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tv   Key Capitol Hill Hearings  CSPAN  July 22, 2016 9:34am-10:01am EDT

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coordination but they are good to i remember back in the 1980s and 1990s a lot of colleagues were studying france for how to deal better with his terrorist threat because we started to see al-qaeda rising in the big 1990s. and france in many ways showed us the way on how to deal in real time with the kinds of threats to national territory that we, of course, experienced since been. so yes, there is a long way to go but again i would say that france is one of the leaders in this area along with the united states at this point. we need more countries like france and britain in the united states a number of continental european country to up their game. and france may need to consider a couple additional reforms like this concept of an national counterterrorism center. over all i am fairly impressed, even in these dark days how well we hold it together as the western alliance. >> minister khan i would like to ask you a question about nice
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because it happened out, all of a sudden last week on july 14. the first part of my question will be how do you reassure the french public after such dramatic attacks, three of them in less than a year? secondly on the military, how do you deal with a military force that is obviously a little bit of a stretch without only the external operations but also the domestic ones? and that is basically many cases doing the job of the police. i'm sure the police also is stretched but this is obviously a big problem for a country of a certain size, but it's not unlimited especially with no military service as you mentioned in your talk. i would like to hear your views about this, obviously you're on
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the spot when you were with the minister, you're probably. it's a big shock to a lot of us including here in this country. >> translator: on the first question on the transatlantic cooperation, unless it is based on a very strong agreement between the ministers but also the stress has released -- has reached all levels. had nothing for a long time. ashton carter had decided to provide special instructions
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about intelligence, and that, of course, we did it as well in reciprocity. this established credible test in many fields and this is not going to stop. following, i think it could go on. they confirmed it. when it comes to training. about warsaw, first of all i will be a little more modest than you were. and i will defend my own case. we are not 2%. france is not at 2%.
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as the nato summit in wales requested, we are at 1.8. we want to reach 2%, and others are much lower. what we saw in warsaw was the unity. make sure the basic core of nato is reaffirmed and this is what has happened. there could have been disturbance, and i think we're able to take the right decisions to make sure that there will be a real reassurance for any eastern country in relation to their concerns about a russian presence. but this reassurance is based on the idea and it was not going to
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lead necessarily -- with russia, you also have to keep possible dialogue. and other threats were also taken into account. it's necessary to make sure that what is at stake in terms of cyber defense, naval defense, make sure that these concepts which did not exist, weren't a consideration by the alliance but also the subject of a sharing with the european union.
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it's made it possible to reaffirm. now, on reassuring the french, it is true, the country has been traumatized. it is true that this is exactly what isis was looking for. and here to prevent, two great divisions among us and it's important that people in charge, the elected people in the political power to overcome this situation. this is not an overnight. you mentioned the army. okay, the fact that the armed forces are visible, our presence, also contributes to reassure. but you also have to realize that in a situation when one individual is out of his mind,
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had a certain death wish. because it is this ideological speech which is promulgated by isis, a few days later in germany have also seen this, another person tried to kill people in a train. he was shot. but this period is going to go on. and it is going to stop only if we eradicate totally not only its territory but on its level of ideology that destruction which could be of course performed by the coalition's. we talked about earlier, but also to make it possible for -- islam, the most practice of the
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religion to review. this is sectarian radicalism, and our crunchy but not only our country had to fight for quite a while. we have to be determined. we have to show unity. we have to show legitimization. it's a long-term, but we have to do it. it will be easier of course once that territory is one. now, on the question you have about the size of the armed forces. well, yes, france has a strong defense. we are intervening today in the sahel come in the coalition in the near east. we are also present in lebanon. we have forces present in paris, other places of the world. we are assuming our role as a
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major country. in the coalition against isis and terrorism, in always in the framework of the american operation with the support of countries like the u.s. this means of course we had to make the decision to strengthen the defense budget and recruit more. the army which is essentially responsible for securing, this is what is being done in the wake of the presence of these soldiers. recruiting and training are being done. the situation should improve within the next few weeks, but it is also the way we are confirming our conscience as a nation. we have to secure our own security. this is a question which is
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present for us but also our allies. >> we tend to offer the audience to ask a few questions i would ask that you ask real questions, not make a speech because we just had a speech by the minister. i will take three questions and ask that you identify yourself, and the minister will answer. the lady first, please. >> thank you very much. i'm barbara slavin from the atlantic council. no one has mentioned turkey. how to the development and turkey affect your ability to fight isis in iraq and say to and also as a recent report that three french military personnel have died in libya where they were assisting the general. i thought you said you supported unity government for libya out of the general as you know has not been willing to sign onto the screen.
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so i wonder how you explain front support for him? thank you. >> the judgment over there. >> you first and then you may finish. >> thanks. i could ask my question in french or english. >> in english. >> i was also going to ask about turkey but my second question was, mr. minister, what do you see of what you call virtual daesh to subside, even if -- and the risk of having secret daesh inspired acts of violence and terrorism over france or the rest of europe over the next how
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many years? >> john hutton with "foreign policy" magazine did i basically had the same question as barbara but just wanted to add a question if you could describe what the special forces were doing in libya and what part of the country they were operating in? thanks. >> translator: is never going to make comments on intelligence activities anywhere. even if, unfortunately, some actors have paid with their life. we have an institution which is the parliamentary delegation to intelligence.
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it's the only place where anywhere in the world i could be, i would have answered question but i have to respect the strictest confidentiality so i can't answer this question. now on to the question about libya. i think i was very clear just a moment ago. it seems to me, but i will repeat if you want. we are helping the national union government, everything that libya should unite its forces in coordination of all its actors, whoever they are. that's it. this has always been the position of france. now on turkey.
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well, turkey was itself a victim of isis. there were terrorist attacks formed by isis. it is again one of those countries which is threatened by isis, the isis is trying to do something about. secondly, turkey is essential to secure the border between turkey itself and syria. the operations which are still going on, if it goes come if it reaches a success, which is very likely, should strengthen security on this border.
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provided that turkey is willing to guarantee the closing of the border. we need turkey in particular to do this. it is also in the interest of turkey because it also is under threat. i don't we know what the question was really, it was about turkey, but following just the recent events in turkey, will turkey still be a part of the coalition? i hope so. but as far as us a major fight is fighting isis. we need that part of there. into conditions i just mentioned. this is what i could tell you concerning turkey. now, last question was the virtual isis. this is going to be a long
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fight. i don't have asked this question, good question. from the moment when the broadcasters will become public, it would be much easier. but it's going to be a long-term fight because others can take over later on, maybe not with the same strength or the same park but they made we produce the same kind of activity. so we have to really aimed at the death wishing radical sectarian philosophy of isis, which can produce week lines in which can inspire other dramatic situation in the future. i was very pleased to notice the coalition wants to work on this together, to fight against the
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isis action, the virtual caliphate on social networks in particular. we do messages to mobilize. this is essential but it takes time. when we will first elevate the platform it will help but that will not be enough. michael, would you like to comment? >> pashtun much of the thrust of what the minister said. immediate importance of the use of turkey and nato turkey relationship with the rest of nato with turkey in regard to syria is less about incirlik even though that's been played up a lot in the american press it gets more about this cooperation along the border. because the incirlik base is convenient but it's not essential. we can figure out workarounds community. they are not convenient, not cheap, but they exist. by contrast any kind of a meaningful cooperation along the border today and in any future
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if and when any of these safe haven concepts that general petraeus and secretary clinton and others have discussed, as these begin to blossom we are going to need to reinforce them and also provide relief within them in a way that will require cross-border movement on the ground. and that requires turkey. so for that reason and also for diplomatic reasons if we get to a place we can actually negotiate some kind of a settlement i think we will need turkey. i don't believe we are on that path right now by the way. i think that united states led policy of trying to negotiate a strong unity government or a place president assad is not prominent, i'm much more interested in a confederation or bosnia and model concept. but be that as it may, and we get to a negotiation that has some promise, we're going to need turkey in the as will a duplicate of a peacekeeping force, which i believe any peace deal in see would ultimately require, we are going to need
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turkey's cooperation for that. so turkey is important more underground than it is for incirlik come in my judgment. >> translator: to questions very quickly. the gentleman here. [speaking french] >> translator: usage quite frankly that criminals -- you said -- were out of their mind. unfortunately, most are not doing, not performed their very first action. some of them have already -- so my question is, would it be
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possible to have a strict policy not with, with people who have a title say in france and perhaps -- the answer is very simple. first of all, i would like to say i made the distinction clearly between two types of terrorist actions on the territory of our countries. those which are organized, planned, logistics out of mosul or raqqa. it was unfortunately the case in
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january and november 2015. such movements we have to fight against through intelligence, cooperation. also we can fight by destroying the central core. but the other subject which is far more complicated is what has happened in nice, where one man told and known by the police becomes radicalized, very, very quickly and attacks. there are no proven links between him and isis come accept the isis is claiming. what he did was not indicating
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that they would be a possible radicalization in the future. those crimes are real. one, my major concern is the fact that this kind of risk could happen anywhere, so we have to fight the source. now, against organized groups, since the events in question, legislative meetings in france, against terrorism, which make it possible to inquire information very efficiently. maybe they used to be some holes and now those holes have been filled. one last question because i have to leave.
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>> over there. >> thank you. my name is someone and i'm a student at american university. you've emphasized the importance of collaboration between france and u.s. i'm curious to know how a possible needs of mitigating any concerned should resources be reduced any further and cooperation that are currently going on you. >> translator: how can we do more, is that a question? guess. i think today the relationship is already at a very high level your there can be, i'm talking about the ministers of defense and military, intelligence action. my wish is that this level, i
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make no, i can everything about that but this should last. if we can maintain like this, like it is now, it will be an excellent thing in terms of the transatlantic relationship. >> minister, we have to thank you for your candor and your very strong words. we feel france is in good hands, at least french defense. it's not giving up, that's for sure. and thank you for coming to brookings. we wish you a successful summit tomorrow and we look forward to seeing you again at brookings come in your capacity as minister of as president of the region. [applause] [inaudible
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