power that has been vested in them by virtue of their relationship with gaddafi over the years. >> thank you very much. thank you ambassador, for your time. >> thank you. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke was asked today about economic growth and inflation. his news conference is next on c-span. president obama released details about his birth certificate. then, reaction from donald trump. mr. trump had been calling on the president to release the long form of his birth certificate. >> light saturday, the white house correspondents annual black-tie dinner. later, remarks from president obama and saturday night live's seth myers. streaming at c-span.org and live

on c-span. >> ben bernanke held the first press conference in the federal reserve's history after meeting with the monetary policy committee. the fed has decided not to expand its treasury bond buying program. chairman bernanke also talked about rising gas prices, inflation, and the federal budget debate. this is one hour.

>> throughout the briefing, michael will be to reflect the consensus of the committee while taking note of the diversity of views. my remarks and interpretations or my own responsibility. in a policy statement released earlier today, the committee will maintain its existing policy of maintaining payments from securities holdings. it will complete its planned purchases of $600 million of long-term treasury securities by the end of the current quarter. going forward, the committee will regularly review the size in light of incoming and folk and prepare to adjust those holdings as needed to meet the federal reserve's mandates. the committee made no change today in the target change of the funds rate. it remains at 0.4%. economic conditions including berates for resource

utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations are at low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended time. i enjoy injunction with today but the meeting, f.o.m.c. participants submitted projections for economic growth, the unemployment rate, and the inflation rate for the years 2011 through 2013 and over the longer run. these projections are conditional on individual assessments of the appropriate path and monetary policy needed to reach the objectives. a table has been distributed. i will focus today on the central tendency projections which exclude the three highest entry lowest projections in each year. i call your attention first to the committee but the long run projections. economic growth, unemployment, and inflation will converge over

time under appropriate monetary policy and excluding no further shocks to the economy. the longer run projections for this growth have a tendency of 2.5%. that is from the january survey. the longer run projections for the unemployment rate at the central tendency of 5.2% to 5.6%, somewhat narrower than in january. these figures may be interpreted as current estimates of the economy but the normal growth. it's normal of unemployment rate over the long run respectively. the longer-term rate of growth in unemployment are determined by non monetary factors such as the rate of growth of labour force and technological change. it should be noted that estimates of these rates are inherently uncertain and subject to revision. the central tendency of the bobrun projection for inflation

as measured by the price index is 1.7% to 2.0%. in contrast, economic growth and economic -- and unemployment, inflation is determined almost entirely by monetary policy. consequently and given these projections are based on the assumptions that monetary policy is appropriate, these projections can be interpreted as indicating the inflation rate that participants judged to be most consistent with the federal reserve's mandate to foster maximum employment and stable prices. at 1.7% to 2.0% inflation is better than zero for a number of reasons. perhaps most important, expecting to maintain inflation at zero would increase the bulk of falling prices and would mean employment would be far below

its sustainable level for a projected. . it is not consistent with the federal reserve mandate. indeed, most central banks around the world set inflation above 0, usually at about 2%. i turned to the committee's economic outlook as indicated in today but the policy statement. the recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace. household spending and investment in equipment and software is expanding, but residential investment is still weak and the housing sector is depressed. overall conditions in the labor market continued to improve. the unemployment rate moved down a bit further and payroll employment increased in march. new claims for unemployment insurance and -- is consistent with continued improvement. looking ahead, participants

expect moderate growth -- recovery to extend into 2011 with some celebration of growth in 2012 and 2013. participants' projections for output growth that the central tendency of 3.1% to 3.3% for this year, but rise to 3.5% in 2012 and 2013. these projections are a little below those made by the committee in january. the markdown of growth in 2011 reflects the somewhat slower than anticipated pace of growth in the first quarter. the outlook for above trend growth is associated with reduction in the unemployment rate which is seen to agent down to 8.7% in the first clerk -- edging down to 8.7% in the first quarter of this year. still well above the central tendency the participants bobrun

rejection for unemployment of 5.2% to 5.6%. the projected decline in the unemployment rate is slow because economic growth is expected to be modestly above the trending growth rate of the economy. on the inflation front, commodity prices have risen significantly, reflecting geopolitical polite -- developments and robust demand. increase in commodity prices are boosting overall consumer inflation. however, measures of underlying inflation, though having increased modestly, remain subdued and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable. consequently, the committee expects the inflation of higher commodity prices to be transitory. as a moderate, inflation should declined to its underlying levels. specifically, projections for inflation have a central

tendency of 2.1% to 2.8% for this year, higher than january projections. then they declined to 1.2% in 2012 and to 1.4% in 2013, both about the same as in january. the economic projections and implied -- provide important concepts for understanding today's actions. this affects output and inflation. current policy actions must be taken within i to the likely future course of the economy. the committee's projections of the economy are not just current conditions along, must guide policy decision. the lag with which monetary policy affects the economy also implies that the committee must focus on its mandated objectives of the medium term, which can be as short as a year or two, but

may be longer depending on how far the economy is from conditions of maximum employment and price stability. to foster maximum employment, the committee's sets goals to return unemployment to its long- term levels. the current unemployment rate is elevated relative to that level. the substantial ongoing slack in the labour market and the slow pace of improvement remain important reasons that the committee continues to maintain a highly accommodative monetary policy. in the medium-term, the committee seeks to achieve a mandate consistent inflation rate that suggests 2% or a bit less. although recent surging commodity prices have allowed inflation to reduce somewhat,

the committee expects inflation to return to the same levels in the medium term. the short-term increase has not prompted the committee to tighten policy at this juncture. the committee's out what for outplacement -- inflation is predicated on things remaining stable. and increased commodity -- increased commodity prices are likely to produce a tax. if inflation takes hold on not commodity prices and nominal wages. the committee will pay close attention to inflation expectations as possible indications of a second round effects. in providing accommodation in the aftermath of the crisis, the committee has reduced its target for federal funds rates to a low

level and has expanded the federal reserve's balance sheets substantially. this committee continues its ongoing discussions for removing policy accommodation at some time -- at such time as that may become appropriate the committee remains confident that it has the tools it needs to tighten monetary policy when it is determined that economic conditions warrant such a step. in choosing the time to begin policy normalization as well as the pace of normalization, we will carefully consider both parts of our bowl mandate. thank you again, and i will be glad to take questions. >> tomorrow we will get a pretty weak gdp numbers. your own projections have been downgraded in this meeting. what do you see as the causes of the weak growth even with monetary easing, zero tax cuts,

and with a weaker forecast for 2011 gdp? >> we have not seen the gdp numbers yet, but like most private sector forecasters are expecting a relatively weak number. probably something under 2%. most of the factors that account for the slower growth in the first quarter appear to be transitory. they include things like, for example, more defense spending than was anticipated which will be made up in a later quarter. weaker exports -- given the growth in the global economy we expect that to pick up again. there are some factors there that may have a longer-term implications. for example, construction of both residential and nonresidential was very weak in the first quarter. it may have some applications going forward. roughly, most of the slowdown in the first quarter is viewed by

the committee as being transitory. that being said, we have taken our forecast down just a bit, taking into account factors like weaker construction and less momentum in the economy. >> mr. chairman, given what you know about the state of the economy now, what is your best guess for house and the fed needs to restore all its stimulus for the economy? what is your working definition of what extended period means ? >> as the statement suggests, we are in a moderate recovery. we will be looking very carefully first to see if that recovery is in deep sustainable, as we believed it is. we will also be looking very closely at the labor market. we solid improvement in the labour market in the first

quarter, but we would like to see continued improvement and more job creation going forward. at the same time, we are looking very carefully at inflation. that is the other part of our mandate. inflation is temporarily higher being driven by a gasoline prices and other commodity prices. our expectation is that inflation will come down to a normal level. we'll be watching that carefully and also watching inflation expectations, which are important that they be anchored if we want to see maintained -- if we want to see inflation under control. i do not know how long it will be before the tightening process begins. it will depend on the outlook and the criteria which i suggested. the extended period language is conditioned on resource-slack

and inflation expectations. once those conditions are violated or we are moving away from those conditions, that will be the time we need to begin to tighten. extended period suggest there will be a couple of meetings before action. unfortunately the reason we use this vaguer terminology is we do not know how quickly response will be required, therefore we will do our best to communicate changes in our view depending on how the economy evolves. >> mr. chairman, thank you for doing this. it is a tremendous development. there are critics who say that set policy has driven down the value of the dollar and the lower value reduces the american standard of living. had you respond to the criticism that sets policy has reduced the american standard of living? >> thank you.

but may start by saying that the secretary of the treasury is the spokesperson for u.s. policy. secretary geithner had some words yesterday. let me add to what he said first by saying that the federal reserve believes that a strong and stable dollar is in both american interest in the interests of the global economy. there are many factors that cause the dollar to move up and down over short periods of time. over the medium term, where our policy is and, if we are doing two things. first, we are trying to maintain lower inflation by maintaining the purchasing value of the dollar. that is obviously good for the dollar. the second thing we are trying to accomplish is to get a stronger recovery and to achieve maximum employment. a strong economy growing and attracting foreign capital will be good for the dollar. in our view, if we do what is

needed to pursue our mandate of price stability and maximum employment, that will generate fundamentals that will help the dollar in the medium term. >> one cannot help but notice that it has been unsuccessful so far. >> the dollar fluctuates. one factor that has been extreme has been the maintain that effect. during the height of the crisis, in 2008, money flowed in through the treasury markets and drove up the value of the dollar quite substantially reflecting the fact that the u.s. capital markets are the system of the world. usc and the unwinding of that as the economy has strengthened and as uncertainty has been reduced. that is indicative of the high standing that the dollar still

retains in the world. ultimately, the best thing we can do to create strong fundamentals for the dollar in the medium-term is keep inflation low, psychic, to create a strong economy. >> many americans are upset that gasoline prices are rising so fast and that food prices are also going up. can you talk about whether there is anything the fed can or should do about that? can you also elaborate on the increase we have seen in the inflation forecast that the fed put out today? >> sure. thanks, john. gasoline prices have risen quite significantly. we, of course, are watching that carefully. higher gas prices are absolutely

creating a great deal of financial hardship for a lot of people. gas, of course, is a necessity. if people need to drive to get to work. it is obviously a bad development to see gas prices rise so much. higher gas prices also make economic developments less favorable. obviously, higher gas prices add to inflation. on the other hand, by draining purchasing power from households, higher gas prices are also bad for the recovery. the cause growth to decline as well. it is a double wi-whammy. our interpretation is the economist basic mantra of supply and demand. on the one hand, we have a rapidly growing global economy. emerging markets are growing very quickly.

their demand for commodities is very strong. essentially all of the increase in demand for oil of the last couple of years, in the last decade have come from emerging markets economy. in the united states, our demand for oil has actually gone down over time. the demand is coming from growing economies where we are seeing 25% increase in emerging output. everybody who knows who watches television, we have seen disruptions in the middle east and north africa, libya and other places which have constrained supplies that have not been made up. that has, in turn, driven gas prices up significantly. it accounts for the short run in the increase in our inflation forecast. there is not much the federal reserve can do about gas prices, pers se.

at least not without derailing growth entirely. that is not the way to go. we do not control the growth rate of emerging market economies. what we can do is basically try to keep higher gas prices from passing into other prices and wages throughout the economy, creating a broader inflation which will be more -- which would be much more difficult to extinguish. our view is that gas prices will not continue to rise at their recent pace. as they stabilize or even come down, that will provide some relief on the inflation front. it will have to watch it very carefully. -- we will have to watch it very carefully. >> mr. chairman, you have stated several times this year that the recovery will not be fully

established until we see a sustained period of job creation. first, as it becomes truly established yet? if not, what is your definition of sustained and what is your definition of stronger job creation? >> as i mentioned, we have made a lot of progress. last august when we began to talk about another round of securities purchases, where it was very moderate and we were actually quite concerned that growth was not sufficient to bring the unemployment rate down. since then we have seen and reasonable -- a reasonable amount of job creation. that picked up in the recent months. together with the decline in the unemployment rate from 10% down to its car rate of 8.8% -- the labor market is improving. we would like to make sure that is sustainable.

the longer it goes on, the more confident we are. it is encouraging to see the improvement we have seen in recent months. that being said, the pace of improvement is still quite slow. we are digging ourselves out of a very deep hole. we are still something like 7 million jobs below where we were before the crisis. clearly the fact that we are moving in the right direction, even though that is encouraging, does not mean the labor market is in good shape. we will have to continue to watch and hope we get increasingly strong job creation going forward. >> mr. chairman, you say in your statement that longer-term inflation expectations will remain stable but some have not risen in recent months. it is clear that you expect headline inflation to rise above

core inflation in some areas. is there anything the federal reserve can do to prevent the public from incorrectly assuming that a period of high inflation is on its way as a result? >> again, the inflation expectations we are concerned about our medium-term inflation expectations. we have seen, for example, in financial markets -- the index bond market, for example. we have seen near-term inflation expectations rise significantly, which is reasonable given a higher commodity prices, but for the most part, although there has been some movement here and there, it is fair to say that medium-term inflation expectations have not moved very much. they still indicate confidence that the fed will ensure that inflation in the medium term will be close to the mandated

level. what can we do? in the short run we communicate and make sure the public understands what our policy is attempting to do. to be clear what our objectives are and what steps we are willing to take to meet those objectives. ultimately if inflation persist or if inflation expectations begin to move, there is no substitute for action. we would have to respond. while it is very important for us to try to help the economy create jobs and support the recovery, i think every central banker understands that keeping inflation low and stable is absolutely essential to a successful economy. we will do what is necessary to ensure that happens. >> mr. chairman, what will be the impact on the economic recovery, job creation, and

rates on mortgages when the fed and its bond buying program? what follow-up -- how long will the fed continued to allow for reinvestments? >> as i have noted, we are going to complete the program at the end of the second quarter -- $600 million. we are going to do that pretty much without papering. we let the purchases in it. based on past experience and based on our analysis, the end of the program is unlikely to have significant effects on financial markets were on the economy. the reason being coat -- the reason being, we hope we have

communicated what we want to do -- policy steps that are well anticipated by the market should have a small offense. whatever if that you're going to have a web already been capitalized in the financial markets. secondly, we subscribe to what we call the "stock view." what matters primarily for interest rates, stock prices, and so on is not the pace of ongoing purchase, but rather to the size of the portfolio that the federal reserve holds. when we complete the program, as you noted, we will continue to reinvest maturing securities, but treasuries and [unintelligible] the amount of securities we hold will remain constant. therefore we should not expect any major effects from that.

put another way, the amount of east -- monetary policy easing should remain constant going forward from june. at some point, presumably early in our exit process, i suspect, based on conversations we had been having around the table, it is unlikely that an early step would be to stop reinvesting all or part of the securities which are maturing. take note that that step, although a modest step, does constitute a policy tightening. it would be lowering the size of our balance sheet, therefore, we would be expected to tighten financial conditions. that being said, we have to make that decision based on the outlook, based on our view of

how sustainable the recovery is and what the situation is with respect to inflation. it will base that decision on the eve of an outlook. -- we will base that decision on the evolving outlook. >> is it in the fed's power to reduce the rate of unemployment more quickly? how would you do that and why are you not doing it? >> first of all, in terms of trying to help this economy stabilized and recovery, the federal reserve has undertaken extraordinary measures. those include obviously all of the steps we took to stabilize the financial system jury crisis, many of which were extraordinary measures taken under extreme circumstances. even beyond the steps we took to stabilize the system, we have

created new ways to ease monetary policy. we brought the federal funds rate to close to zero. we have for guidance in our language to affect expectations of policy changes. as everyone knows, we have been through two rounds of purchases of longer-term securities which seems to have been effective on easing financial conditions and therefore providing support for recovery and unemployment. we will have to continue to make judgments on whether additional steps are warranted. as we do so, we have to keep in mind that we do have a dual mandate. we have to worry about the rate of growth and the inflation rate. as indicated earlier, even purely from an unemployment perspective, if inflation were to rise significantly, the cost of that in terms of employment loss in the future would be

quite significant. we do have to make sure that we are paying adequate attention to both sides of our mandate. we have done extraordinary things to try to help this economy recover. >> mr. chairman, a lot of economists say the second round of qualitative easing has not done much to help the economy. what positive if that's can you point to directly? if there are positive affects, can you afford to end the program in june with the unemployment rate still around 9%? >> thank you. first, i do believe that the second round of security purchases was effective. we saw that first in the financial markets. the way monetary policy always work is by easing financial conditions.

we saw increases in stock prices. we sell reduced spreads in credit markets. that is how we do volatility. we sell all the changes in financial markets -- quite significant changes that one would suspect if i was doing an ordinary easing of policy to reduce the federal funds rate. if we solve the same types of financial market responses in the first round, which began in march 2009. we were able to get the financial easing that we were trying to get. we did get a significant easing from this program. you would expect based on decades of experience that easing financial conditions would lead to better economic conditions. i think the evidence is consistent with that as well. as i discussed in more detail in my testimony in the beginning of march, between late august

when i first indicated that the federal reserve was seriously considering these additional steps and earlier this year, not only the federal reserve, but many outside forecasters upgraded their forecasts and we saw strengthening labor market conditions, higher rates of payrolls, job creation, etc. the conclusion, therefore, that the second round of security purchases was ineffective can only be validated if one thought that this step was a panacea, that it would solve all of the problems and return us to full employment overnight. we were clear from the beginning that what we thought this was an important step an important time when we are worried about a double-dip and were worried about inflation, we were very clear that this was not one to be a panacea, that this would

only turn the economy in the right direction. we published some analytics which gave job creation numbers which were significant, but certainly not enough to really solve the enormous jobs problem that we have. again, relative to what we expected and anticipated, i think the program was successful. why not do more? again, this is similar to the question i received earlier barrier -- i received earlier. inflation has gotten higher. inflation expectations are a bit higher. it is not clear that we can get substantial improvement in payrolls without some additional inflation risk. in my view, if we are going to have success in creating a long run, sustainable recovery with lots of job growth, we have to keep inflation under control. we have to look at those parts

of the mandate as we choose policy. >> mr. chairman, what is the right response if in oil prices persist? on the one hand, they push inflation higher. on the other, they affect the economy by prohibiting spending. what is the best at a jeep? >> we will continue to see what happens. our anticipation is that oil prices will stabilize and come down. if that happens or if oil prices do not increase significantly further, then inflation will come down and we will be close to our medium-term objectives. as we look at oil prices, we have to look at both sides of the situation. i think one of the key things we will be looking at will be

inflation expectations because medium-term inflation expectations remain stable so that firms are not passing on, at least on a sustained basis, these higher costs and creating a broader inflation in the economy. as long as inflation expectations are will stabilize, that will not happen. then we will feel more comfortable watching and waiting to see how things evolve. again, if we fear that inflation expectations look like they are becoming less anchored, we would have to respond to that. >> you talked a lot about long- term unemployment in the past. can the fed effectively reduce long-term unemployment? >> first, you are absolutely right. long-term unemployment in the

current economy is the worst it has been in the postwar period. 45% of all the unemployed have been unemployed for six months or longer. the consequences can be very distressing. if people who are out of work for a long time, their skills tend to atrophy, they lose contact with the labor market and other people working the networks that they have built up. we sell in the european experience in the '80s and '90s that the period of high employment was very long term. unemployment remained very high for an extended period. it is one of the reasons that the federal reserve has reduced [unintelligible] by getting unemployment down, we hope to bring back to work some of the people who have been out of work as long as they have

had. in that respect, try to avoid the longer-term consequences of people being out of work for months at a time. that is one of the reasons we have been as aggressive as we have. as the situation drags on and as the long-term unemployed at the skills and contact with labor markets or, perhaps, just become discouraged and stop looking for work, it becomes out of the scope of monetary policy. job training, education, and other types of interventions would probably be more effective than monetary policy. >> to you think it is of the scope of what the fed can do it? >> indirectly, to the extent that we can help the economy recover and help job creation proceed, then some of the people who get jobs will be those who had been out of work for a long time. that being said, we do not have

any tools for targeting long- term employment specifically. we just try to make the labour market work better, broadly speaking. >> last week standard and poor's put the united states debt on a negative for the first time ever. what is your reaction to that and are you worried that the united states is going to lose its triple a credit rating? >> in one sense, s&p's actions did not really tell us anything. everybody who can read the newspaper knows that the united states has a very serious, long- term fiscal problems. that being said, i am hopeful that this event will provide at least one more incentive for congress in the administration to address this problem. i think it is the most important

economic problem that the united states faces, at least in the longer-term. we currently have a fiscal deficit that is not sustainable over the longer term. it is not a dress, it will have significant consequences for financial stability -- if it is not addressed, it will have significant consequences for financial stability. we are seeing efforts on both sides of the aisle to think about this issue from a long- term perspective. it is not a problem that can be solved by making changes for the next six months. we are still a long way from a solution, obviously, but it is of the highest importance that our political leaders addressed this very difficult problem as quickly and as effectively as they can. to the extent that the s&p action deserves a response, i

think that is constructive. >> mr. chairman, john berry. there have been times when fiscal policy has been tightened in the past and the federal reserve has chosen to ease its policy in response, given what the circumstances were of the economy at the time. congress appears intent at this point in cutting spending significantly. that might restrain the economy as it appears to be happening in britain where they are following a similar path. is there anything the fed can do or should do if there are large budget cuts sometime in the next 18 months. >> first, let me say that addressing the fiscal deficit, particularly the long run deficit, is a top priority.

nothing i would want to say it should be construed as meaning it is anything other than a top priority. it is important that our leaders addressed this issue. i would also say that the cuts made so far do not seem to have had very big consequences for short-term economic activity. my preference in terms of addressing the long-term deficit is to take a long-term perspective. it is a long-term problem. if congress and the administration are able to make credible commitment to cutting programs or in any way changing the fiscal profile billing for work, that is the most constructive way to address what is a long run problem. it the changes are focused entirely on the short run, they might have some consequences for growth and, in that case, the federal reserve will set

monetary policy to meet our mandate. we'll take that into account appropriately. so far i have not seen any fiscal changes that have changed our near-term outlook. >> process, mr. chairman. -- thank you, mr. chairman. i would like to talk about uncertainties in the economy. the committee noted that development in japan increased uncertainties. what is the latest assessment on growth or uncertainties such as the tragedy in japan or prices in the middle east? >> one of the things that our projections include -- we are only producing the forecast today.

what are minutes in three weeks, will include the full detailed projections. what the things we include is the views of the participants of the amount of uncertainty in the forecast going forward. i think i can say without too much fear of giving away the secrets that f.o.m.c. participants d.c. quite a bit of uncertainty in the world going forward. a lot of that uncertainty is coming from global factors. i have already talked about the middle east and north africa developments which affect oil prices. conditions in emerging markets which affect commodity prices and other things. the european situation continues. we are watching that very carefully. let me first say about japan that i have had a lot of contact with my japanese counterparts -- the central bank governor and other people in japanese

government. we collaborated with them on the foreign exchange intervention, as you know. we are very admiring of their courage in responding to the situations and also of the central bank of japan. they have done a good job in providing liquidity in helping stabilize financial markets in what are significant disturbances to the economy. the implications for japan had been discussed at some length. in the near term, there will probably be a decline in japanese output reflecting the destruction, reflecting electricity problems, etc. we believe that will be relatively temporary and that the economy will start to come back. of course, this is a major blow and it will take a lot of effort on the part of the japanese people to restore the economy

and to recover from the damage that was done by the tragedy. for the united states, we are looking at this very carefully. thus far the main impact of the japanese situation on the u.s. economy has been through price changes. some automobile companies have had difficulty getting some components which are manufactured mostly or entirely in japan. that has led a number of companies to announce that they would restrain production for a time. there are some moderate effects on the u.s. economy. we expected to be moderate and to be temporary. again, the most important issue here is recovery -- the recovery of japan. our good wishes go out to the japanese people and their efforts to overcome the adversity they are facing.

>> mr. chairman, you have often talked about the importance of keeping inflation expectations low and stable, to keep inflation under control. irrespective of inflationary expectations, is it not possible that certain policies provide a monetary tender for inflation? >> we view our monetary policy as being not that different from ordinary monetary policy. we are from different schools -- we use some different tools. we have a lot of experience and understanding how financial conditions, changes in interest rates, changes in stock prices,

affect the economy and inflation. we are monitoring the state of the economy and watching the evolving outlook. our intention, as is always the case, is to tighten policy at the appropriate time to ensure that inflation remains well controlled, that we need that part of our mandate, while doing the best we can to ensure that we have a stable economy and a sustainable recovery in the labour market. the problem is the same one the central bank always faces, choosing the appropriate path of tightening at the appropriate stage of the recovery. it is difficult to get it exactly right, but we have a lot of experience in terms of the economics that underlie those decisions. we anticipate that we will tighten its debt at the right time and that we will -- tighten it at the right time and that

what -- and that we will allow the economy to return to a situation where inflation is low and stable. >> many of the commercial partners of the united states are very concerned about the evolution of your foreign exchange rate. if the dollar will sink to a level that would harm the u.s. economy and the prospects for the good of the economy, would you consider changing your monetary policy in accordance to that effect? >> as i said earlier, we do believe that a strong and stable dollar is in the interests of the united states and the global economy. our view is that the best thing we can do for the dollar is keep the purchasing power of the

dollar strong by keeping inflation low and by creating a stronger economy through policies that support the recovery and, therefore, cause more capital inflows to the united states. those are the kind of policy things that i in the medium-term will create the conditions for inappropriate and a healthy level of the dollar. i do not think i want to address a hypothetical that i do not anticipate. i think the policies we are undertaking will lead to a strong and stable dollar in the medium term. >> mr. chairman, this is that rare news conference that actually makes news before it happens. can you talk a little bit about your decision to take this historic step of holding this conference, why you chose to do

it, but anxieties you may have faced? >> thanks, mom. [laughter] the federal reserve has been looking for ways to be transparent for many years. we have made a lot of progress. it used to be that the mystique of central banking was all about not letting anybody know what you were doing. as recently as 1994, the federal reserve did not even tell the public when it changed the target for the federal funds rate. since then, we have taken a number of steps -- a statement that includes a boat, we have produced detailed minutes which are reduced three weeks after a meeting, which is simply a production lagged -- we now produce long-term projections at

alex, we have substantial means of communicating through speeches, testimony, and the like. we have become a very transparent central bank. that being said, we had a subcommittee headed by the vice chair of the board looking for additional steps to take to provide additional transparency and accountability. the press conference came right to the top because this is an area, first of all, where global central bank practice includes press conferences. we have some experience with them. secondly, it does provide a chance for the chairman to provide some additional context for both the meeting and the projections that are being made by the committee. we thought it was a natural next step. we are not done.

we continue to look for additional things we can do to be more transparent and more accountable. we think this is the right way to go. i have always been a believer in providing as much information as you can to help the public understand what you're doing, felt the market's understand what you are doing, and be accountable to the public for what you are doing. of course, the fed did not do this for a long time. the counter argument has always been that if -- there is a risk that the german-speaking could create volatility in the financial markets. "-- that the chairman speaking to create volatility in the financial markets. the additional benefits from more information and more transparency, meeting the press directly, outweighs the risk. over time, we will experiment to

try to make sure that this is as effective a venue as possible. >> mr. chairman, i wrote a book looking at a hundred years of financial history and discovered that when you have a financial crisis, it takes a lot longer for the economy to recover. our people expecting too much from the federal reserve in terms of helping the economy recover and has that complicated your policy making? >> let me say first that a graduate school classmate of mine -- i enjoyed your book very much. it was very informative. it is a historical matter that recoveries tend to be relatively slow.

what the book did not relate do was give a full explanation of why that is the case. part of it has to do with the problems in credit markets. my only sense when i was in academia focused on the problems with credit markets in recoveries. other aspects include the effects on housing and so on. we are seeing all of that in our economy. with that said, another possible explanation for the slow recovery might be that policy responses were not adequate, that recapitalization of the banking system, the restoration of credit flows, and monetary policies were not sufficient to get as quick 8 recovery as might otherwise have been possible. we have not allow that historical fact to dissuade us from doing all we can to support

a strong recovery. that being said, it is a relatively slow recovery. you can identify reasons for that. one factor is this was triggered by a bubble in the housing market. the housing market remains very weak. under normal circumstances, construction of residential and nonresidential would be a big part of the recovery process. there are other factors. now we are seeing higher oil prices and other things. there are other factors: the recovery back. there are reasons for why the recovery is stronger than we like. at the same time, it is hard for blaming -- it is hard to blame the american public for being impatient. the combination of high unemployment, high gas prices, and height foreclosure rates are a terrible combination.

a lot of people are having a tough time. the only thing i can say is that while the recovery process looks like it is likely to be a relatively moderate one compared to the death of the recession, i do think that the pace will pick up over time. i am very confident that in the long run that the u.s. will return to being the most productive, one of the fastest- growing, and dynamic economies in the world. it does not lost any of the major characteristics that made it the preeminent economy in the world before the crisis. i think we will return to that as we recover. thank you very much. thank you for coming. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> we are joined on the line by michael kirby. he is covering the news conference this afternoon and writing about it in "the wall street journal tod" today. thank you for joining us this afternoon. are you with us? >> i am with you. can you hear me? >> yes, we can. one of the risks determined to can doing this -- he faced questions and he had a chance to make mistakes. it was a question of who could assemble this event without making mistakes.

he seemed to answer everything pretty well. he got good questions from the reporters in the room. and he navigated all that pretty handily. >> among all those questions, what did you hear that really stands out in terms of the news. -- the news? it was a status quo statement that came out. it did not really do much for us in terms of changing the monetary policy outlook. it affirmed that the fed would continue through the summer with its $600 billion bond by in

program. -- bond buy in program. he does not know when the federal reserve will begin to tighten rates, but he gave criteria that will help the markets and the general public understand when they will. a lot of what he said were familiar things. i just looked at the press conference as an amplification. the newer stuff was that the fed does not like to talk about the dollar much. it is something that is left to the treasury. it sounded like the treasury secretary talking about how a strong dollar is in the interest of the united states and a lot have accused the fed a following policy that would make the dollar less valuable. and you just that at the press conference.

>> did you hear anything in his first press conference, any more heightened concern, for example, about the rising gas prices? is that an area that you will be watching in terms of how the fed reacts to rising gas prices and other commodity prices? >> one thing bernanke was able to do, talking about gasoline prices, was clarify how he thinks about it appeare. for some, rising gas prices are inflationary. four other people, the greater impact is that it cuts into consumer spending power. depending on which of those two things you believe -- depending on how you see this situation, it argues for your policy outlook. when bernanke spoke about gasoline prices, he said there was not much of that the fed to do about it appeared it was a

supply-and-demand issues. he did seem to shade it more on -- that it cuts into consumer spending . they believe that, if you believe that inflation will go up in the future, it will go up now. they are managing how much prices feed inflation. he clarify for people on how to verify the situation. it can help you understand what is coming for monetary policy. >> covering the news conference, you can read his work online at wsj.com. >> we will talk with john hills senrath.

nam. --chael sweat then michael swetnam. the department of justice said that it would no longer defend the defense of marriage at. "washington journal" is on at 7:00 a.m. every day on c-span. syria continues to crack down on protesters. we will take a look at the political unrest in that country. there is live coverage from the hudson institute at 12:00 p.m. eastern. >> sunday, from the "los angeles times" festival books, in deadeh with tibor machan. he will take your phone calls

and the mills, live sunday at noon eastern on c-span 2. >> president obama says he decided to release a long form of his birth certificate in response to repeated questions about where he was born. the obama campaign released a standard short form in 2008. this week, the president's lawyers requested copies of his original birth certificate from hawaiian officials. the president spoke for about five minutes. [laughter] >> as many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the sight of my birth. now this issue has been going

on for two and a half years now. it started during the campaign. i have to say that over the last two and a half years, i have watched with amusement. i have been puzzled as to the degree to which this thing kept on going. we have every official in hawaii, a democrat and republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirmed that yes indeed i've was born in hawaii, august 4, whatever 1961. we posted the certification that is given by the state of hawaii on the internet for everybody to see. people have provided affidavits that they have seen this birth certificate, and get this thing keeps on going. now, normally i would not comment on something like this because obviously there is a lot of stuff swirling in the

press at any given day. i have other things to do. two weeks ago when the republican house had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country, when i gave a speech about my budget and how i felt we needed to invest in education, infrastructure, making sure we have a strong safety net for our seniors even as we were closing the deficit -- during that entire week to the dominant news story was not about these huge monumental choices we are going to have to make as a nation. it was about my birth certificate. and so i just want to make a larger point here. we have got some enormous challenges out there. there are a lot of folks out

there, everybody is still suffering from high gas prices. we are going to have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt. how do we do that in a balanced way? this is going to generate huge and serious debates. important debates. there is going to be sincere said disagreements. that is good. that is how democracy is supposed to work. i am confident that the american people and america opposing political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and saw these matters. we always have. but we are not going to be able to do it if we are distracted. we are not going to be able to do with if we spend that time vilifying each other.

we are not going to be able to do with if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not fax. -- not facts. we are not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnivals. we live in serious times are now, and we have to deal with things that will make our grandkids proud. i have every confidence that america in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top i always have. we are going to have to get serious to do it. i know that there is going to be a segment of people for no which what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest.

but i am speaking to the vast majority of the american people as well as to the press. we do not have time for this kind of silliness. we have better stuff to do. i have better stuff to do. we have big problems to solve, and i am confident we can solve them but we have to focus on them. not on this. thank you very much. >> now reaction off from donald trump. he spoke to reporters in port smith new hampshire -- portsmouth, new hampshire.

>> today, i am very proud of myself. i was able to accomplish that nobody else has been able to accomplish -->> something that no one else has been able to accomplish. i was just informed while on the helicopter that our president has finally released a birth certificate. i want to look at it, but i hope it's true. that way we can get on too much more important matters. so the press can stop asking me questions. he should have done a long lead time ago. why he did not do it when the clintons asked for it, and why he did not do it when everybody else was asking for it, i do not know. but i am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully -- hopefully getting rid of this issue. we have to look at it. we have to see if it is real. is it proper? what is on that. i hope it checks out beautifully. i am really proud, i am really honor. now we can talk about oil. we can talk about gasoline

prices. we can talk about china ripping off this country. we can talk about opec doing numbers on us like nobody has ever done before. we can get on to issues and hopefully when i sit down with interviews, people do not start talking about birth certificates like they have been doing. so i feel i have accomplished something really, really important. i am honored by it. >> a lot of people said what you cost is a distraction? >> i in taking great credit. you have to ask the president why did you not do this a long time ago? when hillary clinton was asking, when everybody was asking, why did he not do with? it is shocking. shocking. >> why is that relevant? >> it is very relevant. people ask me for my gut certificate -- people ask me for my birth certificate and i david two days later.

-- i gave it two days later. >> before that you said you would not believe what my a ground team is seeing the people --. people need to got the information you were giving? were you making this up? where did this come from? >> i think what you are going to see -- first we have to look at whetherbut i am really happy this is finally taking place. we have some issues that are unbelievably important. >> you did not answer my question. >> i think you did. >> what do you mean you have to look at it, you have to decide. what did you the authority? -- what gives you the authority? >> i am going to take a look at it and many other people will take a look at it. we will have many people looking at it and we will have to make the decision. it is rather amazing that all of a sudden it materializes. i hope it is the right deal. we have to look at it. a lot of people have to look at

it. experts will look at it. i am really happy, and honestly i am very proud that i was able to bring this to a point. nobody else was. the clintons during their campaign word. all of the other people that talk about it. for years they were not. i am really honored by this. next question. >> if it is not true for example, is that what you're saying? >> what does hope it is true. --.well, let's hope it is true. i do not want to answer that question because it is negative. honestly it is so negative. at this point i do not want to answer the question because you are asking a negev's question. -- a-question. hut -- a negative question. if it is not true, if it is not

really his birth certificate. i hope it is true -- i hope it is not true. we have very big problems in this country. this country is suffering right now. we have people that cannot keep gasoline in their tank. they are topping out the tanks because they cannot afford to do it properly. they have never had this before. the look at resorts around the country, they are not doing any business because people do not drive. and then you look at saudi arabia and what they did, it is unbelievable. three days ago they announced essentially that they are going to raise the price of oil by cutting back on production. we have nobody to speak to these people. we have nobody that calls for talks and says you are not going to do it, we are protecting you. he would not be there if not for us. we have nobody. mr. they are president said he -- yesterday, the president said he has very little impact over the price of gasoline. i think he is 100% wrong. opec is setting the price of fuel. we have oil all over the place, all over the place, every ship at sea is loaded up with oil and they do not know where to dump it. yet every day we are setting records and pretty soon we will be at to 1 $50 a barrel. the all-time record. when the president says he has

no power over that, it is pretty sad. >> is it possible that the country is being led and not by an illegitimate president, is that possible? "i hope it is not possible. -- not >> i hope it is not possible. -- >> i hope it is not possible hot. i hope we have accomplished a lot of what i have been doing the past couple of months. i hope we can talk about china and opec taking our jobs. i hope we could start doing that. what i would do differently is come down really hard on opec. if you look at these nations, they would not even be there if not for us. the ticket look at kuwait, we handed kuwait back to the people. they essentially on kuwait. it is really ownership more than anything else. you look at these nations, saudi arabia, we protect them. then they want to raise the price of fuel, it is not high enough? so it would be very easy and it very quick to get gasoline prices down.

gasoline prices are $4, $5 that are going to $6.70 dollars as sure as you are standing there. >> in terms of credibility, you were running as a democrat in 1988. what makes you -- >> let me just sort of tell you. this sort of interesting because new hampshire is a special place. i came up in 1988 or 1989, long time ago, as a favor to a friend of mine. i made a speech. but it is a place i have always liked. i have been there many times, new hampshire. in making the speech, everybody thought i was running for president. as you know, i was not running for president. i never said i was running for president. i made a speech on success for a friend of mine around 1988. the buzz was unbelievable because it happen to be new hampshire. it was sometimes prior to primary season. anyway, new hampshire should

sort of got me started. i did come up in 1988, i made a speech, it was a speech on success more than politics. in fact, i do not know if politics may role in the speech. it was great. it really got me started. it really did. but i did the speech actually for a friend. i did not do it because i was running. >> what did people think you were a republican? -- " why should people think you are a republican? .>> i am a republican. i am a very strong republican and i have been a republican for a long while i think i am quite work conservative as a republican. if you look at the polls, i just thought two more polls today were i in leading the polls. i think the fact that i was able to finally get him and issue a birth certificate can only help. i will say this, one other thing. one of the big posters who came out with a very strong poll were i am leading yesterday said that if you actually announced your poll numbers would go

substantially up. a lot of people think i am having a good time. i am not having a good time. >> you are an intelligent question. are you intelligent? have you been listening? i just do not know. are you intelligent? here is the problem. i hate saying it because it sounds trivial. i have a very, very successful show on television. the number one show on nbc. a show that even the new york times yesterday said is a very successful show. i have a show called "celebrity apprentice." i cannot announce to the show is over. -- i cannot announce until the show is over. "when the show is over -- let me explain. when the show is over and the finale will be may 22, when the show is over i will then be free to announce. i think he will be surprised at a number of things. i think you will be surprised at what my announcement is.

>> you also raised these questions about his education credentials. are you prepared to say that all these issues are to be put to the side and you accept that mr. obama says he is who he is or you think there are legitimate issues flooded u.s. me questions that nobody gets angry. the press does not get angry. the press is very protective of president obama. very protective. they are not protective of me, but they are protective of president obama. they are not protective of most other people either in most fairness. the word is according to what i have read that he was a terrible student when he went to occidental. he then gets to columbia. he then gets to columbia. i heard at columbia he was not a very good student. heating is to harvard. how'd you get to harvard if you are not a good student? maybe that is right or maybe it is wrong, but i do not know why

he does not release his record. what is he not release his records? i will tell you why who cares. everybody says he is a great student. if he was great, if he was not a great. >> what you continue to -- >> @ i think academics -- alltel you what. -- i will tell you what. education has meant a lot to me. i think education is good. if he wants to release the, thatif he does not, that is fine too. but the word is -- i think he would want to release actually. the word is he was not a good student and he ended up getting into columbia and harvard. i've latino -- this is what i read a written by some of the people in this room. i've latino how he gets into harvard and columbia if he is -- i would like to know how he gets into harvard and columbia if he is not a good student. i am just reporting what i read. i read things that you people like. what people say about me. i have the ultimate in the window.

-- what is worse innuendo than what people say about me. i have the ultimate innuendo. hoti will promise you one thing, nobody will protect me like they protect our president. just then finishing, i am really honored and i am really proud that i was able to do something that nobody else could do. i am really happy about it. now experts will check it and everybody will go over it. i hope everything will be perfect. if you remember, from day one, i said i hoped he'd give his certificate because i do not want this issue clouding a campaign. ok. >> that is not up to me, that is up to experts. >> i have had a lot of friends

are democrats and a lot of friends that are republicans. over the years, as you know, new york is a largely democratic place. it is very rare that you see nyc as an example for a republican to get elected. the numbers are staggering were a democrat will get 94% of the votes, that is if the republican is doing a good job. it is a very interesting fact that it happens to be almost all democratic. over the years i have supported many republicans and democrats, i think there is something nice about that. when i watch washington and see washington, and i see the way the fight like cats and dogs and i liked nobody has ever fought before, people that have been in the senate who are friends of mine that have been friends of mine for a long time, they say they have never seen hatred -- the use to argue and then go out to dinner together, the democrats and republicans, they would get things done. and now we are at a stalemate. i think it would be great if somebody got in there that could

get along with both sides. i know many people that are on the democratic side. in some cases they are friends and i get a lot with them great. i think it is time for people to sit down and get together and get this mess that we are in right now solved. i view that as it asset not a liability. >> [unintelligible] >> might use change, and i do a lot of speaking about success. the world changes. you have to remain flexible. the world will always change. you cannot just have an idea and then this idea let go through a wall. sometimes you have to be able to go under the wall, over the wall. i always said, have a goal, work hard, but you have to have a certain flexibility. if you look at virtually every candidate that runs for office or currently running for office, they have had used that are much different 10 years ago than they have now.

my views changed, and virtually all of the candidates use change. i do not think that is an uncommon thing. >> are you plan with us or are we plan with you? -- are you playing with us or are we playing with you? >> i think your plan with me. i accept that. >> are you going to play with us a little more willing and would you make your announcement? >> i think you are going to be very surprised. >> and coulter said last night you were not running for president. she compared the to charlie sheen. -- she compared you to charlie sheen. >> and coulter? a, you will have to see. we have three weeks. not a big deal. in three weeks you will see. i think you will be very surprised. i think if i do wrong, i will do very well. i am already leading the polls and i am not running. am i leading the polls? thank you. >> [unintelligible] >> cnn did a poll recently where obama and i are

statistically tied. if you would like i can send it to you, to call up cnn. i think i would be obama. if i look at the so-called -- economy and how bad it has been. it has done so poorly, i think largely it will be about that. if you look at what he has done and libya which is a total disaster. nobody knows what is going on in libya. you look at gas prices were he says he has no control over gas prices, which he does if he gets off the phone or the basketball court or what ever he is doing at the time. he should be focused on opec and getting the prices down. that is what he should be focused on. i am going to handle libya much differently. i have said it many times, the rebels i hear are controlled by iran and al qaeda.

"they make it "gone with the wind", isn't it romantic. you could end up with worse than gaddafi. i have a great problem with our military people losing their lives and libya and we do not know what we are getting into. i have always said i go for libya, but i want the world. -- but i want the oil. nowadays when you when they were, you lose lives, you spend billions of dollars, and then we -- when you win a war, you lose lives, you spend billions of dollars, and when we come out come out and we go back home. we have all of our wanted to take care of. we have all of the dead soldiers and a dead military, and what do we get? nothing. this is interesting, libya, because the arab league which a saudi arabia and many of the wealthiest nations in the world told us to go in and take out gaddafi. if they would have said that to me, i would have said five

billions dollars right now. just for the question they would have given you all of that money rock and paid in two seconds. the other question i ask is this, we did know well from libya. we did know well. -- we get no oil from libya. we get no oil. china which is taking over the world economically because they are smart, meaning their leaders are much smarter, china taking over the world it's a big portion of its oil from libya. they are libya's biggest customers. why is time and not involved? -- why is not china involved? where are be involved with libya -- why are we involved with libya and china is not involved. the imf came out two days ago. they said by 2016, china is bigger than we are. the you know why? because they are making our products. if they were not making our products, they would not be bigger. china is taking unfair advantage of the united states and other countries by a total manipulation of the currency. if they continue to manipulate their currency -- if i am an

office and i decide to run and win, within one day they are going to be told, you keep manipulating your currency, we are going to tax to 25%. that will do two things. first of all they will stop manipulating at the mere thought of it. when the president of china comes to the united states, we hold a state dinner for him in the white house. here is a guy that has been scoring our country for years. -- who has been screwing our country for years. there are going to make $300 billion profit this year, 300 billion more than that, and we hold a state dinner. the reason is because they manipulate their currency brilliantly. i have no anchor at china. -- i have no anger at china. if you can get away with it, if i was from china i would be proud of my leaders. i am from this country, i am proud of this country, but not by leaders. they are allowing the world to

take advantage of us. they are allowing the world to rip us off like never before. by the way, would you talk about budget deficits, how can our economy ever get good? how can our economy ever be strong, however, when we have other countries making our products? it cannot happen. i watched ben bernanke not long ago say unemployment is going to be bad for a long time. do you know why? because india is taken so many jobs there outsourcing. china is making our products so we do not have -- i look at places like iowa where maytag moved out and they moved into mexico. if you put a tax on chinese products unless they change their way, you are going to start bringing back to this country and bring them back fast. were, and i think this is more likely, it would change its policies so we can now compete.

it is real easy. remember this, we have all the cards. they do not. if we pull back on china, in 2016 they will not be bigger than us. they will be bigger than us because they make our products. they make products for others, but they make products for us, big league hit. if we ever pulled back on that, china is not bigger than us. china has a big problem. just remember what i said, we have all the cards. they do not have the cards. they have one trillion dollars in debt. it is a lot of money, but it is peanuts compared to the overall big ball of the world. we have all of the cards. the reason a lot less money is because they taken so much money from lots. -- the reason they loan us money is because they taken so much money from us. it takes some mothers, but mostly from us.

remember the numbers. over $300 billion this year and they are taking our jobs, very sad. the president could solve that so easily. instead of having steak dinners, he could solve that so easily. >> what do you hope to learn here today from the people of new hampshire? >> i was very honored because i just saw paul and -- a poll in new debt -- new hampshire and i am doing very well. you have to understand, i am running against some people that i like. it is always hard to run against people you like. the fact is, when you live in new hampshire and you are a few points up on top, that is not saying much. you have been campaigning for six years and have not campaigned at all, because i really have not, i have not announced. that is a really bad statement when you are almost even in a poll and here i empyrean -- here i am. >> what kind of news are you

looking for? what will help you -- >> there is one example that i saw the other day. there is one example i saw the other day that is amazing. $276 billion prison built in new hampshire. the latest and the greatest and the town is devastated because the federal government does not have the money to open it. very pathetic. it is very unfair to new hampshire. it is very unfair to that part of new hampshire. but they spent $276 billion to build a prison and the town is all for it. they have great employment prospects, and the federal government now does not have the money to open the prison. i am going to see some of that, and i know will see different things. one more question? >> [unintelligible] >> i do not know what my

campaign in new hampshire will look like. i would just tell it like it is. i know how to make money. i have always known how to make money. this country is broke. the united states is broke. we are a debt nation. you go to places like saudi arabia, you go to catarrh, you go to china, you leave airports that are the most incredible places in the world, you land at claudia, it is old and broken -- you land at laguardia , it is old and broken and fallen apart. even the people that run it say you were right in making that statement. same thing with lax. when was the last time -- if

you go to china as an example. when is the last time we built a bridge in this country other than -- i know that you are in a obama fan. the president does not know what he is doing. when was the last time that you saw a bridge, a big bridge being built. you do not see it. when was the last time you saw a big beautiful new airport? you leave places like that and you come home and it is very, very sad. i will make the decision sometime prior to june. people say you can make it in june. you do not understand. i have been telling people for three months that i will make it in june. there are people who want to represent me. you do not understand. that is a politician. that is what gets us into trouble. i said i would make the decision some time prior to june.

that is when i will do it. i will engage in a lot of politics in new hampshire. i have a lot of friends in new hampshire. i have a great relationship with new hampshire. this whole thing started in 1988 in new hampshire when i came up to make it totally unrelated speech. people do that -- i think i made a good speech, frankly, because people viewed it as the likely running. but it started in new hampshire with that speech. >> [unintelligible] >> i think i have the temperament. i really do. i think what i would do is make this country rich again. if i decide to run -- that is a big decision for me, including the fact, frankly, that i would have to give up one of the most successful shows on television, which is a lot of money and prestige and power. it is very cool being a

television star. it is very cool and i would have to give that up and a lot of other things. but if i ran and i won, i would make this country rich again. i would make this country powerful again. and i would make this country respected again. and maybe that last point is the most important. the united states would be respected again. thank you all very much. i will take a tour.

>> the circus is in town, the media circus. the real estate mogul landed by helicopter, just before 9:30 a.m. the tone of his visit changed in just before he touchdown with the surprise announcement from the white house. >> the donald trump whirlwind visit to new hampshire ended 10 minutes ago. he a quick way to the cameras and exited new hampshire as dramatically as he entered it. there are some developments involving donald trump out of

washington, d.c. he has become the mouthpiece of the movement raising questions about president obama being born in this country. today, the white house adviser -- surprised everyone by releasing his long form certificate. the short version is the official version in hawaii. this has details, including the hospital where he was born. it does not say anything controversial or contradict anything that we already knew. >> today, i am very proud of myself because i have accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish. >> we will not able to solve our problems if we get distracted by side shows and carnival barkers. >> we will see if that is the end of the issue.

donald trump made several visits along the seacoast today. just about everywhere he went, there were plenty of crowds there to greet him. >> it is definitely something different to follow donald trump around for the day. people like to be around him. he likes to be around the camera. a unique intersection of celebrity and politics in downtown portsmouth on wednesday afternoon as business mogul and possible presidential candidate donald trump made his presence known in the state. >> controversial, a charismatic, and always different. there are so many boring people in this world. he is not boring progress he drew big crowds and lots of attention, throwing a steady stream of debt at president obama. >> this country is in trouble. >> some wonder if trump is a serious candidate. >> he loves the attention he's

getting. i do not know. >> he certainly looked the part, speaking to employees, saying, "i am a worker." trump singled out news 9's camera could we ask him if he would -- news 9 cos's camera. some say, after listening to jump, they will give him another look to see if he is presidential material. >> we need things stirred up and not worry about what people think in the press. >> but it remains unclear how this excitement can translate into votes.te into votes. as one person witnessing the spectacle said, "this is not a campaign. this is a parade." we talked with a number of veteran political tacticians today. they are not impressed with the chances, but by the amount of buzz and the size of the crowds that he generated today.

today sound that taught -- today felt at times like a couple of days before the primary. >> thank you very much. obviously, he took a lot of rapid-fire questions from reporters. we were lucky enough to have a one-on-one interview with him. he talked about china, libya, and along those lines. what i took from this interview was that it is clear that donald trump is no longer just thinking that he is running for president. do you know in your mind whether you are running for president? >> i know in my mind, yes. >> you have already decided? >> i know what i will do. i am giving up a lot if i run. if i run, i give up a lot. i have a great business, a powerful business, a rich business. >> the buzz is certainly growing very loud. but some think this is simply a big publicity stunt. why should new hampshire voters

take you seriously as a candidate? >> i said that i will announce, one way or the other, some time prior to june. i have been around and i have been a known commodity for a long time. i have been very successful. if i run, if i decide to run, which i will announce sometime prior to june, they know that i know what i am doing. and i would be fighting for this country like nobody ever fought before. and i think that is why i am at the head of the polls. but polls are one thing, but, eventually, you have to connect on a personal level. people know donald trump from the airplanes and the towers in new york city and the casinos. how can you relate to the working family here in new hampshire? do you need to? i do not know if i need to. but i will do everything i can to do it. the people of new hampshire are very smart. they're hard-working people. they're great people.

i just went through a factory and a couple plants. it is amazing. they are just great people. i do not know that i have to go down and sit down and have breakfast with two people and have lunch with two more people. because the people of new hampshire are smart. >> you heard him say it. donald trump has made up his mind. he will let us know what that decision is in a few weeks. let's look at some analysis on this. you were in the room during the interview. what is your interpretation? will he run for president? >> first, anyone who talked with him in private, not just in this interview, every single person said they believed he was running for president. second, all my gosh, donald trump may be running for president. >> he said he has made up his mind. he will be back here. >> that is right. w>> we also heard him say

that -- >> in the interview, he said that new hampshire voters are too smart for him to just have breakfast with two people and to people for lunch. that is something we quite experience here in new hampshire. rex there you have it. donald trump just wrapped up his visit in new hampshire. -- >> there you have it. donald trump just wrapped up his visit in new hampshire. we will send it back to you. >> today, a top military officer talked about u.s. strategy for pulling troops out of afghanistan his remarks are next on c-span. then an aviation conference at the u.s. chamber of commerce. later, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke talks with reporters about the economy. >> tomorrow morning, the joint

chiefs chairman admiral mike mullen will discuss military leadership. he is also expected to give an update on the wars in afghanistan and iraq. live coverage is at 7:15 a.m. eastern on c-span 2. later, former senator rick santorum will discuss for policy. live coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. eastern, also on c-span 2. >> if they send me the bill in its present form, i will sign it. ok. any questions? [laughter] >> helen? are you still here? >> almost every year, the president and journalists meet at the correspondents' dinner to make a little fun of themselves at the their own expense. watch live or go back and watch

a past dinner. search, watch, clip, and a share at the suspended a library, every program since 1987. watch what you want when you want. >> for the past year, major general richard mills as been the commander of operations in southwest afghanistan. we will get an update from him next on the security situation, drug-trafficking, and corruption allegations. from the carnegie endowment for international peace, this is an hour. >> good afternoon. it is my great pleasure to introduce a general mills to you. there are times when i think that history is moving too fast. from my vantage point, these

days, this is wonderful. while id is hard to drive our eyes away from the enormous history that is unfolding in the middle east, it is really critical to remember that we are still in the middle of the longest war in american history in afghanistan. 115 months, as i counted, and still counting. with 130,000 u.s. and allied troops on the ground and a set of challenges, both military and civilian, that have proved enormously resistant to solution. you'll know the list that we have of local government partners that really does not

earn that moniker, "partner," which is neither honored or trusted. they still enjoy safe havens across the border in pakistan, a situation that, in american history, has proven to be almost an insurmountable obstacle to military victory certainly in both korea and in vietnam where we faced the same problem. the u.s. has made over this enormously long time a tremendous effort, changed strategies, changed leaders, chains' relative emphasis of priorities -- changed relative emphasis and priorities in struggling with this set of issues.

and now it faces one of the toughest moments, which is to try to figure out how to begin to end it. is it the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end? as we have seen this week with the kandahar prison escape, which, for me anyways, was particularly telling because, in the five months that it took to dig the tunnel into the prison, at least as far as we're told in the u.s. press, no afghans came to tell us or afghan authorities that this was under way. it tells you something about what we are up against.

we heard from general petraeus recently a word of cautious optimism about the military situation. but we are now further into this year's fighting period and facing a changing situation. we have with us today to share his insights on the in sit -- on the situation on the ground, major general richard mills, who has been the center must marine in afghanistan and has been leading regional command south west and there where he oversaw 30,000 coalition troops in helmand province. he has two tours of duty in iraq and before that also in kosovo. in the course of a very successful 36-year career in the

marines, he has had long experience with situations of, not unlike the ones he has faced in afghanistan. we will hear his assessment after his last tour of duty there, of where we stand in both civil and combat operations and what to the challenges are ahead. we will have a chance for questions after he is finished. we want to thank you for coming to share your assessment with us. we look forward to hearing from you. >> thank you very much. i want to start of first alonofl i thinking this daniels and the endowment. i look forward to the questions

at the end of the break. but we qualify my presentation a little bit so that you understand where i'm coming from. i will talk about the southwest corner of afghanistan. that was my world for the past 12 months. that is where i made up my area of operations, where i concentrated on, and where i was focused. i would be happy to answer any of the questions about afghanistan. again, that would be my opinion and is not forged by personal observations most of my time, i stayed in the capital. i was commander of the first marine division at camp pendleton. the plan for the marines in afghanistan in late 2009 was that the 10,000 marines on the ground commanded by one star would be replaced, man-for-man, and that would be the extent of our commitment there.

in december 2009, president obama decided to surge. i was alerted that i would be sent forward with about 20,000 marines to take over the command there, to expand our forces. i was also told at that time that i would more of into a regional command, a nato regional command. ph into a regional command, a needlnato leads all command. my headquarters in pendleton fleshed out my staff and made it a nato command. my command was a u.k. one star. what i had based around 20,000 marines. it was based around a marine division of 13,000 men, heavy infantry, but with also tanks,

light armored vehicles, engineers, aircraft units, and the entire gamut of rotary wing aircraft. to point out where we were operating, it was the southwest corner of afghanistan. there are about two million afghans that live in that area. about 1.5 million of them live within helmand province. there was a very low level of insurgency there. helmand province has a long connection with the united states of america. the people there remember the americans very well.

back in the 1950's and the 1960's, u.s. aid ordered millions of dollars to build an agricultural irrigation system there that turned the desert into a very lush agricultural area. it was about 10 kilometers wide on both sides of the helmand river. the provinces dominated by the helmand river that runs from the northeast to the southwest and flows into iran. there are mountains on the north side of the province about 1,000 feet in height. it slowly soaps off to desert done to the pakistan border where it is pretty much flat terrain. they live in a string of towns. just one more word on the irrigation system. it does play a very important

role for us. it was built by the americans in the 1950's and 1960's. a dim and provides power to two parts of afghanistan. -- a dam provides water to two parts of afghanistan. the irrigation system is simple. it has been maintained by the afghans ever since. they remember the americans quite fondly there. it was a company town built by a company that would go there to build the dam and the system. you will see american ladies playing tennis in shorts purchased at the country club and men -- in short skirts at the country club. it was the breadbasket of afghanistan for many years and produce everything from corn, wheat, but it is, to world crass -- to world class -- corn,

wheat, two world-class pomegranates. it is also a worlnatural land fr poppy. it is focused in two areas, one in the north and one in the south. it is a cash crop that every farmer dreams about. a guy shows up around october and and you're a bunch of seats. you throw it on the ground. it does not take much rain. in april, it blooms. then it hardens into a ball that you score, squeeze, get the sap out of it, and another guy comes out in the middle of the night and takes that sap and taser cash for it. it is a great deal for the farmer who is just trying to feed its family trip unfortunate, it ends up on the streets of new york, chicago,

los angeles. it is the main source of the insurgencies funds. we interdicted it. we did not get involved in eradication, but we dealt with the interdiction of those drugs. when you found a cash sale of weapons, you found drugs with it. -- when you found a cache of weapons, you found drugs with it. once again, the southwest corner of afghanistan. this is our operational approach to our time there. i will just point out a couple of things there. the river that flows through there, the green line that runs north to south and snakes, those are the various towns along the river. most of them are market villages that you would find in any world agricultural area, small shops,

marketplaces, places where you can buy and sell cotton, wheat, and potatoes. unfortunate, there were a lot of places where you could buy drugs a year or so ago. that is not so anymore. i will also point up the fact that we operated very closely with the afghan government. everything we i had a full court of afghan soldiers within my area. they were formed in march of 2010. we had three brigades, about 10,000 soldiers on deck. they were well commanded and increasingly well trained. when i left six weeks ago, they were effectively conducting independent operations, just enablers support from our operations. things like communications, some supporting arms, air support, and medivac.

although they could have done medevac, we give the medevac so they could have the same facilities we enjoy as well. we had a great information kits, and we cooperated with the western and afghan media to get the story of what we were doing up on the street to the afghan people. and perhaps some slight change would have been done before we got there, and emphasis on maintaining momentum on the enemy. when we are riots in the country, it was someone -- when we arrived in the country, it was somewhat of a stalemate. in my opinion, the enemy had something of a momentum on the ground to dictate when the fighting would take place, to be able to use iud's on the ground. we consolidated some basics.

the enemy was fit to retrain, plan. i am sure people in this room -- some of you probably remember the battle that was under way when we're brought. we took a look round and look at our capabilities. it was not going to be one in the streets, but rather in the outlying communities. the main impact was to disrupt the enemy, pushing back on his main floods. we found that to be extraordinarily successful. although a tough, resilient enemy, he has ways he likes to fight operations. he likes to fight linearly. he does not like support arms, close air support. he is definitely afraid of being

maneuvered against. all of these were brought to bear against the enemy in a series of battles, drove him away from the population centers, moved him into areas where he could be less effective. we felt we had some success at doing that. the battle was a major fight for us all last summer it had morphed into a much quieter place. now, if you go on the streets, there are restaurants open, kebab stance where you can get a nice lunch, anything you are particularly interested in, and the downtown has very few security issues whatsoever. it is a town that has more and more security out on the street. the afghan police force arrived

in june. i asked about a local afghan security force. the elders shook their heads, absolutely not. they wanted no part of afghan police. the afghan police had a reputation for thievery and being shakedown artists. they said they would never accept an afghan police presence. and in working with them over the summer months and showing them some training objectives and techniques, they slowly gave in, which we were able to transfer some veteran police officers and get a footprint on the ground and ask them to recruit local boys. we had five police stations open and any city in march. 120 police officers were local boys from the streets and returned back to do their police work. from the training perspective,

we stressed police techniques and skills, but we also stressed to protect and serve. we seem to be having some success doing that. one of the battles we had of course, to be a police officer in helmand province, you have to have a third grade education. we think the literacy rate in helmand province for men is below 10%. for ladies, it is probably below 1%. there is no way to gauge the female literacy rates because our ability to deal with them as relatively low. i will talk about that again in a minute. we have the literacy program ongoing in the police trading -- training academy, and once they get up on the beat, we have teachers that teach basic third grade literacy. this is the way we found helmand province when we arrived. we found a resilience, robust

insurgency that been kicked out of some of the key population centers but was a significant presence within the province. of course, if it is read, that is bad. if it is yellow, the government of afghanistan is going to take control. control backed up by coalition forces, of course. as you can see, there is a brazilian insurgency on the ground, funded through the use of drug money -- there is a resilience insurgency on the ground, funded through the use of drug money. they are primarily coming north out of pakistan through the red blob you see on the bottom. we focus on the population and we looked at the areas which is where the population lives.

when we arrived, we are obviously going to do full- fledged joint operations, but we thought perhaps it had gone a little bit out of whack. what you had to focus on the operation, you could not lose sight of the enemy. you could not allow the enemy to dictate what was happening on the battlefield. you could not allow him to murder and intimidate through the efforts to try to make. we tried to rebalance through that maneuver i talked about earlier, to take the battle to him, to make sure he was uncomfortable. we found that relatively successful. as you know, there were a series of battles down to be fishhook, which is the southern part of the river, and we had him in march 2011, that is slightly out of date. i would put more green and yellow on that map if i were doing it again. we believe we have regained the

initiative in controlling those populations. again, it looks like manhattan island, but those are not roads. i showed you this map to give you an example of the metrics this is an overhead shot taken by u.s. satellites capability of the crops being grown in marja. on the left is marja, taken before we arrived. if it is yellow, that is poppy. if you see green, that is weeks. wheat also grows very well there. if you see purple, that is some other crop, not cotton. on the right -- of which the one on the right were all solid

yellow -- i wish the one on the right were all solid yellow -- again, it shows progress being made. as we take control of those areas, as the government of afghanistan moves in to do what local governments do, one of which is a strong eradication program, you will see the poppy disappear. the provincial governor is radically anti-drug. he has several very strong programs against poppy. he has a very strong eradication program he does on his son. very effective. -- he has a very strong theoretician program he does on his fallen one -- own. they got wheat feed and lessons on how to grow whaeat -- wheat. not for free, but at a reduced

price. that encouraged them to participate. will there be popping grown in helmand province this year? absolutely. but there will be a slow reduction in the overhaul -- overall -- what i see on that map is a reduction in the moneys the insurgency will get. why is that important to him? it was his funding source. he had to fight for it. in addition to being the center of thepashtun -- the pashtun community, it was psychologically important, but more importantly, it was materially important. he cannot afford to give it up. we believe we cut his operating budget last year in half because of the reduction of the poppy. how do we see that? it turned into him trying to receive old ied's from the

ground he had not used and losing people doing that. like any commander, he relies on resources. when his resources are reduced, his fighting forces are reduced. no question about it. again, that was the series of fights. let me talk about this very quickly before a move on to the afghan security forces. 75 miles south of my last line force, wide open desert, it is something like the bar scene in "star wars." there are 150 shops. no one lives there. just corkage shopkeepers. if you want to buy any weapons in the world, that is where you want to go. you will find every drug in the

world moves south, and you will find ammunition, recruits heading north to fight the insurgency. we decided that could not stand, and we rated that place twice. once last fall. we went in, took over, it took about 24 hours to hold it. we went into the bazaar, and we found shops with weapons and drugs that we destroyed. we disrupted significantly his ability to resupply himself. we saw that in a drop of of fighting in the late fall. we went back in in late winter. it was disrupted for a longer time. he relies on this area to move his equipment north, and very

important drugs out into the world market. i will tell a story about this fight. perfect. the kernels are finding those plans. there was a very narrow valley you had to go up. it was heavily mined. they were placing a traditional battle. the key was to get through the narrow gap in into the city to take it over. we laid out a very detailed plan where we were going to lay out a line against the mall -- against the minds. that is an explosive growth that goes off. and you push the bulldozer and it pushes the mines out.

it is the key to the store. we moved south. our objective was to attack at first light. it was all time to very well. i was watching the plan on fold. 35, 40 miles north of baramcha, vehicles sold in one bulldozer breakdown. dead in the sand. i am on the radio. the colonel is getting confused and excited. tempers are getting more excited. the majors were really excited. everybody is talking. what to do, what to do? in the middle, the vehicle breaks and axle. i am seeing my meritorious service medal disappear off in the distance. a u.s. corporal walked up to the vehicle, takes a look at the bulldozer, hops up on top, starts up, back set of the

vehicle. he asks the sergeant, "which way?" he pointed south. it was kind of like john wayne. and he headed south at 3 kilometers an hour. sure enough, when the sun came up over baramcha, we were able to execute that plan on time and very successfully. i do not want to say for the want of a lance corporal, that could have been a very long morning for me. i had the 215th corps in my zone. we got there. they had concentrated on raising infantry units. they had three brigades. they were spread out over the battlefield. our forces were partnered at every level with our afghan partners. we are going to work with them very closely. they had a high ua rate.

we found that afghan soldiers go over the hill for the same reason american soldiers do. they are not getting paid very well. they decide there's a better living to be made somewhere else. we worked with them to get their pastry. as amazing as it sounds, an afghan soldier gets paid by electronic means. he does not get cash. it is transferred to his bank account. he has a plastic card just like we all have. that was the problem. so i am working with the banking industry, we were able to get bank facilities set up in the army camp so the soldier did not have to run home to pay his family. he did it electronically. that's with a fair leave policy -- everybody home at some point -- we dropped the ua rate to

less than 9%. by the time we left, they conduct their own operations. they are deploying the around, they execute the operations, and then withdraw. they are not afraid to take on the enemy. the afghan soldier is a good soldier. he is willing to fight and he is tough in the field. there are several levels of police force. uniformed police -- there is 7500 in the province. there will be north -- there will be more next year. numbers alone and not going to do it. we need trained policeman. so, rather than surge 10,000 all at once, we take it incrementally so when we put police in the beat, he knows what he is doing. there are good units, good precincts. there are others that need more supervision. again, through the partnership

program, we are finding success i knew i was doing all right when i went to marja in march, and if i had my video, i would show you -- i was able to cross the main bazaar we had to fight extremely hard for all summer. you could not cross it without having to jump from rpg rounds and small arms fire. the last time i visited marja, a policeman wanted to to get me for jaywalking because i barge across the road. i tried to explain who i was, but it did not cut the mustard, i am afraid. i think i have to go back next month to pay my traffic fine. the police are taking more and more responsibility, doing what police do. is there still corruption? yes. is there still training that needs to be done? yes. do they still need to be

partners? yes. are they becoming more effective? yes. in lashkar gah, the provincial capitol, a couple of events over the last year. we had a concert by the afghan elders. the taliban told us that concert could not go. they would not allow it to happen in public. it could be held in the football station where the taliban used to hold the public executions we stayed home and watched. 10,000 people showed up, enjoyed a very professional concert by a guy who lives in l.a. he goes to afghan -- he goes to afghanistan for entertainment. then we had a similar concert. a female singer who came in second in the afghan "star

search." she performed in front of a mixed crowd, men and women, which is very unusual in afghanistan. the elections be held in september, we held congressional elections. once again, the taliban told us that could not happen. it would not allow this polling stations to open and it would kill anybody that showed up. the stations opened at 7:30 in the morning on time and closed at 10:00 that night, on time. we closed no polling stations that day. we took no direct fire. we had incidents in the rural areas of gunfire, but that may have been over the elections as opposed to anything else. i sat down with our partners and went through the security procedures. afghan security is run by afghans. as you can see, they continue to develop their army, especially

maintenance procedures. the army is basically a light infantry unit. there are no sophisticated weapons systems out there yet. very basic stuff. the pickup trucks. they have light weapons they can maintain themselves. and the radio communication is rudimentary, but effective. we are not giving them anything they cannot sustain in the long run. this shows the continuing. again, they started small. they worked towards more sophistication and more importantly, to more confidence. they are good fighters. they want to fight. they like to fight. as long as you support the mall, you will not have a problem to get them to go to the sound of the guns. stability operations -- once you did your clearing, you probably call the government.

we worked on a more short-term basis and we told the people -- we talk to the afghan and local governments, what do you need? what do they want? number one, education. they wanted schools. that is the one thing they asked for. get us schools. they understand that the taliban burned schools. they wanted them rebuild. they knew what they were missing. so, we were putting school zone up, new structures and temporary structures such as tents. and people came. 125,000 students, 20,000 of them women. on heard of under the taliban. rudimentary, yes, but effective, also. again, the people understand what they missed. a generation of illiterates. they know what that means. i do not want to take too much

time, but the story i'd tell -- i went around to visit one of the local schools. it is a big deal. we all know the students. a visitor would come through, and the kids are all lined up. the children are all sitting there in rose, and they do not have desks, and of course, the gentleman comes in, and he has a song and upon and is very proud of showing off his facility. in the back row, there are 7, 8, 916-year-old spirit this is the third grade classroom. the headmasters of those larger and men, and i asked if that was the football team. he did not get the joke either. [laughter] what they were as young men who were illiterate who wanted to learn to read and write.

and there were willing to sit down in the classroom to do it. when i was 16, i would not have sat in a third grade classroom. my pride would not have allowed. but they understood. we saw students arrive in the class. we saw the parents make the investment in the future. i began to bleed in the sustainability of what we were doing. -- i began to believe in the sustainability of what we were doing. the taliban said they would burn the schools. yet, the children came. we are having some trouble finding qualified teachers. but they are looking for education. that is the long term development that means the most to them. on sunday night, the insurgents came, burned the school to the ground. we did not know that. we did not have our report on the. the next morning, parents showed

up and asked if they could borrow pins. we gave them pence. they took them back to the -- we give them pens. the to come back to the school grounds and school was in session and in that same day. the shows you the commitment. i have one more slide here. i will keep moving. again, infrastructure and roads was critical. if they ever want to have a commercial economy, they are going to need that road system. i talked about the 2010 elections. once we had a good provincial governor in place, we began to work on those logistic governments and, so they could be representative of the people. . what they do is prioritized family -- protest programs.

did try to figure out what the people want as opposed to what the americans and the coalition think they ought to have. once again, there are 1500 registered voters in marja. 1100 showed up for the election. although it looks rambunctious, it was all good spirits. no one bothered them or shots were fired. it is fully operational at this time, and more importantly, it now is getting funding through a couple -- through kabul for projects the locals want to do. very quickly, we will level of insurgency. very low population.

we opted not to make that an interim military operation. we dealt with the governor on some things such as you see, some of the improvements in the economic areas, school improvements, the canal system. my intent was to turn it over to civilians entirely. i do not think there was a military need to be there, other than trainers with the local police force. almost finished here. a huge part of the population of afghanistan, we have very little access we have the cultural norms of the afghan society. that is the way it has to be. the role of women is obviously

different than it is in the west tomorrow, but you have to respect that. we are not there to change afghan society. we are there to work with them, but not to change the bottom line. also helmand province is quite conservative in its values. and it is barely literate. you have to take all the factors into consideration. i of a very strong major i and my staff, a school administrator from san francisco. i made her my gender adviser. we worked very closely with the community for small units, and we put female soldiers out at the local level to do engagement. some areas were tougher than others. some were more receptive. some of the more cosmopolitan areas of the village. anyway, we were able to engage in an awful lot of that.

we did two things with the female engagement. the first is to set an example for the afghan men what it is western women do. when they come into a village in helmets, flak jackets, and they take the stuff of in the meetings, the afghan men were amazed. the afghan men were amazed that women were issuing orders to men. rank structure is ranked structure. that was teaching by the indirect approach, if you will. more importantly, they got inside the buildings, inside the compound, with the female interpreters and talked to the afghan ladies. they wanted two things. they wanted health care and education. we would then work with the

female population. it was difficult, but it was very worthwhile. again, we did have some females on the provincial council, educated ladies who did a good job. but again -- we opened up a large section of the population we did not have access to and provided insight. the other thing we've worked out was freedom of movement. they like to travel and visit their families much like we do. the hard surface road that runs around afghanistan does east and west.

it does not do as much good. we had a hard-packed roads. at it had a huge impact at the local level. commerce followed and the people truly appreciated that. the other piece is the freedom of movement of ideas. how do we move ideas around. that is how we are going to change that environment. as we dealt with the females and looked for ways we could help them. although they are in some ways not a very developed country, in one way they are very developed. we put together a program to try to teach women to read by radio. we got school box -- school books and instructors. the success of the operation is

yet to be determined. ladies cannot leave the house and are able to get a communication system. we will see if it works out they are very big on cellular phones. everyone is on cell phones there. it works great. the taliban threatened sulfone towers through threats and intimidation -- cell phone towers through threats and intimidation. we put in our own system that allows 24/7 coverage and work with commercial companies to keep this hours open and we are making good progress on that. just one quick story here. i know i am about out of time. we were making headway, and i went into a cell phone store,

and i asked the guy, "how is business?" he said that it could always be better. i asked, how is your cell phone coverage? and he said it was terrible. i said, what do you mean? he said that if he wanted to talk to lashkar gah, he had to go into his backyard to get a good connection. i asked if he was a verizon customer or something. [laughter] i apologize for running over. i hope we have some time for questions. again, i appreciate everyone's attendance. i have been accused of having a bit of our rosy regards. i do think things are better than our report over there. an independent survey, not dumb

but the -- not done by the marines or the coalition, showed that 80% of the population in helmand province, when asked their number weren't security -- to when asked their number one concern, last year it was security. this year, it was education. to me, that is success. the last thing i will say is too close and say, i know there is this kind of thing in town that these schools cost of free cup of tea. the schools did not. the afghan army lost hundreds more than i did. i can tell you, we probably killed the same number of them. they probably lost more soldiers on the battlefield than we did. there is a price to be paid for what happened last year.

with that, thank you very much for your attention. [applause] >> yes, i know. i think there are a lot of questions. i am sorry. people will be brief. we will start with these three right here. please identify yourself. >> thank you, general. i'm a documentary filmmaker. my question is all too brief, but the wall street journal published an article saying -- thethe pakastani is pakastanis are trying to push nato to a new coalition between pakistan and china. i would like to hear your opinion on this. >> thank you. right next to you? >> mark thompson, "time"

magazine. the taliban commanders in new aor, how many are flippable and how many are incorrigible? >> thank you. >> in from the woodrow wilson center. you have given us a bright side, a general. what is the bleaker side? and could you tell us the status of the power of the dam? thank you. >> regards -- i am sorry. regards pakistan, i really cannot comment on being pushed into a new coalition. i will say this. i found the pakastani army to be

cooperative and fully supportive of what we were doing. i talked about the fight down in baramcha on the pakastani border. we had to alert the pakastani army to that and we asked for their cooperation in certain ways. they were forthright and quick about giving those assurances and providing that cooperation, although we did not have pakastani forces involved. . .

many of their lower ranking commanders, the, the colonels, would go back there frequently for consultations and advice and we knew there was a flow of illegal weapons moving north out of those areas to fuel the insurgency in afghanistan. but again, from my limited observation, the pakistani government was, an the pakistani army, especially, was supportive of our operations on the border, as long as we gave them plenty of notification and were open with them about our plans. regarding the reintegration process, the government o-- government of afghanistan has a plan to bring insurgents back to their communities. it functions on two levels, one is formal, you formally present yourself to the afghan authorities, surrender your weapon and you're reintegrated through a system of education

and jobs back into your community. that system is slow taking off but the structure is there, it's just that the, as of yet, i was not seen a flood of people coming over. the trooper level, the private through sergeant level, we are seeing an anecdotally, pretty solid evidence of them coming back over to go back into their communities, to be returned in a much more informal basis, simply to be brought back to their families, given jobs back on the farm, and without a lot of bells and whistles attached that would attract our attention. i remember eating early in my tour there men of great import, and religious leaders, and after a long discussion and a nice lunch, the leader pulled me as side and said you have to understand about the insurgency. he said of the 100%, there are probably 70% that come

back to the villages, come back to their homes and simply drop their weapons and become -- just lead a normal life. he said there's probably 20% that will take some form of formal reintegration. they have blood on their hands and it will be some kind of a process to bring them back and then to watch them after that takes place. he said there is probably 10% you got to kill. he said they're just incore ridgessable and you -- incorrigible and you have to kill them. i think he has his numbers pretty solid. the weaker side of the problem and there is a weaker side, i believe the counterattack has to come back and our job is to figure how they will do that. we are well positioned to counter whatever he brings but he has to do it.

helmand province is the heart of the posturing community and it is where can dar har prove ins next door -- kandahar province is next door and it is extremely important and he can't give that up. like any commander, he needs resources. he has got to fund his people, and we know he is having problems. we have seen evidence that local commuters have to sell their personal effects to pay their people. we have seen evidence that they're running short of critical military supplies and he's having problems bringing the $10 a day taliban, men working simply for a paycheck, and there are many of them, that he is having trouble attracting them because he doesn't have the cash, why? because the drugs aren't available to say, so he has to go back to places that are list ft. knoxs, where he has got his money. his money grows in the ground and gets sprung up every year.

that's why the drug trade is so important to him and that's why our interdiction efforts, we are r. have received hundreds of tons of narcotics are critical because it cuts him away from the one thing he needs. it is money. he is fueled by that. >> ok. let's take two right there, and one over here. let's start right here. >> hi, i'm with the navy and i was wondering whether you can talk about whether mar sauk has brought any capabilities to fighting in afghanistan and talk about any issues that you have in terms of uav's in terms of reliability, communication and what kind of improvements you could see there. >> i'm lieu ten and pete gabrielle, retired u.s. army. thank you for your presentation. i spent a lot of time in pakistan but i'm interested in your dealings with corruption at the local

level, how you would deal with it, and also how you see things three to five years out with our potential pullback. thanks. >> and there is one right here. go ahead. right there. >> hi, i'm from the asian society, washington. the female engagement group seemed to have crept into the female population, but what will happen after the u.s. exits afghanistan and will there be any programs to help women? >> >> marsauk has played a vital role and i could give you numerous examples. the special forces across the board, u.s., marines and the seals and u.s. army special forces and the u.k. special forces played a huge role in disrupting the c-2 capabilities of the insurgency. in fact, quickly, they

gutted the c-2 capability. we got there and did was estimated that the average regimental commander in the insurgency was about 35 years old. when we left, he was 23. why? because the rest of them are dead. what does that mean? they are promoting less experienced men into greater responsibility. that is a weakness on his part. the special forces were absolutely valuable in attacking the the ied networks and the provider and maker networks at level and taking those downs. the other thing mar sauk did along with the other special forces was to provide local village stability operations. we would put them into areas that were still being contested and they would go into local areas, talk with the elders, stay in the village, establish a safe house and then begin to recruit local boys to provide local police protection both for the elders and for the village itself. that became that expanding

ink blot that you heard so much about. it's very critical that you do that. they're good at that. they are very brave men. they are in very dangerous situations. many times they fight for the first ten days on the ground until they couldn't of sort out who is who and then they began to expand into more peaceful developmental projects which, again, turn that village over to the government of afghanistan. one of the things we do with that early is get the district governors involved, district police involved so it has an afghan face to t we do not want a coalition face. we want an afghan face in the crowd. regarding uev's, i could use more of them. absolutely they're invaluable to us, both in our campaign to take out the c-2 and take out specific highly valued intelligence targets. uav's give us great effort to do that and has full motion video attached to it and weapons systems and the ability for precise fires

against very easily identifiable targets in an environment where civilian casualties were our number one concern. we did not want to cause civilian casualties so with a uav overhead, that good imagery overhead downlinked to the proper decision makers we knew the weapons systems we wanted were implied at the targets we wanted when there was no threat to civilians being on the ground, so the uav reliability was good as far as any other aircraft, i would say 80, 90% liability on a daily basis and never caused us to have operational problems. corruption, you know, corruption, you have clearly identified the issue. corruption is pervasive. it's part of the culture there. it's something you have to work around with, and hopefully by through example and by targeting and helping the people to develop a rule of law and a system of courts that can take that

on, that they will change. my personal opinion, that's going to take some time. you've got to really change some concepts and you've got to change some ways of doing business. the price of afghanistan first business practices where you give contracts to afghan companies and afghan workers are the great benefit is you get money into the afghan system and employment, which is critical. the bad side of it, the flip side of it is that you are subjected to afghan corruption tactics. i think the work to attack that is the best way we know how, but it is a long-term problem. it just needs to be addressed. it's great to say you're going to make switzerland, but when you look at the rest of the world, corruption is not an afghan problem. it's everywhere, so you're right, you're absolutely spot on, but in the short term, it is something you have to deal with. you have to work your way around it. in regards to the female engagement teams, that's a good question. i appreciate that very much. they were extraordinarily

effective, as we said. i think the ladies in afghanistan were at first surprised and then very pleased that we were dealing with them, and as long as we didn't have men working that issue, we could have never have done that. it was really interesting to see that part of their society open up to us, and the feeling is like all our vermontal projects, including the security piece, one of the fundamental planning criteria that you had to have is we can't disrupt them, so we leave here, we bring down, you know, retribution on anybody. we certainly are not going to turn -- we're not going to start the league for women voters in afghanistan this way, i got to tell you. i mean, what you can do is educate. what you can do is set an example. what you can do is reinforce through personal conversations, but to think that you're going to empower

the afghan women overnight is foolishness, and it's dangerous, and so we never attacked it that way. our females were carefully screened and prepared and when they went in, they talked about what are projects we can do that are not entirely disruptive and things like healthcare, very, very good, a tremendous number of women die in childbirth. midwife ry is something you can teach simply and it is something we can leave behind and turn over to the u.n., places like that that can continue that operation, but you're spot on. we're not going to rebuild america and we're not going o leave them in a dangerous

place. >> i know we're out of time. we're already over by 15 minutes, i ask you to join me in thanking general mills. >> thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> coming up next on c-span, a conference on aviation. we'll hear from the head of the f.a.a. and a boeing executive. then, federal reserve chairman ben bar nan key talks to reporters about inflation and the u.s. economy. the white house today released the long form of president obama's birth certificate. we'll hear from the president an hear reaction from donald trump in new hampshire. >> on "washington journal" we talk to the john hillsonrath of

the federal reserve, then former c.i.a. official michael swetnam will discuss upcoming leadership changes at the pentagon and c.i.a. after that, an update on the defense of marriage act, which congress passed in 1996. the department of justice said this year it would no longer defend the law. david masci joivens us. "washington journal" is live each morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. syria's government continues to crack down on protesters. later, we take a look at the political unrest in that country. live coverage from the hudson institute begins at 12:15 eastern. >> we'll hear next from federal aviation administrator, this aviation forum is hosted by the u.s. chamber of commerce. >> we'll take an airplane anywhere in the world.

that is our industry. it's a great one. it's great to introduce the administrators of the f.a.a. while he needs to introduction, i would say in 1995, that was the year that randy became, after a long flying career, ending his career as captain at eastern airlines, he then came and in 1995, he and i both became presidents at the same time he became president of alpfa and i wame president of a.t.a. we worked together and it was a great working relationship. we had many successes because we were able to work together on issues in which we all had agreement. he is the kind of person who is able to bring people together. he's had a great career, as i

say, as a pilot, a businessman, as a leader, so he was the perfect choice to become the administrator of the f.a.a. and i give you randy babbitt, administrator. [applause] >> thank you very much, carol. that was a very kind introduction. i appreciate that. good morning to ed, good morning to all the distinguished guests here. this is a great gathering. i'm happy to be here, and of course any time we get this many folks together with aviation as an interest, i know you have other interests but a lot of you have particular focus on aviation, a quote came to mind, carol had a good quote but we had a professor, john m. richardson, professor at american university, made an observation, he popularized this phase -- this flaze, he said there are three kinds of people, those who let it

happen, those who make it happen and those who wonder what happened. in this room we have the people who make it happen. that's what makes it so interesting to be here today and be able to chat with everyone. businesses and entrepreneurs are america's economic engine. they're producing new material,, the new technology, the new capabilities that are going to power and move our industry and country forward. at the f.a.a., we're always working and a number one priority is safety. we also recognize that there is an incredible amount of innovation in the marketplace that we believe will lead us to even greater safety boundaries and even additional efficiencies. we certainly want to encourage that at the f.a.a. we want to refine the way we do business within the f.a.a. is we can certify new aircraft. we can certify new equipment as expeditiously as possible. obviously being consistent with

our safety mandate, the last thing we want to be is the choke point in the assembly line of progress and technology. at the f.a.a. we're in the midst of a complete transformation of the national air space system. we are transforming what we have today, step by step, into the next generation of our national air space system. we're moving toward a system in which air travel will be far more precise, it will be safer, it will be more efficient, and of equal importance, it will be more environmentally friendly. so is the rest of the world, we're not alone in this quest. we're working with our partners around the globe to create uniform next general standards. -- next gen standards. so we want to have seamless control other air space throughout the world. when people here nextgej they

they -- they think of something far off, but it's here today. the transition from ground-based radar to space-based satellite navigation is well under way. we have a lot of companies in this country today that are seeing real savings, fuel savings, in particular, and it's of particular importance when you're seeing kerosene or jet fuel today priced as barrel prices headed toward $140, it appears. we're adding real dollars to the bottom line for a number of carriers. we're happy to be part of that. let me give you a couple of examples here. southwest airlines, for example, started using g.p.s.-based arrival procedures, originally at 12 airports around the country. they estimate when they go system-wide with these types of procedures that they're using, they'll be saving $60 million a year. this is one airline, $60 million a year in fuel savings.

but the piece that we all sort of overlook, which a lot of -- which is strategic on southwest's part, we all benefit from fewer delays and lower emissions they're producing. alaska airlines is joining the f.a.a. along with the port of seattle the boeing company to further develop g.p.s. procedures at seattle-tacoma international airport. that's part of the greener skies over seattle initiative. that project should save millions of demrons, not thousands, but millions of gallons of fuel annually. it's going to cut noise and it's going to decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the process. we estimate that the airlines using g.p.s. based arrival systems at seatac right now are enjoying a savings today of $9 million annually. that number is only going to increase as more airlines equip -- and that is based on today's

forecast and we can all forecast they may well rise further. let's put that in terms we dunce. that's money, we do understand that, but the curn rate of savings produces 34 tons less of cardon iox side emissions. 34 tons less. that's the equivalent of taking 5,600 cars off the streets of seattle. and these are just by procedural changes. this technology works and it's being enjoyedy people -- by people who are deploying it. in atlanta, delta airlines reports they save 60 gallons of fuel per flight using the more efficient procedures we've designed, optimized descents, where aircrafts descend all the way down to the runway on idle. i made the equation, the difference in this optimized profile descent, versus the

stepdowns where you power up, it's the difference between walking down the stairs and sliding down the banister. sliding down the banister is not only more efficient, it's more fun. we want to see this safety and this type of efficiency not just in a few selected airports. we want to see it go system-wide. this can be at any airport that can enjoy these optimized profile descents. we're installing literally hundreds of additional ground transseaver stations across the country. they'll allow air traffic controllers to use g.p.s. to track airplanes, they'll be using tracking that is already well in use at a variety of places, they use it throughout alaska, the gulf of mexico has had full deployment over a year now. places where there was absolutely no radar