we think they should all work together to prevent the threat that is posed by aqim in the region.'s absolutely essential that probably no one country alone can deal with this problem, and it's important that they all work collaboratively to deal with it together. >> what about the -- who is funding these islamic radicals? i was talking to one of the leaders of the tuareg rebel group, and i asked him who was funding them. and he said something i wanted to play to you, because it was rather shocking. >> translator: qatar is intervening directly in the financing and material of the islamists in azawad. qatar is sending it directly to the imagine huh dean and al qaeda and we think this is flagrant support of the islamists. >> secretary carson, qatar is one of the biggest allies of the united states in the middle east. that was a damming accusation. >> i'm not sure whether that's true, but i do know a lot of the activities of aqim and the islamists are, in fact, self-funded. they engage in kidnapping for ransom, which is bad, and we condemn the kidnapping, and we equally condemn those

north of the niger river in mali is basically completely ungoverned space and aqim, the al qaeda affiliate region, has basically moved in and established a very troubling presence. >> we can tell you from being on the ground there that's true. in fact, that is true also for south of the niger river as well. sheen went on to say the defense department is weighing its options. "outfront" tonight a man who knows the security situation in mali. as well as anyone in the world. rudy atala is the defense department's former africa counterterrorism director. spent several years in fact living with some of the taureg who now are refugees in the camps we were visiting as well. let me ask you, you heard michael sheen there saying he's concerned about what's happening in mali. and he's saying all options will be considered. what options does the united states have? i mean, it's hard to really convey to people how remote and difficult it is to operate in this region. >> sure. great question, erin. actually, if i take you back to 2003, when some of these extremists were starting to embed themselves in n

accomplished in the general himself, the african command, has talked himself about the concern that the aqim and others are collaborating with al qaeda is collaborating. so given all of those facts, why would the state department not designated them as a foreign terrorist organization if you have an opinion? >> representative, i think that is a question addressed to the state department. >> i appreciate that. i think the facts speak for themselves on that. i am fearfully and here let me go for the record my concern is we took the same stance with ttp and aqap after. we descend into the crowded and visit it until after within the united states. so, i'm very concerned about this issue. madam secretary, let me just ask one quick sort of overarching question the overseas here in the united states are we doing enough to try to do with the issue of the visa overstay or can we do more or are we concerned about that? >> we have gone back and revisit the backlog. we are current with the visa coming in. it doesn't mean that there are overstays in the country that are problematic and we should always b