ambassador to tunisia, and obviously 2011 was a year of profound political change in tunisia. in addition to these political changes came the realization of the importance of job creation to the success of the transition in tunisia. and this led in turn to the further opening of tunisia markets to foreign trade and investment. because without those opening of those markets and easing of regulations, jobs simply aren't going to be created to the degree that they are necessary. one of tunisia's advantages for investors is its location, it is within close proximity, obviously, of not only north africa, but also europe and sub-saharan africa. with the population of just over 10 million people, it's not an overwhelmingly large market for u.s. goods, but it's regional platform is very appealing market. it's also the only country in north africa that can trade with all of its neighbors, its party to other trading agreements such as the agadir agreement that allows it to trade freely with egypt, jordan and morocco. this meanings that there are several opportunities for u.s. businesses

we have a similar situation in tunisia. whether under -- both governments or presidents of the republic restricted islamist movements, indeed repressed them, exiled them, imprisoned them and have laws in the books that restrict headscarf, that restrict polygamy and restrict some of the other aspects of, or the organizational aspects of islam as in tunisia. yet again, here a party was one that is the most progressive in its moderation of the islamist ideology. rejecting political violence. accepting in the parameters of the secular state and adopting the formula that has become the standard we often see today. they say we want [ speaking in foreign language ]. meaning, we want a civic state with an islamic identity. and this is really the formula that we see increasingly adopted in places like morocco and egypt and elsewhere. now, let me turn to a third example and that is for pakistan, and here we have a country where actually one cannot claim that islamism has been repressed. islam in pakistan has always found a place sinc

with the possibility of islamic democracies and they were very worried about it all the way from tunisia to let's say iraq i mean is that those fears been allayed now. that's a really good question i mean you probably can see common trend since there's been no i mean right out several decades ago you often see these waves of social mobilization in the market as asian so what started off in tunisia started spreading to other parts of the arab world and the common trends are people are more open about protesting express dissatisfaction using social networks but i think think the key variable has been their regime response when their genius responded very ineffective lee as in tunisia there was power. when there is probably no way then tag in the eyes of the international community and they're not that strong as in face of libya well the new stuff international intervention in other cases. syria iraq possibly it's still unclear because the the regime says it's part of the war effectively in the sense that they've managed to contain the spread of violence but i think we have to look at this

there wasn't a word about what was going on in tunisia. but anyway, and again as the saying goes, the brightest, i mean, light comes after the darkest moment of the night. just when everything looks so dark, a new horizon opened up. the new horizon opened up by a generation that everyone, and here i mean everyone almost, was considering a burden, a demographic burden. everyone thought that. even the enlightened ones were answering the racist remarks, were saying unit, which are doing is your building a wall of extremist or even those trying to defend ever use were saying you're making them into a reservoir of extremists. a whole sociology was built within an ideological framework that those young arabs are demographic threat, they are a political threat, they are a strategic threat to their own people into the west. and most of the sociological studies done were with him that within that ideological posture. i mean, i'm sure in some universities there was some good work being done. there's absolutely no doubt about that, but i'm thinking t

change if it's going to be done in getting to sleep like we saw in tunisia. and then we see you know it's outside intervention and i think we all agreed it would be this kind of in a mess here because we see regionalism we see the federal state very strong we're not getting stronger and then we have syria and the longer we go into this process the more regimes learn how to maintain their control ok and in this case of syria to use military forces and we see outside intervention too if it's a legitimate or legal or illegal we see this internationalized the same question do you see major trends or is it just one off each time. well i would agree with what richard said the base when the motivation of many of these movements is a quest for freedom and economic freedom political freedom in some cases religious freedom but each country of course is unique the course of the revolution depends on the the response of the regime the strength of the regime and the degrees to which it bends with the wind and makes compromises or in the case of fee or assad or brutally tr

again, i'm not an expert on tunisia. from my trip i thought that was an interesting point of tension. people are nervous about it. >> i think we had a question back here. we have time, unfortunately, for only one more. okay. this gentleman here. here we go. up here. sorry. >> hi. i'm richard hyde. i direct the religion consulting group. i'm curious about other bases of identity in the countries that you're talking about. they all speak arabic. they're mostly muslim. what differentiates a tunisian from a moroccan from an algerian from an egyptian, et cetera. there must be lots of other things going on here. >> well, i mean, you know, there are unlimited differences. these are overlapping identities. the arab that the tunisian speaks is not the arabic that i speak. nor is the french in the arabic the tunisian speaks, the little french that i know. there are differences in history. there are differences in colonial history and colonial influence. there are differences, the kind of historical sediment of, for example, the mo

it's interesting, i wrote a column in monday "washington post" that criticized tunisia, not because it's the worst example at all of difficulties, but because it's so important because it was the first and is the model, a place everybody says tunisia has a really good chance of making it. the movie persepolis was shown, this led to prosecutions of those who showed it on the grounds that it offended public morals, because there was a scene in which one of the people in the movie had a visualization in her mind of god. an image of god. and i said that's a violation of freedom of express to go after -- for the state to prosecute. and it is wrong. and i had a liberal tunisian friend say no, you're wrong. here's why. it's very hard, this is brand new to us, we're trying to build i think he would have said a liberal democracy. and there are a million issues. and one of the toughest issues is precisely the kind of thing you're talking about. if you push those issues, you americans, complete freedom of express in the religious realm, then tunisians, none of whom want to see that kind of movie, a

for the tragedy of sports heroes in tunisia and other countries it was the start of the arab spring. unlike most of the population of the bustling city of karachi such a move but are can afford to stay in bed longer. the doors of his barber shop open at ten am. but often his first customers don't arrive until noon. mubarak treasures these morning alice is no relation to the post president but he spends his time checking up on the latest political news. politics is far more popular than football in egypt these days. i have a kind of this is been the best year of my life there is freedom in the country and i can say anything i like to anyone we didn't have such freedom in the past but this freedom is free for all you don't need to pay for it there hasn't been a better time for me and my job since the revolution. seventy three dead and more than a hundred football the inclusion of the future but that morning or victories of. theirs went very very wrong. on the first of february two thousand and twelve a local team in the egyptian city of port saeed hosted the football club from cairo af

so far, tunisia has been taking women's rights seriously.and forced marriages are illegal. women may divorce their husbands and can legally get abortions. many in the west are concerned. but islamist parties and a parliament are not a serious threat to the rights of women, but there could be a danger of women's rights organizations and activists outside the parliament and not do their homework in this transitional phase. >> women in tunisia have made important progress. progress that women in syria, yemen, and even in egypt can still only dream of. >> women in libya also want more progress, and some of them have taken matters into their own hands. libya is still a male dominated society despite having a well- educated middle class. >> breaking down traditional barriers can be challenging there, but that is not stopping one group of women and their quest for equality. >> you do not often lead women like this one in libya. the young entrepreneur is not afraid to speak frankly about the traditional division of the sexes at the workplace. she ru

in both countries, in tunisia and egypt what we saw is a phenomenon that started in tunisia and criticized in egypt. that is interesting because there are two young people killed. one for political reasons. the need for political freedom. i don't know if you read this story but a young logger the deland activist, unemployed, uneducated. he was arrested -- not arrested. he was asked for his papers. people were looking for him. two security people and the coffee shop, internet cafe in cairo. he knew they were coming after him. they beat him to death. it was quite gruesome. the interesting thing about it is they would kill a young man in an internet cafe. you don't do that because the word is bound to get out. there were too many bloggers watching their colleague being beaten to death. in tunisia a young man in his own anger and frustration, being unemployed, and his car being confiscated and there was a story about -- expose the two pillars of the arab revolution and why they happen. political freedom and freedom from one. freedom of expression, freedom of movement and freedom from want. tho

companies in tunisia now. some of the companies present in tunisia have had success in the i.t. sector, manufacturing, also. and some of the exports that u.s. companies have made to tunisia include things like oilseeds, cereals, machinery, chemicals and the like. looking ahead as far as opportunities for u.s. companies, infrastructure is very important and very much needed. large-scale tourism projects, industrial mega- products -- projects, and these include things such as highways and railways, tourism, phosphate plant and others. franchising is another real opportunity for u.s. companies because with such a comparative advantage there. and because there's a large middle class in tunisia. and for all the opportunities that i've mentioned, the overseas private investment corporation can help u.s. investments. they have a $2 billion fund for the middle east and north africa. and that figure to spend some of this money in tunisia. we just had a team from opec this at the end of last month with a particular eye on franchising, franchising opportunities. i mindful of the need to ke

it has to be used as a tool by the people to organize to spread information and certain cases like tunisia or egypt to help fuel revolutions but it's also highlighted the downsides how governments can stifle control all these things through censorship how when they're given the opportunity many of those show no restraint and there's also a third element comes into play in our world today and that's the role of private corporations the tech giants like google twitter facebook as well as other companies that create censoring and monitoring technologies but they and they sell to the governments so ends up being this complex web of interest power dynamics that highlight a fundamental problem people around the world need to recognize that the internet is a human creation but it's not going to remain free flowing and democratic unless we actually fight for it our guest tonight has written a book looking into how technology should be structured and government to support the rights and the liberties of all the world's internet users so your discuss with

step in principle, produced mostly rhetoric but precious little action when it met last month in tunisia. unfortunately, with each passing day, the international response to assad's atrocities is being overtaken by events on the ground in syria. some countries are finally beginning to acknowledge this reality as well as its implications. saudi arabian qatar are calling for arming opposition forces in syria. the newly elected kuwaiti parliament has called on their government to do the same. last week, the supreme allied commander of nato, admiral james stavridis, testified to the senate armed services committee that providing arms to opposition forces in syria could help them shift the balance of power against assad. most importantly, syrians themselves are increasingly calling for international military involvement. the opposition syrian national council recently announced that it is establishing a military bureau to channel weapons and other assistance to the free syrian army and armed groups inside the country. other members of the council are demanding a more robust intervention. to b

in tunisia, by the way if it happens in tunisia that proves nothing about whether it will happen in libyaor egypt. i think the truth is, we don't know. >> but let's just say one thing. in the egyptian revolution, almost all the casualties were in the first 18 days of the revolt and they were governments shooting at demonstrators. since that time it has been a remarkably peaceful revolution. and though did have a, conduct a the freest and fairest election probably in the history of egypt. so, you know, i think, there are all the risks and it all could go south. but i think you have to give the egyptian people some credit for what they have done so far and we ought to give them such help as we can and that they are willing to accept because it matters how this comes out. remember, there's another revolution that was made in the name of freedom and democracy in 1979 and that was the iranian revolution and it got hijacked and it has been the principle problem in the middle east for the next 30 years. so how these revolutions come out really matters to the people there but also to us. and that

the head will be in what we witnessed the rise of islamic parties to power in egypt tunisia and

tunisia and libya, yemen and bahrain, countries undergo monumental changes and now comes of those changes are still far from clear and then there is the area for the conflict appears to be enee than 6000 lancet have lost and there appears to be no end da bd and we should rule out no option that could help save lives. we could consider among other actions preventing opposition groups inside. the political and military with better means to organize activities and care for the wounded and find safe haven, to communicate securely to defend themselves and fight back against the forces. the time has come when all options must be on the table to add the killing and forced aside to leave power. we should continue for some time listening to marry the other threats facing our nation and i've come to brutal cover most of them in today's hearing. what should be clear is that by no object of assessment at restaurant on national security decrease to the contrary they are increasing as they prepared testimonies of eyewitnesses make vividly clear. so the question members of congress and the members of th

i understand in tunisia. there was an interview that i read of a woman in cairo from one of the poorest districts. she said she voted for the muslim brotherhood because they were not corrupt and they built houses. if they get in there and they do not build any housing and tonight create jobs, i suspect there will have a problem. they have to have repeatable elections. and they have to have standards of accountability and we will see. >> the tolling of the bill tells me that we have another panel -- of the bell tells me that we have another panel. [applause] >> next, the latest on the middle east with david ignatius. after that, postwar relations between the u.s. and iraq. then the department on a possible satellite launched by north korea. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> i was quite radical as a young person. i thought that singing "we shall overcome" was not a very effective way of getting civil rights. i thought that more co

she defended political prisoners in tunisia and campaigned against torture.t was commonplace in jails under the old regime. the interior ministry was once as feared as the berlin stasi prison. >> the ministry should be turned into a memorial and museum so visitors can learn about the suffering of the tunisian people. >> the group also got the chance to meet a former political prisoner. he detailed his experiences locked up in east germany. the head of the morel also provided advice on how to uneasy a good deal with its legacy of dictatorship. "keep the prisons that still exist in the condition they were in during the dictatorship or compensate the victims now and not in 20 years' time when they are no longer living." those are the kinds of things that we can advise them to do from our experience. come to terms with the brutality of dictatorship, the group from tunisia city visit to berlin will help ensure that the lessons of the past are not forgotten by future generations. >> today, germans and americans are also marking a moment in the past. 60 years ago at

i just returned from a visit to tunisia and algeria and morocco. i think we have an opportunity there but i'm conscious of the risks and dangers you identified. >> thank you, madam secretary. thank you, mr. burton. mr. meeks, the ranking member on the subcommittee on europe and eurasia. i want to say on behalf of all splendid job you're doing. i have three questions. one, russia, significant accomplishments, challenges, opportunities. our areas disagreement are sometimes profound, coordinated action to confront efforts of life like syria or global security as in iran. no coly, war is behind us. united states and russia are no longer eyeball to eyeball withv that would release arsenals at each elb to elbow at conference tables, which i think is a good thing. madam secretary would you comment on your priority and strategy with respect to russia. you may or may not know that i am ic expanding trade and economic relationship with russia, which in the year ahead i hope will be a good news stories for the united states. secondly turkey, which continues t

companies and tunisia now. some of the company's president and tunisia have had success in the sector manufacturing also, and some of the exports that u.s. companies have made include things like we'll, seals, machinery, chemicals and the light. looking ahead for opportunities for u.s. companies, infrastructure is very important and a very much needed. large-scale tourism projects, industrial projects, and these include things like highways and railways, phosphate plans and others, so franchising is another real opportunity for u.s. companies because we have such a comparative advantage and because there is a large middle class in tunisia. for all these opportunities that i've mentioned, the overseas private investment corporation can help u.s. investments. the of the 2 billion-dollar fund for the middle east and north africa and they are eager to spend some of this money in tunisia. we just had a team visit at the end of last month with a particular eye on franchising opportunities. i am mindful of the need to

i just returned from a visit to tunisia and algeria and morocco. i think we have an opportunity there, but i'm conscious of the risks and dangers you identified. >> thank you, madam secretary. thank you, mr. burton. mr. meeks, the ranking member on the subcommittee on europe and eurasia. >> thank you, madam chairman. madam secretary, it's always a delight to have you before us. i want to stay on behalf of all the american people what a splendid job you're doing. i have three questions. one, about our complex relationship with russia which i believe presents significant accomplishments, challenges and opportunities. our areas of disagreement are sometimes profound, coordinated action to confront efforts of life like syria or global security as in iran. notably, however, the cold war is behind us. united states and russia are no longer eyeball to eyeball with fingers posed over red buttons that would release arsenals aimed at one another. we are often elbow to elbow at conference tables, which i think is a good thing. madam secretary, would you comme

watched like the formal [ speaking in foreign language ] saying that i will accept president from tunisia biz muslim and not accepting a coptic president, and also we have seen after a massacre, 20 coptic killed and how we give, like muslim brotherhood giving excuses for attacking the army first which never happened. and, also, i don't understand, also, if -- what this --s it me we, yeah, they are -- like, they are modern even though they are anti-semitic. modern even though they don't accept the religiousri to become, like, equal of the majority? also, i would like to know what's the modern perspective on the religious freedoms. since -- i mean i would love to see the reaction of the muslim brotherhood if a muslim in egypt now decided to convert to christianity. it would be very interesting to see it. as well for the selafist. so that's my question. >> very good. >> these are all excellent questions and i commend you for asking. what i would say is, i do not lump the selafist with the wasafia tendency and said explicitly in my talk, the wasatia presents itself as a critique. essentially

i think the same in tunisia. and, you know, it's -- i go back to there was one interview i read of a woman in cairo from one of the poorest districts who says she wrote it for the muslim brotherhood because they were not corrupt and they would build house being. well, you know, they get in there. they don't build any housing. they don't create any jobs. you know, i suspect they're going to have a problem. so the key is, as elliott said, you got to have repeatable elections. that's why the standards of accountsability. and we'll see. we have a huge stake. our ability to affect it is limited. >> the willing tost bell reminds me we have to adjourn our panel. we'll take a 15-minute break before the next one starts. please join me in expressing gratitude to our panel. [ applause ] >> as you heard, the group will be coming back in 15 minutes for the final panel of the day here at georgetown university. the next panel will focus on fostering religious freedom. we'll have live coverage when they return. news from the sup

islam could prove political groups you know have a strong impact as they do when egypt and tunisia. libya might be an exception in this trend so let us wait and see and i'm not quite confident that the they're going to do as well as they did in egypt and tunisia but what about the al qaeda presence in libya how big of a possibility is it that they will gain a foothold in the country talks here it's actually in the theoretically speaking it in we put a call back you can be felled by anybody in the world and it's a front side saw you know for the same isn't a good or so it's in the interest of the libyans and none libyans you know have a very commanding government there's a term of the government in place as from this process. now looking back at me to intervention in hindsight do you think this was inevitable or was it detrimental in that it could have been a mess militarized ending for libya. first of all then total national community intervention because it was not only need to there were none need to remember such as their minutes intervention but the international community was v

i heard that in egypt, tunisia and libya. we don't know who these people are, and they're probably al qaeda. you know what that flies in the face of, general? people who yearn for liberty and not being under the rule of an oppressive, brutal dictatorship. all of a sudden we will again assume, it's al qaeda. well, i've just returned from a trip to egypt, tunisia and libya, there's altz the threat of extremisextremism. it's no doubt the people that made the revolution were not al qaeda. frankly one grows a little wary of this we don't know who they are, and they're probably al qaeda. admiral, do you think we can find out who they are? >> sir, it's prudent to find out who your allies are and who your enemy is. >> is it prudent to stand on the side of freedom and democracy against one of the most oppressive dictators in the world? is it? >> no, sir. >> is that prudent? >> no, sir. >> isn't that the united states has been standing for for a couple of hundred years at least? isn't that why we fought wars? frankly, i grow irritated

i understand in tunisia.ad of a woman in cairo from one of the poorest districts. she said she voted for the muslim brotherhood because they were not corrupt and they built houses. if they get in there and they do not build any housing and tonight create jobs, i suspect there will have a problem. they have to have repeatable elections. and they have to have standards of accountability and we will see. >> the tolling of the bill tells me that we have another panel -- of the bell tells me that we have another panel. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> coming up, the campaign speeches from last night by mitt romney and rex santorum after the illinois primary. then "washington journal." members will consider a bill in the house to repeal parts of the health care law. in march, 1979, c-span began televising the house of representatives to households nationwide and today, our content is available on tv, radio, and online. >>

and the patton family believed it started with the capture of her husband in tunisia, that that's how she dealt with the stress. i always think that is a perfect microcosm to the larger stress that combat brings to everyone. now, this is what's called mooseberg prismoos mooseburg prison. this is where they brought a lot of prisoners. patton rolls into here a few weeks later. and the troops go nuts. they're happy they've been liberated. they identify patton is their liberator. he comes in after a few tanks go crashing through the fence. patton says it was a bittersweet moment. they praise him to high gloorry, but yet he writes if i hadn't launched that raid, all these guys would have been stuck here all those extra weeks. he gives a speech. he says don't go running into the countryside eating whatever you want inspect your bodies can't take it. and by the way, stay out of my way, i'm still killing germans. and they loved it. a good example of research and sometimes the things you find out when you've finished your rye research is just as interesting as what you find out during your res

whether you're talking about the female lawyers of tunisia that have been so instrumental in pushing the development of their country or heroes i think of others with her have been heroes whether you talk about some of the african woman pushing for the development of their countries, they're all heros and it's right and the fair we celebrate them. if i and a few others can be a pretext to rally immediate why and attention the better because it's them who should be in the spotlight. >> rose: and tell their stories. >> yeah. >> rose: and like aun suh shi. >> 23 years of her life. all that- >> rose: the director of the i.m.f. christine lagarde. one of the fastest growing economies is e-websites and offer luxury goods and sales and joining me now with the ceo kevin ryan and chairman susan lyne and pleased to have them at the table and participated in a forum and i'm pleased to have people i know and like here to talk about what is a phenomenon on online sales and what was that eureka moment you knew there was a business here? >> i started the business because i could see the concept work

i think the same in tunisia. there was one interview i read of a woman in cairo for one of the poorest districts who said she voted for the muslim brotherhood because they were not corrupt and they built housing. well, when they get in there and they're not building housing and not creating jobs, i suspect they will have a problem. so the key is you have to have repeatable elections. that is why the standards of accountability. we will see. we have a stake, but our ability to affect it is limited. >> the tolling of the bill tells us that we have to adjourn our panel here. will have to take a 15 minutes before the next panel. please join me in thanking your panel. [applause] >> the georgetown university panel included discussion on egypt and how american views on religious freedom do not easily apply it in arab countries. this is about an hour and 15 minutes. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> let me turn now to this extraordinary pan

the target zone is northeastern algeria and tunisia and towards southern italy. chances of thunderstorms will be on the increase in the weekend. gusty condition in scotland will be prevailing there. yet again another potent winter system will be bringing wintry mix especially towards the coastal areas of norway. things could get heavy there. very dry still in the iberian peninsula. we want the precipitation here. we're not going to get any for the next couple of days. temperaturewise lisbon at 21. london at 15. towards the east wintry, moscow minus 4. i'll leave you now for the extended forecast. >>> that's our broadcast for this hour on "newsline." we'll be back with more news in half an hour. thank you for watching. bye-bye. . .

it was a young person's death that started the uprising in tunisia.is young people on the front lines in egypt. slowly but surely, the young people in sudan are following suit and rising up against an oppressive government. it was a young girl who stood still when she was ordered to give up her seat to a white woman, violently taken from the bus, pushed into a police car, ridiculed on her way to the station, and shot inside a jail cell until she was bailed out hours later -- shut inside a jail cell until she was bailed out hours later. hers is a powerful story, along with that of a man who was racially profiled and accused of a crime he did not commit. i would like to invite ronald, who garner's several proclamations from various officials, and we would like to present them to ms. claudia -- to ms. claudette colvin. we want to thank him for his efforts in securing these proclamations. if ms. colvin would come up as well. >> it is an honor to be asked to make these presentations. the elected officials represented here are trailblazers themselves. many