mobilize a range of opposition groups ranging from the the zaidis in yemen, the nedj, the reports of shia conversion and even when we look at the fear of nuclear capable iran the biggest fear is not so much that it will use the capability against arab states but provide some top cover for iran to continue the policy of meddling in internal affairs of states. to dynamics may be at work. the first as arab leaders may actually believe their populations are susceptible. particularly reductionism on the arab-israeli front but they remain sensitive to the fact the islamic public kuiper activism on the palestine issue expos is of their own deficiencies especially dependence on the usn process to domestic and regional audiences and certainly iran does have a number of important ways with nonstick actress in the societies. the sudden dynamic is their regimes may actually be benefiting from threat inflation. they're essentially stamping a return address on problems that are fundamentally internal and homegrown and saudi arabia in discussions with reformists and human rights activist we found the cr

fifty-one the first basic division is between city and shia and pakistan is about 80% suni and 18% shia. there are small numbers of hindus, christians, and muslim minorities that have been branded as a non muslim by the government but also come under some other aberration. within bid dominant majority sunni tradition it also breaks down. there is a small section, but then there are the taliban they have most of the met process in a country they have about 10,000. >> host: what was very unorthodox school of islam you describe that very well in the book but the influence is particularly strong in prune jab and it expires -- extends to the northwest frontier province but there is archipelago of shrines. that they will go and visit and spend hours in the evenings studying poetry and dancing and it is a very, very and orthodox. >> as the taliban come at what was happening is one of the first things the taliban did was to take over some of the shrine and say now we're running these and nobody comes in here. it is a direct threat. and intimate relationship with god. >> host: and often enjoy is

that is shia. how many years have we heard experts tell us that shia and sunni could not possibly cooperate on any realistic level because the religious identical line between them is so deep and here you have it seems as i understand it, the mullahs of tehran as the principal backers of hamas. >> well, i wrote an article about this for commentary magazine back in february. and it stems from this. that when hamas was created, this immediately appealed to iran. iran was steadfastly opposed to the oslo process. did not want to see the palestinians make peace with israel. and found a faction that steadfastly opposed it as well so began to throw money in their direction. now, this shiite/sunni divide played a factor in the early goings because there was this sort of inherent distrust between these different sects within islam but over the years, we saw hamas, palestinians islamic jihad other rejectionist groups rely upon iran for operational support for weapons, for financing in order to attack israel

the fourth is shia that i will let dress is democracy. [cheers and applause] i know there's been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years and much of this controversy is connected to the war in iraq. so let me be clear. no system of government can or should be imposed by one nation by any other. that does not lessen my commitment, however, to governments that reflect the will of the people. each nation gives life to this principal in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people. america does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election. but i do have an on yielding believe that all people year and for certain things. the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you were governed. confidence in the rule of law, and the equal administration of justice. a government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people. the freedom to live as you choose. these are not just american ideas. they are human rights and that is why we

the shia suni / factor early on because there was the inherent distrust between these different sects of is on. but over the years we saw hamas and other rejectionist groups relying upon iran for operational support for weapons, financing in order to attack israel. this was their common goal and where they found working together. i would add iran actively drove a stake between the palestinian factions between fatah arafat's assassination was openly called for that appeal to certain members of hamas and resaw of this animosity grow over time due to the fact that hamas was getting the support from iran and fatah was not. the taub was being made fun of as a sellout to iran. but the pivotal point* one was in 2000 season as yasser arafat declared war against israel we began to see iran throw more support for hamas even though fatah was actively and engaged in war use a hamas outflank the position of going into war initially they were together but then hamas says we can do this on our own with iranian assistance. the key event was when saudi arabia determined it no longer wanted to support

the shia not retaliating. but there is a huge concern that there would be, if there was like a mangor bombing, that there would be a huge renewed sectarian round of violence. >> i think if you look at overall levels of violence in iraq, you will see an overall trending downward. and this trending downward includes some of the events that took place in recent weeks. i must say, as someone who is new there and when i see a couple of rockets at the green zone, those are a couple too many for my taste. but people who have had the benefit of more time there always tell me it's nothing compared to last year. so when you see the aggregate numbers put together by the u.s. military, you see there is an overall trending down. now, the real question is whether some of these attacks in one case an attack on iranian tourists, actually, whether these attacks on obvious shee united states populations are ones that -- shee its are going to be reciprocated. whether it's concerted or not it's obviously in our view an attempt to

the sheer branch of -- the shia branch of islam is very strong in iraq. it is the dominant branch in iran. pilgrimage sites are in iraq, which is important to iranians with a strong know of people and goods. given the history, which you mentioned, have included the support given by iran for some extremists and minor violence in the first few years after the invasion of iraq, the government in baghdad is very sensitive to iranian policy. it could be that they are hoping that the policy of iran is going to stay moderate towards iraq, and that a more extremist policy isn't going to be followed. host: jonathan on the behind for republicans out of columbus, ohio. go ahead. caller: my point, mr. ambassador , why can't we just let them run their own problems? they can solve their problems, and how dare you now tell the iranians about democracy? why can't we let them solve their own problems? host: thanks for your call. guest: in those cases we supported democratic movements but you're right, it is for the iranian people to solve this. all my comments over the la

, an iranian shia this is a chauvinism that is mirrored on the other side so i think this is sadly a dynamic that's a parallel in the region. >> hi. we spoke a lot about iranians in iran and their opinions of the government, but given your unique position being in touch with the iranian community here in the united states, do you think you could juxtapose a little bit the differing opinions or the philosophies of the iranians in america and their opinion of the government and politics? >> i think that -- it seems to me and i will admit it's been almost a decade since i haven't lived in the u.s. but to the extent that i go back and forth and i'm familiar with what the diaspora in america thinks, i think attitudes really run the spectrum of opinion. there are certainly iranians in diaspora are diehard monarchists and cling to the idea that the shah's son will go back and iran will be restored to the monarchy and, of course, along with that attitude comes a lot of unrealistic perceptions about iran and how young people are ready to overthrow the regime and how the u.s. should have nothi

the first basic division is between sunni and shia, and pakistan is about 80% sunni, and about 18% shia. there are small numbers of hindus and christians and muslim minorities that are sort of not considered -- that actually have been branded as on muslims by the government but also follow some aberration of islam. so within the dominant majority sunni tradition, it also breaks down. it breaks down there is a small section what are called -- more or less wahhabis than there are the dale bundy's which are more or less the taliban, they have most of the madrassas in the country of the 13,000 madrassas about 10,000 of them -- >> host: and those being what was once a very orthodox school of islam founded in india and dale pond and ux describe that very well. >> guest: the souci influence is very strong in pan job. in the northwest frontier province particularly in punjab there is an archipelago of shrines that dustin fees will go and visit and spend hours in the evening reciting poetry, dancing, and it's a very, very unorthodox -- >> host: which drives the wahhabis not. >> guest: and taliba

>> i think he will be involved in working with shia, sudi, and kurd. i would be hesitant to use the word mediator. he is someone who will oversee that we're making progress and our attention on resources are matched by what we see needs to happen. i think that he is well-suited to do that. >> can you tell me if the president did anything extraordinary to be posted on the transition since midnight iraqi time? >> i can check and see if we received anything special, or when the last time he spoke with general of the year no and ambassador hill. they are in fairly good contact. >> back of the hundred issue for one moment if the president came here you will likely meet with the state department. >> i think right now, a lot of this has been done -- state department officials have been in contact with him already. i am not even sure it is clear that if he comes to this country that his stock will be in washington. >> is there a particular reason why would not be appropriate? >> no. i think the state department is a pretty good extension of our foreign policy.

it's one of his objectives but israel as i mentioned is only the little satan in shia muslim eschaology. the united states is the great satan so israel is an objective but we are the ultimate objective because iran's leader receives us as an epicenter of christiandom. we need a revival of this country and we need to return to jesus christ to this country but for their purposes they are coming to us. our theme at this epicenter conference this year is understanding today's global crisis -- crises in the light of bible prophesy. what most people don't realize is this -- is that the islamic revolution that was set into motion 30 years ago this year, 30 years ago this week is actually the fulfillment of bible prophesy. in the past 30 years what have we seen in iran and throughout the muslim world? we've seen wars. we've seen revolutions. we've seen rumors of more wars. we've seen terrible lawlessness. the exporting of terrorism all over the middle east, all over the world. asia, africa, latin america, the united states. we have seen terrible persecution of followers of jesus christ and now

shia acknowledges that. she is a sheep. -- she is a she. there has not been an anticipated response that says okay, we have white men who have a certain experience, if you look at what previous justices have said, they acknowledge their thinking on some level. we get hit from the right, the some of the folks that could be the most vocal are simply not at the table. a big part of countering the right, when they come with this far-reaching, non fact race rhetoric is having folks mobilize or already in conversation when they can understand it and respond to it. even more interesting is, it is one thing to hear the media come get a message come and be prepared to say i know what that is. it is another to be a part of a network of people, on-line networks and offline networks. people have conversations with others to trust them. the ability to diffuse a message from the right, i can send e- mail to others. there are others who may disagree with me. i still have the opportunity to be engaged. in part, i think it is about people being organized an

when we did not support the she up when they rose up and we allowed -- and we did not support the shia, and we allow saddam hussein put down those uprising. i think there were a lot of people who were suspicious about america if they stood up. it was by no means perfect, but i think we have done a huge service for humanity, a huge service for security, for the middle east, the people of iraq, and i expect as the years passed, you will see increasingly that iraq becomes an example of frankly the kind of democratic secure nation that president obama talked about wanting when he was in his speech in cairo this week. banks. -- thanks. >> hello, i am from the el university. you did not see many similarities between george w. bush and barack obama. it's something i see continuing is the covert war in the eastern tribal areas of pakistan, how it is affecting the war on terrorism. the front is really moved into afghanistan, but with what the soviet union tried to do in 1980's, they're not being able to stop the mujahadeen and supplies from pakistan, alongside on friendly iran to the west, and

there is no conflict between the sunni and the shia.ld walk in the street with no veil and we could go to universities. now we cannot walk in the street. in afghanistan, the taliban burned the women who go to schools. so women now in iraq and afghanistan, between fires, between the hell of the fundamentalist fanatic movement and stirring occupation and they are linked, foreign occupation encourages fundamentalist religion. you see now in afghanistan how the american army is indifferent to women problems. because they want to have relation with the power, with the religious power with the taliban. so they sacrifice women rights in order to have alliance with the power. and this is happening all the time, in egypt also. when we had the revival of the islamic groups and the christian groups, et cetera. and the muslim brothers wanted to have -- to connect with the government and the government wanted to connect with the muslim brothers who have power. they sacrifice. that's why it's very important to have principles. religious people are a

supporting activities of the iranian revolutionary guard or material support to the taliban, hezbollah, the shia militants and iraq, that this is serious provocation and it seems that we're holding our punches by not calling it one and is into my encouragement would just be for us to take this seriously because when we lighten up on north korea by taking them off the list we did lineup on then we in a sense rewarding bad behavior hoping we would create good behavior and we got worse behavior than we had before. in makes absolutely no sense to continue with this and i think it basically iwo amplifies and growing sense of americans are a paper tiger full of talk and no action. it appears that this is maybe one of the few things we can do at this point that can actually put some pressure on them and if you say we're already doing all the things such as freezing their assets and the other economic sanctions that go along with this, the message it sends to the world is that we're getting serious of least in my mind. >> i appreciate your thoughts and we will reflect on that and get back to you. i thin

the trauma was also exacerbated i think at the end of the first gulf war when we didn't support the shia when they rose up and the allowed saddam hussein to continue to fly his helicopters and use those helicopters to put down the uprisings. there were a lot of people who were suspicious whether america will be there for them if they did stand up. so it was by no means perfect but i think that we have done a huge service for humanity, huge service for security, huge service for the least, the people of iraq and i suspect as the years pass you will see increasingly iraq becomes an example of the kind of space secure nation president obama talked about wanting when he was in the speech in cairo this week. >> you don't seem any similarities between george w. bush and barack obama but something i see that is continuing is president obama's kolevar war in the eastern tribal areas of pakistan and how that's affecting the war on terrorism right now because it is moving from iraq to afghanistan but i mean with what the soviet union tried to do in the 1980's not being able to stop the mujahideen

started seeing these people and in conjunction with the efforts of the sudanese and all over iraq, shias and kurds, we have turned on them with a vengeance and the movement has been destroyed. there's still rear guard action in, trying to make more presence than really exists but the beauty of it is that other countries have seen that they can and should defeated, the moderates are starting to assume a level of control over the region and we're pleased with the outcome and pleased as well that the loss of life and injury that's been associated with our presence there is being rewarded again by success. afghanistan is somewhat another story. the casualties the numbers of attack and so forth are on the rise in afghanistan. you have seen the recent actions of the department of defense and president obama's administration in terms of how we intend to deal with that. the marine corps portion of that is some 10,700 marines who have now reported to afghanistan at the end of last month. we'll be operating in the south as a marine expeditionary brigade but as important, maybe moreso, as marine ai

a minute later shia complained about her own and experience.the crew then lowered the flaps and landing gear and the plan quickly encountered trouble. the stick shakers stalled warning device activated, 10:16 for nearly seven seconds and a horn sounds to signal the autopilot was disconnecting at the board renslow pulled back pushing the dow was up word, that altered the air flow of the wings and sent the plane tumbling. and then a quote from mr. rosenker, acting chairman told reporters renslow and shaw violated regulations banning conversation once a plan to send blood in thousand feet. clearly there were violations of the cockpit rules which ban such conversations he said. critical phases of flight the career direct focus without doubt there is a risk of mistakes. this is a chilling to everyone, and if you have had a loved one on that play and it is beyond chilling. it is unforgivable it seems to me, so i want to get to a letter that senator snowe and i sent to secretary lahood and we said some tough things, mr. babbitt. we are troubled by rep

and in the subsequent months between the shia maelstrom try and to cover what was happening as the world fell apart and many of you were also screen around like headless chickens working out what had happened and what was going to happen and why. i was very key to try to figure out the vehicle to tell the story how the financial system have sponsor out-of-control and perhaps make pointers about what could be done to avoid that in the future so i returned back to the original morgan mafia idea that had been bubbling ever since i've gone to the original conference. and the reason i decided to focus on them was partly because they did indeed play a critical role in developing the credit world but also i felt strongly i want to tells the story through real-life human beings come through in actable story because as the financial system has imploded the last couple of years it's been too easy for politicians and consumers and journalists at times to simply resort to cliches and stereotypes to put everything in black and white terms to make stark judgments and sometimes quite frankly you have t

the book but to give you a whiff, mahmoud ahmadinejad was born into a poor but devoutly religious shia muslim family in central iran. now, he was not particularly distinguished toward dynamic person throughout the islamic revolution in 1979, wasn't a major general during the iran/iraq war and he really does not seem to pop up on the radar screen much at all and suddenly becoming a great military leader, intelligence official, political leader. he gets his doctorate in traffic management. i don't know exactly how bad traffic is out here or how it is in tehran but it must be hellish in tehran, to get a doctorate in it for crying out loud. when he ran for mayor of iran or tehran, the capitol city he ran on preparing the way for the coming of the islamic messiah and taking the trash out. i am not kidding. you will see that he called himself the little street sweeper. that was his claim to fame. i will get the garbage taking care of, the traffic in the garbage and will prepare the way for the messiah because we can't have traffic and garbage in the mistreats when the messiah comes, apparent

sounded like something like an islamic disco because the reporter described there being big portraits of shiants on the walls and they brought a mulla to read from the koran and after that they brought somebody to talk about the irani/and iraqi war and this was meant to be a party and they passed out the snacks that usually kids in elementary school will eat. and then the party favor was a book on marriage written by the ayatollah khamenei who is the country's supreme leader. only 300 people attended the government's moderation party. and so i mention this anecdote and i write about it as a way of illustrating how the government is slowly -- is recognizing the social crises that are on its hands and what young people are struggling with but it's very often unable to address these problems because the tools that are at its disposable very often, religion and ideological tools like that, don't resonate with young people. most iranian young people although they may have faith certainly, they may pray during -- they may pray, they may fast during ramadan but are very alienated of the official you

now that we've done that we are going to turn on the shia and finished the job and i was like well that's not in the plan, buddy. [laughter] but part of this as you know the iraq war isn't about loss, it was never about office. it's about iraqi finding a combination with each other. they're still for a ship without a fight and i think there will be a need for them to find their own level and figure out where things sit so as i said i done don't think the war is over. people in iraq who have the least appetite for fighting is last. the iraqi is are still ready to fight each other if need be. iraq to me today looks like lebanon after the courts. we have a fragile ethnic balance of power and a government that is barely able to police the balance of power and keep things in hand. if you remember it was external interference from another power so we need to worry about the role of external power interfering in iraq. the final thing i want to talk about briefly is a coup. the best that i ever worked with who i went out with many times on the ground said to me some hussein was a bad man but he u

worse by a lack of security, corruption in kabul and passage of oppressive measures shutch a as the shia personal status law. every conversation i've had with commanders there, including our recent trip, assures me that the kind of gender apartheid occurring in afghanistan undermine ours national security. so we cannot sit idly by and do nothing about it if we are to stabilize this region and bring our troops home. during a recent house armed services committee hearing, the g.a.o. witness highlighted the importance of empowering women, but noted her agency had not focused on the advancement of women in afghanistan and she went on to state that, quote, investment in women is often a pivotal investment focus for returns on economic growth and economic dwoment in country, unquote. and i believe that and i also believe that this is true for political growth as well. in education, some say if you don't test it, you won't teach it. well, without these metrics, we can't know how our aid is impacting these women. we are reshaping our commitment to the afghan people in a way that fosters trust, p

trauma was also exacerbated, i think, at the end of the first gulf war when we didn't support the shia when they he rose up and when we allowed saddam hussein to continue to fly his helicopters and use those helicopters to put down the uprisings. i think there were a lot of people who were suspicious about whether america would be there for them, you know, if they did stand up. so it was by no means perfect but i think that we have done a huge service for humanity, a huge service for security, a huge service for the middle east, for the people of iraq, and i expect that, you know, as the years pass here, you'll see increasingly that iraq becomes an example of, you know, frankly the kind of democrat secure nation that president obama talked about wanting when he was in his speech in cairo this week. thanks. >> hello, i'm from yale university. you don't see any similarities between george w. bush and barack obama but something that i see that is continuing is president obama's covert war in the eastern tribal areas of pakistan. and how that's affecting the war on terrorism right now beca