Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160824

Otherwise. When should a president go to the site of a disaster and what should his or her role be when there. Our phone lines are open. A special line for Louisiana Residents this morning. 202 7488003. You can also catch up with us on media on facebook, its facebook. Com cspan. Cspanwj. Er, its were talking about the president s visit yesterday, but your thoughts on the role of a president in time of disaster. Headlinese of the stemming from the louisiana visit yesterday. Obama meets with louisiana flood victims. It shows he hasnt forgotten us is the headline there of the front page of usa today this morning. Headline. Obama sees firsthand, louisianas devastation. And theres a picture of president obama walking with a family to tour their flood ravaged home. Washington times, obama tours baton rouge flood damage, not worried about tardiness, or criticism. And thats what were focusing on this morning. Timingticism about the of the president s visit. A role politics played in the timing of his visit. Yesterday president obama was asked about the politics of his visit. Heres a bit of what he had to say. First of all, one of the benefits of being five months short of leaving here is i dont about politics. The second thing i have seen, that whenly, is disaster strikes, thats probably one of the few times washington tends not to get political. Nobody on this, block, none of those first. Esponders nobody gives a hoot whether youre democrat or republican. Makingey care about is sure theyre getting the drywall out and the carpet out, and building,t any mold and they got some contractors in here and they Start Building as possible. Thats what they care about. And the advocate in baton of those papers calling on the president to get down to the area sooner. To bring his focus to the region. Headlines from there, august 17, lead editorial. Vacationer or not, a hurting now,iana needs you president obama. In that editorial they vote sometimes president ial visits the way of emergency response, doing more harm than good. At we dont see that as factor on the 17th, that flood waters are subsiding. Time for the president to pay a personal visit, showing thesolidarity with suffering of americans. Baton rouge advocates, yesterday after the president made his trip down, had a second edito editorial. Visit appreciated. In terms of the timing of the president ial visit, the governor edwardsiana, john bell last night was speaking on asked aboutnd was the president coming. He said he doesnt have time for s that have started to consume the discussion about the catastrophic flooding in louisiana. Asked to obama was hold off from visiting the state when things were settled. All the intersections and the closed off he said news npt daily program. The president came this week. Whatnk the visit timely is governor John Bell Edwards said. We want to hear your thoughts on general. S in when you think they should go to disasters, what they should do there. Ey get our phone lines are open. We start with a republican, craig in cedar rapids, iowa. Even know what the people are thinking about all this. They just want to keep us its anotheruse fundraiser for them. Why doesnt the president go out are. To where all the fires why doesnt the president go to italy where the earthquake was . Keeping the country divided. Adjus hour immediate i adjust just keeps on this stuff all the time and drives everybody else nuts. So out of touch with the rest of the people that are paying for all this. Government, you know its government of the people by the people and for the people. Isnt really the federal government doing it to the people, its the federal government doing it to the rest of the government. To getn are we going that straight . The media needs to start bringing us together, working together as fellow americans divided sokeeping us they can make more money out of division. Craig, when do you think a disaster should hit a point that go . Esident should when does it make sense regardless of what the Media Coverage is . Thats a very good question. Ten or nine or at seven . You know, a and im talking about when you rate it from 010. Then what really difference does it make when the president goes there when we have all organizationsnt like fema and Everything Else thats supposed to be doing their job . And were so tired of these people, you know, doing this ask doing that, and doing that and it doesnt make any difference. Takes foruch money it obama to go anywhere, and hes always spending millions of places. Going and were paying for all this, and then everybody complains federal taxes being so high. The 1 soe paying for they can do all these trips all time. When obamas out of office, i wish they would tally how much spent on all these trips. Its in the billions of dollars. All right. To marta waiting in riverdale, maryland. Democrat. When should the president go to a disaster area and what should be when theyre there . Caller i think the president the right thing. As the governor of louisiana said, they will let the to comet to know when out there, because it can cause some conflicts. They have to prepare for the to be there. I think some of the callers like the caller before that was just on the phone. Said the president spends millions of dollars. Inry president thats been office spends millions of dollars to go different places for political reasons or for whatever reason it may be. So i think some people just dont have the knowledge. Not extremelily 100 knowledgeable extremely 100 knowledgeable about politics. But i look at things from the logic part of it, the logic view, and also i do have a little knowledge of politics. President did the right thing. As the governor of louisiana supposed to bet there as soon as the disaster strikes. Thats impossible. More fairneed to be when it comes to deciding things that president s do or anyone in arena. Itical because they are not in their shoes. They dont really know. Some thoughts from a louisiana resident, from lafayette, louisiana. Jay, koolata. Editore a letter to the in the baton rouge advocate. Mr. Trump came to louisiana on friday to view the devastation. Our wonderful president was on a golf course. Headline that day was obama to visit disaster area in states while mr. Trump got a small secondary bylines. Tend to give cre credit to a doesnt care and doesnt have time for our issues. T whatever the reason, he came. Please be fair and give credit where cre credit is due. In someate playing out of the newspapers. President s role in a disaster and when should they go asking. Were rick from independence, good morning. I dont think they should go. Care if youre republican, democrat, independent or whatever. Theoure president of United States with the travel expenses and all of the chaos it and the caused. These people already have chaos. Senatorshat we elect and governors and local politicians for. This is why we have a National Guard. Last person i would want to see if i was in louisiana or any there any kind of devastation, it would be somebody bringing in thousands for security and Everything Else. Well take care of it. You me bounce this off technology we have. Im sorry . Let me bounce this off you. Postis from the washington story about what americans expect from president s during disasters. They write the main benefit of a president going to a disaster is to rally support and bring in donations at a time when Media Attention can be fleeting. A visit from the president shines light on the administration. He brings the national media, brings attention. Americans are great at responding to a tragedy if they know about that. Sense is it important to have the spotlight that the brings . T brings if no, he can get on a satellite around the world. He can go straight to a governors office. Even if hee went went to louisiana, he could go out of that area and do a staging area there. But he doesnt have to be down there. Who cares if the president comes . Dont. Because if my house or community is devastated, hes the last see. N i want to he can stand there in washington. He has the pen to write the to need fore going fema. We dont need chaos anymore. We already got chaos. Lets get back to basics, back to reality in this country. See theou want to do is president , then you need to move to Higher Ground. The president using his pen a week ago when it came to the disaster in louisiana, official louisiana disaster declaration on august 14. Heres a printout of the disaster declaration triggering the fema funding that would be for up to 20 perishes now that have been included in disaster declaration area. Dorothy on the line for democrats. Good morning. Caller yes, i was grateful were saying the president actually did what he was supposed to do. Exactly when he was supposed to. Moore, where we had an f5 tornado that came through. When it first happens, you the president there interrupting the emergency people taking care of your fire, your water, your gas, your traffic, your security. Everything thats needed. That is why he called the andrnor immediately released fema and the money immediately. Not go at that time to do the interruption. Dorothy. You, what did you make of donald trump going down to louisiana on friday . Caller if i had been there, i would have slapped his face him to get out of there. Because it was nothing but interruption. If he makes decisions like that, need to be president. He should have waited for an the governor, is that what youre saying . Caller he should have waited until he had clearance from the governor that everythings been taken care of, yes. Fred, line for republicans, from jessup, maryland. . Hat do you think caller good morning. First i was going to say its hear these courts when they give obama a pass. To hear. Ng me sick theyve made [ indiscernible ] for this man over and over. Zero accountability. The president is the leader of our country. Who needs to step up and organize things and get everybody fired up and get things going where they should go. This is another example of leading from behind. For the cheerleader media, everyone would be outraged. Laugh. To i just cant believe. Where are these bush factors at . Didnt give president bush a break. That man said things ahead of the and the democrat party, mayor and the governor at that time were democrats. Games. Were playing they never let a tragedy go to waste. Media, and just [ indiscernible ] he could do nothing wrong. Its just another example of leading from behind. Foxnews. Com makes somewhat the same point youre making. Of 2005,in september then senator obama attacked bushs handling of passive accusing him of indifference. Canceling his vacation and returning to washington after the hurricane hit. Resourcesoved all the of the federal government and was in constant communication and disaster officials visited within days. More than ten days after the with ata flooding began least 13 dead and thousands displaced. Mr. Obama did not issue a or otherwise interrupt his vacation. He made the trip on tuesday. Mr. Obamas 2005 description was an accurate presentation of bush. He was not going to allow the interfereflooding to with at least eight days of fundraiser and fund. Our nights out of town troy in eastern maryland, democrat. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning. I think that the word disaster relative term. I think that if president obam obama baton rouge, excuse me. I think he should have went to california and visited the fires more out there. Is whatthe bottom line happens i love that he comes to the disaster and boosts morale. Whats thee leaves, end game part . Are people getting what they need. So thats the bottom line for me. When you say disaster is a relative term then. Advisin advising the president advise him to go and not to go . I think thats a slippery slope. Disaster can be a fatality of five people as well can be a disaster for 5,000 people. Thats a hard call. Compared toan life another human life. Its all disaster, its all fatality. So when should you go, when shouldnt you go. Host thats the question asking. In maine. Dent, scott, good morning. Hello . Go ahead caller i was listening to amazesllers and it just me. Him to do,ple expect obama . They go down and wave a magic go away make the storm or it never happened . Ly overlooking,e i think, one of the main reasons be down there looking around, is why that storm happened. The climate on with to make Something Like that happen. That flood that should never flood. Hes not going to do anything. People are just overlooking one not gettinghats taken care of. Not getting talked about. Louisianas horrible for dumping crap in the water and the air anyways. Oil rigs and stuff. And thats just a completely theyre completely overlooking that. Host scott, partially to your point. Times editorialyork editorialse of their notes monday fema took steps to businesses, and local governments that want to build floodprone areas with federal money, they would have areas. O in higher up to 2 feet from the requirement of 1 foot. Places like hospitals and Nursing Homes would be built 3 elevation. Base up 2 feet. Talking about the changes fema is making as storms become more commonplace and flooding has become more commonplace. That inread more about the state new york times. Baltimore, maryland, independent. Go ahead, chris. Caller the president , i believe its on the part of the president to show up when the individualf the states request him. Thats on the ground have the best knowledge about whats going on. It just amazes me ow some of these how some of these republicanrepublicans who are ag government are one of the first ones to call the federal its time forn economic help. Host chris a president should only go when they get a from a governor . What if a governor and a a differente of Political Party and the governor doesnt necessarily want to be president. He do you think those factors might play into those sorts of decisions if its always up to governor . Caller i think if its a true disaster it shouldnt the Political Party, president or the governor to. Ngs i think that, you know, the fact disa disaster is a great equalizer. Bob in jacksonville, texas. A democrat. Good morning. Caller thanks. Appreciate you letting me speak. If a governor of a Different Party dont want him to come disaster,me to that then i think he should get on make that and statement that the governor dont want me down there or want me at his disaster. Let the people know. Theyll take care of the rest of it. But these republicans, they amaze me. Of them would gripe if you hung them with a new rope. Amazing. They have never wanted to do anythingor agree with which this president has came up done. R host so bob, talk about bush katrina and your thoughts about what president bush did itn it came to katrina and came to flying over katrina in wet famous picture that earlier of the president looking out of air force one at the city of new orleans. Caller i didnt think too much about him flying over because that could be i think that was not a bad decision. Showed up there with of saying you did a heck of a job. [ indiscernible ] doing a goodnt job. But oh, yeah he had his sleeves bigtime. Im going to tell you something. When you compare bush to obama, comparison. Obama is ten times the president bush was. Host all right. Thats bob in texas. Some history on president s natural disasters from the Washington Post. Other bus Bush Administration officials said president ial stopovers would have required assistance from the coast guard and rescue helicopters. Talking about the latest disaster in louisiana and whether president obama would go. The story notes american president s have for decades theed up at sites of biggest natural disasters. President nixon visited in the of hurricane chamile. Until recently, smaller natural typically had Vice President s and their staff. With the president , the Vice President brings a lighter smaller plane,. Otorcade Vice President biden for example, visited scranton and colorado when those areas were hit by flooding. The washingtonn post if you want to read more. Line foraples, independents. Go ahead. Caller good morning cspan. Wondering if the president shouldnt hold back until if sayoes show up, maybe he show up as commander in chief air cavalry type response. Vietnam. O it like in it was no trouble mustering 30 helicopters to get somewhere in hurry. Why doesnt he come in with the the the help, with the evacuation choppers. It makes an impression at the same time. Putting on overhauls. Host you think that would be and effective for the people on site . Know, i think a flood could be seen really well from the air. That may be the best way to view a flood for executive is to fly instead. Large area but if youre going to bother high and dryt that and set up motorcades, if youre going to spend some money, do good. Im saying come in with a response that means something, when the governor calls for you. Have to agree with most of these people that this is a show. Thing. Good cheerleading personally i dont think i would cancel my vacation for it. Communicate able to everything he needs to do some way besides getting someplace in person. Host walter back to that point from the Washington Post story. Spotlightnk the though can bring donations and help from around the country and keep the countrys attention on a site so a week after the people dont forget about it . Caller well, theres other the spotlight and that brings me back to trump. Trump would have shut up and stayed in the background for two his media would have had nothing else to talk about except the flood. Dont want to get political. My most important point i wanted to talk about was maybe the best response would be after his flyover or his fly over. Wherever brownie his brownie is. Maybe he should meet with the heads of the giant Insurance Companies and deal with the men in the suits and let the guys in overalls do their thing. People say on the ground, but ground at that point. Its water. Theres one more point. Im in south florida and were to floods. In fact theres a tropical thing maybe towards south florida in about five days that were keeping an eye on. Its not a storm or depression yet. But when you think about the amount of stuff that each one of us has in our garage or bas basement. Insecticides, pesticides, cleaning products. You look at that kind of devastation and then you talk about businesses that have 55gallon drums full of chemicals. And especially thats a petrochemical area. Youre in a floodprone place. Fast. This stuff happens but theres got to be a better storage place, because all this stuff ends up in the water. To mention every animal seeking Higher Ground that cant get there. A disaster, but i think the president should meet with Company Executives and start twisting arms right away and let them sit in front of a tube. They can sit in front of a tv like the rest of us. Host thoughts from naples, florida. Taking your call. I have a special line for Louisiana Residents if you want in. All 20274880003. And the role in disasters. What should they do when they get there. The other lines as usual. Well get back to your calls in just a second. Want to keep you up to date on some of the other stories going on around the world and where today. E president is Vice President biden yesterday reassured nato allies that the defend thems will from an attack despite misgivings about the north treaty from president ial nominee donald trump. Trump as ao president ial candidate in the other party biden told baltic meeting that at a trumps hesitation to defend nothing thats should be taken seriously, because i dont think he article fivehat is. Biden would be the highest ranking u. S. Official to meet with turkish leaders since the coupe attempt in july. News out of afghanistan u. S. Service member was killed in afghanistans helman province after a bomb was triggered. Tuesdays death marks the second death in afghanistan this year. Youone editorial to point towards, this from usa today about the Clinton Foundation. Editorial board of usa today saying its time to wind down the Clinton Foundation. They write yes the Clinton Foundation supports many good notably the fight against hiv and aids. The only way to eliminate the odor surrounding the foundation is to wind it down and put it in mothballs starting today. Argue, does they violental work vital work that should continue. Inaugurated in january, there will be no more vital work for her being president. Controversy over the Clinton Foundation will be a distraction cant afford. Several storie stories in todays about emails and donors to the Clinton Foundation and whether they had access to the state department when hillary was head of the state department. Major papers today. Back to your calls. Roleg your thoughts on the of the president in the time of disaster. When should they go to disaster areas. Timothy, palm bay, florida is next. Line for republicans. Good morning. Caller yes, i think he did the right thing by going down when he went at that time. He wouldnt do no good there the first day. No good to be there when it first happened. Devastation. He he knows whats going on so he can take care of it from the house now. And biggest thing is the people his job, to let him do you know . Im a republican. Job. Think hes doing his like everybody says, hes not beng what hes supposed to doing. Hes doing all right. Give him the rest of his time to do his job. What he should do is get down and make sureo the wayt money is spent its supposed to for the victims. Where these First Responders are trying to play like they were saw. Tated over what they well, you know, thats part of your job. If you signed on to be an officer, you seen something you youldnt have seen, well, suck it up and go on to another day. Makehats what he should sure that the money is put out to the people that need it. Not for Somebody Just to make extra money. Host are you talking about private donations to victims . Caller that one thats to act like hes all choked up because hes seen in there that choked him up, and hes trying to get a out of the money. Seen heads blown off and Everything Else. Up know, you just suck it and go on. And this guys trying to act one of the First Responders, and hes trying to act like hes he cant talk and he cant walk. And hes trying to get a payday. Host thats timothy in florida. Well keep to the discussion ofre having about the role president s in times of disaster. When should they go and what getld they do when they there. Comments on the discussion w. J. S happening on cspan on twitter. The president appearancet when his doesnt interfere with the rita fromffort. Baton rouge. Democrat from baton rouge. Rouge . Happening in baton right now in baton rouge were still going through recovery. People are cleaning up after disasterus flood. Flood. Strous i think the president s visit was very timely. I watched it on television yesterday. Got out to meet some of the people who had gone through this. He should come when the state officials are ready for him to come. Limited resources. Our Police Officers and first just had a tremendous task. Visithink the president s was very timely. Inrew up in a neighborhood baton rouge, for 65 years it never flooded. It flooded this time. Water got into our family home. My niece and her children were living there. To tread through water to get out of the neighborhood. For fear they could have dound. So yes drowned. So yes, the president came exactly when he was supposed to come. This city is just devastated. Tohost rita, did you have evacuate as well . I did not have to evacuate. A neighborhood where the ground was high, but i had several family members who were flooded out. Host rita, how do you think your state officials, whether its the governor or your representatives. How do you think theyve done in with this disaster . Caller i think theyve done the best they could. Were right on it. They had people coming in to volunteer. The state officials and the responders were there rescuing people. My sister had to be rescued in a twostory house. Host rita caller the fire people had them. E in and get host louisiana is a state that sees these natural lotsters more often than a of other states. Does politics matter at times of disaster . Republican, democratic matter . When these responses are happening . Caller i dont think it matter, but sometimes i think it does. It shouldnt matter in a disaster. Everyone should Work Together to try to get on top of this. Appreciate when donald trump came on friday . Caller well, anyone whos coming down to lend assistance is fine. I saw his visit. Handing out, you know, help to people. So i dont have any problem with coming down helping us now. Host thanks for the call rouge, louisiana, rita. Swedey is in georgia, a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Much for taking my call. And its great to have cspan theuse to listen to all people that are responding, regardless of whatever your political preference is, to just hear americans say that they important. Y as far as the president s, theyre always the commander in country. The but each president that takes im just so concerned in the past, in the middle, and now, and the president , that you. Espond accordingly well, president barack obama only has about five months left in office. Is still trying his best to get where he is needed. Of a president b is for National Security of the of america. S i think hes done an excellent speakingtwo terms, and of his visit that im watching thev now, hes giving us key elements. Fema he said is now in place. Telling you the money fema has spent. Hes giving you numbers to call personal donor want to give something else. Hes giving you all of the need. Ation that you host i guess the question that some of the criticism comes from is whether it looked bad that he was still on vacation and that he was golfing last happening. S was sentineln in the sun writes when disaster strikes a right to have the president make his presence felt. If obama had been on business somewhere else, but the fact he was on vacation and playing golf with celebrities had to gall from louisiana and elsewhere. Caller since this is their disaster, has to understand one thing. As the president of the United States of america, and this is my personal opinion, you have a staff. You have a staff of people. Writing avernor statement saying it isnt time for you to come, you have to that. T i always think of governors as the president of their state. You are listening to that. Youre watching it on the news. Came at the right time. He came when it was more towards disaster. I have never been in a flood. Ive only seen the floods. Lived on long island. And i was so happy with long preventive all the measures that they did with keeping the walls on the beaches built up so that the flooding wouldnt happen. Thatmaybe i was just lucky i was never in a flood. But i think hes timely. Had to he did what he do. And i always respect the team of chief. Mander in host lets hear from a resident of louisiana. In slidell, louisiana. An independent. Morning. Caller good morning. I think the president s timing was fine, coming during a disaster immediately following where firsttoo soon responders are actually really busy. When bush finally did come, he didnt have the support visit on the ground. He just flew over. I do think that the president s first to dedicate toward mitigation of potential and doing management and looking ahead saying we have z. Be ready for x, y, and and you have to prepare what we prepare and dont prepare for. Whens what were choosing we choose a president. Host how far is slidelle from baton rouge . Caller about 40 minute drive east. There . for you affected caller not severely. But slidelle it was getting wet. Closed. I think a part of town had some damage. Live on the far east side of slidelle and it wasnt bad here. Little disruptive. But just a few days. Waterton rouge has the continue to rise. We didnt have that happen. By the mississippi as well. Small tributary spots in northern louisiana. Hear from one of your neighbors also from slidelle, louisiana. Floyd from independence. What was your experience . Caller i dont think the president needed to come down. Katrina, and i dont think the president needs to come down. Fema and the city to underlings to handle all the disaster crisis. Affectedand were you much . Did you have the same experience as the last caller . Caller by the new flood . Host yes. Caller no, not at all. Storm on my radar, 99 of it stayed over area. Fayette and we usually had good weather here for that storm. Host lory is in highland, indiana, an independent. Ahead. Caller hi. Good morning and thank you for taking my call. Downnk the president went there in a timely manner. I think that avenue president should show every president should show up if theres natural disasters. I also know the head of fema should show up. And if the people down there going to get everything paid for, theyre not. Fema. I flooded. No president showed up. A penny, butid me i got to keep paying fema. Fema ands because Homeland Security are both in one group. Host whats the bar for you should show up once the event goes above that bar. Well, the south has been slammed repeatedly over and over katrina. They have been slammed. I dont know how weather can go one direction. I wasnt slammed by weather. Outside source. But fema should still have covered it. They didnt. Now my house is ruined. 115,000 into. Them,still have to pay and theyve raised the rates every year because of Homeland Security being in with fema. Lory what are you going to do . To are you going to have to move . Caller eventually. Handicapped. So that even makes it more fun, doesnt it . This was supposed to be the house i retired in, that i knew. Would be eventually disabled so it really hurts. Badly. Years. Lived here 60 i lived here 30. Its never naturally flooded in years. Host is it something youve talked to your member of congress about or reached out to a federal official about, how to get help with this . Gone and its too far got with now, by the time i to go to court, i was laying in bed, severely disabled. So everything i had prepared for my house is ruined. Host thanks for sharing your story with us today. Good luck to you. Cookville,n tennessee. Line for republicans. Been waiting a while. Go ahead. Caller yes, i think the tw idents role should be twofold. First off, hes our president. Hes our commander in chief. To naturalo disasters, if nothing else, then people. Morale of the because hes supposed to be for the people by the people. Thats his first obligation. His second obligation should then be to get his staff involved from the Vice President with whateverping needs help, whether to be the National Guard whether it be the National Guard, whether it be resources or whatever. That that state or that area needs to help. Thats what i think. Likesonally dont president obama, but i think that him being there as chief is what he should have done. Host robert is our last first segment of the washington journal. Up next, the justic justice dept announced they will end contracts with private prisons. Be joining the american discussbertieamericancivil libo how private prisons operate. Decision of intellectual property with the u. S. Patent and Trademark Office. Talking about patents, trademarks and inventors, coming up later today on the washington journal. Throughout this month were showing book tv programs during the week in prime time. Tv on cspan 2 takes our Public Affairs programming and the latest Nonfiction Book releases through author discussions. D book a live three hour look at one s work with questions from viewers. The first sunday of the month at noon eastern. Onerwards a one on conversation between the author of a newly interviewed book and maker orpolicy legislator familiar with the t topic. Well take you across the country visiting book festivals, author events and book parties where authors talk about their works. Book tv is the only National Network devoted to Nonfiction Books. Television for serious readers. Washington journal continues. With the american civil libertieamericancivil libr National Prison project here to discuss recent Justice Justice Department Decision to end the use of privately operated prisons. How many privately operated prisons are there in the united prisoners dow many they house . Well, theyre about nearly held in private prisons around the country and about 22,000 of those are in the federal prisons that are affected by this decision. So how did the federal get into the private prison business . Whats the history here . In the mid 19 90s, as the federal prison population was exploding. It came from a combination of and thisercrowding belief that if the federal government turned to the private able tohat theyd be somehow innovate and save money. Thursday,his decision the federal government has made a very clear statement that this is over and it was a failure. Why did they think it was a . Ailure they found the private prisons were not able to assure security asety and regular federal prisons. That they werent able to services,dical Rehabilitative Services in the same way as regular federal prisons. Example, the private prisons experience nine times as many lockdowns and more violence than regular comparable federal prison. Its been a multiyear project. Published aaclu report warehouse and forgotten, about these federal private prisons. Of four the result years of research and interviews. And we found that the conditions these federal private theyns were horrible and were failing to provide oversight. Want to hear your thoughts and questions about this announcement that came out last thursday. Our guest is with the aclu. Can call in. An so the justic justice departmens to end the use of private prisons. What about the states . Noted earlier, theres a lot of people that are in private prisons that arent prisoners. Thats right. This doesnt directly affect the states but i think it will put a on stateessure agencies to follow suit and end their own contracts with private prisons. When the justic justice departmt looks at these contracts and private Prison Companies are failing to meet our standards, its going to be for state agencies or the immigration agencies to say we have contracts with the same companies, but we think theyre doing great. Talk about the involvement with private prisons, because this doesnt fall under what the justicJustice Department annound last week. Isis, a separate cabinet level agency. By thet affected department of justices decision. Reliant onavily private Prison Companies. Detentionir 34,000 beds, 62 are run by private companies. How many of those centers are verses the Justice Justice department ones. Are they housed in the same complexes or are they different complexes . Complexesre different so it works out to being a similar number. Bureaubeds for the prisons and about 24,000 beds that are run by private Prison Companies for ice. But the ice contracts are lucrative. Y more for example, 14 of the Corrections Corporation of americas revenue comes from a single ice contract to detain seeking that are asylum. You mention the Corrections Corporation of america. The responded to announcement last week. Their spokesman Jonathan Burns was quoted in the Washington Post. He said the reports author about the reports looking into the practices and the effectiveness of private prisons really admit they were unable to evaluate all the to the that contributed underlying data. For failed to account population demographics and the scope and efficacy of efforts to mitigate contraband. They seemed to be implying that the stats are wrong here, that youre talking about about the effectiveness of the prison system. Saying essentially with an unfair comparison. When you think about it, they were handed low custody prisoners. These should be a very easy population for them to deal with. Theact, going back to history in the 19 90s during the first stage of this the federal government sent maximum security prisoners to private prisons, unmitigatedn disaster. There were escapes, incredibly high levels of violence. Said wellthe bureau give them the easy prisoners. And thats what they still do . What qualifies you to go to a federally run a prison . Majority of people sent to private prisons are nonu. S. Citizens. Population mix where overwhelmingly its people of nonviolent offenses. Drug offenses or the refelony of the unite United States after being deported. Were talking about the governments announcement, the justicJustice Departments announcement last week to end the use of private prisons. The special line for those who have special experience with there. Prisons is otherwise lines for republicans, democrats and independents as usual. Is a democrat from jupiter, florida. Good morning. Youre up first. Caller oh, yes. Takeems like they advantage of the prisoners as well. Prisoners the ive heard things about where they make them work and give salary to make money for them. Prisoners are not theyre not host are you saying theyre differently at private prisons than at federal prisons . Caller yes. Yes. Wayi dont believe the theyre treated and everything, yes, completely different and be the way they would treated in the federal prison. You. St got is that true . There are labor programs in both private and regular federal prisons. But in a regular federal prison, you cane programs where get jobs that are extremely lowpaying. Industry. D prison its where you may be get something useful job skills for , but those dont exist in federal private prisons. Instead the sorts of inprison you can get are things like swabbing the toilets. Lets go to michael in maryland. An independent. Good morning. Caller hey, good morning gentlemen. Thank you for having me. Great discussion. I just wanted to comment quickly of all i would say that i absolutely support ending prisons. With private i think that the privatization imprisoning like our citizens is deplorable. Just dont agree with it. I also wanted to say that a book iat really changed the way viewed this issue was our obsolete by angela davis. She talks a lot about the of individuals in our society and how that can have a devastating impact at that time. Have to say. Thank you very much. Host yeah. Point. Se an excellent one of the reasons why were in with relying on private prisons for incarceration in the first place th were in an era of massd incarceration. From 972010 the number of people incarcerated in the United States grew by more than 700 . This is a state of affairs that needs to change. Showing the location of used by theons federal government. You can see the states where those prisons exist. Soon after this announcement until all of these locations are shut down . The justic Justice Department anticipates that its going to fiveyear process. Though it actually starts quite soon. Theyve already amended one open solicitation. It was going to be nearly 11,000 beds in texas, and now thats cut down to 3400 beds. We have a special line for those who have experience with private prisons. On that line in east point, michigan. Good morning. Caller hello. Host go ahead, john. Turn your tv down and just go question. Your caller yes what im talking about is this mat does this maximum orts minimum security . Doesnt matter . Well, all of the federal private prisons that are affected by this decision are already low custody prisons. Reasons that i described. Theyre not the maximum security folks. Right. The privatet prisons that are used by state governments and by immigration and Customs Enforcement . For state governments, it gamut. E and there are many states contract with private prisons companies to hold maximum custody prisoners. Of ace, its sort different ball game because thats civil detention. Its not supposed to be punishment. Theyre just Holding People while theyre going through ings. Ration court proceed [captioner transition] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] is an architect and invoke the prison and the people were more concerned and more happy with the fact that they were going to get additional revenue into the area than they were with the concern that there could be potential felons in their county. [video clip] it brings up the point of the ending of these private prisons, what will that do economically to the communities these private prisons operate in . Im assuming there it i assume there is jobs that go with that. Guest yes, it will be a struggle for those communities. There is a town in texas, raymondville, that is struggling with that after a prison closed down in the wake of a variety of about conditions. In the wake of a variety of bad conditions. They have invested in mass incarceration and their eggs in one basket. Differentve made a decision 10 years ago and chosen to diversify their economy, i think it would be less difficult. Host eric is in middletown, new york, independent. Caller good morning, im wondering it is good to see that pressure applied it was able to get the federal government divest out of these private prisons. I agree with you and i hope that it is right that the states will. Egin to develop pressure im wondering what the aclu interest might be in other private for profit areas that are collaborating with the criminal Justice System such as the services for things like forensic drug testing. Had to go to new York State Court of appeals to create a new law to have the right to go to court on the question of a false positive test that was used to prosecute me. Its a private contractor that there are cost pressures that are inversely proportionate to the drug testing that is reported. Courts, probation officers and other lawenforcement take these people at face value and trust in their credentials and the contract they signed another agreements they have made like the new York State Department of health and asked them to do this long and testing. And get all of that failed and i had to spend 7. 5 years going three through the appellate structure in new york an. They should look at other for profit areas that need to be separated from our taxpayers several public systems on things like incarceration and supervision. Guest we already are and am guessing those drug tests you had to do for them. This is a troubling aspect of the way the criminal Justice System is operated especially since the recession. The courts and local officials have decided that theyre going to try to fund the criminal Justice System on the back of the people who are entangled in it for overwhelmingly good if you think about it, it is hard enough for somebody to get back on their feet after being released from present when they have a felony record and are trying to get a job. On top of that, people of thousands of dollars to the criminal Justice System. In many cases, modern debtors presence been up where they end up getting a lot in prison or jail purely because they have not paid off these debts. Up thate caller brought he was glad that the pressure cuff in this effort get where did the pressure come from . Obviously, the aclu had a hand in this but was driving the political pressure on capitol hill . Guest for the private prisons, this is something i think came from a couple of sources. The aclu and other advocates along with journalists have been spending a great deal of effort to expose the abuses inside these private prisons. There is also the department of justice Inspector General which has been doing dogged work over the last couple of years examining the private prison contracts and the bureau of prisons monitoring. On top of that, its happening in the context of an overall overhaul of the federal prison system. Peakederal prison system at 20,000 people and now its less than 195,000. That gives someone room to cancel these contracts. Host anderson, nevada come on the line for republicans, go ahead. Caller i think what they should do is put these people on work programs. I dont think they should sit there on their tops duufs while we pay the bill. They should be paid an hourly wage like everyone else and it to pay for their bill. Host what do you think of that proposal . Guest Job Opportunities inside that aree something surprisingly rare, particularly in these private prisons. The prison industry programs are not available. Somenk there are also serious issues of coercion and exploitation. If you are working a job inside is able and your boss to throw you in solitary confinement if you call in sick for work one day, that means its a pretty coercive labor environment. Host from twitter in terms of straight cost, private prisons cost less than federally run prisons . Guest the cost evidence is mixed. The Inspector General in its most recent report found that they could not do a month a lot cost analysis. They normally get a monthly bill. Host the Corrections Corporation of america denies that it lobbies lobbies specifically on prison legislation but they spend millions of dollars on lobbying in the federal and state governments. You have to ask, what exactly are they lobbying for . This lobbying would not make sense unless they are doing something that is going to increase their business. Form ofthat takes the what they describe as educating lawmakers or it takes the form of aggressively lobbying for a particular contract, all of that will expand their business. Host we have a line for those who have experienced private prisons and fredericksburg, virginia is calling in on that line. Caller good morning. Host talk about your experience. Its a jail here and fredericksburg. My issue with the previous caller said something about there should be more jobs. I dont think thats the issue at all. Essentially, its slave labor. Like you said, the wages are extremely low. There is nothing beneficial to that situation. Thats a drop in the bucket. Ultimately, i think the issue is you have private companies that are making a profitable to criminalize people. You have officers going into communities and looking for crimeware does not exist and its profitable to do that. Host you said this facility was in virginia. Private no federal prison in virginia. Was this Estate Private facility . Caller yes, its a jail that was private. Im sure there is also private prisons there is well. Guest you raise a good point when you talk about the wages being extremely low in your working inside one of these prisons or jails. Those low wages help subsidize the operations of the private Prison Company and allow them to return more money to their shareholders through that exploitation. Host alabama, the line for democrats. Caller good morning. I do occasional court andrpretation in alabama the lady wants to remain anonymous says she was sexually abused in a texas private prison. She said some pretty bad things happened down there with separation of families. I dont know how widespread this is but a few years ago but maybe its cleaned up a little bit but its pretty terrible some of the things that have been happening simply because they have no voice. Hospitals and the the courts here interpreting. I see a lot of people with a lot of different problems. Whats happening in some of these federal prisons should not be done in the United States. That and you speak to why the Inspector General found that this was something that was worse in private prisons than federally run prisons . Thet it comes down to combination of the profit motive and the lack of accountability and transparency. When you talk about a prison that is run by Government Employees, they are subject to the freedom of information act, there are no questions about whether or not they can be held liable for their actions when they violate the constitution. It gets much more complicated once you start ending conflict that prison and turn it to a profit contractor who is not a Government Employee and not subject to the freedom of has theion act and who profit motive. This is an important point because if you are paying 70 day, if it is a government run prison come all that money goes to actually running the prison. If it is a private prison, the company has to skim off of certain amount of that to provide dividends to their shareholders and pay their executives. Is that 70 prisoner per day, the average price . Guest that is the average number for the federal prison. Host cleveland, georgia, independent. Caller good morning, boss. Give me half a minute. When they shipped out 50,000 factories out of here, they millions and millions and millions of good folks out of work. A person out of work is not paying taxes. If you cannot off the street and stick them in a prison, its worth about 50,000 per year. They are financially monetizing our children and our families aggrandizingses of their their incomes in these states. If you look at the states, they are in welfare states. If it wasnt for the Nuclear Industry and the prisons, they have mishandled their funding so badly that they cannot survive without a free handout from the government. Of whole kit and caboodle them, lock, stock, barrel, private and otherwise, is an absolute deadend street. About giving you a lawyer or something but 90 of the people in their have pled guilty because they know they dont have a chance at any justice. If you have a Million Dollars or 10 million, you can shoot somebody and do whatever you awayand walk stone cold from it. This is nothing but the exploitation of the poor folks in this country have nowhere to go and nothing to do. He brings up several different points. One of the prince there that he is raising debt of the points of their that he is raising prisons build themselves bill themselves as a form of economic development. In addition to being morally reprehensible to profit from locking people up, the idea that throwing people in prison for long because of time is a jobs program is just insane. Society would be better off if that money and instead of putting people to work in private prisons, paid them to dig ditches and fill them back up again. Host we have a line for people have expressed private prisons and we go to texas, tell us about your experience. Workingi happened to be tdc when the private system took over. At the time, i was working as a nurse. When they took over, i decided to go into security and was a prison guard. I was a nurse for five years and a prison guard for eight years. I was working for tdc. Caller is that the Texas Department of corrections . Caller yes, in the citizens division. The inmates that i experienced , proper care in the medical part when the private prison situation came over. True that they took the more nonviolent prisoners and sent them to the private prisons there. Host why did they get less care . What was different about the private prison . They were trustee inmates instead of more that would be a medium or maximum. Caller host did they not need as much care . They were well behaved inmates. They were less likely to get into riots and stuff like that. Was it a good thing to inmates the lower level to go to the private prisons . Do you think that was the right move to make . I do not mainly because when they took those inmates out, all they did was fill the presence up more with to be incarcerated. It was like they would just move the good ones out so they could put more in. Host did it make your job more dangerous . Caller it was much more dangerous. When that happened, it sure did. Were in the medical part of it. Being given the care they were given when tdc actually had it. I dont know why it affected that but the inmates were just not taken care of like they were before. The private prison system took over. Host thank you for talking about your experience. Guest you raise a really good point about the cherry picking of prisoners by the private Prison Companies. In their contracts, they have clauses that allow them to reject prisoners who have complicated or expensive medical conditions or for difficult to manage in other ways. Moneyelps them spend less on the people they have because they are selecting they have in their custody and sending the people who are more difficult to deal with off to the public prisons. Host why would the federal government make that deal with private prisons . Guest i think you would probably have to ask Government Contracting fouts folks. There was an examination in the california prisons. It leads to these significant demographic differences. Whoof the younger prisoners have fewer Health Conditions and are easier to manage and up in the private prisons and the caring forence and a the people were much older and who have chronic diseases. They end up having to pay to treat those conditions and the private prisons dont. On the lineo texas for those who have dealt with private prisons, good morning. Caller good morning. We have an event on september 5 called the labor day event. In texas, they came up with a new device with a lease out the prisoners on article 13. Called the conflict lees system for private institutions. We are still leasing them out the same way. Thats slavery by another name. Thate letting you know its still here and they are closing down prisons as we speak the leasen pull up privateone of the cemeteries was there under the private institution when they were leasing out prisoners through the authorization of the state. They need restitution. Host how did you get involved in that . I got involved because i was a correctional officer and i worked in the prison system in 19851988. That was when the crack epidemic in and we had a flood of prisoners. Thats when they started exploiting the individuals and whereby theyrocess would put you into the private sector and the head the incarceration boom. They started becoming a back ony and selling the Dow Jones Stock market like they did when they were slaves on the slave market. They were traded as a commodity. Host are you still in corrections . Guest no, sir, im an activist now and a retired longshoremen. Ander i am an historian activist and i am are cutting this and trying to get an apology from the state along with some type of restitution so be accountable for the privately spira. Bringing in you for the historical context. The convict lease system sprang up after the civil war in the confederacy. Is the historical ancestor to the modern private is an industry. Would round up newly freed black men who are looking for work, convict them offensescy or other and then hand them over to private companies who would, in exchange for being able to basically reenslave them and get free labor out of them, pay for the housing and security and essentially running a prison labor camp on behalf of the state. Sarah from boynton beach, florida, good morning. First off,d morning, i have a question about the sighting of private prisons. I have learned a number of prisons are in areas where there is actually toxic substances that prisoners are exposed to do to their incarceration. I recently read an article of a county prison that was being at an old nuclear site in nebraska. I have also come to learn that there is a project called the bend of the bars which is being formed as a grassroots struggle from within the prisons to draw attention to the conditions they face. 1993 in ohio on september 9 that they actually shut down the correctional facility there. It was called lucasfilms. I dont know if you have any understand it was called ville. I dont know if you have any information about that. The issue of prisons that haveted on sites contamination is a pretty serious issue. They tend to be put in places where the real estate is really cheap on one of the types of sites like that are toxic sites. One of the private prisons that is covered by the doj decision is horribly misnamed. In texas and an number of years ago, the epa found the water was unfit to drink because of radium contamination. Wassolution of the company to sell Water Bottles to the prisoners for . 80 apiece. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] guesthost one more response frm those who worked in the prison system. After the announcement last week, there was a letter to the editor in the Washington Post. What do you see his chances for a reversal . Guest i think this process has already been set in motion. Solicitation in texas is only changed. Its conceivable that the next president could rescind this decision. Nextally, all the president needs to do is to say keep going and maintain the course now that the decision has been made. Host you are optimistic that they will . Guest as long as the next president says so. Host has there been any response to next residential candidates . Hast Hillary Clinton praised the decision but donald trump has not said anything. Host a republican, good morning. Interesting when i turned on cspan this morning seeking to they are end the private prison industry. From the getgo, i believed it was a bad thing. When you privatize anything, as we all know, you lose state action. There is less accountability and the prisons are getting away with this abuse and exploitation because there is no state action, really. Normally, prisons originally were eight additional function of the state. Something,ivatize you will have all these abuses because there is no accountability, no state action. I want you to comment on that. Ways there are still through the private Prison Companies but they become mentors menace the more complicated because of the issue of it no longer being in the hands of the federal Government Employees. Act,reedom of information in addition that records that are in the position of the private Prison Company are not subject to the freedom of information act and they have the ability to reach in. If the aclu requested contracts and monitoring documents that are in the federal governments custody, the private Prison Company can say that we want these documents redacted or withheld because they disclose or disclosure of this information would lead to competitive harm. Host trade secrets is coming up in our next segment. We will stick with this for a few more calls. We have more folks calling in on the line who have experience with private prisons. Sally is in savannah, georgia, good morning. Good morning. New jersey has been doing this private prison thing since 1983. That wasan institution called Southern State and it was run by rca. When you were in these settings, i did time in the department of corrections run by the state and the private prison. When you privatize institutions, it seems as if you suffer a ,ittle bit more with the abuse exploitation, and the warehousing of a person. Timeame in and had your and you said i am not doing anything and not working. They would give you 1. 50 per day to clean herself which is called cell maintenance. If you are a paralegal like me, you got three Dollars Per Day and you had to represent the ticketss when they got within the institution like when the got in a fight. You go in front of them and represent this individual for whatever infraction they did within the institution and the punishment might be 10 days lockup or suspended if they dont get in more trouble. Host why do you think the treatment was worse at these private facilities than staterun facilities . Its because of the cost. Ke the medication in some cases, they want you to pay for the medication out of your state pay. You get a couple of tylenols and you might be fined five dollars or 10 from your account. The officers seem like they are more abusive, as far as i was concerned. Thehave the penal code with state system and if anything happens, its like the constitution. The officer has to answer for it. Host we want to get a response and it brings up the question, do each of these prisons have different rules and different up withons . He brings prisoners can be charged for and what can come out of their account. Is that a prison by prison basis . Actually one of the things we found in our 2014 report. The bureau of prisons has hundreds of policies called Program Statements that apply to federal prisons. They are incredibly detailed. Only about 40 of those applied to the private prisons that the bureau contracts with. For the rest, they have to meet some standards but they are written at a higher level of generality. They give the prison a lot of freedom to engage in various costcutting measures and that ends up harming the people who are held inside. The costcutting pressure is one of the biggest ways that this has impact which is on the staff. Staffing levels are lower generally and its very common private prisons for the staff to be less experience because there is such high turnover. Host lets get another caller who has experience in privately run prisons. Buffalo, new york, go ahead. Caller i wanted to say i was in youngstown,a ohio which was a private prison. Like a threeman cell were one bed would come down and there wasto walk around. The toilets had a timer on them where if you flushed it back to back, you cannot flush it for another half an hour and there will be days we would be locked in for 24 hours because of an incident. That different from how you were treated at a federally run prison . Did you have an experience to compare . Caller yeah, the federally run prisons are much cleaner and more organized and much safer. If theres an incident inside a private prison, the private prison does not have the authority to take away any of your good time. Incentive for people to stay out of trouble so there are a lot of fights that go on in the private prisons. Its much more dangerous and the places like a nightmare for health care and the space inside yourself. Its like being caged like an animal. Exactlyis experience is what the folks that we interviewed for the 2014 report communicated to us. They felt caged up like an animal. It is also echoed by the Inspector General findings. What he described, being locked in a cell the entire day with two other people in this incredibly cramped space because of an incident happening, thats a locked down that happens nine times more often in the private prisons then federal prisons. Is on thatlestakei National Prison project. Thank you for spending time on washington journal. Up next, a discussion on applying for and receiving federal patents and trademarks. U. S. That inth the Trademark Office and later, the World Magazine will join us to look at whether secretary of state Hillary Clinton steered away from the fight with bo boko haram because of past and nations to the Clinton Foundation. Sunday night it was an average of one racial lynching per week in the south. It was a brilliant psychological evice to hold down a race if you are black, you are afraid this would happen to you. This author talks about his literary career including his latest book. Its about the trial following the 1981 killing of a 19yearold by the kkk in mobile, alabama. He was a teenager and is trained to become a bricklayer and is the youngest of seven children and he is home with his mother in their house and his aunt asked him to get a pack of cigarettes and gives them a dollar. He goes out and an old buick pulls up behind him. A man pulls out his pistol and orders them into the backseat of the car. He knows when he gets in the car what will happen. A black men in alabama, you know. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern. American history tv airs on cspan3 every weekend telling the american story through events, interviews, and visits to historical locations. This month, we introduce you to programs you could see every weekend. In features include lectures history, visits to College Classrooms across the country, your lectures by top history professors, american artifacts takes a look at the treasures u. S. Historic sites and museums and archives have. Railamerica reveals the 20th century through archival films and newsreels. The civil war were you hear about shaped the war and reconstruction of the presence he on u. S. President and first ladies. In prime time and every weekend on American History tv on cspan3. Washington journal continues. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] we have the deputy undersecretary at the u. S. Patent and Trademark Office to look at what the office does and take your questions about trademarks and patents and inventions. We will talk with him for the next 45 minutes in this segment. We will also have a special line for inventors and patent holders if you want to call in with your questions. Give us a sense of the size of u. S. Pto, its staffing and budget guest . Let me take you back a couple of years to 1790. Patents when the first act was passed and it was signed by george washington. From there, in 1790, the first patent was issued on an ingredient to make fertilizer. 1800s, the first Patent Office was formed. One of the first patent examiners was thomas jefferson. Until now, the patent and Trademark Office has basically been located in and around washington, d. C. The americano, inventors act was passed and we got the authorization to open Regional Offices around the country. To answer your question, we have under 13,000 people, the majority of them are in alexandria, virginia. In 2005 in 2005 and the number of people have located in the Regional Offices are about 150 in each of the four offices. Theres an office in each time zone, wanted to become a michigan, denver, colorado, dallas, texas, and san jose, california. Host you deal with patents and trademarks and trade sequence but lets focus on patents. If you are awarded a patent, what kind of protection to you get . Guest if we go back to the constitution, article one, section 8 host we have it here thet Congress Issues rights to a limited time for discoveries and inventions. That means the right of a patent is an exclusive right, the right of the inventor to exclude others from practicing their invention or a limited for a limited time. Right now, that limited time is 20 years from when you file an application and goes forward for 20 years. That gives the right holder, the inventor or whoever of the patent, the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing into the United States of that invention covered by that patent. Host and there are different kinds of patents . Guest there are, what most people think about our utility patents. It covers an item of utility. Lets think of something as simple as a chair. It has a function. We also have patents that cover designs. A design patent is intended to cover the ornamental look of a product. Think about industrial designers. We have patents that cover a sexually reproduced plants, like thatonation or an orchid somebody creates themselves that is not found in nature. Of there the basics protection you can get with a patent. Is a chart to show our viewers on patent filings about how many patents are granted each year . 1790 and wearted in have issued over 9 million patents since then. We have over 5 million trademarks as well. You can go to our website and get some of that explore andople can see this historical data. It can tell you on the dashboard how many applications are filed. The rough number is 500,000 per year. Line forhave a special inventors and patent holders and want to hear from you. You can start calling him now as we go through the process of getting a patent and were focusing on patents. How long does it take to get a patent . Guest it depends on the type of technology you are filing a patent on. In general, it takes 26 months from filing to issuance and thats an average number. Under this down administration. In 2008, we had approximately 750,000 Patent Applications that were waiting to be examined. Today, we are down to 550,000 so we have made a significant reduction. As i said come on average, it takes 26 months. Host what does an examiner do . Guest of the 13,000 people we have at the Patent Office come about 9000 are patent examiners. Its a difficult job of submitted for is a Patent Application. All of our examiners have scientific and engineering, technical degrees and many of them have phds and many of them have law degrees. Host do they hold patents themselves . Guest some of the do, certainly. Over the last several years can we hired several thousand examiners. We look for individuals that have experience in intellectual property like inventors in industry, working in the inventive community and that helps in their job. Their job really is to study the invention submitted by the applicant and look at all of the prior art. I think about all of the inventions, publications and print of material that have come before the invention to see whether the application meets the standards set forth in title 35 that covers what a patent the patent laws. There is new and useful and nonobvious and i make the determination whether the Patent Application meets that and is entitled to a patent. That is usually a giveandtake between the office and the inventor or their representative to establish what the boundaries are of the patent that we would issue. Host do you hold a patent . I do, wireless gaming technology. Before that, i was an electrical engineer for honeywell. We will be talking about this for the next 45 minutes. We have a special line for inventors and patent holders. Deborah is in elizabethtown, pennsylvania, and inventor. Caller i want to be an inventor. I am older and i dont know how to draw diagrams but i know how to make my invention in a model situation. Houses fromp burning during a forest fire. How you getow going, how do you go to get a patent . How much does it cost . Guest great question. One reason i joined the office a few years ago is opened a Regional Office in denver, colorado and before that, i was in private industry. I joined to help create that and i have the opportunity to go out in the community and the independent inventors and provide some of these resources. The first place to start is to do your homework. Uspto. Gov where we have a lot of information for independent inventors. We tell you how to file and we have resources for independent toentors such as yourself reach out and find pro bono assistance. That happens around the country. We have law School Assistance programs around the country where law schools work under the supervision of an attorney to help independent inventors. That is the first place to start is to do homework and research before you engage a patent attorney or determine you have to have a patent. Host for the patent you hold, how did you start . Guest thats an unfair question because i was an engineer and i had already become a patent lawyer before i filed for that Patent Application. The first thing that anybody whether they are independent or they are tenures over 100 years old should ask themselves, do i need a patent . What will i use the patent for . Will it be the seed for creating a new business . Will a license it . Why manufacture it . Doing it the patent to go into production . Doing it as an asset to go to a bank to get a loan to start the business . Asset. Its not inexpensive but the patent and Trademark Office has fees. If you are a large entity come you pay the full fee and if less thanmall entity, 300 and her company, you pay half of that again if you are on microentity. Sohave reduced it independent inventors have a better way of accessing the system. Host your wireless gaming technology, is that in production . Guest it is not, i sold the patent years ago to a company that isnt the auction. Way is to sell it. Many people think i will get a patent and then the world will come to me and thats not necessarily always the case. You can sell or license that patent to somebody already manufacturing. There is more to a successful business than just having a. Atent its your ability to market and compete and celso having the patent allows different opportunities in the business plan. Host we have an inventor in california, you are on. Caller good morning. I am an engineer from Silicon Valley and i have spent most of my career here. Commentping you could on Software Patents and the categories around intellectual property that can be patented whether it be the data model or the implementation across the cloud and that kind of deal. You can break that down so the rest of us can understand guest when i talk about utility patents, it covers the construction and it covers the new use of a new invention. What our callers talking about are the different types of technology and whether it can or cannot be patented. We talked briefly about different types of engine of intellectual property where youve got copyrights which comes in the constitution in the same clause. You have trademarked to cover marks in commerce the differentiate one product from one company from another. You also have trade secrets where you retain that knowledge and do not disclose it to the public. Its secrecy like the recipe for coke and then you have patents. Within the umbrella of a patent you protect software and you protect the method in which your machine operates work and protect the method in which a computer does a certain thing. Flux. N area that is in the Supreme Court has taken a subjectntly on what matter is you can patent in software and biotech. The office follows the laws as they are written by congress and interpreted by the courts. An area of the caller recognizes is difficult. The court recently ruled two years ago in a decision called alice, it gave us more direction on what is patentable as far as computer technology. You go back before general Purpose Computers and you want to the machine to do something, you built a special machine to do it. One of the beauties of modern technology and the development is those machines are more flexible now and you can take a computer and do a lot with it. The course of and struggling if that is a the courts have been struggling if that is a new use. When you talk about enforcement, are the courts the main enforcement mechanism . Does uspto have an enforcement arm . Guest we do not. We grant patents and we have an appeal board that was created in which you can challenge the validity of a patent that was issued by our agency. We dont have enforcement rights. I patent is the right to exclude so if you think about it like aal property, youve got beachfront property, you know the borders of your property and you have a deed that tells you where the boundaries are and you can survey the land fill. The patent is a written document that tells what your rights are to the public. If someone trespasses on your lan, you need to have an authority remove them. If they dont willingly either licensure patent or stop infringing, you have to go to a District Court and seek relief from them. We have the under secretary of the u. S. Patent and trade office. Caretaker calls and questions, special line for inventors and patent holders. Rochester, new york is up next. Good morning. Good morning. Have a couple of comments thank you for the program. I am a retired engineer. I have 21 patents. Im now doing research for people who are looking to get patents. How they can. E it has been income in my retired years. A lot of people come to me with ideas. When i look at them, i realize technology has plowed ahead of them and they think theyve got something but they dont really. I cannot advise them officially but often times, i feel compelled to tell them that i think you might as well look up something else. Nevertheless, i move ahead. In many cases, on the qt, i tell them if youve got something, why dont you find somebody who wants to make it and work with them to develop it. Some people have actually done and done quite well. At thesed air them patent process and go directly to manufacturing . Caller unless its a truly ,cientifically different field the patent is not much value just because you have made in improvement over something that is already there. Part of what your patent examiners are doing, finding out of something is truly an product . Thet they are studying application that comes to us to determine of its new and useful and nonobvious and looking at that large body of prior art. Many inventors, especially independent ones, dont know what that body of prior art really is. They have not spent their career studying in that area and they got a great idea and a maybe a small improvement. It may be a groundbreaking improvement. Our examiners are not necessarily looking to make the determination of how much novelty or how much nonobvious toin a particular patent counsel an inventor. It goes back to what i was saying earlier. It depends what you will use it for. The caller points out that he is pointing out to the inventors that investing in a patent if good strategy a of how you will use that may not be the best way to go. Maybe is the best way to find someone who manufactures it. If you on the landscaping business, are you going to invest 50,000 in a dump truck if you dont have a plan on how to make money using it . Investing money in a patent im going to the process may not be the best for you if that is not your strategy. Host fairfield, connecticut, good morning. Morning, you guys do so much so how do you keep the integrity of each patent tactic . How can we trust this agency . Im a little skeptical. Weve got 9000 examiners across the agency and go based on technology. Most of our examiners have been eventhe agency for 10, 20, 30 years. We have hired a lot of new examiners and have extensive training. Our examiners go to four months of training with her they are examining applications. We have tight production control on our applications to make sure they are moving through and being reviewed. We have different ways of reviewing. We have been investing heavily in our review department and improving the Patent Quality working with the public and having initiatives to move the in waysorward constantly what we are doing. Work that that the comes out of the office is very important to the economy and important to business. They work hard to keep that integrity. Host explain what quality of patents means because thats something the Government Accountability office has been concerned about in the past and i assume that this office was created to respond to that. Guest Patent Quality is difficult to talk about because we are talking about a right granted by the government and based on a lot of backandforth subjective decisions made by our examiners. The fundamental description of Patent Quality is does the patent when issued meet the statutory requirements in the laws at the time we examine them. Beyond that, we are issuing a patent today that has a life of approximately 20 years by the time it issues. During that time, there will be competitors looking at that, it might be used in industry and maybe the courts will be looking at that. Providingcognize is more to those individuals, those members of business in the community looking at it, providing them more information on how we made that decision. Provide mores, clarity and what our decisions consider and the decision they made in addition to improving the rules our examiners have researching through that fire prior art. We look at how we can and, everything from training our examiners to getting nude, automated tools. To getting new, automated tools. I feel terribly upon by the patent process. Congress has removed the process from it by jury and put into an administrative process in front of the patent trial and appeals board. Can you comment on that . Guest i referenced earlier the america invents act which was passed about five years ago. In that, congress created what review. As an interparty the patent trial and appeal board within the Patent Office conducts a oneyear trial from the time it is instituted until final decision, we get one year, to make a decision of whether a patent should or should not have a petitioner and the Patent Office set forth reasons why they believe a passion should have issued, and we have a trial, a threejudge panel conducts that panel to determine whether the pattern should or should not have issued or certain claims in that. It has been fairly successful. We have had over 2000 cases filed so far. Most of the decisions if not all of the decisions have been upheld as they go to review by the court of appeals. But it is a new proceeding, and it has changed the landscape in which inventors can use the courts to enforce their patents. Host is that were some of the frustration where the caller comes from . Guest perhaps. Before the process was put in place, they would go to court and seek enforcement of their patent. Now a potential infringer could that case and seek to have it reviewed on the appeal board, which frustrates the system for inventors to have to go through that an Administrative Agency versus a court. Host from patents to copyright, carol is a Copyright Holder in nebraska. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. Over 400pyrighted spiritual hymns in the office in washington, d. C. Talented musical arranger who has created over 365 scores of these inspirational hymns over the past five years. I have an 81yearold woman who is blessed after 43 days in the hospital. My children being told i had two weeks to live back in 2010. Got give melive and these beautiful melodies god gave me these beautiful melodies. Now i wish i could share these with others who enjoy inspirational music. Do you think there is any market at all for such a beautifully to share music . Host you want to talk about the market for music or focus on copywriting . Guest that is difficult for me to say. I am not an expert in that area. Let me explain copyright. Constitution the and inventors, but we talk about authors. That is the foundation. The first Copyright Office was created in 1790 also. That is housed under the congress,f so it is not under the patent Trademark Offices review. We counsel the president on intellectual property issues including copyright issues, but as the collar is asking caller is asking, another market for spiritual hymns, but its as if has many wonderful contribution to society. Host another patentholder, max is in san jose, california. Caller good morning. Thank you. My question is, it is fear that there is a scale for major inventors and michael inventors micro inventors, but what is not fair is the timetable. We are held to the same timetable. If we needed more time, there are so many fees we have to pay. Would have to be to get more time. Major inventors can inform avoid that. That afford that. Guest it is important for the Patent Office to help inventors of all sizes. We want the office to be accessible to the independent inventor, multinational corporation. We worked under president obama to open up pro bono programs that cover all 50 states. We do have the tiered system. Unfortunately, our office is rather large. We have 13,000 people. We have a unique agency in that we are completely funded by our applicants. Our budget each year is about 3 billion, and all of that comes from our user base and not any from the taxpayers. We do have a lot of fees to cover the different processes within the office, but we are trying to keep it as accessible to independent inventors as possible. Host i want to get your thoughts on a recent column in the wall street journal s to be scientists as well. There was reinforced in a court system that is not set up to adjudicate highly technical matters. They are calling for judges to be scientists as well. Be stackedt would with judges and experts that have back on his software, artificial and allergens, nanotechnology, biotechnology. This would ensure the complex decision is made. Be want to comment on how the Judiciary Branch interprets the patents . I have not met the article, but i will say the patent trial and appeal board within the Patent Office, we have over 300 judges that have scientific and engineering degrees that are specialist. They have long careers in patent law. We have that type of a court within the Patent Office to challenges to the patent that has been issued. To think that to District Court, anytime you have a judge that has expertise in the matter that they are adjudicating is probably a benefits everybody, i will leave that to the courts to determine how many judges around the country they would need for patent cases. Host time for a few more questions. About 10 minutes left with russell slifer. David is on the line for inventors and patentholders in michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning, and thank you very much for taking my call. I am a utility patent owner. I got my patents in eight months, but i went through a patent lawyer. He took care of quite a number of things for me. My product is on ebay right now. If they plug in, it is an endorsement reflector that is an amazing product. If they put in the search box reflectsun host do you have a question . Caller i just wanted to put a my maintenance fees are due, i was wondering if maintenancethose fees in a reasonable time, do i lose my utility patent . This . Ife time to pay i dont have all the money right now, do i need can i have an extension . Guest a maintenance fee is afee that is due a fee that is due to the government, the Patent Office to maintain it. Increase in the amount for each maintenance fee. Sciences is to promote by sharing with the public your information so they can learn from it and build on it and promote science to continue forward. It is a give and take. There is also an incentive on the government for you to abandon that right if it is no longer useful or valuable to you, so that is part of what the maintenance fee is. Yes there is a time window to pay that. You can look that up on our website to see when it is due and what the window is to pay it. I would say that if he is as successful at plugging it as he did there, i would hope he would have the money to pay the maintenance fee, and it is a small fee, have what a corporation would pay. Host bill is in new mexico and has a patent pending. What with that hasnt before if you are able to get the patents for it . Caller is to save lives. It is to save lives. I cringe every time a person loses their life because im still waiting for my patent. It takes 26 months to do. It is frustrating for me because it is for saving lives. My question is, is there a list after a patent reaches over 20 individualthe does not renew the patent, is there a list of those patents that have not been reviewed . Thank you. Host what would you want to be done with that list if the people do not renew their patents . I think we lost bill. Guest two things. It takes a long time to get a patents, even at 26 months. 26 months is still too long. We are working hard to bring that down, but we have opportunities at the office to accelerate examination. You can file your application, request that program, and we will have a final resolution within 12 months. Right now on average, they are issuing in about six months. For very critical technologies, for critical uses, you can get an accelerated examination. As far as the list of patents that have expired because they have exceeded the life or they have not had their annuities paid, you can do that research throughout website, and we have making more and more of this data readily available to the all ofto be able to mine the data we havent had an Trademark Office. Host before we lose you, we want to talk about trademarks and little bit. What is a company have to prove when it comes to trademarks . Guest the trademark covers a mark, name, words, image, symbol tot are used in commerce differentiate a product from one company and another company. Trademark, it takes about 10 months to get a butstration on a trademark, you work with our trademark examiners, and all of our examiners are attorneys, and worked very hard with applicant to help scope out the proper coverage for their trademark. The first thing i would certainly counsel everybody to do is a search. Go to our website, use the tools out there to find out if anyone else is using a mark similar in commerce. You can use a mark without getting a federal register and rely on commonlaw, but a federal register helps protect you across the country from someone else using your mark. Host shelley is in kentucky. Caller i am glad to be on. First time i have ever gotten on cspan. My question is, if you have an idea of a product you would like to invent or whatever, is there a phone number you can call and has out if the product already been invented or is in the process of being invented . Is the iphone number you can call to save a lot of problems and a lot of research and all that . Guest i wish it were that easy. But it is not. Unfortunately, to get a patent, we have to study everything that has come before it. If you are inventing a new mousetrap, somebody has to know and study all of the prior mousetraps to find out whether your mechanism you invented is new over that. Every unit that we continue, the body of knowledge continues to grow larger larger. World has greeted so many documents, so much information, and all of that needs to be sorted through. Unfortunately, there is not an easy way for an inventor to look or call one phone number and find out if someone knows invented this before, has the product hit the moment market before . Morning 80, good ohio, andy, good morning. Caller i had a question about copyright. I am a writer. I write poems and have been many over the years. I was kind of wondering, is there anyway you can tell me how i can protect my writing so if they get out there . I also heard an easy way to do that would be to put yourself in an envelope and mail it to yourself and seal it. That would serve as a copyright. Is that correct . Could you elaborate with that . Guest actually, copyrights are a unique right that attaches instantly at the time that you put that writing in a tangible medium. When you write it down, you have a copyright in its. To get a federal copyright, you need to file an application with the Copyright Office and register that document with them, and that gives you certain rights to enforce the copyright across the nation as opposed to relying on commonlaw. Host was the workload for the Copyright Office versus pto . Guest i cannot really speak with authority on the Copyright Office under the library of congress and whether workload is. The registration process for them is much different. It is not an examination process like the Patent Office. When you register a copyright with them, you are submitting a sample and filling out the form so that people know when you created that, who the owner is. It is more of a registration process of people know in the future if i want to publish that story, if i want to use that movie, who has it so i can get some permission to use that. Host an inventor in las vegas, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you very much. I really appreciate the assistance and help that i make it today. I may get today. I published a book and created a the defined methodology t process for hospitals and health care providers. I created a detailed wireframe to automate this concept, by know how to go about it and save my privilege related to this creation that i have done. Also, i should mention i published a book, and this concept has been detailed in that book. I dont know, do i have any rights . How does it work . I talked with a few lawyers, they are charging an arm and a through andme go establish this to have my privilege saved if it is possible, or maybe there is non e. Guest without getting into detail on a specific issue like that, let me back up and say intellectual Property Protection requires work on behalf of the on behalfr the author of the creator to make sure that they protect it within the time frames set forth. For example, on a patent, you in thesically one year United States to file for a Patent Application on your invention. That is to encourage the inventor to go through the process instead of waiting until they find out there is a commercial success before they seek it. The first thing i would do is look at whatever the inventions are, whatever the creations are, and determine what type of intellectual property you need to copyright. What should you maintain as a trade secret or patent before you start disclosing anything in public and get an understanding of what your responsibilities are. Host one question from twitter before we go. Is the Patent Office asked to weigh in on proposed trade deals as to the protection of intellectual property . Guest as i mentioned earlier, because we are under commerce, we are by statute providing input, legal advice on intellectual property, positions , within trades deals, and advised the white house on intellectual property issues, so we do provide that advice. Host that is something that happened throughout tpp and now to and before that . Guest absolutely. You can see pto at usp to young. Gov uspto. Gov. Thank you for your time on washington journal. Guest thank you. Host , our spotlight and magazines. About whethertory or not Hillary Clinton steered away from boko haram because of past donations from nigerian billionaires. J. C. Derrick joined just for that discussion in just a minute. If you are looking for our most current programs and you dont want to search the video library, our homepage has many current programs ready for your immediate viewing such as todays washington journal or the events we covered that day. Is a Public Service of your cable or satellite provider, so if you are a season and water, check it out at cspan. Org. 2016, cspan continues on the road to the white house. We need serious leadership. This is not a reality tv show. This is as real as it gets. We will make America Great again. Ahead, live coverage of the president ial and Vice President ial debate on cspan, the cspan radio app, and cspan. Org. Monday, september 26 is the first president ial debate live in hempstead, new york. On tuesday, october 4, Vice President ial candidates governor mike pence and senator tim kaine debate at Longwood University in farmville, virginia. On sunday come october 9, Washington University in single was hosts in st. Louis hosts a debate. At final debate taking place the university of nevada las vegas on october 19. Live coverage of the president ial and Vice President ial debate on cspan. Listen live on the free cspan radio app, or what anytime ondemand at cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host each week in this segment of the washington journal, we take a look at a recent magazine piece. This week, j. C. Derrick World Magazine joins us on a series of reports in that magazine on how and why Hillary Clinton drag ged feed with boko haram. I want to first bring up the news out of nigeria on the leader of boko haram being killed in a strike by the government. This is something that has been reported before that he has been injured or killed to no avail. What is your thought on this latest report . Guest it would be a significant development, but it has been reported before seven weeks to be seen if that will turn out to be the case or not, but certainly, it would be very big news. Host this comes as john kerry is visiting nigeria this week. Guest it does, yes, so that makes it significant. Constantlysic happening in nigeria and a lot of it does not make it to the western media. Yesterday i got a text from someone in nigeria who reported on an attack that killed eight people in the northern state. Those news items a lot of times do not make it over here. Host one thing that did not make it into western one thing that did make it into western media is the kidnapping of over 100 children. To that,ons reaction she said at the time about the mass abduction that it was an act of terrorism by boko haram and it merits a response. What had the state department done about boko haram leading up to that point . Guest that is a great question. And months before that, talking about things that dont make it to western media, months before the kidnapping, there has been an attack in a community that killed 2000 nigerian. The eyes of the world were focused on france. It happened the same week as the Charlie Hebdo attacks. How thingsmple of tend to proliferate in nigeria while American Interest is focused elsewhere. What we learned in our investigation is that there were theriety of ways in which Clinton State Department and even after that with the u. S. Government has not taken much of a proactive approach against boko haram and stopping terrorism in nigeria, but a handsoff approach that has allowed it to metastasize into rakes asal terrorism the most deadly terrorist. Group. Oisrist our investigation was focused on the policy. My colleague wins and traveled to find other states to take a look at what was going on with terrorism. Wasfound that boko haram operating at unfettered growth in nigeria so we started trying to make sense of the policy. We were already called at that point to designate boko haram a foreign terrorist organization. We can talk about the details of that if you like about whatever reason, there was some pushback within the state department. There was a handsoff approach. We set out to find out why, and what we learned was that the andntagon, and the i with theand i spoke commander of africom and it is a need boko haram as a terrorist organization, which is a first that in the response to a terrorist threat. 72ce 1997, there have been designations issued by the secretary of state, and average of almost four per year. One where there was a complete connection for a long amount of time. Host the cover story in World Magazine. What links the divine to the Clinton Family foundation . What links did you find to the Clinton Family foundation . Guest was was the unanimous opinion that is not policy was a bad policy. What we started looking into was why, and what we found out was only three possible isolations. One would be the desire for political change. Nhe current president ra three times and lost and threatened violence after he lost the third time. There was a lot of violence after that. Changeire for political certainly would be one motivating factor. The desire for investors. We can get into more about that, but those who would be seeking investors dont want u. S. Investigators searching through corrupt financial flows in nigeria. Also those who do you in oil. Of those reasons have in common is that in each case, you have people who are onetime associates and large donors to the Clinton Foundation. Host j. C. Derrick is our guest of World Magazine. We are talking about his recent pieces this summer about clinton inc. , the headline on the june peace. If you want to call in, the. Hone numbers chad is first from denver, colorado, on the line for republicans. Caller hello, i am in denver, and these are actions that plague the whole continent over there. That is one reason why they have not had a successful government just on a major scale, this is one of the arious issues to plague an vessel ever, and i dont is something that can be overcome politically. The ramifications of this, seriously, we had talking about effects to africanamericans. This is continuing to suppress the whole continent, keeping everybody corrupt over there. She is not having anything anywhere. We definitely dont need that over here, you know . I just want to hear you gentlemen if this is something that can be overcome. Guest that is a common concern. You mentioned corruption is rampant in africa. It is. Nigeria specifically has a reputation as one of the more corrupt countries in the world, of thegets at the heart of lo e problem a lot of people have have withpirit this. Host what were they doing with the Clinton Foundation . What were the donations for . Guest it varies. Some directly donated to Clinton Campaigns. Donated 1ul million to the Clinton Foundation. Billion he pledged 1 to the Clinton Global Initiative. And runs the gamut in terms of what these donations were for. Of anas a donation Indigenous Oil company in nigeria, the largest one in the country. Pledged 1 at company of his future annual profits to the Clinton Foundation for an Education Program, so it varies as to what they were involved in. Host what would be to benefit from the Clinton Foundation themselves to help out . Visit the donation money youre saying is it the donation money you are saying . Guest the Clinton Foundation wants donations. Wanting,donors are what we have seen in recent that people wanted access. The ap today had a new report showing over half of the meetings with secretary clinton while she was in office were with donors to the Clinton Foundations. Host one of the other headlines on that story. Clinton Foundation Donors made millions from nigerian oil fields. Of response you get from the Clinton Campaign or Clinton Foundation . Guest they did not respond to our request for comment they have their own reasons for doing that, but we would have loved to hear more from their perspective on these issues. Host tell us more about World Magazine. Guest it has been around for three years. It started in the mid1980s, and today, we publish across three platforms. World magazine, world digital, and world radio. Host war and is in maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you doing . I would like to disagree with your guest. I dont think this has anything to do with the donations. It is a lot of political corruption in nigeria as a whole. I dont see any relationship between donations and foreign intervention. The United States basically will , whether theyg were donations or not, would never going to nigeria to do anything with boko haram. They did not go into the neighboring countries where hundreds of thousands of people die. There was not one United States troops over there helping to free anybody there. You guys say this is because of donations. Misses. Ly respond. Derrick, point to bring up a good that corruption is a widespread problem. These associations, part of the reasons they are troubling is it is hard to take money out of africa without it being seen in some way. A line problems people have is it is so hard to figure out who is doing what and why . Knowing what we know about many of these donors, it is fair to say that they dont necessarily have motives in the reasoning for donating money. They see it as an investment. One of the former investors in nigeria told me in reference to gilbert, i asked him regardless of the policy, regardless of , in actually happened regard to gilbert, would he have an interest in trying to influence the policy, and he said he does nothing other than that. He said i do know what you may be doing with the global clinton initiative, but he knows the honeypot he would have attracted take advantage of. Host is there something you can point to . Guest no. We did not find a smoking gun from gilbert to Hillary Clinton saying please do x, y, z. Had direct has not contact with Hillary Clinton since 2006. He denies there is anything to the allegations. Taking your calls on washington journal, wanting to give the viewers that the washington journal, wanting to give the viewers the numbers. Barbara is in marthas vineyard. Go ahead. Caller the greatest value the washington journal can do the public is to give us the 101, basics of any topics so people can move up the ladder. And i guess tell us from his perspective and in his individual knowledge, what is the purpose of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative . How are they different . What was the situation in nigeria before secretary clinton became secretary of state . What was the content she walked into an inherited . Guest those are big questions. I will try to address knows each , but in terms of all was going on beforehand, nigeria has had a tumultuous history. Gilbert chagoury was a top advisor to the dictator of nigeria in the 1990s, who proved to have stolen billions of dollars from his people. Fromnally going back muslims to the north and christians to this out. Really things one ramped up. Excuse me. N in the new president of nigeria took over in 2010 after the previous president died. In 2011, he won reelection. That is when you saw me ramp up on thursday. Boko haram activity was not at the top of the list of threats in march of 2011, but in august of 2011, boko haram carried out a terrorist attack, a bombing, a suicide bombing at the u. N. Complex. This marked a dramatic uptick. The recently picked up in the middle of Hillary Clintons tenure is because that is when boko haram expanded to become that threat it has turned into today. You what else is going on in 2011, and that was the fall of libya. The weapons and mercenaries all over africa, and some of those ended up in nigeria. That is the reason we have focused on this time because that is when things took a dramatic turn for the worst. Host the column wanted to know the purpose of the Clinton Global Initiative, the Clinton Foundation around the world, but also what they were doing in nigeria. Guest like i said, one of the was for an Education Program. At one point, the clinton addresson had an office on the tax return that was based in nigeria. It is unclear exactly what the donations were for, and that is part of the problem. There is no outward activity in terms of programs, whether it be educational or whatever these donations are going for. They seem to disappear into the Clinton Foundation. There is no specific instances you can point to this happening and this is how things have changed. That is part of the problem with the appearance of these donations. How much has been done in giving up in question. Host when given the terrorism in his asian labeling, i sang clinton refused to label boko haram . Guest good question. She is the one who would technically make the designation. There have been 70 20 designations, but she is reliant on those under her who are making the evaluations, and i mentioned the fact that the fbi, the cia, the pentagon and the Counterterrorism Bureau within the state department warned to the designation. Designation warranted the designation. Urgrfimes it is a terro war between departments. She was not unaware of the arguments, she just chose to side with the arguments against of two young designation. Host fto designation. And ing august 2011, spoke with johnny carson, and he said the designation as early lot010 monday ramped up a but they ramped up a lot after the bombing of 2011. The decision remained for the wait and see approach throughout the clinton tenure. The designation did not come until about eight or nine months into john kerrys secretary of state tenure. Host paul is on our line for democrats. Caller good morning. Thatd it kind of humorous he is coming this the Clinton State Department. The Condoleezza Rice state department kill Osama Bin Laden . No, didnt. No, she didnt. Barack obama and it took how many years . Now you will start claiming went tos state department cali lintons state department . Give me a break. Guest i dont know what to say to that. We dont have a smoking gun, but when you look at the fact patterns surrounding the fto designation, it becomes a question of why . Why was this decision made against the advice of the pentagon, fbi, cia, and those are questions that deserve answers. Host joe is on our line for republicans. Caller good morning. The thing i did with mrs. Clinton is she always feels to do her job. I figure looking for something she has done, instead you have to look for something she did not do. To me, if you are secretary of state, you have a job. You cannot just sit around and ignore everything and pretend it is not happening. Isnt that illegal also . Host are using she ignored and pretended boko haram wasnt happening . Department te there is question about what has been happening. One of the common reasons why there have not been more robust investigations is this Organization Funds their activities by pillaging villages and robbing banks. Certainly there is an element of that, but it is important to remember, and we discovered in our investigation, concrete evidence as early as 2012 that boko haram operatives were using online skimming, essentially blackmail, to route money through european banks to ngos in Northern Nigeria that were funneling money to boko haram. It is partially correct to say they are not using International Banking systems. Host is going to glendale, maryland. Good morning. Caller i want your Program Every morning, but for some doesn, this guy you have not have experience in nigeria. Probably one of the worst guests you have brought in. It is totally wrong. I am so disappointed. Some of these guys work very well. Host what do you specifically disagree with . The last president of nigeria, when he lost the election, he threatened some violence, and it happened after that. That was a lie. Host the viewer is talking about guest he did threaten violence. I am not saying he ordered boko haram directly to do anything, but his rhetoric leading up to the election regarding the certainly didlost happen. Whether he emboldened them with his rhetoric or there was some sort of direct communication is inconsequential. That threats he made came to fruition. Host los angeles, california, is next. Carl, good morning. Caller good morning. First of all, of electricity i have been watching cspan since the beginning. I want people to understand this is a public channel. This is for the greater good. Is started up as a progressive general. The people you have on now, it is disgusting. Host we started as a Public Service trying to bring information and opinions from all sides here on cspan. Caller im sorry, but that is not true. Especially when you have bias. This guy is a nervous nelly. Has lies are ridiculous. Host lets not insult our guests. We are trying to have a conversation about an article in an investigation he made on World Magazine. I encourage you to go back to our website, look at other segments and find bias in that. We had trying to find opinions from all sides. Gene, good morning. Caller good morning. I am reallyd to say disappointed with republicans because listening to you all and listening to everything going on right now regarding mrs. Clinton and these bogus emails, this information was 2006, 2005. Stuff,u hang onto this and you bring it up doing an it,tion and you drip and it is a lot of innuendo. No facts. Nothing tying anything to secretary clinton. Anyone can create this kind of garbage. Disappointing it is so disappointing with republicans. I dont understand it. Host i will give you a chance to talk more about World Magazine and what you do. We certainly have an equal opportunity for both candidates and their weak points. In terms of this particular investigation, our interest in nigeria, we do a lot with International Religious freedom issues. Our interest in nigeria started in early 2012 one my colleagues traveled to nigeria and saw the results of what boko haram was doing. Since then, we have been on the story constantly. We found requests in early 2013. The state department on a couple months ago gave us the first 20 documents, and we are still looking for responses to our request. To say it is tied into the election is incorrect. We have been working on this information for more than four years. Host what is an investigation you have done about republicans, both sides . Guest one of my colleagues did a really good report on some of Donald Trumps dealings in atlantic city. There is certainly some Unanswered Questions and public scandal that went on there in terms of the casinos he operated there. A few months ago, we had a report on that. Host the story is clinton inc. Is in World Magazine we are talking about it in our last segment on washington journal. Terry is in florida, republican, go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. I want you guys every day, and i thank god for World Magazine, judicial watch, all these companies, all these organizations that are nonprofit that get into the nuts and bolts of what is really going on. We have to look at the past. The past, you cannot get over that. They have a great argument. People of this country need to look and listen and realize that this is the most important election of our lifetime. That is my comment, and kudos to you. Lets make America Great again. Host will go to our line for independents. Good morning. Caller hi. I was wondering for the Education Programs, there is not evidence that there was any Education Program trying to be emboldened to. To be implemented. Is there really no evidence of a program i to the initiative t ied to the initiative. Guest i dont have the data is in front of me he was for Education Programs in general. I dont know it was designed for one program specifically. I think the real question here going back to the previous caller, she said questions need to be answered, and one of our istos at World Magazine sensational facts. We are trying not to take the facts or going further than the facts allow. Our focus here has been the lingering questions surrounding the fto designation and then going further to asking, who could possibly benefit from this policy . Specificallystion if you are able to have those questions answered, from the Clinton Foundation or the state department . Accept donations in the first place from these people who are obviously tainted . I dont mean that in a disparaging way. It is a fact. Gilbert chagoury was proven to added ofd and have aceh in the 1990s. That it was a good idea to partner with him is highly problematic. That would be the main question, why these donations were accepted. To go further, what precisely happened after the donations were received . I believe the Associated Press reported 7 of the total donations went to programs. Went to this superstructure of the Clinton Foundation. The specific programs, what was being accomplished is the biggest question for the Clinton Foundation. Host what would be your question for the state department . Guest really, i was able to ask my questions directly to johnny carson, the ambassador who is the former head of the african bureau. He stands by the policy and set based on the fact that the time that he thought it was appropriate, but again, there are three basic legal reasons for designating an fto. The group has to be foreign, engaged in terrorism, and a threat to u. S. Interests. What we found is there seems to be a systematic effort to cover up any danger or threat to americans. As we reported the story, the first one, there was at least that weican citizen verify was in the building at the time of the u. S. Bombing. You can go to the department of justice bombing and look at the terrorist incident list, and she is not on there. Phone, shehed her by was going to talk about nigeria, but as soon as i run of the bombing, she hung up on me. Host to look, good morning. Morning. Philip, good caller thank you for taking my call. I want to comment the gentleman who is standing out boldly to really attack nigeria issues. I feel disappointed the way the United States has been treating our nigerian issues, especially with boko haram. At the time when the u. S. Embassy was bombed by boko haram crying and at least the American Government and the allied world would come rescue nigeria from that big mess. Outcries all those die down, and there was no result, and boko haram is operating and is tied to isis in nigeria. I am proud of being a jury in, u. S. Citizen, and the United States and those allies should one way or the other. Caller makecolo the perfect point. A lot of people may not realize it is the most populous country in africa. It is the most oilrich country in africa and the largest economy in africa. It is the largest african trading partner with the u. S. Is very strategically important. To ignore what goes on there is a great mistake. We hired a fulltime reporter based there to further our reporting of nigeria. In terms of the scope of the problem that has not abated, last year, boko haram was responsible for killing more than 10,000 people in nigeria. It has not always been this way. Go back to the bombing in 2011, those first it was involving the country ever experienced. Last year, there was 89. It is getting worse, and it is a fair question to ask what the u. S. Is doing. There has been a long discussion about the leahy amendment. In a sense, it ties the u. S. Hands at what they could do, they can work with to make sure people who are not perpetrating human rights abuses. At the state department, one person said half of the Nigerian Military is eligible to be vetted and worked with, but that has not happened. Mark. E near the half they are interested in calling more hearings on why there is interaction with those we can work with. Host the news out of nigeria today, nigeria reporting yesterday that the leader of boko haram and several of his top commanders were killed or wounded in a military airstrike just as secretary of state john kerry arrived in the west african nation with a message that military action alone will not break the terrorist groups grip on the region. Robert has been waiting in portland, oregon. Go ahead. Caller hi. I find it kind of ironic that hillary would be campaigning on behalf of the over 200 women who were kidnapped and yet not labeled as a terrorist group. If you look at the philippines for example, every group imaginable that has done any even remotelyties like this has been labeled, including the new peoples army, and i have very little to do with the u. S. Or the issues here. All around the world, you have groups labeled terrorist groups and on the watchlist. This particular group has been ignored. I find it very political on her behalf. I will take your comment off the air. Guest exactly what we have been talking about today. Is important to understand the fto designation is that we get it illegal and move on, but has meeting, and there should be an effort. It puts teeth into u. S. Efforts to combat, especially with military cooperation and sharing information, intelligence. Number one would be tracking the funding and arms flows that allows these groups to do what they do. Host was that not done outside of the designation, especially after the incident the viewer brings up, the kidnapping of the girls from the Christian School . Guest it wasnt, there were several reasons for it. That the legal clarity intelligence communities can do what they need to do. A commanders said he desperately wanted that boko haram needed a and heeep of u. S. Tools, did not get it and it did not happen 27 month after the bombing. Host will, go ahead. Caller i am an independent. I have my grandson here, and he is on the computer now, the internet researching mr. Derrick , and his relationship with the republicans and donald trump. The you have any relationship do you have any relationship at all . We are researching your magazine right now, my grandson is. Critiqued bothve democrats and republicans. According to your publication, sir, do you have any relationship with, and i will give you the answer. Host let us let him answer your question if you want to talk about your work as a journalist. Guest World Magazine is a nonprofit news organization. We have zero connection to the donald trump campaign. Anyone who read our publication over a long amount of time would recognize that because we have been very open about criticizing him as well. Host what are some of the stories you have worked on . Guest last year, i worked on a story about the u. S. Commission on International Religious freedom. One of our top issues is covering what is going on around the globe regarding International Religious freedom. There was a battle last year, a reauthorization battle. We pointed out some conflict of interest and things going on that were helpful in moving the process forward. Host what is next for use story wise for World Magazine . Guest i working on a profile for david saperstein, who is the ambassador at large for International Religious freedom at the state department. And the reason i am reporting on him is because he has broad support from the right and left. They have agreed he is doing a phenomenal job and play a role in helping getting the genocide declaration in march and has that a variety of things to advance the cause of International Religious freedom. In this polarizing political atmosphere we are in right now, it is worth calling out someone who is doing work that both sides agree is a good job. Host j. C. Derrick. You can see it online. Appreciate your time this morning on the washington journal. That is going to do it for our show. See you tomorrow morning. In the meantime, have a great wednesday. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]