I dont think it is very helpful. Thank you, madam chair for holding this hearing. I want to say at the outset i have an honor flight coming in shortly. I have somebody from bangladesh here. I was clair of this committeehair of this committee a while back. I went to yemen and mr. Connolly is right, there have been problems there for years. But i would argue that they certainly have gotten worse under the administration and you know it was this administration that claimed that yemen was a Success Story and clearly it has been anything but that. When we were on our way over there, there was an a terrorist attack on a graduation at the military barracks and over 100 new soldiers were murdered by terrorists. So its been going on for a while. But the problems in yemen are just incredible. I think the thing that is particularly disturbing is the iranian involvement there and around the region. Its four or five capitals now in the region that are controlled by the iranians. So its a very dange
Gcc initiative or restarting the National Dialogue conference that collapsed in early 2014 without addressing the underlying issues. The houthi were reluctant participants in the National Dialogue in yemen but it was clear that they had no interest in ceding power over to a centralized government. As a result they withdrew from the National Dialogue, it collapsed, and the houthi took control over sanaa and now other areas. So why would the administration think that the circumstances have changed that would allow for a rekonconciliation to occur . It is naive and dangerous to think a political situation is achievable as long as the houthi are unwilling to cede their power and as long as iran continues its support for these fighters just like it is naive and dangerous to believe that a political solution in syria is achievable as long as assad remains in power. Even more absurd is the fact that iran just this morning has allegedly proposed a peace plan for yemen. This is the same iran th
Articulating that. As far as the hoothies are concerned, we have expressed an interest in establishing a dialogue with them going all the way back to frankly the time that i was still there. Up until now they have declined the opportunity to engage with us directly. Nevertheless, we have been able to communicate with them to pass messages to them through various intermediaries. And again, i believe that the hoothies are fully aware of our views and the positions that weve taken on their issues going all the way back to the early years of the 21st century. Thank you sir. You testified that Current Conditions in yemen are beneficial to al qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula and that isil is an emerging presence in yemen. How large of a presence does isil have in yemen . What kind of pressure are we applying against them . And now that our embassy is closed, our all of our personnel have been evacuated our intelligence capabilities have been severely restricted what kind of intelligence can w
Undocumented workers serves to suppress wages overall. Fp there are people who can be hired and are potentially exploitable because theres the employers can hold it over their head the fact they could deport them or report them. That suppressed wages for everyone. Theres sort of two sides to the issue. When we dwet to the level of unemployment thats closer to full employment andy gave the examples of looking for workers. Theres a demand for workers then more people will be em ploiped. The challenge we face now while we see this sort of displacement at the local level is theres still a lot of slack in the labor market. Tell us who you are. Give us your name. In your comments you said you work better in the physical element. We have three major disruptions in our economy. The deep recession which i call Great Recession and the second vegs of 2008. Theres a singularity between all three of those. That is we had major tax reductions both in Capital Gains and the highest rate employment wen
Minutes. On september 10th of last year, president obama announced to the American Public his plan to degrade and destroy the terrorist group isil. While making his case for americas role in the fight against isil, he highlighted our strategy in yemen and held it up as a model for success to be emulated in the fight against isil. Yet, a week later, the iran backed militia seize the the government. They continued to hail our Counter Terror operations in yemen as a model for success even though we effectively had no partner on the ground since president hadi was forced to flee. But more astonishingly and what can described as larmingly tone deaf and shortsighted, when press secretary earnest was asked at a press briefing if this model was still successful after the yemeni Central Government collapsed and the u. S. Withdrew all of our personnel including our special forces, he said, yes, despite all indications pointing to the contrary. So where do we stand now . Thats the important quest