his remarks came in a discussion at the center for american progress. the nearly 9-year conflict officially ended december 18, 2011. this is about 45 minutes. >> center for american progress, i'm rudy deleone, the senior vice president for national security. on behalf of all of my colleagues here at the center and with the national security program, i want to welcome you. for the first time in nine years the united states does not have troops fighting in iraq. president barack obama fulfilled his promise to end the war in iraq as part of an overall strategy to rebalance america's national security priorities. today we'll discuss this and have this presentation on the end of the iraq war, and america's ongoing engagement yet in iraq. with anthony blinken, the deputy assistant to president obama and the national security adviser to vice president joe biden. our colleague brian katulus has done a brief paper, it's on the back paper for all of you who want to make sure you grab a copy. in it he's looking at how the end of the iraq war has strengthened overal

hope for the congo that's another one all funded by the intelligence that there by the center for american progress and junker in the grass is the intelligence director in one thousand nine hundred with an intelligence operative in the national security council for william jefferson clinton at the very time that we were invading the congo from uganda and they could have eliminated tony then when we were spending all these c one thirty american military on the ground in uganda in one thousand nine hundred six but the invasion of the congo and since nine hundred ninety we've been supporting the sudan people's liberation army covertly in sudan and you see these guys from enough sorry from visible told me if i want to get in here it's like and here's the you seem to be saying that the u.s. actually has no interest in finding tony capturing county and that this is sort of just a distraction down connected to the u.s. government and the intelligence community and i getting that right absolutely they have no interest in finding tony if they wanted to eliminate him they could eliminate him any time it's no

activist and founder of brave new films and eli clifton national security reporter with the center for american progress as think progress in the new york studios welcome to you both thank you thanks for having us robert military suicides are up the accused gunman has a brain injury and u.s. soldiers are doing increasingly disturbing things like forming kill squads desecrating bodies burning korans now this is this is the result of war fatigue. there's no question that it's the result of the tea the harras i mean in some ways time in we all know that human beings are meant to go through this process we try to train them we try to teach them but year after year this gentleman i think you'd been in iraq for two or three tours now he was in afghanistan to commit this extraordinary atrocity he clearly cracked the military no service is set up to be able to train people to be murderers and then also train them when to turn it off and you know it's just your heart breaks when you see what's going on there and as you started the program by talking about yes it's time to get out we went in for no good reason th

i am joined by a senior fellow at the center for american progress. thank you very much for coming in. over the weekend, the commentary, i am wondering if it is sergeant bales on trial or the war. >> there is a lot of instability in the country, but i think the simple fact of the matter is this administration, the obama administration, is quite likely to stick with its strategy in the transition in handing things over. despite these killings and murders and the killings in the interior ministry a few weeks ago, i think both president karzai and president obama have discussed how to implement a transition. >> right, but the political support for the war here in america, both republicans and democrats, seems to be eroding. some are in favor of bringing the troops, earlier. >> you have some opposition on the left, some on the right, and none of it is coordinated. there is nobody really speaking at the higher level to say we have got to bring them home now. i think president obama is trying to balance all of these and is primarily focused on us not leave a

we're joined by a senior fellow at the center for american progress. >> thank you for having me. >> you just heard these accounts. in the past hour, the u.n. secretary general admitted that the international community has failed and this has emboldened the syrian regime. >> we need to continue to press for humanitarian assistance. the second thing is to figure out what is the pace of defections from the syrian army. this will help to figure out how to get stability in syria because this fracturing, president assad has lost legitimacy. the key factor is not how we arm the rebels at this point, it is how many people are defecting from the army because that will be the factor that will tip the balance. >> at the moment, it seems to be all talk and the assad regime is ignored it completely and no one knows what is going on. "there are people on the ground providing to indications and some support to part of the opposition. they are trying to figure this out. -- the line >> there are people on the ground providing communication and some support to the opposition. they are trying to figure th

the center for american progress host a forum on the end of the iraq war and national security. we will show you that at 10:00 eastern but after a short pro forma session of the house of representatives and after 1:00 p.m. eastern, president obama has a campaign fund-raiser in chicago. >> the strong support we have with this -- and where this movement originated, gives an excellent base to go forward on november 5 and we will go forward in the beginning with at least 107 electoral votes that comprise the states of the south and when you couple that with a few other states of the union, you have 270 of the electoral votes necessary to win the presidency ban as kennedy's campaign for president this year, we look back at 49 iran for the office and lost. go to our website c-span.org/the contenders to see video of the contenders who had a lasting impact on american politics. >> there has been honest contention, spirited disagreements, and i believe considerable hot arguments. , let anybody be misled by that. you have given here in this hall a moving and dramatic proof of how american

spreading fear and hatred of muslims can be big business in the us, as a study by the center for american progress shows. it asserts that at least seven foundations disbursed 42 mmillion dollars to experts, journalists and evangelical preachers who spread fear of muslims. >> i think there is an industry here in the united states that is trying to create the perception that all muslims are suspicious, that we should target all of them because they want to engage in a sharia- take-over of the united states, that they are all posing a security threat. >> but the study indicates that demonizing muslims in general only ends up compromising security. >> we need the assistance of the muslim community to combat the rational threat that exists, the small amount of terrorists that may live within the muslim community. uslim help. >> most muslims who carried out attacks in the past few years were acting alone -- such as the gunman who killed 13 eople at fort hood texas in november, 2009. hundreds of new yorkers narrowly escaped an attack in may 2010. many americans eye mosques run by radical clerics with sus

first of all -- ezekiel emmanuel from the center for american progress. first of all, let me say it was quite clear from what the justices said that they very much wanted to decide this case and get fast anti-injunction act. they want to decide the merits of the case. second, justice breyer made quite clear that when you look at the law congress did not use the word tax, that what they were looking at was a looking a penalty for not complying with the mandate. it was not a tax so the anti-injunction act doesn't apply. and he said quite clearly it should be collected in a manner similar to taxes but that it wasn't a tax. similarly, justice ginsburg said the anti-injunction act applies to taxes for revenue because revenue is the lifeblood of government and they did not want people being able to sue before they pay taxes and basically cut off the government -- or not pay taxes and basically cut off the government's ability to act, and that this penalty was not about revenue for the government, even though it will generate some revenue. it was fundamentally a

for defense news. lauren thompson every the lexington institute, mckenzie eggland of the american enterprise institute and larry corb from the center for american progress. ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. >> nice to be with you. >> let's start with general alann. general alann, the american commander of u.s. central command gave testimony on the house and senate first time for the first time since the koran burning institute and when staff sergeant balancees can accused of having killed 17 afghan civilians, that's increased calls for folks to say, hey, look, it's time to get out of afghanistan. when the french lost a few soldiers a few months ago, president sarkozy says we're going to withdraw a year early. yet the administration is sticking with this 2014 date and saying u.s. troops are going to stay well beyond that. where's this debate going in washington? >> the key thing is that the administration did not overreact. if you're going to change your policy, you don't want to do it under duress. the other thing that happened is this enhances president kars i-'s bargaining power -- karzai's bargaining power. you've seen us agree to transfer more of

-iraq relations at the center for american progress. this is about 45 minutes. >> good morning, and welcome to the center for american progress. i'm the senior vice president for american security. on behalf of all my colleagues, i want to welcome you. for the first time in nine years, the u.s. does not have troops fighting in iraq. president barack obama fulfilled his promise to end the war in iraq as part of an overall strategy to rebalance american national security priorities. today, we will discuss this and have this presentation on to the end of the iraq war and the american engagement in iraq with the deputy assistant to president obama's and the national security adviser to vice president joe biden. our colleague has done a brief paper and it is on the back table for all of you who want to make sure that you grab a copy. he is looking at how the end of the iraq war had strengthened overall u.s. national security. by dedicating more resources to the fight against al qaeda, to restore u.s. military readiness, options to face other

and radio airwaves in america fashion here joins me now he is the vice president of the center for american progress editor in chief of think progress dot org and the progress report as welcome back thank you for having me terry to have you with us the the first of all do you what kind of relationship do you see between these two cases that edges where you see what i think is a climate of fear and hate that it's conditioned a few crazy killers to act out with their fear and hate i think in both these cases you saw these stereotypes and these prejudices that i think we see in larger society in called take it take ok did i believe a lot of the far right kind of governing a climate and then you see some actors who are moved by that climate in my opinion and that's certainly what we saw in california i think zimmerman we're going to see more details about what moved him but it seems like certainly racial stereotypes played a pretty key role there. you know nobody is sure of the exact reason why a crime right now is lower than it's been a long long time there are some who theorize in fact the guys who ar

point out that it's center is a student at georgetown law school and john podesta who headed to president obama's transition team and now works for the center for american progress happen to be a professor at georgetown university to this as this is called eight thousand people or more and also he probably left before she came in so who knows who knows but they went to the you know they belong to the same school so immediately this is a conspiracy she is a plant belonging to the obama administration but really this isn't anything new this is the same type of the republicans have been playing since president obama looked like he was going to win the presidency three years ago younger so. we've we've had these and i find it amazing. one of our regular conservative guests constantly says they're cooking the books on the numbers another conspiracy theory that the president is actually a muslim a plurality of voters in alabama and mississippi believe that the republican primary voters in one polls yesterday they believe that the president is not a christian with sixteen percent because of course these are two pretty outlandish claims the thing about this and what mak

all right so just what are some of these other racist behaviors of the center for american progress put together a list of ten seriously shocking statistics many of which we spoken about on this program that show just how much race still affects how want to be treated in almost every part of our society from education to criminal justice to employment and it reads like an extremely depressing top ten list so we have to highlight a few of the most disturbing points for you are one people of color make up about thirty percent of the united states population count for sixty percent of those imprisoned also the prison population grew by seven hundred percent from one thousand nine hundred eighty to two thousand and five a rate of pace in crime and population rates according to the bureau of justice statistics one in three black men can expect to go to prison in our lifetime african-american youth have higher rates of juvenile incarceration and are more likely to be sentenced to adult prison once convicted black offenders receive longer sentences compared to white offenders and after their r

on the other side ann o'leary, is a senior fellow at the center for american progress and earlier in re career she was a legislative director for hilary rodham clinton. and she believes the mandate is constitutional. thank you both for coming and being advocates for your side. so we're going to do this -- try to truncate and make this as pointed as possible. so here are the rules. each side has two minutes to argue. when you get to your two minutes, i'm going to stop you. so to be clear, we i'll start with you, josh and then go to you. after each of you have your two minutes, you have a minute and a half to rebut, and you have a minute and a half to rebut. ready counselors? >> ready. >> all right. we'll begin with joshua lipshutz. >> this requires all americans to purchase and maintain health insurance throughout their entire lives. the individual mandate is an unpress dented use of governmental power. congress is forcing people to purchase goods and services that they do not want. this is a far cry from the limited and enumerated powers that the constitution grants congress. it deed

welcome to the center for american progress. police silence all cell phone, blackberrys, and anything that might make noise. there will be a brief question and answer session afterwards. we ask that you use the microphone and state your name and affiliation. thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> just a moment away from the start of this event with the national security policy advisor to vice president joe biden. we are at the event this morning and we expect this to start in a moment. some of the other programming elements that are coming up today on the c-span networks, c- span3 this morning we will bring you an event -- [no audio] >> on c-span3 this morning starting at 10:15 e concern will go live to georgetown university for discussion on religion and world affairs and extremism. first panel will address the relationship between a religious freedom and religious extremism. is will last all day long. that will start at 10:15 eastern on c-span3. also, president obama is on the road today, making c

networks so it's been left to people like glenn greenwald the salon dot com that does at the center for american progress just to name two other examples to remind everybody they something just doesn't seem to fit so it's also not surprising that we haven't seen the mainstream media that plays these ads all the time and not mention that ed rendell former governor of pennsylvania and in fact an m.s. and you see contributor as being dell is being investigated by the treasury department's counterterrorism division for the speaking fees that he's received from the enemy. but just an interesting development to say the least well they go after others too and we see an example of made out of some of these people so now i doubt that ed rendell howard dean or rudy giuliani are going to be given fifteen year sentences but a sign of elite immunity won't be upheld by this administration in all cases perhaps and we'll see that although of course there are plenty of other examples out there where they've allowed it to slide while street being his most obvious example but i do wonder if the mainstream media's going to

calling center for american progress media matters saying that they're liberal media you know the answer is reason you're jewish americans so what are they doing calling jewish americans and it's the mideast. this is true irony we have one group of jewish americans calling another group of jewish americans who are funding the efforts to stop war with iran and the sum ites this is incredible i never thought i'd live to see this not just in the not just small groups of people but huge groups of people on the left like the j. street group and in groups on the right like a pack or trading barbs of edison it is a between this is a style how it is ironic right how easily these that these words are now are thrown around and so in that sense i just want to finish here i ask you what you think about the situation in syria because we also see barbs being thrown around in the sense that if somebody. is on the side where they don't think there should be intervention then automatically you have blood on your hands or you think that it's ok you know and this is a debate not only internationally but be

for that we're going to good ian millhiser, a policy analyst at the center for american progress, washington-basedrogressive think tank and here in the war room is vince chhabria he is the chief of appellate appellate appellate appellate legislation. let me start with ian. ian you have were in there on the ground listening to what was going on. can you describe what the mood was when justice scalia started in on the solicitor general. >> i can describe my mood and that was shock. there was a lot of hostility coming from the justices. i'm not sure what constitution they were referring to because it certainly wasn't the u.s. constitution. this law regulates a sixth of our economy, which is a whole lot of commerce so the fact they were taking this case seriously was troubling. there is a request from justice kennedy at the end that gives me some hope, but it was deeply troubling, and it shouldn't have gone this far. >> i think the administration thought that scalia was at least gettable, and it seems like some of the questions we was making seems he has made up his mind. it was a rocky start that thi

ad accused two groups, center for american progress and media matters, being anti-israel wolves in sheepsothing. listed phone numbers of main street's jewish organizations the eci accuses funding the two groups. they raise questions about the boundaries and tolerated level eyed orioy ideology. some of the groups listed in the ad as having contributed for privacy and media matters, groups that run what are called donor directed funds which the donor parks the money with that fwrup and says what the do with the money. it would be like saying if i use my bank account at bank of america to give a donation to wikileaks bank of america is funding wikileaks. that's a factual matter about in of that. you are at -- in the center of exactly this debate. i wanted to get your response to this conflict that's opened up a bit around this. around center for american progress and media matters particularly blogs they hosted and have been critical of israel and critical of israel policy. it used the term in certain instances israel first and -- as a way of highlighting what they see as a diversion to the

washington by daniel white who is the senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the center for american progress. with us here onset is dan cameron, who has been director of the renewable and appropriate energy laboratory at uc berkeley. welcome to you both for coming inside the war room. what does that mean? the appropriate energy laboratory? >> when we like to get a cleaner mix and generate more jobs we know need to know where we started from, from an oil and gas intenseive base and so we want to use those fossil resources wisely. >> a new energy? >> an overall program. >> right. i want to start by going over a little bit of the information that is that has been coming out from a couple of different places. first of all, dan whites, this gas price issue already obviously is knocking the president's poll numbers down and, you know, the scepter for american progress is a policy tank, but you have looked at this issue from a historical basis. do you think that they are harp harping on this because this is the only thing they've got? >> well, certainly, high gasoline prices are bad for incumbent m

the center for american progress from the white house staffer. hunt from the associated press. republican strategist and you are no longer an informal adviser. >> that's why i'm wearing a tie. >> you were part of the google chat. you are one of the cool things we get to do and all of them get to pull down. i made a lot out of this issue. i want to show you something that's by the way about a 60-30 split. it's a 10,000 sample. santorum leads among them and across 16 states. 43-17. this is the religion. >> i don't think it has to do with religion, but the emphasis on the issues that the two candidates are talking about on the campaign trail. i think some of those evangelicals think about social issues. they see santorum talking about it more. romney is running for president to fix the economy and he is talking about lowering taxes and helping small businesses. because of that, that is why you see a lot of them. >> see if it is all religious-based. you can't help but ask, is this the question. >> a few days ago, he did a lot of controversial pastors

and daniel weiss is director of climate strategy at the center for american progress, a liberal policy group. gentlemen, welcome. simply, kenneth green can the president-- this president, any president-- push down the price of gas? >> sure they can, but not as much as people might think. about 75% of the price of gas is the world price of oil. but there's a federal gas tax that can be changed, the e.p.a. requirements for specific fuel blends that can be changed. so it's not quite true to say the president has no power but it's not as big as some people might like. >> suarez: daniel weiss, can the president change the price of gas if he or she wants to? >> well, when this happened in 2008 president george w. bush said "i would wave a magic wand if i could to lower prices but there's no such thing." and this's true for this president as well. there is no magic wand to wave. prices are high due to several factors. first, there's some supply disruption in the middle east. second that there is a lack of... there's a... increased demand from asia and then third wall street speculators and oi

the center for american progress, she is a senior adviser on health reform in the obama administration. bob is the attorney general of texas and one of the state attorney generals who brought this case against the government. are you as concerned as i've just heard the report justifies it that this looks like kennedy is leaning toward the conservative position, perhaps ready to declare the original mandate of the president's bill unconstitutional? >> no. look, i expect justice to see ask tough questions of both sides, and in the appellate courts, conservative judges asked really tough questions of the government and then ruled in favor of the government, in favor of the original mandate. favor of the individual mandate. so i'm not surprised, and pete williams did talk about justice kennedy's remarks at the end where he did express that this is perhaps a unique market and came up with his own limiting principles. so i expected tough questions. i'm still confident we should win this case if the judges apply -- justices apply the previous precedent. >> attorney general abbott, thank you f

. >> you know, i want to draw everyone's attention to a report by the center for american progress whicht what happens to undocumented workers once forced underground. it makes them afraid to report crimes and interface at all with local police. it has repercussions in terms of education. they often don't take their children who are here legally to school for fear of being caught. it fundamentally keeps them from engage with their own communities. many times undocumented workers illegal immigrants, whatever your term of preference is, are married to or live in house holds where someone is a legal citizen. but that legal citizen is also forced underground. and yet, the republican party i think maybe is just waking up to the reality of what happens when you have the rhetoric and the policies that you do, and especially in an election year. >> well, everything you say is right. i think i could try to explain what's happening politically. what the republicans realize they need to do is to put something out there to masquerade and i say that kind of chairbly as the real thing which alisha tal

. >>> let's bring in the center for american progress and, governor dean was supposed to join us, bute was delayed. georgia republican and dr. tom price, representative and dr. price, without slipping too far into the policy, what do you think the supreme court is going to do? all going to come down, people i've talked to have suggested, two justices, kennedy and maybe even roberts. >> i think you are right, brian. as a physician, i can tell you it violates all the things we hold dear. i believe it's the individual mandate, not the government says you have to buy health insurance, it's that this law says you must buy a product and this is what it must be. the law clearly defines in specific ways what every plan must have. no single member of congress' plan would be compliant under the law. it is illegal and that's what i believe to be unconstitutional. i think that's what the court will find. and the question pete raised is important. if the individual mandate comes down, do all of the other things stand within it? if it does, it puts us in a very difficult situation. the prices would

now as president of the center for american progress, she is trying to persuade people the affordable care act will benefit many americans. but, she says, it's a hard sell. because the white house had to make significant compromises to get the law passed and still managed to get only one republican vote. >> it has become a very polarizing issue, in part because of the way the legislation was passed and the procedural challenges. sausage making in congress is never pretty. that was particularly unpretty particularly unattractive sausage making, the process of the affordable care act. >> reporter: more than 150 from the general public had an opportunity to hear the arguments today. the lines are already forming again for tomorrow. >> ifill: for a closer look at what's going on with the impact of the law >> ifill: for a closer look at what's going on with the impact of the law, and at what happened inside the courtroom today, we're joined by the team covering the arguments for us this week: marcia coyle of the "national law journal" and newshour health analyst susan dentzer, editor-in-ch

now president and ceo of investment company institute and associate director with the center for american progressmen, welcome. paul, i'm going to start with you. the s.e.c. did put in some changes in 2010, but obviously they feel they do not go far enough. why do you think those changes are enough? >> well, actually, money market funds were the first part of the financial system to be reformed after the financial crisis. and we think the changes were awfully comprehensive. they effect virtually every aspect of the money fund's portfolios. it's not the same industry now that it was in 2008. and i think we ought to at least take a hard look at the success that those reforms have had through a very challenging period. remember, we've had the euro crisis, the downgrade in the u.s. government securities and virtually a no interest rate environment. these funds have come through it very successfully. >> david, i think you would like to see more reform in the mutual fund industry in the money market mutual fund industry in particular. what would you like to see put in place? >> i think the s.e.c. propos