he is a former national intelligence officer and join them as an analyst working in southeast asia. he has served in the white house in policy-making positions and has served on the national service -- national intelligence council for southeast asia which, at the time, was a primary focus for counter- terrorism issues. we are delighted to have a dear friend, someone i have spent an awful lot of time with in places much less friendly than washington, d.c., overseas grappling with these issues. bill will speak for about 40 minutes. -- phil will speak for 40 minutes. we will open that up for questions and answers. we believe in dialogue. critical set of issues. without further review, thank you for joining us and i look forward to it. [applause] >> let's be clear here. i resigned from the government's three months ago. it is the first time roughly i have been out of the house before 11:00 a.m. it is the second time i have had a cup of coffee. if this is a bit slow, i will decaffeinated by about 2:00 p.m. and i will be down from a nap at 3:00 p.m. it is interesting reflecting now. we h

we've also been working in southeast asia, a number of countries in this area. again, working with the private sector and the authorities targeting counterfeit medicines. what i want to talk to you about in some detail is what we've been doing in south america. we have been working there since 2005. we're in our fifth operational region. to date, there have been seizures made by those law enforcement agencies value and the region of $302 million, and over 700 arrests. this gives you some indication of what we do in these countries. we provide integrated training. the model is to go in, train the operational people, and then we deploy. the training tends to be two or three days, followed by weak operations -- week operations. the photograph at the bottom is quite interesting. on the bottom right, when we are working in parts of africa, there's no legislation to deal with trademark counterfeiting infringement. we often have to use different parts of legislation. in terms of resources, they do not have ways of doing analysis of the examples. one of the things we do

he is a former national intelligence officer and join them as an analyst working in southeast asia. he has served in the white house in policy-making positions and has served on the national service -- national intelligence council for southeast asia which, at the time, was a primary focus for counter-terrorism issues. we are delighted to have a dear friend, someone i have spent an awful lot of time with in places much less friendly than grappling with these issues. bill will speak for about 40 minutes. -- phil will speak for 40 minutes. we will open that up for questions and answers. we believe in dialogue. we would get a perspective on a critical set of issues. without further review, thank you for joining us and i look forward to it. [applause] >> let's be clear here. i resigned from the government's three months ago. it is the first time roughly i have been out of the house before 11:00 a.m. it is the second time i have had a cup of coffee. if this is a bit slow, i will decaffeinated by about 2:00 p.m. and i will be down from a nap at 3:00 p.m. it is interesting reflecting now.

it's been the linchpin of our strategic interests in southeast asia for decades. what i have seen on the streets of bangkok and what my family has witnessed firsthand over the last few months is incredibly disappointing. last month, mr. speaker, my family, when i talked to my suzz kins, it was with both joy and sadtons see what had transpyred in our immediate family. it is with incredible honor and distinction that i was able to take the oath of office as a member of the united states congress. but my first cousins, who were born and raised in thailand, unfortunately, witnessed firsthand what was happening on the streets of bangkok and saw firsthand the violence going on in the city center. i think it is a reminder to all of us as americans this euniqueness, importance, vitality and the incredible, incredible good fortune we have to call ourselves americans. but it is also what is happening in bangkok that reminds us that we as a nation should lead by example and remind all the peoples of the world of what we can and what we have here in this nation and it doesn't

leaders and the outstanding results of now south korea becoming one of the great economic powers in southeast asia, i might say, mainly because of our close economic ties. i want to also note that the number one electronics company in the world is in south korea. also the number one shipbuilding company in the world is in south korea. so i really hope and i sincerely hope that in the coming months that we will be able to continue to negotiate successfully the proposed free trade agreement that was done previously by the previous administrations and with the negotiators. it's my understanding that as a result of this proposed free trade agreement we stand to gain somewhere between $11 billion and $20 billion in exports of our product to south korea if we get approval of this proposed agreement. i also want to note as a matter of history of what my friend from new york stated about the people and the good leaders of south korea. my own personal experience while serving in vietnam, i tell you really know who your real friends are, the fact there were 50,000 south korean soldiers fighting alongside am

to get practical, for the typical catholic bishop in africa or southeast asia or most of latin america, when you ask them what are they really worry about, is not that they are losing people to secularism. it is ttat they are losing people to christian pentecostal ism. they are losing them to newfangled versions of indigenous religions or to militant radicals. most people run the world are not making choices between belief and disbelief. they are shopping for the particular brand of religious belief that suits them best. what that means is that in most parts of the world, the catholic church is not fighting abstract intellectual battles against secularism. they are fighting much more practical, pastoral battles against religious competitors. it imposes a much less ideological and more pastoral services stamp on catholicism in the global south. their main concern is not the fine points of liturgical translation. their main concern is that the pentecostal are eating away at their populations because they do a better job of organizing prayer groups and doing his ministry and so on. that i

ally, israel, and the threat of that ally and its impact throughout the regions of europe and southeast asia along with the middle east. clearly their medium-range missiles are capable of reaching all of those countries within that area. and, therefore, we stand with israel and our allies. these sanctions are a powerful step forward. we must continue to take all necessary actions and to keep every option on the ttble to prevent nuclear arms races in that region. madam speaker, i encourage my colleagues to support this important resolution and to send a strong message to iran and the entire world that america will not stand by while these human rights abuses continue and they pursue -- continue to pursue nuclear weapons capabilities. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from florida is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, madam speaker. i'm pleased to yield five minutes to the gentleman from texas, judge poe, an esteemed member of our committee on foreign affairs and the cao auth