brett mcgurk: it's a great question. and got real insight knowledge into their finances, an operation or special forces did, again, over into syria into a town shadadi, which is no and it n isil's hands was an obligation to isil's main financier.their main and our heroic special forces, incredible.are they pulled more information off that site than any raid in history. we learned more about how funding themselves throughout that operation than anything else we've done. they were generating about a year, about rs a $500 million from oil and gas nd about $500 million from antiquities trade, from extortion, from what they call revenues t extracting off the population. but based on that information rom that raid we were able to systematically develop all of that intelligence information in working across the u.s. government into the military progress to go after how they're getting oil out of the ground and how they're selling it. reduced their production by at least 30%. we've substantially reduced to generate revenue. the

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: accountability is fundamental.enator markey: accountability can be just saying don't do it again. mr. mcgurk: they have to have a process and a have to be punished when violations occur. senator murphy: i know we consider mr. mcgurk to be a global citizen, but he's a graduate of connecticut and is -- has overcome the rivalry. let me try to recover from that. thank you for being here, mr. mcgurk, and thank you for taking on what is frankly a nightmare of a job trying to manage this crisis and coalition and we are lucky to have you at the helm. in response to a question from senator corker earlier, you were talking about some of our coalition partners not being as involved as we would like, especially with the air campaign. i want to ask you a question relative to the reason members of the coalition are not participating at the level we would expect. when i was in abu dhabi at the and of last year, i went to get relief from the ministry of defense and i was there to oversee our counter isis campaign. knowing i was th

of mcgurk: the level influence is something we look at. the russians were seen as the , and moreencer recently, we have started to see the armenians eclipse them a little bit, and both of them are backing the assad regime, and we say to the russians, look at this. you guys are in bed with the assad regime, with hezbollah, with the quds force. you guys, what is your long-term strategy here, and, friendly, i do not think they have one, so they came in to try to bolster up the assad regime, and i thought they would find a path out of syria, but that is not the case. the only way to have a sustainable solution is where our forces can organize against these extremist threats. myator isakson: and that is point. given the fact that there is not one, given the fact that syria has been decimated with a civil war over four or five years, given that the armenians are backing assad pretty steadily all of the way through, there assad's to be no end on ability to stay in place. am i correct? i think you have hit the nail on the head with a very difficul

mcgurk: great question. got real insight and knowledge into their finances because of an operation are special forces did over a year ago into deep into syria into a town no longer in isil's hands. theas an operation against deputy of the main leader and their main financier. our heroic special forces -- these guys are incredible -- they told more information off that site than any raid in their history. we learn more about how they are funding than anything else we have done. they were generating about $500 million from oil and gas and $500 million from antiquities, extractingrtion, revenue from the population. we were able to systematically develop all of that intelligence information and working across the u.s. government into the military targeting process to go after how they are getting oil off the ground and how they are selling it. we have reduced the production by at least 30%. we are produced their ability to generate revenue. the numbers are fuzzy, but it continues to go down. as we see it, we the

mcgurk? or miss slotkin? >> i'll attack a first sttake a. it's important to review the history that both brett and i worked on the original 2008 with iraq that did say by the end of 2011 that we would be out of iraq. so that timetable was set in 2008. there was quite a bit of discussion and debate about what should happen at that time. i really do think the point that brett made is critical. iraqi leaders could not get it through their parliament. we had iraqi leaders at that time saying i don't think it's necessary. we don't want you in. they're a sovereign country. we didn't have will on the other side. that's a critical factor. >> it's certainly a factor. 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 were relationships and, yes, they certainly have to degree with it. the effort that was made and the decision to pull all the troops out, it's mind boggling to think, looking b

mcgurk. couple of questions first.the authorization for use of military force, the administration has indicated would not oppose the repeal of that, is the issue the timing with respect to, say, pending elections in iraq? might it disrupt things you're doing in iraq if we were to do that now and? >> i don't think there's much focus on the anoraks i don't think it would make much of a difference in terms from the iraqi perspective. >> that's good to know, okay. >> those elections have to be held april 30th, there should not be a delay. >> what a novel thought, allowing people to vote remotely. -- billions and billions of dollars. we've reconstituted, we've trained, you know, law enforcement forces. we spent our military, blood and treasure, to gain a foothold, to gain fallujah, and, you know, al-qaeda's success as an organization manages to occupy it. and i understood your testimony correctly, we're now once genre lying on -- once again relying on tribal support to essentially dislodge the occupying forces in fallujah.

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, 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

mcgurk. he appeared before the house foreign affairs committee on the rising threat of al-qaeda in iraq. mr. mcgurk also provided an update on the u.s. response earths in the us -- efforts specifically in the cities of fallujah and ramadi. al-qaeda's central leadership this week announced it was cutting ties with the islamic state of iraq. >> this hearing will come to order. this morning we consider al-qaeda's resurgence in iraq, an unfortunate reality is that al-qaeda in iraq -- now known as the islamic state of iraq and the levant or isis as you see it in the papers -- is growing steadily in size, it's growing steadily in power and influence, and its militant ranks have blossomed. last summer isis carried out attacks on two different prisons in iraq, and in those attacks freed hundreds of experienced al-qaeda fighters and leaders. the group is now able to carry out approximately 40 mass casualty attacks every month. multiple car bombings struck the capital this morning. the nearly 9,000 dea

mcgurk: i don't think the investigation has been concluded. markey: what is the answer to why are the shia allowed to be put in those positions where they can commit those kinds of atrocities? there is one unit of the mobilization forces on the shia side operating totally outside the law in some of the suburbs of falluja. i can't say specifically why the unit was there that government has taken measures to make sure it is addressed. those fivekey: if individuals and more are not punished in a way that is public and clear, then there will be no discouragement in the other cities. job is to makeal -- other militias will do it, get a slap on the wrist and --the end of the day, they in the years ahead, that we not have to revisit this thing. is that a goal that you have? mr. mcgurk: accountability is fundamental. markey: accountability can be just saying don't do it again. mr. mcgurk: they have to have a process and a have to be punished when violations occur. senator murphy: i know we consider mr. mcgurk to be a global citizen, but he's a isduate

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

mcgurk. prior to this current assignment, he served as senior adviser to ambassadors ryan crocker, chris hill and james jeffrey in baghdad. he also served as a lead negotiator and coordinator during bilateral talks with the iraqi government back in 2008. without objection, by the way, your full prepared statement will be made part of the record, and the members here will have five days to submit any statements or questions or any other extraneous material for the record. and, mr. mcgurk, if you would, please, summarize your remarks, and then we'll go to questions. >> thank you. good morning, chairman royce, ranking member engel and members of this committee. thank you for inviting me to discuss the situation in iraq with a focus on al-qaeda's primary offshoot in iraq, the islamic state of iraq and levant or isil. i will discuss the current situation in rah dad my -- ramadi and fallujah. isil is well known to us. its former incarnation, aqi, was a focus of u.s. and iraqi security efforts over

please join me in welcoming ambassador mcgurk to the podium. [applause] >> thank you very much.ant to thank nancy. i want to thank my former boss, ambassador taylor, usip, for everything that you do to try to make the world a better place and in particular for all the very hard, difficult working to in iraq to associate myself very much with nancy's work. we're determined to do all they can to defeat isil or daesh come and we will defeat them. i can talk a little bit about where we are in this campaign but we are also just on focus on defeating this. we're focusing on what comes after days. before introducing foreign minister al-jaafari i want to put in context why the foreign minister is in washington. we are very honored to have them here in our capital city. about what's happening this week. we are bringing together over 40 members of our international coalition in a campaign to defeat the daesh to look it over the next six months. in many ways our campaign is ahead of where we thought it would be at this time. we do check in with the coalition and the couple of months and we

mcgurk, for being here and insightful testimony this morning. you can imagine imagine in iraq it is particularly difficult to hear about sacrifices of the billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer money expended in this region in the world you acknowledge in your written testimony in a thank you for that. at to first speak to the different events in vermont in falluja. they turned quick and fairly effective. that is not the case not the case of falluja. which you speak to buy the coordination between the tribal fighters in the iraqi government and resource allocation between these two cities and many other fact yours, which are contributing to different outcomes are different strategies? >> falluja has always just been the most hardened part of the insurgency when we are fighting and it's a different environment if you look at the protest movement over 2013, the protest remained generally of a moderate tone, focus on legitimate grievances of the community. the protest in falluja which also took place every friday for far more militant, far mo

mcgurk. a couple of questions first. authorization to use military force, the administration has indicated would not oppose the repeal of that is the issue the timing with respect to, say, pending elections in iraq? might it disrupt things you are doing in iraq if we were to do that now? >> congressman, i do not think there is much focus on that. i do not think it would make much of a difference. >> that is good to know, ok. elections in april. still on schedule? >> we, our team at the embassy is talking every day to the united nations mission in iraq. and the iraqi high electoral commission. and the information i received recently is that elections remain on track. we have tens of thousands of displaced families from anbar province. we have been assured by that -- that displaced people will be able to vote and the vote will count. l confident the election will be held on april 30, and our firm position is that those elections have to be held on april 30. there should not be a delay. >> what a novel thought. allowing peo

his successor, ambassador mcgurk will be there. ,hen i look at this campaign since all of these linesf effort, it is necessary to have moving in concerts, we needed a better effort to do that. secretary kerry has agreed to do that with me. we had four meetings. financing,counter before that, foreign fighter flow into the conflict region and out of the conflict region two-year of, around the world. we are addressing messaging, and sil's effortss -- i to recruit people online. there are different dimensions to this that are not military per se but i believe there are opportunities to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts and i have fought to seize those opportunities with secretary kerry, now with general dunford, and to make sure all of these different efforts are coordinated. they are all important. the other participants are doing important things. i think the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. that is the intent. cotton: is that a way saying that there is not a single person? secretary carter: there has not been a single person with that responsibility. gener

but why didn't mcgurk say a word? nothing. zero. that tells you something. so it's true. obama has a dilemma in yemen. no doubt about it. he is supporting the guys fighting the iranians. but by and large, iran is the direction in which he is headed. look at this deal. everybody has been arguing for ages over how many centrifuges we're going to allow the iranians. turns out it's not just a matter of centrifuges. it's a matter of allowing the iranians to have centrifuges in fordo. and by the way they were supposed to close down fordo and close down iraq. they're not doing that. we are giving way on the whole question of what they have done until now, which the iaea has been pushing. we're giving way on that. and, you know, for an ancient empire, what's 10 years? what's 15 years? what 100 years in the middle east? nothing. and then what? and then david rightly said look at the reaction in the rest of the region. on the part of people who are supposed to be our friends. okay? i am not as worried about an iranian strike on israel as some people are for the very simple reason,

rhodes describes the relationship in the context of a broad and active agenda special envoy brett mcgurk described it yesterday as turkish intervention in syria unacceptable and a source of deep concern. you certainly don't have necessary agreement within the u.s. government about the shape and contour of this relationship. i would describe it as one that's rapidly deteriorating. it's been an historic number of your senior visits to turkey following the july 15 coup. you at chairman of joint chiefs general dunford, the first senior sufficient to arrive in turkey after the coup. unit vice president biden's visit last week, august 24 and now you have this bilateral meeting between president erdogan and president obama on the fourth. clearly, syria will be a critical element of the agenda. a plan that the u.s. government had been formulating related to syria i think now no longer exists. this meeting with president erdogan has to reconstitute a strategy for syria. the original plan was to close the turkish border where ice is controls the gap between where syrian kurds control the west and

mcgurk described in some detail to try to regain trust among the sunnis. i see this is only possible if we have a new prime minister in a new government. simultaneously i think wildly president is right we can do major campaign until he get inclusive government that can provide essentially people on the ground local forces we need to do limited structures. general dempsey talked about some of the possibilities going after key leaders in strategic infrastructure. we need to do a little better that nagl. to encourage everybody to its come together. mr. mcgurk taught about the sunni tribes that are trying to fight i suspect they are outdone. helping them would not be undercutting any government. the kurds are fighting on the front and they need help. we heard about some of these highly trained effective iraqi units that are still in the fight. they could benefit from help too. we are striking al qaeda right now pakistan and yemen and direct action to time in somalia and libya lithia. i see reason -- the reason why we couldn't start doing some strikes both in

the difference in taking on better equipped forces as brett mcgurk i think three times described earlier today, dealing with the tribe up near mosul, dealing with the people and governor they are outgunned. they have volunteers to go into northern falluja but they are out numbered. not boots on the ground can make a huge difference sir. >> one last question for you general. are you surprised by the alarming reports of iraqi security forces, abuses, infiltration by shia militia and lack of accountability and how do we engage with the iraqi forces to deal with those challenges? >> senator, i was in irbil baghdad, in late may. the developments of mosul since then was a shock. i was shocked by it. but as i drive around baghdad or basra or other places over the last year, it's a checkpoint army. and i've said that. and you cannot take on an isis if you've been in static position on the defense and not trained for offensive operations. what is troubling, as you ride up to these army checkpoints, there are shia religious banners almost at every one, across baghdad and certainly in basra. there

other countries to contribute to that effort on the ground, and i would defer entirely to ambassador mcgurk and secretary carter to discuss exactly what they would envision, but the truth is, we know that there's a very small number of u.s. military personnel on the ground inside of syria that are contributing to that effort. they are not on the front lines but they sort of like a very valid role in offering advice and assistance to this alliance of fighters on the ground in syria. are there more robust military contributions that could be made by other members of our coalition? i wouldn't rule that out but the principles we are dealing with is the core of the fighting force on the ground can and must be people who are fighting for their own country. >> on the judge garland nominations come is anything that's happened that is give you more hope and optimism? i know that was the meeting -- is there anything else that you can point to that's progress towards moving this domination forward? >> i would direct you to the public comments made both by senator kirk and senator collins in the last 2

but why didn't mcgurk say a word? nothing, zero. that tells you something.o, it is true obama has a dilemma right now in yemen. no question about it. he is supporting the guys that are fighting the iranians. but by and large that is -- iran is the direction in which he is headed. look at this deal. everybody is arguing for ages over how many centrifuges we will allow the iranians. it turns out, it is not just a matter of allowing the iranians to have centrifuges to which they give nobody access. they were supposed to close them down. that was the original part of the deal and close down iraq. they are not doing that. we are giving way on the whole question of what they have done until now. which the iaea has been pushing. we are giving way on this. and for an ancient empire, what is 10 years, what is 15 years, what is 100 years in the middle east? nothing. and then what. and then david rightly said, look at the reaction in the rest of the region. on the part of people who are supposed to be our friends. okay? i am not as worried about an iranian strike on is

given day and constantly working to organize and to bring coalitions together effectively so brett mcgurkthout further ado will now brief us on where he sees things within the operation and then we're going to begin the dialogue with all of us here after we excuse the press the weekend talk as freely as possible, thank you. >> distinguish ministers, a masters in coalition partners i want to welcome you to the state department, i want to thank you secretary carter, secretary kerry, director clapboard, for meeting this really historic joint ministerial. as we noted, the diplomatic aspects of this fight must keep pace with the battlefield progress. if we can't sustain the victories by holding cities after the liberation, our success will not be laughing. so i want to focus my brief comments today on the nonmilitary side of the mosul campaign because the liberation of mosul is in sight and we must as a coalition get it right in supporting iraqi partners. let's start with good news. since we came together as a coalition less than two years ago, versus we have supported on the ground and back n

broadly about all of the aspects of syria and frankly iraq i would refer you to special envoy britt mcgurk's testimony in front of the senate foreign relations committee. he spoke about our counterterrorism efforts. and there has been real success there. significanten success. the liberation of falluja and oning pressure on daesh the ground. and withrd to syria, regard to humanitarian assistance, we've seen spotty progress. that doesn't mean it's far from the forefront of our efforts. by any means. we continue to talk to the russians. with other members of the group. it was a subject for secretary kerry in his meetings in italy and in the u.k. and in brussels. those will continue. we'll try to put pressure on both sides, the opposition and also the regime, to get a credible and pervasive or nationwide cessation of hostilities in place but remains a challenge. the pentagon announced a new program training and equipping the opposition. is that a good idea considering the last programgr spent $400 million only to have very little effect. mark: i preface my response by saying i encourage you to

when mcgurk talked to other companies about why they should we sella certain state the different features. we have lower taxes, reformed , increasing academic rigor and a classroom, great infrastructure, whatever the issue might be, states are very competitive. i personally believe tax rates do matter in keeping businesses small and the governor of oklahoma is important to me. >> it's a healthy competition and states always brag. if you look at all the taxes put , texas, andlahoma colorado are the three lowest in woodcock about it all the time. to attractust companies. states talk about that a lot, but the real attraction is trying to create an environment that will attract entrepreneurs in the next generation of job creators because that is what drives your economy. one of our top competitors, the governor of utah, we compete day in and day out. they have a higher income taxed at the other taxes that are lower. we're often competing for the same type of company, the same demographic. we compete with oklahoma as well. we try to keep it above board, friendly. there are a few exceptions to

mcgurk of what you think of adapting for the opportunity to make a brief statement this morning, particularly given that many of the series allegations that will be discussed at today's hearing involved the treatment of veterans in my home state of arizona. since our nation's founding, americans have been fighting in faraway places to make this dangerous world safer for the rest of us. they have been brave, sacrificed and suffered. they their wounds from more losses they will never completely recover from. we can never fully compensate them for. what we can cover the injuries they suffered on our behalf and for their physical and emotional recovery from the battles they thought to protect us. decent care for our veterans is the most solemn obligation a nation and curse, and we will be judged by god, and history how well we discharge ours. that's what i'm deeply troubled by the recent allegations of gross mismanagement, fraud and neglect at a growing number of veterans administration medical centers across the country. it's been more than a month since allegations that some 40 veterans died wh

you hear from special envoy mcgurk. live coverage at 10 eastern on our companion network c-span. later live at 2:30 p.m. eastern c-span3 will have a senate judiciary subcommittee hearing on whether federal agencies are deemphasizing radical islam in combating crisis. >> we have this story from the hills website. the gop led, house select committee on benghazi will today release its final report about the handling of the 2012 terrorist attacks in libya. yesterday democrats on the committee released their rebuttal ahead of republican report. that report aimed to refute allegations expected to be made by trey doughty in what democrats have long claimed as a partisan witchhunt. we are issued our own report today because after spending more than two years and $7 million of taxpayer funds over the longest and most partisan congressional investigations in history, it's long past time for the select committee to conclude its work, democrats said. for americans including ambassador christopher stevens died in the militia attacks at a diplomatic facility in nearby cia and next in benghazi,

mcgurk yesterday who is the assistant over in the house said that there is no way, no way, that the moderate opposition could defeat assad. no way. i read today in the washington post where ambassador ford talked about what a fantasy it was to think about that. so, i know there have been some attempts by my friends on the other side of the aisle to place some limitations on what it is that we're doing, but what we have no idea of at present, no idea, is how the administration even tends to go about doing what it is we plan to do in syria. i think we have some understandings in iraq. we have zero understanding in syria. we've talked about the fact that since world war ii we've had so many conflicts where we and administrations go forward with activities that end up having an outcome that is far from where we began. and yet in this case -- and i know the chairman has tried to have testimony, has tried to have people come in here. i know we could subpoena and maybe that's what we need to do this next year to make sure that we actually have people come in and explain to us where we're going, but

long meeting with him yesterday, again today, and i am confident that together with ambassador brett mcgurk who will serve as the deputy and assistant secretary and patterson was so much a part of her effort against al-qaeda and when she was our ambassador to pakistan, we have a very experienced group of people engaged in this effort. the fact is if we do this right, then this effort could actually become a model for what we can do with respect to the individual terrorist groups in other places that continued to wreak havoc on efforts of governments to build their states and provide for their people. and i'm confident that with our strategy in place and international partners on our side, we will have all that we need. and with the help of the congress, we will be able to succeed in degrading and ultimately destroying this monstrous organization, wherever it exists. i know that was a little long, mr. chairman, but i wanted to lay out and i appreciate your patience spent well, thank you, mr. secretary. let me start off with i pick what are the most critical lessons that we learned from past

mcgurk to assist return from a six week trip assisting the embassy team in iraq and ms.otkin has experience rating from intelligence community and the national security council to the state department now the defense department. let me remind both of you your false statements will be included in the record without objection i will ask you to summarize so members of the committee canning gauge with a dialogue and we will start with you mr. secretary. >> if morning. i think you for inviting us to discuss the situation with the focus on u.s. response with the attack on mosul seven weeks ago. why this matters it is al qaeda it may have changed the name more broken was senior leadership but it is al qaeda and the doctrine and a threat to u.s. interest should there be any question of the intentions simply read what the leader says commit is important to pay attention because we cannot rest to underestimate the goals it capacity in breach of the organization. to eulogize the death of the osama bin live in and promised a violent response and many training camps are named after h

. >> special presidential envoy bret mcgurk testified today about the u.s. effort against isis. that hearing is live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. in his first major speech since being confirmed, army secretary eric fanning speaks today to the association of the united states army. coverage begins at 7:20 a.m. eastern on c-span two. c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. the supreme court ruled 5-3 against the abortion access law. national journal correspondent sam baker talks about this significant ruling. ydra elizabeth wh discusses other key rulings this turn and henry olsen, author of the four faces of the republican party shares his thoughts on the cases and their potential impact on the presidential campaign. watch washington journal beginning live at 7:00 eastern this morning. join the discussion. former national security adviser to president obama james jones and former ambassador nicholas burns talk about the future of nato in an event at the atlantic council today. this is one hour and 15 minutes. >> good afternoon e

and john allen, his deputy brett mcgurk, was one of our most experienced hands in iraq are on the roadvirtually full time making sure that they're working to kee give us to get the of coe the president has played a lead role in this as well. he convened an extraordinary summit at the united nations of leaders from dozens and dozens of countries to get greater commitment to do with the problem of foreign fighters. we have seen real success and progress there. is burning up the phone lines everyday as is the vice president. so the bottom line is at least until now there's been remarkable cohesion. there will be tensions going forward as different countries have put a different emphasis on different parts of the agenda. but again my sense is that the common denominator of wanting and needing to do with the isil problem is togetherness. >> michael gordon, "new york times." tony, u.s. has used air power to protect the kurdish population in kobani and to protect kurds and the yazidis from the islamic state. but the united states has not used air power to protect sunni arab opponents of the a

introduce our first panel, with us today is deputy assistant secretary of state for iraq and iran, brett mcgurk, who has just returned from a six-week trip to iraq where he was assisting the embassy team. and miss elissa slotkin, performing the duties of the principle deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, whose experience in iraq ranges from the intelligence community to the national security council to the state department and now to the defense department. let me remind both of you that your full statements will be included in the record without objection. i ask you to summarize them in about five minutes or so that the members of the committee can engage with you in a dialogue. and with that, we'll start with you, mr. secretary. >> thank you. good morning. chairman menendez, ranking member corkers, members of the committee, i thank you for inviting us to discuss the situation in iraq with the focus on the u.s. response since the islamic state of iraq attacked mosul nearly seven weeks ago. let me first review the bidding on why this matters. isl is al qaeda. it may have changed names,

brett mcgurk. avril haines. rhodes -- our whole team worked tirelessly to bring our americans home, to get this work done. and i want to thank the swiss government, which represents our interests in iran, for their critical assistance. and meanwhile, iran has agreed to deepen our coordination as we work to locate robert levinson -- missing from iran for more than eight years. even as we rejoice in the safe return of others, we will never forget about bob. each and every day, but especially today, our hearts are with the levinson family, and we will not rest until their family is whole again. in a reciprocal humanitarian gesture, six iranianamericans and one iranian serving sentences or awaiting trial in the united states are being granted clemency. these individuals were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses. they're civilians, and their release is a one-time gesture to iran given the unique opportunity offered by this moment and the larger circumstances at play. and it reflects our willingness to e