Thanks for being with us this week. You realize this is something i not ond would love to do but something i think could be different about books written in the path and a way to rethink and reevaluate who this person was, what his real significance was. What his virtues really were that made him the most one of the most adored and adlated figures in the american history. But also what were his flaws and what were his the thing that is made him in many ways unpleasant and even hated by millions of people. Tonight on q a Hudson Institute senior fellow herman takes a look at the life and career of u. S. Army general macarthur. I think thats one of the things about him that you have to say he saw the future more clearly often than he saw the present. Whether it was americas role the ia, the rise of china, split between china and the soviet union which he foresaw. But also perhaps, too, the fate of american domestic politics. Tonight at 8 00 eastern. On tuesday the Senate Homeland security and Governmental AffairsCommittee Held a hearing to discuss isis ideology and how it relates to socalled lone wolf attacks like the mass shooting in orlando. Refugees from isis affected areas made recommendations on how to counter isis beyond u. S. Led military operations. This is just over two hours. i ¿sen. Johnson good morning. This hearing will come to order. We do have one witness making his way over. I thought we would get going. I want to thank the witnesses for appearing, for your time, for your testimony. The Mission Statement of this committee, you heard it repeatedly, but ill repeat it again, is to enhance the National Economic security of america. On the Homeland Security side, one of our top rarities is doing whatever we can to keep our homeland safe, to counter islamic terror. The goal of every hearing, from my standpoint, the first step of solving a problem is admitting you have one, properly defining it, identifying it, defining it, really facing reality. The goal of every hearing is to lay out a reality, so that members of the committee, the audience, understand what we are dealing with. Todays hearing is our eighth hearing, dealing with some form of the threat we face from islamic terror. It is a harsh reality. It is one i wish was not true. It is one i wish we did not have to face, but we have to. We are hearing testimony today that will be hard to hear. It will be hard to hear. But it is testimony that i think is important for us to hear. I think the weaknesses for appearing. I would ask that my written statement be entered into the record without objection. Islamic terrorists declared war on the United States. Islamic terrorists declared war on the civilized world. We didnt declare war on them. They declared war on us. I cant exactly point to the date, but one that is pretty visible was the first attempt to bring down the twin towers on february 26, 1993. The fact that we didnt face the full reality right there and then i think eventually led to the fact that we been faced the tragedy of 9 11, where almost 3000 americans were slaughtered. There are two ways to end a war. Either one side defeats the other, or both sides decide to lay down their arms. The tragic events of yet another isis inspired terror attack on this country in orlando has proven islamic terrorists are not laying down their arms. The only way we are going to end this war, keep our homeland safe, return peace to the civilized world, is if we defeat islamic terrorists, if we defeat isis. On september 10, 2014, president obama laid out americas goal as relates to isis. This pretty simply stated, to degrade and ultimately defeat them. That was 22 months ago. 22 months ago. In testimony last week before the Senate Foreign relations committee, cia director john brennan laid out the reality as it relates to our success or lack thereof in our war on sis. And he testified, and this is a quote, that isis remains a formidable, resilient, and largely cohesive enemy, and that our efforts have not reduced their terrorism capability and their global reach. That is a depressing reality after 22 months. But it is a reality we have to face. Again, i want to thank the witnesses. Dont hold back. Lay out the reality. Make sure that the senators on this dais and the American People understand the threat, the enemy we face, and why it is crucial that we defeat them. I wish they would lay down their arms. I wish they would declare peace. But it doesnt look like that is going to happen. With that, i will turn it over to my ranking member, senator carper. Sen. Carper thank you for delaying this hearing a week so hat our witnesses could be assembled we welcome each of you. Thank you for sharing with us your stories and your perspective. We are delighted you could ome. I want to follow up on the fight against isis is going. I went over a map today of that part of the world. The u. S. And our Coalition Forces have recaptured almost 50 on the land that isis once eld. I think we are up to 47 . Isis has also lost land in syria. Ramadi and tikrit were key victories. Last friday, Iraqi Ground Forces captured the city of falluja and are clearing up the last pockets of resistance in that city. It was only 25 miles west of baghdad. As we speak, kurdish, iraqi, and Syrian Democratic forces backed by the u. S. Special forces are making preparations to recapture key isis strongholds in mosul. We have killed some 25,000 isis fighters. We cut isis funds by a third or more. We destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash. We reduced their amount to ability to realize profits from oil reserves and resources in that part of the world. We drastically slow the flow of foreign recruits. From 2000 a month in 2014 to 200 a month today. It also goes for Young Americans who saw to travel to join isis. One year ago every month about 10 americans were leaving this country to join isis. Today that number is 1 per month. At home, the fbi is cracking down on recruits as well. The fbi has arrested 88 individuals. I was a naval flight officer. I served five years in southeast asia. I know a little bit about fighting wars. Another 18 years right up to the end of the cold war. One of the ways we will win this fight is not by ourselves. There is not an appetite in this country for boots on the ground. But there is an appetite for working with a coalition around the world. That is what youre doing. I believe were making progress. Is this where we want to be . No it is not. Are we making progress . Yes. Nine days ago, 10 days ago, my wife and i went to new york. We our son took us for fathers day to the 9 11 museum. It is on the location where the twin towers once stood. I was reminded, as we saw the faces and names of family members of some 3000 people who died that day, of the way we responded to that tragedy. In this room, in this room we helped create the 9 11 commission. In this room we received some 40 recommendations, a bipartisan group, presented to us by the former governor of new jersey. It was presented by lee hamilton. They presented to us after months of work some 40 recommendations. What we could do to reduce the likelihood that these attacks would occur again. We adopted maybe 80 of them. Then started and letting them. The response to that tragedy was bipartisan. It was a unified approach. Ultimately, it has been successful. When you compare that to the response to the tragedy in orlando, it could not be more different. I i hope today that we have the kind of conversation with all of you that will enable us to better improve this fight. This is a fight we will win. We have a lot of allies, not just folks in this country. People of all faiths, including the muslim faith. Together, we will prevail. I asked the rest of my statement be entered into the record. Chairman johnson without objection. We will swear in witnesses so if you will rise and raise your ight hand. Do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Lease be seated. Our first witness is an associate fellow at the tahir institute for middle east policy. In 2008 you worked in abu dhabi focusing on syria, iraq, and the gulf states. Thank you, chairman, and anking member. By way of introduction i want to add that i come from an isis controlled area. I have also interviewed isis members for my book. I want to say this this is not a sectarian war. The people isis claims to represent our victims of its brutality. Just as much as everyone else. There is this is reality felt on a daily basis. Family and friends go to the market and see severed heads on pikes. When isis condemns its sunni opponents. Hey burn them alive. They stabbed their hearts before they shoot them. They display their dead bodies or days. It doesnt matter if you pray, or fast in ramadan, or turn your face towards mecca, they will still kill you if you dont pledge allegiance. Not far from where i come from, n my area, isis killed 700 sunni villagers in a matter of days. They dared to stand up against the group. I want to move on to say that as a belief system, those that believe in the Islamic State ideology are a minority not only in the muslim world but also in the group. I found that members come in six categories. One, longstanding religious radicals. For example, they believe there is no sanctity of life of the unlike al qaeda, which justifies killing civilians but only as collateral damage. Isis will kill civilians itself as the preferred outcome. A month ago, the spokesperson for isis said, when he called for sympathizers in the west and the United States to launch attacks, he said he received complaints from sympathizers that couldnt find military targets. He said there is no such thing as innocent civilians in the west. He went on to say they prefer to kill civilians. I dont have time to justify that, he didnt even have the justification during the statement. And, the second category of people are young zealots who are victims of the first category. People between 1217 who are drawn to this idea of a caliphate. They are brainwashed. They are told islam, in a way that isis understands. It distorts a lot of things. It dont have religious knowledge. They hear those and the traditions that isis relates for the first time. Theres a third category, people who are drawn to isiss political ideology first of this is a major problem not only within isis, but in the region. People who are trying to this political ideology. They think there is political tagnation in the region. They think only these groups can shake up the political order. I think omar mateen belongs in that category. People who are only superficially influenced by this organization. He did not follow their way of life. He still was animated by this idea of the Islamic State. The other categories are those who are drawn to the group because of its militaristic success, model of government, attraction to brutality, or are profiteers. The group is in a sea of political failures in the region. It is not a surprise that isis emerged in iraq and syria. Countries have suffered nimaginable brutality. The group has built its narrative around sunni victimization. It benefited to say that sunnis are systematically under attack by iran and other governments. The two greatest superpowers in the world are helping both of them. There are traitors in their midst to help them. It is important, without playing the genocidal act of isis, to highlight that the regime in damascus had carried out almost all of the atrocities without exception that isis has committed even before they arrived in syria. In 2012, progovernment militia stormed villages, slaughtered children, and smashed heads of condemned people. I want to conclude by saying that isis thrives in this context was that it should be defeated in this context to stem the International Appeal. This can only happen at the hands of the people that isis claims to represent. Thank you very much. Chairman johnson thank you very much. Our next serves as the ceo of he code corporation. He has a phd from princeton in islamic law. He said he traditional Islamic Sciences in cairo, egypt. Senators johnson, and other members of the committee, thank you. I would like to make brief introductory remarks and save the other discussion points for questions and answers. I would like to add that before isis, or isil, declared war on our homeland, they declared war on is lumped of this is not only a threat to our homeland, or national security, but our religion. Both the expressions are defined by interpretive methodology. That is what you go to seminary to be trained in. This requires want to understand the divine text. And to understand the text of the quran, and the various statements of the profit. There are 60,000 prophetic texts. There are over 100,000 narrations of these texts. Understanding the divine text means understanding a dozen different sciences. It begins with arabic grammar, syntax, logic, these interpretive tools were used to understand what does the text actually mean in the context in which it was revealed . The second thing is to understand the context we live in now. The current moment. Understanding full well that people change, times change, circumstance changes, and location and place change. How does one fast the month of ramadan in the northern latitudes . How do we deal with usury in the light of fiat currency not backed by gold or silver . That further adds that one needs to understand the current moment we live in. The third aspect of this interpretive paradigm is how do we link the divine text into the current moment in which we live . That, as we were taught, is a talent. Not everyone is endowed with that kind of talent. Violent and extremist groups like isil have no interpretation whatsoever. Nor do they have a fundamental understanding of islams. They are warmongers who have created a parallel religion. This parallel religion is no more islamic than a pool with one lemon squeezed in it is lemonade. Because of the gross misunderstanding of the primary text, because of that, we can identify what is so wrong with their thinking. I have been able to deduce about half a dozen or so main concepts that they have. I have traced them for certain cluster of sources that are used by every single islamist xtremist group from the middle f the 20th century until our time today. In that, i can isolate those concepts. We can provide a counter narrative. I dont have an army at my disposal. I dont own any weapons. I leave that to law enforcement. I do have my intellect and my scholarly training. I can employ that to provide a counter narrative to inoculate our youth. To make it absolutely, unequivocally clear that what isil represent has nothing to do with the religion whatsoever. Chairman johnson thank you. Our next witness is an activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual rights who fled syria in 2012 after receiving threats from soldiers and jihadists because of his sexual preference. He fled first to lebanon then turkey. He was granted Refugee Status after a year and a sense moved to the United States. He testified before the United NationsSecurity Council summit on lgbt writes in syria. Mr. Nahas . Mr. Nahas members of the committee, thank you for offering me the honor to share my story. In the context of the larger events happening in the world and here in the United States. My story mirrors the story of many other lgbt individuals. One day i was heading to the university, and organized group of militants accosted me because they perceive me as gay. The local mosque had announced they would cleanse the city of all sodomites. Isis had not yet been formed. The regime targeted all gay man in the country. I fled from my home country of syria in 2012. After living in a country of lebanon for six months, i moved to turkey. A history of activism meant that even in turkey i once again found myself in danger. Extremist groups like al qaeda and isis were gaining strength and access there. I was not safe because of my sexual identity. A syrian friend informed me i had been targeted for death. The director helped me with a un refugee agency. Rior to my resettlement, i completed an extremely thorough screening process. That included testifying under a and front of an officer from the dhs security checks and cultural orientation. After this process, i was relocated to san francisco. In august of 2015, a few months after resettlement, i spoke before members of the un Security Council about the threat to sexual minorities in the middle east. S i stated during the meeting, along with ambassadors, isis was just one of many threats to the Lgbt Community in the middle east. Report from recent refugees from syria say isis and other groups actively target gay people. It is enough just to be perceived as gay by them to be arrested, tortured, or raped. This person can be thrown off a building. A cheerful crowd will stone them to death if they are not dead. While isis is seen by the public as the most notorious group in syria, and iraq. Their methodology, when it comes to the treatment of lgbt people, is similar to many other groups including overnments themselves. We know that many groups target and kill gay people in syria. The just use different methods to kill. Good fortune allowed me to begin a new, safer life. Recent event in orlando show that lgbt people still face huge challenges here. The New York Times reported on june 16, even before the shooting rampage, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender will already be most likely targets of hate crimes in america. According to analysis of Data Collected by the fbi. Put simply, efforts to discredit the poisonous of hate crimes in america. Ideology of isis and other extremist groups are insufficient to completely are insufficient to completely erase the threats of antilgbt balance either here in this country or abroad. Must also commit to combating homophobia, xenophobia, and bigotry in all societies forms regardless of the source. In order to deal with these issues, i recommend two things bridges ofough the the United Nations, support actions not promote not only also love,s but inclusion, tolerance, and equality among religiou