snuck into burma, spent a couple of months trekking through the jungle covered mountains of burma.which was pretty perilous to you. of the chinese with the snakehead had the idea that you would see the bodies of people coming before you.ofater on the. and he eventually made it to the golden trying of witches at the time the center for global opiate reduction. patrolled by warlords. made it through their into thailand. got to bangkok and spent about six months in a safe house in bangkok because they couldn't get him on the plane. he was so young that they're trying to get him a passport, you can't the way you get a phony passport is you would buy a legitimate passport off a tourist that they couldn't find any word it looked young enough for him to say look, this is me. so he's in a safe house for six months. then he gets on the ship. it breaks down in kenya. and he is six months in kenya, stuck there. and eventually the ship, the golden venture which sister ping and ah kay collaborate on, cayman taken a. it was a real nightmare for the 300 people on board. what happened basically wa

burma, i was in burma a few years ago and was, you know, meeting burmese who were hooked on south korean dramas and i was traveling freely and meeting with whoever i wanted to meet with in burma and meeting monks who were disgusted with the regime and were wanting change and were pessimistic about change coming. north korea still has a long way to go before it even reaches the point, say, burma or iran and i don't think we see those regimes falling too soon or not soon enough. and that makes me, you know, a bit pessimistic at least in the short term. you know, it's a long-term project that i don't think will necessarily yield short-term results. to quickly answer scott's question about how do i see cooperation evolving in the future, it's always hard to prognosticate but i would say there's three factors that will determine the extent to which washington can still effectively cooperate on such issues. the first is how is the policymaking mechanism going to work within the obama administration now that we have -- we have a part-time nuclear envoy. we have a full-time day-to-day envoy and

>> i think it is a broad review of burma and mow howe we can engage burma to encourage the -- encouragehange their policies, change tactic, welcome an opposition an allow the development of a democratic society. specific under that, we'll be looking at how we can further support -- but i think we're looking at the broad brush on this particular talk. the next elections will be something that could be discussed. i don't have the exact agenda. but if there is time, i'm sure they would get to that. >> what is the position on the wall being bit along the board er? >> we have seen that egypt is carrying out activities which will help stop weapons smuggling into gaza. we believe that weapons smauging -- smuggling should stop and measures taken to stop that weapons smuggling should be -- could be carried out, yes. >> aside from the weapons going through those tunnels, there's also humanitarian aid and food going through. >> we support greater access for humanitarian supplies to get into gaza. there are established channels for that and those established channels should not be hindered by hamas

people often say to me about mukai beat in zimbabwe and the burma regime and so on. a basis that is about a security threat. so yester absolutely right. my assessment of the security threat was intimately connected with the nature of the regime. when you actually read the destruction descriptions of what happened with chemical weapons in halabja village and by some accounts of many as 5000 people died and there is some people in iraq but that the consequences of that. to me that indicated a mindset that was terrific. it's horrific whether or not he then uses weapons of mass destruction if there's any question question of using it, it's a mindset that indicates this is a profoundly wicked and i would say i'm a psychopathic man. we were obviously worried that after his two sons seem to be as bad as ours. so yes it's absolutely true this definitely impacted our thinking. >> your contrasting in a way what was known about saddam's past use of wmd. he resorted to be not a wait and not given the same weight to the doubts and caveats about the actual situation in early 2002.

meeting with whoever i wanted to meet with in burma and meeting monks disgusted with the regime andwanting change but were pessimistic about the change coming so north korea still has a long way to go before it even reaches the point of say burma or iran and i don't think we see those regimes falling soon enough, so that makes me a bit pessimistic at least in the short term. it is a long-term project that i don't think will necessarily yield short-term results. to quickly answer scott's question about how do i see cooperation involving in the near future it is always hard to prognosticate but i would say there are three factors that will determine the extent of which washington can go very effectively on human rights issues. the first is how is the policy making mechanism which organ the obama administration now that we have a part-time nuclear envoy and full-time day to day envoy and full-time human rights envoy and it's not clear to me all these pieces are going to fit together so what voice will robert have in the policy-making process on north korea i think remains to be seen. t

they had in previous years developed some tactics based heavily on what had been learned in burma andsouthern africa. so how was it that he was able to use strategy and tactics that there've in the past in order to achieve success in the

those individuals are in north korea, so it does make member pessimistic, it's too easy to make of burma and tibet and other seemingly hopeless cases. >> thanks. mike? >> this is a hard question, and there may be others in the room that are more versed in it the post-conflict stability and reconstruction operations. but i think there's three things that come to my mind that we know have worked or do work, and one of them is that we know that the rock approach in iraq worked in that situation. their focus was in working with the local community, building infrastructure, adding stability to the situation, and that worked very well. we also know from long experience, i think, that a whole of government approach is what works, that you have to look at this not from a military standpoint. in fact, that's what doesn't work, when you treat this as a simple military problem. you have to look at the economics of it. you have to look at the basic infrastructure that needs to be built to provide that stability. and third point i think that we are learning and have learned in afghanistan is resource

what community of interest actually exists between say the united states, iran, burma and zimbabwe. the international community has no universal recognized goals. anarchy is kept in check not by bureaucracy on the river or world opinion, not by par muchment promises adorned with disingenuous signatures but by the will and power of the great powers and most importantly in our time by the one superpower namely the united states. one highly revealing analysis of obama foreign policy relying on leaks from inside the white house spoke about obama's approach to foreign policy owed much to his experience as a community organizer, the idea of listening, understanding and seeking common ends. this is all rather good but a community organizer in chicago operates within and under the protection of a very elaborate, very secure, highly regulated and consensual domestic civil society. what holds civil society together is the supreme central authority. the sang activity of contracts and december sensey of its members. the international community lacks all of these things. what keeps it from degen

what community of interests actually exist between the united states, iran, burma, and zimbabwe?s a state of nature, a hobbesian state of nature. hannity's kept in check not by a bureaucracy, not by some inculpate expression of world opinion, not by hearts and promises adorned with disingenuous signatures, but by the will and power of the great powers, and most importantly in our time, by the one superpower by the name of the united states. one highly revealing analysis of obama foreign-policy relying on leaks from inside the white house spoke about how his approach code much to his experience as a community organizer. the idea of listening and understanding and working cooperatively and seeking comment ends. this is all well and good, but a community organizer in chicago operates within their rubric and under the protection of a very elaborate, very secure, highly regulated and central domestic civil society. what holds a civil society together is a supreme central authorities, the sanctity of contracts, and the good will, civility, and decency of its individual members. rainout

what we are suggesting is that we're in burma's are possible, they should be identified including exerciseunion have complied with the federal requirements for the national incident management system. this is the result of an active in 9/11. we found that within the department, there were no establish milestones to defined initial and pull capabilities. our recommendation is that a time line for achieving capability should be examined shi with an eye toward bringing about a system that would be fully interoperable with all of the state's when the process is complete. let me conclude my response and comments about to emerge as a response with another statement about command control. the command control structure that we refer to earlier is ultimately manifested itself in the middle of a crisis response. again, agility, adaptability, and speed of response is the key. at fort hood, commanders had to deal with misinformation and that is true in every crisis that will ever happen in the history of man. we believe that a better system is required and we also believe in -- and recommend that the

we have seen that from the congo to bosnia two burma and 15 years after the cairo conference to many women have little or no access to reproductive health services including family planning and maternal health care. when we look at the deficit with health care for women women, we can see what it means in terms of lost productivity, resources and lives. nearly half the women in the developing world the bill of babies without a nurse come that midwife, a doctor or access to crucial medical care. global rates of maternal mortality remain perilously high. one woman dies every minute two of every day in pregnancy or childbirth. for every woman bad guys, another 20 suffer from injury, infection or disease every minute. more than 215 million women worldwide lack access to the modern form of contraception and this contributes to the near the 20 million tons saved abortions that take place every year. sexually transmitted diseases including but not limited to hiv/aids claim millions of lives annually among women. it destroys the lives of millions and is a result the pregnancies that occur whe

it would look more like burma.i wrote in my article about a word you are not supposed to use in japan, but economic development assistance of the kind provided to south korea, infrastructure projects -- most estimated that japan would provide about $10 billion in assistance. china would curtail if not cut off its assistance to a unified korea. it would try to develop a buffer zone in korea to keep refugees from coming in, but i don't think it would be put his bidding actively in the economic development -- i don't think it would be participating actively in the economic development. $60 billion a year being needed if we are going to raise north korea to south korean levels, even within 30 years. that is the international financial institutions -- they also play a modest role. led by the united states and japan. at the bottom line is that unification is going to be extremely expensive, and we certainly are nowhere close to being able to pay for it. it is a good thing for south korea that it is not going to happen an

that north korea could still hang on for considerable time, it would just look more and more like burma in terms of its level of economic development than the level at sat. but also ironically japan even though like china there are most opposed to unification have the most to continue to unify the area because i wrote in my article reparations, a word and you are not supposed to use in japan, economic development assistance of the type de provided south korea in 1965 that just started the film and strategy. infrastructure projects. most people estimate that japan would provide about $10 billion of assistance. i think we have to assume that china would curtail its assistance to unify korea, it would simply trying close the border and perhaps develop a buffer zone in north korea to keep refugees from coming in but i think they would not be participating actively in economic development of north korea so really that means between china and japan we have a trickle of money coming in and a huge needed. we're looking at $60 billion a year being needed if we are going to raise north korea to s

what community of interest actually exists between, say, the united states, iran, burma and zimbabwe. international community is a state of nature with no universally recognized norms. anarchy is kept in check not by a bureaucracy on the east river. not by some incohate expression or world opinion. not by parchment promises adorned with disingenuous signatures. but by the will and the power of the great powers. and most importantly, in our time. by the one superpower, namely the united states. one highly revealing analysis of obama foreign policy relying on leaks from inside the white house spoke about how obama's approach to foreign policy owed much to his experience as a community organizer. the idea of listening. of understanding. and working cooperatively and seeking common ends. this is all well and good but a community organizer in chicago operates within the rubric and the protection of a very elaborate, very secure, highly regulated and consensual domestic civic society. what holds civil society together is a supreme central authority. the sanctity of contracts. and the good w

it is the basis of our approach in many complex situations from iran to zimbabwe or burma. >> i would like to tell you guys that if you have questions, write them down now. we'll come to the conclusion of my questioning and give you the opportunity to ask questions. . . >> i would like to understand how you might square the new policy with those expectations. >> first of all, we have to a knowledge the circumstances of today with respect to the north- sell agreement and the circumstances on the ground in the south. the circumstances on the ground in darfur have evolved in some cases for the worse in some cases for the better. my own personal view as a scholar at the brookings institution, in september of 2006, if the government of sudan continues to refuse to allow the deployment of the united nations aid force, it ought to face immediate consequences, and causing -- including the use of force. it is a bold but were repositioned. our aim is to build a force to full strength and able us to do what it is mandated to do. as we work with others diplomatically to resolve the underlying con

he has been imprisoned in burma since september 3 and held under a resolving array of charges, all bogus. he has been deprived of food and sleep, beaten, then had medical treatment withheld and he remains in prison while his trial is pending. the burmese government has ignored its obligations under international treaty and violates standards of human rights and basic decency. he has a heart for the oppressed people of his native country, and his offense is promoting freedom in a country that is like a vast prison camp. i urge secretary clinton to publicly call for ahn's release and use all possible diplomatic means to return him to the u.s. where he can receive medical care. his life hangs in the balance and we cannot afford to wait. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. cohen: thank you, madam speaker. last week a dutch lady, died at the age of 100. the reason her death is worth noting is because she

we've seen that from the congo to bosnia to burma.and 15 years after the cairo conference, far too many women still have little or no access to reproductive health services including family planning and maternal health care. when we look at this deficit in health care for women, we can see what it means in terms of lost productivity, lost resources and lost lives. nearly half the women in the developing world deliver their babies without a nurse, a midwife, a doctor or access to crucial medical care. global rates of maternal mortality remain perilously high. one woman dies every minute of every day in pregnancy or childbirth. and for every woman who dies another 20 suffer from injury, infection or disease every minute. more than 215 million women worldwide lack access to the modern forms of contraception, and this contributes to the nearly 20 million unsafe abortions that take place every year. sexually-transmitted diseases, of course, including but not limited to hiv and aids, claim millions of lives annually among women. fistula des

>> can you bring us up to date -- if you take a question on another subject -- since your visit to burma, initially there seems to be some conciliatory gestures but the government said they'll go ahead with an election plan they had been working on for a couple of years, could you assess what's going on since your visit? >> first of all, we have had some follow on direct interactions with burmese authorities. i think we are going to be looking at a subsequent set of discussions in the near future. i would say to date it's a mix batch. we have seen certain things that we watched carefully. we've seen higher level engainingment with sue chi. and we've seen other developmentings. we've looked at closely. but at the same time there are areas of real concern, continuing problems with ethnic minorities, persecutions and other issues. even one involving an american citizen inside the country. and i think it would be fair to say that the secretary and our team is looking for greater clarity in the coming weeks. i think we went into this, both the review and the new set of priority policies with

so it does make me pessimistic, and it's too easy to think of burma and tibet and other seemingly hopeless cases. >> thanks. mike? >> this is a hard question, and there may be others in the room that are more versed in the post-conflict stability and reconstruction operations, but i think there's three things that come to the my mind that we know have worked or do work and one of them is that we know that the rock approach in iraq worked in that situation. their focus was in working with the local community building infrastructure, adding stability to the situation. and that worked very well. by also know from long experience, i think, that a whole of government approach is what works, that you have to look at this not from a military standpoint. in fact, that's what doesn't work, when you treat this as simply a military problem. you have to look at the economics of it, you have to look at the basic infrastructure that needs to be built to provide that stability. and the third, third point i think that we are learning and have learned in afghanistan is resources. you have to put the right

what exists between the united states, burma, zimbabwe, and i ran? -- and iran?ally recognized norms. it is kept in check not by a bureaucracy on the east river, not by some world opinion, not by promises adorned with disingenuous signatures, but by the will and the power of the one superpower namely the united states. one highly revealing analysis of obama foreign-policy relying on leaks from inside the white house spoke about how his approach to foreign policy owed much to his experience as a community organizer, the idea of understanding and working cooperatively to seek a common end. this is all well and good but a community organizer in the chicago operates within the protection of a very elaborate, secure, highly regulated, consensual domestic civil society. would hold society together is a supreme central authority. the sanctity of contracts and the good will, civility, and decency of its individual members. the international arena lacks all of these things. what keeps it from the generating -- from degenerating is not a central authority, though authority

david's visit and said that one of the main things he was seeking to do and this was new ndi if you like burmanstructions to do my side of things was to say to the americans, quote, look, if you want to do regime change and if this is going to require military action if you guys are powerful enough to do it on your own, you can do it on your honor, you've got the power to do it, but if you are going to do this and you want your friends and partners to join you far better than that they should do it inside an alliance preferably taking into the u.n. route. would you regard that as a change or evolution or what? >> i think it is that in different parts of the time frame will but i think that is consistent with the overall approach i've been trying to set out, the overall approach of saying ultimately there will be disarmament and we're going to do our level best to get that down to the diplomatic route without increasing the shot fired white but if push comes to shove and that fails than britain which hit as responsibility and duty to take part in military action and i think that's consistent. >