that used to be the human piñata for the press. [laughter] the ability to make facts come alive, and make the truth important enough and vivid enough that people engage it regularly -- that is the hallmark of brilliant journalism. for not sufficient journalists ti sao say, we haveo tweetw welikes, more have to boost circulations,. that is never been the task of the journalist. the task has been to take the important information and make it interesting enough of that people will pay attention. we did not know enough slaughterhouses in chicago until the muck makers mucked. that is what we have to get more out of. i tell editors and folks that i

meet with all the time, we understand in politics that you have to say things over and over again for them to penetrate. you in the news business, we tell you once, and we've given you the news. therefore is no longer news and we don't have to report it again. these things that matter need to be on the front page day after day. with interesting angles and different takes and new perspectives. we get some of that. i don't wnat to shortchange the journalism out there. we need more of that if we are going to get people to focus on what is important. [applause] >> if we could thank our panel for this clicks on american -- >> on american history tv, we will "washington journal"

with guest craig shirley, author of "reagan's revolution." at 10:00 on road to the white house rewind, in 1976 republican national convention, and a close race between gerald ford and ronald reagan for the nomination. acceptanceford's speech and remarks from ronald reagan. >> i believe the republican party has a platform that is a banner of bold, unmistakable colors with no pale pastel shades. >> at 6:00 on american artifacts, we revisit the belmont hall women's equality national monument in washington, and see the work of cartoonist nina allender. >> she creates a youthful, invigorated, intelligent woman. you can see, in this image she is very slender. her skirt is above her ankles, which was quite different at that time. you can see the changing face of fashion at the time. her hands are on her hips, and she throws her hat into the ring of politics.

>> a political cartoonist for the national women's party from 1914 to 1927, she contributed over 150 cartoons in support of the women suffrage campaign. saturday evening at 8:00 on lectures in history -- was thenderstanding black population would lead the race to freedom. when he developed this notion, there were 9 million african-americans. 90% were in the south. of this 9 million, -- >> georgetown university professor morris jackson on andb. dubois,'s early life, his relationship with other activists. with the approach of the 40th anniversary of the smithsonian's national air and space museum in .uly, reel america will showcase nasa films we look at the 1966 film "science reporter," examining the problem of feeding

astronauts on long-duration missions. >> the use of algae, fungi, plants, bacteria, or a combination thereof, where you would have essentially small farms in space, or a microcosm, as we call it. you would produce your own food, and you might regenerate oxygen and pick up co2. >> for the complete schedule, go to www.c-span.org. today, defense secretary ashton carter discussed efforts to modernize the military. he says his plan is to build a bridge between u.s. national security and innovators throughout america. he also addressed a recent decision to expand the military authority to construct -- conduct airstrikes against the tally than -- taliban in afghanistan. this is one hour. welcome the secretary

of defense, ash carter. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for being here, and digging around -- and .ticking around it is a thrill and honor to have secretary carter here. those of you at home or watching at home as well. a few points from his bio. he became secretary last year.

before that we knew him in the pentagon for a while. he was the deputy secretary of defense. the guide that is supposed to know where things go and probably where things are buried. before that he was the under secretary of defense for html -- , which was the pentagon weapons buyer. the clinton in administration he was the assistant secretary of defense for international security. the guy that has to go around the world. he has bn through it all. the middle part gets more interesting and relevant for today where the secretary spends time in boston and other corporations working in the field of technology and innovation. that is what he brought with him back to the pentagon and part of what is at the core of what he is tried to do. he was a distinguished fellow at stanford hoover institution. he was an advisor to goldman sachs.

at harvard kennedy school he was the professor of science and international affairs. of a miterhe boards corporation. , longer ago, even longer ago, he had his degree from yale where he studied physics and medieval history, of course. before he gets medieval on all of us, will let him get to his speech and hear what he has to say. a round of applause for secretary of defense. [applause] thank you, kevin, thank you for having me here and organizing and extort nearing and extort nearing gathering and writing on the airplane with me. we do very much appreciate that. i want to thank all of you. 's fromyou participants

what is america's wonderful, innovative, open technology community. it is one of our country's great strengths. i am committed to building -- at the pentagon and innovators throughout the nation. from the tech innovators in silicon valley, yes, but many other hubs and places around the country. i visited silicon valley four times as secretary of defense, but a week before last was with the submarine engineers in an electric boat in connecticut. it is very widespread. it is the pride of the country and the strength of the country, our entire technology base. as we continue building these bridges, i am also focused on promoting the great innovators who are within the department. in the labs, schools, on the battlefield. you heard from some of them

today. innovators, our senior leaders involved in both of these critical and interconnected missions. technologyhe many and business and academic leaders who joined the discussion today, they play a critical role in accelerating the spirit and innovation we need to maintain our edge in a complex and changing world. what i wanted to do is describe the logic of my commitment to this agenda. the actions we are taking to pursue it. describe how these efforts and they continued creativity and engagement of so many of you will enable us to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. now, when i began my career as kevin pointed out in physics, most technology of consequence of originated in america.

much of that was sponsored i the government, articulate he the department of defense -- particularly the department of defense. today we are still sponsors, but more technology is global. the technology base is commercial. indeed, the security environment today is also dramatically different from the way it was 25 years ago. requiring new ways of investing and operating in its own right. we have come a today, as you know, no fewer than five immediate strategic challenges countering the prospect of russian aggression and coercion, especially europe, managing historic change in the vital asia-pacific region where china is rising, which is fine, but i -- but behaving aggressively, which is not. strengthening our deterrent and defense forces in the face of north korea's nuclear

provocations, checking uranian aggression in the gulf, and confronting terrorism, including accelerating the certain defeat in iraq and syria, and wherever it metastasizes in places like afghanistan. since, moreover, we have a pretty good record of never predicting successfully the strategic future. we have to also be flexible and agile preparing for it. preparing for unknowns we cannot anticipate. in the department of defense we do not have the luxury of choosing between these acting in, or between the present and investing in the future. we have to accommodate both changes in technological landscape and strategic landscape, we have to do it all. to stay ahead of these challenges and stay the best i

have been pushing the pentagon, all of us, to think outside of the five sided box and invest aggressively in innovation with innovative technologies and innovative practices, and innovative people. let me address each of those intern. first we are investing in high ourtechnologies to enhance own asymmetric and hybrid capabilities. overall the budget invests nearly $72 billion in r&d. let me give you context -- that is more than double what apple intel, and google spent last year combined. includes 12.5 billion specifically invested in science and technology to support happening ing work the dozens of labs and engineering centers across the country, as you just heard about

from mary miller. it also includes investments and work in innovative companies, to universities and darpa develop and advance some of the disruptive technologies and capabilities that steve walker talked about earlier today. we are making groundbreaking advances in areas like undersea systems, hypersonic's, electronic warfare, big data analytics, advanced material, energy and propulsion, robotics, autonomy, and advanced computing. those funds also support the growing nationwide network of public, private manufacturing innovation institutes. we are working with companies, universities and research labs to fund technologies like 3-d printing, advanced materials, integrative or tonics, and digital manufacturing and design. we announce a new one this spring, focused on revolutionary textiles.

the combined fibers with electronics to create fabrics that can sense, q medicaid, store energy, monitor health, change color, much more. another we announced last fall is focused on flexible hybrid electronics which makes it possible to shape lightweight, structural integrity structures on ships, bridges, aircraft and so on. meanwhile, also investing to continue to make dod a leader in cyber security. the department of defense has three missions in cyberspace. first, the highest priority -- defending the networks and weapon system. they are no good if they have been hacked. our second mission is to help our partners across the government defend the nation against cyber attacks from abroad. the third mission is to provide offense of cyber options that can be used in a conflict, as we are doing now against isil in

iraq and syria. the latest defense budget, we are investing more in all three missions, a total of $35 billion in the next five years. a great deal of that is helping to modernize and secure dod's hundreds of networks. all the while, where pushing forward with breakthroughs in cyber technology by creating network defenses that can swiftly adapt to threats and self patch practically in real-time. innovation -- technical innovation and investment is necessary, but not sufficient. we have to pursue innovative practices. the world we live in demands it. the cold war with characterized by strength of the leaders happening more weapons. today's era of competition is characterized by the additional variables of speed and agility. leading the race now depends on who can out innovate faster.

it is no longer just a matter of what we buy, it also matters a lot how we buy them. how quickly we buy them, whom we buy them from. -- andckly and week creatively we are able to use them in different ways, all of this to stay ahead of future threat. our dod labs and engineering centers are embracing new methods to meet the needs faster, more efficiently and effectively. we have encouraged this. i have encouraged this through persistent reform such as better buying power. secretaryago, under of logistics, dod began that are buying power, and initiative of -- an initiative to continuously improve the way we bought. under frank kendall, we are under a third version of that. focused on reducing cost growth and cycle time through greater

use of prototypes, modular open systems and architectures, and accelerating the integration of commercial technology. it all comes down to meeting the needs of the war fighter faster, more efficiently, and more effectively. it is an intensely competitive world. is a particular focus of dod strategic capabilities office. you heard about that from will roper. it in 2012, i was deputy secretary of defense, i did that to help reimagine existing systems and our inventory by giving them new roles and game changing additional capability that would confound our enemies. we are building fast. i think you mentioned this -- resilient micro-doan's -- micro thrown -- drones. we are developing an arsenal playing -- plain.

we have network defense aircraft. these are just a couple of examples about what they're doing. stay tuned. tuesday innovative going forward, dod has to continue to be open to new ideas and new partnerships, that is why we have embarked on initiatives like the start of insula can -- start up in silicon valley. another one to come. toas there last month announce we are iterating the effort to be next level. several new features. it is a nationwide release. there is a second office to be located in boston. you'll hear more about that in july. we will have more processing power since the budget requests will boost new funding to direct towards nontraditional companies with emerging commercially-based technologies that meet our military needs. its principal purpose

is to connect innovative companies with that $72 billion of annual overall innovation funding. we have upgraded the operating system with a new partnership style your ship structure led by shaw, a combat veteran and cofounder and ceo of a successful technology startup. great guys. we will keep iterating together and learning from each other going forward. . that is the point. that is also a reason why i had recently created the defense innovation board. to advise me and future defense secretaries on how to continue holding bridges to be technology can -- community. how we can continue to change to be more competitive. i am pleased that eric schmidt is serving as the first chair. he is doing a great job putting together the rest of the board.

today i can tell you this board will include for example, reid hoffman, the lead of linkedin. former commander admiral build cravenven -- build the ven, and walter isaacson. we have additional innovators lined up. stay tuned. they will begin their work over the summer. i expect to receive their first recommendations in the fall. among other things i have charged them with helping keep to keepetary of defense the dod imbued with a culture of -- in people, organizations, and technology. to support people who innovate. support those creative figures in the department willing to try new things, fail fast and innovate and iterate and ensure

that we are always doing everything we can to stay ahead of potential adversaries. i stress innovation in people because as good as america's technology is, it is nothing compared to the people. they are the key reason why the military is the finest fighting force in the world. in the future we have to continue to recruit and retain the very best talent for what is after all, and all volunteer force. that is why we are building what i call the force of the future, to ensure amidst all of the changes in generations, technologies, and labor markets, we are always postured to bring in, developed, and retain the best young men and women that america has to offer. as part of that, we are implementing new initiatives to give some of our own people military and civilians the opportunity to get out, spend time outside and learn how the rest of the world works outside of our wealth -- walls.

we are broadening the corporate fellows program, including by opening it up to allah fight enlisted personnel -- qualified enlisted personnel. programhave a pilot which lets people take a sabbatical from the military service for a few years while they get a degree, learning new skills, or start a family. we are looking for ways to allow more of america's brightest minds to come into the dod, maybe for a short time. maybe for one project. but to contribute to the great mission of protecting america and making a better world. we are bringing in resident osborne yours who will work with -- entrepreuners. we will hire a chief recruiting officer. as we have in the past with dave packard, cofounder of hp who also served as secretary of defense.

he is one of the people who got me into this business. we have created the new defense digital service, you heard from chris lynch earlier today. he is helping us bring encoders with companies like google and ify for what weop call a tour of duty. they have solved problems like improved data sharing to make sure veterans get access to the benefits. we are also nearing completion, as i stand here today, of our pilots program called cap the pentagon -- hack the pentagon. this is similar to the bug bounties that meeting -- many leading tech copies have. -- companies have. we are conducting the first ever one done by the federal government. it has exceeded our expectations.

over 1400 hackers registered, they have discovered over 100 bugs so far. they are helping us to be more secure at a fraction of the cost. in a way that enlists the brilliance of the hackers rather than wait to learn the lessons of the blackadder. -- the force is full of talented people, some active-duty, but also reservist who have saved networks for us by hunting down intruders, performing forensics that help keep them some care -- secure, and combating adversaries in a federal. -- in the cyber realm. these are some of the actions we are taking to build the force in the future in a way that reinforces our innovation initiative. we also have announced action to help regain -- retain talent. helping to retain service members by helping them balance their commitments to the force

and their families, through expanded maternity and paternity leave, extended childcare hours on bases, and by offering military members of families the possibility of geographic deployment like stability in return for additional service commitments. yesterday, i announced the next links. the pentagon courtyard to expand our ability to attract, train and retain the best talent america has to offer. on the military side we have proposed changes to the promotion system to allow military officers to pursue broadening opportunities like earning a doctorate or pursuing other advanced training, or doing a tour with industry. theymporarily defer when are considered for promotion without being penalized by timeline restrictions. a very big move. we have also moved to allow civilians with specific skill sets such as cyber and other scientific and technical qualifications to enter the officer ranks at a level commiserate with their grant --

their experience. we currently do this with doctors, but not other jobs. they are not only high skill, but also hard to fill. rapidly changing and in high demand by the private sector. we are proposing changes that would foster innovation to our civilian workforce. for example, we have proposed allowing recruiters to hire top talent directly from college campuses. again, the first time for us. graduate, will not wait around for an offer from the government. they will not wait six months. expanding dod scholarship for service program. building to a talent exchanges with the private sector. we will better leverage our existing authorities to higher -- to directly higher qualified experts -- hire qualified experts.

today wheeling only have 90 such people across the department. you have heard from two of them today. chris lynch and will roper. i am sure you agree that we are better off with their service. we will be well served to include more thinkers like them directly intervening to the mission of national -- directly contributing to the mission of national defense. the all volunteer force is a critical part of the military edge. everyone should understand this need in my commitment. always been able to out innovate the enemies because we have our people, the builders, innovators from the military and civilian force, as well as the contractors and the nation's overall wonderful strength, which is its technology-based. people that think creatively, they are flexible. ourave been able to combine advanced technology with creative operational practices to solve a problem at hand. in order for our people to continue accelerating the

breakthroughs in progress that ensure our continued dominance, we have to back them up with the freedom to innovate and take risks. also a stable and secure funding environment. this last reason is why i remain concerned about proposals in the draft defense bills in congress that would undercut the bipartisan budget agreement, reached last year. it was supposed to guide the budget for two years. bipartisanshipof could end up in a return of sequester, which is our greatest risk. -- as a department. time ofectionable in a war, provisions cutting the overseas were fighting accounts. there are also new and and studied managerial appraisals, adding and moving boxes here and there, that the department's leadership is not recommended. i would hope that such micromanagement will not be a feature of any enacted. we all play a role in ensuring

the success of the national security mission. those interested in follow-up -- foreign policy and national security, a lot of problems to work on. it is also true for those interested in technology. the intersection of the two is truly an opportunity rich, and very fulfilling enviroent. i want to thank you all for being here today. for considering the words of the forward thinking individuals from government, business, and academia who have shared their thoughts with you. my pledge to you is that you will always have a strong and willing partner in america's department of defense. we may not know how to do it, but we are trying to do it -- we might not do it perfectly, but we are always trying to do it better. helping to -- helping defend your country for you, helping defend your country, and make it a better world is one of the noblest things a business leader or entrepreneur or young person

can do with their life. i we are grateful to all of you here for the passion, the interests, the spirit of innovation that makes us all stronger and safer. thank you. [applause] kevin: thank you, mr. secretary for those remarks and thoughts. some of us have heard you say repeatedly through the the air -- the year in your effort. maybe one way to start off -- as i was sitting there listening to you go to the new efforts and extensions come -- expansions, this room just heard from a lot of folks who are interested, but skeptics as well is that what you're trying to do either on the whole or specifically with

the silicon valley outreach. do understand the skepticism? perhaps the better question is, the budgetust posted for the effort would jump to $30 million. there is new leadership. a lot of folks who know the defense department think that is not a lot impaired to what the defense department spends. why is this not something with a three-star general, a staff of 500, a really world-class level dod expected thing? sec. carter: two good points. first of all, are we iterating -- it is exterior mental for a reason. we are trying to excel. that is why i just made the changes. that is fine. that is like good innovators do. they start one direction and decide they should adjust. that is what we are doing.

that will continue to happen, by the way. doing that,t we are and in fact we are establishing more reflects my confidence in the basic idea. ,hich is to have another way just another way, because we have many, of connecting to the wonderful innovative ecosystem of the united states. it is a way of signifying that thataking a final -- funel can come into the up -- department, $72 billion worth. it is the connection that is important. iox because it will be an exchange place and trading post from which innovative people come back and forth to have some money when it is itself sees the opportunity. one of the principal things it is doing is connecting

innovative people to our mission. plug-in from the department of defense. that is the focus. as you know, because of your own constantly tohave work on -- i will use in engineering term -- the impedance match between government and industry. not all of that gulf will all be bridged. where we can change the way we operate to make us more connected to those who are agile , that is principally the areas -- the speed at which we act, the speed at which we make decisions, the speed at which we can allocate funding to r&d, we need to do that, otherwise we will not be the most agile. in today's world, if you are not

the most agile, you are not the best. we have to be be best to protect ourselves. we will keep changing everything we are doing here that i described. in a good sense and just kind of way. that is the spirit. i am confident in the concept of i am confident that connecting the defense department to the world of innovation is one of the secrets to america's future military strength. kevin: tell me more about the progress of that connection and bridging the gap. i think, we talked about this a --riden the right home home. the secretary was the first defense secretary to go to the world economic forum. but as a fish out of water place for military guys. bankers in switzerland of all places. really not for the military. the reception was fairly warm. i remember asking you then, i

wanted to give a progress report. the reception your hearing or feeling from the firms you are meeting. they both have the ceo level, compared to the perception of the reporting of the groundswell of the divide between these people. what is the reality and why are they willing to bridge the gap? is it because it is good for business or a newer sense of patriotism. sec. carter: the reaction generally is overwhelmingly gratifying -- gratifyingly positive. that is not because we are so great at what we are doing, or how we approach, but because these are people who want to make a difference in life. that is why they are in our innovative culture. it is in their nature to make a difference. the mission really inspires people. , creatingople safe that life that allows people to

get up in the morning and take their kids to go -- to school, leave them safely, go to work, live their lives, stream their dreams, raise their families -- ,reating that environment contributing to that mission -- that is inspiring. acte are people who want to in an inspired way. they want to make a difference and contribute. , theyhey see our mission are attracted. that is why i do this. that is why all of the people do this. are there reservations? yes, two printable reservations. -- principal reservations. the first those i hope the government is not too clunky to connect to. tot the burden on us to try open up the door and create that impedance match that makes it possible and less -- easier for

people to connect. that is what doix is about. that is about letting ideas and people go back and forth. we have to make that easier. the other thing is, are we going to put restrictions on people? there we also try to minimize restrictions and intrusiveness. we understand this is an and -- an open business community. the internet is open, a free internet is a value all by itself. we're standing for the values of our society. that is what we are defending. we are adapting to that as well. hesitations that people legitimately have. it is our job. executivesof those you met with this week was elon musk. a lot of people were wondering what that was about? sec. carter: it was about innovation. this is one of the great innovators of the country.

me that hefying to and i have a great relationship, it goes back years. he takes an interest in what we are doing. we did not talk business there, that was not the point. other people do that for me. we were talking innovation in every way. i am looking for people like that. that is why the defense innovation board is so important. people to have innovative experience who have tried things themselves to come in and say, i have done this and it works. i can say, i wonder if i can apply that. a bug bounty is a perfect example of that. i said, why are we not doing that? it turned out to be no reason why we could not do it. so we did it. it has been great. -- whathat are other are the other challenges to come for you?

this is not the first year for you. you are the deputy secretary, under secretary, you have been trying to change and streamline acquisitions for a long time. the room full of folks here i am sure are familiar with acquisitions. what are your proudest achievements so far? there are other things that we are trying to do in addition to being agile and innovative. we are trying to be efficient. is -- asority acquisition executive is to make sure that we get the best use of the taxpayer dollar. we all them that. -- we owed them that. way, more importantly, it is easier for me to go and argue with the congress, which is difficult in today's environment of -- i mentioned gridlock, it is tough in washington. i need to argue for the money that we need to protect ourselves.

i am better off arguing for that if i can also show that we are using every dollar they give us well. with that asisfied undersecretary for acquisition technology and logistics, and i wanted to improve that. i still want to improve that. my successor wants to improve that. that is also an imperative at every business. constantly get leaner. constantly do better. drive costs out. we have to do that in our programs as well. we get more for the dollar and more trust for the dollar. we have to be innovative in our war practice as well. i told you about the problems we face right now. you followed closely what we are doing with isil. we are going to defeat isil. we have to. we have to be innovative. that is why we will use air power and all kinds of partners that we can work with.

we can hold and govern territory that we take back and help them take back from isil. we are using new things we have not used before like cyber. know how toon't prioritize those things -- we have to be innovative across the board. i am completely compete -- committed. it is widely understood in the departments that that is a key to the future. it is not just me, you have heard from other people today. most people in our society know that to be good you have to be a -- agile. kevin: time for a couple more. we know you have a hard stop. you mentioned isil, i wanted to ask about the speed of technology, getting to the fighter of today's warfront operators doing

elite work. are you satisfied with the pace of the new technology in reaching those guys? sec. carter: never. beginsstion you ask me with mi satisfied? -- am i satisfied? no. we have to do it better. no. getting stuff out in the field faster and faster is important. ford the experience now seven years, most of the lion's share with our wars in afghanistan and iraq, getting things into the field. him rep -- of the which saved lives, we had to do

things outside of the system. they say, what kind of system do you have in order to get the war fighters what they need, you have to go outside of the system. there is an answer, we have a system that is basically meant to buy things over a long time and the best things. that is a problem when you have ongoing operations. it is a problem in a rapidly changing world. making our acquisition system run more quickly, the war taught us some things. otherwise there is not a lot to say great about a war. we had to do what we had to do. people may great sacrifices for it. it did have one little silver lining on it, which is we learned a lot about agility. the counter id stuff, sadly, we ine advances in medicine

response to things like tbi, prostheses, and other places. fights and also the fights that we do not want, but ,ould happen, say north korea again, you have to be innovative. you have to say, if something happened, what would i wish i had done? what tomorrow, what i wish i had done today? you don't -- you do not want that list to be long. kevin: i am glad you mentioned north korea, there is a sense that the active fighting -- it is special operative focused -- we have two aircraft carriers in the same region. we have nuclear concerns. we still have big war worries. sec. carter: you are right. from high-end, but even the low end, as i pointed out. you can consider the counter

isil fight low end. no fight today is truly low end. we have to do it all. we are alert. we stand watch in north korea -- the slogan there is ready to fight tonight. no one wants to do that. but we are ready. -- i: one more question will get the game clock to make sure we are on schedule, out of the news in the last day, reports in afghanistan that the rules will change to allow for greater strikes or airstrikes. can you confirm or expand on what is changing? sec. carter: i can. the president made a decision to enable the commander there to have some additional authority to act proactively. that is to anticipate situations

in which the afghan security forces would benefit from our support. this is using the forces we have in a better way, basically as we go through the fighting season. than -- rather than be simply reactive. it makes good sense. it is a good use of combat power that we have their. -- there. the mission is the same, to help afghans maintain control of the country, and to avoid having a counterterrorism challenge once again. from afghanistan. that is what we are up to. this will enable our commander a moreo do this in effective way, using the forces that he has their -- there.

this was pursuant to the general and my discussions. the president gave it his full support, i am grateful for that. it is a good move to make and should really help us help the afghans. kevin: thank you. we have a limited time. these things go fast. i will call for one question. sec. carter: go ahead. we did start late. i will try to give a short answer. u.s. news or in -- and world report. techwe lost military advantage against china because of their increasing research and

the fact that some of our weapons systems -- are we poised to regain some of that advantage would be third offset strategy? sec. carter: yes and yes. 25 years, in the last it's ad -- obviously economy, the standard of living for the people, and with that comes advance of its military capability. no question. of allies ander friends in the region that we work with. watching the , notrent equation there just china but north korea and others. you might have mentioned russia also, trying to improve its military. all of these are different situations, again, we're not looking for conflict with any of

those. do they measure themselves against us? i am sure. making sure the u.s. military remains the best, and the so to firstest with the mostest, is that an objective of ours? it is. including the offset. >> shone with federal computer week, he talked about how was sort of unprecedented, as you probably know during the surge of 2006 in iraq, there was a lot of digital tools used. i am wondering how you draw upon those lessons learned from those -- if you years ago. -- a few years ago. sec. carter: it is a good question. yes, we did in iraq and afghanistan. i do think you have to recognize this recognize that isil's

tradecraft in using technology to advance evil objectives, both ideologicallyand is unprecedented. it is frequently said, i think it is basically right, if al qaeda was an internet generation terrorist group, isil is a social media generation terrorist group. it is different, even from a few years ago. yes, we learned some things. we can use some techniques that were used in afghanistan and iraq in those days, but this is different. even as what is on your desk is different today or in your pocket than it was three years ago, five years ago. these guys are up to date. in that regard. not there thinking in general. >> you said in recent months.

good point. kevin: you said in recent months the u.s. was engaging in cyber warfare with them like never before. that was months ago. sec. carter: it is like never before, which is not to say we have never done it before, but it is like never before. we have really made it a priority. , to this rooml that is probably unremarkable news. a lot of people associate the fight against isil with airstrikes and the things they see on tv, and they may not realize this is part of the formula for success. we will have success. we need to do this. kevin: more questions in the back. for capitalizing m.i.t. lab.

a question about force for the future, is the initiative about broadening the education of the leadershipd civilian so they understand what they are buying, the technology, how to use it -- and if so, are there opportunities for world-class universities where you have a large military population -- i am taking of william and mary, can they play a role, or is it just military education? sec. carter: no. the future is the military and civilian workforce. it is about the whole pipeline. it is about recruitment and making sure that we are connected to the entire population. i will remind you for example, something i said yesterday, which is most of our new military recruits come from six states. we really need to reach out. women in service, that is half of the population. i want to be able to draw from

the entire population. i want to have the best people, i have to -- people have to meet standards, but i want the widest possible pool. it affects recruitment and retention. partly people want to improve themselves. in today's world you will know we all have to keep changing and improving. the idea that you went to school, that you live the rest of your life on the backs of what you learned years ago, that is not fly in today's world. we all have to keep learning. people are going to only want to be with us and stick with us if they feel that they have opportunities to develop. that is one of the reasons to it, plus they get better. that means they do better stuff for us. retention is a complex matter. people make decisions for complicated reasons. i mentioned family programs for example. they are important for the reason that we are not just try to be nice to people.

that is nice as well, but when people have been with us for a while, and therefore we have made an investment in them and they know a lot and their -- they are capable, and they still have a whole career , we do not want someone at that point to leave. that happens to be the time when many people are having a family. it matters whether you can consistent -- with everything else we need to do, we need to send people where we need to send them. where we can make it possible to people, easier for people reconcile everything else they are trying to do with us, that is in our interest. it is a whole pipeline. accession, retention, development and service, the whole deal. it is military and civilian.

it is -- people innovating how we do that. people are learning all kinds of ways in human resources management the generation ago were done. internet helps that. linkedin is an example, that is why i am so glad reed has joined my innovation board. we have to keep thinking about how we manage our people if we keep the best. kevin: are you going to bring someone in as a cyber kernel. ?- cyber colonel our service i want chiefs and secretaries -- i am trying to give them latitude, not rule. i want them to decide which specialties makes the most sense. we will see that over time as they think about it. i am trying to give them the latitude to change where they see an opportunity that their current rigidity does not permit them to exploit.

kevin: i will go to john. john: thank you, john harper, mr. secretary, can you give us a preview of the kind of people you will be adding to the defense innovation board in the future. people that might surprise us. are you tasking them with tackling any particular urgent challenges, or is it more of just a general, how you are doing business and the technology are looking at? well, i would have told you if i was going to tell you today. tune whenu catch the you see aaron schmidt and reid hoffman. these are people who know something about innovation, and have done it. are they got -- are there going to be surprises? i hope they are surprises for you.

i am looking for surprises for me. that is the reason. i want to learn from them things that we have not thought of that would be good. i am not expecting them to know about the fence. i know about defense, our people know about the fence. that is not my problem. i would like to know what is going on in the outside world that i might not know about that has proven successful that might be applicable to us. that is what i am looking for. these are innovative people. conversations with them, i have the six. all of the time. people say, here is what i did to build my company, to think my through -- my way through this problem. to get people i needed. i say to myself, why have we not done that? a bug bounty is a perfect example. chris, i don't know if he is still here, why has nobody in the federal government done that?

there is no good answer. it is essentially free. you get all of this talent. they are having a great time. you are getting a security audit for free. it is like, wow. good deal. somebody else thought of that. we did not. if all we ever apply is things we have thought of, we will not mean the best. wonderful as we are, -- not remain the best. wonderful as we are. the whole point is to connect to a larger world of innovation. kevin: i was formally an investigative reporter. we used to ask the same thing, how come you don't do that? their answer was the same, because congress does not tell us to. i will take a last question. you mentioned earlier, you need congress approval to do the changes you want, some of them especially with reforming acquisition. what is your response to some suggestions?

sec. carter: i appreciate the effort that chairman mccain and thornberry have put in. i think they're trying to think the same way. what is in the future? i do have differences. in general, micromanagement from the hill of what our executives and leadership functions is not a good idea. these things take time. think there are important ideas having to do with, for example, the role of the chairman in integrating commands trans regionally. i have made some proposals there. there is definitely a need. i would like to talk to people about that. improving our acquisitions system. i have been at this for a long time. i am always ready to talk to people about this.

the two things i hope we can work through and i really cannot referring our -- are wartime funding in a time of war , and budget instability. that hurts us. all i can do is ask people to come behind us. i think micromanagement by the congress of executive departments is not a good way to go. however, i am willing to work with them in terms of provisions. i just made proposal yesterday. the future ones that are -- will require being enacted. they are the ones that are senior leadership, our service secretaries, our joint -- joint chiefs of chaff -- chiefs of staff have thought hard about. we took months and years working through them. they are considered proposals by

the people they have charged with running the department of defense. i think we need to respect the judgment, the collective judgment and the leadership of the department of defense. i'm hoping we can works -- work through some of these things. kevin: you are the third defense secretary to worry about those things. ask -- arearly to you going to be around to keep these initiatives going? sec. carter: every day president obama is there as long as he wants me to. i am confident that the ideas we have been talking about today makes so much sense that they will continue in the future. ,ook at people like will roper this is necessary. i think everyone gets it. everyone gets the logic.

after ifident that long am gone or any individual leader is gone these things are going to continue. they make sense. up, i think itap is very important to have this conversation. i thank you very much for coming here. it has been about a year plus since your initiative has started. as i said on the top there has been a lot of reporting at different levels for international security press corps to get its head around things like technology. i have been with you on the road -- you should hear him talk to scientists, it is a whole other -- carter. -- ash carter. it is an exciting field. i hope it does take hold. we want to thank all of our participants and thank you the audience. those of you watching on a live stream. our underwriters.

i will also take the privilege to announce, this is our tech summit among the biggest event is the summit on november 17. carter will help me get great speakers for that. you are welcome to come back. anyone else -- i have to thank my mother and father. front row and center. [applause] kevin: you have given my mother a great birthday present. thank you, everybody. thank you, mr. secretary. [applause] [captioning performed by the ♪

>> c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning,

bloomberg legal editor lance rogers talks about the supreme court deciding to hear two death penalty cases. then the latest at the college rape incident at stanford university. talking about what the incident has done to raise awareness of sexual assault at colleges and universities. and tha federal efforts to help make schools more saver. fe. the newly announced payday loan role from the consumer announcement election bureau in an effort to end deathtraps for consumers and what it means for the industry and payday borrowers. we are joined by dr. christopher hess. hess looks at parkinson's disease and its impact on over one million people in the u.s.,

including boxing legend ali who died this week. watch c-span's washington journal at 7 a.m. eastern this morning. join the discussion. >> the president special envoy for the global coalition to counter isis made an appearance at friday's white house briefing where he spoke about the current strategy for combating isis and took questions from reporters. this portion of the briefing is 40 minutes. mr. earnest: all right. good afternoon, everybody. jovialood to see some friday afternoon spirit in the briefing room. as many of you know, i'm joined today by brett mcgurk.

he is the special presidential envoy to our coalition to degrade and destroy isil. brett has periodically come to the briefing room to give you an update on our efforts to counter isil, not just in iraq and syria but around the world. he is here with an update. the update he will be providing is similar to the update the president will receive when he convenes his national security team on tuesday. the president periodically will do a meeting with his national security team to review progress and to consider any updates to our strategy. that meeting will be convened at the treasury department. the usual assortment of national security officials will join him. the president will have a statement at the conclusion of the meeting. wholl turn it over to brett has opening results and even a visual aid. he will stick around for 10 to

15 minutes to take questions. brett? take it away. mr. mcgurk: great to be back. i spoke to you some months ago. i want to give an update on where we are in this most complex, challenging and most important of campaigns. when the president addressed the american people in september 2014, he talked about the global campaign to destroy isil. since then, we have actually made a lot of progress. from where we were back then until now and even when i last addressed you months ago. it is an unprecedented challenge in terms of number and that is

why we have to address it and strengthen our overall territory in iraq, syria and libya. we analyze it in three directions. the self acclaimed phony caliphate. the common denominator when i ask leaders in various capitals and what is driving people in the movement, it is the notion of a historic caliphate. we have to shrink the core in doing that. there is the core and then there is the global networks, the foreign fighter networks that feed the core. the financial networks and the propaganda networks. we are constantly through a global coalition every single day squeezing and constricting those networks. i just came from the state department where i addressed 66 ambassadors and representatives that talk about how we are doing in the global network piece.

we have self acclaimed affiliates across the world. many of them are pre-existing terrorist groups that we are much focused online boko haram in nigeria. we are focused on them even after flying the black baflag of isil. when we see them sending some of the best leaders to set up, we do get concerned. we focus on it. we focused the leaders quite effectively. we also work with the new government to take back the territory that isil holds which is underway. let's very briefly look at the indicators we look at at how we are doing against isil. ofill allludude to eight them. we look at the morale of the overall fighters and their overall force. morale now compared to word was four to five months ago is plummeting. they're executing their own fighters in the battlefield.

they are unable to move fighters. we are seeing recruits falloff. statements andwn what they say to their own potential recruits. their spokesman is a terrorist who has taught years as this movement as a global and expanding movement.everything they say in their propaganda is they will retain and expand their territory. if you look back a year ago, the propaganda was the black flags moving into southern europe. his last statement was very different. he said we might lose raqqa, mosul, which they will, but we will still be around the join us anyway. it is a very different message. it is one that is not quite as appealing to their potential recruits. morale is plummeting. number two, they have not had a successful offensive operation

in over a year in iraq. they have lost about 50% of the territory in iraq, and 20% in syria and continuing to shrink. the strategic territory they held a shrinking. the border with turkey is no longer accessible to them. very significant towns in iraq ramadi, no, longer accessible to them. all the road connections between raqqa and mosul have been cut off. how big is this organization? we assessed back in the summer of 2014 that there are as many as 21,000 fighters. it is now down to the lowest point we have seen. it is hard to get an exact number but we estimate 19,000. their ability to recruit foreign fighters around the world, which is important to protect our

homelands, is also more difficult. since the president went to the u.n. security council and assembly, we have had a successful chapter. that really shined the global spotlight on this problem. since then and working with our coalition, 45 countries happening acted laws to restrict the ability of foreign fighters to travel through their territories. through sharing information between different capitals, we learn more and more and create a virtuous cycle. we have information sharing agreements with 50 countries around the world and we are working very closely with interpol. we have about 4000 isil foreign fighter profiles in the interpol database. it is much harder for these guys to travel and move around. fourth indicator, their access to revenue. has cutvenue, we think,

off entirely. they rely on oil trade, sale of antiquities. we have gone about with good intelligence to target that. they have cut their salaries and half. we talked about it before. we targeted their oil production efforts, their trucks that move the oil and they are no longer able to do with they used to do. this creates a virtuous cycle that cuts the pay to their fighters, the fighters don't want to remain in the organization, they cannot fight and then we can defeat them. a fifth indicator is their access to borders. they controlled almost the entire syrian border with turkey and now back down to a 90 kilometer stretch of territory and shrinking dramatically. ixth, do they have capable and competent leaders? this is an organization where in

2014, they went into mosul and said they are establishing a caliphate. we have not heard from baghdad i from late last year and this is no longer a competent organization. their leaders are not nearly as confident. they are not nearly as capable and we are killing one of their senior or mid-level leaders once every three days now. we have taken out 100 and the last few months because of the intelligence we have been able to gather. the fact that we have local actors on the ground, forces on the ground working closely with us together intelligence. everything our military is doing over the skies and everything are special forces are doing on the ground in iraq and syria is creating this cycle. their media propaganda is not what it was before. matt open season in 2014. we have worked very closely to make sure we get this stuff off

twitter, facebook, youtube. we work very closely with facebook and twitter. twitter taking down 125 pro-isil handles. for everyone, there are six counter isil. our partner in the coalition has been a leader in this. we are going at it every single day. cohesion, they see themselves as a global organization and it is shrinking. the connection between the heart of their so-called caliphate in syria and iraq is drying up. even in their own propaganda, it is harder for them to get into syria, so they tell their recruits to go to libya. libya is also increasingly a not very hospitable environment for them. if you think about libya, which is not in the news as much, but just a few months ago there was not a government. there is now a government-backed

by the united nations. it is working with local forces loyal to the government which is now starting to push into the heart of what isil thought was their stronghold and making progress. we have a lot of work to do in libya. it is a core principle that those actors need to recognize the civilian led government. think they will find a very willing partner. i will briefly highlight some points. i referred to this map the last final was here -- the last time i was here. every color in this map are areas at one point isil controlled. in the summer of 2014, all the colors -- they were moving down on baguette. everything in green are areas they lost since then. everything in orange are areas they still control. the very small areas of dark red

are areas they gained. april, we havef launched a number of major offensive operations with our partners. there is a lot more green on this map now than there was at the end of april. we hope to have an updated map in the next week. let me highlight a couple of points. i will not go through the whole thing. number one, that is the 98 kilometers strip of water with turkey. this is the last border they control. turkey has done a good job on sealing off the area on the turkish side. we still remain vulnerable. there is the city. the is where we believe paris and brussels attackers pulse through this area. so, we have to work with forces on the ground to close out this area. we have pushed, this is the

extent of isil's western advance and we have worked with opposition groups to push them to the east. they have met with very fierce resistance with suicide bombs and truck bombs by isil. we opened a new front a week ago and this is going extremely well. forces,an democratic about 3500 of them, it is based upon a core principle we set when we developed the strategy. it is fundamental to the president, our dod campaign plan and the diplomatic strategy. we want local people to know the local area to organize and liberate their areas. this is not -- we don't want american troops going into the streets and alleys of this town. we want local people with local la knowledge to liberate their areas. there is a military council. they have about 3500 fighters.

3000 of them are local arabs. i met some of their leaders. they launched an operation about a week ago and crossed the euphrates river. some of our special forces say this is one of the most complex military operations they have done. one of the main leaders of the military council, someone i also met. they have named the operation after him and they continue to advance so rapidly that the city is a most entirely surrounded. isil,t is taken away from it will entirely cut off their ability to move from raqqa and move fighters and threaten us and our partners. it is a very important operation which launched about a week ago. there is months of work that went into it. they still have some ways to go but we are focused on it.

it is critically important. we think the amount of information we are able to get about isil, the leadership efforts will be very important for further unraveling it. raqqa, very quickly, it remains their headquarters. we think a lot of their leaders are still there, although fewer than there were. we continue to target those leaders. most important he, the reason the president made the decision to send additional forces to syria is because we think we have hit a formula that works. organizing local people to take the fight to isil combined with air support and hard local political work. it works. what we are doing to move down in raqqa's recruiting an increasing number of arab fighters to liberate their own territories. we have people on the ground helping to do that training. so far, we think that is going well. i will move around to number

five. that is mosul. the president has authorized additional military enablers. i'm very confident when the decision comes to use them, they will be used effectively. also important for mosul, we are doing a lot of diplomatic and political work to make sure the humanitarian, the stabilization peace and local politics is done so we do it right. it is very complicated. there are a million people still in mosul. there are different ethnicities and we want to make sure everybody is working together. here, i give the governor a lot of credit. localave allocated 15,000 fighters to be part of the campaign. we are working very closely with our partners and the government of baghdad to organize and coordinate. that is very much underway. we will not put time frames on it but we feel pretty good how

it is coming together. timet, i mentioned it last but it is so critical as we are focused on defeating isil we are not just focused on defeating them and then not thinking about what his next. we are focused on the day after isil. this is where as a global coalition has been able to pull resources -- i think we have hit on a very effective mechanism which has revolutionized the post-conflict stabilization effort. returning people to their homes after a conflict like this is one of the hardest things to do historically. it could take years, if ever. sunnirit, it is an iconic city in the heart of a mixed province. the entire population, 95%, has returned to the city. that is because we have a stabilization funding mechanism through the coalition. it has funded $100 million at

any given time so it is able to drop on it and flush resources to the local level. the government of iraq is determined to de-centralize authority and we are working to make sure local people are organized to secure the streets. in tekrit, security is being provided by local police which eventually gives people the confidence to come home. when they do, you reach a tipping point and the population returns. that is going very well. the entire population is back. in iraq, 700,000 people have come back to their homes. that is important because one of the main challenges is refugees. we want to make sure as we defeat isil, we are setting the conditions for people to return to their homes. the final point i will mention is seven and eight. the euphrates valley. this would all be green if this was an updated map because we have worked very closely with

the local people to liberate their own territories and the tribes, about 15,000 tribal fighters, organize to work with iraqi security forces and they have now cleared the entire euphrates valley. that is significant because it would not have been done if we did not have the support of the local people. that has now cleared out. in ramadi, we are trying to do the same thing as tekrit. we have about $25 million allocated for the stabilization effort. we have 2500 local police in the streets. we have tribal fighters coordinating to control ramadi, working closely with the governor of the province. what has made this difficult, and this is how barbaric isil is -- before they leave an area, those who survived and were treated, they left ied's, booby-traps in a most every home. up to 70,000 people who were turned to ramadi, 100 tragically

were killed to find a booby trap in the closet or refrigerator. the government stop the returnees. we met in rome with key contributors from the coalition. we raised $25 million to help the de-mining, getting all of these booby-traps out. there are now world-renowned experts on the ground helping to clear it meter by meter to help people. for the sense of how difficult it is. it is a sense of how every little detail we are focused on. because we have a coalition, we can draw on resources to help. ramadi are clearing the booby-traps. to the southeast is falluja. the operation has been in the news and this is very much ongoing. falluja, we are focused on three dimensions. one is the military campaign and this is being led to actually

enter the city. is being led by the iraqi army, counterterrorism service and local tribes. the overall force, 20%, is local tribal fighters. entering the city will be primarily iraqi forces. just yesterday, the iraqi special forces, the crust of isil's defense, they set up footholds in the southern edge of the city. personnel, i was talking to the general who knows the ground. it is very significant to get that foothold and continue to push forward. this will take weeks. they have to go block by block clearing ied's. we are helping the iraqi security forces helping to operate under their chain of command. there have been reports of isolated atrocities committed by some of the popular mobilization

forces, primarily shia volunteers in the outskirts. we have discussed this with a pragmatist -- prime minister. everybody is saying they are doing the right thing to make sure anybody who commits a human rights violation is held accountable. we did the same thing. do biometrics, make sure daesh is not infiltrating the idp population but this has to be done in a coordinated way. we have worked with the local leaders, the governor to make sure there are local representatives to make sure this is going well. we are concerned and focused on it and the government of iraq is also focused on it. -- number eight is all orange, but on the new map it would be green. this is where in some cases we are ahead of where we would be. there is a highway into baghdad. i was in oman a couple of weeks

ago. that was about tens of millions of dollars of commerce coming through every month. it has been dried up entirely because of isil. withraqi security forces 1000 tribal fighters cleared out isil just about two weeks ago. we are now working to secure the highway which is critical for our close partner jordan and iraq. you can see the pressure coming from all directions. it is not just a rack in syria but global. while this remains a tremendous challenge overall, the strategy is kicking into gear and we are making progress. we will talk to the president next week about where we are and how to accelerate. mr. earnest: thank you. josh? yourter: wanted to ask about the importance to have this led by local courses. how concerned about you about that isthe shia militia

taking on a lot of the action? how do you assess the risk of there being a sectarian bloodbath against sunnis that can have a backlash? mr. mcgurk: tekrit was kind of a test for this. it was a year ago and you had a lot of popular mobilization units who were primarily shia operating in that battle space. we worked out a formula were those forces would not go into the city itself. the units we support have to be operating strictly under iraqi command and control. one, we are not going to support any unit that is not operating strictly under iraqi command and control. secondly, we don't want to make some mistakes. a lot of these units actually are operating under iraqi command and control. they are disciplined, but there are some exceptions of units that there is tremendous

influence that is outside the iraqi command structure. it is a problem for us. we discussed this with the iraqi authorities as early as yesterday, talking to the ambassador. andar, the plan for falluja people entering the city, iraqi security forces are operating under the structure. it is a concern. grand know the iraqi, the ayatollah, everybody on the shia side is saying the right thing. any human rights violation -- everybody who violates anybody's human rights as the be held accountable. it is not acceptable. we are working to liberate the people of falluja who are iraqis. isil is holding the entire population hostage. anybody who leaves, they are trying to kill. everybody is saying the right thing, but in an environment like this, in the smoke and dust of it, there will be incidents.

it is important the government holds the people accountable. reporter: you mentioned number four, the revenue. estimate of the annual oil sales now? and, to what extent is it going down? because oil prices have dropped theecause of airstrikes and counter operation? mr. mcgurk: great question. we got real insight and knowledge into their finances because of an operation are special forces did over a year ago into deep into syria into a town no longer in isil's hands. theas an operation against deputy of the main leader and their main financier. our heroic special forces -- these guys are incredible -- they told more information off

that site than any raid in their history. we learn more about how they are funding than anything else we have done. they were generating about $500 million from oil and gas and $500 million from antiquities, extractingrtion, revenue from the population. we were able to systematically develop all of that intelligence information and working across the u.s. government into the military targeting process to go after how they are getting oil off the ground and how they are selling it. we have reduced the production by at least 30%. we are produced their ability to generate revenue. the numbers are fuzzy, but it continues to go down. as we see it, we then get together in the situation room and say how we will adapt and stay ahead of them? this is why it is hard. some say why don't you just go after the oil immediately?

you have to get the specific information about exactly what they are doing so that the military effects can be precise and have the effect you want. it was based upon that operation deep into syria that we got the intelligence we needed. we will continue to target the revenue scree. libya's plan on what happens next -- there has been obvious success against presentre, but the factions continue to exist. for after youn are hopefully able to eradicate? will the u.s. do more to help with the government? the core government functions.

mr. mcgurk: libya is extremely complex. there wasks ago, hardly any traction on how we would grapple this. so, it formed a government,. a very important meeting held in vienna where the world rallied to support the government. there are elements on the ground that have not yet recognized the authority of that government. that remains a problem. our position is clear that any person on the field in libya should recognize the authority of the civil government. secretary kerry was in abu dhabi talking about some of this. we are talking to the egyptians about this. we are prepared to work with the general under the umbrella of the government. there are lots of discussions going on about this. i think we are making some traction. my colleague at the state

department is working the political piece of this every single day, together with the u.n. special representative. we have a lot of work to do in libya, but we now have some traction in how to go after it. those effects are starting to be seen on the ground, but it will take time and we have to work in step-by-step. we want to make sure these armed actors, under a civilian umbrella and we need cooperation to make that happen. saw earlier this week there were people fleeing from isil. what are you doing to help the people that are fleeing? mr. mcgurk: it is harder than what we are doing in iraq because we don't have the access which we do from a place like

baghdad where we are working directly with the government. but, i mentioned the military council. an authorityo a mo that will be ready to go in and work so they can do the stabilization piece. the borders remained difficult. we just opened the border with the kurdistan region of iraq into northern syria to get a lot of this humanitarian relief flowing. that is open for humanitarian trade, to make sure those areas are liberated from isil and resources can help people. momwe have completed the encirclement and the phase is liberating the city will begin. i will not put a timeline on that we are working with local actors who have local knowledge and pulling resources to make sure we have the stabilization piece right. syria is harder because we are

not working with the central government. we will not work with the assad regime, period. it presents different challenges than iraq. if you look at what we have done in terms of clearing out the territory, we sit on a formula that works. it will be one of the most strategic blows to isil because it is their hub of war and fighters -- foforeign fighters. i suspect they will fight for it. we feel pretty good about the plan. someter: still on libya, officials are saying they're quite surprised that have gone in and forces are mobilizing. is that your assessment? mr. mcgurk: i think they have some ways to go. i don't want to get ahead of the situation because it remains pretty fluid, but we are encouraged by the progress.

we understand they have set up an operations room to organize these fighters. in libya, a few months ago when i would do conferences, they would talk about this hockey libya.rowth of isil in it has remained static at 5000 fighters. most of from north africa or sub-saharan africa. it is not grown because the libyan people totally reject isil. that have been able to control b y force, but once you have your on the ground, there is a chance they could crack but we are not there yet. reporter: is there a clear read on what baghdadi plan is seeing as you have not heard from him in some time? is he alive and well? mr. mcgurk: we have no reason to believe he is not still alive, but we have not heard from him since the end of last year. ramadan.om

you would think he would be coming out with a statement to his so-called followers, but we have not heard from him. we presume he is still alive. we are -- we are getting closer and closer to the very core. it is really a matter of time for him. i cannot put a timeline on any of the operations for raqqa and mosul. it will be extremely difficult but i think we have a good plan to organize the local actors, arab fighters to isolate raqqa. reporter: if i heard you allectly, you are saying you have is to take the government of baghdad at its word, saying they are doing the right thing. issued similar reports of executions by the

forces. how concerned are you there are more reports and they are using engagesh against isis to in score settling with sunnis? most atrocities being committed in falluja are being committed by isil. and, isil is killing families as they are trying to leave falluja. it is happening every day. slaves insidedi falluja. that is the bulk of the humanitarian violations. however, we are concerned about some of these reports by some of these militia groups on the outskirts of falluja. i would say that even the leaders of these units have said this is totally unacceptable and they will hold people to account and have to hold people to account because these types of incidents play right into isil's

overall narrative. we faced in the early days of tekrit and there was all sorts of protections of what might go wrong. we work hard with the right actors to tamp things down. that is what we are doing now. environment is very chaotic in a lot of these places. there is a sectarian dimension, but also tried on tribe dimension. it is really complex. ditold the story of a yazi who said all he has left in his life is revenge. we are not on the ground in falluja. it is incumbent upon the actors, government, religious leaders to say the right thing and hold people accountable. we are concerned about it and we are talking to the right people to make sure it is handled appropriately. reporter: do you feel the government of baghdad shares your concerns? they are pushed further into the

arms of extremist groups. some other group would replace isil in iraq? mr. mcgurk: the government of iraq shares these concerns. he is bringing with him all the sunni leadership of the country, the local leaders of falluja, the province and national leaders. when i was in baghdad about six weeks ago, i met with all the sheiks, particularly in anbar. the driving demand to get into falluja was coming from the sunnis in these areas. that is the plan. the forces to enter the city, about 20% of them are local fallujans. we are making sure local police are controlling the streets after them. there are these reports of isolated incidents, which everybody is concerned about.

so, so far, right now things seem to be relatively tamped d own. one plug for the coalition in terms of local police -- we are training 900 police leaders every three months. it is how we have been able to get local people patrolling the streets after isil. we are looking to triple that number by october. that is one of the reasons i met with the coalition to get to that target. reporter: when you say local police -- mr. mcgurk: the idea after isil is that in a place like tekrit, they want people from there to be the police patrolling the streets. reporter: my actual question is in two years now of these people + memberunded by a 60 of a western coalition, we have not seen the number of fighters go down that much. can you describe what the

foreign fighter flow looks like right now? how much of this 25,000 strong force are foreign fighters? are they still going over the border from syria? can you give us a sense of how many fighters you think there have been in total since the beginning? mr. mcgurk: the numbers -- that is why there is a range. 19,000 to 25,000. their ability to get fighters into syria is dramatically restricted. our goal is to make sure they cannot get in and once they are they can never get out. it is very hard for them to get in. even in their own propaganda that they release a couple of months, they say join our great organization, but maybe do not come to syria. go to libya. that was assigned that told us that it is easier for them to get into -- harder to get into syria and increasingly hard for them to get out.

from libya, it is hard for them to get into libya. the 5000 fighters in libya are mostly north africans or from sub-saharan africa. the numbers have gone down substantially. that said, as it is harder for them to get to syria, they are trying to recruit locally to inspire homegrown attacks. somebody who was inspired over the internet rather than being recruited to go into syria. but have always done that, it is what they are increasingly trying to do. that is a very different challenge. it will be with us for years. that is why all of us in washington, the whole government, but across this global international community need to focus on it. it is a very different problem than what we saw in brussels for which arer paris taxed in ra -- attacks i organized in raqqa and they send

the operatives out. that is why we want to keep the pressure on them constantly. reporter: are they mostly foreign fighters now? as the demographic change much? mr. mcgurk: isil is made up of bulk. they claim to have done about 119 suicide bombers in may alone. almost all of them are foreign fighters. the suicide bombers give them this ruthless impact on the battlefield and against the civilian population. some are syrians and iraqis but there is a decreasing number. us of little more about the countries of coalition partners. you talked about the training being given. us, as for thell raid, is a mainly american

operation? raidsid 90% are american and 10% -- as for ground troops, are we getting to a point where we have to ask more ground troops from coalition partners to complete the plan? mr. mcgurk: the way we have organized the coalition, there are five lines of effort. military, countering foreign fighters, countering finance, propaganda and the stabilization. on the military, it is about 12 coalition partners helping on the overall military air campaign. the fact that is strengthening and growing, we've added four partners which are conducting operations in syria just over the last four to five months. since the paris attacks, we have increased the rate of strikes in 100% based upon

additional support from the coalition and resources. about 20 coalition fighters have forces on the ground doing training, advising and assisting. that is not all u.s., that is a coalition effort. we have a number of coalition partners together with our special forces. but, we are organized across these different working groups. stabilization is led by germany and the uae. it is that working group, they meet about every month at different parts around the world to make sure we have this stabilization going as best as we can. on the counter messaging, i think i mentioned in the opening, u.k., malaysia and tant counter messaging. we are organized by the coalition through these multiple

military, diplomatic and humanitarian lines of effort. we hope to have a meeting in washington over the coming months where we bring this together. the last time we met was in rome. i think the coalition, having met with all the leaders of the coalition, we have a coherent strategy and global campaign plan. i don't have now, to do a briefing of what we are doing. everybody knows and is about how to do it better and making sure foreign fighters cannot go across borders, making sure we are doing counter propaganda, all of which supports the military campaign. we are in a virtuous cycle. with that said, i close on a copaveat. this is a tremendous challenge. they want to attack us. we have to remain vigilant, not the u.s. only, but our coalition partners. for the most part, this is a challenge that will be with us for years. thank you.

>> book tv has 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors every weekend. here are some programs coming up this weekend. today and sunday at 11 a.m., book tv is live from the 32nd annual printers row lit fast in chicago, one of the most free book events bringing many lovers to the book festival. today features thomas frank. "shrill." with the book "the killing of osama bin laden." and the author of "hamilton, the revolution." "tribe."book, elizabeth hinton. author sidney blumenthal discusses his book, "a self-made

man, the political life of abraham lincoln." kirk: american conservative." talks about his personal library and his reading habits. sunday night at 9:00, california senator barbara boxer talks about her book "the art of cu ff." plus, her life and career in politics. she is interviewed by the minnesota senator amy klobuchar. >> reached in the back of my mind. how we can get a meeting, so i said, you know, that is all well and good, but if we turn back and walked down the stairs now, there is a bank of cameras down there and we are going to tell them we were not able to see anybody. just a minute. and he goes back. ok, go in the side room.

george mitchell will meet with you. we told you you have to open the meetings and they did. >> go to booktv.org for the complete weekend schedule. >> the faith and freedom coalition hosted an all-day conference yesterday in washington that included lawmakers and a keynote address from republican presidential candidate donald trump. that is next on c-span. later, democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton gives a speech to planned parenthood. [applause] >> good morning. officiallyted to kick off the 20216 road to majority conference. we are blessed to be a part of

this process. we integral 2016 cycle expect to not only be exciting and fascinating, but a pivotal one in american history. we are, over the next five months, obviously there will be all kinds of decisions made, conversations had and movement we believe in the direction of godliness and righteousness in america both politically and culturally. believe this conference and others like this across the country are key cogs in helping to facilitate that. as we get started, we begin the program, i want to lay some ground rules. obviously, this has been a spirited primary season. it will continue to be a

fascinating process as we move into the general session, but we're still going to hear from an array of different speakers throughout today, tomorrow and tomorrow night at our gala. we ask this be a really respectful, honoring place. if you got a fan favorite that is up here, let us hear about it. if you are waiting for the next speaker, people sitting next to you may have come for the people on the program right now. does and freedom always masterful job in bringing folks to these things and people honoring the spirit of the program. say we had some security concerns. so, we have taken some pretty pronounced efforts to keep that

to a bare minimum. thank you for bearing with any inconvenience over the last few minutes as you have been coming in and people continue to. as we begin the program, obviously we are excited to have each of the participants in the program that we believe is the most important component of this to really honor and lift up those that we believe makes america great. i will ask that you join dr. merritt of the southern leadership conference of north carolina to lead us in prayer. >> good morning. day that a wonderful god has given us and each of us have arrived here safely. it is a blessing. i have traveled quite a ways to

be with you today, but i'm honored and blessed. i want to share that blessing with you. for acould bow our heads word of prayer. heavenly father, we ask for your guidance, for your blessings that we can do your will. help us to be strong and to fight the negativity that is upon our country. give us the faith, give us of the grace and let us do that will. we know there are trials and tribulations that we will have to face, but we know with the strength of the lord, that we can overcome any obstacle that may be upon us. we want to thank you in jesus' name for all blessings and we ask for continued blessings as

we move forward through this congress. in jesus name, we pray. amen. >> please welcome for the pledge fecallegiance, new jersey president linda rhomes. >> i'm so honored to be here to lead you in our pledge of allegiance. all rise. i pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and sue the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you. >> please stand director stand as the regionalc of

events thinks the national anthem. >> ♪ o say, can you see ighthe dawn's early l hailed proudly we gleaming.light's last broad stripes and bright stars fighth the perilous o'er the