since azerbaijan s independence, in 1991, u.s. aid has spent $55 million on programs to make the country more democratic. the country remains more undemocratic and is becoming more and more authoritarian. the u.s. government presses on with multimillion-dollars programs in azerbaijan. in 2012 us aid issues a $1.5 million call, i want you to listen to this. that would enable key society organizations to better respond to the president s vision and calls for more meaningful and state civil society partnership fulfilling the government s commitments to various international human rights instruments, end quote. the idea of u.s. taxpayer dollars going to implement the supposed democratic vision of azerbaijan s authoritarian president reinforces the notion that foreign aid is a scam. i ll give you an example from kazakhstan. this is a typical program. you ll see this in every part of the world. i m a eurasia specialist. my examples from the region, usaid worked with the $1.5 millio
iran relations, and what isis means for u.s./iran relations. one of the important fault lines between the pragmotist, they have shown themselves willing to work with america against sunni radicals, whereas the hardliners in tehran has shown themselves willing to work with sunni radicals against the united states. going back to 1979, there has been a lot of instances of u.s./iran convergence. they both had a common enemy in the soviet union and president reagan tried to work with iran against the soviet union and he was rebuffed, and in the early months of the revolution, the carter government tried to warn iran about saddam hussein s impending invasion, and the then-iranian government did not take that threat seriously, and they preferred to see the united states as an adversary. there certainly was a convergence of interest between the united states and iran, vis-a-vis the taliban, and that was a missed opportunity by the united states, and now we have isis which is a mutual
and i ll ask that you identify yourself. and if you re directing your attention to any particular panelist, to let that panelist know who you re directing your questions to. thanks. hi. i m diane eikenberry. i m a senior attorney, and i work with detained children in o.r. custody in virginia and maryland. i sort of have two questions but they re related to training and stakeholder relations and sort of two parts for barbara and maria. first maria, i want to thank you so much for the wonderful work that the young center does. thanks. i ve had the pleasure of working with one of your child advocates out of the office in harlingen. you make a great difference. i m so excited you re opening new offices because we need more of your work. thanks. but barbara, you mentioned there s expanded training for the immigration judges. can you speak a little bit about that? and also maybe generally about what kind of training, if any, is required for immigration judges around issue
thanks. hi. i m diane eikenberry. i m a senior attorney, and i work with detained children in o.r. custody in virginia and maryland. i sort of have two questions but they re related to training and stakeholder relations and sort of two parts for barbara and maria. first maria, i want to thank you so much for the wonderful work that the young center does. thanks. i ve had the pleasure of working with one of your child advocates out of the office in harlingen. you make a great difference. i m so excited you re opening new offices because we need more of your work. thanks. but barbara, you mentioned there s expanded training for the immigration judges. can you speak a little bit about that? and also maybe generally about what kind of training, if any, is required for immigration judges around issues relating to these unaccompanied minors. so we have done some training with the immigration judges, you know. some of you know because of budgetary issues, we ve had to ha