270 people. So youre urban compared to us. Okay. Let me just go right to the witnesses. Lori dishman had a very, very bad experience on a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2006. Shes also an International Cruise Victims Association board member, which means she wants to follow through on that. Ill read each of the four and then call on one by one. Phil gers extent, a lawyer who represented a 15yearold minor, 15yearold minor who was raped on a cruise ship is also on that same board and chairman also chairman of the National Center for the victims of crime. Im grateful that hes here. Amanda butter letter who i just met outside whose mother suffered a medical emergency on a carnival kus in 2013 and likely passed away likely as a result of a lack of medical care and kim ware who was a passenger on the triumph which caught fire and was stranded for four days. Now, those are easy things for me to say but they are very hard to have gone through and even talk about it. Lets get at it. Im going to call
[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] a state Department Official is telling congress that the situation in iraq is extremely serious, and that the militant group isis is no longer just a terrorist organization but a full blown army. You can see the entire meeting at cspan. Org. Here is a little of the testimony. That the first review why this matters. Isil is al qaeda. May have changed his name and broken with Certain Senior leaders, but it is al qaeda in its doctrine, ambition, and increasingly in its threats to u. S. Interest. Chair there be any question about the intentions of this group simply read what is said. It is important to Pay Attention because we cannot risk under estimating the goals, capacity, and reach of this organization. Reach of this organization. Baghdad in may 2011 the death of Osama Bin Laden and promise to vient nse. In his idea statement seat regularly issues named afte
Nation and probably will proclaim it very shortly. So, my sympathies would be to say to the kurds, well, why should we suck you back into iraq . You have the right to your own nation. Frankly, nobody has ever explained to me why the palestinians are entitled to Self Determination but somehow the kurds are not. I dont think thats fair, quite frankly. On the other hand, were told that if the kurds break off, theres practically no way that you could stop the radicals from dominating whats left of iraq and that the kurds provide some kind of counterbalance to prevent the radicals from gaining control. I would like to hear from both of you, what your views are on keeping iraq intact or not. As i described in testimony, its a concept that is under the iraqi constitution that would recognize a very substantial devolution of powers. Theres a recognition in iraq that from the center out youre never going to fully control all of these areas, particularly given the capacity of isol. And locals an
Have not had the direct testimony of those affected by it and those who represent some who are affected by it. And so thats what this hearing was before. The fact that some senators have left, dont let that bother you. Markups are unusual. And thats why they had to come because theyre all 13, and they had to go do something else, but youre the point of all this. I want that to be very, very clear to you. So as i said, very glad to welcome four witnesses who will help us understand firsthand the consequences of the instances and what they had to go through. Yoig this is not an easy subject to talk about, let that be said, okay, so that its painful. And however you reflect that pain, the committee understands it. Welcomes it, joins you in, you know, the difficulty of coming up here and testifying before a senate committee. Although its really not that difficult after all. The cruise industry, im happy to say, is not happy that im holding this hearing. Theyre very unhappy. Those companies
Looked at and chosen that not to offer at this time until we figure out the risk. Were a little behind the curve on some of the new technologies. Thats the impact of the risks that we try to face each day. I want to get back to a few more questions with you. I want to just remind this committee where this all started from. I want to go back to september 25th, 2003. A hearing here at Financial Services committee hearing. Chairman frank, you said on the record, i do not want fannie and freddie to be Just Another Bank. If they do not more than Just Another Bank sorry. If they were not going to do more than another bank would be because they have so many advantages then we do not need them. And so therefore, i do not think, i do not want the same kind of focus on safety that we have at occ and ots. I want to roll the dice a little bit more on the situation toward subsidized housing. In the gsc act congress initially specified Affordable Housing goals of 30 of mortgage purposes. That goal i