Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20151110

My best but it took a couple of years to realize what i was doing was a Mission Impossible there is no good political outcome from that. So we waited and practiced on waded into everybody waited. As you are aware even president rouhani to a couple of steps to the headquarters of the Pakistan Army and i think he did the right thing because when we are in islamabad their brews like to capitals in those decisions that were made so the president did the right thing but we didnt get anywhere either. They had a facetoface talk that was mysteriously halted while i thought it was Mission Impossible the way it to go to pakistan was too much accident and personality driven. When i say it was too much accident and in 2011 we thought pakistan was looking like the Peace Process and there was a gap of three months we had to work on the formula. The professor was the chairman was assassinated that afghanistan took a with a promise of a corporation so it took many more months through 2012 that i taught for the second time that maybe they would be willing to help us. At that stage they asked us to present a road map and to my surprise is the first demand was for the four top taliban commanders and conditionally but here i confess as the afghan ambassador i did not see the logic between the commanders and the peace talks. So in response to that demand at least 68 taliban commanders apparently they were arrested we demanded for they released 60 but most of those are now leading though war so here i am also excepting a blame on us with a piecemeal approach to be very much personality driven of where to start and where to go. But that is in the past and the situation is changing. What is different now that in order to provide an opportunity they are increasingly trying to establish themselves to get a hold of that geographic pockets to put their leadership inside afghanistan and leave it there. Then there denied that opportunity. Hearing that happen in that geographical area they are planning to establish their headquarters from pakistan into afghanistan that is afghans problem and that has nothing to do with me. So that is what is being done by every have those intense attacks in the country. One more area i want to say a few words than we can have a discussion but people ask how do we see challenges ahead . The one change within taliban there no longer a one united group but into four factions i can explain later but it is a good news and a bad news they act less coordinated and that we have news of fighting between two factions and this is not the first time in a few other locations also but if we want to do a talk to them which do we talk to . That makes it even more complicated than it is it presents the main threat to us of the afghan state comes from taliban but not the whole problem there other emerging threats were faced with and isis is one of those emerging threats causing us problems in the Eastern Province and you might have occurred within the last couple of days isis executed hostage hostages and among those the taliban be headed that means they are growing in that area but those small pockets that are emerging but no chitin is also a resurfacing last summer there were series of big attacks those combined cost 500 and thats is the of hallmark with the offshoots some of them are belonging to the neighboring countries theyre all trying to keep the headquarters and where but now the isis and taliban relationship in some places how does that evil . We dont know. Evil if . Guido no. We dont know. Now in terms of the growing challenges regionally they see a acis and afghanistan and they tried to enter into some nexus with the television. With the taliban. And as they support one faction and then another. This would make our life a lot more complicated than it is. In view of all of the above with the afghanistan reaction with the extended presence of troops it is very good news and we know if boots are on the ground that this is welcome but ultimately there is indeed for Afghan National security and in addition to that we need a more cohesive state and also we need help on revisiting the whole process. Following the approach that i perform board discussions they akio they q. [applause]. At this point i would read open the discussion to the floor i am certain all of you have questions as to express an interest but since i had u. S. Say captive both the of which that they can confront they have pursued day military campaign. And militarily and if that process continued successfully to open the door eventually to reconciliation but if the taliban was sufficiently weakened at the high tide and the separations it is quite clear that the government is getting more and more comfortable and well you have been in office to the military commanders the impact of these operations. Today United States is out of the combat business. But why is that any different . With this same challenges of the civilian population and the cost to attack terrorist will have this amy fax of a Central Government so inventive is still some distance to go with those problems why should we be more optimistic compared to the nato forces . Let me put it this way who created that system in 2010 and 2009 they became stronger and more professional and in those International Partners it was over entirely. After the transition and of that responsibility but almost in the beginning and was across the election across the country almost all of them were is safe but i had saved the public support with the operations within the villages and the International Forces. But it is the sons and daughters and like i said earlier than the public comes forward in support. End in the public support and like i said earlier we heard nation that is still building and developing of the Equipment Support for a long time to come. And force us to defend our country. The what would they needed the next few years for continued for a new chill support . To be honest with their responsibility to have been completed but if there is one area of support is to get the fighting and the logistics of the evacuation of the wounded. I will ask one other question with that reconciliation effort that the bond requirement is for a successful reconciliation and you push very hard to get those pakistan is on board. One thing i struggle with for reconciliation you have to the fundamental transformation with respect to afghanistan. As long as pakistan believes the goal of this strategy to have any meaningful presence in afghanistan. To read gauges of the reconciliation. It was part of my job to understand is a concern or ambition . But given the security field also with the creation so that was more intense and then have more of a concern to accuse india to support afghanistan broochs not true. As they have access to all kinds of information. But they have the reason to be concerned. What they want from us is that we hear the independent country. But it is the relationship with india some people wonder if i ever come across i did not see it that way but they said they should but towards each other but to push that has an issue but of course, they have ambitions provided they give us the same towards india. So why is the incentive . And then to help you. So it is better to take the one because the u. S. Believes day strategy. The United States should make that conditional. But that was is not included in the but how you ask us and it is all clear. Given the u. S. Policy and pakistan have argue wage this prospect . With they created it in 1994. The lately what ive understand come read that is not what they want for the taliban to participate. That is the phrase. So this is supposed to take place with the taliban and enjoyed the political process. To the imagined the extraordinary solution . Till the parts of the discussion the taliban could be transformed into a political force. But before that was the vision of the constitution to allow for the taliban to that process but in my opinion there is an indication that if that happens one year from now theyre all inside afghanistan. And it is definitely the case so wit is definitely the case so we must find a new approach to the Peace Process and for it to be mediated. Every Peace Process needs a mediator. Before then 11 9 11 there was a taliban government that dialogue was mediated by the united nations. Thank budget is the afghan state. And our friendly countries they are not mediators. Who is . But it is a traditional mechanism. To have the impartial leader. Thank you. Please identify yourself and if you could keep your questions to the. Hello, tom lynch, good to see you. Thank you for your illuminating comments. I am tempted to ask about the current process because you alluded to several things that observers fear of indicated really are challenging to make this process work forward in accord with the two things that you talked about. Accord with the two things up on the theme and this piece reconciliation process and pakistans aims. China did not make it into their marks. He talked about iran and russia henry talked about pakistans interest much as you wrote about in thethe New York Times saying pakistan had not changed his pakistan had not changed his , your successor testified in afghanistan on the process that it was pakistan that is the problem right now for peace and security, but the chinese have a longstanding relationship command there is increasing evidence that they had taken a more active role in trying to find a way to encourage the pakistanis to encourage etm. And i think the president has approached the chinese vigorously. I wonder if you would just talk about since you finished, could you talk about what has changed in the chinese approach and whether or not the approach might have the prospect of assisting movement and pakistans aims or initiatives or helping the Afghanistan Government get the Peace Process moving in the way you discussed . Okay. In my assessment there are three main reasons for china to take interest. One is a Security Threat to china itself. China thinks that it is more based in afghanistan are at least parting through afghanistan with china which becomes one part of chinese interest command in this one when we were in government we started the dialogue with china and i actually was the interface with china with the ministry of interior and the ministry of security. And i was clearly seeing that they were very much concerned about the eti am and needed help from afghanistan. Initially in my 1st meeting with china i realized that they were so misinformed that the Afghan National Security Force dominance is limited to kabul. When they realized the force that was controlling the remotest part. They turn to us for help, but there were two other reasons, more economic. The economic corridor linking which is already contacted to china. That corridor is not just a role. It is a corridor were not a huge area how could they invest 46 billion in that corridor if there was risk to the corridor within the region of 1 kilometer. Im sorry, 100 kilometers. So they took a keen interest in resolving the taliban issue. The 3rd was the investment afghanistan. To extract copper they need security. Thats the key reason for china. We welcome that. But there is a lack of sincerity. No matter how much pressure or incentives come from china, there is still that lack of sincerity, china will not be able to have a huge impact. Yes, maam. Thank you for being here today. I wanted to ask you from your perspective and a nonwestern perspective what is the impact, and perhaps you can offer insight into how iran is thinking from a nonwestern perspective . Thank you. Well, whenwell, when i started as afghan ambassador in iran we started thinking of a new approach to our relationship. Between afghanistan and pakistan. That relationship should not be affected by our friendship with the United States and their animosity. That should remain bilateral and be independent. I think we were successful. We were having good relationships despite the Huge International presence, iran participated generously when we have problem of trade we could do it. Now, as far as the aspect is concerned we dont like the Nuclear Weapons in our neighborhood. India is nuclear. Very problematic never had. It looks like were sitting on an atom bomb. We dont like it, but we cannot do anything about it. Just wait for the microphone. Political and social activist. Since he loves discussions i highlighted a few points. First, what is the ground reality . There are rumors of both local government and International Forces were involved intentional. Since you were really involved can you tell us the three big achievements in the 3rd as for my information you will be running for president ial election. We need to know right now, what will be the difference between you and mr. President county that you are running against . And the 3rd one, which is a little bit funny, as you were saying, why you do not want to criticize the government, doing diplomacy. Ii hope i remember. If i forget, you remind me. Never listened to conspiracy theory. What actually happened was that it was usually for three days they put all of the forces and trade and usually they take a holiday. Many of the check posts are symbolic because many people go home. That is what the taliban thought for strategists took advantage of. Like i said, there are lessons to be learned low level of politicization when you form a government is a using ministry of defense his mind and ministry of interior is yours and it becomes two different lines of command. It becomes difficult in coordination between mid and lower level. That is a weakness in coordination. And i know the pres. Has launched an investigation, appointed ainvestigation, appointed a commission command appointed me to be head of the commission. I am sure that they will take a decision. Nobody wanted to take on coups but the taliban. President karzais area. When i think about this, a major achievement was the National Unity afghanistan. You needed a visa to go from one part of the city to another part. You can go from the eastern part of the city to pressure off. That was the situation. Now that unity is complete and it is reflected in all of the institutions come army, police, judicial system, the bureaucratic. Some of the top one is the National Unity. The scale and the quality. We have to start with a borrowed capacity 14 years ago. Education was distracted 20 years before that. In the past 14 years there is enormous progress teammate. Like i said in my presentation, right now you have almost half a million enrolled in Higher Education inside the country. Over 100,000 have been on scholarships abroad meaning neighboring countries, too. This is the 2nd major achievement of the palisades time. The 3rd one is democracy. In a country which was a flaw for many decades now you have one of the best constitutions and know the Democratic Institutions that have been rebuilt. Of course democracy does not grow overnight. Of course the list is longer. Running for presidency, it is far too early to speak about that. But when you say what is better i would not in the context of rallying, but i would say i weigh more. [laughter] when you say why i do not criticize the National Government is because im not in afghanistan. If you coach afghanistan asked me question my answer could be different. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Timely. A scholar with the jones of his university and my focused this southeast asia. You talked about pakistan and the Peace Process. My question is somehow wrong perspective of how pakistan which is the involvement of saudi arabia and iran, if you a call with have to mosques inside kabul. Of course both countries are influential. President romani during his 1st month of the office traveled to china and saudi arabia. Which i think the previous government also did the same thing because they are influential and can help the process. The looking at the longterm perspective of those involved with afghanistan and also one thing that differentiated, conflict and war was not along the line of sectarianism. If you look at the longterm involvement of the two countries, how you see that playing longterm . Competition is not limited to afghanistan commands you said. We dont have any sectarian problems. How do we deal with that . Each of them are trying. I would say that i want to let my americans cigarette the soviet matches. I think we should make good use. Looking at negative rivalries. They might be negatively affected. Next line privately at how we can take advantage of those for the construction and economic and all the other kind of relationships. They cannot live in that part of the world not having good relationships with saudi arabia because of obvious reasons and iran is our neighbor. So we must find a more constructive way of dealing with them together, take advantage of their resources and knowledge. At least iran is rich and i am sure you must be aware 55,000 afghans are back in afghanistan, most of them. They are my and your brothers and sisters. We should look at that aspect. The young lady. I work with sarah chase at the carnegie endowment. Sarah recently published a book where she argues that corruption threatens global security. The ordinary have come to have been slighted by the public official who refuse to bribe or whose sister was raped by a judge and finds in the taliban an attractive option for numerous reasons including its ability to provide an alternate worldview in which the strict imposition of a 2,000 25 can address greed and public corruption. We see from the memos of the special Inspector General for afghanistan that corruption permeates the missionary but particularly devastating is corruption at the highest levels of government, particularly . Karzai government among the cabinet members which you were part of. I was just wondering how you see what measures you see that can be put in place to rein in on top politicians corruption among the highest levels of government which deals a symbolic blow to the process of creating sustainable socioeconomic institutions in afghanistan. I agree with you that corruption is a major problem. Of these are two major challenges. We all wish that it was not like that. The circumstances the way we started things, building a country that is also partly responsible for corruption. It is what i want to say. A huge subject we need to discuss. Have quite the right intention, but his achievements also are limited. I hope it was not a major issue. In my personal opinion the solution is not taliban but in rural of law. Getting rid of impunity against law. He cited only the negative examples. The government brought in by the bond records. My question is in dealing with the taliban. What can the Afghan Government offer in peace talks that does not compromise the rights of americans. The National Unity government and National Unity itself is two different concepts. What happened was a Coalition Government that did not include taliban. It excluded taliban which is wrong. The only way is a policy of inclusion. They included as part of the process. What we can offer i can only give you my personal opinion which is we should talk to taliban only from a position of strength. We should be in a position of strength. At the moment on one side you have the state and on the other side you have insurgent groups. When state is in a stronger position that is the time you need to talk to taliban. What could be the incentive . Lets say they asked for division of confusion in such a way we have to come from achievements, certainly that will not be acceptable for the state of afghanistan. The Political Parties in afghanistan. They are contesting elections. Taliban should also one day become a Political Party. Majority government is how i would see it. They have to be transformed into a political force. It is such a pleasure to see you again. Quick question. You have made indepth comments about a number of pakistans neighbors, but you have immediate neighbors to the north. Do you see central asia playing a constructive role in afghanistan in the coming years . Yes, not only in the coming years but the past years also. We buy most of our electricity from her neighbors. There have been alternative routes for trade whenever we have a problem. We should have more options. The Central Asian countries in the past had a very good relations and in the future we want to further build on that relationship they feel threatened from what is coming to the south. We need to help them in that sense that they feel more secure. One last question if there is one, maybe two. I am going to stop amendment will come back. Thank you so much. A very warm welcome. If that. Thank you so much. A very warm welcome. If that is the case i heard you blaming pakistan a lot. This is also what we hear from couple. Thisthis is not the case the way washington works of the situation. They are commending the role pakistan is playing. The spoiler not support them, and it it should not be commended for that. Thank you. Well, what you are saying is exactly what we said over the past 14 years. The root cause of the problem is in pakistan. Safe havens. The leadership. I am sure the United States has been trying, but they know how to handle all of that. The summarize it in one or two words the way i seei see it, the United States sees pakistan as an ally. My observation. [inaudible] it is more of an analogy. [inaudible] they have been fighting rulings backandforth than 35 years. Compared to the taliban and they were weekend. When we see the taliban right now and theyre i would expect. [inaudible] in afghanistan for at least two more decades. If they can demand for two more decades and spent 35 years, dont you think that the taliban would be having the same influence the upcoming decades . And if so, what is the strategic solution if they have one solution. But this can dissolve this issue with the new appointment. Because as we have been witnessing the party has not forgotten [inaudible] who have this party and they have not forgotten this. How do we expect that the person who is a leading member of the party will be with the taliban overall. Thank you. Well, lets look at it from a different angle. There was a war. They were one in infection. [inaudible] and if one of them called themselves. [inaudible] going back to a title that they had earlier, that is just a title. And they are now transformed into a Political Party nonaudit its a Political Party, no . [inaudible] [inaudible] and so it is not 100 there may be 80 . [inaudible] and so they may be transformed into a Political Party like this. [inaudible] and that can be a time when we have a solution to the problem. [inaudible] i want to thank all of you for coming here this afternoon and i want to extend a special thanks for your time to talk to us and speak with us very patiently after the questions. My pleasure. Thank you school. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [applause] good evening, and welcome to the john f. Kennedy junior forum, i am maggie williams, director of the policy institute at harvard. We take up this fascinating topic, journalism is not a crime. Moderated by a Great American political journalists, candy crowley. For nearly three decades americans and audiences worldwide have looked for coverage of politics that is thorough and incisive and objective, revealing an honest. Over her career she has traversed the journalistic world as you can read in tonights foreign programs, she has covered every major u. S. Political figure in recent memory, including every president since jimmy carter, as well as countless governors and members of those of the house and senate. She has worked in all 50 states as well as around the globe, covering not only politics but many oracle events and if you are interviewed by her, you you can count on several things. Intense questioning, intellectual integrity, steady knowledge of every issue and relentless probing until she reaches the truth. We are very proud to have her this semester and i am honored to introduce her because she will be our moderator this evening. Thank you. I am just going to briefly introduce these two gentlemen because i think that they need a bit of a setup for those of you that dont know why theyre here together. To my left is Maziar Bahari, a journalist and filmmaker and next to him is tim greenberg, who is the executive producer of the daily show. So the first question is why are they together, and im glad to have tim set up something from the daily show or all of you to see so that we can move the conversation along. This is a clip from the series that we did on iran where we traveled there right before the election back in 2009 and the point was basically to just present this in one of the people that we wanted to interview was him. The Islamic Republic of iran, a nation in upheaval and the powder cake waiting to explode. As we empathize with these courageous souls who are risking their lives to take a stand or democracy in the face of oppression, let us not forget that these evil are evil. But just what is it that makes them so evil 2 i have not signed up for twitter, so the only way to find out whats going to for myself. And as i touch down at the airport on my 36 birthday, i was completely alone. No american and deceit, no alcohol, not even exposed anglos. I have a wife and children. Even leaving the hotel presented the potential risks. But i assured my producer that as long as he was with me that there was nothing to fear. I made contact with my translator and we headed to a coffee shop office where for clandestine meeting with an iranian journalist Maziar Bahari who go by the codename pistachio and i would recognize him. And i asked him the question on every westerners mind. Why was this country so terrifying. In some ways they dont understand each other. They dont want this the other side, they dont know how to talk to the other side. I didnt understand a word of that. [inaudible] im going to need someone who speaks english. The one thing i could understand is that this entire country is evil. The first thing you want to know is that its not need evil. They have much more in common than they have as far as difference goes. Al qaeda is the number one enemy of iran. [inaudible] enough of the doublespeak. So that is a portion of what was aired. And it was clearly aimed at poking fun of americans use of iran, but something went amiss after this was aired. Yes, we were there right before the election would seem like the more liberal candidate is going to win. And when we were there, the mood where we were is that every place that you go you see these green ribbon and a lot of young people would be driving around and it seemed like the time where things were really going to change or that there was a desire for change for a more liberal society herriot so we went there thinking okay, great, we will cover this and this would be a good time for us to introduce america to iran and then it turned out that that didnt happen, the exact opposite happened where the powers that be known on. And there were street demonstrations and Government Forces cracking down. See you as a reporter for following this. The day after the election they go from there to your imprisonment. Well, basically what happened was for a time of two or three months, i believe people were in a euphoric mood and that they would have someone and they really did not matter that much who was that person. And to put things in context if you have the Supreme Leader and then the president , these are two people that many iranians are just ashamed of. Its like donald trump and Kim Kardashian as resident and vice president. So maybe i does give you an idea. And so you really want to get rid of Kim Kardashian. But lets get rid of Kim Kardashian, so people wanted to change and that is why he was not someone who believed in democracy. He was the prime minister. And he was talking about this and he was talking about opening it up a little bit. So people were kind of euphoric. The two or three weeks before the election . Yes, yes. About a week before. People were euphoric and the government, we do not know what was going on. I think about 200 visas were issued. So some of them are getting ahead of themselves calling this a new green revolution rather than the green movement. So the election happened and everyone based on the surveys and intelligence and i had seen one of them, everyone thought that he was going to win. But on the ninth of the election they announced that he was ahead by a big margin. And the next morning there was a change of mood and a dramatic change. So for a couple of days people did not know what to do. So the election was on friday and then on saturday and sunday and people said they were going to the street to organize and have a demonstration. And i thought maybe 10,000 or 15,000 feet all with chants and slogans and go back home. [inaudible] i could not do anything that i went to the main street not a lot and i thought wow, people were streaming in and it was the same thing repeated 30 years later that millions of people, who is between 2. 5 Million People in that repeated for a few days and i reported on that. We actually made it clear that he was working for newsweek at the time. It was a major news program in the uk. So he came to the ceremony and said that people have to go back home whether they were responsible. Not a lot they had these black shields, they had we have not seen these people and we do not know where they were coming from , women, men, children, i saw some of those horrible things that in my life on that day on the 19th of june and so it was quite dramatic. We saw the dramatic pictures of the blood coming from her nose and mouth. And the next morning a few men came to my mothers house and they arrested me. Okay, there is a book out that you have written entitled rosewater and its a film directed by john stuart which is really a family story in a lot of ways. But it is the story of that imprisonment for 118 days. So one of the things i have been curious about, the link here is that when you are being interrogated they played the clip from the daily show. Sure, they took me into the Interrogation Room and savior wanted for espionage so could you mind telling me about this . And i said you mean Newsweek Magazine and i said yes, it is part of this and its Common Knowledge that its part of the intelligence organization. Because i was in touch with someone named nicholas. [inaudible] and they thought that i was in touch with nick arons and he had just been in touch with him, hes a government official, that proves that youre working for the cia. And it was as all these things coming together. And so in the absence of any real evidence they had to bring forward ridiculous evidence including my appearance on the daily show. Survey said that they took it seriously . Yes. So you are back in the states by this time. Things started to happen and i think some of the other people that we have interviewed had been arrested at that point. Because i went back to check this to make sure that he told us to do this, but i feel like it there were other parts of the interview where he spoke, you know, the one and say hey, are you okay, what do you want to do this thing and he said go ahead and aired these even though its a more difficult to mark. So we proceeded and then i dont know how exactly we found out that he had been arrested as well at that point. So for us it was extremely uncomfortable because even though people say we are generous, we are not. We are not journalists. It was personally uncomfortable and it was almost like comedy had intersected reality that i was completely unprepared for. And i thought, i should not be involved in this. And that was one of the striking things for me is that we are making jokes, we thought that we were doing something safe and it turns out that there was not much safe in the world we were living in and yet there was a much darker side that i see on tv and i know it exists, but the fact that it exists with someone that i know and being used as a form of torture this is way beyond. And there was torture over these 118 days, there were other pieces of evidence that were brought out to prove that you are a spy for america. So can you talk a little bit about the process that you went through and we should also add that his sister was in prison and in the next regime for being a member of the opposition party. So its very effective, you had conversations in your head so can you talk about the evolution of how you thought you would behave and eventually what happened . Going up in a political family, we had to witness a revolution and the war, somehow it prepared me for getting arrested and i had been arrested a couple times when i was younger and my teenagers. And the second time was when i was with my girlfriend at a coffee shop. They arrested everyone in that coffee shop and they took me to the most dangerous prison at that time for common criminals. So i was in prison and at the age of 17 and my crime was having coffee with a girl and so i was talking to someone and one person said murder in another separate. But there were like 35 common criminals, dangerous criminals, couple of other people as well and so i thought maybe i was prepared, but you cannot really be prepared for something that is as ridiculous as this. But you cannot really prepare yourself or Something Like this. I was not prepared. I knew that there were many stupid people in iran and those that are in the regime in iran and that they dont have any sense of humor. But until i got there and witnessed it firsthand, i could not believe it. And so during those 118 days, i did not get any new information. But my information about the regime and the paranoia really defend, for example how much they hate the jews. And i realized that that is how much they regard israel at the same time and so i went through a different time during my interrogation and as i said in the beginning they charged me with espionage, there were beatings, psychological torture, telling me that this isolation and its the worst kind of torture because you are deprived of so much and sometimes i wish that i could go to the Interrogation Room so that i had some human contacts. And most people were trying to ask me about my private life, my sex life, and just getting ridiculous. And the best comedy i think comes from people who take themselves seriously. Even in terms of the daily show you joke about mitt romney, but donald chump is really funny because he takes himself much more seriously than mitt romney. So when i was in prison and one i was being interrogated, my interrogator somehow became unused because when i got into prison i was part of something called 10 days in an iranian jail, he was making presumptions about my life or about life in the west and i was just trying to, you know, basically he did not have any human contact because he had spent all his time in the Interrogation Room. He was tired of talking to those others so sometimes he would confide in me, i could hear his conversations and he was talking to his wife. I remember one day he was twisting my hair and it was really all and he kept on twisting my hair. And then he hit my head and said im talking on the phone, be quiet. And it makes it probably more dangerous because there is no rationale here. You are dealing with you dont know how to play in the theater of the absurd. It is multilayered and i try to talk about it in the book as well but the professions that they have, it has become some sort of amusement with those in the regime and the intelligence agency, especially because ordinary iranians do not believe [inaudible] but then you read the article is by the revolutionary guards and use the that they really relish this and they are perfecting it. It has better lighting, it is understating. [inaudible] the books can be more intellectual used to be just the quran and, you know, so it has become almost torturous than kind of like torture as a spectacle. In one of the other things that led to my arrest with all these other journalists as these notions that they believe in that it is making an example of someone. And so we have many public hangings now and you ask why you hang people in public and they say they want to make an example of the people. And so i was arrested to be making an example of a journalist, a filmmaker. There is so much more to this story, which i hope that you will ask about. There are four microphones here for questions and we only ask that you tell us who you are, keep your questions short and so to hear the end of the story im counting on all of you to ask questions. Please go had appeared. Am sorry to let you down, not when asked about the rest of the story, you mentioned earlier that you didnt think that you were a journalist, but i wanted to know your opinion about what i thought of political shows such as the effects of Public Opinion which i think is huge and how does that change the political and immediate landscape of today. It did not seem to help much in this case either directly or indirectly. [inaudible] i think that it reflects Public Opinion. Maybe there are particular stories or something that get highlighted that we did not otherwise know about. But i was reading an article about this recently and this may be a lonely one or two things that have changed and so i think its more of a reflection and that is my opinion. Here at the Kennedy School we would love to hear your thoughts on the iran deals to thank you for that. I support the iran deal. I have tried to read the agreement, it is very complicated, and i know most of the people who have opinions about the deal do not understand much of it because its a very technical thing. But i support the deal because i look at the alternative which would be another war in the middle east, another invasion of a Muslim Country and that would definitely affect and harm america and especially iranians because it would militarize estate situation inside of iran and so why they have some space to express themselves through gather information or share information, if there is a military attack, then it allows those with an the revolutionary guard as a parallel government that took over after the 2000 nine election. And so theres a saying earlier that ive been in a very difficult situation since i came out of prison in 2009 because on one hand i feel that its my duty to talk about the situation and at the same time i did not want to provide any reasons for war warmongers and people going to war in iraq who think that or say that going to war would solve the situation and bring peace and security to iran in the amway in libya. These are not good role models. Hello, my name is ben, thereve been a number of successful examples of revolutions. With regard to iran, having a successful peaceful democratic revolution, would it be be from the inside out or would there be anything that can happen to help support a better process. I think that external forces can help the situation in iran, first of all they should not invade the country. But also they have to find out what is the situation inside the country and what do they need in order to bring about a peaceful change in the country. I think talking to different governments and government officials, asking them to create some sort of internet, one of the ways that you can bring peaceful change to iran is by allowing different iranians to come in, to share information with themselves and the rest of the world and why the iranian government is in charge of the internet and the bandwidth. It is still possible but its very difficult. So that will be a part of this and then also how much will this cost and how much will the internet costs. So i think yes, they can provide it to them. Because iranians dont think about revolution anymore. They have won 36 years ago, they regretted it and they are reminded every day by the government that they have this revolution and so its something that they do not want to repeat. Is intersecting here because journalism is honestly one of my passions. And your case quesadilla publicity, Hillary Clinton talked about it, talking about the unfairness and et cetera. And you had journalist friends and others who are on the case. The daily show feel that there needed to be some help here in terms of trying to get release . Nothing directly although a couple of times we have featured some but in terms of anything beyond that, we were sort of coordinating with the people who are taking more of the lead. And that includes coordinating the whole process. His wife was pregnant while this was going on. When he let suicide that statement . And so that is part of the story and i will ask it some point what do you think would be helpful for those that are still there but maybe dont get that kind of publicity. Speaking of which im very sorry about your excruciating time in jail, im wondering if about those that are held without charge, without torture, whether you can extend your own experience neighboring countries and around the world. Because these of are the kind of stories that you never see featured on the daily show or newsweek. Yes, there are many things going on in the world including in palestine, china, russia, egypt and some of these countries are allies, some are less than allies, some are antiwestern and so i was really lucky that i was working for newsweek and i had been working with different organizations for many years. I had an Amazing Campaign launched, newsweek made sure that every diplomat raised my case. [inaudible] and heman met the iranians for the first time in geneva. Unfortunately most of my iranian colleagues and those around the world are not as lucky. Most of them are not working for news organizations, most of them are freelancers among many of them are social Media Journalists who have facebook and twitter and they do not enjoy the support and so that is we started journalism is not a crime. Com, the campaign. And to put their names to the numbers and to talk about these people can be hundreds of russian journalist, chinese journalists, lots of individuals, brothers, sisters, those that have loved ones in order to be able to do something about it. So yes, i am trying to do as much as i can but i am one person and im sure there are many house indians simians and israelis and chinese who can join us and if anyone wants to get in touch with me, they can do so. And we can see what we can do. Hello, i im a student here at the Kennedy School and also a moroccan journalist and someone who has been a part of journalism for several years. The obstacle is his regimes that try to repress journalists and their right to free speech, the other one is attitudes towards liberal and other journalist that would say that im wondering if its the case for iran. Do you think that iranian Public Opinion is open regardless of what regime is in place . You think that its challenging to the public morals, as they call them . Because i know for a fact that it one of the obstacles. Yes, there are members of the public that made a good that the way you are youre describing them is like this, but in general, they would like to know more about the rest of the world. So they are more open to this formation. Yes, many of them may not want to hear about gay rights in america and its not something that they will discuss openly. But i can see that more and more people are open to new ideas and new information. And i think especially with the advent of social media, there is a new move into this, people naming their children, as an example. Not much has changed. Do you think they have any impact on the situation . A lot has changed if we think about the situation in iran and now than we can see that there is more freedom compared to that time frame that people have more freedom to discuss things and they did at the 1980s and in the 1990s. So i think that people believe in gradual change and that is the only way to be able to have sustainable change. As we discuss this people have different changes and those are not changes that are sustainable. Those are changes that have resulted in more fanaticism. And so i think that this is a symbolic figure where is you had a fundamental, a little bit more cultivated, little bit more part of this and he is a symbol of change. I want to ask tim because the question was asked what you have more sympathy for those that were tossed into prison. You talked a little bit about this and you have read about the darker parts of the world and you met someone that was in deep trouble and had no way to fix that. Does it change you as a person . Yes, it did. It made me realize that we are much closer. Much closer to some of these darker elements than i was aware. This didnt believe in it, it wasnt a part of my world, but then to interact was quite a shock. Im going along with him in his story and he brings up this daily show thing and i forgot that i had anything to do with this and its like, well, i have something to do with this story and its pretty shocking and there is one other thing which is even at the time we are there where things were more liberal than they are there, there was something in the air that felt like it was in like that, theres a certain heaviness. In not too long they tossed around and for me it was something that was worthy of mocking. They were fighting for freedom from all of these things and when i was there it was only want to once you see the absence that you get the sense of what we do have here. So that opened my eyes and open my eyes to something that i just didnt realize had existed. Hello, my name is diane, my question is for both of you. The daily show gets involved somehow in issues that end up becoming advocacy issues in the u. S. , but now when his show ended in egypt. What is the perspective of the show when it gets kind of taken into this advocacy role and how comfortable is that for you in that position. Maybe each of you can answer from both sides of that. He had a personal involvement and that changes things a little better. And it was something that he had a personal connection to and i think that that changes a little bit. That is the reason. The reason for my arrest the state wanted to make an example of meet. Make a documentary films films, working with foreign media so they thought i would be the best target for them. And at the same time iran does not recognize dual citizenship. And one of many ridiculous. We did one read everybody was arrested. For those who want to speak to us. The way i met him was of little dodgy with the Iranian Intelligence agent a documentary at the b. C. At the time and i was the correspondent. And with interviews with that was the side of the data show bin to have the very short time and i just gave them a bunch of names. With a the prism but dead journalists like spies bay gathered information. And unbeknownst to all of us we were being monitored. It looks kind of suspicious. We will try quickly. I am from the Kennedy School but you mentioned in the area of the daily show now that things are changing and things are open will it continue advocating for the relationship . I think we will find out the new voice. I dont feel comfortable going back to iran. What i send somebody back there . Not at the moment things have to change a lot even the viacom lawyers would not let us but i do think youll always have a connection. Especial interest so that is on a lot of peoples minds