also, i went last year with a group to irbil and i want to declare that as well, i guess.k you, is there not some level absurdity in the position whereby we know that the heart of this organization is carrying out beheadings, they are trying to seize the areas which are currently under the control of the pyd, ypg, the syrian kurds? and yet, we have got this self-denying position that somehow britain is not going to be involved in syria. would you agree with me that this is illogical? >> i wouldn't for a number of reasons. if i could qualify why i think i disagree. firstly, there is -- i think you are following the same chapter john did. >> i don't think the same. >> different traps. >> i think we have different positions. >> very close to each other. just looking through the priz dgs prism of britain. we should be in iraq and syria. that's a logical conclusion to draw. but you forget that we are part of a coalition. the americans, john allen, general allen, has not requested us to participate in there. they don't -- it's not that they are short of have too many targets and

second, we established joint operations centers in baghdad and irbil, restoring critical relationships with iraqi and kurdish commander, gaining new insight into their capabilities and needs. third, we deployed special forces teams to assess iraqi and kurdish security formations with a focus on the defense of baghdad. and finally and perhaps most importantly we supported the iraqis as they worked to stand up a new and more inclusive government following national elections. throughout the summer months we worked these four tracks sultly, lohsing more about isil, its locations, movement, and leadership patterns, restored relationships with iraqi commanders and learned more about the deficiencies within their security services while supporting iraqi political leaders as they stood up a new government. for all these reasons, on august 8th, when the president first ordered u.s. military forces to conduct air strikes in iraq, we were able to act with precision and efficacy. on september 8th, one month later, the iraqi parliament inaugurated a new iraqi government with a new prime minister an

iraq, we went from flying o iningflying -- se established joint operations centers in baghdad and irbill restoring critical relationships with iraqi and kurdish commanders. third, we deployed special forces team with a focus on the defense of baghdad. and finally and perhaps most importantly, we supported the iraqis as they work to stachbtd up to a new and more inclusive government. throughout the summer months we work these four tracks sma simultaneously -- while supporting the iraqi political leaders as they set up a new government. for all of these reasons on august 8, when the president first ordered u.s. military forces to conduct air strikes in iraq, we were able to act with precision and efficacy. one month later, the iraqi parliament -- new and different leaders across every cabinet position. including oil, finance and defense. this new government led by prime minister abbadi. first it's governing philosophy is decentralization or a functioning federalism within the constitutional structure of iraq. last week's historic oil accord with the kurdistan region is an outgrowth of this

they land in baghdad first and then go to irbil. we are working on this every day.enters joint operation set up. i went to them. we are working with them every day. our military colleagues have on this -- what do they need, how do you get them. the hundred tanks that they it takes -- we they are sure that fully -- >> do you think the person i be on offense of operations and not just defensive? on the offensive. importantly, they're working closely with iraq he forces, to take back the dam. operation was done in collaboration with others in the area. six months ago, the kurds have -- we are working with them in joint operations centers. we provide them with air cover and air support. >> i want to join with my colleague in queens, aactually needed to south carolina, and pleased i am that there is an agreement on oil. i yield back. for hank you mr. chairman holiness hearing, and thank you for being with us, and always being straightforward with us. as i sit here -- we talk about training and retraining, i just three report two or weeks ago, that iraq has soldiers on pa

the behalf of baghdad, and i would be surprised if you were sitting in the joint operations from in irbilhich we happen to be running with the iraqis, it would be virtually impossible to know that iranian aircraft are flying across the border bombing isil. you would know that. perhaps with the delicate relationship with iran, vis-a-vis the nuclear talks and the like. no doubt, iran is happy and, yes, the enemy of our enemy is our friend. cheryl: so, there's a report on the hill and the white house coming out just today and saying that they will not cooperate with the iranians, but can you foresee a time depending how strong isis gets and how much of iraq they take over, you can see a time we would have no choice but to start to converge with the iranians who let's be honest, the proximity is there to iraq and bring in the turks and bring in even parts of the syrian government. i know that sounds horrible, but that might be where we're headed with all of this. >> the quagmire is certainly a mess, but, yes, if you're a syrian on the ground in aleppo today and see syrian aircraft bombing and

second, we established joint operations centers in baghdad and irbill restoring critical relationshipswith iraqi and kurdish commanders. third, we deployed special forces team with a focus on the defense of baghdad. and finally and perhaps most importantly, we supported the iraqis as they work to stachbtd up to a new and more inclusive government. throughout the summer months we work these four tracks simultaneously -- while supporting the iraqi political leaders as they set up a new government. for all of these reasons on august 8, when the president first ordered u.s. military forces to conduct air strikes in iraq, we were able to act with precision and efficacy. one month later, the iraqi parliament -- new and different leaders across every cabinet position. including oil, finance and defense. this new government led by prime minister abbadi. first it's governing philosophy is decentralization or a functioning federalism within the constitutional structure of iraq. last week's historic oil accord with the kurdistan region is an outgrowth of this new policy. second the new government

have been under siege for months and we have been in the sinjar mountains in some of this and is in irbill has more on the peshmerga offensive. >> reporter: the head of the national security forces in northern iraq says peshmerga and kurdish fighters want to take 700 square meters of land that was originally i.s.i.l. controlled. this land stretches from zuma south of the mosul dam to the sinjar mountains and the syria border and is made up of pockets of villages and towns i.s.i.l. has been holding and the question is where the i.s.i.l. fighters have been gone or they may go to mosul city and the question is if there is backlash and we have seen switching from fight line fighting to insur -- insurgence fighting and suicide bombers came in dressed up as peshmerga and killed many peshmerga forces. at the moment the main fighting is north of the mountains about four kilometers to the north, a town we passed just a week ago which was very much held by the i.s.i.l. fighters and that is really turning into what i'm told a very big fight, the lieutenant we have spoken to on the top of the sinjar m

in when it became clear that august, isis was a threat to our consulate in irbil, to our embassy in baghdad, i would have come before a joint session of congress and ask them for permission to declare war on this group. i would have gotten every vote. i'm not going to apologize for this. i am one of the least reluctant to go to war. if i'm ever commander-in-chief, i will not want to take the country to war. it will be the last resort and only when the country says, we are united. we must fight and we will fight. it won't be eagerness on my part. in this case, i see that there is a threat to american interest. and if the president had come forward and done the right thing, i would have voted. even as reluctant as i am, i would have voted for force and will still vote to use force against this group because i think they are a threat. >> let me change the subject to another when you have really focused a lot on, which is surveillance, and recommending limits on what the nsa has done in collecting metadata. you voted in fact for the bill fourou were one of republicans, if i am not mistaken, who

when it became clear that isis was a threat to our consulate in irbil, to our embassy in baghdad, i would have come before a joint session of congress and ask them for permission to declare war on this group. i would have gotten every vote. i'm not going to apologize for this. if i'm ever commander-in-chief, i will not want to take the country to war. it will be the last resort and only when the country says, we are united and says we must fight and will fight. it won't be eagerness on my part. in this case, i see that there is a threat to american interest. i would have voted for force and will still vote to use force against this group because i think they are a threat. >> let me change the subject to another one, surveillance. recommending limits on what the nsa has done in collecting metadata. you voted in fact, you were one of our republicans who voted for the bill that failed, mainly because your party, all but four of you, voted against the bill. it would have put new restrictions on the pfizer court review process and barred the collection of the nsa of metadata. you were with pre

irbil looks much much nicer and different city compared to other iraqi cities. again that is partly due to readership, more consolidation of power. and also a unity that my mentioned that does not exist in other areas of the country. however, iraqi federalism is still personal and political, ander than institutional legal. we have a constitution, again it depends on who reads it, you know, oil federal imis at the heart of iraq's federalism. still not clear. we have had many political aals, iraq still lacks national hydrocarbons law that should regulate the management iraq's hydrocarbon resources, the sharing of those, the right to sign oil contracts, the right to sell oil. these are completely unclear. there's a situation, such as baghdad needs some there's arom k.r.g., political deal, for example i'm talking about 2007. there was a political deal, baghdad allowed them to sell oil, there was some progress. oil went up, price of oil was enough to cover iraqi running on the decisions. two years later, three years deal. there was another and then this time the k.r.

the training camps in the four particular areas in iraq which is then herb you in kurdistan as an irbilation of iraqi forces that will enter into the fight. similarly, we're beginning to establish the training camps elsewhere in the region where moderate sunni opposition elements will be trained as well. that's the significant support we received from the congress -- >> and that's the harder problem. >> it is a harder problem because the partnership that we enjoy in iraq, very clear partnership we enjoy in iraq at a political level, at a security level, at a governmental level, it's not as apparent nor is it as far advanced or developed. determining our partners, ensuring that the process of recruiting, betting occurs in a proper manner. the training and supporting of the overall, that's a challenge and we're only now getting the camps to come to fruition. >> and she mentioned syria which is a hard promise if we don't have a relationship with the syrian government, but the aspirations of isil or daish is way beyond iraq and syria. we've seen incursions into syria's neighbors, but is it

them atl be at some of training facilities outside of baghdad, outside of irbil where we've had a consistent presence, to support that training and assistance. but if they're not doing it and ining it and committed to it a multisectarian fashion, it we have evene, and the proof of that. so we've got to do this in a way sustainable. >> if this administration had not withdrawn all u.s. forces which was very much part of the president's goals president, had there been u.s. forces in some number there, do you think we'd turmoilg the chaos and we're seeing now? >> i think what we are seeing is the decisionn of that in fact president bush made when he signed the transition agreement to downscale our presence. >> but there was always an option to leave some force there's. states and the united was prepared to do that. president obama was prepared to do that. the iraqi government under maliki was not prepared to commit to provide the necessarys that were for that to be possible. willing as ready and we are in afghanistan and as we will do in afghanistan to leave a reduced american presence, roughly

and we also have another one that works up in irbil. and so, we bring the right people into that to actually help us identify units, and then what we call deconflict of fires and the clearance of fires, so there are iraqis in the process when we do all this. >> thanks. general, justin fishel, with fox news. >> so, why hasn't the vetting process of the syrian rebels begun now, three months into this? and does the u.s. would consider the kurds to be its allies? and if not -- if so, why not arm, do more to arm them directly? gen. terry: so, the syria train-and-equip piece is what you're specifically asking? >>yeah, that's the first part. gen. terry: you know, i think part of that has been, this one is not cleanly in my lane, and i'd -- well, i'll have to punch you back up to centcom in some ways here. there is -- you may be aware, there's a separate task force being established to actually handle the train-and-equip peace. i would just tell you, i think a large part of that has been getting the legislation right to get the authorities and

then we said -- irbil.then we said we may also do something to protect minorities, yazidis and others. that's great, but the message to our sunni friends was if we do get involved to protect people, it won't be to protect you, and that ooh's a problem. -- that's a problem. so over the past year and a half as i've been gallivanting meeting with intelligence officials, there's been one theme especially before iraq became what it is now. and that was that one of the reasons people were going wasn't for some offensive jihad, it wasn't necessarily then, though it's increasingly now for some ideology. it was for many then and for some still now a defensive effort to protect fellow sunnis. and why are you going? they would ask these individuals who returned? because you haven't, washington. paris. canberra. and that is a very, very dangerous phenomenon. and i think that this has to be a better marriage. not only between improved programming at home to deal with the radicalization process before it becomes violent

as someone who always feels more comfortable in irbil than anywhere else in iraq, i have somebody with people who pose that question. i can't think of anything that would be more detrimental than that. if iraq falls apart, we have to have a plan b. but it hasn't fallen apart yet in fact, it gathered up and is holding together. a lot of help from the united states, particularly politically with the new government. several points. first of all, the united states has to stand for something in this world. we stand for a lot. that's behind almost everything we do. one thing we do stand for is a nation state system. we don't look lightly at nation states that break up because of the legal issues, partially because of the problems that ensue when, for example, yugoslavia breaks up. the first problem is, what -- where would you put the southern border of a you are in kurdistan? that's a question to you. i like questioning. >> that's fine. i know there's a framework for an election on the status of a state. i know there's a group in georgetown that studies that closely. i don't think that's ins

i am hopeful that the recent accord announced between baghdad and irbil, which i appreciate the administrationas helped to engineer, will speed support for the kurds. if not, the ranking member and i have legislation to do just that. although the administration notes that 60-plus countries have joined the anti-isis campaign, some key partners continue to per steve administration's strategy as misguided. you are the kui, for one, has withheld of its air base, involvements of its ground forces and other resources and the saudis ander other arabs don't see how allowing assad to pummel those from the ground from the air in alep po makes any sense. instead, they push, of course, for a no-fly area along the kurdish border where they suggest they and jordan can patrol that long term to keep from having the free syrian forces hit from the air by assad at the very time they're trying to fight against isis. meanwhile, there are grave security consequences to allowing isis to control an area of this sitz of western iraq and eastern syria. clerly as of september there were already over 15,000 foreign figh

when it became clear that isis was a threat to our consulate in irbil, to our embassy in baghdad, i would have come before a joint session of congress and ask them for permission to declare war on this group. i would have gotten every vote. i'm not going to apologize for this. commander-in-chief, i will not want to take the country to war. it will be the last resort and only when the country says, we are united. it won't be eagerness on my part. in this case, i see that there is a threat to american interest. force andve voted for will still vote to use force against this group because i think they are a threat. >> let me change the subject to another one, surveillance. recommending limits on what the nsa has done in collecting metadata. billoted in fact for the that failed, mainly because your you,, all but four of voted against the bill. it would have put new restrictions on the pfizer court review process. you were with president obama on that. where were your republican colleagues wrong? say, these are just business records. these are just boring old business records. what do you care

skies of iraq, we went from flying -- second, we established joint operations centers in baghdad and irbill restoring critical relationships with iraqi and kurdish commanders. third, we deployed special forces team with a focus on the defense of baghdad. and finally and perhaps most importantly, we supported the iraqis as they work to stachbtd up to a new and more inclusive government. throughout the summer months we work these four tracks simultaneously -- while supporting the iraqi political leaders as they set up a new government. for all of these reasons on august 8, when the president first ordered u.s. military forces to conduct air strikes in iraq, we were able to act with precision and efficacy. one month later, the iraqi parliament -- new and different leaders across every cabinet position. including oil, finance and defense. this new government led by prime minister abbadi. first it's governing philosophy is decentralization or a functioning federalism within the constitutional structure of iraq. last week's historic oil accord with the kurdistan region is an outgrowth of this new

you have been in iraq, irbil, so many places in the world covering this war on isis.ow you are being home in australia. it seems it has followed you there. is that the best understanding at this point? >> reporter: well, look, i think it's important to remember there are at least 100 centralians in iraq and syria fighting along side isis. that's not taking into account tore supporters here oak. now, australian authorities, the intelligence communities very much i cross that situation. they have been raised up and down the east coast. terror suspects have been arrested, attacks foiled. certainly as far as an isis-related attack here in australia on home soil i think most people would find that very distressing, very alarming. really, reality hitting our people here that this could actually take place at home. >> anna coren, thanks, so much for all of the breaking developments. it's impossible to know if this is someone affiliate or is wannabe. he is asking for an isis flag. he presumably would have been equipped with that if isis was behind him. >> they have been askin