Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622

The mets were caught off in the bernie made off scheme. I go back to 1962 and casey stumble, when they had no place to go bat up back up. When you look at the coast guard, you can relate to the mets. You have no place to go but up. You have the mets destined for the world series and you have the coast guard doing the same thing. [applause] how about another round of applause for the admiral . [applause] we will see you back here hopefully on august 12. Would like to thank the National Press of staff including our Broadcast Center for organizing todays event. If you would like a copy of todays program or to learn more about the National Press, please go to www. Press. Org. Thank you. We are adjourned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] the cspan cities tour visits literary and Historic Sites destination to hear from local his friends, authors, and Civic Leaders on cspan2s booktv and cspan3s American History tv. The cities tour is on cspan each day at 6 00 eastern. President obama said as Congress Considers the Nuclear Agreement with iran, the choice is between quote, diplomacy and some form of war. He spoke earlier today at American University in washington about the agreement negotiated between iran and six major world powers. See the speech tonight here on cspan at 8 00 eastern. Good morning. It is good to be with you on an interesting morning. What you noticed what you noted about usa today is the debates on thursday, it sort of underscores there is just no perfect criteria. Yes, Lindsey Graham is a smart guy, but if he is not registering and old in polls you feel a little sympathy for fox, sort of damage they do damned if they do, damned if they dont. They cannot have 16 guys on a state at one time. Host what do you think about the Overall Coverage of campaign 2016 . Give us your thoughts of what you are seeing when it comes to coverage . Guest oh, i think as opposed to what we would have seen 30, 40 50 years ago where there were just a handful of real media gatekeepers who were deciding basically what the storyline was on a given day, and you might hurriedly pick up the mornings New York Times or washington post, and i drove a lot of network coverage. I think this is by and large terrific. The internet age, there is just more than everything. There is more good stuff, there is more total, on adulterated junk unadulterated junk. Yesterday, tweeting by americas political reporters, there may have been three or four that is not tweet hyperbolically the fox announcement. It even said if you look closely, scott simon, the npr host, to wonder in a tweet if he were the only person who had not tweeted about who the 10 were. So there is a lot more good stuff, there is a lot more un adulterated junk. There is a nice piece this morning on vox. Com by ezra klein over donald trump, and i think he sort of nails it as we go from pure astonishment to now sort of grudging a sex cents sort of grudging acceptance. Host the number of appearance by donald trump and foxnews, 31 appearances, five minutes of screen time, and also as you go to the Media Research center there is a chart that provides some of the coverage of gop candidates on abc, cbs, and nbc, donald trump leading the pack as well. So there is fascination with donald trump. Tell us more about the time he is getting onair on these networks. Guest oh, it is just all over the place. The Poynter Institute about a week or so ago if you remember, there was kind of a story that was dominating the Media Echo Chamber, particularly in d. C. In new york, about Huffington Post deciding to characterize trump coverage as entertainment. I wrote about that and debated one of their editors a few times on some and i thought and think it is a little bit silly. Then we checked the amount of huffington coverage, and though they were somewhat condescendingly the writing deriding donald trump, they were giving him far more coverage than any other candidates, especially when one looks at all of the stuff on trump they were reusing. His coverage on him disproportionate . Yes, absolutely totally disproportionate. Is there some justification given how he has been resonating in the early going . Yeah, there is some just patient. Are there reason for Lindsey Graham and other serious folks to be frustrated . Yeah there is. But it is also august 2015. We have a long way to go. It is a bit of a silly season. There will be a decent audience on thursday night, but sitting in a hardline, i can tell you, most people are not thinking about any of this. Host before we let go, jim moran, there is jim warren, there is a story about joe biden saying biden 2016 is a media fantasy, why he is almost certainly going to set the race out. Would you agree with that headline . Guest no, at this point, i do not know what he is going to do. He is obviously sitting back and knows that there is some large percentage of folks that maybe just sort of sick and tired of the clintons. The email controversy sort of reminds people why they are sick of the clintons, in their minds clinton has not really offered a rationale for candidacy. The problem with him is obvious the character that may be unfair to him, but it is sort of hard to unravel about being goofy and gaffeprone. As best chance was 1988, arguably, when he blew it by stealing the lines from a british politician. In 2008, he got zero traction and he is 72 years old i think it is a possibility, but it is really unlikely. Host our guest is the chief media correspondent fo at the end of the summer, look for two special book tv programs. Sunday, lynne cheney. Booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Retired general john allens former head of the u. S. Forces for afghanistan and he currently serves as the president s special envoy to the Global Coalition to counter isis. He spoke at the recent asked Global Security forum. You will also hear from the iraqi ambassador to the u. S. And efficient treasury secretary for terrorist financing. This is almost an hour. It is my pleasure to introduce you to the next panel, iraq, syria, worse now than ever before. According to your programs you will read that this panel will explore isils military successes in iraq and syria and even more complicated than the other parts of syria, leading to the overall question, which is whether the brutal stability of the Saddam Hussein regime in iraq and prerevolutionary assad regime in syria were more in line with american interests. Is this the best outcome now . That is a status quo antebellum. I will add my personal comment even if we thought so, so what . I believe that to the panel. Eric schmidt covers terrorism and International Security matters for the New York Times. Counterstrike, the untold story of americas secret campaign against al qaeda. Eric has spent two decades covering military National Security affairs for the times, and has made dozens of trips to iraq, afghanistan pakistan, and africa. Eric, it is all yours. Eric i want to thank the Aspen Security Forum for allowing me to host and moderate a panel of here. We have saved the most uplifting news for this midafternoon, iraq and syria. The panelists of here, you have the full bios in your program. General john allen since last september is the is part of the president s global initiative. He served with distinction in iraq. On his left is perhaps one of the u. S. Governments top sanctions buster cops, as once described it. Probably knows more about countering terrorist finance than any assistant secretary of treasury. On the far left is the current ambassador iraqs ambassador to washington. He formerly served as the ambassador to japan, and he is a marathon runner. Looking at this kind of topic you need to have that kind of duration doing this. A lot of breaking news on this topic today, in a hearing in washington senator john mccain declared that isis is winning. Defense secretary ash carter was in iraq today. The spokesman said it will be a least 1 to 8 weeks before the iraqi forces outside of ramadi will be able to conduct a full offensive. In many ways, it is a difficult situation from the iraq side and in syria breaking news that the turkish government, after months of negotiation, including by one of the panelists here, has agreed to allow u. S. Warplanes and drones to fry fly from a least one of their airbases. It seems to be a major shift on the part of turkey in the fight against isis. John allen, i want to turn to you. You recently returned from a trip to turkey and have visited more than 30 capitals. Where are we in this . Is it as gloomy as senator mccain said today in washington or are there a few bright spots . John thanks again. Its great to be back here and on a panel with two dear fri ends. We just got back from turkey. It was our 10th contact with them in a whole series of conversations that have in have been increasingly productive and fruitful. We are old friends with turkey. We have been allies for a long time. You are both faced with real crises here with regards to dash. We are faced with a real crisis. Turkey has for a very long time will dont with a 1. 5 elaine to 2 million refugee and they deserve credit for that. We have seen the conversation take an important turn as of late. It is encouraging an important. Eric how soon could american warplanes begin to start flying . John i will leave that to washington to comment. To your specific point, a year ago today we were facing the real possibility that iraq would come apart. We were seeing the public execution of thousands, seven hits hundred 1700 or so recruits. We were not sure where this was going to go. About the seventh or eighth of september, the new Prime Minister was designated, who is dramatically different from his predecessor. Shortly thereafter, the president was secretary kerry and a number of our close traditional partners called for the establishment of a coalition. That coalition went to work and was formed relatively quick the. Quickly. We operate along five lines of effort, a military line of effort, countering finance line of effort. Countering the flow of foreign fighters countering messaging and ultimately humanitarian assistance and stabilization support. The coalition is deeply engaged in all of those lines. The effort is intended to achieve our strategic outcome. Since the coalition was formed since the effort with respect to dash has come into greater focus , we have seen some significant progress. The push against dash in a number of the areas in iraq is produced outcomes we were hoping for. It is not an insignificant city. 12,000 internally displaced iraqi persons have gone home in a government administered program that the coalition is supporting. Were beginning to press on ramadi. Falluja is encircled. We have a number of training bases that have been established to train the Iraqi Security forces to bring them back. Online. The our campaign has been effective to this point as well. The kurds in iraq and syria have been successful. If you were to look at a map of where dash was this time lets say september of last year and where they are today, the service area and the amount of the population under their direct control has shrunk significantly and its going to continue to shrink. Most of the Turkish Border is back in the hands of what i would call friendlies. There is a portion that remains to be taken. He will be taken. As we continue to close those asked x of the Turkish Border, we can have an effect. Im always reluctant to take issue with senator mccain in public. I can understand how there would be some who feel that dashs momentum remains unchecked great i do believe that dashs momentum has been checked strategically, operationally and tactically. It is not just a military campaign. There is a counter foreign fighters campaign and a humanitarian piece. They all have confluence towards strategic efforts and it is very important that you have that larger strategic effort. Eric talk a little bit about the Islamic State and its finances. This is a group that when they swept into northern iraq, reports that they took over banks, despite the efforts of the allied air Coalition Continues to sell oil on the black market. Even with the constraints that have been put on in the last 10 months or so it seems to be thriving as an economic entity. Daniel i want to underscore what an honor it is to be here on this panel with these colleagues i particularly, general alan. What i thought i would do is just run down really quickly what isils revenues are, what we think their financial strength is, and talk about our strategy to counter that great as i have been listening to the panelists previously over the course of the day a lot of people have been coming back to stress that isil has presented us with a new set of challenges unique and new set of challenges. That is certainly the case with the financial aspects of fighting against isil. I dont think we have ever seen a terrorist organization that has the ability to command, to draw from its own internal territory of these kinds of resources. There have been terrorist organizations in the past that do controlled territory, hamas and gaza. It is truly unprecedented, the resources that isil can derive just from the territory they can control. The most important source of revenue for isil is the money that was in the bank false vaults, in particular the bank vaults of the central bank of iraq and mosul. There are 90 some odd private banks that had wrenches branches in isilcontrolled territory. The numbers come between 500 million and close to 1 billion. That is just in the bank false to begin with. Vaults to begin with. That is nonrenewable. It is money they have at their disposal. Moving on from there, there are renewable sources of wealth that they have. The most important one of these would be extortion or taxation the normal way of government that extracts well from a territory. Isil does that to the tune of hundreds of Million Dollars m illions of dollars per year. The territory that isil controls is highly liquid. Cash continues to be infused into that area. Isil stands to profit from taxing all the sources of revenue, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars per year. The third most important source of revenue is the sale of oil. There has been a lot of numbers thrown out, and all the numbers are soft, but i can say that we believe in a onemonth period. Earlier this year isil made 40 million in one month off of the sale of oil. If you want to extrapolate that out you get to 500 million in the course of a year. This is all internally generated. Once you start looking at the other sources of wealth, it is much less significant. These are sources of wealth for isil but they are a tiny drop in the bucket compared to what they could generate internally. That really has to inform our strategies, to combat this because the traditional tools we have to target a group like al qaeda arent as relevant in this case are case. To the extent they are deriving wealth from foreign donors, we can go after that. We have applied sanctions in a certain number of instances in that case. We work very closely with the turks, kurdish authorities to make sure that smuggling is recused as much as it can be. The most important element of our strategy is the second elements. That is isolating isil controlled territory from the financial system. These are the types of methods we use with respect to when we want to apply pressure on foreign countries. We are using some of those same methods and strategies in this case. We are working extremely closely with the iraqi government. Im going back to iraq asked week to work with the iraqi authorities making sure that banks cannot be used by isil, the banks that have wrenches in isil, to make sure those branches are cut off. If they are going to have this money, we can make we can make that money much less valuable to them if all they can do is circulate within their own territory. That is the most important part of our strategy right now. Of course, that also includes working with other countries in the region. Uae, jordonan, lebanon, to work with them and bring them out to a Global Coalition that general alan leads. The third heart of the strategy is understanding their internal financial architecture, edited dying who the key financiers are and targeting them. And also targeting them with the treasury tools. We are actively engaged in that as well. The fourth is to try to identify their external networks. As the campaign wages on, they are going to need to access the spare parts. They are going to need access to procurement and a variety of International Networks that are going to allow them to bring in the materials they need, and that gets back to more classical authorities and we will have the ability to try to disrupt that. That is a strategy. Were still in early days. Isil has plenty of money. Maybe i shouldve said one quick word about their expenses. If i look at the high end of what the estimates on foreign fighters are that is 30,000 is the high end. You look at the high end of how much money has been reported 1000 per month per fighter. That would presumably be there major expense. It comes down to the amount of money they are bringing in. They can cover that now. The challenge we face is to bring he would be great to bankrupt isil, but the challenge is to disrupt their financing and to bring their revenue down to make it harder for them to meet their cost. That is something we can do. Eric one of the other challenges is something john allen alluded to. Within iraq there is been concerns about whether the iraqi army can muster enough troops to mount the kind of counter offensive in places like for a muddy and falluja. Will the sunni tribes in the west work with a government they do not trust in baghdad . How do you see this reconciling itself to the point where the president says there will be limited american involvement here you are not sending in tens of thousands of troops, get the iraqis do not seem to be able to get along on this one. Lukman i want to thank general alan and his deputies who had done a tremendous job. He has done more air miles than anybody else. I have asked him to be generous and pass it on to me. I think the challenges we face in relation to isis is not just the security aspect of it. It is mostly to do with political within iraq and in the region. In iraq the new Prime Minister has been extremely inclusive. He has done an outreach to all whether it is tribes, political entities in iraq and so on. We have more what you might call legacies challenges in relation to cohesion and social contract between the communities. That will take some time, but the purpose we all focus on, the strategy is defeat of isis. Isis can be a good project for us plus focus on the commonalities of that threat. In that sense isis strategy is one of attrition. What we might call dry well of their attrition, attributes. In relation to finance, the oils that is a natural commodity. Jihadist transport, here you have a clearer 2199, chapter 7, a binding vote stop to the jihadists. Here are neighbors not really played their part. They need to play better role and focus more on have a sense of urgency in stopping the flow of jihadists. In relation to in relation of twitter and others, the u. S. Needs to help us with social media control. We need a sense of urgency internationally. The challenge general alan faces is not small, and he needs tremendous support. Some of our neighbors i think we have eight default line. We have to get our act together. We have had we have not asked the u. S. For boots on the ground for a number of reasons. We do not want to go through that painful process for our own sake and longterm. Every day now in anbar there are two friends, fallujah and ramadi, and we have that attrition war there are two fronts. We will continue, because we have no plan b. Eric there is military aid in the form of ground spotters and calling in air strikes, perhaps u. S. Special forces . Mr. Faily it is more to do it operational needs. What we are asking from the u. S. And others is to push our neighbors to act and be responsible to the challenge. They, mentally, to get the challenge, but there could be a change in procedures and controlling the borders. That has not taken place. Here we have a question mark against the sentence of urgency of others. Eric general, you commanded in ambar. Is it possible for the iraqis to pull this off . In terms of going into these sunni cities and not relying on these shia militias . Going back to the turkey issue obviously, isis has been supported greatly by these foreign fighters they continue to go through the border of turkey. What will this announcement mean to cut off that military support for isis on the ground . General allen i have spent a lot of time with the tribes, and it was the ability to organize the tribes and motivate them and ultimately it was the deciding factor in the defeat of al qaeda. I have still maintained close contact with many of the sh eiks, and they are committed to the defeat of al qaeda, the defeat of daesh. Importantly, while they and 0708 were skeptical of the maliki regime, from the governors i spoken to of the sunni provinces to many of the sheiks, they have seen a big difference between a sense of attitude from baghdad and the attitude today. They do feel that abeidi will support them. He supports the opening of the new facility. He issued a fivepoint plan with the unanimous consent of Council Ministers to put back al anbar as a precursor to the efforts against muscle. Eric why has it taken so long . General allen we have to understand that the Iraqi Security forces took a hike of a beating, frankly, a year ago. So reconstituting that forced from top to bottom and building capacity of that force through training, especially with focus through leadership, will take some time. They have fought. They did clear to crete tik rit, and the hardest part was done by Iraqi Security forces, what we would call regular forces, where the shia volunteers, the ones who answered the grand ayatollah. They were forces that prevented daesh from reinforcing or as skating. They played a role, as well. It will have to be a combination of our training to regular forces, and powering the tribes, and managing the role of the shia elements of income a nation to achieve our military objectives and combination to achieve our military objectives. Many of those are scheduled to be the best elements the base elements for the National Guard brigade. These tribal elements are being trained, about 1800 or so, in al anbar, and this will be the base elements there and in other provinces. There will be a purpose for them over the long term. Eric meantime, isis continues to draw a thousand foreign fighters a month. What how with this new deal change this . General allen i think they are always going to try to get in. It is no secret that the principal avenue of approach into the region, not just syria but iraq, as welcome has been through the Turkish Border. The turks, in the last year, have really done a substantial, taken a substantial effort to multiply the capacity of their no entry list. It is well up over 10,000 now. They have worked and reached out to European Partners, many of whom are working the issue of their own foreign fighters. But we did not perfect the process of sharing information and sharing intelligence until this emergency really exploded in our faces near its we have seen much greater cooperation between our European Partners and turkey over the last year. And taking greater action inside and outside turkey. The point that needs to be made is that the first line of defense against foreign fighters entering syria is not the Turkish Border. The first line of defense occurs back in the homelands, wherever they may be within the coalition. These are prevented measures that are necessary, but also legal measures taken for accountability. It must be imposed, as well. Impeding the foreign fighter flow is not what happens at the Turkish Border. It is what happens back in the homelands making every effort possible to deal with radicalization and extremism. And the legal measures taken to make it difficult to move to transit countries. Eric secretary, you describe isis as an pretty good financial shape. What could the u. S. Government learn from the special operations raid in Eastern Syria in may they gives you greater pause about this . What surprised you coming out of that . What can you tell us about some of the things you learned . Mr. Glaser that operation was quite important to us. As i alluded to earlier, one of the most important things were are doing right now is simply gathering intelligence. Eric knowledge about isis and a leadership before that raid how much did it in prove your visibility . Mr. Glaser certainly, it has been a real treasure trove of information for as on the financial side. It is information that is still coming. Eric what kind of things do you know now . Mr. Glaser i cannot get into the specific information we received but abu sayyaf was an important figure, and we will put what we learned into good use. Eric do you have the same component our adversary as before . Mr. Glaser our information is Getting Better and better. It give us increasing insight into the finances. As i said, they have a lot of money. We knew that before the abu sayy af rate and know that even more afterwards. They have a lot of money. The more details we can get any more individuals involved, the more we can understand their networks, the more we can work with iraqi partners on shutting those networks down. That is what we are interested in doing and what we are actively doing and what our iraqi partners are joining us and. Eric ambassador, tell us about the role on the ground with trainers on the ground and militias that have been trained there, economically, perhaps and if you could, give us more of a regional perspective as to what is going on in sera in syria. Things seem to be restrictive for the sod for the assad regime. Mr. Faily you have to understand there is a fault line into the relation to s lists ethnicity, shia center, oil and the country, the geography of iraq. These are all factors that played a role and will continue to play a role for iraq. In relation to iran, it also sees that the threat of isis is a threat to its National Security, whether it is a shia shrine or the borders. And there was more or less an open check with iraq. They offered literally anything, troops and everything else. Air force usage, everything else. We think this is primarily an iraqidriven project. Maybe support from others. We need to go through that. Eric that relationship would give many in washington pause. Mr. Faily that is a washington problem, not an iraqi problem. [laughter] i have yet to find any single [indiscernible] where the u. S. And iranians have said we have problems with each other. In iraq, sorry. We have been careful and how to manage that relationship. We understand there are nuances. Eric is there an operation . Mr. Faily i think there is a common operation center. We have that with the United States, very significant with the allies in baghdad and the krg nations. In the iranian sense very few advisers compared to the u. S. 200 and comparison to 3000 u. S. But that is not the problem. The problem eric unlike americans who are at headquarters . Mr. Faily they have different techniques, different experience, and so on. There are commonalities, but we have to be extremely careful not to make parties. We need others. They talked about support in belgium. We need the political support. So we have done and outreach saying we need all parties to help us. We have a Common Threat with other countries, including iran. As much as we can get help, we have no psychological obstacle to any country in our fighting. Eric i will ask one more question and turn it over to the audience. I will have each panelist give a quick response. The main message from director comey last night was the messaging campaign, the strength of the Propaganda Machine isis has been generating, particularly in recent months. General allen, you have said there is an american message. Ambassador i am sure you have been working hard in baghdad on this. Lets start with you and what is going on in iraq or working within the arab countries in the gulf to combat this message, where presumably nongovernmental organizations may have more credibility . Mr. Faily the primary message is that isis is a council in our party. In all methods, and we need to deal fast with it. That is the key message. It should not hijack the sunni brand, not hijack the islamic brand, and it should not be perceived as International Jihadist terrorism. People do not see the trendiness of isis. However, they talk about the richness of them. You do not need to be very rich to be destructive. To that effect, they have a significant distraction force true. But do they hijack . The majority, no. But we need to make them more a weekend and more vocal in the fight against isis. Eric mr. Glaser, self like they have money to spend, not just the classic foreign fighters of al qaeda but families, women and children being part of this almost a settling campaign if you will. How do you combat that in a counter messaging standpoint . Mr. Glaser my specialty is in counter messaging and the message that i have is that we are going to succeed in applying economic and financial pressure on isil, and we will succeed in depriving them of their ability to use their resources. I spent 15 years listening to people explain to me that Financial Measures do not work and cannot work. In 2006 at the very beginning, we first started to divide our own sections strategy. The one thing everybody agreed on at the time was that those could not work. And now the only thing everybody agrees on is the economic and financial pressure. We can do this. We know how to do this. We will succeed. Eric general allen, use unless week that this is an uphill battle with the u. S. Collision u. S. Coalition. This message seems to be resonating with young people who are crying to hear it. How do you counter that . General allen were constantly looking at the whole messaging strategy. It is about countering a message but also about reinforcing regional ethnic, racial religious norms that work, the families, the aspects of regional societies that create a strength and ability to be impervious to this message. Were constantly looking for ways to counter the message and to strengthen islam and regional norms, and wed do that. Were talking constantly with our regional partners. You will hear king abdulla from jordan talking about it regularly. First, we must take back our faith, which i think we all agree with him on to it he is also clear on saying that in the middle east, the counter messaging and the importance of the messaging must have and arab face and muslim voice. When i have been in Southeast Asia and have spoken with leaders in Southeast Asia, they are deeply concerned about the potential for the spread of violent extremism and groups that will be destabilizing over the longterm. So it was recently opened, a counter messaging joint Operations Center in opera dobby to handle the middle east and ill be dobby in abu dahbi, and we will start creating regional messaging centers that we can energize very quickly with localized messaging that can provide the support we need to target the populations. Eric none of that will have relevance unless you face isis on the ground, right. You have to create a perception isis is losing before anybody will listen. General allen and isis is losing. When you listen closely to their tactical communications, they have problems with morale right now. Not long after they burned the captain, a number of isil foreign fighters rebelled against that kind of brutality and they were executed by the central government, the central element within daesh. But during the time of kobani there was a time when everyone said were going to lose that. If you listen to the telephone and tactical traffic, daesh was terrified about being sent to kobani because they knew there was only one outcome, being killed. Along the border in syria, there have been similar very clear messages, that there are many places within the daesh infrastructure where the morale is not good. As we began to strangle the defenses or finances, as it becomes more difficult to sustain operations with fighters, that will create additional morale problems. Mr. Faily in relation [indiscernible] mainstream islam in the sense of population. In the sense of focused messaging, that is an issue we all have to work on. There is a global message we have to put and. In the sense of iraq, that is more manageable. The coalition focuses on it. Syria is a different issue. Until syria is a just, this will not diminish. Until syria is addressed, this will not diminish. Eric i will take your questions. Right down here. Thank you. I am with cbs news. General allen, can you describe a little bit whether the discussions or the nature of the discussions with the turkish government about the possibility of instituting some kind of error exclusions in and around syria, it has been well known that the turks have asked for that and would like to see some kind of regime put in place by our assets in the north. Is that part of the discussions to obtain . General allen no, it is not part of the conversation. Not at all . General allen no. I am with yahoo news. Question for mr. Glaser. There were conflicting reports after the you run deal was signed as to whether the head of the quds force was in line to have sanctions lifted from him as part of this. Can you clarify, is the general in line to have those sanctions lifted . If so, was your office consulted before his name was put on the list . Mr. Glaser i am really not here to talk about the details of the Nuclear Negotiations with iran. As a general matter, as everyone knows, the nuclearrelated sanctions will be lifted at the time iran is in compliance with the agreement that has been verified to mother with respect to details, i will really have to go back and get back to you. Is he on what list . [inaudible] to the extent that he is designated as for his involvement in terrorist activities, he would remain sanctions. To the extent that the sanctions against him are related to the Nuclear Program, those sanctions will be lifted. Those sanctions will be lifted when irans compliance is verified. I would like to have a question to the ambassador. Mr. Ambassador, what is iraq . Is it sunni . Is it shiite . Or is it a group of nationalists that have banded together to form a new country . How do you see it today . Mr. Faily ok, is this geopolitics of history . [laughter] i am a kurd and a shia, so that is a pigeonhole. [laughter] i think iraq has evolved as a country. We have had a new focus, a different project, based on democracy, liberalism, market, economy, and so on. That is different from the police state. It is an evolving country in the sense of any social contract within communities. Are we moving forward . I think it is still ongoing. We have to see how much we want to have interdependencies and turn up the internally to strengthen. The issue of interest, it faces challenges which the region itself faces. It is up to us iraqis to do something about this. International support is required. It has taken this after the first arab spring in all regions. It is in our hand what we can do about this. Does it have an identity . Yes. We will define that moving forward. Eric thank you. Over here in the corner. I am with vdf german tv. Some European Countries are trying a new approach, focusing on foreign fighters returning to the country, trying to find those who might be disillusioned and acting as africans against as advocates against daesh. We saw a strong message last week when a return fighter said that this has nothing to do with islam. It is just a slaughter of women and children. General allen, is that an approach we should pursue in the future . General allen absolutely, and it is something we have spent a lot of time looking at. Foreign fighters will come home one way or another. How we deal with them will be very important here the idea of a single sanction solution longterm detention or imprisonment, will not deliver us where we want to be. What we have discovered denmark is a leader in this area and there are other european states, as well. Saudi arabia has been a leader in this. But the country that i spent a good bit of time studying has been singapore, which is one of the key members of the coalition. They have an active do radical is program they have an active deradicalization program. Ultimately, it is not permitting longterm detention to be the single sanction outcome of someone returning. The reason for that is that if you view the dealing of foreign fighters in a circular way, rather than linear, it gets to the point of radicalization, whether it is social media or the imam or the family. You can have a very powerful effect upon that moment of radicalization by recruiting the foreign fighters, d radicalizing them, and rehabilitating them. You get it at the front hand of the development. The two most important voices we have heard in this process, something we are watching closely and encouraging states to adapt in their own way rehabilitation processes, has been the foreign fighter who has been disillusioned, able to get home until the message of the horror, that this is just a nightmare, being part of daesh. The rehabilitated foreign fighter voice is powerful. The other voice that is powerful in preventing radicalization is the mother of the family that has given up someone to be a foreign fighter. They are gone or they have less complete contact with them or they have been killed. Or they have come back and are in longterm detention. Those two factors are very important in the radicalization deradicalization. I am from National Public radio. Following on the question and your point about morale a couple months ago, we heard isis decreed that Truck Drivers were not to pick up fighters along the road because they were concerned that a lot of people were deserting. Are you seeing any uptake and desertion from fighters there . General allen we are. The reporting is very sketchy. But the sense of disillusionment with the recent they came to begin with, this sense of being empowered, this sense of joining a holy cause to support the socalled caliphate, is often dispelled quickly when they get to the region. When they heard about desertions , we have seen some foreign fighters come home talking about that being widespread in rinks. Even with those reports, we have heard significant reporting about daesh executing elements of the foreign fighter element that display any willingness to take a path apart from the caliphate or the daesh internal regulations. The sense that they are a juggernaut or inevitable that is far from the truth. It is nowhere near the truth. Thank you. It seems that this is mostly a battle for hearts and minds. It is being treated mainly as a military type of operation. To what extent has or should our government be trying to win the hearts and minds for example what is going on within the mideast gives a perfect example of why there should be a separation of mosque and faith. The fact that shia and sunnis are fighting and what is happening in egypt, every country should prove the point that the mixture of religion and statehood is a really bad idea. Eric can you get to your question . Billions spent on the military. Could you comment on what you think should be done in that area . Mr. Faily there is the military side in the sense of giving isis or daesh the ability to have control or be on the offensive. It requires International Focus on the military side. Daesh has its own destruction within its self. However, until that moment identity, heritage, and others it is a threat. It is not that daesh will flourish. It has its own destruction, but it will take a lot of damage with itself. Trying to contain the problem within the middle east, i do not think it is just the sectarian aspect. What you see in libya has nothing to do with the sunni or shia. It is more of a disillusionment that needs to be focused on. It needs to facilitate and bring parties together, countries colors, whether it is in egypt or niger or saudi arabia to talk about daesh as an ideology. I do not think you can separate the state aspect or the mosque. They are too deeply rooted. It would be a futile project. But for the state to have rule of law, there has to be an international understanding. To adhere to that, that is a clear message we have to work on. That is our obligation. Eric that is a great note to end on. I want to thank the panelists and the audience for great questions. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] host good morning. Guest great to be with you. Let you just noted is a perfect example of media confusion about the debate or debates on thursday, and it underscores that there is no perfect criteria. Yes, Lindsey Graham is a smart guy, but if he is not registering impulse in polls there is a little sympathy for fox. You could have 16 or 17 guys on a stage at one time. Host what do you think it will say overall about the coverage of campaign 2016 starting with this process . Give us your thoughts on the coverage . Guest as opposed to what we would have seen 30 to 50 years ago were there were a handful of the keepers deciding on what the storyline was on a given day and you might pick up the New York Times or the washington post, and that drove the network coverage. I think this is terrific. It is the internet age. There is more of everything, more good stuff, and there is more total unadulterated junk. Yesterday, it was like tweeting on steroids by americas elliptical reporters. The fox announcement of which 10 were pigs, it even prompted were picked, it even prompted a host to wonder in a tweet whether he was the only person who had not tweeted. There is a lot more good stuff a lot more unadulterated junk. There was a nice these this morning called the medias five stages of depression over donald trump, and i think he nails it as we go from pure astonishment to know grudging acceptance that there may be a reason that people are raising their hands on his behalf. Host a chart that shows the number of minutes and appearances by donald trump on fox news. 31 appearances, five minutes of screen time. At the Media Research center, a chart provides some of the coverage of gop candidates on abc, cbs, and nbc. Donald trump is leading that pack. There is a fascination with donald trump. Tell us a little bit about the time he is getting on air on these networks. Guest it is all over the place. About a week or so ago, there was a story that was dominating the Media Echo Chamber particularly in washington d. C. , about Huffington Post basically characterizing romp trump coverage is entertainment. I talked about it on some shows and i think it is a little bit silly. But we looked at the amount of huffington coverage, and though they were sort of condescendingly d writing d eriding trumpt, they were giving him much more coverage, whether it is politics or entertainment on the candidate, especially when you look at the bloggers. Is coverage on him disproportion disproportionate . Absolutely. Is he resonating in the early going . Yeah, there is some justification. Are the reasons for serious folks to be frustrated . Yeah, there is. But it is also august of 2015. We have a long way to go. It is a silly season. We will probably have a pretty decent argue audience on thursday night. Sitting in the heartland, most people are not thinking about any of this. Host there is also joe biden in the news recently with a story saying biden 2016 is a media fantasy. Would you agree with that headline . Guest no, i do not know what he is going to do. He is obviously sitting back and knows that a large percentage of folks may be sick and tired of the clintons. The email controversy reminds people why they are sick of the clintons. Hillary clinton has not really offered a rationale for a candidacy. The problem for him is the caricature that may be unfair to him, but it is hard to unravel about being goofy. His best chance at it was 1988, arguably, when he blew it by stealing lines from a british politician. He thought about it in 2008 zero traction. And he is 72 years old. It is unlikely. Host our guest is from the Poynter Institute. James warren, thank you for your time this morning. Guest pleasure, as always. Ask the cspan cities tour visits literary and Historic Sites across the country to hear from historians, authors, and leaders. On cspan2s but tv and cspan3s American History tv. In august, we feature the citys tore each day. Today, we will look at the literary life of austin, the capital of texas. Tonight, we will replay president obamas speech urging congress to pass the iran Nuclear Agreement. The number of publications writing about the speech by the afton, politico saying the president returned to the theme that launched his First White House did eight years ago arguing that washington conventional wisdom and the cavalier attitude fuel opposition to the iran nuclear deal. That is from politico. Com. Here is some of what the president had to say. President obama because more sentence will not produce the result critics want, we have to be honest congressional rejection of this deal leaves any u. S. Administration that is absolutely committed to preventing iran from getting a Nuclear Weapon with one option. Another war in the middle east. I say this not to be provocative. Im stating a fact. Without this deal, iran will be in a position, however tough it may be, to steadily advance its capabilities. Its breakout time, which is already fairly small, could shrink to near zero. Does anyone really doubt that the same voices now raised against this deal will be demanding that whoever is president bomb those Nuclear Facilities . And as a someone who does for me believe that iran does not get a Nuclear Weapon and has wrestled with this issue since the beginning of my presidency, i can tell you that alternative to military action will have been exhausted once we reject a hardwon diplomatic solution that the world almost unanimously supports. So lets not mince words. The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy or some form of war here and maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now. But soon. The president spoke today at American University in washington, which was the site of a 1963 speech from president kennedy on the soviet union and the Nuclear Arms Race you can see president obamas entire speech tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan. More on the iran Nuclear Agreement from capitol hill earlier today, undersecretary of state for Political Affairs says she understands lawmakers concerns over not seeing the iaea Agreement Regarding the deal. She stressed that she will brief everyone on the content of the classified session. Here is her testimony this morning before the Senate Banking committee. Committee will come to order. We have a very important hearing today, and we have a lot of attendance. I will start off by recognizing my colleague and friend senator corker, because he is tied up senator corker i just have one question to ask. Quite do you want to ask it now . You want to wait at ok, if that satisfies you, it satisfies me. Much has changed since the hearing on iran and an economic sanctions deal was written up. Since then, there has been a Nuclear Agreement with iran after numerous delays. Mary seer many serious concerns have been raised regarding this deal, including whether it would actually prevent iran from continuing on its dangerous path to a Nuclear Weapon. Although a new deal has been reached, then a mental problems remain with iran, the country upon whose assurances the deal rests. Iran remains the state sponsor of terrorism and remains a serious risk to the National Security interests of the United States. It remains a constant threat to the survival of israel. Despite these concerns, it will remain a country with the capability to enrich uranium. Under these circumstances, i believe it is critical that congress conduct a thorough review of the agreement as required by the iran Nuclear Agreement review act. As part of this review, the Banking Committee will focus specifically on analyzing the sentience relief provided in the Nuclear Agreement and the implications of taking such actions. There is general agreement that the pressure of sentience brought iran to the negotiating table. Congress must consider carefully now the repercussions of lifting those sanctions on our National Security and our economic interests. In recent weeks, many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have expressed skepticism over several aspects of the agreement. For example, the relief provided to you ron this deal would allow us to return to iran, the still would allow it to join and give iran the financial means to increase its support of terrorism and regional destabilization. The mechanism for reopposing the harshest sanctions should iran not comply with parts of the deal may prove ineffective except in the most extreme cases of violation. Many view it as irans license to cheat, as long as such cheating falls just short of a zynga the begin violation of the agreement. Financial sanctions have become a critical tool of u. S. Foreignpolicy and a very important part of this committees jurisdiction. In fact, over and they shall administration objections, this committee was instrumental in and posing the sanctions that brought iran to negotiations in the first place. I believe it is essential for u. S. Sanctions and policy to continue to meet any new security challenges presented by iran. Today, the committee will hear from two handles beard on the first panel, we will hear from the administrations leadeth lead negotiator of the agreement and the lead sentience expert. Then they committee will receive testimony from a panel of experts who have studied the agreement extensively, including officials from the previous administration. Senator brown. Senator brown thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here and for your important public service. For our witness we will hear from the second panel, four witnesses from the Bush Administration, terrorist finance and middle east policy. This whole process began in the Bush Administration with a republican president who was in the wake of the iraq war, willing to engage iran diplomatically. As secretary kerry observed and, the Bush Administration laid the foundation for the iran agreement, sanctions relief and strict limits on the Nuclear Program. In june 2008, president bushs National Security advisor signed a memorandum with the p5 plus one, which is said that in return for iran doing key things to limit its Maker Program the United States was ready to do a number of things. One, to recognize irans right to Nuclear Energy for peaceful purposes. Two, treat iran for the Nuclear Program like any other nonNuclear Weapons state to the npt with International Confidence that the peaceful nature of the program to be restored. Three, provide technical Financial Aid for diesel energy. Fourth, worked with iran for confidence building measures, allowing for Civil Aviation operation. That was condoleezza rices agreement at the time. This should sound familiar, because it was the early outline of the iran agreement just completed. That is part of why i have been so disappointed in the politicized nature of the debate on this agreement so far, including from colleagues coming out in opposition to the agreement within hours of its release, even though it is over 100 pages long and very dance and complicated to read a very denmsse and come located to read. This will be the second or first most important vote i have ever cast in foreign policy. Second perhaps only, or even more important, then my vote against the iraq war a decade plus ago. Issue not be subject to attacks of political ad wars, even though it has been. Congress should give this serious debate. We know iran is a sponsor of terrorism. We know it destabilizes the region and violates the human rights of its people. They knew an iran with a Nuclear Weapon would be especially dangerous to us, israel, and to the region. That was the singular goal of p5 plus one negotiations, to keep iran from getting a Nuclear Weapon. Iran has deceived the west, so verification is key. We must understand how verification will work. There is a number of questions why iaea has sufficient resources to conduct inspections , suspicious covert sites. Will our intelligence capabilities be able to detect cheating . Will two to three months to a year, will it become to respond politically, economically, and necessarily military if necessary, militarily . What actually happens of Congress Rejects the deal . How would we maintain effective enforcement of our sanctions without the support of our p5 plus one allies . It was made clear to a large group of us yesterday that we would be isolated. What happens of the country like china walks away and dodges our sanctions by establishing banks with no correspondent relationships in the u. S. And starts buying iranian oil again . What would a rejection and congress due to the credibility of the United States in the eyes of the western world . We need answers to these questions and others. Some we will hear today, summing classified sections. Over the years, i have joined many colleagues in supporting ground after round of unilateral and International Sanctions which brought iran to the table and helped secure this agreement. Some predicted the jpoa would unravel the sanctions regime. It has not. Others worried iran would not comply. That has not happened. We have an unusually grave and historic responsibility to assess the consequences without partisan rancor, without partisan attacks to assess the consequences of this agreement and to weigh the risks and benefits of allowing the president and allies into test irans ability to comply with it. Some of us might differ on tactics, but we share the same goals, to ensure that iran does not achieve a Nuclear Weapon, to do that diplomatically, if possible and to recognize that other alternatives remain on the table and are not precluded by this. Senator shelby thank you. The first panel, we will hear from honorable Wendi Sherman secretary under secretary for Political Affairs here next, we will hear from mr. Adam szubin, acting undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism. Written testimonies will be made part of the hearing record. Ambassador sherman, proceed as you wish. Ms. Sherman good morning members. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the joint comprehensive plan of action that the United States and International Partners recently concluded with iran. To reserve as much time as possible for questions, i will only highlight a few key points. By locking each of irans potential pathways to get material required for a bomb the deal approved injures that Irans Nuclear program will be peaceful over the longterm. Under the deal of the provisions iran must remove twothirds of centrifuges for 10 years, reduce the stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 for 15 years, and cap uranium enrichment at 3. 67 far below the danger point for 15 years. The core of irans heavywater reactor at iraq will be removed and rendered unusable, and the facility and the facility rebuilt so it cannot produce weapons grade plutonium. Spent fuel from the reactor will be shipped out of the country. I emphasize, as both the chairman and the Ranking Member did, this deal is days of verification, not trust. Before obtaining any relief for economic sections, iran must meet its nuclearrelated commitments. International inspectors will have a president access to irans declare Nuclear Facilities and its entire nuclears, from uranium production to centrifuge manufacturing and operation. And if there are suspicious undeclared sites no sites will be offlimits. If iran fails to meet its responsibilities, we can ensure that sanctions snap back into place. No country can stop that from happening. If iran tries to break out of the deal all together, the world will have more time, a year, compared to the two months prior to the negotiation, to respond the fourth iran could possibly have enough materials for a bomb. At that point, all the potential options that we have today would remain on the table, but we would also have the moral authority and International Support that comes from having exhausted all peaceful alternatives. This is also a longterm deal. Some provisions will be in effect for 10 years, some for 15 some for 25, and some indefinitely. Under the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty, iran is permanently prohibited from pursuing a Nuclear Weapon, and the access of verification provisions associated will remain in place forever enhanced by the additional protocols as a result of the joint conference of clan of action. The bottom line is that this deal does exactly what it was intended to do when we began formal negotiations nearly two years ago, at that point, we faced an iran in reaching uranium up to 20 at a facility built in secret and buried in the mountains, and it was stockpiling enriched uranium installing overnight 2000 Center Vision test center fusions, and building a reactor that was building weaponsgrade plutonium. The plan will shrink those number dramatically, ensured the facilities can only be used for feasible purposes, and to the entire program under a microscope ensure facilities can only be used for peaceful purposes. Without this agreement, as secretary kerry said, here 15 would begin today. If the United States walks away from this, which is been negotiated every step of the way with International Partners, we will be left alone. That would be the worst of all worlds. Iran to push ahead with its Nuclear Program in whatever direction it chooses. Everything we have tried to prevent could occur. We would not have enhanced transparency required under the jcpoa to scrutinize the program and the multilateral sanctions regime which the president and Congress Worked so hard to put in place, led by this committee and it would begin to rapidly unravel. As for irans behavior, the United States is under no illusions. This agreement was never based on the expectation that it would chance one the iranian regime. We have a clear that we will continue our unprecedented levels of Security Cooperation with israel, as secretary kerry confirmed earlier this week in the tar, we will work closely with the gulf states for them to defend themselves and push back. We will continue to take actions to prevent terrorist groups, including hamas and hezbollah, from acquiring weapons. We will keep and plays all of our own sanctions related to human rights, terrorism Ballistic Missiles be a we will continue to insist on the relief of u. S. Citizens unjustly detailed in iran and for information about the whereabouts of Robert Levinson so everyone comes home. Im almost done, mr. Chairman. We know that the middle east today is undergoing severe threats do just severe stress because of extremism and sectarian and political rivalries. Everyone of those problems would be even worse if iran were allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon. That is why the agreement reached in vienna is so important. None of us can accept a nucleararmed iran. Some have said, if we double down on sections, we can force iran to dismantle its Nuclear Program. Quite frankly, ladies and gentlemen, members, that is a fantasy. The purpose of sanctions was to get iran to the bargaining table and to create incentives for precisely the kind of good agreement that we were able to achieve in vienna. Over 90 countries have issue public statements in support of the deal. That includes all of the countries that were involved in these negotiations. Every one of these countries has made tough choices to give the International Sanctions regime in place. We need their support for implementation. It is important to remember that we tried for many years to get here, as was pointed out. We worked on this on a bipartisan basis. President obama and his committee pushed for a stronger multilateral sections and unilateral sanctions to keep the door open to negotiations. Those sanctions forced iran to pay a high price but were not enough to make them change course. That required this diplomatic initiative. Congress played a Critical Role in getting us to this point. Sanctions achieved their goal by bringing about serious productive negotiations. Now congress has agents serious productive negotiations. Now congress has a chance to affirm a deal that will make our country and our world safer, a deal that will ensure the unit the International Community remains united and that Irans Nuclear activities must be wholly peaceful. It is a good deal for america, a good deal for israel, a good deal for the world and i say to you all respectfully it deserves your report. Thank you. Chairman mr. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to appear here this morning. A global sanctions Coalition Built by the United States across administrations and with broad bipartisan support in congress, including this committee, gave us the leverage to secure unprecedented Nuclear Concessions from iran. From the start, our purpose was to build leverage that could be used to build concessions on the nuclear file. Our secondary sanctions were meant to be the quid for the nuclear quo. Our three goals were to close off irans path to a Nuclear Weapon, have access to know if were cheating, and punish them if there was a breach. On the sanctions aside i would like to touch briefly on four points that have been much debated. The scope of relief, the snapback provisions, the campaign that is ongoing to combat aransas support of terrorism irans support of terrorism, and finally, the leverage we maintain if we walk away from this deal. First, we should be clear on what the sanctions will and will not mean. If iran accepts the deal, which will take 69 months, the United States will lift our secondary sanctions. Our primary sanctions, the embargo, will still be in place and enforced aggressively. Iran will be denied access to the worlds most important markets and unable to deal in the world most important currency. Worlds most important currency. We are not relieving sanctions against irans revolutionary guard corps or any of their subs the area or senior official subsidiary or senior officials. 200 companies linked to iran will remain designated including in financial engineering, and transportation sectors. There has been much discussion of the Iranian Foreign reserves. If iran fulfills its nuclear commitments, iran will receive about 50 billion not two or three times that much. The rest of what has been inaccessible will remain inaccessible. With that 50 billion, iran will need to address an economic hole that is about half 1 trillion a deep. This was the president of irans promise when he ran for office and he needs to meet that promise. If iran does not hold its side of the bargain once we have suspended sanctions, we can quickly snap sanctions back, in a matter of days. We have the discretion to impose everything from smaller penalties to the powerful oil and financial restrictions. A binary on or off at back would not snapback would not serve us as well, and we have maintained leverage here. There is no grandfather clause. No provision in the deal gives special status. Once snap back occurs, any new areas are sanctionable. We need to be aggressive in countering the array of irans other malign activities. This deal in no way limits our ability to do so. We have made that clear to iran and to our partners. We will sustain and intensify our use of sanctions using our authority to counter irans intervention in yemen and syria, irans efforts to oppress those standing up for human rights in iran, and we will be using our sanctions to block their attempted to develop a Nuclear Missile program. Under the interim deal while negotiations were ongoing we took action against 100 targets and we will be accelerating that work in the days ahead alongside israel, to combat funds moving through irans illicit network. I will be personally focused on these efforts. Fourth and finally, let me provide my perspective as a sanctions official on the implications of walking away from this deal. The sanctions regime generated much of its force because the Worlds Largest powers agreed on ending the threat of nuclear iran through diplomacy. It would be a mistake to back away from this on the notion that we could unilaterally escalate pressure on iran. U. S. Sanctions are extremely powerful. I have seen firsthand in my 10 years at the treasury. But they are not all powerful. If the u. S. Were to walk away and ask our partners to continue locking up irans reserves limiting their Oil Purchases the coalition we have assembled would fray with unpredictable and risky results. It is difficult to see how a broken consensus and less leverage would help us to obtain a much better deal here. Instead, enforcing this deal will capitalize on our carefully build economic pressure and deny iran access to a terrifying capability for the for seeable future. And as we move forward, you have my commitment that the dedicated team at treasury will continue to pursue smart and aggressive sanctions to stop irans malign nuclear activity. Senator thank you. We have four briefings or hearings today, so thank you very much. I could not agree more that this should not be a partisan effort. Could not agree more. I met with senator reid on monday just to talk a little bit about how this debate will take place in september, and i can say to everyone in my colleagues on both side of the aisle sides of the aisle, regardless of how people vote on this, youre not going to hear me making comments either way. I think this is a very important vote. What we try to do in the Foreign Relations committee is make sure people fully understand the ramifications, so i could not agree more. One of the details you left out in your letter regarding the bush agreement was they were not going to agree to enrichment and that is a detail that has kind of been left out. That is the rubicon that has been passed here. In essence, we have three state sponsors of terror that we left, sudan, syria, and iran. What this agreement in essence does is it codifies with our approval the industrialization of their Nuclear Program. That is a fact. That has not been debated. I think senator donnelly, senator high camp, senator warner, senator tester, senator schumer, senator menendez all know that i have been very open to supporting an agreement. I had one of the few conversations i have ever had with secretary cary. I think we all with secretary kerry, i think we all know him well, where i felt like he was listening to what i was saying. It was in my driveway on a saturday. I am talking about the inspections. Im talking about the previous military dimensions. I know it is possible military dimensions. We all know they are involved militarily. And how important that was not just from the standpoint of what it said, at the indication to us that we were really going to apply this thing dtf and make this stand. When i got through be tough and make this stand. When i got the documents, and i went through them carefully, my temperature rose. On the front end, lifting the missile test ban, on top of what these agreements set, i was very troubled. I want to get to the sanctions first of all, in perspective. Most people have been saying 56. Overall it is about 100. Some of that money is tied up in deposits for activities that will be taking place. But to be fair, it is about 100 billion dollars. Just to put that in perspective their economy is about 400 billion. So 100 billion to them would be like as getting 4 trillion. Just relative to the economy. That would be like us getting 17. 5 trillion over the next 10 years on a relative basis. Here is the question i have. I was very discouraged with the final round, and i think maybe i showed a little temperature when i went through it and i understood it, and i apologize for that. I began with senator menendez and worked over an excruciating time to make sure that the way this agreement worked, we got the documents, and we got them in a way that was acceptable. He spent all weekend with you, the white house, and others, on the iran review act. And we got the agreements, including the Side Agreements. Now, the very entity we are counting on to do the inspection, we cannot even get a copy of the Side Agreement that lays out how we are going to deal with parts. I would say to everyone here, if you have not been down to the intel area, you ought to see what iran is doing here today doing today while we are sitting here. We cannot even see the agreement related to how we are going to deal with pmd. By the way, all sanction relief occurs regardless of what they do with pmd. All the iaea has to do is write a report. Sanctions really still occur. After this painstaking effort we went through to make sure we did not ask you to give us documents you could not give us you knew what the iaea protocols work. Why now will you not give us the documents that exist that are so important to all of us relative to the integrity of this . Why not . Thank you very much, and thank you, mr. Chairman, for all of your hard work alongside senator menendez and senator carton on this deal, and all of your attention to it. Let me answer your question, but then i want to come back to another point you made. You are about to have the director general, and meet informally with the Senate Relations committee. He made this decision on his own because the iaea is an independent agency. He agreed to calm, and i found out about it about the same time agreed to come, and i found out about it at the same time you found out about it. We dont have the documents to give to you. And the reasons we dont have them is because they are safeguarded confidential. The director general explained this to you, and what that means. The iaea does safeguard confidential protocols with the United States, and they dont share them with anyone else, so they dont want to share irans with anyone else. You, i am sure will say to me, but ambassador sherman, they did tell you about them, and indeed they did. And the reason they did is because it was in the middle of the negotiation, and they wanted to go over, with some of their experts, the technical details. So, i did see the provisional documents. I did not see the final documents, as did my experts. As you know, there will be a classified, all Senate Briefing this afternoon and i will go over in detail, in a classified setting, everything i know about these arrangements. Senator i want to say again, we spent four days going over every detail with the administration to make sure the documents we were four were once we could be delivered. Ambassador sherman and you got every document we have. Every single one. Senator the integrity we are depending on for this deal, we dont have the agreement. Let me ask you this. Do you have any understanding of whether there are limitations whether the iaea is actually going to have physical access inside to take samples themselves . Ambassador sherman i would be glad to discuss all of this in a classified session this afternoon. I would say this also, on two other points you made. What iran must do is give to the iaea all of the actions and all of the access that they believe is required for them to write their final report on the possible military dimensions of irans program. The United States has already made its own judgment about that. We made it in a National Intelligence estimate that was made public some years ago, and that estimate said publicly that we believed they did have military dimensions to their program up until 2003. So, the United States has already made its judgment, and we stand by that judgment. What this deal is most focused on is where the program is and where its headed. And i quite agree, getting access is important because it says something about access in the future. Establishing credibility of the iaea is also important to this. So i am very glad the director general is coming to see you. I would add one other point mr. Chairman, and that is that sanctions as the acting under secretary, are absolutely crucial for getting iran to the table, but sanctions never stopped irans program. When the Obama Administration program began, there were about 5000 centrifuges. The sanctions were the most extensive ever during the Obama Administration, and yet iran went to 19,200 centrifuges. Sanctions will not stop their program ever. It is negotiations or other options that will do that. Senator i will just say in closing, to every senator here this is a big decision, but wendy and secretary kerry every other country, including iran, knew that because we directed drafted this iran review act, regardless of what was being said, we were going to have this opportunity to weigh in. We were going to have the opportunity to weigh in. So when people say it is this verse is that, especially on these issues that we have been so concerned about, and when we saw that they were just punted on, negotiated away issues that we with great sincerity, talked with the administration about and yet, they were just punted on. I think each of us has to make our own decision based on whether we saying this is going to keep iran we think this is going to keep iran from getting a Nuclear Weapon regardless of how we feel about the International Community. I just hope that at some point, on this grandfathering issue and i will stop. We set out a document to help everybody. It was nine pages long. We asked the administration for red lines. I got staff and resources to go through this agreement, and it is a huge privilege to do that, so i sent out cliff notes everybody. There was one question about whether the gold rush we are all concerned about is going to occur. And that his people going into iran immediately to sign contracts. We used the word grandfather contracts. You used some interesting words. I guess the question i have, and it is still unanswered and by the way, our friends in britain, germany, france, and the eu, have told us the contracts are grandfathered. Now, they have backed off a little bit. There is some confusion around that. And by the way, i want to say there is confusion. I think iran views at the way we had it in this document. But if someone spent a billion dollars on these sanctions lets say bp on an oil facility and sanctions snap act. By the way, you realize that in nine months, iran has the nuclear snap back. The agreement clearly states they can walk away. They have a nuclear snap back. We have a sanctions snap act. I guess the question is, if somebody enters into a contract over the next year when the sanctions are relieved everybody expects them to be relieved in nine months regardless of what the report says can that contract continue on in other words it was put in place during the free time, can it continue on if sanctions are put in place afterward . That is a gray area. It is a detail, and i realize it is not the biggest issue, but it does create concerns about people rushing in now to establish contracts, which we see happening now. Senator i dont think that is an unimportant issue. I wouldnt describe it as a detail at all. I think it is essential. Companies could enter into contracts and then somehow be protected against snap backs then we would have a very weak snap back indeed. We were in tent not to let that happen. Iran may want to put grayness into the issue, but they understand the issue as well. When sanctions are lifted, the business allowed by that lifting can occur. If sanctions are snapped back, any protections on an existing contract or a new contract are sanctionable. Our friends in the u. K. , france, and germany understand that. If there is any doubt, i want to remove it today. Senator if we could have a letter from the other parties that agree to that that would be helpful. If you could get the other parties, including china and russia, to agree that is the case because we are getting very mixed i think it would just help us, to some degree, at least with people who are on the bubble about the issue. Ambassador sherman i spoke with the u. K. Ambassador to the United States this morning. I know he has talked to many of you. He shared with me and email an email that i believe he sent to your office about this. He said that in fact he is committed and you are committed to snap back and to the ability to apply sanctions for other forms of an acceptable activity. He also said to me on the phone this morning that he absolutely understands, all europeans understand and helga schmidt, the deputy of the year p. M. Europeans high Representatives Office just held a meeting to affirm the very fact that you questioned, that indeed companies have no grandfather clause whatsoever. Senator thank you, senator corcoran. Senator graham. Senator graham isp or she ate i appreciate senator corcorans concerns about this issue. The military option, obviously is always on the table. Its a political agreement that any party can obviously pull out of, just to make that clear. Again, i appreciate senator corkers comments. Im not sure about the analogy of 50 versus 100. I want to get to that in a moment. I dont know if analogizing that to the size of our economy really gets us anywhere. But that aside, lets talk about sanctions release and this is the jurisdiction of this committee and the primary area of jurisdiction. I know you opposed, secretary sherman, a pay for Performance Model in the iran agreement, and i would like you to discuss generally, the steps iran will have to go through before receiving any new sanctions relief under the agreement on implementation take, if you would walk through that with us. Ambassador sherman sure. Iran has to uninstall two thirds of its centrifuges. It has to get its stock pile down 98 from 12,000 tons to 300. It must take the quandary all it must take the core of the iraq reactor out and fill it with concrete so that is unusual unusable. It must set up with the iaea all of the verification processes. The iaea must have access on a 24 seven basis. There will be Realtime Data transmission. There will be electronic monitoring so that the iaea will know if something is tampered with in real time. The iaea will have eyes on production for 20 years. For 25 years, the iaea will have eyes on uranium from the time it comes out of the ground until it is milled, from its mining until its milling, conversion set into gas so that they will not be able to divert one ounce of uranium, one portion of uranium. We will always know where goes. I wrong, in essence iran, in essence, would have to create an entire new supply chain covertly to get a Nuclear Weapon. In addition to all of these new measures which have to be put in place, iran has to take all of the steps the iaea requires on pmd. That is supposed to happen around october 15, adoption day as opposed to implementation day, so even sooner. All of these things have to take place and all of these are detailed in annex five of the agreement, before theirre is any sanctions relief whatsoever. All sanctions relief is a lifting, not a termination. Termination comes 20 years later or when the iaea reaches broader conclusions, meaning they have no undeclared fifth ladies and they can certify undeclared facilities, and they can certify that their program is completely peaceful. Senator if you could certify what sanctions remain in place that will help us manage, combat, eliminate as much as possible, various activities in terrorism in the region. Within that answer, if you could talk about the 50 billion figure why it is 50 and not 100, in terms of obligations. Second, if you could speak to the 500 billion i think you used the term hole in the iranian economy, what that pressure is on their government to supply domestic needs as some of this money is available. Absolutely. The sanctions regime that remains in place to combat terrorist activities their support of has a lock, the ongoing violence in yemen, their support to shia militants in iraq, their support in syria that sanctions regime fully remains in place and it is very asked then sieve. Very extensive. It is an ongoing authority that we have, that the europeans maintain, and that many of our allies maintained to go after these actors. Senator if i could interrupt you are confident our allies stay with us on those sanctions, unlike suggestions we hear from others that particularly china and russia will not be there with the broader sanctions that take place overall. One does need to distinguish. When it comes to irans regional activities, there is a coalition of countries that are highly concerned and working alongside us. Increasingly, we are seeing cooperation from the gulf countries who for obvious reasons are increasingly troubled by irans activities. We saw a number of hezbollah leaders just a few months back the concern is very high. But our concern about hezbollah i dont want to mislead the committee, is not shared worldwide. I dont think we will see china and russia stepping up in the way we have seen our allies in europe, in israel and the gulf, with respect to a lot of these regional interventions. Senator secretary sherman, the singular goal that we have discussed of the five plus one negotiations is to make sure that iran does not obtain a Nuclear Weapon. Many of the opponents to this agreement have talked about the dollars that have been that will be available because of the lifting of sanctions and what discord and terror iran could so in the region sew in the region. Speak to what the administration is doing to combat that. Ambassador sherman indeed we share the concerns this committee has and our country has about irans activities in the region. Not only will he have all of the sanctions rules tools that were laid out, but iran has but obama has provided more security to israel than any other president. Every president has held on the efforts of the previous president , thoug but this president has offered the most assistan ce. This the president had the council to a meeting at camp david. That has been followed up with a meeting that secretary kerry had in which the dcc supported the plan of action, believing that it will bring more security to the region because iran will not be able to project power have a Nuclear Weapon that acts as a deterrent. We are focused very much on them helping to improve capabilities, training, intelligence sharing regional