hosted by the atlantic council, this is one hour. >> good morning everyone, and welcome to the atlantic council. my name is jim jones, i am the interim chairman of the atlantic council. i have been a big fan of the council for many years. i am honored to be here especially for this very great day. we are pleased to welcome the secretary of state for defense of the united kingdom, the honorable gavin williamson. welcome to washington. there is no secret in this room about the fact that the u.s., the u.k. relationship has for many years been the anchor of the transatlantic relationship. since world war ii. my own experience with the u.k. has more to do with the royal marines. i have had many great expeditions with around the world. we have a very tight relationship as does the navy, air force, and the army. long may it be that way. where more than allies, where -- we are friends. we think the same way and the threats that face us same way. these are crucial times that we live in the 21st century as announced itself as a messy century full of different centers of gravity big changes in wha

she is a distinguished fellow of the atlantic council and the war -- and a board director of the atlantic council. following that discussion, we will have an opportunity for you to engage with the state secretary, and this entire session will be on the record. you are encouraged to join the conversation on twitter and use #strongerwithallies. and we are indeed stronger with allies. mr. secretary we welcome you to , the atlantic council and the , floor is yours. [applause] secretary williamson: it is an enormous privilege to be here today. i must begin by thanking the atlantic council for hosting this event. told that washington in august is not always at its best, so you must be the more hardened inhabitants of this city. the reputation of the atlantic council precedes it. a list of famous alumni is a who's who of the great and good of washington. , brent scowcroft, colin powell, a list that goes all the way back to the formation in 1961. in fact, you could not have formed at a more timely moment one year before the cuban , missile crisis. history does not record what role the atlantic co

she is a distinguished fellow of the atlantic council and the war director of the atlantic council. following that discussion, we will have an opportunity for you to engage with the state secretary, and this entire be on the record. you are encouraged to join the conversation on twitter and use #stronger with allies. we welcome you to the atlantic council and the floor is yours. [applause] it is aniamson: enormous privilege to be here today. by thanking the atlantic council for hosting this event. i am on that washington in august is not the way it is best. you must be more hardened inhabitants. the reputation of the atlantic council proceeds it. a list of famous alumni is a who's who of the great and good of washington. scowcroft, colin powell. a list that goes all the way back to the formation in 1961. could not have formed at a more timely moment. one year before the cuban missile crisis. history does not record what role the atlantic council played, but i have no doubt that the rise council of some of your founder members pushed -- was sought. judging by the outcome, it was clea

coup finances them what role is the atlantic council playing in monitoring and censoring content posted to facebook what anyone who's watching the show cares about independent media should know because facebook has been so important for those of us who are in alternative and. independent media that facebook has hired a group called d.f. r.l. lab which operates out of the nato and arms industry funded atlantic council also funded by saudi arabia and another bunch of pro freedom advocates in the gulf including turkey which arrests more journalists and any other country and. the job is basically to market facebook's findings and takedowns of these pages and to justify it they put out a report on medium dot com justifying taking down these pages which were said to be russian they tried to link them to russia without coming up with conclusive proof the pages were wrecked the report was actually authored by the atlantic council's resident bot hunter who falsely identified two living human beings including a british pensioner and vala sits a ukrainian concert pianist as russian bots and

coup finances them what role is the atlantic council playing in monitoring and censoring content posted to facebook what anyone who's watching this show cares about independent media should know because facebook has been so important for those of us who are in alternative and. independent media that facebook has hired a group called d.f. r.l. lab which operates out of the nato and arms industry funded atlantic council also funded by saudi arabia and another bunch of pro freedom advocates in the gulf including turkey which arrests more journalists and any other country and. the job is basically to market facebook's findings and takedowns of these pages and to justify it they put out a report on medium dot com justifying taking down these pages which were said to be russian they tried to link them to russia without coming up with conclusive proof the pages were wrecked the report was actually authored by the atlantic council's resident bot hunter who falsely identified two living human beings including a british pensioner and vala sits a ukrainian concert pianist as russian bots an

brian 0'toole is senior fellow from the atlantic council and was a former senior us treasury sanctions official. he's in raleigh, north carolina. how do you think iran will react in

people like the atlantic council that would would not be possible had not. the news landscape been extremely concentrated in the hands of the century two actors now i'd like seventy plus percent of the district distribution of news in this country is either facebook or google so if you have a government. group meeting with facebook to decide what news to distribute and what not that's essentially like a you know a government run censorship program and we've never had anything even close to that except in wartime in this country and this is this is it's an extraordinary development and there's a there's a lack of. like a lot of things is i think there's a lack of an ability to see the forest for the trees here because you know down the road you know having the white house and the congress meet with facebook decide what news we see i mean this is pretty fast and that stressful so frightening and you know. given the you know the i don't think we ever really saw this coming or we didn't read again lack of foresight that you know when you suddenly had facebook th

itself in you know recently with kind of facebook executives teaming up with a group of the atlantic council to decide you know what is fake news and bad political speech and what is good news and good political speech. how many different ways is this a really bad idea it's it's unbelievably scary and. even if you take the worst case scenario view of what happened in two thousand and sixteen with russian meddling. this is a separate. and extremely terrifying political development that has been going on for a long time even independently again of the russia story because a huge part of what's happening now with this whole situation with facebook zapping sites that you know some think tank full of people like the atlantic council that would would not be possible had not. the news landscape been extremely concentrated in the hands of the century two actors now would like seventy plus percent of the district distribution of news in this country is either facebook or google so if you have a government. group meeting with facebook to decide what news to distribute and what not that's essentially l

has caused companies like facebook to seek help from rather curious political groups like the atlantic council on whose board matt taibbi in a recent rolling stone article observed you'll find confidence inspiring names like henry kissinger former cia chief michael hayden former acting cia had mike morrell and former bush era homeland security chief michael chertoff are on tire of interest they sat down with you to discuss the slippery slope of facebook friends censorship. is this kind of push for the corporate policing of free speech. and political content it kind of his manifesto itself you know recently with kind of facebook executives teaming up with a group of the atlantic council to decide you know what is you know fake news and bad political speech and what is good news and good political speech. how many different ways is this a really bad idea it's it's unbelievably scary and. even if you take the worst case scenario view of what happened in two thousand and sixteen with russian meddling. this is a separate. and extremely terrifying political development that has been going on for a l

month turning to for help on this a few months back facebook and of the partnership with the atlantic council to identify both stories critics say that the washington based think tank is militarist ahead of the pro nato narrative and might suggest culling opinions that run counter to the mainstream so the atlantic council behind someone with tough to say but those that moderators have certainly been busy they took down thirty two pages on the last day of july alone ok thanks to our. earlier this year obituary writers around the world paid tribute to tom wolfe the american writer who passed away three months ago wolf was best known for his work as an author books like the wright stuff and bonfire of the vanities however in the one nine hundred sixty s. and seventy's he was also at the forefront of another movement what was called new journalism tom wolfe and others pioneered a new type of reporting boring some techniques from novelists and using them to write nonfiction to in fact produce journalism the initial reviews were not stellar especially from reporters who saw new journalism as an aff

month a turning to for help on this a few months back facebook and of the partnership with the atlantic council to identify both doris' critics say that the washington based think tank is minutes. first part of the pro nato narrative and might suggest culling opinions that run counter to the mainstream so is the atlantic council behind some of this stuff to say but facebook moderators have certainly been busy they took down thirty two pages on the last day of july alone ok thanks to our. earlier this year obituary writers around the world paid tribute to tom wolfe the american writer who passed away three months ago wolf was best known for his work as an author books like the wright stuff and bonfire of the vanities however in the one nine hundred sixty s. and seventy's he was also at the forefront of another movement what was called new journalism tom wolfe and others pioneered a new type of reporting boring some techniques from novelists and using them to write nonfiction to in fact produce journalism the initial reviews were not stellar especially from reporters who saw new journalism as an

or is not fake news they could announce that world and they partnered up one of them is the atlantic council a little bit about that interesting combination right so in may facebook essentially outsourced its censorship duties if we can call it that to the atlantic council which is a think tank just a few blocks away from the studio here that's funded by a variety of foreign governments and corporations there are some of the top funders include nato the us state department our very own government charles koch the clinton foundation theocratic gulf monarchies like the you. arab emirates oil companies like chevron exxon mobile weapons manufacturers like raytheon and lockheed martin so i mean those are just a few so it's really you know you see who is facebook is partnering with in order to kind of create the agenda and the discourse that we're allowed to see on facebook that that's incredible to me we're not getting a lot of. i mean you talk about a personal pretty you talk about a cesspool of all that's wrong in politics and government today you kind of see them all and there's one big bat th

the atlantic council is funded by the us government is funded by nato is followed by the us military and it's funded by u.s. defense contractors this is an absolutely or con rabidly anti russia think tank in washington d.c. these are the people paid by our governments that determine what we're allowed to see on facebook and they say that is the horners meddling in our free speech it's actually u.s. funded quote ways i think takes in washington that are meddling in our free speech . female entrepreneurs are joining the cutting edge of the digital revolution driven by block change technology artie's miguel francis something argo went to europe's largest crypto conference and met several women who think that change can improve the world. blog show your twenty eighteen powered by two point telegraph one of the first publications in the world of crypto this is exciting the minds of the future are all gathered here of new technologies being tested and of course the future of law change right here right now. blog show let's go. to see all of global situation head of white house press a form

the atlantic council is funded by the us government it's funded by nato it's voted by the u.s. military and it's funded by u.s. defense contractors this is an absolute neo con rabidly anti russia think tank in washington d.c. these are the people paid by our governments that determine what we're allowed to see on facebook and they say that is the horners meddling in our free speech it's actually u.s. funded quote quezon i think takes a large tents that are meddling in our free speech let's also look at the timing of this is well i mean as you know the congressional elections every three months time in the opinion polls a saying that the democrats well they could be in a fair for a tough time i mean is there for russian meddling going to be the democrats excuse if they underperform in the midterm elections. well these accounts seem to somewhat favor i guess the left of the question is why what does it mean to be an inauthentic account it's not really explain for a well if someone is against the u.s. immigration policy which is some of these anti ice accounts apparently were may

anti russian think tanks the articles author evelyn farkas is a senior fellow at one called the atlantic council and it's received millions of dollars from a long list of corporations and governments internationally who are apparently also very concerned about potential russian election hacking. while there is no way that it is that russia has done so to date at a minimum it will likely use its ability to access voter registration databases and election related sites to undermine america's confidence in its own electoral integrity so no evidence the kremlin has done it as the article says but the atlantic is calling on all patriotic americans to protect democracy and the tune of its song continues to sound oh too familiar we know that russia today is regarded as a grave threat to our nation to our freedom the peace of the world you see the reason why we are spending billions of dollars in defense production why your family is paying the highest taxes in our history it's a part of hysteria just suspect anybody has to do with russia anybody disappearance anybody that works for. anything like that

we will continue live coverage this afternoon on c-span, get you over to the atlantic council, just aouple minutes away from the beginning of the discussion

anti russian think tanks the articles author evelyn farkas is a senior fellow at one called the atlantic council and it's received millions of dollars from a long list of corporations and governments internationally who are apparently also very concerned about potential russian election hacking. while there is no way that it is that russia has done so to date at minimum it will likely use its ability to access voter registration databases and election related sites to undermine america's confidence in its own electoral integrity so no evidence the kremlin has done it as the article says but the atlantic is calling on all patriotic americans to protect democracy and the tune of its song continues to sound oh too familiar we know that russia today is regarded as a grave threat to our nation to our freedom the peace of the world you see the reason why we are spending billions of dollars in defense production why your family is paying the highest taxes in our history it's a part of the hysteria just suspect anybody who has to do with russia anybody. anybody that works for. anything like that must be

anti russian think tanks the articles author evelyn farkas is a senior fellow at one called the atlantic council and it's received millions of dollars from a long list of corporations and governments internationally who are apparently also very concerned about potential russian election hacking. while there is no way that it is that russia has done so to date at minimum it will likely use its ability to access voter registration databases and election related sites to undermine america's confidence in its own electoral integrity so no evidence the kremlin has done it as the article says but the atlantic is calling on all patriotic americans to protect democracy and the tune of its song continues to sound oh too familiar we know that russia today is regarded as a grave threat to our nation to our freedom the peace of the world you see the reason why we are spending billions of dollars in defense production why your family is paying the highest taxes in our history as a part of the hysteria just suspect you know what it has to do with russia and you want to. anybody that works for. most of the rus

look at the atlantic council. is big government organization. who give as lot of money to it?acade. facebook said if somebody disagrees we'll send them to the inspectors that we're hiring to sort this out. david: censors. some people call them inspectors. you and i would call them censors. i'm short on time, but got to ask you do you think rise of people like owe -- ocasio-corted peel to millenials because you have editors or censors working for social media sites? >> i think partially is the case but i'm not going to give the socialists too much credibility. yeah there was an election won. we do some talking to young people, i find out a lot of people don't buy into that. so sometimes the polling i guess, really get to the young people, do they sort of like this idea of peace and prosperity, right? that we advertise for. people, you know, what i always say is, young people at the age of 18 don't all of sudden get up and want big government, more taxes and poverty and we need another war. young people don't volunteer and march forward. ideas have consequences. they're very, ve

turkey will take in the days to come let's bring in harlan ullman he's a senior advisor at the atlantic council and board member of a mutual fund that trades in international currencies he joins us live now via skype from washington d.c. all observers say that long before this raul with the u.s. president had been presiding over soaring inflation rising borrowing levels so trying to push them over the edge but how bad were turkey's problems anyway to begin with. they were bad but this tariff war makes it much worse we're doubling the price of imports on turkish tariffs and as you well know the turkish lira has declined from about three point five to the dollar a year ago almost seven that causes a huge drain on their their u.s. reserves they need to borrow a great deal of money just sustain you're quite right that turkey's check on me was in trouble but this really gives it a great deal more things to worry about and so this is also spread it if you recall in two thousand and eight in the banking crisis in the united states that spread and because the financial economies are so interdependent b

with its new partners such as the digital forensic research lab now this is an offshoot of the atlantic council think tank in turn a member of the atlantic treaty organization although formally independent of nato and washington openly sharing both their values and speakers fighting fake news is a noble cause terms of use platforms individua. violet and expect. increasingly though the question will be our last is it violating social media policies or violating mainstream consensus and prevalent narratives that can really land you in hot water. daniel hawkins where we have asked facebook to comment on why it so far they've chosen not to respond. tell about militants have overrun a military base in northern afghanistan killing seventeen soldiers and that is as the un confirmed over one hundred civilians were killed in the latest clashes between the taliban and afghan forces in the city of galveston let's take a look it's long been considered a strategic area situated on the road connecting the capital kabul fighting there escalated on friday when the taliban attempted to storm cows me and take co

with its new partners such as the digital forensic research lab now this is an offshoot of the atlantic council think tank in turn a member of the atlantic treaty organization although formally independent of nato and washington openly sharing both their values and speakers fighting fake news is a noble cause terms of use platforms. violet expect a burn increasingly though the question will be asked is it violating social media policies or violating mainstream consensus and prevalent narratives that can really do you in hot water we've asked facebook to comment on why they banned the outlet so far they've chosen not to respond earlier we spoke to tokyo not all the english multimedia director for telus or who says that facebook's move is extremely alarming. we're not aware and we didn't get an explanation we going to any mail yesterday afternoon saying that our page was removed and this e-mail said that we were violating the terms of use but it didn't we don't consider that an explanation since we've doing got a recently or we are they didn't explain how in what way were we violating supposedly

is the conclusion they make their information comes to them from their partnership with the atlantic council the atlantic killed solis funded by the us government is funded by nato is followed by the us military and it's funded by us defense contractors this is an absolutely or con rabidly anti russia think tank in washington d.c. these are the people paid by our governments that determine what we're allowed to see on facebook and they say that is the horners meddling in our free speech it's actually u.s. funded quote ways i think takes in washington that are meddling in our free speach . the french parliament has squashed to no confidence motion is brought against him and you might cause government these came in response to the president's handling of a scandal involving his former bodyguard alexander been allow was filmed dressed as a policeman attacking a demonstration during the may day protests are too shy to do bensky reports at the center of those motions of no confidence is one man alexander pope and he used to be a security aide to president michael and now he was filmed during the

with its new partners such as the digital forensic research lab now this is an offshoot of the atlantic council think tank in turn a member of the atlantic treaty organization although formally independent of nato and washington openly sharing both their values and speakers fighting fake news is a noble cause terms of use platforms individua. really violent and expect a ban increasingly though the question will be asked is it violating social media policies or violating mainstream consensus and prevalent narratives that can really land you in hot water. un peacekeepers are set to return to the golan heights after the area was liberated from jihadists and were the region is still hotly contested syria and israel have been fighting over it for decades. off takes a closer look. this city in the golan heights is one of the latest sites where the syrian army has brought terrorist ruled to an end. we were among the first international news crews inside after its liberation just months ago the city of me was still under the control of well with most of the infrastructure gone this is the main focus of

government than first thought as a new details of a most of its partnership with the atlantic councila think tank funded by nato and some branches of the u.s. government for instance a special lab inside the council works to track foreign influence on the platform and then help facebook to identify it and remove it social media giant in its turn is now one of the top donors to the team of forensic experts in the picks up the story. how's that for a mark zuckerberg nightmare he or his team in front of a horde of suits go and sort these russian bots out sort out the fakes sort them out or did i just paint a good picture of the reality web giants of been facing lately in the past election you. we've seen how foreign actors are abusing social media platforms those images that can be attributed or associated with the russian company lack of resources a lack of commitment and a lack of genuine effort the likes of zogby could have proudly said we're just a platform where independent and sorting out what you call fakes is none of our business but when wall street alarm bells are ringing you k

laura: for more i spoke a brief time ago with the direor of the atlantic council's latin ederica center. is this as an inle deal as the president says? >> it is to be determined what is in the deal. there are a number of different provisions worked out. clearly this new deal with mexico relates to the auto rules of origin, using more american steel. it does do things like weaken the chapter 19 provi nafta. but it keeps the investor dispute mechanis although it weakens that as well. one of the keys for the u.s. and mexico is the deal announced today does not include the sunset clause, the infamous sunset clause that the trumpst admition wanted, which was to terminate the agreement if it wasn't essentially working welrs every five y laura: meanwhi, canadian negotiators are on their way to washington. is it a deal if they don't sign up? jason: well, the u.s. and mexico w have their deal. president pena nieto made it very clear this morning that he wants canada to be part of this deal as well. it would be in u.s. interest to have canada part of the deal. candidate is the number one export d

with its new partners such as the digital forensic research lab now this is an offshoot of the atlantic council think tank in turn a member of the atlantic treaty organization although formally independent of nato and washington openly sharing both their values and speakers fighting fake news is a noble cause terms of use platforms individua. violet and expect a band increasingly though the question will be asked is it violating social media policies or violating mainstream consensus and prevalent narratives that can really land you in hot water. we asked facebook to comment on why they banned the outlet so far they've chosen not to respond but we're now joined live by touching on the role of the english multimedia director for tell us our welcome to the program now tells her is banned from facebook for the second time we understand this year and this time you had a very good explanation of for violating terms of use are you aware at all of what exactly they objected to. hi thank you for having me no we're not aware and we didn't get an explanation we're going to mean you know yesterday afterno

with its new partners such as the digital forensic research lab now this is an offshoot of the atlantic council think tank in turn a member of the atlantic treaty organization although formally independent of nato and washington openly sharing both their values and speakers fighting fake news is a noble cause terms of use platforms individua. violet expect. increasingly though the question will be arsed is it violates social media policies or violating mainstream consensus prevalent narratives that can really do you in hot water with us facebook to comment on why they ban the outlet so far they've chosen not to respond. taliban militants have overrun a military base in northern afghanistan killing seventeen soldiers it says the un has confirmed over one hundred civilians were killed in the latest clashes between the taliban and afghan forces in the city of gosney locals who managed to flee the area described what they've been through. many people including the one of my neighbors were killed there i saw my friend dying he was among thirteen people including children and women who were killed du