be -- he be remembered now? >> i think he will be remembered as a person for whom the american people was his biggest and most important client. i really wish people could see him in some of our staff meetings or when he is out of the spotlight. that is what he cares about. he cares about doing the right thing. it was not an accident he asked me to calm work for him. he really has progressive values, cares about serving the american public. the thing that upsets me the most is that people do not see his entire body of work, what he has done for public safety, the community broadband, to promote over the top video service. he has had a huge body of work only in about 15 months and it is all in the public interest.

i wish people would look more broadly. they will do that story about how tom wheeler turned around and just supported the american people and passed policies that upset his former colleagues. >> special counsel to the fcc. we look to having you back and we look forward to having the chairman on this show. >> i would love to be back. >> c-span, created by america's cable companies 35 years ago and brought to you as a public service. february is black history month and the c-span buses on the road, visiting the top historically bad -- black

colleges and universities to highlight their role in america's education system. this tuesday, there will be a fisk in diversity in nashville -- university in nashville. keep track of the congress and follow its new members for its first session. best access on c-span, c-span2 c-span radio and c-span.org. >> got ours foreign minister was in d.c. monday at the atlantic. he talked about challenges in the middle east, qatar's role in global affairs, and the threats posed by isis. this is one hour. >> everyone here is honorable but i want to point out it is a great honor to have the ambassador with us.

we have gregory craig, who was whitehouse council, the former defense secretary bill cohen many distinguished people. i understand you have your own twitter address, what is your handle? >> i don't recall but i will give you the address. >> if you search under khalid al-attiyah, it might come up. >> yes. >> do you use it? i guess not. >> sometimes. >> maybe if you still like me when this interview is over, we can take a selfie and tweet it on your stream. let's have some fun. we are here to talk about a great many issues. i have had many friends in this room say, make sure you mention this, make sure you mentioned isis and all of the support you are giving for all of these terrorists. when a look from your perch at the middle east region, and from your perspective, who wears the

white hats and who wears the black hats? i have been watching the tv show "scandal" and it is a lot about white hats and black hats. who are the good guys and who are the bad guys from your perspective right now? >> first of all, thank you steve, for receiving me here. i would like to thank all of your honorable guests for being here to listen to this -- these boring questions. [laughter] but, no, let me say this. there is no white hat and black hat. we have a destiny together in our region and we all try to work hard to make our region safe and to be concentrated on the development. recently, syria, yemen made some terrible decisions in our region. what i'm speaking about, i'm speaking about the smaller region.

this needs a lot of focus and hand in hand efforts to get over this terrorism in the region at the time. i cannot say there is white or black. our destiny is one and i think this is what we're trying to do, we are trying to work hard to come over this situation in the region. >> michele flournoy, who is not the secretary of defense, we consider her almost the secretary of defense, made some comments about whether or not she believed qatar had been involved in funding isis funding terrorists in the region, specifically isis. she said she had no evidence and saw no evidence that qatar was , but there was a broad perception that was the case. i'm interested -- you have been

asked this many times but, how do you respond to the question -- is qatar funding the radical islamic movement in the region? >> qatar is the member of the alliance against the terrorism in the region. do you think that it we are a member of the alliance, we are going to fund them? everybody in this room, i believe, knows how this terrorist group is getting their funds. there is oil being sold, wheat being sold to the regime. this is the way they are funding. i think for a long time, we are used as a scapegoat for some reason. we did not have the answer for this reason but no is your answer. we do not fund isis or any other

terrorist group. this is our policy, our strategy. >> if you were running the show, leading the coalition of both arab muslim nations, western european countries, australia, the united states, are there things you would do differently than we are doing today to deal with isis? what are the missing things you feel are in the effort? >> this is where we stand. when this coalition started, we have said times before, this is not the solution. >> and that what the united states is doing. >> not only the united states. this is not the solution. the solution is that we have to address the roots. you find us in our humanitarian assistance.

one part of our strategy, to develop and to try to create jobs and education, especially education, so we can defeat terrorists. it is not enough only to come and fight them from the air or bombard them, we have to solve and treat the cause of it. there are so many reasons. we can take each case and solve it. it is not only to fight it from the air, we have to go to the ground and know the cause of it and treat it. >> john kerry today in his comments with you commended qatar for a number of things. the last item he says is the efforts to delegitimize isis.

how do you go about delegitimizing isis? >> being with the coalition is delegitimizing isis. being a part of the international community. it is not only isis, there are so many other groups that are considered foreign fighters. they should be delegitimized. they are fighting, so many of them fighting with the regime in syria. we should be delegitimizing this as well. >> i want to ask you about the broad, strategic picture. i was talking to some saudis recently and they were trying to tell me from their perspective why they thought there was popular support in their country for groups like isis and others. they put it in a very interesting way. they said there is a perception that the united states is not playing the role it used to play. that it was defecting from its

traditional responsibility and that the united states was essentially giving the region to iran. groups like isis are filling the gap, standing by sunni interests , and filling that void and i disagree with that on a number of fronts. i found it a compelling narrative. is it your impression that america is perceived to be weaker in the region. what is your take on u.s. power at this moment compared to the past? >> america is a friend and ally of the region. i do not think this is the perspective, as you put it. your it is our job to, in our region, to stand up for ourselves. the people in the region do not sympathize with isis. in fact, the people in the region are trying to remind everyone that the case today is

not isis versus -- it is the regime itself. did we forget the 3000 people killed in syria? while we are trying to derail the real cause of what is happening in syria, it is the regime and the brutality of the regime, we cannot kill of the syrians without differentiating that the regime can be an ally to fight the terrorist group. the regime was the magnetic to attract the terrorist group. no one here should forget that the cause, the brutality of the regime. we should all keep this in mind. then we only can get rid of any terrorist group in the region.

>> i have been thinking of starting a tv show about the sort of soap operas in the middle east. when you look at the relations between the fsa. there is so much fragmentation. one group fighting another group. if you look at the coalition against isis, as you know, qatar has not have the friendliest relationship recently with saudi arabia and the uae and yet -- do you have fighters talk to each other when they are going to drop the bombs? how does all of this work in the end? because it looks like everybody within these coalitions is fighting and how are things going with the uae lately? >> i will assure you one thing is that the relation is unique. the fabric of the jcc people is unique.

the differences among us are in the past. it is history. national security of the region is a red line. we all stand by our national security whether it is the saudi , or uae. >> it is all patched up? >> i will say there are no differences among the objective of fighting terrorists. the gcc issue is awful. -- over. i think it is history now. >> i have written positively about qatar essentially hosting groups that the united states often has trouble talking to like a taliban office, like the office of hamas and others because it is useful to go somewhere to be able to talk to

the other side, but you have had a lot of criticism for supporting the muslim brotherhood and hamas and places like that from places like the president of egypt, from the saudi's, from the uae. so, how do you bring them over to understand that role? or are you not bringing them over? >> let me set the record straight for once and for ever. we do not support any groups. in egypt, we supported egypt since the 25th of january. if you follow what has happened in egypt with the egyptian people, we work with them since the 25th of january. we continued until the present leader of egypt supporting egypt. so we do not support a particular group. again, in palestine, hamas is an

element. we support the palestinian people. what we are doing, we are doing projects or the palestinians who are actually in an open jail. they are surrounded, 360 degrees, surrounded from air sea, they cannot get their day-to-day life means. what we do is we build roads hospitals, schools rehabilitation centers, because of the children who have lost their hands or legs. this is what we do. our work is an open book. everyone is welcome to come and see every penny being spent or sent from qatar to rebuild their

people. no matter what we say, i will still get this question again. do you support hamas or do you support the brotherhood? we do not support hamas, we do not support the brotherhood, we support the people of palestine, we support the people of egypt and this is something rooted in our principles. we cannot let go of it. >> when benjamin netanyahu has said that hamas is isis, what would you say to him? >> we are not in a place to tell him, but i think this is not the right thing to say about hamas. hamas did not reach out to anybody or harm anyone. hamas -- i am not in a position to defend him, but, they are a

movement of liberation. you will not find a group to resist you. simply. >> you and i have talked about this, i think it was in munich. the united states has not worked hard to understand what political islam is and the differences between political islam and radical islam and conservative islam or conservative secularism. i am really interested in your in depth wrestling with this. you are in the middle of it. people talk about qatar being in the middle of everything and finding that sort of soft spot. how -- what advice do you have for the united states in better understanding and dealing with political islam as opposed to white hats and black hats?

>> first of all, i wish you were a muslim so you know what islam means. to differentiate between them -- in reality, islam has nothing to do with this criticizing or classifying the groups. the situation on the region now, and particularly about the brotherhood, they decided 50 years ago to practice democracy. they decided to go through the ballots. this is how we evaluated what went on in egypt. the fear is, and i am not talking about egypt, i'm talking about the entire region, the fear is that what is the negative message we are sending or we want to send to the people?

it is that if you left the armed struggle and you practice your political rights, that we are going to push you back again. is this the message we want to send the people? do we want to send the people a message saying that, if in one of the european countries, the popularity of any president went below 10% that we allow the army to content take him off? is this the message we want to send? this is what we are trying -- this is our philosophy. this is how we look at things. >> it is also condoleezza rice's philosophy. i asked her the same question and she said it would be a disaster if the muslim brotherhood was run underground again and chose violence as opposed to democracy to pursue its interest. you are interestingly, for that moment, on the same page as condoleezza rice.

you have just had a transition not too long ago in emirs. you have a young emir. you had a transition in saudi arabia, which we are now all watching to see who is up, who is down. you became foreign minister after the transition in emirs. i am interested, what is different? what is new, better, worse from your persepctive, because i think you did pretty well when the emir changed. but has there been any change of track in the country? >> our foreign policy is based on our principles. we share most of them with the united states, i am sure. we base our foreign policy on our principles and our principle

is inherited from 100 years, so it is not new. our foreign policy is the same. the emir is young and energetic. he has a clear vision. we are there to help and assist our vision. we would like to be busy in promoting our vision. >> you were head of, in a previous row, the human rights guy. do i have that correct? >> yes. >> i heard the previous emir

talking about an arab frame for human rights which differed from much. he never released the speech in english. it was hard to get it translated. i am working on it. in that world of talking about human rights, one of the biggest criticisms, whether it is the building you are doing for the infrastructure for the world cup, nyu, it is built on the backs of people who are not treated well, who are dying, who end up in passport nightmares. in the case of john sexton at

nyu, nyu changed the way many foreign workers are paid so they can be paid directly as opposed to brokers. there has been some criticism. i'm interested in your role. you have got 300,000 citizens and about 1.7 million guests. how are you doing on the guest side? >> we are a country that would like to the open to all customs. this is enriching our country. it is not a negative point. they say we don't give them water to drink or food. some of our guests see -- we believe they are there to help

us. it has nothing to do with our treatment to the neighbors, it was next between politics and business. this is too big to small unfortunately -- to swallow unfortunately. we wanted to bring peace and prosperity to our region. it is the only thing that brings people together. even though we did not take this

easy, we hired one of the best people to comment and look into our procedures and to give us a report on how to improvee. we said, we would like to see how we can prove. -- improve. if laws need to be modified, if we improve the lifestyles of the neighbors, then we are expediting our goals. we took this seriously. a lot of things have been changed, modified. most of the companies who are leading this project have

obligations to look after the people who work for them. it is a joint obligation. the western companies who participate in these contacts, they have to take care of their neighbors also. >> one of the things that any establishment has to worry about today that is covering war zones is that it people will be kidnapped or killed. richard engel was kidnapped and able to escape. we have had people from the atlantic that were kidnapped in libya. the rise of kidnapping and trying to -- we have seen many high-profile killings recently in this area. qatar has injected itself into some other delicate and fragile hostage negotiations in trying

to save these various sausages -- various hostages. i have not seen many other countries display that kind of role. why did you jump into this role? how is it going, what have you learned? people are asking, do you pay ransoms? you have had some success. >> just to make this clear, no we do not pay ransom. this has to do with our values and principles. if there is a life weekend said, we will do it. -- life weekend said, we will do it.

the lebanese, the fijians. when there is a case, we engage the people so they can see the procedures and how things are being done. if there is anything we can do more to save more lives, we will do it. >> what makes you effective and why do not think saudi arabia is doing business to mark -- doing this? >> we have an open door policy. we talk with everyone except terrorist groups. it is not my fault is people fill comfortable to speed to qatar. it is for people to talk and

approach. [indiscernible] this is a gift from god. we cannot change it. back to the hostages and hostages taken, there is a lot of people underground -- >> i have not seen anybody write about this. how are airmen and servicemen behaved and your country?

are we doing well, are we doing poorly? could we do better? it is something no one has thought about. >> we have enjoyed this relation for a long time. they are behaving five. -- fine. we receive them as our friends. i cannot recall any issue or incident or anything happening. >> a couple of questions and then i will open to the audience. i was really intrigued in a conversation i had with the ambassador. in saudi arabia, there is a deal between the political establishment and the religious.

the investor shared with me that he was part of that group, which as i us them, many in qatar are. i am interested in why it tends to be working out so much better than others. what is the secret part of making a sort of multifaceted acceptance to multicultural thought inside the religious tradition? it is really something that i think we are struggling with those people who look at the region and it is a deal that legitimates the saudi political order. how have you been able to modify or soft and -- soften. what is the gap between that and the radical islamic version?

>> if i answer you the way what you put your question, that is a comparison. i cannot make that comparison. i am not in a position. i think we focus on our goals and strategy. this has been emphasized by some dictator or regime just to show violence and how savage this place iss. we are trying to make this

[indiscernible] the slowy have the best university. we have launched -- we have the best education best health system. this is how we work. >> you are investing in modern indie. -- modernity. >> we are busy and lamenting the programs -- implementing the programs. we used to have a steel factory.

today, we are -- i don't want to talk about --the shift is big. >> my question was about the universities and these aren't museums. they are really into wild modern art. the big rocks next to the islamic -- locks next to the islamic museum. -- blocks next to the islamic museum. when i look at that -- the know what i'm talking about? >> the temporary one. >> the temporary one that seems to be there for a long time.

it has some of the wildest contemporary art in the world from all over. you have six or more american universities and other universities. i'm interested in the not diplomatic response -- how do qataris see this? if i were from -- are they accepting it, not except in -- accepting it? what is happening in qatar at the core cultural level? i think it is great. >> we think it is great, also. we believe in diversity.

qatar is very open-minded. this is why we would like to interact with others, see other cultures. i do not know if you had time to visit the museum. >> it is beautiful. >> we are very much interested in the culture. school is very important to us. this is why we decided to go off to the best school. this is why we have at least six universities from the united states. we have georgetown, carnegie mellon so we choose the best universities because we think those people deserve the best education.

with education, we will defeat any mess and rumors about us. >> let me open up the floor to some others. we will have a microphone come to you. let me go to michael gordon. >> you talked about the intermediary role qatar has played in various conflicts. today, secretary kerry noted that the tar -- qatar has been helpful to the united states in yemen in recent days. what have you been doing to help the united states in yemen? >> maybe secretary kerry has mentioned something to do with

helping or exchanging. what he meant is we work closely with our friends about the gcc initiative and how we can enhance this initiative and convince everyone to go back and double net the gcc -- and element -- implement the initiative. >> is a day jobs initiative? -- is it a jobs initiative? >> often comes the national dialogue and the outcome of the dialogue. after that, there is pressure on

the president. we are talking to go back to the original and enhance it if we can. >> do you think ron has to be brought into that -- airan has to be brought into that? >> they are a neighbor. we cannot change geography. >> but if you could, you would. >> we welcomed the initiative and we support the negotiation and we would like to see positive outcome. we know they have the right to use peacefully the initiative and we support to the united states and their efforts to come to an end with this site. --

fight. >> back to some of these questions about terror finance. the treasury department is convinced that al qaeda finance is sanctioned by the u.s. and the united nations are operating freely. they are individuals that have been publicly discussed. can you respond to that because this is an issue that has been discussed for years but it seems do not be resolved. >> this is a private fundraising. >> i do not know what you are referring to end the treasury department but to be specific, i would like to know exactly who but if you are talking about the institution, we work closely with the treasury department. our agencies work closely with them.

this is not an issue where we can be lenient. we take this very seriously. we have a very tough law. the only thing is that we have a judicial system. this system has to be inspected. if we have something with evidence, which, this evidence stands, we will not spare a moment to bring these people to trial. there also needs to be evidence so we can take them in front of the judicial system. >> tom. there is a microphone coming to you. this is anna green. >> i wonder if you can tell me about the hostage negotiations one got them free, what were the

hardest part of the negotiations and how did you get over the problems? >> i cannot talk about this because i do not have the details of the negotiations. we had a negotiation task team. i am only there for the picture at the end of the day. there are details which i do not know. i know. >> do you think there is a difference if i were going to be kidnapped, would i rather be connect by nustra or isis? >> do not get kidnapped at all. >> is there a difference? >> we do not talk to either of them. this is not the way -- we do not speak to them.

it is better for you to stay in washington. >> howard. >> i raise my hand in order to get the microphone to my colleague. you look so distinguished. >> thank you for being here. my question is about the syrian margaret rubble training aspects. a lot of people are talking about how that will kick off in the early spring. one issue is the recruitment. could you speak about identifying the syrian market rebels that will be trained and how that is going, how is the program being designed? >> this is usually done by the ally. the country you mention is the united states.

they look into the groups and the name. they take the ones qualified to draining. this is usually how it happens. -- two training. >> there was a report last week that one of the detainees who had been returned had attempted to return to the battlefield. can you tell us what you know about that and the status of the other detainees who have been returned? >> these were the detainees that were traded. >> what is the question? >> the question is what is the status -- there was an allegation that one of the detainees you were hosting that came out of guantánamo in exchange for a prisoner tried to

return to military activity. >> first of all, we have to look at how the detainees came to qatar. that is a conversation happening between obama. there is an understanding that a mechanism has been put to be monitored. it is not an easy issue. it is a very serious process. we are working to develop it and our friends in the united states of all of the agencies are monitoring everything with a close eye on all of the detainees at all of the movement. rest assured that nothing happened of what you mentioned on that issue. >> i need a non-journalist.

this guy used to run the project pentagon. >> i would like to bring you back to iran. i know you are a big neighbor but it is not just the israelis that see them as a threat. your saudi neighbors are also a problem. the jordanians worry about them the egyptians worry about them. they see them as a threat. do you see them as a threat and are you as worried as they are about their expansion in the region? >> as i told you before, they are a neighbor. iran has the right to do the

program. we don't -- we have a good relationship with a ron. -- iran. one of the major differences is syria. we intend to keep this in this aspect. this is the difference between us and them. the position of each other. the end of the day, we have good relationships. at the end of the day, we are together in the region. >> it is well documented how much the leader mistrusted the united states. can he get over that? is he able to make a leap that

would be something substantial enough that the united states, the west, and all of you could have faith in or is he simply flirting with us but not really able to make that leap in terms of fully trusting a deal? have you met him? >> no. >> have not hung out? ok. >> two things -- you mentioned the huge investment in education. that is a major investment. is there a demonstration effect for the region in terms of the relevant occasion? what will that look like a

decade from now? hosting the world cup will bring a great deal of scrutiny. what is the impact? all of the eyes will be on the construction and the conduct of the game. what can we expect? >> investing in education because we are a khyber hydrate -- carbohydrate-based company. we hope the shift from that to a large-based economy. a large-based economy needs brains. we are trying to invest as much as we can in the education. going to the 20 tried to do world cup, we see the region is there. the world cup is for the arabs the middle east.

we find out that sport is the only good thing left in the world. it brings people together to the region. it gives us the stability. >> josh rogan. >> thank you very much. i would like to ask about libya. three years after your government are dissipated -- participated in the mission to bring down the lynching -- the regime, libya is descending into chaos. your government supports the coalition. why has our government made that decision? why should you if you advocate

for international communities to switch its recognition and what should be done to save libya? >> these are two groups. we support the outcome of the election. 50% of the people stand on one side and 50% stand on the other. we cannot demolish 50% of the people. we are still playing a very positive role to engage everyone in dialogue. we work closely with leo. we respect the outcome of any cause. -- courts.

the court announce a decision. we respect that. they issue a decision on the government. we announced that we recognize this. the court issued another verdict on the subject. at the end of the day, there is only one way to solve the issue. you can kill 100,000 or one million. the solution is over the table. we are putting all of our weight behind all of the media to convince them to come to the table. now they have a second round of geneva. the fairgrounds will be in libya. we put all of our efforts behind

the united nations. we do this until we see the solution emerge. >> i wanted to note for the room, for those of you who do not know, he was an employee of the syrian embassy in town and was the one who was writing a lot of passports, documents for the free syrian army. it is interesting to have you here. >> you have one of the best diplomats. i have two questions.

what do you think syria looks like at the end of this year? there is talk that the mandate will change to fighting isis. [indiscernible] >> we try to convince him. unfortunately, we failed to convince him. secondly, this is what i said in the beginning of all of our meeting today. you cannot forget what happened in the past four years and the massacres that happened to 300,000 people, women, children. and then talk about the regime

being a good ally to fight terrorism. nobody can do just -- that digest this narrative. i hope the people of syria decide where they want to go. >> secretary cohen/ . >> thank you. i commend you for your courage in willing to submit ourselves -- yourself to the john stuart of the atlantic. you said initially that alms and bullets are not -- bombs and bullets are not the solution to solving insurgencies. our sanctions part of the

solutions is bombs and bullets are not? are sanctions being imposed part of the solution? were they responsible for bringing iran to the table to talk about ways to dismantle their ambitions for a non-civilian nuclear power? would more sanctions be helpful in persuading then they have to do more? >> it is the majority to speak about. i think the negotiation is ongoing. i believe they have june as a deadline for the negotiation. there is hope they will come to a close, will come to an agreement. let's hope and see how the negotiation will go.

we don't favor the use of power to reach an agreement on this. >> we are right at the end. i apologize. i am just going to ask one final question. you talked about transitioning your economy, transitioning from an oil and gas economy to a knowledge economy. i'm interested -- you are the richest country in the world per capita. can a rich country make a transition or do people to aspire need to feel hunger challenged? how do you instill in your young people the hunger to win, to get ahead, to feel the challenge? your people are so wealthy and

rich, some would call them spoiled, that sometimes it is hard to imagine that they would be interested in moving up the ladder. let's take off the foreign minister hat. you must have children, do you worry about spoiling them? >> i understand what you're saying. have you ever heard of dutch disease before? they went through this experience at some time. they spoiled the people and they found themselves with people reluctant and lazy and then they changed their method. to get out of this disease. >> howdy you avoid that? >> we learn from others. we have a vision.

we have built one of the best if i may say. we are encouraging our new generation to come and create and innovate. this is what we are >> do you feel they're doing it? >> we are doing it. it needs time. it's a journey of a thousand miles, starts with one step. and we took a hundred steps. >> on behalf of everyone here i want to thank you for spending time with us. i want to thank c-span for joining us and watching it. i want to thank you you, not on behalf of all media, but on the part of some media, that we very much appreciate what you've been doing with your breathen that have been kidnapped. it's important to raise that,

that journalists ought not to be targeted anywhere. thank you so much for joining us. [applause] >> next, supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg talk about life on the court. then thom tillis of north carolina outlines his goals and the congressional agenda. after that, house minority leader nancy pelosi talks about jobs, the economy, and middle class initiatives. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg touched on reproductive choice, campaign finance and gender equality wednesday at the georgetown university law center in washington, d.c. she spoke on her life and career, on her second annual dean's lecture to the graduating class. this is just over an hour.