>> think tanks focusing on terrorism. by the potomac institute, and you are based in

now at the potomac institute as you know in arlington and virginia. in cooperation with sister institutions. for example, international law, by georgetown university school of law as well as the university of virginia law school and many other institutions. on behalf of cosponsors, we would like to welcome you. the potomac institute, chairman of the board of the potomac

institute, will join us actively. in today's discussion. first, i would welcome the distinguished ambassador. then we will move on. provided this of the ambassador, i will just mention concerns of spain and

again, ir countries, , ink -- also professionally would like to recognize the many ambassadorns of the when served as deputy according to records. that is the technology and

course, also the grateful to have the ambassador to have a stake in the issues, but i really think the on security issues, i know as soon as they ask me, whether you are a friend of ircelona, or another theme, said i'm sorry, i know some is about the other but we don't know about that but we will see. proceed withally

your presentation, i would like to add one or two foot notes. this relates to the academic activity that we conducted with spain going back over 40 years with the universities and and think tanks and in terms of publications, i am very pleased, mr. ambassador, to by colleague,y the present ceo of the potomac institute, at another colleague. we thought if we want to be relevant, the concerns of

security, we better deal with a group in europe, which has a long history and we would like to get your views about the situation. addition, i would like to report to you that this year we had some delegations ,ight there and some members the european union parliament, as well as the initial parliament, also, we are conducting currently activities with institutes of madrid dealing with weapons of mass destruction. and we are also cooperating with see, as we know,

it is dealing with improvised explosive devices to save lives. to be proud academically able to contribute however modestly, to this discussion. trymore thing, we usually to express a deep sympathy with victims of terrorism. we always look at the calendar and so on and so forth. wouldthis is november, i like to mention that in 1979 of the americanow

embassy will see extremist militants and they were held captive for 44 days as we know. and as far as spain is were -- inall of us march 2000 74, where they affect clearly, thisnd andthe most dramatic history of europe. and again, with these brief comments, i would like to invite you to speak as long as you want here and we can develop a discussion dialogue with our distinguished audience. >> thank you.

our pleasure to be here. you have the a tradition, i -- throughto enter , i have thee ,pportunity with politics particularly with regard to the terror, and also to enhance connections between the united states and spain in the area of defense, the multilateral basis, and how the defense and the security terrorism,ecause of

and jumping into the capacities that usually defense had, closureand security, and closure every day. 2018, the agreement between the united states and spain in to area of defense will come 30 years of life. people in my generation, we recall how in 1957, general eisenhower, president of the united states of america, was visiting the chief of the state and, the a -- they

were established and together with the base. then, these were american basis. spanishhey are in , with these capacities, based on the strategic position in the world, we have built up a between both -- both of our countries. and everyas existed now and then, some type of political problem, and so strong the need, and so strong a trust that we have with each other in , that today, we can

say, in the last five years, we amended twice the agreement in host the antimissile shield. and twice to have not only are also,, the air force, but the marines. view of the attack suffered in libya, and since then, we are incorporating in spain. very important, the connection between the county and's aim.

it is enhanced every day in the it is enhanced every day in the areas of security and defense, particularly the link between security and defense. -- security and defense. a relation between stain in the united states sentencing 30 of defense -- i would like to make a comment here. in the literature of nato today, the word security than the word defense. we are very much concerned about how problems of security are affecting countries in a dramatic way.

they -- we have to work hard in the new capacities creating trust in our countries and particularly, i mentioned intelligence and cyber security and cyber defense. in this world of , they are more because -- you will understand. trust in both to areas. information, intelligence and cybertechnologies,

a week because of the lack of trust and because of the danger that we are leaving today the wrong people can destroy, and you say you have the examples, and we have the examples of how the security and cyber has been broken by people working -- 1978, wespain, in democracy,jump into for all of our partners, in nato and europe and the united states, canada, and

we decided to build these, a peaceexample to live in and freedom and justice and in pure democracy role by the rule of law. years ofgranted 42 most successful in spain since we have a memory of our history. in 1996, i joined the ministry of defense. natetened to the mantra in -- in nato that we should invest in defense, and the effort of the united states in this

regard. secretary:, by john,puty minister here, to when i went back again the ministry of defense, secretary gates was saying the same thing. secretary panetta i met three secretaries. the three of them were saying the same. you should take care of your own defense. the only thing we can do, and it is fair to say, is that you have the capacity to defend yourselves and with this capacity, contribute to the defense of other nate -- members of nato. this is exactly what was done. we have problems in our budget

because we suffered a tremendous crisis and despite -- in spite we are in any and all of the operations in nato, and the european union have abroad. this is an example of contributing to the stability of the world with the length of our we don't respect that we have to make a consideringffort the tremendous crisis we suffered from 2008 two 2011. this has been recognized. it is today what creates a trust between your country and ours. i always say that i have to unfortunately,, this

is committed with stability in the world. it is not involved. joke,s, sorry for this professor, but the difference between committed and involved, it is like eggs and bacon. the hand is involved but the pig is committed. what we arethis is doing from afghanistan to iraq yemen,ey to the area of , wherever wefrica to requested to be in order defend our values and principles, exactly the same as yours.

our businessmen and all the are doingeople, they business here and you are doing business there any have to protect that. how could we enhance in the future this regard? ofyou are in the presence president obama and he decided capacities toary the pacific. at least china was starting to situation ofa internal problems and china and that was affecting the area of the sea of china in the pacific. the vent president, obama, decided to move there.

in 2013 in september after the crisis of syria, we were in september -- we were discussing in nato what could be and what topics, and we were discussing bond, the investment in defense, the partnership conduct the we we headquarters of nato in these types of things. november, december, and january, we have the crimea crisis, isis and the caliphate. when we arrive, in september, no

-- was on theics table. is todaythat the world moving at tremendous speed toward no knows exactly where. that should --ng all the activities that we have to go. the most important of these is to remain united. this is the most important thing and there are powers in the world trying to diss unite what we had worked very hard to have ,nified in the last 60 years the area of nato and our democracies. somethingl you

regarding these types of meetings and academic studies. was -- defense and security seminar. , i was the only member who is thinking that islamic terrorism was there and had not disappeared. i had to resist the opinion of the majority of the people around saying al qaeda had been defeated and that he islamic terrorism was not on the picture -- in the picture again. later, we had isis, the most tremendous situation.

-- this is what we have sought after. idea that these problems true,een solved, it is but the next of you, we will have always this type of things. regarding terrorism, you have your introduction and you explain something which led spain to be a victim in these types of activities. we suffered terrorism for almost 60 years.

they were -- they had a tremendous capacity for destruction. it started first with attacking and did not care if they were children and so -- so on. from then, we learned tremendous lessons that you can defeat the to see theyou should the strengthth all of -- you cannot accept any agreement becausethe rule of law you have been lost the battle. and we won. all of us. them, the united. united against the common enemy.

and we won and we are very happy with the situation but very happy with -- people are killed on our shores. we learned lessons from that. strength, and after the terror is defeated, we can analyze what the problems are but not before. future,, when i was the secretary of state for security, we started to see new problems in spain regarding all the types faced on --

later -- no, two have the problem where 191in station people were killed, thousands were wounded, and with the capacity to destabilize spain and the politics of -- and up houses of the system in spain, the normal way of things going, elections,cting the creating that feel between the main political parties, and leading to something about the way in which it was handled by one and the others. this is to show tremendous

capacity to destabilization the terrorist have in the world. after that, i will ask wayne the nato.about had tremendous problems about illegal immigration and i would like to make a final consideration regarding this. as --time what we have said is that we have sovereignty protecting our the european union, but we still have, and it is understandable, our own , which makes us week. the bad guys, even

though they hate each other and are not sharing values and so on, they cooperate without any respect to sovereignty. gulf,cking through the financing boko haram terrorism, and they go north and they meet with whatever the branch of ice is -- isis is there. they go north through libya and arrive protected and how they come to -- and the terrorists is also with illegalself trafficking of people. dramatic and more reject a bowl a way of living.

know them our on hundred dollars, arriving on the coast know how, -- a't boat. a fragile boat. they are sent to the mediterranean. and this is exactly what we are facing. taking immigration advantage of very poor people , drugnancing terror trafficking, weapons trafficking. why? we have a failure in liberty -- in libya. inyou do -- if you have this date for men -- in day -- in a tremendous area, you have a

refuge for terrorism and problems in our own countries, particularly now in europe. in one word, what we have to build has to be built on trust and to build something on trust, we have to share and risk and believe in our alliances. i preach everyng what can because if not, is happening, our society will say, how is it possible that spending billions of euros or billions of dollars most defense, how could it happen? could it happen? lack communication

and we lack all the capacities multiplyes have to based on trust. say, if we want to be united, as the threat is united, either we build this on trust or we will not be able to do it. here, explaining a little --e, question you very ambassador. security important issues facing not only spain but the entire international community.

shownanish experience has that you can think locally but you must act globally. spain throughf participating in iraq, for example, and dealing with some obviously, the, mediterranean security, and so is a true and reliable partner. develop a discussion, i want by moderatentage of position and ask you a question related to both internal and challenges, obviously

you dealt in some detail, the , and you internally were absolutely correct about lessons of the combination of the rule of law and democracy, given inrt of people these countries, and so i think thislence, is a great achievement, though again, not as i understand formally, they gave up their but, i say all all of the communityn are concerned with the crisis,

our colleagues in brussels, next month in brussels, will discuss some of these issues. some insightvide of catalonia? and from there, we could move to other challenges, including mentioned, and the role of russia and so forth. >> somebody asked me the other senator, i asked, he is a chief of staff and i would like

to have a meeting with the , and the person answered you an ironic smile and want to speak about catalonia and i said no, i would like to speak about spain. it is important. i have come here to speak about spain. spain is a connection with the united states. it is true we have the problem, we have a connection with this spain andsed on spain, it matters at matters here. -- matters here. ambassador of spain's weeks

about pain. the connection of this country and spam is much more important. i would like cap -- to have heard this. first of all, we have a long history in 1492.

-- we started what was understood. the full capital spain a he had problems with the east coast of spain. position in the middle of spam. we have had problems.

-- we have the spanish people were the strongest people for me, the strongest nation in the world. we spent 500 years trying to destroy ourselves. have another 500 years because we are the same

people more today than we were before. you have one here as well for we had ais impaired dictatorship. we had an autocracy.

and when we decided to live together,and when we decided toe -- of all sensitivities, and we give power to the regions, protecting their identities and protesting that -- protecting the capacity themselves. this is what they did in 1970. since then, i have said this before, we are together [indiscernible] inyears then we have been the last two centuries. that is the truth. and catalonia at this time, that was probably the richest part of spain. capacities, i am half [indiscernible] i know the problem is in my heart, as you could understand.

we have the problem, to fight fornst people and killing political ideals. we started to have the problems of catalonia. they have killed in the very beginning and these were stopped. i think it was ended by its own lack of sense. now we're facing this. the only thing we would like state clearly is we believe in the state of law. all of us have room there. but we have a constitution and this is not

unmovable. provision that says if you want to go against the law, you have the capacity to change. you briefs the law, you are an outlaw, for --. that is the reason for the government taking the responsibility to grant the law. catalonia -- the catalonia territory. to say you have breached the law, your subject to the law, and responsibilities in spain, another thing we have done, and we call for generalizations to

restore the legitimate government, we have not broken the autonomy. we have said you have to follow law. having said so, it is pure common sense and pure democratic system. we need another thing more , not because it is not relevant, but it is more difficult to grasp and create. during this time, this nationalism has built the difference. likes not been constructed , we have something to say but you do not have anything to tell us.

this is built on hate. if we want to restore the catalonian people, the most , we would likes that all the people because of this instability, we just had been created by the rest of us. they should come back and we asuld have catalonia again the brilliant and powerful and contributing to the good of spain and the european union. this is what we have. are applyingwe there.

it is difficult. you know after the doses of hate youseparation and lies, need a lot of love. but we are there and we will discover it. the catalonian's, they have opened the lies in the sense that they are living within spain and they are more catalonian's, more spanish, more you -- those are the -- i [indiscernible] we do not need to live. it is enough to tell the truth to in the battle.

you cannot trust the people who live. this is normal. to approve. if you analyze the matters of ?act, what has been the reality it is really understandable. so what is the reaction? kobach, catalonia and spain. this is the point. we now go to spain in connections with the united states. >> that is why we were

concerned. certainly concerned, the primary even beyond -- also be on spain. for a long time on the whole issue of separatism and security andon economic and political and so forth. it is with the concern of the european union and all sovereign states and so on. >> the european union has a lot of concerns. first is the european union. you understand.

first, we have had the problem. second, we have tried to build up the foreign defense and it is not easy. facing but we did not face before, the threat of the east and south. a lot and of course, it was said on top of that, if we the nation as a ground -- as the ground for the european union, we are jumping him something that can be controlled by their own capacity in to an entity of regions which has no common

government or policy. you can imagine what could be a european union of 62 regions. this is not viable. it is a very good thing. to live astrying to institution. this is something no european union -- we should accept. the weakness of the european the strength of the united states. that is why you have to come back and at that very moment, you showed the crisis of crime -- crimea and syria.

>> give our audience and opportunities. >> all right. please identify yourself for the record and wait for the microphone. >> thanks a lot for an excellent a is a of your views. expose of your views. i have some questions. i am from a security consulting firm. ask you, giveno the sub nationalistic sentiments , otherthe european union as well asuing, , inlvement in spain afghanistan and iraq and the like, and you mentioned the in the u.s.n

presence. do you think the transatlantic relationships like nato are getting stronger and more relevant than the european union given political and economic force of the dimension? thanks a lot. >> thank you. was a was trying to get understanding of the united states toward european union strong and nato,e, not isolated from exactly the contrary. a is difficult to managed

political organization like nato with 28 members. it is true that the big number -- member, the united states, i trying to getr hours of comments to the country, trying to afford our own views on that. if europe wants to be credible, we need to have a defense credible european defense credible. this is difficult. it is very difficult. the future either goes that way or we face tremendous problems.

expenditure, which is requested, not toward nato, because otherwise we pay our bill to nato, but our own national defense to increase that to 2%, which in my country can lead to 10,000 billion 28,000 -- 28 alien this is something that today if we are sincere with our self, we need time to react to that. we need a gdp that is, let's say, probably -- not the gdp. we cannot take a situation where our deficit and our fight against the deficit could be easier than it is today.

that is for sure. the thing is we have to spend more, but we have to spend that are, which is even more important. we are doing miracles with the money we had. i repeat, we are a member of the european union and nato. to -- iurope wants understand the contribution to nato with an equal basis with the united states, we should build our own european defense and of ford these and to speak -- and afford these. in ais exactly the current new way than what we have and speaking before, which is unified, not separate. -- i do not have 50 types of tanks, 70

types of missiles, different systems of communication. even though we are -- for nato, it is not usual. it is a tree. -- dream. it is a dream that i have ever thought, but it is necessary, even whennecessary, dreams are necessary, they are not complete. fortunately today, the european andn is reacting to that, in a very humble way, they are for the first time in history they are not rejecting to becauseg in defense, outside the european union -- and investing money. how is it possible? how could you build it without your type of granting, with other capacities?

so we are there, and it is a pity because we had a problem fixede -- that has been -- we have to analyze brexit -- i mean,xit nuances regarding why brexit happened. -- of brexit is the future voted for no brexit and the past voted for brexit. in the past will not come back. what is coming is the future, the young people, and this is what we have to analyze.

nato is enough, nato is enough, nato was enough, nato is enough. but at the same time they were in the european union, and the idea is that we could arrive to something, could be led by germany or france? cookie. we do not have problems with that. the probably have is we have to build the defense from up to down. he cannot build the defense from the industry up, because then we have problems of supply or these type of province. to your question, we would like ofthreat, this type nationalism, radicalism, we need to have a political project fascinating era

citizenship, and this fascination, this enthusiasm for that comes back and we are able to afford to the west something more than the european union which is weak because it is not completely united. any other questions? yes. you, ambassador, for your presentation. two points. the first one has to do with what we are discussing here regarding the -- of the european union, strengthening the military power in the south. my point is, wouldn't you say that europe is moving in that direction, that particularly, if you remember at the beginning of

u.s. current administration, there was some hesitation about nato. and i remember the german chancellor saying now we have to rethink europe's defenses. the giving germany, one of leading countries in the european union, i would expect a lot of the discussion has to be going in that direction. the second point is related to the challenges, this is a spain has- i mean, these systems of autonomy. what extent does the current system of autonomy does not allow the exacerbation of nationalistic sentiments in certain regions of the country? thank you. >> ok, thank you. ambassador morenes: well, i

merkel -- chancellor with all due respect with what i want to say about chancellor merkel -- is saying exactly what i have said. -- somebody summary has asked if the european union theto defend itself, and call to the united states, this has been corrected afterwards. 5, we will be very much respect of that. doings the spirit of business. i can understand that. i absolutely -- i can understand. what merkel said is she , and weod the message have to do our jobs here, and we take cares here is to

of our own problems, and to take care of our own problems is to moreogether again one time, together, unified. that is the way. union is the way. separation is not the way. has movedt is why she the way to lead a european union of defense. let's see where it goes. let's see where it goes. principle that this is necessary, this is the first time i have heard because after something -- some sympathetic movement, but i did not see any money. you put the money and you believe. like money isks going to be on the table to

lead, to identify, determine common technologies, determine how to build up the industry with a particular these of each ofntry, -- particularities each country, but this is along the commonality of interest. this is very good for nato as well, not only for the europeans. of the aspect of your question, this is something that everybody asks himself. in spain, somebody is accusing the constitution regarding the autonomy system. all those are bleeding the autonomy is in itself is an autonomy and not something

joined out some -- without something of the borders of the autonomy -- that is a fact. the fact is after 40 years of when we started capita ofdp per $7,000. today we have $37,000 per cavity. this is improved by the economy. proven byt say it is the economy. it is proven by the opening of the market, by going to the world, sending our businessman, opening our borders. this is what has cascaded. autonomy has been very useful. there are no poison, no resid --

no remedies. it all depends on the doses. here's what i say. now in some key and part of spain it is not so wonderful to hear, the doses, the doses. >> thank you very much. would you like to -- >> no. >> you are not done yet, are you? , mr. ambassador. thank you for a very insightful presentation. radicalizationt earlier, i wanted to ask specifically about the bilateral efforts at agreement, not only across the atlantic, but those more regionally, as in north africa. thessador morenes:

bilateral -- with your country -- [indiscernible] >> i have not understood you. is that because it is probably very late. but could you repeat, because if you are speaking about connection we have in more run -- you are asking about radicalization in morocco, tunisia, algeria. is this part of the connection between our countries? morocco and out jericho up for those who come into spain -- in egypt, morenes: , tunisia, algerian, and

morocco, but let's stop there. democracy, and democracy was backed by the muslim brotherhood. a country in the said, what is i happening to the democracy -- the electeds been system you have been doing in your own country. i do not knowhat if it will last for a short time governing continues in such a way, and this happened. this happened. now we have a problem of radicalization in egypt, which is affecting egypt and affecting the countries around. what will happen with that, because it is a branch of isis, i do not know.

they are fighting against us, and it is a common m&a -- enemy, isis. libya -- today we are trying to build something there. there in a civil war. -- they havetate. no state. chapala kenya is one thing -- tripolitania is one thing. they have to become a country, and still they are not. a --ave a -- they have fien all the weapons of gadda are in the secret places and they are being utilized by some terrorist there. and in the traffic of the said hell -- sahel.

failure of state, and therefore, a refuge for the bad guys. they are the only -- i mean, the , the triumph was in tunisia, that is why they are not forgiven. they are attacked, so this is something -- becausethat concerns us they had a tremendous civil war among themselves. -- is now a symbol of algeria. but i do not know how long he will live. and after that, we do not know.

fortunately, they have a strong state in algeria. and fortunately, i do not think that ice is now, -- isis now, al qaeda are strong and out to come , to destabilize algeria. -- morocco has a monarch are monarch to come and i think they have a very intelligent and have opened the door for some political sensitivities. refusing -- the society of morocco, the people of morocco, they are refusing filing radicalization. but the people that we have , majority of them come from near the border with

morocco. spain,ple are killing in people are killing here, some of very significant number are from morocco. foreign fighters going to serial -- syria from marco, so it is -- from morocco, so it is a concern. how do we fight against terror? fundamentally, fighting against the causes of terror. -- no future for the young people. not investing and helping these countries to have their own capacities to lead by

building a we are -- we are building a situation with these coming into the only way these people have to vindicate themselves as human beings. it is a tremendous situation, no? and i am not just speaking about where isis collects these types of people are is the marginal people and in countries like some parts of nigeria, the and chad,er,

eritrea, all these types of things where these people -- senegal, mauritania -- these people have no future. me president of senegal told , provided -- excuse me -- if a prefers to diee in the military and -- mediterranean, they are risking their lives to come. on top of that, you give them some ideology, and on top of that you make him a hero, and on top of that, then that is leading to feed this radical terrorist movement. they are following a strategy which is to destroy our system.

mean, i saw 1 -- i that in terrorism. only 10% of the merchant people of the -- our radical people. is whenof the people hundred million. 100 million. hopefully i would like to say that we have to combat the consequences, the terror, and we have to combat as well the causes of terror. that is the way. >> ok, any other questions? andlet me ask one question, then the general will be able to take over. my question is, you mentioned him a for example, morocco, what

they are tying -- trying to do, ridiculously when the king tried to introduce some tolerance of religion and bring in some of s and religious clergy to discuss ways how religion can advance because of -- do you think that religion in this case, talking about islam, can make a country different? on the other end, we find that the pope is trying to build bridges around the world in terms of brotherhood and the whole idea of unity of mankind.

as another pool, and obviously, to combat terrorism, are that tactics different, the strategies and the techniques, but the question is, can religion play a role? ambassador morenes: yes, i think morocco is doing a very heroic activity, sending moroccan imams to the sahel, mali, and areas where --icalism is trying to and this is because in morocco there is islam, as it is

s areined these imam completely against the radicalization. and they tried to expand to the people in those countries that there is a different way to understand islam as a religion and it is not a radical religion. ideology andng the where the ideology starts to grow. imams are explaining the only thing they had, this is the only way to be a good -- but this is exactly the contrary of the imams in morocco. depending on what you understand, if religion is soked with unity, unity,

areever is not up or we together, this is not religion. this is another thing even if it is disguised as religion. that is my view. religion is a -- c.ligion is not a, b, goigion is to grow up and to all together. that is the religion. religion, youout ought to be killed because you do not believe in what i believe in, right, that is another thing. whatever.wer or ok. >> you ready to wrap it up?

>> yes. >> thank you, mr. ambassador, for a very and lightning discussion and talk. there's no question that the country of spain is quite open to all nations who desire to live in people. for many years they have been good friends for a long time, and not just on the military side of thing, which i am very familiar with, but geopolitically, economically, and all the elements of national power. spain has considerable influence, not just in the four or five countries the investor talked about, but throughout africa, latin america, really around the world. there is a whole global connection to the economy, and spain can quite often serve as an interlocutor or a spokesman to present the views of not just

our country, with the free world as we know it today. but i am very pleased to hear that you are continuing these kinds of cooperations which are vital. with respect to the military and the situation throughout the mediterranean and in africa and in europe, particularly in southern europe and in the balkans and places in that geographical location, spain today, to the bases the ambassador has mentioned, they are vital to what we are doing. for example, he mentioned the marines. forces thatmaritime you are all familiar with that go out to places like the mediterranean and elsewhere around the world, but we were a little bit short on amphibious ships right now, so we do not have the permanent presence in the mediterranean that we had

since 1947. to counter that, we use what we call a special purpose task force, and these units are out there 24/7, 365. they support three geographic commanders at the same time. they support the command in africa, the commander in europe, and the central command in the mideast and near asia. so very vital. humanitarian operation. there are military operations. there are antiterrorist operations, and it is all part of that teamwork that nato and european union and other friendships and alliances are trying to make happen. i think that we have to realize, as i have said many times in many places, terrorism is a tactic, and it has then around around since the bible

and the tour and the koran and the various religious documents. it is used by people in many times and in many places that are inferior in terms of capability, the terry equipment, etc., so they use terrorist tactics. you're never going to stamp out completely this war on terrorism. that is a ridiculous idea in the first place. what you can do of course is provide sufficient understanding , capability, etc., so that you can make it not worthwhile over the long term. and that is what we have to do. and so you are always going to have that kind of threat. it is closely related in many cases to crime. it is related to money laundering and all the other financial wrongdoings that go on around the world. there are a lot of entry points into this whole operation.

tiedt may or may not be into isis or al qaeda or to any of the other groups and this and that. some people are no more affiliated with them than i am, but they claim to be because it is part of the propaganda, part of the information warfare. that is another area where we who have grown up in a free society, a democratic society, we do notl, basically really use propaganda very well. it is kind of an anti-term in our vocabulary. recents in part with our history, with her history with world war ii and what the germans did and this and that. but this information is used extraordinarily well by our adversaries. in fact, you can say in many ways they are winning the information war.

and when we do have an incident, it should be reported, it should be in the media, but we should not talk about it forever and a day, and we do. and all that publicity, all that notoriety, that just makes again these people who have been oppressed -- it just further invigorates them with the want to join these things. and that is part of the whole idea of this so-called radicalization of young people and all that kind of stuff. so there is a lot of angles here, if you will. a lot of things to think about. i think globally we are on the right track. fortunately, you do not hear so much about the successes we have, because that is one of the reasons why we have to successes. we have to be quite about it, although i have to say my country is not too good about be quiet sometime. that is another issue. with all that, thank you very much again, mr. ambassador.

please kobach ncs. ambassador morenes: i will. come back and see us. ambassador morenes: thank you. >> you have a naval background. i was bornmorenes: in -- and we had fishing activity in the city. i specialized as a maritime to exercisein order as a maritime lawyer, i had to go to madrid, which is 350 kilometers from the shore. fortunately,hing, that i moved there. >> i went to spain before you were born in 1964. [laughter] they had a huge maritime operations in the mediterranean, and they had 94 nato ally ships

in the military and -- in the mediterranean, and it was focused near spain. we were trying to show solidarity. when i was young enough to do things when i was a battalion commander, i got to run the operationt helicopter of the marines and the spanish marines around that -- 1971. high have morenes: made my military service -- i have made my military service. [laughter] >> thank you. thank you very much. [applause] thank you very, very much. [captions copyright national

cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> today president trump designated north korea as a state sponsor of terror. that announcement coming at noon at the white house. he spoke with reporters for the start of the cabinet meeting.