state department keeps tabs on the internet freedom. our guest is daniel baer, deputy assistant secretary of state democracy human rights and labor. >> this week on the communicators, a look on internet freedom worldwide. the state department recently issued its annual human-rights report and joining us is daniel baer, deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy and human rights and labor. secretary baer, why is internet freedom included in the human rights report? >> i think one of the things that secateurs clinton has brought wide attention to this and knew when she started was already a story that was unfolding is that, you know, more and more we see that the story of human rights around the world is happening on line or through new technology broadly speaking. when we think about what most of us associated with human rights whether it's president roosevelt freedom speech or the universal declaration of human rights. those rights, the exercise of those rights would as freedom of expression, association and assembly, they are inc

state department keeps tabs on internet freedom. our guest is daniel baer, deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. >> host: well, this week on "the communicators," a look at internet freedom worldwide. the state department recently issued its annual human rights report, and joining us is daniel baer, deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. secretary baer, why is internet freedom include inside a human rights report? >> guest: well, i think one of the things that secretary clinton has, um, brought worldwide attention to, um, which was perhaps not actually new when she started, it was already a story that was unfolding, is that, you know, more and more we see that the story of human rights around the world is happening online or through new technologies broadly speaking. when we think about what most of us associate with human rights whether it's, you know, president roosevelt's for freedom speech or the universal declaration of human rights, the exercise of those ri

and there was still back and forth from the interagency process, the state department. and the day before the speech, george schultz, our wonderful secretary of state took me aside and said i just want you to know, ken, that i share the department's objection with the speech and with that paragraph and i hope you'll convey my views to the president. and i knew at that very moment the speech and that paragraph was okay. because since i kind of had a handle on the president's calendar, i knew george schultz well enough to know that if he wanted to really object he would have asked me for ten minutes on the president's calendar, but he didn't. so, in other words, he was saying to his bureaucracy, i'm covered and ken if that speech paragraph blows up it's on your shoulders not mine. [ laughter ] let me set the rest of the stage. we went on to berlin. and we met with chancellor cole, helmut cole who president reagan thought the world of. we met at the old legislature before world war ii. we stood on a balcony that was glass enclosed. facing the berlin wall.wall. helmut kohl p

department of state. mr. making mr. met is a special deputy or general for southwest asia at the u.s. department of defense. mr. michael g carroll is deputy inspector general at the u.s. agency for international development and the honorable stuart w. bowen assistant inspector general for iraq reconstruction. pursuant to committee rules, all witnesses will be sworn before they testify. gentleman would you please rise and raise your right hand? do solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth come old truth and nothing but the truth? let the record reflect the witness answered in the affirmative. please be seated. as you know we've got a busy day on capitol hill today and in order to allow time for questioning and discussions, i would ask you limit your testimony to five minutes. your entire written statement will be made part of the record. we invite you to summarize then hit the high point of your remarks. we will start up with mr. coors. you're recognized for five minutes. >> good mornin

people out my state department. whether i have or new york police one unfortunate death one expired can you writes for daily russian newspaper and has worked in the us for the last three years i don't prove you have they don't really care that just you just business and you credentials can't really protect you sent through a whirlpool like legal system the seasoned journalist was treated as a protest participant under arrest twenty four hours behind bars a quickie trial six hundred dollars in fines for his punishment for doing his job covering the news of the day and then there were the two days of community service the universe and bring right over here this invasion station give you brooms trash cans and child and you're basically walking around sweeping the streets because of the debris paper cigarette about whatever keep you is now on probation for six months it is an outrage and i treat that professes to have a and i respect for the free press to be you know throwing throwing reporters in jail i. suppose but th

the state department has added members of the somali militant group al-shabab to its wanted list for the first time, offering tens of millions of dollars in bounties for some of the group's leaders. al-shabab launched an attack reportedly on the somali president last week. the state department has accused the group of killing thousands of somali civilians, peace activists, journalists, and aid workers. on the campaign trail, new figures show republican candidate mitt romney vastly out fund raised president obama in donations last month. romney took in more than 7 $6 million, nearly 30% more than obama's haul of around $60 million. 7% of his donors accounted for $64 million of its total figures -- of his total. the figures for both parties do not include numbers raised by super pacs backing the candidates. a spokesperson for the greek neo-nazi party golden dawn has been charged with assault after slapping a rival politician on live television. ilias kasidiaris was taking place when rena dourou of the left-wing party mentioned his alleged involvement in a 2007 armed robbery kasidiaris

thank you again for inviting me here today for ongoing support of the department of state. i welcome any questions you might have. thank you, sir. >> we now recognize mr. peter verga, chief of staff for undersecretary for the u.s. department of defense. you're recognize for five minutes, sir. >> number attorney, distinguished members i appreciate the opportunity along with my state college to provide an update on the united states transition from a military chief of the land that present in iraq. given iraq's important situated reteach eclair the middle east to remains profoundly in the united states national interest that iraq emerges a strategic partner with the united states coming summer, stable self-reliant nation and positive force for moderation and stability in the region. and the time since he last appeared, the united states has upheld its commitments in the two dozen eight u.s. iraq security agreement by withdrawing all u.s. forces by the end of december, 2011. the department of defense has worked closely to help ensure a successful transition to civilian led pres

i welcome all of you here to the state department, and i want to begin by thanking the ambassador and his team for all the hard work that goes into this report. and the passion that they bring to the fight against modern slavery. i would like lou for you and your team to either stand or wave your hand if you're already standing. could we have everyone from -- thank you. i so appreciate what you do every day. not just when we roll out the report, and i'm very proud to be your colleague. i also want to welcome our heros whose work is making a big difference. you'll hear more about each one individually as we recognize them. i want to personally thank them. they do are mind us that one person's commitment and passion. one person's experience and the courage to share that experience with the world and have a huge impagt. i'm delighted to welcome all of our heros here today. thank you. [ applause ] and i will join lou in thanking jada pinkett-smith and will for being here. and through you, your daughter, because as lou said it was their daughter who brought this issue to jada's attention,

i asked secretary clinton on that day did the state department, and i am quoting, i asked, did the state department issue the justice department a license or a written waiver and order to allow for the transfer of thousands of weapons across the u.s. mexico border. secretary clinton's response s was, congressman, this is the first time i have asked this and i can tell you based on the record of any activity by the bureau that would have been responsible, we see no evidence but let me check. secretary clinton points out that in her department they weren't asked for a written waiver. that's in violation of the law. so as this committee moves forward, and i thank the chairman for his patience, we need to make sure that we get to the bottom of this, that the state department acknowledges that they weren't asked for this waiver. we're just looking for the information. here at the last hour the president is trying to -- if they were so willing to give the documents, you wouldn't at the last hour have a letter come from the administration claiming executive privilege or whatever it is they're c

the next day the state department. had he not acted and defied the secretary of war, up would not be able to see the declaration of independence, the constitution and the national archives today. >> is it true that james madison carried the entire contents of the u.s. treasury with him? >> no, that's not true. at one of the banks, the bank of the metropolis, a block from the white house, they got word at 2:00 p.m., that's about eight hours before, seven hours before the british arrived at the capitol, and alexander kerr, who was a cashier there, he grabbed a lot of the printed money, and escaped with it to maryland. the bank survived. they mistook it again for private property, but, no. that's not true. >> some of the images we're seeing on-screen from the national portrait gallery. the smithsonian the national portrait gallery and we thank them for that and the american historical society. also next for anthony pitch, nancy go ahead with your comment. >> caller: yes. i have an ancestor, his name was john burns and he

are as americans and and it's our obligation to spread freedom and that's what we do in our state department but half of the country still doesn't doesn't agree on the policy so is it really the u.s. role to do this abroad. well the truth is in this country more more gay people are coming out living their lives openly and honestly in that's moving our countries public opinion and it's happening throughout the world to yes we should share we should share our values with the world i mean my view is that it's not anti gay to be pro-marriage i think in many when you talk about the state department's actions you talk about the americas attitude towards the world it would be more respecting of these cultures who have largely if not uniformly decide that marriage is unified husband wife to respect those cultural values and so when you look at the state department's priority list i don't see really how redefining marriage is on that list i think there's a world of human rights issues too to be passionate about that also respect the cultural values and certainly like and in countries like poland ther

channels a letter from leonid brezhnev and the state department went into full gear answering this letter one of the drafts was returned by the national security council with reagan's approval because it was undiplomatic, returned to the department of state, which was then headed by al haig. and by march 30, the day the president was shot, the letter had still not been answered. and while he was recovering, after -- on april 18 he was out of the hospital and back in the white house. he was sitting in the solarium p of still recovering from. assassination attempt. he took a yellow pad and drafted a letter to leonid brezhnev, the hea of the soviet union at the time. one of the things we discovered in our research was this handwritten draft which was -- has never before been found. we were really thilled to find that draft. he wrote that draft and dick allen had it typed up, his national security advisor, at d.n.c. and tried to combine it with the state department draft but the president was not satisfied. this is an example of what marty was saying, that he imposed his own policies on the g

watch their conversation on line at the c-span video library. >> recently the state department's bureau of democracy human rights and labor celebrated its 35th anniversary. secretary of state hillary clinton talks about u.s. efforts to promote universal human rights. in this panel discussion senior diplomats discuss the evolution of u.s. human rights policy. this is about an hour and 10 minutes. [applause] >> thank you deborah. will come everybody. we are delighted to have you here. this is a great day. i want to thank deborah and the whole team for putting this together. our public diplomacy team, anthony and karen, matt miller and also tony bell who did a fabulous job in getting us organize this morning. welcome everybody. i want to just say one word of introduction to how this happened. in the last three years in doing this job, i have had lots of conversations with people in our bureau at drl and i reflect back and i start reminiscing to my first visit to the state department, and they talk about mark schneider and the things tex harris did in argentina and i would get these slightl

contingency operations and not surprisingly, we've not had a lot of great feedback from the state department or defense department. but i'd like to see if you would comment on that concept of having joint contingency operations hike that or other recommended changes in how we can do this better and get beyond some of the traditional tension between dod and the state and usaid and be more effective in particular in terms of accountability measures. >> well, two parts to that. one is the whole contingency operation, that function itself we have seen some of the earlier draft proposed language. we did -- we have sort of raised some caution or concern about ensuring that some of the functions that are going to be -- that are considered to be rolled in that there are broader contingency operations, for example, inl functions are broader than contingency operations they are doing counternarcotics work around the globe, some of that would have to be taken into consideration. that's one of the issues we may have provided feedback on. in addition when you talk about oversight and accountability, our

the highest for a diplomat at the state department. this panel is an hour. welcome everyone to the second panel. i have a lot to live up to. it was fabulous first conversation. my name is kyle gibson. i'm with newsweek as it says here. i'm also the executive producer and managing editor of a gathering called women in the world which is now had three years. now lincoln center which examines global issues through the prism of narratives about the lives of women and girls around the world. what we've discovered this last year at lincoln center with when we were sold out is that human rights has become the issue of our summit over the course of three days. i feel passionately about these issues and i'm delighted to be here. i'm also from centuries ago a producer for nightline in the old koppel days. which nightline began after the invasion of afghanistan. people associate it with the hostage crisis, but it was really at the height of the cold war and we had you on our program and dean ko as well. i'm glad to be here. let's begin. there's so much to get into. our

thank you very, very much. [ applause ] >>> in the next panel from the state department, the focus is on foreign policy, after september 11th, 2001. topics include syria, burma and egypt. we'll hear from senate staff members with jurisdiction over the human rights bureau. this is just under an hour and a half. >> do you want to begin? go ahead. okay, great. welcome again, everyone. this is going to take us from this -- i think we'll end up covering a lot more than that. this conversation is going to begin with 2001, 9/11, through the arab spring and maybe even beyond now. i want to begin by quickly introducing -- i'm kyle gibson. they give you longer, the much better by yos on our great guests. i'll quickly introduce beginning with the current -- the assistant secretary for drl currently, mike posner. [ applause ] you've heard a lot about mike today. michael posner. i would also like to introduce lorne craner, who is an old friend of mine who found himself here on 9/11 running as the assistant secretary for dlr from 2001 to 2004. [ applause ] beyond lorne, we have paul grove, who is t

can expect not be released to manage attorneys luckily the judge last week did say that the state department had to hand that over to manning's attorneys and we all look forward to the possibility that some of that information will be shared with us in the public but when you expose sources when you expose methods when you declare that you've committed an act of war against iran i think it's difficult to say those things don't harm america and don't put america and americans at risk. i very interesting point peter and as someone who's been working and reporting on the administration for a long time i know that you yourself have been the target of a lot of things and i wanted to just ask your opinion how you think reporting has changed over the last two administrations it seems like during the clinton astray and there were a lot a lot of leaks in the bush administration i know things are more tightly managed but now it just seems like there is no investigation it's just the reprinting of press releases given to reporters from the government we know that the l.a. times sat on the photos on the

that is to kill civilians. >> chris: state department official trying to smooth over a flap with the about russian helicopters on their way to syria. we're back now with the panel. secretary of state clinton and the pentagon, dade, are now at odds about whether russia is supplying syria with new attack helicopters. as she contends, or with old helicopters that have been refurbished as the pentagon says. one, what do you make of the disagreement? does it make a difference to civilians being slaughtered? >> i don't think the disagreement matters. at the end of the day, civilians are in syria are being killed and russia does whatever it wants. it's be this way since the end of the cold war. we take soft approach to russia. bush saw a friend in vladimir putinee eye and that didn't work out. obama has take an particularly soft approach. if we are getting anything out of the diplomacy, it's unclear. at some point we have to understand russia is a strategic competitor. they are not easy to work with and have no interest in working with us on things that matter to us. we have to deal with is

read the'd like to state department report, state.gov is the website. we have been speaking with daniel baer. >> tomorrow, a look at the obama former campaign and the political media strategy with the campaigns david axelrod and then labolt -- and ben labolt. we'll talk about the day-to-day obama operations and we will look inside the chicago headquarters. "wrote to the white house," tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. eastern here on c-span. on tuesday at the heritage foundation, a former alabama congressmen artur davis. he seconded the nomination of barack obama at the democratic national convention. other speakers included ohio congressman jim jordan and tea party pay to co-founder jenny that martin. this is one hour. >> ok, we will go ahead and get started. i hear we are out of food. sorry. i guess it pays to show up early, right? [laughter] todd will like that. thank you, everybody, for joining us to the bloggers meeting. welcome. welcome to our viewers on c- span. thank you for attending in today. for those of you who are new, basically, we will h

so on tuesday 9/11 i was sitting in the secretary staff meeting wondering why i joined the state department. i joined personally because of colin powell. in my interview that i had for the job, in february of 2011, said, what do you want to do if you come here? i mentioned a couple things, working on human rights democracy in china but also working on human rights and democracy in the middle east. the summer of 2001, he said start working with bill burns and ryan crocker. bill was the assistant secretary. i had known them from my iteration here before. so we were already working together on some new things to be doing in the middle east before 9/11. i remember right after 9/11 there was a lot of talk from across the river from the pentagon about draining the swamp. and those of us who had gotten into this business, who had been in it for some time, knew that that wasn't going to be sufficient. that you would spend -- we would spend the rest of our lives killing off individuals one by one. so i wrote an outside the system memo, which is in some box somewhere in the archives, to powell, sayin

in october of last year the state department became the lead u.s. agency in the country. the u.s. embassy in baghdad is the biggest presence in the world with approximately 16,000 staff and contractors. questions remain about the state department's ability to operate in this still precarious security environment and handle the work load associated with the processing of billions of dollars worth of arm sales to the iraqi government. a diplomatic presence of this size requires sustained oversight from congress. i look forward to a continued engagement with our nominee upon confirmation to ensure our foot print in iraq is the right size and we have the right amount of resources to pursue our interests. the president has nominated brett to represent our interests. perhaps due to his great upbringing in pittsburgh, pennsylvania is imminently capable to assume this position. of course, there are other reasons for his preparation but it doesn't hurt that you have roots in pittsburgh. he has been engaged in u.s. policy in iraq since 2004 advising every u.s. ambassador at post in iraq. he

the state department has announced a u.s. initiative. secretary clinton has spent nearly four decades in public service as an attorney. the first lady of the united states, a senator from new york, and a candidate for the 2008 democratic presidential nomination. he was appointed by president obama in 2008 and has announced she will retire at the end of the presidential term in 2013. secretary baker served under three u.s. presidents. he has held some of the highest offices in government. in addition to serving as secretary of state under george h.w. bush he was ronald reagan's secretary of the treasury and white house chief of staff. i want to begin with this notion. you both came to this building, to state department from politics. is that a good background? >> well, i certainly think so. that may not be surprising for jim to hear, but it might be to some. there are lots of different routes to this job. we can look back at our predecessors, the 66 that came before me, and see some accomplished men, and finally women. but i think bringing

>> they describe the interestingly about how ambassador dodd tried to warn the state department about what was happening in germany and how his bosses in the state department just would not go along with him, would not believe him. >> yes. i think that's a very accurate -- in "the garden of the beast" which focuses on william dodd, the father, and martha dodd, it makes that point very strongly. and the evidence i saw and i also write about both of the dodds in my book. of course, they are just two of the many characters in nigh book. but dodd, i think, i basically agree with eric larson's assessment of dodd. he's fundamentally a decent man, but he was a yust of chicago historian, first diplomatic post and he originally came to germany thinking maybe i'll be able to talk some sense into people, you know, they're still -- he had been a student in germany. he remembered many very well-educated germans. he thought, well, there must be a way to have rational conversations. soon he realized that with the people in power, the nazis, that was almost impossible. his meetings with hitler were i

his reports to the state department expressing displeasure were often treated skeptically. why isn't he talking to the nazis more. again the sentiment in the department with the exception of george messersmith and others. we can't let things get too far out of hand. we don't want another conflict. dodd didn't immediately have contact. somebody like messersmith predicted a conflict like william shira was earlier. they were seen as people who were just trying to bring bad news that no one wanted to hear. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> that was absolutely wonderful. i invite you to please stay and join us for a small reception outside. the books are available. the american council on germany, i thank you for sharing the program with us and having this wonderful speaker. thank you so much. >> this weekend on american history tv harvard professor john stauffer on the civil war and the movement to end slavery. >> one of the aspects of abolitionists is when lincoln gives the inaugural the self-described abolitionists are a tiny minority. they are still despised. what transfo

-- the cia, dod, and state department here there was very little interaction with the white house prior to september 11. back to the matters the president is responsible for the safety of persons within the united states and has a right to know what is being done to prevent terrorist attacks. so for the first four or five years, i would brief president bush just about every day, all in discrete areas relating to national security. and the impact of cases now the not only impact national security but impact relationships with countries. as an example, we recently arrested an individual, an iranian-american, who had, according to the indictment, plotted to utilize an individual association with the mexican keitel to assassinate the saudi ambassador in washington, d.c. that quite obviously implicates somewhat more than a criminal case. consequently, the impact on international relations -- it is implicated in terms of what we do, and consequently, there is an exchange and understanding of what is going to happen, although the justice department and ourselves will do what we believe is best

how do they integrate with the state departments of education or the federal department of education? >> i can tell you that one of the main things i do for children with -- as a practicing pediatrician for children with special health care needs is to try to get them into an individualized educational plan, to get them the medical care that they need at the schools, and this does require tremendous amount of coordination. >> and how receptive is the department of education, the state department of education, to those? >> well, you know, they're limited by their budgets as well. clearly, we have challenges to fund our public education system. but i can tell you that that is a part where the state and the school districts are really trying to make this better for children. but it is very challenging thing to provide the kind of care that these children need day in and day out at school. they often need wrap-around services with someone who is there with them in school to deal with their emotional outbursts, to deal with other things. so it's a really challenging situation. >> well, it

each of you faced decisions like this and each of you left the state department and the world a better place. by the time i joined the foreign service in 1982, drl was already iss established. the old war dominated u.s. global security interests plug authoritarian regimes and latin america who are critical u.s. partners. denouncing human rights violate fors we had to call out violat r violators by anti-month communistic -- that was not a popular policy, but it was an important attempt to put us on the right side of history. only a couple of decades later, most people in the americas live under leaders they elected with increased respect for their rights and freedoms, greater inclusion to populations too long overlooked and a middle class that now numbers over 275 millio million. today dr -- but the goal is not to chastise, it is to change behavior. during the clinton administration, we established the human rights dialogue with china. today we hold these dialogues with many countries with which we have important relationships but deep differences on issues of rights and freedoms such a

projects its image abroad and what he was really saying was the business of the state department is notso much to burnish the image of the united states but to provide means of communication exchange an engagement in populations that are important to us foreign policy interests right so rather than saying you know you need to like the united states look how great we are it's we're demonstrating our influence the united states has influence by giving forum for debate by empowering people in developing regions we can look to this now in the so-called notion twenty first century statecraft some of you may be familiar with the technology advisor alec ross who talks about how the state department is now connecting technology developers with civil society actors around the world in order to solve global problems this doesn't necessarily have a direct impact on the image of the united states but it does i think impact the environment that the united states wants to and needs to act in other aspects of its foreign policy and i think this represents a change in the purpose of foreign policy real

he respected them much more than the state department people. and if they were getting nervous and saying that he had to do something, then maybe he did. then he also found out that the white house press room and the white house mail room was receiving lots of black umbrellas reminiscent of chamberlain's yielding at mun itch saying that kennedy was like chamberlain. he couldn't take it. he decided he had to do something. the person who was the head of usia at the time was edward r. moro. a great man. he happened to be in berlin at the time. he went into east berlin and looked around. that's why he sent a cable to kepd. the american people were very upset. kennedy had to do something. so he called a man whose name he knew. called lucius clay. general lucius clay who had run the berlin airlift 1948, 1949. a prominent republican, more responsible than anybody else for the nomination of general president eisenhower. and he wanted something from the other party to be with him. and he asked clay what he should do. clay said this is a very serious mome

about what was happening in germa and how his bosses in the state department would not go along with him, would not believe him. >> yes. that's accurate. it focuses on william dodd and martha dodd. makes the point strongly. and the evidence i saw and i also write about both of the dodds in my book. of course they are two of the many characters in my book. dodd, i think, i basically agree with larson. he's a decent man but he was a historian with a diplomatic post. he originally came to germany saying maybe i'll be able to talk some sense into people, you know, that they're still -- he had been a student in germany. he remembered many well-educated germans. he thought, well, there must be a way to have rational conversations. soon he realized with people in power. that was almost impossible. the meetings at hitler were incredibly stilted. he was discussed about what was going on especially after hitler murdered so many of his own followers that he really wanted to have as little to do with the government and the party as possible. which on a human level is very commendable in many way

the issues that was exposed was how hillary clinton and this is our secretary of state or to state department actually got equal spy on the members of united nation now what came out of that even though this story was leaked we did not see any real reaction to this massive massive violation of why well because of the way they carry a year and because of the high stops and the number of the united states state department carries in it and in private they show these nations and they say well you may want to think about it because you go ahead and do this and you know here are the things we will and you evidence what about whistleblowers in general you're obviously represent whistleblowers this is sounds case is it scaring whistleblowers or is it actually give them impetus to carry on with their work. so far the u.s. has been really negative it has intimidating whistleblowers just the few months ago this is less than six months ago i had. actually n.s.a. or used to be with the cia insider who came to me and said instead of blowing the whistle he or she was thinking of taking his case which is al

by the state department by the department defense that looked into the impact of these leaks and we've heard former defense secretary robert gates we're going to heard surgery say clinton minimizing the impact of these leaks and so we suspect that because the guards in hiding these records that in fact they would show there was no serious adverse effect on national security there was certainly an adverse effect on individuals who were breaking the law and acting on ethically they were and there's a barrister into the u.s. empire but no one has been killed by this there's been no adverse effect along the undermining of us that security in that way the real problem is that people see what the united states day by day basis in their documents that means accused of leaking the wiki leaks is accused of publishing our documents that involve the iraq war the afghan war and diplomatic cables from the state department show day to day activity of in all these in all these areas and so you see the good of u.s. foreign policy which does exist there is some good news in the bad you see the ugly and