barrow: -- chechnya's bar i -- to chechnya's barbaric lgbt purge. i thank you for the time. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. engel: mr. speaker, it's my pleasure to yield four minutes to the gentleman from rhode island, mr. cicilline, a co-author of this resolution and someone who is fighting for human rights all the time. four minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from rhode island is recognized for four minutes. mr. cicilline: i thank the gentleman from new york for yielding. mr. speaker, i rise to support h.res. 351, which condemns the violence and persecution against lgbt or perceived to be lgbt individuals in chechnya. this resolution is an example of the strong bipartisanship of the house foreign affairs committee under the leadership of chairman ed royce and ranking member eliot engel. i want to thank my good friend, ileana ros-lehtinen, who has long been the champion of dillingnyity for all people around the world,

in chechnya, where there's so much deadly discrimination there. >> right. and the chechnya issue is so hard to get to the heart of because we don't have a lot of access to it. so, very few journalists have been able to report truthfully about what is going on there. and when you have the leader of chechnya saying that it's impossible that gay men have been either put away in these camps, hurt, or killed because there are no gay people in chechnya, then there is absolutely no believability there. the credibility has been extinguished from the officials. so, all of the reporting has to be very underground. the reporters themselves have been threatened. so what we know about what's going on there is about this compared to what is actually happening. we know something's happening. how many people are involved? we don't know. people are disappearing. families of gay men are not hearing from their loved ones for a long time. >> that's horrifying. >> so this is something that we need to definitely keep our eyes on. as journalists, we can't be activists in our role

>> is difficult for federal authorities inin moscow to get o chechnya. it is essentially a state within a state. not much has changed since the writer and activist was killed 13 years ago. more than 10 years after she w s killed t the masterminds are stl at large. >> five men convicted this evening over the murder of opposition leader boris nemtsov. >> iraq has declared an end to the islamic state after seizing an iconic mosque belonged to the militants in the city of mosul. this video was shot of the recapture of the al-nuri mosca location.. there is not much to recapture. -- this video was shot of the recapture of the al-nuri mosque location. still to come on our program, one of pope francis's advisors has denied sex abuse charges in australia. he will return to his native land to stand trial. it has been 10 years since the iphone started a communications revolution but some believe apple's bottom line is too dependent on that device. those stories and plenty more coming up next. ♪ ♪ >> welcome back. you're watching the debian is. berlin has rejected a

can you tell me what it's like to be a gay man in chechnya?ou saw the true picture? well, we were, of course, very cautious about going into chechnya from the beginning because not many foreign journalist have gone there and we we re journalist have gone there and we were warned by human rights organisations not to try and talk to local chet chance because it could bea local chet chance because it could be a danger to their lives. so we knew when we went in there things could be controlled. we would only be able to speak to high level officials or the officials authorised by them so what was important for us that we got beyond, you know, the sur vas, we continued to ask them questions that would push this particular issue and expose some things. for example the quy expose some things. for example the guy thaw saw at the top of that report there, he is a man who is the warden of a prison which is the location where it is alleged that these tortures and the attacks against gay chechen men began. we spoke to him and you know he very quickly expos

translator: i precisely indicated to president putin the intention of france concerning lgbt people in chechnyacated he would take up measures to investigate the actions of local authorities in chechnya on this issue and i'll be staying on top of this and following up. >> reporter: you see it isn't just that emmanuel macron, unlike most previous presidents speak english fluently and prepared to use it in public but he speaks to a vision that seemed to have fallen out of fashion, a vision of the world based on common ovals rather than individual interests and that appears to be a vision that's found a new champion. >> thank you, melissa. >>> the french government is also using the white house's own video to go after president trump on climate change. the french version adds phrases to the challenge of administration's claims. the opening frame changes the accord is a bad deal for america. leaving the paris accord is a bad deal for america and the world. french president challenges trump administration's claim that the deal hurts u.s. jobs pointing out that many u.s. companies disagree. >>> just

isis to join isis from chechnya to gather evidence and so on. isis has claimed they had executed some of these spies. one of whom was eulogized. isis is infiltrated by various agencies, but i don't think they have better detail or better information than what the coalition has got. jeff: agencies, but i don't how do baghdadi's travels and secrecy differ from bin laden? michael: zarqawi was a little sloppier. the reason why on america was able to get him was because the jordanians had been following him since he was a want to be jihadi. the u.s. was able to reverse engineer where he was by doing these opportunistic operations this digital all information. american special forces are doing the same thing right now, trying to find out where baghdadi and the inner sanctum of isis is. america has more of a true presence in the caliphate in than russia. in this information had come out from this digital information. iran, i would still treated with a huge barrel of salt, but i would be more inclined to believe that version of events. jeff: we are comi

. >> translator: precisely indicated to putin the intention of france with lgbt people in chechnya.w this matter closely together. president putin will take the investigation and local authorities in chechnya and i will stay on top of this and follow-up. >> reporter: it is not simply that emmanuel macron, speaks english, but speaking the language of the vision of the world based on the idea of common values rather than interests. a vision of which the united states had been a champion until recently. >> melissa, speak on me quickly about the importance in the piece of president macron speaking in english. there is an intention there. >> reporter: absolutely. this is unusual. french presidents don't speak english because most have not had the ability. politically, france is politically a fairly inward looking country. this is deliberate move on emmanuel macron's part. france is open to the world. it wants to welcome american scientists in the wake of the announcement by donald trump. france is a country presenting itself as a representative of that other vision of the world. one that

from the caucuses and chechnya, in particular, to gat evidence and so on and so forth. i.s.i.s. claimed they executed some of these spice one of them which is memorably eulogized sort of authenticating that view. so i.s.i.s. is infiltrated by various intelligence agencies including russian security services but i don't think they have better detail and information than what the coalition has because the coalition exclusively is going after this group. >> glor: how do baghdadi's travels and secrecy differ from bin laden and zarqawi's? >> zarqawi was a little sloppier. you have to remember the reason america was able to get zarqawi is the jordanians had been following him since his debut as a wanna be jihadi who had gone to afghanistan twice and come back. the u.s. was able to reverse engineer where he was by doing these opportunistic raids into other areas and gathering this digital information. american special forces are doing the psalm thing now trying to find out where baghdadi and the inner sanctum of i.s.i.s. is. that's what i mean. america has a more true presence in the c

over the years drury says he spent holidays in hot spots all over the world, including afghanistan, chechnyaand mogadishu, somalia. >> i went to the -- the first time to mogadishu round about about christmas time. i can remember saying good-bye to my children and actually thinking for the first time i could be saying good-bye for the last time. >> reporter: he told abc lama hasan that he went because he wanted to find the wreckage of the black hawk down helicopter. >> so that is the black hawk. >> you do realize you're risking your life by doing something like that? >> yeah, of course. >> reporter: drury embarks on these journeys despite misgivings. >> papa! >> reporter: -- of his wife and children in surrey, england. >> i would prefer him to stop. but i think i'd be changing him completely if i made him stop. >> reporter: he takes his life into his own hands on trips like this one to iraq. >> ahead is isis-held territory. the black recognizable flags. >> reporter: where he saw the front line in the battle against >> someone's been shot on this side of the front line. we're pretty much under

translator: precisely indicated to president putin the intentions of france concerning lbgt people in chechnyareement to follow this matter closely together. president putin indicating he will be taking measures to investigate the actions of local authorities in chechnya on this issue. and i will be staying on top of this and following up. >> reporter: it isn't simply, fredricka, that emmanuel macron doesn't believe in the same world vision as donald trump, that is the case for many world leaders that the american president has been meeting since his inauguration. it is perhaps emmanuel macron is more loudly and more determined in a more confrontational way choosing to bring his very different vision of the world directly up against leaders like donald trump and vladimir putin. as though he wanted, perhaps, consciously to make himself the champion of that other vision of the world, the one that is based on the idea of common values, rather than individual and national interests. fredricka? >> all right. melissa bell, thank you very much, in a windy paris, thank you. >>> let's bring in cnn poli

past russia was always willing to strike cease fire deals with terror groups by the way it was in chechnya almost recently in syria it seems that president attacked a has a somewhat different approach because he was offered by those militant. to have a cease fire back in december of two thousand and sixteen he refused why don't you think that that could have saved perhaps some lives and resources. for his and foremost. first and foremost especially his body especially with the communists and the n.p.a. and and india if he he was he offered a cease fire unilaterally you know and and the fact is the president understands truly where and how where and how this where and how the that there is groups where we're actually making advances the meat what was necessary was to make the connection between the drugs and the and the within the drugs and the and that there is groups now we need to just understand that the president is really truly committed to peace in the plays and would and would be neat and would be much and would be and is really seeking to establish that by peace talks and he has no

there are five suspects on trial, five men from chechnya and the prosecution has argued that the hitmily have argued that this trial has not dug deeply enough and looked as to who has hired those men and why they did so, why mr nekrassov was killed. they believed he was killed for his political activity of his views criticism of vladimir putin. the five men on trial have denied any involvement in the killing. today, just before the judgment came in, they said they we re judgment came in, they said they were tortured and you're making a confession and they have now retracted that and said they are com pletely retracted that and said they are completely innocent. the trial continues and said they are com pletely continues and said they are completely innocent. the trial continues andy drury wilkins added to look at their verdicts but regardless of the verdict, some serious questions remain and the family has said that even at these men are potentially found guilty that they will not know who hired them and why boris nemtsov was killed in the heart of moscow. any moment, a summary of th

my question, did you discuss the issue of these atrocities being carried out in chechnya, when you met with the foreign minister lavrov on may 10th, or any other government officials at any other time? >> those are on our pending list. >> so you have not discussed them at all? >> we did not make our way through all the issues in the meetings we had. >> are you aware whether the president raised this issue with president putin? >> i'm unaware. >> will you here today in this hearing condemn the torture and murder of gay men in chechnya and state that it's the policy of the united states government at the highest levels that the russian government must protect the lives and safety of all of its citizens, including the lgbt community? >> that is our position globally. >> in russia as well. >> last time i checked russia was part of the globe. >> so that's a yes. >> yes. >> i assume you're familiar with the events that took place in washington, d.c. outside the turkish embassy on may 6th. >> i am. >> i assume you do not believe it is appropriate to assault americans on american soil. >> i do

and there was a civil war in chechnya. anyway, he was a little nervous. said, we are not going to spend time in the past. all i want to say is, you did the wrong thing for the company. i made a lot of mistakes too, and here are some of the mistakes i made. after i gave him the mistakes i made, he said, thank you for sharing that with me. we had a very nice lunch. it's not quite clear that he did the wrong thing for the company. and life goes on. david: so, you were in a small office, as i recall it, at the seagram's building. jb: -- jamie: after i got fired, you mean? david: you had a small office. jamie: this shows you how stupid corporate america gets -- the company had been set up. we had a cochairman and co-ceo. john reid and sandy weil, i was going to be the president and run the global corporate investment bank and other jobs. because those turmoil among management deals are very tough, we had try heads of the -heads of the corporate bank, coheads of asset management, cohead of consumer -- coheads of consumer, and technology reported to me. instead,

carry out the moment and now all five defendants are from the russian north caucasus republic of chechnya and they really have found their innocence during closed remarks that took place last week now the killing of self took place on the night of february twenty eighth two thousand and fifteen he was a regional governor and pm under the president self but in early two thousand. became an opposition politician so many now in the western media portrayed his killing as a political case however he wasn't the key opposition figure and the country cheered opposition party part of nasa and he also held this seats in the legislature of central russia as the region from september two thousand and thirteen until his death did it will come but surely there when you get the more. it will be forthcoming thanks for the. focus on britain very little play for the british solution to propping up a government at the moment she's all to do that spending an extra one billion euro zone northern ireland soley in order to get the provinces do you put your party to support paula but this is the next report not

been actually interviews all over the media now with people captured from tunisia from egypt from chechnyafrom. morrocco from other parts of the world fighting there they should have been capture the good intelligence from them would have been very useful at least eliminate them but as you said where they've gone other the gone to rika to beef. are still fighters they're all escaped somewhere with become really create havoc all over the world not just in the region and with regard to the civilian death toll in mosul it's very difficult isn't it to get an exact figure do you think that will always be the case will there be some sort of inquiry to work out how many people died. or i doubt it very much if the current iraqi governments or even the coalition have enough. qualified people on the ground to hold this kind of inquiry it's always been known in every situation that the islamic states fight that these terrorist groups will always hold civilians as human shield or as a bargaining chip and the should have been some kind of. strategy to minimize the best among civilians i don't see is a

am unaware. >> are you here today in this hearing you can you condemn the torture of gay men and chechnya and confirm that itit is the policy of the united states government that the russian government must protect the lives and safety of all citizens including the lgbt community. >> that is our position globally. >> and in russia as well. >> last time i checked. >> so that's yes. >> okay. >> next, i assume you are familiar with the events that took place in washington d.c. outside the turkish embassy. >> i am. >> i assume you do not believe it's appropriate for foreign security force to fault americans on american soil. >> i do not. >> have you had conversations with the turkish ambassador about this incident. >> we call the turkish ambassador to the state department immediately and spoke to him. i have had face-to-face conversations with the foreign minister on the margins of the nato meeting. the matter is under investigation by washington d.c. police and the court system and we are awaiting the conclusion of that investigation for further action. >> once those are concluded you consid

>> i'm unaware. >> o will you here today condemn the murder and torture of gay men in chechnya at the highest levels that the russian government must protect the lives of all its citizens including the lbgt community. >> that is our position globally. >> in russia as well. >> last time i checked russia was part of the globe. >> so that's a yes. >> yes. >> i assume you're familiar with the events that took place in washington, d.c. outside the turkish embassy on may 6th. >> i am. >> i assume you do not believe it is appropriate to assault americans on american soil. >> i do not. conversations with president erdogan about this incident? >> we called the turkish ambassador over to the state department immediately and spoke to him. i have had face-to-face conversations with the foreign minister on the margins of the nato meeting. the matter is under investigation by the washington, d.c. police and court system. we are awaiting the conclusion for further acten. >> once those prosecutions are concluded you will consider actions in response to this egregious attack. >> we want our action to

there he even wrote a book accusing the fsb of starting a war in chechnya for political reasons.vinenko a traitor, his image used for target practice by russian special forces. this wasn't just symbolism. in march 2006 eight months before litvinenko's murder the russian parliament passed a law authorizing the liquidation of enemies of the state anywhere in the world. >> you don't pass that just for the sake of passing it. you have to have somebody in mind. >> seven months after the law was passed someone was liquidated, a prominent russian journalist shot in the head outside her moscow apartment. she was a friend of litvinenko. three weeks later litvinenko himself was poisoned with polonium 210. leader didn't shed tears but laughs off the notion that russian state was connected. he thinks russian agents would have done a better job. >> translator: i'm surprised that the uk special services and court accuses russia that it was a bag of polonium and came to london and were just throwing it around. >> it doesn't make sense to a lot of people that russia didn't kill them. >> translat

she was writing some tough stuff about chechnya.my: on edward snowden, he says he does not agree with them. they have granted political asylum. important to say edward snowden did not choose to live in russia. he had his passport yanked by the u.s. when he was flying from dust only transiting through russia and putin graded him political asylum. president putin does not agree with what snowden did as a former kgb guy. >> he says he should have gone through channels. they should have resigned. i don't know he understands fully our system and how difficult it is for a person to work inside the system and say anything. in other words, i know mr. snowden did it for his own conscious. i think that is one of the great stories. that is why i'm in the movie. amy: you're talking about the feature film you did on's known as opposed to these four our interviews -- >> i'm not making judgment. i'm not arguing back. i'm not going to change his mind. what i'm going to do is hopefully show his mind to inple w who are interested talking about what w

as a result there are 500 isis fighters, many foreigners from yemen, chechnya, stock piled weapons inown in the area. so for the last week there has been an on going battle. it came to a head yesterday. we understand that eight foreign fighters affiliated with isis were killed in that area but clearly the philippine president has been trying to take on the isis strong hold in that area and it has come to a head. i would not be surprised to find out somehow this attack may be linked to that military action in the southern fill paoepbs. >> jenna: valuable context for us. thank you very much. we'll bring you back there live. we have another big story. looking live at the white house rose garden where president trump is about to announce whether the united states will drop out of the international climate agreement. kentucky senator rand paul noting, quote, experts predict by 2040 the agreement cost 16.45 million lost jobs. it will cost us $3 trillion in lost gdp for each house hold the annual lost income could be as high as $4900. joining us now, rand paul. thanks for bearing with us. we

one was the man who pulled the trigger, a former security officer in the chechnya region.tsov's allies say authorities have done nothing to find out who ordered the killing. president trump will come face to face with russian president vladimir putin next week, for the first time since taking office. the white house and the kremlin announced today they'll meet on the sidelines of the g-20 summit in germany. syria and russian accused the u.s. today of making baseless allegations that damascus is preparing a new chemical attack. the white house issued the warning on tuesday. syrian state tv today called the accusation "devoid of truth." a russian foreign ministry spokeswoman accused the u.s. of trying to destabilize the syrian regime. >> ( translated ): the goal of it is obvious: to reanimate the theme of so called crimes of the government and to return the situation in syria to the same dead end where it has been led into by the rhetoric of the west saying that president assad needs to leave. at the same time, it's a provocation for the rebels to commit crimes linked to mas

i rise today to speak out about the human rights violations occurring in the russian republic of chechnya. it has been reported that in that country, men are kidnapped, detained, tortured and even murdered just because of their sexual orientation. families have been shamed by these kidnappings and have resorted to take their own sons' lives. in april, i, along with 48 other members of the congress -- members of congress, signed and sent a letter to secretary of state tiller will be -- tillerson asking him to raise this subject with russian officials. mr. panetta: but but to date, neither secretary tillerson nor president trurp nor anybody else in the administration has taken action on this issue. the united states must speak out about this atrocity and russia must investigate such human rights violations so that there is accountability for an end to the senseless crimes. during this pride month we here in the united states celebrate equality. however every month we must say and act for the men in chechnya as we fight for equality across the globe. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: fo

the chechen government, and our move prudent has been part of torture and detainment of gay men in chechnya. >> my colleagues sent you a letter raising this issue on april 7. my question is, did you discuss issue of these atrocities being carried out when you met with foreign minister on may 10? or any other government officials at any other time? >> those are on our pending list. >> we did not make our way through all of the issues in the meetings we had. >> are you aware whether president has raise these issues? >> i am unaware if he has are not. >> will you condemn the torture and murder of gay men and state that it is the policy of the united states government at the highest level that the russian government must protect the lives and safety of all of its citizens including lgbt community. >> that is our position globally. >> next, assume you're familiar with the events that took place in washington, d.c. outside the turkish embassy on may 6. >> i am. >> i assume you do not believe it's appropriate for the foreign security force to do that on american soil. >> have you had conversations

entice one of the parties to leave the government with a bribe using russian money funneled through chechnya. again, fortunately none of this worked. montenegrin police made several arrests in the aftermath of this failed coup attempt but those arrests did not include alleged g.r.u. agents and mr. sish -- sishmarkov. montenegrin authorities hoped the serbian government would consider extradited to montenegro as the government had done with lower level coup plotters, but that did not happen and the two russian agents returned to moscow. mr. president, i know that sounded a little complicated. every american should be disturbed by what happened in montenegro, and we should admire the courage of the country's leaders who resisted russian pressure and persevered to bring montenegro into the nato alliance which finally took place officially two weeks ago. but if there is one thing that we should take away from this heinous plot was that we cannot treat russia's interference in america's election in 2016 as an isolated incident. we have to stop looking at this through the warped lens of politics a

we had a response from one and went on for whole months, including president of chechnya doing a video as a response to our research of humor. i think that tells you a story. so there are many ways you can get in. senator manchin: let me ask this question then. there's been reports -- it's open source that put ip was directly involved, -- putin was directly involved, was -- our intelligence basically said he was directly involved. he gave the order to do what was done. do you have that same verification in your countries and nato allies that putin was directly involved and have you eye department find him as being directly involved so people would know where it's coming from? dr.stelzenmueller: if i had that information i probably wouldn't be sitting here but there's a general assumption in germany that the president's office is directly and copiously involved in giving orders to russian interference. the actual execution is delegated very broadly to a variety of actors. >> i can only repeat what our state prosecutors mentioned. just like a few weeks ago he said that behind these event