nearly eight years later i was with ambassador jim jeffrey as he led the challenges transition from military to civilian lead for the first time since the toppling the saddam hussein. also rode along side military commanders, including generals petraitis, ode eros and austin. this is only because of the leadership of these individuals, the more than 1 million american whose served there including nearly 4,500 hoon paid the ultimate price. like too many americans i have lost friends in iraq. if confirmed, i will do everything in my power, using all the tools of our foreign poems to build a lasting partnership with iraq worthy of their memory and sacrifice. i believe such a partnership is possible and, however, we are not there. there is so much the u.s. must do to mitigate risks of back-sliding and increased risks for consolidating the risks we've seen since the worst periods of the war. iraq is slowly emerging from decades of war isolation and dictatorship. more recently faced now with american help a sebitarian war that left fens s tens of thos daend millions displaced. reducing citizens to

ambassador jim jeffrey has really raised this to the top of our embassy priority. he's done an incredible job with it. through the joint coordinating committee of the fsa, we now have very deep ties with the iraqis. they cently had an inaugural meeting in washington with the department of energy in showing the iraqis how to think in terms of a systemized way to develop the oil resources. a number of do-outs came from that meeting and now we're following up. we can talk to the iraqis about high level strategic issues and how we can cooperate. through the oil sector and energy sector, there's a gateway for doing that. >> thank you for that answer. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator lugar? >> mr. elliott, i would like to pursue further just for our own knowledge, what is occurring in tajikistan presently. how would you describe the relations of that country, with russia, for example. or with china. or with other countries that may have strategic interests in that territory? >> thank you, mr. senator. that's a very good question. having been a former countr

ambassador jim jeffrey has raised this to the top of the priority and done an incredible job with it. through the joint coordinating committee we have very deep ties with the iraqis. they recently had their inaugural meet hearing in washington with carlos pascual. in showing how to in a systemized way develop their oil sources. a in of do-outs and we're now following up. we can talk to the iraqis about high level strategic issues and how we can cooperate, both whole of government and within our private industry. and getting our private industry harnessed and into iraq is going to be critical. and there is a gte gateway for doing that. >> thank you for that answer. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. senator lugar? >> mr. elliott, i would like to pursue further just for our own knowledge what is occurring in tajikistan presently. how would you describe the relations of that country with russia, for example, or with china, or with other countries that may have strategic interests in that territory? >> thank you, mr. senator. that's a very good question. having been a former

and strong relationships across the board in the iraqi government and just talking to ambassador jim jeffrey who just returned from iraq and talking about the leadership question. a lot of it is politics and personal. one of the key jobs for the ambassador be, making sure the iraqis were working in a seamless way to run an effective mission requiring daily interaction with the highest leveling of the iraqi government. something i've done in iraq for a number of years. >> thank you very much. i'm almost out of time on this round, but madam ambassador, i'll come back to you in a couple of minutes to ask especially about sri lanka's -- what i would assert as a lack of progress after the llrc work that was done. i'll pick up with that. senator risch? >> thank you, mr. chairman. first of all, let me say that mr. mcgurk, i don't think anyone can question your knowledge and understanding of what's happened in iraq. you've had an incredible amount of experience there. in fact, i would be hard-pressed i think to find someone who won have a resume like would you as far as dealing with that is concerne

you see jim lehrer, gwen ifill, ray suarez, jeffrey brown, margaret warner, hari sreenivasan. but the truth is there are so many other people who it takes to make this show happen. we have producers, we have reporters. there are writers, researchers, people who answer the telephones, people who get our files organized so that we can ask the right questions when we go on the air. it takes a small army, not to mention the people in the control room, the cameramen and women. the tape editors-- there are so many people. this is very much a group production. we couldn't do it without the many people whose offices are right here along the way that you see behind me. they are here in the morning. they're here until late at night. and when they go home at night, they continue to work on this program because we all care about the product, and we care about what we're able to bring to you. that's why your support is so important to us in getting the pbs newshour on the air every day. >> unlike some news programs that pit one point of view against another to watch the ensuing fireworks,

joining us now to talk about this issue, jeffrey jokobavitz, head of litigation of his law firm and former defense attorney jim shallock here as well. explain to us something about executive privilege. every white house tries to use it. >> sure. executive privilege was used 14 times by bill clinton, six times by george bush. this is the first time barack obama is using it and it's a privilege designed to allow deliberations to proceed with confidence, that government officials could deliberate with each other and know it won't get out in the public about what they're saying. >> they could have conversations about sensitive things, say what they think and not worry congress will be looking over their shoulder. even if that's the case, why not turn over these documents, jim, because it looks like you got something to hide? >> congress has a right to know what's going on in an investigation. they have a right. they're elected by the people and have a right to subpoena documents and to investigate this botched gun running scheme. now by taking the fifth amendment, people say to themselves what are they hiding in c