the terrorists of isis. >> there's no question that they were our vital partner in defeating isis. >> brent mcgurk ran counter-isis strategy under obama and frump. >> they never stopped fighting isis, and they did so at great cost. >> 11,000 kurdish men and women were killed. 24,000 were injured. >> it was very clear for them at the very beginning that this would mean a fight for life or death. >> delar duriq is a kurd who has researched the long persecution of her people. >> it was a historical battle, for survival, for not being wiped out from history. >> reporter: but in the end the kurds believed it was worth it. they won. isis was defeated. the kurds started to realize the dream they'd had for over a century. they began to establish a permanent homeland in northern syria. a place 2 million kurds here could call their own. they even had a name for it, rojaba, meaning "the land where the sun sets." >> the kurdish people are often referred to as the largest nation without a state. they believe it is their historic homeland, and it is their historic homeland. >> reporter: not everyon

isis. we do that through this partnership with the sdf on the ground. the sdf has been a great partner. what we provide for them are the enablers, the air support and intelligence, things like that that help us defeat isis as we see isis pops up and, chairman, i don't know if you want to provide more operational details? >> you asked why, why is it necessary? it's because isis still exists. isis as an entity, as an organization, is more than just an organization. it's also an ideology, it's an inspirational group and so on and so forth. they have been defeated, the caliphate, the physical entity, that was destroyed, defeated. but the organization itself still exists. there are still members. and they are generally more or less in the lower euphrates river valley. working with allies and partners in iraq and the sdf in syria, that allows us to maintain intelligence collection to continue to rip apart the remnants of isis. if we fail to do that, isis will re-emerge. the conditions will come b

what is the mission on containing isis and defeating isis in the region. no matter how we got to the point we got the turkish incursion in syria is to change that equation. we built an alliance with the syrian democratic forces and the kurds as part of that. the history is important. we tried for years after the rise of isis to find a coalition as they build a caliphate across syria and iraq and threatened our interest in the interests of the region. that was an unchecked expansion for a substantial period of time. in 2015 the obama administration was able to cobble together a coalition primarily of kurds and why pd in syria but also syrian democratic forces and working for the iraqis to have a counter isis movement. whatever else one can say about it, it worked. the caliphate has been broken up. because of that plan, started by the obama administration and carried out by the trump administration. it did not defeat isis. isis is a robust transnational terrorist threat but the breaking up of the caliphate was a huge accomplishment. with the incursion of tur

isis. isis is still a arobust transnational terrorist threat in that region and beyond but the breaking up of the caliphate was a huge punishment. with the incursion from the north of turkey, it undermines that. what's the new plan? what happens you're going forward because the biggest risk of this plan from the start was the concern that the turks would have about our alliance with the kurds and the wife e.g. in particular and the obama administrations spent a lot of time trying tomake sure that turkey didn't do what they ultimately wound up doing . and we need a new plan so understanding what that plan is is important but the other pieces that i think is important for members is to understand how policy gets made . in the pentagon and white house and how we can be involved in it. because there's certainly a lot of concerns about how this came out and i'd be curious to have you tell us what actually happened . but essentially, the president sent out a week i think it was a year ago now in

isis. mosul eye was a website i set up to get information out of the isis controlled city of mosul to the rest of the world. i wake up in the morning, i go out, i collect information, and then i go back. i write everything by hand, and then i scan it and put it online. 0ne mistake could lead to death, to the end. from the pulpit, the isis leader proclaimed himself ruler of all muslims. i felt very offended, because who is this guy to claim that he is in charge of our city? nobody knew that i was mosul eye. not even my mother. isis was getting into the city, into the neighbourhood, there was only a thin wall between me and isis when i was reporting against it. next door was an isis senior fighter, the other house next to our house was an isis fighter, in front of us was a whole house of isis. behind that there was another house of isis and then in the middle of all of this, i was reporting against isis. from the beginning, i decided that i would only write facts. by knowing the source or wit

he was the founder of isis. he the father, if you want to call him that, of isis. i think he was not so happy a few weeks ago when he saw those incredible 67 men, in that case, just come pouring down on to where he was staying. and that didn't work out too good. and we have a new national hero. you know who that is, right? conan is our new great hero. and conan was at the white house the other day. you might have seen him. it was something, but the animal noticed al-baghdadi, the founder, the leader of isis, the the man that was trying to reinstitute isis -- because we defeated, we have 100% of the isis caliphate in syria is now ours. he is dead. his second is dead. the third, we have our sights on the third. the third, i don't think he wants the job. [laughter] president trump: the third, you know what, maybe i will go work in a store or something. [laughter] president trump: but that -- but baghdadi was a monster who raped, murdered, and tortured the innocent, including many americans. when you saw those folks, those great people in the orange jumpsuits, often ti

isis. mosul eye was a website i set up to get information out of the isis controlled city of mosul to the rest of the world. i wake up in the morning, i go out, i collect information, and then i go back. i write everything by hand, and then i scan it and put it online. 0ne mistake could lead to death, to the end. from the pulpit, the isis leader proclaimed himself ruler of all muslims. i felt very offended, because who is this guy to claim that he is in charge of our city? nobody knew that i was mosul eye. not even my mother. isis was getting into the city, into the neighbourhood, there was only a thin wall between me and isis when i was reporting against it. next door was an isis senior fighter, the other house next to our house was an isis fighter, in front of us was a whole house of isis. behind that there was another house of isis and then in the middle of all of this, i was reporting against isis. from the beginning, i decided that i would only write facts. by knowing the source or wit

in front of us was another house of isis. behind us, another house of isis. behind us, another war house of isis. and i am in the middle of this, reporting against isis. from the beginning, i decided that i would only write facts by knowing the source or witnessing the event myself. religious police controlled everything — shaving, smoking were all considered immoral, and the punishment anything from public lashings to execution. the public executions were a system that isis imposed on the city. they were enjoying this. they were feeling the pleasure of terrorising the people. isis wanted to make it like a show, as if they were shooting a film for hollywood, a horror movie. sometimes the heading. 0r hollywood, a horror movie. sometimes the heading. or they hollywood, a horror movie. sometimes the heading. 0rthey may hollywood, a horror movie. sometimes the heading. or they may do brother shoot his brother. what made the website more powerful at that time was that its message reached out to the international media, and they made it public everywhere. newsnig

isis. behind that there was another house of isis and then in the middle of all of this, i was reporting against isis. from the beginning, i decided that i would only write facts. by knowing the source or witnessing the event myself. religious police controlled everything. shaving, smoking were all considered immoral and the punishment was anything from public lashings to execution. the public executions were a system that isis imposed on the city. they were enjoying this. they were feeling the pleasure of terrorising the people. isis wanted to make it like a show. as if they were shooting a film for hollywood. a horror movie. sometimes beheading or they made a brother shoot his brother. what made mosul eye at that time so powerful, is that it's message reached out the international media and they made it public everywhere. newsnight has spoken to the writer of a blog, a blog called mosul eye which has been communicating the plight in the city for over two years. i was visiting the fundamen

shoulder to shoulder against isis. and sometimes they work with isis. his is an issue. we don't have clear indications about the situation. i do believe we need a it let's be t clear and work together. . know we do share the same more european investment, i do agree. very efficient against terror groups. we have been clear. clear communication of these groups. president trump: one thing i would like to say you have been doing great job in africa and very much involved there. more than most. that's been fantastic. i appreciate you saying the united states for decades had been paying really way, way disproportionately too much for nato. and you have other countries paying far too little very directly benefited by it. and by the united states involvement. we are changing that around somewhat. it's very important. very important player. nato certainly is not the same thing as we discussed and discussed it at length. this morning we discussed it with secretary-general stoltenberg. we are behind you 100%. all of the money that's been raised and all these countries that are pu

shoulder to shoulder against isis. and sometimes they work with isis. this is an issue. just have the decision about what we face and we don't suchclear decisions about a situation, we are not serious. we are not serious for our progress and not serious for our people. i do believe we need a deal longion, how to term with europe. who is the enemy today. and let's be clear and work that.er on i know that we do share exactly the same -- needs more european investment, i do agree. very efficientd against trer rift groups meaning having clear definition of these terrorist groups. we have been clear. clear communication of these groups. president trump: one thing i would like to say you have been doing great job in africa and very much involved there. more than most. that's been fantastic. i appreciate you saying the united states for decades had been paying really way, way disproportionately too much for nato. and you'd have other countries paying far too little very directly benefited by it. and by the united states involvement. we are changing that around somewhat. it's ve

what do you think isis would have done if they reached this place? "wherever they saw a cross, they smashed it," he said." "they erased any traces of christianity. even the virgin mary. there used to be a statue of her. they chopped the head off and left the rest of the statue standing there. if they reached here, "he said," they would certainly have destroyed this monastery. before the u.s.-led invasion, the insurgency and isis, around 1.5 million christians in iraq. there are now barely 250,000. in fact, there are now more chaldean catholics, the most followed denomination among iraqi christians in the united states than in iraq. the regional archbishop recently described christianity in iraq as being perilously close to extincti extinction, which means one of the oldest continuous christian communities in existence now communities in existence now remains on a cliff why do wrinkles happen at the worst times? with new bounce rapid touch up spray, you just spray smooth and you're fresh and ready to go wherever you are. new bounce rapid touch up spra

don't make any mistake, the number one for our fighters is the isis. and you have more and more fighters during due to the situation. >> this is why your great politician. that's what one of greatest nonanswers i've ever heard. >> you're right i don't say what to president trump. we have some of our people we don't forget the situations are number one. we start to discuss about our relationships. >> francis actually taken back some fighters, but we have a lot of others of captured a lot of people. we have captured one 100%, we sense a small contingent in and we wiped out another portion of isis. we don't want to happen to me what happened president obama were became stronger than it was the first place. we don't want that to happen. like i said before, we have the oil. so we have total control of the oil, so they're not going to be able to use that. they use that oil to fuel up their wealth, their money, that was her primary source of income. in every contribution we have now is list of ways work comes from. it's very important that people contribute.

as this was going on, isis put out photos of new isis recruits. despite the attack and takedown of their isis leader al-baghdadi, isis is not going away. >> they are not going away. the non-strategy on syria, the isis will go through the porous border and return to europe. some are european. these attacks will go up. kudos to the brave citizens who made this, put the -- chris: they -- one person had a fire ex-wisher. had a narwal tusk. >> cops came and took him out he was wearing a suicide vest. chris: we should point out a fake suicide vest. >> fake suicide vest. turned out to be fake, no one thought that was true at time. we need more brain cells focused on isis. i think our policies will make it more likely isis will reemerge in europe. so copycats can happen. don't denigrate the intelligence community trying to get ahead of this. don't do things with the navy that make the pentagon really question whether the commander-in-chief is making good decisions. let's please, let's please, reinstate our relations with allies who are the ones who will k

would you like some nice isis fighters? i could give you some. you can take every one you want. >> let's be serious, not make any mistake. your number one problems are not -- you have more and more fighters due to the swituation today. >> that's why he's a politician. that was one of the greatest non-answers. >> as tense as that moment was, it could have been much more tense in large part because when you look at what president donald trump did just two hours before that meeting, he was lobbing shows at emmanuel macron, said it was insulting, you can't say that. and to willie's point the president tends to be more aggressive, more challenging before the meeting or after the meeting. in the actual meeting there's less confrontation. that's why i'll be so interested to see how he handles angela merkel and how angela merkel handles him in just about 90 minutes. we have sort of the dovish donald trump or will we have the twitter tirade donald trump in that meeting? because there's not a lot of personal chemistry between the president and the chancell

. >> wow, isis claiming responsibility for friday's attack reportedly as payback for the death of abu bakr al-baghdadi, so what happens if more are released? automatic early release. the families of the two victims them to thank for they their loved victims are dead now, ryan, can you hear us? >> i'm sorry, there's a little bit of a delay. rob: no problem. >> you have isis declaring responsibility for the attack and the obvious analysis is that well, that means isis is still alive and gives them momentum for a much bigger reason, makes the west look stupid because if you're a member of isis or someone just teetering on the edge of deciding whether isis is the team that you want to join, you are going to say the caliphate has been destroyed in terms of territorial control, the west might be overwhelming powerful in terms of military but look at how stupid they are, they release convicted terrorists early in order to come back and carry out another attack. so if you're a sporter of you haddist cause how can we possibly lose against the system that's so stupid and has that much of a weak

we went into this with mutual interest, being the defeat of isis. isis had taken a lot of ground and territory that was -- that the sdf, the kurds owned, they inflected great harm. we came in. it was a great marriage that led to the physical defeat of the caliphate. at no noint time di point in tiy we're here to establish a kurdish state. at no time did we say we were going to defend defend you agait turkey. where we are today, we're on the ground working closely with them. we still retain that partnership. but i think we far better understand today the limits of that partnership and the scope of how far we'll go. >> during the president's trip to afghanistan, thanksgiving, he said the u.s. military has been able to substantially reduce the number of troops there. how many u.s. troops are there? >> we've got about 13,000 or so, between 12 and 13,000. the commander feels confident we can go down to a lower level without jeopardizing our ability to ensure that afghanistan doesn't become a safe haven for terrorism. >> even if a taliban deal doesn't com

it appears, despite the attack and the takedown on their isis leader al-baghdadi, isis isn't going away, is it? >> they are not going away and our new strategy or nonstrategy on syria means that isis will go through the poorest turkish border and some of the fighters will return to europe, some of them are european in these attacks are going to go up, so first of all, kudos to the brave citizens who made this -- extinguished -- >> chris: at one person had a fire extinguisher and someone had our norwell, which is a kind of whale, along pointed norwell task. >> they took him down and then the cops came and took him out because he was wearing a suicide vest so i think that was the right -- >> chris: a fake suicide vest. >> a fake suicide vest but no t. i think we need more brain cells focused on isis. i think our policies are making it more likely that isis will reemerge in europe and i think that copycat attacks can happen, which is why let's not denigrate the intelligence community amount which is trying to get ahead of this. let's not do things with the navy that make the pentagon reall

isis is patrolling, unfortunately. do you think this the same as 2012 and they we re think this the same as 2012 and they were starting to build and becoming a serious threat? i think more stronger than 2012, but my main concern is the stability in baghdad, because that would feed into the future of isis. if we have political unrest, this is heaven, or christmas come early for isis. do you think it isa come early for isis. do you think it is a new beginning for them?” come early for isis. do you think it is a new beginning for them? i would say it would be a different type of isis, so no longer they want to control land or cities, i think they will go back to asymmetric warfare of al-qaeda, with more experience, more tactics that al-qaeda did not have, so i think it is an issue for us have, so i think it is an issue for us to be worried about, and not only the international community should be worried about the reemergence, because we saw in the past, a problem in aragua is notjust a problem in aragua is notjust a pr

all the territories that isis controlled a few months ago and eight million people under isis control. and we have done that. \[inaudible] in the fight against isis, turkey has played a key role. many allies expressed their concern about turkey going into syria. \[indiscernible] we have seen that turkey has stalled military operations in northern syria and has been a significant reduction in rise. there is a political solution. [indiscernible] there are no differences. dating back to the crisis all the way to the iraq war in 2003. 29 allies have been used for many different things. the end is strengthening. we have proven again and again, protect each other. that's exactly what we're doing now. we are doing with north america and europe and canada for many decades. despite some political differences, we always are able to get around to agree and unite around the core. president trump: and i will say this. three weeks ago when we got al-baghdadi, turkey was very helpful. we flew over areas that were controlled by turkey and we said we're coming. they were very supportive, actually. we

isis fighters back? he offered an answer, macron to which president trump said this is why he is the greatest politician because that was one of the greatest non-answers i've ever heard and caused quite a reaction in the room. >> around the world, sandra. the idea that he would take a shot at macron in that moment again we just don't see things like this in terms of the conversation between world leaders on the world stage. but macron did not answer as to whether or not he would accept isis fighters coming back and what we've seen recently in london, you know, brings back to the forefront of so many minds. macron's position seems to be go after isis and this led to what i think was the principle point of disagreement is over turkey. is turkey acting in accord with nato present seps with regard to what we're seeing from the kurds. macron described them as our allies, people who have fought with us against isis. you can see the president of the united states, president trump saying wait a second, turkey is

groups that work with isis. you know i've never seen any convincing evidence that turkey's working directly with isis or isis proxies this far better evidence that turkey has worked with al qaida and al qaeda affiliates in syria and in fact that there is some of the militias that they are working with and what they call the syrian national army are in fact militias that are affiliated with or connected to al qaida in some way i think that the french president's statement on this is is a bit over the top although he is raising a very good question of turkey when he asks why are you fighting against the people who are fighting with us against the islamic state let's look at it from the the angle of turkey turkey is demanding its nato allies treat the syrian kurds of the wind. as terror they say you know you should see them the way we see them in turkey have a valid point. well it to some extent it does the why p.g. is a group that is directly linked to the p.k. k. a kurdish turkish terrorist organization has been

al qaeda, isis-k. al qaeda in the subcontinent has some reach. but what you do see is people moving between these groups and so you see people changing t-shirts, if you will. so isis-k has been able to recruit from the ranks of the taliban and the ranks of turkey taliban, pakistan and other groups. so when you have an environment within which 21 groups can exist that feed on a population of people who are economically disadvantaged, that have radical forms of religion being preached to indemnify in the schools and who don't them in the schools and who don't have a hope for a better future economically, then i would liken it to a petri dish of a medium for which you drop these strands of terrorism, 21 different strands of d.n.a. into that petri dish and, yes, bad things are going to come out of that petri dish. unless you put pressure on it, unless you take out some of those strands, unless you change the medium to something that's less conducive to the growth of these terrorist organizations. and this is a long-term undertaking. so i do think, ag

that we've been a us ally for quite a long time we were fighting side by side to fight the dash and isis and libya times change the kurds thought that as well where time of change because we cannot apply what happened in syria and libya and i'm talking about how alliances come in . strong. said that he appreciated mr have to a significant role in fighting terrorism their shared vision for libya's transition to a stable democracy high praise from the leader of the western world for your main enemy isn't that standing by you it's a pretty look almost anybody can. say those things about you know we still believe the. administration of united state that mr ation of the white house believed that some wrong mistakes so long messages have been around about have torah and he's fighting terrorism i think the folks in the u.s. is badly informed yes i think the president by informed and i believe that the message passed yesterday from the foreign minister of would libyan foreign ministers and the libyan internal ministers that they want to see libyan stable and problem in libya certainly through a

isis? did we defeat president trump says we don't need to keep our troops there because we have been islamic state, we can pull them out. is he right? >> unfortunately, we have learned this lesson the hard way. we withdrew from iraq under the obama administration, a deal that president bush had cut and we fulfilled. what had been a form of al qaeda came back in isis. we also had to fight the same reformed isis in syria. the lesson is you have to keep pressure on the terrorists. it doesn't necessarily have to be a permanent u.s. military presence. in fact, because president obama decided to fight isis in syria differently than we had done in afghanistan or iraq before, by using partner forces, the kurds, rather than putting u.s. forces in harm's way. we were able to do so relatively economically. we are talking about hundreds of u.s. troops remain in syria, not tens of thousands. we needed to stay to support and protect the kurds but also keep an eye on isis, so they did not get the sense th

isis and sirte after all after he says he is after peter for using i. have to say you have to say you have to say that you clean a bungalow as he have done there but never mention that that insert he done the job we done the job after only 4 months of arriving in tripoli at the same time as your militia groups are extorting from you you know that exactly when the country is divided you have to work 1st and you have to have priorities which hour by hour to cleaning up the country from isis or fighting the militia mr moti if you don't stand for law and order and an end to corruption you don't stand for anything at all no we really don't we do but we get to our country and our country had a long war with isis for more than a year and a half once we done with isis we started up to rebuild our financial institutions and when we get to our financial institution we find the problem militia and we have problems with our oil production at the same time we find have to is attacking oil field and we don't want to go in conflict with him because we have our interna

. >> michael: now that isis is largely defeated, is it your sense that the iranians want the u.s. out of the region? >> i think they probably do but more than that the islamic republic of iran has had a singular mission. it's klepto kratz, theo kratz, they want to steal stuff, loot, and destroy the lives of their own people. they protect themselves by fomenting terror around the world. you've seen president trump make very clear we will continue support the iranian people. >> michael: what do you think would happen if the united states were to leave ir iraq? >> i don't want to engage in hypothetical. you talked about isis, there's still a threat of terrorism in parts of iraq and anbar province and other places. president trump is committed to completing the mission. the caliphate is gone, president trump put together a strategy that deliberate destruction defeat 100% lock, stock, and barrel of the caliphate. we have to ensure the remnants of isis can't harm us here. >> michael: are more air strikes likely? >> i don't comment on future activity, only to say we are committed to the

we defeated isis. >> isis was never really defeated. >> when the u.s. president lies on the world stage, he is doing more than trampling truth. >> we captured many, many isis fighters. most of them came from europe. >> he's upending world order. >> the united states has essentially gone from what i would describe as the principal architect and the principal general contractor of the world, the preserver of the world, to now we've come the principal disruptor. >> trump's lies are a big part of that disrupting. richard haass was the director of policy planning for the state department under president george w. bush, and he's now the president of the council on foreign relations. he believes there are two kinds of trump lies. >> one is to only present one side of a story. >> such as hailing the end to the recent turkish assault on the kurds in northern syria. >> by getting that cease-fire to stick, we've done something that's very, very special. >> instead of explaining that he helped facilitate turkey's attack by withdrawing the u.s. troops who, as part o

you have to work 1st and you have to have priorities which our ability cleaning up the country from isis or fighting the militia mr moti if you don't stand for law and order and then into corruption you don't stand for anything at all no we really don't we do but we get to our country and our country had a long war with isis for more than a year and a half once we done with isis we started up to rebuild our financial institutions and when we get to our financial institution we find a problem with asia and we have problems with our oil production at the same time we find have to attacking oil field and we don't want to go in conflict with him because we have our internal problem with the mission so we have our priorities as i explained to you we have ability isis issues arising the production of oil making the life libyans better and of course we have to clean up our country from militia and they are controlling of our many of those are usually wrong way round because these militia groups have carried out extrajudicial executions they have attacked civilians and civilian properties and ab

all the territories that isis controlled just a few months ago. more than that 8 million people under isis control we have done that not the least by using infrastructure basis in turkey in the fight against isis, turkey has played a key role many allies have expressed concern into northern syria. following the agreement between the united states and turkey we have seen significant reduction in violence and try to find the political solution to the crisis in syria asking the question about europe and north america there are difference they come back to the crisis there is nothing new that 29 allies have different views on different things the strength of nato that despite these differences, we have proven again to be able to protect and defend each other. that's what we are doing now despite some differences, we have always been able to unite around the core together >> i will say this three weeks ago when we got al bag dadi they were supportive we didn't tell them what we were doing and where we were going. turkey could not have been nicer or mor

any opportunity to do that that isis might take advantage of? think that was the case in 2014 when people were completely fed up with their government. saw at time, many of them difference with isis. that is absolutely no longer the case. there is no longer any iraqis who would fall for that. united inirtually their hatred for this organization and while there are pockets here and there, just like in other countries, the iraqi security forces, backed up by support from people in intelligence networks and the international coalition led by the united states, they are taking a fight to those isis remnants. >> in writing, i can ask you the question i talked about, the banking infrastructure. perhaps private entities in the u.s. could work in dealing with that. >> thank you. thank you for being here. thank you to the members for participating. thank you for your service to the country. have additional questions and we ask that you respond to those questions in writing. submit them to the subcommittee clerk within five business days. the subcommittee