caller: these individuals down in guantanamo are not covered by the geneva convention. these people would be classified -- it would be under the laws of armed conflict -- these people are unlawful combatants. they're not prisoners of war. they could be shot on sight on the battlefield and the fact that they are not is a testament to our leniency. they're not wearing a uniform, fighting for a flag. these are like the germans who came into new england in the second world war and we executed them. host: so, do think that george bush was right in his detention policy? caller: yes, but he squandered an upper to do with his family congress. he could have gotten this through them. -- with his friendly congress. caller: this is hamilton, montana. host: excuse me, my mistake. caller: there is a telecom appear that once every one of them. we have a prison that is ready and waiting. we could take care of them right there. the way this whole thing started -- everything seems to be contracted out. you usually their people over there doing their laundry in running their mail. a have

who never before have gotten the protection of the geneva convention. the geneva convention in part says, will you have these protections so long as you act under the laws that have been recognized for warfare. one of them is wear a uniform. one of them is don't attack innocent civilians as a particular strategy and tactic. so what we are doing is we are turning it all upside-down and we are saying somehow we are protecting our values by doing something we have never done before. we are jeopardizing the national security interest of the united states. we are putting americans, innocent americans at risk by doing this. i will be happyp to yield. mr. lewis: i very much appreciate the point the gentleman is making. it's an important one. the issue per se has almost been denied by the other side when we have these discussions in committee and otherwise. it should be known by your public and my public that four of these people were released to bermuda just this morning we learned. that's a british entity. but what's next? our territories? we know that gi lan

the illegal actions, it does not absolve the other actors were from the necessity to an ear to the geneva convention. >> how was human rights watch founded? >> it started out as helsinki watch, which looks at the old soviet union, and help people were being treated there. if you look at our website, you can find out more about it. >> what is the name and number? it is outside on the paperwork. it simply states that the u.s. can only employ cluster munitions in areas that are not populated by civilians, and must have a scud rate of 1% or less. they have to work 99% of the time. it gets us about 90% of the way to the current treaty. if i may add, with germany and canada and the u.k., it is not just the industry. >> in iraq, can you tell us about the situation now about water and electricity and daily living? is human rights watch or you working with the obama administrations on conditions on guantanamo? >> we have people who work in iraq. i don't know the specific conditions now as far as electricity and water. as far as working on guantanamo bay, we have had people in guantanamo bay at the

-russian arms talks with geneva? also president medvedev said over the weekend that russia will agree to cut its nuclear warheads if the u.s. meets its concerns on missile defense meaning

presumably the intelligence officials that actually conducted interrogations and detentions, violated the geneva conventions and should be held accountable for that. does he really believe that u.s. officials should be prosecuted and perhaps convicted of war crimes because they did what the american people asked them to do, consistent with legal opinions from the office of legal counsel at the justice department? i think it, as "the wall street journal" points out today, in an article called "the pursuit of john yew." i'll read a couple of sentences from it. here's a political thoughtrbgs permit. imagine terrorists stage an attack on u.s. soil in the next four years and the recriminations afterward, administration officials are sued by families of victims for having advised in legal memos that guantanamo be closed and that interrogations of al qaeda detainees be limited. should these officials be personally liable for the advice they gave to president obama? the article goes on to say, we would say, no, but that's exactly the kind of lawsuit that the political left, including state department no

it is fully compliant with the geneva convention. now, when the war supplemental came to the floor in the senate, i was extremely pleased that democrats and republicans in the senate joined together and announced that they would not include the $80 million in the war supplemental to close gitmo. sadly, this bipartisan initiative has fallen victim to partisan politics without any regard for our national security or the wishes of the american people. senator reid, harry reid, declared -- and i agreed with him -- in a press conference after my bipartisan senate amendment was passed that -- quote -- "we will never allow terrorists to be released into the united states." i think that's a good statement. i agree with it. he went on to say -- and i'm quoting now -- "we don't want them around the united states. i can't make any -- make it any clearer than the statement i have given you. we will never allow terrorists to be released in the united states." well, that sounds real good and i agree with him and i hope that he's right. however, th

in the 1955 geneva conference, we presented a big book that thick about this process and all that wehad done. >> the information was declassified under the atoms for peace programs of the west -- so the rest of the world could benefit. >> we created codes and balance for this sort of thing. the legacy of that program is now the property of the whole world. >> did you know about the announcement about building one had a 25-megawatt reactors? these are about 10 times the size of normal reactors. from an engineering point of view, do you think those will be successful? what comment to you have about that in terms of the ability of this country to build nuclear power plants? >> the point made earlier was right on. it opens up a whole lot of new things. instead of having to make the world's largest pressure vessel and all that stuff and have your tremendous problem of shipping these things -- and having the tremendous problem of shipping these things, when you make the plants smaller, all of those uniquely difficult problems go away. that type of problem goes away. i think it is a very in

the geneva conventions were set up based on nation state models and more conventional forces so when you get to force is like al qaeda, which doesn't have an identifiable nation, don't wear uniforms, don't meet many of the criteria, with recognition as a pows, how do you handle them? the way president bush decided to

the story of those people about what happened to them treated i could look to assess whether the geneva conventions were being followed by all parties of the conflict. that is what it comes down to, what we do at human rights watch. let me tell you a little bit about how that work happens. at human rights watch, we have about 270 people. we work in about 80 nations worldwide. we are split up into different ways. -- we're split up in two different ways. we have the regional divisions were people are experts on the areas where they work. one of them lives in tablisi. he knows everyone in the government. he gets us into the highest levels of the government. our researcher in a roberuit, jerusalem, japan are the experts were they work and live. our researcher for afghanistan has just gone back to cokabul. we're working closely with the u.s. military and afghan groups looking at the civilian casualty issues. these people are there every day. these are the regional experts. then we have the transnational divisions. the work on issues that transcend national borders and boundaries. we have peo

for those that are not identified with the nation's state, they will be treated consistent with the geneva convention as far as practical military necessity. in any case, he mainly. it was compromise for what some folks wanted, but he is the commander-in-chief, and the military standpoint, we have done that. >> host: we are going to move briefly to afghanistan, the change in leadership announced this week, we have video of the defense secretary making that announcement. would you help the public understand what you see might be behind the replacement of david tierney with stanley crystal? >> guest: difficult question. i am not in on those debates. i know he was the one that led our ground forces in the iraq war. he was brilliant in the execution of that. i don't have the insight i would need to make comments on that. general david petraeus, it is his purview. we all serve at the pleasure of the military leadership, if the boss wants to change out, in the book -- should be fire myers? that is always on the table. i don't have much more insight than that to speculate. >> host: the general pr

by the way, the claim that the geneva convention does not apply to these people is just plain wrong. even the u.s. supreme court has made that ruling. host: thanks for all of your calls. in a moment we will speak with our guest from think progress, the editor in chief, and the associate editor of real clear politics. we will talk about what is happening congress, things in the white house in the media. your calls in a conversation coming up in just a bit. ♪ >> is holiday weekend, discover and unfamiliar side, live from george washington's mount vernon estate. join our three-hour conversation on sunday beginning at noon eastern on c-span2. >> how is he's been funded? >> publicly. >> the nation's tax cuts for the taxes. >> sort of a public funding thing? >> it may be, i do not know. >> 30 years ago america's cable companies created to spend as a public service, a private business initiative with no government mandate or money. >> watch "book tv" in prime time all this week. tonight at 8:30 p.m. eastern, the green color coming, how one solution can fix our two biggest problems. and form

and, some of the most amazing things that he did, let's say it's what he did with geneva and so on. and, the basic problem now is that how do you deal with a country with huge amounts of new york weapons that want to kill you? and he worked on it for seven years, and he did something which everyone thought was impossible. he got them to pull down, and the cold war was over. he finished it up in 1988, and i think the reason why he hasn't gotten as much attraction as most people, they couldn't believe it. hoan hurts zewdie do it, because it seems so simple lendee easy but it wasn't. it was extremely difficult and that is what is in this book. an explanation of how he did it come who he talked to and when he talked to them. i am going to turn it over to annelise to talk more about this and then we will answer any questions you want to give us. >> well, i think what we see as we read various documents, there were 355 meetings of the national security council during his administration that reagan chaired, and they are almost 200 of them have minutes taken by a scribe that tells with ever

another report on qassam rockets, it does not absolve the other actor from necessity to adhere to the geneva conventions. >> how and where was human rights watch founded and by who? >> i have been there for 6 years. human rights watch started as helsinki watch which looked at the old soviet union and how people were being treated and it grew and has taken on a larger mandate. if you look at our web site you can find out more about it. >> what does the senator feinstein bill do? do we have the name and number? >> to me have the name and number? it is outside on the paperwork, the civilian cluster protection act, it escapes my mind right now. what it does is simply states that the u.s. can only employ cluster munitions in areas that are not populated by civilians and also must have a dud rate of 1% or less, they have to work 98% of the time. a solid build. it gets us 90% of the way to being on board the current treaty. if i may add, with the u.k. and germany, canada, some of our major allies, it is not just the whole ec. >> in iraq, can you tell us about the water and electricity and matters o

officials from scotland, indonesia, and thailand, and from the missions in geneva expect in announcement of a global swine flu pandemic to be imminent. the world health organization meeting in an emergency session today is likely to declare the first flu pandemic in 41 years. it would push drugmakers to fast-track production of a vaccine. finally, from the new york daily news the head of the white house military office forced out over the photo over the statue of liberty has become a senior fellow at the center for american progress. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. "washington journal" continues. host: our democratic senator, senator mary lenders from louisiana joins us. -- mary landrieu. guest: we have been busy looking for pat ford for renewable energy for america. it has been a tough debate, not necessarily republican against democrat, but region versus region. host: you recently passed a bill on drilling. guest: we actually voted on closing a title on gas drilling. there's a major energy bill with several titles. the main is renewable electricity standard. we

delegations from the united states and russia are conducting talks in geneva today and tomorrow, i believe. yes, june 22nd. today through wednesday. and they will be discussing a variety of issues related to the start fall a wan treaty. you know that on april 1st in london at their first meeting president obama and president medvedev agreed that bilateral negotiations should start right away with the objective of achieving a new comprehensive legally binding agreement on reducing and eliminating strategic offensive arms and that the u.s. and russia would seek to record and a new agreement levels of reduction that will be low word than it in the moscow treaty. >> do you have specific numbers yet on those two areas? >> they're talking about specific numbers but i'm not one to talk about specific numbers. we do want to have a significant reduction though >> north korea. could you update the situation with north korea vessel in the chinese see tracked by the u.s. navy and do you have any plan to ask permission to the vessel to make interdiction? >> i'm not going to be able to tell you any more

when i arrived in geneva and looked at what we were trying to achieve globally, it was quite clear that we simply did not have the personnel, the expertise on the ground, to put in place the basic management processes. this is something i discussed with malaria people and everyone who uses these 3,000 people we now put on the ground because there seems to be a terrible distaste for it. but without people on the ground to manage the resources, build the capacity, you're going to learn by trial and error very slowly with a lot more air than trial. this is the current distribution. you not only need to put people on the ground, this is a big challenge, you have to have the right distribution mix, you need to be able to move people. as you can see here, the distribution of people reflects the epidemiology and the risks of the program to the program. the other thing you need to do is to be flexible and be able to respond with your human-resources to where your problems are. this is the last reservoir, we believe, of type i polio, this is the kosi river through the northern part of the countr

and some of the most amazing things he did what he did in geneva and so on. the basic problem now is that how you deal with a country with huge amounts of it new york weapons that were to kill you? and he worked on for seven years and he did something which everyone thought was impossible. he got them to pull down and the cold war was over. you finish it up in 1988 and i think the reason why he hasn't gotten as much traction as most people should, they couldn't believe it. how on earth did he do it? because it seemed so simple and easy, but it wasn't, it was extremely difficult and that is what is this book. the explanation of how he did it, who he tartu and when he talked. now i'm going to turn it over and answer any questions you want. >> well, i think that what we see how as we rated various documents during 1955 meetings of the national security council during the administration that reagan shared and we got there about almost 200 of have mistaken that tells other base san and martin requested classification and got the classified about 85 or 87 episodes

he is afraid that the values that we've stood for under the geneva convention and other agreements over the years may not be applicable to this situation. i disi adegree -- disagree. i have faith in this country and the constitution. and i believe that mr. ghailani will get a fairer trial in the united states than any place on earth. if he is found guilty of being come police knit the killing of over 200 innocent people and innocent americans, that he will pay the price he should pay. he will be incarcerated safely. this notion that we've run out of supermax beds, and that's the end of the story. the presiding officer, this is his home state of colorado where the florence facility is located, i would say to the senator from kentucky, that may be the supermax facility at the federal level, but there are other supermax facility that's can safely incarcerate convicted terrorists or serial murders, whomever. if there is one thing that america knows how to do, we know how to incarcerate people. we do it more than any other nation on earth. we do it safely. the notion that there is only one p

story for those people about what had happened to them and try to look and assess whether or not the genevaonventions were being followed by all parties to a conflict. and that's really what it comes down what we do at human rights watch in the emergencies division and so now let me tell you a little bit about h.r.w. and how that work happens. so at human rights watch, we have, oh, i would guesstimate about 270 people. we work in about 80 nations worldwide. and we are split up in two different ways. one, we have our regional divisions. and the regional divisions are real experts in the countries in which they work so, for example, our caucuses researcher who you will see in the film when we show it, he lives in tablisi and he knows everyone. he knows everyone in the government and he gets us into the highest levels of that government. our researcher in beirut, the same level. our researcher in jerusalem, our researcher in columbia, our researcher in japan -- all the different countries that we have people in, they are the experts where they work and live. our researcher for afghanistan has

here, however, they don't even have the rights of prisoners of war under the geneva accords because they do not adhere to the rules of war. they don't fight with uniforms for a nation-state and so on. they, in fact, are terrorists. is they are still allowed humane treatment but they don't is the same rights as prisoners of war. that means as the president acknowledged, as the united states supreme court has averaged, we have a right to hold them until the cessation of hostilities so they don't kill anymore people. you can't just turn them loose. now, the president, in his speech, made the point that at least 60, i think, is the number used, of these prisoners had been released and they were released by the bush administration. that's true. the bush administration was under a lot of pressure to try to release as many of these people who were being held as possible. and so they held determinations. they have a determination once a year and initially as to what the status of the individual is and whether he is still a danger and eventually in many of the cases they decided that the person c

said we disagree on a lot, but we agree, the difference should be made in this country but not in geneva. once we get back to this country we disagree with the rules and regulations. that is how you do it but you don't dismiss people. come together a coalition. to the republican party the key is we are about personal free m freedom, we are about responsibility, individual responsibility and we are about small government and that is a whole lot to pull people together. at the same time, don't let anyone say we should drop our social issues because that defines our better side. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very, very much. >> now an event with ms. cheney, the daughter of former vice president dick cheney. this is posted by the clair b t boothe policy institute. >> we present our conservative leadership award to one woman who has show exceptionally is to that commitment to promoting conservative values. we are honored to present the war to elizabeth cheney. liz cheney is the left's worst nightmare, she is smart, and conservative woman and she is one of the few leaders in this count

but when i ever arrived in geneva and looked at what we're trying to achieve it was quite clear we simply did not have the personnel and expertise on the ground to put in place the basic management processes. this is something i discussed with malaria people in everyone else who uses these 3,000 people we have put on the ground because there seems to be a terrible the states but quite frankly without people on the ground to manage the resources and build the capacity you are going to learn by trial and error bristling with a lot more air the trial. this is the current distribution and this is a big challenge to the u.n. agencies you got to have the right distribution and mix and be able to move people and that is the thing we are very good at but as you can see here at least now the distribution of people reflects the epidemiology and the risks to the program. the other the thing is to be able to be flexible and respond with your human resources to where your problems are. this is the last reservoir we believe of type one polio in india and this when you see is the cozy river coming from

and in the 1955 geneva atoms for peace conference, we presented a big book that thick about this process and all that we had done and so forth. >> so the information was declassified under the -- or much of it under the atoms for peace program so that the rest of the world could benefit from -- >> yeah, and out of that, you know, we helped some of the states develop state code standards for pressure vessels and valves and all this sort of thing. the legacy of that program is now the property of the whole world. >> did you hear about or know about the babcock and wilcox announcement about building 100 25 mega react j jmegawatt reac. do you think that's likely to be successful and what comment would you have about that as a part of a goal to increase the ability of this country to build nuclear

but when i arrived in geneva, and i looked at what we were trying to achieve globally it was quite clear that we simply did not have the personnel, the expertise on the ground to be able to put in place the basic management processes. now, this is something i discussed with malaria people, i discussed with other people, i discussed with everyone who else who uses of these 3000 people that we have now put on the ground because what seems to be a terrible distaste for it but quite frankly without people on the ground to manage the resources, to build the capacity, you're going to learn by trial and error very, very slowly with a lot more air than trial. this is the current distributional. do not point me to put people on the ground, and again this is a big challenge to un agencies. you have to have the right distribution mix. obviously he need to be able to move people. those are things we are very good at. as you can see here at least now the distribution of people reflects the epidemiology and the risk of the program dish to the program. the other thing you need to do to be able to be fl