there's familyhistory, trade, all sorts of ties betwe syria dlenon.atal they should h a good relationship. the trouble that'sappened too many times in the past is that th relationship has been very much dominated by one side interfering in t other. to t extent that they're building a new type of relationship, that'sgreat. >> i'm n sure i'm goi toe re for ambsarcrocker's teimony. i know one of the things he recommends havg an ambassador seararke recommend that hade engage hezboll and of cour maybe it's easy for him to s now that he's retired to be able say that kind of thing, but i wondered what your reaction might b to that. >> our policy nonengagement. i don't anticipate that polic changing. hezbollah to the eent that zbollah would evoe into a normal par of the political fabric lebanon, and hbollah would,n fact, win significant litical support eveitut its arms, to the extent that ey wou play by the rules, act like a normal political force inlebano i think that weou probay reink our own policy. but for theurrent situation, as long as hezbollah i maint

. >> they get the respect that they believe they deserve more in russia, syria, iran, in china. and therefore, they are looking for alternatives, and they are not willing to put all their eggs into the western basket. >> woodruff: ray suarez gets a rundown of day one of soccer's world cup from sports writers christine brennan and david hirshey. >> they call it the beautiful game and i think that if you just sit down and pay attention to it you really understand the skill level and appreciate that. it really is a beautiful game is . >> an mark >> lehrer: and mark shields and david brooks offer their weekly analysis. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the numbers out of the gulf of mexico painted an even darker picture of the oil disaster today. and they raised new questions about how l

syria killed 25,000 brotherhood members in one day.had the iraq and iran war where these things took place. the shiites and sunnis were fighting. no one wanted to believe that hitler was allied with one person of jerusalem that they waited in bosnia and he was intending to put the world that did not have dues. i cannot believe that the western world that is familiar with these terrorists and what have you -- i cannot understand if this is myopic or blinders on their part. israel and egypt had blockaded gossip. -- gaza. guest: he makes it a interesting point about this. it is not as if the international norm mineta, it is certainly true that thh western world had been generally quiet on the role, but in fact, it was under enormous pressure domestically as a result of the israelis on the blockade. he is under enormous pressure from around the arab and muslim world about the policy. he has been forced by public opinion to open the border on the egyptian and gaza frontier. this is a policy that is unsustainable for the egyptians. . hamas s

they have tried very hard in recent years to bring syria and israel closer together.turkey in general is playing a constructive role in the region and i am sure she will want to do so in the future. >> the unauthorized boardings of a vessel in international waters by armed combatants is normally referred to as piracy. the right hon. gentleman, the former secretary is noted for his blunt speaking. but he will not use the word in on this occasion. >> i weighed my words carefully. [laughter] since we are advocating a prompt and independent and credible and transparent investigation inquiry in the terms i put forth, it is important for us to argue for that investigation and be prepared to see what the investigation produces before we feel we need to add another language. >> you appear to rule out the number of options within the european union in dealing with israel. what exactly is the united european union to maximize diplomatic pressure to end the blockade on the gaza strip? >> i am not conscious of ruling anything out. i must stress there is an enormous amount of pres

a close to doing so and bringing permanent peace between syria and israel.hey played a very constructive role in the region and i am sure they will do so in the future. >> the unauthorized importing of a vessel in international waters by armed combatants is normally referred to as piracy. will he not use the word on this occasion? >> the blunt sector has been courting the blunt right gentleman has been converted into a secretary who weighs his words very carefully. it is important for us to argue for that investigation and be prepared to see what the investigation produces before we feel the need to add any other language and how i express things today. >> the speaker for the secretary of state appears to have ruled out a number of options within the european union context in dealing with israel. what exactly is the u.k. doing within the european unit to maximize diplomatic pressure to end the blockade on gaza? >> i do not conscience of ruling anything out, mr. speaker. i am not ruling anything out. i must stress that there is an enormous amount of pressure.

there are a lot of concerns syria there are other factors, but when you are in that situation, you have to except other terms. why would we ever put ourselves in a position to except terms we do not want to except? when you start to get to a point where more than 50% of the debt is owned by a country, they are going to have a say whether we want it or not. this is obama's budget because he is the president and he laid out the current budget. if you look at the side of where deficits are going to go, that means you already have the amount of debt you have today, and you have to keep borrowing pretty much as long as the eye can see. think for one moment if you take the first george bush, think of all the debt and why we had to add that money. we have to become a nation. there were a couple of wars. we went through a great depression. we went through highways and water systems and air ports. think of everything we built. we went through a couple of world wars. and we went through vietnam, korea, katrina, and others. if you combine all that debt for everything we invested in, we are going t

only here by the way, butless up here, to hezbollah, to nasrallah in lebanon through their agent, syria, but that is why the blockade exists. it's not just because israel wants conflict. quite the opposite. it's to try to prevent a centrally -- essential i a war going on here with more and more rockets and armaments coming onshore. so, when this embargo is enforced, it's not only protecting the people of israel, it's protecting the united states because this is a way that iran wants to set up essentially what is an agent of their own in the middle east. that's what they want. so the boat unfortunately was -- when the israelis boarded the boat they were set upon. the sailors were beaten. they were stabbed and shot as i said. and when the dust settles, we had an opportunity, as all the world did, to see what was on that boat. let me tell what you the humanitarian aid was that was on that boat. 100 units of metal rods of various lengths, well, i'm sure that was going to feed a lot of children. 200 knives of various sizes. 150 militarytyle and turkish-produced self-defense vests. military s

this is not much different than a kid in yemen, saudi arabia, syria, jordan, lebanon who in 2004, 2005 was saying they did not know the way to get involved but they knew if they showed up in baghdad maybe they could do something about the emotional sense we are being wronged. i use the word emotional. i went to contrast it to the people in the core al qaeda who are so deeply and ideologically motivated. these kids we are seeing believe the ideology, many i have seen do not. they are emotionally driven by conversations, photos, sermons. there is an advantage there, by the way. emotionaly driven people are easier to turn, not just for sources, but easier to turn away from the movement and revolution because they do not always understand what they are joining up for. hold on just a minute here. hold on. hold on just a minute. especially since the floor is mine. last i checked, i am not getting paid for this. 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 2.5 hours. this could turn into fidel castro. 9:30 at night. maybe not, right, frank? hold on. i am 20 minutes in and i have given you a picture. i and the wor

striking in iran would be different than the israeli strike in syria. this is not just a nuclear installation. this is a variety of the installations that are part of the nuclear process. you could strike on anti- aircraft. you to strike on long-range missiles. this is a big deal. the immediate response you would expect from iran is not related to domestic policy. americans are worried about our troops in iraq and afghanistan, attacks in the rest of the region, may be a tax on the u.s. at minimum, you will see higher oil prices, which also relates to the iranian domestic situation. you're talking about a stronger fiscal basis to the regime, more subsidies. the other thing of concern is that i really think we have to look at the cohesion of the opposition in the current geopolitical context, related to the u.s. as a threat as an occupier. in the context of a military strike on iran, it is hard not to see a rally around the regime effect. it is not hard to see more regime cohesion and more fracturing of the opposition. i do not think that a military strik

and o interesting interview i conducted with in syria. i started to remember what he said.e are willing like all three years we are willing at this stage to be partner in that -- whatever in the peace process, whatever. they won't cause any distraction to any peace agreement if obam to go ahead with any. that is i think really their main objective is objectivity. is international legitimacy. and i would say that they will do a l to achieve that. this is their main goal. the situation is really scary. and there are, you know, voices within hamas that are extreme, of course. but one thing to consider, one element to consider, is those in control, those that are now in control, with hamas and syria, whether hamas and syria or the west bank are, you know -- are people that you can talk to. you can discuss in politics, they believe in elections. they believe in all of that. so i think it's worth it to consider it. i don't know how. that's the question. because it's very hard. you know, they are very persistent on not recognizing israel, of cours and not to renounce, you know, vi

this is not much different than a kid in yemen, saudi arabia, syria, jordan, lebanon who in 2004, 2005 was saying they did not know the way to get involved but they knew if they showed up in baghdad maybe they could do something about the emotional sense we are being wronged. i use the word emotional. i went to contrast it to the people in the core al qaeda who are so deeply and ideologically motivated. these kids we are seeing believe the ideology, many i have seen do not. they are emotionally driven by conversations, photos, sermons. there is in the vantage there, by the way. and emotionally driven people are easier to turn, not just for sources, but easier to turn away from the movement and revolution because they do not always understand what they are joining up for. hold on just a minute here. hold on. the floor is mine. last i checked, i am not getting paid for this. 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 2.5 hours. this could turn into fidel castro. we are here at 9:00 p.m. that is right. i am 20 minutes in and i have given you a picture. i and the world's leading optimist. my nieces are here.

ihh know that -- we know that ihh representatives have met with senior hamas officials in turkey, syria, and gaza over the past three years. that is obviously of great concern to us. it has not been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the united states. >> united states does not believe that it has connections to al qaeda? >> we can not validate that. >> can we stay with the flotilla? >> sure. >> as the u.s. in considering calling either privately or publicly on the israelis to lift the siege of gaza, as several of this country's allies have done and even the "new york times," for that matter? >> again, we support the expansion of humanitarian assistance to the people of gaza. at the same time, we recognized that israel has legitimate security concerns, given the attacks that have emanated from gaza in recent months and years that have endangered the israeli people. we will be talking to israel and other countries about ways in which we can improve the flow of assistance to gaza and support the people of gaza while meeting israel's security concerns. >> da mr.vmr. davutogl

>> training in weapons. >> can you speak about syria? are they providing weapons? i read the there was recently attack along the border. >> i do not believe that the government of syria is providing weapons to groups to conduct these attacks. however, we continue to see fortified facilitations occurring, while lower than they have been 04, they are still able to move through. we would like to continue to see them take action against these networks in order to attempts to conduct operations. in addition, there is still a large expatriate party elements that continues to be active and boisterous against the iraqi government, which appears to be destabilizing. we would like to see them take actions there as well. >> general, can you speak to how you envision the truth drawdown going? that will be a big issue in your time of leadership. how will you be able to maintain the stability to the united states forces in terms of the fewer troops? >> first of all, senator i think that the general has laid out a good plan to accomplish to draw down and get us where we need to b

measures to address the comprehensive threat posed to our nation and to our ally, israel, by iran, by syria, and - by the militant proxies. among other steps that the united states should take is to stop the failed policies of engagement with the syrian and iranian regimes which have not advanced our interest but has lent those dictatorships undeserved legitimacy. we should also continue to stand unequivocally with our ally, israel, and oppose all efforts to deny israel its sovereign right to self-defense, the very right that staff sergeant shalit was exercising when he was kidnapped by hamas. with that, madam speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. ackerman: i want to thank the the gentlewoman from florida, the distinguished ranking member of the committee, for her statement and for her support. madam speaker, now is my pleasure to yield to the gentlewoman from nevada, the distinguished and respected member of our committee, shelley berkley, for as much time as she ma

they are clearly on the role with backing from syria and iran. they are a threat to vital u.s. interests. the other point i made was hezbollah is not just a proxy for foreign governments in damascus and tehran. they are a uniquely lebanese entity. as such, it makes sense for us to engage them. we do not wishhto compromise with them or cut deals, but we need to engage them. you do not affect your adversary if you do not talk to them. i learned that in iraqq you need to be in the game, engaged, and that is the way you mess with the minds of people i wwuld like to get on with that with hezbollah. host: two years out of the bush3 concerns of the hezbollah have gotten worse or better since he left? guest: since then, by all accounts, they have rearmed, restocked, and perhaps our her an even more formidable partner than they were then. -phost: ryan crocker is with us for your calls. the topic is iraq, iran, and afghanistan. the numbers are on yyur screen. we will get to calls in a moment. ambassador, you served as an ambassador to iraq. this morning, headlines are on more in certain

they are clearly on a roll with backing from both syria and iran. interests. the other oint i made was that hezbollah is not just a proxy for foreign governments in damascus and tehran. entity. as such, it makes sense for us to engage them. not to compromise with them. not to cut deals with them. simply to engage them. yourot -- you don't affect them. i learned that in iraq. you haae to be in thh game. you have to be engaged. that is how you mess with the minds of people who are unfriennly to a spirit i would like to get on with that with hezbollah. >-- and friendly to us. -- and friendly -- unfriendly to us. i would like to get on with that witt hezbollah. the fighting demonstrated clearly to all of us the capabilities that hezbollah has as a military ntity. since then, by all accounts, they have rearmed, restocked, and are perhaps even morr formidable than they were. host: the ambasssdor is with us until 11:00 eastern for your teleppone calls. the topic is iraq, afghanistan, and the middle east. ambassador, you served as ambassador to iraq. this morning, the

this year represents syria, to nietzsche, the west bank, morocco, algeria, saudi arabia.ll spent the day with the delegation at the palestinian investment conference as part of our efforts to build reform. during the course of the day, he had the opportunity to meet with president abbas. liberia has is not open to this type of business. the u.s. and liberia are united in a strong partnership to combat the national drug trade which poses a serious threat to both of our countries. alss, the africa is troubled by the government of perinde's decision to eject him a human rights worker. they are a nonprofit organization that is observing the human rights decision. we cannot approve of this decision and we urge them to allow the worker to return to the country. we have been granted access to alan gross in cuba five times. the most recent access was on may 25th and we continue to ask that he be released immediately on humanitarian grounds and be allowed to return to his family. also, our next round of russian talks are scheduled for june 14th-16th here in washington. finally, re

. >> we have the ambassador to pakistan and syria, kuwait and lebanon in the 1990's. we have lesley on the independent line. caller: hello. >> you mentioned the threat of hezbollah. an i am not certain the term -- the term that you used. term be dealinghould with hezbollah. i know that the coury of lebanon on has been financially in better shape than almost here. i am wondering what exactly you are saying that the u.s. -- how the u.s. should be engaging with hezbollah becau our relationsh with love and on would be a friindly one. what exact are you saying and how should we be relating to hezbollah in engagent? are you talking about the george bush pollcy which is non- engagement ann military force? or are you talng about diplomatic sit down, let's talk? gut: thaa gives me a chance to expand on my earlier comments. i think we need to do a number of things. first, we have to have a strong and efctive relationship with the lebanese government and with the llbanese armed forces. they are a series institution i the country. have had an uneven relationship over time. we now

lebanon, syria, israel, palestine. if you want to include afghanistan as part of the middle east. it looks to be like a proxy war between iran and saudi arabia. iran is a predominantly shiite country. this has also been the case in the non -- in lebanon. i thought that was a very perceptive question by the collar. this is something of great concern about growing religious tension. one could argue that the religious tension has been somewhat curtailed in the age of obama, maybe it had reached its peak during the iraq war of 2006. now things arm somewhat stabilized -- now things are somewhat stabilized. host: joining us from shobi town, michigan. caller: i have called in saying thhs before. saudi arabia contributes more to terrorism. our troops are being killed in afghanistan because of saudi arabian money. 15 of 19 hijackers were from saudi arabia. bin laden came from saudi arabia. you have the circle of death. was george bush going to group -- going to do a meet and greet with the monarchies from saudi arabia and give them a big wet kiss? i cannot understand why ww are going after

international atomic energy agency is holding a board meeting to discuss the nuclear program of iran, syria, and israel. the agency described iran as "a special case" for the team. the u.s. has criticized the inclusion of is to go on the agenda, saying it has not violated any commitments. in chicago today, lawyers for firmablagojevich will make finay decisions. the former governor has pleaded not guilty to scheming to profit from his power to fill the senate seat vacated when barack obama became president. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. host: among the events we're covering today, progressives with the campaign for america's future " in their political conference in washington. this morning, they're talking about the midterm elections. on c-span2, that is the topic at the carnegie endowment for international peace. this afternoon, senator richard lugar will hold a news conference to talk about his proposal. we will have the news conference on c-span3. >> tonight, efforts to expand broadband in oregon and how expansion would affect all rural states. also, the recent

or new operations coming in from poland or syria. it doesn't look that way jus from all across eastern europe today scan in our culture as white even though at the time of their arrival, many did not. many were legally defined as other than white because we have a system where new practice sort of accumulate as a mountain or a birm. we actually have a mountain of court cases that adjudicated whether people from saudi arabia one of these chaleppings is to peer ahead. that is tension, social conflict, race ix and eventually assimilation of culture and converge answer and a whitening over time over whether the post 1965, post ellis island america is different. something new in our history. mr. latinos would ever get the knack or the dance steps to be an american citizen. saying there is no hispanic-american dream. we were trading stats on assimilation. he doesn't come empty handed. if you strip away the protection any of the anxiety and the real hoss pillity. why do we do it? what is immigration for? do we do it because we are nice? we

the way it has to regard people from pakistan or india or new populations coming in from poland or syria, the latino migration has been so much more broadbased, so much more numerous, and complicated because it puts america in the position of having to deal with the physical reality of a mixed race people. to try to tease out race and its operation from immigration and its operation is a fool's errand. our immigration system has initialize from the beginning -- rationalized from the beginning. it does not look that way when you stand in 2010 and look over your shoulder because irish, crayons, greeks, italians, jews from all across eastern europe, stand in our culture as whites, even though many did not and many were legally defined as other than whites. because we have a system where its new practice accumulates like the mountain and jurisprudence accumulates in size and haft, we actually have a mountain of court cases that are adjudicated whether people from saudi arabia or afghanistan or armenia were actually white and it was not social practice, but court cases that dictated how we we

i was born in syria. i came here in 1975. i was 18 years old, and he spent 15 years traveling around the world through my job. i find the biggest issue that they faced when i met people all around the world, especially in the middle east and the far east -- their perception of the united states is affected heavily by misinformation. many people do not understand our way of life. the generosity of the system that we have here, and the system as a whole. the biggest effect on their perception -- for example "sex and the city close " was the most popular show in the middle east and the far east, and that is what they perceive the american way of living is. they love america because it is the land of plenty, but they perceive it as negatively because primarily, due to, really, and incorrect politics or oppression and lack of proper politics on their country's. our perception is, especially our politics, it carries very loudly when our internal government and policies are against our government or president. so it is during the bu

he has been to pakistan, syria, tel aviv, where he was in charge of other things including the causef portfolio. he is now in libya. it is probably not a hot spot in the same way but i think he can still considered to be a challenging post given the relationship between libya and the united states. ambassador cretz is going to give some remarks and we will open it up to the floor. >> thank you. thank you for this opportunity. it is an honor for me to be here speaking at the carnegie endowment for international peace. the united states and libya have just embarked on a second year of exchange of embassadors. the previous speeches i have made and will continue to make state the case that continued engagement with libya is in our long-term national interest. while i recognize that this will not be an easy task, i am fully committed to seeing that we at the u.s. embassy in tripoli exert as much effort is required as it require -- as it requires to ensure the relationship stays on a positive path. no doubt, there are many differences that have at times threatened to derail our political r

there are a lot of concerns syria there are other factors, but when you are in that situation, you have to except other terms. why would we ever put ourselves in a position to except terms we do not want to except? when you start to get to a point where more than 50% of the debt is owned by a country, they are going to have a say whether we want it or not. this is obama's budget because he is the president and he laid out the current budget. if you look at the side ofhere deficits are going to go, that means you already have the amount of debt you have today, and you have to keep borrowing pretty much as long as the eye can see. think foone moment if you take the first george bush, think of all the debt and why we had to add that money. we have to become a nation. there were a couple of wars. we went through a great depression. we went through highways and water systems and air ports. think of everything we built. we went through a couple of world wars. and we went throughietnam, korea, katrina, and others. if you combine all that debt for everything we invested in, we are going to take