i spent three years as an ambassador in qatar. i had many meetings with the crown prince and the father in qatar, and i have a pretty good picture of their approach to the region and their approach to the united states, and i know there is a strong commitment to the united states and its effort to resolve some of the problems and the sources of instability in the region. >> how much do you think the crown prince and other leaders in the region for that matter were distressed when president obama just a year ago blinked and didn't go in and enforce the red zone, the red line that he had said if assad and syria used chemical weapons against his own people? >> that was certainly of concern to the countries, but the countries, in my experience, are very adaptable. while they have a point of view politically, there isalso a humanitarian impulse that play in their foreign policy. sometimes i think the middle east is sort of a rorschach test for us all with ink blots thrown up continuously and we tend to see what we see for ourselves tha

nic robertson is joining us live from doha, qatar.he conflict. you're in qatar, which is of course a major supporter of hamas. turkey is as well. that's not necessarily the case for so many of the other arab countries in the middle east, elsewhere in the region. tell us what's going on right now, big picture, because it's a little confusing. >> yeah, one of the things that we haven't heard a lot of, wolf, is condemnation of israel we've heard in the past from countries like saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, jordan. but this is principally because it seems that at the moment they see hamas as a potential threat. hamas of course affiliated with the muslim brotherhood. saudi arabia very much concerned about the rise of the muslim brotherhood. and they see countries like qatar as really supporting the muslim brotherhood. as we know, qatar is host to the political leader of hamas, khaled meshaal. he fled here after the arab spring or uprising in syria where he'd been in damascus for many years in exile. and the association between qa

earlier curtis himself publicly thanked qatar for helping to negotiate his release. >> qatar's involvements questions about its relationship with the united states. the washington post says the u.s. government asked qatar for assistance and does so regularly. cnn's becky anderson has more. >> reporter: a tiny country with huge coffers make no bones about it, qatar has become a major presence on the international stage. the release of peter theo curtis from an al qaeda affiliate is just the latest diplomatic feat of many achieved by dohar. it's efforts were driven by humanitarian principles. in june the government of qatar, a u.s. ally, helped broker the release of bowe bergdahl in change for the release of five detainees from guantanamo bay. it's a vital conduit for tricky negotiations, critics have questioned the extent of its relationships with these shadowy groups. despite the gulf emirates contention that it does not support extremists. elsewhere, they provide political support to egypt's now banned muslim brotherhood, and doe har has been accused of supporting hamas, which the u.s. co

and that is qatar.l spoke to cnn's nic robertson about the support hamas is getting from qatar. >> how much support do you receive? >> we smuggle some weapons in from abroad. we got some on the open mark. but we have not received weapons from a specific countries. in the past, iran had supplied us with weapons. but today, we build our own weapons in gaza. >> and financial support from qatar? >> we get financial support from arab and muslim peoples, not from individual states. >> and does that go into making weapons? >> all the money we receive is directed toward the humanitarian needs of our people, to hospitals, education, the families of those killed and those in prison. and with our money, we rebuild what the israelis have destroyed. but, of course, yes, some of that money goes toward our ability to defend ourselves, which is our right. >> qatar is a key ally for the u.s. hosting a crucial u.s. military base there also gearing up to host soccer's world cup inviting the whole world to visit. at the sa

president is also trying to bring countries including britain turkey and qatar, into a broad coalition to help the moderate coalition. including chlorine gas attacks on civilians, an i.s. of crimes including torture murder and recruiting child soldiers. back in the united states the mother of journalist stephen sotloff, a prisoner of i.s. for the last year made an emotional plea to the group's leader for his release. >> as a mother i ask your justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters he has no control over. i ask you use his authority to spare his life and to follow the examples set by the prophet mohamed who protected people of the book. >> for more i'm joined by daily beast editor christopher dicky. good to see you. >> good to see you ali. >> some sort of air coverage or surveillance in syria maybe even air strikes in syria what are you thoughts on this? >> i think if they're going to be effective two things. one they need to figure out exactly what they want to hit. we can talk about air strikes in general, they need figure out what they need to hit. the crisis is in

>> both of you. >> translator: qatar is the main funder of hamas and also head of the hamas is in qatar. we expect that they will use their influence upon -- for example, the last cease-fire, it looked like they did just that, by the way, according to those obligations, we were supposed to continue destroying the tunnels. we did not agree without any cease-fire to stop those activities. so qatar actually probably deceived us or they did not achieve what they told that they achieved. they brought an answer that was not satisfactory. it funds, helps, supports hamas, and doesn't have the pressure --. about iran, some of the missiles, other projectiles surface to air missiles were actually manufactured in iran. this is proof that iranians are in the gaza strip. prime minister, the impression is that this part of the operation was accomplished. maybe the operation on the whole is being continued, but we are getting closer to the completion of this operation. what do you say at that point to the residents of this council that there will be no more missiles. well, i can tell you one thing, the

more particularly qatar.they have denied any kind of support, but i believe that they can exert some influence and actually this led today to the liberation of the mernl journalist held for two years since october 2012 like you mentioned. >> what i understand kind of leverage do you think qatar might have over that? >> it's this kind of -- it's an offchute of al qaeda. i mean, just after the syrian revolution, we started hearing from this -- from jabhat al nusrah. at one point in time turkey and qatar provided support to the syrian rebellion. this group was influenced among the civilian libya since it was the only way to support the syrian revolution after the international community failed to stop the massacre of the syrian population and failed to provide the support to the civilian rebellion because that revolution started at civilian. at times particularly one year after because of the failure of the international community to provide substantial support to the rebels. since that day qatar in particular t

and qatar right now? because obviously qatar was very instrumental in securing the release of this hostage yesterday, the american hostage. but at the same time, there's so many reports that qatar is supporting the nusra front. how would you characterize the relationship between the u.s. and qatar? >> we continue to have a solid military-to-military relationship with qatar. as you know, secretary hagel has spent a lot of time with the gcc nations. we were just there a couple of months ago. and we want to continue that relationship and that's our focus, is on the military relationship. putting that aside, obviously, we don't encourage any support by any nation for terrorist groups and extremists, particularly in that part of the world. >> are you concerned that qatar has supported terrorist groups? >> i've seen those reports. and if the reports are true, absolutely it's concerning. tony? >> did the president authorize the white house -- authorize the pentagon to conduct surveillance missions over syria? an

so when secretary of state kerry wants a deal he goes to qatar and turkey.mer speaker of the house wants to get something done, sh a subtle way, hamas on the same threshold as israel. >> and she's referring to the fact hamas does do, as all of the terrorist organizations do humanitarian things. that doesn't make them a humanitarian organization. >> i don't care about russell brand stay in britain. i care about her, she's an elected official in this country and should know better, democrat, or republican. >> i agree and nobody could replace dudley moore as a speaker. >> he doesn't know everything. >> all you need to know about the deadly ebola virus that is killing hundreds. could it be coming to america? we'll check with our experts here in studio. that is coming up straight ahead. @" she inspires you. no question about that. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only

qatar has spared no costas a liberal, progressive society. in july, the pentagon authorized an $11 billion arms deal with qatar. and you say central command aoutuses it as its main base of operations in the middle east. >> that's our focus, is on the military relationship. >> the support for the islamist factions force egypt and the united arab emirates to go it alone twice in the last week, carrying out air strikes against libyan factions, surprising u.s. officials. >> we believe there were strikes undertaken in recent days by the uae and egypt inside libya. >> it took several days for u.s. intelligence analysts to figure out who carried out the air strikes in libya. >> two principals in ukraine. kitty logan has details. >> they continue to rage in eastern ukraine. the fighting spreading further south. it's just hours ahead of crucial talks with russia. ukraine released a video of 10 russian paratroopers it claims were captured odd territory. the defense ministry said they crossed the border by mistake. >> translator: we were driving in conv

hamdan outside in qatar are not running the show.ng run by a bunch of guys who have high trajectory weapons, who have developed an incredibly sophisticated tunnel infrastructure. and as well khaled may agree or not, believe they're actually winning. there is absolutely no incentive or any sense of urgency right now on the military wing to stand down. and common sense would dictate frankly. >> that was my last question to him is that you're clearly out manufactured by the israeli military. your people are dying. they're in need of humanitarian aid, yet you're violating a ceasefire and saying all that the other side. it's clearly there is a huge disconnect going on. and khaled, how can anyone who may be, you know, pro palestinian or anti-israel, how can anyone have any faith in hamas if their leadership is not in control of what the guys are even doing in the field? >> well, that's a good question. i think there is no doubt that there is a disconnect between the political leadership of hamas and the military wing. and it seemed last ni

states, the memorandum of understanding between the governments of qatar in the united states.et represent the joint chiefs of staff sitting behind me is brigadier general pat white who is the director of the joint staff's pakistan-afghanistan coordination cell. general wyatt help coordinate the bergdahl recovery on half of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general dempsey. the vice chairman of the joint chiefs, admiral winnefeld, as the chairman has noted, will join us later this morning in the classified closed portion of the hearing. and as you know, general dempsey and admiral winnefeld played critical roles in meetings of the national student council leading up to sergeant bergdahl's release, and supported the decision to move forward with this prisoner exchange. in my statement today i will address the issues of the chairman mckeon and mr. smith, issues they raised. when the chairman asked me to testify. and explain why it was so urgent to pursue sergeant bergdahl's release. why we decide to move forward with the detainee transfer, and why it is fully consistent

>> qatar is a very unusual state. >> rose: you are telling me. >> qatar, foreign policy can basically be explained by a rivalry with saudi arabia. a rivalry in which it is completely embald. >> rose: yes. >> qatar is a tiny little city-state. >> rose: right. >> and saudi arabia is a big country and home of the two holiest places in islam. but qatar doesn't want to be told by saudi arabia how to do its business, and it has enough money that it can spite the saudis and do whatever it want to do and it has become a habit and now they like to spite the saudis, the saudis are anti-muslim brother the brotherd they will be the opposite. >> rose: plus they created al jazeera. >> they created al jazeera and behave the united states 0 a crucial military base in the region. >> rose: so they are playing both sides all the time. >> all the time. >> rose: does that make them smart? >> it makes them clever, whether it makes them smart, i don't know but it makes them very, very clever. from the stalled difficult standpoint, qatar is the village that got out of control. >> rose: yes. >> that's what my

. >> charlie: why does qatar support hamas? >> qatar is a very unusual state. >> charlie: you're telling me. qatar foreign policy can be explained by a rivalry with saudi arabia which is completely imbalanced. qatar is a tiny little city state and saudi arabia is a big country and home of the two holiest places in islam, but qatar doesn't want to be told by saudi arabia how to do its business and it has enough money it can spite the saudis and do whatever it wants to do and it's become a habit. saudis are anti-muslim brotherhood and qatar will be pro. >> charlie: and they created al-jazeera. >> and military base in the region. >> charlie: they're playing both sides all the time. >> playing every side all the time. >> charlie: makes them smart? makes them clever, i don't know about smart. from the saudi standpoint, qatar is the village that got out of control. that's what my saudi friends tell me. >> charlie: the village that got out of control. what are they prepared to do about the village out of control? >> they have been pre

have a listen. >> how big of a player is qatar? >> qatar is at the center of this. they have taken their place if the lead of countries supporting al qaeda and al qaeda-related groups. >> what do you make of qatar's place in this? we have worked with them on a number of things. they have close relationships, arming, funding some of the more radical groups in this fight. how do you balance that? >> i'm not going to defend their position. it is a very complex position and hard to defend in certain aspects. what phil said is right. when he said, you've got have somebody that can talk to these people. qatar can talk to them. they aren't so much oriented toward supporting terrorism p. what it has done is support the muslim brotherhood. that maybe that's a terrorist organization. maybe it's not. but that the length that's been important to qatar. not the link to al qaeda. and that is the thing that they've been playing on. now some groups are on the fringes of the muslim brotherhood but not isis. isis is beyond the pale. and it is not funded by qatar. it is funded by its

and particularly in qatar. why qatar? essentially a country a gas station with a flag but it has been a principle supporter of isis. it has fund ad great deal of radical islamist extremist organizations. more importantly it is spy central for extremist organizations, spying on american companies doing business. david: are there any buyers remorse on part of this country and people in it who have been defending these barbarians? go to the commerce department and state department, qatar is reasonable, reasonable ally because we have a fifth fleet presence in qatar. the fact of matter, david, a businessman, i spent 30 years doing business in the region. david: i know. >> you will have to pick and choose where you feel most comfortable. there are countries in the region that will be determined to good close allies of united states. number one place is united arab emirates. the emirates remains a safe valid ally of the united states where businesses are comfortable doing work there. david: do they, they don't have sections of

they would no comments on whether or not they had reached out to qatar.n there is the question of what is the motivation. the government of qatar said they were motivated by the law hao*u man terrien need. u.s. has a no-pay policy when it comes to ransom some prisoners and they said the same. >> we don't make concessions to terrorist organizations including paying ransom. we also don't support any third party paying random. did not do so in this case. we are unequivocal in our opposition to paying ransom to terrorist. i don't know if i could be more clear than that. >> reporter: and the curtis family says this they were told by a qatar officials that there was no ransom paid but they admit they were not privy to the points leading up to this negotiation. now, party theo curtis' mother nancy was interviewed by abc news, she has been able to talk to her son, and she talked about just how much she's looking forward to seeing him. >> do you know what you'll say to him? >> ale give him a big hug and probably cry. and he'll probably cry. yeah. >> reporter: the

there has been letters sent to qatar to focus on the issues. these are in the background, pailing, considering what is coming in front of us, and that is the deterioration. >> a lot of fingers are pointed at qatar. all the other countries - are they against qatar. will they talk about the u.a.e. being accused of setting off air strikes in libya, with the support of egypt? >> i think all these news reports are going on, i, for one, would like that the - those in authority to speak about the issues and be frank about it. there has been strong reports and rumours of the u.a.e. and egypt attacking libyan soil and airport. there are accusations against qatar. some accused saudi arabia of aiding and supporting the i.s.i. s. and only today in the newspapers, the minister of the interior denied that saying we are in the forefront of the fight against terror. it's important that the public knows about what is happening, and shouldn't agree to everything. by and large, to stop confusion among the media and public and the western media, which caused, you

we know for a fact that qatar provides assistance to hamas. they have been doing that for years. those rockets that rained on israel by the thousands are directly linked to the funding that came out of that country and we should not look the other way. we should remove those bases if this behavior doesn't change. we do a lot of business in qatar, american businessmen, we could impact on that as well, and we have to take the gloves off once and for all. >> and speaking of morality, how immoral is it for us to continue a form of, if you will, a detente with a regime that supports terrorism and terrorism against our allies as well as ourselves? there seems to be a time when this nation just asserts its values and if not now, when? >> well, i totally agree with that. these challenges have been out there for some time, and we have been turning our head and not facing up to them. clearly, even with what russia and iran is doing with assad and 200,000 dead now, millions of people displaced, that is a human catastrophe that's taking place there. it's off the front pages in terms of ameri

. >> why does qatar support hamas?> qatar's foreign policy can be explained by rivals in saudi arabia. a rivalry in which it is completely imbalanced. qatar is a tiny little city state. saudi arabia is a big country and home to the two holiest places in islam. qatar doesn't want to be told by saudi arabia had to do its business and has enough money that he can spite the saudis and do whatever it wants to do. now they like to spite the saudis. qatar will be pro-muslim. >> they created al jazeera. >> they gave united states are crucial military base in the region. >> they play both sides all the time. >> every side all the time. and makes them clever. whether it makes them smart, i do not know. from the saudi standpoint, qatar is the village by got out of control. >> what are they prepared to do what the village out of control? >> they have been pretty tough on them this year. by gulf standards, this is tough. >> they are talking all the time. >> they are all talk. they may be doing something else. it is very interesting

terrorism and sanctions. >> steve, we need qatar.eed them so we can find out the five worst terrorists so we can release them for one alleged deserter. let me ask you finally, why, what do you see is the future? there will continue to be shelling but israel thinks they've gotten all the tunnels? >> first of all, two things. one is hamas claimed that it didn't have, or didn't take, kidnap the soldier. i have here a claim, it was tranls-related. they're claiming openly the kidnapping of the soldier. number two, the fact that he was declared dead does not exonerate hamas. in fact, i can tell you that it is likely that hamas killed him in captivity. number three, hamas said tonight no, cease-fire without our own conditions. that means that israel is going to have to endure an eternal situation of unrelenting rocket fire, continued tunnel and murderous attacks and hamas aggression that can be stopped. it can be stopped. if the united states would say to qatar, unless you stop all arms and financial equipment and supplies to hamas, we are

there's a problem with qatar trying to have it both ways. yes, being modern, wanting great openness, and trying to be a home to taliban, hamas. that gives out mixed messages, and qatar ritely wants to be embraced by the international community and deserves the embrace, and has to shed the baggage of trying to bank roll extreme forms of islamist voices out there. >> thank you for joining us. "consider this" will be right back. >> these young people deserve justice >> anatomy of a protest... >> ...the police look like they're getting ready to come down the street >> with militarized police departments >> forces their message... >> they're actually firing canisters of gas... >> a fractured community demands answers >> what do we want? >> justice! >> when do we want it? >> now! >> faul lines, al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> there blocking the door... >> ground breaking... >> truth seeking... >> we have to get out of here... award winning investigative documentary series... special episode ferguson: city under siege only on al jazeera ame

qatar negotiated for his release and they were able to secure it. they have faced some international criticism for funding and supporting these radical sunni militias. qatar has faced criticism for funding these radical sunni groups that are fighting the assad regime in syria, so has the nation of saudi arabia, kuwait, the united arab emirates, honestly, in practical terms, maybe it's because of qatar's relationship with groups like that, that they were able to get theo curtis free. as the u.s. considers what to do next against isis if anything, who else would be part of any u.s. led effort? or if the u.s. wasn't going to lead it, who would -- who else would potentially lead that fight against them that the u.s. might participate in? would a country like qatar, which is a very rich country, a very resourceful country. should we see it strategically important that they intervene to get the journalists freed? if qatar and emirates and kuwait and saudi arabia, have been funding some of these groups to fight against assad and syria, these groups which i

qatar has supported the muslim brother hood and is opposed to saudi objections.defines what the struggle is. that's on top of another struggle between saudi arabia on the one hand of embodiment of sunni islam and iran on the other. iran is not partylibya. if you look at syria, it is an important part. there's a proxy war which extends far beyond libya into which libya has now been dragged. >>> now ballots are sent out today for scotland's referendum for the debate. there were fiery exchanges between the minister who heads the push for independence and british prime minister who gets together the campaign. some thought he was the best perfo performer. >> a grand setting for a fiery and tempered debate. they knew this would be their final chance to go head to head. issue of currency dominated open exchanges. >> if we don't have a currency union, what's plan b? i had no luck asking him what plan b was? i want to know what plan b is. can you tell us? >> the options very clearly. three plan b's for the price of one. >> those that say union are ahead of the polls. salm

qatar airways put out a statement and confirm flight qr23 did originate in doha in qatar. there are 29 passengers, 13 crew members. the crew received a threat about a possible device on board and qatar airways immediately took the precautions to alert british authorities which meant scrambling a filer jet. the crew is fully assisting police at the airport with inquiryies or questions. the safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority. what we do understand at the moment is what alerted the flight attendants and what alerted the captain on board to notify british authorities. what was that threat, was it something they said? was it something they saw on board? those are questions we don't know for the moment. but the plane is safe and we'll see whether this amounts to anything in the end. back to that breaking news and gregg palkot who was on that steery. molly: an alarming look at the total debt the federal government is racking up. in january 2009 the debt was $10 trillion. as of last week the debt soared to more than 17 million and more than the debt increased un

qatar is harbouring hamas leader. we were expecting qatar to influence and reach the last ceasefire that we thought they managed to get the initial commitment. we have made it clear that we'll continue military operations against tonne 'em. neither i -- tunnels, neither i nor the defence minister have agreed on a ceasefire. the feedback we got was not clear, but what we are sure of is qatar consistent exercise influence over hamas. >>> the emir of qatar spoke to the u.n. secretary-general in strong terms about the conflict. he said he was surprised that the u.n. had immediately blamed hamas for violating the ceasefire on friday. and he expressed his regret and astonishment at the u.n.'s slowness over israel's targetting of civilians and destroying their homes. >>> palestinian delegates arrived in cairo to try to revive a diplomatic recourse. israel is not in attendance. for more i'm joined by middle east analysts in london. jails base, our correspondent said a spokesman for the government has not confirmed or will not

we know egypt and qatar, this and that, i we have to stop the bloodshed. we have today 1600 palestinians in the last 24 days there is the killing of women and children. in many areas we have total destruction of villages and so on. they cannot get the bodies from underneath the rubble. we have 8,900 wounded. okay, now those who are trying to finger point at us and blame us, i want to ask them, how many israelis have been killed? many israeli women killed? how many israeli children? none. none. what is happening, a country of f-15s, f-16s, tanks, they're destroying it. they're simply destroying it. that's the truth. now we want--we understand people interest's. we understand nation's interests. but this cannot be fueled by palestinian children's blood. >> also with us for this edition of the program joining us for our conversation. what do you make of hamas' position in the wider region now after three weeks of this war. >> we think see things have been going exactly wrong direction for them. the government in gaza was not impressive. we want to talk about

. >> why does qatar support hamas? >> qatar is a strange state. it has a rivalry with saudi arabia.r is a tiny little city state and saudi arabia is a big country and home of the two holiest places in islam but qatar does not want to be told how to do its business and it has enough money that he can spite the saudi's and do whatever it wants to do and it has become a habit. now they like to spite the saudi's and the saudis are anti-muslim brotherhood. >> they've created al jazeera. >> they gave the u.s. a crucial military base. they are playing both sides. does that make them smart? >> and makes them clever. whether it makes them smart, i do not know, but it makes them clever. from the saudi standpoint, qatar is the village that got out of control. >> what are they prepared to do about the village out of control? >> they have withdrawn the saudi ambassador. this is the toughest play. >> they are talking all the time. the week i was there. >> they may be doing something else. it is interesting that qatar's bid to host the world cup of soccer is the subject of all these revelations of

there's a problem with qatar trying to have it both ways. yes, being modern, wanting great openness, and trying to be a home to taliban, hamas. that gives out mixed messages, and qatar ritely wants to be embraced by the international community and deserves the embrace, and has to shed the baggage of trying to bank roll extreme forms of islamist voices out there. >> thank you for joining us. "consider this" will be right back. >> america tonight only on aljazeera america >>> stimulus programs from the federal government and the reserve gets credit for a lot of fiscal recession. austerity - spending cuts and higher taxes - their economy suffers weak growth. that may change. during a central bankers meeting, tap european bankers sutted european banks could turn from austerity to stimulus, saying the risks of doing too little outweighed those of doing too much. that is excessive upward wage and price pressures. perhaps not in france, after the economy ministerry argued that austerity had gone too far, and hurt the french economy, suffering 6 mon

but then you've got qatar.y suddenly come into play as a group, as a country that's helped us get another american out of the custody not of isis but another terror group. could they then become helpful to us in trying to free other americans that are being held by isis? >> yeah, look, qatar views itself -- would like to see itself as a lee yai son between the islamic world and the western world. of course, you saw the role in the bowe bergdahl handover. the problem is this. there's no doubt that qatar has influence with these groups. but why do they have influence with the groups? it's because they're providing them funding, they're providing assistance, giving them diplomatic representation. again, the group that just released this american hostage, we're all very thankful they released the american hostage, but let's be honest what this group is. this is al qaeda's official branch in syria. that's al qaeda in syria that released this operative. so the good news is that it appears that they realize they don't

and don't think i'm forgetting about you, qatar. i don't normally trust a country that starts with a "q" and doesn't follow it up with a "u," but you know what, here's a little taste. >> qatar reportedly just spent $11 billion to buy american patriot missile batteries and apache attack helicopters. >> jon: did i say taste? i meant a mouthful. you may be thinking, geez, all this buildup of peace on earth might set off alarms on venus. it's okay. we'll send them missile, too. [bleeped] it. i don't care. just not to mars, because as you know, they don't need missiles. they need moms. [applause] sorry. just feel so badly for mars. so now that the united states have made themselves the johnny missile seeds of the region, we can focus in on the main controversy between israel and hamas. >> american military support has been very strong, $3 billion a year. >> jon: not mention all the trees we've planted over the years. that's got to provide some cover. and even when we're not selling israel weapon, we're helping them with a little r&d. >>

qatar played a pivotal role in winning his freedom.an effort that was given additional impetus by the appeal of american executive david bradley. it was this trio that drove the release of curtis. as recounted, david bradley got the news he was released in a text message from the chief of the qatari intelligence at 9:04 a.m. on saturday this weekend. it said, done. steve clemons works for bradley and atlantic media was involved in early stages of negotiations. it wasn't the first time he was involved in hostage negotiations. he was involved in the effort to secure james foley's release from libya are before he was captured again and executed by eyes i is. -- isis. also joining me david rhode from reuters who was kidnapped in 2008 and held in captivity for seven months. we learned today isis has another american hostage sources tell nbc news they were taken hostage on a humanitarian mission for her own safety family members don't want her name released by us or anyone. let me visit steve clemons. i have known you a long time. you work i

then you have sunnis from turkey, jordan, saudi arabia, qatar and others.racting volunteers, quote, unquote, from the sunni world from africa, the caucuses, from central asia as well as from europe and the united states. this is the 20th century prototype civil war with spain in which everybody in europe fought each other on spanish soil and attracted volunteers from all over the world. syria is essentially our own version of the spanish civil war. >> brown: steven simon, that's complicated enough. you see it playing out all over the place, syria as a focal point but also where. >> well, yeah, syria has become a hot pit for some of the rivalries hisham was just talking about, but the camps can be viewed, likewise, as co consisting of iran and saudi arabia, sort of at the highest level, i guess, and then, within the sunnis, you have qatar and turkey arrayed against saudi arabia and the united arab emirates and even egypt. then you have a tacit alliance between israel and the conservative growth monarchies directed against iran, and boosting egypt. so you hav

for example, saudi arabia and qatar are both wahabis but they don't agree. separate views on their roles in the region. both have been providing weapons to the syrian, free syrian army but maybe some of these weapons have already gone to groups like the al nusra front which is an extremist jihadi group and maybe some of them have even gone to isis. maybe before people. >> narrator: what isis was. so qatar and saudi arabia are rivals for sunni leadership. they need to come together. they need to put their forces to work against isis. they're the ones that are most threatened in this. and we can provide the combat multipliers but we don't want our american soldiers in there carrying the burden for saudi arabia and qatar. they should do that themselves. they created this problem along with assad. >> i want to get your reaction to the tweet from republican senator lindsey graham that jim acosta mentioned in his piece "the white house is trying to minimize it the threat we face from isis in order to justify not changing a failed strategy." what's your reaction to

and qatar?>> we continue to have a solid military-to-military relationship with qatar, as you know, secretary hagel has spent a lot of time with the gcc nations. we were just there a couple of months ago. and we want to continue to broaden that military-to-military relationship. that's our focus is on the military relationship. putting that aside, obviously, we don't encourage any support by any nation for terrorist groups and extremists, particularly that that part of the world. >> are you concerned that qatar has supported terrorist groups? >> i've seen those reports and if the reports are true, absolutely it's concerning. tony? >> cut to the chase. did the president authorize the pent goen to conduct surveillance missions over syria? and what comes next? >> don't talk about intelligence matters, tony. not going to start doing that today. we're planning organization here. we have to be prepared for all kinds of options and with respect to providing military options, we're going to be ready to