combat, if not prevent the state sanctioned incitement to hate and genocide. the recommendies are there. not one state party has undertaken what is not a policy obligation but in fact an injustice. a fourth thing is we need to ffirm and implement the ottawa protocol. how many people have read the protocol? very few. and this is -- i'll say there are more that didn't put up their hands. but one of the problems is that some of these things are not sufficiently known, appreciated and act upon. this contains within it, the

definition the met atlantic city and contains a blueprint for action by governments by parallelments, which leads me to a fifth initiative and share with you a unanimous resolution that was adopted by the canadian parallelment and in that context as well. unanimous resolutions are not that easy to get adopted. just one person when the speaker of the parliament puts the question to them and does anyone object. the resolution was adopted by all nems from all parties and i'll smards the resolution because you can use it as a temperature late in other parliaments and in our work with civil society. i know as one wag said, which

may be the reason that people don't know what the protocol let alone the resolution. number one, it condemns the alarming global rise in anti-semitism. two. it calls on the canadian government and the canadian parliament to make the combatting of anti-semitism in domestic and foreign policy. abstracted,hree, it it said criticizing israel is not anti-semitic and saying so is wrong, but sing willing israel out for an indictment, denying israel's right to exist, let alone calling for israel's destruction is hateful and discriminatory and not saying so is dishonest and i believe,

scholars, this is a see him plate that we can invoke and apply. number six, we need to combat legitimatization of israel. not as something that is prejudicial to israel. frankly if you talk about did he legitimatization of israel, it should be did he legitimate side. what we have to say that the real phone no, ma'amon is that the seem ping of it and to make it clear this is not just prejudicial to israel, but it erodes the integrity of the united nations under whose protect tiffer cover it covers. and international law which is invoked in its favor and

corrupts the culture of human rights and demeans the struggle against the real racism and the we have to id and say what is at stake here is the laundering of did he legitimatization and therefore the delegitimatization of the public values in the pursuit of the delegitimatization of israel. we should not retreat from the united nations as is sometimes the instinct to do or sometimes we are even counseled to do but rather we should engage with the united nations and move out of the docket of the defendant and become a rights claimant, become a plaintiff and do so not in the name of israel but do so in the name of the charter of the

united nations. do so in the name of the universal declaration of human rights, because what is happening in the sing willing out of israel for selective program and indictment is really a standing breach of those principles of equality before the law and international human rights law. and you are saying it won't make a difference. the very process is important. the very important of the case. he b.b.s. movement doesn't care, what it case is how many people that are sense advertising to the position and that's why i say i say we can be sense advertising our countries and the international community to the manner in which this laundering is actually taking place under the protective cover of the u.n. and the things they care about. and moving to the close, we need

to reverse the paradigm, the conventional paradigm of the middle east which has taken hold, which says the israeli-palestinian conflict is the root of all conflicts. the occupation is the root and apartheid israel is the root of the occupation. we have to turn it around to say that it is radical islam that is the source of all conflict in the middle east and beyond. the denial of israel legitimacy in any borders, anywhere in the middle east, that is the real apartheid. and the call, the subsequent call for the destruction of israel and the killing of jews is the criminal apartheid of today. and so we should both identify and name the evil and again step

out of the docket of the defendant and become the plaintiff claimant and we need to protect the minorities whose cases in the middle east are being overshadowed or not being addressed at all. i'm referring to the kurds, the christians and the moderate muslims who are the standing targets themselves of state sanctions incitement and to genocide. we have to change the channel of the international agenda which is focusing only on israel to call on them that if they care about human rights, where is there inclusive concern with the -- frget about israel, with all these targeted minorities who are standing targets.

we should make this our case and cause. and finally, may i close with a lawersation that i had with students indigenous, the day i was appointed, i'm saying this, because another feature that i didn't go into was the manner in which the delegitimatization is colonial and former and the like, let me share with you an exchange. the law students met with me and said, we aren't just law student, we are and ridgeal law students, we come with a past d own cultures and own language and our own legal system and we have been dispossessed of all of that and

deprived of our history and culture and our spirituality and our legal system. it's not we go to court. we go to court to depiff expression to who we are and anchor ourselves in our identity and go to court to give expression to our legal system, but we are always giving expression and feeling this enormous pain because we feel that the canadian government and the canadian government don't understand where we are and where we come from and what we aspire to be. and coming out of the traditions where the students come to their rabbi, rabbi, we love you. and why do we ask you if it hurts. if you don't know what hurts me,

you can't tell help me you love me. as i shared with you, that is a profound relationship. that will be the way as we as a government and a parliament will seek to relate to the people in terms of their past, their history, their identity and aspirations and i said to them, at the risk of being somewhat prejudice shoes, i do come from a people that can still inhabit the same land embraces the same religion, hashingens to the same prophets, studies the same bible, speaks the same language, help brew and same name israel as we did 3,500 years ago and

they said, we thought this was going to be another blah blah lecture, welcome one people to another. this is not a story that i'm sharing only in the confines, i have repeated it again and again when i was minister of justice and attorney general of canada not only because i felt it was making the case that had to be making about why justice has to be a priority, but the subtext of it is, i was speaking out of the awe thens at this time of my own identity and we have to speak out of the authenticity, whatever the jewish or otherwise. in that sense we cannot compromise what we say or do on the atlanta arizona of political

correctness because at the end of the day if you indulge too uch, you end up becoming a bystander and my plea is for us not to be byextenders but to be intervenors in that struggle for justice and as my mother would say, to do is to struggle against injustice and remember at all old jewish pro verb en i say we are indigenous people. that is part of the difficulty of the struggle and why we will have toll frame an approach in terms of the principle of least injustice. that's for another time. but the thing to remember always remember,hat i always that at the end of the day,

truth and justice will prevail. we are involved in a just struggle. we are not involved only on behalf of jews or israelis or semitism, we nti- justice and of against injustice. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> u.s. military operations in afghanistan and a discussion about syrian refugees. and donald trump in charleston, west virginia.

c-span "washington journal" with news and policy issues that impact you. friday morning, washington post economic correspondent.

we talked about the attack and recovery and when we talk about terrorism, when we talk about the fight against terror, it isn't something that is in the abstract, but something across this country that means something, because this isn't a big city here in san bernandino that was attacked. >> we will talk with a san bernandino counsel member. >> it provides a sense of remembrance. it highlights their lives and what they contributed to our

local community and certainly always will bener and dear place a us to provide consolation, garden, a prayer chapel. >> on book tv, we'll learn about earp and of wyatt their connection to san bernandino. >> the connection that they have to san bernandino county dates back to 1852 when the founder of , he was -- left his family temporarily, they were living in illinois. he heard about the gold rush in northern california. he went back to the midwest and went back down to southern california and he vowed that one

day he would come back to san bernandino. >> we'll visit the san bernandino and railroad museum and san bernandino historical society vice president located in the santa fe depot. >> construction was come completed in 1918 and replaced a wooden structure that was yards from here. it was they decided to house the division headquarters at this location. >> watch the city's tour saturday at noon eastern on book tv. the c-span cities tour visiting cities across the country. >> u.s. military operations in

afghanistan. brigadier general charles general including troops. this is 50 minutes. brigadier general cleveland: good morning, we are going to have brigadier general cheefled and you can hear you and you can

hear us. brigadier general cleveland: five, four, three, two and one. >> we'll hand it over to you for your comments. brigadier general cleveland: good morning to everybody and thank you for taking the time. there is an awful lot going on. what i would like to do is i want to provide a couple of opening comments and hit on one specific comment and open it to your comments and spend as much time as you need. since the release of the 156,

our headquarters received a lot of questions about what is the mission and what are the roles. while i think some of you know this, i want to re-establish the baseline and the mission that u.s. soldiers are doing. we are conducting the first mission which is the train, assign and assist mission. noo

we have people doing hands on training how to fire weapons and fly an aircraft and those types of things. the training does occur and it occurs in europe and it occurs back in the united states and the advice is really having the coalition being able to put people into specific locations and have them provide the specific advice. we have been down the path before and see we are about to make this decision and consider the following factors and then the assistance aspect comes in the form of financial support or material support and that can be

as large from aircraft, those types of things and all the way down to small arms capability and other capabilities out there. it comes in three forms for the coalition as well. we conduct this mission at a ministerial level and core level and tactical level. what we have been able to in bed advisers in the ministry of defense here in kabul and the work to work on human resources and intelligence and logistics and set up the institutions if you can't man and equip, then you aren't going to have a security institution. at this core or police level, one is the with the police zones.

and what we are trying to do ith that that bridge between the stra teague particular level intent and resourcing the fight. at the core level what we are trying to do is help them to maneuver large formations and ook out across provinces and identify threats, being able to commit low density assets and do the logistics site as well and how much ammunition and fuel they will need and move those types of things to and from their troops. we are doing this at four permanent locations. is is the larger nature oove -- nato locations. d we got one focused down in

canada har and one out west and that is focused in the west and we got one up north that is focused on the larger north. we have a couple of advisory capabilities so they are not permanent and put one of these to assist the core and one is ested and that is in the area. so that is the core level. .he final piece and and obviously i can't give you the details on where the thought elements are but each core has a relationship with ar

certain element of soft. on any given day and you will look afghan soft operating someplace within that core's area of responsibility mplets and it's possible you could have a soft element out moving with that particular afghan piece. and about 75% of the afghan soft missions are conducted independent with no coalition assistance whatsoever. out of that 25%, percentage of that, we aren't going in the field and helping them with intelligence, planning and ntelligence and we are sending out in the field with the afghan soft elements. and second based on the payoff and finally based on the risk.

those are the types of factors we use to determine whether or not nato and partner soft will go out. the final aspect, we have a train, advise and assist command and they go from ministerial and all the way down to the tactical where we have our airmen helping e afghans how to fly their aircraft and deploy their aircraft. that is the train, advise and assist mission and the purpose of is to build so the afghans are able to address these transnational and transregional organizations that are based. the second component is the u.s. unilateral counterterrorism mission and most of you are

familiar with it. but we have long had the mission to disrupt and dismantle al qaeda from which to launch attacks against the west. we have been pursue hinge al qaeda and we have been doing that aggressively. i can't get into a whole lot of discussion about the capabilities that we have but we really have the best counterterrorism forces on the planet that are here in afghanistan. they are aggressively pursuing these targets and the last time we talked, i gave you statistics of just about under 100 counterterrorist attacks. we have taken 19 counterterrorism tikes. there have been a few al qaeda targets.

and that is not entirely satisfying. my guess is you are looking for more information. at this point, we are trying to figure out the best information needs that you all have by trying to protect the capabilities we have and without trying to tip our hand on the enemy of where we are focused and the percentage of work we are focused. i welcome everybody's questions. > yes. >> my question is unintelligible question] [indiscernible question]

brigadier general cleveland: we have paid payments and it has happened in different locations n the country. [indiscernible question] brigadier general cleveland: what i would like to be able do for you is provide some broad numbers for you, there is a privacy aspect to some of this and there is a security aspect because some of the recipients don't want to advertise they received some payments but we will get you as much information s we can about that.

[indiscernible question] brigadier general cleveland: i think as you are probably aware, the general was given 90 days or told to execute a 90-day assessment. that will be concluded and will be concluded the end of may, beginning of june. but the general does continue to work the assessment very aggressively and will have it complete before the conclusion of the 90 days. think you can anticipate that the general will share that with his chain of command, beginning of may and june. >> just have a few quick questions.

i wanted to get your thoughts on the reports coming out of kabul that the president has asked the defense minister and moving over thoughts on t your that and how difficult has it -- to coordinate missions [indiscernible] brigadier general cleveland: to be with you, the minister has been in an acting capacity for quite a while and very effective and very receptive to our outreach and spent a lot of time outreaching to us and to specifically answer you, there hasn't been any answer from the resolute perspective to because

he was in the acting capacity. in terms of the rumor, i have heard several rumors and that has been ongoing. and that is an afghan internal decision they will make. we will gladly work with anybody that the president chooses and the party confirms and he has been a strong partner and continues to do some incredible things for the minimums think of defense. [indiscernible] the ssons learned from attack last september. what were some of the big factors that kind of popped up to you as far as why that happened and what efforts you can mitigate that and regarding activity in the north.

can you give me an update regarding the imu and some of the foreign fighters coming in and wanted to see -- has there been any further action with the militias belonging to the first vice president and others up there? brigadier general cleveland: so, starting with your first question about the lessons learned by kabul. and the real point speaks to the lessons learned. and our role is to support them and the implementation of those lessons has come and its first big lesson is the need to get out of these defensive positions and not wait for the enemy to attack them. they have to take the fight to the enemy and project that

combat power and get the fight away. in the february, beginning of march, they launched a nationwide offensive. they did not put out a whole lot of press out about it bus they were trying to reach out to the taliban and bring them to the table as part of the group. once it became clear that the taliban said no, they launched their own offensive and launched that terrorist attack here in kabul. the government started pushing it. even prior to the recent attacks, they had been launching attacks and they had been hitting taliban locations where they have been trying to prep for that i offensive. when they start the engaging the

city, by and large, they were pretty successful and able to defend the city and did take some hits and they were able to recover that will terrain and clear the lines of communication between some locations out there. thing they iggest can't sit and wait in the defense. they have to aggressively start targeting the taliban and push that combat powers. your second question, islamic movement, we have not seen a tremendous amount of influence up in the north recently. there was a time where that was much more of a concern where we an effort to daesh.

and we think one of the components that make up dishe. there are and carve out some space up in the north but we haven't seen a whole lot of that. and in the question of the nato and the work and those types of things, i would defer you to the government afghanistan, it has been up north, he has been working some of his elements and we don't have a direct tie to what he and those elements that are with him right now are doing. oes that answer your question? >> paul. >> i was wondering if you could describe how strong, how large al qaeda is in afghanistan and ties to the taliban.

working with the taliban helping to train them or equip them? brigadier general cleveland: i don't want to overstate this by any stretch of the imagination, let me give you a couple of houghts and try to provide you some useful information. there is an al qaeda presence in afghanistan. there are two components of al qaeda. zawahiri al qaeda with and newest franchise is al qaeda in the continent. they have some type of presence here in afghanistan. when i say some type of presence, probably in the range of 100 to 300 al qaeda personnel. that is a swag and it's not a

very specific head count, but we think they maintain some type of presence. they occasionally are up there and we see them down in kandahar as well and few other isolated locations. in terms of the threat they pose, by themselves, we don't think they pose a real significant threat to the government of afghanistan, but because we think they are beginning to work more with al qaeda, the threat they pose, they can serve -- i'm sorry, they can present an accelerant for the taliban and provide capability. in terms of where we see them, last fall, when there was zawahirif the taliban, said he swore allegiance.

and we have seen them working more together, but the real thing and the real reason we continue to watch al qaeda, although there have been significantly diminished, they can regenerate and still have the ability to pose a threat. we want to keep a close eye on them and put constant pressure so they are not able to regenerate and pose a threat. we think the numbers of al qaeda are small. we think their specific threat to the government of afghanistan is not huge. they are working more with the taliban than they previously have but the real pieces if you let them go unchecked and don't focus energy and effort and don't pressure that network, they have the ability to regrow. does that answer the question, paul?

>> is it a growing threat and -- how do you differentiate from the taliban and those strikes? brigadier general cleveland: the growing threat, i don't know i would characterize them as a growing threat. in some ways, they have the potential and if we see them continue to work more closely with the taliban, that is always a possibility. i think their threat remains about the same that we have seen over the last six months or so. where they are a threat, they pose a potential to come up with a surprise that we aren't expecting, but day in and day out, we still want to focus a lot of attention on them. and i missed the second part of your question, paul. >> c.t. strikes. is it difficult to differentiate

between al qaeda and the taliban. are they working that closely? brigadier general cleveland: they are working closely in some instances, but we have a number of intelligence capabilities that does allow us to identify those specific al qaeda members. and in terms of separating the two, the bottom line is, not only does taliban work with al qaeda but they work with the l.e.t. and work with a number of organizations and just a general problem or a general challenge is that these organizations just don't neatly divide into specific locations or specific operations. that is one of the things that makes this situation opaque and we see these organizations working and working together and sharing terrain. and other times, they operate independently and conduct awe

ton thousands acts and the examples are with dishe and the taliban and al qaeda and dishe. so it can be a challenge to put your finger on wow are looking at, but before we take a strike, we do confirm and make sure those are al qaeda targets. >> lucas from fox news. >> has the u.s. military changed its policy in bombing the taliban and something you are still considering? brigadier general cleveland: the policy has not changed. right now the general has gotten the ability and the forces here have the ability to defend themselves as needed. if there is a taliban organization that is either indirect contact with u.s.

forces who happen to be out training or anything else, we have the ability to defend ourselves. there are different types of force protection, if you will, at different levels. i can't go into the rules of engagement. we don't want to tip the taliban off. but i think the command is satisfied that we have the ability to defend ourselves. does that answer it? >> why do you have to await to a fack and strike the taliban in brigadier general cleveland: the fact of the matter is that we aren't indirect combat with the taliban. we are providing the train, advise and assist to our afghan partners and we design these missions and not destroy the enemy. so it is an afghan role. so if you get to a point where

u.s. forces or nato forces feel threatened and they can defend themselves. as a general rule, the afghans are fighting the taliban and we are here to help them and the afghans are the ones conducting those engagements. >> have they seen any combat in the last few months? prig bringing going back to the initial discussion about the levels where we are providing tain, advise and assist. we have a capability based out neck compound.ther they are on the compound and they are not finding themselves in any combat situation. we have nato and nato soft elements that are outmaneuvering

with afghan forces. while the mission is not combat, they have found themselves in combat situations and have had to call for fire and others to help them out. >> how many u.s. troops are in hell monday right now? brigadier general cleveland: i don't have the specific number. the expeditionary capability is . mewhere 700 to 800 i don't have a head count of how many are in hell monday but the advisory capability is in the number of 700 to 800. >> how is this impacted both the taliban and your forces? brigadier general cleveland: too early to tell, but we are concerned about it as i think most know, the poppy crop is the

engine that provides the money that fuels the taliban and some would argue that who doesn't have religious or military credentials, it was in the opium production and taxing of all that. with the good poppy crop, it is going to result in the taliban to be able to turn that into money for their efforts and almost take them further down the path of being focused on the narcotics trade and industry. in the short-term, what we have seen over the last month, plus, there has been a lull in the fighting and we think so many people have been engaged in harvesting the poppy. as the harvest concludes and it will conclude as soon as this week, we expect to see an jum

tick. so in response to that, they have been trying to conduct more offensive operations. the short answer to your question, we are concerned about the potential of windfall of money that could come into the taliban peaced on the poppy crop but we have seen a lull because we think that a lot of the taliban fighters have been out there harvesting the poppy. >> i wanted to go back to the poppy crop that lucas brought up. having a banner year, 2015 wasn't that good but this year appears to be better, what does that say about the security situation? does the taliban hold a majority of the province or an indication that the coalition has abandoned

and going after the poppy crop? i wanted to see if that's something we are actively pursuing and getting rid of the poppy drade. brigadier general cleveland: so, from a resolute standpoint, we are not actively involved in dealing with the poppy crop. you remember the days when that was a part of the campaign plan. our focus is indirect. our role is to help, train and advise as well as the police zone and some of the organs to advise them on best ways to go after it. from a resolute stand point we aren't actively engaged in encountering the poppy crop. as you know from firsthand experience, hell monday is a big area.

they as the government have to ball absence the cost of putting additional capability down down in the area versus some of the other things they want to try and get accomplished. in terms of and i think the first part of your question was helmund.ity of i think it would be safe to say at a sizeable portion is absolutely contested. imagine an arc that starts and goes up north and cuts to the east, southern area, those are the areas that the taliban is really able to contest the most. the good news from our perspective probably in part because we didn't see as much

fighting, the 215th, they have been able, clear that highway 611, up along the eastern side. and we think that is positive development and had the ability to pull it off the line and go through retraining. so does that answer your question? >> a broad follow-up, what kind numbers do kind of they have on the battlefield and what can they use for offensive operations? brigadier general cleveland: we are still in my view, i don't have real specific numbers, the general ralt is we believe there is 0,000 or so taliban fighters out there. i know you have been following this story for a while. we don't have any reason to

think it has significantly changed. in terms of the combat power, as we look at the operation, again, their initial focus and it has been early in the fighting season and the way they performed up there and to some degree, they had some success and pushed them out of the area and they have been able to reopen several lines of communication. as you look at the south that will be the next big taliban push. we think it will come. the other area where they are projecting real combat area. st few days about the road

kandahar. and pressure that area. those are the areas where we see the taliban where we think they are go to go head towards. >> operation up in the north and the reports talking about the flow of fighters. has that changed or stopped or increased? brigadier general cleveland: i don't know -- i think it has continued. and you raised a good point. one of the challenges that they have had in the beginning of 2015 was not only did we have a real reduction in nato forces and not only did they assume the security responsibility for themselves for the first time and the pakistanis were conducting their operations and that was pushing a number of really terrorists across the border on this side.

i think the real impact has been dash and ishment of has effected and pushed across the border. had their home and were pushed across the board. so we think those are some of the impacts of those pakistani offensive the pakistani operations. i think the offensive operations have concluded and they certainly did make progress. but it leaves an ambiguous question as to whether or not those who were pushed across the border will try and migrant across pakistan. >> are you doing anything to make sure they don't cross back into pakistan? >> what we're trying to do is work with the andsf and switch them from the defensive posture where they were last year to the

offensive posture so that they can offensively really start targeting anybody that's a threat. now, all of that said, i think what everybody out here would believe is that in order to really solve the problems of afghanistan, it's got to be a regional solution and there clearly has to be a pakistani rule associated with what the pakistanis are doing. there's coordination between the two militaries and resolute support does also engage with the pak mill. but that said there's probably work to be done to better influence some of those terrorists that live in that bored area. >> specifically talking about the akahni network, how strong are they along the border region? >> we think the hakani region is strong. they've been the most lethal and the most competent terrorist organization in this area.

e p2-k area clearly has been hakani's traditional area where they have done the most fighting, if you will. that transition has been in waziristan. nd the other things is they've been responsible for the attacks that have hit some of the other major urban areas. and the concern is they're ethal, effective and they're indiscriminate. -- equal. have quams have t killing they don't qualms killing innocent men and women. we think that he is increasing really his day-to-day role in terms of conducting taliban

military operations. we think he's trying to exert more influence on the leadership with some of these shadow governors in some of these other places. the relationship between hakanis and the taliban has always existed. at times the hakani have been more awe tom mouse than others but we do have concern about branching out from their traditional area and more attacks. >> general, i wanted to go back to what you said at the very opening of your comments. one thing we learned from the centcom investigation in the mistaken attack in kandu is that the special operations commander on the ground invoked his force protection authority to call in a strike that the investigators later concluded was really more offensive in nature, not a defensive strike. because we don't have an accounting of air strikes in afghanistan the way we do in iraq. how do we know this kind of

occurrence isn't more common? that they bend the rules a little bit to try to help their afghan partners. >> yeah, jamie, thanks again for the question. rotelhear you ask general a similar question. he wouldn't allow it at his level. general mikkelson feels the same way that if he had a sense or suspicion that commanders were abusing that authority he would jump in immediately. at this point he doesn't believe that he has any sense at all that commanders are abusing that and try to get around the rules of engagement. >> you earlier made a difference between u.s. troops being in combat and in a combat situation. is that an important nuance to understand or is that in some way as difference without much of a dissninks >> well, i think the overall topic is important.

and i'm sure you're all very familiar with the secretary's comments last week and the chairman's comments in front of the armed services committee. and so that really stands as the authoritative description of what you're describing. as it pertains to afghanistan, in the course of conducting these train advised and assist missions in the course of conducting counterterrorism missions, u.s. soldiers and airmen marine do find themselves in combat. but the real key it may be more significant and i would defer to you to kind of characterize that. but the real distippings in -- distinction in 2014 the u.s. forces were in a come bat role. so they would go after objectives and they would go after specific targets. starting in 2015, we moved out of that role. the primary mission is to train, advise and assist.

there are times where our forces while conducting those missions do end up in combat, in combat situations but the overall mission remains the same which is to train, advise and assist the afghans and conduct these counter terrorism missions. >> you mentioned that jenny collison would be sending his recommendations early next month. is there consideration of requesting additional authority to provide close air support for the afghan partner who are confronting the taliban similar to what's going on in iraq which would be a change of authority closer to what was happening back in 2014? >> yeah, jamie, so general mikkelson, frankly his assessment is broad and comprehensive. it's covering everything from the current situation to the mission that he's been given, to the current operations an operations plans and then to the resources to include

authorities. so he is really looking at all of that as one package. and then once he comes to his conclusions he'll decide to make recommendations or not. that is frankly jamie it's still to be determined at this point. >> next to courtney q.b., nbc news. >> you pretty much covered all of much one more for you. >> what's the number of fighters in afghanistan? >> it's very consistent with what we discussed last month. and unfortunately, i still don't have a real good specific number. but we think the number is between 1,000 and 3,000. we think it is on the lower end because i think under any standard and looking at it jectively, the operations in manduhar has been successful. they've push some pressure on daish. i think it's closer to 1,000.

but the real way by look at them and the metric we try to track is how much terrain we hold and as you think we know that's one of the fundamental tenapts of daish. i think probably present within two to three districts could be less. we have seen some effort by daish to move up to the north or down to gazni in the south. we don't think though that's because they have extra capacity and are trying to expand. we think that they're put under pressure in manduhar. >> the air strikes that the u.s. authority are allowed to take, those don't apply to hakani, do they? >> they do not. if a member of a hakani network is posing a threat to u.s. forces, we do have the ability

to defend ours. but we do not have the able to target the hakanis in the same way we target al-qaeda and daish. >> you've laid out these pictures of these groups today. you know, 30,000 taliban and hakani being the biggest threat right now and these relatively small number of isis and al-qaeda. and those are the two groups that you can target when we all know and the general reiterated in his recent trip that the afghan air force just really doesn't have the ability to conduct much. >> you know if one of the lessons learned is that the afghans need to be more offensive or more aggressive against the taliban. do you think there's a strong argument to be made that the u.s. could when that by being able to make -- to do those counter air strikes and provide counterterror air strikes

against the taliban? it seems this cognitive dissidence about why you could take strikes about 300 al-qaeda and not 30,000 taliban especially if they're partnering with al-qaeda now? >> thank you again for the question. i think the fundamental difference is and overall you're referencing a larger policy question that we don't determine out here. i think you can probably get your best answer, you know, from the beltway there. but i think really the fundamental difference is that al-qaeda and daish provide this trans national threat to the homeland and to the u.s. specifically. they're out here to prevent strikes against the homeland. we know that obviously these organizations have the able to plan. they have the able to execute. and they have the ability to potentially push those threats towards the west tapped homeland. taliban hakani network regardless of how lethal or

dangerous they are probably don't post the same threat that you would final from al-qaeda and daish. we're focused on al-qaeda and daish at this point. >> thank you. > tony with bloomberg. >> when do they intercom bat? i know they were delivered in december. when do they intercom bat? >> yeah, tony, so there was two faces of delivery. phase one was for 829's delivered in early january. they achieved their initial operating capability on the first of april. they're now being employed by the afghans and they are providing close air support. the second group for a 29 arrived right about the same time beginning of april time frame. the first four were going online. they were going through their places and training efforts. right now we expect to see them

become operational. we think probably the june time frame. i would defer you do the administrative of defense and the afghan air force an they can give you more specifics on that >> has the pakistan military targetted the hakani network? there are questions among lawmaker who are linking f-16 sales to pakistan more aggressively targeting hakani. what is your professional assessment how hakani has been targeting this lethal group? >> yeah, tony. again, our focus really is on afghanistan. and so there are probably others at u.s. centcom or there in the pentagon that can probably give you a more coherent and authoritative answer on what the pakistani milliontary has been doing against the hakani's. that of course, we still believe that the pakistani'ses have a

huge role of being in the success of this region. we do belief that the pakistanis, you know, need to be engaging and targeting any of these terrorist organizations. but i would defer you to u.s. centcom or really to those in the pentagon. >> the most lethal of the groups. one could infer that the pakistani's aren't aggressively targeting them. is that illogical or does that make sense? >> well, i -- again, i just -- our real focus and our real area of expertise, if you will is what's happening on this side of the border. there's no doubt that the hakani's have had their leadership in nefada. and there's no doubt that they've been able to conduct operations from there. but it is really up to the pakistanis to be able to take some action against them. i don't have a good sense or a good sight picture on exactly the pakistani's are doing

against hakani network. >> jeff from voice of america. >> general, thanks very much. i don't know if we can bring i back to the poppy crop and the islamic state. there's been some reports that they're burning some of the crops, trying to arrest some of the farmers have been growing them. what have you seen in terms of the how much that is taking place, the reason for the shift? and also what type of impact is that having in that area? is it hurting the taliban or other groups? >> yeah, i saw the same press reporting that daish was beginning to burn poppy crops and arrest others. i have not seen any independent reporting. this is not going to answer your question. i have not seen a whole lot of evidence for that. so i don't have a good sense as to whether or not it's

happening, why it's happening and the impact on the larger colorado > follow-up. >> i have two questions by lucas -- >> you say you're not directly targetting, you know, taliban and other groups. but you're targetting isis or daish over there. how -- you know, we know with respect to the resolute support mission, the role of the united states forces have changed. so you are not directing the comments to that. so how do you situation targetsing daish in the solemn part of the country into the resolute support mission? ecause, you know, -- yeah. >> i'm sorry to interrupt you. but the targeting of daish is not part of the resolute support mission. it can be a little bit nuanced and confusing.

but the nato mission is to train, advise and assist. the targeting of daish falls under the u.s. unilateral counterterrorism mission. resolute support does not target daish. the united states under this u.s. unilateral target mission does target daish. >> the other question with respect to pakistan. to what expect does the u.s. support or corporation with the pakistanis when they target hakani network or the other terrorist groups boreding with afghanistan? >> well, of course, i really can't get into any real detail on kind of the intelligence or sharing agreements, if you will, between the u.s. and the pakistanis or the afghans and the pakistanis. but bottom line we domain tain a relationship, an open line for lack of a better term to the

pakistani mill. we do try to keep each other informed of the various operations that are ongoing. unfortunately, i can't give you a whole lot of detail about the level and depth of the intelligent sharing. >> anyone else? last call. >> thank you, general. we appreciate you taking the time to see us today. and we look forward to seeing you again. >> ok. thanks again, jeff. for everybody else, i appreciate you time. if we can provide information please feel free to respond to us and we'll be happy to respond as quickly as we can. have a great weekend. >> on monday, we'll have live coverage from the event from an official from the world bank at noon eastern, here on c-span. on friday, a discussion about how isis is using the internet and social media to recruit

supporters. the advisory committee hosts the event look at evidents to combat isis online. you can watch that at noon eastern on c-span2. >> recently our campaign 2016 bus made a visit to pennsylvania. stopping at growth city college, slippery rock, university and washington and jefferson college and harrisburg community area college where students and professors learned about our coverage. the visitors were able to share their thoughts about the upcoming election. they visited a middle school to nor seventh -- seven ninth graders. a special thanks for armstrong and comcast. you can view all the winning documentaries at studentcam.org.

>> syrian refugees living in the united states took part in the discussion in their experiences in their homeland and the transition to the united states. georgetown university in washington, d.c. hosted the discussion. it's an hour and 40 minutes. >> and now i'm very pleased to introduce actually dr. michelle gabodan and listed here as mister but who is also a medical doctor who will be the moderator from here on. he became president of refugees international in september of 010 leading and mission to bring attention and action to refugees and displaced people worldwide. prior to his role with r.i., he served as the united nations high commission on refugees,

regional representative for the united states and the caribbean. his career with unhcr has spanned more than 25 years including international service in africa, asia. latin america and the specific. as i mentioned hess trained as a medical doctor in addition to holding a masters degree in tropical public health. michelle spent the weekend by working in guyana, london and yemen before georging unhcr as a field officer in 1978. his career took him to cameroon and pakistan as well as several years at the agency's headquarters in geneva where he served as the first public health advisor to the organization. due to the time constraints i'm

not going to go through the awards that he's received but suffice it to say that he is a very outstanding individual. michelle? >> good evening, everyone and congratulations to the organizers. the turn out is quite impressive. think the fact that we have syrians on the panel certainly explains some of that success. so there are today 60 million people displaced by conflict and persecution and war in the world. 20% of these are syrians. this is just to put the syrian crisis about the size it has and it has tremendous challengers. it starts -- i wouldn't say well, but until 2013 there was hope amongst syrians that there would be a sort of political resolution in syria. i said flaps libya with an intervention by an international

community and everybody was -- all those people i visited them in jordan, lebanon, turkey and even in egypt were saying well, we are waiting to go back as soon as we can. and the neighboring count tris were extremely welcoming. they admitted large number of refugees. by the end of 2013, that started to change. we saw some enchantment over the nonsolution in syria and of thing a vacation of the number of fatalities today. they have reached over 450,000. let alone the number of people that have been maimed and wouldn'ted in that conflict. in 2013 we started seeing also that the warm welcome of neighboring countries were starting to cooldown. hat has continued to involve the international community.

the aid was not matching the increasing needs. and we were certainly not able despite lots of attempts to negotiate better access to the syrian who is have not left the country. there are about 7 million, 8 million displaced and not successful in providing assistance inside syria. so to a large extent, whatever this bickering is. we have failed the syrians to a very, very large extent. and the terrible images that we saw last year happening in europe sort of pointed out of the facthere is a syrian crisis. >> that's been the tip of the iceberg. he's not always responding as they should have to the call of the united nations to increase the system. the crisis was well before the

images we saw in europe. and what we have to think about is that we're all focused right now when people who left syria and took the tremendous risk and the courage to get you to these leeking votes and try to find a better future. but these are those who couldn't afford to pay the snug >> hes. what about those who are left behind and who can not take the courage for these creeps. and i think we want to discuss that a little bit tonight. i'm really thrilled that for once we have a panel that has policy wants but ammings operational wants. they really try to respond to the needs of the syrians so that we have a very representative group of syrians to tell us how they see the crisis because in the policy world we tend to think that we know what they need after all. >> at the time when the wheel

issue of accountability to the people we cared for. i think it's nice we have a chance in the public forum to confront a little bit how we see things and the earth that have been made match the expectations of of the syrians. so thank you very much for this organization. mariella, you don't need an introduction. i would add that business administration degree and a great talent in music. i can't only say that about your career. so george bahta. he's a syrian activists who moved in 2013. he leaves and works in chicago. he has carried out the successful petition to increase the number of syrians reset told the u.s. and even the mood this year in

the u.s. i think that's very well done. you must have really had to push the rock up a very steep hill. so congratulations we don't think the numbers are enough. but very well done. you were invited to the white house. a couple of times. and your work has been featured cnn and "the huffington post." and high school students in syria the very nice initiative to try to keep home going on among this population. congratulations. >> ahmed detar is a man who plays different instruments. he's -- he's a journalist. he's a translator. he is working for the volunteer sector in syria. and he established the first online platform to try to get help. wanted to

alecco. led the eye on that's a fairly quick achievementment. you were quoted the best global initiative in 2011. you have been given -- when the civil war started you came to the u.s. you now have a great god. >> in 2013, the same year. we will probably discuss more in he course of this evening. to come to the u.s. and congratulations. he is the regional representative for the u.s. and the caribbean. he has a very long career with the organization. he has extensive postings in africa and brundy -- back

nnedy and -- burundi and kenya. he has a key position. he was at the time the head of the resettlements. he understands how it works in particularly in the u.s. he was before coming to washington the head of the human resource division in a unit job, a job that very few people want to take. nd then simon is a principle puty assistant secretary for migration. this is the bureau that really oversees the refugee program. and the u.s. has been at the the of the refugee program. it is a didn't that is extremely mobile, extremely active. they corporate very well. and with the u.n.

when i was in the u.n. they were really close partners. he has a very long career in the state didn't. he was the director of affairs of the city department. prior that he was deputy chief of mission. d then he would sell several positions there. he has a large, large diplomatic experience. >> i thought you were going to say that i'm old. [laughter] >> so i'm thrilled to have you all on stage tonight. i will have to make sure that everybody respects the times. so everybody has a fair share of the evening. and mariella we will start with you. >> it gives me a great pleasure to be with you here today. thank you for joe for inviting me. >> 2-3 years ago, i was studying

in syria. i was trying to flee the country to find any way to leave. i was one of the young people in syria who is dream was demolished during the war. the principal concerns transformed into a question of whether or not we would be able to see the morning the next day. there is nothing worse than experiencing that every minute. my parents are still living struggling with no electricity or water. i try to call them every day to make sure that they are still alive. am speechless about the current situation. last week, hundreds of innocent