mcgurk. ms. elliott? >> thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member rusch and senator lugar, as the chairman pointed out i have strong ties to the state of pennsylvania having been born there and my son is a student the at the university of pennsylvania but i also have strong ties to indiana having been a graduate of indiana university and lived in muncie, indian if a. so it's an honor for me to be here in front of you today. i don't have any to idaho. yes, i do, and i love them. i'm very honored to be president obama's nominee to become the u.s. ambassador to the republic of tajikistan. i'm grateful

mcgurk? >> first, the leadership in command of these units have all been fired. we immediately were in conversations with iraqi leaders, security and political leaders in the wake of mosul and recommended a wholesale change in the command. new commanders have been appointed. those are commanders we know very well. they're also quite effective. iraqis, just in the past month in terms of fighting units, they've suffered almost 1,000 killed in action and they are holding the line and beginning to conduct some very rudimentry operations to clear some highways. i will not underestimate the extreme challenge here. what we saw in mosul was not indicative of a force as a whole. the units, many of them, are balanced. there's about an average -- i was just on the phone to our folks out there today. the composition of the force is about 55% shia, 23% sunni, by and large. within the units there is no fracturing within the units themselves. now there are very incompetent, incapable units with poor leaders

mcgurk: it is a great question. the camp david meeting is interesting because that is when we thought, and this is reflected somewhat in the book, but that would be a key moment that hard questions are going to be asked. it ended up being a cover for a secret tip of a new sense of a new government and things are moving. i have to say, it is reflected in the book, but nobody supported sending more forces to iraq. it was a very small number. some of the colonels in the council of colonels, but not the consensus. state department. we had a debate about clear hold build in 2005, which would have been a counterinsurgency-type thing. that did not go anywhere, and the state department really swung totally against any real talk of more resources. so, from our perch, it was frustrating. and then there were things outside of my purview, even next door to me. stephen hadley asked bill, two doors down from us, to actually look at this, is this even feasible militarily. i did not know bill was working on that. so there was a lot

secondly, senator mcgurk -- secretary mcgurk, you said a formal request for assistance was received in may. were there any informal requests through other avenues, including from the iraqi ambassador to the u.s. made before that? and how do you define formal request? if certain individuals are asking for help, what modeality needs to be employed to say oh, now they've actually asked? third thirdly, el baredai was in u.s. custody and he said i'll see you in new york. we know that he now has emerged as the leader of isil or isis, i should say and obviously has posed an enormous threat to life and liberty of iraqis, christians and perhaps even to the united states. my question is, especially in light of what has happened with guantanamo, as a result of the 2012 intelligence act, it was required for the administration to tell us how many of those who were released from gitmo went back into battle. and the report suggested that of the 613 released, 104 were confirmed to go back into the battle against americans and our allies, 74 probably went back, but they couldn't confirm it, for a total

mcgurk. special emigrant visas, basically, that if someone in iraq and a citizen of iraq has helped american forces in ways that put them at substantial risk, we expedite their visas pursuant to the special immigrant visa program. and as i said, these are individuals that live under threat today. i know that the process has been expedited and that the u.s. has admitted as many applicants in fiscal year 2012 as it did in all of 2011. so there is progress. but there is still a backlog. and the question i have for you, i don't know if you have a number, but if you don't, if you could get it to us, the number of cases of special emigrant visas, how many of those are in the pipeline for the so-called principle applicants. and number two, how many cases are pending for applicants through the direct access visa process, if you can just tell us about that? >> thank you, senator. this issue is very important to me, and it's a very personal issue to me. i had the opportunity to discuss it in some depth

mcgurk? >> one point, congressman. i think what i laid out in my opening testimony is a way forward that is focused upon the hard realities we face on the ground now. that's within the fabric of the iraqi constitution. that can harness their very significant national resources to empower local communities in order to deny space to these terrorist groups. and that is a model in which recognizes the principle of authority and federalism which is embedded in the iraqi constitution. were iraq to wish to develop more regions, such as the region that exists in the kurdish region, there's a process for doing that through the iraqi constitution. >> but mr. mcgurk, again, i agree with you. that ought to be how it works. the maliki government has significantly alienated huge swaths of its own country. and in the process has opened the door for receptivity to isis. that's one of the reasons they've had so little difficulty in addition to the collapse of the iraqi four divisions which we helped train and equip. but they've lost a

mcgurk, thank you, mr. chairman, i yield back.>> t >> thank you, mr. engel. this morning we're pleased to be joined by special presidential o envoy brett mcgurk. rece mr. mcgurk was recently promoted from deputy special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter isil. prior to these assignments ser special envoy mcgurk served as the deputy assistant secretary of state for iraq and iran. mr. mcgurk has been a valuable voice in the administration, pressing for a morrow bust u.s.a role.tion, i appreciate that.d without objection the witness'sr full preparedd statement will b made a part of the record and members will have five calendar days to submit statements, questions and extra neous materials. so wek yo askchairm if you can your remarks. >> thanks mr. chairman, ranking member engel, other members of the committee.ppear b it's a real honor to be here. i first appeared before you in r november of 2013 to talk about what we knew was al qaeda in nu i aq and the emerging threats of isil. i've been back a number of timeo since then. this i deeply valu

mcgurk, but ms. slotkin, if you would like to weigh in, please do. one of the things that has not gotten a whole lot of attention but has -- you mentioned it in your testimony, and certainly we've seen it in other places where extremist islam has been in charge, that the plight of iraqi women and girls has borne the brunt of a lot of the violence as they've advanced through iraq. can you talk about what we can do and what is being done to help address this? >> first, senators, the fact that you're asking the question is number one. we have to put international focus and attention on this problem. in n mosul, the situation with isil goes from bad to worst. they've first gone after the christians, then kurds, and now they're going after women, particularly young women. this is a serious international problem. the governor the iraq, foreign minister of iraq, wrote a letter to the secretary general of the united nations asking for international assistance against this threat to their people. so it is something that we need the entire efforts of the entir

mcgurk's clan found out about this. the next night, they found the body and redeposited it where it was supposed to be. the next night, the same gentleman came back, doug of the body, and buried it never to be found again that he thought. about 40 years later, someone was excavating for the house and found human remains. those in the know admitted that is where they put mcgurk. also buried in the cemetery was the lincoln assassination conspirator, lewis payne. i read the other day john phillips sousa john was buried here, but don't believe everything you read. the hopkins brothers set of the brickyard in the 1850's. they spread all over the area. even though will follow -- the font -- l'enfant planned it, it did not go through. it was a big field. hopkins brickyard was in the way. they had to knock some of those out to put the avenue through. some of the prominent early residents into the 1870's complained the smoke from the council -- kil was coming into their homes at nightm, so there was an act of congress to close t

mcgurk's clan, he was irish, found out about this. the next night, they went back down to the body and redeposited it back in where it was supposed to be. well, following suit, the next night, the same gentleman came back, dug up the body, and buried it in flash run never to be found again, they thought. but about four years later somebody was excavating for their house and their basement and found human remains, and those in the know admitted that that's where they had put mcgurk. also buried in the cemetery was lincoln assassination conspirator, lewis payne. and i just read the other day that john philips susa was buried here, but i don't see how that's possible. so don't always trust wikipedia. another notable thing in the neighborhood was hopkins brick yard. hopkins were two brothers from georgetown who set up a brickyard in the 1850s. as you can see, they just spread all over the area, because even though la fant had planneded it, the streets didn't go through. it was just basically a big field. so when they were extending massac

brett mcgurk has talked about some of the options. they are ready, they are on the shelf and it will give them an overall slice of resources while bringing them back into the system. that's real important. there needs to be real revenue sharing. they've already tried this. up until recently, the kurds were getting 17%. some of the either oil-producing provinces, kirkuk, are those with a lot of pilgrims and they are getting slices of the iraqi government budget to execute their own programs and they were very, very successful. there's a model also on the shelf to have more economic federalism. so it's not just a list of things. if you want inclusiveness, you get a guy that lacks inclusiveness. that will do any more economic plan. if you want a more economic i can federalism, you introduce financial and energy policies that will see to that. if you want to have a security force that is capable of doing what general barbero said, let's have commanding control which is the no the case now. >> dr. pollack, do you have anything to add? >> i

mcduring testim mcgurk testifying on the deteriorating situation since february. it's clear that the situation went from worse to just about as bad as it can get and i'm interested in hearing in how the administration has adjusted its policies since then because the three steps that he outlined for us last time, pressing the government to develop a holistic policy to isolate extremists, supporting iraqi security forces through accelerated military systems and information and intelligence sharing and mobilizing the sunni population against isis have all failed to stop isis and the near collapse of iraq. isis continues to advance its cause of islamic state that runs from baghdad to lebanon and where christians especially are being targeted, eithering fleeing, forced to convert, or be killed. we have been woefully inadequate in our response to this crisis. the committee has repeatedly called on the administration to do more, to get more engaged and to be decisive because it has been paralyzed by inaction. the threat of isis is very real and imminent for iraq and the

then we have on the panel professor brett mcgurk. he's currently based at the freeman spaulding institute at stanford university. before moving to stanford, mcgurk served as a special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat isis and he helped build and lead a broad international coalition to fight against the terrorist network. previously mcgurk served in senior positions in the george w. bush and barack obama administration including in the bush white house senior director for iraq and afghanistan and then as deputy assistant secretary of state for iraq and iran under president obama. mcgurk has led several sensitive diplomatic missions in the middle east. over the last decade, for example, he led talks with russia over the syria conflict under both presidents obama and donald trump. and finally, the panel discussion this afternoon will be moderated by professor hal brands. dr. brands is the henry kissinger distinguished professor of global affairs at the johns hopkins school of advanced international studies. he's als

mcgurk, i don't think anyone can question your knowledge and understanding of what's happened in iraq. you've had an incredible amount of experience there. in fact, i would be hard-pressed i think to find someone who won have a resume like would you as far as dealing with that is concerned. having said that, iraq, of course, is in a volatile postconflict situation, and it's one in probably arguably the most unstable region in the world. it's the largest embassy we have anywhere in the world. last year the united states spent about $6.5 billion there and this year about $4 billion there. very substantial amounts. more than my state when i was governor as an entire annual budget. also given the lack of representation that we don't have today in both tehran and damascus, the ambassador in baghdad's going to be responsible for and have the responsibility for the, a much larger regional context. and the ability to navigate all of these issues with the right balance and the right leadership and the right management will certainly be critical to the success of our ambassador there. and, agai

welcome, ambassador mcgurk. let me start with russia, one of favorite topics of my friend from california. how concerned are we that russia's air strikes in syria are non-isil focused and that in fact they have targeted either deliberately or just coincidentally non-isil insurgent groups that we were hoping to use as part of the coalition against assad? >> it's a huge problem. and -- >> could you say that louder, i couldn't hear you. >> it's a huge problem. they say they want to fight isil in nusra, but they're hitting groups as i mentioned we're ready to fight isil. so, you know, this is where -- we just have to be honest. they're hitting 70% of their air strikes are against the opposition. many of the opposition groups are ready to fight isil. >> so we now have a situation where the russian activity in syria is directly in conflict with western goals? is that correct, would that be fair? >> you can't put it in total black and white terms but they're hitting isil around palmyra. >> given the fact that you said

mcgurk? or ms. slotkin. >> sure, i'll take a first stab at it. i do think it's important again to review the history. both bret and i worked on the original 2008 s.o.f.a. with iraq which did say by the end of 2011 we would be out of iraq, so that timetable was set back in 2008. i know there was quite a bit of discussion and debate about what should happen at the time in 2011 about a follow-on agreement, but i really do thing the point that bret made is critical. the iraqi leaders could not get it through their parliament, unlike what we have in afghanistan today, we have iraqi leaders at that time saying i don't think it's necessary and we don't want you in. they weren't inviting us in, they're a sovereign country, so we made a decision to cease negotiations, because we didn't have will on the other side. that's a critical factor. >> it's certainly a factor, but the united states is a pretty substantial country on the globe, and we have a lot of involvement there, and our officials were meeting with their officials, and there are relationships. y

previously mcgurk served in senior positions in the george w. bush and barack obama administration, including in the bush white house as senior director for iraq and afghanistan and and as tippy assistant to secretary of the state for iraq and iran under president obama. mcgurk has led several diplomatic missions in the middle east over the decades. for example he led talks with russia over the syrian conflict under both president obama and donald trump. finally, the panel will be moderated by effexor -- professor brand, henry kissinger distinguished professor of affairs. he is also a columnist for bloomberg opinion and scholar of american enterprise institute. dr. brand is author and editor of many books, including american grand strategy in the age of trump, published just one year ago. professor brand served as special assistant to secretary of defense force with -- strategic planning from 205 to 2 016. so please join me in welcoming are very distinguished panel this afternoon. [applause] thank you very much. i would also like to thank our ho

by the executive branch and in the state to solve the problem following this court's decision in mcgurk cause the result would be to unsettle established jurisdictional understandings and jurisdictional arrangements in any other state and in fact in the state of oklahoma beyond what was, that were in existence at the time of these decisionsin mcgurk . oklahoma has much trust in restricted allotment land in the western part of the state which for more than 30 years has been understood to be subject to exclusive jurisdiction and the states have not been able to apply their lost their soul what the state is asking for here is not just to go back to what the situation was before mcgurk but to under undue the settled understanding in oklahoma itself about the application of state law to indian country. >> what is your answer to the language, frankfurters language i read from kate concerningwhat way weight we should give to western against georgia ? >> that proposition has to do with things where there is not a governing act of congress. it often comes up there may be a question of just inher

brett mcgurke is the special envoy to the global coalition to counter isis and was among the panelists at the security conference held recently in munich. it's an hour and a half.

mcgurk, let's quick go back to the kurds. i've been made aware of the fact the baghdad government is basically in arrears on current budget by about $6 billion. is that accurate? >> there are a lot of ways to do the accounting and the math. baghdad claims the kurds owe them money. kurds claim that baghdad owes them money. in that space is where a deal lies. i think that's going to be part of the conversation in forming a new government. >> if it is true baghdad owes them as much as $6 billion, with u.s. support kurds ability to export oil and obtain that revenue so they can keep themselves going? >> we want to get as much oil on to international markets as possible from all parks of iraq. that is something we very strongly support we worked very hard over the last six months to get a deal on the table by which the kurds would have exported as much oil as they possibly could through some of the existing arrangements with the revenue-sharing allocations that exist. that deal almost succeeded, but it ran up against the election

then we have we have professor mcgurk mcgurk before moving to stanford he was for the an envoy for the global coalition to defeat isis. previously mcgurk served in senior positions for george w. bush and barack obama. including in the bush white house as senior director for iraq and afghanistan, and then as deputy assistant of state for iraq and iran under president obama. mcgurk has several diplomatic has led several different attic missions in the middle east over the decades team. finally the panel discussion this afternoon, will be moderated by professor brand. he is the henry kissinger distinguished professor of national affairs he is also columnist for bloomer opinion and a scholar at the american enterprise institute. he is the author of many books, including american grand stat g that was what good is grand strategy in american state, from harry truman to george w. bush. he served as special assistant to secretary of defense, for strategic planning from 2015 to 2016. join me in welcoming our scholars and practitioners. >> thank you very much and i would like to thank our host h

mcgurk's help me launch the book and we had the opening that at at mcgurk's. i it's hard to decide how you how do you decide they're all they're all my children how can you love one more one more than another? but then i think about pat connolly's is they don't go they don't they don't make a big deal out of being irish. when i interviewed them and they're in the book too, it's like it's like, you know, we don't we don't have shamrocks on the walls, you know, we just we're just irish and everybody it and we don't make a big, big deal out of it. so it's kind of low key beneath the radar. irish. yes. patrick, you mentioned that there was an irish tenor that was popular around 1900. yeah. john mclaughlin. yeah, name is john. yeah. did you mean john mccormack? yes, i did what i say mclaughlin. yes, john mccormack. i did. that's who i met. that's what i thought. yeah. thanks. you want a good irish song? where to get mclaughlin, mccormack, john mccormack. thank you for keeping me honest. appreciate it. oh, okay. see, i could have i could have i could have bought my

mcgurk's help me launch the book and we had the opening that at at mcgurk's. i it's hard to decide how you how do you decide they're all they're all my children how can you love one more one more than another? but then i think about pat connolly's is they don't go they don't they don't make a big deal out of being irish. when i interviewed them and they're in the book too, it's like it's like, you know, we don't we don't have shamrocks on the walls, you know, we just we're just irish and everybody it and we don't make a big, big deal out of it. so it's kind of low key beneath the radar. irish. yes. patrick, you mentioned that there was an irish tenor that was popular around 1900. yeah. john mclaughlin. yeah, name is john. yeah. did you mean john mccormack? yes, i did what i say mclaughlin. yes, john mccormack. i did. that's who i met. that's what i thought. yeah. thanks. you want a good irish song? where to get mclaughlin, mccormack, john mccormack. thank you for keeping me honest. appreciate it. oh, okay. see, i could have i could have i could have bought my

. >> then, we have, on the panel, former director mcgurk. previously mcgurk served in senior positions including inin the bush white house, a senior director for iraq and afghanistan, and iraq, iron, he lead several missions over the middle east. he lead talks with russia over the syrian conflict. and finally the panel discussion this afternoon will be moderated by professor brands. he is the distinguished professor of global affairs of the school of advanced international studies. he is the author and editor of many books including american grand strategy in the age of trump. and what good is grand strategy power and purpose. he was part of the strategic planning. so goin me in welcoming these scholars a this afternoon. >> thank you, i would also like to thank our osts here for putting on this event today. so many of the policy makers that share their time and insights with us. it is a pleasure to be up here with three gentleman that are importantly involved in the decision making, later in it's implementation, but we're also generous with

previously mcgurk served in senior positions in bush and obama administration's,. he is left several diplomatic -- he led talks with russia over the syria conflict. and finally the panel of discussion will be moderated by this professor, he is henry kissinger distinguished professor of distinguished affairs -- he is also a columnist for bloomberg opinion. he is the author and editor of many books, and what good is strategy and power and purpose from harry truman to w. bush. he served as the special assistant for strategic planning for 2015 to 2016. please join me in welcoming a distinguished panel of scholars. yes (applause) thank you very much, i would like to thank our host for putting on this event. it is a lot of fun to get together with the folks who worked to bring this book to fruition and so many of the policy makers who share their time and insights with us. it is a pleasure for me to be here on the stage with three gentlemen who were not only importantly involved in the decision-making that led to the surge, and to its implementation, we are also very gen