Speaks, followed by the leaders of russia, south korea and iran. We have it live on cspan. On friday, a Retirement Ceremony was held in honor of general martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He retired after 41 years of service and will be succeeded by general Joseph Dunford of the marine corps, this is about an hour and 45 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen please stand for the arrival of the official party and welcome todays official, general martin dempsey, accompanied by the hosts for todays ceremony Ashton Carter and joseph f. Dunford jr. , incoming chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Ladies and gentlemen, the ladies and gentlemen please remain standing as honors are rendered to general dempsey. Please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, the troops representing Americas Armed forces and participating in todays revue are the United States army band under timothy j. Holton and led by drum major scott little. Elements of the armed forces include the president ial escort p
Down front here, please. Thanks very much. A fascinating discussion. I write the mitchell report. I want to focus if i can specifically on the jihadi and isis sort of cluster and pose two questions if i can. One is as opposed to far right radicals or neonazis, et cetera. Some of us have attended sessions in this very room on the role of messaging and counternarratives and i would be interested to know particularly as i listen to what angela had to say about how you would do this successfully, im interested to know whether and to what extent you think messaging and counternarratives can have some success in this process of keeping people from stepping over the edge. And then second, if its appropriate or if theres time, im interested to know how you evaluate the considerable work that the saudis do on this issue and how you evaluate that. Okay. So we have a question about the ethicacy of countermessaging and then about the saudis. Obviously there is a long tradition of deradicalization
Leadership that you have shown and the people in this room have shown, including the chief beck. Mandatory minimums are an important part of how the federal system is set up, but since 2013 when he smart on crime policy was announced by thenattorneygeneral holder, federal prosecutors have been instructed not to use mandatory minimums except in cases that really merit their attention. In other words, aggravated felons, the leaders of drug organizations, violent people. What thats meant is that our use of mandatory minimums has probably dropped by about 25 in that time. But so far we have not seen a corresponding drop in the willingness of lowerlevel conspirators to cooperate with us. In other words, what we are seeing in the smart on crime policy is a direct ability to reduce mandatory sentences while still protecting the public. So the bottom line is, you asked the question should we eliminate mandatory minimums entirely. And i think the answer to that is no. But we have to reserve the
Ingenuity classroom by classroom and statebystate that will benefit children. The washington journal continues. Host to continue our the first timeor since 9 11 the government rating is the worst. Guest there is a sense that the world is chaotic. The middle east is increasingly chaotic. At that cannot be contained. Say, we are just getting out of the region, and the chaos will be just too bad. Some people will be killed, but it will not come to paris or here. Paris and San Bernardino has brought home we could not let a region of the world to generate into chaos with land controlled by terrorist groups. In 2015 it different than in the past . Guest i think people have been very worried, even before 9 11. I think the situation in the middle east, and the refugee influx in europe, and europe is a place that is easy to get to from the United States. In that sense, it is more worrisome. Moments during the bush presidency, but in 2008 we had won in iraq and other parts were reasonably stable