first, let me start with isis and al qaeda. i think it's certainly true that they've faced challenges. they're the two largest transnational pan-islamic movements that compete with each other. they actually have similar ideologies as we know, but competed in a range of areas and i think with the islamic state tore daesh, i think that the decline in territorial control has been pretty well documented by all sides, the syrians, the russians, the americans, the turks in iraq and syria. it's been a combination of state activity and substate activity and on the iraqi context, the counterterrorism service forces and local militias and european and other countries that are conducting air strikes, and have special operations and conventional forces on the ground. in the syrian context it's everybody, state and nonstate, where they've lost peak levels of support. the same is true in libya where it's been a comenation of state and nonstate activity against islamic state activity in darna and sirt particularly. al qaeda has also faced cha

al qaeda in pakistan the weapon that iton is 2009 neither of these rashly located in afghanistan al qaeda had not left afghanistan yet so those remnants that survived the campaign from 2001 so they would actually look up local groups to not greet the worst years of domestic terrorism pakistan has ever known and it destabilized their country in the forcee pakistan weapons were now in afghanistan. notwithstanding, the surge of troops hundreds of thousand soldiers at the peak and those including nato contributions that into afghanistan because of the rationale then al qaeda would which is a plausible. and the second problem in this review that goes to the present day we agree as a menace in the threat that relative the finite group with membership in the region that the taliban, are they as dangerous? on what basis? they didn't participate in the 9/11 attacks is not even clear the leadership of the taliban knew about the plot. obviously they were complicit to create things she weary for al qaeda and refused repeatedly request to do something about al qaeda but after the fall of the taliban g

we had a terrorist group, al qaeda in iraq, spring up out of nowhere. >> new information on how al qaedainfiltrating iraq and establishing a staging ground for more attacks on americans. >> to evaluate how to meet and defeat this new enemy, in 2004 flynn examines strategy and operations in iraq and afghanistan with general stanley mccrystal, commander of jsoc, joint special operations command. >> mike flynn looked at the way special operations were pursuing, capturing and killing high value targets. he thought it didn't make sense. >> he said, look, we're only doing a fraction of what we should be doing. we need more, much more. more intelligence, more people, more understanding. >> during the next two years, flynn undertakes the reinvention of how american forces gather, analyze and execute in combat. >> you kill one of these guys, they are replacement. you have to go after the information first. if that means trying to keep the person alive and taking more risk, he was willing to do that. >> flynn focuses operations on retrieving information from captured insurgents. he is hands on. of

had created sanctuary for al qaeda. they refused repeated requests to do something about al qaeda. but after the fall of the taliban government, what did the reviving taliban does waive a threat, direct threat across borders to the united states or its allies? this was a question that all of these reviews in the conference room on the fourth floor of the eisenhower building could never settle. president obama knew one thing. he did not want to fight a forever war against the taliban. bob gates, defense secretary at the time, a holdover from the bush administration. he pointed at the taliban are part of afghanistan. we are not in a position to fight a long war against them. the pentagon wanted to fight a war. against them but it was not able to persuade many of the civilian decision-makers. including those at the secretary of defense that had had a plan that made sense in terms of the cost and the outcomes that were likely to be achieved. at one point during the reviews in the building, they got into an argument about, had everything we wanted to defeat the talent band? i'm not sure

and you say that al qaeda would never win. he meant.eople were outside the rule of law. so are they criminal? but in democracy they cannot decide between guilt and innocence and have the judiciary so clearly the point that i want to make is in this part of the world if you are african of these people want change for dignity and the people in germany muslims are secular. so then those don't work but that was really very bad news for the people who want change and the other point i would like to make is i came knowing the danger because my friends told me if you go back you may get hurt i would say i don't care. so that's the point i want to make it is very sad because of the regime that they should hel help. >> thank you. we have time for questions from the audience we really want people to ask short general interest questions without a long prelude. >> thank you. especially mohammed i am a british international human rights i just want to say that the u.k. by its own silence because of the special relationship that we claim that we have

al qaeda was behind the bombings of the u.s. embassies in nairobi and dar es salaam in august nine hundred ninety eight. as he had promised bin ladin was taking the global war to america. the americans understood that al qaeda could attack at any place and at any time. but some experts raised the possibility that the attacks were masterminded more by the egyptian militants than by bin laden himself. on twenty years it's august before the attack i received a phone call from the government as a variety and he spoke in english as he's very fluent in english and he told me that bin laden is sitting next to him but since he cannot communicate in english so he was sending their guards and doctors are why he told me that. mr bin laden is denying his involvement and of gardez involvement in the bone beings of the u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania so he wanted me. to convey this message through the media he said things like. i did not know ramzi yousef before the world trade center bombing which left open the question that they met af

he deals with -- this is al qaeda entering into this and i will talk about this more in a minute, butn he went to a refugee camp run by others from which the group in the philippines got its name and went to bora bora and developed these credentials and went to iraq. most people here will know the story in order to create al qaeda in iraq he had to assert himself against the shia, but he kidnapped nicholas berg. it was shown on television thereby introducing al qaeda to the world and i was a cbs in the room when it was shown. what we are talking about here is the absolute power of television in the political kidnapping in the form of warfare. we are very happy to welcome you here this evening presented in the new book doing harm. the writer and editor of the award-winning.com and a fellow at mother jones

-- al qaeda, taliban and related entities. syria is not a related entity and any stretch of anybody's imagination. so that resolution makes no sense to be used at all. what was in the presidents statement is essentially, i am the executive officer. i am the commander-in-chief. i will do whatever i want to do when i think it is in the national interest. >> congressman john garamendi with us until 8:00 this morning. phone lines are open for your questions or comments. -- jesse is up first. good morning.>> hello jesse. >> good morning. i am an independent. i lean more toward libertarian then republican but really conservative. i have to tell you -- you know, when you look at what is going around the world, taking the ability within the commander-in-chief to authorize a strike without declaring war, it just piseems stupid to me. and to give the authority to congress which has shown time and time again incapable of doing anything constructive except for taking our money and spending it i think is another step to lunacy. he did not

the lies about iraq's nuclear weapons to iraq the chemical weapons iraq's links to al qaeda those were just lies that were fabricated in the western media back then mimicked what their governments wanted them to mimic and now they're doing the same the only difference is that back and then they accused saddam hussein of working with al qaida but now it is they who have been funding al qaeda and other extremist groups al qaeda affiliates and isis as we know from the defense intelligence agency document of the united states from two thousand and twelve it is a must read for all people a lot of material is out there for those who want to know the facts about the chemical attacks gareth porter has written extensively on this more recently sharon mean any wrote an article when she went to solve the chemical installations there that the western media people ignored those installations that were held by the extremists. we know we know cy the work of science hersh the mit report. the materials there are the only point is that the western media repeats these accusations until it's believed by t

and believe dudley's the al qaeda linked white helmets you don't believe them. the white how much are you know if you look at them they're promoted to be and a propaganda arm of al qaeda and you may recall al qaeda hijacked four jetliners flew them into the twin towers and the pentagon in two thousand and one killed three thousand americans slaughtered them and now they have become our principal source of intelligence for what's going on. and why we rely on them at all i will go to the white helmets of possibly funded by the british taxpayer well you know there are a lot of things that are planted by the british by the united states we have been sending a gargantuan amount of high tech weapons to the terrorists and we had a leaked report from the defense intelligence agency in two thousand and thirteen that said that we were indiscriminately supplying all rebel groups including specifically isis and al-qaeda and so it doesn't surprise me we have been engaged in a propaganda war taken then it's our own people that what we are doing is fighting against syria and i

which is the syrian affiliate of the organization that attacked the united states on nine eleven al qaeda and that is considered a conspiracy in the united states although it's well established so you know i hope that this is that rogers broken the ice here but western media appears to be completely closed off to the facts about the white helmets and i'd wonder if other celebrities will continue to sign on and at least lead to of course will some links through the saudis who are allegedly funding the white helmets how much of an influence through think they could be in the in the group policies. well absolutely i mean honey farsi is some name i hadn't heard before i'd seen this e-mail that the syria campaign was delivering to roger waters attempting to recruit him at this october two thousand and sixteen dinner honey farsi is a saudi british billionaire he's very active in the film industry and hollywood he is his family has been has earned a fortune i think in the construction industry or the oil industry in saudi arabia and so who knows who else is behind the white helmets but we also k

al qaeda.any ways the center of gravity for al qaeda's global leadership has begun to shift from afghanistan and pakistan to syria, taking advantage of the conflict, taking advantage of the chaos. and so you're not just dealing with managing an isis problem in syria. you're dealing with managing an al qaeda problem as well. in many ways, al qaeda remains a potent threat with a global agenda and with a large roster of strong, well-connected terrorists with al qaeda connections on the ground in syria looking to do bad things. >> and what about russia? >> and obviously the other downside of pulling out our troops in the near or medium term is that it is just simply going to leave the playing field to other countries who are working against our interests. obviously russia and iran are at the top of that list. if we lose the ability to have some say, some influence in the ultimate political outcome if syria, that will be to our detriment and we'll probably pay a price for that. >> so russia and iran

targeted mostly young men in two remote desert villages or torres rebels and al qaeda linked groups have been fighting for six years both trying to control northern mali tora rebels known as the movement for the liberation of azhar were declared independence in april two thousand and twelve that was just after president amadou toumani toure a was pushed out in a coup three months later they lost ground to the al qaeda linked group called on saddam deen impose sharia law and public the destroyed many muslim shrines in early twenty thirteen from stepped in and helped mali and forces take back the region two years later mali's government settled on a peace deal with the torah gravels violence continues and despite the presence of french troops and un peacekeepers france's northern mali has become a haven for eisel fighters when here quite a is the executive director of the african immigrant caucus he says these latest attacks are an attempt to provoke to torah acts into a larger conflict. they too are eggs have hired. conflicts and disagreements with whichever government has been embal

militants and many of them in their defense would say that they distance themselves from al qaeda some of those include family members of salman r.b.t. the terrorists responsible for the bombing of the mountains last year and so questions being asked as to what was known about the movements of this family and other links militants and of course we've heard in the past former fighters admitting that they were allowed to travel back and forth between libya and the u.k. in what they described as an open border or an open door policy with no questions asked so many critics are asking exactly what the extent of british intelligence knowledge of fighters linked to groups like al qaeda was exiled libyan professor marburg says it's important to know whether the u.k. still funding militias in libya. there's a link between the government and this group started in one thousand and five in afghanistan and that is no reason for me to believe that this link is disconnected one of the things that really that part of the mind is that the south teenagers didn't use the dimensions of bomb as was fifteen

and american photo journalist who was once held by al qaeda in syria says he was betrayed by the f.b.i. he claims the intelligence service used him to track the terrorists and didn't try to help him. a very warm welcome you are watching r.t. international with me and good to have you with us this hour now countries around the world are looking to the international chemical weapons watchdog today for answers in this group power poisoning case the o.p.c. w. is meeting as we speak to discuss the attack on the former spy and his daughter in southern england a month ago ahead of the talks the chief of a british military laboratory may have partly debunked the u.k.'s core assertion that moscow was to blame he said that they couldn't tell where the nerve agent used was produced. we have not verified the for say source but we provided the scientific information to the government but you have not been able to establish porton down that this was made in russia as i said it's our job to provide eight you know the scientific evidence that identifies for the particular in their view is that it's no

eventually in two thousand and nine he pled guilty to conspiring to provide material support to al qaeda this of course is after he spent six years in solitary confinement despite never never actually being charged with a crime. and now he's adding his voice to the many who claim they were brutally tortured and degraded while in u.s. custody alomari told the guardian quote i do not need apologies i need accountability what they said and did to me was torture. so the question is will the united states face its very guilty conscience or will gina i'm just following orders haskell become the next director of the c i a let's find out and start watching the hawks. forty. three it looks like. it will be. at the bottom if you. like you know that i got. this. week so. well for one of the watching the hawks i robot and i'm top of the hour and she and i have to just chat i don't know just following orders where have i heard that before where i was and excuse. history but like look i'm just following orders giving you one of those vicious indian burns right now because you know they told me to they

and american photo journalist who was once held by al-qaeda in syria says he was betrayed by the f.b.i. he claims the intelligence service used him to track were terrorists and didn't try to help them. and manchester united football legend and european champion peter schmeichel kicks off his new show on r t p travels to one of the city's hosting the world cup matches in russia there's a. very warm welcome to you you're watching r.t. international with me becky aaron. countries around the world are looking to the international chemical weapons watchdog today for answers in this group power poisoning case the o.p.c. w is meeting as we speak to discuss the attack on the former spy and his daughter in southern england a month ago ahead of the talks the chief of the british military laboratory may have partly debunked the u.k.'s core search and that moscow was to blame he said they couldn't tell where the nerve agent used was produced. we have not verified the for say source but we provided the scientific information to the government but you have not been able to establish at porton down t

been named in the media as sami a he's itching mizzy a national and he's believed to have joined al qaeda in afghanistan back in two thousand and illegibly worked as one of osama bin laden's bodyguards because he was already a german resident by that point he dented germany three years prior a need on a student visa when he came back he filed an asylum request that was denied in two thousand and six and a court in germany described him as an acute and considerable danger to public security but a higher court subsequently overrode the deportation order and they cited concerns that this man sami a would be subjected to torture back home in tunisia now sami a was never actually charged with terrorist activities in germany but all sources deem him a security risk and he has to report to police. station on a daily basis here and this whole story has been unearthed again because it's caught the attention of the alternative for germany party they're the ones that put in a request with the regional authorities to find out the status of this man and how much money he's getting in benefits payments

the use of chemical weapons on their clearest signs here that one of the parties jaish al islam an al qaeda affiliate beach was accused by amnesty international off using chemical weapons against the kurds in two thousand and sixteen these parties clearly involved in manipulating the evidence to create the impression that chemical weapons were used if it's ok for them to use children's corpses like dad do you think they would really think twice about using chlorine for real given how easily available it is you know chlorine is very sensible it's not banned necessary it's not banned at all in the chemical weapons convention but it is banned any chemicals banned of it's used as a weapon and no matter what it is. you know talk and he talks and he talks a chemical. peel ation of these pictures your question and i. say again i think they can be manipulated but i think it's still useful to see some of these these victims look like in fact they were hit with some sort of chemical and the other question is if it was dropped with barrel bombs or aerial bombs which is many times the case from helicop

syrian border into turkey when he was captured by all news which was at that time affiliated with al qaeda he spent months and different rebel held prisons in aleppo then in two thousand and thirteen he managed to escape becoming the first westerner to do so he's written a book about his ordeal called the dawn prayer describing the nightmare of his captivity. i write in syria eighteen days before my abduction during the time i was photographing the war from the free syrian army side i was the air force intelligence and come out to bell which were two of the most dangerous parts of aleppo at the time and on new year's eve after i got the photographs i went there for i was on my way out forty five minutes from the turkish border when i was abducted by the on the front ok i'm in syria i didn't want anybody coming to rescue me there was no way you can land seals in the areas that i was in one prison yes it was out of the country every other one was in a lot so there's just no way to fly black hawks low enough where they're not going to get shot down so i didn't want anybody coming to get me bu

various jihadi groups on the ground every time we go through an area to liberate an area i guess al-qaeda or isis once we are winning then the second day or the third day or even the same time we've seen an israeli strike somewhere so basically the israelis they have to be part of a big lesson not go after us anymore i mean we found a couple of planes a month ago and we are willing to escalate we have nothing to lose we have nothing to lose that anyone but israel and everything to gain we are willing to escalate and we are ready to sculley it with these israeli. israeli cowards but just at that us from a distance if you want to really go to war we are ready to go to or guess what when we got to or we've been in a war for six six years now seven years now what are you going to do are you going to live in shelters are you going to live in bunkers fought a long time let's this let's wait and see this wait and see you see that that's all very well and i would say that even in london there's growing recognition that your government has been victorious against the nato proxies in your country w

need to clear before going to the audience is the relationship between al-shabab in the broader al qaeda and isis movements violenthe world, extremism broadly defined. we often hear a discussion of linkages. but we also know that al-shabab is largely a local actor that operates and succeeds often with its ability to understand clan politics and somali society. how do you assess the al-shabab connection to the broader jihadist movement, whether it is called isis, al qaeda, or something else? stephen: thank you. al-shabab has maintained publicly and affiliation with al qaeda. internale been movements to try to affiliate with isis, and they have been rejected and put down brutally in a mini purge or civil war last twoabab over the or three years. there is a small isis element in the mountains. i don't know how successful it has been in growing out of the mountains. vanda: it hasn't. stephen: it hasn't? a sub subnding beyond sub clan. it is there. it can be attractive. the idea can be attractive to some of the shabab members who are affected for recent clan or pay or whatever it is. itself i

the various jihadi groups on the ground everytime we got to an area to liberate an area i guess al-qaeda or i since once we are winning then the second day or the third day or even the same time we've seen an israeli strike somewhere so basically the israelis they have to be part of a big lesson not go after us anymore i mean we've found a couple of planes a month ago and we are willing to escalate we have nothing to lose we have nothing to lose that anyone but israel and everything to gain we are willing to escalate and we are ready to sculley it with these israeli. it's really cowards that just that us from a distance if you want to really go to war we are ready to go to or guess what when we got to or we've been in a war for six six years now seven years now what are you going to do are you going to live in shelters are you going to live in bunkers for a long time let's this let's wait and see this wait and see you see that that's all very well and i would say that even in london there's growing recognition that your government has been victorious against the nato proxies in your coun

we know that both al qaeda and isis has advocated -- have advocated. >> right. >> on their website and to their followers, if you can't get a gun, if you can't get an explosive, use a vehicle. where have we seen -- we have seen nice, munich, stockholm, barcelona, twice in london, new york city, and now toronto. we know in nice in july of 201,8 86 people were killed in an incident like this. it's hard to imagine that terrorism wouldn't be the first thing that police think about before they consider any other motive at this time. >> when you heard the gentleman who was talking to us, the eyewitness, the man who went to perform cpr on a man who he said was dead, you heard him say, this van did not look like it lost control. it looked like it was weaving in and out, almost targeting people. he said it went on for almost seven blocks. so the earlier consent, look, busy intersection in a major city, van hits pedestrians -- could have been anything. but that eyewitness report suggests it wasn't anything. it sounds like somebody was trying to hit people. >> somebody was trying to hit people. i

gabbard: one last question, the aumf, there's been progress made in the counterisis campaign, al qaeda has grown stronger. bret mcgurk stated other a year ago that al nusra is now al qaeda's largest formal affiliate in history. so al qaeda has grown stronger in syria. why is this? and why have -- why have our u.s. policies not gone after al qaeda in syria? >> our policy is in syria which which is a complex battle space, congresswoman that where they're located right now we don't want to go up and do another part of syria. we're doing this by, with, and through our partner forces. they do not have the capability to move into that region. >> the time of the gentlelady has expired. mr. brooks. mr. brooks: thank you, mr. chairman. secretary mattis and general dunford, by way of background i was one of some of our house armed services committee members who in 2011 voted against the budget control act and sequestration provisions that disproportionally cut national defense send if spending and so badly damaged america's national security. now to the current day. per the congressional budget

meanwhile, al-qaeda remains active in afghanistan, syria and yemen. across the world, islamism continues to attract followers and the threat of terror still looms. while western governments have made considerable progress in countering islamic terrorism since the attacks of 9/11, confusion remains over the exact nature of the threat and the mindset of the jihadist. if we are to defeat this enemy, we must first learn to think like him. some advice in the art of war remains as true today as when he first wrote it down 2500 years ago. know yourself, know your enemy, and 100 battles you'll never be defeated. how then do terrorists think about strategy? more specifically in what ways do they think about strategy carefully than we do? how did they define winning, what do they fear most, to help us think through these important questions, with replays to have with us you did at the heritage foundation professor karl walling. through a careful study of terrorist organizations spanning the entire globe, professor walling has distilled the key lessons americans

we'll also get an update on al qaeda in the peninsula. we'll start after the committee finishes up with some other businesses. >> so with love, we thank acting assistant secretary satterfield and mr. jenkins for joining us today. we'll examine u.s. policy towards yemen, particularly in light of concern in congress and regarding the civil war in the dire humanitarian consequences. according to the united nations more than 22 million people, roughly three-quarters of the population, need humanitarian aid and protection and 18 million people are food insecure. last year there were over 1 million suspected cases of cholera. while yemen has always faced significant socioeconomic challenges, a civil war armed a takeover of much of the country in 2014 in their overthrow of yemen's government in january 2015 has plunged the country into a humanitarian crises. iran's support of the rebels and the intervention of saudi-led forces to restore the government which began in march of 2015 have been particularly devastating. in over three years of confli

pictures of the girl and her it's because the israeli government then denied that they're helping al qaeda or al nusra or any of these linked groups and obviously we invoke more greg of the ambassador on the program but of course away from the middle east even the british air strikes british news is more concerned with what could be said to be an identity politics story in some ways because there are foreign ministers from the commonwealth government leave the overbridge a meeting in london today let's go through this from the home office destroyed when the russian landing card says staff and so there was there's essentially a whistle blower. the u.k.b.a. and home office who's come out and said the landing landing cards of west indian immigrants who came here british subjects and british saw themselves very much as british or were told they were british and were told they were needed here were asked to come over here because britain needed reconstruction after the second world war their landing cards giving records of when they arrived here were destroyed were destroyed very deliberately b

on the ground just because they fight isis is not acceptable that we experienced this before with al qaeda we experienced this before with the taliban then returning to monitor it was more clear than you know he said the ongoing us military support to wipe e.g. poisons our longstanding partnership they want to continue with them so the americans are poisoning the relationship to turkey be continue to work with them in the tar and definitely not. putting anything. and making our relations better it's definitely a strain to say the least let me say this why p.g.p. whitey whom united states use that as their boots on the ground is no different from isis and they were the ones according to b.b.c. footage who. why peaches said what but i asked terrorist during the ryder cup so i don't believe in with any of these terrorist organizations the american lieutenant general can can see very important man so truck is operation into our freedom was not helpful and was instead taken focus away from fighting the slow mixtape which is in the interest of the americans that's a strong accusation turkey has.

recentco-author of isw's planning exercises for a strategy to defeat al qaeda and isis. we have been talking about a strike in syria. up next is judy on our democratic line, from indianapolis. caller: i was calling because i was thinking about -- i really feel sorry for the people over in syria. the presidenthat is trying to do what he can to keep them from killing his own people. i don't understand why they do not him like they did gadhafi in libya, just go ahead and bomb the palace or wherever the leader of syria lives. that is the person they need to get. president for being concerned about people in another country who are suffering, but he is a person who is divisive in his own country. he is dividing people against each other in america, so what makes him concerned about people in another country? he is not even concerned about bringing the people together in his own country. host: i want to get jennifer's reaction to the option, can assad be taken out? guest: there are very valid military discussions. the indications from earlier are valid. there is not a ready re