to be their friends and they say >> they can appeal to facebook to get there and count reinstated. we have to determine whether they are a cyber stalker or they are unlucky. [laughter] we respond to cyber-bullying with an important reporting structure and trained reviewers who are there 24/7. for the most urgent reports whether it is hell for safety or bullying or hate speech, we usually respond within 24 hours. we prioritize the reports for cyber-bullying. here are a couple of important things. we are a founding member of the stop cyber-bullying coalition that is operated by a wire

safety and we have created a safety advisory board with a safety center. the new city center you can go to is on facebook. it has resources for parents, for teachers, for teenagers, and for law enforcement. one of the reasons why we were called here today is to talk about this to program that we announced in june, a partnership with the pta. we are still at the early stages, but we'll expect to have a comprehensive program that will teach people about it did -- digital citizenship and we will include parents and teachers and students in that endeavor. that is one illustration of our commitment to collaborate because we think the best ideas in this area do not come from

just one source, it comes from everybody in this room, parents, teachers, students, law enforcement, and the companies that are out there who work with you every day. we are as excited about these prospects and i can tell you that the other thing to remember is this is not just the people here in america. we are working on these issues around the world. i know personally i have spent time in the u.k., in the eu, in australia, and it is remarkable how similar the issues are. we are trying to wrestle with this particular problem. we have to create a culture of safety where this kind of behavior is just not tolerated. on behalf of facebook, i thank you for having me here today. [applause]

>> i have just been given the signal that we are not unfortunately going to be able to have a question and answer session with our corporate panel. i have a surgeon general fear and i will invite my colleagues from the department of health and human services to come up here. and to kick this off and make the introductions. [applause] let's get another round of applause for our great corporate citizens here. [applause]

[no audio] [no audio] >> good morning. i am very pleased to be here today. my name is martha moore house. i am from the department of health and human services. i will tell you about my role there. for its the end of the panel. i am very pleased to be able to introduce this panel of distinguished leaders from our

department of health and human services. dr. regina benjamin and the origin of wakefield are here to speak this afternoon. dr. benjamin had scheduling issues and she will open these remarks and we will need to move on to the next scheduling activity that has come up for her. dr. regina benjamin is the 18 surgeon general of the united states public health service for it as america's doctor, she provides the public with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and the health of the nation. she also oversees the operational command of over 6000 uniformed officers who serve -- dr. benjamin is the founder and ceo of the [inaudible] in alabama for all health clinics and a former associate [inaudible]

at the university of south alabama. she was the first physician under age 40 to be elected to the american medical association education foundation. she has served with her education research foundation as the chair. of the judicial affairs committee. she became the president of the medical association state of alabama making her the first african-american female president of a state medical society in the united states. he has many firsts. we are thrilled she can be regarded. comes to us with many honors. she has been honored with nelson

mandela award for health and human rights. she has been honored by pope benedict xvi and received a macarthur genius award fellowship. throughout her work, she stays tied to local services and work on sustaining medical clinics in alabama in a small town that was serving uninsured residents and struggled through hurricanes and everything under the sun. i know she has recently been in the louisiana. we are thrilled she has taken the time to be with us today. please welcome dr. benjamin. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you so much for letting me come and speak to you for a couple of minutes. i want to say thank-you to secretary duncan and the department of education for putting this on and for the other federal departments that are part of this initiative.

i would like to especially say hello to -- our -- i hope you are students -- the young people sitting right here and hope one of you will become surgeon general one day. i will keep the seat warm for you. [laughter] [applause] prevention is the foundation of the public health system. prevention is the foundation of my work as surgeon general. my priorities focus on a number of things. my first paper was the surgeon general's vision for a healthy and fit nation. i have been working with the first lady on this initiative and all about trying to become healthy and fit. we have a breast feeding report coming out. i am active in tobacco and smoking and particularly in smoking with youth. hiv aids is another area. mental health and substance abuse is another area. another area is violence.

violence in our society, domestic violence, violence in the workplace and random violence and particularly interesting for me is youth violence and that was one of the first things that i wanted to address when i first got this job. bullying is first and you have heard all day how important it is and how we need to address this. throughout hhs we have started to look at how we can address bullying. there are a number of programs and you will help -- here particularly with hrsa, but cdc funds youth violence protection. they bring together academic and community resources to study and create lasting ways for youth filing. they collaborate with law enforcement, schools, anti-viral organizations, and state and local officials to develop

comprehensive approach to preventing youth violence. there is a canadian psychologist professor who led a study of 40 countries. she says that bullying should be considered a public health problem and that government should adopt national strategies to deal with bullying. the study but -- was by when the craig --wendy craig of queen's university. it was published in the international journal of help. that study compared estimates of the study of violence among adolescents across the country. that is something that had not been done before it found. that countries that established anti-bleeding campaigns have the lowest bullion rates. -- anti-bullying campaigns have

the lowest bullion rates. --bullying rates. there is a growing recognition that bullying does not just happen in school. it happens in communities, recreation centers, on sports teams, and in cyber space. according to the cdc 2009 youth risk behavior survey, one in five u.s. high-school students said they had been bullied on school property. the cdc developed a school health index that allows schools to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their prevention efforts. the agency is also studying how facilities can be designed to provide environments that helps reduce violent behavior and student fears of after-school programs. the cdc is also funding a bullying and sexual violence

project. researchers from the university of illinois are surveying 3500 middle school students in 140 classrooms and their teachers over a three-year period. they will use this data to determine what the risk is and what protective factors can be used and shared or what unique factors of bullion experiences can be used for the future in other communities. those are some of the statistics and the things we are doing within hhs. it is really important that we get down to the community level and get down to showing leadership. that is where you guys come in. we can set the policy and make things better for you, but it will be one on one leadership, one on one looking out for each

other that makes a difference. i will end with a brief story about young lady who was jogging along the beach early in the morning and she was jogging along the beach and this older gentleman was tossing a starfish in the water. she saw him tossing one at that time and by the time she finished her round, she was curious. she asked why he was tossing the starfish and the water. -- in the water. as soon as the sun comes up, they will burn up and die a after they washup. why do you bother? he looked at her and reached down and picked up a starfish and said because it will make a difference to this starfish and tossed it in the water. we can make a difference by fighting our own starfish one at

a time and make a big difference. we know there is some much we can do to help our children live in communities with dignity and without fear. dr. mary wakefeild will share more ideas with you. i look forward to working with you. [applause] >> i am very pleased to be able to introduce dr. mary wakefield. for anyone and everyone who spend time dealing with questions of health care access for the disadvantaged, shortages in rural health work, nursing education practice, you will already recognized her as a leader. as hrsa administrator, she has a

$7.5 billion agency that supports a network of nearly 8000 health centers serving 19 million patients. with new funding, there are many challenges at hrsa but they moved as quickly as possible to work with the health reform provisions that includes support for the health centers. the ryan white hiv aids program and the clinicians and health services corp., the healthy start program that fight infant mortality, the national organ and marrow donor program are all administered by the agency she leaves. dr. wakefield brings a combination of high level of experience in pre-world, rural health care practice as a nurse, a washington policy making as a chief of staff to two u.s. senators, and her work in academic circles and our administration of service and research partnership that

targets health care infrastructure. i know she has said that 24-7 is not enough hours in the week to get important things done. she moves at a fast pace in her agency and i am thrilled she is able to be here today. [applause] >> thank you very much. it is a pleasure to be with you this afternoon on such an important topic as this one. i will help you get back on time as a group because while i am from north dakota, when i left there, they said i will speak in a way that is consistent with the east coast. thank you to the table that allowed me to sit with them. up front, they have tables that are reserved for youth. i told them that my birthday is tomorrow, august 12.

tomorrow, i want the young but today i still am and i asked to join them. if you look around, this is a full room today. there were kind enough to let me join them. can i came back tomorrow, it would be a different story. it is a pleasure to be here today and i want to also recognize the department of education and the assistant deputy secretary, kevin jennings for his leadership in bringing all of us here. one of the operating divisions of the u.s. department of health and human services, we are very excited to be partnering through this effort and we look forward to others going forward to have as part of today's activities six different federal departments that are full partners with this particular focus on diminishing and eliminating bullying across the country. we appreciate all of our partners efforts including each

of you from the private sector as well as the public sector for taking time out of your schedule to be here today. work -- those are not my slides -- in this area focusing on bowling goes back almost 10 years now when the agency began to develop a bullying awareness campaign. that was back in 2001 after we were seeing very compelling research describing bullying as a public health problem. for young people. in response to those data, the public health professionals in health bureaul believed that the destructive efforts of bullying, the destructive evarts of bullying honest victims that include

impacts like depression, poor school attendance, poor school performance, addiction, and other self-destructive behavior is, those destructive effects of a bullying on victims could be counter acted by a broadly designed well constructed public health campaign. at hrsa, we began by inviting researchers, practitioners, students, and adults to help us develop a prevention method. related to this, i want to stop and it now is a great work and leadership of dr. peter van dyke, the associate administrator for our health bureau and capt. stephanie burn. for the violence prevention program. i recognize them for their pioneering efforts. i also want to recognize and thank the department of education office of drug free

schools and the department of justice office of juvenile office and delinquency prevention for joining us early on in the development and launch of this campaign. you might be interested to know that from the beginning, almost 10 years ago, we had kids input into this campaign. in 2001, the hrsa step altogether a diverse group of children between ages 9 and 17 to refine a message to a fight bullying guarded the campaign which was designed for children between the ages of 9 and 13 was named by the children themselves the slogan "take a stand, lend a hand, stop bullying now" was their slogan. they wanted us to take action. in 2004, this campaign went public when hrsa launched the " stop bullying now" website it

has plenty of information on bullion for children and adults and provides links to the latest research. to give you an idea of its popularity, this website averages over 60 thefts -- 60,000 visitors per month. visitors stay for more than seven minutes on average we know that the site has become an important tool for youngsters, their teachers, parents, and care givers to fend off the damaging effects of bullying by looking at the site and downloading material from it. hrsa staff have managed to get the tool kit to every elementary and middle school, public library, and, extension office across the country. every boys and girls club has the illustrated books and school kids and we have sent campaign resources to each chapter of the american academy of pediatrics. the campaign has grown to the

point where it includes 80 organizational partners including the department of agriculture and its state infrastructure of home extension and 4h. the department of defense is another partner and they allowed us to extend the campaigns of reach overseas since the department of defense's television stations worldwide play our public service announcements. the state of florida uses campaign material to train school personnel and the national organization for you say the coalition members uses the resources to train their members. other partners continue to support the work of the campaign by placing articles and ways to combat bullying in their newsletters and by distributing campaign materials at meetings, by e-mail, and direct mailing and promoting campaign activity and weathercasts and hosting anti-bleeding links on their web sites.

cyber-bullying is an area we will explore more fully in 2011. to deepen the reach of the anti- bleeding message, the campaign next year will add information and resources for children between the ages of 5 and 8 to bring guidance and resources to them during the early years of their development. the office of safe and drug-free schools is also providing funding for these activities and i thank them, too, for joining us in this work. in spite of all of that, there is clearly much more that we all can do to push out anti-bullying messages. you are the experts today and you're talking about the latest and most compelling information out there. this is the kind of information that need to be shared widely with those across the country that can make the very best use of it. the guidance counselors, teachers, child care providers,

school nurses, school resource officers, and those others who are on the ground and relating every single day to our nation's youth. our federal partners on the bullying intervention steering committee from the departments of education, defense, agriculture, justice, and interior and other agencies are planning a web cast of this fall that will include some of the presentations that have been given here today. that weathercast will address research and practice and will build and put from the invited participants here about future directions and commitments made by each of you. you will be hearing more about that particular e. benton the next month. in the meantime, i would encourage each of you to help was pushed out our collective valuable information that is available through your resources and available through the stop bullying now campaign. push that information out to your colleagues and

organizations. the thinking of other ways that you think we can share our information even more widely. at late administered -- yet it ministration, we're working hard to get the message to many health-care providers. last week here in washington, d.c., we had about 600 national health service clinicians', doctors, nurses, psychologists, and others and each one of them was given a dvd tool kit. those providers typically are community leaders. they are on the front lines of health care delivery for children and families in some of our most underserved communities. that is just one of the categories of providers that is pushing our information across federal government programs. the stop bullying now program is a public health strategy. the camp and identifies a

problem that afflicts millions of our young people and provides resources, information, and outrage designed to prevent bleeding. the message and gravity of the problem that it is designed to address has resonated strongly with the public and its representatives. well hrsa began working on the campaign, nine states have legislation designed to address bullying. today, 43 states have laws. mississippi just passed its own anti-bleeding legislation. as a public health issue, the stop bullying out campaign fit with the multiple disease prevention, health promotion, public health message is that have been lost by the obama administration and codified in the health care act. let me reflect back on the special group of youths who made up the u.s. experts panel that

developed the campaign almost nine years ago. the young people on that panel made sure that the campaign reflected the real-life impact of bullying in middle school and beyond. those palle members came from several states, from big cities, suburbs, and small towns. some had believed. some had been bullied. all had determined that the best way to stop bullying is to take a stand against it. they shared personal stories of how bullying affected their lives and the lives of their friends. they helped us understand how to discuss cyber-bullying in a way that would make sense in their world. they recommended ways for adults to engage this issue without making matters worse. those are outstanding young people who helped us years ago and we hope more kids like them and those in the room today are taking on leadership roles in bullying prevention.

we are here to support them. i would encourage all of you to visit the campaign website at stop bullying now.hrsa.org. that wealth of information started with a small group of individuals joined across the age demographic to move on an agenda item that is incredibly important to them and remains very important to all of us today. we also need to continue going forward to do whatever we can to reach children where they left. the stop bullying canal campaign is on facebook and kids and adults can't download a ring town for their cell phone. or they can follow is on twitter. we started trading in april, 2009, and we currently have 1200 followers in putting boys and girls clubs, pta, teachers, parenting reporters, libraries

and community organizations. thanks to all of you and to your collaborative efforts, because of all the best, bullying and the strategy to address it are on the national agenda. and hrsa we are committed to push back against this public health problem. we look forward to hearing about your ideas generated here in this meeting and ideas generated in the days to come. together, we can do more to combat bullying for the next generation of young americans. thank you very much for the opportunity to be with you. [applause] a pleasure. >> thank you again dr. wakefield.

building on the wonderful comments from dr. wakefiels and the extensive work they have done to create online resources and the health resources administration, i am pleased to say that out of the work of the federal steering committee on bullying prevention and the interagency working group on youth programs which includes more federal agencies and a broader range of issues, we have been thinking hard about how to make sure resources across the federal government that address bullying are readily available to you. we are all familiar with and the federal government of going and shopping other federal agencies websites to figure out what they have. we are looking to bring forward the resources around bullying that will be of common interest3 .

we have helpful input and leadership from used. that is the continuing interest of ours. as we focus on what the federal government already has, we find we have not done a good job of doing use focus resources. i am sure you will be giving us input as we go on what kinds of additional resources could be beneficial. our focus now is what we can offer for youth service organizations. we now have available -- we have launched the arrival of this conference, the bullying info pages which you can see to my left. we want you to focus on checking this out when you go back to your home organizations and you will see there is a variety of ways in which you can give us input on what you find there and what you are seeking and we see this -- anything that is web-

based resources need to stay alive and keep growing and changing. we look forward to your feedback. this is the new feature page on bullying prevention and response on our new web resources. you will see that we have on the right to a set of questions that we have gone through what federal agencies have to offer at what has been raised in the field. we have captured a number of critical questions that are of interest across audiences. through these questions and the answers to these questions, you can link into the resources from the stop bullying now campaign and other federal resources now available. we are committed for this to have integrated strategies to find the key resources across the federal government.

what are the effective strategies to prevent a bowling? this is a typical page or re- enter these lead -- lead questions. we assembled was currently known about preventing and responding to bullying. there has been a recent systematic review of the research and evidence on school- based programs. catherine brad shaw talked about these results and you will find a summary of those results and access to that report. the research on bullying is still developing. there are essential characteristics of school-based programs that have shown modest of facts as more is known about how to address bullying. we wilwe provide feature articles and videos and special topics related to bullying. these resources will grow as we continue to develop the website. if you scroll down, you can get

a set of feature articles on bullying including one on cyber- bullying, one on a program in maryland called "you have the power," 1 with the federal part as a bullying that brought you this conference today and one on ways you can get involved to address bullying in your community. you can view a video of dr. the doctor that spoke of the department of agriculture to explore a number of topics. we also provide feature articles on -- i covered that already -- if you scroll down, you'll find the federally funded programs that address youth violence and victimization in your community. you can use this tool to five potential partners who will identify gaps and services. just enter your zip code to learn more. this provides you with access to

federally funded programs. you have heard part of the federal efforts to make sure you were accessible as possible as to what kind of resources were in communities. we have look for programs addressing youth violence and victimization in lincoln, nebraska. as you go into the map, you can see there is a safe and drug- free schools program here. you would enter your zip code or a city name to find out what is going on in your community. this information can be downloaded into spreadsheets or things you can print in use at meetings or in conversations about what you have or might want to develop in your community and you can copy and paste the pictures of the maps as well. the info is part of this. this is a federal website that the interagency working group of new programs has developed and

includes federal partners that have been part of the prevention steering committee and more for 12 federal departments and agencies for you can find additional information like positive view of developments on the latest federal news on u.s. issues. this is a slide of the home page. as you can see on the right hand side, one of our other activities is more generally gathering strategic input for a plan for youth programs and policies. you can enter input on that site as well as find out about some of the sessions we are convening to get input. you can also give us feedback about the development of the website more generally including what else you would like to see around the bullying resources. we look forward to getting your input on this site. thank you very much [applause] you have been hearing a great

deal about stephanie and she is coming up to the states. >> i want to interrupt for a second because i need to underline what just happened for people who are not used to the federal government. [laughter] the federal government has an enormous amount of wonderful resources. the one thing we don't do very well is get them out to you. leadership,s everything we are doing on bullying across every agency, you can go to bullyingifo.org and you can't get it. [applause] that is an incredible accomplishment. forget herding cats. this was like hurting kids that were in utero. [laughter] -- herding cats that were

in utero. people are looking for solutions. we have those and there were scattered all over the government. they are all in one place i want to thank martha for her leadership. thank you, martha. [applause] >> hi, everyone we will now do some movement in the room. as the panel comes forward, will everyone in the room please stand up and the their stretch, john, yong, wiggle, and then turn to someone you have not been met before and say hi. [general chatter]

could we ask you to sit down, please? thank you. i have a comment and announcement. before we begin. the announcement is that the breakout session will run until 4:453 5. we are adding 50 minutes because we are a little bit behind for the want to make a comment. i know how many of you enjoy your summer vacation.

raise your hand if you enjoy the summer vacation. i want to point out that we have 12 youths who gave up two of their summer vacation days to be with us. [applause] i want to applaud them. as you start your breakout sessions now, they will be in your breakout sessions. they will be contributing. they had a huge caucus and now they are breaking out with all of us. i and stephanie brinn from hrsa and i have overseen the stop bullying now program for 10 years. we are excited you are all here. the bullying summit team work group consists of six federal agencies. -- departments and and other agencies. we had wonderful input from hhs,

justice, agriculture, the fans, and interior for starters. we plan to this by telephone. there has been a bomb or two, but the plan has worked. we found out we really like each other. we decided to go and away web cast and grow the next circle out to take advantage of our disciplines and our professions and then all of you who are so important to keeping a growing and keeping it going. we really believe that all our children are treasures. i want to introduce the practitioner panel. this will be a great treat for you. these wonderful panelists design projects, programs, and

activities. they will describe unique processes, efforts both in the classroom and in the community and at the national organization level. we will take questions at the end of the panel discussion. first, my friend and colleague, dr. joe wright, from children's national medical center and the american academy of pediatrics. we met on a work group together years ago. he is an expert in emergency medical care and education. in fact, he has been educating pediatricians when it comes to bullying for nearly a decade. the second speakers are our youth experts, maggie filamon ans ashley, who will showcase the you have the power project. this is all about youth

leadership, you taking the lead when it comes to peer education and communication. this is about bullying prevention messages to high- school students, middle school students, and elementary school students. you will take a look at their project and see how they work. crucial to the word they do is superior guidance from robyn glass so is the executive director of project change within montgomery county. next, bonita evans who is an fbi outreach specialist in buffalo, new york. we first learned about her creative and you make community partnership when she ordered a big supply of stop bullying now materials. it was curious. she ordered them for a community event involving families and youth. it would be at a movie theater.

it would be the opening night of the "karate kid" movie and it will be fantastic. as you will hear from her, she is taking community partnering to a whole new level the last speaker is judy from harrisburg, pennsylvania school district. she will conclude the panel's remarks. she will describe how the classroom and a school can provide social and emotional learning. improves cool climates. she will describe the process by which you send adults acquired important skills that help them negotiate life in their schools and life in their communities. you will also enjoy hearing about these important skills that students learn in the harrisburg schools. our first speaker, dr. wright. [applause]

>> thank you, stephanie. is a pleasure to be here. we have worked together for more than a decade in trying to get this message out to pediatricians. i am a pediatrician. i practice pediatric emergency medicine in this town for 20 years. i want to put our young people to work how many of you have had your pediatrician discussed bullying with you in the context of an office visit? be honest, a couple of hands. i am not surprised. i am not surprised i like to take a few minutes to talk about some of the activities that are going on in the american academy of pediatrics which is essentially our trade union of pediatricians in this country

and more specifically talk about how this issue has influenced my practice. i will talk a little bit about how i got interested in this from the lens of the emergency room. how is an emergency medicine physician engaged with bullying awareness? let's start with the aap, the american academy of pediatrics. this is an organization of 60,000 primary care and specialty pediatricians. they are affiliated members that are dedicated to the health, safety, and well-being of children, adolescents, and young adults. that sounds all encompassing and mom and apple pie, but one of the reasons that stephanie asked me to be a part of this panel, thate is a major hole

pediatricians bring to the table when caring about adolescence. it wasn't until 2005 that stephanie and i became inaugural members of a subcommittee within the aap that focused on this issue and focused on this issue in the context of overall youth violence prevention. what was important about that, like any large organization, things don't get done unless there are people who are committed to doing it. in 2005 after a long time, much advocacy within the organization around the aap finding a place and people who would address this issue within the 60,000- member organization finally came to fruition in 2005. i was honored to be the inaugural chair and stephanie has served on that subcommittee and on our committee on injury

and violence prevention for a number of years. that is the lay of the land organization within the american academy of pediatrics. one year ago, july of 2009, we published this policy statement. one of the jobs of the committee of the american academy of pediatrics is to set the course for the pediatricians in the organization. the policy statement methodology is the way we communicate to the membership what they should be doing. this policy statement globally focused on the role of the pediatrician in renewed violence -- in the use of violence. it added emphasis on bullying prevention in the global context. to our surprise, the release of this policy statement in july of 2009 generated a great deal of

media and public attention. this is an example of some of the articles like the one in " "the new york times." one person got this into the times before the embargo was lifted this was a very widely read peace that was published. cbs news, katie couric had an interview on this issue. the ap published an article that was widely distributed across the country. why is this important? it is because i will tell you that in the 10 years that i have been personally involved in this and end of five years i have been lecturing at our national conference and exhibition where there are 10,000 pediatricians annually, i

have been delivering the seminar. it has been a seminar and a workshop and every iteration of presentation at this meeting. i have been shot -- shot at the paucity of awareness. at the paucity of awareness on this issue. they keep asking me to come back so i think the academy is also schhocked. there is an acknowledgement there is a significant gap in the preparation, frankly, for pediatricians and perhaps other health professionals in the united states around this issue, but specifically, pediatricians have contact with children, particularly developmentally early on and particularly at points in their development where this issue is best

address. ed. the attorney general last year spoke because the nce was here in washington and attorney general holder can buy and i had more people in my session after he popped in and delivered a plenary session. it was more globally on youth violence with a focus on bullying. also in 2008, as part of our education multi-faceted forms of educating pediatricians, we published an audiotape. as a group, we are pretty conservative and perhaps not as up-to-date as others in the different forms of electronic communication. a cassette tape that could be popped in on the way to the office with three talking heads about bullying was something that was an important contribution to this issue

within the aap. that is what is happening at the american academy of pediatrics in terms of education. it is a huge commitment to awareness that is important to maintain. in terms of resources that the aap has, the stop bullying campaign, the aap has been a partner since its inception. i shamelessly plug the stop bullying and now materials, particularly the webisode. if you didn't have a chance to say it, maybe it was shown earlier, they are in the back. these are perfect video vignettes for the office setting. this is for pediatricians when they have families and young people in the waiting room. this is the perfect tool for communication and education. the aap published its own

educational resource a few years ago that addresses violence prevention and as part of that curriculum that is available to all membership, we have included a series of brochures on bullying prevention that is available to the pediatricians and all the health professionals in the office setting. one thing that i am proud to say about this education resource is that it is adaptable. it is not confined for use in the office setting. we have just published a study about the use of connected kids in head starts and being able to use curriculum in other settings which is critically important. the access to children who come in all flavors and settings and should not be confined to the interaction of a pediatrician and a family in the office. my own story, as an emergency

medicine doctor, i began to be very curious about the antecedence stories behind the kids that i was saying, particularly the injured kids. injury is the number-one reason that i see patients in my practice. as i began to dig back into the story behind the story, i began to understand more and more. this has to do with direct forms of bullying. people are injured and hurt. i opened my eyes to the contribution of bullying and retaliation. that is all another realm. that experience opened my eyes to the importance of this issue in the overall context of intentional injury prevention. i will take a couple of minutes to talk about where i work, the

children's national medical center. i think every self respecting children's hospital has the word advocacy and its mission. it would not be a full-service children's health organization if it did not. what that has meant for us is a commitment for bullying intervention and prevention and here on the screen, you see a couple of colleagues who i have worked closely with over the years through an advocacy approach to bring light to this issue at our hospital, dr. and anotherstein, doctor who are both in our department of behavioral health. day -- they have worked closely with me. i run the childhood advocacy institute at our hospital. our job has been to raise awareness through legislative

advocacy and media advocacy and public education. this is just a selected example of some of the more recent opportunities for legislative advocacy. particularly, and more recently on capitol hill before the house labor education subcommittee on health and families and community on cyber- bullying back in june. also, in terms of media advocacy, leveraging venues like the washington post, this was an op-ed piece written by dr. shrpastein -- shrapstein and myself and was placed strategically to get attention on this issue at a time when there was legislation being debated in the maryland house.

here are some examples of the electronic and print media that the efforts at the hospital have permitted us to be involved with this is the bill that we would like to feel our efforts helped to influence in the state of maryland maryland, i am proud to say, is one of the 43 that has passed legislation in this area. at a grassroots level, dr. shrapstein has been a companion had the catered to his practice. -- has been a companion advocate with his practice spread he has been good a galvanizing district courts across montgomery county locally to come together to address this issue.

this death and it puts the one minute left and i will address questions at the end. i cannot tell you how much of an influence this has been to me professionally. as i mentioned, i practice pediatrics for 20 years but certainly the last 10 years has been very heavily influenced by what i see in my practice and what i know is important to communicate to my colleagues across the country. thank you. [applause] >> ok.

ok. so, i again, i am ashley. >> i am maggie. >> we are members of project change which as i used/adult -- youth/adult partnership here in the county. >> the mission of project changes to promote positive youth development through community involvement, pierre mentoring, and leadership training. >> you have the power we callyhtp, is a bullying prevention project. the high schoolers and adult advisers work together to mentor the middle and elementary school students. we empower the students and teach them that they can make a difference at their schools. some students after going to the

program make their own programs at their schools. the mentees become the leaders and they keep and tight-bullying messages alive. >>the youth, project change is a community partner. in 2005, made regional team was strained by the stop molding now campaign representatives. when we bring yhtp to a school, the school grades breifs the counselor and a principal. from there, there was elected a the first group of students

representing different characteristics, like leadership, being shy, to be in the program. that may come back to the meeting to tell them what yhtp is all about and the necessary forms they need to fill out to participate. >> teen mentors receive training before we can mentor the young students. amy with the young students once a week after school. before each of these meetings, the mentors reflect upon the previous you have the power meeting and then we prepare the next lesson plan. everyone, including the adult advisers, mentors, and adult students have to sign a confidentiality agreement. this means is the student share something they have witnessed or experienced, they do not use the names. we tell them to sometimes used a

fake name. it is to fund. we also tell them not to say anything that we discussed outside of the group. we teach the students talks about building and then we help to create a presentation so that they can teach their schoolmates what they have learned. >> in the pictures in the top left our elementary school students. it chose a diverse group of gender and ethnicity. you cannot tell what kind of personnel in the half, but they are a personable bunch. in the bottom half we have belmont elementary school students. ashley and maine are in charge of the students. this whole session was run by youth and they are having fun and there are learning about how it affects their classmates. in the top right is the rosa

parks elementary students and their stop bullying presentation. in the bottom right, they are practicing for their psa which they created as their final project. >> the mentors and younger students both get along in the program. the mentors educate the young students about the risks, characteristics, and consequences of bullying. as a result, the elementary and middle school students become more sensitized to the types of building happening in their school. bullion also becomes more recognizable. the mentors also teach younger students about anti-building strategies and encourage them to become allies by teaching them ways to respond when witnessing a bullying situation. after the program, the schools that had an increased knowledge that bullying happens in their

schools. they also learned that students can change the school, and how the environment works. >> the yhtp project demonstrates an active role by students with active engagement by the younger population to their community. high schoolers mentoring younger students, caring teachers, parents, and administrators, provide support to make the school setting a safer place. >> to date, there have been 97 team members trained, 111 elementary schools have participated. 20 students have been involved in the teenager mentoring program, and a total of 4428 students have been in rich.

-- reached. >> at the end of the school year, we presented a workshop for the sixth grade at rosa parks, 280 students. after, we got some information from them. 81.5% of them learn something new from our presentation. nearly 90% will not stand up for someone if they are being bullied. >> yhtp has been implemented in six schools. t has been featured in pbs' programming, and has appeared on the nickelodeon programs.

other teenagers has also presented. some of which are listed here >> we have a you have the power tool kit. there is a cd with two power point presentation, printed material, training material, role playing materials, bullying strategies, a poster designed by the yhtp team, and maggie was one of the amazing artists who created this. this tool kit is available to you so that you can start your own yhtp at your school. please visit our website, www. projectchange.-md.org.

now we are going to show you a clip of the video that we were talking about earlier. >> [inaudible] >> it was funny, but it was wrong.

>> i do not like what you said about me. by the time you get to high school, it seems like everybody is doing it. >> anybody can do something to prevent this. it is just a matter of if you are willing to. >> one of the reasons i got involved in the project was to identify bullying and to prevent myself from just excepting it as something that happens. we learned about this campaign and applied for a grant. >> we had one month of planning. we figured out what we would do with kids, how we would get the

administration involved. >> the we submitted our application and we were lucky enough to get the help from our principal. >> they were a diverse group of kids. >> it was interesting to see their perspective on what bullying is. >> i just want to help other people get the message that bullying is not cool. some people get the impression that it has to be physical, beating somebody up. people do not even think about all the other types of bullying. >> [inaudible]

teasing people, talking about them behind their back. >> some people may not think of it as only being friendly. they take it seriously. >> everybody looks at there's different ways. put yourself in their shoes. >> in the beginning, there were some problems. by the end of it, never able to see the situation. >> the middle schoolers were great. they came up with all of the ideas for our skits. >> and they really put their all into it.

>> [inaudible] >> each time was like the first time. >> we edited everything and then put it onto a dvd. it was not like a project we have to get done. it was something where we could make a difference.

>> as many as 160,000 students may stay home from school on any given day because they are afraid of being bullied. >> bullying is aggressive behavior that intends to cause harm and is usually repeated over time. >> bullying happens in schools everyday, everywhere. >> take a stand and lend a hand. stop bullying now. >> >> you are such a freak.

what is that? >> [inaudible] >> what did you do about it? >> [inaudible] >> come on, let's go. >> i hope from the presentation video, you can see that teenagers have the ability to make a difference if they're willing to stand up and get involved in the efforts involving bullying. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009]

>> good afternoon. if stop bullying western new york campaign. first, i have to give you an overview of who we are. the federal bureau of investigation's community of rich program was established in 1993 under former fbi lied to fbi director william sessions under the russian program. within the 56 field offices, community of reach represents a human face for the government. the mission of the community of rich program is to provide a comprehensive program that deals with multiple, interrelated set aside a programs, including terrorism, civil rights, gangs, drugs, and other crimes, in support of the fbi investigative mission. our national partners include clear channel, lamar

advertising, the naacp, the national urban league, u.s. memorial holocaust museum, fbi safe online surfing, the anti- defamation league. each community on rich specialist serves as a catalyst for initiating community programs established as a national level, but we also have the flexibility of adapting those that fit our local communities. stop bullying now -- i cannot even tell you how we began. it just came around so quickly. we were created by a group of private not-for-profit community agencies that gathered together to brainstorm on a possible activity in conjunction during the weekend of the "rocket kit" movie in june 2010.

-- "karate kid" movie in june 2010. because of our partners longstanding community up regelation, they have proven to be successful in the past. i have to tell you where i got my introduction from. one day when i was working hard, i was searching on-line for training on assign her bullying and school violence. i came across information regarding the sixth annual international bullying prevention association, which was held in november 2009 in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. i attended the conference and was able to gather a lot of information, as well as

resources, and during the trade show, i happened to walk past a stop bullying now. after the conference, i came back to the buffalo division, telling everyone in my office what had happened. i had the opportunity to sit on a conference call with community of which specialists in the area to talk about the conference, future trainings, how beneficial i thought it was to our other field offices. many of our other offices field teenager academies. there was a lot of information at the conference that was given that i felt could have been a part of the things that they do. some time in early may, i had someone call me, a graduate of rfp i citizens' academy

association, who was interested in bringing in the regal entertainment group along with the national center for missing and exploited children, and the school of tai kwan bill. my first response was, this does not sound good. i do not know how this is going to work. how am i going to sell this to my office? but we believed there was the opportunity to partner and add on to currently ncmec initiative to take 25 minutes to talk to a child. in another conversation that i had i discussed the idea and we said, okay, let's see what we can do. the discussion really focused on the amount of bleeding in the

upcoming movie "-- bullying in the upcoming movie "karate kid" and we felt, as parents, and members of the community, that this was a wonderful opportunity to bring awareness to the issue of bullying. the office presented their leadership award in 2009 to john. the fbi director presented the award this past year. his work in efforts on behalf of his son, who took his own life at the age of 13 -- brian was a victim of cyber bullying. he was humiliated by his classmates. john became an advocate for change, teaching teenagers in

bringing attention to his son's senseless passing. through his efforts, the state of vermont enacted the building lot. this law was signed on may 18, 2004 and establish a prevention procedures and policies for schools within the state. we thought what a better idea then to integrate this into a movie? on june 12, we had the opportunity to take one of the busiest riegle cinema theatres in the buffalo area and bring partners to the table to post an anti-bullying awareness campaign. what material did we mean, what resources did we have, and who should be at the table? our first contact was made with the entire building association, which i already had a direct a lead in.

we talked back and forth through e-mail and they were able to send us a host of information, which we utilize not only with our students, but think about it, moviegoers, grandparent, social workers, community leaders. then we reach out to stop bullying now. much of the reason that i stand here today is because of the efforts of stephanie bryann. in minnesota, julie provided resources and information regarding the upcoming october 2010 and bullying awareness month activity. other activities which came on board in local areas where child and an alumnus -- allison to the services, big brothers and big sisters of the

recounted. no initiative in the fbi automatically has support but leadership. was supported by the fbi director special agent james robinson and the fbi community relations director. here we are. here we are on june 12 at the regal set amount. we provided giveaways, t- shirts, t-shirts, chopsticks. a lot of this bus "karate kid" paraphernalia, the kids had the opportunity to win these things through creative means, by using a new -- or rental, chinese box, rubber bands, and a set of chopsticks. the senator took rubber bands and cut them into noodles and they put prices on them. the kids had to use the chopsticks to pick them up.

the adolescent treatment service provides and additional supply. here are some of the materials that were brought by some of our partners. it is important to note, we did not only give out information on volume, but we gave information on our respective agencies, whether it was big brothers big sisters talking about the mentor program, mcnec, we had a variety of information. these are some of the things that you saw in the package. the nfjc are holding a unit to walk as one, which is a large event in the new york area. here are some of the kids around the table.

children were able to break those boards and take them with them. what is next for us? we are going to be working again with the regal entertainment group again to work with them in the halloween time. programs will be created where how children will have the opportunity to meet their hand prints on the stop bullying wall and will be on display for the rest of the month in the theater. the fbi's community on reprogram has been provided with materials throughout our 56 field offices along with trying to establish continue dialogue for future national initiatives. we also will continue -- i cannot tell you that because it is not confirmed -- but we are

looking to become a tag along a trade liner for a local restaurant in october. in regards to bullying awareness week. we, in the buffalo area, utilize the last of our materials in the national night out. as we continue, we look to partner with other entities. we cannot do it by ourselves. we do not have the resources. all of this was free. everyone had the knowledge. it was just a matter of bringing the tools and everyone together. thank you. [applause]

>> and it is wonderful to be a part of this important conversation and to feel they want cringing level of concern and support for the work that we do in school every day on behalf of the well-being of all of our kids. i'd ask today is to share with you some of the work we have been doing in the harris burke school district. my work is about promoting social and emotional learning. children need to learn that effort, persistence, and resiliency are eventually rewarded. social and emotional learning involves explicit teaching and skills of the motion of identification and management, skills of empathy for self and others, as well as skills of positive relationships for responsible decision making, and for problem solving.

gaining confidence in these social and emotional skills and is setting a foundation for academics achievement, good health, resilience, and civic engagement. some believe behaviours are rooted in an adequate skill levels. to manage and communicate emotions and positive ways, to be apathetic, and to solve social problems, and to be -- make mindful decisions. prevention side is a body of science that studies the prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. evidence-based social and emotional learning programs comes from prevention science. it provides us the tools of universal practices for a more pro-active focus and primarily works sufficiently for about 80% of the general population. prevention science emphasizes the risk factors and support families, schools, and finally

environment. in harrisburg school districts, prevention science is used to promote the well-being of children and youth and to reduce the prevalence of high-risk behaviors and poor outcomes in students, such as bullying and victimization. our social and emotional work is also linked to neuroscience, how the brain works. human beings offered in two different modalities, depending on circumstances, and their actions show up as behaviours. the first modality plays out as a hot or go system. it helps us to survive. we stumbled upon something from them, like a tiger, and as the go system takes over, the brain sends alerts to our arms, legs, and blood pressure increases. the amygdala is the emotional center of the brain where emotion, such as fear, is processed. the amygdala is our regional

brain. in a crisis or stressful situation, it automatically takes over the job of thinking, including fight or flight. we no longer process information in a cool, collected way. it instinctively moves us to action. this part of the brain's system developed early and is most dominant early in life. we need to help all children to develop their second brain system known as the cool, know system. it is emotionally neutral, runs off the frontal lobe, and is designed for higher level conative processing. it helps us to ride, rather than merely survive. it is ill suited to dealing with the tiger that is about to deal with the tiger -- that is about to show up around the corner.

but hopefully, we are not often approached by that tiger. our know system is composed of if -- contemplative and starts to develop around the age of four, just at a time when children are able to delay gratification. when you have two of anything coming a go system, k and anow system, you are likely to deploy the wrong system. the go system is deployed every chance it gets. however, it will hijack the brain which causes huge problems and generate an acceptable reactive behavior is. we need to learn to wrestle control away from the amygdala when it is kicking in hard at the wrong time. some believe behaviours are rooted in the amygdala. we want to be ruled by reason and not let anger or joblessness

or a need for survival to take charge. the good news is this powerful self management skill is laudable and we did learn a ball -- learnable. coming down enables the no system to kick in. problem-solving and positive decision making skills can take over. the ball enough can take time to think through consequences of its intention to bully and may make more mindful decisions on de beers. the victim of bullying has more rational and useful responses, including the ability to assertively express thoughts and feelings and to access help. he or she may even be able to prevent a predictable bullying situation. over the last five years, i have

led the implementation of social and emotional programs in harrisburg. we have 8500 students. it is high minority, about 75% african-american, 18% latino, and high poverty cited by free or reduced one trait. we explicitly teach the skills associated with the emotion management. this includes interest and interpersonal skills, and devotion and dedication, empathy, a social problem solving, and relationship decision making. kids that develop confidence in these skills can better manage when a modern-day billy the purchase with emotional or physical abuse. the victim has more burble tools at hand as well as a corrective tools to survive, overcome the incident, and hopefully to disable it from happening again.

however, we no-confidence is developed over time and with a lot of practice, so the adults are still essential in reducing the billing cycle. we provide professional development for teachers and staff so that they themselves have greater skills to coach the emotional development of students. research tells us that people will not attend a behavior unless they think it is worth it, so teachers you develop self efficacy about their roles often half full is more able to delay gratification. they are better and disconnecting themselves from thinking about either the short or long-term reward. the one of the police can delay gratification will notice the best opportunity to bali. he or she will be aware of time that adults are not attentive,

opportunities to believe are more prevalent. the adult, bully, a victim, and bystanders, are all essential in the bullying cycle. there are strong and growing body of scientific a place to research supporting a strong impact that will implement an evidence based social and emotional learning program. the development of faith, caring well managed environments work together with social and emotional learning programs to reduce risky behavior increase assets and positive development, increased school attachment, academic engagement and commitment to schools. indeed, where this is happening well in ever harrisburg schools, we have evidence of a healthier relationships and better classroom behavior. for us in harrisburg school district, social and emotional learning is not an add-on components, like stumbling

prevention programs are. we have implemented evidence- based curricula in all grades including a high-quality preschool. we use -- we have integrated skill building into the curriculum so that academics and social and emotional learning skills are coordinated, reinforce one another, and application can be practice authentically. students set goals and to the problems to increase their engagement and academics and it has offered a behaviours in the classroom and to run the school. integration is important. in our seventh and eighth grade, we have integrated two models of history. for example, seventh grade students to engage in a rich historical case study such as

the desegregation of little rock, arkansas in 1957. students participate in the addendum the studies of the key figures involving a school principal, superintendent, mayor, governor, and then president eisenhower. they also studied the matter rock nine, a group of african and their students, who were the first to integrate into an all white high school. the decision that each person made and the effect of the decisions. did learn about civic engagement and how they themselves can act not as bystanders of the bully victim cycle, but as up standards. our students take on service to our products to practice of standing in themselves, especially around the development an expression of and that they. we believe students participate less in bullying when they better understand others and no

ways to create a win-win situations in their relationships with others. also it is the belief that community is important and individuals in the community are collectively responsible for the development and sustainability of a safe and positive community that will then serve all individuals well. community building is an integral component of our school day. to receive high-quality professional development and community building to response of classrooms out of the nebraska foundation for children and developmental designed out of orange and. one of our common daily structures is morning meeting or circle of power and respect. this happens every morning and in every pre-k through a classroom. the focus is committed to building and positive participation. teacher and students gathered together and we did in a consistent format for friendly

share of news, having fun, and warming up to the day. this routine of community building assumes full participation and full inclusion by all. school morning meetings are also conducted periodically throughout the school year. additionally, a class meeting may occur, if needed for group social problem solving. taken together, we think providing explicit a trenchant through basic emotional and social and programs and professional development for the development of learning communities is a comprehensive approach to meet our goals for social, emotional skill development and to reduce bullying behavior in school. policy is also critical to the goal of reducing bullying. our board policy on bullying defines bullying, schools will

provide a safe and positive learning climate, in sure a lot of consequences for bullying behavior, and expects staff to have the skills of a program intervention and to use them, and requires billing incidents to be reported. besides providing professional development for teachers to implement our social and emotional learning programs, we have also provided teacher coaches. our instructional coaches have been cross trained in our social and emotional learning programs, so not only do they model, could facilitate, and or observe teachers implementing the programs, to collaborate with teachers around common planning time to help integrate the work into their content area. this helps teachers makes sense of all they are required to do enables a higher level of authentic use of social and emotional learning programming. additionally, we designed it

differentiated professional development in a more focused way. using rough play and professional literature to problem solve the challenges and generalizing the coaching of skill development through the school day. as teachers' skills and emotions increase, students feel more positive about school and are more academically productive. success for us looks like well implemented, evidence based, program that is integrated to read the curriculum. we provide the persian the ball than encouraging teachers at various levels of differentiation with the goal of increasing the self efficacy of our staff to be not only explicit teachers but emotion coaches. our students have the opportunity to learn and practice the development of social and emotional competence. our classrooms feel like learning communities. to this general their own cost thermals and punish him with their teachers and representative from each class work collaborative lead to generate schoolwide rules to promote positive interaction.

we have evidence of more social behaviors in schools, fewer absences and abstentions, reduction in aggression, and other risky behaviors, and more generalized social capacity to solve interpersonal problems. i will leave you with a quotation from operations sanchez, and thank you. [applause] >> i hope you liked the panel. it is just a taste of what is happening in the community. this is my favorite part, where you get to ask questions of our panelists. i will ask the panelists to move the microphone so that you can pass it back and forth. are there questions from the audience? >> thank you. one statement and a question. the first statement is, i am

encouraged from what dr. wright was saying about how this issue of bullying is not only being taken out by education, but by pediatricians as well. i am encouraged to see that. it plays back into this idea that we need to combine our forces between health and education to make our society better. earlier, about the website that we could see interdepartmental policies around bullying and see what is going on, i wanted to commend that. my question is for the last speaker, judith. i was wondering if you had seen a change in the school climate. you're putting in programmatic changes, but have you seen in expanding outside of the classroom come into the school, and possibly the community as well?

>> we have. my direct work in the district has been over the last five years. prior to that, i was working with penn state university. over nine years, we have seen great changes in the schools. somebody said this morning, when you walk into a safe school, you know it. that is what we have now. we did not have that eight years ago. we feel that sense of safety in their classrooms and schools. we are still working on the interrelationships between our community and schools. >> this is for mackey and ashley. amazing program. i am curious, how young are the kids that you work with, how early can you get them started in some of these discussions,

workshops that you, and do you have some programs that are more useful for middle school kids compared to elementary kids? i'm just curious about the age groups you are working with. >> to answer the question of what age -- when we go to elementary schools, the youngest we take his third grade. you can tell there is a difference between bill schoolers and elementary school hours. elementary school kids seem more fun and involved. the middle school kids are fun and smart, they have more to put in, but both age groups work well with us. >> also, the difference between elementary and middle, elementary school students respond well to you thewebisodes and budd middle school students, it is iffy as there are going to respond to the webisode.

it is more about discussing what happens in their school, how they can prevent it from happening. with elementary school kids, it is more about telling them and learning how to prevent it. >> my question is for dr. right. i was going through a depression and suicide troubles in elementary and middle school. i told my pediatrician everything and he told me i needed to get more sleep. my question for you is all the nutrition to prepare for the fact that people go through a depression at early ages. i think i have heard in a lot of cases, depression is only for older kids or adults, but people can go through in any age. our pediatricians -- are

pediatrician prepared to deal with that sort of thing? >> thank you for the question. i think pediatricians, generally, are not prepared or aware of the behavior health consequences of bullying, which is why i focus my comments on the great need to educate, not just pediatricians, but all health professionals. i think health professionals can serve to bridge the gap of what might be going on in terms of supporting the educational environment, support needed in the community environment. i look to the cohorts of adults who do not necessarily spend their day in the educational environment. i represent a group that really has the steepest learning curve. health professionals are among those of adults.

i am really surprised. every time that i talk to my colleagues in large numbers, i walk away feeling, this is like spitting in the ocean where we really need to have each and every one of you who are parents, young people, to challenge your health professionals -- listen, you need to know about this. in fact, your professional organization has a tool that you need to have in your office. i would encourage everyone in the room who is a parent, has any interaction with health professionals on advocacy for their children, grandchildren, or for the young people themselves, i would encourage you to challenge the pediatrician. we need to be engaged.

one of the push backs that i get is there is so much going on in the context of an office visit, i just cannot squeeze in another thing. well, we have provided a set of tools that will allow for the integration of this work. and it is incremental. you mentioned -- it is not something that you mentioned at the six-year old visit and that is it. you have to follow up. >> this question is mainly for maggie and ashley, but could be answered by anyone on the panel, because you were working on programs trying to reach out to you and beyond youth. i am curious, for your program to get into more schools, to reach more kids, what are your

thoughts about what you need from a roomful of people like this, in order to have your programs grow so that you were all reaching more kids who can come up over the course of time, work to create this culture of intolerance around a billion? >> what we would look for is people in this group -- take a tool kit, talk to anyone. talk to your community, go to a high school. talk to the principal and start a group. get students involved and get the community involved with the bullying program. >> teenagers want to be involved and want to make a difference. they would love to help.

that would be a good start, too. >> when i took the you have the power group which made to a meeting, they were eloquent and engage the audience. i got two phone calls both from the west coast asking me to fly them out to oregon to speak to a group. i told them your closest high- school and middle school is where you need to go. there are youth leaders in every middle and high school who are just waiting to be involved. i enjoyed telling that story, when they wanted to fly you to oregon. all i had to say was go over to go over to your local high school and middle school, and you have you if that is ready to be engaged. >> like the previous questioner,

i was also interested in your presentation, maggie, ashley, which was incredibly inspiring. i worked with muslim and arab views. i also work with sikh, buddhist, hindu children, and i would love to take your program and implement it with children across the country. does it have to be driven by the school, -- for example, if we could broadcast your video, could we put it on the website and have kids watch this presentation, and then have them initiate a program where they can get their local leaders and start a program in a local middle school, high school? does the school need to initiate this type of program? >> we developed a tool kit.

the youth decided they had something they wanted to share with other users around the country. so together, we put together the tool kit. it was a way to give guidance to high schoolers and other communities to empower them to do the same thing. so to answer your question, i would say there are a few ways you can go. one way to get -- would be to get your hand on the tool cakit. i am not sure how it is set up with regards to your relationships with the schools, but to have a youth group started -- right now, for instance, -- let me backtrack a little bit. the montgomery county safe and drug-free schools program gave

us money to publish this tool kit so that one of each of these tool kits could be given to each of the 26 public high schools in montgomery county. that has been done. now i am getting phone calls from these schools who want to do this, we are excited, and so i am giving them guidance over the phone, through e-mail, to get them started. we also said, because we are close by, we would be happy to have some teenagers go out to the schools and have a presentation, to give them some self-confidence, some experience, scenarios about behavior management. these kids have to work with kids. we go through some training in that regard. the idea would be to pick up the tool kit. you can get hold of the video

directly from pbs. you can go online to inthemix.org, and you can order the video specifically, no. a hundred one. -- #801. in terms of funding, we initially went to -- we went to youth service america to get our very first funding. they wrote the grant and then had to go on a two-hour interview by phone for all the groups that were competing for grants had to talk amongst each other, and they did it all themselves, and they got the initial amount of money. it does not cost a lot of money to run this program. it is mostly food because you have to feed them.

there are only so many materials that you want to input into the program. it is an inexpensive, easy program, as long as you have committed adult advisers, and committed teenager mentors. commitment is the major thing that we emphasize. you join the program, you are with the program. you cannot back out. i am your role model. if i am at every meeting on time, that is what i expect of you as well. >> my question is for ms. evans. do you plan on spreading your program to other movie theaters and areas? >> no, we actually have a meeting scheduled after the conference with members of the stop bullying now campaign to

take it to the headquarters level and then taken to our 56 field offices. >> i wanted to follow up on the question of getting resources. finduseinfo.gov as the new billing info resources. you have this in your packet, for those of you that have the assembled version, page 22. we will look at when we are focusing on here. this is a federal meeting. we will look to the extent that the resources have been shared here so that we can provide information for people outside of this meeting. it may be available elsewhere, but we will also look to provide

a central way of accessing some of the great things that have been talked about here. >> thank you. this is a comment for maggie and ashley. congratulations on all the work you are doing. i wanted to share this comment with you. spenaz alpha is an elite forces russian unit, and that have a model that i have adopted. "if not me, then who? keep that in mind when you speak to u.s. -- your fellow students who asked you what are you doing this? it's not me, then who? >> thank you. [applause] >> hello, my name is penny. i was struck by your

presentation. i was happy to say thad was involved in putting the program together. there are other programs like yours out there that young people have been doing, and i am stock that it took a ysa grant and all of the commitment and hassle that you showed, and that particular school district to use their money in that fashion, to make copies o to copies out. there seems to be a consensus that this is a valuable thing to be doing and we should be trying to be doing it in our school districts across the country. what i am thinking, the refrain that i get is, is this proven effective programming? if not, we cannot give you any funding to make it happen. it seems like a conundrum to me.

also, clearly, affects our ability and a number of youth organizations in the room, to do more of what we think is affect this. i wonder if any of the panelists have a comment about that. >> i would contend before you can really apply the measure of evidence-based effectiveness, people have to be educated and aware. i agree with you, it is sort of a catch-22. if you cannot demonstrate to me and given approach is efficacious, then we are not going to support it. but even before you get to that point, particularly the adults -- again, i sound like a broken

record -- but the steepest learning curve around this issue has to do with the adults, environment, community, and homes. schools, i imagine, are leading the way. in terms of the general population, i think there has to for education and awareness efforts before we really begin to strictly apply the evidence- we wanted to show perk -- process an partnerships. do any of the other panelists have another statement to make? >> i have two comments. first of all, i am a huge upon

the death evaluation in discovering evidence, good or bad or otherwise. with consistent programming across a large agency or small agency, we have the evidence. but we have kids working together and having the practice of leadership training and just being positively engaged. i think that this huge evidence of positive gains. we definitely want evidence based programming, but we also want our kids engaged positively with caring adults. >> and i think we have taken use involvement, it -- youth involvement. we have taken it to that next step for it is youth leadership. i think that is what we're showcasing today. that is what we see down here when we do the break up groups, and you'll hear about that. they want more than the

involvement. the want to be the leaders. the want to lead it and run it and of course tell about it. one more question. >> good afternoon. bills with the national association of independent schools in washington, d.c., and i applaud all the panelists. i am curious to know your reaction to the parents and the guardians of your patients when you bring them in. >> well, again, for the generation, and i do not want to paint a broad brush across the group of adults in this room, but i think that to many of us grew up with a different eat those around these behavior's and what they actually mean.

and certainly when i bring up the issues of concern for me as a pediatrician, i am also confronted with, well, it is not just kids being kids. so again, i find myself going back to, whether they be the parents of patients, whether they be peers or colleagues or whether they be, in my practice or whether they be across the country, returning to the same set of very basic educational issues, definitions. really drilling down the these behaviors are like unacceptable. and an interesting analysis that we give in our own emergency department was to really get a sense of what the largest influence on the youth attitudes

-- we look at young people who were in our emergency department as a result of assault and juries, and the overwhelming majority of them did agree with the statement that if somebody hits you, you hit them back. and that the biggest influence was the attitude of the parent, what they thought their parent would say to that question. overwhelmingly, i am confronted with a very basic need for educating a generation of adults, and it is so encouraging that the young people are taking the lead here, and i see it as sort of a pen service rep that we need to both educate young people but also the adults who are with young people each and every day and in

homes with them each and every night. >> did you have one last question, and then we will go to our breakout sessions? >> [inaudible] i agree with penny in what she is saying, that we're kind of stuck by not having evidence- based, i guess, what ever you want to college. i guess what struck me, i have not read completely what all you have done, but what struck me very strong was your program does all of the national association pier program professionals programmatic standards when you talk about training and mission, delivery. when you talk about follow-up. and all of those are critical for a healthy youth-led program, and love what you said about a strong advisor teacher. it is such a critical component. i really think you have the

beginning of some process results indefinitely. i mean, here was your plan. here was how many you impacted. in the next step is to see what we have. and i love what you said about, first of all, we have to become aware. we have to know the problem is. then we begin to look good behavior change. we cannot evaluate all that at once, and you cannot do that in one shot, so to speak. thank you very much. >> thank you. we will just go to our breakout sessions, and we will stay on the regular schedule. is that correct? so enjoy your breakout sessions. let's have one more round of applause. [applause]

>> please return to this room at 4:00 p.m. after your breakout sessions. we will go over the observations around bullying. please return to this sermonette 4:00 p.m. thank you. >> the "washington journal" summer series continues this week looking and energy issues. tomorrow, it focuses on fiore technology. the energy department earmarked

$9 billion for a year to research and development with a $45 million increase in 2011. a researcher on the topic from virginia tech will be our guest. we take your phone calls led every morning starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> there you are a senator. not a bad desk any -- either. >> harry truman in 1939 when he said he hated this movie, really despise did. at the time, harry truman was seen as a senator from the pindar grass machine of kansas city. i've always wondered if he did not think that the movie was looking at him and his relationship with the political machine that come. >> the senate historian on washington movies and his new book, "the u.s. congress: a very short introduction." that this sunday night.

every weekend in august, "book tv" returns to the festivals across the country. we will be in l.a. and new are this weekend. and then next week into the harlem book festival. later, the meeting of historians and librarians at freedom fest, a month filled with panels, all this, and books. on c-span2. go to the website for the full listing. an ounce of london for testimony by the former director mi5 general of in the british-iraq war in greece. baroness eliza manningham- buller told the panel that invading iraq increase the likelihood of terrorist acts on britain. the british-iraq inquiry is a five-member committee looking into british involvement in the war and the circumstances which led to the 2003 invasion. this is just under an hour 15 minutes.

>> welcome to our witness, baroness eliza manningham- buller. we have published one declassified document this morning which will be on our website. apart from that, just two things which i say on every occasion, we recognize the witnesses give evidence based on at the recollection of evidence, and we of course check what we hear against the papers to which we have access and which we are still receiving. for the preliminaries, i turned to baroness eliza manningham- buller. >> thank you. i think it is very helpful if you give us a quick resume of how the service was involved in

the intelligence and policies relating to iraq. >> can i proceed that with a more general description of the service? >> that would be helpful. >> to collect intelligence. but from a range of sources, some of them secrets, on the threats to the united kingdom, and to develop that intelligence, analyze it, and where necessary, to act on it in mitigating or reducing those threats. and also using intelligence generated to provide information to government on rich policies in countermeasures can be developed. in terms of iraq, we were not

directly involved in the decision making to go to war in iraq. that was generally other people, although we were involved, obviously, in a number of meetings and in some of the discussions. our focus was then on dealing with the manifestations of terrorist threats in the united kingdom since 9/11. and since 9/11 and for our worked increasing exponentially. it increased very much when we went into iraq. but our main focus was the protection of the united kingdom. >> what about -- [unintelligible] >> we were still concerned about the threat from espionage and the threat from the

proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. in law, we still have a responsibility to work and serious crime. in practice, when -- we pretty will give that up because of the pressure of work on terrorism. and terrorism not only from the global perspective but irish terrorism continued. >> there was the establishment of the joint terrorism center in 2003. can you say a bit about that? >> yes. obviously, after 9/11, we were all considering the implications of this attack. and before their arrival of jtac, there were a lot of separate bits around terrorist assessment.

but actually, my service has this sort of monopoly responsibility for producing terrorist assessments and had done for many decades. and we suggested that we should give up this monopoly and build something that was cross- temperamental. and i had extensive productions on the the evidence of this, on creating this new organ. and several departments were anxious about this. notably, a themod and dif to begin with. but once everybody decided, the department of mod were very supportive. i think we created something which thrives. it bought the views from across

the white house community from within the intelligence committee, from our departments, and led to a more comprehensive and richard analysis of the threat. -- richard analysis of the threat. it has also become very helpful in guiding investigations and operations. and it is much imitated. when our director-general so visitors to london, the very regularly wanted to visit it. it became a tourist destination, almost too much of one. it was imitated by many other countries. so i think it was a way of dealing with a large amount of material in a cross department away which took many hours from other departments. the other agencies m theod,

police, the -- government departments should compound. >> can you tell us your personal position as a member of that group? >> yes. as you know from the other witnesses, it is an organization which deals with quite a broad range of issues. there will be people there who are experts, and people who are not expert on that particular thing would come as an informed outsider to give commentary to our questions. i know police said on the air before it became director general, and when i became director general, i intended it is regularly as i could. i was not traveling. so was party to the assessments.

as more authoritative and came to speak better on the terrorist papers then on the ones about the rock on which my service is not an expert compared to others. >> but how complete was the picture, and how did your service go about it? >> the intelligence picture on what? >> on iran. >> it was not for my service to fill the camps. my picture was of fragmentary. as you will know from the fact that intelligence has been withdrawn from a perpetual was not complete -- the picture was not complete. the picture on intelligence never is. my sort of job was to try and have a thorough and complete picture as possible on the

threat within the u.k. and another in nor my successors would ever suggest that would be complete. but if i can refer to the ledger for me as deputy director general from march 2002, and a version was released today. six months before it became director general. intelligence picture of the threats from iraq within the u.k. and british interests. and you will see that we thought it was very limited and containable. >> my last question is, was there any other person involved in iraq? for example, did you advise ministers or was there and it's such involvement in this area?

>> well, certainly i had regular discussions with the secretary in the home office. and you see for jic assessments on terrorism that actually they are very consistent. and i cannot give you specifics, but there was an expectation, i think, that from pretty early on, the threat from terrorism increased. what i do not think we appreciated from early on would be the effect on u.k. citizens. and that was becoming apparent during 2002 and 2003. >> can i make a few more general point? >> that would be helpful. >> so the inquiry in considering this very complex issue, it is simple to say that the threat from al qaeda did not begin with 9/11. my service was already engaged

in concerned about the threat posed by al qaeda from the mid to late 1990's. we issued a search for osama bin laden in 1996. we have various operations at that time, some of which had connections to afghanistan. and well before 9/11, we were anxious and worried and doing investigations. i think one of the things forgotten, and i have asked my colleagues to produce it yesterday, and they cannot remember it. but a month after 9/11, the government put the paper and the public domain. and it was full of intelligence. if you like, that was the first dose ca, which was to was responsible for two -- for 9/11. so our focus, what was actually

not on iraq, on whom we had very few people working, not on iraqi activity in the u.k., but our focus was on various forms of terrorism, relating part to extremism from the sort of area. that was our focus. .> thank you very much > >> image in your letter that was put on the website in march 2002 to the foreign office. the home office, i mean. it deals with the threat to the u.k. from iraqi agents and saddam hussein's regime. perhaps you can give us the gist of the nature of the threat that you saw at the time from the regime itself. >> i think you asked david when

we were asked to produce this. i can assure you we were not. the service with regards to do the to a large government to threats as they emerge. that was before that. as i said, we regarded the threat, the direct threat from iraq, was low. we did think saddam hussein might resort to terrorism in the theater if he thought his regime was toppled, but we did not believe he had the capability to do anything much in the u.k. that turned out to the right judgment. in general terms, aiken said part of the result of the action we took, but i do not think the threads in the u.k. was anything other than very limited. >> you mentioned that you were

not asked to produce this assessment. what was it about this of the instances of march 2002, which is before that, and lead you to think it would be useful to produce an assessment? >> that is a difficult one to answer. i noticed it before crawford. i said to the head of the guardian when a given interview to him that at the time of 9/11, when i went to america the next day -- as the dvd, there is a point here. we flew black over new york while the fire was still burning. and i think we were all in separate ways affecting on what this meant for our organizations and generally. and also how americans would

react. at that stage, i have to say did not occur to me that we would be going to war in iraq a year and a half later. but sometime between them, me writing that letter in march to doesn't do, and must have then become apparent that this was a possibility. i think it became apparent much quicker than i remembered, so i went back and review the papers. but i cannot tell you specifically what triggered that letter. >> the letter refers to some things that the iraqis might try. as you say, they believed to have unlimited capabilities. it is suggested that he would try only if it is advisable of the regime being threatened. at the time, i am asking you to

go back to what you thought that this time. did you see regime change itself and it being likely to lead so far to a real challenge to the survival of the regime or just a series of measures of this sort that had been during the 1990's that might be seen as putting a threat on the the regime? >> i really cannot honestly i answer that. i do not think i anticipated what would happen. but it is hard to remember eight years on. i think it is worth saying that that letter -- i mean, throughout my career, i have been involved in service producing analyses like this. this seemed to us at the time part of the routine work.

>> it may or may not be relevant, but the cabinet office was starting work on options, so that would of been in the air. >> if i go back to the 9/11 release of information to the government in october 2001, which i read, and in that document, there is no reference to iraq. surly in the early time, we were focused on afghanistan and the implications of this theater. >> [unintelligible] the united nations, resolutions, did your estimate change at all about the risk to the u.k. from iraqi agents? >> no.

>> you already answered this in suggesting that your assessment was correct. can you say -- [unintelligible] >> and asking them about one other question related to this? this is a letter from the home office. it is copied to a number of other people. would you expect there to be any direct response like this or is this something tickets noted jic you a assessment? was there much response? >> i do not remember the response. yes, there was a response. these letters were churning out. therefore, you're not always

expect a response. my recollection was that officials in the home office, and senior officials, were anxious that action might need to be taken throughout the nationals in the u.k.. there is quite a debate including on the possibility of deportation on which i can remember advising that bid would be unlikely to be possible because of article 3. but there was quite an animated exchange of information which may have the papers on about whether people should be deported, as they had been in the first goal for. and that has been a slightly messy process which we are not anxious to relive it, and i

think we were not convinced that anybody presented the sort of threat that action needed to be taken against them, even if it was possible. >> the letter says there would be agents here in the u.k. watching out for their position forces. i think it we can say from the service, a range of material for the government much of that is as soon. there were letters from top to senior people. when i was director general, i would be sending several of these a week. on some, there were reactions. some ford debases of ministers. some fed into jic analysis. but there is a standard for information. because clearly, it is important that ministers and

senior officials know what domestic intelligence work is showing. >> to clarify, you said there was a response, and then you referred to considerations of the partition of iraqi nationals and the problems for human rights the that would cause. were there any other responses? >> well, the discussion about whether it was the foreign office on the rock interest section in london should be closed. i have to say, my services was printed relax on the side of things. we were far from relaxed about the threat from al qaeda.

>> i have another question related to the things that iraqis might have done. this refers to the proposition that this is rahm hussain's regime was in some way responsible for the thought of potential threat to al qaeda and with 9/11. did you give any credence to these thoughts of assessments. >> no. i think you have materials suggesting there had been intelligence on occasion sometimes. in the past. then i wrote this down, there is no critical intelligence to suggest that connection. and that was the judgment, i might say, of the cia. it was not a judgment of some parts of the american machine

being a failure. and there was the intelligence unit in the pentagon the was asked to seek an alternative judgment. the timing and perhaps suggest contacts and it is usually not about filling under threat. in the danger was that those kinds of threats intelligence were given importance in weight by some. they did not know. so to my mind, iraq and saddam hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. i have never seen anything to make me change my mind. >> were you giving information from the material produced by the pentagon? >> i do not think i was. probably a good thing. it would make me cross. >> ok, thank you. >> thank you. by march 2003, we had already been military involved with iraq are in the first goal for and the no-fly zones.

and in naval operations. in your view, from your perspective, did any of these involvements of fact the domestic terrorist threat? >> i think the threat within the u.k. was gradually -- increasing. during 2002, 2003, we were receiving more and more intelligence showing the focus. i suppose the attack of istanbul in early 2003 and the consulate was a significant manifestations. osama bin laden made it clear that america and their allies had become targets. as time went on, the real

change came to thousand 3-2004, when there was a sharp increase of dread intelligence relating to resistance. perhaps you want to comment on that. >> another of my colleagues want to ask about that. if i could just go back to the immediate pre-conflict time span. what assessments were you making with regard to the terrorist threat? should britain become involved in a u.s.-led conflict? >> i think you'll see from our which is reflected in the jic, and that reporting was that the threat from al qaeda would increase. >> there was some assessment of what this threat might be should we support the u.s. but not entirely?

>> no, i think that is probably a false distinction. even if we had supported the united states in sentiment that not merit tell it -- militarily, we would have still seen that. that is a very hypothetical question. >> thank you. >> on to the post conflict timespan. you mentioned earlier your entry with the guardian, which assume was the one published on november 11, 2006. in an interview, you said -- >> sorry to a drug to a ty there ispo. i believe it was july 2009. >> i do not remember. it was to mark the birthday. >> it was july 2009, we have just discovered. >> the guardian magazine, wrote

no match for the year -- >> it was definitely not 2006. >> we will go back to that time in a minute. the u.s. and u.k. forces were preparing to fade -- invade iraq. you are asking, why now? she said as explicitly as the code, i said something like the threat to us would increase because of iraq. going back to it 2006, at that time, it this date is correct on november 19, you gave a speech a queen mary college london. in which you, in a slightly more roundabout way more or less made the same point about iraq. you said specifically that the interpretation by british muslims of u.k. foreign policy

as anti-muslim, in particular, related to the u.k.'s involvement in iraq and afghanistan. the committee of the house of commons in 2004 concluded that a war in iraq and possibly made terrorist attacks against british nationals and british interests more likely in the short term. how significant, in your view, was iraq compared with other situations that were used by extremists, terrorists, to justify their actions? >> i think it is highly significant. and the jic assessment, which i have reminded myself of, say that.

we were receiving an increasing number of leads to terrorist activity from within the u.k., and our involvement in iraq radicalized, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people. not a whole generation but a few among a generation. who saw our involvement in iraq on top of our involvement in afghanistan as being an attack on islam. so although the media has suggested that in july, 2005, the attacks that we surprised these british citizens. that is not the case because

with their be an increasing number of british-born individuals living in that country who were attracted to osama bin laden and saw the west its activities in iraq and afghanistan as threatening their fellow religionists. so it undoubtedly increased the threat, and by 2004, we were pretty well swamped. that is possibly and exaggeration, but we were very overburdened by intelligence on a broad scale that was pretty well more than we could cope with in terms of threats to plot leads and to make plots and

things we need to do. and of course, also, we were dealing with a number of young british citizens who went to iraq to fight. i cannot now recall the numbers, but it was quite a few. about 70 or 80, something like that. i could check that. i cannot remember exactly. but we became aware of this. obviously, these individuals are not traveling to iraq directly, but there were in iraq were people were being taken into custody. so it became a strong motivation. and in my speech at queen mary college, i said this publicly. i think it is worth saying that you need to be approved with

the secretary to make a speech. and we discussed that part of it. and it was agreed that i should say that. >> so saying you had evidence of our involvement in the iraqi conflict was a motivation, a trigger for people involved in it the attacks in london in july 2005 there were going to afghanistan to fight, were there other attacks or planned attacks in which you had evidence that iraq was a motivating factor? >> yes. if you take the video wells on various plots, the terrorists had expected to be dead and explained why they had done what they did.

it is part of recalled a single narrative, which is the view from everything the west was doing. it was part of fundamental hostility to the muslim world and to it is long of which manifestations were iraq and 9/11. but it was enhanced by those events. >> so was support for an iraqi jihad, expressed like that, part of this single and narrative spanning different extremist groups? >> yes. and arguably, we give osama bin laden his iraqi jihad. so they can move in iraq in the

way he was not able to. >> in march 2004, there appears to have been something related to iraq, a consequence of iraq, perhaps an attempt to put pressure on the spanish government to withdraw its forces from iraq, were there other attacks that were designed to achieve a specific political affect, particularly to put pressure on governments to withdraw from iraq? >> there were so many plots then i wrote them down to remind myself. i think we felt that madrid was significant because of its timing. i think that the there were a number of other plots which may have had that happen ultimately,

but i cannot immediately recall one. >> about the timing of the midget plot, was that because in the spanish government was recently elected -- and during the timing of the madrid plot? >> it looked like italy. and of course, the spanish government, if you recall, rushed to attribute it to something else. i have some sympathy with my spanish colleagues because whenever it an attack happened, we are pressed through quickly to say who had done it. and we did not often know. >> but you did not have evidence of an attack of that very specific kind being planned in britain to put pressure on the british government relating to an election or political event here that you can recall? >> no.

we were always concerned about terrorism and iraq elections, but no. >> some witnesses that we have heard have argued that it was necessary or write to remove saddam hussein's regime in order to forestall a fusion of weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism, which was, in the interview, expected to come from iraq at some point. beyond 2003. in your view, the the toppling of said on his st. eliminate its threat of terrorism from his -- did the toppling of said, hussain eliminate the threat of terrorism from his regime? >> it eliminated it from his own

regime, but it did not eliminate the threat of terrorism using chemicals or radioactive. so using weapons of mass destruction or terrorist weapons is still a potential threat. and osama bin laden said it was the duty of the members of the organization to acquire and use these weapons. it is interesting that we have such efforts, as we have seen, to get access to these sort of materials of being low-grade and not very professional. but it must be a cause of concern to my former colleagues that at some stage, terrorist groups will resort to these methods. i do not think the toppling of saddam hussein is germane to long-term ambitions of some terrorist groups to use them. >> from what you said earlier

about the relatively small amount of resource that your service was required to give before 2003 to monitoring iraqi intelligence and potentially terrorist activities in this country and you're very large focus on al qaeda, there is an implication that you did not, at that time, see saddam hussein's regime as an important sponsor of terrorism, directed at least against this country. >> that is correct. >> doesn't therefore follow from that that you do not subscribe to the theory that as some point in the future, he would probably have brought together international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in the threat to western interests? >> it is a hypothetical theory. >> overall, looking at this sort

of two to four years after the conflict began in 2003, and you referred to the consistency of jic reports on this, to what extent did the conflict in iraq exacerbate the overall threat to that your service and your fellow servicers were having to deal with from international terrorism? >> financially. >> and is this an impact that has continued tiffs beyonce the time fit your director general, which was up to i think 2007? >> i cannot answer that. i signed official secrets, and i had seen none of that, so i reminded myself in preparation of preparing for each day. you'd have to ask my successor that.

but it looks to me as though, from reading the press from which we now have to rely, we all go back to that, that it was a continuing problem. the threat is still severe as i read it. and it has mutated and developed in different ways. but i cannot speak with authority on the threat. >> but you speak on the authority of a member of the upper house and legislate or. i am sure you're well informed on current affairs. final question for me. once the decision had been taken to invade in the campaign had happened where the actions of the coalition in your view at the time could have taken to mitigate the way in which the

conflict was becoming a motivator for islamic extremists around the world -- what are the things it could have done or should have done to that effect? >> this is speculative, but i think that planning for the peace was plenty of evidence that that was not done sufficiently. certainly not done by the americans. i think that after the military success, it was critically important to try and show that their livelihoods in iraq improve science substantial ways. the insistence of the americans won something in the civil service and the army and baathists was an error. you have been given evidence on that.

i was asked on a visit to the united states to talk about this issue and seek to persuade him that it was not sensible to do this. but if it had been possible to resolve things in a more constructive than better way, it is possible to the degree to which threats rose might have faded, but this again is hypothetical. the fact is the thread increased, and it cost not only my service but many other services around the world to have to have a major increase in resources to deal with it. in 2003, having had an upgrade every sources after 9/11, which my predecessor agreed, and

another one in 2002, by 2003, i found it necessary to ask the prime minister about our budget, and it was unheard of. sir leon hart of today. but he and the treasury had a chance to accept that. it is to demonstrate the scale of the problem we were confronted by. >> was it because of iraq? >> the two are connected. the upsurge in leads in the u.k. was happening during the summer of 2002, getting increased in 2003, and ready in 2004. end the money agreed in the autumn of 2003. so we were faced with the difficulty of doing a major

expansion of service, recruiting people, moving to new offices are around the united kingdom, overhauling what we did. rethinking the way we did things. becoming twice as big in doing twice as much. we wanted to do five times as much. and that was necessary because of the material and leads we had, which we do not have the resources, even with the strength of police help, too. so long time, creation of the organization and the counterterror strategy, we were going through a major change in faction in dealing with an almost overwhelming amount of terrorist leads and terrorist spots that we have had for many years. >> you're asked -- do you recall when you were asked to see paul wolfowitz and when? >> no.

>> you do not? >> i would have to check because i do not know. >> and you do not remember who ask you to see him? >> it may have been a foreign officer. as director general, when i went to the united states, i was sometimes asked to do things for other departments. and if i recollect, at whatever stage it was, i was as to press on this particular issue, and i was just one of many. i seen him anyway. >> it cannot converse? >> not on the whole. >> i would like to go back to before the war. you're giving evidence and assessments of an increased risk of al qaeda. and there was a reaction to a

potential war in iraq. could you give us a sense of the difference between the sort of things you are anticipating and what you actually experienced? >> i think it is fair to say that we did not foresee the degree to which british citizens have become involved. our focus in the 1990's and earlier on these issues involved, for example, members of algeria extremist groups and lisbon extremist groups and others. we have had an operation to which david referred in his evidence which was of a case in 2000 where we prevented the detonation of a large bomb. david said he thought that was related to al qaeda.

that was the case at the time, and we now think it probably was not. though the british citizens of bangladesh origen's planning attacks and targeting on their own disrupted and convicted. but certainly, i think during 2003-2004, we realize that this was not, as it were, the focus was not foreigners. the rising an increasing threat was the threat from british citizens. and that was a very different scenario to stopping people coming in. it was what has now become all -- become called homegrown. >> you were still anticipating a severe threat but more likely

from algeria or libya. >> more likely from al qaeda abroad also. al qaeda had not focused on the u.k. it attacked as a brought in 2003, but it became clear that its ambition was to attack us in the united kingdom. so we have the heathrow part and others. and we have the shoe bomber. we have richard reid and the secretary bomber. and we had a string of plots and convictions. it is not something that i would have said in open session, but when it was said publicly in 2008 that between 2001 and when she spoke, there had been, i think she said 16 substantial plots of whom which roughly 12 or stopped.

7-7 occurred, tragically. another one would have occurred that would have been incompetent. if they were not detected in advance. it is a judgment about what constitutes it, but roughly a dozen which were stopped. of those, many did involve other countries and people in other countries. but in most of them, british citizens predominated. >> part of the war in your view was that the war in iraq would aggravate the threat to to the united kingdom. how did it communicate with you to the prime minister? >> it was communicated through assessments to which i sent in. >> the work assessments.

did you have any direct conversations yourself with the prime minister or senior members of the government about this issue? >> i do not recall the prime minister. i did talk about it with the home secretary. >> did you feel that this particular aspect of the overall assessment about the pros and cons of going into iraq was taken into sufficient counsel? >> i suppose you ask me about lessons learned. the imperative of the government was to do this. and the view was, i think, implicit. but if it was to result in terrorism, that would be dealt

with in the medium term. in a way, it is a question of balancing the short and medium term. additionally, you could say that even if terrorism increases, that should not stop you doing what it was my job to continue to say what i judgment was. that judgment became the judgment and that is looking back pretty consistently, as i think you would agree. >> not that i recall. >> you are confident that there was no doubt on the government's mind that this would have not

been a determinant factor as to whether to go to war not. >> i cannot tell you to what extent -- i do not know the answer to that. if they read them, -- >> were there other issues unrelated to iraq in which you are talked directly to the prime minister? >> yes. >> they have the right to have direct access to the prime minister if he or she answers that. i did see the prime minister regularly. >> you set a little while back

that in your judgment, the effect of the invasion of iraq was to substantially increase the terrorist threat to the united kingdom. how far is that hard evidence based judgment? so many other forces are at work, particularly in overseas theaters. there is pakistan, yemen, afghanistan. where did iraq fit into that picture as a terrorist threat to the u.k. itself? the number of plots, the number of people identified and the correlation of that to iraq and statements to people as to why they were involved.

it would be wrong to suggest that this is u.k. it centric. -- uk-centric. yemen was a real concern back in the millennium. iraq is not the only issue which has motivated terrorist in this area. it predates iraq. it postdates iraq. what iraq did, produce fresh impetus of people -- if you ask me to produce evidence, i could produce it. >> given the interaction between counterterrorism

policies on the one hand and the iraq situation before and after the invasion itself, howard a to a high-level policy areas brought together in government? -- how were the high level policies brought together in government? >> they were not at first. it was not published until 2006. i would suggest it did not begin to have a substantial effect until probably 2005. that is the stage of the government deciding to take retraction. we had a pretty the embryonic counter-terrorism policy. the correlation between -- later on, the counter-terrorism policy encouraged in policy- making the thinking of the implications of auction more

formally than previously. >> you spoke about the tactical air vent level. it did that drive a greater address to a higher level policy? >> i think i dispute that it was all tactical. there are reports of different levels for different audiences. it serves people from out in the field to investigators and security service to policy to government and foreign office. it has a range of different levels. as it it has established itself and to gain credibility and it is a substantial contribution to policy making, it is in the same

light. >> thank you. this committee is fortunate having to restore its members. i want to ask you a little bit about the pre history of the security service in so far that it might relate to iraq later. were the lessons experienced from northern ireland that came to be relevant to in addressing the iraq issue? >> yes. very much so. i think the experience of northern ireland to, the mistakes made there, building the time it took four the agencies to work constructively

together, the police, the army, the other agencies, at the length of time it took to develop intelligence processes and the lessons learned by the emission of intelligence to evidence, the lessons learned by managing a peace process. there are whole range of issues which helped in forma the way we approached the subjects. in particular, the relationship and the systems we have before moving in operation from an intelligence investigative phase 2 and evidential prosecution stage.

other useful experiences in formed our approach to this counterterrorism threats. of course, it was not complete because of threats being very different with the irish republic and north terrorism, the threat was from an island to the west of us. it was not global. it did not come from anywhere in the world. irish terrorist were not interested in mass casualty. there was always the option of a fiscal settlement. some of those do not prevail in this. another issue that is different is -- the ira had a recognizable structure. you could draw -- you cannot do that with al qaeda. you can say who the leaders are, but it is a much looser

structure. in some areas, there is a structure at all. our colleagues were certainly open to discussing with us the lessons learned from north ireland and using them to inform thinking of how to approach this. the parallels are not precise at all, but i think it gave costs and the police and advantage that a lot of these tricky issues been resolved over the 30 years of our worst terrorism. >> thank you. i would like to ask any lessons from the iraq years. >> just one little point of details arising from your conversation. did i understand you to say that you did not have a practice of regular scheduled bilateral one

on one meetings with mr. blair? at all? >> there was not a regular schedule of them. i could have passed for one, but i did see him regularly. the regular meetings in the cabinets. >> he did not have the sort of meeting in which you could sit down with him and run through the things that might be on your mind and make sure that these were directly input to him and have a conversation about that? >> the main conversations were at least once a week with the home secretary. that was a frequency much more than a my predecessors. a lot of ministers, i saw them in meetings, i saw them to brief

them, much more extensively than my predecessors. i was the main political person -- i workernment's for three home secretaries and i saw them all regularly and discussed a range of issues. >> if messages were to get through to the prime minister by the expected impact of the iraq war on terrorism, it would have come through your participation in joint meetings the home secretary having talked to you and through papers. those would have been the channels? going back over the 10 or 15 years, had it been the practice for some of your predecessors to

have scheduled bilateral meetings with the prime minister? >> there regularly. >> it regularly. -- irregularly. i think the answer to your question is that in the last decade, at the service has seen ministers at all levels much more extensively and much more frequently and have participated much more broadly in meetings than was once the case. that is quite understandable. in the days of the cold war, ministers tend to only be interested -- it was when

terrorism from al qaeda and associates became a major political issue, then be rolled became much more extensive. >> which you have any means of comparing the frequency of your direct access to the prime minister would those with the heads of the other agencies? >> i believe the -- for understandable reasons. >> thank you. >> i would like to ask two or three specific questions from the iraq experience from the standpoint of the security service and to offer you the opportunity to give us any general reflections that you have. the specific ones -- as a member of collective responsibility for

the workings, with retrospect, with hindsight, the pre conflict assessments who who, is there anything in the process that could have been improved? >> bea butler committee has done some important things. i have thought about this. that dossier was being put together and my recollection -- i have two points i think. we were to put in some low- grade intelligence and we refused because we didn't think it was reliable. because of our nature of what we do, -- the degree to which, if

you are not an expert, or options are challenged and are limited. the people who knew about iraq were foreign office, the ministry of defense, not my service. i have obviously thought whether my predecessor or i should challenge more, and i know a degree of that intelligence on which to much reliances is in any way on reliable. i think that in his evidence day-to-day, it is essential in order to assess, analyze, calibrates raw intelligence a

report that can go to ministers. it is not a good thing for raw on a said intelligence to be widely distributed. it has a very important role. at the same time, it has -- people talk in hushed tones about the joint intelligence committee. it produces [inaudible] reflecting back, but the wisdom of hindsight, there was an -- there was an adequate challenge. this has all been gone into -- david talked about it in terms of psychology.

i think the important thing about it is that it should -- its judgments must always recognize that adjustments and looking back, it was pretty good on the terrorist threats. much less good on iraq. it did try to get back and look . you've also seen papers on the extent to which some of the [unintelligible] i do not know what it is like today. it is always going to be an imperfect way of doing things, but it is right that we tried to do it that way because the alternative is anarchy. >> there is one general question arising out of that. it was looked out by the butler

committee and we now have evidence of ourselves from a number of witnesses. the extent to which ministers, can be expected to understand the nature and use of intelligence, how to use it. do you think there is room for a more systematic border induction process for ministers when they need to rely on intelligence? >> certainly. this is not a new issue. they're out my career, i have been involved in helping ministers to understand the inadequacies in intelligence. intelligence can be dangerously seductive. for too many years, the

intelligence security agencies have fought to help in coming ministers understand the nature of intelligence and the sort of information, it is really complete. it needs to be assessed. all those issues are very well documented. my recollection is there used to be some formal induction for ministers, not just about leaving the papers on the tray and looking after a laptop, but some more formal discussion on how to understand and approach intelligence. thing that can be achieved. >> it should be restored, he said. >> yes. >> one more question on direct lessons from the iraq experience. [inaudible] looking to the terrorist

threats during and after words, are there any lessons from the iraq experience that the security service has taken not? >> i suppose what the lesson for the security service is the need to be quick and responsive. i think we were pretty quick to persuade the government that we needed to stand to meet this problem, but we did not fully anticipate the degree to which the systems would become involved. i wrote to david and john in 2004 to say, i hope you have --

i am sure my colleagues can give it to you. in the wake of operation kravis, to say that this operation represented some issues of very real concern. the government needs to be thinking about engagement within the community, presenting these facts, the effect of foreign policy on domestic policy. i suppose i regret that we did not anticipate some of that. it was not necessarily the best vehicle. >> thank you. are there more general thoughts you might want to offer at the end of this session? >> i think you have martti touched on them. the main one seems to be the danger of over relying on intelligence.

in deciding whether or not to go to war. if you are going to go to war, at you need to have a high threshold to decide on that. there are very few would argue that intelligence was not substantial enough on which to make that decision. the second plan would be the -- the second point cut would be of making sure -- the two were seen together in a way that were not entirely. the third one should be -- should be it by focusing on iraq, we cease to focus on the al qaeda threats and will reduce

the focus on the alabama data -- al qaeda threats and afghanistan. that is a strategic problem. the war issue is about structure. i think you have covered that. those are my main comments. >> with that, i will close the session. our thanks to our witness. we will resume at half past 11 when we take evidence. that is the session. thank you very much. >> the "washington journal summer series continues this week with attention on energy issues parade tomorrow, the conversation focuses on wind technology. the energy department has

earmarked $5 million this year for energy. virginia tech george haggar will be our guest to talk about the industry. "washington journal, with your phone calls, like every morning starting at 7:00 on c-span. >> the sinnett is being called back from recess tomorrow to pass by unanimous consent a border security bill approved by the house on tuesday. a resolution on the death this week of former senator ted stevens is also on the agenda. live senate coverage to mar at 10:00 on c-span2. >> mr. president, just before christmas in 1968, i was appointed to succeed alaska is a first senior senator. next month will mark the 40th year that i've had the honor and

privilege to serve here in this great chamber. >> with almost 900 appearances over 24 years, look to the life and legacy of ted stevens online at the c-span video library. free on your computer any time. it is washington, your way. >> president obama met with his national security team today to discuss iraq. one of the main topics at the white house briefing. robert did spoke with reporters for about an hour. -- robert gibbs spoke with reporters for about an hour.

>> let me give you a quick read out of the president's meeting this morning with his national security team. they met today to discuss iraq. the president occur directly from the general. he said that we are on target to complete our drawdown by the end of august. we have move already -- removed 80,000 troops from afghanistan sick -- since the president took office. iraqi security forces are fully prepared to be in the lead to me and i are combat mission later this month. the president received an update from joe biden on our efforts to support iraq and their leaders as they form a new government and to transition to civilian lead with iraq. that meeting was this morning. >> is there anything that you

all can envision that could change the august 31 date for ending that operation? >> no. one of the things that the general told the president and others in the meeting was that the level of violence observed over the past two weeks has been among the lowest number of incidents that the coalition has seen it since record keeping on those incidences began. that is a positive. we continue to anticipate, as we get closer to the 31st of august, a traditional uptick of violence or around ramadan. as those that are left try to gain attention, the president also got an update on government

formation. i think you are aware of meetings that have happened over the past couple of days with the prime minister. they had a press conference there recently to discuss efforts. the president was satisfied with the progress and we continue to see on the security side, got an update on continued pursuit progress on the formation of a government. this was not going to be a quick process. but we are on target by the end of the month to end our combat mission, turnover bases that americans have been on to the rockies, and transition. >> -- iraquis.

the security situation -- we are in the lead on election day. they provided the security. we have seen tremendous progress and one of the things that we're trying to do in afghanistan is to build a similar capacity with the national army. >> what do you think the consequences should beat of the comments that you made about the professional left? >> the consequences? do you have anything in mind? [laughter] >> one house member suggested a resignation. >> i do not plan on leaving. there is no truth to the rumor that i have added an inflatable exit to my office.

[laughter] >> karr to transition from that. question on the economy. -- a hard to transition from that. does the chinese economy have the rest of affecting the u.s. economic situation to worsen? >> in -- the president will talk later today in signing an important piece of legislation on manufacturing to help companies here cope. without a doubt, we have all seen data. the president continues to get letters from people all over the country that continue to feel the pain of the economic recession that we have been in for more than two years. there is no doubt that in april, the events in europe

began to play a role to where we are now. we have some things that clearly have to be done to continue to make progress on an economic front. there is no doubt that if you look back to where we re your ago, we were discussing the death of job loss. now we are seeing positive job gains great not enough for the president and not enough for those that continue to be out of work. yesterday, the house came back and passed a very important proposal, particularly to ensure that 160,000 teachers did not get fired as a result of bad state budgets. when the senate comes back, they will quickly pick up the small- business bill that will increase the amount of credit and cut

taxes to capital gains tax to small business. we are certainly monitoring what is going on. we will continue to sell understanding that we have a ways to go. >> i wonder if china is getting close [unintelligible] >> the events -- i do not know if it is highlighting more understanding -- and living in a vast global economy, economies throughout the world are not emea to slowdowns that may start in other parts of the world. the trajectory of where we were in april is different than where we are right now. europe was one of the first

signs of that. >> do you have a timeframe for replacements for christine romer? >> i do not have the time line on a replacement for her. >> do you regrets any of what you said? and >> i think there are many times when i read the transcripts that i could have done -- could have said things slightly differently. i will say, i watch a lot of cable tv. you do not have to watch long to get frustrated by some of what is said. i think that is what the answer was for. >> do you think there is still subtext to what you said, that there is too much pressure from the left to -- left? >> i think a lot of the issues

that democrats throughout the party have work to see happen have come to fruition as part of what this president has accomplished. health care was an issue that was worked on for 100 years. president after president after president discussed the importance of passing something comprehensive and historic. bake at how much we were paying for health care. they extended the life of the medicare trust fund. those are accomplished -- concessions that we should all be proud of whether or not it encompasses wonder% of what we had one in the beginning. >> -- but under% of the we have had in the beginning. we have a process with the

pentagon to make changes as the president outlined in his campaign and before the campaign. don't ask, don't tell -- we have a process to make good on overturning the don't ask, don't tell. >> i do not think they will. november is too important to do that. what is at stake in november are exactly the choices that we are facing. are we going to go back to the economic policies that got us into this mess or are we going to go forward and see the type of progress that we have seen over the past 18 months? you know, i do not think --

today, the president had a meeting. probably two and half weeks before ending the ar combat mission in iraq. that was a significant part of -- we do not talk about it as much. i think we all remember that we spent almost all of 2007 and a hefty part of 2000 a debating our role in iraq almost exclusively. >> on the government formation, you talked about how everyone expected that it would take some time. did the president expressed the frustration? >> the last government took nearly six months to form. the president is encouraged that we see signs of progress.

i think as long as we are moving toward that eventual set up and making progress in doing that, we will feel good about the direction we are heading. obviously, we want that to happen as soon as possible. as august 31 approaches, -- >> the $20 billion bp find, -- bp find, is there a time line or a payment plan to focus on that? >> the ask for documents, the escrow agreement calls for a $5 billion before the end of this year. $5 billion in the each year in 2011, in 2012, a 2013 for a

total of $20 billion. that is the timeline we have agreed to during the meetings in the roosevelt room. i understand that can feinberg has said that next week, he will release documentation around that protocol for individual compensation claims to the trust fund to. there have been requests -- and we will make public the documentation that the escrow trust documents. there was some question about that. i anticipate putting that out in the next hour or so. >> on iraq, was there any doubts expressed about the election deadlines? >> not that i am aware of. i was not in the whole meeting. i can check and see whether

there was any discussion of the agreement or not. >> and some people were expressing the opinion that it is just impossible. border security, weapons training, a lot of different missions that simply cannot be done by then. >> again, it would be premature to get into a discussion about -- as we speak, that there is an agreement. i do not want to get ahead of anything and head of government formation -- and had a government formation. there is a change in our mission in iraq. this is in the lead in iraq, the progress that has been made from the security aspect and but we hope and what was always

envisioned is that the security gains would lead to political gains. that is what we are hoping to see in the formation of a new government. >> will there something to be different on september 1 compared to august 31? is this just a kind of arbitrary date? >> it is not an arbitrary date. there will be 80,000 fewer troops from when the president took office in that country on that day. there will be a transition ceremony. there will be a new mission with a new commanding general. we have moved out 2 million pieces of equipment. 80,000 troops. basis have been turned back in and there will be a new mission.

>> on the professional left, there are some people believe that you are smarter than you are admitting. they calculates a premeditated message to send a message to the professional left. did you put your foot in your mouth? [laughter] >> i think i have both of my feet planted firmly on the floor nothing in my mouth to speak of. >> you answered honestly, you said. >> i would not contradict. >> this was an honest and dark -- answer. you are not backing away from it. >> you have heard frustrations expressed here. i doubt that i said anything you have not already occurred. >> it was not a mistake?

>> it was born out of frustration. >> so you stand by it? >> yes. public frustration that was written out. >> can you name any names? >> i left my membership list back in the office. >> to wants to eliminate the pentagon? >> wasn't that a proposal during the presidential campaign? or adding the department of peace. >> some people are trying to step back from the liberal and saying that the white house does deserve some credit for things. when they do not go as far as we would like them to go and they do not reach out to west and pat is on the back and say, we tried, there is no communication

-- do you think there is a lack of communication? >> i have not seen that criticism today. there are a number of people in the white house in public engagement and political affairs and other places that spend all lot of time communicating. i do not doubt -- i doubt there is a time where everybody feels satisfied about communication. i think it is important -- let's put some of what the democratic party is doing into some real context. yesterday's vote in colorado was a pretty good example of the type of coalition that the president put together in 2008 and that the president held through his endorsements and appearances, held a candidate

that he believes is the best voice to represent colorado in the senate. somebody with a long track record with education reform. a track record in the senate as pushing for needed congressional reforms. 60% of the electorate in the democratic primary had either not voted for voted in only one the past democratic primary. >> you have not reached out to anybody on the professional left. you do not believe you anybody an apology? >> i have not talked to anybody

outside the building other than normal friends i talk to each day. >> have you talked to the president of data? >> yes. >> the senate says that you've gotten a little bit progressive about his own personal role in taxing health care reform. are you not giving liberals the left side of the party enough credit? for being a significant part of the coalition? >> i do not think -- i do not remember having any comment on that at all. >> the house passed -- the measure the house passed yesterday to help teachers maintain their jobs calls for an eventual cut in food stamps. what is likely to be the impact of that?

>> it is important to understand the recovery act changed food stamps through 2018. every direction of that money only accounts for -- the redirection of that money only accounts for years 2014. the measures we passed as -- for the foreseeable future are left intact for those who need help. rather than having a program for 2017, given the fact that here we sit in early august with the lenders 60,000 teachers facing layoffs and redirecting that money made more sense.

>> you talked about how the early part of the campaign was about the war in iraq. the president was pretty critical of the search. does the president now think that the search work? >> the president gave a standing that the surge was intended to do two things. it was intended to augment the security environment so that we could change the political. there is no doubt that bravery and heroism of our troops and those additions had some and taxing that security environment. what we want to see more of is a change in the political. we are making progress by

establishing -- we have had another election. we are enabling -- enabling us to change our mission in iraq. i think next number of troops is likely to improve the security. the security environment alone was not going to change our mission in iraq. we have the stability with any political system and making progress with a new government that does allow us to meet the president's commitment of transitioning out of combat. that was tremendously important. >> do you think he thought it worked in the sense that under his own tenure, because of the security environment has improved, he was able to bring it about? >> the security environment improved as we all believed it

would. it has taken longer to see the correlating political gains, but we're far enough along now and some of those political gains that we can transition that role. the buyout -- the role that the vice-president joe biden has played in changing the political environment has been tremendously important to the overall cause. lest we not forget that it was iraqi leaders in 2008 that said -- there was discussion about the prime minister about a timetable for a transition that was enormously similar to that proposed by obama. >> do you give any credit to former president bush as contributing to what you guys are trying to do?

>> there is no doubt that as democrats and republicans, we would have security gains, but as we talked about a military role alone was not going to change our mission in iraq. if you have security gains, but not responsibility of a functioning government to take the responsibility of both providing the security and executing the civilian duties, it would be hard to transition. >> is the white house concern that you will not get its the proper credit for what is happening in iraq given the situation in afghanistan? >> i am sure many people will either decide to or not to give

different entities credit. i look back at the time i spent in 2007-2008 about our role there. it is safe to say that even if the president pledged during the campaign, the beginning of this administration, and even on the day you travel to north carolina to give that speech, there were a lot of people who said, did it that we had outlined was not doable. we're on track to do it. in 20 or so days, that mission transition -- if you look at the sheer number of troops that are deployed between right now and when the president took office, even with the additional troops in afghanistan, i think that by a little more than 30,000, there

are fewer troops deployed. >> do you think that the american people understand and appreciate that accomplishment? >> i do think that because we do know so many years later the amount of sacrifice that was made on behalf of our men and women in the military. i hearken back -- remember when the adviser said it might cost $150 million in iraq? i am pretty sure we are multitudes beyond that. we are ending a commitment to -- we are ending a contract commitments in a way that below

are military and will help our treasury. >> is there a contingency that if conditions in iraq turned sour, the u.s. military role will resume a combat role there after august 31? >> i think it is always safe to say that the military has plans drawn up for a thousand and one different scenarios. the report that the president that, though, was clear in the progress that was being made. the level of violence at a rate over the course of two weeks which was among the lowest that had been recorded since they had kept records on it. it made -- it has made the

transition. >> on august 31, we end up with 50,000 u.s. troops there. >> i think that is the approximate number. >> have you heard the president offered a view on the exceedingly bad press the first lady got about her trip to spain? >> i have not. >> i would like to go back to the economy. the markets are down between 2% and 3% worldwide today. largely brought on by -- the gdp for the u.s. for the last half of this year could only be 2.5%, which is an economy treading water. do you have any comment on that? has the president asked mr. summers to take a look at that?

>> i want to not get into commenting on fed action. the president met with and talk through some scenarios today with dr. summers on what we are seeing worldwide. i think he will continue to talk to the team about any efforts that they think are necessary to ensure that we continue positive job growth, that we see positive economic growth. it was not long ago where the debate was the death of a job loss, the depth of that economic retraction. i know that a great number of meetings and discussions were held on the legislation that the

house passed and the president sign late yesterday. if you think about both the short-term economic impact of 160,000 teachers losing their jobs, the long-term impacts of 160,000 classrooms without a teacher, the impact that that has on educating the work force that we need for the jobs of tomorrow, it is why the president wanted to make it happen. the president wants to see progress on a small business on cutting taxes and on increasing credit. they will continue to talk about whatever steps those in the white house or others d might be necessary. >> card -- if the economy only grows 2.6% in the last half of the year, that is not good.

>> i do not think there is any doubt that the trajectory of where we were in april is somewhat different than we are today. our goal was to continue that positive action. i have said this a bunch. i do not have much faith in grafts. -- graphs. nobody here believe that the deaths of what we are entering into was going to be easy to get out of. he did not have just one problem. you just did not have a collapse in the financial industry. he did not just have to a huge housing crisis. you did not just have 8 million jobs lost. yet all that at one time. it will take quite a bit of time to move out of that.

we are at a point where instead of discussing where we are in the downward trend of that whole, where we are on an upswing. not satisfied? the president and the team are not satisfied with all of what they see. different sectors are going to do better than others. be have to continue working with whatever is necessary to get the economy growing. >> the did he meet with this morning? -- who did he meet with this morning? >> we were going into a meeting and dr. summers for coming -- was coming out of the old office. i do not know who else was in that meeting with the president. >> what about the president's export initiatives? >> there are monthly numbers that bounce around. increases in imports, decreases

in exports. we still have the same goals. year to year, up the changes that 18%. while there will be some monthly bouncing around, our commitment and our goal of doubling exports remains a huge priority. world growth cannot hinge entirely on the united states demand. we have good products that we want to sell overseas. the president, just last week at an auto plant outside of chicago, makes the explore that will be exported to 90 countries. that is tremendously important. >> in setting these deadlines, there was some concern? al qaeda and iraq and their insurgent groups would just wait out.