mcgurk: yes. representative higgins: the one thing that's can assistant in reading michael weiss' book, and "the black flags" the one thing that seems constant about isis is change. isis has evolved its reach and organizational ability. the isis presence in libya, i think, is particularly disturbing. it is a pivotal stronghold in north africa. africa is -- there's a lot of instability to exploit. you've got 55 countries. many of which are very, very unstable from south sudan to -- just there's a lot of countries. my concern is that while we may be influencing a loss of territorial control in iraq and syria, what about the isis threat in expanding in to other countries and the continent of africa. mr. mcgurk: it is a great question. as we analyze this and discuss it with intelligence servicing -- services and the governments and all of the different capitols around the world, the common theme that we hear -- i mean i've heard this from malaysia to brussels to the gulf is that this notion of the cal

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? >> 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

before i let you go, mattis is leaving and so is mcgurk.ou expect because this is such a reversal there on to be more high-level departures because of this syria policy? >> it may not be the syria policy you, but to the extent that this sort of recklessness and the tweets and everything going on with the white house right now is sort of this last week, as i would call it. the person i'm looking at right now is gina haskell, the cia director. we are starting to hear reports that the president's reaction to the khashoggi killing and undermining the cia's assessment that clearly the royal family and the saudi prince was a targeted assassination, i would look to members of the intelligence community getting some sort of support by what mattis and mcgurk are doing so what i'm looking out for in the next couple of weeks. >> good to have you, juliette kayyem. >> thank you. >>> we continue to following breaking news this hour. new video of that deadly tsunami in indonesia overnight. hundreds are dead. the latest developments is next. ever since dar

mcgurk: great question. they have to work with the iraqi state. that is a principle. we think most of these popular mobilization forces do operate under the control of the iraqi state, that about 15% or 20% do not, in those groups are a fundamental problem. another thing we want to do is make sure they stay out of sunni areas, where they can cause real problems. militias areia not there. this is one thing that gave the population the confidence to return. we have a principle when we support iraqi forces in the military campaign, we only support forces on the ground operating strictly under command and control. that means going through an iraqi chain of command were we are working with iraqi commanders. if there is a unit that is not operating under that structure -- senator cardin: are you confident they will be able to maintain the safety of the sunni civilians? mr. mcgurk: falluja, they just completed the liberation of the last neighborhood this weekend. we have 80,000 displaced people. there is one of the

mcgurk? mr. mcgurk: i have been to turkey more than any other country. we cannot defeat isis without turkey and i consult with our colleagues there all the time. there are talks right now in the geneva about the political way ahead. and there is a military campaign at is the track in a complex situation and something we are coordinated with. and the post-raqqa phase, stabilization and we will be coordinating with turkey. we can't do this without turkey and we work with them every single day. we have some differences, but they are close allies. reporter: the turkish foreign inister was on the record -- mr. mcgurk: but i have great respect for the foreign minister and great colleague and look for that relationship to continue. reporter: one for you, mr. secretary and the latest north korean launch, it was more successful than anything they have done so far and went to a high altitude. my question to you. how has this missile launch impacted your thinking, your assessment about the north korean missile threat. and if i may, mr. chairman, a separate question

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

if we have the brett mcgurk sound, i would like to play it now.kay, well, we don't have it, but this is exactly what they were concerned about, a premature withdrawal. so when you have all of this going on and the president makes a decision to go, can you at all take it out of that context? do we look at this, mac, and just say, okay, the president has made a decision as presidents have beforehand, there are troops who are serving abroad in harm's way, we're going to go there for the holidays and let them know that we appreciate them, or do you have to look at it in a political context, as well? >> i think you have to look at it in a broader context. politics is part of that. but chris, the most sacred responsibility of any president of the united states is commander in chief, to keep the american people safe and we entrust that responsibility to the brave men and women who dedicate their lives and their careers to doing just that. so this needs to be a consistency in the policy, and certainly, secretary mattis was highly respected, as was special

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

the special envoy briefing reporters on the anti eisel fight in syria under a summer eleventh mcgurk knew everyone in the region and he reportedly told colleagues this week the president's new policy on syria would make it impossible for him to continue in his post. already both congressional democrats and republicans have called trump's syria decision dangerous and deplored jim madison's departure from the pentagon now those who had been fighting alongside the americans are looking to these legislators to try to change the white house's mind dear senator lindsey graham south carolina kurds in syria appreciate your strong opposition on the wrongfulness of trumps you know a lot of old decision to withdraw from syria and your principled stance on standing by your kurdish allies the next step in fighting i so now certainly as the trumpet ministration declares it won't be us forces and resources leading the charge rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington. brett mcgurk spain instrumental in shaping washington's policy in northern syria he was appointed as the u.s. envoy for the global coaliti

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

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

the person, brett mcgurk worked as a u.s.pecial envoy to the international coalition fighting isis. >> he was in iraq and had just finished briefing partners that the u.s. would stay in syria when he learned president trump had reversed course. his resignation on friday came just one day after u.s. defense secretary james mattis quit over the same thing. >> and this tweet from the u.s. president claiming not to know his own envoy. he belittled mcgurk as a obama holdover and quote grand stander who is going to leave the administration soon any way. >> joining me now is political analyst peter matthews a frequent guest of our program. peter, thanks for being with us. >> good to be with you, natalie. >> all right. it's the holidays. happy holidays to you. i don't know how much happy holidays is going around washington because this is the first time in 40 years the government will have been closed three times in one year. and now congress says, well, we'll take it up after christmas. what do you think of the impasse and who is to

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.

what can you tell us about brett mcgurk? >> we're talking about one of the u.s.st accomplished dip malomats and bt mcgurk has been working on issues related to iraq in the region for decades. he's been the envoy dealing with the 60-plus member coalition on isis for about five years now, and largely had been successful, but you know, you just remember in recent days the president had said that, you know, isis, the u.s. would stay and remain in syria to defeat those remnants of isis and also to counter iran, and brett mcgurk was talking to state department correspondents just a few days ago, and then went off to the region to brief partners about this policy assuring members of the coalition u.s. partners in iraq and syria, like the kurds, that the u.s. was going to stay. in fact, he was in iraq meeting with senior leaders when president trump tweeted that he was pulling out of syria. so according to sources familiar with his thinking, his colleagues, you know, brett mcgurk felt his credibility, his integrity was on the line. he could not defend this policy let alo

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 is the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter isis.cgurk's resignation follows defense secretary james mattis's stunning resignation on thursday, that resignation shocking washington and stunning u.s. allies. with me now is arwa damon, cnn's international correspondent. what are u.s. allies saying? >> they're reeling, as you can imagine, because up until that moment, where president trump tweeted that he was withdrawing all u.s. forces from syria, everyone thought that america's strategy, a strategy that they had just recently also had emphasized to them by brett mcgurk himself, was to stay the course in syria, until isis was completely eradicated to. train up adequately the local forces there. and to continue to add a buffer to iran's influence. and now, none of that is anything remotely close to what america's strategy or should i say trump strategy seems to be in syria. and then you also have to look at america's adversaries in the region. i mean who is welcoming this? the syrian regime, the iranians, and the russians. turkey's posi

yes ok so mcgurk was also there to ensure it's fortune met in two thousand and seven no idea where he was working on the status of forces agreement were good is is is good at getting in front of somebody and telling that person what they want to hear the problem is other people are listening if you simply talk to that network that you talk about it's long been time to leave his post was supposed to leave at the beginning the time and inspiration disposed to leave last summer he was now supposed to leave two weeks from now so now he's resigning to head to head of the syria issue citing the president snarkily troops out of syria is the reason and it's just it's just not the case as to that drawdown of u.s. forces from syria very specifically just that specific. kariya first for the next minute or so. ah there are potentially all that negative consequences to this because there have been for example a couple of low level terror incidents in europe in the last year the genesis of those have been traced right back to rocca which as you and i both know was a is eisel emotional hot land that

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: 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 joins james mattis who also resigned this week.he president said he gave him a second chance after obama fired him. joining us is a foreign correspondent for "the new york times." thank you for being here with me. let me start with you. this is significant for a couple of reasons. one, this was the top official in charge of fighting isis. >> it is. >> and number two, it could be an indication of things to come. talk about the significance of the departure. >> so brett mcgurk served three administrations two republican. he was kept on after obama left specifically because he was considered so valuable to the fight against isis. this is the person, a human being, who went all over iraq and syria and cobbled together this mosaic of a coalition that ended up fighting isis for us. keep in mind it's not american troops that are actually fighting isis, but it's the kurds, the iraqis. it's the local partners that are doing this. >> and to really get inside his decision, he's basically saying, i could no longer guarantee our allies that we

mcgurk for being here. i want to focus on the effort to address the issue and i know you indicated in your written testimony that isil controls 80% of the energy supply and accounts for 50% of their revenues about $509 a year since 2014. my first question is who is purchasing this oil generating $500 million of revenue and you also indicate there are 100 members a decentralized management team is so a 1600 personnel. what are we doing to get this individual is facilitating the site and in a terrorist organization? >> thank you, congressman. to elaborate, you are right. we believe the overall revenue about a billion dollars a year, less than that now. $500 from energy products. you know, it is purchased by a lot of middlemen and hard to tell exactly where it's going. russians claim turkey despite most of it. that is not true. what is happiness itself to middlemen and goes to a third party in third party and is hard to trace from isil to the end-user. it is a significant revenue stream and we are now signific

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

mcgurk, 192 t-walls were up. the big progress is that 43 t-walls are up, in addition 17,500 t walls. they save lives, put them up. number two, the iraqi jewish archives ted deutsche and i and many other members are concerned. i don't want them to be shipped back. the iraqi government incorrectly states these papers are theirs. that is not true. we hope you continue to work on that. the bigger issue that brings that together obviously since the departure of the troops, al qaeda's reemergence causes iraq to take a turn for the worse. and al qaeda safe haven so we've got to rebuild our influence there. thank you, mr. chairman, for calling this hearing. >> thank you, ms. ross slay ton. mr. deutsche of florida. >> thank mr. chairman and ranking member engle for holding this hearing. in the stability in the iraq government and the syria conflict, the number of al qaeda affiliated fighters in iraq has reached levels not seen since 2006. the off-shoot is now the primary perpetrator of violence. al qaeda disavowed the use

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

now it's careful to note that mcgurk was scheduled to leave in february. he was going in march to take up a position at stanford university, has a young child, was looking to have a life after government for a while. but really one of the best and brightest of the u.s. administration security team felt that he could no longer implement the president's policy on syria. i'm also told that the resignation of defense secretary mattis in large part because of the -- >> elise, i'm sorry, i've got to interrupt you. we're going to talk more on this departure of brett mcgurk, special envoy, his resignation, but let's go to capitol hill senate majority leader mitch mcconnell talking about this ongoing government shutdown and what they're working on to propose a bill. >> understanding that no further votes will occur until the president and senate democrats have reached an agreement to resolve this. let me say that again. we've pushed the pause button until the president from whom we will need a signature and senate does democrats from whom we will need votes reach a

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

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

our special envoy to the global coalition for isis here us, brett mcgurk. i know you heard from him a couple of weeks ago and he wanted to come in today to update you on where things hand. without further do, brett mcgurk. brett: thank you. ok, thank you everybody for coming. what i wanted to do today, you heard from the secretary, about a trip around the world. everything going on in the world in activity at the state department. what i thought i would do is drill in a little bit more about what he discussed, one of our key priorities here in the state department about the campaign , against isis. so, i want to focus on the overall campaign, it is a global campaign. but dive in a little bit to the so-called caliphate in iraq and syria. bring you into what we are doing every day and how it is working, interagency, throughout the government, and particularly with our diplomats here at the state department. some topline points, i think it is important, if you go back to when isis arrived on the international scene, back in 2014, we had 40,000 foreign fighters

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

joining me from washington, brett mcgurk, u.s. deputy assistant secretary of state for iraq and iran. he served as adviser to the u.s. ambassador to iraq. i am pleased to have him on this program. welcome. and you tell me, there is a new york times report that said the united states may be prepared to send u.s. troops are rescue refugees? >> i haven't seen that report but what that is probably referring to is a commitment that the president has addressed the american people, that we are committed to breaking the siege of mount sinjar where thousands of innocent people, yazidis, are trapped on this mountain, surrounded by isil terrorists. we have been doing airstrikes on the north side of that mountain. those strikes have been very effective. they have allowed a lot of them to get off the mountain. we are now actively undergoing an assessment to determine how many people are left and what we can do. >> you are basically saying we will do everything we have to do to get these refugees to safety. >> charlie, the helicopter that crash

leave the role it drifts here culls mcgurk the architect of dangerous and short sighted policies in iraq and syria he's probably referencing the group's work with the george w. bush administration he was an early advocate for the surge in iraq in two thousand and seven now in an e-mail to his colleagues mcgurk said trump's decision to pull troops out of syria came as a shock and left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered i worked this week to help manage some of the fallout but i ultimately concluded that i could not carry out these new instructions and maintain my integrity. now let us know what you think about this latest high profile departure from the trump national security team you can get in touch with us as always on twitter using the hash tag it's a news group thank you for that andrew and the impact of president trumps decision is being felt on the ground in syria al jazeera is in a harder has this report from the techie syrian border. turkish military reinforcements are being sent deep into syria to the front lines north of the city of mumba

against isis has quit over president donald trump's sudden decision to pull troops from syria brett mcgurk departure follows the resignation of defense secretary james mattis who had opposed withdrawing from syria and cutting the u.s. presence in afghanistan a partial shutdown of the federal us federal government has began after politicians failed to end their dark deadlock over spending trump refused to back down on funding for his border war forcing the congress to adjourn without a budget deal. the head of the u.n. team tasked with monitoring a cease fire in the city of data has arrived in yemen on friday the security council vote to send observers to oversee the truce between the rebels and the saudi and iraq backed yemeni government. at least ten people have been killed in sudan in protests against the rising cost of food and fuel schools and universities are closed in the least five states cities of bata and get out of the state to right now under emergency rule inflation is at seventy percent among the highest in the world. at the head of the sudan opposition party and maddy says th

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? >> 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

but that, at last, may be changing, says brett mcgurk, the president's special envoy on iraq and syria. >> i think there's an emerging international consensus, and i include the russians on that, that without a very serious political transition, this conflict is going to continue to grind on and that's in nobody's interest. >> reporter: consensus on shutting aso-called out of syria's political future would be a breakthrough and give fresh energy to the peace talks currently under way in geneva. while on the battlefield, where an international coalition has joined forces against isis, a new report shows that over the past 15 months, isis has lost more than a fifth of the territory it controlled in iraq and syria. and, says mcgurk, strains are showing in other ways, too. >> so now, cutting salaries for their fighters by almost half. when they store money in mosul, for example, we find out where that is, and we target those sites. >> reporter: bomb the money. >> they can't pay their fighters. they can't communicate with their fighters. they can't move around the battlefield like they coul

mcgurk: we are preparing for all contingencies. in part you spoke about damascus, isis has been able to infiltrate what has been an assad stronghold and talk to what you are seeing in libya. how is the growth of foreign fighters there and the kind of structure different than what is happening in syria? mr. mcgurk: isil took credit for the car bombings. and we have no reason to doubt it was isil. they have done a number of attacks in damascus before. isil is a threat to everybody. and all of our partners in the region, we try to make this point. there are different depth perceptions. but isil is a threat to everybody and a threat to the people in damascus. and we want to unite ranks as much as possible against isil. libya is a bit of a different situation. you don't have the sectarian dynamic like we have in iraq and syria, but we do see isil using the same tactics that it used in syria. it establishes itself, eliminates all competitors and tries to attract the migrants in rica and own open source propaganda, they are saying don't g

brett mcgurk, your reaction to "the times'" reporting about this?well, it's quite an extraordinary report. and what strikes me is the fact that when president trump had this fateful call with president erdogan, i think quite clearly there was no process to really staff that call, to brief the president. so he fully understand the consequences if erdogan had a green light to cross border, because nobody was providing more intelligence on baghdadi -- and this isn't new. this has been going on for years now. the majority of the intelligence, frankly, has come from the syrian kurdish led forces. and without those forces, our ability to really finish off the leadership of isis, in particular, baghdadi, who trump said was his number one priority, apparently he said that, we couldn't do that without these guys. >> and what's happened since then, all the kurdish areas of syria, along the border, the vast majority of them, we've abandoned those areas and they're now under the control of russia and the assad regime. our ability to continue to prosecute this c

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