weeks after that summit, that you saw the blockade by the united arab egypt andn bahrain, the kingdom of saudi arabia untied. in theth the situation northwest pacific with korea, i think the single most important thing that is happening right now in the world is this -- in qatar. interviewer: there are two things you said that need more elaboration. the first, a positive, you made it clear the trump whonistration and those were instrumental in bringing president trump to the white house are not islamic phobic and do want to engage with the islamic world, but in a different way. needs elaboration because that is contrary to the way things are perceived. the second thing that needs more clarification is, you make it seem like the last 10 months have represented a major, clearly thought out, step-by-step approach to the you give credit to the trump administration for this success of the iraqi military and the kurdish militias in relation to the islamic state. there are people who would criticize that or say that is not true. theuld like you to make next point, which is why do you that wh

took ciro mica came after his exile caused by italians, he went to egypt and came back in 1944. he became king afterwards, and to give to live yet a federal constitution -- to give to libya a federal constitution. and this constitution created the federal state, also at this time, divided into three regions . the federal state during this time was not perfect, at all. we had to manage enormous and huge conflicts inside the country. part of the country wanted the other partse, but of the country were absolutely against it. and so all this friction, of course, did not have the king 1963,n the end, in decided to unify the country without the regions, without anything, just all the power in his hands. but all the power in his hands did not work, and a few years after, muammar gaddafi qaddafi, , and --kernel, came out el came out, and had a revolution. the country was incredibly divided. decades, we are talking about almost 40 years, can did get the country united -- moammar qaddafi did get the country united. divide and rule. and he did exactly the same with the little ethnic universit

egypt. he came back in 1944. he became king afterwards. he decided to give to libya of federal constitution. immediately at the beginning. this constitution created the federal state. also, divided in three big regions. the federal state during the time was not perfect at all. to manage, and routed the conflict inside the country countryp part of the one of the federal state. another part of the country was absolutely against it. the king, in 1963, decided on the abolition of the federal state, and to unify the country without the regions, without anything. also, the power in his hands did not work. qaddafi came out with what they called the revolution. in the qaddafi period, many problems came out. the country was very divided. we are talking about almost 40 years. he did things differently than the italians. he did exactly the same with the little ethnic diversities with , pitting one against the other. that was not enough, and he used the italians. in the end, the country was incredibly divided. , thisi took this division diversity as a tool to better manage the country. whe

contrast. in two thousand nine, partner of ours, egypt, basically contested on its own and the obama administration immediately through them under the bus. they months later they launched air strikes against could offer you. no american friend but after 2003 had given up his weapons of mass destruction program because he was scared of american power. therefore the obama administration was also looking for partners who would be more friendly towards iran. a lot in the middle east are not willing to do that, qatar is one of them. therefore most of the leaders there would say they wish they would say they had a better relationship to the bottom of than president trump. they should. there's no reason why qatar cannot have a very good and strong relationship with the united states. improved weapon sale to them. we have a close partnership on many matters. it is president trump is that, rightly, we need qatar to come back and the fold of our coalition and stop the support for muslim brotherhood affiliations, iran, for instant sending back to tehran a couple years ago after withdrawing it a

egypt and the region. there is also i qaeda that -- al qaeda that grew out of the brotherhood. the so-called arab spring liberated them. president lcc is trying to restrain them and we must support them. usemuslim brotherhood under of proclaimed allah used it off hitler's to wreak the holocaust upon the jews as the fine punishment and praised him for putting the jews in their place. winning the struggle is personal to me. my father was a bombardier in world war ii and participated in a dj air campaign. he bombed not these. i recently visited auschwitz to see the terror and systematic extermination see not these perpetrated on the jewish people and the horrors of the gas .hambers what my father and their fathers were fighting against was pure evil. it is no surprise that the radical islamists were then allies of the nazis. a once famous jewish man said in jewish history, there are no consequences. we must always remember and never forget. thank you. [applause] rep. royce: thank you, chairman mccullough. congressman brad sherman is with us. onhas done important work the subcommittee of

bahrain, egypt and the kingdom of saudi arabia on qatar. i said from day one, even with the situation in the northwest pacific with korea, i think the single most important thing that is happening right now in the world is this situation in qatar. interviewer: there are two things you said that need more elaboration. the first, which i think is a positive, you made it clear the trump administration and those who were instrumental in bringing president trump to the white house are not islamic phobic and do want to engage with the islamic world, but in a different way. that needs elaboration because that is contrary to the way things are perceived. the second thing that needs more clarification is, you make it seem like the last 10 months have represented a major, clearly thought out, step-by-step approach to the problem, and you give credit to the trump administration for this success of the iraqi military and the kurdish militias in relation to the islamic state. there are people who would criticize that or say that is not true. i would like you to make the next point, which is why do yo

command for 19 months. this is a 20-country area that spans from egypt to pakistan and yemen to cause extent -- kazakhstan. it has a lot of challenges, and this has been an extraordinarily important region for us. in the 19 months i have been there, i would share with you up front three key things i have learned. first and foremost, the middle east, the lid on, central and -- central and south east asia, remains an area of extraordinary importance to the united states. we have, we have had in the past, and we continue to have vital, national interests that intersect with this particular area. as this has been in the past, it remains important today, the present, and it will remain important for us in the future. i want to assure you that as the central command commander here, i think this is a point i emphasize to everybody i speak with. the second thing i would share with you that i have learned in 19 months in this position is partners across the region want strong and progressive relationships with the united states, without fail. every country i have had the opportunity to visit,

bulgaria killed others. laying the groundwork for attacks in egypt, thailand, cyprus, peru. other incidents of hezbollah, related arrests around the world that are at this point on publicizing and remain -- unpublicized and unknown. i can ensure you the conversation today will be much different. exceeded,these has casualty counts would be higher and many innocent lives would be forever altered. the group is known to concentrate on areas populated with tourists, knowing that innocent civilians will be victims. let me say this, while much of focused on al qaeda and more recently on isis, the designation as a foreign terrorist organization, we have never taken our focus off hezbollah and the threat it poses to our homeland. i'm not here to talk about any specific or credible threat but we do see specific activity on behalf of hezbollah in the homeland. we are watching very closely for additional signs of activity here in the homeland. in june, as i'm sure much of you are aware, to individuals conducting activities on behalf of hezbollah were arrested here in the united states and tha

in egypt are preparing a measure that would criminalize someone's sexuality with up to five years in prison. will you condemn the measure? sec. sanders: i'm not aware of the specifics of that, so i would have to look into it before i can make a response. but we will certainly be happy to check into it. >> thank you, sarah -- at the risk of wasting my question, i am going to ask you about the fed. since the last time you are up here, there's been a couple of reports, one that the president is going to make an announcement next week. can you confirm that he will make an announcement, and can you give us timing? second, there have been reports that chairman yellen is out of the running and jerome powell is at the top of the list. can you confirm any of that? sec. sanders: i can confirm the president plans to make an announcement on that next week. but beyond that, i do not have anything else to add. >> i want to ask about a comment sebastian gorka made on fox news. i know that he does not work for the white house anymore, but he claims to be still involved in what is going on here. he w

months. this is a 20 country area that spans from egypt to pakistan and from yelling to calix to -- yemen to kazakhstan. this has been an extraordinarily important region for us. three key things i've learned in my area, first and foremost, the makeup the central command area. it remains an area of an extraordinary performance in the united states. we continue to have a vital national interest that intersection is your area. best in this particular area. it remains important for us importantwill remain in the future. that thisassure you is a point i emphasized to everybody that i eat with. the second thing i would share with you that i've learned in 19 months in this particular position is is across the region want strong progressive relationships with the unites dates. unity,ountry of have you or julie everywhere multiple times, they are extraordinarily strong relationship. work mostly between our countries and multilaterally in a number of cases. we take the ups and downs of that. i'm proud to tell you that our military relationship have remained extraordinarily strong even through all

sensitive and unstable area. collaborationr with partners in the area, egypt and israel. israel, andus, and with other countries in the area, jordan, lebanon. our goal is to these multilateral collaborations, to ensure the collaboration, stability, peace, and joint development and growth in this area. greece for a number of years has , it plays the role of a reliable ally of the u.s. it also has a unique feature. greece may be talking with the arab world, with other countries , so it is not just a nato member. it is a useful ally for the united states of america. bay, weds crete and the all know it is a strategic important site, we have evaluated it. it can and it must be upgraded. enhanced. >> i want to thank everybody. the prime minister came out here and he said this is so beautiful. i said, this is the rose garden. i think even the media likes the rose garden. [laughter] , mr. prime minister, it has been a great honor having you and i look forward to many years of friendship and working together. keep up the good work. thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible] >> the joint

to invest in health and education. egypt has done that very courageously. they've done that recently. and the other thing you can do is you can put -- you can apply a tobacco tax. another intervention that's very progressive, in other words, the ones who slow down their smoking the most are the poorest people, so their health gets better, and the vast majority of the benefits of tobacco tax can be structured so that they go to the poor. and there are other things too like actually collecting taxes. we have been fighting for years to help countries collect more taxes, especially from the rich. in so many countries the only people who pay taxes are the poor because they're the ones who are too weak to refuse to pay their taxes. so if your foreign direct investment drops and your bond spreads go up, then everyone has a motivation. but if it were just inputs it would be too easy. that's why these new rankings are going to be so powerful. it's ininputs. it's actually outcomes. so they have to come to us. [ applause ] and what will we say? what we'll say is actually, you know, don't take y

promoting sexual deviancy after waving a pride flag any concert in egypt. incidents like these should really alarm every american. and so should the fact that just united stateso actually voted against a un security council resolution to condemn the use of the death penalty as punishment for consensual same-sex relationships. [booing] that, i thought maybe i had read it wrong. that maybe i somehow got a double negative mixed up in there. but no. that is exactly what our country voted against. a resolution to condemn the use of the death penalty for consensual same-sex relationships. after an outcry from the human right's and many others, the state department attempted to clarify their position. but the fact remains, the united states should not be shirking our responsibility to defend the human rights of lgbt people around the globe. [cheering and applause] >> we should be leading that -- leading that fight. it is why i went to geneva to shine a light on human rights issues. it's why i called on heads of state to stop the persecution of innocent people and i announced the first u.s. governme

africa. african republic. djibouti. jordan. turkey. egypt. cuba. kosovo. as this month's deadly attack in niger proved, those forces can find themselves in combat at any moment. as our men and women in uniform continue to meet threats around the world, i hope our witnesses can help us examine what the appropriate oversight role for congress is and tow howe we can work together to ensure our nation's political leadership is meeting our response to believe the decide when and where our country uses military force. as i stated previously, in this hearing, we will focus primarily on the two current authorizations for the use of military force. unfortunately, the use of lethal force against isis, al qaeda and other terrorist groups will remain necessary for the foreseeable future to prevent attacks against americans and our allies. the president, just like president obama, believe he is has the legal authority he needs under the 2001 aumf to fight isis, al qaeda, and other terrorist groups. and i agree. i agree with the obama administration and i agree with this administration that they curren

arabia. [applause] mr. corbyn: or the rushing of democracy in egypt or bahrain, or the tragic loss of life in the congo, which the media very seldom dollars to report. today, tothis champion of democracy and human rights. to end do all you can the violence now against the rohingya in maine marr. -- against the rohingya. [applause] mr. corbyn: and, allow the united nations and international straits, theinto rohingya have suffered for too long. we should stand firm for peaceful solutions to international crisis. let's tone down the rhetoric and that dialogue and negotiations. to wind down the deeply dangerous confrontations over the korean peninsula's. [applause] and i appeal to the united nations general secretary to use the authority of his office to go to washington and to go to pyongyang to get that a think she'll process -- the essential process of dialogue. [applause] let's give real support to end the oppression of the palestinian people. [applause] the 50 year occupation and illegal sediment expansion and moved to a genuine two-state solution to the israel, palestine conflict

recollect, i many years ago when russia came into the egypt, dr. kissinger basically sat in the white house, did not take their calls, andon a near-nuclear alert then they marched back into syria and the obama administration did nothing, said nothing. so i guess president putin as usual is testing the envelope to see how far he can go and he stayed there, right? how influential do you think russia is in the middle east right now? leon: look, the reason, this is another last point. we are in a new chapter of the cold war with russia. what president putin is doing my you know, putin in many ways is an easy read. from an intelligence point of view and from the point of view of dealing with putin will stop putin is about -- dealing with putin. putin has a basic goal of restoring the state of the old soviet union. that has always been his intent. he thought soviet union collapsed that was the greatest tragedy russia has experienced in its history. so putin is basically aiming at that. is if heputin will do take weakness, he will advantage of it in his opposition. that is what bullies do. t

in egypt after the crackdown on the muslim brotherhood. is there any impact or did you see any correlation? thank you. >> so, i will talk briefly to that. with we did egypt from our north africa region on the basis that when we looked at that data, there were a lot of phenomena that seemed to suggest a shared mobilization dynamic with other --ntries in the love aunt, nt, rather than so muchthe -- much of the dynamic in libya, tunisia, morocco and algeria. therefore, we found it risky to analyze that without the comparison of israel and the palestinian territories, jordan, lebanon as that comparison. so we haven't really looked to deeply added. it does appear to share a similar dynamic more broadly with some of the north african sites. but is the country his government founded the arab spring. we do see the importance of parts of the country that have been marginalized, mount sinai particular, and there is some dynamic between sinai and the gaza strip that shows up in where people are reporting previous jihad. really, that is all tentative and we did not examine each of them. we

covenant is now being shredded from china to iran to egypt, pakistan, vietnam. the face of oppression varies. but the outcomes are the same. it's harassment, fear, imprisonment and even death simply because of what a person believes. china, catholic bishops are under house arrest. protestant pastors are in jail. the 2010 nobel prize winner, nobody cared about him dying in prison. chinese lawyers are arrested and tortured. tibet 130 tibetan monks and nuns have poured kerosene on their body, lit a match and killed them self in protest to the chinese government and nobody says a word. the uighurs, the muslim group are being persecuted. just yesterday voice of america announced china is sending a high number of uighurs to re-educational camps and yet the west is silent. chinese companies really fronts for the chinese government purchasing major western movie like a.m.c. and buying out movie studios in the united states which will make it ifficult if not impossible for movies to produced that are in any way critical of the chinese government and their record for human rights and religious

. egypt, cuba. kosovo. as this month's deadly attack in niger proved, those forces can find themselves in combat at any moment. as our men and women in uniform continue to meet threats around the world, i hope our witnesses can help us examine what the appropriate oversight role for congress is and tow howe we can work together to ensure our nation's political leadership is meeting our response to believe the decide when and where our country uses military force. as i stated previously, in this hearing, we will focus primarily on the two current authorizations for the use of military force. unfortunately, the use of lethal force against isis, alchi a da and other terrorist groups will remain necessary for the foreseeable future to prevent attacks against americans and our allies. the president, just like president obama, believe he is has the legal authority he needs under the 2001 aumf to fight isis, alchi darks and other terrorist groups. and i agree. i iee with -- i agree with the obama administration and i agree with this administration that they currentry have that -- doesn'tly ha

to that. with we did egypt from our north africa region on the basis that when we look at that data there was a lot of phenomenon that things that adjusted shared a mobilization dynamic with other countries rather than so muchthe dynamic in libya, tunisia, morocco and algeria. therefore first constraint we found it risky to analyze that without thecomparison of the palestinian territories as that comparison. we have not really look too deeply at it but it does appear to share a similar dynamic with some of the north african sites but is the country his government founded the arab spring. we do see the importance of marginalized the cyanide particular and there some kind of dynamic with sinai and the gaza strip that shows up in where people are reporting previous jihad. that is all tentative and we did not examine each of them and we viewed it as part of the sustained regional grouping that was seem to be different from what we were looking at and tied together the north african country. right here in the front. john hogan. [inaudible] all unhappy provinces are unhappy in their own w

jordan and e -- egypt and beef up and beep up our came blt. -- capability. >> thank you, mr. wald. >> thank you, mr. chairman. of all say that since a number of questions have by witnesses about iran's compliance or lack of it jcpoa and the iaea's verify, or inability to i want to encourage members of this committee on both sides of attend our classified briefing tomorrow at 2:30 with the intelligence to learn more about this in a classified setting. tomorrow.2:30 talk about the iaea's ability or inability to verify. nd iran's compliance with the jcpoa. sullivan, how would president trump's failure compliance ranian under the nuclear deal affect the likelihood of that our willing to ld be work with us on confronting activities, such as their support for terrorism and advancing their ballistic missiles program? have.s a concern i it a negativewill impact. the first is it will put all the focus of diplomatic discussions united states and our european partners on what to do about the deal and whether going to stay s in it and on what conditions he'll stay in it and whether he ikes it

middle east coalition that will include favorable j.c.c. countries as well as jordan and egypt, and really start beefing up our capabilities to deter both iran and hezbollah. mr. royce: thank you, general wald. i go now to mr. eliot engel of new york. mr. engel: thank you, mr. chairman. let me first of all say that since a number of questions have been raised by witnesses about iran's compliance or lack of it with the jcpoa and the iaea's ability or inability to verify, i want to encourage members of this committee on both sides of the aisle to attend our classified briefing tomorrow at 2:30 with the intelligence community to learn more about this in a classified setting. so it's 2:30 tomorrow. ability t the iaea's to verify iran's compliance with the jcpoa. to vs .et me ask mr. sullivan president trump's failure to certify iranian compliance in the nuclear deal affect the likelihood that our partners will be willing to work with us on confronting iran's malign activities such as their support for terrorism and advancing the ballistic missile program? that's a concern i have. mr. su

military, fmf program with egypt. the secretary has withheld $195 million. it's been notified, obligated to be spent, but it is being withheld until the egyptians show some progress on issues related to human rights with for example the treatment of ngos. it's a -- an issue we confront everyday and we have to walk a fine line. we never deviate from our values. we protect americans national security and promote our prosperity and never undermine our values. >> thank you for reaffirming that. in working with ngos, state department, when they're reducing some of the state budget items they have is that going to affect the non-governmental organizations on the ground because of the hiring freeze and reorganization? will we still be able to support a very robust engagement with these ngos when they reflect these american values? do you see these changes in budget cuts or reorganization affecting that? >> there wouldn't be any policy to change our relationship with ngos. there may be changes in our budget where our relationship with a particular ngo might change. but we will continue to implem

promoting sexual deviancy after waving a pride flag at a concert in cairo, egypt. shouldts like these really alarm every american and social the fact that just a few weeks ago, the united states actually voted against a un security council resolution to condemn the use of the death penalty as punishment for consensual same-sex relationships. when i saw that, i thought i had maybe read it wrong. maybe i had somehow got a double negative mixed up in there. exactly what our country voted against -- a resolution to condemn the use of the death penalty. same-sexl relationships. after an outcry from the human rights campaign and many others, the state department attempt to clarify their position. remains that the united states should not be shirking our responsibility to defend the human rights of lgbt people around the globe. we should be leading that fight, it is why i went to geneva to shine a light on human rights abusers. it is why i call on heads of state to stop the persecution of innocent people and i announced the first u.s. government strategy dedicated to combating human ri

is a military command focusing on africa except for egypt, which is still a of the different military command. it was formed in 2007 largely in response to the growing threats of al qaeda and other insurgencies in africa, and to allow the u.s. military to the closer relationships with african partner countries. guest: and how many troops are deployed across africa now? guest: estimated around 4000 u.s. troops deployed around africa. the majority of them are in djibouti, which is in east africa, however, country such as niger host a large amount, as well as other countries like a maroon -- as well as countries like cameroon. you will find in most african countries, some members of u.s. africom engaging in various forms of assistance, relationship building, and counter insurgency operations with partner countries. guest: and pri reports said the pentagon is looking at stepping up its role in africa, particularly to counter the emerging crisis threat there. if his officials are considering a larger campaign enough get to pursue isis. the move comes after isis lost qqa ine fact o

, they know they don't want radicals and i am so proud of , al-sisi,ent of egypt a man who would stand before imams and tell them, we have got to get our realback from the cad rals. that's a courageous, great man. e owe him a lot of help. so what did we have here on capitol hill? we had guys that apparently never had a background search and as we found out from the investigator for the daily caller -- for "the daily caller," there were actually three or more months of the year would be in an pakistan, doing his job, supposedly making sure capitol ill computers were secured, we find out that there was suspicion when they saw this imran awan clan, his wife got involved, as we heard, when they would get up to the maximum amount one person could make on capitol hill, they would add another family member. and then they'd get up to $160,000 and they'd add another family member. add another family member and apparently all of these people didn't work. the people that had a lot of experience working at mcdonald's, probably didn't have that much experience on computers. but he was still m