much more economical for people to offload at salia and by air and rail and take it to beirut and athens and not need to come into the gulf to the degree they have thus far. >> let me go back to the yemen question and come at it from the other side. in the final communique, the yemen position is coupled with a prior statement about saudi arabia's right to defend its territorial integrity, it's cultural integrity. and i wonder how you respond to so much of the western reporting and how the members of the dccc see the threat both to saudi arabia from the immediate disputes along the border with yemen but also broader question that get dramatic attention about whether or not there's something approaching a proxy war going on here where iran -- where a shia threat is being staged from yemen that is a serious threat to the kingdom? >> one, it's difficult to know because it's in one of the most remote, least-visited regions of yemen in the northernmost regions. and if you come from saudi arabia side, it's least accessible for foreign visitors to travel to. so much of the information that we're

our first call comes from athens, ohio, kathleen who is on surunsure. caller: i read a lot about the situation. i met a wonderful young man who is from afghanistan. he is studying on a fulbright. and another ph.d. candidate here at ohio university. they both say, as well as my friend who is back in afghanistan -- they all say do not send in more troops, sent in more humanitarian aid because the afghan people do look at us as an occupying force. my friend who is back in afghanistan is in the ministry of counter narcotics. he is right in the thick of things. in the 1970's, we abandoned the afghan people. the bush administration abandoned to the country again when they illegally it invaded iraq. when president obama turned to the camera and talked to the people of afghanistan and said we do not want to occupy, we do not want to be there forever, why should they believe us? he asked the taliban to surrender. very few americans know about it. they can go online and watch this documentary. why should the taliban surrender when we allowed two thousand of them

it will be so much more economical to unload and then by rail or by air ticket to beirut, athens, and places beyond. let me go back to the human question. -- to the yemen question. their position is coupled with a prior statement about saudi arabia's rights to defend their territorial integrity, cultural integrity, and a wonder how you respond to some much of the western reporting and how the members of the gcc see the threat to both saudi arabia from the immediate disputes along the border with yemen and the broader question ticket so much more dramatic attention as to whether there is something approaching a proxy war with iran where eight shia threat is being possible. >> it is difficult to know because it is in one of the most remote and is visited regions of the demon. -- of is a man. -- of yemen. it is one of the least accessible for foreign visitors to travel to. much of the information we are breeding may be skewed because it is coming from second hand or non empirically authenticated people on the ground. we know of one person that we work with who did make it to there. the a

and then iason, after he came back, went back to athens and istanbul and this country and continued towork with barbara and others. and i think that his perspective on trends in iran and the -- and looking at the media coverage and how the media function in a situation where first they were under extraordinary restraints, restrictions as to where they could go, what they could do in the immediate aftermath of the election. and then you have people being arrested and most of the foreign journalists being taken out of the country firsthand, how do you report that in that circumstance. and so i think we'll begin with iason to talk through the experiences that he had and his perspective on iran today and then we'll turn to barbara who also brings tremendous background in this subject to give her perspective as well. we'll open it up, i hope, to q&a. >> well, thank you very much for coming today. thank you very much for hosting me. it's wonderful to be back at the woodrow wilson center. and as jon mentioned, we met during my year which came on the heels of three years living in iran. i made

they can offload at salalah and take it to athens and places beyond, and not ship with a degree that they have done thus far. >> let me go back to the human question and come at it from the other side. in the final communique, the yemen position is coupled with a prior statement about saudi arabia's rights to defend its territorial integrity, its cultural integrity, and how would you respond to so much of the western reporting and other members of the gcc seeing the threat of saudi arabia from the immediate the sport -- and meet the speech from yemen? and the other question, whether there is something approaching a war here where the shi'a threat is being staged from yemen has a serious threat to the kingdom? >> it is difficult to know because it is in the most remote regions of yemen, the northernmost regions. it is not far from the sadr and -- the saudi arabia and south. it is also one of the most inaccessible in saudi arabia. much of the information that we're reading may be skewed because it is coming from second hand or non-empirically validated people on the ground. we know one

what bothers me is there are 400 -- in my state alone, 400 people every single day from toledo to athens, from bryan to saint khraeursville, to middle town, 400 ohioans lose their country. across the country 45,000 people die every year, according to studies, almost 1,000 people a week die because they don't have insurance. as the presiding officer knows because of her work on health care, a woman with breast cancer without insurance is 40% more likely to die than a woman with breast cancer with insurance. think about that, if you've got breast cancer, as anxious as you are, as fearful as you are, as sick as you are, if you have insurance, you at least don't have to worry about that. you can get decent medical care and many times your life is saved particularly if you caught it early enough. if you don't have insurance, you can't go to the emergency room. they'll take care of you at the end of your life, if you go to the emergency room when you're dying. at the end you might get emergency room care. people like that are out of the system. a woman with breast cancer without insurance is 4

on one side is a big blue and white painting but some statues and the word athens. there are lots of great people that live in the neighborhood. on the other side where i parked my way again, it used to have a beautiful mural of firemen and policemen holding up american flags. gosh, last year some kids painted over it with some political thing where bush and hillary were fighting it out. i don't like it as much. but, still, this is my place. this is where people come and see me in the evenings, all the birds in new railway trestle above the fight that began to sing as though they are getting ready to go to sleep. you wouldn't believe the noise in the mornings too. astoria is my comfort zone. we are very territorial, my people, absolutely territorial. when i planted myself down underneath the viaduct, i said that is that come on no way am i leaving a especially the way i am treated by the people. you know something? i like it here. seeing these people, how concerned they were and it is o bs. it was genuine concern. a while back i finally cemented the back of my whee