VOA as a stand-alone entity has been on the air for some 5,000 hours since the tragedies of September 11. Mr. Chairman, I will candidly acknowledge that, in the pursuit of this historic story, there have been some problems and mistakes as we have ramped up our coverage, which I have discussed in my longer text. But, overall, the vast majority of VOA programming has been excellent. From September 11 to October 2, 829 separate reports were done, 103 background stories, 43 summaries of editorials in American papers around the world. Overall, our reporters on the front line are doing the job and are true to the principles that Congressman Lantos paraphrased when he quoted Edward R. Murrow. We deliver the truth about terrorism to the people of Afghanistan; and, as we have been told and our research has indicated, these people are listening.

VOA's Pashto service is heard by an astonishing 80 percent of the male population of Afghanistan on a weekly basis. Eight out of 10 of those surveyed said foreign broadcasting was a principal source of news about their country.

Mr. Chairman, I wish I could tell you that our reach was just as effective in the Middle East. Public opinion in the Middle East will be increasingly important as the struggle against terrorism continues to escalate. Last year, the Board surveyed our ability to reach the Middle East and found very disappointing results. Our transmitters in the Middle East for the most part are around the periphery of the region and are mostly shortwave. We need to reach the area on AM, FM, and satellite.

As many of you said in your opening statements, we have almost no youthful audience under the age of 25 in the Arab world, and we are concerned that independent research has shown this important segment of the population has a growing as well as enormous distrust of the United States. In our view, the present crisis only underscores the importance of moving ahead on our Middle East broadcasting initiative as proposed in our 2002 budget.

As Governor Tom Korologos has repeatedly reminded us, international broadcasting is the most cost-effective weapon in our foreign policy arsenal. Low cost and high yield make it a great bargain. Our annual budget of less than $500 million is a fraction of the cost of major weapons systems.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, let me speak plainly. U.S. international broadcasting, this Board, is fully committed to playing a crucial role in public diplomacy in support of U.S. foreign policy, working with Congress and the executive branch. We will continue to tell the truth about terrorism and the United States' response to it. We cross all borders, broadcasting in over 60 languages to tens of millions of people around the globe who desperately need to hear American's story.

These are my abbreviated remarks. Governor Korologos and I will be happy to answer questions when you are ready for that. Mr. ROYCE. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Nathanson follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MARC NATHANSON, CHAIRMAN, BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Chairman Hyde, Members of the Committee:

I want to thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you today about the role of international broadcasting in this time of crisis. My name is Marc Nathanson and I have been on the BBG for six years and I have been chairman for the last three years. I was raised in Illinois and reside in California.

My fellow Governors and I are private citizens who have other jobs even though as a board we are ultimately responsible for running the Agency. I have spent 30 years in the communications business and I am currently Vice Chairman of Charter Communications and I own 20 radio stations in California and Oregon. Next to me is my fellow Governor who has also been on the BBG board for six years, and a distinguished American, Tom Korologos of Virginia.

In the audience we have the rest of our Governors, Cheryl Halpern of New Jersey, Ted Kaufman of Delaware, Mark Ledbetter of Mississippi and Norm Pattiz of California. In addition, the heads of our U.S. international broadcasting entities are here, Tom Dine, President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Dick Richter, President of Radio Free Asia, Myrna Whitworth, Acting Director, Voice of America (as you know President Bush has named Robert Reilly to be the next VOA Director), and Brian Conniff, BBG Chief of Staff. Salvador Lew, the New Director of Radio and TV Marti could not be here today.

I want to assure you that U.S. international broadcasting has responded, as never before in its history, to this heinous act of terrorism. And working together with you, the Administration and other agencies, we welcome the opportunity to do much

more.

Mr. Chairman, even as I speak, millions of people throughout the Middle East, Central and South Asia and the Arab world have their radios, televisions and Web browsers set to the frequencies and Web addresses of U.S. international broadcasters, waiting for direct, up-to-date, unbiased, unfiltered news and information about the attack on terrorism.

With the most powerful network of satellites and transmitters on the face of the earth, we are able to skip across international borders. Our clear, accurate, timely reports provide an alternative to the rigidly controlled and hate-filled broadcasts of tyrannical regimes in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. According to a September 24 report by Guardian News reporter Ian Traynor from Bagram, North of Kabul, "Street urchins in the villages of the valley accost strangers with yelps of 'America, America'." Their parents stroll around with tiny radios glued to their ears listening to the BBC, Voice of America or Iranian Radio, desperately seeking clues to what may be about to befall them."

The U.S. simply has no better way of making this connection, directly with the people of Afghanistan then through U.S. international broadcasting. As the U.S. seeks to build coalitions to combat terror, people need to know what we are doing and why. They need to know that this country is not the enemy of Islam, but will not tolerate terrorism.

Since September 11 until today, U.S. international broadcasting has been working around the clock to expand our coverage and reach to the critical areas of the region to tell America's story and encourage freedom and democracy.

Our reach has been extraordinary. Immediately after the attack, we increased our broadcast hours in critical languages, including Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Pashto, and Urdu. Most of our broadcast services, which include many of the languages of the world, have switched to an all-news format. The International Broadcasting Bureau's transmitter network is at maximum power. Our international web sites are taking thousands of hits.

We have given a human face to the victims, telling the heart-breaking stories of people who came to America from scores of nations. Our reports have made it clear that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacks on freedom and democracy throughout the world.

We have carried the exact words of our national leaders. President Bush's speech to a joint session of Congress on September 20 was broadcast around the world in all our languages, as was his October 7 speech. The Voice of America translated the President's speech into Dari and Pashto, so that the people of Afghanistan could hear the President's unfiltered message. As Ari Fleishcer said in Monday's afternoon press briefing, the White House and the State Department believe that the Voice of America will continue to provide information to the Afghan people so they can have full knowledge about what is happening in their country from a source other than a repressive Taliban regime that has not shared all the information with the people that it seeks to represent.

The Voice of America has recently interviewed over 40 members of Congress. Senior policy officials of the State Department and distinguished leaders of the private sector have been asked to give comments. We've also carried penetrating discussions

with distinguished religious scholars, who made clear that the death of innocents in a terrorist attack on civilians is a perversion of Islam.

This has been a team effort. The Voice of America broadcasts to the Arab world, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Radio Free Europe has blanketed the former Soviet Central Asian republics. Radio Free Asia and the VOA have kept Asian listeners informed of the fast-breaking events.

Once again on the evening of October 7, U.S. international broadcasters surged their programming explaining to the people of the region the reasons for the military action and describing our humanitarian assistance. VOA's English, Farsi, and Arabic services broadcast the President's speech live, and the Pashto service interviewed Richard Boucher of the State Department, your previous guest, and simultaneously translated his comments. VOA currently has two reporters in Islamabad and a stringer in Northern Afghanistan providing up-to-date coverage of this fast breaking story.

VOA alone has been on the air for some 5,000 hours since the tragedies of September 11. Mr. Chairman, I will candidly acknowledge that in the pursuit of this historic story, there have been some problems and mistakes as we ramped up our coverage. But, overall, the vast majority of VOA reporting has been excellent.

There were two reports, however, that in retrospect, I wish had been handled differently. In the days just after the attacks, one report, of about two minutes in length, quoted an Egyptian exile living in London who has been associated with the Islamic Group, one of Egypt's most violent terrorist organizations. The group's leanings, and the fact that the man was under death sentence in Egypt, should have been made clear in the sourcing. That was a serious omission.

The reporter who filed the story has been reassigned. The editors who handled the story have been admonished. The Voice of America has put in place a set of rigorous guidelines to ensure that this kind of mistake won't be repeated.

In another case, the Voice of America carried 12 seconds of the voice of Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, as part of the reaction to President Bush's September 20 speech to the Congress. The process by which this report was received, edited and aired was not seamless. There were passionate debates within our own organization and within the Board of Governors about the wisdom of putting Mullah Omar's voice on the air. Some were against it, arguing that VOA was being used by the Taliban. Others argued it was worthy of news coverage.

I welcome this opportunity to publicly put this controversy into perspective. Less than three minutes of broadcast time is involved, out of thousands of hours. Focusing on these incidents runs the risk of obscuring the critical role U.S. international broadcasters have played in this crisis.

In the end, we learned lessons about sure-footedness and the need for constant internal communication. We have issued extensive guidelines in an effort to follow the clear intent of the legislation-which charges us with broadcasting consistent with the broad foreign policy objectives of the U.S., while also exemplifying the highest standards of journalism. We will work to eradicate all mistakes and communicate better about the role of the Board in these critical times.

But overall our reporters on the front lines are doing an excellent job and are true to our principles-to deliver the truth about terrorism to the people of Afghanistan. And, as I indicated, they are listening. VOA's Pashto service is heard by an astonishing 80 percent of the male population of Afghanistan on a weekly basis. Eight out of ten of those surveyed said foreign broadcasting was their principal source of news about their own country.

Listeners know full well that the VOA is funded by the U.S. Government. And they depend on it as a beacon of clear, accurate information on human rights in their own country and the policies of the United States Government.

We are closely monitoring the programs of the Pashto, Dari, and Farsi services. And we have commissioned outside experts to examine earlier allegations of bias. Those studies have found that our programming has been accurate and fair, but in some cases could use improvement in journalistic training. The Board and leadership of VOA have carefully followed the suggestions of our outside experts.

Mr. Chairman, I wish I could tell you that our reach was just as effective in the Middle East. Public opinion in the Middle East will be increasingly important as the struggle against terrorism in Afghanistan continues to escalate. Last year, the Board surveyed our ability to reach the Middle East, and found disappointing results. Our transmitters are, for the most part, on the periphery of the region, and mostly on shortwave. We need to reach the area on AM, FM and satellite.

We have almost no youthful audience under the age of 25 in the Arab world and we are concerned that independent research has showed that this important segment of the population has enormous distrust of the United States.

In our view, the present crisis only underscores the importance of moving ahead with our Middle East broadcasting initiative as proposed in the FY 2002 budget as aggressively and quickly as we possibly can.

As Governor Tom Korologos repeatedly reminds us, "International broadcasting is the most cost-effective weapon in the foreign policy arsenal. Its low cost and high yield makes it a great bargain. Our annual budget, of less than $500 million, is a fraction of the cost of a major weapons system."

There is one additional piece of legislation that we think would be helpful in reaching our goals. That is to lift the Congressional restriction on building shortwave transmitters at our site in Kuwait. Kuwait is an ideal location for reaching South and Central Asia on shortwave, but under current law we are prohibited from doing so. We are happy that you have included a repeal of this legislation in your pending State Department authorization bill.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, let me speak plainly. U.S. international broadcasting, this Board, is fully committed to playing its crucial role in public diplomacy in support of U.S. foreign policy, working with Congress and the Executive Branch.

We will continue to tell the truth about terrorism and the United States' response to it. We cross all borders, broadcasting in over sixty languages, to tens of millions of people around the globe who desperately need to hear America's story.

That concludes my remarks, and Governor Korologos and I would be happy to answer your questions.

Mr. ROYCE. Ambassador Keith.

STATEMENT OF AMBASSADOR KENTON KEITH, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR PROGRAMMING, MERIDIAN INTERNATIONAL CENTER

Mr. KEITH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I am Kenton Keith, Senior Vice President of the Meridian International Center and Chair of the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange. The Alliance is an association of 64 U.S.-based exchange organizations, and we have worked closely over the years with this Committee.

Meridian International Center is a nonprofit organization that promotes international understanding through the exchange of people, ideas, and the arts; and our biggest business is the international visitor program.

Prior to taking up my current positions, I was a career Foreign Service Officer with the United States Information Agency. Much of my career was spent in the Middle East, including an appointment by President Bush in 1992 as U.S. Ambassador to Qatar. Following that assignment, I headed USIA's area office that supervised all the agency's operations in the Near East, North Africa, and South Asia. In 1997, my swan song at USIA was to be the representative of the agency on the interagency task force that drafted the blueprint for the amalgamation of USIA into the Department of State.

Both in my present capacities and based on my past experience, I welcome the opportunity to testify today before the Committee about the importance of public diplomacy, especially in the wake of the horrific events of September 11 and in support of our national campaign to rid the world of terrorism.

In a week when American's military might is being brought to bear in dramatically effective fashion, we need to begin to think as a Nation about the role public diplomacy will play in this campaign. I applaud the Committee's leadership in opening this very timely discussion. As a long-term solution to the profound problems of cultural misunderstanding, there will be no substitute for public

diplomacy. It must be a key component of our long-term effort to eradicate terrorism.

The attacks on the United States brought with them two important lessons. First, we must be much better equipped to manage and control all nonimmigrant visitors to this country. The exchange community supports sensible, effective measures to accomplish that; and I will identify those in my testimony.

Second, and equally important, is that we must remain open to the world. Bringing students and professionals to our country provides us with a unique opportunity to educate the next generation of world leaders.

Our national security requires that we balance these two important interests-increased security and continued openness.

Your Committee has before it a resolution introduced by Congressman Jim Kolbe, co-sponsored by Congressman Leach, Congressman Gilman and six other Members of the both parties. The resolution calls for the establishment of a national policy on international education. A similar resolution, sponsored by Senators Kerry and Lugar, passed the Senate in April by unanimous vote. The resolution calls for increasing the number of foreign students and exchange visitors to the U.S. and for increasing opportunities for Americans to go abroad. Clearly, we need that increased capacity in languages, in travel, in knowledge of foreign cultures, in government, in business and in higher education.

After September 11 we believe that a national policy on international education must go even further. The exchange and higher education communities propose and will support the following steps: One, developing a national computerized entry/exit system that will allow the INS to identify quickly those who overstay their visas. Two, full Federal funding for the computerized tracking system, alternatively known as CIPRIS and SEVIS, now being developed by the INS to track J, F, and M visa holders.

Three, reporting at regular intervals by exchange organizations and higher education institutions of basic data on exchange participants and immediate reporting of no-shows, dropouts and program completion.

And, four, improving our first line of defense at the Department of State's consular post overseas, with enhanced funding to provide more officers, improved facilities where needed and effective use of information technology.

Mr. Chairman, as a public diplomacy professional for more than 32 years, I know full well that changing minds is a long and painstaking process. It will require us to be patient as we try to reach audiences whose attitudes toward us range from profoundly skeptical to openly hostile. What we must do is change a climate of opinion that unjustly paints the United States as a source of evil, and this will require a major effort. We will need to focus this effort on a very broad range of countries, in an arc reaching from North Africa to the Middle East, stretching further eastward from North Asia to the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia. I am suggesting a major exchange initiative engaging the countries of the Islamic world.

There also needs to be work at the State Department. As part of my written testimony, which I have submitted in two parts, I