we have the same situation in syria. which i to keep away our young ones from going to syria.we have said no to the iranians. as to ourestions relationship with the united states. our military, our army and y we needg else -- wh to go to the iranians and break international sanctions? in a sense we would try to play the mature player. a vacuum is being created. that is the reality of it. >> thanks very much. this gentleman in the second row. i was listening -- i think the kurdish issue ignored the advance of isis. border,ish share a long 1100 climate or, more than 600 miles with isis. soldiers, the kurdish they could have [indiscernible], the most safest and secure area in iraq for all these years. the kurdish soldiers went to -- kirkuk, the 00 oil-rich area. over the oil-rich area? >> do you have a question? million quarters of a of refugees in kurdish area, a small area. the kurdish people for seven country,raq is a rich $150 billion a year. [indiscernible] for the united states to ask the government to release the budget of -- immediately bordering isis, we will be in troub

we have the same situation in syria. which i to keep away our young ones from going to syria.we have said no to the iranians. as to ourestions relationship with the united states. our military, our army and y we needg else -- wh to go to the iranians and break international sanctions? in a sense we would try to play the mature player. a vacuum is being created. that is the reality of it. >> thanks very much. this gentleman in the second row. i was listening -- i think the kurdish issue ignored the advance of isis. border,ish share a long 1100 climate or, more than 600 miles with isis. soldiers, the kurdish they could have [indiscernible], the most safest and secure area in iraq for all these years. the kurdish soldiers went to -- kirkuk, the 00 oil-rich area. over the oil-rich area? >> do you have a question? million quarters of a of refugees in kurdish area, a small area. the kurdish people for seven country,raq is a rich $150 billion a year. [indiscernible] for the united states to ask the government to release the budget of -- immediately bordering isis, we will be in troub

do you want a bosnian syria?a dividedsnia country and not perfect in terms of how it has been able to does -- to resolve its political issues, but you could end up with something like that in the future of syria, with different communities having substantial autonomy, but maybe with a state institution that included all these various entities to try these cases. if we could get there, that would be a whole lot better than where we are today and, at the end of the day, would be my preferred alternative. i do think there are advantages to having internationals involved in the court. particularly when it comes to those survivors and the sort of sense that they have of whether it is going to be fair, that when they look in a particular group of judges and they say, oh, they are from the other group,the other ethnic they may not trust it. when you have internationals there, you can relieve that, to a point. you also can -- the nationals learn a lot about international law. the internationals learn a lot about the loca

to just stay in syria. it has brought iraq to its current impasse. and so that leads me to conclude that, yes, the time has come. the united states should be taking a more active role in syria. i actually have a piece in the new foreign affairs. and what i have in mind in just a nutshell but really will have to wait until the foreign affairs piece comes out because it's a long argument and requires a lot of historical. it is what we did with the croats during the bosnian civil war? nobody remembers this? everyone believes what brought us to dayton was the nato bombing campaign? it wasn't. what brought us to dayton was a croatian military that was able to defeat the serbs. and this is the simple problem that we have in syria right now. the two groups with the greatest military capacity are the jihadists and the regime. as long as that is the case they'll continue to fight and we'll not want to support either of them. so the question arises, as we did in croatia, in iraq, 2007 to 2009, or actually vietnam fro

do we have a united war in syria? the fact is that the army and the security establishments of syria still are powerful, relatively united. compare syria with iraq. what this problem today with iraq? the u.s. made a big mistake to dissolve iraqi security system and army at the beginning. for ten years the u.s. invested billions of dollars to educate or to train or to organize a new army and security system in iraq. and you see that the army is weak today to confront, 1,002,000, insurgents. -- 1,000, 2,000 insurgents. the failure of the u.s. but iranians were wise enough to support assad and his government to prevent the collapse of army and security establishment of syria, because no one knows what is going to happen after. in environmental issues, one, i think on weapons of mass destruction in the middle east, for last 34 years, the only realistic major success has been dismantling of syrian chemical weapons. we don't have anything else. and this is only, and only because of try lateral -- trilateral cooperation betw

there is a kurdish dimension of the syria crisis, a tribal dimension to the syria crisis. it has just accelerated the centrifugal forces tearing at iraq. it's very hard to even state the impact that the syria crisis has had on iraq. in particular, the rise of the suicide bombings and car bombings, all of which we assess are isil. they come month after month and they are targeted, and this is isil's doctrine and ideology to tear at the fabric of iraq, attack shiia civilians at their playgrounds and mosques repeatedly, attack sunni tribal leaders that disagree with them. in february almost 86% of the suicide bombings were all focused on the ewe frads valley attacking sunnis who disagreed with their ideology. then to attack the kurds in the disputed boundary territories in the north. that is what isil is trying to do. we got suicide bomber number down to 5 to 10 a month in 2011, 2012. last year and this year went up to 30 to 50 a month and has a devastating effect on the psychology of the country. >> do we have any numbers of iraqis since june who have been displaced either w

there's a kurdish dimension in the syria crisis, tribal dimension to the syria crisis. it's accelerated the centrifugal forces that is tearing at the fabric of iraq. so it's -- it's very hard to even state the impact that the syria crisis has had on iraq. in particular the rise of the suicide bombings and car bombings, all of which we assess are isil. they come month after month and they are targeted -- and this is ideology, you can go back to the writings of 2004, to attack shias in marketplaces, playgrounds, mosques, repeatedly. to attack sunni tribal leaders who disagree with them. and that's why in february almost 8 % of the suicide -- 86% of the suicide bombings isil brought into iraq were focused on the euphrates valley and anbar province, attacking sunnis who disgraced with their ideology. then -- disagreed with their ideology. then to the kurds with the disputed boundary territories in the north. that is what isil is trying to do. we got the suicide number down to five to ten a month in 2011 and 2012, and it went up this month. it has a devastating effect on the

there is a kurdish dimension of the syria crisis, a tribal dimension to the syria crisis. it has just accelerated the centrifugal forces tearing at iraq. it's very hard to even state the impact that the syria crisis has had on iraq. in particular, the rise of the suicide bombings and car bombings, all of which we assess are isil. they come month after month and they are targeted, and this is isil's doctrine and ideology to tear at the fabric of iraq, attack shiia civilians at their playgrounds and mosques repeatedly, attack sunni tribal leaders that disagree with them. in february almost 86% of the suicide bombings were all focused on the ewe frads valley attacking sunnis who disagreed with their ideology. then to attack the kurds in the disputed boundary territories in the north. that is what isil is trying to do. we got suicide bomber number down to 5 to 10 a month in 2011, 2012. last year and this year went up to 30 to 50 a month and has a devastating effect on the psychology of the country. >> do we have any numbers of iraqis since june who have been displaced either w

there is a kurdish dimension of the syria crisis, a tribal dimension to the syria crisis. it has just accelerated the centrifugal forces tearing at iraq. it's very hard to even state the impact that the syria crisis has had on iraq. in particular, the rise of the suicide bombings and car bombings, all of which we assess are isil. they come month after month and they are targeted, and this is isil's doctrine and ideology to tear at the fabric of iraq, attack shiia civilians at their playgrounds and mosques repeatedly, attack sunni tribal leaders that disagree with them. in february almost 86% of the suicide bombings were all focused on the ewe frads valley attacking sunnis who disagreed with their ideology. then to attack the kurds in the disputed boundary territories in the north. that is what isil is trying to do. we got suicide bomber number down to 5 to 10 a month in 2011, 2012. last year and this year went up to 30 to 50 a month and has a devastating effect on the psychology of the country. >> do we have any numbers of iraqis since june who have been displaced either w

when obama spoke about it he said our national interests in syria is how it impacts syria's neighbors, our partners. chaz, i don't think it is useful frankly to go over what could have been done when it wasn't done. it is a little bit like raking the benghazi murder of our ambassador. what are we going to learn from that? absolutely nothing. i would say since the question has been raised, two things is we did that brought us to this path were first to say right at only must ssad not go but will go. it told the opposition the super power will make sure that this bad leader is deposed. assad overreact himself looking at the arab uprisings and what happened to mube rack and unisia and what happened and yemen and iran and so on. he looked at this and panicked and he determined to nip the whole thing in the bud and he used force. that escalated the thing very quickly. especially because there were people very happy to supply weapons to counter him. we made the mistake of believing had been se mubarak overthrown that assad would go. in terms of sectarian interests, ethnic interests, balance

syria. if it's one in syria technically a war why are you allowed to express support for and in this country you're not going to raise the syrian flag in. syria so you don't consider themselves as israeli to wake but if they raise the flag and if they express support for bashar al assad. can they be restored it depends you can see the traditional treats outfits you know you can always tell us which means. we're. near the border we're marching to the to the border actually that the restoration is already there and what we expect to see is people from all sides standing there. this is the syrians there so the syrians are syrians are just there and here's the syrian flags and for three years this has not be. so now. actually there are demons in point drawing the border. how does it feel for you to feed the syrians and. the line is actually right here if you can see the spade seven here right in front of me because this building that's not fit in. the name behind it is the fans of the border fen

it has begun to spill over with syria's security between borders of leebon and syria. the security council and international community should take action to change such a situation. china f. the key struckive role played by egypt and other countries, in pushing for a cease-fire. china's special envoy for middle to is bringing instance bear with the view of bringing about a cease-fire, cessation of violence. china is following up on the new delivery of humanitarian relief to palestine. china hopes that the relevant players of the international community will enhance coordination and cinergyize the fforts for a cease-fire. china has always believed that assistance of the two countries, israel and palestine, achieved through peace talks is the only and correct way to resolve the palestinian issue. it is also in interest of both sides. we hope that israel and palestine will end the conflict soon. these problems in the bilateral relations in order to avoid a reputation of tragedy. we urge israel to stop its settlement activity, release the detained palestinians for the rest

syria. the rest we carp at but leave to their hereditary rulers, dictators, generals and thugs. when democratic elections yield governments to which our allies object as in algeria, palestine and egypt, washington tries their overthrow and replacement by congenial despots. if democracy is the message, america is not now its prophet. our willingness to rid the region of troublesome democrats has, of course, appeased israel and our friends in the arab gulf, but it has greatly tarnished our claim to seriousness about our values. it has produced no democracies. but it has pulled down several before they had a chance to take root. egypt is a case in point. after raising hopes of a democratic awakening and electing an islamist government, egypt is now an economically sinking military dictatorship, distinguished from other tyrannies only by the grotesque parodies of the rule of law that it stages. not much we can do about this. u.s. concerns about israel's security dictate support for egypt regardl

policy, i'm going to focus on syria. because, you know, when i look at the current debate, syria has fallen off the radar. iraq has taken prominence in the public and policy debates. and what's happening inside syria is often not -- not well analyzed or, you know, there's not much great interest. just look at the number of journalists who thought about that compared to the coverage of syria. of course, syria is a much more dangerous place. still, on balance, what's happening inside syria is not getting nearly enough of the coverage and the policy attention it deserves. so i'm going to spend most of my time doing that. because i think it's fundamental to understand what's happening there. because the ingredients for the conflict are there to last many more years. you know, we saw in iraq that the spillover cannot be contained. containment is not a strategy, it's an avoidance strategy, actually. let me start by making a few points of warning, actually. the first one is that there is a tendency to embrace broad narratives w

it is true in syria, not just for humanitarian reasons, compelling as those are, ending for both syria and iraq is the key. we should not be uping the ante in syria by pumping in more weapons, many which are likely to end up in jihadi hands. we should try to end fighting there and focusesing on eventing the merge ens of an expanding terrorist bastion that will serve as a homeland for the rowing number of enraged muslims. the jihaddistan calling itself the islamic state is a menace to both iran and saudi arabia. as well as to us. distasteful as they might find it to work with each other, iran and saudi arabia have a common interest to discover. the new state was born of political rivalry between jihad and tehran and it can bonl contain tpwhared cooperation. depending on how u.s./iran relations develop, america might be able to help them do this. but if the united states and iran remain enemies, the obvious alternative for the united states would be to accept the inevitability of an expanded dominated state that will replace much of the current political geography of the region, to work

the descent of syria into chaos and growing regional instability, the use of syria as a training ground for al qaeda affiliates and other terrorist organizations, the ceding of regional leadership to our adversaries and the shameful, shameful tolerance of war crimes and crimes against humanity. in short, all of the horrible thing that the critics said would happen if we got more involved in syria have happened because we have not gotten more involved. now president obama finds himself in a position where the united states will have to do far more today to stave off disaster in syria than we would have needed to do in 2012. the administration seems to have finally come around to the idea that we must arm, train and equip the moderate opposition in syria, but arming moderate f.s.a. students is only one element of what must be done for a much broader strategy that includes both syria and iraq. i will be the first to admit there are no good options left. if good options ever existed to begin with. but as bad as our options are, we still have options to do something meaningful in syria. the

approval ratings he himself seems to be a losing not to mention the people of libya the people of syria the people of ukraine and the list can go on and on what is this win win i mean who is winning from this win when i wouldn't characterize mr obama's policies as win when i would characterize them with the following words i got us out of iraq and getting us out of afghanistan i'm not getting involved in syria and now i'm not getting involved in iraq again so basically the u.s. is withdrawing while the russians are moving forward we see this in a case to try to replace the u.s. in egypt with arms supplies trying to replace to a certain extent the us in iraq also with arms supplies and not being helpful as in the case of hamas now when they have this charge of russia not being how for is over often voiced by policymakers in washington what's wrong with not being helpful to the united states is that such a big a crime i mean after all it's a level playing field and everybody is das what he or she or the country sees to be in its national interest no but we're talking about helpful to inte

and the real muslims are going to syria. >> reporter: her friend are in syria, telling her their lives now have more meaning. sophia worked in a pharmacy as a midwife, skills she hopes will make her useful. she may not pick up a weapon, but she represent the support base working for the other side. >> i can help with medical problems because i have some experience in medicine. i know arabic and can teach religion. people are worried about what they say is a young men and women travelling to take part in the conflict in the middle east. for the chief of police station, tracking people like her is the number one priority yip. >> there are more than 100 extremist websites in orb. we expect citizens of osh are going to syria. there are 35 fighting. two came back and are women. there are women going via turkey. >> reporter: it's not just an issue of nation at security. some spiritual leaders are treating it as a social issue. >> the senior cleric says what is happening is a tragedy for the global community. >> god is against killing each other. the profit says if a muslim kills another musl

the people of syria think of themselves as syrian. and the people of lebanon think of themselves lebanese. this borders that these borders simply do not exist will not agree with the people of the middle east. do you. >> do you think it will be a failure. >> yes, will "t" will notaries --it will not resonate with the arabs of the region. >> but doesn't it up the ante, we might say, to create this multi national territory, try to hold onto it, and say that you are ambition, your long-term ambition is to remove that border between syria and iraq. >> well, i think it does create some significant problems and risk for the caliphate, the islamic state or isis, depending on what you want to call it. it risks push back from contemporary arabs, challenges sovereign states of the region and in particular the monarchy of saudi arabia is going to create problems for isis' agenda in the region. >> this comes at a time when the central state in iraq is weak. baghdad can't necessarily push back isis over the border. can't necessarily retake all tha

syria. is wrong in syria technically a war why are you allowed to express support for an enemy of israel in this country you're not going to raise the syrian flag in. syria still you don't consider themselves as israeli to wake but if they raise the flag and if they express support for bashar al assad. can they be restored it depends you can see the traditional trees outfits you know you can see trees. we're. marching to the to the border actually that the restoration is already there and what we expect to see is. this is the syrians. so the syrians are syrians are just there and here's the syrian flags and for three years this has not be. so now. actually very dream is important. how does it feel for you to feel the series. is actually right here if you can see the spade seven here right in front of me this this building that's not finished. and then behind it is the. border fence between israel and syria. you can see the. people in front of them one of those syrians actually talking about

keep its base entire tool to keep syria as a major client for its weaponry i wouldn't have been much easier for russia to strike a deal with washington to oust assad rather than you know a facing this very significant and pretty heated confrontation with the united states it seems to me that you know presenting russia as simply you know pursuing its own very corrupt interests is not really the case i think russia is just trying to protect whatever is left of peace and security in the region ok your words i never said russia had corrupt interests in syria it's true or has a play it is either strew eat what it's so there are some about brits hating protecting peace in the region here or here's the thing you left out several other interests that russia has the specially now preventing the spread of islamic radicalism to the north caucasus which became a major interests after early two thousand and thirteen with the nusra front and then an isis so this is i was in saudi arabia we didn't interest russian interests an interest for all of why is it as zero sum game then that is exactly righ

we have the same situation in syria. which i to keep away our young ones from going to syria.we have said no to the iranians. as to ourestions relationship with the united states. our military, our army and y we needg else -- wh to go to the iranians and break international sanctions? in a sense we would try to play the mature player. a vacuum is being created. that is the reality of it. >> thanks very much. this gentleman in the second row. >> >> and in the zero week of the advance of isis 1100 commuters with isis and then the most safest insecure all these years? in the british soldiers went to kirk. and basically the government and to begin with the terrorist? but besides that. >> do you have a question? >> with 70 in that area but in seven months with $50 billion per year so then i asked immediately to release the budget of kurdistan? and immediately bordering isis one of the best allies should not have a weapon to defend itself. >> would pitcher question? >> i am asking so with that area for the kurdish people? bennett yes. the issue is between baghdad prior to this situa

policy, i am going to focus on syria. when i look at the current debate, syria has fallen off the radar. in thes taken prominence public and policy debate. what is happening inside syria analyzed.ot well there is not much great interest. look at the number of journalists who flew to baghdad for the covered -- compared to the coverage of syria. syria is a lot more dangerous, but still. what is happening inside syria is not getting nearly enough coverage and the policy attention it deserves. i am going to spend most of my time doing that. i think it is fundamental to understand what is happening there. arereasons for the conflict going to last many more years. iraq that the spillover cannot be contained. containment is not a strategy. it is an avoidance strategy. let me start by making a few points of warning. the first one is that there is tendency to embrace broad narratives on it comes to syria too easily. in late 2012, early 2013, the narrative was that the rebels were winning and the regime was collapsing. in recent mo

we talked about syria, isis, arming the rebels. there are 30 different groups, moderate groups, six larger groups within that with different interactions. you're not exactly sure who to help and who they attack. you right now have assad attacking isis. so who do they fight? where do you train them? i think the president does have to come to congress for additional authorization. and the president, i think, really has not been leading. i want to know what the president's plan is. he drew a -- he bluffed with his red line in syria. i think he was slow to recognize what was happening with isis. we need a plan from a president who's engaged, not who seems to be just running out the clock. >> and as senator casey mentioned, he has asked for this $500 million that would be aimed at appropriately vetted opposition forces in syria. senator casey, you've been calling for that for a long time. do you think we missed our window of opportunity there, even if congress goes along with this request, is it too little too late? >> i don't think it'

do we have a united war in syria? the fact is that the army and the security establishments of syria still are relatively united. compare syria with iraq. what is the problem today with iraq's? the u.s. made a big mistake to resolve the iraqi security system in the beginning. for 10 years the u.s. invested billions of dollars to educate or to train or to organize the new security system in iraq in d.c. that the army is weak today to confront the 1000, 2000 surgeons. is it the failure of the u.s.? i think iranians were wise enough to support assad and his government to prevent the collapse of army and security establishments of syria. because no one knows what's going to happen after. on the environmental issues, i think on weapons of mass distraction in the middle east for the last 30 or 40 years the only realistic major success has been dismantling of the syrian chemical weapons. we don't have anything else and this is only and only because of trilateral cooperation between tehran, washington and moscow. therefore yo

home land because they are too busy fighting a war in iraq and syria.they consolidate and are comfortable with their own security situation, it will be the breeding ground for development of terrorist activities and operations other places. >> is that months from now or years from now? >> based on how this situation goes in iraq i would assume it's month from now. >> a threat to the u.s. home land? >> yes. >> general, what's next? >> this depicts what their intentions are in terms of establishing an islamic state, a caliphate that dominates syria and dominates most all of iraq to include baghdad here. >> this is the islamic caliphate that osama bin laden was talking about more than a decade ago. >> absolutely. this is exactly that falling before our eyes. >> so given where they are already and their ultimate designs, what should the u.s.'s kroel be going forward? >> we have to drive sigisis bac toe they can retake the crowns and restore the national sovereign border in iraq. >> they won't be the army, the state they have become now. the we will not elim

pretty struggles to stem the flow of extremists returning from syria as two men arrested at a london airport admit to planning terrorist attacks and more coming up in just a few moments. on marriage in the financial world. can't stop taking credit. in life there. do we speak your language does anyone not they will not advance. your music programs in documentaries and spanish more matters to you breaking news a little turn into bangles stories. so you hear. them try altie spanish find out more visit eye to eye. with the economic ups and downs in the final months day the london deal sank i and the rest because i will be making a living every week on a. welcome back to british men who went to syria to fight alongside jihad asop pleaded guilty to planning terrorist attacks both were arrested at a london airport by the country a terrorist unit to report. mohammad ahmed and you said spent eight months in syria last year now the twenty two year olds are british citizens originally from birmingham but they learnt about the conflict in syria they seemingly became radicalized online and ended

is it syria? is it the fact there are werners, some with american passports operating in syria? is it the fact the syrian al qaeda branch seems to be cooperating with the yemeni al qaeda branch? which is the thing that alarms you most? >> can i check the box and say all above? i think that's precisely what's happening. i remember right after 9/11, our friends and allies in the intelligence community were focused -- always focused on al qaeda but that has ma taz sized and now you have multiple organizations around the world akin to but the latest, similar in form to al qaeda, linked to al qaeda. but there are so many other terrorist organization that's have seen the success of 9/11 and what a few people and few dollars in disruptive technology can do in the marketplace, in the skies overhead, now it's become a rather dramatic means of making their point. >> western partports a real concern? >> i think as you take a look, i understand this is a threat that's connected with al qaeda and arabian peninsula. we know al asiri, chemicalist from saudi arabia, the one who sent his brother

they haven't been able to do that in syria. in syria, you seal the assad government has managed to avoid collapse, managed to avoid being overthrown, which is perhaps in defiance of expectations given that we have heard for a long time now its collapse is inevitable. but it hasn't been able to recapture its own territory or extend its authority with syria, which is what we want to see the government baghdad do certainly. i'd say if we saw the same outcome in iraq, that we have seen in syria, where iran has been very world, we could consider that quite a failure. an abysmal failure of u.s. poll and i don't think iraq would welcome it either. the tactics that iran would pursue in iraq would be similar to syria, and that's not something we would like to see in iraq. more involvement, for example, by hezbollah and other iranian proxies. the activation and arming and fund offering shia ma littals as opposed to national institutions like the iraqi security forces, as flawed as they may be. and in syria, we have seen assad's force wit

we have to strangle their flow into syria number two we have to deny safe haven in syria which gets into training to moderate authorization and we have to hope the iraqis take control of sovereign space. to do that as i explained in my testimony as system where we recruit locally with local tribal structures but the resources of the central government. .. going to defeat this organization. >> what are we specifically doing and going to be doing to crush their networks and prevent them from having safe havens? operationally, what are we going to do to accomplish those goals you outlined as part of our plan? >> i can speak to the iraq portion of this. since this crisis began in early june, we immediately surged in a significant surge of intelligence assets into iraq to get a better picture of the situation. we put special forces on the ground to get eyes on. we are now at the point where we have collected all that information. we have a fairly concrete precise picture, and we are coming up with option 0s for doing just that. this will be an ongoing conversation with this committee and the