private sector engagement in kuwait. one of the primary advantages is investment destination for u.s. firms and it's the historically positive and very strong relationship between our two countries. kuwaitis at the same time recognize the value and quality of u.s. goods and services and expertise and regularly reach out to me to tell us they're interested in seeing more u.s. firms come to kuwait and operate there. as part of kuwait's experience of the arab spring, discussions with the government and throughout society have begun to sharpen their focus on developing strategies for sustainable economic growth. kuwait held parliamentary elections on february 2nd and in the run-up to those elections, many of the parliamentary candidates called on the candidate to jump-start large-scale development projects designed to diversify kuwait's economy and to create new opportunities for private sector grow even before that in 2010, kuwait's parliament passed a five-year development plan with those specific aims in mind. implementat

iraq is on the pact to resolving outstanding disputes with kuwait. levels of violence have hit a historic lows. oil production from 2009 has risen from 2.4 million to 2.8 million barrels a day and is rising. there remain significant challenges. there are huge political challenges iraq's leaders must address. additionally iraq will have to create more widely shared economic opportunity and battle corruption. we are in an excellent place to work with our iraqi partners to help them accomplish these goals and build on the progress to make a pluralistic era of democracy for the first time in its history. one final note if i may. many of us in this room have for much of the past decade focused deeply on iraq's internal politics, internal security, internal economics. my current position in the state department reminds me how important it is to see iraq as an integral part of the region in which the country is located. there are politics tend to transcend national boundaries. what happens in one arab country has echoes in another and iraq is no exception.

soldiers coming home from kuwait. escorting the convoys of supplies and thousand of american troops leaving iraq and crossing over into kuwait. over the next few weeks, nearly 3,000 of the troops from the red bulls will be coming home in minnesota. they were all part of the state's single largest deployment since world war ii. and it's because of those minnesotans returning home, we have news to report on txeç nationwide grassroots. eventually. the twin cities, minneapolis, st. paul, their parade to end the mark of the iraq wark and say welcome home and thank you to the troops, it was planned for tomorrow, this saturday. but because minnesota is right in the middle of this big rotation of return of troops from kuwait, they have decided to postpone it. they were con exacted by both the military and family of the red bulls who basically said, you guys, we are almost home. we all want to go. wait for us. so there's no specific new date set yet for the end of the iraq war parade but they are aiming for late july. we will

soldiers coming home from kuwait.corting the con voups convoys of supplies and thousands of our american troops leaving iraq and crossing over into kuwait. over the next few weeks nearly 3,000 of these troops from the 34th infantry red bulls will be coming home to minnesota. they were part of the single largest deployment since world war ii. and it is because of those minnesotans returning home that we have news to report tonight on the nationwide grassroots effort to welcome home iraq war vet vans veterans. as we have done for every war in moderate history, the twin cities, minneapolis and st. paul, their parade to mark the end of the iraq war and say welcome home and thank you to the troops, the twin cities parade was planned for tomorrow, this saturday, but because minnesota is right in the middle of this big proation ofç troop coming home from kuwait, the twin cities decided to postpone the parade so as many people can participate as possible. organizers say they were charactered by both the military and by frien

companies sell surveillance and sight blocking technology to countries like bahrain kuwait and saudi arabia or its corresponding guy and kitchen can takes a look and if there's two kinds of internet freedoms. the u.s. government continues spending millions of dollars to support freedom of the internet around the world but is it freedom for all we can leaks which to many has become the symbol of you in every demise been under fire from u.s. officials and lawmakers because we teach publish documents which embarrass the american government in many ways we can fix becomes the enemy the u.s. has reportedly shoot a secret indictment against elaina signage the head of the website which leaked hundreds of thousands of documents revealing in the very things we tales about wars in iraq and afghanistan five major u.s. financial institutions these that math a car pay pal western union and the bank of america have trying to economically strangle weiqi least by blocking donations to the web site until recently peter pan viewer and has served as a foreign service officer in the state department tha

so he had been flying between new york and kuwait. he had been sleeping night after night with his knees pulled up to his chin, further restricting the circulation. he was dehydrated as they all were. i remember imtelling me they had to boil the water out of the the euphrates, and boil it, and he said it tasted so foul. dehydration makes the blood more sluggish. an autopsy revealed he had an inherited blood coagulant disorder that we were completely unaware of. just adding that alone would not bring about his death, but it's the com binges of those four risk factors. again if they say you have three or more risk factors, that's when you should by aware. >> people might think, okay, david bloom was in an extreme situation. how do i equate it to my own life and whether i have risk factors. >> that's right. what i learned also, at the time i thought this was some freak occurrence, rare incident here, but actually 2 million americans develop a clot every year, and 300,000 people will die. that's every year in our country, more than aids a

named fireman's friends flee kuwait the dogs dissyllable in varnish and. did we is the fellow at on of present and not because it's not quite as scheduled because he's had a history association went to buy the paint and somehow got the wrong color. his head of the history society and he says the guy at loews sold him, painted in gold paint can. >>> but the city's fire department got involved in a cover-up after discovered in faster than you can say dick nixon got a gold again. the treasury's never take anything too seriously. it's been steeped in gold but on this year. and we've got pictures of the smoking police can't prove it. >>> mike sherman cbs five. you might leaves again and can quell a and a picture is a tool for they deserve a since she part. sports is on deck. the this oil matt king returned to the mound for the first time since is one that masterpiece against the pirates his counterparts and add the fillets version of picasso is just as 7 5 pence he tapped into the tent in set out for nine scoreless innings and didn't get the win back-to-back ni

two hours ago allied air forces began an attack on military targets in iraq in kuwait and watching it on the television seeing how quick the women and the reply afterward i am from the liberated be too. awful great to be an american i felt the we had lost the ghosts of vietnam i remember sitting there on the cal said night and thinking less of you know you want to go into you know to go into the military. be doing. so we got married on the thirtieth of december of ninety six the five or so and i left on january third of nineteen six to six go on a vietnam so i gotta spend more on a moment in vietnam all. we want from bonk out to ben while we're at daycare for what they call the orientation period you know to get used to the climate and to actually get used to the sounds of war. the first couple of weeks i was terrified ever not and after my first briefing i went back to my bed and i just couldn't sleep. all i could think of she going to be going to shoot me more because the next day nothing happened. and then. somewhere at about three or four weeks we had an operation where they had t

two hours ago allied air forces began an attack on military targets in iraq in kuwait and watching it on the television and seeing how quick that it went and the hoopla afterwards from liberated featured to. also great to be an american i had felt that we had lost the ghosts of vietnam. i remember sitting there on the couch said knight and thinking to myself you know you want to go into you know to go into the military. or got married on the thirtieth of december of ninety six if i so and i laugh on january third of one thousand six to six going to vietnam so i got spend monem moment in vietnam of all. we went from bontoc to bin was worried there for what they called already taishan payor you know to get used to the climate and to actually get used to the sounds of war. the first couple of weeks i was terrified ever not and after my first briefing i went back to my bed and i just could not sleep. all i could think i was going to be they're going to shoot i mean in the course the next day nothing happened. and then . somewhere at about three or four weeks we had an operation where they

he was trying to grab a kuwait when his arm became lodged inside. >> i was getting some toys. >> poorit took firemen an hour to dismantle the machine and finally freed the youngster. he was held by his mother throughout the ordeal. but he was pretty calm. one of the firemen gave him a toy from the vending machine as a souvenir. i think that i saw lawrence doing that. >> does that not remind you of one young weatherman? >> i still check those things for toys. you guys don't? this weekend, we have some changes coming our way. high-pressure sneaking in, some sunshine out over the bay and looking good so far. not seeing the wind that we have seen over the past couple of days so we will feel more all- around. 56 degrees in concord and a cool 52 in oakland. and 56 degrees in san jose. we are looking good into the afternoon with a lot of sunshine. mild to cool conditions along the coastline and the weekend, warmer to start. and then as we get into easter sunday there's a chance we could see showers but that is mainly north of the golden gate bridge. high-pressure holding on and it looks like

resolving long-standing issues regarding the border in kuwait airways. iraq also enjoys a deep relationship with turkey and developing stronger economic ties with jordan and beyond. and mr. maliki recently traveled to japan and korea to develop stronger economic trade ties. so i don't want to gloss over the tensions iraq has with its neighbors. but we are pressing those concerns to address disagreements directly as has happened with kuwait and the general trend is positive. all you have to do is look next door at iran and iran's international relations to see what is a pretty dramatic contrast. the second question -- at one address quite as fun as the first. the second question, is iraq's leading toward dictatorship? i hear this a lot. there's great debate and discussion in the region and was informed circles here in washington about whether iraq is on the track to return to the days of the leadership and authoritarianism. many of you are quite familiar with the current political tensions between iraq, shia, sunni and kurdish leaders and these tensions b

oman has about five percent of the proven oil reserves of kuwait or the united arab emirates and, um,ut two percent of what saudi arabia has. so, in the context of the arabian peninsula, it's not a major source of oil. on the other hand, they're actually going through their oil more quickly. and in theory, their oil reserves will be depleted by the year 2020. in practice, of course, they're continuing to make new discoveries. but there is a sense that the oil will eventually run out and they need to plan for that. narrator: oman's government sees economic diversification as the key to their future. diversification policy has actually various aims. chiefly is not to be dependent solely on the oil as the sole resource of our income, you see, and, uh... to build the other sectors, to utilize the other sectors, you see, to make use of the other resources which is... oman has, such as fisheries, such as other minerals-- on top of it gas-- such as agriculture and human resources as well. narrator: but diversification into more private-sector enterprises means a change to omani employment pa

we were even deprived of personal visitations for ten years i haven't had a kuwait communication through -- with my family. we don't want that. we are victims of torture. traces of torture are still with me and my body. it will never repeat this experience to violate the physical bodily injury. we suffered because we oppose the regime. we represent the islamic reference in tunisia. our project is against oppression. we will never build anything but a project that is built on the freedom of individuals and human -- respect of human rights. can. >> i truly want to apologize for the many, many hands that are raised. but we truly are out of time. i want to encourage you all to mingle with guests. we're going to have let's say 25 minute break until 11:30 and then reconvene to talk about the constitution writing process. thank you very much. >>> republican presidential candidates mitt romney and newt gingrich will speak at the annual national rifle association's meeting tomorrow. also addressing the nra, former presidential candidate rick and tomorrow, texas governor rick perry and wisconsin g

in this portion the focus is the economies of saudi arabia, qatar and kuwait. it's just under an hour. >> i would like to reconvene our forum at this time. as you know, we are still on our tight schedule with one hour remaining on our second panel. the same procedures would pertain to questions from the floor so please begin sending them up as the panelists give their opening remarks. >> moderating our second panel is the honorable allen larsen whose biography you have in the event booklet. i'm sure all of you in the room and certainly we at the national u.s.-arab chamber remember his days in economics and his many years in the aba bureau where he was a champion for u.s. trade and international fair treatment for u.s. companies. so it's a particular pleasure to call on ambassador larson to moderate this panel. >> thank you very much, good afternoon everyone. we're looking forward very much to this panel. we're going to be considering a set of challenges that perhaps paradoxically are just as difficult and daunting in many ways as those of the economies in trans

and he traveled to the middle east, kuwait, jordan, and plunged into middle eastern culture, and he loved it. he became a special forces support soldier, and he went to afghanistan in 2002, and the first wave of american soldiers to strike back at al qaeda and the taliban after 9/11. and he won a bronze star for digging trips in combat there. in 2005 he was assigned to be the tribal affairs officer for the u.s. military in ramadi, iraq, which was one journalist called it the most fucked up place on earth. reporters scampered through the ruins of ramadi and was a this reminds me of images of hiroshima and trust in installing grid. it had collapsed completely. it was the provincial capital of anbar province and basically the headquarters of the al qaeda college the that were attempting to launch in iraq. ride away three things were obvious to travis patriquin at his college. it to attack al qaeda forces with firepower, and they also had to rebuild the shattered local iraqi police force and reach out to the remaining tribal sheiks. a lot of whom had fled the horror. and there weren't many le

democracy to enfranchise women, behind australia, behind great britain, ahead of portugal, 1976, ahead of kuwait, 2006. so the u.s. is sort of in the middle of the pack. and if elizabeth cady statin had then told in 1888 that the female suffrage was something that was going to happen decades into the future i think she would have been disbelieving. she had a lot of confidence as did many other reformers that this was the right thing to do. it's interesting, however, that statin doesn't mention the fact that women had already voted in a part of the united states. we talked about that in an earlier lecture. does any one remember where they used to vote? yeah, new jersey. they voted in new jersey for about a generation from the 1770s to the early 1800s then were disenfranchised, i think i mentioned this. they were disenfranchised because a member of the new jersey state legislature had lost a race earlier and he blamed it on women voters for some reason. it was actually a kind of ordinary dispute about where to build a court house in a county in new jersey, but he vowed when he got into the state l

anonymous but even that's not long enough he says to cure himself the addiction corcoran's being go to kuwait his parents wife and several jobs at one point he resorted to stealing money from his own mother. called her from world of gambling well the king and the green were speaking over me. i got the. i was. from. marco started gambling when he was eight but then there were no t.v. law tricks but there were a beautiful movies and irresistible you were for potential gamblers. on this planet me agreement of that but i didn't have that desperate to win their fortune in modern italy around a million gamblers a figure growing rapidly due to the economic crisis. marketing has become very aggressive and sells gambling as if lottery tickets were daily groceries commercials promise that it will help overcome financial difficulties because of the crisis is not only men who gamble it's also their wives and their children who play poker online before gambling in italy was like an erotic movie today it's like porn. after the us easily has the largest law trans credit card market in the world last year al

anonymous but even that's not long enough he says to cure himself of the addiction programs being go to kuwait his parents wife and several jobs at one point he resorted to stealing money from his own mother. called perfect world. and the and then gambling worse taking over. i got the very good girl. i was earning a lot of money. for the way. marcus started gambling when he was eight megs then there were no t.v. or tricks but there were a beautiful movies and irresistible you were for potential gamblers. really understand that i'm near three letters that i get because i didn't have them get desperate to win their fortune and not an easily around a million gamblers a figure growing rapidly due to the economic crisis in marketing and marketing has become very aggressive and sells gambling as if lottery tickets were daily groceries commercials promise it'll help overcome financial difficulties because of the crisis is not only men who gamble it's also their wives and their children who play poker online for gambling in italy was like an erotic movie. it's like porn. after the us eataly has the la

boycotted the arab league meeting in baghdad only kuwait came for it and the reason they didn't agree with the arab league this time is over so-called overflights over iran in flights going on in syria. i think we should be extremely specific i agree with you are we going to be talking about the arab spring for the next year five years ten years twenty years well i think we're going to be talking about there i'm saying because i said i mean changing from the talkers are to democracy really takes time and energy and efforts and this will not happen over night again some countries are going through. a phase of revolution still like syria and the people are not any more afraid of the bullets and. by you know how long we'll be talking about the arab spring i'm looking forward. looking forward to travelling with you to riyadh saudi arabia where our taxi driver will be a woman and you and i will sit in the cafe and discuss freedom in the gulf region ok whatever you do you think that's ever going to happen i'd like to join that trip . i want to thank all of my. we will all be in a bus one da

when on the same trip he went from praising democratic uprisings in cairo to flogging weapons in kuwait prime minister david cameron has been forced to defend his party weapons manufacturers think it's perfectly responsible and respectable but this is a region that's highly sensitive to any kind of military maneuver and tensions that the most. it's a particularly high he certainly do not want to confront china at mach one and they do not have to resort to work below their respective military strains to counter balance hang up so the best. chance at the moment of course is to count on the united states more strategically and do you want more foreign power was into the region so i still have a better chalons are exerting the pressure of the international community on china until now britain and america have had to make do with exerting their influence on the region from afar but with the talk of a physical presence there the fear is it could upset the balance are the bennetts see london. but a favorite so that they too are the headlines to stay with us. something lies beneath. thousands o

to know there were many brothers who fled egypt and went to saudi arabia and went to kuwait they went to carter and so on so this is not a new thing at all in. muslim brotherhood of forty fifty years ago it's the same as the muslim brotherhood today in egypt there's no change they haven't evolved and i think we have found a way to head the founding principles are exactly the same i mean you know we have charter is actually saying that he supports our laws are and he wants ours are to be involved in the islamization of the world and ours are has a role in gaining control of islamization in egypt. and of the world and he said this just very recently so if you know there. are certain 1940's we still beginning of the arab spring we've seen islamic parties wanting to democratic process to to work for their people ok to have the same kind of lifestyles and be more rich countries in the world and they want to do it through the ballot box why are they being so demonized and that's why i asked the question i mean the muslim brotherhood has been actually quite quiet since the fall of mubarak an

firewalls at the same time ironically enough american companies provide bahrain saudi arabia and kuwait with the technology to effectively block websites a lot of the tools in control that are used by so-called repressive governments are provided by american company big differences or corporations for better or worse talk about profit as their motivation the government of however the american government talks about freedom and democracy as its motivation when in fact in many ways he changed in the opposite direction some argue that left uncontrolled the export of surveillance and side blocking tools by american companies could undermine their everyday in the same way as arms exports undermine peace initiatives as far as u.s. government efforts to secure our freedom there seem to be two kinds of freedoms freedom that they encourage and freedom that they punish but is there such a thing is to freedoms and panic stricken reporting from washington party. of the plan cybersecurity law comes hard on the heels of the stop online piracy act and protect ip act which both failed because of public

their initial weapon choice was inaud kuwait. we called it the barney fife pistol because it was a six-shot revolver and we produced a video that showed them that that was inadequate to the job where we had an enactment of terrorist actors that attacked the cockpit and we were not able to handle them with the six-shot revovrler or tasers they asked us to use. then we ended one a more appropriate weapon. also the carriage procedures that they designed were illogical and unsafe. they required us to transport the weapon kpet when we were in the cockpit. the dangerous is carriage on person, transport is in some sort of a bag or some other carriage method. no other law enforcement agency in the world carries transports their weapons in that fashion. the administration's continued institutional hostility towards the program continues to this day as we can see with the administration budget submission for 2013. they want to kill the program by cutting the funding in half. when the funding should be increased so that we can get more pilo

blocking fire was at the same time ironically enough american companies provide bahrain saudi arabia and kuwait with the technology to effectively block websites a lot of which we can call that are used by governments are provided by american company by different citizens or corporations for better or worse talk about profit as their motivation the government ok however the american government talks about freedom and democracy as its motivation when in fact in many ways you can see in the uk we'll see direction some argue that left uncontrolled the export of surveillance inside blocking tools by american companies could undermine here in everything the same way as arms exports undermine the peace initiatives as far as the us government efforts to secure our freedom there seem to be two kinds of freedoms freedom that they encourage and freedom that they punish but is there such a thing is to freedoms and fairness trickle reporting from washington party. coming up to eighteen minutes past the hour let's take a look at some other world how the lines of how things are very loaded in pakistan killin

so you still were kind of like, "all right, i'm going to kuwait, but i'm going to be the backup force." because you're a cook. >> mm-hmm, i'm support. >> hinojosa: you're support. and then they come in and say, "we're going on a convoy." >> yeah, "we're going to iraq." >> hinojosa: and you said, "yes, sir"? >> yeah. at first i was like, "huh? what are you talking about?" and they were like, "we're going to iraq." i said, "why?" i questioned it, i'm not going to lie. i was asking questions, "why are we going?" >> hinojosa: who did you ask? >> i asked my immediate supervisor, my nco. and he was like, "johnson, i don't know. we got the orders, we're going to iraq." >> hinojosa: so you can act... in that sense, you can say to your commanding officer, "why," and that's okay? >> well, not my commanding officer. it was my... you know, it was a little bit ways down. and... >> hinojosa: saying that to a commanding officer, maybe not so much. >> yeah. and for captain king, i did ask. and, you know, of course, not the same way. i would be like, "you know, sir, what is the mission for us to be go

this is where at least in kuwait they want the u.s. involved. because that's where they feel -- that's -- this is where it's touching my life, this is where the value is. they want the best of, and they turn to the u.s. for that. >> look, don told us we're on a tight schedule, we need to close but before we do, i want to thank all of you for your insights and your service. [ applause ] >> thank you, ambassador larson. i just want to really thank all the bam ambassadors today. i'm an old guy, and when i started kicking around in the middle east back in lincoln's second term, the last place you would visit was the american embassy. where no one knew anything about what was going on commercially, and anything you said was going to go into cable and get slugged to 19,000 recipients in 45 countries. so it was all as we saw it, a one-way street. we gave information. we got painfully little in return and certainly no great commercial wisdom. and i can remember back when -- i'm having a senior moment. the wonderful secretary of state who just died recen

american ambassador stamped in council going was important to basically negroponte read a given ten kuwait law on having been promised american backing which is what ended up happening in this will proceed to date of the war. well coming up about t. environmentally friendly. are taxpayer money going into these they're destroying thousands of acres they're actually hurting the environment california residents who say they're going in the shadows of the windfall is too high a cost to pay for renewable energy. the defense team will not get off its most influential son claims saif al islam was assaulted while in custody in libya comes days after the hague war crimes court told it would be an authority is to surrender gadhafi son wanted for crimes against humanity would be a sensible trying sign for killing off a protest. at least research or from the university research from someone seasoned capable of carrying out justice. i the i.c.c. hasn't necessarily proven its ability to effectively carry out justice and in a way that's globally. applied and really effectively done they don't have the ne

of the countries in the region who are client states of the americans and the british saudi arabia kuwait kade are the united arab emirates and others would have rights to see our invasion or outright attack they would have liked to see a rerun of resolution one nine seventy three and used against libya which will be a destroyed libya and now has flown still into civil war so no doubt there are many who would have liked to see extreme violence being legally approved by the u.n. but then russia. would have vetoed the various attempts we now have something which is not more balanced much more fear and much more likely to go positive results given peace a real chance in syria let's talk about the observers and what they're actually going to see the u.n. says the government must allow observers access to monitor the sixty five we're in the government saying that they they need to be accompanied to guarantee their safety what's the real picture going to be one of the really going to see that another doubtless sad proposal you think. you know it's going to be very difficult because i think what

firewalls at the same time ironically enough american companies provide bahrain saudi arabia and kuwait with their technology to effectively block websites a lot of the tools of control that are used by the all repressive governments are provided by american company the difference is that corporations for better or worse talk about profit as their motivation and government however the american government wants about freedom and democracy as its motivation when in fact in many ways it can in the opposite direction some argue that left uncontrolled the export of surveillance inside blocking tools by american companies could undermine beer in everything the same way as arms exports undermine peace initiatives as far as the us government efforts to secure a air freedom there seem to be true kinds of freedoms freedom that they encourage and freedom that they punish but is there such a thing as too freedoms and very strict reporting for us to take part in. the planned cyber security the war comes hard on the heels of the stop online piracy act and protect rights act which both failed because

reporter for johns french press and covered the up rising in berm ain 1988, the reconstruction of kuwait after the first gulf war, the bar in bosnia and cover the fall in zaire and michael covered the iranian nuk lass crisis ex tense sif will i in vienna from 2002 to 2007 and reported from tehran, geneva and currently writing a back on the did i diplomacy of the iranian nuclear crisis. our second speaker is barbara slaven who specializes on iran as a non-resident senior fellow at the atlantic counsel, a public policy scholar at the woodrow wilson scholars and an author and she was assistant managing editor for world and national security at the washington times and in 2008 and 2009 and prior to that she served for 12 years as senior diplomatic reporter for "u.s.a. today" where she covered such key issues as the u.s. led war aterrorism in iraq, policy towards rogue states and accompanied three secretaries of state on official travels and reported solo from iran, israel, egypt, north korea, saudi arabia and syria. our third speaker is alaraza nader, senior internal policy analyst and resea

when on the same trip he went from praising democratic uprisings in cairo to flogging weapons in kuwait prime minister david cameron's been forced to defend his party weapons manufacturers saying it's perfectly responsible and respectable but this is a region that's highly sensitive to any kind of military maneuver and tensions at the mo. isn't particularly high north korea's planned rocket launch later this week is stoking the traditional regional panic japan and south korea threatening to shoot it down fearing it's a disguise long range missile test similar suspicions are being cast on china too as japan and south korea seek allies further afield he certainly do not want to confront china moment and they do not have the resources to be a risk if military strains to counterbalance hanger so that. the best approach out of norman of course is to count on did you notice more strategically and more foreign powers into the region so as to have a crack at chalons or exerting the pressure of the international community on china until now britain and america have had to make do with exerting t