We want to hear from you throughout this morning. We are going to put the numbers up on the screen. Republicans, 202 5853881. Democrats, 202 5853880. Independents, 202 5853882. Make a comment about some of the politics and history, terrorist threats and other issues surrounding the olympics, you can do it via social media. Is our twitter handle. You can make a comment on , or send us cspan an email at journal cspan. Org. Vlad the headline and abler. You think sochi looks bad now. Dead dogs, broken toilets. User usually what you find in cities after they host the olympics. Amidst tales of construction nightmares, toxic sludge and the stray dogs hiding in fear for their lives in the wake of the citys campaign to seek and exterminate the animals. Has anyone seen any homeless yet in sochi . Just asking. I come not to bury sochi, but to praise it. They may be the greatest host city ever for the games, place that embodies the olympic ideals graft, corruption and scandal. They should hold the Winter Olympics every four years in sochi. Years from now, sochi maybe russias economic chernobyl. The economic promises made by russian officials to the International Olympic to midi were promises made on the backs of children of children who have not been born yet. Partner isioc as a like doing business with tony soprano. Got 10 grand on the rents and then subtly you in debt and doing things you couldnt have possibly imagined. A little bit more from the column this morning. The irony is and what they dont tell you when they are organizing committees and selling the populist on the glory of the game, is that hosting the olympics picks the pockets of those that are promised streets of gold. In salt lake city, the mayor went on local Television Every Night to plead with people to come into town to eat at local restaurants. Those restaurants were empty and losing money. In sydney, host of the 2000 summer olympics, businesses went bankrupt after expanding, looking forward to reaping the rewards addicted by olympic organizers, only to find that more people typically leave a city during the games men come there. To be aium turned out bigot flowerpot for years after the games were gone. We know what happened to greece, which spent 11 billion to host the 2004 summer games and wound up in economic ruin. Washington wants to host the summer olympics . Folly. Soviet rulers feared the damage hosting the 1980 games would leave behind. Leonid brezhnev wrote a letter about the enormous amount of money to be spent hosting the olympics. Besides the enormous cost, there may be all sorts of scandals that could disgrace the soviet union. Maybe we should reconsider this issue and refused to hold the topics. The olympics did help the soviet economy go into a tailspin. What is seen as the effect of the orbix. Theant the effect of olympics. We want to hear from you. The numbers on the screen. Republicans, 202 5853881. Democrats, 202 5853880. Independents, 202 5853882. If youre watching from outside the u. S. , we want to hear from you as well. 202 5853883. You can make a comment on social media. Twitter, facebook, and email. Times is on the olympic says well. A spotlight on mr. Putins russia. The Olympic Games are intended to be the fulfillment of president Vladimir Putins quests for prestige and power on the worlds stage. Mr. Putin and russia conflict starkly with the olympic ideals and fundamental human rights. Heres how they conclude the editorial this morning. The olympics cannot but put a spotlight on the host country. A more efforts to make pleasant image of the state, mr. Putin is facing more growing protests. More than 200 authors published a letter denouncing the chokehold they said the new antigay and blasphemy laws placed on freedom of expression. That is the New York Times. Putin games. In its wisdom, the international 2007ic committee in awarded the winter games to the one subtropical spot in chile russia. What could go wrong . Great toe of peter the headline the opening speaks to reception, but in sochi, he has been more of a latterday potemkin. Russia estimated the cost of converting a beach resort into a worldclass ski and Winter Sports center at 12 billion. The final tab came to 50 billion, more than every previous Winter Olympics combined and even the 2008 beijing summer games. The games are a case study in political and economic method. The road up from the coast to the ski resort cost 9. 4 billion. Million dollars or kilometer. That makes it the most expensive road in the world. Well have paid it in platinum or caviar. Been ics have dozens of people have died in terrorist strikes in southern russia in the lead up to sochi. Doublehas deployed about the security used to protect the 2012 london olympics and locked sochi down. The world has put faith in mr. Putins ability to protect athletes, yet persistence of domestic terrorism is one of mr. Putins failings. We want to get your view on the sochi a love picks. We are going to be the olympics. We are going to begin in south carolina. Caller i was listening to you read from the Washington Post before you read from the New York Times. It seems that everything youre passingbout russia debts onto children and newdchildren and then the york times is all about the power of corruption. Is there any difference if you change those names to the u. S. And to everything we are doing to our kids and our grandkids and the corruption in our government. Cost overruns . Russia doesnt know what cost overruns are. They should see what were doing. It is funny these two National Papers can spot on what is happening in russia but are so blinded to what is happening here. Host thank you. This is robert, springfield, oregon. Just wanted to say how much i appreciate the intelligent conversation this time of the day. I am three hours behind you. Anyway, i think the press is pretty ignorant of foreign cultures and certainly parts of Eastern Europe area they dont. Nderstand the economics i am not a big fan of russia. What they are doing in the ukraine is heinous. That is what they have to work with to execute those things. I believe the poor trails in the press do not recognize how much stability there is in an economy that has turned itself and 20 years. Thank you. Thank you for calling in. Here are some of the comments on our Facebook Page. This is from susie. The worst place for the olympics. Is an uncivilized, disgusting person. Karen says sochi was the worst place to choose. They had to create snow . Chris says, hopefully it is the athletes Opening Ceremony and not putins Opening Ceremony. If you would like to make a comment, facebook. Com cspan. Award. Ng olympic sochis troubles. Autocratic regimes are bad host. Sochi has become a symbol of the corrupt access and misplaced priorities of mr. Putins regime , which squandered a record 51 billion on the caucasian resort and yet fail to complete hotels and other needed to sell it is by this week. Stolen billions were according to opposition leaders. It is hard to reconcile this stalinist excess with russias needs, as an emerging economy, for private and foreign investment. Even more disturbing is the shadow cast over the games by repellent embrace of homophobia. Gays will be welcome in sochi, he said, provided they leave kids alone. Sochi will have designated protest zones, but russian dissenters who managed to security deployment and obtain an official partner will find themselves seven miles from the nearest olympic site. Many athletes and spectators that attend will be worried about the possibility of terrorist attacks, especially following reports that black widows have infiltrated the city. While such threats are an unfortunate aspect of all olympics, they have been compounded by mr. Putins promotion of sochi, which lies adjacent to caucasian republics, where brutal repression by Russian Security forces has spawned one of the worlds most beer real and homegrown terrorist virulent homegrown terrorist movements. The do you think about sochi a limit . Olympics . Caller i wish the best for them. We made a president. He was [indiscernible] we try to get the olympics for illinois. We didnt get that. We didnt get nothing. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth. It seems like we are overlooking olympics that we should be having in the summer. I wish the olympians the best. Guest do think it is wors do do think it is worth the investment . And wholeey built city around the olympics. They may have needed it for a boost. Chicago really needed it. It is the wrong place for the olympics. We had it in salt lake city. We had a couple of incidents where things were behind schedule. If Everything Else goes fine, that is what we are hoping for. Host thank you for calling in. Chicago is one of the finalists for the 2016 summer games. For leakingrussia profane call. This is from the wall street journal. The u. S. Strongly suggests russias involvement in the leak of a recording of a top diplomat referring profanely to americas allies, comments that lay bare growing frustrations between the u. S. And europe as they try to forge a solution to the political crisis in ukraine. Victoria nuland is apparently her divorcing her exasperation eu. Aying f the she has apologized for the reported comments. And you spokeswoman declined to comment on the recording, saying only that the uas engaged in helping the people of the ukraine through the current political crisis. The u. S. Official said an aid in deputyice of russias Prime Minister was the first to send a twitter message about the recorded phone call between ms. Pyatt, thegeoffrey u. S. Ambassador to ukraine. President putin expressed his dissent against tos bringing their ideas this country. Tohink he has that right express his dissent against gays. I would like you to have a segment on the unemployment conversation. I have been depressed and i am on my last check and i have not found a job yet. I would like you to have a what then that and see holdup is for these American People that is unemployed. Thank you. Host paul, and branson, missouri. What do you think . Is sad thatink it some cannot go. Shaun white has decided he cannot go. Host he is there. I think he just dropped out of an event. Caller my bad. I just thought it was ironic that he says it is okay for gays to, as long as they dont as long as they leave the kids alone. That mean it is okay for heterosexual pedophiles to show up . He is so out there. He does not show a lot of sense. Figure,e a popular riding around with his shirt off, being a jock. Russia is in trouble economically and to spend 50 billion on this is it does not show good sense. Olympics arek the too political . Caller i do. Too political and too expensive. It could have been done in the angeles coliseum. Thank you. We will go to baton rouge, louisiana. Do ar i think we should topic about how the United States is viewed now, over the world. Five or 67 years ago, everyone was going to love us and we were going to love everybody. Now we are telling our allies to f you . That is remarkable. The quorum ofc on your administration. Host what you think about the Olympic Games . It is another example of a socialist country that cannot put on a sporting event. That is remarkable. This is richard. I think they got good security over there and stuff like that. I would agree with the first caller that came on. We talk about russia and it seems like wed like to pick on russia all the time. Really, truly is corrupt. Pushingwe should stop all of this. Has the right to do what he is doing in his own country. I think the security will be fine. Thank you very much for listening to me. Have a good day. U. S. Womens hockey team meets putin. If they win a gold medal, they could receive an information an invitation to meet president obama. We told him we played hockey and his lies his eyes lit up. He was dressed in world leader attire. Meredith, athens, georgia. What are your thoughts . Caller a lot of people have been talking about the getaway i guess it is a for the lead of the russians. I am wondering if maybe put in is putting a steel ring around that area. He is not a dummy. I like his leadership ability. Thank you. Host this is from cnn. Sochi winter 2014 sochi Winter Olympics fast facts. Seven countries submit bids for the 2014 olympics. The ioc selects the final three and 2006. Sochi, salisbury, and p yeongchang. Theioc chooses sochi as 2014 host during 2007. They raise 1. 2 billion in sponsorships and on june 30, 2013, the russian antigay propaganda law, which passed overwhelmingly and is signed by the publicutin, bans discussion of gay rights and relationships anywhere children might hear or see it. Those found in breach of it can be fined and, if they are foreign, deported. July, 2013, global protests. Allows nsa leaker Edward Snowden to remain in his country and if you continue ,upporting Bashar Alassad Lindsey Graham suggests a boycott of the olympics. In august 20 13, president obama rejects calls to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics unless the law is repealed, saying it would who haveican athletes trained and sacrificed to make it to the lyrics. If russia does not have gay or lesbian athletes, that would probably make their team weaker. Also, Russias Interior Ministry confirmed the antigay law will be enforced at the olympics. Finally, last month, the u. S. Military will have up to two war ps under a contingency plan to help evacuate officials and athletes if ordered. On january 22, 2014, olympic officials in a number of countries received email warnings of a terrorist threat to sochi visitors. Credible. Viewed as that is a little bit of the timeline from the cnn report. From the Christian Science monitor, the Winter Olympics by the numbers. 425 thousand people live in sochi. 14,000 people will carry the olympic torch. That torch will travel 40,000 miles, including up to space. Sochies is how far stretches along the black sea. 40,000 Police Officers and troop will troops will provide security. That is compared to 16,000 in vancouver. If the 500 new surveillance cameras have been installed in sochi. David, new york, good morning. Caller the last caller made my comment for me. Sign up therettle on your show that said make a suggestion. I have been watching cspan for a long time. Think, every morning it seems like someone calls in with a 9 11 comment. Why dont you let those guys on there and let them talk it out or whatever. Let someone counter them and bring it to a reality. What do you think about those calls . Caller i dont know. I dont know if they are completely offbase or if they i honestlyl, but dont have much of an opinion on them. It seems like they are considered persistent. I dont know if it is an organization that is pestering you or if they just want to get it seems like they are not going away. They have been added for quite some time. Host thanks for the suggestion. What do you think about the olympics . Are you going to watch them . Caller i like the olympics. It is too bad that it has turned into such a political mess. I feel sorry for the athletes. And have trained so hard then all of a sudden, they go in under this shroud of controversy. I think the russians are kind of handling the whole thing wrong. The antigay thing, it seems a lot of the United States just passed things were gays can get married now. All of a sudden, they say we dont want them to come over here and participate in the sports. It is too bad that it has to be such a political thing. To get to the olympic level, that takes a huge level of dedication and then to go there for an event that might turn into something ugly, it is a huge disappointment. I dont know. I hope it turns out good. That is all i can say. Host thank you for calling in. Om the daily caller a little bit from this article. If you know about Vladimir Putin is what you learn from bob costas thursday night. Night, you might be excused from thinking he is a great these maker on the world stage. To bringvideo montage viewers up to speed on the russian president as the went begin the winter games in sochi. It looked awful lot like a russian propaganda network, at least in how it portrayed putin as a leader in the international arena. He helped bring iran to the negotiating table over its nuclear intentions. Remnickely, david provided perspective. The world stage, he is an autocrat. He is no democrat. He has no interest in lgbt issues or human rights. All the things that are being discussed. Ashley, houston. When it comes to the sochi olympics, what do you think . Think it is being made into a political football. I think it should be about the athletes and kept that way. Everyone knows what putin is. That is not our business. We should be supporting our athletes. We should be trying to say decent things around about people sometimes and not let everything turn into a negative and a political football. That is all i have to say. Thank you. Host are you going to watch them . Caller i am. I am for the athletes. That is what it is about. It should not be about politics. It should be about supporting them. They trained so hard and they work so hard. I think it should be about them. Thank you. Host thomas, granite falls, north carolina. Caller people calling in and talking about russia cannot afford this their financial system, what about us . We are 17 trillion over and counting. Rides to themb Space Shuttle off of russia. Stuff sexual throwing it in their face, i think they have a right to live the way they want to over there. Forink maybe they see it what it is. It is nothing but sexual perversion. From cbs. Is a report s girlfriend may light sochi olympic torch. You can read that it for yourself. Jodi says that maybe putin should have consulted mitt romney for some insight to make the appearance of a prophet. Profit. Russias needs to look human rights abuses against gays, artists, and dissidents in the face. The best tweet of the morning. Peter, shouldnt you be in the back Office Getting the real hosts their coffee and doughnuts. Richard, olympics, not the place for politics. Jill says i just want the olympics to go off without any terrorist attacks. You can get a hold of us. There are the phone numbers. Republicans, 202 5853881. Democrats, 202 5853880. Independents, 202 5853882. If you are outside the u. S. , 202 5853883 social media, you can send a tweet. You can participate in the lively conversation going on on facebook. You can send an email at journal cspan. Org. Heres the front page of the wall street journal. As the Winter Olympics open, putin showcases a defiant russia. He will entertain World Leaders at a reception under soaring corinthian style columns in a sparklingnd a giant, chandelier in the rust sanatorium. It will be one of the most exclusive events of the winterland experience the guest list has big gaps. Russias president will be chinese president , belarusn president , and president. North korea is sending its secondhighest official come even though the country has no athletes competing at the sochi games. Landed the first winter Charm Offensive the international of the committee of officials. The lack of top u. S. And european officials at mr. Putin the 17 dayn and sochi games shows hostility to the new political creed mr. Pursued since his return to the kremlin in 2012. He has crusaded against western influence throughout the world and emphasize russias traditional values. Is a little bit from the front page of the wall street journal. Bob, jacksonville, texas. What do you think about this . The thanks for for taking my call. You was ugly talking about hosting. I dont agree with him. I think youre a wonderful host. With all of the junk that goes on, having these games in countries like that, i wonder if it is really worth it. Think the prime concern when theyre picking out a country should be a country that is neutral as it can be and not create problems like this. I am not sure how to put this. To a futureerence program. ,very time you hear anybody politicians especially, talk about entitlements, it is always Social Security, medicare and medicaid. We know that entitlement stretches out to a lot of other places. There are a lot of things in government that are entitlements. I think those should be talked about. It would make a really good program to hear about. All of these other things that are actually entitlements instead of just Social Security and medicare and thank you for your time. You have a good day. Egeland says if we can keep the politics out of it, the games will go well. The olympics are a chance to demonstrate russias return to global prominence. The sochi games are as much push to. Putins rebuild russian pride as bringing home gold medals. The initial reaction of some visitors arriving in sochi is falling short of grand ambitions. Instead of marveling at the 9 billion railway link between olympic venues on the black sea and nearby mountains, journalists have criticized rooms without doorknobs and hot water. Still undere construction with mounds of mud or dirt and little landscaping. Greg, north carolina. What are your thoughts about the sochi olympics and some of the history, politics, etc. As sochi goes, i think the people in sochi are proolympics. I think everyone in sochi will be fine. As far as the olympics go, they will be fine. They will be a lot better off than anybody who is in the United States without a job. Or if you have a relative without a job. On ought to do a segment cost justification of institutions like dmv. Theyre constantly talking about everyone get a job. Be great if you had mobility to get there. I dont see any use for that institution. If you go into any town at all, you are going to find people that are not really there. You go to the most wealthiest towns and you will find a bunch of people paying exorbitant fees that are not really from that town. Wher host were going to have to leave it there. We are talking about the sochi olympics. Security in every note and cranny is the headline. Every day this week is a dress rehearsal of sorts for security. The olympic torch, a soft target, arrived thursday without incident. Openingrough for the ceremonies on tuesday brought thousands of invited spec taters to the spectators to the fisht olympic stadium. Usedartment complex being as a hotel is surrounded by a fence and a moat. Along the perimeter fence at the airport, a soldier is posted every 50 yards, presumably to sound an alarm as much as fight off attackers. Along a nearby pipeline, Police Agents are posted about every 10 yards. The security has not been modest, because russia is a target of islamist extremists. Scares involving unaccounted for black widows or of road tubes of toothpaste seemed to help justify the relentless screening of olympic videos visitors. On the ground, Police Officers keep watch on every bridge and tunnel and at regular intervals, locomotives have been stationed on tracks along the main rails and a rail train sits halfway up the mainline. A little bit about the security and what it feels like and looks like from the Washington Post. Noble, oklahoma. Good morning. Caller good morning. Youonly are they rude to about getting the coffee, but you are cute as can be. Anyway. , i am sorry to say, he looks like a closet homosexual if i have ever seen one. We need to get Richard Simmons in the closet to exercise that little man. What do you do in noble, oklahoma . Comedian am a standup trying to be discovered. I am 61 years old. I have about had it with the way the government is going. Youone would send me could tell obama that i would go to north korea and i would take a good representative from and wea, kevin durand back bring that little man , that little hostage and everything. I guarantee you. Host thanks for watching. Thank you, i think, for calling in. Diane, we are talking about the sochi olympics. Caller good morning. In my late 60s. This comment is not referring to sochi. Being across the river from windsor, i am fortunate to this is prior to ipad and all the digital stuff. I watched the olympics via the cbc. Coverage, they had from 6 00 a. M. To 10 00 a. M. , live of the downhill of the snowboarding, the slope style. From 10 00 to 2 00, they had live coverage. All of the countries, not just a few here and there, all of the competitions for the teams. Reason i like watching the cbc is because nbc has politicized things. Theyre going for ratings. Theyre trying to get controversy. Just watching the athletes, i love watching the athletes. All of the different countries. The russian pairs were outstanding. The young lady that skated yesterday, she must have been doing ballet from the time she was in her crib. She had the most beautiful lines. Covering there ceremonies. Theyre starting at 10 00 a. M. To 5 00 p. M. I will see everything live. Cbc,will do a summary on but i like to compare. The job. Not do they are out there to make money and get the commercials. Host maybe i am confused. Who is more political in their coverage . Caller nbc. They do it for ratings. A few summers ago, all of the ratings were down. Make little stories and a take you around russia and they show you the golf that they are making. Dolls that they are making. I have gone to all three sites on the internet. , the nbc, and the russian site. I had trouble with the nbc site. That was yesterday. Cbc was really great. Especially the way they have a graphed out. So did the russian site, actually. I thought that was outstanding. Maybe they copied the canadians. Everything is money based in america. Have apthe canadians review of the athleticism of a. 9 11 business that people keep calling in on, what they are trying to put over two people you have these two buildings right next to each other, two planes, one flew one, another plane flew into another one. And you have another building away from these two buildings. No plane crashed into that building, how did it implode . Host were talking about the sochi olympics. Talk to a former. Lympian participated. Si what is your olympic past . Guest i was in the competition in 2006. Last caller made some really interesting statements, that correlates to my experience. I was televised a lot more significantly, more coverage due to my crash than i would have had if i had just finished all four runs. Am definitely in agreement with her in terms of how our coverage is very reflective of ratings. My experience really does parallel well with the common of the last caller. The comment of the last caller. Host when did you train to become a luge racer . Caller i competed in the olympics at 21. I had a 10 year career. Host why did you decide to become a luger . The wayas not that things work with the luge, you are chosen as a child. You are chosen before you have a lot of experience as a luge athlete. They are searching for people who are gifted athletes and fit itsychologically into is a dangerous sport. There is a lot of speed involved. The skill happens after you have been selected. Host you compare the olympics to the hunger games. Why that analysis . They are a big show. They are a beautiful show and the image does not always line up with the reality in terms of what the actual olympics experience is. It is a tough task and one i went down for 10 years. To become aot commodity. You had the death of a georgian luge athlete. A highly political life you are leading, even though you dont realize it at the time. In terms of your economic identity, it is very tough. There is a hidden cruelty embedded in the olympics. What you mean by that . Games just hunger came out. I use it as an analogy. The Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games if you think about the way that the Opening Ceremony of the hunger games is laid out, you have athletes coming in arching under their flag. Marching under their flag. You are also serving a purpose as an olympic athlete. You serve a purpose as a commodity. Someone was making a lot of money for the corporate monster ship. Corporateke nbc sponsorship. For people like nbc. It becomes very political. They become economically significant. For an it happens olympic athlete, there is a strategic political and economic purpose being served by those who are competing in the hunger games. Mistakeu write, make no for the global elite, the olympics are an investment. Olympic function of the athlete is clear to me now. My olympic experience solidified that. Athletes are property of corporate sponsorship. We have a system in this country where there is virtually zero Government Support given to our National Team athletes. In the name ofng your country and representing your country and you are serving a strategic patriotic position for your country and your country does not support you. When corporate sponsors only pay smaller costs of athletes, athletes are left in the position of economic vulnerability. Work in athletes addition. Some work fulltime in addition to the fulltime job of being a national athlete. Some of them have had to join the u. S. Army World Class Athlete program. Some athletes dont have the luxury of having their subsistence costs covered. As wrong. These athletes are economically exploited individuals. N their subsistence level not for athletes like shaun white or the people who are making a lot of money for the sponsors that they have. They are more valuable to the sponsors. Most athletes are not that valuable. Most athletes have to scrape by. This is inappropriate. These are individuals who are areen, courageous and representing their country. It is a payday for corporate sponsorship. You write that our best athletes are almost entirely dependent on corporate sponsorship. The consequences of this addiction can be disastrous. The socialization of my allegiance to verizon began the was selected as an 11yearold for the u. S. Development team. They view brand loyalty as integral for the survival of the organization. We do not blame the individuals who are involved in these organizations. Lot of wonderful and dedicated people who treat athletes well. The luge blame association and people within the organization for what happened staff leads. For what happens to athletes. We have to look to the fact that we have a privatized hierarchy. In the United States, you are very vulnerable because of that sole public sponsorship. Association, luge they have a strong relationship with verizon. It lasted several decades. Almost the amount of money that they were almostasically covered the entire operational budget of the organization. When that relationship of dependency is continuously developed, if that sponsor pulls out, the organization is in big trouble. Because of pull out the economic crisis. They had to make decisions about where it was going to allocate money. Many amateur sports organizations went to commercial sports where the money is. Olympics, its a lesser moneymaker. Amateur sports organizations, many of them were dropped by verizon. Then what happens, obviously, the usa luge was in a tough situation. They had to cut back on programs and the cost of this was internalized by the individual athletes themselves. A lot of them had their training budget cut. Many had to take up more work hours than they were already doing outside of the sport. Crop joinfresh, new an army outfit program. Inadvertent of the u. S. A luge by the army. Our athletes are limited by their legion to the Corporate Limited byhey are the fact that they are representative of the u. S. Government in a direct way. Jodi tweets in the money going to everyone but these athletes is disheartening. These kids do all the work in training for so many to exploit. She is very much on point. On point. Ording is a lot of times these are kids. They are not even adults. Waiting tables and bartending at a young age because as a child athlete, i was working as an athlete. Yes, so, it is inappropriate to have kids working. A childike you have working two jobs. That is too much. If that is too much for a child. Certainly i am not saying that courts should be a moneymaking proposition but you should be able to provide the athletes that are representing the United States in the world cup competition or any interNational Team level, let alone only the levels, but we should in this country we have so many people doing so well and so many people who are doing very well are among the areorate elite that sponsoring things likely Olympic Games. In light of the fact that we have so many people here doing also have to realize the vast majority of us are not doing very well. The vast majority of us are very much struggling. And our olympic athletes are some of those people. Host samantha retrosi, why didnt you quit . Was it an addiction for you . Guest an interesting question. I had to think about it last night. Somebody asked me if i was competing for the love of the sport. To be honest with you, i think a lot of athletes will say they will still give the line but it is almost as though the specific line and mentality is socialized into them, so they are it to think that way, to talk that way, and you are almost ashamed if you dont talk that way. I started as a little kid. I was a gifted athlete. Repetitively what a gifted person that i was. I was told repetitively that i was an olympic hopeful. A child, the prospects of the olympics is beautiful,is this seductive illusion. Of course you are going to keep going, no matter what. Of course, you are not going to be what it is you are going through, with people like your , if you have a string hanging over and your head of becoming a u. S. Olympian. To a kid, that is a realization of the American Dream which we all know, its pretty far out of reach at this point at time for anyone. That includes the athletes. So, you keep going. As a kid and most successful athletes that his children you keep going. It is a typical socialization that keeps building on itself really, so regardless or not whether you are enjoying i am questioning at this point whether people to enjoy what they are doing at an elite level. It is a painful process. Regardless of that, we have to also come to terms with the fact that these are kids and they are caught up in this world. Some of them are not kids, some are adults. Most have been caught up in this world since childhood and it is a very strong socialization process embedded in the games and the Olympic Movement in general. Host finally, samantha retrosi, another tweet from marie. I dont think she likes corporations supporting the athletes, yet they couldnt go without support from corporations. Andt she is entirely right that is pretty problematic. What should happen is we should have a lifeline of support for athletes that comes from the u. S. Government. If you are representing the u. S. Heldnment, if you are accountable as a representative of the u. S. Government you should be able to expect a very basic level of adequate subsistence that exists outside of the realm of corporate support. Because as we saw, you cant actually always count on the corporate sponsors. They will act in their own interest economically just like whichmer sponsor verizon it dropped the athlete is committed to supporting and did so in a very relatively short amount of time. On a kids could not count corporate sponsor anymore and instead they become a exploited worker they had to pay their own way to their dreams. Way have been talking to samantha retrosi, a former luger for the American Olympic team and you can see her article at olympics is why the a lot like the hunger games. Thank you, samantha retrosi. Guest thanks for having me. Host coming up, we will continue looking that deal of experience up next, the history of the olympics and the politics with the Athletic Director of Drexel University as washington journal continues. At least the honorable member has the guts to stand against her she wouldve been swept from office and dump them in garbage. Will go verytation successfully, indeed. It will go very successfully, indeed. Can pontificate in light of the facts instead of what the honorable gentleman a whole list of what has been ruled as parliamentary expressions. Indeed, a few weeks ago the present Prime Minister was required by the speaker to withdraw i remark he made that of theed that the leader opposition was in some ways less than honest. I dont remember the details. Course, iting, of was said, churchill was once construct it by the speaker to withdraw an accusation of lying. Instead of accusing whoever it was of telling a lie he is said a have said i will call it terminological and exactitude. But nobody could ever find that in the official report so it is probably a myth. Cspans former london producer with a behindthescenes look at the British Parliament sunday night at 8 00 on cspans q a. On firstour program Lady Laura Bush saturday at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan and watch our recent interview with mrs. Bush at 8 30 p. M. And live monday night our series continues. It is all an evolutionary process. You grow into this role. My sense is that you never get comfortable if you are always pushing for change and growth, not just in yourself but in the issues that you care about. You are never done. A point ins never time where you feel like, they are, i am now here and i can do this the same way all the time. Obama,t Lady Michelle monday night at 9 00 p. M. Eastern live on cspan and cspan3 and also on cspan radio and www. Cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host joining our conversation from philadelphia is eric zillmer, the Athletic Director and a professor at Drexel University. About going to be talking the history and politics of the olympics with dr. Zillmer. Modern Olympic Games start, eric zillmer, and have they always been political . Guest the modern olympics started with the summer olympics in 1896 in athens. But for the Winter Olympics, it started in 1924 in the Little French resort town. This is the 27 olympics, sochi, for the Winter Olympics and there have been 30 summer olympics. Of course, a long history of ancient greece hosting the olympics. And as the olympics have become more visible that has been more glory, more power, more money, and with that, an opportunity for propaganda. And of course the olympic have always been political. In ancient times, peter, their athletes were put on coins. There were statues build if they were the victors. And in more recent times, especially in the summer olympics, theres been little statements. Think of the 1936 olympics, as an expression of an ideology of an entire country, the third 1980, germany, or think of in moscow, the first olympics that russia ever held where 66 countries including the United States boycotted the olympics because russia ussr was in afghanistan. Go 1968 mexico, silent display of black power by two american athletes who won the gold and silver in the 200 millimeter 200 meter race. Politics started from whether americans should where americanmade apparel to who goes to the olympics, to how the site gets selected. And now we have openings the most expensive olympics ever held, 50 billion, 10 billion in security. Sports,talk about the peter, as about the politics. The Olympic Games and the olympic political games. Host so, how did we get to be discussing gay rights and authoritarian regimes in the olympics . Guest the beauty of the sports is that it has always been a slice of humanity. Mostlympics are sports ambitious moments. If you combine the two, sports has always been a way how to look at humanity. If you think about sports, the barriers broken down in terms of diversity, racial diversity, gender diversity. The first olympics had no women participating. Now there are as many women athletes as men athletes in the american delegation. And so, for every olympics, there is a litmus test, what is the olympics about in russia. Believe, it is i project and there are two issues i think russia wants to be seen as favorably, and that is that they are a modern country and that they are wealthy. And some of the social issues you now see coming through the olympics are freedom of orientation,exual and also money. How much money do the athletes need to go to the olympics . This is the script behind the olympics. Of course, all of this goes away the moment the lights go on and you see the athletes. I have to tell you, i am a fan of the olympics. The eyes. Ast for the more television has gotten involved, it is just irresistible not to watch it. So i think the sports, when they take the main stage, everything will be dedicated to the sports. But the context is political. Is area code if you want to participate in a conversation with eric zillmer, Athletic Director at Drexel University and a licensed clinical psychologist on top of that. Host you can also participate via social media, send a tweet to our twitter handle. Even though we will not be looking at those comments, you can continue the conversation all olympics and politics on our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan. Important arehow the Olympic Games to nationalism, to small states, etc. . They are amazingly important. You may remember the cold war almost the countrys ideology was in competition with each other. You remember the miracle of ice in 1980 when the United States team made up of a bunch of college kids for the first time beat the ussr in their red jerseys. It gave us conviction that we could win this cold war. Sports has been an amazing tool in this respect. Or if you remember during the cold war, a small country like east germany with a population of 16 Million People being always in the top three in the summer olympics in medal counts. Of the Metal Council race has always suggested whether a country medal count race is always a just a whether a country can be superior in infrastructure, education to other countries. Nations,ompetition of and it reflects how well a country is going. I think it is true for the United States of america as well. Athletes competing in these olympics, the largest delegation we have ever had. And i think americans are as nationalistic as eddie any other country and wants to do well as a nation. Host a few years back the head of the International Olympic Committee Said the olympics are more important than the catholic religion. Ioc is all, being nonprofit organization, houston luzern lausanne, switzerland, and they have 100 members who determine how the olympics are staged and where they are located. And i believe this statement, that they actually believe that statement. You know, sports can mean everything to some people in some countries and to some people it means nothing. That is the beauty of sports. It actually is irrelevant. What it is a celebration of movement, what people can do. Like the state of the union address, peter, for humanity, to watch the olympics. Now, since the inception of the been aolympics there has separation of money and politics from the olympics. The american who was for a long time the president of the ioc in the 20th century, he made a comment about politics having nothing to do with the olympics and also should be no sponsors or outside money but completely and amateur istic event. Summer olympics 1972 in munich at all came ahead to a head when a terrorist organization, black september, invaded the Olympic Village and took the israeli wrestling team hostage afteral of the decision one day of not competing they would compete in the 1972 summer olympics while this terrorist organization was holding their wrestling team hostage. That says statement politics are separate from the olympics. Of course some of peter, the ioc is an olympic entity in and of itself and you have to remember. So, they have their own agenda and their own propaganda. Host lets take from some calls for you. Herb is calling from orchard park, new york. Guest good morning. Agree more that politics should not be in the olympics. But unfortunately they are. And i think we are seeing much more of it this year in my memory than we have in the past there in the past. And i happen to be an admirer of the russian people. I hope nbc and other networks will show a little bit of the history of the soviet union. For example, i dont think most the russianslize really won world war ii. Yes, the United States, canada, britain, australia helped about 20 million russian people died, themselves to bring victory over than not these not twos. Nazis. And even today if you really this visit moscow in red square there is a statue of the russian unknown soldier. You will see young couples just married after their ceremony on their way to their reception, they will stop and visit the unknown soldier. Emorial there what i am saying is the russian day, haveen to this not forgotten the tremendous sacrifices. And i hope the coverage will show a little bit of that. Got aerb, i think we point. Eric zillmer, for the caller . Guest the question is how do we get to discussing this, especially for the oh Winter Olympics. The went olympics used to be held in small villages like lake placid, for tina, saint mauritz, ch, after yougarmis come from the slopes you sit at the fireplace often with the athletes themselves. But the ioc made a decision to make awarded to a lowkey resume this resort of sochi and a few years, south korea. These are not mainstream at the resort areas. Bebop in critical how a lowkey seaside resort like sochi is going to stage a Winter Olympics. Since this is the second olympics in russia, russia is very motivated to do very well on an international stage. And so that is why the background of sochi has become so political for a Winter Olympics game when in the past very few people talk about Winter Olympics. Herbskground to question, you know, the cold war ended in 1989 but is it truly over . War againstved in a global terrorism. We have troops on the ground in afghanistan as russia had in the past. I think we see a lot of media spin that is not giving russia a fair shake for these olympics. Before the olympics even started people were told that the olympics are unsafe. I would say that sochi right now is the safest place on the earth. Over 40,000 security. Anything can happen, but there is so much security on the ground and sochi it is hard to believe that these olympics are not going to be secure. I think there is a lot of spin about russias natural enemies who want to make sure and provide a context that these olympics are going to be a failure. What is yourllmer, personal history in the olympics . Guest well, my sister competed in the olympics in 1968 in grenoble, france, as a womens figure skater. Two event that i think are so mesmerizing in the Winter Olympics, on sunday, the mens downhill. An amazing feat of gravity has gone i think the biggest pages the drama of womens figure skating and my sister was a competitor. Were of interest politically was for the first time they were embraced by mainstream america because they were televised, and the heroine Peggy Fleming won in a fairytale performance in grenoble and showed the world that women can be athletes and can be feminine at the same time. I tagged along. I was a 12yearold boy. And i remember things, peter, like walking into the Olympic Village every day to visit my sister and there would be absolutely no security. There was a sign that said Olympic Village in french, of course, and i would just walk have by and never credentials checked. Now you have an Olympic Village that is like a fortress. So many things have changed but the politics of never change. The politics of 1960 eight Winter Olympics, the ones my sister participated in, was for the first time east and west germany were recognized as separate countries and were allowed to represent each others country. So you know, every olympics has had its own agenda. I also remember as a 12yearold watching the ice hockey game, the ussr against czechoslovakia and it was, of course, the same year russian tanks invaded prague. Hockeys was not an ice game but this was an athletic contest for liberty. With the previous caller that politics should be separate from sports but it isnt as it is a reflection of life and that is what you will get from the lyrics. Host seagull tweets in was it a mistake for jimmy carter to not f which compete in the 1980 x . Mistake. Was a huge you look at it now in the historical perspective, and i think most people and scholars would agree it was a mistake. Eyed hundreds of american athletes who tried to hundredste denied of american athletes to try to participate at highest level daily training, sacrificing family and social life, employment, and you denied those american athletes in the pursuit of happiness which is in our constitution through a political gesture and in return, of course, the russians were not part of the 1984 olympics in los angeles so this was drawn out over a period of time. So i believe it was a huge mistake. Host next call comes from tom from north carolina. Go ahead with your question or comment for eric zillmer. Guest i heard you make mention of the 1968 in the 1980 olympics a little bit, and the 1972 olympics. But an event that was hostageowed taking but the israelis, the goldmedal heavyweight boxing where united againstussell fought the russian, put them on the canvas five times in three rounds and somehow ended up with a silver medal. That caused him to completely get out of boxing after that. He could have overshadowed those of the both of them spinx brothers. Guest also in the 1972 olympics with mark spitz who won at that time most gold medals, i believe six or seven. One of the beautiful things about the olympics are these personal stories you see about these athletes, how they got to the olympics and what happened to them afterwards. For some, it is the end of a long career and for others it is to an amazing career either in sports or onto partnership. The gentleman mentioned moffett that show boxing. Cash is clay, now mohammed ali, was a boxer who won a gold medal and look at where he went. In the next two weeks we will see what stories are going to be told, human stories, individual stories about athletes performing at the highest level. That is what the olympics is about as well. Olympics have so many different facets to it and that is why we are talking about it and that is why people interested in it. It has athletics and it has politics. Began this morning with the Washington Times column, tom navarro talking about economic devastation a host city faces after hosting the olympics. Host it is an interesting point. When you think about it in america now, which city would want to actually want to host these olympics . It seems like if you are the mayor of a city like that, you want to make sure you are not in office anymore when the olympics comes around. It is financially very difficult to stage. And in fact, i used to believe it would not be possible to stage anymore by a democratic country. You would almost have to be totalitarian or communistic to really have the entire country support financially such an amazing event. You have to remember, theres 100 events that are in the summer olympics now. Like having 100 World Championships in one place. The operational chaos is just incredible. But then i watched the london and i wasn 2012 really impressed how london handled it. Seemingly in an amazingly organized fashion. Financially they did well. So, i think it is possible and i think it is a reflection of how you want to stage it and what resources you have and how much you wanted. Becoming very, very expensive. Remember the athens olympics in billion, and 2 billion in security and now the most expensive games ever, sochi, 50 billion and 10 million. 10 billion in security. It is a very expensive undertaking and very few countries can afford it. Some countries have made a mistake in probably accepting it. Look at sarajevo in yugoslavia when they had the Winter Olympics and look at that town now. We will see how Rio De Janeiro who has the next summer olympics will do. We know that country is going to struggle to financially support all the buildings that go along, the infrastructure, with olympics like that. Peter, remember, the summer olympics are 15,000 athletes, 15,000 volunteers. You have to provide an Olympic Village that the athletes can move in the day of the olympics. It is just an amazing undertaking. So i agree. One of the aspects of olympics his finances. In iewer tweets the next call for eric zillmer comes from madonna in missouri. Caller thank you for taking my call. I wanted to comment on your previous guest. She stated that she was not at all having interest in the government let me start over. She stated that she wanted the government to back olympians athletes because they were representative of the u. S. Country. Which takes offense which makes sense to me. But at the same breath she did not want olympians to being used as commodity for the government. I am thinking to myself, you cant have your cake and eat it, too, so to speak. I am thinking, if you want the yournment to back you up, have to be a marksman for the government but if you want to verizon, which she repeatedly suggested being their sponsor, she did not think they were responsible for holding the whole bill. The other thing that kind of bothered me with what she said was, she said olympians also had i am a fulltime job and thinking that is wonderful. Im so glad we have people in who want to show their true colors and working hard and being these talented athletes and their godgiven grace have been given, and they use that for the good. Have to to say they also work. That is what the rest of us are doing. You do have a choice if you want to provide for your family or do this. If you want to continue on with the stuff. We got the point. Eric zillmer, i do not know if you heard, but we have been talking with samantha retrosi, a former luger. Guest her question is are athletes privileged and should they be given a free ride. And it isathletics really difficult to make an olympic team. You have to be very talented. You have to put a lot of time into it. And how you get supported is really part of the puzzle. Separate the athletic events from how you are going to be supported to actually engage in those athletic events. Peter, iscountry, doing this different. That is why the olympics are so interesting. During the cold war, east germany would have academies where athletes would live and practice and eat and would be by theely 100 supported country. Whereas the United States of america, we are much more capitalistic and entrepreneurial so bode miller, who, by the way, has the fastest practice time for the downhill race sunday, he is just a kid from the hampshire who was skiing in his backyard and somehow he was able to make the olympic team and is one of the goldmedal favorites. That is the beauty about the olympics, too. How do countries support their athletes and how do the athletes get to the olympics in the first place. Story is different for every athlete from every country. And so, to feel that you are entitled to be supported by your region, i dont believe in that. Many athletes have their own sponsors, they find sponsors. Some of them are wealthy. And not everybody is going to make it to the olympics. So those stories and adam in and of themselves i find interesting as well. Host a viewer follows it up with a tweet guest well, i just watched it last week, hunger games. I am slow when it comes to popular media. Of course, it is interesting that there is a parallel. In the parallel i dont think is really there. The athletes that you are seeing on television the next two weeks are amazing people doing amazing feats and in the hunger games, the contestants were chosen randomly. And the idea that you are going to fight to death is something that came out of sports possibly if you look at roman times, and the colosseum, the athletic events, the loser would and could lose their life. And if you look at mexican culture and my and control culture, it is well documented athletes would be killed if they were to lose. So this idea of fighting to taken intoeen sports. You have things like sudden death, over time, and so sometimes you compare the loser as basically dying. Theres parallels. I liked the movie, by the way. But i do like the Olympic Games a lot better because it is live, you dont know what is happened, it is completely spontaneous and there are going to be moments, peter, that are going to last a lifetime. Host gloria from Fort Washington, maryland. Caller good morning. I want to thank you for your program. I dont have time to call as often as i do because i dont have time to listen as often as i did. 77yearold nearly of all things ordained volunteer pastor lives in Fort Washington and i am also a social justice activist, an odd combination. Brought some interesting food for thought. Athink the olympics point out whole bunch of hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle. I happen to be a democrat. Voted for president obama twice. No the truth is the truth, matter it is blue or red, just the truth. I would love to see that much thetement generated about support services that dont exist in the state of maryland for people with disabilities and nbc dc. I might be able to find 20 hours a week of gainful employment. I never saw the kind of exercise over the race problem and i happened to be African American could not even a ride on the bus. Host gloria, we appreciate your calling in and you watching. We will leave your comments to stand there. And we are going to move onto rich in pennsylvania. Caller thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to bring out some points about these olympics and how they came to be in sochi. There is reports coming out all over the internet such as the australian gangsters. Inc, russian mafia boss, his name is akhimov, and the sochi olympics. He was organized and boxing and the main reason for the 50 billion, and it is something. Eople are not talking about i mafia kingpin, drug king pin, heroin kingpin. And he is a main support of the olympics. Host we got that. , when a city secures the Olympic Games is theyre usually so movers and shakers behind that it . Guest of course. That is political in and of itself, peter. You may remember the salt lake in the united02 states, when actually there were charges of bribery, free college education, free medical treatment to the Olympic Committee members. Since then, the Olympic Committee members are actually not allowed to visit the city once it is announced they are bidding for the olympics. Nevertheless, theres a lot of secrecy surrounding how these cities get selected. There is a lot of money involved, a lot of power, and you dont have to stress that stretch your imagination too far to understand there could be corruption. But at the end of the day, the ioc made a decision to award games to nonmainstream countries that have posted these events. And in doing so, they created some of the baggage themselves with having all of the turmoil some out surrounding sochi as a site for the Winter Olympics. Host finally, i must ask you, something will not talk about, the history of the torch relay. Something that gets attention at any every Olympic Games. That began in 1936. Guest yes, it did. Sports have the sports have also been very spiritual. The idea of a flame be being eternal and on during the Olympic Games is something people embrace. Olympic games in 1936. Nobody really talks about the Winter Olympics in garmisch which set the stage for their betterknown summer olympics in berlin. Part of the torch relay brought olympics to the itself. My sister was a torchbearer for the 1972 olympics. It was onlyn, german champions my sister competed for germany who were allowed to run the boat that torch and after one run with the turks run with the torch and she had to pass it on. It has now become a commercial event. The torch for so she was taken to outer space into the lowest lake in the world. It has become like a zoo in and of itself. I think the purpose of the relay has now been lost did but as you can see, the lighting of the olympic flame is still a very celebrated moment because its of signifies the beginning the olympics even though the olympics are so complicated that the events actually started yesterday. Finally, eric zillmer, president obama is not attending and no real highlevel officials are attending. Significant . Guest yeah, of course. It is a political statement. On tuesday, the ioc president thomas back went on record saying take the olympics out of the olympics and he was accusing allocations of making statements of a were not showing up. In the past political figures would say i am going to be there and now it is news when the you are not coming. It was interpreted that it is not against the olympics, it is against the host country, russia, and in this case, some of the politics surrounding gay rights. So, Many Political figures, including european and american figures, have boycotted politically the olympics. Host eric zillmer and is the Athletic Director at Drexel University in philadelphia. Thanks for your time this morning. We appreciate it. Guest you are welcome. Host as we can our discussion about the history and politics surrounding the Olympic Games, and just about to want half hours, the olympics will have the Opening Ceremony in sochi, russia. Joining us from so she now is lisi Lisa Delpy Neirotti from George Washington university. For faster neirotti where are you now and share some of your physical environment and what it looks like . Ready form getting the Opening Ceremony. We are actually in a little bit of traffic heading toward the olympic park. But this morning i was in the park, and it was spectacular. The venues are shining. The look is just so colorful. There is a lot of olympic spirit here. It is just too bad that more people are not here to experience this. Host we heard a little bit of whining and complaining from journalists about certain hotel rooms, etc. , and water conditions. What is your experience . Guest we are fortunate. We are in a guesthouse, which is not new but it is very comfortable, hot water. Heat, internet. So, it is just those few new hotels that are really causing the problem. Media likes to blow things a little out of proportion so, yes, there were some sponsors and some guests that were put out because they took a risk on the hotels being built. But overall, i think the Fan Experience is going to be great. Host professor neirotti, why do you go to the olympics game . Why do you go to young picks games . You go to the Olympic Games . Guest this is my 17th, i went as a student and an intern and volunteer, and now since 1990 two i have been bringing students from George Washington university and we study the management and marketing of the game so we understand the history, the organization, we get more into the details of everything from politics to the security, the transportation, the accommodations, the ticketing. Really delve right into the nuts and bolts of how to put on an Olympic Games, what are the purposes and how they are used for marketing purposes as well. Host how many students do you have with us with you . Guest 26 students and they are at how wellzed organized and the beauty of the venues. We are volunteering for the u. S. A house and we had training today, so we got to go to the park early and their eyes were like, wow, this is amazing. You know, yes, there is controversy over should the Olympic Games be nationbuilding. Kind of tired of using the Olympic Games to build infrastructure, to build a brand. So there is controversy about that. But when you are Walking Around the streets and you see the faces of the people and you are soaging with them, there is much intangible that i am not sure you can put a price tag on that. Host professor neirotti, what is the security like . Guest it is tight. They pat you down. Every piece of your body. But thats good. I would much rather be patted down. Sets into each train station and security getting into the part. It is amazing how many security checkpoints. So i think the flow into the stadium is going to be not held up at all. It will flow pretty well. Host when you look at what you are seeing in sochi today, how does it compare to some of your past olympic experiences . Guest i was just sharing that with the students, that this is the first time that the only big part has been built for a winter games. Typically the venues in the winter games are spread across. Here in sochi it purposely built a seven venues in a circle and national all of the houses and the sponsor house is all in one area, very much like the summer games. So, it is convenient and it is really exciting for the spectator to be able to experience all of that in one place and not have to run around to different venues. To then going up mountain, i was able to go up yesterday, and that was just you do full. So the train took a while, up to the venue it took two hours. But it was a beautiful ride. It is very unique, these olympic the olympicrms of park having the seven venues, and then taking a highspeed train up to the mountains and taking a gondola up to the mountain venues. Host what is the temperature in sochi right now . Guest it is beautiful, i must say. Probably 4045 or so. You still need a coat. Isittle chilly but the sun bright. No clouds in the sky. When you are in the sun, it is quite warm. Getting ready, i am putting longjohns and covering up a lot for the opening because i hear it gets cold in the stadium. Host finally, professor is going toat happen to these facilities after the game is over . We have talked a little bit about the economics of host hosting the olympics. Guest i came over a year ago, and i was pretty negative leaving. I was like, my gosh, what are they ever going to do with these venues . Now that i had been here and they develop so much, they call it the las vegas of russia. They have this Amusement Park that is supposed to open, and these different hotels. And the formula one track. If they promote appropriately, if they get a good Tourism Marketing strategy together, it could be a strong destination. Especially for Eastern Europeans and the middle east. I am not thinking americans or western europe flocking over here. But i do think there is a good possibility for a popular tourism destination here. Host Lisa Delpy Neirotti professor of Sports Management from George Washington university, calling in from sochi, russia. Go usa. Hank you, and host joining me from the set, leon aron, director of russians that is at the American Enterprise institute. A recent oped he had in the Washington Post will russias olympics be putins triumph . E you write russian president has looked at the stern quartet across the world poker table and says, i see you and i raise you. What do you mean by that . Guest what i meant is every is a marathon undertaking with enormous risk. In that sense, sochi is not an exception. But what happened in sochi is four majoringled out risks for all the olympic, especially want to. To weather, the mad rush finish the construction, public incidentsand terror 1972 olympics in munich. They are present in every Olympic Games. Almost aputin liberally if you personify those risks, if you put them at the poker table so that they made their bets, the bets were very large and cute and putin said, i see you and i raise you. When briefly one by one. The weather. The last olympics and the subtropics. The temperatures, we researched mountains,n in the they could go higher than 60 degrees. Now, the russians accumulated 6 million cubic feet of snow and thermal blankets almost futuristic but assuming that is true, that is still not a protection against the rain. On february 8 last year it rained and they had to cancel a snowboarding competition in the mountains. The venues our previous guest was talking about the venues down in the valley, they are safe because they are not open air. Hockey, figure skating, they are safe. But open air are a problem. He mad rush to finish well, i think there has never inn on olympic olympiad which the gap between what was needed and what was there was so wide. Soviet resort. People came. There were huts. They went on the beach. As a child my parents took me there. It was very nice. On trees. But thats it. To make a worldclass olympic venue out of this is a huge challenge. Cost, which is reported to be around 51 billion, more than all the Winter Olympics together, they had to drill 10 12 tunnels through the mountains they had to go up into the mountains. Apart from the corruption, which people say may have consumed as much as 18 billion, stolen and spent, it is just simply a mammoth undertaking. And the final point on the construction is a lot was done essentially i dont want to call it slave labor, but laborers from central a zea asia. To stand, paid around two dollars a day and work about 12 hours. Uzbekitan, and if you protest that you failed because you were technically an illegal alien. It becomes even more at risk than the general olympic tradition where everybody rushes end. E final to the the third issue is the public demonstrations. Again, it happens every olympics. People want to bring their causes to world attention. The problem with the timing Russia Holding the olympics shortly after it angered the Gay Community and the community at large with the socalled blasphemy laws and antigay propaganda laws we can talk about them more. Capital of andhe in the judas of an indigenous muslim people who were expelled the entiremasse, people, by the russians, who were completing their 50 year conquest over the muslim north caucasus by the russian empire. Hundred and 50th anniversary. Anniversary. The caspian activist demanded an apology, at least acknowledgment that they got nothing and although the test we hope it will be nonviolent, but the Russian Police have not had a particularly good record of gentle treatment of public protesters. Final, of course, which essentially makes the choice of the venue a bit reckless is that if you envision sochi as being on the western slope of the theasian mountains, on eastern slope, starting with about 50 miles from sochi, and thishe way to the gestan, is the fifth or the fourth, depending how you count, most dangerous ways of the world as far as terror is concerned. Brothers grew up in dagestan. There were two horrendous bombings killing nearly 300 people at the very end of the summer and all of them were trained abroad in dagestan. But you dont have to go all the way to dagestan. Sochi, in anm atomic mass republic am a there have been terrorist acts. This entire area is extremely dangerous, one of the most dangerous places in the world. And the challenge of terrorism the usual challenge of terrorism in all the olympics is much greater. Host how close is chechnya . Guest if you go 370 miles to dagestan host closer to the caspian sea . Correct. Chechnya is right before it. About three hundred miles. Host does moscow have control, for lack of a better word, over this region now . The eyes ofol is in the holder. They say they do but literally there is not a day that a Law Enforcement, a judge, a prosecutor, a policeman is region thatis begins about 100 miles from sochi. Fraud, athere a bribery issue with Law Enforcement in this area . You know, again, only the russian antiterrorist committee, which is very secretive, would know the truth. But people point out the fact that these presumably despite all of the tight security, the the 29thde bombers, and 30th of december, managed to get to the city of volgograd, which is about 700 miles away and which is linked to sochi by a direct rail line. And that brings me to another issue with security. Is locked. Hi it is locked, as they say, in a ring of steel. One people say it is up to hundred thousand uniformed personnel, even the paratroopers, undercover personnel, various kinds of volunteer troops. I think sochi is locked. But Russian Security experts bringing allt in of that safety to sochi, in d other placesare in russia and less nimble mobile to terrorism. That, i think, is very left them he vulnerable to terrorism. That, i think, is there reasonable but nobody in their right mind would want anything going wrong with these Olympic Games. Especially bloodshed or violence. But the risk has been increased by the fact that putin either now or before him of the plan all along, realized how risky it is geographically to have chosen sochi as a venue and he brought essentially most of the resources, antiterrorist resources that russia has, into sochi where the rich or the vicinity, thus making other places in russia vulnerable. Guest,eon aron is our director of russian studies at the American Enterprise institute, a native of what part of russia . Guest i was born and raised in moscow. Host when did you leave . Guest 1978. Host had to get out in 1970 question mark guest got lucky. Host talking about some of the politics and risks, some of the issues surrounding the sochi games with him. To calls,go professor, what about the fact that western leaders are not attending the opening ceremonies , and they have in the past . Guest well, i think it has to do with issue number three of my quartet of issues. Has been used by Interest Groups and protest groups to zero in a mature underscore, to draw the world attention. In this case, as i said, either by design or most likely by oversight, the timing of the laws. It was not just the antigay laws. In 2012,in was elected russia adopted a host, about a half a dozen various laws. ,n demonstrations, on blasphemy antigay propaganda and so on, which made the country much more repressive. And i think this is reflected in reluctance of of leaders of Major Industrial democracies to come to the olympics. Host did you support jimmy carters decision in 1982 boycott moscow . I was probably too young to think in those terms, but it was a courageous decision. Recall,o do, if you with russias invasion of afghanistan and in retrospect, even that invasion in the end gave us the taliban and afghanistan as a base of al qaeda and essentially 9 11, i think he was right. Is our guest and mark is our first caller from california. Go ahead with your question or comment. Caller good morning. I have a couple of questions. Apparently the athletes dont have any right to free speech and the people that put the olympics on, it seems like it is all about putting their products out on the first base. Things and said, is a good, bad, are you indifferent to that . Dont like it. Host why not . Caller because, you know, the countries that put these things on, i just wondering how much money do they get from advertising they are just wondering how much money they get from advertisement or the sales from Different Research tshirts. Tot anything you want respond to . Guest i just want to correct slightly the caller. I think he said where the athletes after next on the free speech. Have the athletes, im sorry. Member of a protest against Racial Discrimination in the United States in the 1968 olympics, the black love of africanamerican black glove of africanamerican athletes. Theres a strong possibility several have already signed onto the gay activist petition. Its true, the athletes will not be allowed, im sure, to make may be ablet they to make symbolic gestures like this, protesting discrimination against the gay. Wonderful tweets in. Guest [laughter] depends on how you define healthy. I have no problem with a healthy ch, let nationalism, whi me added this is not only grim side, i think this is the healthy side. There is nothing wrong every Olympic Games, every albeit every olympiad has a healthy dose of nationalism. You show yourself as a generous host. Theres nothing wrong with it and it is absolutely true. Let me cite something from the polls in russia that i just got yesterday. The russian people in the National Poll were asked, why do you think im translating from russian here what do you think was the main reason the russian powers that be, the russian functionaries wanted to have the Olympic Games in sochi, in russia so much . By far the largest plurality, 38 , said that was a Good Opportunity for dividing up wise a huge sum from the state budget. Again,nother thing from the opinion poll, the. Ecent opinion poll what do you think why do you think in your view russia has spent so much more on this olympiad than any other country from any other time . is dueplurality said it. O the huge corruption factor most of the funds that were supposed to go to the olympics was wasted or stolen. These are the russian people. I think they probably have a better idea than we do what is going on. Healthy nationalism . Absolutely. Showcasing your country . Absolutely. Let me add something to this russia spends twice as much on these olympics as it spent in a 2013 on education. 51 billion, 80 of other countries that on health care. That is a little bit too much, even for healthy nationalism. Host richard, mountain view, california, good morning to you. Caller yes, good morning. Can you hear me . Host we are listening, sir. ,aller first of all, dr. Aron let me give you quick background. My regret, my greatgrandfather was the cossack major in the army and fought the communists. Yeltsinvited by the committee to go to russia and talk about the economy and what russia could do. I remember during that period of time there was so much russia bashing going on. You sound like really a premium basher. Why do you have so much hostility towards russia . Russia is becoming a key economic power. I see this in the media and i think you are part of the sphere and moaning to knock sochi the russian people. Why are you doing that . Guest first of all, richard, fought side bys side. My grandfather was a doctor in the russian army in 1914, 1918. I love russia, i have lots of friends there. But if you allow me, i would like to follow up on this come because this is a totally irresponsible statement. What i saidl me in what specifically find not true or hostile . Could i havegize moved on and hung up on him. He is no longer guest ok. Host you will have to take what he said and go with it. Guest well, i have nothing to say with this. Nowhere in my writing or anywhere else. If i am hostile, then i suggest that richard read the editorial today in the New York Times, in any other major newspapers. I am no different. I think, peter, you could testify to that, i stuck to the facts. Host we read the New York Times editorial earlier this morning on washington journal. Do you agree with what it says . Guest absolutely. Host are you a supporter of of Vladimir Putin in any way . You think he is r do you think he is bad for russia . Guest yes, i do. Host 2 specific reasons why. Guest ok. I just returned for a major push returned from a major gathering of experts in russia, named for my great friend, a great privatized and brilliant economist. The ministere were of economy, the debbie chairman deputyrussian bank, chairman of the russian state bank, and several others. What they said was, essentially, after 2008, 2009, the world financial crisis, when russia must gdp in when youre filled eight percent when russias 8 ,in one year fell russia face a simple choice. We needed to diversify the countrys economy away from oil and gas. They could no longer service this demonstrators of wealth that should serve as this fabulous producer of wealth they could no longer serve as this fabulous producer of wealth. How do you do it . Change the investment climate. Create better protection for. Roperty rights. Irect investment is down 15 rule of law, courts for sale, or subject to government subject to government pressure, and most of all, no accountability of the government. This was the choice. What happened before that, we could quibble, but the economy was growing and people were having and that is a separate issue. I have problems with that part of putins rule, but this is the key decisive point. Putin decided no, we will go shortterm stability, preserving versuser of the regime longterm progress of the country. To awere seeing is certain extent chickens coming home to roost because the sian economy grew 1. 2 grew 1. 3 , and at the same forum, the deputy chair of the world bank im sorry, the russian state bank, the equivalent of the fed, was talking about stagflation. I hold putin directly responsible and i think so do russian people. Let me cite one opinion poll. People were asked three weeks ago, do you think that the current regime is more concerned about preserving its own power and aggrandizing itself versus longterm welfare of the country and progress of russia . , concernede latter with the progress of russia. 60 say they are only concerned with their own power. I think that is a fairly good judgment. Host could you say what you just said in moscow . Guest yes. Host and you would feel safe . Guest yes. And for other richards out there, believe me, i grew up in the soviet union. Not in my wildest dreams, and your viewers have to keep this compare the would soviet union to putins russia. It is like comparing a very severe cold or ulcer to a deadly cancer. No comparison. Russia is a freer country, much more prosperous country. Is, putin took a wrong turn and i think he will all this fuss over this. Leon aron call for for the American Enterprise institute. Caller good morning, sir. President o comment on putin. I think he is a corruptminded person. He is still trying to dictate and make this great comeback. Im i mean, their allies to syria. Why would they have the olympics in russia . You know what i mean . That is crazy. He has been a dictator all his life. He is a tyrant. His money stinks. He has no good. Changing and not, better country, and have become a better country, but barack Obama Shouldve gone over there and bomb them. Leave it therell and got a comment from leon aron. Guest well, i think, when you asked me, peter, earlier, why westernleaders of major democracies absent, serious one of the issues syria is one of the issues. It is obligated, because on one hand it is complicated, because on one hand russia allied itself temporarily with United States on the issue of extraction of chemical arms from syria. But whatever goals the Obama Administration have with respect to that, the russian goal was simple. They could care less about this chemical weapons. Their goal was to protect the syrian regime. It is a long story why, but one credosissues, one of the of putin is you do not allow change of any authoritarian especially if the west once the strange. This has been an overarching sort of strategy and goal in putins Foreign Policy from the beginning, to stand up to the United States. Essentially in many respects save in that instance the regime and they are no longer using, at least i hope, the chemical weapons, although they have not surrender them yet , but they are bombing their starvingom behind and them to death. This is the product of the , the constanttion because of any syria constant resolution of any syria resolution in the u. N. Guest very good question. Gorbachev has been increasingly he was born in 1931. He will be 83 this february. Bolds been increasingly he critical of putin because rarely sees himself as a great liberator. He is the man who gave the russians points come even though it led to the collapse of the country and collapse of his regime. Th because he allowed the people to say the truth about the country. And with effective censorship of the russian television, with the oppositionf any leader to appear on television for any length of time or risk gorbachevs, opinion is quite right and we should applaud him for being courageous. Host does he spend all his time in moscow today . He has been unwell but he still has the Gorbachev Foundation in moscow. Ive been in touch with them on numerous occasions, and for some of you gorbachev fans come he b for my latest book. Truth in advertising. Host leon aron, what is his life like . Does it well does he live well . Does he have security . Guest there is no library, no memorial, but if you remember, or stilts and charges word he was a fierce Boris Yeltsin kept his word. He was a fierce critic of yeltsin as well. What was promised to him was pension that was driver,nindexed, a car i think a security detail, although i think by now he pays for himself. There was a time in the 1990s when gorbachev traveled all over the world and he was paid handsomely for his speeches. He collected all his money in order to establish the foundation. I dont think the russian government they may have paid his pension that i dont think they pay for his security or the translator. He does it out of his own pocket. For leon aron of the American Enterprise institute comes from jewel in san diego joel in san diego. Caller good morning. Can you hear me . Host we are listening. Caller it seems like there is a recurring problem every 4 years with cities having to build all this infrastructure, and then if we go to beijing, theres issues with human rights abuses that they do, issues like the caller before me talking about syria and russia supporting stereo. Why dont we just that russia supporting syria. Why dont we just have one summerside like trees or a winter site like a neutral country like switzerland and get all of these get over all of these problems . This whole conversation wouldnt exist if we didnt have that host oh, sorry, thought you were done. Permanent olympic site. Guest something to be said for this, although i would give her and say i would differ and athens, because that is where it all started, and that is where the reborn olympics, the first olympics at the end of the 19th century were held. But the issue reminds me i dont know if it is in a proper full story or not i dont cryphal it is an apor story or not. When the u. N. Was being formed and russia was to be the permanent member the soviet union, im sorry. But the soviet union had this official allusion of the republics being autonomous. Apparently roosevelt, or his intermediaries, said, well, it andot fair that ukraine belarus, or the belarusian republic, have seats at the u. N. This is an illusion. They are no more than our states. To which stalin reportedly said, fine, pick 2 states and give them permanent seating at the u. N. I think we are running into the same problem. Get the 189 members of the u. N. , maybe more by now a mature agree on a permanent maybe more by now, to agree on a permanent site to host the olympics. Good idea but i dont think it is practical. Host john in missouri, you are on with leon aron. This is washington journal. Caller good morning, mr. Arun. And you were speaking earlier olympics and how we boycotted those olympics. It brought to mind a story. This was in the 1990s sometime. We were camped in a campground. There was a group of russian musicians there to a ring the United States at that time touring the United States at the time singing russian folk music. I was sitting at a table with those guys. They were my age, a little younger, possibly. We were drinking and joking and having a good time. I made the offhand remark about afghanistan and how afghanistan seemed to be sort of russias vietnam. Boy, things turned cold in a hurry. [laughter] curious as to whether the russian public at that time had as much information about the united in vietnam and Public Opinion on afghanistan was as as it waswas against the military at that time. Guest this is a very interesting comment. Thank you very much. There are 2 issues here. I grew up watching every bit of atrocity ineged vietnam and how the war was awful and how we were killing im sorry, americans were. Illing everything in sight it was a big Propaganda Campaign in the soviet media, i should say. Therey your interlocutor was believing that and that was part of it. Issue, that isr that he knew a great deal about vietnam but very little about afghanistan. I was not in the soviet union already at that time, but as a student of the soviet union and later russia, i can tell you that there was some of the s in the censorship inld on what happened afghanistan, why the troops were there, who they were fighting, until gorbachev in 1987 told the truth started telling the truth, and in early 1988 withdrew soviet troops out of afghanistan because he was becoming a Public Affairs disaster it was becoming a Public Affairs disaster. Everett soviet delegation every soviet delegation, weather ,as musicians, chess players had people whose job it was to report to the secret police. For thatossible reason poor children that you were given that Cold Shoulder you were given is that the men were speaking the prepared script and was afraid to step out of that script even half an inch because he would never be allowed again to go to the United States. Host next call for leon aron comes from natasha in michigan. Caller good morning. These olympics really tug at my heartstrings. My parents were born in russia. We had russian children that came every wednesday. My father was wanting his children to learn about russia and its history. I find that sorely lacking in this country. Americans are so ignorant of russia and its contribution to civilization the artists and musicians. A lot of people think that they are barbarians. Having traveled there many times throughout the communist times and after perestroika, i find the people very gracious, very accommodating. Of course, i did have the advantage of knowing how to speak russian. When i watch tv, the american stations, i find that they are always looking to point out something that is wrong the toilet, though this the this , the that. Good manners, you dont insult your host, because every people of their own country every country. Ve their own fortunately, the canadian station is nearby and i was able to watch some of the things i like, of course, which is iceskating, which particularly host all right, natasha, i apologize, we are running out of time. Quick answer from leon aron. Guest first of all, i applaud your father for teaching the russian. My daughters russian and they are College Students now and im sure they will but their russian to good use. Im not here to defend the American Media. Im not a specialist on the American Media. , asmind you this, natasha always, American Media as with any media covers what it they arends and what accustomed to cover. In this country, and their own country, they cover bad things mostly, too. Keep that in mind. They are very selective and very crinkle. This is how the western press is. Very selective and very critical. This is how the western press is. In some cases it is a drawback, but between that and constantly singing was honest to your own version, i would opt for the critical approach. Host if you could stay with us for a couple more minutes, joining us by phone is unwilling yemen koski with all you and him and koski from Alonya Minkovski from the huffington post. Where are you right now . Guest i just walked into the entire olympic park and the crowds are pouring in because the opening ceremonies beginning in a little under two hours. It is chilly, im not going to lie. And now i can in see throngs of people making their way in. Host when did you get to sochi and what is been your experience oso far . Guest i actually flew in this money. Flew in this money. Through out of new york to moscow and this money to sochi. I have not had a chance to see everything, just to get a perspective on what the layout is. Sochi is a coastal resort town and so it is pretty broken up. Theres is not necessarily one central area. ,here is the area in the hills 25 kilometers away from my hotel room i am staying, which is the center of sochi. It is a 45 minutes to hourlong bus ride. It has been a great experience. You can definitely tell that locally, the russian people are incredibly excited about this opportunity. One of the issues we wanted to ask you about was about gay rights, potential gay rights demonstrations. Have you explored that in your short time in sochi . Me, excuse me, could you repeat the question . What i like to explore it . Guest no, have you had the chance to explore it in sochi . Guest i have not had a chance to explore it yet but i plan on doing so when im here. The one designated protest area, which is laughable, it is tucked away and it is in between a railway and the ocean, and you have to get permits at a time to be even able to protest their bank to protest their. From the reports i have been reading it has been pretty quiet. I will definitely go to check it out. I think tonight when the opening we willes take place see whether or not anyone chooses to take any kind of action. We certainly heard from some International Athletes that they where tens orhaps nail polish they are in a tough position, two. The charters is no Political Action here. Host Alyona Minkovski is post huffpostis host with live. How to check in with you again over the next 17 days. Guest yes, i would love to do that. Host leon aron, on gay rights and the soviet union and the Russian Ambassador saying that there are no gay people and that are we2 gay clubs making too big a deal out of this . Guest it depends. The actual law says you cannot advertise nontraditional sexual s in venues where children could see them. Children can see a lot of things. They watch television, they see internet, they see gay parade. In bars, virtually every andession of gay identity russia. Television, radio, internet. We had a news that the ninthgrade girl in a provincial town in russia was criminally charged because of her blog where she can best her where she confessed her nontraditional sexual orientation. Like every law, it could be a dead letter, never enforced, or it could lead to something more dangerous. But it is clear that it is directed against a particular group of people and it discriminates against them and it prevents them from expressing their opinions and identities and in that sense a deceptively unfair. Leon aron, we appreciate your time on washington journal. Guest thank you very much. Host one more segment to go on morning, andw this joining us is the former commissioner of the new york police, ray kelly. Mr. Kelly, from everything you have seen and heard and no about sochi, what isut your opinion about the situation there now . Guest as far as the olympic venues concern, the level is. Igh the russians have devoted 100,000 people to it. You have the army and many come many volunteers. Probably 100,000 security personnel in the area of the aympics, which is about 100mile perimeter. It is a challenge, but as far as the venues themselves, the security level is high. Host any participation in setting up security or consulting on it . Guest what is a patient im sorry, say that again participation im sorry, say that again . Have you consulted all with Security Issues . Guest no, we have not, i dont leave the government was consulted much at all. I think there is a certain amount of nationalistic pride involved. I would say there has been very little external consulting as far as security is concerned. They have devoted an awful lot of resources to it. Obviously, there is a terrorist threat. They fought 2 wars with chechnya in the last 20 years, ongoing issues three terrorist attacks since october in a city 400 cit miles away from sochi. The russians themselves are the totalutting in security regimen. Host ray kelly, when it comes to locking down a venue like this, where do you draw the line between access and security . Guest yeah, i mean, i think you have to say that it probably is excessive. They dont have the restraints that we have in this country. For instance, they can listen to every type of communication. They said that openly. Any email or telephone call will be monitored. They have checkpoints everywhere. They certainly only one road leading into sochi basically only one road leading to sochi. They have taken dna samples of muslim women in the area. They have not allowed cars that are not registered specifically in sochi to enter the area. I think it is reasonable to say excessive. Orders on but that is the way they do business. Host ray kelly is our guest. He has served as new york city please commissioner for well over 10 years, but 14 years. He is now at the council on foreign relations, or he is a distinct visiting fellow. We are talking about some of the Security Issues surrounding the sochi olympics. Kelly, coupleoner of issues that have come up in the past week or two. The black widow bombers that you spoke about a little bit, but then we also had this issue about you aced on airplanes about toothpaste on airplanes. Guest that is something that has been thought about for over 30 years. Israelis, for example, have been looking at toothpaste for a long time. Apparently there was some specificity to a threat that has arisen. I dont know the specifics. But that costs the department of Homeland Security to issue a warning in this regard. But potentially explosive material could be put into a toothpaste tube. It is not a new issue but it was triggered by some information that the department of Homeland Security received. Host a couple years ago, the times square potential bomber. When you did your review, how would you have changed how you handled that situation, or would you have not . St well, its interesting faisal shows odd, he went to pakistan and receive training, but he wasnt on anybodys radar screen. You just cant track everybody. We were lucky in that instance because when he tried to do was dumping gradients down. He was concerned in purchasing the ingredients, you would be identified he would be identified. Instead of getting highgrade firecrackers come he got something of a lesser degree because he thought that would. Ot raise suspicions the fertilizer he used was also duced in potency because was also reduced in potency because of the concern of identification. Those types of safeguards, they are good. He sort of outsmarted himself. I think it just underscores that you are not going to be able to. Dentify every terrorist we were very, very fortunate. He also said he was going to with away out if rifle he had purchased. He left the rifle in the car when he went to jfk airport. He was definitely a dangerous individual. One of the lessons that we did when you go on the watchlist, you should immediately and by that i mean you should go on immediately, and by that i mean no delay. The government was doing it on a weekly basis. Someone nominated to be on the watchlist on tuesday was not going on until the following monday. That would change as a result of him. Again, it underscores the fact that there are a lot of people out there who have the potential for hurting us, and we were lucky in that case. Host ray kelly, before we go to calls from our viewers, i want to play video for you and get your response to what the Russian Ambassador had to say about security in sochi. Guest i cant see the video here [video clip] that we doe think not understand, we certainly do. We understood it from day one. Russia those who call on have understood from day one as well. Inhave invested a lot ensuring that it is safe games, and that any terrorist attack or plot to have it is going to be thwarted, and we will deny any chance to them. I am certain about how it has been organized. Host commissioner kelly . Guest im sorry, sir, that was garbled here and i cannot see that. Could you give me a quick summation . Host you know what, we will let that stand on its own and move on. Let me ask, is security easier today than five or 10 using five or 10 years ago . Or is it getting tougher . Guest security all over host protecting an event like this. The super bowl was in the new york area. Is it tougher today or have we done it enough that we are Getting Better at it . Guest well, i think we are Getting Better at it. I think the super bowl was an example of unprecedented cooperation between and among agencies. Ement i think the coordination just improves the whole process. Sochi, youpics in need what they call an olympic passport, special piece of paper. I sit alone is not going to get a ticket alone is not going to get you to the menu. There have been additional layers added to the security regimen that we see at the olympics and other major events as well. At the same time, i think you see a lot more coordination, a lot more interaction, a lot more information exchange. I think that as a whole, the security industry, Law Enforcement is Getting Better at managing and overseeing major events. Ray kellyt call for comes from steve in littleton, massachusetts. Caller im very glad that mr. Putin has worked so hard to minimize security and terror threats in russia. But you know, i want to go back to when youre earlier guest was talking about. We shouldnt forget that mr. Then was appreciated by greatest moral profit of the moral prophet of the 20th century, alexander souljah needs and. Doeso hold up these girls grading churches and unnatural heroes of human rights reflects the nihilism, specifically american nihilism, of our times. Host anything you want to respond to their, ray kelly . Guest not really. Host we will move on to david in morin, ohio. Caller thank you. I have a question about waterborne threats, coming from the black see itself. The other one is the media disclosing detection methods and deterrent methods that the enemy might not know about without that being told about it. Repeatedly. At i think that is always a concern in the age we live in a there is an awful lot of leaks and what people put information out, and the media seem compelled to publicize that information. As far as waterborne threats, the russians have a pretty aggressive Coastal Protection water force. The u. S. Has 2 chips in the black see, the unit to ships in the black see, the uss Mount Whitney and the uss taylor. I have been on the Mount Whitney , and it is a commandandcontrol ship, and the uss taylor is a frigate, a small ship. They are there to show the flag that i dont know if there realistically there is a need to evacuate americans that you could put many of them on the ships. I know that the russians are well aware of the waterborne threat and they have deployed resources certainly in the general area of sochi and along the coast. Host commissioner kelly, were you surprised by the lack of International Cooperation . Guest not really. Ishink it pretty much Standard Operating Procedure for the russians. They dont want to give away their secrets. Theres an awful lot of National Pride involved here. This is a major, major undertaking for the russian government. They want to show they can handle the security aspects of the games as well. They spent a lot of money, and a good portion of the money they spent has been on security. Life in the is Just International community these days dealing with the russians. Russ, salt lake city, utah, good money good morning. That isi had a question into the broader geopolitical security. Then you georgian president the new georgian president has made overtures normalizing relations, for example, to supplement Russian Security of the games. Do you see any chance for georgia and russia to begin normalizing relations through the sochi games in any capacity . Host ray kelly . Guest i think it is significant that the russians have sealed off the border with georgia, and it is 2. 5 miles away from sochi. As far as the russians are a strong, theyve put signal up that they are not looking at least in the short term to work more closely with georgia. They have deployed the 58th army , close to several thousand troops, lets put it that way, to seal off the border with georgia. It doesnt look like any softening of relations is going to happen anytime soon. Host this tweet for you, sir. Depends. Ll, it all we saw in iraq where suicide bombers would go to the checkpoint and blow themselves up. But i think checkpoints are necessary. Hey can be overdone, of course but we know that virtually every vehicle in sochi is being checked and being checked on an ongoing basis. Checkpoints can be dangerous for them, thating is for sure. With the scope of the event that is going on in sochi, checkpoints are appropriate. Alexandria, in virginia, go ahead with your question or comment for originally. Caller thank you, and thank you for cspan. Commissioner, i had the pleasure one time being introduced to the guy who was in charge of security in the atlanta olympics. What lessons were learned from atlanta is my question . Guest well, in atlanta, i was involved a little bit and security for atlanta. Obviously, you have the bombing and i thinkudolph, atlanta showed that you needed sort of added security a head of security. The approach in atlanta was security by committee and ultimately, it is very late in the preparation in the atlanta olympics it was determined that there were insufficient numbers of security personnel, the federal government devoted significant resources to protecting the atlanta olympics. I think you need a director of all the, you need people involved in security, all of the agencies involved reporting to one point, and in a sense, what developed from the planet security what developed from the atlanta security is the National Security event, and when you have a National Security event and you have 6 or 7 a year the super bowl was 1 you have one agency in charge, and that is the secret service. A lot of what a nation, a lot of other agencies that are a lot ofg coordination, a lot of other agencies that are participating. But that was the outgrowth of the atlanta olympics. Theloped in 1998 atlanta olympics were in 1996. But that is the lesson that i took from it that i remember most. Kelly, what is your new position with regard to the state of new york and the announcement i andrew cuomo about a new Homeland Security college . Cuomo has asked me to be an advisor as far as the development of the new Homeland Security college. College anda 4year it would encompass various aspects of protecting the homeland, Law Enforcement, intelligence, how to respond to major emergencies, how do you coordinate major events and working with various agencies. It is exciting, and i think that the governor is right on target. It is a great idea. It is something that is needed. This is going to be a function stay. S here to were going to be threatened in a variety of ways from terrorism, but also just natural disasters. We need a professional corps of people welltrained to handle them, and hopefully that is what this college will produce. Host michael is in new orleans. Michael, go ahead. Caller good day. I hope you allow me to make my 3 points to prove that this man is either incompetent or part of the terrorist organization himself. One, he brought up the shoe bomber. Of course kurt haskell should be getting named. He is a lawyer that witnessed the shoe bomber getting on the plane with help from the state department individual who later the state department themselves admitted to. On documentation, or emails the tsas own documentation, emails released inadvertently, show that the tsa themselves dont believe there is a terrorist threat on planes. Three, he brought up the security at the super bowl, how great it was. Well, if it was so great, how did a man walk from 5 checkpoints saying im late for any without showing documentation and then busted on the press conference for the most valuable player, rather mark are from, and say that 9 11 was an inside grab the microphone, and say that 9 11 was an inside job . You are a phony host michael in new orleans. Any response for him, commissioner kelly . Guest no. Host sir, we get a lot of calls about that last point that the viewer made about 9 11 and building 7. If you what would be your response to those people who believe that it was an inside job . Guest that 9 11 was an inside job . Host yes. Guest is that the question . Host what would be your response . Guest it is absurd. No indication, no credible information that would indicate anything close to that happen ing. The 9 11 Commission Report laid out a very comprehensive and Detailed Analysis about what. Appened on 9 11 i would refer anybody to that report. Host ray kelly has been our guest talking about the sochi olympics. We appreciate your time this morning, commissioner kelly could we have about 10 minutes left in this mornings show, and if you would like to talk about the sochi olympics and some of the issues we talk about this morning, the politics, the history, the nationalism, the terrorist threats, please go ahead and call in. You can see the numbers on the screen. We will begin with a call from crystal in new bedford, massachusetts. Caller hi. Host crystal, you are on the washington journal. Caller oh, hey. Im calling in regards to the comment that obama made about how safe it would be to go to sochi. Wonder if he is saying that just so he can show he has faith in them but he does not believe it. I think it will come back to bite him, to be honest. Host next up is arlene in new jersey. Arlene, you are on the air. Arlene, last chance. Caller yes, my question is what is going to happen to the people would have been waiting over a month for the Unemployment Benefits . Host and what is your answer to that question . Caller thats what i want to know. I have to go on welfare waiting for people to decide in congress what they are going to do. Host that is arlene in new jersey. From the Christian Science monitor this morning is several different articles on the sochi and some of the aspects of it. Here are some excerpts from this piece. New glory is for the title of this one new glory russia yr is the title of this one. 80, beijing in 2008. The sochi games are no exception. Edge,cilities are cutting and that evoking and modern, prosperous, and strong russia. If russias olympic athletes match that projection of strong showing, scooping up enough gold, silver is, and bronzes, to place among the top nations, it will be a defining moment in tosident putins quest restore his countrys standing on the world stage. Clyde is in a new jersey. You are on washington journal. Caller im sorry i missed that former Police Commissioner to read my question is about the terrorist threats. They most likely will hit soft targets like malls and Shopping Centers and stuff like that, sporting events. Thank you. You, sir. K kathleen in hamburg, new jersey. Would like to thank mr. Kelly for his service to new york city and our country and for his integrity. I would like to apologize for the last one of the last callers for what he said. Also, i would like to say that he is a very good, wonderful servant to new york city and our country. He is straightforward and he has enough courage to come on and answered these questions with intelligence. Thank you very much. Host thank you, kathleen. If you havent heard already, the u. S. Added 113,000 jobs in january, a modest gain, and the jobless rate falls to 6. 6 . That was announced about an hour and half ago this morning. Frank is in buffalo, new york. Frank, go ahead with your comment. Caller they talk a lot about russia itself but they never talk about travel within france or if you are from west germany or denmark. Can you travel by train, like a country to russia like across country into russia or poland . How tight is the security . They only talk to domestic. They didnt get into the foreign travel. I wonder how it would be for a citizen of europe or the western travel to the east. West to travel to these. Host good point. The only thing i saw is that it is limited train, 37hour train trip from moscow to sochi. In the Christian Science monitor as this article, Cool Runnings part 2. Some jamaican bob sledders made it to sochi. The way they were financed, or they came up with 80,000. It was crowd sourced. That is how they made their money to make it to the sochi. We will be watching for the jamaican bobsledders once again. Dale is in california. Caller 2 days after september 11 my son joined the military. For all of his hard work and service, he went through baghdad, fallujah, one of thousands poisoned by halliburton with the contaminated water by the tigris river. My question comes to building 7. I wouldnt put the reputation of my son and soldiers on the line with such an important question. ,here is no credible evidence ignoring all the firefighters and policemen that i have heard that effort explosions before the collapse, i just cant express how good is going to play out in our history as these shows are being recorded and stored and compiled host where do you do your research . Caller i basically get it off the internet. Host i know, i realized that. Were on the internet . The internet is kind of big. Caller i go to architects and engineers for the technical. Firefighter host if you could give us a website or 2. Caller i stick to architects and engineers because they stick with the science and what happened that day. Host is there a specific site you could give us . Caller architects and engineers for 911truth. Org. Host oh, theres the site. American history tv and booktv cspan2 over3 and the weekend. If you go to cspan3 tomorrow morning at 8 00 a. M. , you will see American History tv, 48 hours of history. At 8 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning, 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. As always, the journal will be back here tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. The olympic ceremonies begin in about an hour. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] olympicshe winter getting underway, we invite you to consider to continue the conversation. The worst place for the olympics. Putin is an uncivilized person. Up, you have to admit it is beautiful there. Facebook. Com cspa. N. Will make remarks at the Wilson Center in washington, we will have that life for you in 90 minutes, 11 30 eastern. The president is on the campus of Michigan State diversity, the homee farm bill state of the chair of the Senate Agriculture committee. 2 10 eastern on cspan. , the januarypics jobs numbers. 113,000 jobs created by the private sector, the Unemployment Rate falling to six. 6 . Theng was weak for second straight month, 113,000 ,000 asar less than 194 an average last
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