perspective that i believe has to be widened in terms of who are the muslims that cooperate, and i believe that muslims are cooperating much more outside of organizations as well as inside organizations. we have both. you can't look at this perspective of who's cooperating based on organizations alone. the truth is that muslims are just as independent, just as feisty, just as concerned about with safety, they certainly don't want their homes or mosques blown up and there be as individuals they have been doing things with local law enforcement without cover so to speak of an organization. even with the organizational effort, what i see is a merging confidence in the muslim community, particularly in los angeles and i think it's true in new york to a degree, through my contacts with muslims even in new york, that people are getting more realizing to the point that police aren't out

to mess around with them, that there basically is this primary focus on prevention, and we have spent a lot of energy locally in these joint regional intelligent centers just to prevent stuff from happening at its earliest possible point. the truth of it all is that we're as a nation doing relatively good, we're not going to eliminate this possible problem. but as a nation we're getting better and better and better, and this is why i'm here. i don't -- particularly think these hearings can be negative totally. i believe they have a potential to keep the public involved in this discussion which will further lead to better solutions and the robustness of the opinions will say that everyone's entitled to say what they are saying. that's what i'm taking from this hearing. >> the time of the gentle lady is expired. the gentleman from florida is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. i appreciate it. i thank the witnesses for being

here and testifying. i'll get into the questions. terrorist organizations have become increasingly adept at using the internet and social media to recruit, inspire, motivate individuals, already in the united states to carry out attacks on their behalf. and this question is for mr. jasser, sheriff baca, but others wish, you are free to respond as well. one such website that has been described as key to al qaeda's communications was hosted by a web hosting company in my area of tampa bay in the state of florida, the site has since been taken down. what are your thoughts on how to combat the use of the internet and other technology by terrorist organizations overseas to inspire and inspire terrorist attacks in our country by those already here? >> congressman, that's a wonderful question. and i think it points to the fact we have not had any type of cyber counter jihad if you will.

why, because that can only be done by muslims so we need your support to do that and key can do with it the right resources by countering that ideology. the narrative says that america is against muslims, it creates this that america is going to iraq, to convert, kill them, attack them. that's the narrative. we can present our strategy so far has been try to break down that propaganda. that's wrong. we need to have a forward strategy of liberty minded freedom minded ideas into the islamic consciousness. we can do that as muslims but we need your help through websites, a social network. look what happened in egypt and tunisia through social networking and that countered a lot, that wasn't islamists that did that. most was secular muslims that wanted to take control of their future. when we have a government that produces a report and after the hassan incident and the word muslim or islam or jihad isn't in the document, you wonder why we are so paralyzed in treating

this, i as a muslim i need this conversation. if we're going to fix this cancer that's within, the whole viable wonderful beautiful faith that i practice, we need to be able to talk about it. it's like trying to treat cancer without saying the word. it's not islam, but it's jihadism, islamism, a political entity we can fight on the web but we've been absent. we surrendered the constitution to the jihadists. >> sheriff. >> yes. the sheriff's department, as you know, and the lapd along with federal and state partners runs this regional intelligence center which is an open source investigative arm. but we moisted it into the terrorism task forces when we deal with specific things such as cyber terrorism and these websites. we monitor them, some points they get shut down and other times we monitor them and continue to monitor them because it is an excellent source for what would later become an

actual investigation. so there is a broader strategy that is involving all of our levels of government in this website issue. >> thank you. my next question for the panel -- >> please do. thank you. >> lately we have been seeing the excuse that there are recruiters for these kids. they are recruited by the internet, by the cyberspace. i do not believe that there is a kid that gets up in the middle of the night and just walks into the computer, logs on to a jihadist or al qaeda website and decides the next day to fly in and explode themselves. that's very weak excuse. the radicalization process or the brain washing process takes years. there must be somebody on the

ground exploit this kid, what he's angry is, what are his weaknesses. like if there is no father f there is no mentor, if they are smart, if they are weak so the process takes forever. internet one of the last tips to do land courses, to educate yourself into academic level of being gone. thank you. >> thank you. you want to add something? >> i have no comments. >> very good. my next question for the entire panel, i don't have a lot of time, what demographics have demonstrated to be particularly susceptible to extremist recruiting efforts within america, to what extent are youth and universities particularly at risk for the entire panel? >> i'll jump in quick and tell you that that's why we focused our muslim liberty program on adults 15 to 30. young muslim adults in this

country, 15 to 29, 25% thought there was maybe some justification for suicide bombing. that is not typical of the general population of muslims, it's a demographic that we need to target, need to look at figure out because their minds are shaped, being pulled as prime minister cameron said it's an identity problem. they are not identifying with this nation. we need to renew what this country stands for ux bring them in so as muslims they feel american and that will inoculate them. >> the time expired. the gentleman from louisiana, mr. richmand for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you ranking member. i would say that earlier we heard quotes from members from the fbi director, and we heard quotes from eric holder. there is a blues song that says if you tell it, tell it all. what we didn't hear quoted was the fact that the fbi director said home grown extremists and

lone wolf activity are a serious a threat to the homeland as al qaeda and its affiliates. that's not what this hearing deals with. we also heard from eric holder that the cooperation of muslims and communities has been absolutely essential in identifying and preventing terrorime expired. the gentleman from louisiana, mr. richmand for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you ranking member. i have. and i will not only say that i think to focus on just the muslim community is wrong, i will offer that we could have had another hearing today but some of the same witnesses and mr. bledsoe and mr. bihi i think there are a number of families that are suffering your same pain and i pray for you and for them also. but we could have had a title of a hearing that simply said what is driving passive and activist americans to being militant and

extremists? that covers the broad rainbow and spectrum of what's going on in this country without singling out a particular group. here's some very pointed questions. especially mr. bledsoe and mr. bihi first. do you agree that part of the propaganda they use to reskrut that america, the narrative, as dr. jasser said, the narrative is that america is at war with islam? >> no. i don't agree so much with that. i think that they use it to recruit as well to say american doesn't appreciate african-americans and that's one of the i think the reason you find a lot of african-american being recruited because they can use that as a weakness. >> thank you. >> sir, thank you for your question. to the particular group of the somali american which is a large

group, dealing with the main thing, the main victims are somali victims in somali. it's also part of the american heritage and other worlds including the muslim world leaders, so to shed light on this, these people have a target to use these kids not only in the united states of america but also other countries including somalia that they are shedding blood as we speak now for 20 years. >> dr. jasser, i did quote you correctly when you said that the narrative and the propaganda is that america is at war with islam. >> that's the narrative from the islamist side, yes. >> and mr. bledsoe, i would say as a young african-american male your sentiment that that's part of the propaganda that's used i would say it's also a worry to

me when so many people, especially on this committee and in congress who have never been a victim of profiling based on race, religion or any others, are quick to suggest that is a legitimate crime fighting tool when it's irresponsible and not the smartest way to fight crime. dr. jasser, do you believe today, that there are people promoting propaganda based on this hearing alone that's saying that this is evidence of america's war with islam? >> there may be some exploiting that for that but i hope we are mature as a country to be more pragmatic and practical and use this as an opportunity to go beyond that and not allow and ideology that cloak itself in religion to have a poison pill that prevents us from dealing with it. so if it's a theo political movement how else can we counter it, promote the constitutional ideals against those that co-opt

our communities for wanting to put sharia law in government, how do we night if we can't even discuss it because we're worried about offending sensibility. how do we treat hassans of the world if our government spends millions on a report that doesn't cite his slip down radic radicalism. how can i help you as a muslim, help my children resurrect their faith if i can't talk about it >> i think we can talk about it. we talk about it in the terms of the constitution and religion. we don't have to single out the single religion but we can have an honest dialogue about race, about with religion if we talk about the fact it's not just the muslim religion, the islamic religion. it's a broad spectrum. >> 220 arrests of terror cases in the last two years, 180 plus were muslims so you're going to waste all of this time discussing all of the other faiths which i can't help you

with, while we have a muslim problem that i can help you with, not for most muslims, a minority but we're going to twhaeft time and resources because we're worried about offending muslims because of political correctness? >> no. i would suggest that every terror plot is important and every life that's lost is important. i would not consider it a waste of time to talk about extremism in any form or fashion because they take lives. and we can talk about and i won't go through the incidents, but that's what's important to me, to make sure we don't focus so far on one segment that we miss the entire segment that's gone on somewhere else. that's what's important. i think there was a way to do it comprehensively and i'm just disappointed we didn't do it that way. i think you all had very good points. >> the time expired. thank you. the gentleman from georgia, dr. brown. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you all for being here. when i was in the marine corps i

was taught to know your enemy. i think that's extremely important. the enemy in this, the focus of this hearing today is not islamic religion. it's islamists. it's the radical jihadist, it's the radicalization of our youth as mr. bledsoe and mr. bihi have talked about, and i think it's absolutely critical that we as a nation focus upon doing exactly what i was taught in the united states marine corps, to know your enemy. dr. jasser, i'm very appreciative of your work and your testimony and particularly your answer to mr. richmond. i think it's extremely important to focus on who wants to destroy this country. and i believe that there are entities within this country that are supporting those

radical jihadists. i think there are organizations that are very public that are supporting the radical jihadist. we need to know exactly who our enemy is, we need to focus on that enemy and not let political correctness deter us from that. thank you in that regard. i think political correctness is also an enemy of us focusing upon those who want to destroy this country. i don't know a single person on this side of the aisle that is islam a phobic. i think every single person, every republican, wants to focus on exactly what this hearing is all about. and that's the radicalization which is a tremendous, tremendous national security problem. and dr. jasser, we heard a lot

about care. and i like to hear from you what your view of care is and does care represent all muslim americans, does care represent you, and is care helping or hurting your effort to try to foster peace, to foster liberty and freedom within the muslim community? >> thank you. i'll tell you that we have to realize that one of the things we're missing in these demographics is muslims are 4 to 5 million americans, and the minority of them belong to these organizations. the minority of them actually go to mosque regularly. so we have to be careful, yes, mosques and practicing our faith is something i love, i involve in but that's because i take my faith as something that i want to practice actively. many muslims choose not the.

that doesn't mean they aren't represented by these discussions, that doesn't mean we should ignore them. the groups that inherently collectivize become the representatives of muslims which is actually not consistent with our american ideals, and yet in the middle east, we -- there is a lot of banter between secularists and islamists because they real litz it's not anti-islam to be against the muslim brotherhood type groups. i think we have to realize when we look at groups like care i believe they come out of that same mentality t collectivization of muslims and use systems to avoid dealing with pathologies that we need to treat. so in the interesting think, islamic american relations i teach my kids being american is islamic. there is no relations between the two. it's inherently the same. so the construct is built on a separation if you will. and i think it's one of actually we may be giving it too much importance, it's one of a large

number of organizations that serve to advance political islam in the west. there is a sense that those advocates for those groups want to bring islam here rather than absorb american freedom and reform our faith. the evidence i have of that, look how much work they have done or the islamists in north america to modernize the legal systems of our faith to be commensurate with the laws of this land and not in conflict. you'll find and i put in my testimony, groups like the assembly of muslim jurists of america, they have never made stances against some of the religious rulings in there, so they basically become enablers of ideas that tell muslim kids don't really take a citizenship if you don't have to. if somebody commits an act and leavings the faith our law if it was muslim majority they should be killed. this is the law that's on the

books. so my biggest fear besides all of this discussion, i hope to generate new books, new schools of thought in our islamic legalisms that aren't in conflict with society and give muslims identity. >> time expired. the gentleman from michigan, mr. clark. recognized for five minutes. thank you, mr. chair. thousands of innocent people were killed as a result of attacks on this country. it's understandable why the issue of terrorism in america illicits outrage and emotion. sheriff baca, i've got a question for you, but one thing i wanted to commend you is that those core values that your deputies make an oath to, underscore the rights that we all have in this country to be

treated fairly by our government. and i recognize those rights. not only as a member of congress whose taken an oath to uphold the constitution, but also mr. chair, on a personal note. it's because my father who cared for me, who loved me, was a muslim. he died when i was 8 years old but i'll never forget him. he was a kind and gentle soul. most importantly what i remember is that his love for people was based in his faith in god. in order for us to make sure that 9/11 never ever happens again, i urge all of us as members of congress to make our decisions based on sound intelligence. not on profiling. not on stereotyping. which could lead and fuel more

hatred and bigotry. i'm going to ask my question in a second. but sheriff, i commend first responders like yours because you know the best way i realize to better prepare our country against these attacks is to fully equip our men and women who risk their lives as police, firefighters, emergency medical providers to make sure they have the resources. in michigan, the council of american islamic relations have worked with law enforcement. as a matter of fact, just last year they met 13 times with federal law enforcement officials in order to create a better dialogue between the community and federal law enforcement. i appreciate any thoughts you may have to better foster relations between law enforcement and the muslim community and if you choose to you can cite some examples that you know about first-hand.

and if there is time remaining i would like to yield my remaining time to member richardson. >> as we can tell by the testimony of the witnesses and your comments we have a very diverse muslim community in the united states. first of all, organizations are more helpful than not. i believe that the message and the narrative should be that everyone can pitch in in one form or another at the right time. when it comes to encountering violent extremism all resources can count and we should not discount resources in any fashion irrespective of the various points that have been made. when we formed the first muslim american homeland security congress, this is an organization made up of organizations, individualsed including the council and mosques that are vizized.

what we have when we talk about care as an organization, care supported the development of the muslim american homeland security congress. furthermore, they support the muslim outreach program that i'm doing. what i think has happened here is that care is only a multitude of chapters not one single orgs. in southern california i have not heard of any complaints from my deputies who were involved in the investigative processes that i alluded to of saying don't cooperate. what's going on in other parts of the country i can't attest to. i have never had a briefing on the whole issue from the fbi as to what their position is. but i will say that when i asked, after particularly the london and -- excuse me, after 9/11 i asked care if i were in your position, i would post

admonitions in mosques. if you have that ability to, that advise the attendees that come to pray, to not bring in extremist points of view. and this this was very particularly important to me because at one mosque that i went to a young man came up to me when we were in a meeting of solidarity among the face and ied that wife of the supervisor with me who is jewish, he couldn't make the meeting and i was holding onto a koran, an individual came up to me and said you are forbidden to hold the karon. i said you better open it up because it was given to me by the imam of this mosque. it's people like you giving the muslim community a bad name and he walked out and that was the end of that confrontation. but the point here is that i have not experienced anything to

suggest that care supports terrorism in southern california care organization. >> time of the gentleman expired. the gentleman from new york, mr. higgins is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> sorry. actually go back to the gentle lady from michigan, miss miller. >> thank you, mr. chairman. sorry, mr. higgins. you know first of all i want to thank you for holding this hearing. i think it is very, very important and certainly after listening to the testimony today of all of the witnesses it's very clear that we have situations here in america that we need to examine candidly as we all seek the very same thing which is a strong safe secure america. and you know in the run-up to today's hearings we heard talk about how we should not be prejudging any one single group. i think after hearing the compelling testimony i think

many, many, particularly in the media were as misguided by prejudging what this hearing was about. i'm hopeful this will strengthen our country. i think it's an opportunity to have an actual pivot for us and help us all to stand together. above everything else and i would make an observation. i know so many of my colleagues mentioned that we should be having all of these hearings on other groups who could potentially be a threat to america and i don't know why we never had those hearings. we had the ft. hood massacrant didn't have a hearing. we are on fema trailers. i represent a district in southeast michigan next to mr. dingell who spoke and next to mr. clark from detroit. as you heard we have the largest arabic population in the country, a diverse population with leb 0 niece, palestinians, jordanian, yemenese and many

others. these are proud americans make up an important part of our community. you know, before i came to the congress i had the honor and privilege of serving as michigan's secretary of state. two of my responsibilities running the state elections but secondly serving as the motor vehicle administrators. i worked closely with the arabic community to make sure they were registered to vote. and issuing the driver's license i. remember running into a buzz saw when we had some female members of the arabic community who didn't want to have dryer photos taken unless they were completely covered with just their eyes. we said no, if you have a michigan driver's license used as part of your identity, you have to have a picture taken. and we tried to be sensitive having a female clerk in the back room, et cetera. we want to be very sensitive to

cultural differences but in america we have equal rights for all. and special rights for none. recently adam gahon, born in california and radicalized, he is known as the american spokesman for al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. he made comments calling on muslims, i will quote, living in the miserable suburbs of detroit to take the initiative, to perform the obligation of gee had. and i would say that rad dal al qaeda thoughts do not speak for our neighbors who stand up for american ideals of liberty and freedom and democracy. and again it's my hope that this hearing will reiterate to those in the mosques or just in the muslim community, anywhere that if they hear of efforts from radical extremists to ra radical their hate that they can and

must come hort to law enforcement. my question would go to mr. bleds sew who your testimony touched me. and particularly as you say how you have muslims in your own family could you -- how do you think america could better educate ourselves on the religion of ris lamb so others, that particularly parents might be able to recognize if thir children turned the wrong way on a proud and peaceful relidge tune the wrong side of this religion to one that is of hate and perverted that religion. how do you think we could better educate ourselves. >> i think we can better educate by first teaching the american citizens, american children, what islam is and what islam is not. i think that is one thing that needs to be done, more americans need to be educated about the

religion and not be afraid to understand the religion. i want to go back while i'm speaking here to show you when he spoke about you got to call the police, would you see different things. in the process of lies and shn especially with my sun, we did not know what was happening when he was taking his dogs out in the woods and leaving them or taking a picture off the wall. it is something new to america. it's new to me. as i couldn't quickly just say, because you become a muslim, that you know, you cannot do these kind of things. i felt this was part of the cultural. learning the religion. yet i found out later it was more than that. i am saying to the american people it's the process of what happens. it takes a while sometimes to

realize that your child is being radicalized. what i have said today i hope that someone is listening. if you find that your child is getting rid of the dog or he isn't himself, the family staying away from the family, not coming home from college or holidays. yes, you should perhaps call the law enforcement and get them involved. >> the time of the gentleman has expired. now the gentleman from new york, mr. higgins. >> thank you. finally. i want to thank the panel. i think this has been a productive discussion. one in which i have learned quite a bit from. in the aftermath of 9/11, we were all taught that we are not at war as a nation with islam. we were at war with those who hijacked that religion.

and used it to justify their murderous and cowardly acts. from that a lot of relationships were developed between the law enforcement community, local, state and federal. with the muslim community. to try to better understand one another. i think we're at a point where progress has been made but still much work needs to be done. and when i look at or hear the sheriff from los angeles talk about the programs that have been developed in your community, it's very similar to that of my community. in buffalo, new york, a smaller city directly south of buffalo is lackawanna. an old steel city that was home to the lackawanna six. it was six muslim american men who were convicted of providing material support to al qaeda by training in their camps in

kandahar, afghanistan. efforts are being made now, they were very young, efforts are being made to reradicalize, to counter radicalize and that should be i think the focus of what it is we're doing in promotion of movement forward in that direction as well. you know, there's a lot of misunderstanding when you get into this issue and i think people get invested into their owe motional positions that don't have a factual base. give you an example. in this nation we have not only a christian judeo tradition, we have a christian judeo islamic tradition in this nation. but the basis of those religions are compassion, forgiveness, love, and tolerance. the prophet mo ha smed a prophet of mercy. in my catholic religion i was raised by the sisters ever mercy. i think we all have a lot to

learn from one another about this issue. we have a long way to go, the radicalization of muslims in america is in large part influenced by the convergence of new technology that allows groups to communicate in ways they never were able to before. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula has a publication called inspire. they are trying to influence throughout the world unlike they have ever been able to before since they are -- their "inception." these present extra ordinary challenges. i think that provides a basis from which our nation, all our law enforcement agencies in each individual state and locality develop those relationships with the muslim american community. in the end we are all americans. and people don't come to this country by and large to create havoc. they come because they thirst

for the freedom we have. that's what they want for themselves and their families. so sheriff if you want to elaborate further on some of the programs you've been working on and be interested in that. >> thank you. i'll share with you what the muslims themselves in los angeles are interested in. and this is part of the relationship building. they are interested in, we've given them programs on domestic violence, on gang activities and awareness, youth in teens, a driving education, the terrorism issue, obviously. narcotics education and awareness and identity theft and awareness. so i intended listening to your overview which i agree with, when you think about it, most americans don't think on a daily basis like we do here.

we are obligated to have concern and sophistication and we can disagree all we want. the average american should be able to go about their business on a day lis basis and not have too worry about this because that's what they are paying us to do. in the context of your question, what i think is the bigger problem is that most muslims don't know what the koran is all about. this is my assertion. when i start talking to people since i've been given a koran i'm obligated to read it. there is reference to bury the mother of jesus, there is reference to -- according to the widespread belief of scholars of islam that you cannot be a muslim unless you honor judaism and christianity. you cannot exclude those two faiths from the internal composition of what the prophet was saying when this koran

became what it is that it is. that's my biggest advice. get smarter on your own faith. praying five times a day as a ritual that is important but is not islam. it is the ability to have a sense of tolerance for judaism, christianity and all faiths of the world, that's the message that i think is not being heard by the american public. >> time of the gentleman has expired. mr. walberg from michigan. recognize forward five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for holding this hearing. i think it's an important time to do it and time to carry on what this committee was originally established to do. i thank you as well for hanging the pictures in the back of the room again. to remind us of the purpose of this committee that we would understand the liberty and its price is eamericanle vigilance.

i think the witnesses. and yes for muslims being here and cooperating today. because indeed, it is the muslim community that is at the table today and represented at the table today that i think desires to have a change in what's going on and the perception that results from positive effort in standing against the radicalization of their young people. and others who aren't their young people but are pulled in so i thank you for your courage in stepping to the table and sharing with us your story. to allow that story to be hold more let me quickly go to the question. dr. jasser, what do you hope will be taken away from this hearing for muslim americans and also for non-muslim americans. >> thank you, congressman. i hope we see this as the beginning of a dialogue and it's

interesting, some of the feedback i got leading up to this was what's the government doing getting involved in religious issues. it's against the first amendment. as i heard the conversation i saw that religious issues are all right as long as everything is positive. that's the islam that i teach my children. but we have to realize there are many islams out there. if we are going to prosect our homeland we need to develop a strategy, a forward strach with a platform for organizations that are muslim and our government to work together in a public/private partnership. i think a lot of the discussion has been healthy. there are a lot of partner ships that are successful. those are about the crime element, the violence. the problem is deeper. it's an ideology one. you see for example, in michigan, there was a shooting of an imam who was basically running a radical sect. and the islamic groups including

care, michigan had to have an all topsy. no mention of the ideology he wanted to have an islamic state. all of these things that we should be filling the internet with we're not doing. our homeland security is at risk because those cause a continuum of radicalization and we need platforms to do that at universities, think tanks, at all of the institutions that this government helps change the agenda of society i hope this is a pivot point in changing the agenda so you can help me create and us and other organizations there are a lot of other organizations like mine doing this reform work and not allow just the revivalists to get the microphone but the reformists. to say we want to modernize. >> thank you, dr. jasser. i have many muslim friends in both in michigan as well as in uganda.

in the recent somalian bombings at the world cup experience, and in copallia i thankfully have a very, very dear friend who was at that restaurant who was chaperoning an american group. there were christians and muslims in the room at the same table. due to two bodies in between my friend and the suicide bomber he lived to transport bodies and victims to the hospital in a van that i traveled in many times and many miles. after that bombing, the word came out from the somalian muslim terrorist group apologizing to ugandans for their lives being lost because their efforts were to go after americans and whites. now you have experienced it first-hand, mr. bihi.

how concerned are you that other young so molly males from your may be influenced to join the violent jihad either in the united states or somalia >> we are very concerned. we are extremely concerned that we have our immediate outreach concerning this matter right away without funding, no support with all those pressures on silencing. we won the hearts of hundreds of people, young people, not to change their minds. we have influenced as you have heard, we have a huge because of the long running civil war by somalia, over 25 years now, we have influenced denmark, the community in denmark, we have influenced the community in canada, in sweden, in switzerland, in germany, in lancaster, in liverpool, in all over the world, luxembourg, the netherlands, in ireland, we are

getting every time you open the tv you see a man indicted because of his intentions to do a jihad. we are victims are wonderful to organizations that are taking and picking on us like a salmon fish. every time we try to speak up against this we got problems. we're intimidated by a strong organizations that are not welcome in our community because we are not going to stop. as a matter of fact, uganda, it made us, we are sitting, i and my youth coordinator on the side of the table of the news to do a -- it was ramadan time, for the youth. from my experience, i'm an expert, i can say that, i have been there from the beginning. i don't just mention, we find out that recruitists, we see eye on eye each other on the coffee shops, showing the young men how glorious it is, how successful

they are riding these horses, exploding themselves, seeing all of these things. and we have to combat what they did that in uganda. so immediately we organized with no penny to rent a big team to organize 400 young men to play basketball. >> i wish you all good success. >> the time expired. and the gentle lady from california is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. at the outset i must say that i find this hearing to be grossly incomplete and i feel that without the representation of the department of homeland security, the fbi, the department of justice, we are seeing a very skewed discussion with the exception of sheriff baca who is here. i think these anecdotes are interesting, i don't believe these are experts. i would suggest that if we are really going to be complete in this hearing, we should also be

investigating the army of god and their website in which they openly praise christian terrorists as part of an effort to look at home grown terrorism in this country. let me start by first asking dr. jasser, if you believe the majority of mosques in this country are actively recruiting terrorists? >> that's not what i said. >> i'm asking that question. >> no, i do not believe the majority of mosques are actively recruiting terrorists. >> do you believe you have expertise to be speaking? >> it's interesting. that's question that the theo krats ask me all the time so it seems you are asking the same thing. my love my faith my demonstrable experience in dealing with this issue of reform of knowledge of not only my scripture and my practice of faith but the constitution i think positions me pretty well to deal with it, and be part of the solution. i'm not sure who else you would like to solve this problem but i think it's only muslims that can

do. and it would be sort of like asking at the time of the american revolution that you want to have testimony about the church of england's threat to america and you would only listen to the priests and you know, that would be wrong because it was the lay community that ultimately intellectual lay community that understood their faith that brought about the reform and the change against the establishment, so i hope you don't look upon expertise as something that gets handed down from the clerics and part of the problem. >> no, but i'm a practicing roman catholic, i go to church every single sunday, i'm a lekter in my parish. i am no more prepared to speak about the pedophilia in the catholic church because i am a practicing roman catholic and i think we do need have experts come here to testify on home grown terrorism in this country, and while i appreciate the anecdotes of those who have spoken i don't think that they are necessarily very

enlightening. >> well -- >> sheriff baca, let me ask you, how important have muslim americans been in your efforts to foil terrorist plots in los angeles county? >> los angeles county as you know we haven't had an attack as such. and i think that the ability to prevent is what we're trying to do more than anything else. our weighing of success across the nation cannot be weighed alone by los angeles's model. what i do believe is that if i were a new yorker or if i was a d.c. resident or even someone in the fields of pennsylvania, that there's a whole different reality about terrorism when it happens in places that you love and have grown up in the more specific way. and therefore, the variability of the panel today is that i speak about what i do to prevent terrorism, these individuals have a more intimate weighing in on the issue of terrorism.

the doctor on the other end is a scholar, more perhaps than even a medical doctor, but the truth is that this is a most difficult subject to get your arms around. and i believe that our country is doing magnificently given all of the complexity of a big country that spreads not only throughout the mass land of america, but everyone around the world particularly the countries abroad and where i'm stepping in to say where i'm helping, i'm helping the middle east police departments and i'm dealing with muslims that are in my profession around the world, we didn't even get into that. we're not going to deal with anything without the connectivity of resources outside america with those that are inside america. >> if i could interrupt for a moment. one more question. i'm running out of time. i don't know how much discussion has been had about the lone wolf

phenomenon. but certainly the congressional research service and their review has spoken about the lone wolves, we've seen it in the jared loughners, the timothy mcveighs, in some of the christmas day bomber and the like. so, what would you say about the risk of home grown terrorism coming from what are called lone wolves? >> it's definitely there. i mean, you know, the concept of a lone wolf terrorist is based on a variety of explanations but they are definitely part of the element of an attack that will occur similar to the one in new york. but there is always help. the lone wolf theory is an interesting one. rarely does any one have the smarts enough to pull off one of these attacks on their own so i think that there is a lone person, whether it's abdul out of nigeria on a christmas

holiday period, they'll execute on their own as a single person but behind them there is always someone around, a peer jihadist, violent jihadist who is is helping them accomplish their mission. >> the time expired. the gentleman from minnesota is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'd like to thank the members of the panel, particularly mr. bledsoe, mr. bihi and mr. jasser. i do consider your testimony expert testimony. you live it. >> i want to say thank you. >> you're welcome. you live it every day, you have been fighting for it in minneapolis, every day on a daily basis. i commend you for your courage, your conviction, and i applaud you, especially mr. bihi living in minneapolis in minnesota, i understand what you have gone through, i understand the trials and tribulations you have gone through and i commend you, sir, not only you, but also your family members that have also had to have been brave through

this as well because you, sir, have been under persecution by entities that's supposed to represent the muslim faith. so i commend you sir and mr. bledsoe, and i just can't say that enough. thank you very much for your courage. mr. bihi, you are representing voices from minnesota, families whose sons have been radicalized, isn't abroad to wage jihad against muslims and nonmuslims in somalia. at the forefront i want to recognize in a public way that minnesota so mmalis are by and large good people and here chasing the american dreams that my grandparents came for just like you. raising their kids to be great americans and bettering our great state of the state of minnesota. and i reject the message from some on this committee, and these hearings as doing anything but initiating an open process

and not only protecting muslim americans but protecting all americans. my goal is to put a spotlight on this particular issue and then refocus this lens on the small number of individuals and organizations in the muslim community that are 100% committed to totally implement islamic law which is in direct violation of article 6 of the constitution of the united states. so again, gentlemen, i thank you very much for your commitment to this. sheriff, i just have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind. thank you for your service in the corps. >> marine. >> sorry, sir. i'm a navy guy. hope you won't hold it against me. i helped lots -- i have a question in regard to care. you are aware that this is hamas

and brotherhood, muslim brotherhood enty. is that correct, sir in >> no, i'm not aware of that. >> let me bring this to your attention then. this was actually proven in the fbi identifies 1993 philadelphia meeting as hamas meeting. and that all attendees of this meeting are hamas members. the two people that were in that meeting were both founders of care. so my question is, sir, basically you're dealing with the terrorist organization. and i'm trying to get you to try to understand that they might be using you, sir, to implement their goals. >> well, thank you for asking me that question. but it sounds more like a possible accusation being misused by an organization that quite frankly, let me just answer you this way.

i'm an elected official as you are. if the fbi has something to charge care with, bring those charges forward and try them in court and deal with it that way. there is a reality that in my culture as a police officer that you have facts and you have a crime. deal with it. we don't play around with criminals in my world. if care is an organization that's a, quote, criminal organization, prosecute them. hold them accountable. and bring them to trial. >> my time is limited sir. are you saying that the fbi was wrong in identifying that care is part of hamas? >> let me say this. you don't want to cause a conflict between me and the fbi. >> i'm just asking. >> we work together better than perhaps this committee works together. >> that would be an

understatement at this point. i'm just asking a question. let me ask you this question. hypothetical. if you knew that care was a terrorist organization sponsored by hamas would you continue to work with them? >> you're asking me a question that i'm not qualified to answer because i'm not representing hamas, i'm not representing care, i'm not representing anything other than your personal safety and i do work well with your police in the great state that you represent. >> sir, i'm doing the same thing trying to protect the united states of america citizens. thank you very much. now i yield back my 10 seconds. >> this committee usually does get along pretty well. the gentle lady from new york, recognized for five minutes. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. let me say that today's hearing has been a great congressional theater. certainly the equivalent of reality tv.

and i'm just -- i'm just really appalled at the fact that we have not really gotten to a substantive conversation about how we define terrorism, how we define the whole idea of radicalization, because just in listening, if i had my eyes closed and listening to the witnesses not to diminish what they've been through because their experience is real, but i have parents in my district who can sit and talk about their children being recruited, their children being brain washed, and their children are gang members. okay? and the bloodshed, the lives that have been lost in communities like mine across this nation, since i've been here, has not been an issue of

homeland security. and when i hear dr. jaser talk about the concerns about the elements of radicalization in existence, in islam, i'm also reminded that there are those same elements evident in christianity and in judaism. i know because i represent all three faiths in my district. and as someone who was directly impacted by 9/11, and who has lived in a community where we have respected every human being irregardless of their background, their ethnicity, their religion, to see us come to this day where we are pointing fingers at one another, i don't see the benefit in it. i see the benefit in the approach of sheriff bach.

i see the benefit in us opening up the dialogues, but i don't see the benefit in stigmatizing, finger pointing, or even creating the specter that it may occur, even if it doesn't, as being something worthy of where we should be in our collective humanity in the 21st century. and so while i can empathize with the challenges faced by these families, we can all point to instances in our districts where families are suffering. the goal here should be how do we address that suffering through communication, through dialogue, through enlightenment, which is where we need to be in the 21st century. i'd like to take this moment and yield the balance of my time to the gentle lady from california, ms. laura richardson. >> thank you, ms. clark. for the record, i just wanted to clarify and build upon the question, the last question i

asked you, sheriff bacha. there have been two issues mr. king brought up for this hearing. one was the fact of are american muslims cooperating with law enforcement? the second issue is the scope. and so i just want to clarify. your answer was you think these hearings are good. and i agree that having an open discussion about problems and preventing terrorism is good. but what i want to clarify for the record, so it's not used against us, is do you agree that discussions like this should not -- sure, we should talk about preventing terrorism and radicalization, but should the scope be so narrowed only to include american muslim community or should other communities and other groups also be discussed in the same fashion? because thus far we haven't been told of those hearings. >> well, i believe it depends on the time and scope. i know that you've heard significantly from all four of us and i think that these

witnesses are incredibly important but if you try to package it all up in one big group, we'll be here for three weeks. >> no, sheriff, i'm not suggesting all necessarily in the one time but it is very important we get this answer and i got 32 seconds. the question is, don't you think there should also be a discussion of the other groups? >> oh, definitely. >> thank you, sir. >> my testimony, you know, more radical extremists' acts of crime are occurring in the united states of america on the reports that have been given by members of congress and myself on this committee that nonmuslim extremists are a problem in this country. and, you know, we don't have to go too far back in history to understand what the ku klux klan is all about. and i believe the sensitivities are as the sensitivities are if you lived in new york, you lived in washington, and you lived in

places in the united states that were harmed by these terrorists on 9/11 or if you lived in parts of america where you were lynched or you were ultimately -- had your churches burned down, there's no difference in the outcome. and so i think that there's a reason for different points of view on this matter, but i'm glad for the consciousness that we have here on the discussion because i am a very strong opponent of any kind of violence that is basically so indiscriminate, whether it's holocaust violence or just one individual, either way, the damage is unacceptable to civilization. >> the time of the gentle lady is expired. the gentleman from illinois is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you've heard this before but thank you for having the foresight and the courage to put this hearing on.

mr. bee hee and mr. bledsoe, a colleague on the other side referred to you as not expert, your testimony as not expert testimony, and i think the word she used to describe your experiences was interesting. mr. behe, mr. bledsoe, take a shot at that. what you both have gone through is interesting the word you'd use to describe it? >> i think i'd describe it as a tragedy. i'd also like to say to perhaps the person who was speaking on the other side, i'm wondering, how did they get on the commission to speak about some of the things they're speaking about? i mean, we're not talking about how much of a professional or expert. we're speaking about what happened here to our children and what we are speaking about what may happen to your

children. we're speaking about the danger. i think most of the people that i'm hearing on the other side are talking about political fear and that's what i mostly hear here. there is -- now, there are certain populations -- a small population we're talking about, islamic extremists, who we're worried about stepping on their toes and they are talking about stamping us out. not just stamping us out but everything that america stands for. i'm wondering, why don't the people pull their blinders off? >> mr. bledsoe, to that point, what do you think they're afraid of? fear of what? >> i think they're afraid of political fear. perhaps not getting re-elected or something. but this is real. this is the real thing happening in america. if it's not going to happen by not doing anything about it, if you ignore, say we don't have a problem, then you're inviting the problem to come again.

>> mr. behe, what word would you use besides interesting to describe what you went through? >> there are no words to describe what i went through or those families went through. we basically put our neck out, all of us, and we destroyed ourselves. well, did we do it again this type of environment all the time that we are facing all the way for just speaking out for our country and for our children or our communities? yes. we will do it, because the immensity of the danger, the immensity of the danger, the person, the organization that was very successful, could change the brain of the kid who loves you so much and make him go to the worst place on earth and explode himself. that organization is dangerous. it's not about bihi or my

brother here being experts. we are not looking for certification. we are looking to save the rest. our kids died. my kid died. many of them died. we never stop. we paid the price for speaking up. we never stop. we saved hundreds and hundreds in the united states, thousands around -- so i think it's a good reward, those families who speak out to save others. his son is in jail. we are trying to save the rest, not looking to be experts. >> why are so many other american muslim organizations afraid of holding these hearings? they didn't want to hold this hearing. what, in your estimation, are they afraid of? >> you know, that's a great question, and i think, you know, at the end of the day, change is very difficult, you know. i was asked about what am i doing here? and, you know, my family asks me

that frequently because of all the pressure we get because of what i do. it's not an easy task taking on an establishment, a mentality that will not change or reform, that will not realize there are changes that have to happen internally to prevent this cancer from happening. the pressures are innumerable especially for a minority population. it's interesting that they are circling the wagons instead of i think the best way to let fear of muslims melt away is to have them see us leading the charge, so in many ways, also, we're not intellectually equipped i think from a religious standpoint because we haven't had the infrastructure built in liberty and theology because so many muslims i think don't understand the faith well and have not been educated in a western mindset and we have to build these infrastructures to allow that reform to happen. but it's a lot of tribalism i think and a lot of circling of the wagons and there's -- that has to change and they don't

want to -- >> thank you all. thank you, mr. chairman. >> the gentleman's time is expired. mr. davis from illinois is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i want to thank all of the witnesses for coming. as i've listened i've heard the constitution being mentioned a number of times. i thought of the preamble that simply says that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. and i'd also say the pursuit of justice. i think all people want to be viewed and treated the same way, with equal rights, equal

protection under the law, and the opportunity to pursue what they think especially as long as it is not violating the rights of others. sli sheriff baca, i've always been, since i've known about you, impressed with your law enforcement career, especially the way that you handled things like law enforcement misconduct and the way that you try and bring people together to understand the role of law enforcement. i was just thinking that, you know, the city of chicago is looking for a police chief right now. and while we wouldn't try to steal you from -- we would like to clone you if we could and just bring you, because i think that you represent a level of

law enforcement professionalism and understanding of what the role of law enforcement is that i've been looking for and searching for and wanting to see ever since i've been involved in public life. and so i simply commend you for the way in which you have expressed yourself today and for the track record that you have developed. i'd like to ask mr. bihi and mr. bledsoe a question right now. and i understand fully -- i live in inner city chicago -- have lived there all of my adult life. we have a large muslim community gathering sometimes with 15,000,

20,000 people actually going to listen to minister farakhan speak and will be enthralled the whole time. what conditions do you think exist that cause radical groups to think that they can successfully recruit and radi l radicalize young people, especially, in neighborhoods and communities like the one that i just described? >> well, i do know a little bit about chicago. you're speaking mostly what they call black muslims, louis farakhan and elijah mohamed and malcolm x followers. i think there is somewhat of a difference but as the

recruitment part, i think the recruitment part will come before like when people are denying that we have a problem and that is one recruitment people will go after -- if we don't have a problem then they can recruit easier. >> well, i agree that i do mean african-americans, but i must confess that my breadth is much bigger, much wider, much broader, and i interact with all kinds of muslims pretty much on a regular and ongoing basis. what i'm really trying to get at, i guess, is are there situations that would cause individuals to believe that they're going to be successful? i mean, i don't go hunting unless i think some game is there. >> yes. >> i don't go fishing unless i think there is some fish in the lake. >> may i answer that, sir?

>> do you want to add something? >> well, i'm going to add something. you know, there are professional people out there that are looking for just that. you know, there are professional people looking out to recruit american citizens not only in chicago but a lot of other american cities. >> sir, if i may add, yes, there are many reasons why they're looking for our youth. number one, if you look at the -- the similarities of those who are missing from minneapolis, or from denmark, or from copenhagen or from sweden or from lancaster, they all share one thing. they all are mostly from single mom households -- young men that usually do not have mentorship at home are almost 85%. number two, they are looking for young people who never had any

problem. third, they are looking for kids who are from america and those western countries who are from those countries that will not have a problem when they are training. they can go back and slip into those countries and they can just order them to do those dirty, wicked jobs. >> thank you very much. and thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> thank you, mr. davis. the gentleman from pennsylvania, former united states attorney? >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank this entire panel. i know it's been a long process, but i really do believe that we're gaining a great deal from your insight. sheriff baca, i want to thank you for the work that you do. i know you represent all law enforcement. i had the good opportunity to come in as the united states attorney just a week after september 11 and i watched colleagues like you all across the united states fan out and reach into the community and i have to say we got a great deal

of dialogue from members all across, including many who practiced the muslim faith. so i don't think the issue really today is so focused on the, you know, the question of dialogue. it's as much the question of are we getting the right ability to communicate in a way that helps us prevent the next event? and i have been aware of one of the things we were asked to do by the very experts that aren't here today was to go out into the community and speak to folks just like you so we could understand better how to handle this. and i have tried to look at the broad spectrum of things that have been put forth quite a bit here today but, dr. jasser, i'm going to focus on something that you touched. and it's into this area between, you know, this elephant in the room that we're not supposed to be talking about.

>> religion and jihadism. you made a statement that the root cause of muslim radicalization, and this is what it's about, is islamism, political islam. and then i was struck by your word. how can law enforcement effectively do counterterrorism in our country without recognition that political islam and its narrative is the core ideology when at its extreme it drives the general mindset of the violent extremists carrying out attacks? that's what we want to prevent are those attacks. can i ask you to describe just a little more detail, what do you mean by political islam? >> thank you, congressman, for asking me that. i think it's so vital to understanding that as we've heard repeatedly there's islam, my faith, which is the moral constru constructs of integrity and honesty and virtuousness and what i bring to my scripture and

my relationship with god as the judeo christian tradition is. then there is political islam which is a movement to create a th theocratic state. now i may practice islamic law in my life but that's a choice and our organization believes it's no longer religious law, it is no longer a religion if government coerces you to do that. but that antagonism between this country's understanding of the establishment clause and the beauty of liberty versus political islam which wants to put into place islamic states like iran, like the taliban had in place, or like the wahabi system in saudi arabia or, milder yet, there are versions of political islam that are 3.0 or 4.0 that use democracy and elections but yet end up still being based not in reason but society is based in scripture exegesis where the only people that can have opinions are the

scholars of islam. and therefore lay muslims like myself get dismissed from proceedings because we're not experts in islamic law and therefore it becomes an oligarchy. that is what we're up against. and there are the extreme versions like osama bin laden, trying to create a global homogeny of islamic states and there are the more slippery versions that believe in democracy and i think you can look at the threat by looking at why most of the radical groups around the world were hatched from muslim brotherhood ideology and people should read up those ideas and look at what they've done. i think as we understand that you'll see a lot of those ideas influencing identification of muslim -- i put in my materials in the appendix some charts that look at the radicalization process. one was from the nypd report. the other was from a counterterrorism expert patrick poole who looked at the fact that you end up with terror on the top but there's a lot of feeders into that. the primary feeder is the separatist feeling from some

muslim youth that they dream of a utopia to bring the state back to the way it was at the time of the prophet mohammed and the time in the 7th century he mixed roles of being a head of state, a general, and a messenger of god. we need to start creating new ideas. they call that, some would call it heretical. i call it modernization, new ideas that separate those roles because the times square bomber, when he was in front of the judge, he told him, i did this because i was a muslim soldier. so our muslim community is looked at by these individuals as being a political unit, military unit, and until we separate that you will never stop terrorism. >> thank you. >> the gentleman's time is expired, and now we have three members who are added by unanimous consent. >> thank you, mr. chairman, for these hearings. appreciate it and thank you, ranking member thompson, as well as the witnesses.

just want to say to dr. jasser's point quickly i don't think this conversation should be given over totally to the intellectuals. i know we have some disagreements but i agree with your premise. we have to be very suspicious about these so-called gatekeepers. >> thank you. >> as it relates to the religion. i think all muslim business persons and so on should have a contribution and we shouldn't minimize or trivial iize folks' experiences or lessen their credibility as it relates to testifying. having said that as a proud american muslim, sheriff baca, i spent over a decade in law enforcement including some times in an intelligence capacity with the department of homeland security. i want to thank you for dispatching the sergeant to meet with me as i visited l.a. but during the time i worked in law enforcement, i worked with informants and cooperating witnesses from all backgrounds and a wide variety of cases. and in every case, one reality held true, that those who

trusted law enforcement, the judicial system and our government, were most likely to provide useful information in a very timely manner. also, those who felt singled out or targeted were nuch less likely to provide useful information as well. since the establishment of the department of homeland security and the passage of the patriot act, there have been considerable discussions about certain law enforcement and intelligence practices that may do more to spur anti-american sentiment in the muslim community than to apprehend terrorist plotters. national security letters, warrantless and wiretaps as well as under cover investigations in mosques have already caused many muslims to fear that their constitutional rights are being disregarded in the name of preventing terrorism. can you tell us, sheriff, how these and other law enforcement and intelligence practices have impacted muslim populations in l.a., particularly, also tell us if you have any suggestions

about how this committee and congress might better structure these proceeds to protect civil rights while maintaining effectiveness. >> well, that is a very tough question to answer in a short period of time, but i'll make my best effort. intelligence gathering in and of itself is an interesting subject and as we know, in many of the experiences the united states has gone through since 9/11, that intelligence in and of itself moves the subject matter around, meaning what you believe is in one report, may be modified by another report, which may be modified by another report, which ultimately leads to where is the pea under the shell? i don't think anybody that's in the law enforcement world involved in intelligence gathering, pleased to know you have been, understands that if

you don't have the authority in the intelligence world to make an arrest at the time that the evidence demonstration that it should be done, then the question is what intelligence do you believe and what intelligence don't you believe and who are your sources and what are your sources' motives for providing you the information? now, it's very clear to me that that father came into a police station in any place in america and said my dad is acting a little weird and i need some help we would know exactly what to do. but this was not the case. the process was morphed into an intelligence mode and then it went into a status file as opposed to an active file and i think we've corrected that in our federal intelligence gathering system. but if we look at intelligence as being the bible of all truth,

we're in deep trouble in this country. what we have to do is continue to improve what we do to use techniques that are clearly not obscuring evidence but clearly making sure that the evidence is in fact what is being reported to be and i think therein is a whole different discussion the intelligence committee can deal with or subcommittee but when it comes down to the truth of all forms of investigative work, it is not an exact science a hundred percent of the time so what is the safeguards? it has to be there are rules to follow. now, we follow the rules that the federal government set forth in intelligence gathering at our local joint regional intelligence centers and the joint terrorism task force. so we have the rules in place but the human element is another

issue with me and that is that if we have intelligence officers that have a bias about a particular group they're investigating, you're going to have some problems with the communication capabilities there. i believe in bias free policing, public trust policing. i don't believe you can judge one muslim for the acts of another. you can't judge anybody from the acts of another. what we have to do is get to the point where whatever is being advised to congress we say, okay. we get it. we've had a hearing. now we have to go out into the communities affected by the subject matter. i welcome continual dialogue, continual examination, and continual visitation, but i do believe that we need to always be mindful of what's going none the intelligence community. >> the time of the gentleman is expired. sheriff baca, my

understanding -- sheriff baca? >> yes, sir. >> my understanding from talking with the ranking member is you have to catch a plane at 3:00 and he suggests you may need to leave the panel by 1:30. >> yes, sir. >> whatever time you leave is up to you. in the event we're in the middle of something when you leave i thank you sincerely for your testimony and contribution and your patience. >> i thank you, mr. chairman, and your committee. it's been a pleasure. >> thank you, sir. >> i know you made a big sacrifice to get here. your testimony has been absolutely essential to this committee. thank you much. >> may i make a response before the sheriff leaves? >> no, actually, on to the next step. i recognize the gentleman from virginia for five minutes. >> thank you. i'd like to thank each of our panel of witnesses here for participating in the hearing. americans of muslim faith truly are an integral part of our

nation's community and play -- contribute to the quality of life in this country. they are our neighbors and our friends. muslims serve honor ashleyy as policemen, teachers, and in our armed services and some indeed have given the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedom and our way of life. my deep respect for the muslim community as the foundation upon which i approach this critical issue. it's with alarm and frankly with a degree of sadness that i conclude the radicalization of our youth, one that is intent on spreading violent, islamic extremism, is indeed taking place in this country imposing a serious and increasing threat to our security. that's why i respectfully reject the charge that this hearing is unnecessary and an assault on any particular faith. i see this as a conversation,

albeit over hyped, but it is a conversation that must take place and i commend the chairman for remaining steadfast and holding a thoughtful dialogue on this subject. dr. jasser i'd like to address my first question to you, sir. i note in your written testimony you conclude one paragraph with this line. the liberty narrative is the only effective counter to the islamist narrative. you certainly have my attention. i fully agree with that. and what are the next steps to play that out and use that proper message to counter what's taking place now? >> i look at my own life about why i turned out the way i did and nidal hasan turned out the way he did. i grew up for example learning that our system of governance, people are innocent until proven guilty. our law enforcement is innocent until proven guilty. same process. and i think what we need to do

is we don't have -- we've talked about nation building and how that doesn't work. now we've shifted into institution building. it's interesting that somehow we compartmentalize things abroad different than we do domestically. in fact, it's the same issue. it's the same diagnosis. the concepts of liberty. my parents were blessed to have -- my father was blessed to have been educated in london so the understanding of the separation of church and state is something he internalized as an undergrad but there is no educational infrastructure to bring jeffersonian democracy to many of our own heritages. so if we're going to get these i ideas into the communities so it becomes part of the institutions we build and we take on the imams and remind the imams that it means teacher, not leader, all you do is teach us religion. you don't lead society. you don't have a role in government. this whole enlightenment process needs institutions that you can help us build, help us provide

infrastructure to do that but yet allow muslims to do it. and i think it doesn't cross the first amendment because your role is to advance liberty, advance freedom, advance and help ideas of equality of human rights, universal human rights concepts, and then you make sure that we live to those and our islamic institutions endorse those. and then we start engaging in al jazeera, media, and muslim media, these ideas because right now most of the foreign media orris lamb ik media is not having this discourse. it's all about pole art polari muslim, advocating for islam versus the west and that polarity can go away. >> what role have foreign imams played, in fact, are playing today, and spreading, you know, this radical form of islam? >> i can't tell you how important that is in that what

they're doing, and the former cia director jim woolsey talked about the fact the saudis have spread over $90 billion in spreading their theology -- >> including america? >> including the united states. that's why i mentioned those mosques. there are mosques in cincinnati and l.a. and new york, all across the country that have been part of saudi investments and their ideology abroad. and in order to counter that we need a strategy to help counter those institutions building those ideas. >> dr. jasser, and all of our witnesses today, thank you so much for being here and, dr. jasser, i applaud you being a bold voice on this subject. thank you. >> thank you. >> i yield back. >> thank you for yielding. i recognize the gentleman from texas, a former member of this committee, mr. green, good to have you back. >> thank you.

it's an honor to be back. mr. chairman, ranking member thompson, i came by today because i love love what america stands for. i love the pledge of allegiance. it means something to me. liberty and justice for all. i love the declaration of independence, all persons created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. i love the constitution, a copy of which i hold in my hand. we the people is what it says. and then it goes on to say with this very first amendment, the very first amendment, congress shall make no law representing an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. by the way, this clause recognizes religion first. it is the first of the first,

the first. and i want you to know not only do i love america, i love the american people. i love them regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, ethnicity, or sexuality. i love the american people. and because i love the american people i want to say in clear and concise terms i have no problem with discussing terrorist organizations that are rooted in religion, which is why i want to discuss the k.k.k. the k.k.k. requires that its members profess a belief in jesus christ. the k.k.k. says that the christian faith is the white man's religion. the k.k.k. says that jews are

people of the anti-christ. the k.k.k. wants to preserve the true gospel, the gospel of the white man's religion. by the way, i'm the son of a christian preacher. i have some credentials when it comes to christianity. i was born into christianity, baptized into christianity. no one can say that i'm less a christian than anybody else. and i'm no more a christian than anybody else. we've had 100 years of terrorism perpetrated by the k.k.k. on jews and african-americans and some others in this country. a hundred years which brings me to my point. mr. chairman, i love you and i love all of my friends here today.

i do not assign any malice or forethought to anybody. i don't believe anything has any degree of malevolence associated with it but i must tell you it is not few of for things to be right. they must also look right. it may be right but it doesn't look right when we take on islam and allow this to take place and we don't tell the truth about the abuses associated with the kkk and christianity. christianity, according to the kkk, is the reason why they do what they do. why not include the kkk in this discussion today? why not have a broader topic that does not focus on one religion? it doesn't look right, mr. jasser when we focus on one religion to the exclusion of others. that's the point being made. you are an intellectual.

you understand what i'm saying. it's not about what you are defending and the points you are making. nor yours, mr. bledsoe. nor yours, mr. bihi. it's about the fundamental fairness associated with freedom of religion in this country and we don't single out one religion and give the appearance by in so doing that there is something dastardly associated with being a part of this religion. regardless of all the disclaimers that are going to be made that is still a perception some people will have. i want you to know when i board an airplane i am looked upon with an eye of suspicion. for some reason, people tend to think that i am muslim. for some reason a person told me i needed to go back home to my foreign country. that i don't belong in this country. for some reason people think

that people who are muslim, many, how many is many? i still have five -- >> the gentleman's time is expired. >> thank you. may i just say this, mr. chairman? >> surely. >> let's not only let things be right. let's make them look right and let's broaden this and not single out the american muslim. >> now i recognize the gentleman from south carolina, mr. duncan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to yield 30 seconds or so to mr. bledsoe to respond if he'd like to to mr. green's comments. >> again, i think he is making a point, but, i mean, today we're not talking at this hearing about kkk. we're talking about extremist islam, radicalization of american citizens. i hope that you ghaet you can be back in this hearing room.

that's my hope. >> would the gentleman mr. duncan yield ten seconds? >> no. >> mr. chairman, it is in protocol to ask for yield. >> no, it's up to -- >> a "newsweek" article october 22nd, 2010, said this. the left is wrongly defending islamism and extremist and at times violent ideology which it confuses with the common person's islam, which, i add, is a religion. while the right is often wrongly attacking the muslim faith, which it confuses with islamism. thank you guys for pointing that out this morning. i want to thank mr. bledsoe and mr. bihi for sharing your stories of your sons as a father of sons myself my heart goes out to you. i'm not aware of anyone on this side of the political spectrum attacking islam nor anyone wishing to limit anyone's first amendment rights but i believe we are raising awareness of islamism, political ideology, and how that is being used in

this country. i am regularly astonished and outraged, outraged by this administration's continued failure to single out who our enemy is. mr. bledsoe said in his testimony that there is a big elephant in the room but our society continues not to see it and you say that this wrong is caused by political correctness and even political fear. i've got a slide on the board and i know it's going to be hard to read but if you'll look at the 9/11 commission and the number of times enemy jihad muslim brotherhood, al qaeda, hezbollah, hamas are mentioned. then if you look at the fbi counterterrorism lexicon and the national intelligence strategy you see zeros beside the fact that they don't mention enemy jihad, muslim brotherhood, al qaeda. it's an astonishing contrast. but what i came here today to comment on and delve into is a completely different line of thought. it is this. an issue that is of particular concern to me and my

constituents and that is the threat of shaharya law to the united states constitution. the center for strategic and budgetary assessments produced a report in '08 on the global war on terrorism. authored by the current under secretary of the navy. he reports the center piece of al qaeda strategy for the long war is exploding muslim sense of religious obligation by declaring a defensive jihad against the west and apostate regimes. the organization of islamic conference representing 57 member states declares on its website that it has a considerable weight within these institutions where it makes others listen to the voice of islamic uma and presents the voice of moderate islam, tolerant, open, bearing the message of piece and solidarity between men but according to the kir owe declaration on human rights it clearly states islamic sharia is the only source of reference for the explanation or clarification of any of the articles in this declaration.

as the united states constitution is the law of this land, any attempt to subvert it amounts to sedition. i took an oath to uphold the constitution against enemies, foreign and domestic, and it is my desire to see multiple hearings, mr. chairman, not only here in this committee but also in house armed services committee, intelligence committee, foreign affairs committee, judiciary committee examining the role that islamic doctrine plays in the radicalization process assessing the degree to which jihadist organizations such as muslim brotherhood and its front organizations influence our american muslim communities. so i want to ask this to dr. jasser. do you feel that u.s. government has done an adequate job learning about islam and how islamic doctrines affect the behavior and community norms of muslims residing in america and how does islamic doctrine and sharia law shape the responsiveness of local u.s. muslim communities to law enforcement efforts that target islamic jihad?

>> thank you congressman duncan. it's a wonderful question and as we talked about there are various forms of islam. around the world. sharia means very different things to different muslims. in my home it is a private thing. do i want it in the government? absolutely not. that is the doctrine of the enemy. they want to create an islamic state. there is no concept that that could be a great alive the united states. there are two different lenses through which we see the world. we're allies with other democracies which are secular but one based in sharia would be impossible. this is why i provided a list of scholars in my testimony that are based for the assembly, these scholars are still based in islamic law from the 13th, 14th century from people -- they have not created a new school of thought. what happens is intellectual islam or authoritative islam still has not absorbed the ideas of a western society based under

god rather than under islam. and our forefathers went through this whole discussion of not asking the word christian in our founding document. the islamic community has not gone through that discussion and that evolution and we're avoiding it. we need to address it. we need to address the fact that the government we seek -- we don't only accept the laws of this land as the minority but even if we were a majority we'd want the same laws. that hypocrisy is the part of the world many muslims live in. they absorb the laws of the land as a minority but they have a doctrine they believe in that they follow within the organization based on islamic law which allows a duality that i think affects their identification with the society. and not all mosques, i know many mosques that don't teach that. they're looking for the right books. i mean, if you go and i would tell all of you to go to the islamic book services -- >> the time of the gentleman is expired. >> -- you won't find too much reform work in that. >> thank you. >> yield to the gentleman from new jersey, also a former mechl

t member of the committee. >> thank you. i yield ten seconds. >> i will be very brief. i thank god that we did not have a hearing on christianity and how it is radicalizing young american boys. we could have. dw we did not. that's my point. i yield back. >> thank you. it's good to see you both. we've been here since 9:30. i was thinking a little longer than that. we were here since the beginning of this committee. and it wasn't my idea to leave but they put me in something else. >> we miss you, bill. >> yeah, sure. >> sometimes. >> islam is a beautiful religion, mr. chairman. but this hearing was not on islam. it was on the muslim community. there is a big difference.

so if you're admonishing people they don't know what they're talking about, there is the title of this hearing. correct, mr. chairman? well, it says it. that's what we're talking about. but the extremes many times are in the eyes of the beholder. when we don't understand people we're all t, all of us, bound t m mischaracterize and stereotype. i don't believe anything i've heard and i was in the hearing quite sometime today and part of it i wasn't, i was in another meeting. i don't think i heard anything from any of the panelists and thank you for being here, trying to bring to -- lead to a conclusion that we should start stereo typing more or we should start profiling. because you always have to find a response or an answer to what

you are trying to attack. we want to protect this country. we love this country. democrats don't love it any more than republicans and vice versa. so i must say to you, mr. bledsoe, when you say the other side, i don't know what the hell you're talking about. we are all in this together. believe me, sir. my heart goes out to you and mr. bihi but we're all in this together. let's get it straight from the beginning. i can -- am convinced that this hearing would result in good because when reasonable people will conclude that the greatest majority of muslims like every other community in this country are patriots, are patriots to america, right, dr. jasser? >> yes, sir. >> you agree with me, don't you?

>> yes, sir. >> every sitdown that i've had, we've discussed this with the fbi. about my own district, i come from paterson with one "t", new jersey. the second largest muslim community in the country. i grew up in the neighborhood, arabic neighborhood. eight more arab food than italian food. that doesn't make me know more about the community but you'll have to take my word for it now and i'll stand corrected if you come up with something else. that every time i've sat down with the fbi about my own district i was told many times that there are -- is no hidden agenda and that you need not fear that recruiting and the very recruiting that we're talking about today in this

hearing. now does that mean that every district in the country, does that mean chairman king's district has the same kind of view? i don't know. i mean, some pretty bad people came out of some mosques and some pretty bad people came out of catholic churches, etcetera, etcetera. but we can't -- we've got to do everything we can to avoid a wide brush because it gets us nowhere. and we can't defend our own children and our own neighborhoods if we have bad information. why should we be surprised? we know our enemies are probing this system every day. they come in many forms, many shapes, right now as we speak in this hearing. the enemy is probing our systems. no question about it so we need to be strong. the graph you showed a few moments ago is very hurtful to the very community you are

investigating. very hurtful. and it's very hurtful to the administration because i don't think one administration wants to protect us any less than another administration. that is foolish. it doesn't bring us to any resolve, mr. chairman. >> and even after five minutes of that, i still love you. recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania. also another former u.s. attorney mr. moreno. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the chair for this desperately needed hearing. i want to thank your courage and your leadership for bringing this to the forefront and i hope that we have more of these hearings and for my colleagues on the other side, i want to tell my good friend that i will be with you shoulder to shoulder in the hearings with -- for the ku klux klan and any other racist group that defiles this country. >> ten-second yield. >> no, sir, no, sir. >> you would address me but not

allow me to just respond ten seconds? >> no. >> the gentleman from pennsylvania controls the time. >> i would -- the gentleman from pennsylvania controls the time. >> the gentleman from pennsylvania controls the time. >> out of respect, i will be there with you but the issue today is terrorism. >> the klan is a terrorist organization that has been over a hundred years. >> the gentleman from pennsylvania -- >> you have not suffered enough. >> the gentleman from pennsylvania controls the time. mr. moreno, your time. >> thank you, sir. this hearing today is not about religion with all due respect. it's about terrorists. it's about people who kill men, women, and children in the name of religion, which is blasphemy in and of itself. so as far as the witnesses are concerned, i want to thank you for being here. i want to thank you for your courage to stand up as americans

in america before america in the world and tell the truth. as a united states attorney, i prosecuted a home grown terrorist and he is in prison now for 30 years. and it was the right thing to do. now, the questions that were asked today were well thought out and professionally asked. and you excellently answered them. but as a freshman congressman i think sometimes we failed to ask this question of you and, doctor, i'd like to present this to you and the other gentleman can respond if we have time. what do you expect from us, from congress? what should we be doing to

promote the fact that this is not about a religion because i have many friends that are muslims and love this country as much as any one of us do. what do you expect from us? >> thank you, congressman. i hope and i pray every night as i do this work that you develop the political will to deal with this problem. that we separate all the theatrics and all the concern with vitriol and all that and get to how to solve the problem in that our enemy is using a language that some people will articulate as offensive and as a muslim i'm telling you it is not offensive. i want to dweel that. because we use the language. we use words like "jihad" and things like that at home but i don't want my children to take the predominant thoughts of those that are right now predominating the web. cyber jihad, the reformist mindset is very hard to find on the web and that's because we haven't had the resources so we

need the political will. we need the maturity as a nation to be able to discuss religion, sometimes say things that might not be right but not get offended and realize that we respect religious practice and the first amendment is freedom of religion but not freedom from religion. but yet somehow we've got so polarized that we can't do that. i hope, because what's going to happen at this -- and the charts have showed it, we have seen exponential increases in attacks and our law enforcement is going to continue chasing their tail thinking community outreach works and we're not draining the pool of the ideology because we can't confront it. it is surrendered. >> i have less than a minute left. >> i like to say that i think -- i'd like for congress to get here out of this, call a terrorist what it is. say what it is. i mean, many times i'm hearing people say, everything but what it is. and the gentleman said next to you, the other side, i'm

speaking of that we're not spoke about the other side, shouldn't help us talking about the side that was, that they didn't understand what this meeting is all about. >> and 20 seconds. >> i think that this level -- this is about saving families and young people who are supposed to be -- and the security of this nation. i think we should forget about our political affiliations and conditions and just take an opportunity and take advantage of muslim families, american muslim families coming forward, demonstrating to be heard on what's happening in their community. i think it's a great challenge. i thank the committee. i thank congressman king. this is very important and should continue to open the doors. nobody hates me. i don't see -- i see my own community hurting me and i want

you to allow me to deal with that. i want to deal with that. i don't want somebody else i don't know -- >> the time of the gentleman is expired. let me thank all the witnesses. of course sheriff baca who had to leave, we thank him tremendously for his testimony. he has been before this committee a number of times. we also thank dr. jasser, mr. bledsoe, mr. bihi for your testimony and on a personal note thank the ranking member. despite some of the consternation this meeting went a lot easier than it could have and i thank the ranking member for making a number of procedural agreements prior to the committee to eliminate and avoid unnecessary problems we could have had and i thank him for that. members of the committee, you may have some additional questions we will ask you. the witnesses will respond to those in writing. the record will be held open for ten days. without objection, the committee stands adjourned. [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

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clucks following the hearing, chairman king met with members of the news media. with him were summoned to witnesses who testified. this is 25 minutes. >> ok. first of all, thank you all for being here. this was an extremely -- this microphone? ok. ok. thank you all for being here. this was an extremely productive, worthwhile hearing. i am more convinced than ever that it was the appropriate

meeting. we broke down the wall of political correctness or issues that needed to be addressed. the committee members of were really of service today. those who made the hearing what it was, and provided the testimony was that was needed, and provided insight or the witnesses today. i also want to thank sheriff baca. i want to thank the rest of the witnesses, dr. jasser, mr. bihi, and mr. bledsoe. those who are worst victimized by the radicalization of the muslim american community by al

qaeda are the muslim americans themselves. this is due to the lack of support they get from those in their community should be their leaders. i will allow the witnesses to say a few words. is there anything you wish to add, congressman? >> the only thing i will say that this is a follow-up to a hearing four years ago in southern california no when the chairman of the subcommittee held a meeting on the radicalization of the prison population where we learned of the effects of radicalization and the single plot located in southern california. frankly, we should have had these hearings before. this is necessary to get back out on the table and hear from members of the community as to what they go through when they want to raise the voice of moderation and the difficulties

that they have. the chairman did a very good job of allowing them a platform and hopefully we can move on from this and receive other testimony and see what is appropriate for us to do to enable those in the muslim american community to be able to stand for the really believe in. behind me stand three very, very

individuals who stood up before the public and i commend the gentleman for what they did. >> let me just say also, i would hope now that this hearing is over, the-hysteria that occurred over the last few weeks, and not in the future rely so much on what opponents to do not want these type of hearings today -- and hysteria and madness leading up to this hearing did nobody much good in certainly did not reflect well on those who were reporting it. i want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for their courage and knowledge and passion that they bring to this. thank you.

>> thank you, chairman king. what i gained from this and what you are all doing tonight -- as someone who loves my faith, and i do this from an aspect of, i think there is nothing more pro islamic or pro muslim than helping us get through figuring out radicalization, knowing it is not just the final step, but it is a process, and we want to begin the process of healing, that pathology that exists and needs modernization and reform. this needs a national conversation and platforms like this and others and it needs the political will to deal with it, and needs a patient and understanding and awful communication process that does not label anyone that discusses it as being phobic are hateful, and understanding there are those of us within the community that wants to do with it but have not had the resources of the platform to do

so. i hope this is the beginning of a national conversation. >> i want to thank you for coming in giving me the opportunity as well on this platform to talk to the american people in the world. i am an ordinary businessman, but i do not understand why we had so much fear talking about what is real. it is a real threat to america, as i said earlier today. it came to my house, but it is at your doorstep, and we need to talk about it as american people. if i could have just reached out and save one other child from what my son -- what happened to my son and what he did receive winter, then i think my trip to washington was very much worthwhile today. >> today is my happiest day. for 2.5 years i have been demonstrating with loudspeakers,

talking to people, the rocking, -- door knocking. thanks to chairman king and the committee, today i come to the chambers of u.s. congress to speak for those mothers that were intimidated, lied to, and their loved ones stolen. i think this will empower muslim americans to come out easily and remove those fake leaders that pressure them to be silent and the quiet. the justice, and liberty and right to speak up. >> [unintelligible]

>> the fact is the fbi director has ordered members of the fbi not to deal with care, and i hope my hearing such as this that local law enforcement or realize the danger care presents. the ninth of columbus or the masons -- they would realize this is a group that was named as unindicted co-conspirator and they would at least give them some of the analysis and critique that the give to people like me when i schedule a hearing. i hope it will empower people within the muslim american community to realize they are not well served by care. they need leaders to step forward who represent of moderate islam and want to come

to terms with the united states the way rank-and-file muslims do and not allowed a group like care to be their spokesman. i think today's type hearing where we can reflect on what care has done and hasn't done is a way to get that out to the american people. to that extent, our hearing today was informative and educational, and hopefully will have consequences in the muslim american community. >> we are not addressing the real cause of this islamic extremism. [unintelligible] mumbai not giving -- by not giving them [unintelligible] these bad things are done by certain people. are just addressing the

symptoms, rather than the cause of the problem? >> no, as part of democracy, you don't carry out terrorist attacks if you disagree with american foreign policy. the doctor can express this more than i can because he lives in this it -- in that committee. we are trying to make the point that if your part of american society, you have an obligation to abide by the loss of that society and not make excuses to justify murder and carnage, work too many people have done that. >> as i said my testimony, i think we are giving too much credit to one organization. there are a number of issues, one of the main issues is understanding the root cause. the narrative so far about radicalization has been focused on the final step of violence, and we still does call a violent extremism. there is a long process before that. we need to walk back to that

separate identity issue, we have not addressed that and how to create an ideology rooted in the ideas of this country, and create a process for that. as far as foreign policy issues, there'll always be excuse is that some of these groups make for terrorism, and ultimately if you look, the root cause is a supremacist mentality that these groups have. >> you said that it overcame political correctness in this. will your party leaders embrace it in the house, that next that? >> i have received nothing but support from the party leadership. when they knew where i was going, when i was elected committee chairman, i made it clear that this would be a main priority of mine. as i also said today, this is the first in a series of

radicalization hearings. we have to schedule and move forward. we are very careful about how we've prepare for these hearings. in the future we expect hearings on the subject of radicalization in the american prison system. >> [unintelligible] these are anecdote. >> what we have shown in a major american city, were you have 21 men who were missing, that virtually nobody in the leadership of the community step forward. it is shown how those who are victimized were victimized again by their own leaders. we have mr. bledsoe showing how the process of radicalization is not just one person being radicalized, it showed how sophisticated the process was.

these are not just incidental cases. the first question i asked the doctor was, are these anecdotal, or are they systemic. i would rely on his testimony where he can detail house estimate is. why did it take until now if these are just incidental cases? one has note muslim american leader spoken out -- why has no muslim american leader spoken out on these incidents? >> the purpose of today's hearing was to inform, not to inflame. if you listen to what we heard today, we did not have anecdotes', we had evidence of two specific cases which give us guidance as to the problem that we see and that has so far been too hidden. when you have people crying out,

saying they are not getting the support they need, one of the things it indicates is that the vast majority of freedom loving muslims in america are subject to intimidation by some within their community and some without their community, and our purpose today was to give a platform to those freedom loving muslims, the vast majority of muslims in america, and know that not only will they be heard, but that we will stand with them. >> is there a muslim organization that you would offer up to be representative of you in the campaign? >> some organizations are ideal, but as the doctor said, this is something to be determined within the american muslim community. from my perspective as chairman of the homeland security committee and set -- someone to come from an area that lost hundreds of people on september

11, i would say his group is most compatible for addressing the internal issues and playing out as far as the general public is concerned. i would say that for my perspective, that is the case. as far as whether it is anecdotal, and as far as the doctors' organization, we spent months preparing for this hearing. we interviewed dozens of witnesses all over the country. we've bought it crystallized what we learn from talking to these many witnesses. that was the purpose of the hearing today. i think it was successful, and the fact that all of your still here, i guess it went ok. >> [unintelligible] according to the fbi there are

238 of them. is this not kind of a [unintelligible] without judicial process? >> care was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. the federal court said after looking at all of the evidence there was more than sufficient evidence to keep them listed as an unindicted co-conspirator. it is not me saying this as far as the status of care. the fbi director who most consider being very liberal and open minded, has ordered the fbi not to cooperate with care because of its radical ties. [unintelligible] >> with all its friends in the

media, care has had more than opportunity to get its position out in the media. it has had an opportunity to get its message out to the american people. in fairness, my friend mr. ellison is not only a muslim american member of congress, he is also very close to and works with care, so he certainly was able to articulate that view. >> do you worry that it may have a subliminal negative impact [unintelligible] >> the question was do i fear these hearings may have a subliminal impact against the muslim community. i certainly hope not. i think the way myself and other members of the committee conduct ourselves in the lead up to the hearing and the way the hearing was conducted today, there is no reason for anyone to worry about any impact, subliminal or otherwise.

if there should be any impact, it is the-hysteria that pervaded the media and the airwaves the last few weeks. this mindless, baseless accusations and hysteria pervaded the air waves and the news media of the last several weeks. in a democracy, i believe that putting the facts on the table is the best way to address these issues. there is an elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about, and we talked about it today. >> why don't we allow a muslim members of the panel to respond to the question about the impact? >> do you feel there has been a diversity of ideas from muslims in america in the past few years, or have they appeared to be monolithic and basically a one mindset? i think that is what we have learned today, there is

diversity. there is the american islamic congress, there is a group called free muslims, there is the islamic supreme council of america. there are other groups that are not part of the brotherhood taught movement that are all american muslim organizations like mine that have similar of ideologies, that are looking for reform and modernization. we are not a monolithic community. i think there is nothing more pacifying to any type of behavior from america that might be more rash than to see diversity in the muslim community. >> when it comes to organizations, in my part of the world, in minnesota, all those families cry for there's children that have been taken back to somalia. we have not seen one single islamic organization, including care, that came forward and said let's help you, let's take you

to the police station, let's take you to the fbi. let's find your miners that have been kidnapped. they are lying, that is what they said to us. have you seen any the simoleon are muslim families sang their children have been adopted? no, nobody helps us. we have done a great job to come here to speak directly with the american public and the world to tell them these are not muslim bashing hearings. these are hearings that i, as a muslim, we will benefit to finally have a voice and speak out. nobody is mistreating me.

the only people mystery meat or members in my community who are stealing our kids. [unintelligible] >> i will say yes to that answer. they are telling the african- american youth that you are not appreciated in america. we want to reach out to you. we love you. that is one of the tools they use to recruit african-american youth. i must say again that i have family members who are muslim. they have been muslim for over 30 years. they are not radicalized. they are peaceful, hard-working citizens, and i embrace that. >> will have a series of hearings over the next year and

a half, as long as i am chairman. the next one will probably be several months from now. right now i would say it would probably be on radicalization in the american prison system. our staff is exhausted. i want to thank all the members of the staff who did a phenomenal job interview witnesses, flying around the country, going through transcripts and justice department records, going above and beyond the call of duty. we are given about two hours off and then we start getting ready for the next hearing. it will probably be on radicalization of muslim americans in the prison system, but again, that subject to change. we are in a world where emphasis changes from day to day, but right now i would say that is probably the best bet. >> about treating the muslim americans as a single monolithic, what do you have to say to people who compare you to

mccarthy and collier the mccarthy of the 21st century? >> i would say that reflects the-hysteria that has pervaded the media for the last two or three weeks. a challenge anyone to find anything that was improper about today's hearing and that was not done in a totally professional way. we went out of our way and actually had three members who are not on the committee to sit and take part in it. i urged keith ellison who is not a member of the committee and gave him a limited time to speak before the committee. all of us realize there is no monolithic muslim community. that is one reason we had dr. jassa here today. i wish the media would realize the muslim community is not a monolith. >> you have been trying to make

this distinction that this is about terrorism and violence and not about religion. i think he said muslims are not intellectually sophisticated from religious standpoint. it was something along those lines. how are you going to keep this discussion from not going into theology? it are interested in reform of theology. are we going to start seeing congress investigating theology? >> i know there are problems in sharia as far as separating mosque and state. i am talking about myself. i am not going to be that intellectual to separate moslem of thought and sharia. if you look at muslim crimes for

criminal activity, for the wake of a woman's vote bids in court -- i believe from the traditional schools of thought islam needs to reform that. we need to create a platform for that to happen. that is the root cause of terrorism, that separation. i don't see why our government cannot get into allowing muslim organizations the platforms to do that. it is not that the government is going to do the reform. muslims will do it. if we keep having tariff threats and terror acts that may happen, the political world may change to where the government gets involved in appropriately. that is why i am so motivated to do this. if we don't fix this, the government will wind up doing it, and that would be wrong. i think we can build platforms to do that. prime minister karen talked- about written doing the same thing -- prime minister cameron talked about that.

>> thank you very much. >> despite what passes for conventional wisdom in certain circles, there is nothing radical or un-american in holding these hearings. >> ascribing it lacks of a few individuals to an entire community is wrong. it is ineffective and risk making our country less a. >> watched the entire hearing by the house homeland security committee on possible radicalization in u.s. muslim communities, along with other events before and after the hearing, including reaction from viewers, all on line at the c-span video library. it is washington your way.

>> the house returns monday. on its agenda next week, another temporary 2011 federal spending bilbray this one is expected to extend government funding for three more weeks. bunning expires march 18. next week, two measures that proposed in foreclosure assistance program, an ohio congressman dennis kucinich plans to propose a war powers resolution that would require president obama to withdraw all u.s. armed forces from afghanistan by the end of the year. follow the house live, here on c-span. >> earlier today, japan's prime minister called the damage from the earthquake the most severe challenge the nation has faced since world war ii. friday's disasters damage a series of nuclear reactors, particularly -- potentially sending one to a personal -- a

partial meltdown. this statement is about 10 minutes. >> i would like to express my deepest sympathy to those who have been affected by the quake, and also in the disaster stricken areas, as well as to the people of japan who are in a very difficult situation. people remain very calm, and i would like to express my deepest gratitude as well as my respect to all those who are behaving very calmly. boeing yesterday, today we worked very hard to rescue people, and so far, the self- defense force as well as police and firefighters and maritime are able to save

about 12,000 people. i would like to explain about the rescue efforts. the self-defense forces, all of the forces have mobilized 50,000 people, and they are to be doubled to 100,000, and the police officers, more than 2500 officers have been deployed. the firefighters and emergency workers, more than 1100 units have been deployed, and also emergency medical teams have been mobilized, more than 200, and they are deployed in the disaster hit areas. food, water, blankets, and other supplies, because the

transportation on the ground is very much limited. they are being transported by air and also by sea, and we are working to make sure that they will be transported. also, we have designated disaster hit areas as emergency areas, and we are right now considering to provide some legal measures. regarding the power plants, the situation still is very much a concern. the chief cabinet secretary will talk about that in detail following my message. ladies and gentlemen, there is one thing i would like to ask for your understanding, and also

like to make a request. including this power plant, many power plants have been damaged, and tokyo electric power plant and other power plants are in short supply of power. so the government has instructed those two power companies to get this supply from other power companies, and also we would like to ask the industries as well as ordinary households to save energy and power. however, we do not know when those facilities will be restored, so in this situation, we could fall into a shortage of power. if this situation remains like this, we could fall into power

outage in a wide area, and sudden power failure could devastate the lives of people as well as to the industrial activities. this is something that we must avoid. therefore, i instructed tokyo electric power co. to make a premeditated outage in tokyo area. the details will be explained by the minister of economy, trade, an industry. i know i will be asking and inconvenience of people, and this is a very hard decision to make. people may not be able to use power and it will affect the

supplies of gas and other life lines as well as medical and health-care equipment. there can be a negative impact. along with the power outage, there can be accompanying concerns, and we should take the utmost effort to be prepared, so the government has launched a plan to tackle that situation. we will take the necessary countermeasures and provide information to all of you, so we ask for your understanding. so that we can protect your life against power outage.

as of friday's earthquake and tsunami, and the current situation of the power plants, in the 65 years after the end of world war ii, this is the toughest and most difficult crisis for japan in that period. >> and the japanese people overcome this crisis?

this peaceful and prosperous society we have been able to build. with regards to the earthquake and tsunami, i am confident that the japanese people can be united to work together to whether this difficulty. that is my strong belief. please, i ask each one of you, please have such determination. the premier bond with your family members, neighbors, the people in your community to overcome this crisis, so that

japan can be a better place. we can do it together. this is the message i would like to emphasize to the japanese people, and this is also my request to the people. thank you very much. >> that is the press conference by the prime minister naoto kan. >> on thursday, secretary of state hillary clinton announced she will meet members of the libyan opposition during this week's trip to europe, cairo, and the capital of tunisia. she also said that the u.s. should not act alone in response to recent fighting in libya. testifying before a house

appropriations subcommittee, secretary clayton also said any effort to balance the budget would have to include raising revenue as well as spending cuts. this is two hours and 10 minutes. >> the subcommittee on state foreign operations and related programs will come to order. i want to welcome everyone to today's subcommittee. madam secretary, thank you for appearing today to testify on the administration's fiscal year 2012 budget request for the state department and foreign assistance program. i know last week was very busy for you, as are all the weeks, and for your committee. i am glad we were able to get this hearing back on schedule today, and i appreciate it very much. the issues we will discuss are critically important for u.s. national security. our efforts in afghanistan and pakistan and iraq must achieve clear objectives and demonstrate results. at the same time we are all anxious to watching the rapidly unfolding events in the middle east and north africa. we must support efforts for

reform in this region. continued investment in democracy, promotion, and military assistance will be critical to maintaining peace in a very difficult environment. in our own hemisphere, drugs and human trafficking remained grave concerns. powerful cartels continue to push narcotics through south and central america into mexico, bringing violence to our own backyard. in my own state of texas, the violence is spilling across the border. we must take action now. as admiral mullen said so well, our debt is our date -- our greatest threat to our national security. we must make difficult choices to protect the most critical diplomatic and development funding for the future. the administration and congress must work together to make wise decisions to lead this country forward and insulate us from future threats. the stake for operations built

supports critical national security interest, but we cannot continue to spend like we have in the past. i want to be clear that i remain committed to protecting our national security with investments abroad, while giving appropriate attention to our economic recovery here at home. while this congress and administration still have a great deal of work to do, the state for operations portion, the continuing resolution passed by the house a few weeks ago, was the first attempt to achieve the right balance. the bill prioritize the front- line states of afghanistan, pakistan, and iraq, and key allies like israel and jordan. at the same time h.r. 1 made significant cuts to programs we simply cannot afford. plans to increase state and u.s. aid step support large, multi- year commitments and boost lending by international banks must be reconsidered. the hearing today is the subcommittee's first chance to hear how the administration has

prioritized this needs for fiscal year 2012. the biggest budget request total $59.5 billion for the state for operations subcommittee, which is almost $11 billion above fiscal year 2010 inactive level. this funding level does include for the first time a separate account for the extraordinary cost of operating in the front- line states. i would like to highlight several areas of the budget request that deserve the subcommittees' attention. the request for iraq is billions of dollars more than the state of parliament and usaid spent in fiscal year 2010, but this is significantly less than the cost of keeping troops on the ground, and we recognize that. as the state department prepares to become the lead agency in iraq on october 1, serious questions remain about states capability to manage a program of this size and ensure it the security of diplomatic and development staff. in afghanistan, the administration continues to

focus on providing direct assistance to the government. the subcommittee will continue to watch this closely. we will be followed how the administration monitors and evaluate projects because clear goals must be achieved so that the civilian effort compliments the military activity. it is only through integrated strategy that we will insure that terrorists do not have safe havens to plan attacks on the united states. i am concerned about security changes by the government of afghanistan that could make the operating environment even more difficult for u.s. government employees and contractors. a reasonable agreement must be reached so there is a successful transition to afghan security forces, but counterinsurgency and develop goals cannot be put in jeopardy. in pakistan, we continue to demonstrate commitment to enduring strategic partnership to help root out extremists and support other critical investments.

for israel, this budget includes more than $3 billion to help maintain a strong military presence in an increasingly volatile region. the budget proposal does not include lead reductions for columbia and mexico, but there is a continued focus on our neighbors in this region. the subcommittee needs to hear more about how the funding requested will sustain gains made in colombia and help mexico build the institutions it needs to forge a lasting front against the cartels. in closing, i want to thank the men and women of this country who are serving overseas, especially those placed in the most difficult circumstances. i also want to thank secretary clinton for her dedicated service to this nation. i believe that working together we can maintain an effective and efficient diplomatic and development capacity in key areas around the world. but justifying the total funding levels proposed in this

budget simply will not be possible. i hope to they will be the first of many conversations to determine how the united states can remain a leader in the world through a time of extraordinary political crisis, and at the same time, emerge quickly from our economic turmoil. in a moment i would like to turn to my esteemed ranking member for her opening statement. after that i will turn to chairman rogers for opening statements. then i will call on members based on seniority and who was in attendance when a hearing was called to order. i alternate between the majority and minority and ask that each one keep their questions to between two and five minutes. >> i join chairwoman grainger and welcoming you back to our subcommittee, secretary clinton. as always is an honor and privilege.

we thank you for your extraordinarily strong leadership. your steady hand and effective representation of the united states of america never cease to impress me and amaze me. especially during crises like those we faced throughout northern africa and middle east. and we thank you. in this time of fiscal belt- tightening, it is important that we not lose sight of the fact that diplomacy and development are crucial to promoting stability. improving economies, sustaining peace -- these investments help prevent threats to our national security and cost far less in life and treasures and deployment of troops. we cannot let our current fiscal crisis create a future security crisis by cutting bees in valuable programs. that is why i am particularly pleased the president requested

$27 billion to support global development in fiscal year 2012. assistance for addressing global climate change, food security, and helped challenges help create the conditions in developing countries for the growth of democracy, economic expansion, and ultimately increase its stability. in addition, this budget request would advance our security imperatives by a bolstering drug programs, a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, strengthen our allies including israel, jordan, and egypt, and providing assistance to prevent conflict in volatile regions. humanitarian assistance to victims of natural disasters and conflicts and aid to refugees

and the internally displaced will encourage stability in vulnerable regions while meeting our moral obligations to help those most in need. however, i am troubled that this request is not prioritized -- does not prioritize basic education, an issue i believe is crucial to the success of our efforts to promote health, economic development, gender equality, and long-term security. over the last 10 years, i have worked to increase funding for basic education programs, and over that time we have made significant progress. for example, in sub-saharan africa, enrollment in primary school has increased over 50%. however, despite our successes, more than 70 million children remain out of school, and i hope you will commit to me today to prioritize our efforts in support of attaining universal primary education for all children by 2015. by the way, at the amazing event

that you hosted at the state department in honor of international women's day, i was particularly pleased the prime minister of australia emphasizes the importance of education, and i do hope we can continue to work together, particularly focusing on girls' education, which is a major obstacle in so many parts of the world. now we know that the current fiscal situation demands tough decisions, and this request reflects a thoughtful analysis of where cuts can be absorbed. i appreciate the care in the administration took to provide congress with a realistic request. however, we know from last week's debate on the continuing resolution that several programs that you have included in your request are going to be subject to reductions in the house. one area of particular concern

to me is the drastic cut to international family-planning that was accompanied by a divisive policy changes, such as the reinstatement of the global gag rule. i hope you can address what these cuts and policy changes would mean to the millions of women and families depend on these programs, many for their basic health. finally, we welcome your thoughts on the effect of the revolutions in tunisia and egypt, the unrest in libya, yemen, algeria, bahrain, oman, and jordan, and the new government in 11 on it will have on both our foreign policy and our aid to the region -- the new government in lebanon. i smile not because of the seriousness of the situation,

but the enormous challenges that you are dealing with so effectively. for that, we are so grateful and so very appreciative, madam secretary. thank you. >> mr. rogers, do you have a brief opening remarks she would like to make? >> thank you, madam chairman, for the time. madam secretary, welcome to the old hot here on the hill. we are glad to have you back here. we have been playing phone tag about getting together for a breakfast meeting, and i assure you that is on my list, hopefully. we want to thank you for being here today. truly a historic time for the congress and the nation and indeed the world. i don't have to tell you that i think we are at a crossroads here at home. over the last two years, we have increased discretionary spending by 24%, including the stimulus funding has increased

by 84%, clearly unsustainable. since 2008, based appropriations for state foreign operations subcommittee has grown by more than 33%. we are barring 42 cents on the dollar that we spend. it is time that we get serious about reducing spending, putting a dent in our record-setting deficit. it is difficult to believe that the administration shares my goal to cut spending when the 2012 state for operations request of $59.5 billion is an increase of more than 22%. even if the 2010 supplementals are included, the budget still represents an 8% increase. while i share the chairman's

interest in supporting national security priorities, we simply cannot sustain the level of spending in this bill. we have some tough choices ahead for us and for you. i look forward to hearing from you today about the administration's priorities, especially where will not be able to squeeze some spending out of the request. i appreciate your thoughts. >> secretary clinton, i want to join with the chairman and ranking member in welcoming you today. along with defense, the state department and usaid are critical components of that u.s. national security strategy, essential to making americans safe at home and abroad. i appreciated the graco operation un secretary gates have demonstrated -- the great cooperation u.s. secretary gates have demonstrated. with this budget request, the

administration seeks diplomacy and development funding levels that will result in long-term savings as the continued transition from the military to civilians in iraq and support counterinsurgency and stabilization programs in countries like afghanistan, pakistan, yemen, somalia, and sudan. we strive to foster greater stability overseas but we face pressing domestic needs. while there are signs of recovery in the economy with unemployment dropping, the growing federal and budget deficit must be the primary focus of this congress. there is no doubt that this will make it difficult to sustain and expand all the priorities laid out in the president's budget request. yet through our appropriations process, i am still optimistic we can balance our domestic and international priorities. if we are to increase our assistance to these challenges, we must ensure every dollar is well spent. our investments in diplomacy and

development continue to yield great dividends over time. as we all know, diplomacy and development generate cost and there are more effective methods of sustaining a lasting peace and stability. stable democracies are less likely to pose a threat to their neighbors or to us. with this in mind, i am pleased that the ministration seeks to invest in our future by funding such critical activities as combating global climate change, food security and global health, which are clearly aimed at creating the necessary conditions in developing countries for the growth of democracy, economic expansion, and ultimately increased stability in the priorities we all share. i look forward to your statement and hearing a little bit about how things are going in this transition in iraq or the state department is expanding its operations in the

defense determine is green down its operations. i think this is a very critical moment. >> madam secretary, please feel free to summarize your remarks. without objection, your full statement will be submitted for the record. >> thank you very much. i want to congratulate the chairman upon assuming this important post at such a critical moment in world history, not just american history. i want to recognize and thank not only the ranking member, congresswoman lowey, but my congresswoman. i want to say a few words about these remarkable changes occurring across the middle east. yes, it is exciting, and it also prevents very significant challenges to america's position, to our security, and to our long-term interests. next week, i will travel to cairo and tunis to speak

directly with the egyptian and tunisian people. i will meet with their transition leaders and i intend to convey strong support of the obama administration and the american people that we wish to be a partner in the important work that lies ahead, as they embarked on a transition to a genuine democracy. we know how difficult that will be. this is the kind of challenge that we have seen in other parts of the world. some countries, such as most of those in the former soviet union and east and central europe navigated those challenges successfully. others have not. we have an enormous stake in ensuring that egypt and tunisia provide models for the kind of democracy that we want to see. in libya, at the same time, a dictator is denying his people that same path forward, and we are standing with the libyan people as they brave bombs and

bullets to demand that bit of the moscow now, without further violence or delay the g8 demand that gaddafi must go now. to send a clear message to those around gaddafi to continue to enable this horrific attack on his own people, that they too will be held accountable if they commit crimes against the libyan people. we remain engaged with the libyan sanctions committee at the united nations to consider tougher measures as the situation develops, and we are reaching out to the opposition inside and outside of libya. i will be meeting with some of those figures appear in the united states and when i travel next week, to discuss what more

the united states and others can do. the united states, through the state department and usaid, are already providing food, shelter, water, medical supplies, and evacuation assistance to those who are fleeing the violence. we have dispatched expert humanitarian teams to assess the needs on the borders, and we stand ready to expand those efforts. the military has positioned assets to support these critical humanitarian missions, and the united states military, i am very proud to say, has airlift it home hundreds of egyptian migrant, and it may be in that of -- in the thousands by now, who fled from libya into tunisia. this was a direct request from the egyptian government through the supreme council of the armed forces. we are considering all our options. in the years ahead, we know that libya could become a stable,

peaceful society on the way to a democracy, or it could fall into chaos and violence. the stakes are so high, not only, although primarily for the libyan people, but for the rest of the world. this is an unfolding example of how we are using the combined assets of diplomacy, development, and defense to protect our interests and advance our values. this integrated approach is not just how we respond to crises. it is the most effective and cost-effective way to sustain an advance our security. it is only possible with a budget that supports all the tools in our national security arsenal. i want to join my voice to those of the chair woman who has made it very clear that the american people have a right to be justifiably concerned about our national debt. i am too. another we have so many tough

decisions we are facing right now, that the american people also want us to be smart about the decisions we make and the investments that we are making in the future. just two years ago, i asked that we renew our investment in development and diplomacy, and we are seeing tangible results. in iraq, almost 100,000 of our troops have come home, and civilians are poised to keep the peace. in afghanistan, integrated military and civilian surges have helped set the stage for diplomatic search to support afghan-led reconciliation and it can end the conflict and put al qaeda on the run. we have proposed the strong sanctions yet to iranian iran's nuclear ambitions. we never engaged as a leader in the pacific and in our own hemisphere. we have signed trade deals to promote american jobs and nuclear weapons treaties to protect our people.

we worked with northern and southern sudanese to achieve a peaceful referendum and prevent a turk -- return to civil war, and we are working to open societies and create economies that will have political support to have irreversible democratic transitions. the progress is significant, but the work is formidable that lies ahead. the fiscal year 2012 budget is a budget that will allow us to continue pressing forward. we think it is a lean budget for lean times. i watched the first-ever crennel diplomacy -- quadrennial diplomacy effort. we may painful but responsible cuts. we cut economic assistance. we cut development assistance to over 20 countries by more than half. this year for the first time a

request was divided into two parts. our core budget request is $47 billion for the state department and usaid. that support programs and partnerships in every country but north korea. it is essentially flat from 2010 levels. the second part of our request funds and the extraordinary temporary portion of our war effort the same way the pentagon's request is funded. in a separate overseas contingency operations accounts. we are not taking a more transparent approach that fully reflects the integrated civilian military effort. our share of the president's $126 billion request for exceptional more time costs is $8.7 billion. all told, we have a $47 billion operational account and $8.7

billion overseas contingency operations account. the 150 account that was referred to by mr. lewis is $59.5 billion. that is both treasury and all the other foreign aid accounts that i know you are also paying attention to. let me just quickly walk you through this, because on this issue of our $8.7 billion overseas contingency operations, we have the strongest support from secretary gates from admiral mullen. next week -- i was speaking with general petraeus last night. he will be here on the hill strongly supporting the civilian effort that goes hand- in-hand with what he is doing so heroically in afghanistan. so we are finding vital civilian missions in afghanistan, pakistan, and iraq would this $8.7 million. we do have al qaeda under

pressure as never before. the military search and our civilian search, because when i became secretary of state, we had 300 civilians in afghanistan, and most of them were on six month rotations. we were not doing our part to be a good partner to our military colleagues. we now have nearly 1200 civilians, and they or their day in and day out in some of the roughest terrain you can find anywhere. our military commanders literally tell me every week that we cannot succeed without a strong civilian partner for our military efforts. equally important is our assistance to pakistan. as the chairman said, we are trying to deepen our relationships. there are many challenges confronting us, but we know what happens when we walk away from pakistan. we did away from pakistan. after so much sacrifice in iraq , we have a chance to help the

iraqi people build a stable, democratic country in the heart of the middle east. while we are hoping that what happens in egypt and tunisia will be positive, we have already had elections twice in iraq. we have a government sellout. not as long as it took the belgians, but now we have to be there with support. this budget also saves us money, if you look at it. the military's total request -- and i know that the congressman is well acquainted with this, worldwide it will drop $40 billion from 2010. our costs on the civilian side will increase by less than 4 billion. we think that is a good return on the investment of blood that this country has already made. even as civilians during today's

wars to a close, we are working as hard as we can to prevent more of. we work very hard to sustain volatile places. in yemen for the headquarters of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, we are working on security development and humanitarian assistance. we are focused on the same goals in somalia. we are helping the sudanese chart a peaceful future. we propose a new global security contingency fund that would pool resources for the first time with the defense department to have that expertise and cooperation to respond quickly to challenges. we have strengthened our allies and partners, the mexican police to strengthen the southern border. weepers thought -- provide $2.1 billion for israel. we have helped egypt and tunisia but providing assistance to 130

nations. the support we have given to the egyptian military over 30 years made it possible for us to have an open line of communication between our military leadership and the egyptian military leadership. we saw a generation of military officers refusing to fire on their own people under tremendous pressure. third, we're focusing on him and security. under, disease, climate change, humanitarian investment in global health programs. by president bush. these programs not only bring stability to societies, they save the lives of mothers and children and halt the spread of deadly disease towards our own country. global food prices are

approaching an all-time high. we worked closely with our agriculture experts to come up with proposals that will actually over time move people from being food recipients to food producers, and we do believe that strengthening countries against drought, floods, and other weather disasters, promoting clean energy, and saving tropical forests helps us with our security and challenges here at home. fourth, we're committing to making our force an economic renewal. we are bringing back jobs to the united states to create more economic growth here at home. to give you one example, the eight open skies agreements we have signed over the last two years is opening dozens of new markets of carriers overseas. the dallas-fort worth airport which already supports 300,000

jobs will see billions of dollars in new business, and i know that chairman woman granger calls that the economic engine of north texas. fifth and timely, this budget funds the people and platforms that make possible everything i've described. we have diplomatic relations with 190 countries. having served in the senate for eight years, i know what it's like to get a phone call when an american citizen somewhere is in trouble, and one of those 190 countries, and i know what it's like to be told somebody's in trouble in a country where there's not adequate diplomatic relations. we have political officers diffusing crisis, development officers, and economic officers working to make deals for american business. several of you asked about the safety of your constituents in the middle east. well, this budget funds the officers who evacuated over 126 americans from egypt and libya,

nearly 17,000 from haiti after the earthquake. they issued 14 million passports. they are the first line of defense against would-be terrorists seeking visas to enter our country. now, i know that 2011 is a tough time, and i sent chairman rogers a letter, spoken to speaker boehner. it will be very difficult for us as we are now planning our civilian efforts in an ongoing way in iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan to absorb a 16% cut that passed the house last month. we've got to do our part with the military, and i know that what is often the case is we talk about nondefense discretionary, and, of course, that leaves out state and u.s.-aid. it includes the department of homeland security, it includes veteran, and it includes defense, but here we are. i have diplomats and development experts in helmand province

going in with the marines in kandahar. they are figuring out how to have a strong robust presence in iraq and stand against iran and for the strong iraqi government. finally, i know how tough these decisions are. i was leer in the 90s, not in this capacity, and i saw the difficult decisions we made then which put us on a path to having balanced budgets, surpluses, and frankly, being on the road to actually balancing our budget. 9/11 happened, a lot of other things happened in the following years. we are trying to get ourself back on a strong fiscal footing. unfortunately, the world hasn't stopped while we do that 6789 as i look at the challenges for global leadership for the united states, i know we are tempted to try to step back from these

obligations, but every time we've done that, it's come back and hit us right squire between the eyes. we left afghanistan after we put the soviet union out, and now we're paying a terrible price for that. generations of americans have grown up successful and safe because we've stepped up. we think that in the world today we have more than we can say grace over, but we are positioned to try to deal with it, and we cannot do it unless we remember our national security depends not just on defense, but on diplomacy and development working together unlike anything we've ever done historically today to really dplifer on america's security, our interests, and our values. thank you. >> thank you, madam secretary. we'll begin the questions now. i will start. we'll have five minutes. there's a light in front, and when it turns yellow, that moans you have one minute. fiscal year 2012 budget request

includes funding for a number of global commitments the administration has made over just the past two years, a pledge for $3.5 for agriculture, a multibillion commitments for climate change programs at the copenhagen submit, $2 million to increase funding at development banks, and most recently, a $4 billion pledge over three years to fight aids, tb, and malaria. that's over $10 billion in two years only. in the times we've talked, you and i both and members of the subcommittee, talked about the high budgets, my hope is the administration will stop making these large new multiyear commitments, but the commitments i just named have already been made. i would ask you in your judgment, how would you suggest that the subcommittee go about prioritizing those commitments? >> that's a very fair question,

and i would answer it in the following ways. first, if you take our health initiative which is building on what i saw as very good work that i supported as a senator in the initiative from president bush, that initiative has given us credibility and a very positive image in many parts of the world, particularly in subis a a which is down the line from what we need to be doing. on the health initiative, i hope we continue to support it strongly. we have the infrastructure in place, and we are really viewed very favorably there. on the agriculture initiative, what we did was to look at all the money we were paying in emergency foods. most of it on the supplemental. it was constantly tacked on because people were starving,

and the american people are generous, and the congress was responsive. if we got smarter on teaching people how to farm, because we used to do that. in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, our aid went to helping people produce their own food better, and then we shifted to emergency. this is a good investment to lower the cost going guard. on climate change, one quick example. we have very strong allies in the pacific island nations. they vote with us in the united nations. they are some of our strongest supporters. china is making a big pitch towards them. what we hear constantly is they need help with climate change because they are seeing results. they are evacuating their islands. we have a lot of good that we can get in our relations with a lot of these small nations around the world by investing as we have in this budget in trying to help them mitigate the climate change issues. we have not just coming to say

these are nice things to do, but we think they fit into our overall strategy of keeping our friends, building for friends and stronger relationships to benefit us in the future. >> thank you. you did not prior advertise, but you gave very good lobbying effort for those programs, so i'll ask you again if you can reply in writing. i have time left. the committee, you know, of course; supported mexico in the fight against drug violence. the appropriations exceeded $1.4 billion pledged. i was encouraged last week, i'm sure we were with president of mexico and president obama in that, but the violence continues. last year the gao found that performance measures for the mera initiative were lacking and difficult to determine the efforts to stem drug violence being successful. i wrote to you in july asking you to devote your attention to this issue. the response on the department

say the government of mexico would be a close partner in the process, but, madam secretary, five months passed since that response, and the gao testified before this subcommittee last week that it will be at least at four months before we have better information on performance measures. as we put our funding together, we will say what works and how can we prove that it work, and these programs are far too important to fund blindly. how can and what can you tell us about the progress that's being made, what new goals will be said to expand in mexico, and how long will it take to develop these performance measures? >> well, we're in in the midst of that. we learned a lot from plan columbia, applying those lessons, and we've tried to be careful about putting money out

until we can hold government agencies accountable, and i will provide you with a complete report about that, and i so appreciate your support about it because it's our most national security challenges. thank you. mrs. lowey. >> thank you. earlier this week. the "washington post" reported a shift in strategy? afghanistan and u.s. aid is no longer focusing on gender issues. they removed goals for promotions of women's rights for the requirements of $140 million land reform project from a $600 billion municipal project. "gender issues are going to have to take a back seattle to other priorities. there's no way to be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project." now, i know you pretty well.

this is quite frankly unacceptable. any progress we've made in afghanistan with regard to women's rights will be quickly rolled back by the karzai government and others if we do not continue to emphasize the importance of gender equality. during my career, i've been a strong advocate for women rights. i know you have, so i don't think we can stand by and let the administration roll back the critical work we've done in afghanistan. is the post report accurate? if so, what is the justification? >> it is not accurate, congresswoman, and i'm trying to find out who that unidentified administration official is because that's not administration policy. like you, we believe strongly that supporting women and girls is essential to building democracy and security, and so what we have done as part of a government-wide effort is to develop these civilian stan strategies for afghan women, and

we are currently providing more support than any other time in our government's history to address literacy, poor health, poverty, political exclusion, partnering with a lot of courageous afghan women an men. you met one of them at the women of courage event. we addressed gender discrimination and inequality. now, we have a lot of challenges. i don't want to sugar coat this. this is really hard, and there are deep cultural challenges to doing this work long excluded from education, health care, everything you can imagine. women are still not in any way given their rights or the opportunity to participate, but we have seen real progress, and i think that first the bush administration and now the obama administration, i want to publicly thank mrs. bush for her leadership this this area when she was first lady. since the fall of the taliban,

we have seen the return of 2.5 million girls to school. we have seen women in the parliament, women in the lawyers, the high peace counsel that's set up, and we have more than doubled our spending on women and girls since 2008. we've tripled our staff on the ground starting in 2009 when i got there, and we have staffed a new four-person gender unit in kabul to keep a close eye on where the money's going, to work with the afghan ministry of women's affairs, and the final thing i'll say in the work we're doing because there's military, civilian, and diplomatic surges. the diplomatic surge we are absolutely clear that women cannot be used as pawns by the taliban or by the afghan government, that if the taliban wants to reconcile, they have to renounce al-qaeda, renounce

violence, and agree to abide by the afghan constitution, which in the constitution protects the rights of women. >> thank youment i'm going to get in another quick question. as you know, our policy in haiti and someone you know well has been very involved there has been to move people out of port awe prings, and i have been -- port-au-prince, and i've been a strong advocate for centers of learning to help. if they don't have the jobs or services, they will go back to port-au-prince. there's recent reports about a textile manufacture who will be a tenant outside of port-au-prince, provide 20,000 jobs. if we don't have enough time for you to respond, i'd like to know what we are doing to really provide incentives for people to stay out of port-au-prince, provide all the necessities of life so that they can have a decent life there.

thank you. >> well, very quickly with the time i have left, we've helped reopen 80% of schools until now. we assessed damage on 400 buildings and allowed people to go back, but you're right. moving methamphetamine out of port-au-prince will be good for the haitian economy. the very large text tile plant you referred to going in the north will have a whole community built to include schools as well as other facilities. >> i just want to say, madam chair, this would really be an amazing opportunity because we don't have al-qaeda, you don't have the terrorists, and if we can do this as a model, it can be replicated elsewhere. >> well, i'll add that chairwoman went down for the announcement of that textile factory and was positive about what she saw there. >> i hope we're going down there

soon. >> good. >> the community is growing and being strengthened outside port-au-prince. thank you. >> thank you. chairman roger, and congratulations to your position. >> thank you. >> madam secretary, truly the events of recent months in north africa and the middle east have been remarkable. all of these events seems to have one common theme. >> is it something that caused these revolutions to take place. >> mr. chairman, that's a great question. i'll offer you my opinion, and

i'm sure the historians will come up with more significant interpretations in the future, but i think that there are a number of forces that are converging all at one time. the united states as you know so well as always advocated democracy, freedom, giving people the chance to have their own lives without control from the state and everything that we have seen in impressive regimes, but until the technology revolution, that information was very hard to have widely spread as a way to help people organize so that they could speak up for themselves. i really give tremendous credit to these social networks that young people use which is why when i first became secretary of state, i said we're going to have new outreach through, you know, facebook and twitter and everything that's going on, and we now see the results of people

themselves saying what happened to that blogger in alexandria who was beaten to death by the egyptian security forces or that university graduate who was selling vegetables in tunisia who was set on fire because he had no opportunity? people now know about that. they can communicate about it and organize over it. i think what we've seen is really as you say populist coming from the bottom up. that's the good news. the uncertain news is what happens next. >> yeah. >> we've seen governments peacefully toppled in tunisia and egypt. we see a very serious conflict going on in libya, and we see governments from yemen, bahrain, oman, everywhere else looking at how they're going to deal with these challenges, and we watch as china does everything it can to cut off the internet because they've reached the same

conclusion that this is a tool that never existed in human history before, so part of our internet freedom agenda is to do everything we can to keep those lines of communication open so that people, themselves, can stand up and speak out for their own rights. >> well, it seems from afar that these revolutionaries are really leaderless now. >> that's right, right. >> that's a good thing at the outset, but what do you do now that you toppled the government? >> right. >> how do you place a democratic ra sort of government that has fairness involved? >> mr. chairman, you know, i think this is a subject that we're going to have a lot of conversation about, and i hope maybe we can do it sometime outside the formality of a hearing room and just exchange ideas and bring in some experts and others who have experience. >> but we don't have a leisurely amount of time.

>> we don't. and we are reaching out to everybody we possibly can. we did evacuate nonessential personnel and families from cairo, but we left a solid team with a very experienced ambassador. we're bringing people back in. we are talking to everybody whose ever been identified as a potential leader. we are talking on a regular basis both i am reaching out to the new prim minister, foreign minister in egypt, bob gates and mike mullen reach out to field marshall, and we are constantly communicating. it's been challenging for everyone starting with them because who do you negotiate with? who do you bring in to sit down across the table? because by the nature of a lot of these social networks, they are leaderless. they are, you know, people coming together through technology and through the streets, but not designating anybody to be their leaders, so the elections are going to be very important there.

>> quick question. aid to egypt, military and otherwise, what can you say about that now? >> well, i think we have to continue and look for new ways to assist egypt. they had a serious drop in their growth domestic product. their tourism industry was very badly hit. in fact, it stopped. their economic condition is quite challenging. they have not yet opened up their stock market because they are worried that waited egyptians will take money out of the country. they have a lot of big problems, and so what we're doing and what i hope to be able to tell them when i get there next week is that we reprogram with your approval $150 million, $90 million of which goes into economic assistance, $60 million put into helping them prepare for elections, set up political parties, help train people to do their part, but we're going to have to look at bigger things

than that because i know from my conversations with egyptians both inside the government and outside the government that they are not looking to europe, the gulf, although they are happy to have their help, they will looking to us, and that is a good thing, and we need to be there to help them. >> thank you, madam secretary. >> thank you. mr. dicks? >> thank you for your outstanding testimony and one thing i'm concerned about is a situation in iraq as we build down our military forces. can you give us kind of a picture of what the state department is doing? yng there's a may -- i know there's a major increase in employment with people there and contractors. can you give us kind of an overview on this and tell us your concerns. >> i have a lot of concerns, congressman, and i want to go back to also the chairwoman's

comments in her opening remarks. now, we are aiming to be able to take over from our military as they leave. as you know very well, under the agreement signed in the bush administration, the status of forces agreement, all of our troops will be out by the end of this year. in fact, most will be out by october, and there's been no decision made by the current iraqi government for any kind of requests for any of our troops to stay. under the strategic framework agreement also signed into the bush administration, the state department and u.s.-aid are now expected to. here's what we're trying to do. we are trying to have a consulate in bosra which is important in the south where most of our oil companies are going to be doing business across from iran. we want to obviously keep our

embassy in baghdad safe and those of you who traveled there know that we have a lot of alerts and we have a lot of missiles that come in and we don't know what the situation will be once our troops leave and take their surveillance and intelligence capabilities with them. we want to have a consulate in kurcook and another one in the curdish part of iraq and in mozul so we're able to stay on top of what is the continuing center of al-qaeda in iraq. now, all of that costs money, and we are going to have to put in a very significant number of contract security forces in order to keep our dip mats safe -- diplomats safe wurches -- once our military forces leave. the total military government population in iraq following the

2011 transition will be approximately 17,000 personnel including personnel from state, dod, dhs, you name it place security contractors, and it's 50% security. then we have what are called life support contractors. >> is there a number going with that? >> 50% of the 17,000. >> 17,000, okay, i got you. >> yep. 17,000 all together, 50% security. 30% life support contractors which are, you know, the people who prepare the food and do all of that support work, 10% management and aviation security because we have to run our own aviation assets in order to get people around iraq, and then 10% problematic staff. now, dod is looking, as you know, congressman, for setting up office of security operation

outposts in iraq. they will have about 4,000 personnel out of that 17,000, so it is going, you know, district hire is 16% of the total, contractors will make up the other 84%. that is not an optimal situation in my view, but it is what we have to do in order to meet the obligations we took on under the bush administration that we accepted in the obama administration, and that we are prepared to fulfill going forward. ..

as a partnership to get money from other countries plus the gates foundation and we have invested $647 million through fy10. our fyten request is 115 million. that leverages $7 from every country beater which we think is a pretty good deal, and we believe we can demonstrate to you we save 5 million children's lives from the brink of eliminating polio from the world which would be great news for everybody. >> one quick point on that. there is still a problem in afghanistan, pakistan india and nigeria. >> and northern nigeria, that's right. we are working with the alliance and also i sent a team up to northern nigeria because we had to condense their religious leadership and northern nigeria, the imams and the elected leadership as well that polio

vaccine was good for their children and it wasn't some kind of conspiracy that would sterilize their children. we were successful in getting both religious and elected leadership to do public service announcements and other things, so we really put a lot of effort behind this. we couldn't do it without the global alliance because they leverage our money. >> thank you, thank you madam chair. >> chairman lewis. >> thank you madam chairman. before turning to the secretary let me say that i would like to echo the remarks of our chairman you are absolutely going to be a magnificent chairman of the subcommittee. >> thank you for helping me get here. [laughter] >> am secretary you and i have had a chance to spend some time talking about pakistan, india and others in the region and i cannot tell you the number of occasions i have had to discuss with people who have knowledge in the arena, democrat and

republican largely nonpartisan. the numbers who have expressed great appreciation for not just your homework and knowledge but the articulate way you go about expressing our interest in that very diverse world marketplace so thank you for that. and having mentioned that, nonetheless, while you were in that former job that you mentioned earlier, he referred a moment ago at a glance relative to what occurred in our successful effort in dealing with the mujahideen in colombia. indeed we were successful they are because we were able to forge a coalition of partners among a number of countries in our hemisphere who were willing to go a long, long ways to deal harshly and directly with the cartel and eventually broke their back and colombia had the chance then of being back as the real world country in our

hemisphere. then you kind of referred to mexico in connection with that. i know that we are making some effort to develop similar coalitions. there is absolutely no question we are not going to deal with the breaking the back of these cartels in this drug scourge without that kind of effort going forward successfully. can you help the committee understand what is taking place and what progress we have made in real terms? >> i will. we have as i said, focused on mexico with the merida initiative which predates this administration to try to do in mexico that kind of work that was successful in colombia and in fact colombia is now training some mexican law enforcement officials. we have started by building up institutional support and

training as well as providing equipment, helicopters and other things that the mexican government wanted and needed. we are made in progress. it is comparable i would argue to where we started with colombia where i think when we started and you of course wherein the congress, it looked pretty hopeless. i mean it was an insurgency plus the drug cartels. what an unholy alliance it was, hundreds of thousands of people were being dislocated because of the violence. so colombia in many ways was a worse situation than we see in mexico where the violence is fairly -- i mean it is horrific that it is fairly limited. there is not the massive dislocations internally. we have a president, president held the run who shares the commitment that president uribe had that it is going to take time congressman. this is not easily done and the other problem we have which we are now addressing is the

central american countries. several of them are very weak, very dominated by the drug cartels, so that the southern border of mexico is an area that we have to help the mexicans try to fortify it because a lot of the drugs are coming north, a lot of the guns, a lot of the other problems so we are looking at how we strengthen central america at the same time that we strengthen mexico and we are may king progress. we have a long way to go. >> madam secretary, in mexico we have known for a long long time that merida seems to be always alive and well. when you are dealing with cartels and you are dealing with that history, breaking the back of these drug warlords essentially is indeed an intense, difficult task. i believe that both our defense people but also the department of state needs to have our members, both houses, better

know the harsh steps we took to be successful in colombia and the harsh steps, very harsh steps that may be necessary to identify and deal directly with these cartels. >> that is an excellent idea and if i could take you up on your invitation we would like to put together a kind of hole of government briefing for members who are interested here in the house and of course we would do it in the senate because i want everybody to know what we are doing, what we are up against. as you've probably heard the attorney general announced the arrest in murder of our consulate employee yesterday, so we are making progress. we are bringing down some of the high value cartel leaders, but i would like you to know more and we would like your help and advice on at. >> thank you madam secretary. >> let me thank you for that commitment because it is extremely important and i believe that congress would

respond very positively to that. mr. jackson please. >> thank you chairwoman granger. thank you chairwoman clinton and welcome back. secretary clinton before 9/11 august 171998 arcs the first time outside of attacked our embassies in nairobi kenya and tanzania killing hundreds including 12 americans at the embassy in nairobi. since 1999 i long with several of bipartisan members of work to provide compensation to these 12 americans who are bravely serving their country despite intelligence unknown to the victims that show those embassies were likely al qaeda targets for attack. since the attacks a houses passed legislation during three separate congresses to address the issue only to be held up in the senate. furthermore the subcommittee has continually requested your department provide a legislative proposal for compensation to the state department employees killed by terrorist. yet no such legislation has been brought forward in the state

department has failed to provide a reasonable proposal since the first congressional request in 1999. i'm sure we will be including similar language again in fiscal year 2012 bill. will you commit to work with me to finally bring peace to those families have been suffering for the last 13 years without compensation or closer? >> i would work with you. i know that this is a passion of yours congressman as it is that many of us. i remember meeting the families of the victims at the memorial service and we will certainly see if there is any way. i can't make any promises but i will certainly work with you on that. >> thank you madam secretary. three weeks ago the house passed h.r. h.r. 1 which eviscerated and yesterday the senate rejected a bill. as you can know congress and the executive branch have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure tax dollars well spent and reflect the interests of american people. the budget represents less than 1.5% of total budget. as the head of the state department why should americans

support this funding even in these tough economic times in what does it take for all americans? >> congressman first thank you are helping to set the record straight because i know in many polls, the american people think that we can balance their our budget by eliminating foreign aid and that foreign aid is 20 to 25% of our budget, so thank you for saying that everything we do in the foreign aid world which is more than just the state department and usaid is less than 1.5%. our share of that is you know obviously about 1%, a little bit less. now why should a hard-working person in my state of new york or the chairwoman state of texas or your state of illinois either care about or think we should support this foreign aid budget and i think there are three reasons. first of all, i really do believe this promotes american security. i think it gives us tools that are in addition to and different

from our military tools. and, i think most americans don't want to seek young americans going to war. they would rather see us prevent war, work with like-minded nations to try to help societies

we are a really generous extraordinary country and people know that. i sometimes and then use that i will go to a country where the leaders may be publicly you know criticizing us and then in private they want all the help they can get. they want us to support them. and it is because we are not a former colonial power. we are not andism like communism or fascism or extremism, so we really do try to help people and that reflects who we are. so for our security and our interests and values, nearly every american has some concern that fits into one of those categories and that is where it happens. it happens out of our budget.

>> one final quick question. the chairwoman granger ranking member lowey and i found ourselves in a peculiar position late one night defending our bill and in an effort to eliminate the institute of peace arguments were made on the floor of the congress that the state department and the had the institute of peace have duplicative functions and therefore it should be stricken from the budget. with the secretary please like to make the distinction for members of congress big tweens lets but your mission is and the institute of peace? >> the institute of peace is a not-for-profit institution form by the congress to operationalize america's commitment to peace by working with like-minded individuals and groups around the world. sometimes the united states government coming in to train people in democracy is not as effective as seeing one of our expert teams from usip or iri or

ndi. i think that it's been one of the strengths of american foreign policy is that we have faith-based groups who are working on all kinds of values issues. we have ngo's who are working on humanitarian disaster relief and other important matters and we have these organizations funded directly by our government, which is kind of unique that fills a real place in our whole arsenal of what we can do when we interact with people. >> thank you very much. mr. kho. >> thank you adam secretary -- excuse me madam chairman. i would be remiss not to add my congratulations as well. i know how i got on this committee. madam secretary thank you free testimony and i would be remiss not to mention this. you won't recall that the first time i had the opportunity to meet u.n. former close for -- president clinton. u.n. president clinton just performed so magnificently, not

just at the moment but for months and months afterwards as we continue to work through our issue so thank you very very much and thank you as well for the role i perceive you to have played in developing our current afghanistan policy. that was a tough moment. you may not agree with the analogy but it was like a search moment for bush when you do something that is not very popular and particularly within their own political rank so i think that was very much the national interest and i appreciate the additional military commitment. i've been on the ground in tennessee and to see what your people in the state are doing and it is night and day different than it was on previous trips so again thank you very much. i think it is making an enormous difference. i want to go back to libya for a minute and dry comparison with egypt and get your thoughts. in egypt we have a long-standing relationship. we have a lot of contacts. we have an institution to work with them through an army and so i can sort of see a more hopeful scenario potentially unfolding for us.

libya is so much more challenging. you know we have very little in the way of civil society and very little in the way of the long term relationship. we have got a dictator who is back to the wall and has no way out like saddam hussein in a sense of the us every reason to fight to the last bullet so to speak. he is that significant domestic support, not the majority but it is enough. and we have very few ways to directly impact the situation. and i know you were getting a lot of competing advice about no-fly zones but i just want to know what you are -- your thinking is about how we should proceed step by step, what kind of acid to think we have to deploy here and what you envision moving forward? >> congressman, i think that is the question of the day, because that is what we are really focused on, trying to figure out how to get through by thanks for your kind words in oklahoma city. at a picture of that lone laundry that survived in my

home. you are right, your analysis of libya is right. you know we didn't have diplomatic relations with libya. we were able thanks to a lot of good work that lasted over a number of years to get him to give up his nuclear weapons. i was involved becoming secretary of state to get the last of the a.g. you out of libya. imagine what we would be dealing with it that had not been done. he still does as you probably know still have some remaining chemical weapons and some other nasty stuff that we are concerned about. so clearly we are working on three different levels simultaneously. first, we are working to create an international consensus because we think that is absolutely critical to anything that anybody especially us does. you can see that there is a lot of ambivalence in the international community because of the reasons you pointed out.

people don't know what the opposition represents. they don't know the most effective way to try to get rid of qaddafi so everybody is working hard. nato is working hard. we are internally and our own government looking at every option imaginable. at the same time, we are pushing out on humanitarian assistance. we really believe that getting in as much help articulately for those leaving libya but also increasingly if we could figure out how to do it safely assisting those on the ground who are running short of medical supplies, who need doctors, who need in some instances clean water etc. that we are able to help them when we can get a clear way to do that. and then we are trying to sanction access that he has to his accounts. we are trying to make it clear to the people around him that there will be accountability through the international criminal court and other steps

taken. but i appreciate the tenor of your question because if this were easy we would have already done it. but this is not easy. we did have 30 years of relationships. it is a much less easily understood situation that we are making progress. we are talking to a lot of the opposition leaders. i will as i said be meeting with them myself. we are suspending our relationships with the existing libyan embassy, so we expect them to and operating in the embassy of libya. and we are looking to see whether there is any willingness in the international community to provide any authorization for further steps. i am one of those who believe that absent international authorization, the united states united states acting alone would

be stepping into a situation whose consequences are unforeseeable, and i know that is the way our military fields. it is easy for people to say do this, do that and then they turn and say okay u.s. go do it. you use your assets. you use your men and women. you get out there and do it and you take the consequences of something bad happens and i want to remind people that we had a low -- no-fly zone over iraq or kuwait did not prevent saddam hussein from slaughtering people on the ground and it did not get him out of office. we had a no-fly zone and then we had 78 days of bombing in serbia or kuwait did not give milosevic out of office. it did not get him out of kosovo until we put troops on the ground with our allies. so i really want people to understand what we are looking at and i will reiterate what the president has said and what art administration has consistently

said. we are considering everything, but we think it is important that the congress and the public understand as much as possible about what that actually means and i can assure you that the president is not going to make any decision without a great deal of careful thought and deliberation. >> i appreciate the thoughtfulness and the caution, i really do and i will reserve my questions obviously. thank you madam chair. >> thank you. mr. schiff. >> thank you for the absolutely extraordinarily job you do. let me just pick up where my colleague left off. i concur completely with the idea that we need to do whatever we need to do with the international community. what has made these revolution so powerful as they have been indigenous. they have not been at the tip of the american sphere or imposed

from outside. all that being said, i hope that we can find success working with the international community to take as aggressive and swiss action is possible for. it is excruciating to watch the libyan people attacked a their own government with all the powerful machinery as the libyan mattila terry is just devastatingly trapped -- tragic to watch. i think this period period is one of the most promising potentially that we have seen in decades. with the transition going on in the middle east and north african what happens in the next couple of years may be something as momentous as the collapse of the soviet union and the legacy of this a demonstration may have as much to do with this has anything else and maybe a lot or. so, the success of what is begun in tunisia and egypt i think is such an enormous irony.

in terms of undermining al qaeda narrative, what happens in those countries may eclipse the significance in iraq and much less cost of life and treasure. so i'm all in favor of what in that -- whatever investment we can make and these people powered revolutions and i know we'll win the collapse of the soviet union took place we were in an economic recession and it didn't stop us from helping to build eastern europe and our current economic circumstances cannot cripple us from seeing the opportunity and the necessity of a vigorous effort now. a lot of these revolutions have been powered by economic factors, not just political ones and their success may depend on economic factors. at the egyptian people don't see any progress in the economy, we may trade one authoritarian regime for another.

so i wanted to ask you about that. there has been some reprogramming that you mentioned with respect to each of. can we do some reprogramming to help the tunisian people. that is a great prospect for success in tunisia, a smaller more homogeneous population. do we need to look at the calibration of military and civilian assistance to egypt in a finite resource to world? obviously the relationship with the military is key. we don't want to do anything to undermine that. at the same time there is a tremendous civilian economic need. how can we find the resources to help those countries economically stay on the path they are on? >> i think you are asking the right question because i believe that if people don't see some improvement in their economic circumstances, they will become

discouraged and maybe even start to turn away from democracy and we can't permit that to happen if we have any role to play, we need to play it. again, and mean a lot of it comes down to the money that we already have that we are trying to reprogram. we are going to be -- i will be working to get up to $20 million for tunisia to respond to some of their needs. when i met with the tunisian secretary secretary of state in geneva about a week and a half ago he said we want american help. we remember america was with us when we became independent in the 1960s which goes back to kind of the feelings, the attitudes and the values that people have so i think you are absolutely right. we need to have a very big commitment to tunisia that we can be ready to help them economically as well as with the democratic transformation. similarly with egypt, they have asked us to look at a lot of different possibilities.

we are doing the best we can within the budget we have, and that we can anticipate. but i underscore your point congressman. this is an amazing opportunity. when i spoke with the egyptian officials just over the last couple of weeks they kept mentioning central and eastern europe. they kept saying that is where we want to turn out. we don't want to get derailed. we want this to work. so we want to help them make it work, and i think it is going to require that we have budgetary assistance for them, that we have economic incentives going to small and edm enterprises which could help stimulate the economy from the bottom up in each of. we are looking at all of that. >> thank you very much. mr. diaz-balart. >> thank you very much madam secretary. let me first that my words of gratitude for your service to the united states of america. madam secretary, in october, i

am sorry in september 2010 you made it really impacting statement and if i may just to take a few seconds to quote what you said. you said -- posted national security threat into in two ways that undermine their capacity to act in our own interest and it does constrain us where constraints may be undesirable and it also sends a message of weakness internationally. i share your concerns about the threat that poses to our national security. when you made that statement, that was 13 for -- $13.4 billion. would it be fair to say that of secretary that you have 13 trillion more reasons to be concerned about the national security of the united states? >> i don't think it increases it by 13 trillion. i think it goes up to 14 trillion i think i'm a but it is a big number congressman. let me, let me take your question very seriously because

obviously you quoted me and that is what i believe. if we are not strong at home we are not going to be strong abroad and i know from my own experience, both serving and this esteemed congress and in being first lady during the '90s, that there is going to have to be a deal. and the deal is going to have to put everything on the table and the deal is going to have to include revenue and entitlements along with spending because i am just looking at this budget. you cannot get to where you and i would like to see us headed by cutting nondefense discretionary spending, so that is number one. number two, i think it is important to consider what we do as part of the nation's defense. if this body is going to cut defense board dhs or veterans, a smaller proportion, and they are

going to cut us a much larger proportion that has implications for dhs and dod because we are on the frontline of border security. we are on that early the frontlines in iraq, afghanistan and pakistan so we want to be treated the same way you've treated fence and -- so that would be the second i make. thirdly, i think that the budget that we have proposed is a budget that number one, puts everything into the budget because up until now, we have been funding a lot out of supplementals. both in defense and in usaid and in the department of state. you know we kind of ride on the back of dod when they come in for these big supplementals. so what we have said and maybe it was a political mistake, but it was an honest effort to say let's be transparent, let's put everything into the budget. let us tell you what our core operations are, 47 billion let

us tell you but our frontline state overseas contingency operations are comet 8.7 billion. .. case for your consideration.

>> i have a very little time that so far the administration has announced easing of sanctions on cuba twice. between those senators and increased repression and oppression you are aware of the case of others in the american hostage you met. the question is what is the regime have to do to make any consequences from this administration as the administration willing to look at the tightening of the regulations, harder push for democracy assistance at the very least the state department travel warning again? will would be the consequences as well by the way? if one actually has now this american citizen has been now became a real court so again there have been the easing of sanctions. further repression. will there be any consequences for that further repression for the death of a political prison and the taking of the american hostage and my time is running out.

>> congressman, very quickly, and i will be happy to get more for the record. we share your commitment to freedom and democracy from the cuban people that is an absolute ironclad commitment. i had that commitment myself this administration and president share it. we deplore the injustice towards our in gross. he needs to be home with his family immediately. and we mourn the loss of the mistreatment of the mother and all of the other abuses by the cuban government. so we share the same goals and the same emotions. our decision to try to engage more in the cuban government only indirectly by helping the cuban people is intended to try to strengthen the direct engagement and provide more support for grassroots initiative. so can disagree about the tactics that we can have total agreement about what we are attempting to achieve in terms of goals. >> one comment before we go to

mr. roffman. as i sit in my remarks, h.r. one we absolutely recognize the part that this committee and this bill had in our national security and so in putting that together and we said, you know, that would be the last place we would try to cut and recognize non-defense discretionary spending. >> i could spend the entire five minutes and more in your extraordinary work as secretary of state. you bring incredible energy, intelligence, command of the issues and if i may say so your credibility as hillary rodham and hillary rodham clinton both. and the united states is much more secure your service. god bless you and god speed in your work. i want to think you for your leadership in the united states veto at the security council on

that one-sided ridiculous resolution that was attempting to force agreement on the two-stage solution that is also desperately but the palestinians are resisting by utilizing ulin just to criticize israel completely one-sided to complete one-sided prejudicial actions and grateful for your leadership. i hope this now closes the book. the palestinians or anyone else who would try to use the dram as a substitute for direct negotiations between the israelis and palestinians. the israelis desperately want it to state solution and have put everything on the table and i regret the palestinians haven't come to the table. i know you do too. i also want to think you for your remarks at the commission in geneva where you very candidly and forcefully questioned why there's a separate account of standing committee to criticize the state

of israel with all of the slaughter and genocide and human trafficking adel the other horrific things going on in the world they have a standing committee only to criticize the jewish state of israel and i want to thank you for your candid and remarks. iran still remains the number one threat to the united states as the national security. iran has a great interest in the instability for the north africa but along the gulf and throughout the middle east. bahrain is the gateway perhaps to saudi arabia. it is a banking center, our fleet is there, and a lot of people are worried that iran is trying to use its influence to destabilize of rain and to take a practical control of bahrain and then move on to saudi arabia. do you share those concerns? do you see involvement in the

protests and demonstrations an uprising in ball game and how we continue to prevent iran from developing nuclear weapons and destabilizing the region for its own hegemonic interests. >> i appreciate your raising the continuing threat we see from iran while we are focused on the developments in north africa and the middle east we have to continue to keep focus on iran and we certainly are. what we see happening right now, and i can only give you that snapshot because our assessment now is that the internal disk course in what came is a domestic phenomenon that comes from the demand by the 70% shia

population for greater political rights, greater economic opportunities and it requires a domestic solution. so we have been doing is working with bahrain to work with themselves to try to come up with a way forward. now there is no doubt as we have publicly and privately expressed all people according to our values have a universal right to express themselves to associate assembled freely and swedes urged the government of bahrain to expect those rights of the same time we have also credited with the government is trying to do three national dialogue to come up with some agreed upon reforms that would be implemented. you know bob green is a friend, the are an ally. we deeply value their longtime association with us.

the king has announced that the princess to lead the national dialogue and we are encouraged by some of the steps we've seen recently that this can result in a genuine dialogue. >> madame secretary we're keeping an eye on iran to influence the region. >> so far we don't see if evidence in itself, but we keep a close look on that because we think that iran would try to influence anybody anywhere against their own government and against us. so that's a jury did part of the we are doing and the sooner the people themselves of of rain can move towards this national dialogue the less concerned we will have about iran. >> thank you. thank you madame secretary for being. littleness for having to part for part of this hearing that i was encouraged in your testimony use it with a standing with the people as they braved the bombs and bullets and demand he must go down without further violence

or delete. i certainly agree and appreciate what the department and the administration are doing with respect to food, water supply and other humanitarian support to the libyan people. but on the broad level i am a little bit concerned about what i would call perhaps a lack of clarity in terms of the administration policy with respect to the various uprisings we have seen throughout the middle east and north africa. i am concerned about the repetitions of what happened in hungary in the 1950's and in the arab uprising in 1991, the arabs and the kurds after the 91 gulf war. and i'd just very concerned that we are seeing a lack of clarity in terms of maybe a failure to distinguish between the madmen and tyrants who use terror to suppress their people and perhaps friendly autocrats who used teargas and my fear is we are not sending the right messages in some cases to friend and foe alike and i'm curious

what your reaction is to that question. >> congressman i don't agree with that, i do agree these are very difficult situations and i am not sure that there is one response that adequately addresses the differences that exist. we were just talking about bahrain. bahrain is a very different challenge in our view than what we are seeing in libya which is different from them in and egypt, and in each of those places, america's interest are uniform with respect that we support people's universal rights, their genuine aspirations. but our approach towards each is obviously guided by what we see on the ground and how we think we can influence. take libya for a simple, i was speaking earlier with one of your

one and the number four in and civil service personnel by 25 and 13% respectively the current fiscal realities examine continued build up is both affordable and sustainable. similarly we have invested i think in the usaid development leadership initiatives but today i would like to focus on the state's staffing plans. do you plan to continue the staffing build up in fiscal year 21 and what are your plans for the 2012 budget. >> ,, we started in the bush administration. both president bush and secretary rice realized that we were just not equipped to do what we were expected to do particularly the front line states, and one of the reasons i've been able to more than triple the presence of civilians in afghanistan and accept the responsibility of what we are supposed to do in iraq is because of that increase. we've been able to take our

people and redeploy them and not leave out the essential functions and processing visas in mexico or china for example. so it has been considered view not only within the two administrations but outside experts from all sides of the political spectrum who said that the state and usaid had to increase their personnel mission and and it's in accordance with what congress decides and we are going to try to do that. >> i yield back. >> mr. austria. >> thank you, madam chairman. madam secretary, thank you for being here. think you for your commitment and service to the country and we appreciate it very much. let me if i could go back to israel for just a minute because it's an important issue to me and looking at the events of the recent weeks it's highlighted the unique role that israel plays in the middle east as a

reliable comes to win the democratic ally that shares our values and interest. we talked about iran which is extremely important to me that with the trauma of the fence in egypt and libya and throughout the middle east that overall unrest in the middle east i'm concerned the world attention not be diverted and could be diverted from the danger of iran's nuclear program. and i am concerned that iran could use its time to speed up that program and crack down on the opposition of human rights activists and i think it's critical that iran understand that the world is still watching. we are watching them and there will be consequences for continued disrespect for international policy. my question is the administration has yet to sanction the non-irani in banks with turkey comes off korea, ukraine, chinese banks and the financial institutions.

and i'm concerned about the lack of sanctions on companies that continue to invest in iran's energy sector in violation of the u.s. law. the state department i'm not aware of any sanctions on any non-4n or monatana iranian foreign company for its investment in iran's energy sector and i wanted to ask you and i know there's legislation also pending that was signed i believe last july by the president which requires the state department to complete investigations within 180 days after receiving credible information of a violation. what is happening as far as the sanctions towards companies still dealing with iran as far as the bank of iran and what is the state department doing to enforce this? >> thank you very much, congressman. last summer we were pleased to work with the congress to pass the comprehensive iran sanctions accountability investment act which we call of of of the state

department. and last fall i became the first secretary of state ever to impose sanctions under the prior act, the iran sanctions act and you're right it was on a swift pace iranian firm that was a major investor in the oil and gas development that became the next test case because of until then, they're had not been an agreement upon the criteria and willingness to oppose that sanction. on the human rights side we have been designating iranian for human rights abuses and we will keep that going and i am very committed to that. we have also used tasatto to convince shell, state oil, in packs to withdraw from iran so the threat of the sanction has produced the result we were seeking. and we have also been opening up investigations, monitoring sanction activities.

we are going to pursue a lot of these leads we have. some of this is in a classified format but we would be happy to give you and your staff a briefing so we know what we are doing and how we are pursuing with a lead that we get from our investigations. >> thank you. let me say i want to thank you and your staff. we had a situation in egypt and you talked about the wonderful job that's being done with the staff. we have a situation where over in egypt during the uncertainty over their with the government and your office did an outstanding job of helping that student and other students who were at the american university over there to ensure their safety to get back to the united states and i want to thank you for your work on that and help on that and with that i will yield back. >> thank you very much. we promise the secretary would be through at noon. it's not, however, time goes

fast we go down to three minutes each. i will ask a question, one for a short question has to do with some concerns of it coming to my office about the ambassador's fund for the cultural preservation and the projects such as restoring the mosques and other religious sites has been a pretty. the h.r. one prohibited those funds but the administration is included 5.75 million in the fy 12 request for the ambassador fund. also, u.s. aid does similar funds. can you provide us with how much has been spent on cultural preservation that both the state and u.s. aid and most importantly, why does the administration think we should continue to fund projects like this? is this a program would be willing to give up for the

higher national security priorities? >> madame chairwoman, over a ten year period since 2001, the ambassadors cultural fund has provided $1,179,684 to 29 projects. mostly archaeological sites including churches, mosques and synagogues. what we have used that for, but ambassadors have used that for is to illustrate to countries respect for their culture, the history, the religion, and we think it's been a good tool but obviously this is an area where we like to give some discretion to our ambassadors so that they are able to do things that can make people feel good about america but obviously we would be more than willing to talk to you about it. >> thank you. one other concern that cannot in the "washington post" that has to do with it was a criticism of the u.s. civilian surge in

afghanistan the civilian surge is hunkered down in the capitol removed from the frontline where they are most needed. can you give an update on that? >> it's really not fair. our people are out there. that's why when our military leaders appear before you like general petraeus he talks about having our civilians right there. they are in bed with them, they go out with them and come in with them. we do have a staff in kabul because we work closely with the afghan government which is a very important priority, and we also coordinate closely with general petraeus whose headquarters are also in kabul. don't hold me to i will try to get the exact numbers, but our percentage of people now out in the country not only has gone up dramatically in the last two years but is more efficient in the way that we are partnering

so can give you additional details about that. >> thank you. >> thank you again. we want to get you out on time. two quick points. first my colleagues mentioned sanctions and i want to congratulate you and the administration for really moving that agenda in the united nations and also through state and treasury. however, there was an expos day in december, 2010. it listed many possible clues to companies getting around the sanctions. so i just want to emphasize again that this committee feels very strongly about continuing to tighten the sanctions. another issue that you have been dealing with that i know having watched you talk to many governments about corruption, corruption, i have been very concerned as have you about the fact, and i quote, fewer than 3 million of the pakistan's 175 million citizens pay any

income taxes and the country's tax to gdp ratio is only a 9%. this is one of the lowest acts to the gdp ratio in the world. and i know that you have spoken up about this. these countries have a very difficult time and we know just recently it is an outburst from the elite but if there's anything we can do working with you we understand the importance of the relationship and the alliance but the fact that we are spending billions of dollars and our tax dollars and they are not contributing with regard to the taxes. so if you have a quick comment on that i would be most appreciative. >> i have a comment to say thank you because this is a pet peeve of mine. i am more than proud to have the united states help countries in need, but it's very hard to accept helping a country that will help itself by taxing its

richest citizens to start their and we know because i spoke out about it when i was in pakistan the jury first time. the tax system is woefully in equitable and does not in any way reflect the need the people of pakistan have for schools, health clinics and so much else. so i've been very outspoken about this. it has caused some criticism, but i feel strongly about it, i feel strongly about mexico. mexico's percentage of revenue gdp is not what it should be. some countries we are helping have to face up to the tough political decisions and there's many different ways to get the revenue you need, but i think we have to look at doing more to encourage them to step up and meet their own people's needs. >> i appreciate that and in the one minute remaining i know this committee because of the tremendous budget challenges

would be delighted to help you the international monetary fund not long ago i took it was 2008 rose $11.3 billion loans that was approved for the tax vv to pakistan until they ponied up and did something about the tax issue something to true leadership and we look forward to continuing to work and think you for your leadership. >> mr. lewis? >> madam secretary, i wanted to asked a question to say i look forward to other channels and opportunities to discuss the military -- >> thank you. i look forward to that. >> thank you, madame chair. i just want to make a comment about iraq, which i think you have addressed in your remarks but it's important we spent and will spend literally thousands of american lives, tens of

thousands wounded of our brave men and women. we have spent and will spend trillions of dollars on that war heretofore and in the future for health care for those who came home and others support. it would be a disaster if we did not do the follow-up after the troops were gone such that iraq became an unfriendly nation or god forbid became a satellite like lebanon of iran and iran of course as you know, madam secretary, is interested in just that and has invested in the elections and aspects of the iraqi economy, etc.. and so your statement your interest in having consulates throughout iraq fighting is brilliant as well as the work of the pentagon and their efforts. we are on this foreign operations subcommittee and

madam chairman and also on the defense committee will want to say that that is an investment we must continue to make the best we've moved or throw away all of the sacrifices that this nation has put in. >> i agree, congressman. the things that keep me up at night, which are many and growing - to about five or ten years seeing a situation like you are describing develop, where at least southern iran or maybe all the way up to kirkuk is largely under iran's influence and they lost their chance to be an independent arab nationalistic democracy and people say to us what were you thinking? you had this incredible war and you lost all these lives and have these veterans who are suffering.

were you thinking? i don't want to answer that question saying well, you know, we decided once the military left we left because i think i would be really great tragedy and unfair to all the sacrifice that this country and particularly our brave young men and women have made. >> thank you madame secretary and madame chair. >> thank you, madam chairman. just one question for a little follow-up on mr. rothman. you are trying to manage a very difficult situation that really nobody anticipated. we have the adversaries who didn't anticipate either but they are trying to exploit it. so from al qaeda and iran, what are they doing in egypt, what are they doing in libya and these other places. >> that's another thing that keeps me of that might come congressman cole. meter elon al qaeda had anything to do with these uprisings. now there are those who are of

conspiratorially minded approach is and claim they do but there is no evidence of that, but there is no doubt they are going to try to get a vantage of everything that is happening everywhere. we know from our intelligence reporting, from anecdote reporting, our embassies, political officers the everywhere iran can to get in touch they are going to either directly or indirectly through proxies' like hezbollah and hamas. there is no doubt that hezbollah, to go back to the question about bahrain that congressman schiff asked the hezbollah is an adult the late to influence bahrain and try to say you should be what we are and look at where we are with such a major influence in the lebanese government. you have got hamas on the border of egypt, you've got absolutely every reason to believe that with iran now supporting hamas they are going to be trying to do not they can do to influence the outcome. we are in a competition for influence all over the world

right now. we are the leading power. we have enormous assets but in the asia-pacific we are competing with china and africa we are competing with china and africa we are competing with iran and latin america competing with china and increasingly iran. we are not in a static situation we have the luxury to say give us a few years and then we will get back in the game. so i think you're caution is a very strong one and i would add this point is al qaeda has a presence in what is called al qaeda and the islamic monrad which is north africa. they had a presence to some extent in libya. they were suppressed like everybody else in libya was suppressed. but there is no doubt in my mind if they see an opportunity just as they saw an opportunity in somalia and they have seen in ghanem they are going to the

decanter influence the outcome. so the united states is faced with a choice. we can stand on the sidelines and hope and pray for the best, we can get so involved that we are accused of interfering, going after oleo, chongging to occupy another islamic country where we can try to do what we are doing which is, you know, be smart about how we offer assistance, how we respond and bring the international community along and that is the toughest of the options but that is what we are trying to do. >> thank you madame secretary. >> thank you. mr. schiff? >> thank you, madame chair. i'm curious about the egyptian decision to allow ships to go through the suez canal. it seemed like an odd out of step move coming on the heels of the military i think very quickly and strategically saying it would observe the peace treaty with israel. it just seemed out of the blue.

can you shed any light on what motivated that? i also want to ask about pakistan. i was really discouraged to see not only the terrible assassinations of the governor pune job and the minority cabinet member but even more disturbing was the public reaction of pakistan which was to have the mass celebrations of the first and maybe somewhat diminished in terms of the second but tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people celebrating in favor of the assassin to have the lawyers who had been advocating for the court now advocating for the assassin. it's so discouraging to me. are we losing the battle for hearts and minds of the are going to be celebrating assassins. where the victims are people preaching tolerance. >> well, first i don't have any insight other than that is a major source of revenue.

so every ship that goes through pays a bunch of money and i think close to two injured thousand dollars came into the egyptian with the two ships going through so it should be something congress and as simple as we are desperate and need money and they want to go through. make sure they pay. i don't have any other information. with respect to pakistan would be tied to the budget because i share our concern. i met his family when i was in pakistan a year or so ago and i deeply regret it and more and his murder and was appalled by the reaction in the country. the reaction when the minister was murdered was much more in keeping with what i would expect and hope for any country that when someone was a patriot that stood up for the rights of all of the pakistanis including the minority communities, the minority christian and the

minority islamic communities was assassinated, people did speak out and were quite upset. we have a very difficult situation in pakistan. i don't want to sugar coat. when i became the secretary of state, i realized our public standing was as low in pakistan of any country in the world and there are many reasons for that. but one of the problems was we were not really trying to respond to a lot of the criticism and a lot of the accusations. so when the question came - to from this side about the increase in personnel because we are beefing up hour public diplomacy we have a great story to tell about america and we are going to keep telling it and we are telling it under very difficult circumstances.

our standing in pakistan is very difficult because there's just so much going on inside of the country itself. when i was here the first time in 09, i said the pakistanis needed to take on the extremists inside their own country and they've done that so there are things changing but it's a long way to go. >> thank you. >> mr. diaz-balart. >> thank you, madame chairwoman. mr. secretary, let me figure for those words on behalf of the cause and i want to make a very clear, there is no doubt in my mind that you want freedom for the cuban people. no doubt in my mind at all. i just want to bring you go to the attention that if you look at the time when the mr. clapper was talking about, and i have it here i'm not going to quote it, but his statement where he talked about how the economy in that island is destroyed and the

people on the verge of revolt because of its. this administration has these sanctions, and i would also then point out this on the hammes report and i'm not going to quote it but it talks about how the community to cubin employees to be to authorities of benefit from travel for u.s. visitors and then later goes on to say that the results suggest that for cuba the loosening of travel restrictions help offset the decline and the arrivals from the global financial crisis. and it goes on. in the interest of time, madam secretary, i'd like to continue to work with you because it is evident that the loosening of the restrictions are frankly helping the regime, not helping at. it is helping to fund the regime at that time when this administration has said publicly on more than one occasion the situation in cuba, the economy

is in dire straits, and yet, according to the imf and others, we are now being one of the -- the united states through travel

such as possibly the muslim brotherhood. >> well, first we are working closely with of the so-called staff, the supreme council of the armed forces field marshal who is the head of the organization has served with a guardian and caretaker of the state of egypt and is also leading the transition to democracy. they are very pleased when among the first act was to issue a statement that they were going to respect the can't david

accord and peace between israel and egypt and we want to encourage that and see that continue. i've seen the collapse of the interior department, the security system and the police force inside egypt has made a very difficult situation for the military even harder. so they are working for the information that would hamas and we think that they are taking appropriate steps, but we are going to keep a close eye on that. we think that they understand the need to have an electoral system that doesn't favor any one group that makes it a free and fair election. we've made clear our policy is to support those who are committed of space values who are not involved in or endorsed the violence in any way who wish to participate in free and fair

elections and it will be ultimately up to the e egyptian people to decide who the leaders will be, who they will select, but we want to be sure that they are given as much information as possible from other countries about how to run the elections that will produce results that keep democracy going because the last thing we want to see is one election and then it's over as some organized groups people are mentioning looking at hungary and other places, look at iran. iran at the time didn't look like it would morphed into the police state it has become. so there are a lot of lessons and we and others are sharing our experiences with the egyptians. >> thank you madame secretary. >> thank you for your attention today and response as we appreciate you being here. we appreciate the job you've done and continue to do. this will conclude today's hearings. members may submit questions.

madam secretary, the committee prospectus prompt response is sweet to make decisions on the fiscal year 2012 request. thank you again. this hearing is adjourned.

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>> as she announced during the hearing, secretary of state hillary clinton is headed to europe and the middle east for the obama administration's highest level contact. she will also be meeting with officials in egypt and tunisia to promote democratic reform. she will meet with the opponents of muammar gaddafi to sas -- to assess their capabilities and intentions. this will be the first cabinet level visit to tunisia since

protests occurred across the region. earlier today, japan's prime minister called the damage from the earthquake the most severe challenge the nation has faced since world war ii. a series of nuclear reactors were damaged, sending one through a partial meltdown and adding radiation contamination to the fears of an unsettled public. courtesy of the japanese broadcasting corp., the statement is about 10 minutes. >> i would like to express my deepest sympathy to those who have been affected by the earthquake and also in the disaster-stricken areas as well as to the people of japan who are in difficult situations. people remain calm. i would like to offer my deepest gratitude and my respect to all

of those who are behaving calm ly. today, we worked hard to rescue people. so far, the self-defense forces and police and firefighters and were able to save about 12,000 people. i would like to explain about the rescue effort. all of the self-defense forces have mobilized 50,000 people. they will be doubled to 100,000. there are more than 25 officers who have been deployed. -- more than 2500 officers who

have been deployed. there are more than 1100 units that have been deployed. the emergency medical team has mobilized more than 200 in the disaster hit areas. they will provide blankets and other supplies because the transportation on the ground is limited. they have been transported by air and by sea. we are working to make sure that they will be transported. we have designated the disaster hit areas as emergency areas. we are considering providing some legal measures. regarding the power plants, the situation is still a concern.

the secretary will talk about that in detail following my message. ladies and gentlemen, there is one thing that i would like to ask for understanding in. i would also like to make a request. many power plants have been damaged. the tokyo electric power plant and other power plants have a short supply of power. the government has instructed those power companies to make the utmost effort to get power from other companies. we would like to ask the industries as well as ordinary

households to save energy and power. how weber, we do not know when -- however, we do not know when the facilities will be restored. there could be a shortage of power. if this situation remains like this, we could fall into a power outage in a wide area. a sudden power failure could devastate the lives of people as well as industrial activities. this is something we must avoid. therefore, i have instructed the tokyo electric power company to make a premeditated outage in tell -- in the tokyo area.

the details will be explained by the minister of economy, trade, and industry. i know i will be asking people to be inconvenienced. this is a hard decision to make. people may not be able to use power. that may affect the supplies of gas and other lifelines as well as medical and health-care equipment. there can be an impact. along with the power outage, there can be accompanying concerns. we should make the utmost effort to be prepared. the government has launched a panel to tackle the situation. we will make sure we take necessary countermeasures to provide information to all of

you. we ask for your understanding. so that we can protect your life against power outages. after friday's earthquake and tsunami and the current situation with the power plant and the 65 years after the end of world war ii, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis or japan in that period.

we japanese people will overcome this crisis. that is the question be asked up each of the japanese people. we japanese have had a lot of difficulties in the past. we were able to overcome those difficulties to reach this piece and prosperous society we have been able to build. with regard to the earthquake and tsunami, i am confident that the japanese people can be united to work together to whether this difficulty -- weather this difficulty. that is my strong belief.

please, i ask each one of you, please have such determination. deep in your bond with your family members, neighbors, and the people in your community to overcome this crisis so that japan can be a better place. we can build together. this is the message i would like to emphasize to the japanese people. this is also my request to the people. thank you very much. >> that is the press conference by the prime minister naoto kan.

>> the gridiron, founded in 1895, is washington d.c.'s oldest organization. it held a dinner last night. among the attendees was president obama. it was an evening of speeches and skits that satirized they politics and politicians. here are some of those who attended.

>> we will come over. we will never see the pictures, right? >> where do we done? we go down this way.

>> hi, how're you? >> congratulations on the deal with aol. >> thank you. >> hello. hi.

>> mr. secretary?