it's nineteen hundred and sixty miles across that southwest border. it's some of the roughest, toughest, geographical terrain in the world across that border. and so the notion that you're going to seal that border somehow is something that anybody who's been involved in the actual doing of law enforcement, the front office work, the front line work of the law enforcement which say you're never going to totally seal that border, recognizing also that there's a lot of trade in commerce we want going back and forth, i mean, mexico, for 22 of our states, is our number one or two trading partner. i mean, it's huge the amount of commerce that goes back and forth. but this will make our border even more secure and we will keep evolving as indeed border threats keep involving. but the notion that you're going to somehow seal the border, and only at that point will you discuss immigration reform, that is not an answer to the problem. >> okay. now, the next question. or, no. they're calling from csis. >> thank you, your honor. debal garcias. i guess my questio

southwest influences prices wherever it competes and southwest is perceived as a potential competitor, but southwest and the other low-cost carriers have found success by competing in directly rather than directly with the networks. they are called low-cost carriers because they do not bear the cost of large networks. they do not offer the same type of one-stop shopping, frequent flyer benefits for airport amenities as network carriers. so, decisions about the future of domestic transportation should not rest on the concept that southwest will always play its current role. its strategies could change. its management could make mistakes. it could choose to relax under the price umbrella of a tight oligopoly of network carriers. the ultimate question is whether the public would be satisfied with three domestic and three global air transportation systems. there is little if any empirical knowledge that says how many systems are needed to provide a workable degree of competition. there is substantial data that suggests that competitive problems increase as the market becomes highly concen

we have seen progress on the southwest border before. it's probably frustrating to some on this debate, because it doesn't look like we've made any progress. you look at 2005. the busiest station in the or fastest-growing you'lla station in arizona. they had 125,000 illegal aliens that they apprehended that year in 2005. you contrast that with last year, 2009. that number was down to 3800. that's because the technology and infrastructure and additional agents was put into uma. it turned the tide. that's significant progress but doesn't mean we're done, because we're far from it. that should inform our options our policy options for the policy makers going forward that progress can be made, but it takes a sustained commitment in time. host: rep can line -- republican line, good morning. caller: thank you. something that has perturbed me for the past two years when i became aware that many of these ports of entry are privately owned. i'm amazed at this, and i wonder what is the purpose of these privately-owned ports of entry and whether th

between the way the gary anderson -- the dairy industry sees itself in the northeast and in the southwest. but we have to address that issue far sooner than the 2012 farm bill. dairy farmers today are faced with significant price spikes. their prices go up for a short time to historic highs and then fall deeply and sharply and stay low for a considerable time, putting a great deal of stress on the farmers. the one consistent message i got in 20 states i attended in the world summit and for was that dairy farmers are hurting. we put together a council representing all parts of the country and all aspects of gary to say to the industry that we have to come up with a consistent -- all aspects of the dairy to say to the industry we have to come up with a consistent voice to maintain the dairy industry for the united states and make it competitive against european competitors and new zealand. that's not going to happen with the 2012 farm bill. that will happen before. >> to make sure i understand what you're saying, you believe there should and will be a separate dairy bill prior to the farm b

. >> fire in the southwest. wild fire troubles increased. >> some lane closures still in effect on the j.f.x. we'llll >> and welcome back. it is 77 degrees downtown at the maryland science center. a beautiful monday morning. we're waiting for summer to kick in. we are officially now turning into the summer season. we'll keep the heat in the forecast. the humidity has come down in the forecast. 72 degrees at the airport. the dew points are running in the boer end of the 60's. most people feel uncomfortable when the dew point reaches 70. we're still forecasting temperatures close to 90. clear skies with a few high, thin clouds will likely moved in this afternoon. we're watching some thunderstorms off to our west. some of the clouds will travel westbound into the mid atlantic region. i think all of the rain will stay out there until we get to tomorrow and wednesday. high pressure in control right now. high pressure moving through new england will keep things quiet today. this front will dissipate over the next 24 h

june 4th kyron goes to school in southwest portland. he goes in there. he's headed to a science fair. goes to the science fair with his stepmother, terri horman and seen by other people at the science fair. at 8:45 his stepmother says she lasts see him going down the hallway toward his classroom. he's marked absent that day. nobody sees him in class and from then on it's been a mystery. he does not show up at home and does not come home on the school bus. stepmother calls the mother. office calls 911. here we are today. >> larry: does he live with his stepmother and father? >> he lives with his stepmother and father at this particular time. he does obviously have a biological mother and a stepfather who live in the southern part of oregon at this time. they've been here for days and days as the search has been going on. it's been an intense mystery for all of us. i've been here 20 plus years and i've never seen a story that's captivated the city the way this has. this kid shows up to school and all of a sudden disappears. >> larry: is it true the stepmot

but when i spoke with the president and i think about the southwest border, domestic relations, health care costs, law enforcement -- all those things have a drug nexus, and our foreign relations with colombia, mexico, russia. host: how does u.s. drug use, both legal and illegal drugs, compare with some of our biggest partners? guest: well, because we are such a large nation, so many people, we have the largest number of consumers. because our economy is still fairly strong in many ways, we do use far too many drugs. secretary clinton has mentioned this a couple of times. as i understand from the most recent reports, we are no longer the number one per capita consumer nation, but just given our size, we use too many drugs. reducing our own demand was certainly help us and it would help a lot of other countries. host: you mentioned the nexus between the drug issue and national security. i wanted to show you a headline from just this week, writing off fromresident statement mexican president felipe a. calderon, calling the u.s. the world's biggest drug addict. guest: we have heard that a

let's get this hole plugged, take care of those people down in southwest, south louisiana. on the gulf. those people are hurting. they're dying down there. i'm telling you those people are starving. they don't know what they're going to do. their stress level is probably so high it has just gone through the roof. but i just think it needs to, to quit being a democrat/republican thing. and become an american thing. this is a disaster. when there is disasters that happen around the world, america is always first to go and help those folks out. i think americans are good, strong people. and they, they care about, we care about our own. i think i see america going to, fixing to come together and help all those folks, those fishermen and help the gulf coast. because, in the long run, i think it will help all of america. >> larry: james, do you think, do you agree with john king this could be his katrina? >> you know i think they're two separate events. i really try to avoid any kind of comparison here. i think it is a catastrophe, biggest environmental catastrophe in the history

>> that is happening at the mouth of the river by the southwest pass.hey are getting some sheen into the inner marsh in the bay up to what they call myrtle grove. you see a lot of that white is no longer there. it has been eaten away. we talk about coastal erosion. we are getting erosion of a lot of the wetlands and marshes. they are putting booms out in the enterior marsh trying to protect the estuaries where shrimp and fish lay their examples. and into terror are bonn -- i mean into st. bernard and plaquemines parish on the east side they are concerned with the wetland. the lake up here is open to fishing. lake katherine is open to fishing but you have protection. that oil is collecting on chandelier island. if it keeps going like that it will get in the north end and get into the lakes from the back side. you don't know where the tide is going to take this stuff. >> would you point out new orleans as reference? >> it is on the north end of all of it. >> thank you. >> you are welcome. >> she is the on-seen coordinator. the administrator is on the way

the incident happened in a rural town some 50 miles southwest of dallas.officials leave believe the line was struck by a dig machine. people in three northwestern states began cleaning up much people in three midwestern states began cleaning up today after severe thunderstorms and tornados struck over the weekend. the lake township area, southeast of toledo, was particularly battered. at least five people died. storms there carved a path of destruction some 300 yards wide and ten miles long, destroying dozens of homes. the community's high school was badly damaged, forcing postponement of sunday's graduation ceremonies. twisters also hit michigan and illinois, but no deaths were reported. bank of america agreed to pay $108 million to reimburse 200,000 homeowners who were charged improper mortgage fees. the overcharges were levied by countrywide financial which was bought by bank of america in 2008. the payment settles a complaint by the federal trade commission which said countrywide targeted homeowners facing foreclosure with exorbitant fees. it's one of

they didn't file a flight plan, and instead of taking the easier route to the southwest with lower mountainsthey set off to the north and never seemed to get their bearings. >> english: i hope i'm going in the right valley. that one or this one? >> kroft: flight mechanic mel rowe voiced his concern early on. >> mel rowe: i don't know what we're going to see. we don't normally go this route. >> mcmahon: bingo-- "we don't normally go this route." >> kroft: to make matters worse, the blackwater operations center in bagram didn't have the equipment necessary to track the flight. so once it left the air base, the company had no idea where its plane was. but the crew seemed unperturbed. >> butch hammer: you're an x- wing fighter, "star wars" man. >> english: damn right. this is fun. >> kroft: 25 minutes into the flight, jeanette mcmahon recognized her husband's voice from the back of the plane. >> colonel mike mcmahon: you guys heading to farah first? >> yeah. >> mike mcmahon: okay. >> jeanette mcmahon: that's mike. >> kroft: i mean, he seems to be saying... >> jeanette mcmahon: "just double check

our southwest border states have endured more than their share of challenges.i know this from personal experience, having worked directly on border issues since 1993, first as the united states attorney for arizona, then as the arizona attorney general, then as the governor of arizona, and now, of course

president obama makes his first high school graduation speech as president and southwest michigan this evening. he will speak to kalamazoo central high school. we will have live coverage of that event here on c-span at 7:00 eastern. while we wait for the progressive conferenced while they are having lunch, we will look at congressional races from this morning's "washington journal." coversr congress druckeroll call," -- david drucker covers congress for "roll call." clearly the oil spill -- what impact will this have on what congress wants to get done? guest: i want to find out if harry reid's call to his committee chairman over the memorial day break that he wants the kennedy bill on the floor before everyone hightls it, if that will be a reality or whether there be a flurry of activity around the climate change bill beginning today. most of us in washington consider that bill or anything like it, dead. remember, the house passed something like last year. it was very politically toxic for those democrats in the midwest. we felt all along that it would be very difficult for the preside

that's because after 10 moves in the fbi, serving in the west coast, east coast, northeast, and southwest, i totally eliminated any vestige of an accent from chicago, my original hometown. that will probably be a good thing in the current administration, to be from chicago. frankly, i cannot think of a more difficult topic for either the private sector or law- enforcement in general then to consider these three elements. that is, organized crime, terrorism, and intellectual property crimes. all of these areas, whether it is the organization or the crime itself, it is generally cloaked in secrecy. to further complicate the mix, i want to spend a couple more minutes to talk about a fourth area, which is white collar crime. i want to do that to highlight some of the distinctions and some of the differences that we know based on studies of organized crime, terrorism, and white-collar crime. with the specific regard to the u.s., organized crime and white- collar crime are two major concerns to law enforcement. unlike ordinary street crime, these activities are vast amounts of illegal proceeds

it helped make the southwest united states of what it is today. this bill costs nothing, which is important in these tight financial times. since the costs will be born by the electricity ratepayers. i appreciate the gentlewoman for bringing this bill forward, the bipartisan manner in which it was crafted and i urge my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation. at this time i'll verve the balance of my time, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: -- i'll reserve the balance of my time, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman from california. mrs. napolitano: do you have more speakers? mr. chaffetz: i have no more speakers and consequently i'll yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. knapp -- mrs. napolitano: i want to thank my colleagues for endorsing this bill, especially the water staff on our side and on the minority staff. the collaborative effort is an example of how we can get things done. i'm very happy that we are able to do that in this bill and urge my c

southwest airlines will continue to be our country's largest domestic airline in terms of number of passengers carried after the united-continental merger. in the marketplace of today, international competitors have merged, and powerful new entrants continue to gain ground across the globe. today the largest airlines by revenue are lufthansa and air france. with more than half the capacity and to assess three of trans-pacific capacity provided by foreign carriers. united and continental have taken significant actions to improve our performance, competing across international and domestic markets, and finding a way to connect small u.s. communities into our combined network. in this dynamic environment, these actions have not been enough. our proposed merger is a very logical and essential next step for our objective of sustained profitability. let me be clear. without this merger, we would not have the $1 billion to $1.2 billion to improve products or services for our customers, nor would we have the financial means to create a better career opportunities for our employees. we would not be as

president obama makes his first high-school graduation speech in southwest michigan designee. he will speak to kalamazoo central high school students. hundreds of people have tickets but it is not public. we will have live coverage here on cspan starting at 7:00 eastern. the campaign for america's future and discussion is set to get under way in a few minutes. we will look at this morning's headlines. hington journal" in the last 30 days, give others a chance to have their voices heard. here is the story -- "mo thomas balad." lanny davis, former special counsel to present and -- these comments were made to a blog there and have been available online. we will give you a look at those posted on line over the weekd. something -- some of what helen cupp -- helen thomas had to say. >> any comments of israel? >> tell them to get the out of palestine. [laughter] remember, these people are occupi. and it is their land. not german, not: -- but where should theyo? >> go home. >> where is home? >> poland, germany. >> jews should go back to poland and germany. >> and america and everywher

the largest increases from 1990 to the present have been in the southeast and southwest united states. places like north carolina, mecklenburg, n.c. when from 70% of births being -- went from 70% of births being white in the 1990's to less than 40% now. you are seeing huge shifts within one generation. that is where you see some of these tensions. where the growth has been rapid. in general, as you mentioned, this country has for a long time been a country of immigrants with the foreign-born population has become well integrated. i think it where we are really seeing the difference is how widespread it has become. like i said, the demographic shift, no one is surprised by it. what is becoming surprising is how widespread it has become. host: in "the wall street journal" they talk about mecklenburg, n.c. as you were speaking of it. there is a statue of mahatma condi -- john d. -- ghandi. "in 1997 the 0.3% of the county is white, to date is 54.6% and the young as whites are a minority amongst their peers -- youngest whites are a minority amongst their peers." guest: places like charrott

florida and we are anxiously awaiting and praying that the world does not hit our beaches here in southwestorida. host: right. what did you think of yesterday's congressional hearings? caller: i tink this is a lot of showboating by a lot of ngressmen. we have people from michigan grilling a someone and they have no clue what we are going through in florida and louisiana. we need to put this aside and stop the oil. we

shoreline that'alady been affected this ccludes the chandelier island, brent island, south pass, southwest pass, whiskey island, trinity island, ccoon island, en isle, elmer's island, marshsland, tplar island, pilot, isle,ake licity, pilot bay, bay ruma, ba tiste, bay long, lake- blind bay, beareas bay, wilkonson bayarsh. is disaster is bigger than call upon my cleagues and our nation to mainin our attention on swift rponse and recovery and to hold the responlity parties accontable. thk you and yield ck. the speaker pro tporeare there further one minute requests? the chair lays beforehe house the following personal requests. leave of absence requested -- the cler leavef absence requted for mr. davisf illinois for today. the speakro tempore withouobjection. the request is granted. for what purpe does t gentleman from tes rise? mr. poe: i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any ecial orders heretofore ented into, the folling members may be permitted to revise and extend. myself many, mr.oe, ne 17, mr. boozman for today, mr. burton from inana fojune 14, 15, 16,

florida and we are anxiously awaiting and praying that the world does not hit our beaches here in southwest florida. host: right. what did you think of yesterday's congressional hearings? caller: i think this is a lot of showboating by a lot of congressmen. we have people from michigan grilling a someone and they have no clue what we are going through in florida and louisiana. we need to put this aside and stop the oil. we had people explain how they had a similar situation on friday and dave were able to drain the oil and -- and they were able to drain the oil and contain most of it. host: has agreed to your beaches in fort myers? caller: no, it has not. host: has it affected the tourism? caller:, it has because of the media -- yes, it has because of the media. there have been a lot of cancellations and people who are afraid to come. host: this is the front page of the miami herald. an ominous turn for the panhandle. this is a picture on okaloosa island right there on the front page of the "miami herald." next call is bill on the democrats line. the what do you think of the congressional h

southwest bank in my district, i had probably 2000 constituents that owned south trust stock. and had the fdic been successful in what they plan to do, those people -- many of the retirements would have been 1/3 of the size they had been. if when wells fargo bought them. >> when -- will the dome in yield? >> of the fdic did a horrible job. >> what is your amendment not change that? you make my point. it does not apply to the fdic depository institution. if that is what you're worried about, why don't you apply it to depository institutions? under the amendment you are talking about now, that would not change and it would still be the fdic. i don't understand if you really mean that -- >> i would yield the gentleman from california. whether it is the fdic or a federal reserve, the bankruptcy enhanced process we are able to take derivatives and all these other problems we have to go why don't you apply it? put your legislation where your mouth is? >> in the case of wachovia, had wells fargo not walked off the street -- >> why don't you change it then? you leave that situation un

the inspector general, department of defense, is to provide effective and meaningful oversight in southwest asia. we will continue to coordinate and integrate our efforts within the oversight community and i look forward to answering any questions you may have. thank you. >> thank you very much. mr. bowen? >> good morning, chairman tierney, ranking member flank. thank you for inviting me here to address the challenges of contracting in combat zones, specifically to address the issue of who are our subcontractors. permit me to provide three premises that frame my remarks. first, the iraq experience underscores the truism that contracting in a war zone is uniquely challenging and vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse. second, that fraud, waste and abuse will get worse unless a regime is implemented that balances the principle of effective financial stewardship with the goal of mission accomplishment. third, a weakly resourced contract corps, such as we've seen in iraq and afghanistan, will harm oversight and, as you pointed out, potentially undermine mission accomplishment. we' we've been stud

and southwest airlines, will continue to be our country posey largest domestic airline in terms of numbers of passengers carried after the united- continental merger. today, in the marketplace of today, international competitors have merged and powerful new entrants continued to gain ground across the globe. largesthe world's airlines measured by revenue are air francefthansa, and klm. with more than 2/3 of trans- pacific capacity provided by foreign chararriers. united and continental have taken significant actions to improve our performance, competing across both international and domestic markets and at the same time finding a way to connect small u.s. communities into our combined networks. in this dynamic, a highly competitive and are met, these actions have not been enough. our proposed merger is a very logical and essential next step toward our objective of sustained profitability. let me be very clear. without this merger, we would not have the $1 billion in synergies to improve products. and to improve service for our customers, nor would we have the financial means to create bett

in general, the southerly winds and southwest, have taken the northern edge of the perimeter and move to close to the mississippi, alabama, and florida. we're seeing tar balls and oil patties. it is all the way from western mississippi to pensacola. it is starting to move north and slightly east. thee concerned from mississippi and louisiana line all the way over to florida. in regards to that, we have a lot of people out doing clean- up operations on the beach, skimming off shore. i want to talk about a couple of things that will be of interest to the local community. we have a vessel opportunity system where local boatmen and boat owners can come and register their boats to do work on the water, anything from inspecting booms, observing oil concentration, anything that will help our response. yesterday, we had a total of 443 vessels of opportunity working around alabama. i want to give you a sense of where they were at. 61 vessels out of daulphin island. 74 out of dog river. 142 from bayou lebatre. 23 vessels from fairhope. we're trying to optimize the local knowledge, expertise, an

a lot of old people in georgia and florida and all out throughout southeast and throughout southwest are dependent upon air-conditioning just to live. if their elick trissity bill goes sky high the energy tax is going to make it happen. people are going to have a hard time with hype thermia, that means their body temperature will go up, they'll get dehide ration and people will have a lot of problems. it's going to make a greater impact on the health care system and people will die because of that. it's going to kill jobs too. it's going to be, just like the obamacare is estimated to kill over five million jobs in this country. mr. akin: five million? mr. broun: 5.5 million, to be exact. what it's going to do, it's going to mean that a sll business man or woman who is trying to make a living, they're not going to be able to hire new employees because of obamacare. we've got to repeal and replace oba maw -- obamacare. everything that this congress has done since i've been here three years now, everything, all this has been under nancy pelosi's leadership, everything done, is going to

and 2007, it in many ways, the practical not haveon that we did border control resources we at the southwest border time and to get to the equping training and agents, we needed a stopgap, a bridge. the national g deployment guardsmen was it. in many ways,he national guard is aeasy political gesture, too. easily depyed and you show immediate action. it isn't nessarily going to make a big impact on the borde even with the 6000 troops deployed uer operation justart. the first thing people have to realize is when you deploy in of national guardsmen, an average for every field, there are them in the suppl chain. it in the case of national guard deployment and jumpstart, we saw deployment of mbe 4000 he border at any you hadndhen units, and to anfrom the staffing thee equipping the units, people performing headquarters functions to manage the logistics. say 1200, you are not seeing 10 onbout the border. when you then factor in shift work, e fact that you are at eight or 10 hour shifts for these guardsmen, be seeinghird that at any one time at the border. perrmingily in -- mission support roles. i

i happen to live in southwest d.c. at that point. just south of the washington mall where one of the first anti-war product -- protests was going on, and i decided the thing to do was to wander around the left-wing protest and right of peace making fun of them. i think it was a pretty good piece, because there was a lot to make fun of they have the giant, oversized topix. they were carrying around cliche and posters from the 1960's. basically, it seemed to me to be eminently lockable movement, and i bring this up, because i think the progress of the anti-war movement from being mocked by right wing freelancers found the washington mall to capturing the sympathies of a majority or even a large majority of americans by 2004 or 2005 was probably the closest recent analog to what the team parties have tried to do or have even done. when they got off the ground, barack obama was riding high. the consensus in washington was the this was a new progressive moment, and no one was clear about what this was about. they were treated as a joke, a

in general, the southerly winds and southwest, have taken the northern edge of the perimeter and move to close to the mississippi, alabama, and florida. we're seeing tar balls and oil patties. it is all the way from western mississippi to pensacola. it is starting to move north and slightly east. we're concerned from the mississippi and louisiana line all the way over to florida. in regards to that, we have a lot of people out doing clean-up operations on the beach, skimming off shore. i want to talk about a couple of things that will be of interest to the local community. we have a vessel opportunity system where local boatmen and boat owners can come and register their votes to do work on the water, anything from -- boats to do work on the water, anything from inspecting booms, observing oil concentration, anything that will help our response. yesterday, we had a total of 443 vessels of opportunity working around alabama. i want to give you a sense of where they were at. daulphins out of island. 23 vessels from fairhope. we're trying to optimize the local knowledge, expertise, and t

today, and southwest asia, psc employees are also doing important works under contract with the department of defense and state, for the u.s. agency for international development and other agencies. they guard military bases, escort convoys, and traveling at vip's, protect diplomats and diplomatic facilities, safeguard reconstruction projects and more. through my 21 trips to iraq, my life was in the hands of private security guards. i felt very secure because their high level of training, professionalism, and courage was obvious. today's hearing and the related hearing on monday are not intended to attack or championed private security companies. this commission has explored cases of excessive cost, personal and corporate misconduct, and adequate training or documentation, and unacceptable performance by some psc contractors. we have paid close attention to civilianct of iraqui deaths inflicted in 2007 into the upper reaches concept of afghan civilians by employees -- the outrageous treatment of afghan citizens by employees in 2008. many psc's are performing model work at high standard. we

, when in galveston, texas, union general gordon granger announced freedom for all slaves in the southwest. this was the last major vestige of slavery in the united states following the end of the civil war. this event occurree more than 2 1/2 years after the emancipation proclamation was issued by president abraham lincoln. . upon reading the order general number 3 by general granger, the former slaves celebrated jew baatly, establishing america's second independence day celebration and the oldest african-amerrcan holiday observance. since that time, over 145 years ago, the desendants of slaves have observed this anniversary of emancipation as a remembering of one of the most tragic periods in our nation's history. the suffering, degradation, and brutality of slavery cannot be repaired. but it can serve to ensure that no such inhumanity is ever perpetrated again on american soil. and so today juneteenth sell brates african-american freedom while encouraging self-development and respect for all cultures. this celebration of the end of slavery is an important and enriching part of the hiito

university of texas at san antonio held the first collegiate cyberdefense competition or ccdc for the southwestwestern region, the ccdc focus the on the operational aspects of managing and protecting an existing network infrastructure. teams acquire points based on their ability to detect and respond to outside threats, maintain availability of existing services such as mail servers and web servers, respond to business requests such as the addition or removal of additional services, and balance security needs against business needs. the mission of the ccdc is to provide a controlled, competitive environment to assess the students' understanding and competency in managing the challenges inherent in protecting a corporate network or business information system. the competition is supported by members of the cybersecurity industry and by organizations that understand the importance of innovation in the field of cybersecurity. the 2010 winner the 2010 winner was northern university. i was to ask my colleagues to join me in commending this significant achievement, and i reserve the balance of my tim

i understand that a stable environment in the middle east and southwest asia is essential to u.s. interests, and that the future of iraq is inseparable from the future of this critical region. a sovereign, stable, and self- reliant iraq will contribute to the stability in the region and will be a major ally in our fight against al-qaeda and its extremist allies. conditions in iraq have improved significantly over the past three years. the government has demonstrated respect for the rule of law and is moving towards a peaceful transfer of power through legitimate elections. the civil capacity and economic conditions continue to improve. outcry that in iraq and other violent extremist groups -- the al-qaeda in iraq and other violent extremist groups have been severely degraded. i am keenly aware that the mission is not without risk and our work remains unfinished. and external imbalances continue to infringe. a violent extremists still pose a threat to the government and the people of iraq. that sectarian tension continues to impede a unified, national vision for all iraqis. if conf

today, in southwest asia, tse employees are also doing important work under contracts with the department of defense and state for the u.s. agency of international development and other agencies. they guard military bases, andrt -- escort convoys traveling vip's. during my 21 trips to iraq as a member of congress, my life was in the hands of private security guards. i felt very secure because they are high-level it -- because of their high-level training. they are not intended to leave their attacker champion private security companies. this commission has explored cases of excesses, inadequate training or documentation, and unacceptable performance by some tse contractors. we have paid close attention, for example, to the impact of iraqi civilian deaths inflicted by tse employees in 2007 and to the outrageous conduct and the mistreatment of afghan civilians by tse employees guarding the u.s. embassy in kabul in 2008. we also recognize that many tse's are performing vital work at a high standard and we recognize the statutory limits on the military strength. there is the need to safeguard