[applause] >> host: robert earle what real in iraq and wire review there? >> guest: 2004 through 2005 senior ambassador to iraq and the first ambassador post transfer sovereignty back to the iraqis. >> host: in that capacity what did you do? >> guest: my job was to be the offline thinker and watch everything that was transpiring and give the ambassador the important council that he asked me to provide. my first major assignment was to run a strategy group. what we needed to do was to determine first of all, that has the insurgency was mounting, who was primary and me? and secondly, how we could respond in a prioritized way and develop a political economic and military strategy at would help us get out of a deep hole we found ourselves. >> host: did you feel that are running this offline strategy sells, your thinking was intention nor was it ogden bureaucracy? >> n the ambassador -- ambassador negroponte and general casey and arrive at the same time determined that they would forge a partnership between the dead diplomatic and military leadership that would

robert earl is the vice-president of science policy nutrition and health at the grocery manufacturessociation gma, one of the co-sponsors of our conference here. the directorf nutrition policy. the center for science and public interest. derrk miller is professional staff member of the committee on agriculture and the nutrition and forestry. chairmanharkin's go-to person on nutrition programs and policy and has been for some time. cindyong is the director of the child nutrition programs at the food and nutrition service of usda. as such she has responsibility for, i guess, really all the programs affected by job attrition reauthorization with the exception of the wic program which is alsbeing reviewed as part of this reauthorization. each of our speakers will make brief remarks and after the presentations i will pose a couple of questions. we will ask audience members to line up at the microphone at have added a with with our pane. so without further ado, i will tu it over. >> thank you for getting us off to such a great start. it is a good time for us to be discussing job nutrition

news columnist earl lewis and robert zimmerman. gentlemen, thanks for being with me. thoughts on a.c.o.r.n. and the whole saga that's evolved over the weekend. >> i can't speak to the quality or the integrity of these filmmakers and i certainly couldn't say that a.c.o.r.n. is representing job growth or job development. the bottom line is these are serious issues and a.c.o.r.n. does not do itself any service when they're not straight forward or candid, for example when they came on this program and denied there were any investigations they were facing until lou dobbs set them straight and laid out the record. so their lack of candor and they lack of transparency is truly hurting any potential hope they have to in fact establish credibility. >> ron, i'll go to you next. >> i agree with robert on this. i think that they have been less than candid in some of their dealings not only with the federal government, but with the state governments around the country. and these are very, very serious charges that bill outlined in these report previously. you're talking about peop