poverty, hunger. togetheray, we stand --the face of other perils fundamentalism, extremism, terrorism. the silence of this sacred place expresses the message of the soldiers who lie here. we must be worthy of our past to continue making history. long live america, long-lived france, long live the memory of those who lost their lives here today for freedom.

[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states of america, barack obama. [applause] >> president hollande, people of france, friends, family, our veterans. if prayer were made of sound, the skies over england that and night would have deafened the world. pilots tapped their gauges. commanders pored over maps.

fully aware that for all of the months of meticulous planning, everything could go wrong. the winds, the tides, the element of surprise, and above all the audacious bet that will waited on the other side of the channel would compel men not to shrink away, but to charge ahead. freshfaced gis rubbed trinkets, kissed pictures of sweethearts, checked and rechecked their equipment. god, asked one, give me guts. in the predawn hours, planes rumbled down runways, gliders

and paratroopers slipped through the sky, giant screws began to turn on an armada that looked more like ships than sea. more than 150,000 souls set off toward the site -- this tiny sliver of sandwich helped more than if a of a war -- sand which held the course of human history. president hollande, distinguished guests, i am honored to return here to pay tribute to a generation of men and women who defied every danger. among them are veterans of d-day. we are truly humbled by your

presence here today. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> just last week, i received a letter from a citizen.

dear mr. president and the american people, we are honored to welcome you, to thank you again for all the pain and the american people and others in our common struggle for freedom. today we say the same to the people of france. thank you. especially for the generosity you have shown the americans who have come here over the generations to these beaches and the sacred place of rest for 9387 americans. at the end of the war, proud ships set off for america. tens of thousands of liberated

europeans turned out to say farewell. they pledged to take care of the 60,000 americans who would remain in cemeteries on this continent. in the words of one man, we will take care of the fallen as if their tombs were our children's. you have kept your word like the true friends you are. we are forever grateful. [applause] here, we don't just commemorate victory, as proud of the victory as we are. we don't just honor sacrifice,

as grateful as the world is. we come to remember why america and our allies gave so much for the survival of liberty at this moment of maximum peril. we come to tell the story of the men and women who did it, so that it remains seared into the memory of a future world. we tell this story for the old soldiers who pulled themselves a little straighter today to salute brothers who never made it home. we tell the story for the daughter who clutches the faded father of her photo, however young. the child who runs his fingers over colorful ribbons, even if he does not fully understand why.

we tell this story to bear witness to when the boys of america reached omaha beach. by daybreak, bloodsoaked the water, bombs broke the sky, thousands of paratroopers had dropped into the wrong landing sites, thousands of round the into flesh and sand, entire companies worth of men fell in minutes. hell's beach had earned its name. six hours after the landing, we held only 10 yards of beach. in this age of instant commentary, the invasion would have been declared a debacle.

but such a race to judgment would not have taken into account the courage of free men. success may not come with rushing speed, president roosevelt would say that night, but we shall return again and again. paratroopers fought through the countryside to find one another. rangers pulled themselves over those cliffs to silence nazi guns. to the west, americans took utah beach with relative ease. the british tore through the coast. the canadians, whose shores had not been touched by war, drove far into france.

and here, at omaha, troops who finally made it to the seawall used it as shelter, where a general barked, rangers lead the way. by the end of that longest day, this beach had been fought, lost, re-fought and won. a piece of europe once again, liberated and free. hitler's wall was breached, letting loose patton's army to pour into france. within a week, the world's bloodiest beach had become the busiest port. within a month, one million allied troops poured through normandy. one pilot said it looked as if the very crust of the earth had shaken loose.

the arc de triumph lit up for the first time in years. [applause] freedom's victory is made possible by so many others who are freedoms uniform. eisenhower's troops sliced through north africa. three times before d-day, our gis stormed the beaches of sicily, salerno. divisions like the fighting 36 moved through italy, fighting through the mud for months,

marching through towns past waving children before opening the gates to rome. as the dog faces marked to victory in europe, the devil dogs, the marines clawed their way from island to island in the pacific in some of the wars fiercest fighting. back home, an army of women, including my grandmother, rolled up their sleeves to help build a mighty arsenal of democracy. it was here on the shores that the tide was turned in the common struggle for freedom. what more powerful manifestation of america's commitment to human freedom than the sight of wave after wave after wave of young men boarding those boats to liberate people they had never met. in the annals of history, the

world had never seen anything like it. when the war was won, we claimed no spoils of victory. we helped europe rebuild. we claims no land, other than the earth where we buried those who gave their lives and where we stationed those who still serve. america's claim, our commitment to liberty, our claim to equality, our claim to freedom, to the inherent dignity of every human being, that claim is written in the blood on these beaches.

it will endure for eternity. normandy, this was democracies beachhead. our victory in that war decided not just a century, but shapes the security and well-being of all posterity. we worked to turn that into new allies, we built new prosperity, we stood with the people of this continent for a long struggle until finally, a wall tumbled down and an iron curtain, too. 70 years of democratic movement spread. nations that once knew only the blinders of fear begin to taste freedom. none of that would have happened without the men who were willing to lay down their lives for people they had never met and ideals they could not live without. none of it would have happened without the troops president

roosevelt called the lifeblood of america, the hope of the world. barely more than boys at home, who returned home heroes. to their great credit. after the war, some put away their medals. they were quiet about their service, moved on. some, carrying shrapnel and scars, found it was much harder. many, like my grandfather, who served in patton's army, lived a quiet life, trading one uniform and set of responsibilities for another. a teacher or a salesman or a

doctor or an engineer a dad a grandpa. our country made sure millions of them earned a college education, opening up opportunity on an unprecedented scale. lifting up the greatest the class the world has ever known. -- middle class the world has ever known. through it all, they were inspired, i suspect, by memories of fallen brothers, memories that drove them to live their lives each day as best as they possibly could. whenever the world makes you cynical, stop and think of these men. whenever you lose hope, stop and think of these men.

think of wilson caldwell, who was told he could not pilot a plane without a high school degree so he decided to jump out of a plane instead and he did here on d-day with the 101st airborne, when he was just 16 years old. think of a jewish son of russian immigrants who fudged his age so he could join his friends in the fight. don't worry, the statute of limitations has expired. he came ashore at utah beach. now that he has come back, we said he could have anything he wants for lunch today. he said a hamburger will do fine. what's more american than that? think of the man who sought a

recruitment poster asking him if he was man enough to be a paratrooper, so he signed up on the spot. that decision landed him here with a regiment that would suffer heavy casualties. 70 years later, it is said that all across for bragg they know rock. because 91-year-old rock merit still spends his time speaking to the young men and women of the army. whenever the world makes you cynical, whenever you doubt that courage and goodness is possible, stop and think of these men.

wilson and harry and rock, they are here today. i know we already give them a rousing round of applause along with all our veterans of d-day, if you can stand, please stand, let us recognize your service once more. these men sacrificed so that we might be free, they fought in hopes of the day when we would no longer need to fight. we are grateful for them. [applause] gentlemen, i want each of you to know that your legacy is in good hands.

a time when it has never been more tempting to pursue narrow self-interest, to slough off common endeavor, this generation of americans, a new generation of men and women have chosen to do their part as well. rock, i want you to know that there are those following in your footsteps. melvin was born in honduras, moved to the united states, joined the army. after tours in iraq and afghanistan, he was reassigned to the 82nd airborne. sunday, he will parachute into normandy. sunday, he will parachute into normandy. specialist janice rodriguez joined the army two years ago and was assigned to the 101st airborne.

the women of today's military have taken on today's responsibilities including combat like never before. [applause] i want each of you to know that their commitment to their fellow service members and veterans endures. sergeant first class brian hawthorne's grandfather served under patton and mccarthy. brian served two tours in iraq, earning the bronze star in baghdad. brian is here to participate in sunday's jump. he reenlisted in the army reserve just yesterday. this generation, this 9/11

generation of service members, they too felt something, they answered some call, they said i will go. they too chose to serve a cause that is greater than self. even after they knew they would be sent into harms way. for more than a decade, they have endured tour after tour. cory ramsburg has served 10. he sat with my wife michelle at the state of the union address. it was here on the 65th anniversary of d-day were i first met him and his fellow army rangers, right after they made their own jump into normandy. the next time i saw him, he was in the hospital, unable to speak or walk after an ied nearly killed him in afghanistan. over the past five years, he has grown stronger, learning to speak again and stand again and walk again.

earlier this year, he jumped out of a plane again. the first words he said to me, "rangers lead the way." [applause] they have come back today, we thank them for their service. they are a reminder that the tradition represented by these gentlemen continues. we are on this earth for only a moment in time. fewer of us have parents and grandparents to tell us about what the veterans of d-day did

70 years ago. as i was landing on marine one, told my staff, i don't think there is a time when i miss my grandfather more, i would be more happy to have him here than this day. we have to tell their stories for them. we have to do our best to uphold the values that they were prepared to die for. we have to honor those who carry forward that legacy, recognizing that people cannot live in freedom unless free people are prepared to die for it. as today's wars come to an end, this generation of servicemen and women will step out of uniform and they will both families and lives of the round. they will become leaders in their communities, and commerce,

industry, and perhaps politics. the leaders we need for the beachheads of our time. god willing, they will grow old in the land they helped to keep free. and someday, future generations, whether 70 or 700 years hence, will gather at places like this to honor them. and to say that these were generations of men and women who proved once again that the united states of america is and will remain the greatest force for freedom that the world has ever known. may god bless our veterans and all who served with them, including those who rest here in eternal peace. and may god bless all who serve today for the peace and security of the world. may god bless the people of france and may god bless our united states of america. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, president hollande and president obama will lay a wreath in honor of those who served and made the ultimate sacrifice to liberate europe. please now observe a moment of silence.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please rise for a 21 gun salute and a flyover by the united states air force f-15s. ♪

[taps plays] ♪

>> ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats while president hollande and president obama thanked veterans and then move to the observation point at omaha beach. an announcement will be made when the ceremony has ended. ♪ ♪ [no audio]

[applause]

ladies and gentlemen,

please remain seated.

♪

>> scenes from normandy earlier today. the president with the french president. barack obama and russian president vladimir putin spoke today. they were at a lunch for world leaders attending d-day commemoration ceremonies. it was their first face-to-face conversation since the crisis in ukraine. the white house is the conversation was informal and lasted 10-15 minutes inside a château where the leaders a lunch. 's spokesman said they talked about the need to end violence and fighting as quickly as possible. putin spoke with the newly elected president of ukraine.

several members of congress are enormity today for the d-day commemoration. pelosi and but mccann -- "neither our nation, nor our nation that churches the blessings of liberty fought for, what for and died for on d-day can ever forget its memory." on the shore with the men who risked their lives to take this ground, among the graves of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, world stalemate. me."rds fail a number of tweets continue to roll in from members of congress about d-day. tweeting "we may be

the last leaves on the tree, but we all do well to remember the sacrifice of all who came before us." more than 9000 world war ii veterans called nevada home. 18 nevadans were known to have served enormity on d-day." normandy.worth is in "thank you to our d-day heroes who saved the free world that we get to live in today." todayk leahy is enormity today.normity he tweeted this picture of himself and his wife with the vermont blog at the entrance -- vermont flag at the entrance. they visited the graves of the vermonters buried in france. tonight, we will have today's 70 of anniversary of d-day events

in france with president obama and other world leaders. it will include the president speech, as well as the keynote address by french president francois hollande. that is at 8:00 eastern tonight on c-span. >> the reason we are trying to focus on the speaker is because with the fullker majesty and weight of his position who yesterday made certain allegations which he has not yet answered to. >> you don't normally have that. is, theresting fact whole tenor of your remarks going back to 1970 and 1972, taking out of context. in my opinion, to imply that

members of this slide were un-american in their activity. you stop, you waited -- would you respond? you knew there was nobody here. you knew -- >> put those two men from your perspective -- give us your perspective on the two of them. >> speaker o'neill was really the giant. he knew the politics of the house. he knew the politics of the house and he kept much of it to himself as he would in terms of other members. he received a great amount of intelligence all day long from members of what was going on in different places. that the believed politics was the art of the possible. nobody got their way all the time and he was a broker. what you saw was newt gingrich who made a conscious decision that they would always be in the minority because they work with

the majority. he started attacking bob michael, who was the leader and john rhodes. , the only avenue to the majority is through confrontation. we are going to take them down and this is an argument about the misuse of tv where he would ask these rhetorical questions and make these charges and he knew the chamber was empty. camera time, he knew the was very tight on the speaker at the time. the rule came to show that the chamber had people in their -- in there. that is a process that now has torn this institution apart. it has really paralyzed the institution. >> george miller, sunday night at eight on c-span's q&a.

president -- some intelligence assessments have warned that al qaeda and other terrorist groups are beginning to resurface. the american enterprise institute hosted an hour and a half foreign-policy discussion this week looking at the u.s. battle against al qaeda. >> thank you, everyone, for joining us today. thank you. thank you for joining us here today. we will start the event now. you on like to welcome this beautiful afternoon for an that is cosponsored with the foreign-policy research institute. i'm thankful that they are here a visitingve brought scholar. analyst and i've been working on al qaeda for the past five years.

i am hoping this will be a very interesting discussion. both of whose work i admire very much. et their views on the al qaeda challenge. mary just joined us and she is publishing a sequel to her book, "knowing the enemy" next year. she just published a report called "getting it right." it is available outside. he is a senior fellow at foreign-policy institute. his work is available through the website, which is that -- also at the selective wisdom blog, which is an editor of. i will be moderating their

discussion. i have asked them to keep their answers short. i'm looking forward to what will prove to be a lively discussion on al qaeda. open to questions from the audience at the end. i will ask you a basic question. what is al qaeda? >> thank you for having me here. they have given me a lot of room to run and write a lot of crazy stuff over the years. appreciate that. i will start off with some of my favorite -- we love this one. you areyou know if winning if you have no idea or common agreement of what al qaeda is? -- the very difficult position we're in. it's not just us were trying to figure out who is try al qaeda. you see a person on the coast of kenya.

the ironic thing about it, it does not mean if you give someone oath of loyalty that you have to keep following them if they are wrong. you have to love young people in social media, right? take the course of action we want and we run with it. what do you see when you look at that logo? is that bin laden? of the tunnel going on in al qaeda right now. might very well be the second most important jihadist group in the world as of today. the islamic state of iraq may very well be the most important thing going on in the body landscape -- the jihad he landscape.

interceptedave been in saudi arabia. you have the jewish museum shooter was being linked to what .s going on with isis he had a go pro and a gun. two days ago, you have reports from germany that they had disrupted an isi when we are talking about it a are winning, we wanted to know about the state of major league they spoke. what is the state? they would say how are the cardinals doing? , that was the dominant

force in jihad. they were the ones leading. they lead the jihad the movement. today they are one of many. they are the ones i call old guard al qaeda. i have no doubt right now somewhere there is this against the united states. the way that is received today versus it was received when bin laden was in charge is widely different. the way we talk about al qaeda, the way i define al qaeda i will call them "old guard" al qaeda. those still convicted and focused too far in the attacks against the u.s. i try to be as specific as possible. you will see it when they get to the fifth part. this is where i talk about how we have to focus our strategy.

guardle of dozen old committed al qaeda central areas. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, the most important al qaeda element in the world at this point. i have no doubt they are planning an attack against this. certain key leaders are running the actual cells that are out there. this is the off the reservation, i'm running my own al qaeda group. contact.ed

-- and in direct contact. select members about a bob who has pledged -- al-shabaab who have pled loyalty. arm is al qaeda's primary in the future for them to move in. they would be would try to do a little trade and barred -- trade him barter. were americans that are joining up. -- or americans that are joining up. bomber, that i am

really worried about. when i talk about al qaeda, that is the strain i am most concerned with to that day and that is what al qaeda is. what is al qaeda? it might be useful for the whatrs to actually hear the demonstration has defined as al qaeda and how you see it. views aladministration qaeda as constraint and narrow. the largest sense for the use of military force. why they areain updating that. according to that, al qaeda is only those people who carried out 9/11. it is a tiny group of a people, sometimes called the core leadership.

sometimes listen to what the al qaeda court says and they have their own agenda. it is very unwilling muslims. by thisthe definition administration. my definition is based primarily on their self-definition. that is the way al qaeda itself self andit' working on what is going on in

the road world. it defined itself as an organization and ideology. an organization with a themrship in guys under that are supposedly doing what the leadership wants them to do. the high command. they have branches. there were a little things about the organization. is very much like a funeral.

you are supposed to obey their king a sum that both. there is an ideology that has three pieces. there is an ideology. there is a methodology. it has a very extremist and thatfic version of sharia no one else in the world adheres to. those three things are what al qaeda uses to define it well. here is the thing about that. sometimes we get lucky and you happy all say things like this. they say inc. lake yes, we are part -- they say things like

"yes, we are part of al qaeda." are part ofreally al qaeda. you get this glimpse into some of the streets that have formed the oath. people are hiding it. he mentions some of the documents that were found after northern mali was liberated. one of the things that was found was a document describing a relationship between a local group that was somehow attached to al qaeda in describing its relationship with al qaeda. what that said was they actually were al qaeda the whole time and were told do not say anything about your connections with a global agenda or something jihadist. you are a group.

to fix things.e that is your messaging. that is the training we want for you. we do not want you to be talking about your connections with al qaeda. you do not get any glimpses into .he real relationships you fall back. as the ideology. the interesting thing about is that it is a breakaway group in syria that has declared an defensive. they have declared their independence. the argument they are having with al qaeda which is

specifically about the methodology that was being used by al qaeda. they disagreed profoundly with it. they broke away from al qaeda. it was significant enough for to define themselves as different from al qaeda. that is their ideology and their methodology. >> there is a lot to respond to their. from what i have read of your work, if you have written extensively about the ideology of all college -- of al qaeda and the threat that poses to us. the ideology stuff is nonsense. i will put that out right away. ideology is valuable. when they want to change it, well. the goa ices there is a lot of debate between al qaeda and ices

about the loan of loyalty to al qaeda. -- the oath of loyalty to al qaeda. the most change. tom waiting for the ideology tell me the justifications for why suicide bombs and old guard al qaeda operatives, i'm trying to figure out the ideology. the suicide bombings against isis members, that ideology will morph to whatever the conditions are on the ground for these local groups. debate going on in pakistan. it is fascinating. you have both coming out and pledging loyalty. just last week they published a statement refuting for why they are wrong for joining ices. that ideology is valuable. the will change based on

situation and the power plays. three years ago, everybody would tell me the ideology was so finding and pure they're never the infighting. they approve this to be completely false. the first one is somalia. there had been fractures in somalia and they will be more severe once they pledge this to al qaeda central and recognize it with sure bob. there have been all sorts of connections. they wanted to pledge loyalty. bin laden was very nervous. the biography, they talk about this to her three times with there would be these gain or it -- the micropower place but who would pledge the oath. to corral use that all these plans. us as they did that, local conditions would take over. this has been around for 25 years. andtimes he is with them sometimes against them.

he shows up in the documents. what is going on? he cannot control it. they do not have the controls they did under bin laden. what really shows after office ideological stuff is after the resource problems arise, oath of loyalty will shift. whatever they need to do to survive. the second is in the limited communication. these letters are great. and how they are trying to reach out. when you keep sending out a message to the boss and he never and he saysback, the 63 weeks to come back, you do what? you're on your own.

the other is other chinese. the others. they have a different opinion. there's also a resource of personnel. there is a leadership problem right now and al qaeda. ideology, they resonated. he had money. he had resources. he was from the heart of the fighters that come in. you do you have now? not a lot of fun to be with. smart strategically. he is always reaching out. they have gone off on their own. their resourcing themselves. communicate with them on a routine basis. the smartest thing he did, which nominatingto do was

this. he was the deputy of al qaeda. why did he do this? this is "game of thrones. you just change the name. the gulf guy to try to keep that in line. he did not have that. did that. it was a strategic power-play. there are the only ones that are getting success, trying to do this. you can see some more action. drones are not going make terrorists. they go where terrorists are. this is going. when i hear the ideological discussions, i get really nervous. it reminds me of where we were 10 years ago which is a highly expansive ideology which is used

to justify actions on many levels we were pursuing what we called terrorists that had different capability to striking the west. incident actually eliminating this, we were probably making more. we were providing impetus. it was called iraq. we made a second generation of fighters whether we like it or not. that is what happens. the only thing that is good is that it created this enormous dissension in the ranks. there is a large dissension. they all have physical relationships with each other. it was not just the ideology that found them. they missed out on the second generation. who are those guys? has his own interpretations. we saw back in 2006.

betweene differences this about targeting direction and ideology. i am very focused on the strains that are most committed to attacking the u.s.. hair.k ideology is a wild they're also debating internally about this. that as an ale on qaeda definition. is not fundamentally how we see al qaeda. i know it has changed. way to have aa very expensive view. i know you have much more. i know exactly what that is. some might argue is not part of the core al qaeda.

they do subscribe. >> just starting their, 12 years ideology was dismissed by most people. there was a cap put on it. what the administration was looking at was jihad is him -- jihadism. they did not distinguish between different groups by their ideology. they define it the threat so broadly it included dozens of groups that were not intend with al qaeda methodology. i would say there is very little attention paid to it. 2005 two 2006.m they begin to distinguish between groups.

they said this is a danger to the united states. they said which groups have an ideology that compels them to attack united eight first. -- the united states first. by looking at that, they were able to distinguish a narrow the definition of the enemy. getting back to this question of whether ideology is important, let me say where i agree with you. this plays a role in nearly everything. they are an extremely pragmatic group. if you read some the things they the written about jobs, one of cuba,

their best military leaders wrote it and thought it was the model to follow. maybe we will be able to do the same thing. very pragmatic when it comes to military matters and when it comes to a lots of different issues. examples that he gave were all about them actually engaging with each other and arguing over ideology. it ideology does not matter, why do they even do that? is one thing to say someplace back in the depths of your heart . why even engage in in this kind of public debate and make ideology the center for your argument beauty not believe it has some significant?

ideology was the motivation to write a 700 page book in which he put on the argument of one of his mentors, one of the godfathers. he argued against his interpretation. it shows people where he had gone astray. if you read through a lot of the things they say, it is about the ideological justification. isisain dispute between and al qaeda central is about their change in creed and methodology. engaging with an ideological struggle with each other over the future of al qaeda. here's one of the implications. this particular methodology that isis has chosen to follow follows that is our paoli -- is zarkowi.i- -

when it comes to his views of fighting, he believes you should take care not to kill innocent civilians of to the point where it infringes on your military operation. in other words, he talked about not killing civilians but it was going to make you give up an operation that was really worth it, he believed he believed you should just go ahead with it. if you killed 50 innocent muslims and killed one american in an exchange, that was radically fine. he also believed in carrying out and causing a secretary and war. spent a lot his time killing this. they purposely set out to cause these wars. he wrote about that. of methodology and creed said it is perfectly fine

for students. we had them write justifications for doing this. they have constantly said that innocentng to kill muslims and she has put pressure on those. the change behavior is in places al-shabaaba where which. out the horrible terrorist attack in kenya, attended to vigorously was a muslim and it was not before they started randomly shooting people, killing a lots of muslims in the meantime. ask people a set of questions to figure out if they were muslims before they carry out their attacks. nobody had done anything like this before he put out a statement saying this is what you are going to do and here is the justification for it.

now on those who followed our methodology are going to be doing this. he is the spokesman for isis. you have leftedly the original methodology. you have't left the -- left the original creed. not going to change this. for him, ideology actually had it. you take three examples of let's. splits. they are taking some direction from al qaeda. as a publict statement of these are the things we want to do in c. this occurred several months after that came out.

are . all the people that have left were going to leave have been killed. it reaffirms allegiance to al qaeda central. reaffirmed their allegiance. there had been terrible argument s. they were have a group that those that have assigned themselves in blood. i guess but is what he thought best expressed roots orientation. an argument that came out. than they havely

been reporting about this and what also became clear over time is that something had happened to settle there's because they wased off with others and in a new group that was put on someplace else. in other words, he was willing to be under somebody else. he was willing to swear his allegiance to al qaeda a month ago. also came forward and say i have my allegiance. syria, thees to major argument going on there is between isis and the other group. they have definitely declared their allegiance.

i have been watching very carefully to see what other isis. are signing up with are about 20 or 30 21 of the groups that are signing up. out.eda is winning >> we will circle back. i want to come back to a point made about pragmatism. they are looking at the leaders on the ground that have to make a decision. i think part of your argument is that over the past years what has happened with al qaeda is that the heirs ring has happened. there's a lot more autonomy. now they are essentially self-funded. it is like the generation on

twitter. they're looking to venture out and be their own startup. how does that pragmatism way into al qaeda? what is the state of al qaeda? are we looking at an individualized actor? lik >> al qaeda is getting killed today the same way we are worried about our young employees on social medium. one that was putting this together. they can keep some centralized control. this internet is as panacea for all kaiser. it is helping them branch out. that was very true. the internet has evolved into the social media, it has unraveled on them much on the way it unravels on us when we want to control messages.

the employees that starts up a bogus twitter account to make stupid comments, easy stuff like this all the time. they're having a hard time right now. read twoll you to things that a really excellent for understanding how things are playing out not just with al qaeda but in general. the first one is jake schapiro. it is a great discussion about ideology and others play with each other. there was a report this week talking about the decentralization of terrorism and how al qaeda is just one group in different organizations that are out there and direction in pragmatism and what we should be doing within these groups. if you want to know when al qaeda central does well, it comes down to just a few things.

success versus failure. the reason they're having to compete right now to be top dog 's because they have not been hitting home runs lately. in 2005,ened back 2002. foreign fighters right now that are motivated are going to isis. it is a winner. they are doing attacks. they are really attracted to this idea of building an islamic state. we are really excited about it. some of the pushback's is you guys have not succeeded in putting together a state. it has in us out here working on this. recruits right now are 18 to 24 years old. how old were they on 9/11? they were young.

this is something they saw and knew about. it was on their communities. what rallied them was iraq and yemen. success is not been held strictly within the whole network. if you want to attract foreign fighters and resources, you better the doing this. it is a recent relationship. that brings us to the next thing, resources. young the bin laden area, see people all the way up to bin laden's death going to him and asking him both for strategic guidance and would it be great if you could cough up 100 bucks so we can go through this? they're still that discussion about resource allocation. there are some interesting wings and there. johnson who wrote the book has a great quote in there. bin laden was a jihad he like all the others that he had one thing that was different and

that he was -- he had money. when you go back to the 90's, we have this special about how al qaeda originated for eight or nine years. he was like i am the man. but ofen has a little money. i am the leader. they really want a lot of al qaeda together. the leadership, that has really been distributed. now you are looking at yo-yo resourcing. you or on your own. you and i could crowd fund a group in syria if we wanted on twitter. we can pledge money to a group. resource control is limited for al qaeda and they cannot you want to keep that going. it is very political. thewe want to talk about

physical relationships. we can keep them loyal to each other. that was wrong. zarqawi regions is really what is going on today. you see it with these militias that have risen up. it is a parallel thing that they have built. there is fascinating discussion about how they are doing something really great. i would love it if they would just go with them. really unique dynamic going on there. in that legion, there are two that are critical for understanding this. the first one are the foreign fighters. we will see where this rift is.

this one.se are some areas of talk about here in a second. i am leaning into it. we will jump into the and. lidia andghters from foreign fighters from yemen and saudi. thatreally are the ones will decide which direction it goes. that is where you see the debate about showed been on team isis or all card al qaeda. motivated.e are they are dumber. old guard al qaeda is staying loyal and true to their values.

if you cannot win over the people in need to get the resources, you are in a very bad situation. i will weigh out the three scenarios. the first when you could see the two poles emerge. the one is old guard al qaeda. there are the ones they have the tightest connections with. over time, all of these foreign fighters look over to bp isis network. have a lot of these groups that are just waiting it out. some people interpret this as i pledge the loyalty of al qaeda. there are like 30 groups that are loyal to al qaeda. if i'm not getting money from the boss and he is not communicating with me that much and i do not really need to pick sides, what am i going to do? i'm going to wait and see which way things go. i will play the middle. i will run my own here for what ever it might be. somalia.in nigeria or

i will hedge the middle and not commit until i have to. we know this from elections in our own country. we will wait to see who the candidate is. ok? that a scenario number one. scenario number two is really going on today. it is fascinating to watch. these are brief scenarios. if anybody tells you they are and al qaeda expert, you should show them the door. they do not know what is going on. .his is what we have this is a sustained al qaeda internal civil war were the is are just fighting with each other. it sounds great. this is this an area in series. we had to hotties --j h jihadis fighting jihadis. what is not to like question

work it is a meat grinder. the effect over the long run is donors say i do not want to donate a bunch of money if you're just going to kill other jihadis. their dissolution for what is going on here. does not mean they will be committed to violence. this civil war has a corrosive effect. the third one is that there is so much infighting and things are going poorly it you stick with where you can resource and work together the best and where you can communicate you best. where does that happen? regionally. shabbatgroups like

working with other groups in kenya. they were together. the occasionally have contact and they still communicate. will probably do it isis as well. they probably swarm around. they will break into three or four variants. what you might see us all. the scenarios that play out in a sequence. i do not know what the sequence will be. i would love to have all the counterterrorism analysts. it'll be fascinating to see who would be right. i think we will probably see in civil war first maybe some version of could isis become the civil leader? they kind of act dumb recently. they could use the regional conglomerates, 18 months and beyond. that is where i see al qaeda going.

what old guard al qaeda needs to do is start getting on top of foreign fighter recruitment again. they have to start securing resources and distributing. make ave a plot to dominant player. the comes with two most dangerous scenarios. attacks al qaeda, i will israel right now. why? they get everybody back. it is a common enemy. whose team are you going to be on? are you going to goal with the goal that go with the goal question -- are you going to go with the goal? the most dangerous scenario is i'm really worried about this.

if you really want to put yourself of the global leader, e do a big external pack. it draws the attention back here they're doing that ramp up. what are you going to do? we will have somebody shoot up something. they are dumber and they are moving quickly. >> a lot to unpack. i would like to circle back to the isis question. let's look at what the state of al qaeda is. it is a movement that is much that has been sidelined. his experience

in egypt. he is not as good-looking of a guy as bin laden. to begin with something i think has underlined of some of our different views of al qaeda. your vision of their objectives versus my vision of their objectives. al qaeda is generally defined as a terrorist group here if that is how most people think of them. they carry out terrorist attacks. throughout the 1990's, they put oneseveral official putting out interviews by the non-media shy bin laden. actually attempted to do that several times. they carried out attacks in east africa and so on and so forth. has always hadda a second side two of those taking up the vast majority of

area. 99% of the funding was going to create guerrilla fighters for long-term insurgency rather than the 1% of being spent on external attacks. attacks.errorist if an organization spent 99% of its money on one efforts and only 1% on the other effort, on what basis do we focus on that 1% versus the 99%? i will tell you. that 1% was aimed at us. isn't that the important thing? what is going to affect us in america? is for americans. we jump a tension to the 99%. we do not pay attention to all the other nasty stuff owing on out there that al qaeda has said from the beginning was the real objective. that is to overthrow every single local leader in a muslim

majority world and replace them with people who would follow their version of sharia. that is their underlying objective. attacking america was a means for that end. they saw america as a stumbling block. the u.s. always shows up. we are always there with funding and troops. we're always there messing up their plans for world domination. captured documents from 2002 that shows us. i suppose he had to say this. is is all about him. we are a government in exile for the entire muslim world. it will change -- change the

entire calculus out there in that we have to start considering this for what it really is. they had bigger plans than simply carrying out attacks against the united states. not carried out attacks against the united states and as you say, they have managed to recruit more and more people to their cause, to their ideology into their methodology. the reason they have done that is through insurgency. iraq and forin today, you mentioned this longer -- younger group, more important for them is serious. a hugee acting as radicalizing force without the presence of the united states. this is a great falsification of a proposal put forth. the presence of the united states that ratifies the people. it turns them into jihadists.

presence ofeed the the united states. is the absence of the united states that has ratified the people in syria right now. the u.s. is not present in any of these fights around the world. beingnd more people are ratified through this. i have to say that if you just look at what they were focusing on and what they're going to say, dos for this being a i would like to go through. sorry about the changes. if i had known the difference i would have chosen it. qaeda linked terrorism in 2000 let them. the great leader, founder, charismatic guy -- 2011. the great leader, founder, charismatic guy. al qaeda terrorism was occurring at a level called serious. that is not me there were not other terrorist attacks in places like india and by 2011 that was really being wrapped

up. by 2011, this is basically where yria's tourism has been played out by people in al qaeda. the chinese government says the methodology being used resonates. it looks like al qaeda to me but it is uncertain. it is certainly people being inspired by. if you think al qaeda is worth in relating. i put this here as well. if you take a look from kenya all the way up to the caucuses, there is more violence being carried out than 2011. that is the kind of failure any ceo doesn't want to see. that this is the t -- tip of the iceberg. see, i called what

was going on a high level that is still manageable of terrorism. keepwere no longer able to territory or recruit people. they have turned against them. especially with the surge that the united states carried out, it able to pick out most of the al qaeda terrorists, there were only three places were serious insurgencies. places.re three they had some sort of connection. here is al qaeda insurgencies in 2014 -- inam best 2014. if this is failure, this is the kind of failure we want to see. the guy has no charisma. people always said he was the smart one. he was the guy who always had

something up his leaves a new how to do things and was willing to think long-term. rather than go for the short-term gains. qaedae see here is al influence, link groups using my definition of al qaeda. those people who believe in ideology are in a spin insurgencies. that is the kind of failure we all want to see. >> i kind of need to respond to this one. not know if any of you have been defense contracting for me. this is the moneymaker right here. map.is the scary al qaeda i've been doing these since 2004. this is our shock.

scary al qaeda map. low this thing out there. we have been giving him too much credit for a lot of things that are not his doing. a great one is like every article when they were on their boom in 2012. it had really taken over. they said they created the largest state in the history of mankind. they operate in a lot of these places. he bailed out of world war ii. we never saw that coming. we decide we want to do

something, when we decide it is a threat, he can do it. they are laying out an assumption that this is a threat to an entire country or that al qaeda controls an entire country. we are talking about south and central somalia and a declining ratio at that. you can read those on shabbat. they show this decline. his resume, if we go by this is the resume when you get it at the inbox. you have like 13 jobs. you say how did this person do this? we are giving them a lot of credit for things that are going on. a lot of these insurgencies are shooting themselves in the foot. they are out of control. they are violence. a great example from two weeks ago.

this is probably not something that they would recommend. they say the al qaeda group kidnapped them selves. we have given them a lot of credit. the first thing they bring up is bin laden. they gave the money to start up -- trainingramp camp. why do we do this? the armed use of military force is the only way we can mobilize the two things. these insurgencies are not going to be successful in a lot of cases. in some cases they are weakening al qaeda because they're going out of the balance. are weakening their popular support and the local area. eventually, this is an example from algeria. they used the strategy which was

called "let it rock." they would perimeter it up and say you go there all day long. they would wait until the businessman was start to come without this is going to be great. and never want to recommend any counterterrorist options. for a lot of different reasons. when you talk about all these insurgencies, it is a great point they brought up. they use the u.s. as a bogeyman for what ever your object is our locally. they use them to rally support with donors. i am of the opposite perspective. we do not need to get involved in all these insurgencies. it did not go so well. we spent a lot of money. we have weak democracies that cannot function as terrorism

partners. we treated safe havens in iraq which now hosts items. we could say isis is of our own birth. we created that safe haven for them. we have no ability right now to counter them because of our own domestic politics. i will stop there. i know it was only a counterterrorism discussion but that is my perspective. mary andeel for it trying to figure out whether you paint the van or villages. it is a lot of territory. note that you have something to say here. i also feel that we should start bringing the definitions back into it. where you ares disagreeing. that is bringing out the disagreement in your assessment. there are the long-term objectives of the insurgency.

>> i do not think i disagree on long-term insurgency. briefly, i firmly support you on the issue of our partners and friends fighting back and doing a terrific job. within just a few weeks, they had picked out the vast majority of the al qaeda guys there. they almost immediately the traded -- infiltrated back in. syria is in trouble and having to come to a decision point of whether they should just with raw or bring in more troops. the same thing could be said about yemen. government put its best effort in 2012. they did a great job except all the al qaeda guys just melted into the mountains and desert. it is a technique i think they

have adopted. it is when the enemy advances. you take all of your weapons and your people. we go off to the mountains, wait till they get done with their doodads when they have gotten tired of it, you go down there and start carrying out attacks. you find a weak spot. keep attacking them until they are depleted enough that you can go ahead and push them out. that is what they are doing right now in yemen and somalia. only control a few districts. they are able to. out again attacks inside of they had which prevented for doing so for a couple of years. come to the capability. i do not want to sound like debbie dahmer -- downer here. this is not a map of success here. this is a map of al qaeda advancing while we retreat. to answeri would like

as well as the point you brought forward about the split between isis and al qaeda. i think it is a serious issue. i didn't want to downplay that. it could lead to a split in the destruction of al qaeda. the biggest question i have is will it lead to less violence are more violence. they carry out more and more terrorists attacks when it comes to recruiting people to their site. with a terrorist group splitting is a very bad thing. it leads to more violence, not less. and basically decapitation. i hate to use that term. it is what most people see.

and insurgency is a little more ambiguous. you can find examples on both sides. it will lead to less violence. it has to do with whether they turn the violence outward and compete or whether they fight against each other. the evidence we are getting right now is that they are both doing both. mentioned there are cells being picked up in other countries that have their allegiance to isis. that is a bad thing. if isis actually went out, there will be more violence, not less. isis arere the ones -- the ones who believe you have to kill randomly. if you look at what they have been doing in northern nigeria, in some ways that reminds me very much about what dark alley rquqi did.wley -- za

are splintering up and fighting each other, that is not necessarily a good inc.. i actually have a little teeny bit of an issue with the map as it currently is displayed. i went through meticulously each group and went looking through what their stated position is on the isis split. might the based on some false assumptions. me --ks to >> i can already tell you how we're going to divulge on this. your are talking about official statements. >> let me finish and then you can criticize me. >> this is on the group to affirm or reaffirm it. the burden of proof is on them.

it is about their relationship with al qaeda. if a group just not state a or they are isis neutral, they are assumed to be wavering. that is not how i made that assessment. >> i am going to continue on and then you can criticize me. if ordinary members use social media to support isis, they are essentially leaning isis. >> no. >> that is what i got. >> right. >> wait. wait. let me finish and then you can criticize me in one go. it if one or two lower ranking central grouphe that nobody has heard of before but declares himself -- themself the head, they are assumed to be with isis>

andou turn that around simply make the assumptions for al qaeda, this is what you would get. in fact, you would have only two or three groups that are which of those is true or false it depends on whether people have come forward in the last few weeks, months, and have specifically stated i am with al qaeda and i reject isis, and or i reject isis. i would look for that. >> on the top of it, when trying to put up an estimate, it is an imperfect model, and i do not like the charts that i see from dod that go al qaeda group 1, 2, we do that because powerpoint makes us do that. we get into that we are trying to make