35,000 pounds per family. Why is he choosing to put a block on the aspirations of young people who want to build their own home . We are encouraging people to build a own home and buy their own homes, not least by the reform of the Planning System that has seen the Planning Guidance come from 1000 pages to 50 pages. Thats why we are also encouraging the right to buy. And if honorable members opposite want to help, they might want to talk to the labour of 40s that are continually knocking people from buying the council or having association homes. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Will my right honorable friend wish to congratulate the company in my constituency, but taking advantage of the capital of laos is announced and the autumn statement of purchase to 1. 3 million pounds, that will create six new jobs under i certain to my honorable friend in welcoming that investment it is experience in Campaign History logic did have an effect in bringing forward these proposals on capital allowances. Its absolutely clear a lot of businesses do have money locked up in a Balance Sheets that we want to see invested, and i believe that these capital allowances are good with encouraging businesses to bring forth that sort of investment. David is severely disabled and has a medical need for an extra room in his home. Why is the government he leads taking 676 pounds a year away from him in order to pay for a tax cut for the richest . What i would say to the honorable gentleman if we put in place a 30 millionpound Discretionary Fund to help in particular cases like the one that he raises. But we do have an overall situation where the housing benefit budget is now 23 billion pounds. That is only 10 billion pounds less than the entire defense budget. Its not good enough for members opposite to oppose welfare cut after will forgot, to propose welfare spend after welfare spend, while they realize that were dealing with the mess they left. Does the Prime Minister agree with the leader of the opposition talked about the economy, he sounds just like an extraordinary undertaker looking forward to a hard one to . Does he not accept that you cannot get out of a debt crisis by borrowing more money . My honorable friend makes a very good point. The fact is the economy that we inherited was completely unbalanced. It was based on housing but it was based on finance. It was based on Government Spending and those based on immigration. Those were for incredibly unstable pillars for sustained Economic Growth. What we that it is a major recovery operation. That operation is still underway but you can see in the new jobs created in the private sector businesses that are expanding them into new people signing up the businesses we are making progress. George galloway. [shouting] following yesterdays announcement, will the Prime Minister [inaudible] the key differences between the and chopping, crosscutting jihadists, fighting a dictatorship and valley that we are announced to kill, and the equally bloodthirsty jihadists that were giving money, material, political and diplomatic support to in syria, has the Prime Minister read frankenstein, and did he read it to the end . Well, somethings come and go but theres one thing that is a certain. Whatever there is a brutal arab dictator in the world he will have the support of the honorable gentleman. [shouting] order, order. Last but not least, mr. Whitaker. Thank you, mr. Speaker. We can definitely we can definitely do without them. Will my right on of a friend, the Prime Minister, told the house whether he will be taking seriously the liberal democrats ministers who are queuing up today to resign their posts after batting against the government in last nights vote for . What i would say to my honorable friend clearly theres a profound disagreement about this issue but i would say to everyone in the house of commons who voted for an oversize house of commons and unequal constituency boundaries that are both costly and unfair, they will have to justify that to their constituents. You have been watching Prime Ministers questions from the british house of commons. It airs live on cspan two on wednesday when they house of commons is in session, and again on sunday nights at 9 00 p. M. Eastern and pacific. Watch any time on cspan. Org. Next, a discussion about the situation in northern mali and its impact on neighboring countries. Then, a look at Foreign Policy challenges facing the Obama Administration. After that, a discussion about the state of womens rights around the world. If you have some hotshot who just got his phd in Computer Science from stanford, she is getting offers from all over the world. To say you can stay in some limbo for six years, that is not really competitive. Congress can do a lot. You do not have to be efficient on your iphone or blackberry to understand the application of policy and what makes it work and does not. It is very difficult to make Investment Decisions and expect any kind of return on investment when you have no way to predict the future. Our difficulty right now is that there is no consistency or certainty in in our policy decisions. The governments role in technology and policy, from this years ces International Consumer electronics show. Monday night on the communicators on cspan2. At age 65, she was the oldest first lady when her husband became president. She never set foot in washington. Her husband, benjamin harrison, died one month after his inauguration. Meet Anna Harrison and the other people who served as first lady over 44 administrations. First ladies, influence and image, their public and private lives, interest, and influence on the president. Season one begins president s day, february 18 at 9 p. M. Eastern and pacific. The Atlantic Council hosted a discussion on the conflict in mali and stability in that part of africa. French troop surge continuing their advance into areas recently held by islamist militants. This began last year when the government was overthrown in a military coup. Separatist groups in the north began fighting for independence shortly after and gained control of a large part of the country. This is two hours. Good afternoon. My name is peter, i am the director of the Michael Africa center here at the Atlantic Council. On behalf of the chairman of the Atlantic Council, senator chuck hagel, our president and ceo fred kemp, it is our pleasure to welcome you this afternoon for this discussion on managing the crisis in mali. Before introducing todays topic, permit me to say a word about the councils Africa Center for the benefit of the audience, those who are new to us were joining us for the first time via television or the internet. The Africa Center was established in september, 2009, with a mission to help transform u. S. And other healthy approaches to africa by emphasizing the building of strong geopolitical partnerships with african states and strengthening Economic Growth and prosperity on the continent. The center seeks to engage and inform with policymakers in the general public of the strategic importance of effort that. Both globally and for american and european interest in particular. A subject which obviously a commitment you share by joining us today. Of strategic importance. We do this for a robust media presence. We worked promote constructive us leadership and engagement in International Affairs is done the central role of the Atlantic Community in Meeting International challenges. The Africa Center supports and collaborates with product public and private sectors, giving Practical Solutions to the challenges in africa. On that none of the Practical Solutions is that we put together this panel today. I am pleased to discuss these issues. Strategic importance of what is going on in mali, specific importance for u. S. And european interests as well as for the security and stability of the region and africa as a whole. We have a very distinguished panel. One that is uniquely qualified to discuss the topic at hand. I thank my colleagues for agreeing to be with us today. Some at more than a little inconvenience and sacrifice on their own part erie it i am very grateful for that. The biographies were distributed at the beginning of the panel. I will not consume time reviewing it. Just a few notes. We will have Lieutenant Colonel rudolph who is now a senior fellow here at the Africa Center. Before his retirement in 2009, he served as africa counterterrorism director in the office of the secretary of defense. He was also, for the last of those years, country director for morocco and tunisia. Earlier in his career, did quite a bit of work which we will see john out, up in northern mali. Very delighted to have him on our team at the Africa Center, as well as as a friend. Also delighted to have another ,ld friend, dr. Ricardo rene dr. Of science at Binghamton University on islam. He has been a colleague, i might mention that he and i are editing a book together on the north african revolutions. Delighted to have him as a scholar of the region and a friend and our wives have become friends as well. It is in the family, so to speak. Last but not least, this dr. Is a political scientist and senior fellow at the middle east program of the carnegie endowment. And author of quite a number of works, some quite prescient in their timing on al qaeda. You have their biographical notes for fuller details. One thing not in the notes, i cannot resist mentioning that while there are few discussions of the crisis in mali going around washington, this will be the only one where the Panel Speakers includes individuals who have been broken bread with someone at his home. There is a level of granularity that will be interesting. Hopefully we will find that familiarity does not breed contempt. Actually a respect for the reality. One final note, we will propose some solutions and it is at the end, i think our chief mission is to emphasize how much is not known. How much needs to be known. How much is complex and all of this. If there is anything to be learned from the crisis in mali in the last year, we have to acknowledge a failure and political vision and intelligence. We went around and believed our own mantras. By we, i mean the International Community at large. A certain Government Entity in this town produced a report to congress which declared that molly is a poster child mali is a poster child. Another department cited it as an oasis and a model. All the while the democratically elected government was declining and presiding over states and decline. It fell 30 places over the course of several years. Where there is smoke there must be fire. Without justifying unjustifiable coup detats, one has to acknowledge that we have perhaps taken the i out of the larger picture in focusing. That is fruitful discussion for later. Without further ado, one returns over to the panel. Let me turn this over to the panel. Thank you. It is an honor to be here. I recognize a lot of faces. Bear with me in the beginning, i will start at the 50,000 foot level down a little bit. Then pare down a little bit. To get a feel for what is going on in the region. When d colonialization happened in africa in the 1950 dose0s oe group was pushing for political autonomy, often sparking conflict. As we approach mali in the 1960, tensions were already there. By 1962, we see the beginning of the first rebellion. 19621964. Not all the groups in the north were on board with the rebellion. With the help of france, the fledgling government was able to crash crushed the uprising. In that process, a couple of things happened. One interesting thing, for those of you following the events, you have a guy named during that time. His father, who is from another tribe, had gone in and joined bomb go bomaco in his truck going north. Trek going north, he was killed. So there is still a grudge there, which make up the bulk of the military fighting force. You can see there are some tribal tensions already from the beginning. Another father was also killed during this rebellion, he is the head of the and and las military section. Mnlas military section. ,etween the 1970s and 1980s right before that there was a migration of tuaregs throughout the region. As some of you know, the tuareg s are not only indigenous to mali, but five countries within the region. During the oil boom of the 1970s and 1980s, many tuareg migrating north, primarily into nigeria which was producing oil into libya. Many of them found jobs. During the oil crash, many returned back to their land of residents. Now we are looking for something to do. That kind of set the stage for the second rebellion, which took as in the 1990s. During the second rebellion, something very similar to what happened last year occurred back then. We had a rebellion at the same time we had, shortly after a coup that took place in mali. Then there was a regime change. In this cobbling together some of the whole time that the tuareg had grievances well before the independence in the 1960s. Some of these grievances, there are several, but just cutting them down, one is discrimination from southern ethnic roots which governed mali following independent. These discriminations or what is creating the tension today between north and south. I normally say, there is racism between north and south. Or was a fear that land reform would threaten their Privileged Access to agriculture. When you live in the sahara area, you have to rely on capitals. Whether the cells are the one up on the mediterranean side. Basics of life, flower, things that allow you to exist in that harsh environments. There was a concern that National Elites would distort destroy the tuaregs. The one thing i discovered, they call themselves the people. Their recognition is their whole culture is in their language are. After independence, we see a pattern of forcing the tuareg children to learn southern linkages languages and pushing out the tuareg language and culture. Fast forward after the rebellion, we move into it a period of temporary peace and stability. Algeria had stepped in and there was an agreement, i will not go into the details. We can bring this up in the discussions. We will move forward to the years of 20062009, 1 there was a third rebellion. All coming back to grievances that the tuareg were never dealt with. During 20062009, there was an interesting dynamic. the time when narco trafficking was starting to grow. Trafficking started to take solid root inside molly wright around mali right around 2005. You also have gs pc entering the northern part of molly. Mali. Moving forward, you see a third rebellion. All these groups that were up there, the narco trafficking trade coming through, they start to flourish in their own ways. You have disaster going on. Gs pc sided with the narcotraffickers who are primarily arabs. For the most part, you have about 35 different families. There are certain families that were deeply involved in norco trafficking. Narco trafficking. They are a minority of the ethnic groups in the north. The tuareg would raid these convoys of trucks going through. What we end up seeing is arabs and gs pc linking themselves together and having a unity against the tuareg, who are rating the drug convoys and also did not want gspc in their area. In 2006, the tuareg rose up and tried to throw gspc members out of there. They had three clashes. They took heavy losses. They remember that until today. Towards the tail end of the rebellion going to 2009, the rebellion was crushed. It was a combination of militia forces, molly military mali military, outside influences, internal influences, some of the act ears involved actors involved leave from there and enter into libya. One of them is the man going in and out of libya. Bahanga. Approaching 2011, there is additional talk about getting our grievances settled. All of a seven, libya starts to break down. Bahanga saw the writing on the wall and said, how do i take it vantage of this . He went in and connected with several tuareg who are already conscripted into qaddafis military. Primarily the desert units. He convinced them that if qaddafi false, maybe we can take advantage of this and take some of the weapons. Now we are better equipped. We bring well trained individuals. We come back to mali and lay down the law and say, we want our grievances dealt with. In the process of this happening, in the summer of 2011, bahanga dies in a mysterious car accident. I have never gotten a true answer whether he was actually killed, or whether it was a true accident. But several tuareg said agreed, so they get together and meet in a vice place in the northern part of molly mali near the nigerian border and discuss what went wrong in previous rebellions and how do we deal with our grievances. They said, there are several things that we did not do in previous rebellions. We did not have good media press. We did not know how to tell the world what we were doing. They relied on the use youth who had studied abroad, and pushed forward on the media front. They learned they were not a Cohesive Group areas we need to bring the groups together and make sure everyone is part of the group. After discussing this, they formed amnthe mnla groups from the north to tell the president they had grievances and they wanted to table them. This process goes on from september and october 2011, for 3. 5 months. The former president decides to drag his feet. According to the tuareg in the north, the way it was exciting to me, he drag