Softer real net recognizing myself for our Opening Statements i will recognize other members and for those witnesses those prepared statements are made as part of our records with those statements and questions for a the record we have many members of the subcommittee on the Judiciary Committee ancestral important track up happening as we speak and we appreciate the time they can scare to culvert for lahood. Last month that subcommittee convened on those opportunities of the United States and saudi arabia but today we focus on the relationship and their relationship with the neighbors. It is important to note this rift is not new. Former senior level official of the Treasury Department stated earlier this month saudi arabia have fought for years with those actions against the of financiers and they will continue to operate. Then of course there is khalifa mohamad who is a u. S. Come in you designated International Terrorist for his role in financing al qaeda and the 9 11 mastermind. In 2008 he was tried and convicted in absentia by bahrain for his terrorist activity and arrested later that year by qatar only to be released by the qataris six months later and openly financed by doha. Can anyone guess what khalifa mohamad has been up to these days . He was implicated in terror finance activities in 2012 but more recently he has been alleged to be financing and supporting terror in both iraq and syria with no response from the qatari government. Hamas leader Ahmed Michelle also made doha his headquarters for years while the qatari Government Supports, with a qatari Government Support in the Muslim Brotherhood has received significant support from qatar. Of course not all this is supported by the government doha. Many individuals get charity and have been known to raise large sums of money for a qaeda, the al nusra fund hamas and even isis. In qatar errors Terror Financing by the government, Terror Financing done in qatar through their own businesses that the government may not know about and Terror Financing in qatar that the government knows about but theres nothing to stop it. According to the 2015 report on terrorism this state department quoted quote indices and individuals within qatar continued to serve as a source of Financial Support for terrorist and violent extremist groups particularly regional alqaeda affiliates such the nusra friend end quote. There is no excuse for openly harboring terrorists and supporting groups that seek to harm our allies and excuse by qatar that is harboring these nefarious actors because the u. S. Asked them to no longer stands up. Qatar should not be continuing this wreck was policy due to past mistakes from previous republican and democratic administrations. We must not allow for our airbase airbase to be used as a means to justify this sort of behavior and our lack of a more appropriate response. Dohas paper mites and must change the status quo and if it is not a risk losing our cooperation on the airbase. The truth of the matter is none of the gulf countries, none of the gulf countries are without their issues. All of 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 they uae are making progress at a faster rate while qatar is making some progress but still lagging slowly behind. According to the Congressional Research service quote in october of 2016 Daniel Glaser then assistant secretary for terrorist financing and the office for terrorism and Financial Intelligence told a washington d. C. Research institute that over the past decade qatar has made less progress in countering Terrorism Financing then had saudi arabia and quote. We must analyze the totality of our relationship with these gulf countries. While qatar only helps to facilitate our operations that are airbase, the uae for example has spent 12 years with this fighting alongside in afghanistan has been in all think Counterterrorism Operations with the u. S. In libya. Moving forward one outcome that i hope comes out of this is for the gulf countries to work closely with our Treasury DepartmentFinancial Action task force to root out and disrupt Terror Financing. This uneasy time may just be an opportunity for us to take a long hard look at how and for some if we can effectively address and stop Terror Financing in the region and ultimately defeat the extremism that threatens the security of us all. But that i turned to my friend the Ranking Member mr. Deutsch for his statement. Think you madam chairman. Thanks to the witnesses for being back before a committee. I think the chair for convening this timely hearing to explore a relationship with qatar in a moment of her instability in the region. The ongoing diplomatic rift between qatar and gulf neighbors is not good for the region and its not good for american interests. It is a distraction from todays more pressing challenges i ran, the conflict in syria and the spread of terrorism. For most americans who expect complex in the middle east to wallow along sectarian lines or between competing regional hegemons it is confusing to see sunniarab neighbors and complex this is a dispute over longstanding agreements over qatars support financially and through a stateowned aljazeera news that act as qatars neighbors and in many cases the United States is deeply problematic. This is a nuanced and deeply complex matter as our relationship with qatar is no less complex. The tiny but immensely wealthy nation has close relations with all actors in the region could unfortunately it includes terror groups like hamas and the afghan taliban. Qatar is served as a financial political lifeline for hamas dedicated rowing and gaza for over a decade now. Qatar has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of the gaza strip including haven for hamas leader Khaled Bashar and helped legitimize the rule when he became the First National leader to visit to moscow territory. Qatar has supported other in the region including sending advanced weaponry and financing to ask dream as in syria and libya and aljazeera has given a clarion call to americans and israelis. These realities are troubling. Qatar is a close partner in the fight against terrorism in the region. Doha hosts and helps fund the largest u. S. Military facility in the middle east essentially our Forward Operating base. It is from this space that we supported the wars in iraq and afghanistan and airstrikes against isis. Qatar has served as mediator oftentimes to the benefit of United States per qatar has helped broker a ceasefire between hamas and israel during periods of intense fighting but qatar is helped secure an american hostage held for two years by the icao the link nusra after the tragic beheading of a u. S. Journalist. It has begin taking steps to hold qatar accountable for terror finance that they have got more to do. While they began prosecuting terror groups they have done so in secret hardly an effective deterrent and its unclear whether the outcomes of these prosecutions have led to any significant jail time or penalties but i was pleased to see the signing of a new memorandum of understanding with secretary tillerson this month but we dont yet know the details of how this will be implemented and we will wait to see the results. Madam chairman it is important to know also that saudi arabia egypt and other nations now in qatar face challenges as well. Two weeks ago our subcommittee held a similar hearing on saudi arabia in which we explored our Strategic Partnership as well as our new concern over saudi arabias slow progress and in continued exporting of fundamentalist ideology but todays hearing should not the about determining who is right. Todays hearing should rather make clear fighting among partners does not advance americas interests. We should be pushing for unity among our allies to fight common threats. They should be pushing all of our partners in the region to cut off funding to terror groups and we should be urging every leader to curtail hate speech and improve the records of human rights including treating women as equal members of society. Madam chairman i hope they can assess our relationship with qatar thoughtfully and i hope her witnesses can help us inform our path forward and i hope we can review the major demands made on qatar to reduce relations with i ran shut down the chechen military base and shut down aljazeera who understands the motivations behind these demands in an effort to see how a resolution might actually help you to trust that our Witnesses Today will lead us in an interesting and worthwhile conversation and i appreciate being here and i yield back. Thank you very much mr. Mr. Deutsch and now we will turn turn to our members for any opening remarks they might have starting with mr. Cook of california. Think you madam chairman it is going to be very interesting hearing. Similar to the one we had with turkey. Friend or foe and obviously as has already been discussed some of the issues are going to come up, the relationship with hamas, taliban financing and Everything Else but now theres a new wrinkle and that is the world cup and the north korean workers that are going to be paid for by that government bear with the money going back to north korea that is probably going to be used to finance more Missile Research and i dont think i have to tell the panel or anybody here that this is an even more troubling scenario. We are talking about a large number of north floridians including the north korea military that are going to be working on that. I hope that our panel will also discuss that as well as the other issues that were just raised. Think you madam chairman. Thank you sir. Mr. Suozzi of new york. Think you madam chairman. I want to thank you for holding this hearing. Very timely. Its very difficult for many of us to untangle the complicated relationships that exist in this region. Isnt it on at the background for the witnesses do and thats why we are so appreciative of their being here to testify today. Between the religious disputes in the tribal and family relationships to the historic disputes in peoples economic interests is sometimes difficult to untangle who the different parties arpad no one in the region really has clean hands and we need to figure out how to promote our agenda in america and throughout the west which is that we have to stand strong and hard against people who use propaganda and hate speech and Economic Warfare to promote extremism and violence. Im excited to be here today and to hear what the witnesses have to say. Thank you. The chair now recognizes mr. Delfin for one minute. Mr. Delfin you are recognized. Think you madam chairwoman and very much looking forward to todays hearing listening to her witnesses and hearing questions and giving feedback. A lot of great thoughts were already shared. I especially like the Ranking Members opening testimony. You touched on so much of what i do care deeply about. Recently i was in qatar and i found them to be very welcoming. They were going as far out of their way as possible to make progress in our relationship with a military base that was there in our servicemembers were well taken care of and a good strategic location and at the same exact time im greatly concerned by the welcoming atmosphere that exists for hamas and i just want to better understand the future of his relationship and the reasons why the reality is six exists as a dozen 2017 i look forward to hearing the testimony. Sidibe thank you mr. Giovan. Thank you madam chairman making member for holding this hearing. Thereve been a series of allegations between qatar and the countries and its hard for me to figure out what is true and what is false. Let me tell you what you see. I do see a blockade that is resulted in cruel consequences. You have families now being separated based on National Origin and that is highly troubling. I also see a Trump Administration that is sending mixed signals at the same time the secretary of state is saying the escalated do not blockade. We have the person doing the opposite claiming credit for this blockade and then you have 12 billion worth of fighting just sent to qatar but i would love to see the panel clarify that towards qatar but it should be but what it actually is right now. I yield back. The gentleman yields back in the chair recognizes the time im from california mr. Issa for one minute. Enqueue madam chairman. Seems like only yesterday the president said youre either with us or against us and the world said its too simple but i think as we evaluate qatar and the other gulf states we have to ask a basic question, is qatar with us, are they moving toward a more with us . Are that cooperating, are they more cooperative . Are they moving toward iran, are they them moving away from the u. S. . Hes are questions i believe we are going to be asking today and im 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 of our allies in the region. Its clear that turkey has been moving away from us since 2003. It is clear that qatar has not been the best of actors when it comes to taking away funding from those who support terrorism and its clear that if they are moving with us we need to have that demonstrated just as we asked saudi arabia the United Arab Emirates and others to demonstrate on a regular basis so think you madam chairman. They yield back. The gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from new york for one minute. I want to join with the statement. What we have to talk about heres the issue of fairness in me to make sure when we talk about qatar and the other countries in the region we as the United States dont think should be picking and choosing. We should keep talking because we need the mall and we need to figure out how we will work collectively together. Qatar has done some things that have been very good for United States and our military base trying to make sure to work with us with regards to the war on terror and i think what needs to happen especially when he to bring as the committee individuals on the Bush Administration the Obama Administration because there is dialogue and conversation begin have with them to talk about the people that have asked to do on behalf of United States. If that is the case in those individuals should not be held responsible if they are working corporately with us. Look for forward to hearing the customer the witnesses and make sure we have a level Playing Field here. Thank you mr. Meeks for your pink statement. We will now turn to her witnesses. I would first like to welcome back doctored Jonathan Schanzer who is the Senior Vice President of research for the foundation for defense of democracy. Doctors schanzer has served as a counterterrorism analyst at the department of the treasury and prior to that worked as a Research Fellow at the Washington Institute for near east policy. Welcome back dr. Schanzer and id like like to welcome back dr. Matthew leavitts who directs the program and counterterrorism and intelligence at the Washington Institute for near east policy. Previously he served as the Deputy Assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the u. S. Department of the treasury. Before that as a fbi counterterrorism analyst. We are glad to have you back with us today dr. Leavitt. Finally i would like to welcome elon goldenberg is a senior fellow and her of the middle east Security Program at the center for a new american security. Prior to cnas mr. Goldberg served as the chief of the staff to the special envoy for israelipalestinian negotiations at the u. S. Department of state from 2012 to 2013 mr. Goldenberg served as a senior professional staff member on the senate or in Relations Committee covering middle east issues. In that capacity he acted as one of the elite directors of the serious transition support act which provide additional authorities to arm the serious opposition. The bill passed the Senate ForeignRelations Committee in may of 2013 and i thank him for being here with us today. Doctors schanzer we will begin with you for your opening statement. Madam chairman Ranking Member deutsche members of the subcommittee on behalf the foundation for democracy thank you for the opportunity to testify. As many of you know we have been producing research and analysis on the arab spring. Their critique has been consistent 30. 2 qatari support for hamas the taliban jihadists and syria libya and the Muslim Brotherhood that we have been aljazeera and track them in a report suggesting qatar has noted thro