[gavel] the subcommittee will come to order. Myself andnizing Ranking Member deutsche for five minutes each opening statements, i will been recognized other members seeking recognition for one minute. We will then hear from our witnesses, and without objection, witnesses, youre prepared statements will be made a part of the record, and members may have five days to research statements and questions for the record. Subject to the length limitation in the rules. We have many members of our subcommittee who are also on the judiciary committee, including Ranking Member deutsch, and it is an important markup happening as we speak, so you might see a lot of members moving back and forth, and we appreciate the time they can spare to come over here. Thank you, mr. Deutsch. The chair now recognizes herself for five minutes. Month, this subcommittee convened a hearing on the challenges for the United States saudi arabia bilateral relationship. Today, we focus on the u. S. Qatar relationship, and qatars relationship with its neighbors. It is important to note that this rift in the gulf is not new. Bauer, a former seniorlevel official at the treasury department, stated earlier this month at a think quote saudi arabia and the uae have fought for years to galvanize qatars actions against terrorist financiers that were operating a month and continue to operate, in qatar. Qatar has been known to be a permissive environment for , reportedlycing funding u. S. Designated foreign terrorist organizations such as hamas, as well as several extremist groups. In 2014, the former Deputy Director of the cia, david telling, called out to talk publicly, along with the kuwaitis, because according to him, the private engagement with these countries has not achieved what we were trying to achieve. In fact, qatar has openly housed hamas leaders, taliban leaders, and that several individuals who been sanctioned by our u. S. State treasury department, and it has failed to prosecute them. At least one highranking qatari official provided support to the mastermind of the 9 11 terror attacks against our country, Khalid Sheikh mohammed. Then, of course, there is colleague mohammed, the u. S. Eu, and u. N. Designated international terrorist, or his work in financing al qaeda and the 9 11 masterminds. The 2008, he was tried and convicted in absentia eyebrow reign for his terrorist activities. He was arrested later that year by qatar, only to be released by the qataris six months later, and then openly financed by doha. Can anyone guess what Khalifa Mohamed has been up to . He has been alleged to be financing and supporting terror in both iraq and syria, with no response from the qatari government. Michelleder khaled s headquarters for years while the qatari government support, and even the Muslim Brotherhood has received significant support in qatar. Of course, not all this is doharted the government in. Many individuals and charities in qatar have been known to raise large sums of money for al qaeda, the nusra front, hamas, and even isis. Qatar, there are three buckets. Terror financing by the government, care financing done to their own citizens that the government may not know about, and Terror Financing in qatar the government knows about, that does nothing to stop. According to the 2015 country reports on terrorism, the state department stated, quote, entities and individuals within qatar continue to serve as a source of Financial Support for terrorists and violent extremist groups, particularly regional al qaeda affiliates such as the nusra front. There is no excuse for openly harboring terrorists and supporting groups that seek to harm our allies. The excuse by qatar that it is harboring these nefarious actors is because the u. S. Asked them to no longer stands up. Qatar should not be continuing this reckless policy, you to past mistakes in previous republican and democratic administration. We must not allow for our airbase to be used as a means to justify this sort of behavior, and our lack of a more appropriate response. Behavior must change the status quo, and if he does not, it risks losing our cooperation on the airbase. The truth of the matter is, none of the gulf countries are without their issues. All the nations have been involved in funding different groups at some point that we would not approve of. But it seems like saudi arabia and the uae are making progress at a faster rate, while qatar is making some progress, but still is lacking slowly behind. Lacking slowly behind. In october 2016, danielle glaeser, then assistant secretary for terrorist financing in the office for terrorism and financial intelligence, told a Washington Dc Research institute that, over the past decade, guitar has a less progress in countering Terrorism Financing then had saudi arabia. We must analyze the totality of our relationship with these gulf countries, while qatar only helps to facilitate our theations and our airbase, uae, for example, has spent 12 years fighting alongside in afghanistan, and is been involved in Counterterrorism Operations with the u. S. In libya. So moving forward, one outcome i hope comes out of this dispute is for the gulf countries to work closely with our treasury departments Financial Action task force to root out and disrupt Terror Financing streets. This may be an opportunity for us to take a long, hard look at how, and for some its, we can effectively address and stop Terror Financing in the region, and ultimately defeat extremism that threatens the security of us all. With that, i turned to my friend, the Ranking Member, mr. Deutsch. You, madam chairman. Thank you to the witnesses. I think the chairman for convening todays timely hearing to explore our relationship with qatar, at a moment of great instability in the region. The ongoing diplomatic rift between qatar and its gulf neighbors is not good for the parties of the conflict. It is not good for the region. And it is not good for american interests. It is a distraction todays most iransg challenges and destabilizing activities, the conflict in syria, and the spread of terrorism. For most americans who expect conflict in the middle east to fall along sectarian lines between competing regional hegemons, it is confusing to see sunni arab neighbors in conflict. Overis a dispute longstanding grievances, over qatars support him a financially and through its stateowned al jazeera news station, were actors and groups that qatars neighbors, and in many cases the United States, he is deeply problematic. This feud, like others in the region, is a nuanced, deeply complex matter. Our relationship with qatar is no less complex. The tiny but immensely wealthy nation pursues an ambitious Foreign Policy of close relations with all actors in the region. Includestely, this terror groups like hamas and the afghan taliban. Qatar has served as a financial and political lifeline or hamas is devastating will in gaza since the terror group took over one in a decade ago. Qatar has sent hundreds of millions of dollars into the gaza strip to provide safe haven doha for hamas leaders, and helped legitimize hamas rule became the First International leader to visit hamaslets territory. Qatar has also sent advanced weaponry and financing to extremist elements in syria and libya, and al jazeera has given voice to clerics calling for suicide attacks against americans and israelis. These realities are troubling. But qatar is also a close partner in our fight against terrorism in the region. Hosts and helps to fund the largest u. S. Military facility in the middle east, essentially are Forward Operating base for u. S. Central command. And we supported the wars in iraq and afghanistan, and are today flying airstrikes against isis. Qatar has also served as regional mediator, often times the benefit of the United States. The taras helped broker ceasefires between hamas and israel. The intense fighting. The qatari also helped secure the release of an american hostage held for nearly two years i the Al Qaeda Linked nusra front in syria. Qatar has also provided the u. S. With valuable and actionable intelligence in the financing streets for isis, and has begun taking steps to hold qataris accountable for Terror Financing. But they have got a lot more to do. While they have begun prosecuting qataris sending money to terror groups, have done so in secret, hardly an effective deterrent. It isnt clear whether the outcomes of these prosecutions have led to any significant jail time or penalties. I was pleased to see the signing of a new memorandum of understanding the secretary tillerson on Terror Financing, but we do not yet know the details of how this agreement will be in lamented, and we wait to see the results. Madame chairman, it is important arabia,also that saudi uae, egypt, and other nations now isolating qatar, faced challenges as well. Two weeks ago, our subcommittee held a similar hearing on a relationship with saudi arabia in which we explored both our Strategic Partnership as well as our deep concern over saudi arabia slow progress on human rights and continued exploring a fundamentalist ideology. Todays hearing should not be about determining who is right. Todays hearing should make it clear that this fighting among partners is not advanced americas interests. Does not advanced americas interests. We should fight common threats and push all of our partners in the region to cut off funding to terror groups. We should be urging every leader to curtail hate speech and improve the records on human rights, including treating women as equal members of society. I hope today we can assess our relationship with qatar thoughtfully read i hope our witnesses to help us unpack how pat diplomatic rifts between qatar in its neighbors can reinforce our path forward. And i hope we can review the major demands made on qatar to reduce relations with iran, shutdown the Turkish Military base, severed ties to terror down altions, and shut jazeera, to understand the motivations behind these demands, and in an effort to see how a resolution might actually come. I trust our Witnesses Today will lead us in an interesting and worthwhile conversation, and i appreciate, again, then being here. I yield back my time. Now we will turn to our members for any opening remarks they might have starting with mr. Cook of california. Thank you, madam chairman. This is going to be a very interesting hearing. It is almost a miller the one we had with turkey. Obviously, as and has already been discussed, some of the issues are going to come up, the relationship with hamas, the taliban, financing, and everything else, now there is a new wrinkle, and that is the world cup. The north korean workers that are going to be paid for by that government there, with the money , thatback to north korea is probably going to be used to research,re missile and i do not think i have to tell the panel or anybody here that, this is an even more troubling scenario that some of the we are talking about a large number of North Koreans, including the north korean military, that are going to be working on that. I hope our panel will also discuss that, as well as the other issues that were just raise. Thank you, sir. Mr. Swazi of new york. Now chair and Ranking Member, i want to thank you for holding this hearing. It is very difficult for many of us to untangle the complicated relationships that exist in this region. We simply do not have the background the witnesses do. That is why we are so appreciative of them being here today. Between the religious disputes and tribal and family relationships and historic disputes, and peoples economic interests, it is sometimes difficult to untangle who the different parties are. No one in the region really has clean hands, and we need to figure out how to promote our agenda in america and throughout we have, which is that to stand strong and hard against people who use propaganda and speech and hate Economic Warfare to promote extremism and violence. So im excited to listen to what the witnesses have to say. Thank you. The chair now recognizes mr. Zelden for one minute. I am taking over the chair. Thank you, madam chairwoman. Im very much looking forward to todays hearing, listening to our witnesses, and asking questions and getting feedback. A lot of great thoughts are a shared. I especially like the Ranking Members opening testimony. He really touched on so much of what i to care deeply about. , and iy, i was in qatar found them to be very welcoming. They were going as far out of their way as possible to make progress in our relationship. We visited the military base that was there, and our service ofbers were well taken care in a good, strategic location. At the same exact time, i am greatly concerned by the welcoming atmosphere that exists , and i just want to better understand the future of this relationship, and the the reality exists as it does right now in 2017. Thank you again for doing this hearing. I look forward to the testimony. The chair now recognizes mr. Liu for one minute. Thisank you for holding hearing. There are the mysteries of allegations between qatar and the countries opposing the blockade. It is hard for me to figure out what is true and what is false. Let me tell you what i do see. I do see a blockade that has resulted in some cruel consequences, from what ive read, your families now being separated based on National Origin. That to me is highly troubling. I also see a Trump Administration that sending very mixed signals. At the same time the secretary of state is saying do not blockade, you have the president doing the opposite, essentially claiming credit for this blockade. Then you have also, the United States public 12 billion with the fighter jets to qatar. I would love to see the panel clarify that, and tell us not only what our policy towards qatar should be, what it actually is right now. I yield back. The gentleman yield back. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. Issa. Yesterdays like only that a president said, you are either with us or against us. And the world said, is too simple. But i think as we evaluate qatar and the other gulf states, we have to ask that basic question. Is qatar with us . Are they moving towards being more with us . Are they cooperating . Are they moving toward iran . Are they moving away from the u. S. . These are questions i believe we are going to be asking today, that i am hoping to hear throughout the day, because i believe that although you are either with us or against us, there are shades of gray in all our allies in the region. It is clear that turkey has been moving away from us since 2003. It is clear that qatar has not been the best actors when it comes to taking away funding from those who support terrorism, and it is clear that if they are moving with us, we need to have that demonstrated, saudi arabia,e united arab emirates, and others to demonstrate on a regular basis. I yield back. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. Meeks. I want to join with the statement of mr. Liu. We have to talk about the issue of fairness, and that when you talk about guitar and the other countries in the region, we as the United States, i dont think, should be peaking in choosing. We need them all. We need to figure out how we work collectively together. Atari has been, they have done some qatar has been, they have done some things that have been very good for the United States, our military base. They are working with us in regards to the war on terror. What i think needs to happen here, especially when we talk about qatar, we need to bring in as a committee, individuals from both the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration, because there is deep dialogue and conversation we can have with them to talk about the region and the people they have asked to do some things on behalf of the United States. The case, those individuals should not be held responsible, if they are working cooperatively with us. So i look forward to hearing the testimony from the witnesses, and we just need to make sure we have a level Playing Field here. Meek we will mr. Now turn to our witnesses. S. I would first like to welcome the dr. Jonathan shanzer, Senior Vice President for research for the foundation for the defense of democracies. He served as a counterterrorism analyst at the department of the treasury, and prior to that, worked as a Research Fellow at the Washington Institute were near east policy. Elcome back dr. I would also like to welcome back dr. Matthew levitz, who directs the Stein Program on counterterrorism and intelligence at the Washington Institute for near east policy. Previously, the doctor served as a Deputy Assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the u. S. Department of the treasury. Before that, as an fbi counterterrorism analyst. Were glad to have you back with us today, dr. Levitt. Finally, i would like to welcome elon goldenberg, a senior fellow and director of the middle east Security Program at the center for a new american security. Prior to see nas, mr. Goldenberg served at the chief of staff to for israeli,nvoy palestinian negoti