mr. elias, thank you for your service to this country. i will ask three brief countries and allow other members to ask their questions and then submit additional questions in writing. mr. izzard, in your testimony you mentioned about two russian diplomats in the russian embassy and that, you know, your ex-wife worked with them. has any follow up been done, anyone held them accountable for their part in this? and was there any prosecution? >> there has been no prosecution. there was a meeting approximately one month ago between the united states department of tate and russian consulate employees. the state department declined to tell me with who they met in particular, i do not believe it was these two individuals. and the russian consulate stated their policy is that any person that comes in the front door that can prove they're a russian citizens that that person's word will be taken at face value on good faith. and, therefore, they felt that they were justified in doing whatever that they did. in issuing whatever -- this repatriation cer

i just wonder mr. elias, being a military person and, do you see these issues perhaps even being more prevalent with members from our military regardless of where they are serving? >> i see it being more prominent in the military strictly because you are subjected to overseas for long periods of time, and if i could give anything to that, to that question, when you are brought overseas, any country that you go to, being a marine, you are briefed on everything from the number of people that have aids over there to the amount of robberies and you are given classes on how the ocean comes in and hits the shore. out of all those classes i should have been given a class on child abduction or at least -- [applause] i was so young in japan, i was only 19 years old serving my country in japan and i had no idea i would be sitting here before any of you today. >> it seems like that should be a part of the military training. japan has had a relationship with the u.s. military in okinawa and other places that have been s

mr. elias, same with you.after the passports were surrendered, you testified your ex-wife obtained new passports. has there been been investigation of her actions, anyone who may have assisted her, and any outcome to that or prosecution? >> i have my speculations who assisted her and everything like that. i don't want to get into that, but there is supposedly an ongoing investigation that i have not received a conclusion for at this time. >> in your situation, is it the state department as well? who is conducting this investigation? >> the actual embassy of japan. >> thank you, and lastly, mr. bower, you mentioned about the tsa's role and the airline's role about the fact they let the children go through. has any further action been taken against the airlines or tsa? have you had a conversation with them, made them aware of the situation? >> yes, as a matter of fact, there's currently a suit i filed against egypt air in this matter, and the suit is ongoing, so i can't speak much about it. i'll leave it like th

mrs. elias to your testimony on the risk children face in such situations and how we can work to protect children from abduction and trafficking when they are in the most vulnerable states. so i look forward to hearing the witnesses and with that i wield the balance of my time. >> thank you very much. we have to roll calls on the floor so we will may could very brief. we are almost out of town -- time so we will vote on the second one and come right back and reconvene on the hearing so we stand on votes. >> beginning with mr. david goldman who is the father of sean goldman born in red bank and 2000. he was abducted to brazil in 2004. mr. goldman spend five arduous years devoting enormous ounce of time and financial resources at a great number of people supporting him in the community to secure the return of his son. in december 2009, i had the extraordinary privilege of being with david when they were finally able to return to the united states. mr. goldman recently published a book about his or