and the complexity of who might be working with al qaeda. and and for iran and al qaeda. and and the former director's question right there. >> we have been lucky with a lot of questions. >> a final chance to wrap things up in this great forum at the reagan library and final thoughts as you go to your day job. that tuesday sounded tough. >> secretary panetta was one of the first phone calls i made, you have been so generous with your time, i called repeatedly to solve problems quickly, nearly all the former directors have been generous and helped me be better whether they work for democrat or republican president, a mission to keep america safe is one that leon and i hold in our hearts and it is an honor to be part of that and to work alongside colleagues who are aimed at delivering for the president to keep america safe. thanks for inviting me to the conference which i grew up not far from here and -- >> it is a requirement -- >> amen. the vow at the end of the name. >> let me express my thanks to the reagan library and all those associated with the defense forum. we hav

most of them were pakistani but it was an al qaeda operation. many people feel that it was al qaeda's way of announcing to the world that they existed. we know what they just did a few weeks before in 911, but it was in the political world, in the political kidnapping world, this was their way of saying we are here. they introduced a new form of political warfare. kidnapping started about 1983 in hezbollah taking other journalists in beirut, but post- 911, which is the focus now, those people, all of those held by hezbollah was never a ransom demand. they were used as ponds against united states and france and that also was the first time the second part or the second side to the two-sided warfare in that is suicide bombing. that is when they bombed the marine corps barracks and the french paratrooper barrett spread the first political suicide bombing in the afghan pakistani theater took place in pakistan in 1995. it was orchestrated by the head of al qaeda and it's a very interesting back story to that. i would come to that in a moment. the sec

al qaeda means the base. what we today call al qaeda.ey both came out of that cauldron if you will of afghanistan. another man who was there was the man who beheaded nick berg. and he came -- made his way back carrying his jihad with him which he wanted to bring to jordan where in 2002 he killed an american diplomat in the us invasion in iraq. he went into iraq to create al qaeda there. one of the men who worked for him in this group of mujahedin they called themselves was the name he chose to use, our baghdadi, the founder of isis. it is what started in 1973 is now added point where they are all almost the same. there is no distinguishing -- >> the children of al qaeda. >> children or stepchildren of al qaeda. the taliban, when i was in captivity, i had to listen to hours and hours of taliban suicide tapes and in those recruitment tapes they would talk about a chance, a hunting vienna boys choir, a chance about afghan poetry, afghan, past tune, two main ethnic groups, past and being the largest ethnic group in the world without their ow

(dramatic piano music) - [narrator] the government of saudi arabia is itself the target of al qaeda and other terrorist groups. the gulf states have collaborated closely with the us and others in the fight against terror. - saudi arabia has been fighting the war against terror in their home ground since 2003 when al qaeda launched their attacks. what that has done is drawn us closer and closer together with them on the counter-terrorism front and the intelligence front. - the biggest support, i think, for the saudi security services there has been the saudi citizen who rejects all these terrorist activities and works closely with the security services by reporting suspicious activity or suspicious individuals and so on. (soft piano music) - [narrator] saudi arabia, a sunni nation, considers itself a leader of the arab world but its position in the middle east is threatened by a century's old rivalry wi iran, a predominantly shia muslim nation. - it's not so much saudi arabia versus iran, it's a persian-arab conflict which goes back thousands of years. so, that's built-in to the dna of t

has been engaged in a war with al qaeda and its allies. not war on terror in a retail -- rhetorical or metaphorical sense, but in a legal sense. engaged in armed conflict with al qaeda. , as it naturally follows from that, that the president the power to engage in lethal targeting. that is a legal conclusion and a policy conclusion that i draw. and would defend. it is not to say i am entirely comfortable with it. this is a war that is different from other wars, and a number of ways. one of the ways in which it is different is that it is geographically quite dispersed. it is also different in that the enemy does not fight in uniforms. there is much more opportunity for misidentification or collateral damage because of the way in which the enemy is engaged in this war. defend legally, and as a matter of policy, targeted killing as part of the ongoing war against al qaeda and its allies. but it is a particular tool that .as to be carefully regulated and here is an area where i would like to see congress also role.g an oversight you raised an

have we been to focus on isis and not focused enough on al-qaeda? we defeat the global jihadi movement with upbringing sunnis into our orbit? and we do this with kurds and russians and iranians or do we need a a sunni partner on the ground that's going to fight these guys? >> absolutely need sunni partner. >> we are working to do that. in eastern eastern see the depf defense has done good work to bring the sunnis in alongside our kurdish partners in there as well. i think they've made real progress in there. this administration has broadly reached out to sunni countries all throughout the middle east to form coalitions against not only against isis but against iran as well. i think we've made some substantial progress there. if we're going to be successful in taking down the jihadist threat will actually need sunni partners aiding us in that effort. >> what worked in iraq during the surge was the fact that the sunni tribes came over. we were in force enabler by sending additional troops but it was a sunni uprising against al-qaeda which was both a m

. >> it's also really hard to penetrate groups like al qaeda and isis. serving on the front liens of the cold war, russian immigrants and-- >> before 9/11 we had almost no human assets. i assume we're doing better in that way. but as al qaeda was pushed back and then all of a sudden, isis emerged. how hard is it to get human intelligence on the jihadi movements? >> they're all difficult targets for sure, but as the u.s. government has been successful against them in different places, whether it was a significant set of successes in the previous administration against al qaeda, as we've had significant success at taking the caliphate away against isis, it gives us an opportunity to reach in. there are more people who decide being part of team america might be better than being part of team jihadi, and see we're beneficiaries when the big disruptions occur and they allow us to collect in ways when we don't have a chance to touch them. >> the success of syria and isis has been remarkable in terms of taking away their caliphate. we did kurdish fighters that

al qaeda is to be followed because for people al qaeda is the main threat. at the same time maybe start research to understand the complexity, the eventuality of this shiism, jihadism. maybe it's possible, i don't know. at the same time to know libya is much more complicated than iraq. so take care. >> thank you. it's interesting to see how much tunisia is shaped by events around it and coming into it. particularly in comparison to algeria. so thank you for that. doctor masbah, i was wondering if you could tackle the same questions vis-a-vis morocco. what are some of the threats as you see vis-a-vis morocco, what are things we should be thinking about that perhaps are unique to that country? >> thank you very much for this invitation. i will try to answer three question in my presentation. first is what the level of threats regarding morocco. and the second what are the recent threats salafi jihadi seen in morocco and finally how can we better understand the profess radicalization of morocco. i was asked not to talk about how governments felt with the radica

during the 2000 presidential debate, no when asked about al qaeda. -- no one asked about al-qaeda. both those cases those two elements became the crisis that dominated both presidencies. what is the threat that is out there and do you see threats none of the sea? session none of us -- that none of us see? director pompeo: we have things that could be in the national intelligence priorities framework and we would all know them. then there is a set of other things that others should not characterize as second-tier. certainly, the political risk in south america are one of them. to make sure we get that right. the united states is watching what is taking place. border,y south of our central america and mexico. right that to get some of these threats are real but they are not nationstates. the threat to the united states with a country. against america doing the threat from yugoslavia or some other nationstate but today the threats are much more varied. whether it is from groups like hezbollah or al qaeda or threats to our information system or groups like wikileaks. they do not have a

it is written broadly to authorize the president to go after and defend against al qaeda and its allies and that was interpreted with the operative language only 60 words long, but is the basis of the military operation, perhaps the longest war in history. depending on how you count. it has been interpreted expansively in multiple directions. it was expanded geographically. of course congressman at the time that the united states could use force in afghanistan, but did not expect that we would use it in yemen, somalia, north africa, because we did not know it would spread in all of those different directions and this is been expanded to include a lot of other groups that are loosely, if at all, tied to al qaeda and that is a controversial interpretation that i am critical of. i don't know that the aumf applies and i think it is quite a stretch that the obama administration made and the trump administration has continued. having worked inside that branch, a would not expect other presidents to make a different legal decision and the challenge as been how you get congress to produce a upd

, a) to know where the al-qaeda members were.hem, then you can use them. cia documents declassified in november which were recovered from osama bin laden‘s compound in pakistan shed a new light on how iran helped al-qaeda against the us in iraq. some of those documents suggest iran has had a pragmatic relationship with al-anda. the documents suggest iran and al-qaeda had been helping each other in syria and iraq. in 2011, when president obama pulled out from iraq, i was in baghdad. the next day, the picture of iran's supreme leader was posted in baghdad's main square. most shia militias were more loyal to qasem soleimani than the iraqi government. vali nasr is an academic and former foreign policy adviser to president obama's administration on iran. part of why iran has been so successful in the region is because they've played this game of manoeuvring between different factions, relying on the one that is most naturally their constituency but yet build relations with the other side, play them against one another. in october, qas

during the 2000 presidential debate, no one asked about al-qaeda. both those cases those two elements became the crisis that dominated both presidencies. what is the threat that is out there and do you see threats none of us see? what could really come out and surprises that you worry about at night? the list is long. we have things that could be in the national intelligence priorities framework and we would all know them. then there is a set of other things that others should not characterize as second-tier. in spite of the fact they are not in the news each day. certainly, the political risk in -- unrest in south america are one of them. to make sure we get that right. the united states is watching what is taking place. everybody south of our border, central america and mexico. and we need to get right that some of these threats are real but they are not nationstates. historically the threat to the united states with a country. what was america doing against the threat from yugoslavia or some other nationstate but today the threats are much more v

goes through a serious process but i would highlight us persons who are members of al qaeda who werees targets of threats and there have been us persons family members in contact with terrorists so there are legitimate reasons the fbi might need to know that information but it goes to the law enforcement channel and there is tremendous oversight and respect for the law when they do that. heather: thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. the time is 19 minutes after the top of the hour and donald trump has out to make america safe again by taking the notorious ms 13 gang. >> we will find you, we will arrest you, we will jail you and we will deport you. heather: brand-new proof the president's hard-line policies are working. when time magazine got it all wrong addicting donald trump would melt down and lose the election, they are at it again with a brand-new cover that will have you seeing red. ♪ >> another low blow to the commander-in-chief coming from time magazine, and paying tribute to his one year anniversary being an office. and donald trump's comments in north korea. depictin

idlib is a deeply troubled area with an al qaeda affiliate largely in control. we are working on stabilization in the north and northeast very successfully and with a minimum of u.s. physical presence, about 2,000 u.s. military and seven soon to be ten foreign service colleagues. this is a highly efficient operation and it's working on the ground. but those are only the first steps. the 2254 political process, the process the entire national community of like-minded states signed on to is the key. it's the key to addressing assad and his departure. it's the key to resolving the question of foreign forces in iranian influence and what are our levers? what are our tools to move that forward? they are denial of legitimacy and authenticity by the regime or its supporters in moscow or tehran and with holding of reconstruction funds which are vital to the regime and we think moscow's interests over the long term. those are potent levers. >> i agree that that certainly sounds good but it's hard for me to see what progress we have made on going to get to that political

enrique: el brazo de al qaeda, pool con vÍdeo de esta misionera, imÁgenes muestran apelando, cuando Éstea de gira por chile.

it is written broadly to authorize the president to go after and defend against al qaeda and its allies and that with thepreted operative language only 60 words the, but is the basis of longest war in history. it has been interpreted expansively in multiple directions. it was expanded geographically. congress meant that the united states could use force in afghanistan, but did not expect that we would use it in yemen, somalia, north africa, because we did not know it would spread differentthose directions and this is been expanded to include a lot of other groups that are loosely, qaeda and tied to al that is a controversial interpretation that i am critical of. mfat 't know that the au applies and i think it is quite a stretch that the obama administration made and the trump administration has continued. having worked inside that expect otherld not presidents to make a different challengesion and the tobeen how you get congress updated and adaptive authorization for the use of military force. this is a thing colleagues and eyes have written about on l'affaire. we have ideas out congres

he was ultimately convicted of providing material support to al qaeda and its a case i supervised when i was the chief of the two prison uni two-persoe southern district of new york. the evidence in the trial showed she attempted to assist other individuals affiliated with al qaeda to try to enter the united states based on false statements and immigration documents and in fact assisted and took on the persona of one of the individuals whom he was attempting to try to get back into the united states to commit terrorist acts. the individual statements provided by that individual demonstrated that she was attempting to come back into the united states to commit attacks on gas stations in new york, my home town, and by the fact we were able to prosecute him and stop the attempt to engage in additional terrorist attacks here in the united states. additional items included in the report the immigrations and customs enforcement provided information that shows that approximately 1,716 removals in 2011 because of the designation that is determined by ict in the department of homeland security

he was ultimate convicted of providing material support to al-qaeda, s supervise when as chief of the terrorism unit in the southern district of new york. the evidence in the trial showed that he attempted to assist other individuals who were affiliated with al-qaeda to try to enter the united states based on false statements in immigration documents and, in fact, he assisted and took on the persona of one of the individuals he was attempting to try to get back into the united states to commit terrorist acts here. the individuals statement provided by that individual demonstrated that he was attempting to come back into the united states to commit attacks on gas stations in new york, my hometown, and by the fact were able to prosecute him, stop that attempt to engage in additional terrorist attacks here in united states. additional items included in your report demonstrate the u.s. immigration and customs enforcement provided information that showed there is an approximate 1716 removals of aliens since september 11, 2001, across national security concerns, designation that is determin

the ammunition of course and the taliban al qaeda isis they're all experts at taking just a little slivers of information and then using that to radicalize others in as propaganda so we want to try to eliminate as much of that as possible because any information we give the enemy they will expand imperio up and make it into something like i said one hundred seventy four thousand trained six on acceptable incidents six too many but when you do the math on that. you know it is a cut of the fabric of that society i think some would even argue and say look you know maybe we need to back away from kind of using forces to kind of in this kind of proxy war set up where it's like ok we can't really fully commit ourselves whether it be unpopular at home or whatever the reason would be so we're going to kind of you know flood money or weapons of support into groups. like syria you look at a lot of places around the world throughout history that ultimately kind of prove out . unsavory characters do we need to kind of rein in that idea that kind of go to plan i think what you really see here is we got

is committed to the total and enduring defeat of isis and al qaeda and other terrorist groups in syria and the region ensuring they cannot regenerate and return. thanks to the generosity of the kick and the american people, the u.s. has provided nearly $7.5 billion in humanitarian assistance since the start of the syrian crisis, about 1.5 billion over the last year. this critical aid assists at least 4 million syrians in need every month inside that country. in eastern syria with support from our colleagues and the department of defense, the state department and usaid lead recovery efforts and designed to help consolidate our military gains and provide life-saving assistance to conflict-afflicted civilians and stabilize the liberated areas. as this committee well knows, unlike in iraq, we do not have a trusted government partner to work with. we are not working and we will not work with the assad regime. until there is a credible, political process and by credible, we mean supported by the syrian people that can lead to a government chosen by the syrian people without assad at its helm

they have been selling arms to countries trying to defeat us and al-qaeda rinser yes but what i mean in terms of arms sales we become no better in the sense that we have an independent body monitoring the russian around sell weapons according to political decisions rather than looking at the whole humanitarian issue you can make sure those weapons are not going to be used to breach international humanitarian law you can make sure that the.

al qaeda, isil, associated terror groups are still intent on harming our people and those working with us overseas. yet with each day that passes since the nation was attacked on september 11, 2001, it seems that concern over terrorism has waned n. is in part due to the success of our defense and intelligence community in preventing another major attack. they rely upon section 702 to accomplish that mission. i look forward to renewing the bipartisan consensus on this issue and reauthorizing this important provision as the senate votes later this week. now, on a final matter, mr. president, in the wake of last month's historic tax reform legislation, the news is filled with stories of economic optimism and increasing prosperity for workers and middle-class families. in fact, i'm proud to announce that earlier today, i spoke with the leadership of human that -- humana which employs more than 12,000 people in my home state of kentucky. yesterday they notified tear staff they will be accelerating pay incentives for associates and raising the minimum hourly wages for both part time and full

is internationally designated as terrorist born as a branch of an al qaeda affiliate later they swapped sides figuring i saw flavor terrorism was more to their liking when i reached out to the washington post's beirut bureau chief about her tweet she disputed the fact that she ever gave praise to the man or his so-called journalism. i dispute that they gave praise to the journalist or his journalists i pointed out that standing up in the field and continuing to talk while explosions and there were no fall around you is brave she still admires is bravery though the mainstream media has a history of becoming in chanted by jihadi affiliated want to be reporters take karim the story teller when it came to the battle for aleppo people executed it's as simple as that what can i do here and see a blend in the crowd i don't think so am i going to turn my so over to regime forces absolutely not so what that he's giving a platform to a suicide bomber right at least he's taking all the right boxes they say you have to protect human rights. they support the terrorism so how on earth. of poor human

i think if we put more emphasis on the al qaeda, isis threat this will help unify our country better knowing we have to do something more for our border security. i want to have your thoughts on that, mr. judd. are we missing the boat on our messaging? mr. judd: we're. c.b.p. s to happen is needs to release to the public the number of people we're catching from countries of special interests. right now we're catching an awful lot of people claiming to be from bangladesh but our agents believe they are from afghanistan. when they are interviewed, because we don't have those language skills so we have to use interpreters or some other interpreter he, they are telling us they are not from bangladesh. what needs to harnings c.b.p. needs to let the american public know this is what we're dealing with. we're not just dealing with people from the country of mexico. we're dealing with people from all over the world, including from special interest countries. mr. bacon: i brought this up to the homeland security representatives. i did not get a good answer why we're not telling the american p

the more fighting is still ongoing in series italy province between government forces and the al qaeda linked news refreshment his exclusive video of the battle to keep positions. lead.

syria if hillary clinton has her way we will be starting world war three with russia in syria over al-qaeda and this is the trump administration has compete clearly capitulated to the only guns and they're running trams foreign policy tillerson now sit and permanent in deafening as you opened it with terry occupation of syria their goals are now open to regime change once again back to the obama era confronting iran because iran is not allowed to have influence in syria no matter what damascus said i think tillerson should give us a list of the countries in the world that are allowed to decide who their allies are and which ones aren't because it's always complained in eastern europe that countries are allowed to ally with and join nato if they want but syria's not allowed to ally with iran he wouldn't say they're going to go i think we need to. wayne to all of you who might not watch the news in the days what happened in syria what happened was a turkish invasion. it is a factor it is a fact that the russian forces have removed themselves from the area that is actually or but it was a resp

been doing for the last six years it legally arming and training and salary militants allied with al-qaeda to overthrow the syrian government the trump administration finally after months and that obama policy but they doubled down on supporting the kurds which are affiliated with the white p.g. which the us has listed as a terrorist group largely because of its insurgent actions in turkey against the turkish regime of earlier but what we're having now diem is that we have the us sowing the turks and the kurds under the bus the same bus i mean the contradictions the more you look at it the more the contradictions are are jarring ok well the problem is they're trying to remove. my and their diversity who was actually not in syria before two thousand the united states and you have lost you which. you know a country at least four times more important than syria and iraq the u.s. and they have already lost you know their policy was so destructive not only destroyed syria it also destroyed their own released input it will continue oh it's one of the things is if we look at what secretary tiller

and saudi arabia set up to funnel salaries and there is turkey is still supplying al qaeda with weapons for offensive they are literally as reported in the western mainstream media doing joint patrols with al qaeda and attacks on afrin as they call someone else terrorists it's just it's orwellian and this could lead to turkish confrontation with the us their proxies aren't having a good time in africa and they're already seen that already thinking about the fact that he. has lost in syria. and now it's going to potentially suffer another loss against a nato ally it's really quite amazing well i think again the only good outcome here is that we're hearing the troops i think what the german media is saying about their gun and their markers just called it that that is most likely the troops but what they're gonna say in the boardroom is not is also true you know germany is not democratic you know it prevented every guard and turkey from appealing to their citizens on the german territory during the elections so no one is good in this situation and the good thing is that they they and must

this train station was an american—base used back in 2008 to fight al-qaeda fighters.tely devastated after it was recently won over from is militants. they were driven out of iraq, with the prime minister declaring victory. but months later, this station, which sits on the border with syria, is not at peace. the threat is still very realfrom isis. in the past ten days there have been attacks almost daily, attacking the border check—points, destroying iraqi tanks, humvees, there's been many casualties. coalition forces are now based in al-qaim, helping the iraqi army defend against regular is attacks from across the border. they gave us exclusive access to their operations, covering one of the most challenging parts of the country. the area around al-qaim and the border and the western euphrates river valley is a complicated mosaic, of different tribes, different law enforcement and security organisations. the most powerful are the iranian—backed popular mobilization units, they are mainly shiite fighters, and they have been killed in fighting is. these pictures shows t

if you don't hear about al qaeda today which was responsible for 9/11 because they worked together day in and day out to eliminate that al qaeda there is no reason that they shouldn't continue in the same spirit to finish what was started but ifo the path chosen isn't working together that wouldn't be able e to make that much promise so this is the method that is coming out of the civilian leadership and military leadership of pakistan. we need to work together to finish up what you started. n not stupid one against another. >> i want to turn to trade issues both regional trade and also broad trade if one looks at the significant initiatives inom the region we can take a look for example which is significant and includes upwards of 68 countries, 4.4 billion people, 40% of the world's gross domestic product for the ports and projects and one important component of that is the economic order so i wonder if you could lay out from your standpoint with thee vision is towards the regional trade and how that sits with china as you noted earlier the national security strategy both labeled from

and saudi arabia set up to funnel salaries and there is turkey is still supplying al qaeda with weapons for offensive they are literally as reported in the western mainstream media doing joint patrols with al qaeda and attacks on afrin as they call someone else terrorists it's just it's orwellian and this could lead to turkish confrontation with the u.s. their proxies aren't having a good time in africa and they're already seeing that already thinking about the fact that he. has lost in syria. and now it's going to potentially suffer another loss against a nato ally it's really quite amazing well are think again the only good all to come here is that we're here in the troops i think what the german media is saying about our dog and that mark has just called it that that is the.

and saudi arabia set up to funnel salaries and there is turkey is still supplying al qaeda with weapons for offensive they are literally as reported in the western mainstream media doing joint patrols with al qaeda and attacks on afrin as they call someone else terrorists it's just it's all really know how this could lead to turkish confrontation with the us their proxies aren't having a good time in africa and they're already in the already things you want to talk that he. has lost in syria and now it's going to potentially suffer another loss against a nato ally it's really quite amazing well i think again the only good all to come here is that we're here in the troops i think what the german media is saying about their god and that mark is just called to that that is most likely the troops but what i had to go on they say in the ball dream is now is also true you know germany is not democratic you know it to prevent every go and beat into their citizens on the german territory during the elections so no one is good in this situation and the good thing is that they they must be child

al-qaim station has seen many battles pass through, the invasion of iraq, the fight against al-qaeda, the final stand of the militants who call themselves islamic state. this station was an american —based use backin station was an american —based use back in 2080 to fight al-qaeda fighters. it now, as you can see, stands completely devastated after it was recently won over from the militants. they were driven out with the prime minister declaring victory. but months later, this station which sits on the border with syria, is not at peace. the threat is still very real from isis. we are tech almost every day, destroying tanks, humpy is, many casualties. coalition forces are now based in al-qaim, on the defence from across the border. they gave us exclusive access to the operation. covering one of the most challenging parts of the country. the area around al-qaim and the border and the river valley is a complicated area with different tribes, different low enforcement and security organisations will not iranian units, she militants, have been killed in fighting is. these pictures show

we would have subjects say i would researching al qaeda online and communicating in code with an al qaeda recruiter because i wanted to learn about them. they're in the news, i'm in college, i want to learn. then you have an informant next to him that said he told me he wanted to join al qaeda. in this case the issue of intent is equally critical. president trump can say i fired comey because i didn't think the fbi was led properly, i think morale was bad. you cannot say i considered firing robert mueller because i was worried about the fbi and morale. there's only one intent you can fire for and that's to stop the investigation. >> and neal -- oh, he went out again. we'll come back to neal. let's focus on the larger context of all of this. let me tick through this. you talked about comey. president trump has pressured the intelligence chiefs to say there was no collusion publicly to clear him. he's ordered that sessions not recuse himself from the russian investigation, he's fired comey, tried to fire special counsel mueller. does that add up to a pattern? >> it does. here's the thing. t

and there's also the ongoing danger posed by al qaeda, syria, and affiliates which maintain significant influence in opposition-controlled areas. so it's worth highlighting two recent developments. first, the u.s., russia, and jordan signed a memorandum of principles on november 8 maintaining the administrative arrangements in opposition-held areas in southwest syria. yet iran and its proxies have deepened their foothold in southern syria, potentially exacerbating the conflict and risking further instability by threatening our ally, israel. second, for the past two weeks the assad regime has pummelled idlib and a damascus suburb, which are the so-called de-escalation zones. these attacks have killed dozens of civilians and displaced tens of thousands so far. i hope ambassador satterfield will provide details of what the u.s. is doing to counter iran's activities in southern syria and assess the current prospects for resolving the syrian civil war diplomatically. with that, i'll ask our distinguished ranking member if he wishes to make any opening comments. >> thank you, mr. chairman, an