Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20140830

Mla, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. Otto santa ana, author of juan in a hundred come it takes look at the latinos on the news. This is about half an hour. In now on booktv, we want to introduce you to ucla professor, otto santa ana. Professor santa ana, what do you teach at ucla . Guest ironman chicano and chacon of studies. Host what courses are you teaching . Guest i teach courses in language and media, linkage in the classroom. I teach a course on political humor. I teach courses on language all aspects of language that are socially relative. Host your book that we want to talk about on booktv is juan in a hundred the representation of latinos on network news. Here is the cover of the book. Before we get started, i want to ask you what does the word latino name . Guest latino. The team now with all the people who are of latin american origin who are noncitizens of the United States. Host and you are professor of chicano chicano studies. Guest chacon that in chicano means mexicanamerican descent. It is another way of saying mexicanamericans. Host what is the latino population in the United States today . Guest theres about 52 Million People. Host so a sixth. Guest a huge portion of our society. Host your book is about the representation on network news. How many stories at the network news are about latinos . Guest less than one and of all of the news stories on the evening news come on the networks have to do with latinos. Host wide . Guest y. I think it is because latinos are not considered at the media to be part of the social fabric of the United States. I looked at 12,000 new stories. One full year of network news for abc, cbs, cnn and nbc. In that year i counted all the news stories. At the evening news. Thats 365 days, seven days a week. They were over 12,000 stories. Between 98 and 115 were about latinos. So that constitutes less than 1 . So that is why i call it juan in a hundred. Host when you say this latino story for about a latino, what does that mean . Guest everything from stories on immigration, i chose 1994 to look at. So we looked at the president ial Election Campaign at the time. We looked at stories about cubanamericans, about dominican americans. Dominicans. We looked at all the stories possible. It even included salvadore is. Lets see if i can get this right. This have to do with how baseballs were staged in san salvador. I try to be as inclusive as possible and we ended up having a very, very narrow focus. Very, very narrow scope. So we really do not characterize latinos. The network news does not characterize latinos adequately. Host when they were betrayed, how are they for trade . Guest frankly, they were presented in a very skewed manner. They were very good stories. Dont get the wrong. But a lot of stories indicated a relatively impoverished understanding of what latinos are. And then they were skewing built upon stereotyping, expectations that were not met. And i looked frame by frame at about 48 news stories. And to make sure that i could understand what was being articulated. I compare that to the story out today by looking at new stories in the printed media as well and so i can see what exactly was he spoken about on the news than how well the network news covered the story of the day. Host when you put it in the larger context, what did you find . Guest we found latinos as i said or not understood to be part of the one sixth of our population is not understood to be very pert and to the american community. Host i want to read a little good from your book, juan in a hundred. Roberto gonzales nominated attorney general. In attorney general. And the fixed income at 26 shot abc stories on gonzales. Peter jennings a standard anchor shot announces bush nominee for attorney general. President bush made history today. He nominated and hispanic texans to be attorney general. Is there anything wrong with how you started . In 2000. Guest well, you know, you caught me offguard. Im not sure i recall what the issue was fair. Host okay, ill read a little bit more. Tell me what you hear here. His confirmation is certain though there will be some questions. Team to france the gonzales nomination as an affirmative action appointment alternating shots at the president and gonzales. Guest this was the attorney general who was confirmed, served as well as they could and he was represented as an affirmative action candidate. All his background had an incredible curriculum. He had been Supreme Court justice in texas. He had served admirably in the framing of network cast him as simply filling in the affirmativeaction hispanic who is characterized. None of his achievements are characterized. Only the fact bush had chosen this hispanic to fill his spot. Host in your view, professor, how could that have been framed differently . Guest mention that hes hispanic and talk about his credentials. He couldve spoken about what his philosophy was. There wouldve been a greater sense of the integration of candidate, that appointee into the american government. But no, it was simply to the mental image hispanic affirmativeaction position and napping about his back ground was disguised in the initial framing. Host you want to say when to say when gonzales is seen making remarks, a. B. s view reinforces its framing a choosing images that present 10 echoing his president s characterization and that he grew up poor and that was an important part of the story. Guest well, that was an important part of the story and i think quite useful. There is nothing about what the man had done before he had arrived on the national scene. It is very appropriate to talk about the american dream. I think that is an import aspect that should be covered on the knotwork news. But more about the individual. More about the reasons bush has chosen. Not strictly his politics, but most of the character behind him. To give an example, it is typical to have one, an obituary of famous persons passed away each day in the network news. That was the year that Ronald Reagan passed away. There were 200 new stories about his obituary. How many latinos were represented as an obituary for someone of note . Absolutely zero. Not one person. We had federal court edges, people who it broken and were pioneers in art, in politics, in the science is in not one of those individuals characterized in the network news. That is the blinding array shared of one sixth of the population. Host Gabriel Garcia marquez recently passed away. Season to get heavy coverage. Guest does a wonderful game. He is colombian. He is not a u. S. Latino. So sir leigh when a copy of passed away, tremendous coverage. Thats latin american. But lets see, when when in 1994, laureate and silhouette passed away, glory and flew a was considered had written one of the most important books of the century. She was not characterize. Shes the dearest im a poet. She tagged about the borderlands in an incredible way. They bring it back academically and politically. A famous puerto rican poet was not characterize whatsoever. His poetry was extort therein he also passed away and we had no knowledge of that. The u. S. Republic the u. S. Public who watches the network news to expect to understand that the nation is about as no idea that these magnificent individuals have lived a celebrated place and then passed away because they are not referenced by network news. It is not that the network news couldnt find these people. I asked my students one day i gave them three hours to find newsworthy stories that had not been covered. They brought back 150 stories. I gave him three hours. They brought back different groups of people. This was printed material that was available, available during that period of time in the network news chose not to do it. Moreover, unfortunately there were cases when the network news skews the story. So we have a story i cant remember now which the network will remain unmentioned. But the wall street journal spoke about some economic news. And it was very, very clear that workingclass latinos had a silly name jobs that other groups for not taking up. In particular they gave the example come a very detailed study of construction workers working in the midwest, doing how the construction of the work that no one else would do for the pay. With that marvelous wall street journal article, the network news produced a 50 word statement, which indicated suggested that hispanics in general have taken these shots from other people, that they were middleclass jobs and that this was a general something that was alarming. Completely skewing the facts and the facts were printed. But they cited they gave the preacher at the wall street journal, but they misrepresented according to a stereotype that certainly was inaccurate for the American Public to hear. Host chapter two of your book, juan in a hundred come inside the beltway stories is entitled. He began with a quote by susan jacoby. Every american governance and Foreign Relations and Domestic Affairs is related in some fashion to the knowledge deficit of the American Public. Guest well, we have won six of the population again who have not been represented. 50 Million People. What we see, the skewing is that most of the stories in 2004 had to do either with who the hispanic vote would go for it, whether it was the republican or the democratic candidate. The other major story of the day with immigration. But any other aspect that had nothing to do with any aspect of american domestic life come in dealing with latinos was remiss. We had only one story, as i mentioned, about the economy. Theres only 11 story about the hispanic house. There is very very limited coverage in all the areas that could be covered, that are generally covered by the network news. There was possibility. There is clearly new speed made. It is simply not considered newsworthy. The beltway news stories constituted the major kind of news story that was important, those considered newsworthy and that was when beltway politics converged with hispanic issues. Secondly, there is a catastrophe, mayhem had happened. And so there is a terrible hurricane that occurred and people died in cuba and puerto rico. That was covered. And thus constituted the story that the were hispanic or latino stories at the 2004. Nothing about a good that could have represented the breadth of american integration of latinos or a deeper understanding beyond superficial characterization and we operate with everyday. I am afraid that what we are seeing is a continuation of stereotypes, of mythologies that are characterized. The fundamental problem i feel is that there is a lack of serious knowledge of latinos. And apart from that, the idea is not that the journalists not to pay attention, they worry about objectivity and van ness. I think those criteria which are very useful criteria should not be the main criteria for network news. You should look also to see, the journalists should not stand the stories and repetitive stories that have been that the logical background. So the major news story, the most covered new story is during 2004 as it is today for latinas, hot to do with immigration. I lifted every one of those news stories. There were 34, constitute a third of all the news stories about the tenets. And if the protagonist was a Border Patrol agent, what kind of story do you think, peter, it was about . The story was a western, a western genre story. We had the brave solitary taciturn anglo male defending the frontier that Great American desert against not a apaches are renegade comanches, but against mexicans in 10 issues carrying water jugs across the deserts. Was militarized, but we simply had the same story, if youre defending a good week population again and maintaining civilization again that people who are going to destroy our civilization. Within a third, even in a 15 frame shot, you would hear you would know the story despite the introduction, just by icons, images being cared arise. And so, there is messy and a their protagonists names changed, but the story remains the same. The best news story on immigration it turned out was from a bbc correspondent who was affiliated with the network news partner. He created a very interesting story that wove together both the characterizations of the character of the Border Patrol agent as a person as well as in the koran says individuals with subjectivity so that we can actually see why these people were risking their lives across the deserts and how frustrating it was for the Border Patrol agent to try to keep people who are desperate to come across the border. In the same amount of seconds, 90 seconds to get a story. A bbc correspondent did a much better job than the american correspondent telling the same story. We were seen by petitions of the these stereotypes, mythological stories rather than indepth stories that characterize what is going on. And i think the problem becomes that are American Public does not become any more familiar with what immigration is. Immigration is not the only story that should be covered about latinos, but it should be covered in a more and a more profound way. For as globalization is ever characterizes a major factor for immigration ,com,com ma no. Was population . Very limited. We had only the cowboy story. Host professor santa ana, what is the latino story think you would like to see covered that you have at . Guest my gosh, it would be wonderful to see an obituary. If there was if the network news decided they were going to present a proportional number of obituaries, characterize our population, we would see a very interesting, simple change that would wreak fitter, remake the way latinas are considered. The team does have represented as two dimensional cared hairs when they are immigrants. They are the cardboard cutouts that the john wayne or Clint Eastwood eastwood are defending america against. You dont see latinos as americans in the network news representations even today. What took place 15 and 20 years ago has not changed the network news. There has any change in the amount of coverage, there are now, cspan there or not it now a lot more cable coverage. So viewers can go elsewhere. The network news has not changed their present haitian style for a generation. Latinas in my generation have now become 50 Million People and they are not represented anywhere near as much substance as they should be. It is a failure i am afraid. It is a failure of news casting, network news casting that does not allow the American Public in general to understand who latinos are. And so, it promotes stereotyping. It promotes a level of ignorance and we cannot deal with the 21st century with misrepresentation major proportions of our population that make a huge difference in our society. Host is it different here in los angeles because of the large latino population . Do find it different watching the local news or the local papers . Guest the local news i was speaking about network news. Oakland as is different. But what is most different of spanishlanguage. So spanishlanguage television news, they have an extraordinarily different take on latinos. So what we really see is latinos are drawing her of these two language sources because its insufficient. You see and you either accept this stereotypes or you find them repugnant or insufficient and rico to televisa to find what is going on. Immigration is covered in tiredly differently. The campaigns are covered. The federal and local state campaigns for covered entirely differently. The only thing that looked similar sports actually. But in terms of characterizations of populations, no. By and large, weve seen the local , in local, Regional News the local Regional News we do see differences. The National Level and most concerned because that is where the decisions are made on federal and national issues. Latinos are not a regional population anymore. We constitute a major portion all across the country from South Carolina to south dakota as well as arizona, texas and california. We should not be considered to be regional. Host just to reiterate come you cant imagine this, but i want to make sure. Your book came out in 2013. Some of the examples you are using our five years old, six years old, 20 years old. Has it changed . Guest each year i do a survey to try to see with my student in my class is to see whether there has been change. Host here is the cover of the book. It is called juan in a hundred the representation of latinos on network news. Otto santa ana is the author. So these three very different women, different in terms of age in different in terms of who they are voted for. Michelle is admitted to voted for nader. Desmond burks had just voted for george bush. Debbie never both because she thinks politicians are no good into the validity of the motherwell. Deployed together and you know, once they are in afghanistan, the differences between men does seem as important anymore in what becomes important as more a question of what are their personalities like that how they get along and what will make their time they are how will they interact with each other . Debbie takes michelle underwing and mothers her. Shes a maternal figure bothering everybody, or shes trying to affirm the shell. They are working for a very tense, testy asked marine and he is super frustrated with michelle who was swearing like a rainbow hemp anklet and wont stop talking about how the war is about ideas. The for abc at one point a to bad about whether they can turn this woman into a good soldier. Michelle is bound and determined that will never have paid. Debbie is trying to show her that this is maybe not the easiest way to go about change. So there they are in afghanistan, serving on camp phoenix. The armament team, which michelle and debbie, the youngest and oldest of the three women are both on the armament team. They are both weapons mechanics. The armament teams runs out of american weapons to fix. They are a support battalion. They do Maintenance Work where they support industry soldiers and the weapons are not often enough for the armament team to have anything to do. The expert is a driven man come up with the idea, why dont they work on this interesting u. N. Project . They have facilitated the collection of a lot of old broken ak47s. Which are going to be repurposed and given out to Afghan National army soldiers. The idea is if they help arm the Afghan National army, they can save the army money and they can help the process of building a viable army and i tailored the u. S. Soldiers would be able to leap in the near future is what theyre thinking. I wanted to read a little bit about what is happening in afghanistan but these weapons. Theres a huge contract between michelles idea of what it means to be working on this weapons and debbie said yeah, but i would get to that after this passage. Michelle and debbie worked out a methodical system for documenting mr. Ak47s for passing through their hands. Theyre working on 20,000 ak47s over the course of the year. They needed to be able to account for every single ak47. The frequently rid of serial numbers on the size of the weapon and recording the identity they repaired. If they are difficult knocks. They reassemble the broken weapons. After the repairs had been completed. William hatcher focused on repairing while debian michelle roatan every symbol they could find. Over time they grew fluent in the language of ak47s. They came to know which countries have made more reliable versions and which made versions that were more likely to be broken. The chinese models for the worst and they discarded large numbers of them. Other a. K. A. Father astonishingly well over time. Some of guns had been manufactured dominican 50s. Those weapons lasts forever to show with you later. Typically the sites would be missing on the mechanics would replace them. They also checked a function making sure they would strike the bullet. They would replace the entire mechanism. Frequently the springs were bad and they replaced those. Many times michelle huddled springs pop out and hit her in the face. He accidentally got her fingers caught in various parts of the gun, too. But there were not terribly hard to fix. Thats the beauty of in a cave 47 michelle with a later. It is a really simple machine. We just got better as the year were not. You just practice and then you can do it in your sleep. Breathe, eat, sleep, a case. Heres a look at some upcoming hook fairs happening around the country. The event the scandal over what happened in endive people and have been worse people and at the mercer president department in the rank interest scandalous for president reagan. This is about 50 minutes. [applause] thank you, mark for this kind words. Thank you, david, for the sanitation. Its a pleasure to be back here again at this gathering. Benghazi was a night of heroes, a furor with sound and it was the night of cowardice. Who was on the contrary very present, very active, very engaged and very wrong. I want to go through a little bit in my remarks before we open us up to questions. I want to tell you a bit in detail the story of what actually happened that night on september 11 because so many facts have gotten obscured by the media and missed told, misrepresented by certain people in congress. Remember that this began on a quiet evening. Nothing was going on outside the u. S. Diplomatic compound in the nazi. A a wild before the attacks began, a policeman drove up on the dark gravel street outside, turned off his car and waited two minutes before the attacks began and he started up his car and left. All of this was duly noted by the Diplomatic Security agents who was sitting in a compound watching his security monitors. At 9 42 out of the darkness surged approximately 20, perhaps 30 armed men with a plan. They were not they are demonstrating. They were not there worried about a Youtube Video. They had come there for murder and they knew exactly who they were going to murder and they knew exactly where they would find him because they had inside information. Before unarmed security guards at the gate were surprised by these insurgents attacked, two of them managed to flee. The other two were caught. One was shot in the leg and forced to open the gate. At that moment the alert was sounded by Alec Henderson the Security Officer in front of those monitors. 9 42 p. M. Local time he sounded the alert. He went out over loudspeakers all across the compound. Everybody could hear it. He said the attack, attack and simultaneously the alert was sounded a mile away and the cia annex where ty woods and other cia contractors and former navy s. E. A. L. S were waiting. Now when ty heard the alert go off he gathered five other former special operations guys. They got their weapons together and started loading them into two cds g wagons and then went to see the cia chief and said hey we have got to go rescue these guys. They are under attack. The chief of base said no, hold your horses. He did not say stand down. He said hold in place. Hold your horses, hold in place, we need to get some serious firepower to help you rescue these guys. Let me give a call to the brigade on contract with us. He was supposed to be on contract with us. He was the security there and get some. 50 caliber gun trucks. Ty said okay we will make wait a couple minutes. Meanwhile the jihadis had stormed inside. The master has been taken out of his bedroom where he was doing his email and checking up on things that were going on during the day and he was taken by sean smith and herded into the socalled safe haven which was a closet back in a residential area in the fellow that was protected by iron bars like a cage in a zoo, open iron bore bars. It was not a solid door. He was taken and put into the closet with nothing. He left everything behind. Computers, secure computers, pacify computers, all of that was left behind and they were put into the closet with one Diplomatic Security officer. 10 minutes or so goes by, tigers backs to the chief of base and said hey boss we have got to go. These guys are getting attacked and they are getting reports from the command center saying there are more jihadis coming and heading to the residential villa where the ambassador was hiding under the plan that they had for what they would do with the compound came under attack. Again the chief of base said no, no hold in place. We have to get more firepower. Another 10 minutes goes by and by this point they have managed to get to the compound, excuse me to the villa where the ambassador is using silent military hand signals and now they found cans of diesel fuel and were starting to douse the furniture in the main living area. Ty goes again to his chief of base and says chief we have got to go. They are seeing smoke. The base this no, no hold your horses we have to get some more firepower and at that point tie woods says you woods says he and no wife, deleted we are out of here. He gets his guys together and to mercedes g wagons and they go one mile which is five minutes to the compound. The first thing that i conclude from this piece of the narrative is everybody could have been saved that night. Nobody had to die. No americans have to die that night if the cia chief of base had listened to his people on the ground and our forces who were there the military capabilities to respond had been allowed to respond. It could have saved them. Ty wanted to say them and he was told dont go. Eventually he disobeyed that order and by the time he got there a normal five minute drive that took him 20 minutes because he was held up by guess who . The 17th martyrs brigade supposedly helping us with security. They stopped him at a roadblock were about 10 minutes trying to offer him tea. He said you know where you can put your key. Eventually they split up into two groups. One group got into the diplomatic compound from the front and another group went around to the rear and to fight their way and by the time they made it to the diplomatic residential compound there was about he was about 10 30. I believe the ambassador was already dead. The flames were hot, intense. When i got to the roof there was the one Diplomatic Security agents who had managed to escape and was up there. They could hardly understand a word he was saying because of the diesel fumes which were toxic. He was communicating to them that he tried and tried and tried to find the ambassador even though there were these noxious black fumes inside and to find him and he couldnt sewed. Tai and his men under fire went back into the villa in the darkness with these noxious fumes trying to pull them out again and again and again and again. He found sean smith and he was dead and i couldnt find the ambassador. Finally at 11 15 and remember this was supposed to be a demonstration. This was all supposed to have been a lightning attack. It happened so fast that thing couldve been done. Its now 11 15, an hour and a half after the attack started, an hour and a half of constant fighting after the attack started. By this point ty says okay we cant get the ambassador. There there are jihadis ever mistreat them could see them forming. Theyre probably 100 people who will be coming in and we wont be a little them off. He sent the Diplomatic Security guys who by the way the other three they found hiding in their barracks in their underwear and bare feet. They never fired a shot. They Diplomatic Security guys never fired a shot. The only weapons that were discharged for by the former navy s. E. A. L. S who had come to rescue them. Anyhow they leave at 11 15. Ty at his guys pulled off the jihadis for another 15 minutes to make it back by 11 30. At that point that concludes the ambassadors missing probably dead and they have sean smith in the car. All of this is being sent back to washington in real time and also communicated to this dude guard which is the head of africom u. S. African command commanded by carter hamm who by coincidence happened to be in washington that evening. Let me shift back to washington so you can understand what was happening and what the response was. 9 42 p. M. Benghazi time, 3 42 p. M. Washington time. Ty for boat 44 05 Washington Times so before ty arrived in before the fires have been set at 4 05 p. M. The Operation Center sent out a flash cable saying the compound and benghazi is under attack and more information would follow shortly. A whole series of emails and communications are coming out to the state Department Operations center or the next couple of hours. Every single one of them mentions the word attack, mention the fact that later on the ambassador was missing, that people may have died and not a single one of them mentioned a demonstration that got out of control. At 5 00 p. M. Washington time, 11 00 p. M. Benghazi time i met woods in his guys are fighting off the jihadis. The secretary of defense leon panetta and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff go to the white house for a prearranged meeting. They have been met in the hallway by general carter hamm who had been getting reports from stewed guard and he ran up to see them and said hey we have a real problem. The diplomatic compound is under attack. You might want to inform the president and heres the best information ive got so far. Fragmentary but we diverted a predatory predator and it will be overread 5 05 p. M. So we will have eyes on intelligence to see whats going on. So they are getting all this literally as they are walking to the see the president and they get there there and talk to him for half an hour and bring him up to. On whats happening. As best anyone that i know has been able to piece this together and that includes the members of congress who have been actively investigating this for the past year and a half as best anyone knows the president essentially told leon panetta the secretary of defense and Charlie Dempsey guys i have to in las vegas and this is really bad and would you please take care of it. I have some important things to do tonight to prepare for this fundraiser. You can handle it with my staff or be in touch with my staff and i count on you. There was never a single conversation after that between the president of the United States and anyone in the department of defense or the military command. General carter general carter hamm who was a fourstar general sent the chief of africom said he was the guy in charge of moving military forces that might never once called the president. The president never once called him and as i argue in dark forces worse than they stand down order from washington what happened was the president of the United States never gave a standup order. General hamm understood this very well. He understood that this president when he said take care of it or do what has to be done it wasnt like jack bauer in 24. Go out and break things and kill people. It was keep this as quiet as you possibly can to make sure we dont have any collateral damage. There was a standdown order given that night that has not been talked about very much and it was issued by the secretary of state in person. About two hours after the beginning of the attacks, Mark Thompson was a Senior State Department officer in charge of National Security and had been a u. S. Marine and was personally familiar with attacks on u. S. Embassies and how we respond to them made a suggestion through his command that they should deploy the support team. The fest is an Interagency Group with a very heavy special forces component including cia officers and fbi agents and state Department People on call 24 7, 24 7 for precisely the kind of emergency that happened in benghazi. They were created to deal with this kind of emergency. They were set up after the Africa Embassy bombings in 1998. Hillary clinton came back and said no do not call the fest. They were on standby. They couldve been an airplane within an hour or two hours before the final attacks occurred. She said dont call the fest. So i stand down order such as it was came personally from the secretary of state. Now, when Hillary Clinton gave her unique testimony remember she had a cerebral hemorrhage or fall or something that prevented her from testifying in december of 2012 and then she did appear before congress in january of 2013. She said she had a phonecall with the president at 10 00 p. M. To discuss what was going on and coordinate but what they were coordinating with their story. Right after that phonecall the secretary of state releases a statement at 10 08 p. M. Thats 4 08 a. M. Benghazi time before ty woods and were killed but they were still alive in the statement came out. The statement i would exactly read it to you. It says justify this vicious vicious behaviors or sponsor inflammatory material posted on the internet. To this day i havent figured out out out nor has anybody a knowing Congress Congress investigating this figured out where she got that. Some have sought to justify this behavior. Nobody justify their behavior because of a Youtube Video. They said the United States and employers an intention to denigrate the Blues Brothers commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the beginning of our nation but beginning of our nation but let me be clear there is never any justification for violent acts of this kind. Blah blah blah. It is utterly baffling, utterly baffling how she could come up with such a boldfaced invention, a lie. Every single email was sent back and they been released to congress and they know what they said. Talked talk about an attack. Brigadier general lovell who was was the j. To add africom testified in congress and he said what we did know quite early on that this was a hostile action. This was no demonstration gone terribly awry. Thats what was in the intelligence report. That is what was in the state Department Report and yet Hillary Clinton at 10 08 p. M. Said no this is because a Youtube Video. I think one of the things that trey gowdy and the select committee forgot to find out they had to get the paper trail. You dont issue a Statement Like that without some preparation of the draft and people involved in the drafting of it. We know for example the talking points suzanne rice used in a threeday process with over 100 emails from different people giving their opinions. It would be very instructive to see who actually told Hillary Clinton this was because of a Youtube Video in where video in where they got them Bad Information because there is nothing in the reporting from the ground from the state department or the cia that mentions a Youtube Video. It is invented whole cloth. I call this the original spin of benghazi. You have to ask the question and thats what i ask in dark forces why did Hillary Clinton invent the story out of whole cloth . I believe the reason she invented it had to do with the number of things. Number one obviously the administration did not want to admit that this was a terrorist attack. It was weeks away from the president ial election and it would destroy their quote narrative that al qaeda had been defeated. Obama was not president bush. He actually beat bin laden and was an attack by bin laden and got our troops out of iraq and set up into iraq. It kind of destroyed this narrative that terrorism was on the wane and the threats to america were disappearing with the obama policies. But there is much more than that. It goes back to what i call the original sin in benghazi. The original sin in benghazi began very early on during the insurgency against gadhafi in march of 2011. At that time president obama signed a president ial finding authorizing the Central Intelligence agency and other agencies of the u. S. Government to provide covert assistance. Part of that covert assistance was the supply of weapons, true cut outs and the cutouts of choice were the special forces of the emirates of qatar. In the end of march when gadhafis forces were bombing the libyan insurgents and everybody thought the insurgency was going to collapse. In the beginning they thought it was going to collapse, a decision was made to deliver surface to air missiles to the insurgents through qatar and the cia released a block of Stinger Missiles from a stockpile in kuwait to the Qatari Special forces. Some of these missiles were brought in by land in a convoy through sudan into northern chad and into libya. How do we know this . We know this for a couple of reasons. Number one at wall street journal reporter stumbled and to the abandoned office of gadhafis intelligence chief days after the fall of the regime and discovered internal cable traffic intercepted communications between a french commander in northern chad because the front still had the front side of force there and his Commanding Officers talking about Qatari Special forces unit convoys bringing in Stinger Missiles. They said hey maybe we ought to ask washington what they want to Stinger Missiles going into libya. We also know this because i is a reporter has spent and lived 18 years in france and had some pretty good contacts in that administration at that time. I asked my contacts close to president sarkozy what was going on. They said oh yes we got a call from the u. S. Embassy in paris as a result of this saying hey excuse me, but called you in paris after we got the call from chad and said hey what do you want us to do at this . Your missiles are not our missiles but our guys can stop it if you want. They have the qatari convoy and he answered back from the u. S. Embassy in paris will and said no go ahead and let them go. Theres no evidence so far that those missiles were actually delivered to the libyan rebels and i dont allege that in the book however what i was able to find out subsequently from u. S. Special forces sources including a senior officer on active duty who was steamed about this and so was to take the risk to brief me on what had happened, a u. S. Military helicopter in afghanistan was hit on july 25, 2012, brought down by a surfacetoair missile. Luckily the missile warhead did not explode. Everybody jumped out of the aircraft and during the crash investigation they found a scrap of metal from the fuselage and the engine that contained a serial number. That serial number track back to the block of Stinger Missiles that had been signed out to the cia in kuwait to the Qatari Special forces. That is something that is called a paper trail. That is something that the Benghazi Select Committee can discover and investigate and look into. I have spoken to them about this already. That is the original sin a bend osi. Now those missiles went missing obviously and one of the recent ambassador stephens was sent to benghazi was to try and get them back. Hillary clinton herself announced the effort to recuperate missing surfacetoair missiles when she made her lightning trip to libya right after gadhafi was killed. You know that wonderful cute statement she made to an abc News Reporter . She said, i came, i saw, he died referring to gadhafi. That was her summary of u. S. Policy and her importance in october of 2011. When she announced the United States was going to give money to the Libyan Government to recuperate missing surfacetoair missiles she neglected to say some of those missiles were american. Ambassador stevens was sent to benghazi on september 10 specifically because a shipment of weapons from the nazi for the Syrian Rebels, and i dont believe the shipment was cover covered, was revealed to the public in turkey. They found it. Journals were going down there and snooping around. People were getting very upset and they were very worried it would be public in the whole u. S. Operation secretly the rebels and syria would become exposed. Chris stevens who knew all the rebels personally, he had broken bread with them and spend lots of time there is a special envoy to the insurgents against gadhafi the year before, he was the guy. He he was the go two guy. He was the one who would go instead with these jihadis and say look, we need you to do this in an orderly way and not send the bt amend so the shipments get exposed. We have to do this quietly or not do it at all. That is why he was there. So that was the original sin. Now theres another side of this that i want to mention briefly and i will open up to questions and its extremely important and is something that nobody has yet spoken about publicly aside from my book dark forces. The people who carried out this attack we have been told its on sderot sharif. Clearly they were members of al sharif they were captured on videotape in the pictures are there. Their actions can be seen. Ansar sharia is what i call the pickup team. These were the local hires that were hired to carry out the attack to fill out the ranks, they were they rent a crowd outside that tys on the roof. They were not the ones who killed the ambassador. They were not the ones who orchestrated the attacks and they were definitely not the ones who launched the military attack on the cia annex at 5 00 in the morning with five mortar rounds, one long, one short, three right on target imperfect military tactic one which nobody in libya had ever demonstrated. At the people who carried out the mortar attack were the iranian nationals. They belonged to the quds force of the Islamic Revolutionary guards force. I go into great detail in the book how i know this. To begin with the iranian president s and benghazi came to the notice of u. S. Military contractors who were there helping the insurgents on behalf of the taxpayer convoy. As early as march of 2011. They saw the iranians they are. They saw iran circuits hezbollah hezbollah from alone on there on the ground and what were they doing . To start with they were buying influence in spreading the money around trying to figure out what was happening. Later the next year when they saw the weapons going to syria to the Syrian Rebels who were their enemies. The iranians were working with Bashar Alassad and the rebels were against them so they sell these weapons leaving benghazi going to the Syrian Rebels and iran said we are going to put an end to this. There were approximately 50 to 60 classified intelligence reports, which i learned about by people who had access to them that mentioned money and arms are flowing from iran and hezbollah into benghazi in the weeks and months before the attacks. Now i have spent many years of my life working with defectors from Iranian Intelligence. A former senior cia officer once said of me, i would like to think it was in jest but it may have been serious and he said timmerman has spent more face time with iranian defectors than anyone in the Intelligence Community because it has gone on for many, many, many years. Just about every major defector has come out that i debriefed and spent months with getting information. One of the things i learned from some these iranian sources were the names of the heads of the operation of the quds force. Let me just remind you what im saying here. This is a statesponsored terrorist attack. Carried out by the Islamic Republic of iran. This is not a bunch of ragtag jihadis who all of a sudden decided one night they were going to kill some americans or that they saw this Youtube Video. This was a statesponsored coordinatedmrike against americe goal of driving us out of libya, turning libya into chaos and stopping the arms trade into syria. On every account except the last i think have been successful. The operation was led by a twostar general from the revolutionary guards, one of the top 10 members. They are called the commanding heights. I named them in the book. The person in charge on the ground was a senior quds force officer who had spent many years in lebanon. Money was brought in and i talk about the money trail a bit in the book. There are wire transfers which i have been able to get access to from my iranian sources that show money coming from wellknown quds force channels in indonesia and malaysia coming in through france, through algeria to finance this. They spent between 50 and 70 million over a years time to recruit terrorists on the ground as surrogate forces and then to deploy them when they needed to for the september 11 and september 12 attacks. Now ive spent a lot of years working with victims of terrorism. The biggest case i worked on is whats known as the hapless case where the iran 9 11 case and we proved in a new york court in december of 2011 that the Iranian Regime had a material, direct material involvement with the 9 11 attacks against america in 2001. The victims, families of the victims won a 6 billiondollar judgment against the Iranian Regime based on this evidence which i have to coordinate. During that time that we were preparing that evidence we got extraordinary pushback from the cia and the u. S. Intelligence community more broadly because they could not accept the notion that shiite fundamentalist iran could coordinate and work with sunni fundamentalist al qaeda. They said basically she is eat sunnis for breakfast. Of course theyre not going to work together. We responded by saying well chico really . As i recall the iranian guerrillas who ultimately ousted the shah of iran were trained by yasir arafat a Sunni Islamic terrorist in south lebanon. Really . I seem to remember that the iranians had been the biggest arms suppliers to hamas in gaza, a sunni fundamentalist terrorist group. Really . Gee the u. S. Military is getting people blown up in iraq and afghanistan by explosive penetrators produced in iran supplied to the taliban, a sunni fundamentalist terrorist group in afghanistan, into al qaeda in iraq another sunni terrorist group. Eventually we won that argument. I give classes at the joint Counterintelligence Training Academy in quantico to the u. S. Intelligence community and a year ago had the opportunity of learning at the end of one of the sessions that a person sitting to a Senior Assistant to the director of National Intelligence working on iran in this person came to me afterwards and said ken you know we have changed our analysis on this. We have changed our analysis and we are actually looking into irans involvement with al qaeda and specifically irans involvement with al qaeda. The only hopeful note that i can leave you with from these remarks is that perhaps u. S. Intelligence Community Today has learned from its mistakes of yesterday and understands just how diabolical, how dedicated, how determined and how skilled the Iranian Intelligence services are and how determined they are to do just what ahmadinejad said and his successors have said which is to destroy america. Thank you very much. [applause] now we have questions. Yes sir. I would like to turn your attention to something different. Her book makes an argument that sounds correct but the obama administrations Foreign Policy had been feckless and very passive but what do you make of the recent Bombing Campaigns against isis in iraq . Does not mark a real change in the obama administrations viewpoint or is it strictly a onetime pop up thing that really Means Nothing . Well we have been told by the white house that those, call it a campaign when you have 18 bombs dropped in a day, if you remember Bombing Campaigns by the u. S. Military you are talking about thousands of shorties in the day. This is not a Bombing Campaign campaign, the couple of bombs dropped. The white house has told us specifically that will not lead to u. S. Military involvement in iraq. There will not be u. S. Combat troops in iraq. I was listening to one of the cable news shows the other night and heard i think it was Howard Fineman talking with Chris Matthews and he was going on about how gosh it was just that nobody could that nobody couldve predicted whats happening in iraq today. Nobody could have predicted it, not even the u. S. Intelligence community. David and i were joking earlier and david said he dont listen to tv much anymore because i get so angry. I dont either but i happened up in a public place and i had no choice. I was reaching for my shoe to throw onto the tv but instead i got into an argument with the guy behind the counter. I was in iraq a year ago in Northern Iraq in exactly these places were isis is taking over and everybody knew that they were coming. Everybody knew. The christians in ninevah knew that they had infiltrated their towns on the outskirts of mosul. The bishop of mosul bishop nona knew about this. The page or two i got to know that they of the Chaldean Church knew about it and warned about it again and again. The elected officials from Northern Iraq, the kurds knew about it. Everybody knew that this was coming and they knew was coming. Why . Because we had evacuated our military forces from iraq prematurely before the job is done. They sacrificed tremendously in the battle of fallujah in 2,042,005. They sacrificed again against all political ads during the surge of 2007 in 2008, when the military fight and lost the political fight after bravo bomber pulled the plug and told his jihadis away rather than they could have a country and oh by the way they could share it with iran because the iranians or at least controlled control up until recently most of iraq. So i do not think his wished change of policy on the obama administration. It was a Public Relations stunt and tragically, tragically people who have paid the price for this up in the christian of Northern Iraq who have been driven out and there is for the first time in 1600 years no mass was said in the cathedral in mosul three weeks ago. The first time in 1600 years. Another question . Yes. You paint a picture of the middle east of a year from now two years five years Going Forward with some focus on the isis but on the druze as well. Theres an old adage in the middle east that the strong horse commands respect and the terrorists, the jihadis, the bandits will respect the strong horse but if the strong horse horse goes away theyll come out of the darkness and start to play. That is what we have right now. The strong horse has departed the middle east. Im not suggesting the United States should be the policeman that we should be there with military forces and a dozen countries. Not at all but we have to command respect. I think what we saw in benghazi my initial reaction to benghazi without knowing the details of what happened was that this was a response to the perception of u. S. Weakness in the region and when the United States is perceived to be weak we will be attacked inevitably we will be attacked because there is no lack of jihadis and evil people who would love Nothing Better than to murder americans. This is what happened with this journalist fully just a couple of days ago and will happen again. I think a lot depends, what the middle east is going to look like in two or five years is going to depend on what the United States does and that the United States continues to act as we are acting today in other words stepping back standing back in a power bat a vacuum iraq will be enhanced enhanced devices and iran in split between isis in iran. The kurds will have a hold out area in the northeastern part of the country under siege and they may not make it. They may not make it. The iranians will control the southern part of the country isis the north in and the west. That will become the new afghanistan launch for terrorism around the world. You will have attacks from jihadis with european passports american passports coming back to this country in europe. You will have attacks all across the world by individuals who are virtually untraceable. You will have muslim communities that david spoke of this on campuses in the United States. You will have muslim communities across the world rising up and claiming their right to justice for their communities. And it will get progressively worse. You have to come up in front of the microphone. Could you also comment on turkey and the future of turkey with respect to all of this and what happens to israel given the ages antiisraeli u. S. Leader today. Turkey was a tremendous powerful and strong u. S. Ally up until 2009. A member of nato, holding the fort with us against terrorist forces around the world. Cooperating with united the United States working with israel join politari production event joint exercises television sharing and all the rest. As aragon became more powerful felt more secure and felt that he had u. S. Support in his turn if you wish to consolidate power and to transform turkey from these modern secular states into islamist autocracies turkey broke its relationship with israel. We know the socalled flotilla of ships going to gaza and it broke the military cooperation with israel and became an enemy of israel an open enemy of israel and started to cooperate with the Islamic Republic of iran in joint military strikes against the kurdish opponents in Northern Iraq and today turkey is working with qatar to help hamas, to help the jihadis in syria and quite possibly according to some sources to help isis in iraq. Turkey has become, has really flipped from becoming a u. S. Ally to i would say a u. S. Adversary in the region in a very big way. Israel will do what israel needs to do, thank god and they will do it despite the United States and prefer to do it with the United States but they do it despite the United States and i think israels democracy is Strong Enough to survive the worst of president s in this country. [applause] ken of what you say is true that iran is behind two major attacks on the u. S. , 9 11 and benghazi which are these considered acts of war and is the u. S. Government hiding this from us because they dont want to admit there have been these acts of war . Thats a very good question i cant give you an easy straight answer. Yes they are acts of war, clearly they are acts of war but again theres a resistance i think in political circles and intelligence circles to call them by their name. I remember as a young reporter in beirut by first frontpage story was april 19, 1983 when the iranians blew up our embassy. I was one of the first reporters on scene during that attack. Later on that year the iranians murdered 241 u. S. Marines in beirut and forces to withdraw. And were very proud of it. That was their goal. They had been aboard with us since they took our diplomats hostage in tehran in 1979. We thought it was over when they gave them back but in january of 1981 they knew the war was just beginning. So from an iranian perspective, they remain at war with us and their goal is to destroy ameri america. As we know are developing nuclear weapons. They are working on missiles that are capable of exploding an emp electromagnetic pulse directory trajectory which would take down the power grid that we know those are their intentions and we turn a blind eye to it. The one bright spot is what the United States treasury had been doing and have been working hard and effectively to frustrate irans efforts to use the International Banking system to further their terrorist designs. Even that is being scaled back as we scale back sanctions on iran for an elusive Nuclear Agreement which i believe will simply enshrine Irans Nuclear Weapons Program and to make it offlimits to any form of international intervention. Thank you so much. This was so fabulous and interesting. I lived in the middle east for quite some time and one of the things that i received with great horror when i was there is the pervasive level of evil in the middle east. Everywhere. I mean its not just a few people that are evil they are. There is a kind of a biting with people thats astonishing. Since i came back to america what i find his American People have been propagandized into believing theres no such thing as evil. People dont believe in evil here, not really about like to know what you have to say about the fact that what we need is a powerful propaganda here in this country. We need a Real Campaign of propaganda dont you think and do you think we need to somehow make the American People understand that there is evil and these people are absolutely evil and we must destroy this evil . Its just terrifying to me how naive the americans are. Doesnt this just kill you how naive everybody has . [applause] americans are fundamentally a good and decent people and because we are a good and decent people we dont like to believe that evil exists in the world and its very difficult for americans to accept that. And you are right. Clearly i have also experienced evil in the face, face to face up close and personal in the middle east. It exists. Its stock the world and theres only one thing to do with evil. You cannot compromise with it. It cannot negotiate with it. You cannot make a deal with it. You certainly cannot hope that it will wish you well. You have to rip it out and destroy it where you find it. [applause] i want to thank you ken for this lecture. Its rare to have somebody as informed as you are about these matters. I really appreciated and i know the audience does as well. [applause] i wanted to disagree with you on one point. This evil that is now flourishing in the middle east is going to continue until the United States flexes its military muscle to regulate boots on the ground. We should have had that base in iraq. We need to rearm. They need to increase our military budget. We need to show that we mean business. We cant do it with an antiamerican president and antiamerican commander commanderinchief like barack obama. Im not sure republicans have the spine to do it either but thats the only thing that will drive these people back. Isis fest to be destroyed in it that mean sending in the marines would need to send in the marines. [applause] thank you david for that and i would respond that im trying to keep my remarks to those authors and journalists are not the over political. However, however clearly if you remember the lessons of history we cap several hundred thousand troops in germany for 50 years after world war ii. Why . Of the germans would be better germans. They kept hundreds of thousands of troops in asia. Why . So the japanese would be better allies to us. In korea we cap 30,000, we still have something close to 30,000 troops in korea. Why . To remind the North Koreans that we are still there. How is it that we fight two wars in iraq and theres not a single combat soldier left in iraq or single u. S. Base in iraq . It just boggles the mind. It boggles the mind. [applause] and by the way the iraqis would have been very happy and will be very happy should renegotiate those agreements. We could have negotiated agreements like that with the kurds. We couldve negotiated agreements like that in another with the christians who had achieved agreement in iraq to have the province in their area that was autonomous from the feckless central government. You could have done it there but we chose not to do it. Instead we chose a feckless solution. The minimalist solution, the leading from behind solution. If we lead from behind we will be left behind. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you. [applause] these three very different women different in terms of age and in terms of who they voted for, michelle as i mentioned had voted for nader. Desmond burks had just voted for george bush. Debbie never votes because she thinks politicians are just no good and she doesnt like any of them at all. They deployed together and once they are in afghanistan the differences between them dont seem as important anymore and what becomes important is more the question of whether their personalities like and how do they get along and how are they going to make their time theyre . How will they use their time there and how well they interact with each other . Daddy takes michelle under her wing and mothers her. She is a very maternal figure. Shes mothering everybody but she is especially trying to affirm michelle. They are working for a very tense testy ax murdering and he is super frustrated with michelle. He was wearing a rainbow hemp anklets and wont stop talking about the words of idea of this exmarine museum at one point make a bet with another exmarine about whether they can turn this young woman into a good soldier. Michelle is bound and determined that will never happen. And debbie is trying to show her that this is not the easiest way to go about things. So there they are in afghanistan and the armament team which michelle and debbie, the youngest and the oldest of the three women are both on the armament team in both womens mechanics, the armament team runs out of american weapons to fix. They are in a support battalion. They do Maintenance Work. They are supporting infantry soldiers and their weapons are not breaking often enough. For the armament team have anything to do and they are very driven and they come up with the idea, why dont they work on this interesting u. N. Project. The United Nations has facilitated the collection of a lot of old broken a k. 47th which are going to be repurposed and given out to Afghan National army soldiers. And a idea if they armed the army they can save that army that money and help the process of building a viable army that could defend the democracy in afghanistan and ideally the u. S. Soldiers would be able to leave in the near future is what they are thinking. I want to read about whats happening in afghanistan with these weapons. There is a huge contrast between michelles idea of what it means to be working on these weapons and debbies idea that we will get to that maybe after this passage. Michelle and debbie worked out a methodical system for documenting this stream of ak47s over passing through their hands. They work on 20,000 ak47s over the course of the year. Miller told the soldiers they needed to account for every single ak47 but the aks were hard to identify. Michelle and debbie took over the task of deciphering the frequently eroded serial numbers on the sides of the weapons and recording the identity of each gun they repaired. If the team got a difficult box theyll concentrated on disassembling and reassembling the broken weapons and debbie and michelle document at the weapons after the repairs had been completed. They got a box that was easier however than will and patrick focused on repairing a case while debbie and Michelle Wright and every symbol they could find. Over time they were fluent in the language of ak47s. They came to know which countries had made more reliable versions and which had made versions that were more likely to be broken. The chinese models were the worst and they discarded large numbers of them. Other a case held up astonishingly well over time. Some of the guns had been manufactured in the 1950s. Those weapons last forever michelle would say later. Typically the sides would be missing in the mechanics would replace them. They also checked the function of the firing pin making sure would strike the bullet. If the trigger didnt feel right they would replace the entire mechanism. The safety off and wasnt working. Frequently the springs are bad and they replaced those great many times michelle had old springs pop out and hit her in the face. She accidentally got her fingers caught in various parts of the gun too that they were not terribly hard to fix. Thats the beauty of an ak47 and michelle would say later. Its a really simple machine. It just got better as he went on. You just practice and then you can do it in your sleep. Breathe, eat and sleep a case. Ive been privileged to get paid come to share history and share my passion with millions and millions of people as some of the americas most popular places. Ive had many opportunities one of the goals has been a passion for history. One of the challenge is thing about getting the book published was across the stronger is as not really a history tradition by any means. What shall does it go on in the bookstore . Extensively on the history shows coming to d. C. Show. Its on three shelves here. Publishers today, big publishers want to pigeonholpigeonhol e her book and say what kind of book it is. I dont like traditional history. I write differently. So what is the book about . Thats what youre probably wondering. Its an eclectic look at the fascinating projects ive worked on during my career. I describe it as part insider perspective, part scholarship and part memoir. Some people have termed it a memoir but i certainly didnt write it as a memoir. And thinking how long my stories fit together, the obvious way is my career are, so that is a guess how you could define it as a memoir. Images see the part of the introduction and introduce the various places ive worked. This book chronicles my personal palmer just the past nature to have a completed. The chapters follow my career beginning of the grudge or internship at williamsburg, one of the nations largest outdoor history sites. Williamsburg is a carefully cultivated environment sweeps visitors into another time. It inspired history and challenge me to figure what it means to consider the past. This millions National Portrait gallery provided an Excellent Foundation for a budding historian. In its corridors of faces i began to see the necessity of thinking about the pass from alltel perspectives. At the smithsonians Natural Museum of American History adult into his Oracle Research looking at primary sources enacted the engaging with the past. Attached history with my bare hands and enjoyed every moment. In a threeyear stint at the Missouri Historical society has developed a national traveling at addition and gain valuable insight into other cultures. My challis southwest opened my eyes to the powers of plays. At this dismount and National Museum i learned how to humanize the past and to make historical topics engaging and compelling. Those are the main places ive worked. Each place i have worked has really deepened my understanding of the historical process. I found over the years people either claimed to have history or history. Theres really no middle ground. Im always curious what inspires people to love history. Im curious. Raise your hand, does the place inspired to like history . How about a book . To a certain book inspire you to like history . Some people. What about a person . Does a certain person . Okay, good. Or me, i do write about my inspirations and for me it was the place. So let me just read a short x irked from where i just describe that. While i cant pinpoint a moment, i can identify a place to greatly contributed my love history. A place like you others has the power to foster a fascination for history to resort polynomial capital of williamsburg. Turnout interstate 64 heading east from which many traveler passes through the forest edge in title creeks. Tucked away in virginias americas largest outdoor you see them come a resort town brought to life every day of the year by hundreds of interpreters to face the daunting challenge of transporting visitors back in time to the 18th century when america declared her independence for great britain. The restoration began in 1926 through the generosity of john d. Rockefeller junior his money transformed the southern town into ritual of historic preservation. Today Colonial Williamsburg the name of the restoration of foundation that runs a exemplifies history to learn a language as the merchants rather than up with native speakers and perhaps the same could be said of history. Colonial williamsburg douses sisters in the sight, sound, smell, taste and feel of life in the 17th 70s. Hissing the equivalent of entering a foreign country. I once the visitor grabs onto the recognizable long post in this via the unfamiliar. From the clip cloth of carriages to the highpitched rails and the boom of candidates come in the sounds of live the life intricately carved wood paneling, neatly clipped box list of unusual pattern gunsmoke gingerbread, inc. , which, peanut soup, altogether its refused his assent is. Into the alternate universe wants a 10yearold boy whos not been the same since. So also under the category of memoir i describe a lot of my personal experiences pursuing the path and for six years i was very privileged to manage the handson history room at the National Museum of American History. Its no longer there and fortunately, but if you remember that he was 35 different activities you can do that was a activity base. You could chant cotton. Let me just read a story appeared one of them as they hire will bicycle. Does anyone remember that . You could get on a high wheel bicycle. People are typewriting these things, but i was determined to make the attempt. I stood gripping a fourfoot twoinch high will bicycle ready to fling my body to the sea. Theyre in the National Mall facing the Washington Monument the Smithsonian Castle on my last i was prepared to risk making a fool of myself for this opportunity. Recalling essays about his own adventures ended the challenges ahead. I envision several possible outcomes. It crashed from a smooth writer running over small child or dog. I wanted to read a high will ever since i worked in the handson history that the National Museum of American History designed to promote active learning featuring two reproduction objects in the large entrance window. Every kid they get a small dairy in them to take a ride. Great big wheels in the front and small will trailing behind. Perhaps no other ive checked listed it as much as the hiler said that john makes a magnetic force kids would raise, jump on and start pedaling. The dolts with coaxing would climb on and have a grand time because we taken risk out of the equation. The bicycles were mounted on rollers and cables held him firmly in place. Security was guaranteed. Nothing like the original high will experience. In the 1880s it was an extreme sport. In the early 1880s with that peak popularity, and mark twain are to ride one. He later wrote an article about it attempts in title team in the bicycle. His advice coming to a bicycle, youll not regret regret it if you live. Mark twain murdered dhi hi wheeler were graceful compliments he called it. Graceful first four feet off the ground, the writer of a highroller must account for more than a few anxieties to die. I felt the allure of the bike and wondered if the skills and courage required to master one. I connected training for the hoh are probably tears about the history and practicality of writing them. Answered countless questions about how a person got on and off the wheels without breaking his neck, secretly wishing i could speak from experience. Hi wheelers required no balance and an ample attached to the frame for visitors of all sizes. I plotted how i might give one a try. One night when no one was in the exam i would take the bike off its track into Museum Central corridor in a sling up the baking across second floor to the first lady sound and pass the starspangled banner. The crash of plexiglass as they rode into one of the exhibition cases or worse ran over jaclyn kennedys down and became entangled in it or even worse that cracked my skull under greenhouse giant white marble statue of rich washington regards. I wondered if i would ever get the opportunity to find my chance came one Beautiful Day in may with a program of bicycles and a group from maryland came to demonstrate their machines. In preliminary talks before the event that carefully hinted to one of the members they really wanted to try writing one and was determined not to miss the opportunity. After lectures and demonstrations the program concluded with a parade of bikes down the National Mall coming sight to behold with the sandstone tourist business on a Capital Tower in the background to the scene could for me to miss washington. Icicles written by men and women of the late 18th century slowly move down the mall. As the parade ended, there were butterflies lying around my stomach. One owner graciously offered to let me try this wheels. Now is my moment. And exactly how to mount and dismount by putting the book knowledge into practice is another story. The ultimate scale tested at the moment of embarking and disembarking. Heart racing a stud behind a 50inch goodwill and made my first attempt. You have to buy the book to find out. So another experience propelled me to make a career move from American History. Let me read a little part of this because this is about a sense of place. I had the privilege of the company may smithsonian study tour along the lewis and clark trail and western montana and idaho and this was the first day. Rudolph longman and it was over 100 degrees out side. We were going rafting on the missouri river. We didnt know each other. This is our first time together. I was a sony representative. Our three rats treated with the current through the desolate Countryside East of the city of great falls. The scenery unchanged over 200 years. Hundred years pickling to prepare preparing iraqi upon grasses have rolling hills. We try to imagine what lewis or clark mightve thought at this landscape in the expedition journals list describes beauty of the majestically great scenery and the huge of antelope and especially buffalo. Clark estimate one herd numbered near 10,000. The abundance of animals meant the expedition members for eating well. It included buffalo hump comments on america out of weintraub. Sadly today the barren beauty of the landscape testified to the tragic disappearance of the great animal herd. We could only see part of this enough spread before the expedition members eyes. We continued down the river as they gazed at the stretch ahead, my reverie was interrupted by a blast of water hitting my leg. Suddenly water sprayed the boat followed by howling laughter. Arafat was under attack. At the end edition of the guide covers several people are one of the other rats picked up a huge platter tensor for use on hot days. Unexpectedly found myself in the middle of the water bottle. An average age of 65 were financialfinancial ly welloff, educated and well read him and not the type of foes that one expects to face a battle. The heat appeared to push them over the edge. Its quickly soaked in my first instinct was to jump in and defend the house but i reconsidered my involvement. I concluded as a representative of the smithsonian i should watch my new. I like governor leader who was sitting nearby and getting hit in the face. He grinned and shrugged we decided to enjoy the coolness of the water. Identify the ringleader, one middleaged lady with a large water machine gun in her hand. During that week, the group had other ventures. Swimming in lolo hot springs, hiding amounts in idaho, hiking on the trail and canoeing down the Clearwater River through smoke filled ridges with the ashes from a nearby wildfire fell around us. Worst back right this is smoky blaze through the spiritual experience for me. It is for the expedition stopped on june 27, 1806 on their return journey. Our understand for that place became an exercise in faith for me. The horses who stirred a cloud of dust that made it possible to see the next step of the steep rocky trail. Ive no choice but to trust my horse here to be a dinner on my face to catch the best i felt like a true westerner. I cant that evening after a washed up in the whole and beat one of our van drivers and van drivers to make van drivers and make them up or shoes. I stared into the vastness of the stern idaho sky. Little did i know that i have been drawn into a drama that captivates thousands who traveled lewis and clark trail every year. Despite the heated mosquitoes and smoke the power of this landscape had reignited my fascination for history and a new way. This wasnt bladensburg. A carefully crafted immersion in place and time. This was an immersion of time and is, raw land. Like my fellow travelers on the trip and future trips, my appreciation for lewis and clarks expedition accomplished was grayhaired because the menu but tangible way experienced their struggles are not in the landscape. So basically that it pants, not long after that experience a job came across my desk, a job announcements work on the National Lewis and Clark Centennial exhibition, which was coming up in a former professor and wise man who spoke remixed earrings, who now is chief historian park service counseled me to seize the opportunity. He said if i ever get an opportunity to work on a bicentennial National Bicentennial project, take care. So this is very wise advice and i ended up leaving American History moving out to st. Louis for three years working on the National Lewis and Clark Centennial expedition. So that leads to insiders perspective. What i read about insider. The lewis and clark experience was amazing opportunity because we borrowed from over 50 institutions around the country and its objects have never been together. A lot of them since the expedition ended was really fighting to see them for the first time. So let me read a short portion about what it is like what artifacts are arriving. Fall 2000 to begin a new phase in our timeline. An artifact elation. In my opinion this is the most exciting time in entire process of Exhibition Development in the grand vision becomes reality. The concepts from from deep within the brain become threedimensional. See the cases filled with carefully not to dodge xlib rightly or not so brightly, the large graphic panels amendola finished interactive sob of corrugated efforts of a team, this brings a deep feeling of calm bushmen. I can look at many sad, but the exhibition never feels real until its built in an amazing jump from paper to reality. In the weeks before an exhibition of prints come everyday brings me progress. The preceding opening sale christmases objects arrived almost daily from museums and archive collections around the country. The team of inserting images of objects for years i were thrilled to finally see them in person. Dear can write for milwaukee public museum. Lewis is tom hocker writes in the alabama archives and history to moses masonic apron arrived from montana. A faction did not if action did not want to the state of the story made headlines. Live specimens arrived like how you met paestum boston, the smithsonian, lewis is burning iron and the occupiers to monticello and the west continued tip of my responsibility is to not include the actual installation of the objects i meant peaks of the area under regular basis. Friends always ask me every time i work on an exhibition if i have a favorite artifact. But this is the leading cause will to win their usually. Caroline our curator and lewis and clark identified a series of knots and its artifacts are called the treasure is mounted in daschles standalone cases promised a located cases promised he located an essential center path to the expedition. Objects were visitors from section to section an include jefferson, much as a serving tool in the elks and journal in the Northern Plains indian dress. Another item was lewises pipe tomahawk into some of the exquisite pieces crafted a polished maple with a thin squiggly slithered india silver. Handed down in the family for generations the pipe is probably the one with padded his death in 1809. Ocala was not able to verify whether lewis had taken on expedition. I was fascinated and counted it among my favorite artifacts. There was also a great story in the book which i dont have time to read, but it was a fascinating book by the cultural landscape. I read a lot about how we decide what goes into an exhibition. I have two chapters in your good one is about airmail pilots and a fun project i did find a dirt from here out to State College and over parts of the transcontinental route to develop the area exhibit at the air and space museum. Theres a chapter about lindbergh and packing for journeys which is a plane that is on display. He did survey flights in 1931 and 1933 with his wife and issue of several excellent books about their travels from that plane. So those are some of the behind the stories that i tell. Finally, scholarship. I described the book containing little scholarship. One of the myths and i tried her best a few of what historian is the cotton gin and i never dreamed i would learn as much as i have learned about cotton gin. In fact, weve implanted a cotton patch and picked cotton several years, several summers. We picked the cot in the visitors could gin the cotton. It was a fascinating art of learning the whole as. Let me just read very briefly about cotton gin. History stories they seem straightforward, the one thing that fascinates me is theres always more to this story. Among the iconic object of the American History Museum Collection of the corporate model of ui which needs cotton gin built around 1845 to defend the patent during the claim. Eli whitney occupies the revered place in the pantheon of American History. His profile is his profile as one of for medallion portraits of the mentors that in the great hall of the National Portrait gallery, which is originally the United States Patent Office building. According to the popular story, 18th century planners off the coast of South Carolina grew unstable cotton, the righty was smooth black suit embedded were relatively easy to remove. However the growing range of amended to a narrow sliver of coastal land, another kind of cotton has shorter fibers in land. It is much harder to remove. Cultivation of this cotton would not be profitable because of the labor involved. Most American Students learn in 1793, eli whitney invented the cotton gin which successfully removed seats from short staple cotton. Machine transformed agricultural south of cotton quickly became a profitable crop across the southern United States. Harvesting the plant remained laborintensive and slave labor followed the gin. The connection between cotton gin is lavery is engraved in public consciousness. Given this story to implications might seem obvious. First for mr. Whitneys gin, people cultivating around the world separated the seeds and fiber by hanna second the british textile manufacturers relied on cot in my hand get these assumptions are wrong. One day a new story rock errors cotton gin and world or to want kim angelo quintet, Johns Hopkins University Post doctoral fellow at the exam. She was in the middle of writing a book about the history of cotton gin and presented her research and next land for millennia prior to which he cotton producing cultures around the world were using something called a roller gin to remove seats in the cotton. What . Cottoned before you i whitney . Sideshow cottages had been used in some form or another. I get a lot more to cotton in one chapter, but that was one of those myths that was surprising to most of us in American History. So finally, why did i write the book . I started because my friends in st. Louis who heard my endless lewis and clark story saves us write this down. When i moved back to d. C. , i decided, you know, i will forget stories quickly if i dont write things down. So i begin writing. I kept writing because my stories from the portrait gallery and i decided, you know, history gets a bum rap. Doesnt have the amazing brand image that sanitized. Its important to not only show the pursuit of the past is signed, but vitally relevant. Not only that, someone needs to pull back the curtains, show how we know we know. I think historians dont do a good job of explaining the process and process is why most of us and into the profession. We love detective work. The multiple is, critical thinking, comparing primary sources, taking into archives. We love that. Sometimes there may be often would only tell the conclusions we made from our research and we failed to convey our joy in the Research Process. So i tried to show the fun ive had in the Research Process in this book on the chapter about the stars Ingo Bannerman said American History i developed that committee for the handson history room which decided to look at the story of the battle of baltimore from five different perspectives we dont normally care about to the lewis and clark expedition. The exhibition i worked on to paper in interpretation of the cultural landscape, not the traditional interpretation of the natural landscape. They looked at the view from the river which is lewis and clarks view, but also the riverbank which is very struggle views. We up the story of sacajawea, huge challenging story because theres a lot of myth built up in very flimsy evidence for her story, but we knew in this exhibition we had to tell her story. People expect it. How would we approach that . I also talk about the variety of sources, not documents, not artifacts, maps, but also churches and cemeteries of primary sources. I compare lewis and clarks fascinating comparison and how clarks grave was reinterpreted at the bicentennial. It was erected many years after her death the monument was erect did with the centennial, but 100 years later the landscape changed and is relative and decided they needed to change anyway, i wanted one more story which is local and because you all are washington residence, you might appreciate this. I bet its the monuments are a mark of it none of you know about. One early spring evening after work i exited the museum on two independent avenue, onto independence avenue and turn right into the setting. As i walked west towards the jefferson memorial, more and more people crowded the sidewalk all going the same direction. This one was headed towards the cherry tree and innovative spring for many washington residence who can withstand 10,000 tourists. Anyone whos ever witness the massive house of pain, Cherry Blossoms independent day and perhaps may not duration of the three washing an event that everyone should experience with my life if they can deal with crowds. The cherry trees bring the basin and i walked through loop around the basin, something theyve done many times, but this your michael was different. I just heard your stone marker along the Potomac River several hundred yards in the basin in the basement near the fdr memorial. I couldnt believe id never heard about it. I am such a history geek i matter to myself. Tens of thousands of people are headed in this direction to exult in the beauty of nature and im excited to see an historical marker. It hurt away from the tree is heading towards the river and soon, so mark or metal plaque erected in 1958 by the aero club of washington to mark an auspicious 40th anniversary if you have the worlds first airplane mail to be operated as continuously scheduled Public Service started from this field may 15, 1918. Resident posts and other other other dignitaries have stood in west potomac park provided an official sendoff for a long army pilot. This was the not duration of the post offices regular service between washington and new york, three hour flight. Unfortunately the pilot, lieutenant george boyle had a little problem along the way. He got lost. Using a roadmap in a faulty complex hand at the waldorf, maryland. The player flipped upon landing and was damaged so he couldnt reach his intended destination. However the flight from new york arrived safely in the post offices Airmail Service had begun. To put no idea the story of commercial aviation because its airmail. That is a local story. In conclusion, let me ponder the question of why history. Why do i like his reflux let me read one final excerpt about why history. Why history. Why do some people of the past while others are in thrall to the future or cant get enough of tokens middle earth. Why does Science Fiction holds so little interest for me while historical fiction engages me . Who can say what people are trying to machines or medicine or animals or ideas. Rarely can we identify sources of our passion. Its easier to state why we dislike something. I suspect those who claim to dislike history of ever to encounter the past and the way that captivated their imagination. To me, history requires a great deal of imagination in meinrad stop when i start looking a primary source carols and begin asking questions. The study is often been compared with detective work. Both requited practitioner to make hypotheses and inferences to think critically and draw firm conclusions based on the evidence at hand. When history gives which multiple as, conflicting opinions and sometimes mysteries, my mind is engaged in curiosity piqued. Many history educators fail to convey why this history is relevant and how the past informs the present. Novelist and social critic James Baldwin wrote, history does not refer merely or even principally to the past. On the contrary the great force comes from the fact we carry within us are unconscious or controlled by us in many ways in history is literally present in all that we do. President john f. Kennedy was an added student of history and in 1962 the editors of American Heritage magazine asked him to reflect on why knowing history is important. He wrote in a passionate essay beginning with this in 10 there is little that is more important for american citizen to note the history and traditions of this country. He went on to justify the study of history beginning with the fact it is a pleasure for us to date. He wrote the american past is a record of stirring achievement in the face of stubborn difficulty. Its a record filled with figures larger than life of high drama and hard decisions, without our tragedy, incident both poignant and picturesque and with excitement and hope involved in the conquest of the wilderness and the settlement for the true historian in the true student of history, history is an end in itself. It fulfills a deep human need for understanding, satisfaction provides requires no further justification. When i began my aunt kingship at williamsburg, wasnt sure what path my crew would take. I only knew i found the study of history deeply satisfying to what a career and has been so far. Thank you. [applause]