if a company has bad data security, and we had 30 or so cases in the last decade, we will find out about that before there is harm done. inadequate data security is within this for the most part. there are social security numbers taht could be -- that could be used for personal identification. t goingensure tha goin forward, companies strike the right balance. acquiring useful data and using and giving consumers more transperancy.

>> thank you for being on "the communicators." [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> in london, students riot over tuition as they plan budget cuts. flanders andtephanie then matthew parris of the parlaiment, who writes for "the times of london." the presidnet of poland met -- president of poland met with barack obama. at this talk, he discussed poland foreign policy. and the relationship with russia. this is an hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, it is

so nice. the president of the republican of poland is welcomed in such a way that you promise success. ladies and gentlemen, we are a lucky nation. history never pampered us. many times, we have been able to achieve our national goals. quite often, when i speak about myself and the generation of people in poland, i talk about us as very lucky people. those who have been able to achieve what my father and my grandfather always dreamed about. and reminding us of the fact

that poland, we are seeing clear economic growth. this was a green island when europe was facing a financial crisis. and there is our leadership in nato and the european union. and we see the positive results of a very courageous but also very difficult report in the early '90s. we had to change everything including the economic system. we had to change the social policy. and we had to build a democratic state from the ground. we have been able to achieve that for the last 20 years. but this was not always so easy. i am very happy that i can speak here, at this special institution.

and this also reminds the people of poland that we were not able -- we simply did not get a great chance, that this was for europe after the second world war. this was a possibility of building the conditions of safety. according to the normal political issues. and for several dozen years, when the rest of europe, which was destroyed by the second world war, could be reconstructed in different perspectives. using the financial assistance. using the marshall plan. we, at this time, were becoming part of the third world. we were part of the abnormal world.

we were part of the world of people who were captive. many years, many years went by. and we did not only way to, we were also struggling for freedom. many times we had to pay a high price. but finally we achieved the goals. we did this 21 years ago. the marshall fund comes to poland 21 years too late, but probably more. many years had gone by. we have the economy coming from the moon, this was like a socialist economy. my generation always knew about such a plan, for the reconstruction of europe.

we understood that some things, there were some things that we did not get. we were on the wrong side of the iron curtain. and that is why we were dreaming about doing away with this. generations of polish people were dreaming, and they wanted to do away with the iron curtain. this was simply dividing poland from the normal world. this is always better late than never. i am very glad that the marshall fund will be in poland, 21 years from the moment that we regained our independence. 16 years after the marshall plan was introduced, that was when this began to be successful. and we achieved a special success of reminding people

about the fact that the world had changed. perhaps with smaller money, but marshall had finally made their way to poland. this is a source of a great satisfaction, with the president of free poland. i can speak about poland, and the future of trans-atlantic relations. because, the polish people, especially from the generation -- we have always known about this. we have known about the freedom, even when this is fraught with difficulties. this is the response, when we

regained freedom in 1989, after a very difficult struggle. there was a solitary movement -- solidarity movement, and they introduced a program for the reconstruction of the states, and they also had a great idea, what were the western european structures were, and the economy. this was not an easy way. poland regained freedom, with the common system -- and this was not able to fight anymore, because you had to set forth the marshall plan.

this is something that they did not know. they did not know how to act with this change. they were risking the destruction to guarantee life. there were getting out of the warsaw pact. i would like to thank, very much, all of the american people, at the most difficult moments, with the solidarity movement. and they go against the current of those who were courageous and against the american policy. it was not easy to finally provide support to become a member of nato.

and as you know, many countries, later, they did the same way. this was in the atlantic treaty organization. none of them in poland has a trend -- this was a version of the world development. this did not become a member of nato to close this on the others. we were not getting ready for this -- we wanted to do this for the freedom and democracy. this was a great achievement, with eastern europe that went out of the system for freedom. the different politicians --

against the general trend, and those at that time, they give us a different opportunity, others would follow listen to the footsteps. and making certain that the words of gratitude, that they would be, naming with the people of poland always understood. this is true policy, sometimes. what matters is the bravery of going against general -- general -- general trends. this is not in the mainstream, but this is a person who is bread enough to question the difference mainstream opinions in order to achieve, in order to make the fundamental goals. we are based on values.

we have to believe that we continue to be like this and the calculations matter to some extent. this is the value, and the common thinking about freedom and democracy and human rights. we have always paid a very high price for this. and sometimes, sometimes they think that we are overly romantic, for our country. and sometimes, this may go too far and too fast and this was not the sentiment of the normal world.

in the 18th century, there were the rights to participate in the elections of every man. few people know that in poland, the king was elected in the general election. the polish parliament, this operated under the principle of -- the principle of the acceptance of everybody. and this did not release finish well for us. and we say, there is the obligatory recruit -- the agreement of everyone, and i do not think that they are here.

i would like to say what this is like in practice. the first page -- this was the face of prevent -- presenting these views and this could do anything that you wanted. this would offer -- working on the different opinions, and mixing, and working on this. and this was made in the results of the long-term discussion. there was one person who was still against this, and there was the polish parliament. and then, around the way, this is how the parliament -- this is how this was seen. there is to permit a phase of operations.

i do not know how this could have been interpreted. this is a typical problem. you have us in this building for a very long time. and this is in third place. and you had a very aggressive novelty, for these tables. and this was a factor before this person ran away from the parliament. there were not able to shout this -- before they realize, before one of them simply ran away. and this was the beginning of the crisis. i do not know how you were able to cope with this. from time to time, we have to get down into this.

and this is worthwhile to remember, remembering that the national -- that we love freedom, and we have to remember -- when polish people, in the 19th century, when to wait to export revolution, there was a revolution of solidarity. some of them even succeeded. some people in the 19th century said, -- we struggled in different spots in the world. we do not have a problem to continue the public opinion about this, with a worthwhile nature of doing things with other nations. we had these different countries

with leadership in nato, and there was some level of acceptance, and all of this came up. and they would respond with a drop in the support of the membership of the alliance. and this investor worked in the other way around. this was called because of the bombardment of kosovo. the supporters of the membership -- we thought that they would reject this. and the reports were skyrocketing. this is because people know that freedom does not come cheaply. polish people feel perfectly well, that in the name of freedom, sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. and polish people understand that sometimes this is important to be effective.

when you have the bombardment that was going on, none of these politicians even tried to make social doubt about being a member of nato, when they were bombing other countries. and they understood, perfectly well, that this was a national issue. and this was for the sacred notion of the polish people. and perhaps, that was -- this juncture was quite understood in relation to america. in poland, we remember perfectly well, the president was excepting of the polish independence, after the fourth world war.

they always told me, this was in gratitude, for the american president voting for polish independence. there is the solidarity movement, and when they gained independence. this was from the iron curtain, contributing in a significant way to the collapse of the berlin wall. and i think that between the 18th and 20th century, a common element of the polish action service, for the division of the others, is a monument to the solidarity, at the entrance of the german -- my grandmothers and grandfathers would have remembered, it was possible to direct a monument,

for this achievement, in gratitude of the overthrowing of the berlin wall. i recommended to go there to see what happened. and there was a new relation of poland -- all the way to the east. and you have said here, this was a pleasure for me this is also showing one thing. we really did not have to take out the sabres and the swords, but we want to be consistent in the operations to get economic freedom and political freedom, and also the human and civil rights, and the democratic mechanisms. that is why we look into contemporary russia, this is a

country of free people. we feel fine with the germans, and wheat -- we have different issues. something that actually could not have been settled only because every polish family lost at least one member during the second world war. today, we cooperate, and we communicate. this is easier for us. because economically, we are developing. last year, we were the only country with positive economic growth, and to some extent, this is definitely a bonus from the 1990's. i will not pretend that this is also a little bit about us being lucky. we are lucky, but we have to

deserve this. we are not connected to the crisis in the west, where this originated. ladies and gentlemen, we would like, in this success -- we would like to have some guarantees of security. we have the history of 1000 years, in our place in europe. i do not know if anyone in america remembers with a map of europe was looking like. we were between russia and germany. even if you enter grade, and even if there is a common european home, we always have some draft.

and this is of somebody opens up a board or a window, we're always sneezing. that is what this is like. we are particularly sensitive, to the different prospects. and this is why poland is making an investment in correct relations with russia. this is specified to our support, to support a the new-- to support the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty. and we have to continue with our affirmation of the fundamentals of the north of letting treaty organization. and the defense and a guarantee of the security of the member states of the alliance.

from time to time, for your freedom and hours, we can go far away from poland. in iraq or in afghanistan, we do not have any political ancestry or any economic interest over there. but we can go there in the name of the community, resulting from the feeling that together, we take responsibility for the freedom of other people. but when you go far away from your home into the deep forest, you have to know that your own home is guarded, that your own wife and your own children are safe. that is why poland is very consistent with reassuring that the north atlantic treaty organization is built on the same unchanging foundation.

this was for the renewal of the guarantee, because it was not only the significance -- this was to reaffirm and reassure, and the strategic concept for the language that is the essence of the defense and the planning. namely, a contingency plan. this includes the commitment to organize training, from the prospective of the preparation. this is part of the debt scenario. we will not go hunting far away from our homes. if we're going to go hunting along way away, our life and -- are wife and our children must have the guarantee of security.

i want to say that, i have said that the similarity between the united states of america, there is an understanding about the security that is given for good, and the same goes for freedom. this is part of the security deficit. this is very clear. this is part of the deficit of trust. we have little trust, but what can we do about this? this was worked out with hundreds -- and we have been neighbors for 1000 years.

this goes back and we did not say that we would push the button with recessed -- "reset" on that because we have 1000 years of living with each other and sometimes against each other. we make the investment, we make the investment with the world. this is part of the risk investment. we invest with the new relations with russia. however, if we reset this, this is at the end of the process and not at the beginning. we are wanting for this to happen, but to be able to do this with a clean conscience, and that every stage, we have to verify how these operations develop. we cannot do everything

completely. we cannot jump when the water is too shallow. we have to verify this. there is the old russian saying, trust, but verify. you have to trust that you have to verify. in the american relations, you have to verify from time to time. we believe and we trust that they have interest in changing. i trust that modernization, this will happen only when -- this also has a civil, democratic the mansion. this is to create mechanisms that will guarantee that this modernization, this is not only

about being about better technological solutions, but that this would also provide safer systems solutions. the democratic mechanisms of the free market. this is modernization. and this is why we are investing a lot of effort to get to this. we do not want to be received as people, or as a nation that is afraid of russia. we have not been scared so easily. this is a nation that is not against making populations between the western world and russia. nobody, more than poland -- are interested in this. to our surprise, we are near the west for russia. 15 years ago, we were not close to the road for russia.

in the russian tradition, this tells you everything. there was a saying that we kept repeating this. everyone knows this well. poland -- did you translate this? to our surprise, the russians, for contemporary russians, we are near the west. and this is a great opportunity for poland and for russia. and this is a change, a gigantic transition period and we're making an effort going forward, in the direction of changing, thinking aggressively about this.

thinking about the west. that is why we are so persistent in the reaffirmation of these principles. modernization will not go in line with these principles. this was on the basis of the principles, that we got the freedom and the normalcy. but this is also the political duty, to remember the principles. ladies and gentleman. and the need of reaffirmation, from time to time, it is worthwhile to take your wife out on a date. and this is also important to reaffirm the very important polish and american relations. there is the soulless thus, with five words only.

some slogans are simply repeated. and often, there is no practice behind them. i spoke with barack obama about this. i simply believe that -- very much has gone the wrong way. there are different links from the different american tables, and many other things. i ask, what can i tell you about this? that would also have to fill in the report if they want to come to the united states. myself, as the fourth president of poland, after -- until -- the fourth president has to fill outa visa to come to do it -- to come to it -- to come to the united states. and i was asked if i was involved in genocide and prostitution.

i did not take this as an insult. i am not a prostitute. i was not involved with genocide. but when i had to answer these questions about being a terrorist, -- i do not want to live. i do not want to lie to the united states. i was once considered to be a terrorist. this was the language of some other charges formulated by the prosecutor in the communist state. my suggestion is to keep these forms. this is my suggestion. this is not understandable for us. and this is a nonsense. this up -- these are the polish american relations. these people know that the colleagues -- they will not have

to apply for the visa. what about us? surely ask for this, without a visit -- this is a leader of the european union. they are working illegally. the american interest -- that would also want to go to the united states. and we have to say this. and we talk about the necessity of the reclamation of the cohesion of the north atlantic treaty organization. the fundamental of article 5. it is necessary to reaffirm the

polish-american relations, and -- this is a politically dark country. you can say different things about us. this nation, which is so american. this is not happy -- happen all that often. the problem, however, there is iraq and afghanistan. these things start to show the positive effect -- of america has gone to hell. it is time to think in the prospective way. you have to invest wisely in order to make money.

this is going to be that -- without taking too much of this, yes so determined to speak with you. this anecdote is very true. it will explain to you, this is regardless of all the circumstances. there is a high level -- i was once in prison. i was a political prisoner. but then, i was there with regular criminals. one of them was a bandage. -- bandit. they were looking at that with great curiosity.

they were calling us students. many people -- they were arrested in 1977. he had a very long beard. and he said, this is serious because i concede that you have been arrested all the time. there was an armored police car. he was there excited. he was very serious. they will come to take you out. this was absolutely impossible. i was having to look at this as a serious revolutionary. perhaps, everything what happened. and then, they made the

declaration. this is a regular criminal. he understood a lot about the world. and this explains to us the polish identity of america. when people come here to get you out, you will remember that we're all here for freedom. [applause] but remember, remember, when they come to get you out, first, we take the car, and then we take the car to america. [laughter] [applause] that poor guy didn't know there was an ocean on the way.

he knew one thing. he knew america is associated with freedom. that is the fundamental of american attitude. let's not waste it. [applause] thank you. [applause] >> thank you, president bronislaw komorowski. everyone was awake and attentive in the afternoon. we really appreciate this. [applause] before we go to questions, i

want to abolish the congressman who joined us, thank you so much for being here. we want to take three or four questions. right over here. >> thank you very much for that. you have given us a real challenge about how regular americans can work through different forces, including their own government. what will the fund the in warsaw and what are your thoughts about this operation? >> ladies and gentlemen, this does not happen very often. i live in democracy.

there is a holiday of democracy. we must simply elect such people who are going to be in the programs in the world. they will have to deal with the traditional values, with the free market. and you'll have the ability to work with others. i believe in democracy. the state of the elections, you have to ask the candidates what they should do. whether this is a form or not. >> mr. president -- >> my question is how president

obama, when you raised the problem of the this is program vis --a program. -- visa program. >> i think that barack obama was embarrassed. my impression is that, i believe, that he simply realized that this was a serious problem. this was part of the polish- american emotions. as i have told you, polish people travel all across the world right now. this is not the black labor market, we are going there as tourists.

i hope that this will be life itself. together, we may solve the problem. >> we will go back right there. >> speak english into the microphone. >> i am polish and i am knowledgeable of polish history. what has been upsetting me is, as you mentioned, you have the germans and the russians. always trusting others. so far in our history, in 1939, and for 17 days after, russia had great success. i was asking about the trust.

when we were a young nation in europe, we had grown from depression in positive growth. we were taking advantage -- i was afraid of being taken advantage again. we are trying to rebuild good relationships with russia. somebody may try to smash us down. this is how we are preparing for this. >> the world is not made up -- they have a lot of good intentions. we simply have to search for the best opportunities, and we simply have to grasp the window

of opportunity. this has to come together with the changes in the world. we simply want to do this. poland -- these nations and our relations were very good. you know the history of poland, and you know the relations between poland and germany. they have been marked with an ocean of blood. in the name of terrible history we have to go under this and be silent, and do nothing. the world is threatening to us. you have to be an optimist and a realist. sometimes, there are very distant goals, but you have to be pragmatic. you have to have the partial objective.

and the objective target. only those who are romantic, they are able to achieve some results. you have more romantics from this generation, we have this in the name of solidarity. and there were hundreds and thousands -- and 10 million people of solidarity. but at the beginning, we have the romantics. did we succeed? yes, we succeeded. but did we succeed in relation to the other nations? i do not want to tell you the story of my family. but in the holocaust is e.m., i talked about this with my great

friend, someone who is more than a brother to me. we tell the story of our family. vilnus, during the second world war, his father was a soldier of the home army. and my uncle, who was 16 years old, and a member of the underground movement. he was also in arms. and then, they die in the forest. on the basis of this story, we would have built a scenario of fear. but i wanted to build optimism and hope. this was the first time that we blocked the relations in germany.

they had reasons to be afraid of them. for some% -- that is great that germany has been united. we really are happy to see this. 61% of the people -- they say that they would love to have a german colleague. and they would like to have a daughter-in-law, or a son in law. it would not have been possible 30 years ago. absolutely not possible. one of my grandmother's -- before the first world war, you could not say -- she could not say a single word in polish. she spoke a better german. she never spoke german in life. you cannot even say as chairman

of the polish origin. this was insulting to the polish nation. and i loved her in all my heart. i have to think about the german and polish relations. that is the scenario. i am -- history taught us to be afraid of the germans. we can continue to be afraid of them. we have to be integrating them, and we have to stop being afraid of germans. we will be affected by other nations and other countries. other countries were also afraid of the germans. they are exactly the same. we have to disarm the world. democratic russia can be very

dangerous, democratic russia, i would not be afraid of this. we have to focus on brave and consistent changes of poland, and is because of the historical fear, just in case i want to be a member of nato. i want to tell you, even more. we can invest in good relations with germany. we have good cooperations because we have a strong position as a member of the alliance. they would never be encouraged to be incorporated with russia. russia is not afraid of us.

but sometimes they have been an enemy to us. great russia -- great russia, to the chinese sea, this is only three times higher than poland. we know about this. the russians know perfectly well, that we developed better. we manage this better, and wiser. and there is no being afraid of this. we have to be stronger and wiser. it is not that others will be afraid. the world will simply say, this is the same rate.

>> thank you very much. i am the ambassador of iceland in washington. the biggest group of people who were born abroad, they are published. over 6000. we have 320,000. this was a trivial point. often, this is equated with europe. europe is more than the european union. there is iceland and norway and switzerland, others in the southeastern part of europe. and this is a country that has survived the economic and

financial downturn. and this leads me to the question, what is your government view on the enlargement of the view. iceland -- we're both negotiating, trying to become members. i would like to know your view, of the turkish entrance into the european union. >> with the european character, this is very european. this was -- we have the homogeneous comments.

the european union must be close, and we have to have the association, with a different cooperations. norway is a european country. this does not want to clearly be in the structure. we have access to the european markets. we have to respect this. and we cannot really make this a member of the european union. poland is the last countries -- we have become a member of this and we want to close the door to the club. those who meet the criteria, those who commit to the criteria, this is alimentary to

being different in politics. we have the mess -- but we do not feel for having a in our group. today, this is the source of serious trouble. what is also the source of serious trouble, we had an unregulated border issue. this is a problem for the european union. this is a beautiful island. this is about forgetting the principle. we'll not have regulated border issues. i want to put this very strongly. this is about who will become and who will not become a member.

what you have said made me realize that this is a question of a geographic nature. i never suggested -- spoke about whether this was part of europe. i have never encountered this as an issue. and i will talk about this in greater depth. we always have had to make a great effort to become a member of the european union. this was a very big job and we work under the common states. this was very hard and we were able to deal with the conditions. this was very painful. poland was never guaranteed admission into the european union. this was difficult for us. and today -- there is a valley

of tears and blood in poland. this is happening faster than in other countries. membership in the european union, we have to maintain the difficulty. this was so we could be better, and not just lazy. there is such investments such action, that this would affect everybody. there was the iceland issue, iceland was part of europe. the analysts had shown -- the cultural issues with this being a member. you have 6000 people have voted on this, you have a big part of

europe. [applause] >> i want to thank you for being here this afternoon. >> thank you so much for being here. >> coming up next on c-span, the economics editor of the bbc, followed by the memorial service for elizabeth edwards. she died on tuesday. >> high school students, as you work on your documentary for the student camera competition, here are a few tips from the judges. >> one thing i am looking for is the student. i would like to see you and your personality, and this will make

your video stand out more than the rest. >> this is a real investment in care, that you'll be telling us about. be sure to be interested in what you are telling us. if you are not interested, chances are that we will not be interested. there was a requirement of using c-span video. i want for people to have looked at the content and talk about what elements of c-span make the most sense for telling this story. >> for all of these rules and how to of blow your video, u -- plow -- upload your video, go to c-span.org. . . .