones that we don't publicly identify but we're working on those, too. so the -- so that's i think
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that's the answer to your first question. your second question, i'm sorry. so your second question was are hawaladars -- i didn't understand. >> do they have a very extensive network in syria and iraq to be able to remit from city to city or is that structure not really there? is it coming external with limited hawaladar recipients within syria and iraq? >> it's harder for me to talk about syria. we have less insight into syria. i presume extensive network within syria, but i don't have anything to base that on other than just sort of common sense. with respect to iraq, again, of course, look, it's a common way of transferring wealth within that region and there's nothing theoretically wrong with it. and there have been -- there's
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historical trade relationships that existed prior to the war that were presumably financed through hawala, so these exist. and they're something that we look for and they're something you guys look for. the -- if you want to know what i'm most concerned about it's the exchange houses. that's what i'm most concerned about. but certainly i never want to give anybody the impression there's anything we're not concerned about. we're concerned about bulk movement of cash. we're concerned about hawala. we're concerned about exchange houses and even banks. although i do think that of all those banks are the least likely to be abused at this point. and then your third question, i apologize. i'm having a hard time. >> what is the transaction capacity for these hawalas and exchange houses? can they handle a transaction, 1.5 million, 10 million? i know it varies. >> it varies but some of them are quite large. they can handle millions of dollars.
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>> up front, please. >> thank you. hi there. how are you? >> good. >> i have an easy for you. >> thank you. >> what is the difference or the similarities and the differences between isil's terror financing and hezbollah's? what are the challenges to step hezbollah's financing and isil's? thank you. >> it is an easy question. the primary difference is that hezbollah makes the vast majority of its wealth through a state sponsor, that being iran. and that's not how isil generates its wealth or isil does not have state sponsors. so i mean, that's the answer to your question. you know, hezbollah gets hundreds of millions of dollars a year from iraq.
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and that's the fundamental challenge that we were talking about before is it's very difficult for us to interfere to disrupt that, the provision of cash to hezbollah by iran. it's a difficult for us to disrupt that. but what we can do is disrupt hezbollah's access to the financial system as much as possible and that's what we try to do. there's all sorts of ways, but it's a lot of cash. >> mike craft. one second. let's wait for mike, please. thank you. >> thank you. mike craft, counterterrorism writer. since nobody else brought up saudi arabia which somewhat to my surprise, i'll bring it up in a couple contexts. you alluded to the gulf countries in terms of cooperating on the efforts but there's also been concern about saudi arabia financing the madrasas, and this fits in on the part of the concern of terrorist violence programs. so it's not just centered on syria and iraq but also pakistan
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and perhaps north africa. what kind of cooperation are you getting? and i know the standard line is the government is not involved, but there's wealthy individuals. are you making any success in cracking -- getting the saudis to crack down on them? are they enforcing the regulations vigorously? >> it's more than a standard line. it happens to be the truth. the -- look, i think we at the treasure department have probably a fairly credible voice with respect to saudi arabia. when matt was around, we were very publicly critical of saudi arabia and their efforts with respect to terrorist financing. this is going back over ten years. i think we've seen over the past ten years a huge shift in saudi's approach to terrorist financing. and i really do regard them as our number one partner in the gulf in our efforts against terrorist financing. you've seen in recent months and
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over the past year we've done joint designations with the saudis. they are a very enthusiastic partner of ours in our efforts against terrorist financing. in fact, when i think about terrorist financing, the gulf, my goal is to see that same sort of evolution in the other gulf countries that we've seen in saudi arabia. this is not to say that there's not terrorist financing going on in saudi arabia. there is absolutely terrorist financing that goes on in saudi arabia. and it's with respect to donors and it's with respect to people who come and abuse saudi hospitality during the hajj, and it presents a lot of difficulties for them and for us. but what i can say is we have a very willing and capable partner in the saudis in our efforts against terrorist financing. again, the goal, my goal, our goal is to see a similar evolution in countries like
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qatar and kuwait. and i think we're starting to see that evolution. but what i'd like to see is that evolution to come to full -- to fully evolve. there was a second part of your question. or was there? is there a part that i missed? >> in terms of the madrasas. >> oh, yes, look, that's an important -- that gets into the whole, as you yourself have said, gets sort of more into countering broadly extremism. the challenges that saudi arabia faces in terms of ensuring that as they pursue what they believe to be their religious obligation has that -- doesn't come with -- it is a promotion of extremist view. that remains a challenge for them. and that's something that they
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are going to be continuing to struggle with i'm sure for quite sometime. and i'll leave it at that. >> dan, if i could follow up, recent government official statements have included statements along the lines of some of the financing within saudi arabia because of the actions of saudis have taken it on combat terror financing tend to involve things like donors in saudi arabia sending money to collectors or bundlers in places like qatar and kuwait who then send them onward. can you talk about the nature of fundraising not within any one country but across the gulf and second, am i correct in assuming that that is more likely to be financing the nusra, al qaeda in syria type of groups and less like to be financing islamic states who if i recall correctly the last public estimate was no more than 5% of the islamic state's budget was assumed to have come from charity? >> so i'm not sure -- you sort of answered -- you just presented a statement in that first question. >> i put an intonation at the end of it. >> i agree with the statement.
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i agree with your first question. with respect to the percentage, yes. the center of gravity of terrorist financing in the gulf is related to al qaeda. whether that's al qaeda in syria, al nusra, or whether it's al qaeda in yemen or would be in the arabian peninsula, as they call themselves or whether that's al qaeda or other al qaeda affiliated groups in the afghanistan/pakistan region. that -- that is where the center of gravity of terrorist financing is. and that's what's very important to focus the attention of our friends in the gulf on is taking steps against isil financing is important and they need to be
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doing it and they are doing it. but isil doesn't rely on that income stream. what is important is to continue to remind our friends in the gulf that that's equally important that they be focusing on the al qaeda portion of this because that's really what the terrorist financing issue in the gulf is all about right now. now, you know, again, over time, as your first question implied, over time as isil begins to rely more and more on external donors, will that become more of an issue? we'll see. but it is important in the gulf for them to focus on al nusra and an on al qaeda with the same enthusiasm and energy that they focus on isil. >> a moment ago, you were talking about the financing of hezbollah through state experience like iran. barbara asked earlier about compliance with fatf. which leads me to ask you about iran's ability to fully comply with fatf given its vocal insistence it will maintain a cutout for what it calls resistance organizations but
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what you here have called terrorist organizations. do you think that's going to be a stumbling block moving forward especially as we move forward in the next few weeks? >> don't expect there to be any news. this is a long-term action plan. for those of you waiting with bated breath, you're going to be disappointed. it will be more of a checking in status check, but i don't expect -- this is a long-term project for iran. i don't want to sort of speak for fatf and don't want to anticipate what the iranians may or may not do with respect to the implementation of the action plan. what i will say is it is quite clear that exceptions to terrorist financing laws that make expectations for national liberation movements or other types of movements have not been acceptable to fatf in the past and i don't expect them to be acceptable in the future.
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and that is - and fatf has a record on this. there are other countries that have had similar sorts of carve outs. fatf has said those are not acceptable, credible. >> yes, right here. >> foundation for defense of democracies. i was wondering if you could talk more to the role that ransom payments are playing in terrorist financing and how we're working to interdict those. thanks. >> well, so in 2015, i think the number we used for ransom payments was $47 million. is that right? yeah, so $47 million i think is the number that we've used for isil ransom payments. maybe we say $20 million to $40 million. i don't know, something in that area. that's like a lot of money on the one hand. on the other hand, it's not a
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lot of money compared to what they receive from other sources. but it's something that we focus on. it's something that we focused on within the counter-isil finance group. they're issued a communique a few -- maybe a year ago reaffirming the principle of countries should not be paying ransoms. the united states' position on this is quite clear and has been quite consistent. it's, you know -- when you say disrupt it, it's really not a question so much of disrupting a ransom payment. if it were coming from the united states and we knew about it, we would want to disrupt it. but it's again about depriving them of access to the financial system so they can't use the money. you know, these groups, whether it's isil or anybody else, they're going to make a certain amount of money through criminal activities whether it's kidnapping, whether it's bank robbery, whether it's smuggling,
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whether it's whatever. there's a whole wide variety of criminal activities that they participate in. and you know, on a certain level that becomes a local law enforcement issue and how we respond to it is by trying to deprive them of access to the financial systems so they can't profit from it. but we've had a very consistent position on kidnapping for ransom. >> i can follow up with another kind of deep question. one of the areas purported islamic state financing that's been a subject of particular debate is their ability to race money through looting antiquities. has that been a significant source of revenue for them and is it still? >> so i don't think it's ever been a huge source of income for them.
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you knew i was going to answer that that way. >> maybe they didn't. >> but you did it with such a straight face. >> thank you. i've got four kids. i've got to play that game. >> so look, as i said, isil profits from any economic activity that occurs within the territory that it controls primarily through taxation and fees. so to the extent that there is antiquity smuggling that occurs and i'm sure that there is, isil profits from it by taxing it or by charging fees to people for engaging in it. that's how they profit from antiquity smuggling in the same way they would profit from any type of smuggling that goes on in their territory. to that extent the way we counter that again is by reducing liquidity in the area and by reducing their access to the financial system. i do not -- i have seen no evidence of sort of global isil controlled antiquity smuggling networks the way it seems to have captured some people's imagination.
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i've seen very little evidence of that. it's another area of smuggling through eir territory that they charge fees to profit from. that's my understanding of how they profit from antiquities trade. >> please join me in thanking danny glaser for coming today. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> as you can see, there's a huge range of illicit finance that the treasury department is responsible for countering. this is only one slice of it, a very important slice. we appreciate the work you do, day in and day out. and as a taxpayer, i'm very pleased that you're only able to be with us here for this couple of hours. thank you for taking the time. thank you all for joining us. have a great day. >> thanks. defense secretary ashton carter is ordering the pentagon to suspend efforts to recover reenlistment bonuses paid to thousands of california army national guard soldiers.
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the money was mistakenly given out during afghanistan and iraq war recruiting spike. as many as 2,000 soldiers were recently told they would have to pay back as much as $15,000. former republican presidential nominee mitt romney is speaking today about legal changes that could impact business and the economy. c-span will have live coverage at 12:15 eastern. hillary clinton continues campaigning in florida as that state begins ear voting thi week. c-span will bring you her rally in tampa live at 2:45. donald trump is ahead by two points in florida. and republican vice presidential nominee mike pence is holding a rally in salt lake city, utah as polls show the normally republican state is coming into play for hillary clinton. you can see that event live on c-span 2 at 5:30 eastern.
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joining us on the phone from new york is kellyanne conway, the campaign manager for the trump-pence ticket. things for being with us. we appreciate. >> hello, steve. it's my pleasure. >> on sunday you told chuck todd we're behind with two week to go before the election. how do you get ahead? >> we're behind slightly, one, two wur four point in some of the statewide polls, up in others, particularly states where barack obama carried the state twice. we feel really good about that. these were states that john mccain and mitt romney did not carry and mr. trump is putting together some really good numbers in those states. the way we get ahead is for mr. trump to get doing what he's done all along, the big rallies, the round tables in the swing states, taking his message directly to the people. he can't really wait to get many in the mainstream media to give him fair coverage. she's running a conventional
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campaign and i believe an unconventional candidate like mr. trump, an uh-uh conventional approach -- lots of the folks out there think that the crowds at the rallies don't matter. i will tell you the enthusiasm never abates, no matter what the media stories are, no matter how many victory lapse hillary clinton and her friends are taking. folks are showing up strong for each trump event. that's got to mean something. all of those folks will vote. if you're waiting in line for hours to say you were there when he was there, that's you're part of the movement, then of course you're going to come out and vote. we also like some of the returns in the early voting that we see, particularly in places like nk, iowa, ohio, somewhat in florida. in other words we're focusing on the fact that the rnc has helped us tremendously to have absentee
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ballot, early voting system in place and the field operation, they've been incredibly helpful in helping us beef up those aspects of the campaign and we're starting to see the fruits of that. >> the real clear politics average in states like florida, pennsylvania, natch give the edge to hillary clinton. in ohio right now donald trump only up one percentage point within the margin of error. >> that's what campaigns are for. we see mrs. clinton below 50 everywhere. the national polls don't matter as much but in the credible ones, it's a tighter race. you see the cnn poll yesterday, five points nationwide. but she's never at 50 in these state polls. and it just suggests to me if you represent the system, represent the status quo, more of the same, it's unlikely that those truly undecided voters are
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going to break your way. what are the undecided voters going to learn about hillary clinton between now and election day that they don't already know. something is holding them back. for those voters, many have decided i'm not voting for hillary clinton and now they want the final, i think the closing argument to vote for donald trump. i think he did a great job in gettysburg and since then in this multi-stop state tour of florida in the last couple of days talking about his vision for the first president. it's a meaty plan, it's specific. you can go to our website or his twitter feed and look at it for themselves. ten years, releasing energy investment, educational reform, defeating terrorism certainly, respecting law enforcement, a specific plan to repealing and replace obamacare. the big news today is that obamacare is a very bad deal for many americans. youp have a 25% premium increase coming down the pipe from one of
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the largest insurers and that hurts. it's what we've always said about obamacare. it's the best example of how intrusive the government has become for many americans. >> you've been asked this so often, the number one criticism of donald trump is he's not been disciplined enough. he also talked about the at&t time warner merger, his own accusers stepping on what was his major policy speech on his first 100 days. when you talk to mr. trump, what the you tell him about that? >> well, first of all i think he has the right to defend himself. and those are his words, it's his campaign. this has to be his choice and his voice. so i'm always respectful of that. secondly, i think donald trump is at his best when he stick to the issues. when you go to his rallies, listening to the voters at the polls or the focus groups that's what they want to hear. he had an advantage over hillary clinton. the issues are in his favor.
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she cannot say that obamacare has been a great deal for most americans. she can't say that they've contained or stopped isis from expa expanding. that's not true. she can't disavow her own record on the russian reset. so the issues really benefit him. the ekd is thing he has going for him is she doesn't see much interest in talking about the issues. if you look at her negative ads, her entire campaign is about donald trump. that's not a campaign or ideas or aspiration or optimism. nothing uplifting. just a cesspool of politics and i believe many voters will reject that. donald trump outperformed a number of his polling averages in the primaries and i think at the last minute folks are saying, who am i if not a change maker. i've been telling pollsters forever i want to take the country and washington, d.c. in a new direction, here's my
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chance to do that. i'm going to leverage that chance and go to donald trump. >> on wednesday, governor mike pence will be in salt lake city campaigning. this is a state that's not voted for a democrat since 1946 when lyndon johnson won in a landslide. are you worried about utah? >> we want to make sure -- ms. mu mr. mull len, the independent candidate does not win utah. he's running for president but he spends an awful lot of time there. the never trumpers that put him in that position want to choke off the trump-pence path to 270 through utah which has been a very red state. as you say, if you get a candidate who shares a lot in the state with people to brun in the state almost exclusively, you can get him up to 31, 32, in a true three-way raid, anybody
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can win. so it's also a state where governor pence has a friend in senator lee and where he recently talked in the education reform senate. he's on his way to colorado and nevada as well. he's stopping in utah. i also take nothing for granted. that's my job. and my job also is not to chase every good promising statewide poll and go and deploy our best resources there, meaning governor pencend mr. trump. we're trying to do a tighter electoral map than candidates have done in the past. i look toward to the obama 2012 effort as a partial model in that even though some of the states that president obama and his team it looked like they had foregone started to look much better for him, he started to improve against governor romney in those states but he didn't visit those states. they wanted to seal the deal in the places he was more competitive. it was a smart strategy.
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he's a two-term president. >> this fall, snl, a skit on you, kellyanne conway's day off. your reaction to what "saturday night live" did. >> very flattering, affectioning and adorable. meant to be a parody. as my cousin said to me, boy, they really followed you around for three days. on the family side it captured my life and chaos and blessings of four children and a busy household well. i think "saturday night live" is doing a nice job -- kate is doing a nice job transferring her skills between hillary clinton and me. we had a nice laugh about it. >> how how about alec baldwin playing your boz? >> she he seems to be a meaner donald trump. i think the other donald trump was a little more of the donald trump i know. and obviously the kate mckinnon
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as hillary clinton character is supportive of hillary clinton in real life and alec baldwin is not supportive of donald trump. so there's something to that when you're portraying someone. some of the comedy writing is good. i think if people could see the gracious donald trump, the funny, humor rouse donald trump that i do. the fominginlks in the rally do that. the media coverage is not interested in how much time he spent after the rallies signing posters, shaking hands and hugging kids. he loves that. that's his oxygen. he loves mixing it up with people. and to me that's everything a candidate should be. so i hope that that is -- even when people are going to cover what he treated that day or what he said, i hope that in the
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folks are getting the essence of donald trump as well. >> kellyanne conway the manager of the trump-pence campaign joining us on the phone. thank you for being with us. >> thank you, steve. all the best. on election day, november 8th, the nation decide our next president and which party controls the house and senate. stay with c-span for coverage of the presidential race, including campaign stops with hillary clinton, donald trump and their surrogates. and follow key house and senate races with our coverage of their can candidate debates and speeches. c-span, where history unfolds daily. american history tv primetime continues while congress is on break until after the november elections. tonight the civil war and reconstruction. it begins at 8:00 eastern with the war in gettysburg, then ulysses grant after the civil war. also, people's refugee camps and
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reconstruction in the north. american history tv in prime time on c-span3 all this week at 8:00 eastern. now, colombi colombian ambar juan carlos pinzon. the ambassador spoke for about an hour. good morning. you're welcome. i told the ambassador it's the truth, really, they're neighbors. the come beeian embassy being across the street.
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let me say at the outset if you're silence your cell phones that will make it agreeable for all of us and less embarrassing for you in case a baby sitter calls or something. i'm going to ask our guest to make an opening statement. ambassador juan carlos pinzon has been colombia's ambassador to the united states for four months. previously, he served as four years where he led the armed forces in dealing severe blows to the operations and infrastructure of the farc and the criminal bands operating in that country. this was due to improved security conditions throughout the country and the lowest
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homicide rate in 35 years. during his tenure, the armed forces equipment and training were modernized and the welfare of the men and women in uniform and their families has improved. he put into place a transformation plan that will lead the armed forces forward for the next two decades. what most people do not know is that colombia is an exporter of expertise in the security area, having lent its expertise to 60 different countries in how to deal with criminal organizations and drug trafficking. before serving as a defense minister, ambassador pincon was the chief of staff of president juan manuel santos. vice minister of defense. he is a native of bogota, columbia and has a degree in economics and a master in public policy from princeton
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university's woodrow wilson's school. he has completed advanced studies in international relations at johns hopkins and in science and technology at harvard. so clearly you are prepared, well-prepared for many, many tasks. we welcome you here today. ambassador, as i have said to you in the past, some of my most skeptical colombian friends were rejoicing on the night of the plevocite. others were devastated with the "no" campaign and the popular vote. i reconciled myself that they would approve the accords. i saw the acords as an opportunity with strong sport from the united states to hold the farc to some concrete commitments and demobilize
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thousands of guerrillas in that framework. many who were kidnapped in the guerrilla movement. in the weeks since the pledocite, you have seep the president meet with his predecessor, for the first time in six years they have met. he has also met with another predecessor, part of the "no" campaign. last thursday president uribe offered a 26-page critique that raised many concerns, that also presented some sort of red lines that have been regarded as rather reasonable and practical. indeed he adopted more practical positions on a number of critical issues. this may be a function of the fact that regardless of the results of the plebiscite,
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student marches and other mobilizations, a letter from business leaders have made it very clear that the colombian people are essentially committed to some sort of negotiated permanent end to the hostilities. as a result, president santos has had to sit down with these sceptics, to hear them out, take their concerns back to the negotiating table with the objective of improving that accord in a way that would broaden its support among the colombian people. maybe that narrow victory on behalf of the "no," in the end, will actually improve the process for a durable peace reflecting a national consensus. in other words, in the words of the legendary political theorists keith richards and mick jagger, you can't always get what you want. if you try sometime, you just
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might find that you get what you need. so ambassador, where is colombia's peace process today? what condition is it in? do you feel more or less optimistic today than the night of the plebiscite. >> first of all, thank you very much. it is a great honor to be here especially with this beautiful new venue. i am very impressed. i'm very happy to be one of the first commentators in this new venue. second, you have been inviting me to enterprise discussions for a year already since i arrived. i say yes. suddenly, there was a big coincidence between my yes and the current juncture. i am happy to be here. it is good to have this opportunity to discuss. you always have been interested about colombia. one of the things i learned to appreciate the most about washington is that we have even
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more friends than i knew. washington is full of friends of colombia. there are many reasons for that. the success from u.s. policy perspective that has happened in colombia has been interesting, bipartisan, a long-term sustained effort. it has resulted in the most valiant country in the hemisphere, the most valuable cities in the world to become now experts in security. a country that somehow is finding a final way to peace. is in transition to peace. all that with determination and commitment of the colombian people, of our leaders. at the same time, with very important u.s. support. u.s. support came to colombia to
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enable colombia to be effective in its institutions from security. that part i knew and i saw with a lot of interest, with justice. that package is what we know as plan colombia. i know here in washington, a lot of people feel in one way or another, as it happens in colombia, there are a lot of contributors. i see it as a positive argument. to your comments and to your question, i think we are in the middle of a very interesting time in colombia. the first thing i would say and underline is, it is interesting to see the strength of colombia, the democracy. there are very few democracies in this part of the world that can handle such an event, such a
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political debate with the intensity and commitment from all the sides and somehow be able to have that as a result. second, i believe it is important to see the strength of colombian institutions. every process that we have in the past years in colombia is absolutely related to our constitutional framework, to the separation of powers, the president has expressed proposed ideas. those have been discussed in congress and later on judged by our system. i think that's another important event. when you think about the results, the first word president santos used was not only is he the president of every colombian. his main objective was to keep preserving the stability of the
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country. immediately he opened the room for a political dialogue and political discussion with every sector opposing to the government proposal in the plebiscite. that's an interesting feature. the third element that is now part of our political discussion is somehow opportunity. this word has been expressed by president santos but by several bright experts from different sides, right, left, center, end international leaders, colombian leaders. colombia is in front of an opportunity. and this is why. we have been moving from peace-making with the use of legitimate force. people can talk about several decades of war. what i can tell you, when colombian state and people decide we are going to confront
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the threats of crime, violence, and violations of human rights, it started 15, 16 years ago. since then, we were very effective. probably 30%, 35% of what they were in manpower, resources or financial capabilities. the same happened to those that inherited it somehow after the existence of the auc. so i think that effort to degrade them put colombia in a position of precisely moving towards an effort for peace from strength. i think that's another important area. the country has been building its discussions on its political process from strength.
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that is why, as of today, this has been the only timing which farc has agreed with colombian estate. they were able to sign a political agreement. a very complex political discussion. agreement, i think nobody can hesitate to call it a different way. this is a very complex political discussion but at the end for the first time ever there was an agreement signed about this. i think on the other side it's important to see that that opportunity as described is seen from the perspective that if we were doing peacemaking by the use of force and starting four or five years ago was transitioning to peace through a political process, what happened probably as consequence of the plebiscite was that transition to peace was going to take some more time and what i can tell is nobody knows what that time is.
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but it's part of the process. and that's the way i would see it. and next phase would be peace in colombia and the execution of -- the implementation of the consequence of the agreement. so we have strong institutions, we proved that, we have a strong democracy, we prove that. and now we are in the middle of a political process towards an opportunity and to see how that translates and how the colombian people will resolve into something specific. the importance about democracy here in america or in colombia or in places where democracy is mature and strong is that things are not solved by one single will or by the desire. they are discussed, they are part of the process, they are a debate and then they result into
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something specific. i also would leave that they are all features that happened after the plebiscite. the fact that president santos was recognized as a nobel prize winner for peace i think is an important issue. an important international signal to colombian efforts to peace. of course a recognition to the present. i keep saying that any colombian should feel proud about this just because it was a colombian and this case the president of colombians who was granted that recognition and that has been the consequence, as i insist, of, you know, being effect ive but in consequence moving to political tools, moving to diplomacy and making use of those tools to produce a result
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and agreement. that's what i think has been recognized, of course. we've got to let the experts from oslo to describe how they got to that conclusion but somehow that's what you can summarize. that's an important element in the current discussion. the other element that has been interesting is the public political activity from different points of view and different perspectives is not only granted to the natural leaders and the leadership of colombian and different political views but it's almost any colombian these days given a point of view, giving an opinion. another interesting element that came out of -- in this week's has been the clear conclusion if anyone had doubt, i never doubted but if anyone doubted that colombians were hoping and
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are willing for peace but, of course, what is in discussion is different approaches to that result, but i think that's another interesting element. and finally i think that the fact that the government was able to announce very recently and asks a conclusion to the recent events that the eln, the other guerrilla, is starting a formal public peace negotiation with the colombian government so it proves somehow that all the elements that are required for a peace long term in colombia are now on the table. not to forget that cease-fire was immediately requested and recommended not only by president santos with his authority as commander-in-chief of colombian armed forces but it
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was suggested and requested by different opposition leaders and immediately was somehow accepted and discussed even by the farc so for those who were expecting some kind of turbulence beyond the political debate, nothing as such has happened in the country and what we have right now is a cease-fire that actually has formal elements coming out not only from a government to farc and farc agreement but also by u.n. presence and u.n. mandate to contribute to maintain that stability in the country. so i believe, sure, we are in an interesting time. no doubt we are extending our transition to peace. no doubt there is an interesting, challenging political process as part of all of this. through democracy with strong institutions but in addition to
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that the country continues to move forward. you know, when you see what happened to the markets, to the u.s. dollar, what happened? didn't climb up. it went up 15 pesos, moved down 15, 20 pesos and, frankly speaking, nothing substantial has been altered in the colombian economy and markets and by the way, we here in the middle of an interesting discussion on how to strengthen our competitiveness in our economy through a tax reform that is now under discussion and we're in a process of finding how to keep moving forward to attract investors, to attract jobs to keep moving to the kutcher. that's the way i would describe it, not to underestimate the challenges. not to underestimate the debate but to value somehow the importance of what we have right now and the political realities that are at hand right now in
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colombia. >> thank you very much for that initial scene setter. >> so can i leave now? [ laughter ] >> can somebody get some water? i don't think the -- do you have water? >> yeah, i have. i have. >> i couldn't see whether you had. thank you very much, ambassador. let's talk a little bit about what's transpired recently last thursday, president uribe put together this plan, this vision for a national peace accord. and what's been remarked upon is that he sort of pulled back on a couple of eventual issues and i know there's a limit of -- i don't want to characterize things particularly from your diplomatic post but, for example, he had insisted during the campaign and many others in the no campaign had made it an important part of their opposition that there would be potentially some of these farc commanders literally getting
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away with murder. no incarceration. and that this was something that needed to be addressed. he's introduced or adopted a concept of resolution that was put forward that could mean some sort of confinement in general spaces and some have comment ed will the accord accommodate that? the other issues he talked about is transitional justice. in that case he's said, you know, i think this -- commenting we've demobilized tens of thousands of people, we've even held people accountable in the past decade within the context of our judicial system and we don't need to have this transitional ad hoc commission created with participation of
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foreigners and the former president has commented and he went on at length with me about this a number of months ago that we should be doing this in the context of our judicial system. those are a couple things he's blaugt up and th brought up and then on participation can the commanders of the farc who are found guilty, responsible for serious human rights abuses enter the political realm, pull back from opposition to, you know, having representation in the congress but, you know, setting some limits about who among the farc might be able to participate. how do you see this conversation shaping up between the santos government and the negotiators and these opponents of the process who are reflecting the will of the majority of the
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people that voted? >> well, first, the issues are under discussion are very delicate, very complex, and very relevant. any opinion to those these days does not contribute in any way. i can tell you it almost -- i can assure you here i see a lot of colombian faces and i can promise every colombian today has a personal opinion or a group opinion or an institutional pn or government opinion on to each of this elements, but the truth is that president santos at once plebiscite happened opened a round of discussions, you described those very well, a set of meetings with different leaders and, by the way, somehow a negotiating table looking for an agreement. under that framework, government has been taking every proposal,
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every idea, every recommendation and it's now up to the process to bring some kind of conclusions on what is most convenient and what is more physical. i think those are the ways things are being discussed right now. in that regard i think president santos has expressed both on his will, on the opportunity and at the same time mentioned several times they were realist ic and s fast as possible. that's the messaging coming out. from the opposition side, i would recognize in general terms everybody's will to contribute into moving to some kind of agreement. being very honest and very transparent. i believe we are in a time in colombia in which the best
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contribution someone can do -- and especially fear washington -- is allow the discussion to move on. is allow the discussion to produce a result rather than putting more personal opinions on to such a delicate set of issues. and that would be my preference in current times. that will be the best possible contribution from any colombian. allow this to be discussed in a way that there's some kind of compromise and agreement so that can be later on discussed with the farc and other groups and then move on to the next phase. >> well, if you're asking people to withhold their opinions, you're going to put a lot of people out of work here in washington. [ laughter ] but at least they're -- because they're here and because they will be hearing you in a couple other places they'll be better informed opinions. what's the farc's attitude about this opportunity?
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president santos spent a good deal of time saying that the guerrillas aren't going to negotiate their way into prison, that's just one issue. do you think they will be back at the table? what's your sense of what they're saying? and if president santos is aggregating some of these comments and ideas about how to move forward it seems to suggest that he'll ask the farc to join them at the negotiating table to open these issues up. >> the only thing we can judge is what has been said publicly and what has been said publicly is from their perspective that they are willing to keep the cease-fire, that's one point, and second that they are willing to open discussions for a new round and to find additional steps. of course there are some words
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out ofone that i would insist we should not even hear at this time and focus very much on how to keep moving on the current opportunity. >> well, i'm going to ask one more question and then i'm going to throw it open and this is on the question of plan colombia and where we go from here with past colombia. we flow a staff level of plan colombia and it was very fortuitous because i moved from the house to the senate in the middle of that process so i was one of the few people that a lot of people trusted because as people don't necessarily understand in house the enemy is not the republicans or the democrat, the senate is the enemy. so i got to see that come together in this bipartisan coalition and commitment and it was a commitment to help an
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ally, south america's oldest democracy, defend its institutions and impose the rule of law, but in large measure because of the drug phenomenon and the fact that farc, which has now been identified as the biggest cocaine trafficking organization was in the world, was shoveling cocaine into the united states and affecting the health, well-being of the american people. so we made that commitment. $10 billion later in the last several years we've seen coke cultivation increasing by at least 50% and some pulling back in the context of these negotiation negotiations from the offensive against the farc pulling back on extradition where the first time in a decade or so colombia has refused to extradite someone to the united states because he also happens to be a farc
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commander and you've reversed yourselves on aerial fumigation, which i guess is one of the reasons the coca cultivation has increased. if you're sitting in congress representing the american taxpayer, what case do you make for an additional half a billion dollars in assistance and even, you know, longer-term commitment to colombia going forward. >> thank you for that question. i believe that's very important and very relevant for the time. first i think what we have done with plan colombia that worked effectively for several years was doing peace building and that's what we did for a lot of time, you can criticize some elements, you can have different opinions on parts of the agenda and the strategy but as you said those who craft it and those of us who have been working on this for a long time, we have found
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this as a tool to produce a concrete result and the result was the complete turnaround of colombia from a failing nation to a vibrant democracy, active economy in a country that is setting a democratic agenda to the future. that's what happened to colombia. and you -- but many others in washington feel proud of it from u.s. policy perspective but somehow from colombian perspective the reality is that we have cut forward in half, we have reduced unemployment, increased investment, the economy has grown and all this with a strong base of strengthening and security indicators. we discussed from the end of last year around this time when we arrived the importance of understanding that we were going
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to into enter into a new phase that peace building with the use of legitimate force was not now the only thing we were going to do but that we were going to focus on a transition to peace on a real effective active peace building effort. and that's how the agenda of peace colombia came in. the state department, the national security council, the department of defense, president obama himself in the presence of president santos and now congress have concluded that colombia needed a new package to make peace sustainable in the long term and to guarantee these gains of transformation of colombia become permanent. those are important for colombia but those are important for the united states. if fact that colombia can be a country that can promote democracy, freedom, markets in the western hemisphere is not only important for colombia but somehow is important for our set of values.
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the possibility of colombia continuing to export training security standards to other countries in latin america is not only important for colombia, it's strategically important for the united states as a whole and i think that is what explains why actually in the house we have an approval of $50 million and in the senate $450 million. i wish we could get the house, you know? but -- well, it's up to the u.s. congress, up to the political process and budget and we have to understand even that this is an election year that house implications that i am not the one to discuss so in that perspective i believe it's very important in the months and the year to come to get the resources precisely to make peace sustainable on issues like
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taking development to modern areas of the country, on issues like offering programs related to the humanitarian efforts, mining, taking care of victims, on moving on to all these processes that are related to a stabilization and transition to peace and there are other elements that are important like strengthening the justice system. justice is going to be extremely important in the years to come to precisely make that peace sustainable and credible and keeping the capabilities to confront organized crime, drug trafficking, illegal mining, human trafficking or other sources of crime and violence that are not going to disappear, are going to be there and are things we will need to confront, this, as i said before, is not only important for colombia. as much as we contain, crime in colombia is not only good for colombia but it's good for central america, good for the
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caribbean, good for mexico, good for the united states. it's a whole set of nations that benefit out of this. moving to drug trafficking and ur question and concern. during my tenure as minister of defense i had the fortune to see and to testify the wonderful successes of our armed forces and by the year 2012 and 2013 we got the lowest number of hectares of coca in the history of colombia. i mean, the history of this relationship and efforts so that was great, very good news, starting then we have seen an increase by different reasons. what we have learned on this process that the threats are not static, they're dynamic. and they learn out of your tools so they learn how to somehow take advantage or deny powerful
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capabilities on our efforts and suddenly they start to use communities and present them in front of -- in some of the coca relegation, they start to create different pressures to limit that success as you describe, last year numbers are there, are public, those coca crops went up. what has been colombian reaction? first, we're not happy with it. we want to confront that. president santos himself has said i want to produce results to this, i am committed to it. of course he's trying to find new tools. out of the peace agreement he thought and his vision is that having farc out of drug dealing and with the commit mement of n
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being part of that business that that will have long term consequences to reduce that effect. second and a more aggressive effort on alternative development because we know it works. there are regions in colombia where alternative development has worked very well. in the central part of the country where you have roads, where you have technical assistance, we have been able to reduce coca even to zero. n the areas that are marginal, that are distance, in which state presence is not very effective or very stable the truth is that the drug comes back and you reduce it and suddenly it can grow again, it has the potential, so that's what we learn and this is why under the ministry of post-conflict there has been -- we're in a process of developing and executing an integrated strategy towards that end and
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there are very important efforts to do two things. one, for instance, there are new strategies that are, i would say, under trial, like manual fumigation or spraying. but we are always evolving looking for new tools or ways to confront this. and finally interdiction. colombia in the past two years, year 15 and actually year 16 is seizing more cocaine than ever. now anyone can say well, it's because there's more production. no doubt. but at the same time a lot of that cocaine that is being produced additionally is not getting into the markets and that's a way precisely to contain these efforts. under my watch, probably last may, we launched an active action against the criminal bands, especially the so-called
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urvenos, they have three or four names. this is a very large cartel and they have been hivly hit the last two or three years so the consequence of that is also that is limiting the potential of that additional drug to really have a major impact into the market. which, again, does not satisfy anyone in the sense that we need to see how we can produce more results and keep moving forward. but i will underline the will of the colombian government to continue to confront this challenge. it's us and probably no more than us that know the consequences of not moving and continuing to be dynamic of these efforts and finally i would say that the worst mistake we can take after the experience
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we have had in colombia is not to support the efforts to confront the challenges. of course i think we are open to a dialogue of how to do it better, how to improve one tech fleek or to have a new one. i think that's a powerful discussion but this is why you told me make a case to congress. keep pushing for this. because we need to make peace sustainable, that's the most important objective. even as transition takes longer we need to make peace sustainable. second, we need to keep the edge on confronting organized crime whatever face it presents. >> excellent, excellent. we're going to take some questions from the audience. raise your hand, the young ladies will bring you -- in the back two hands up. the ladies will bring you microphones. please introduce yourself, your affiliation and ask a question. >> hi, good morning.
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alejandro sanchez from defense weekly. my question is that on saturday president santos promised that in four years they will have cleared 21 million meters of colombian territory from mines, explosive munitions that haven't exploded yet. my question is what do you think about this statement and what will the role be of international organizations, the united nations, the united states and, finally, where do you think this 21 million square meters will be sound in will it be in areas where the farc operates like in choco, putomayo? what's the next step for the clearing process of these mines? >> well, you have to question and good answers at the same time for the question. yes, those areas i believe are the most important, gatchez and areas that have -- that contain
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those kind of devices. as you might know, there is a very important effort that has been led byecretary kerry, actually, and the minister of foreign affairs from norway. that effort was launched in -- well, informally -- enhanced into a ministerial meeting in the past u.n. general assembly with the presence of president santos and different count rise, something like 24 countries, presented commitments for more than $100 million to contribute precisely to those efforts on the mining. the mining is an important issue. i keep saying sometimes in colombia it's not necessarily mines as we know them but explosive devices, you know? ieds, actually, is what we have there. and, of course, these require a lot of effort, a lot of commitment and i think more than
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100 million dollars will be very important for the purpose of that objective. that, of course, has humanitarian consequences and are a very good step for a country that is really seeking for a stable peace. now on the other hand on the peace colombia efforts, part of the money -- most of the money that the u.s. committed is included into the peace colombia package so that's another important and concrete step. in addition to that, the colombian government has decided to enlarge first from a battalion to a brigade level unit dedicated to demining. so in addition to humanitarian demining done with international standards, with u.n., oes and these private-seconder ngos that are working on to this, colombia has decided that part of its
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capability that was used for, let's say, military operational demining, is going to be transformed int capabilities for humanitarian demining but using this expertise. so we move from a battalion level to a brigade level and actually theest senate to move from regional 500 to 1,000 men to reach the level of up to 10,000 men dedicated to this purpose, so of course life is about setting goals and president santos is trying to set an ambitious goal for the country, he has this international support, international resources and at the same time a national will and national capability being put all together towards that end. and we should try and if we don't make it we should keep trying is until we make it for the importance of the issue, for
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the good of colombian people and especially in the rural areas of the country. >> there was a gentleman there. mr. elan s alonzo with the a.p. >> you always have good questions, i'm worried now. >> i'm luis alonzo with the a.p. i would like to ask you without addressing specifically the funds that congress could be approving for colombia if you could share with us a comment on the u.s. election. do you foresee a major change in strategy or emphasis if either candidate wins on and what could be the impact for the relationship with colombia and specifically the impact on the implementation of this process that you see with the election. thank you. >> well, you can imagine we really do not intervene into a political debate and especially right now, you know?
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the level of debate that is out there, i mean, we really will not have any opinion, it's up to the american people, americans will make their choice and they will decide and whatever they decide we will work with and do our effort. the relationship between colombia and the united states has an interesting element, bipartisanship. it was president clinton that started plan colombia with a republican majority in congress. that's why you were there, roger, later on president bush came and at some point there was a majority of democratic in congress. and with the president obama there has been a good time with the republican majority. in all cases we have been able to grant u.s. support and we have been able to work with the administration and the u.s. congress and that's, i think, the way we should continue to plan, i think we have a very special relationship and a
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strategic one now really on facts and issues between colombia and the united states just to, you know, put in the terms of a political cycle. >> well, i would just say that certainly secretary clinton has a significant history and background and awareness of these issues but senator sessions who's a principal advisor to the republican candidate was one of the pillars of plan colombia's planning and he even said at a hearing "i support president uribe's vision -- win the war." three words, win the war. another question up front here. >> thank you, ambassador, for your time and your great insight on the situation now. my question -- well, first of
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all my name is juan manuel and i'm with the au school of international service. we know the monitoring and verification mechanism will still be in place and that the u.n. has pledged that they will continue their activities on the ground. would the colombian government consider it wise to seek to expand their role and make sure that the presence does not waver, especially through these troubled times? thank you. >> well, that's a very important question, right now there's a very high appreciation for the u.n. role in colombia, no doubt from president santos himself and the colombian government as a whole but recently we have heard different point of views in the country expressing the importance of having the u.n. play a role in the country. as you know, the original timeline for the cease-fire was october 31 during the weekend or last week president santos
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opened that space up to december 31. not to forget president santos asked the president of colombia, commander-in-chief of colombian armed forces has the authority to move that time or schedule as he considers frankly speaking. second i think that the u.n. mandate in colombia already is for mall, it's not any more under analysis process but it's already formal. there are a -- there is a u.n. security council mandate in which the monitoring and verification was stated and the way this process should happen so that is on right now in colombia and of course part of it is how much can we extend relating to the current political process in colombia? but i guess we have seen so much commitment from world leaders
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and u.n. itself that we should -- you know, without adding expectations have some comfort on the way this mandate can contribute to maintain the cease-fire and towards a future process. >> let's take one more question. the young lady up front. >> ambassador, my name is paula, i'm with the department of state and you mentioned that the peace in colombia needs to be sustainable and sustainability includes social inclusion. i've seen that the opposition is feeding off some concerns about gay rights and i would like to know how you think the government and the opposition
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and the most conservative sectors of colombian society can reconcile to find a joint agreement on these issues. >> well, i think social inclusion and minorities inclusion in colombia is very well developed in our constitution. i'm not a constitutional lawyer, certainly i'm not even a lawyer but i can tell you that from different rulings from our constitution court those are issues are, frankly speaking, beyond the reach of a -- the executive or even the political discussion those are rights in colombia that in different levels and different situations have to be implemented and followed and considered so i think on that regard colombia is somehow very well advanced in its constitutional development towards rights and especially for different minorities in the
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country. >> so let me ask one last question and it's not an easy one but i wanted to bring it up because it's important. a lot of people voted no and are deeply skeptical about the farc's intentions to honor the agreement and far matter even use the agreement to advance its continued insurrection, and that's the word they use in their private conversations with their supporters and use the electoral process, gaining a foothold and substantial resources that they've accrued from involvement in drug trafficking. how many -- how much do you think they've got squirrelled away in their rainy day fund from this cocaine trafficking and other criminality and how do we go about sort of ruining
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their plans by getting that money? freezing that money and putting it at the disposal of the colombian state. >> your question is very good. you know that and we can bring the intelligence analysts and they will give you their insights and their perspective. but i think in such a delicate issue we have to be careful not to speculate on the issue. there's no doubt that a colombian government will and has all this time not only announce but effectively fight the drug trade and as i said, for the year 2015 it was a record year in cocaine seizure. the year '16 is even looking better and i can assure you that that cocaine is not being selected who do you get from or who you don't. that cocaine is coming out of
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the production system and every time we seize that cocaine certaiy we're harming criminal finances. so i think, you know, out of this increase probably there were some expectations, calculations coming out of the criminal organizations, including the purposes of the farc in that regard but at the same time it's the colombian government's will and decision to continue to go after. and i will also underline the importance of public statements coming out of the attorney general's office saying that his will, his determination and his obligation is to go after any kind of funds obtained through illegal or criminal activities and i think that's an all-important signal of the way colombia will continue to perceive and approach this
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effort beyond our commitment and our national will to peace that we expect really to materialize in the -- the sooner the better. >> good question, good answer. thank you very much, let me just say in closing that i -- a few months ago i saw a video of a father who was saying, you know, the farc killed my son. and he said, but i'm going to support this agreement because i have two other sons that are still alive and he doesn't just want an accord, he doesn't just want politicians to work sort of -- split the difference or whatever, he wants peace, a definitive peace and a lasting and permanent one. and that's something that should be in the interest of the american people, too, because of the drugs, yes, but because i think you're right, that as colombia is able to end this
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52-year-old armed uprising by these folks and demobilize them as it has tens of thousands of others in its history, it will prove a lot and i think colombia remains a very key partner for us and to the extent we can make it more stable, more prosperous, more unified, more democratic i think it serves all of our interests and i, with that secular prayer i will thank everyone for coming and thank you, ambassador, please join me in thanking him. [ applause ] >> all right, we ended up in time. [ indistinct audio ]
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[ indistinct audio ] hillary clinton continues campaigning in florida as that state begins early voting this week. c-span will bring you her rally in tampa live at 2:45 eastern. a bloomberg poll released today has donald trump ahead by two points in florida. republican vice presidential nominee mike pence is holding a rally in salt lake city, utah, as polls show the normally republican state is coming into play for hillary clinton. you can see that event live on c-span 2 at 5:30 eastern. while congress is on break until after the november elections,
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american history tv prime time continues tonight with a look at the civil war and reconstruction. it begins at 8:00 eastern with a war in gettysburg. then ulysses grant after the civil war. also freed people's refugee camps and reconstruction in the north. american history tv prime time all this week at 8:00 eastern. this weekend on american history tv on c-span 3, saturday morning from 9:00 eastern till just afternoon -- >> the british empire and its commonwealth lasts for a thousand years men will still say this was their finest hour. >> we're live for the 33rd international churchill conference in washington, d.c., focusing on the former british prime minister's friends and contemporaries. speakers include british
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historian andrew roberts author of "masters and commanders, how four titans won the war in the west, 1941-1945." and later on saturday at 7:00, texas general land office commissioner george p. bush, state senator jose menendez and musician phil collins talk about the spanish mission the alamo at the 2016 texas tribune festival in austin. >> the memories that i have of my impressions at that time that this group of people were going and they knew they were going to die but they went, or they were there, crockett went but they kind of -- there was something very noble and very romantic. i've learned that it wasn't quite as black and white as -- and that's one of the things i think would be good in this day and age that, you know, we put it into context. then sunday evening at 6:00 on american artifacts. >> macarthur is up front. you notice he's not wearing a
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weapon. he would often lead attacks carrying nothing but that riding crop you s in his left hand. and the men looked at this and realized, hey, if the colonel and later the brigadier, if the colonel can take it, well, i can take it, too. >> we visit the macarthur memorial in norfolk, virginia, to learn about the early life of douglas macarthur, who commanded allied forces in the pacific during world war ii. >> the great leaders serve as conscience in chief with the highest level of integrity with their moral compass locked on true north so we can always count on them to do the right thing when times get tough or when no one is looking. >> author talmadge boston explains his ten commandments for presidential leadership -- what they are, and provides examples of presidents who excelled at each one. for our complete american history tv schedule, go to cspan.org. what are the potential cyber
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security threats that could pose problems for the 2016 presidential election? the atlantic council hosted a discussion on safeguarding the voting process, kim zetter, senior reporter from wired moderates the hour and ten minute discussion. >> so what we're going to be talking about today as both attorneys and organizers, folks involved in the field is how millennials are uniquely situated to tackle the issue of money in politics. money in politics has always been a problem, people could argue, in the united states. we've never had a perfect democracy but in the advent of decisions like citizen's united and mccutchen, recent supreme court jurisprudence have made it harder for folks to have an equal voice and vote in our democracy. so we are very lucky to be joined by a dream team of young millennial up and comers in the
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democracy space. on the far left is brandon fisher, associate council at the campaign legal center. next to him is austin bilally, the director of the youth engagement fund for the democracy alliance. right here next to me is ally bolt, counckoucounsel at demos. a couple things programming wise to start off on. acs has a couple events next month. we are getting attorneys in the area who are able to volunteer their time on election day or days proceeding to do something called election protection where we man the phones and try to answer questions from folks around the country in collaboration with the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law on election day to make sure everybody's vote is counted. we have an event on november 17th, a voting rights training, there's an organization called the voting rights institute, it's part campaign legal center, part american constitution society and part georgetown university and we'll have a training for how attorneys can help on pro bono basis to make sure everybody's vote is counted
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and it will be a legal seminar for that. so today we're going to talk about five big topics. we'll talk about what the current legal landscape is, what the u.s. supreme court has given us, how we got there, what's been possible under the current rules and rubric, we'll talk about looking big picture how millennials have engaged in other movements, what kind of successes they have been able to get behind in law and policy. then we'll look inward and talk about what the democracy field is good at doing and where it has deficiencies. how it can be more inclusive and better positioned to lead and especially to have millennials lead the next phase of the movement. finally we'll end on optimism and talk about what's possible now that we have a supreme court vacancy that could result in a progressive supreme court majority for the first time in 40 some years so we'll be hearing what a new democracy agenda could mean not just for millennials as we grow up in this era but for folks around the country. so let's start off.
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my name is scott graytack, i'm counsel with a group called free speech for people, it's a legal organization devoted to taking ideas into action to promote and reclaim our democracy and to go from the defense to the offense in order to get initiatives moving that can help build an inclusive democracy for all. so speaking of a legal landscape and what we're looking at now, i'll turn to our resident attorneys on the panel which is brandon and ali to give us an idea of where we're coming from, how we got here. ali, if you want to start us off. >> sure. can you all hear me in the room okay? so first thanks to scott and acs for having this important conversation and great to be up here with these panelists. in terms of the legal landscape, probably the most well known money in politics supreme court decision is citizens

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