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GENOCIDAL ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIAN

AND OTHER RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN

SYRIA AND IRAQ

JOINT HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

AND THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Serial No. 113–211

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

KAREN BASS, California 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

(V)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

The Honorable Tom Malinowski, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, 

Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State ...................................... 9

The Honorable Anne Richard, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, 

Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State ......................................... 17

Mr. Thomas Staal, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development .......................................................................................... 29

The Honorable Peter Galbraith (former advisor to the Kurdistan Regional 

Government) ......................................................................................................... 49

Thomas Farr, Ph.D., director, Religious Freedom Project, Berkley Center 

for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University ...................... 55

Her Excellency Pascale Esho Warda, president, Hammurabi Human Rights 

Organization (former Minister of Immigration and Refugees in the Iraqi 

Government) ......................................................................................................... 64

Mr. Johnny Oram, president, Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce 

of California .......................................................................................................... 79

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

The Honorable Tom Malinowski: Prepared statement ......................................... 12

The Honorable Anne Richard: Prepared statement .............................................. 20

Mr. Thomas Staal: Prepared statement ................................................................. 32

The Honorable Peter Galbraith: Prepared statement .......................................... 52

Thomas Farr, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ............................................................. 58

Her Excellency Pascale Esho Warda: Prepared statement .................................. 67

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 88

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 89

The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress from the 

Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement .............................................. 90

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global 

Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations: Statements 

for the record from: 

His Excellency Ibrahim N. Ibrahim of the Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas 

the Apostle ........................................................................................................ 92

Mr. Johnny Oram of the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce of 

California ........................................................................................................... 94

Rev. Majed El Shafie of One Free World International .................................... 99

Mr. Mirza Ismail of Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International .......... 107

(1)

GENOCIDAL ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIAN 

AND OTHER RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN 

SYRIA AND IRAQ 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 2 o’clock p.m., in 

room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. 

Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. The meeting of the subcommittees will come to order. 

Good afternoon to everyone. 

We are convening this extremely urgent hearing on the desperate 

plight of Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and 

Syria. As images of beheaded American journalists James Foley 

and Steven Sotloff are seared into our consciousness, we would do 

well to honor their memories by recalling what they saw as their 

mission, to alert the world to the horrors committed by the fanatical terrorist group ISIS in Syria and Iraq: Children forced to view 

crucifixions and beheadings; women bartered, sold, and raped; prisoners lined up on their knees to be shot. This is the ISIS legacy. 

Today Christians and other religious minorities such as Yezidis, 

Shabaks, and Turkmen Shiites are not just facing a long winter 

without homes. They are not just hungry and thirsty and wandering from village to village in northern Iraq and Kurdistan. They 

are facing annihilation, genocide, by fanatics who see anyone who 

does not subscribe to its draconian and violent interpretation of 

Islam as fair game for enslavement, forced conversion, or death. 

If the phrase ‘‘never again’’ is to be more than a well-meaning 

sentiment we simply give lip service to, then we must be prepared 

to act when we see genocide unfold before our very eyes. After the 

United States pulled out of Iraq in March 2011, we left in charge 

a Prime Minister hostile to political inclusion of all Iraqis beyond 

simply Shiites. 

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, also known 

as the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, saw an opportunity to exploit Sunni sentiment at this treatment and surged to 

fill the gap. We withdrew; they surged. This is not the junior varVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:24 Oct 23, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\091014\89741 SHIRL
2

sity team of terrorists, as the President dismissively asserted earlier this year. 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran and Iraq, Brett McGurk, has 

described ISIL as having unprecedented resources in terms of 

funds, weapons, and personnel. We have seen what ISIS is doing 

in Syria, beheading and crucifying Christians and political opponents, taking hostages and kidnapping religious leaders, blowing 

up churches and mosques, and forcing religious minorities to convert, flee with the clothes on their backs, or pay an exorbitant tax, 

or die. 

When ISIS overran Mosul in June, Mosul’s 35,000 inhabitants 

not too old or sick fled for their lives. At checkpoints leaving the 

city, ISIS took the Christians’ wedding rings, money, travel papers, 

medicines, and even their cars. Families walked carrying their children, pushing wheelchairs and elderly parents, mile after mile into 

the hot, barren, Nineveh Plain. 

As ISIS continued to gain territory in July and August, the 

Christians fled further north joining Yezidi and many other minorities trying to find safety in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. More than 

1.7 million people have been displaced in Iraq this year, many were 

Christians who fled the brutal Syrian Civil War, now on the run 

again. Where will they be safe? 

Kurdistan, a region of 8.35 million people, currently hosts nearly 

750,000 refugees. The Kurdish militias are underfunded and 

underarmed now that ISIS has captured U.S. heavy weapons 

across Iraq, yet they soldier on. I have received emails from 

bishops and nuns chronicling the dire needs of their flocks who are 

being exterminated and expelled from regions their people have occupied for millennia. 

The U.S. has, in the last few weeks, geared up for the humanitarian crisis. As of September 5, the U.S. has dedicated nearly $140 

million in humanitarian assistance to Iraq, and USAID airlifted 

more than 60 metric tons of humanitarian aid into Kurdistan’s capital of Erbil. We need, however, to make sure that the aid gets people to need it most. This means, of course, working with religious 

leaders who are the closest to those in need. 

We also have to invest more in our relationship with the 

Kurdistan Regional Government, a regional government which has 

taken on the aspects of a de facto national government and one 

whose brave militia have stood up against ISIS while members of 

the Iraqi Armed Forces have folded and fled. 

It must also be remarked and remembered with gratitude that 

the Kurdistan Regional Government has extended protection to 

Christians and other victims of religious persecution. While their 

record has not been perfect, the Kurds appear to be more tolerant 

of diversity, of thought, and belief than many of their neighbors. 

But aid alone is not the solution. The U.S. has already spent 

some $2.4 billion on the Syrian humanitarian crisis that rages on. 

We need shrewd power, a strategy for action that is in touch with 

reality on the ground, a strategy borne of thinking ahead and preparing in advance for the contingencies, so that we are not playing 

catch up while the enemy rapes, pillages, kidnaps, massacres, and 

amasses wealth and weapons. 

3

The reality for religious minorities is that their very lives are at 

risk as long as ISIS controls territory and continues to gain 

strength on the ground, drawing funds and fighters from around 

the globe. As Pope Francis has noted with regard to this crisis, and 

I quote, ‘‘where there is unjust aggression . . . it is licit to stop the 

unjust aggressor.’’

Of course, that may indeed require the use of force, but it also 

requires using other means that are at our disposal. I have called 

for the establishment of a Syrian war crimes tribunal, introduced 

H. Con. Res. 51 to hold all sides accountable for the heinous atrocities they have committed. 

H. Con. Res. 51 introduced last September calls for the creation 

of an international tribunal like in Sierra Leone, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, that would be more flexible and more efficient 

than the International Criminal Court—it has already been vetoed 

by the Russians anyway—to ensure accountability for human 

rights violations committed by all sides. 

I believe with a herculean effort pushed by the United States and 

other interested nations, past success in creating war crime courts 

can indeed be prologue. Such a tribunal would also draw upon past 

experience. We had two hearings, one by the full committee and 

one in my subcommittee, in which we heard from David Crane, the 

former chief prosecutor at the Sierra Leone tribunal. He and his 

tribunal were the ones that put Charles Taylor behind bars who 

has entered into the 50 years of his sentence. Nobody ever thought 

in the beginning that Charles Taylor would be behind bars, especially after the atrocities and the power that he wielded. 

Such a tribunal, like I said, would draw upon these past experiences, but it would also be a mechanism that is robust enough to 

right, or at least bring some justice, to the most egregious wrongs, 

yet minimal enough not to derail changes for peace due to rigidity. 

The Foreign Affairs Committee approved H. Con. Res. 51 on 

April 30, and our hope is that the House will take it up, but frankly the administration can take this up and do this any time it 

pleases. 

As ISIS does not respect borders, of course the idea behind this 

would be Iraq and Syria. Today, the black flag of ISIS flies over 

vast swaths of northern Iraq and even cities such as Fallujah, 

which we had won at such great cost. Indeed, ISIS says that they 

intend to see the black flag fly over the White House. Where the 

black flag flies, there is only death and misery. We have to do everything humanly possible to stop this cancer from spreading. 

Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Mr. Chairman, as always, thank you for your leadership and convening today’s hearing on an important issue that is 

growing in severity and affecting various religious and ethnic minority populations in the region. 

ISIS continues to violate the human rights and religious freedom 

of minority groups in significant swaths of territory in both Syria 

and Iraq. Oh, I did want to acknowledge our colleague, Mr. Deutch, 

since this is a joint hearing, is not able to be here yet. Hopefully, 

he will join us, but he is in another hearing of the Ethics Committee, so he is not here with us today. 

4

And, Mr. Chair, you have named this hearing the Genocidal Attacks Against Christians and Other Religious Minorities in Syria 

and Iraq. And, you know, frankly, obviously I am very concerned 

about this, but the phenomena of ISIS and seeing them attack 

Muslims, I mean, one thing we know is that they don’t seem to discriminate in their terror and what is going on in these countries. 

I recall, the whole world saw the video of them capturing the soldiers, the 250 soldiers, and marching them down, and then later 

the videos of them being executed. And I can assume that many 

of those soldiers were Muslims. So the phenomena in ISIS and to 

hear that al-Qaeda thinks that they are too extreme is really an 

ominous situation. 

Of course, I would like to thank our distinguished witnesses, and 

I am interested in hearing your perspective on the grave reality on 

the ground; specifically, how widespread the attacks have been on 

soldiers, women, and children, among other vulnerable groups. I 

am also interested in hearing your perspective on the atrocities 

that have recently occurred like the one that I just mentioned with 

the 250 soldiers, and of course we have to remember the two American journalists. 

In addition, thousands of individuals from minority religious 

groups have been forced to seek refuge across borders, and the 

chairman spelled that out in quite a bit of detail. I do hope that 

this hearing sheds light on the important nuances of the situation 

and what is needed going forward in order to protect human rights 

and religious freedom in the region. I am committed to working toward this end and look forward to working with my colleagues to 

find the most effective and sustainable solutions. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Member Bass. Thank you very much. 

Next we will hear from the co-chair of this hearing, the chairman 

emeritus of the full committee and the chairwoman of the Middle 

East and North Africa Subcommittee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass. Thank you for your passionate words and for 

your longtime leadership on this important issue. You, Mr. Smith, 

have been a vocal and steadfast ally for all those who suffer and 

are denied their basic and fundamental rights, especially those who 

are targeted for persecution and harassment because of their religious beliefs. 

We, on this committee, have had several hearings focusing on religious minorities in the Middle East and on the humanitarian crisis in Syria and now in Iraq. Last September, Mr. Smith, I remember you remarked in your opening statement about how the Christians are not dying because they are in the war or as collateral 

damage. No. Their communities are being deliberately targeted, 

and it is important to remember that the Christian communities in 

Syria, as well as in Iraq, are both ancient communities that have 

long had their roots in the region, and even pre-date Islam by several centuries. But as we have seen, these communities are quickly 

dwindling in number as they face the ISIL threat in Iraq and in 

Syria. 

These vulnerable populations are taking the brunt of the 

unending humanitarian crisis in Syria as Assad, ISIL, other rebel 

5

groups, and the opposition, all continue to struggle for supremacy. 

Just 10 years ago, the Christian population in Iraq numbered 1.5 

million people, and before Assad began his campaign to quell calls 

for reform and democracy with military force and upended the entire country, Christians numbered close to 2 million in Syria. 

Today, after 31⁄2 years of brutality and unending violence, about 

one-third of Syria’s Christians have been forced to flee their centuries old homes with many having been beaten, tortured, forced 

to convert, or murdered. Their churches have been destroyed, their 

homes robbed, their children raped or kidnapped, and the plight of 

Iraq’s Christians is just as bad, if not worse. 

There are now less than 400,000 Christians in Iraq. Many faced 

the same fate as those in Syria, forced to flee, convert, or be killed. 

Tens of thousands, if not more, have fled to Erbil to seek refuge 

in Kurdistan, away from the ISIL scourge. What was once Iraq’s 

most populated Christian town is now down to just a few dozen, 

and this is not something new. 

The persecution of Christians, and in fact many other religious 

minorities in the Middle East and North Africa and elsewhere, has 

been rampant and prevalent for years. But it took the threat of the 

extinction of the Yezidis in Iraq just a few weeks ago for the administration to finally take any meaningful action in defense of a 

persecuted religious minority in Iraq or Syria. 

It was certainly the right thing to do, but my question is: Why 

did it take so long for the administration wake up to the realization 

that it isn’t just the Yezidis who are being targeted for extinction 

by these radical and fundamental Islamist ideologues, but it is 

Christians, too, who have suffered greatly. 

This is not a political issue, Mr. Chairman, this is about right 

and wrong, about a belief in our ideals and our morals that everyone everywhere, that is about justice, that is about freedom of religion, everyone should be able to live freely and openly without fear 

of persecution and be able to practice their faith. 

When President Obama spoke to the American people about his 

decision to intervene in Libya he said, ‘‘Some nations may be able 

to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United 

States of America is different. And as President, I refuse to wait 

for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.’’

But where has that leadership been in Syria and Iraq? Why have 

we allowed the Christians to be persecuted and murdered to the 

brink of extinction without taking action? Taking action against 

ISIL is an important step further, but leaving Assad in power will 

not fix the problem because he is part of the problem. 

Now we are left with even more difficult decisions than ever, and 

we cannot, for the sake of the Christian communities in Iraq and 

Syria and the other religious and ethnic minorities in the region, 

dither and remain indecisive or non-committal any longer. These 

crises are not new, and we on this committee have been highlighting them for years now. 

The administration has had plenty of time to hash out a clear 

set of objectives and map out a strategy, and it is way past time 

that the President presented that to the American people, to those 

who need our assistance, and to those who seek to harm us. 

6

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you, Ms. Bass, for this joint 

hearing. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, for 

your very eloquent statement. 

Mr. Vargas. 

Mr. VARGAS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And I want to 

thank both you and the other chair and the ranking members for 

holding this very important and very timely hearing. 

We have seen ISIS seize the land of the Nineveh Plain and force 

Christians and other religious minorities to flee, to convert, or to 

be killed. We have seen the horror and now we need to act. 

I have recently introduced the Nineveh Plain Refugee Act of 

2014, which would provide asylum relief for religious minorities in 

ISIL-held territories. This bill lowers the threshold for admission 

and allows religious minorities in ISIL-held territories to apply directly to the United States for admission. 

I would also like to thank those that are here to testify, but I 

would like to add this, that America has always been a refuge for 

those that have been persecuted around the world. And I hope that 

we can open our doors for these people that need a place to go. 

Many of them have family members here in the United States that 

are begging for them to come and join them. So I proposed this bill. 

I hope that we can act on it and save lives. 

Again, thank you very, very much for this hearing. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Vargas, thank you very much. 

Mr. Schneider? 

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for calling 

this hearing today on a crucial issue. As my colleague from Florida 

indicated, the United States is different. We do not turn a blind 

eye. And I think of the line from scripture, ‘‘Justice, justice, shall 

you pursue’’ and the importance that we, not just in the United 

States, but around the world, do seek justice by not turning a blind 

eye, reflecting on Martin Luther King’s words of injustice anywhere 

is a threat to justice everywhere. 

And what is happening in Syria and Iraq, not just the Yezidis, 

but so many religious minorities who are coming up severe persecution and threat, it is unacceptable. We, as a nation, the United 

States, are a nation of many diverse peoples, and we celebrate and 

embrace that diversity. But we can’t just focus on the United 

States; we need to make sure that we are supporting minorities 

and religious minorities to make sure that they have the freedom 

to practice their faiths and do so in security. 

So thank you again, and I look forward to hearing from the witnesses. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Yoho? 

Mr. YOHO. No comments. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Cotton? 

Mr. COTTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to make a brief statement. Obviously, the barbaric actions 

of the Islamic State have brought the persecution of Christians 

more immediately in front of the American people, crucifying 

Christians or even burying them alive, cleansing them from Mosul, 

the ancient Biblical town of Nineveh, this is not a new pheVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:24 Oct 23, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\091014\89741 SHIRL
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nomenon. This is something that has been happening for many 

years. 

When I served in Iraq in 2006, we saw the persecution of Christians in the neighborhoods in Baghdad where my soldiers and I patrolled. It is something that the United States cannot stand idly by 

and tolerate, especially when it is perpetrated by enemies that 

mean to strike the United States here and the United States homeland. It is a reminder that they are our enemies not because of 

anything we have done in the world but because of who we are and 

what we stand for. 

We are a country built on freedom, and the first of those freedoms is the freedom of religion, and they want to strike us because 

of those freedoms. It is important that we have the courage to 

stand up for our own national security and for the oppressed minorities in places like Iraq. 

Thank you very much. I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Cotton, thank you very much. And thank you 

again for your extraordinary service to our country, both in government as well as in the military. 

I would like to now recognize Mr. Connolly. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we are witnessing in Iraq and Syria is a form of genocide. Consider the options fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant force 

upon religious minorities living within territory under the group’s 

control. Individuals and families must decide under threat and duress if they are going to pay a special tax, evacuate, convert, or be 

executed. 

While the targeted persecution of religious minorities is hardly 

the sole transgression of ISIL and similar radical groups operating 

in Iraq and Syria, it is certainly one that has commanded the 

world’s attention. In addressing this immediate threat, we can take 

steps to protect both religious and ethnic minorities as well as the 

broader population. 

The violence in Syria and Iraq and the commensurate rise of 

ISIL threatens what 2,000 years of history has failed to do—the illumination of a culturally rich, ancient Christian community. 

America cannot stand idly by as religious fanatics destroy other religious communities who have lived side-by-side for almost two millennia. 

Tonight the President plans to address the nation regarding our 

path forward against ISIL. Bringing this issue before the Nation, 

he will no doubt address the public butchery emanating from ISILcontrolled regions of Syria and Iraq. This includes the well broadcast videos of the beheadings of American journalists James Foley 

and Steve Sotloff, as well as the aggressive programs of genocide 

ISIL has carried out in the region. 

I know we wish the President well, and I know we have an opportunity, Mr. Chairman, finally for this Congress to come together 

on a bipartisan basis to provide some basis of support for the President’s proposed actions. But I do think it is really important we 

also manage expectations. 

This is not going to be an easy enterprise. And, frankly, the goals 

and objectives are nowhere near as clear as those we faced in the 

post-9/11 world and Afghanistan with al-Qaeda. 

8

But ISIL has to be pushed back. Communities have to be protected, and the interests not only of the United States but of its regional allies must be also protected. So I look forward to this hearing, Mr. Chairman. I know we are about to call votes. I thank you 

for hosting it. I think the timeliness of it is very important, and 

I know we all look forward to the President’s remarks tonight for 

further guidance and leadership. 

And with that, I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Clawson. 

Mr. CLAWSON. As I prepared for today’s committee meeting, I 

was struck by how difficult of a map this is, how difficult and tough 

of a neighborhood this is, the ruthless nature of the opposition that 

we face, and the vulnerable nature of many of the religious groups, 

including those of you here today. I welcome you because we stand 

with you. 

I think that in times of great challenge we need even more fortitude and strength. Now is a good time for leadership, to protect 

vulnerable Christian groups, to back up our friends, and to restore 

a little bit of order in the world. So I hope that the U.S. will step 

up and show the leadership that the world needs and you who have 

come today are clearly asking for. 

I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Kinzinger, any opening comments? 

Mr. KINZINGER. I will just say quickly, it is—and thank you all 

for being here. Thank you for holding this hearing. It is a very important issue, and I hope to hear, as was said earlier, from the 

President. As Mr. Connolly said, I hope to hear from him tonight 

a very solid plan on how to eradicate this cancer in the Middle 

East. 

And with that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Meadows. 

Mr. MEADOWS. I just wanted to thank both chairmen for their 

leadership on this particular issue. Thank you for being here to testify. 

I know about 4 weeks ago I listened to a number of folks come 

in about the genocide that was happening in Iraq, and it wasn’t 

covered in the media, and it wasn’t even being really talked about. 

Now we talk about it every day. 

But, sadly, there is persecution that goes on each and every day, 

more than just with ISIS. It happens—people in this room have experienced it for years and years, and so we must do what we can 

and I remain committed to do all that I can to make sure that this 

issue doesn’t just disappear, that it is not just a hearing, but that 

we take real decisive action to make sure that those who are being 

persecuted don’t have to live in fear any longer. 

I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Okay. I would like to now introduce our three distinguished witnesses for the first panel, beginning first with Tom 

Malinowski, who was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for 

Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, in April 2014. Previously, 

from 2001, he was Washington director for Human Rights Watch. 

Prior to that he served as senior director on the National Security Council at the White House, and was a speechwriter for SecreVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:24 Oct 23, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\091014\89741 SHIRL
9

taries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, and a 

member of the policy planning staff at the Department of State. He 

began his career as a special assistant for Senator Daniel Patrick 

Moynihan. 

We will then hear from Ms. Anne Richard, who is the Assistant 

Secretary of State, for Population, Refugees, and Migration, a position she has held since 2012. Ms. Richard’s previous government 

service includes time in the State Department, the Peace Corps, 

and the Office of Management and Budget. She also worked at the 

Council on Foreign Relations, the International Rescue Committee, 

and was part of the team that founded the International Crisis 

Group. 

She testified before a subcommittee hearing earlier this year on 

the Central African Republic, and so welcome back. 

We will then hear from Mr. Thomas Staal, who is currently Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Democracy, 

Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development. His previous experience with Iraq includes 

serving as USAID’s Mission Director in Iraq from 2012 to 2013, 

serving as USAID regional representative for southern Iraq, where 

he oversaw all USAID projects in that part of the country, and as 

the director of Iraq Reconstruction Office in Washington. 

Before joining USAID, Mr. Staal worked for World Vision as 

their country representative in Sudan. 

Secretary Malinowski, please proceed. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE TOM MALINOWSKI, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, 

AND LABOR, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

Mr. MALINOWSKI. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much, Madam 

Chair, members of the committee. In the State Department, especially in my little bureau dedicated to human rights and religious 

freedom, we have been watching this nightmare unfold, including 

growing sectarianism in Iraq, attacks on members of religious minorities for some time. 

As you know very well, Christians in Iraq and other minorities 

have been under severe stress well before the horrors of this summer, and we have been in very close touch with these communities, 

working with them, assisting them, for a great period of time. 

And when ISIL started taking territory, first in Raqqa in Syria 

last year, on to Mosul this year, when it started forcing people to 

convert to its warped vision or be killed, when it started crucifying 

even members of its own Sunni sect, when it started a targeted and 

systematic drive to eradicate entire religious communities from 

their ancestral homelands, we were horrified, but we also saw it as 

the logical extension of the cancer that groups like this represent. 

Now, in early August, we faced a particularly dramatic moment. 

Thousands of people, members of the Yezidi ethnic minority group 

in the Sinjar district of Iraq, found themselves driven from their 

homes and trapped on a mountain, a discrete geographical space, 

surrounded but not yet assaulted by ISIL fighters, with just days 

left before they ran out of water or food and would face certain 

death. 

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Representatives of the Yezidi community contacted my staff to 

share the stories of their suffering and their plight on that mountain. Our contacts told us about hearing children crying for water 

in the background of phone calls. One man told us how he was on 

the phone with his brother, called him back 5 minutes later, his 

brother had been shot in the head by ISIL forces who were chasing 

the group at the time. 

Messages relayed from that mountain by cell phones with dying 

batteries, messages that told us exactly, with GPS coordinates, 

where the survivors were hiding, where the ISIL forces were 

amassing, made their way through my office, throughout the State 

Department, to the White House, to the Pentagon, on to 

CENTCOM. 

And, as you know, on August 7, within days of this crisis beginning, President Obama authorized, first a humanitarian airlift, 

then a series of strikes, to break the seizure of the mountain and 

protect the evacuation route as people were escaping. 

Shortly thereafter, a similar situation arose in the town of 

Amerli, where we again acted to break the siege of the minority 

community that was surrounded by ISIL. One woman who spoke 

to us recently, who had made a 50 kilometer hike from the village 

where she and her family had been held captive, through the wilderness to get back to Mount Sinjar and to this evacuation route 

that we had opened, told us, ‘‘. . . my husband my two children, 

and I—were on the run from ISIS. After 20 hours of walking . . . 

everyone was terrified, everyone was shaking, crying. We could 

only calm down after hearing U.S. jets above us. We felt ‘There is 

still someone there to save us.’ ’’

Now, a lot of people weren’t able to flee. Those are the happy stories, and there are many, many unhappy ones that are unfolding 

still today. We are especially anguished by the plight of thousands 

of women who have been kidnapped by ISIL from a variety of 

groups and held as spoils of war or sold in markets as sex slaves. 

This is obviously still the beginning. These discrete rescues are 

not enough. We need to defeat ISIL. We need to mount the effort 

that the President is mounting to eradicate this threat. And as we 

look to that, let me just make a few simple points. 

First of all, ISIL is unique, not because it uses bombings, assassinations, beheadings, which are sadly commonplace among terrorist groups, but because it targets entire groups of people simply 

because of who they are. This casting aside of all limits, that is 

what makes this so particularly dangerous, and that is why it is 

absolutely imperative that those who commit such acts not be allowed to project a narrative of invincibility and success to others 

who may follow their example. 

Second, ISIL is not self-limiting. It is not going to exhaust itself. 

People with the power to stop it are going to have to take action 

to stop it. 

Third, that is what we are going to do. As President Obama has 

said, and as he will explain further tonight, these murders have 

stiffened our resolve and repulsed and united the entire world as 

well. And that creates an opportunity out of this disaster and tragedy, to build a coalition that includes the countries in the Middle 

East most immediately threatened and to confront these killers 

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with allies from all the communities that ISIL has terrorized—

Christian, Shi’a, Yezidi, Sunni, and others—and that is what we 

are doing. 

Finally, very, very importantly, we know that if we want to protect religious minorities in Iraq and Syria and beyond, it is not 

going to be enough just to defeat ISIL militarily. We have to insist 

the governments in the region govern for all their people. That is 

why we insisted that additional action in Iraq depended on a more 

inclusive government there, and I think that was the right thing 

to do. 

Secretary Kerry is in Baghdad today, and this is a central part 

of his message. Just a few hours ago he said, ‘‘. . . the fundamental principle of organization for this entire new government 

thus far has been that we must move in a different direction from 

the direction that has existed in these last years. And that direction was one of sectarian division, of exploitation of divisions, of political retribution, even political arrests, political accusations.’’

Those who have been driven from their homes by ISIS should be 

able to return to their homes in safety and security with a say and 

a stake in the Government of Iraq. 

So I will just end by saying ISIL abuses human rights, but it is 

also the product of abuse of human rights in Syria and Iraq, and 

that is a lesson for all of us, and that is a lesson that is going to 

guide our strategy going forward. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Malinowski follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. 

Anne Richard. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ANNE RICHARD, ASSISTANT 

SECRETARY, BUREAU OF POPULATION, REFUGEES, AND MIGRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

Ms. RICHARD. Thank you very much, Chairman Smith, Chair 

Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Member Bass, other members of these two 

subcommittees. Thank you very much for holding the hearing today 

on this important issue. 

My bureau, the Population, Refugees, and Migration Bureau, depends on and benefits from your support all year round on a number of issues and crises all around the globe. Please accept my full 

testimony for the record. 

In June, the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, announced that for 

the first time since World War II the number of refugees, asylum 

seekers, and displaced people worldwide exceeds 50 million people. 

The list of complex crises is long. The chairman well knows the list 

in Africa includes instability and violence in the Central African 

Republic and South Sudan, refugees also fleeing longer term crises, 

the spread of Ebola. In the Middle East, we are in the fourth year 

of the Syria crisis, and also have witnessed conflict in Gaza this 

summer. 

We welcome the opportunity today to discuss the situation in 

Iraq, particularly for minorities, our response to it, and how it relates to our response to the Syria crisis. My remarks will focus on 

aid to displaced people fleeing the violence, and in my testimony 

for the record we outline the advance of Islamic State of Iraq and 

Levant, or ISIL, forces. But the main point I want to make is that 

it has driven an estimated 1.8 million Iraqis from their homes. 

Included in these numbers are members of minority groups who 

have, as you said, deep roots in Iraq. Mr. Chairman, you said they 

have occupied area there for millennia. Mr. Connolly said they are 

ancient, they go back to ancient times there. 

According to the State Department’s 2013 International Religious 

Freedom Report, approximately 3 percent of Iraq’s population is 

composed of Christians, Yezidis, Sabean-Mandaeans, Baha ́’ı ́s, and 

others, and a very small number of Jews. In addition, Iraq has 

sizeable Turkmen and Shabak minority communities, many of 

whom reside in northern Iraq. 

While the United States tries to help all vulnerable people in 

war-torn areas, we know that minority communities can face special peril, and they deserve our special attention. Prior to the 2014 

conflict, there were an estimated 500,000 Christians and 500,000 

Yezidis living throughout Iraq with large communities living in 

Nineveh. Now, most members of religious minority communities 

have fled Nineveh. 

In just 1 week in August, 200,000 Yezidis from Nineveh, Sinjar 

District, fleeing ISIL advances, poured into the Kurdish region, and 

many fled with little more than the clothes on their backs. In the 

Kurdish region, they joined hundreds of thousands of other displaced Iraqis, including approximately 100,000 Christians who escaped the brutal occupation of Mosul and nearby communities. 

18

UNHCR estimates that the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq now 

host more than 1 million people, and it is a mixed displacement, 

mostly Iraqis who are displaced but also over 200,000 Syrian refugees. ISIL has demonstrated unbounded bigotry and brutality toward ethnic and religious minorities. I don’t have to tell you this. 

You all know it and have included that in your statements, as has 

my colleague, Tom Malinowski. 

Our main message is: We care. The U.S. Government has long 

focused on the rights and safety of Iraq’s vulnerable religious and 

ethnic minorities, and that is especially true today. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and Consulate in Erbil are in daily contact with 

the Iraqi Government, the U.N., and other aid agencies in Iraq to 

ensure that they can reach, protect, and aid displaced Iraqis, including minorities. 

My testimony goes into some detail about the humanitarian assistance efforts we made this summer. Tom Malinowski has already told you a little bit about the extraordinary measures taken 

this summer to aid imperiled civilians, including air drops of aid 

to Yezidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and then also later the town 

of Amerli received air drops after ISIL attempted to starve the 

town’s Shi’a Turkmen population. 

While military deliveries of humanitarian aid are a last resort, 

and not recommended if other options are available, these were 

desperate situations where people were in mortal danger, cut off 

from assistance by land, air drops were the only possible means of 

getting them lifesaving aid, and we are very grateful to our colleagues in the U.S. military who staged those. 

We also have faced challenges because families have had to flee 

multiple times, as the places where they initially sought refuge 

turned into battle grounds. In late June, for examples, clashes between ISIL and Kurdish peshmerga forces drove thousands of 

Christians from their homes in the Hamdaniya District of Nineveh 

to the Kurdish regions. When the clashes died down, some Christians returned home but were forced to flee a second time in August when ISIL again advanced on their communities. 

In my testimony, I talk about the overall U.S. and international 

response. Humanitarians have launched what U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Anto ́nio Guterres described as the single largest aid push we have mounted in more than a decade. UNHCR and 

other aid agencies have been present in the Kurdish regions of Iraq 

helping Syrian refugees since 2012. In fact, I went to the Kurdish 

regions of Iraq last December to talk to them about what they were 

doing hosting Syrians. And so I have subsequently met with some 

of these same contacts here in Washington to talk about this latest 

wave of people fleeing violence who have come in from other parts 

of Iraq. 

UNHCR continues to be a key part of this global effort. On August 19, the first of UNHCR’s chartered cargo jets arrived in Erbil 

with 100 tons of emergency relief supplies to be distributed 

throughout Iraq for displaced Iraqis who now are living in unfinished buildings and parks or by the roadside. And the United 

States was one of the first donors to contribute to humanitarian relief efforts in Iraq. 

19

And you probably heard that today Secretary Kerry in Baghdad 

announced another aid package, an additional $48 million in humanitarian aid. So the total U.S. Government humanitarian funding for Iraqis this fiscal year is more than $186 million. This includes the new aid announced by the Secretary, programs for nearly 1 million Iraqis previously displaced in the period 2006 to 2008, 

and for Iraqis who are refugees in the region living in other countries. 

The U.S. Government provides humanitarian aid according to 

greatest need and does not discriminate based on religious, ethnic, 

or political considerations. But, clearly, the minorities that we are 

talking about today are among the most vulnerable. What we provide is food, shelter, water and sanitation, and medicine. Other 

core relief items include mattresses, blankets, fans, kitchen sets, 

jerry cans, and hygiene kits. 

We are very happy that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia provided 

$500 million to the U.N. in June. That helped U.N. agencies ramp 

up quickly, airlift critical supplies, and procure and distribute shelter supplies. Other countries have also come to help. United Kingdom, the European Union, Kuwait, Australia, Norway, Sweden, 

Turkey, Japan, and New Zealand are some of the other countries 

who are donating. 

In terms of next steps in Iraq, displaced Iraqis need places to live 

and cash to pay rent, and UNHCR is helping to construct 26 camps 

for displaced persons. But I have to tell you that areas that have 

come under siege, including Anbar and Nineveh, remain difficult, 

if not impossible, to reach. Humanitarian agencies continue to try 

to negotiate access and deliver assistance when and where they 

can. 

The United States is working hard to build a coalition of governments committed to supporting the Government of Iraq, so that it 

in turn can protect its own people, especially minority communities. 

I think that if you refer to my written testimony you will see that 

I talk about what we are doing for refugees in each of the countries 

to which some of these Iraqis have fled the neighboring countries—

Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, and then also I have a section 

on the potential of resettling some of the refugees in other countries, including our own. And I am happy to answer any questions 

you have about that in the Q&A. 

So let me stop there and assure you, though, that the U.S. Government will continue to use every means available to protect and 

assist vulnerable Iraqi civilians, including minorities. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Richard follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Ms. Richard, thank you so very much for your testimony. 

Mr. Staal. 

STATEMENT OF MR. THOMAS STAAL, SENIOR DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE, U.S. AGENCY FOR 

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Mr. STAAL. Chairman Smith, Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking 

Member Bass, and members of the two subcommittees, thank you 

very much for this hearing and for inviting me to testify on 

USAID’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to this very 

needy group. 

The daily atrocities that we have been hearing about committed 

by ISIL against the Iraqi people, especially the violence targeting 

religious and ethnic minorities, the treatment of women and children, is unconscionable. And for me this crisis is particularly painful to watch unfold as I spent my early years as a child in Iraq, 

the son of missionaries working there. 

Some of my first and fondest memories come from navigating the 

canals of old Basra or gliding through the marshes in a canoe, and 

I have returned to Iraq many times, including as the first USAID 

representative in southern Iraq, as Chairman Smith mentioned, in 

2003 and 2004, and then most recently last year when I served as 

the USAID Mission Director in Baghdad. And I now have the privilege of leading the USAID Iraq Taskforce here in Washington. 

As my colleagues have outlined, the scope of the present humanitarian crisis is enormous. The pace of deterioration since the fall 

of Mosul and Nineveh Plains is staggering. 

In early August, the world’s attention was really focused because 

of the plight of the thousands of Yezidis trapped on Mount Sinjar. 

As Mr. Malinowski mentioned, we received firsthand accounts from 

individuals on Mount Sinjar of the horrific circumstances there. 

And from USAID, we quickly deployed a DART team, Disaster Assistance Response Team, to Erbil to coordinate our response there. 

We worked closely with the military on the seven air drops and 

then joined in an on-the-ground assessment on the mountain to 

make sure that our assistance was reaching the right people, and 

we found that it in fact had helped to save lives. 

This DART that we have there is working closely with the international humanitarian community, and our partnerships with 

Christian and other faith-based organizations there and here are 

critical in our response efforts. When I lived in Iraq, I met with 

many of these groups myself, and some of them even remembered 

my family when I talked to them back in Basra. 

I recently had the privilege to meet with both Iraqi and U.S.-

based leaders of the Chaldean, Assyrian, Yezidi, and other minority 

groups here in Washington. Regular communication with these 

groups is vital, of course, allowing us to get real-time information 

and connect them to the broader international assistance that is 

going on. 

In fact, just this morning I spoke with Archbishop Warda in 

Erbil, a Chaldean leader there, who reported that the immediate 

needs of Christian IDPs are largely being met, the basic needs, but 

30

the long-term issues are still there, especially coming up to the 

winter. Our team also is regularly speaking with Christian families, Christian leaders. They have gone to several locations to make 

sure that the assistance is actually getting to the people there. 

We are focused from USAID’s side on filling gaps in the response 

effort, advocating within the international community for an efficient allocation of resources and effective response coordination, 

since, as Anne said, there are so many organizations and donors 

providing assistance, coordination becomes very important. 

And then, for example, last week USAID airlifted 60 metric tons 

of humanitarian aid, as Chairman Smith mentioned. And that aid, 

by the way, is already being distributed, and some of it even went 

into the town of Amerli, just in the last couple of days. And we 

have another airlift arriving in the next day or two. 

Now, lack of shelter is the most serious concern right now as 

about 45 percent of the IDPs in Iraq are living in public buildings 

like schools, open spaces, or camps across the country. USAID is 

working to provide additional shelter support to ensure access for 

emergency and transitional shelter. 

In addition, as winter in northern Iraq descends, coming not too 

far away, we are working with partners to reach the most vulnerable populations to make sure that winterization assistance is 

being provided, things like clothing, blankets, and mattresses. 

We are also working to address public health concerns, including 

provision of safe water, essential hygiene supplies, and access to 

health services for the IDPs. Additionally, USAID has deployed an 

emergency food officer as a part of the DART to monitor food 

needs. And, by the way, since mid-June, the World Food Programme reports that they have actually reached 838,000 Iraqis 

with food aid throughout the country. We are focused on addressing massive protection and trauma issues that the populations 

have experienced because of these untold horrors. 

For example, USAID is providing targeted psychosocial assistance and distributing relief supplies to Yezidi and Christian IDPs 

as well as others. In conjunction with the Government of Iraq, 

which of course has the primary responsibility, we are addressing 

the needs of children and their families throughout such things as 

mobile, child-friendly spaces, and which can serve as platforms for 

meeting psychosocial needs of children wherever they are located 

in the area. 

USAID’s response to this humanitarian crisis also builds on a 

solid foundation of 10 years of programs that have helped build 

Iraq’s health, governance, and civil society capacity. So in recent 

weeks we have adjusted those existing programs to make sure that 

they are focusing on the immediate needs of the IDPs, and then 

also while continuing to work toward the longer term goals. 

So, in conclusion, in the coming months the international community will continue to face challenges. It is not going to be over 

soon. Humanitarian access will remain a critical problem. Displaced persons will likely be unable or unwilling to return home to 

their towns and villages. Displaced persons will likely also have 

long-term needs that will need to be addressed. 

As we work in support of the Government of Iraq and alongside 

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tinue to focus on the vulnerable populations. USAID will also remain engaged with faith-based leaders, both here and in Iraq, to 

hear and address their concerns. 

Our hearts are with the thousands of people who remain besieged and are gravely concerned for their health and safety, and 

personally I feel that having been a son of Iraq in a certain way. 

And so we are really appreciative of this hearing, of the ongoing 

support that Congress has provided to us so that we are able to in 

turn provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq. 

Thank you for your interest, thank you for calling this hearing, 

and I look forward to answering any questions you may have. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Staal follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Mr. Staal, thank you very much for your testimony, 

for your leadership, and thank you to Dr. Shah, the head of 

USAID. I think that USAID is trying to respond as effectively as 

possible, and so, again, I want to give you high marks, and I know 

I am joined by members of the committee. It is difficult to get humanitarian aid on the ground in a war situation when even the aid 

workers are put at high risk. So I appreciate your commitment. 

Let me begin with some questions. First of all, let me ask Tom 

Malinowski. Tom Farr, who we all know is one of the preeminent, 

and he is the quintessential leader I think when it comes to religious freedom. I have read his book. As you know, I chaired all of 

the hearings that led to the enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act, Frank Wolf’s landmark legislation on religious 

freedom. 

At the time, you will recall the administration, the Clinton administration, was opposed to it. John Shattuck, the Assistant Secretary in your position previously, sat right where you sit and testified against it on frequent occasions. When the bill was finally 

passed, House and Senate, with huge bipartisan majorities, the 

President signed it. 

But I have always been concerned that a bias against that mission has pervaded and persisted in many in the State Department, 

particularly at the higher levels, so much so—and Tom Farr makes 

this point in his testimony, and I quote him in pertinent part, 

‘‘While no administration has been successful in promoting religious freedom, the issue has been an especially low priority under 

the current President,’’ and points out that the Ambassador-atLarge position was vacant for half of the Obama administration’s 

tenure in office, which is a revelation of priorities in my opinion. 

And we have had hearings on it in this committee. We have 

asked, we have begged, we have admonished, we have used every 

word we could possibly think of, I and members of the committee, 

to encourage the President to take that step and make that an important office, but also—and I know, you know, there is a man—

we know the rabbi very well that is slated for that position. He will 

do a fine job. But it has been a very checkered past, recent past. 

I mention that because Tom Far again makes a very, very important series of recommendations as well as observations. He points 

out that ‘‘The threat to Christians and other minorities in this region was not ultimately caused by U.S. military action of the struggle for democracy. The root cause is Islamic terrorism of the kind 

that hit us on 9/11. That phenomenon finds its origins in a radical, 

and spreading, interpretation of Islam-nourished and subsidized by 

secular and religious Middle Eastern tyrants.’’

It seems to me that any strategy has to incorporate trying to get 

after the laws, the policies that make religious pluralism and tolerance non-existent in many of these countries with whom we are 

strong allies. 

So my question would be, how do you respond to that criticism, 

that religious freedom has not had the dominance, the rightful 

place would be the better way of putting it, within the administration? And, secondly, was the administration late in recognizing the 

ISIS threat as well as the Syria threat? Last year, right around 

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Lehtinen and I, chaired a hearing on Syria. The government witnesses wouldn’t call it a genocide. Every one of the private sector, 

religiously-based, witnesses said it is indeed a genocide, what is 

happening in Syria. 

And my question to you will be, is what is happening to the 

Christians in Iraq and Syria today a genocide? Mr. Secretary? 

Mr. MALINOWSKI. Thank you. That is quite a few. I will try to 

tackle all of them. First, on the importance of religious freedom, I 

hear you, we hear you. The central point of my testimony is that 

this begins before we had beheadings and Mosul taken and cities 

falling and hundreds of thousands of refugees. This begins with 

policies that exploit religious difference for political ends. That is 

what we had in Iraq. That is what we had in Syria. 

And the foundational principle of our efforts on religious freedom 

is not just that these kinds of abuses are bad things. It is not just 

that they offend our conscience. It is that when cynical political actors exploit religion, when they go after people because of these incredibly deeply rooted feelings that people of faith have, it is one 

of the most dangerous things that can happen in the world. The 

conflicts that begin that way are very, very difficult to end, and so 

that is why it is a priority, should be a priority, will continue to 

be a priority. 

In this crisis, the most important part of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor has been our religious freedom office. They have been on the front lines. They have been bringing 

the stories of the victims of ISIL to everybody in the administration, all the way up to the President—and I think you will hear 

some of that reflected tonight in his speech—to the planners at 

CENTCOM who are organizing this operation. 

You mentioned Rabbi David Saperstein. He is the President’s 

nominee. He is one of the most distinguished leaders on human 

rights and religious freedom in this country. He has his hearing in 

the Senate tomorrow. We hope he will be confirmed very, very 

quickly, and I think the importance of his job in the estimation of 

all of us, the urgency of that effort, has only gone up in the last 

few weeks. 

Were we late? Were we early? We will have these debates for a 

very long time. I think both of you mentioned, you and Ms. RosLehtinen, you raised the question of why did we act when we acted 

as against before or after? I can tell you there are absolutely no 

distinctions here, nor should there be, nor will there be, between 

Christians, Yezidis, Shiites, Sunni, or what have you. 

We didn’t act when we acted on Mount Sinjar because those were 

Yezidis on that mountain as against another group of people. We 

acted because there were people who were in a uniquely perilous 

situation, thousands of them surrounded with no way out. 

The same thing happened in Amerli with a different religious minority. We acted because we had the intelligence, and we acted—

and this is particularly important in light of both of your questions—because we had capable partners on the ground who at that 

point were ready to act with us. 

There is not much that you can do from the air in a situation 

where you are trying to rescue men, women, and children if you 

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ing to act with you. And at that point, we did. Several months ago, 

sadly, we didn’t, which is why a huge part of this effort, in Iraq 

in particular, has been trying to get a more inclusive, more capable, more committed government, which we now have. And that is 

the basis of the strategy that the President will announce tonight. 

As for your question on genocide, I have been around that so 

many times, from the early days of the Bosnia crisis to Kosovo to 

Darfur, and all I can tell you is that I have never experienced a 

situation of mass killing, of mass atrocities, in which the lawyers 

were ready with a legal determination of genocide, and that is 

what it takes for the State Department to be able to make that formal determination in time for us to be able to decide on a course 

of action. 

The decision to act inevitably, invariably, comes before the experts, the international law experts, come together around a definition. And we have decided to act, and that is the important thing. 

We are doing right now exactly what we would be doing if the Secretary of State had already determined that genocide, as a legal 

matter, had taken place. 

Those kinds of determinations do become important when you 

get to the legal process, where you get to accountability, where you 

get to justice, and you prosecute people for what they did. But 

it——

Mr. SMITH. On that point, if I could ask you——

Mr. MALINOWSKI. Sure. 

Mr. SMITH [continuing]. Because I am almost out of time, do you 

support—does the administration support a regional court? You 

know, the ICC has already been rejected. It has only one conviction, as you know, over the course of a dozen years, several 

indictees, but one conviction. 

And as David Crane testified recently here in this room, he was 

the chief prosecutor at the Sierra Leone court, the ICC is not the 

means to hold these people to account. A regional court, a hybrid, 

something like Sierra Leone, might be the best way to go. 

Mr. MALINOWSKI. I think it is worth——

Mr. SMITH. Where is the administration——

Mr. MALINOWSKI. It is worth exploring. What I can tell you is 

that we are committed to ensuring that these people are brought 

to justice. All those in this conflict who commit war crimes, crimes 

against humanity, if they are captured, can, should, and will be 

brought to justice. 

A regional tribunal would also require the assent of the Security 

Council, so you still have the same problem as——

Mr. SMITH. In Russia, you will recall, with Yugoslavia, even 

though they were close allies with Milosevic, agreed because all 

sides would be prosecuted. 

Mr. MALINOWSKI. Absolutely. But we would need that——

Mr. SMITH. It needs to be initiated in order for it to happen. 

Mr. MALINOWSKI. But the principle of it, I think there are a variety of mechanisms through which you could get to that point, both 

national, international, and hybrid, and we support the concept. 

We need to find the most practical way to do it. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Bass. 

42

Ms. BASS. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask you a few 

questions, especially concerning the children. And I know that the 

World Health Organization and UNICEF did a 5-day polio vaccination campaign that reached millions of Iraqi children. So I wanted 

to know if you could discuss the ongoing international efforts to 

support this campaign and prevent the spread of polio and other 

dangerous diseases. Anybody? 

Mr. STAAL. Ranking Member Bass, thank you very much. That 

is a critical issue that we are looking at as a part of our health support to the country. And they have indeed done a major campaign 

to vaccinate children against polio, including now reaching out to 

the IDPs. So that is going to be something that we are making sure 

that it reaches the IDPs as well. And other diseases, whenever you 

get a group of displaced who often live in close quarters, we worry 

about a number of types of diseases, polio being one of them. 

Thank you. 

Ms. BASS. Anybody else? The people that were on the mountain—some were rescued and then some were able to leave or get 

to safety, do we know what happened to them? And then, also, did 

any of them come to the United States? 

Ms. RICHARD. Yes. Many got off, and many have gone to the 

Kurdish areas of northern Iraq where they are getting assistance 

now from UNHCR and other U.N. agencies. It is too soon to have 

brought any to the United States, but certainly they would be in 

a population that we would want to look at, whether they needed 

resettlement in the U.S. or not. 

But, you know, our long-term goal is that these minority groups 

be allowed to stay, to live, and to thrive in their own country. 

Ms. BASS. Right. I know that is the goal. 

Ms. RICHARD. Yes. But, certainly, for some people who—here, as 

in other parts of the world, if they have been truly traumatized, 

and really feel that they cannot continue to live in their own country, or to go back home to their own country, we would work with 

UNHCR to see if they could be determined to be in the list to be 

resettled. And the U.S. takes most of the refugees who are resettled in the world every year. 

Ms. BASS. And finally just—as I believe votes have been called, 

and maybe another member wants to get in—do you have recommendations for more that you think we should be doing, what 

Congress should be doing right now? 

Ms. RICHARD. One of the wonderful things that the Congress 

does is to provide solid humanitarian assistance in both the budget 

that my office oversees and that USAID controls. And this is making a major difference in Iraq, in Syria, and all the crises around 

the world. So your support for that is fantastic. 

I think also what is helpful about today’s hearing is all the people sitting behind us, bringing together concerned Americans and 

their friends from overseas to make sure that we have fresh information. I was very impressed by the Democracy, Human Rights, 

and Labor Bureau’s reach into the American diasporas of groups 

overseas and how they were getting same-day information that fed 

into operations that were being carried out to rescue people. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. Anyone else? 

43

Mr. STAAL. Yes. Just to echo what Ms. Richard said. Your highlighting of this issue is a huge thing, as well as the support to us. 

We have seen a lot of international support. The Saudi Government providing $500 million, that was critical, the other support 

coming in. When I spoke to Archbishop Warda, he mentioned that 

60 families there in Erbil of displaced Christians were getting support from Christians in America, private donations. That is critical, 

too, of course. 

And then the other thing is we need to maintain the pressure, 

if you will, on the Iraqi Government who have the primary responsibility to provide support. They have pledged almost $900 million 

from the Iraqi budget to support IDPs. They have a program there 

through their Ministry of Displacement and Migration that provides about $860 to each IDP. 

That is starting to roll out, but it is something that we are following to make sure that it really does get to all of them equally, 

fairly, appropriately, and that is an important issue to also maintain the focus on. 

Thank you. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. I yield. 

Mr. SMITH. Chairman Ros-Lehtinen? 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Smith. 

Before I begin to ask my questions, I would like to state for the 

record that Ranking Member Ted Deutch is at another committee 

hearing, and that is why he cannot be with us today. But I know 

that he is deeply troubled by the human rights violations occurring 

against persecuted Christians in the region. 

Thank you for allowing me to say that. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member Bass, for this 

hearing. 

Assistant Secretary Richard, you had testified in front of the 

Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee last September on the 

humanitarian crisis. Unfortunately, not only has the situation gotten worse, but Iraq is now facing real crisis as ISIL has become 

stronger, more sophisticated. The Christian communities in Iraq 

and Syria are important ones in the history and fabric of the Middle East, and they are without a doubt being targeted for extinction. 

We must do everything possible to ensure that these communities are protected and allowed to remain, because it would indeed 

be a tragedy to lose such ancient communities at the hands of radical Islamist terrorist groups. 

And I have seen throughout your testimonies that we are doing 

a lot in the way of humanitarian assistance, and I thank you, much 

needed assistance. We need to continue to do so, but I keep saying 

at these hearings, we continue to provide this assistance without 

addressing the underlying issues. And right now the major obstacle 

is that there is this pervasive attitude throughout much of the region that views Christianity and other religious minorities through 

pure hatred. 

What are we doing to address this? What can we do? What plans 

can we implement, programs in the region, or in the refugee camps 

and in neighboring countries, that promote moderation or religious 

tolerance? What can those countries do, similar to what the KingVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:24 Oct 23, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00049 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\091014\89741 SHIRL
44

dom of Morocco has been able to implement? So that is the first 

question. 

We have heard from the panel the steps the administration is 

doing in conjunction with the U.N. Commissioner for Refugees and 

our overall humanitarian assistance inside Iraq. But these programs encompass everyone impacted by ISIL’s march, including in 

Erbil. Are there any specific programs designed toward aiding the 

Christian community? How much are we spending directly in aid 

to help them? 

From what I have seen, also religious freedom and human rights 

seem to be ranked very low on the priority scale for this administration. It took the administration 10 months to name an Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, and the State 

Department repeatedly ignores recommendations by the United 

States Commission on International Religious Freedom to add 

gross violators to our list of Countries of Particular Concern. 

It finally recertified countries this year after failing to do so for 

many years, and added a new country for the first time since 2006, 

but failed to add countries that the Commission had been recommending for years now, including both Syria and Iraq. We continue 

to provide aid and sell arms to some of the world’s most egregious 

violators. We have waived sanctions on some of these Countries of 

Particular Concern. 

So, in closing, my last questions are, where does freedom of religion and the protection of rights fall on the administration’s foreign 

policy priorities? And why has the administration ignored repeated 

recommendations by the Commission to add Syria, Iraq, and several other countries to the Countries of Particular Concern list despite more than ample evidence that religious minorities have been 

in danger? 

Thank you so much for the time, Mr. Chairman. 

Ms. RICHARD. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for your interest all year long, and thank you for acknowledging that we are 

indeed doing a lot for humanitarian assistance. The U.S. Government really leads, and we are fortunate to have congressional support for this and really largely American public support to do a lot 

on the humanitarian front around the world. 

You have said we need to address the underlying issues. I agree 

with you and so does my boss, Secretary Kerry, who is today in 

Baghdad and is obviously spending a great deal of time and attention on the Iraq situation right now, and really the situation in the 

wider Middle East. And he leads us in doing that. 

You mentioned what we could do to promote moderation, religious tolerance. In that respect, you are on the same wavelength 

as our new Under Secretary, Sarah Sewell, who has instructed a 

number of our bureaus, including both Democracy, Human Rights, 

and Labor, and mine, the Population, Refugees, and Migration Bureau, to look at ways that we can counter the spread of violent extremism. And so this is very much front and center on our to do 

list at the moment, building on programs that already exist that 

Tom will be able to speak to. 

And, third, I don’t agree that somehow religious freedom is being 

ignored in the Department, and partly because Secretary Kerry has 

created a faith-based office headed by Sean Casey. He did this 

45

nearly as soon as he came in, and we see that Sean Casey is working very closely with our special envoys in outreach to the Muslim 

world to fight anti-Semitism. And we are all anxious to get Rabbi 

David Saperstein on board as well as part of the team, but Tom 

is more the expert on that. 

Mr. MALINOWSKI. As far as what we do to promote this cause, 

and I would say very strong self-interest in religious tolerance 

around the world, and particularly in this region, I would say we 

work bottom up and top down. Bottom up, we do fund a lot of small 

programs, and these are by definition small programs, working 

with civil society organizations, with religious organizations, on the 

ground in these countries. 

In Iraq, for example, we helped fund an organization called the 

Alliance of Iraqi Minorities, which was working before this crisis to 

try to build bridges between religious communities in these areas 

that we have been discussing. We have funded Christian activists 

who have worked to try to build connections between their communities and local and regional governments in Iraq. 

We funded similar programs in Syria in the midst of the civil 

war, and we have insisted that the Syrian opposition groups that 

we support in that horrible situation be as inclusive as possible and 

respectful as possible of minority groups. And then we work top 

down, and that is what Secretary Kerry is doing in Baghdad today, 

where in addition to the very general top line message on the importance of governing inclusively with respect for all of Iraq’s people, we have been discussing very, very discrete, specific questions 

like how to organize a more integrated, less sectarian security force 

for Iraq in the future, discussing the establishment of National 

Guard forces, so that local communities can feel that they can protect themselves with the support of the Government of Iraq, but 

also with a degree of autonomy. So bottom up and top down. 

In terms of the CPC designations, as you mentioned, we just 

added Turkmenistan. We add countries when we feel that there are 

egregious violations of religious freedom going on, they are committed by governments, and those governments are being wholly 

unresponsive to diplomacy. 

So it is not simply a question of, are there terrible things happening in a country, but whether we feel that diplomacy is being 

exhausted, and this tool needs to be used. 

Syria of course is under every sanction that we ever have 

thought of already. Iraq has a new, more inclusive, less sectarian 

government that has made the commitments that we want to——

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. I know that I am way out of 

time. 

Mr. SMITH. Real quick—if the gentlelady would yield very quickly. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Please. 

Mr. MALINOWSKI. So we will have to see how that government——

Mr. SMITH. Our concern has been—that is why I think Mr. Farr’s 

statement about low priority—it is not that you haven’t done anything, and I would respectfully submit that under Secretary Kerry 

it has been increased, and it was at a much lower level under Secretary Clinton. 

46

And we had a hearing, and we heard from Robbie George, who 

was then the chairman of the U.S. Commission on International 

Religious Freedom, and he pointed out in the strongest possible 

terms, it was since 2011 and at that point that no CPC designations have been made, and that looked like asleep of the switch if 

ever there was one. 

I mean, again, having been one of the architects of the Wolf Act, 

there was no doubt that that was meant to be done every year. It 

was to be robust, and then the sanctions part was meant to really 

have teeth. And Saudi Arabia gets on the list every year, and what 

do they get? Not even a slap on the wrist. 

And we know that much of the funding of Wahhabis and others, 

I mean, I travel frequently to Africa, and just as in the Middle 

East—I was just there in June, and before that in Nigeria, 10 

months ago in Jos, a few months ago in Abuja—they are being 

funded, and we are not doing enough, I don’t think, to mitigate 

that funding. 

And as Mr. Farr points out, the root cause is this radical Islamist 

view. And he makes a good point, and I am sure you share it, that 

moderate Muslims are many, but they are being crowded out and 

they are being victimized as well by these other more virulent extremists who see first Christians, and then if they are not winning 

accomplices with the extremists, then they target the more moderate Muslims. 

Mr. Vargas. 

Mr. VARGAS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And, again I want 

to thank you very much for this meeting. I think one way to show 

I think a strong commitment here to religious freedom is to help 

the Chaldeans right now that are trying to escape the terror there. 

There are many, many Chaldeans in Michigan and also in San 

Diego that are prepared, ready, to take their family members. They 

want to reunite. And I think the administration has an opportunity 

here, really, to show the commitment to religious freedom, and I 

hope they do that. 

In San Diego, I can tell you the community there is begging—

is literally begging for the administration to take action to allow 

their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, to come to this country. 

We have always been a country of refuge for these people, people 

that are suffering under religious persecution. And now we see 

these horrific acts that are being committed against children. Not 

even parents now, not even adults, they are committing horrific 

acts against children. 

The United States should act, and we should do something immediately to help these people. I would ask you, I know you have 

the authority to do it. You know, allow these people to come to our 

country, reunite with their families. Why aren’t we doing that? 

Ms. RICHARD. Congressman, I want to assure you we are bringing refugees to the United States. We brought 70,000 last year. 

Since 2007, we have brought 110,000 Iraqi refugees to the United 

States. Nearly half are Iraqi Christians. And so we have every intention, with your help, and the——

Mr. VARGAS. I will do anything I——

Ms. RICHARD. I am thrilled to hear you say such supportive 

things——

47

Mr. VARGAS. Absolutely. 

Ms. RICHARD [continuing]. And your help continue to bring refugees to the United States. But we all know what we really should 

be doing is putting ourselves out of business. We should be living 

in a world where people don’t have to flee in the first place, and 

so we need to do both. We need to——

Mr. VARGAS. Absolutely. 

Ms. RICHARD [continuing]. Continue to leave an open door for 

people who will never be able to go home, and we also need to work 

overseas at the same time to create the conditions so that they can 

live peacefully in stable countries. And so I really welcome your remarks in support of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. 

Mr. VARGAS. Absolutely. And in fact I have a bill specifically on 

that. But I would say this, that, you know, there are people right 

now who are in dire threat of dying, if we don’t act. At the same 

time they have their family members here in San Diego and Michigan and other parts begging, they will do anything possible to help 

them. And I think we should act. 

I know that they are organizing in San Diego. I have been involved in that effort, and I will do anything I can—my office will 

do anything we can to help out in this. And I know that it would 

be great to have the situation where everybody gets along, but they 

are talking about being put out of business. 

Radical Islam is putting these Christians out of business by killing them. We ought to save them. And that is why I thank you for 

what you have done, but we need to do a lot more. 

Ms. RICHARD. The program—the Refugee Admissions Program 

takes refugees for whom there is no possibility of going home and 

brings them to the United States. But it is run in a very careful, 

deliberate manner to make sure that the people who come here 

pose no threat to other Americans. And so it is not a rapid response 

program. 

Unfortunately, the days of flying planeloads of people quickly to 

Fort Dix in New Jersey, as was done during the 1990s, is over, and 

that ended on September 11, 2001. But what we need to do is get 

people to safety, and we need to provide safe places for them and 

get them the aid that they need, so that they are not in jeopardy 

after they have fled. 

Mr. VARGAS. If I can just interrupt for a second, and I apologize, 

but I guess I would go back to what I think the chairman said 

quite well. I think this is the issue of religious liberty. We are not 

talking about people who are radical Muslims here. We are talking 

about Christians. These are Chaldean Christians. You have to 

make the separation here. 

How can you say that these Chaldean Christians are radicals 

that we have to watch out because of September 11? I mean, there 

is no evidence—there is no evidence whatsoever to say that these 

Chaldean Christians have committed any kind of terrorist act 

against the United States. And, I mean, I wouldn’t even accuse 

anybody else, but you certainly have no evidence against these 

Chaldeans. 

Ms. RICHARD. I certainly did not mean to suggest that Chaldean 

Christians are prone to terrorism. Most refugees in fact are not——

Mr. VARGAS. That is correct. 

48

Ms. RICHARD [continuing]. Prone to terrorism. 

Mr. VARGAS. That is exactly right. 

Ms. RICHARD. Most refugees are just trying to survive and have 

their families survive. I traveled with——

Mr. VARGAS. That is exactly right. 

Ms. RICHARD [continuing]. Congressman Sander Levin to meet 

with Chaldean Christian communities in the Dearborn area. I have 

also met with refugees in San Diego, but it was mostly Somalis. I 

think the San Diego community is fantastic in offering a new 

home. If I were a refugee, I would want to go to San Diego. 

But I also realize that we take in less than 1 percent of the 

world’s displaced here in the United States. So we have to get a 

way to get people to safety overseas in addition to resettling refugees to the United States. 

Mr. VARGAS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know my time is over. 

I just hope you take specific care of the Chaldean Christians. They 

are in special need at this moment. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Vargas, thank you very much. 

We have four votes on the floor. Mr. Vargas and I may have just 

missed the first one. So we will stand in recess. And I apologize, 

and I thank our panel. We will go to Panel II. I am not sure who 

would come back. So I thank you very much for your distinguished 

service and look forward to working with you. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. SMITH. The subcommittee will resume its hearing. And, 

again, I apologize to our witnesses for the delay. We did have four 

votes and a speech in between, which made it very difficult to get 

back here quickly. So I do apologize. Members have indicated that 

they will come back. 

We have been joined by Chairman Frank Wolf, and I would like 

to yield to him to just say a word or two. Chairman Wolf, I think 

as most of you know, is the architect, the prime author, of the 

International Religious Freedom Act. He also is the author of the 

legislation to establish a Special Envoy for Religious Minorities in 

the Near East and South Central Asia. He is incomparable. 

He has been tenacious throughout his entire 34 years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives on the issues of human 

rights in general and religious freedom in particular. 

Chairman Wolf. 

Mr. WOLF. Thank you, Mr. Smith. I just wanted to welcome Mr. 

Farr and Mr. Galbraith and the others. I have a 4:30 meeting 

which I am going to go to. I am going to stay until that time. 

Thank you for holding the hearing. 

Thank you very much. I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Chairman Wolf. 

Let me begin by inviting Ambassador Peter Galbraith, who has 

served as an advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government and is 

currently the senior diplomatic fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation where his work focuses on Iraq, the 

greater Middle East, and conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction. 

From 1979 to 1993, he was a senior advisor on the Middle East, 

South Asia, and International Organizations to the Senate Foreign 

49

Relations Committee. From 1993 to 1998, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Croatia and helped mediate the agreement the ended 

the war in Croatia. 

We will then hear from Mr. Tom Farr, who is visiting associate 

professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown’s 

School of Foreign Service. He directs the Religious Freedom Project 

and a program on religion and U.S. foreign policy at Georgetown’s 

Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and where 

he is a senior fellow. 

Dr. Farr has served in both the U.S. Army and the American 

Foreign Service and he became the first Director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom where he led 

American diplomatic efforts to promote religious liberty, and is also 

an author and I have read his book. It is an extraordinarily wellwritten book, and I thank him for his service. 

And, finally, we will hear from Ms. Pascale Esho Warda, who is 

currently serving as the president of the Hammurabi Human 

Rights Organization and was Minister of Immigration and Refugees in the Iraqi Interim Government. She was one of only six 

women in the 32-member Interim Iraqi Council of Ministers which 

operated following the transfer of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Interim Iraqi Government in 2004. 

Chaldean Catholic and ethnic Assyrian, she was born in northern 

Iraq, but was later exiled to France. She studied there and was the 

representative of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, the primary 

Assyrian political party in Iraq. 

Unfortunately, Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim of the Chaldean Church, 

the Bishop Emeritus of the Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas the 

Apostle Catholic Church here in the United States has taken ill, 

but we are hoping that one of his top advisors will take the time 

to at least convey to us his testimony. So I would ask him to join 

us as well. 

And, again, send our best to the Bishop. We certainly hope he 

has a speedy recovery. He was here for the first three testimonies, 

but then fell ill. 

Ambassador Galbraith, if you could begin. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE PETER GALBRAITH 

(FORMER ADVISOR TO THE KURDISTAN REGIONAL GOVERNMENT) 

Ambassador GALBRAITH. Mr. Chairman, let me express my appreciation to you and the committee for holding this important 

hearing and for the invitation to testify. 

Kurdistan is key to any strategy to protect the Christians and 

other minorities in northern Iraq, because it is the place of refuge 

and also the home to very significant Yezidi and Christian populations. It is also, I dare say, unique in the Middle East for its commitment to tolerance and diversity. 

As I outline in my written testimony, Kurdistan region has had 

a policy since it was created in 1992, of using public funds to rebuild churches and to try to encourage the Christian community 

who are also victims of Saddam’s depopulation efforts to return 

home. And in contrast to many other parts of the Middle East, public funds, for example, are not used to rebuild mosques, although 

50

it is also a safe area for Shiites and Sunnis who have been fleeing 

ISIS. 

I am not going to try to add to the excellent testimony you have 

already received, because my time is short, and because in some 

way it is superfluous. In my previous experience dealing with war 

crimes, and that has been a good part of my career one way or another, you have had to rely on investigations, forensic work, reporting, to uncover the crimes because the perpetrators covered them 

up. 

But in this case, ISIS actually advertises its crimes with slickly 

produced videos and other material. So collecting the evidence is 

not so difficult. The real challenge is what to do about it, and I 

have five recommendations. 

The first is to recognize that ISIS is committing genocide against 

the Yezidis and the Christians. The genocide convention says, 

‘‘Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent 

to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious 

group.’’ The specified acts are killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, or deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to 

bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. 

ISIS is killing, causing bodily harm, and creating intolerable conditions of life. It is doing so with the announced intent of destroying these Christian and Yezidi, and I might add Shi’ite, communities. So it fits within the four corners of the genocide convention. 

And the important point about the genocide convention is that it 

is a convention to prevent, as well as punish, genocide. 

You don’t want to wait until everybody has been killed to determine that genocide took place, because you can’t prevent it once it 

has actually happened. This is not just semantics, it is very important to say that this is genocide. 

Second, the United States could do much more to assist the 

Kurdistan Regional Government to care for 1.25 million displaced 

Iraqis and Syrian refugees now finding safety in Kurdistan. Since 

June, more than 1 million Iraqis have taken refuge in Kurdistan. 

The Kurdistan region has a population of 5 million. It is an equivalent as if 50 million people came into the United States this summer, and even from my home in Vermont I cannot help but notice 

the uproar in Congress over 50,000 illegal immigrants in our big 

country. Imagine if we had 50 million coming in. That is what they 

are up against. 

And since February the Maliki government, and he was supported by the man who is now Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, 

has refused to pay the Kurdistan Government’s constitutionally 

mandated share of Iraq’s budget. And Kurdistan doesn’t have the 

resources to take care of its own people, much less the million people who have just come in. 

And so that leads to my third recommendation, which is that the 

United States should prevail on Baghdad to end its vendetta 

against Kurdistan in the interest of jointly confronting the common 

enemy of ISIS. It means paying the KRG’s budget arrears immediately, as well as extra amounts to take care of the other Iraqis 

who are there. It means ending self-destructive actions. Let me cite 

one. 

51

After ISIS took over Mosul, the Maliki government closed the 

space of Kurdistan to cargo flights because they were afraid that 

arms would be flown into Kurdistan. Well, of course, what would 

the arms have been used for? It would have been used to fight the 

common enemy, but sectarian politics trumped the national defense 

even at a time of grave peril. Now, I know that there are quarrels, 

but those quarrels can be set aside at least for the moment. 

Fourth, we need to ensure that Kurdistan has the necessary 

weaponry. For the peshmerga, it is the only military force in Iraq 

that is capable of fighting ISIS, because by and large the Iraqi 

Army has dissolved. Weapons are beginning to flow, but there is 

a need for more advanced weapons, including helicopters, MRAPs, 

things that will match what ISIS got, the American weapons that 

ISIS got from the Iraqi Government. 

And, finally, we need a broader strategy to combat ISIS. I look 

forward to hearing what the President has to say. And from what 

I have read, I think there is much to commend what appears to be 

in the offing. 

But I want to conclude with a word of warning. The notion that 

a strategy that relies on a more inclusive government, Iraqi Government, can work is a fallacy, because there is no inclusive Iraqi 

Government that can reach out to the Sunnis, certainly not one led 

by Dawa, al-Abadi’s party, which seeks to define Iraq as a Shiite 

state. And, frankly, there is nothing that has happened from alAbadi to even deal with the Kurdish question which ought to be 

the easier part. So if it all rests on the hope of a more inclusive 

government, then the strategy is not likely to succeed. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

[The prepared statement of Ambassador Galbraith follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Ambassador Galbraith, thank you very much for your 

testimony and your very solid recommendations. 

Mr. Farr. 

STATEMENT OF THOMAS FARR, PH.D., DIRECTOR, RELIGIOUS 

FREEDOM PROJECT, BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, 

PEACE, AND WORLD AFFAIRS, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY 

Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, thank you for inviting me to this hearing. And if I could be permitted a brief personal remark, it is an 

honor to be here in the presence of two lions of the Congress, Mr. 

Smith and Mr. Wolf. If I could just say to Mr. Wolf, we are going 

to miss you, sir. Thank you for your service to this country and to 

religious freedom. 

Tomorrow we mark the 13th anniversary of the Islamist terrorist 

attacks of September 11, 2001. What we are facing in Iraq and 

Syria today has deeply troubling similarities to 9/11, both in its origins and its threat to American national security. 

There is, of course, one major difference between then and now. 

While Christians in the Middle East were under mounting pressure 

in 2001, today their very existence is at risk. We are witnessing the 

disappearance of Christians and Christianity from Iraq, Syria, and 

elsewhere in the Middle East, a religious, cultural genocide with 

terrible humanitarian, moral, and strategic consequences for Christians, for the region, and for us all. 

Some blame the current threat to Christians on the 2003 American invasion of Iraq and the chaotic movement toward democracy 

that it triggered. While there is some truth in that assessment, I 

believe it is at best a half truth. The threat to Christians and other 

minorities in this region was not ultimately caused by U.S. military 

action or the struggle for democracy. The root cause is Islamist terrorism of the kind that hit us on 9/11. That phenomenon finds its 

origins in a radical and spreading interpretation of Islam, nourished and subsidized by both secular and religious tyrants in the 

Middle East. 

Since 2001, Islamist terrorist movements have emerged throughout the world, and notwithstanding administration insistence that 

al-Qaeda and others of its ilk were on the run and a spent force, 

these movements today are present in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the 

Americas. While they have doubtless taken advantage of the chaos, 

attendant on transitions to democracy in places like Iraq and 

Egypt, democracy did not incubate these barbarians. 

Instead, these groups, from ISIS to the extremist ayatollahs in 

Iran, are motivated by a common belief that God is calling them 

to brutality and violence against the enemies of Islam, and to control territory in order to carry out this divinely ordained mission. 

Over the long term, while the use of military force will doubtless 

be necessary, stable self-government grounded in religious tolerance and ultimately religious freedom is the only reliable antidote 

to the toxic religious convictions of Islamist terrorists. 

Let me quote from the 9/11 Commission Report, and I quote,

‘‘Islamist terrorist leaders draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within one stream of Islam. That stream 

is motivated by religion. Islamist terrorists mean exactly 

56

what they say. To them, America is the font of all evil, the 

head of the snake, and it must be converted or destroyed.’’

Mr. Chairman, we must destroy ISIS militarily, if we can, but we 

cannot destroy with force of arms the religious ideology that sustains it and other Islamist terrorist groups. Notwithstanding economic grievances or hatred of the United States or sociopathic tendencies that may motivate them, all of these groups have in common an interpretation of Islam that comes down to this: Islam 

must be defended with violence. 

Now, the vast majority of Muslims—Sunni, Shiite, or Sufi—let 

alone the Islamic minorities like the Ahmadiyya or the Baha ́’ı ́, do 

not support violence or cruelty. But it is also the case that most 

Muslim majority countries are supportive of legal and social structures such as anti-blasphemy, defamation, and anti-apostasy laws 

and practices that encourage extremism and discourage the liberalizing voices of Islam. 

It is here that U.S. religious freedom policy can make a contribution. Until the extremist understanding of Islam is utterly discredited in the Islamic world, or at least moved to the margins of intellectual, theological, and political life, Islamist terrorism will continue to grow and flourish. A regime of religious freedom would 

help in this task by ensuring open debate about Islam and other 

religions without fear of criminal charge or mob violence. 

History, modern research, and common sense tell us that religious freedom undermines radicalism. On the other hand, repression of the kind that has been endemic in the Middle East encourages it. 

The United States has had, for 16 years, a statutory requirement 

to promote religious freedom in its foreign policy. It has failed to 

accomplish that task. 

Our ineffectiveness is evident in the findings of the Pew Research Center that 76 percent of the world’s population lives in 

countries where religious freedom, in effect, does not exist. Millions 

of people are subject to violent persecution because of their religious beliefs or those of their tormentors. 

While the United States is not responsible for these numbers, it 

is or ought to be a source of deep concern that we have done so 

little to effect them. While no administration has been successful 

in promoting religious freedom, the issue has been an especially 

low priority under this President. 

For example, the position of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, which was the position established by 

the IRF Act to lead this policy, has been vacant for over half this 

President’s tenure. And even when it was filled, the incumbent had 

virtually no resources or authority. There was then, and there is 

now, no American strategy to advance religious freedom in our foreign policy. 

Given the stakes in the Middle East and elsewhere for American 

national security, this lassitude, this inertia, is stunning. I, like 

you, Mr. Chairman, am hopeful there will be positive changes 

under Rabbi David Saperstein, the man nominated to be the next 

Ambassador. And I urge the Senate to confirm him quickly. 

Mr. Chairman, my prepared remarks end with a recommendation that the administration develop a national security strategy 

57

that includes religious freedom. In addition, I recommend five steps 

that this committee might take to amend the IRFA and improve 

U.S. IRF policy. I will just briefly hit on them. 

First, require the State Department to have the Ambassador-atLarge for Religious Freedom report directly to the Secretary of 

State, as do other Ambassadors-at-Large, such as the Ambassadorat-Large for Global Women’s Issues. This will increase the status 

and authority of the IRF Ambassador and help overcome the real 

perception among American diplomats and foreign governments 

alike that this issue is not a priority. 

Second, give the Ambassador the resources he needs to develop 

strategies and to implement them in key countries around the 

world. 

Third, make training of American diplomats mandatory in three 

key stages, which I lay out. Presently, it is voluntary, this training, 

and not terribly effective. 

Fourth, amend the IRFA to require that the list of severe violators, the Countries of Particular Concern, be issued annually with 

the report. Require the State Department to provide an analysis of 

other policy tools being applied in each Country of Particular Concern, including programs that target democratic stability, economic 

growth, and counterterrorism. 

And, finally, require the State Department to respond in writing 

to recommendations by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which the chairman correctly notes are routinely 

ignored by the State Department. 

Now, such changes will not work miracles. They will not work 

overnight. But without steps like this, and without the commitment of the President, the Secretary of State, the Congress, and 

the Ambassador-at-Large, the remaining Christians and other minorities of the Middle East will face violent persecution into the indefinite future. And the United States will face a permanent threat 

from the ever-spreading phenomenon of violent religious Islamist 

extremism. 

For all of these reasons, I urge this committee to take action. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Farr follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much for your testimony and very 

useful recommendations which we will look to promote. So thank 

you. 

I would like to now ask Ms. Warda if you would proceed. 

STATEMENT OF HER EXCELLENCY PASCALE ESHO WARDA, 

PRESIDENT, HAMMURABI HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION 

(FORMER MINISTER OF IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEES IN 

THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT) 

Ms. WARDA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am sorry 

Mr. Frank Wolf is out now, but I would like to really thank you 

both for your concern about Iraqi Christians. Since 2003 to now, we 

are just seeing your interventions always are for the best of the 

Christians. 

I would like to really represent today the voice of a civil society. 

I am chairman of the Hammurabi Human Rights organization and 

would like to say what is really going on on the ground. 

I was here 2 months ago, and I was just qualifying this situation 

as genocide. And people were saying, ‘‘Please don’t say genocide. It 

is not genocide.’’ No, it is genocide. I thank you to say it is—all of 

you, you said it. It is a genocide. 

And I would like to say now I am coming and the situation is 

really contrary of what we were waiting that to—to be better, now 

the situation is worse, coming out from a situation of persecution 

and going to—up to the ongoing genocide now. 

The number of persons displaced by ISIS rose to more than 1 

million people. Most of those are Christian and Yezidis, Turkmen 

and Shiite as well, because Shabak are Shiites and Turkmen are 

Shiites. 

Minorities are threatened with death and executed. They are kidnapped and raped. They are robbed and pillaged, and so on. They 

are denied water and electricity services. Women are kidnapped 

and sold and forced to marry with ISIS members. Women are 

forced to wear veils. Men are forced to grow beards. 

Ladies and gentlemen, there is genocide unfolding in the north 

of Iraq now. There are 200,000 Assyrian Christians, 150,000 

Yezidis and other minorities displaced from their homes and living 

in refugee camps in Erbil, in Ankara, in Dohuk, in Suleimaniya, 

and so on. 

Worldwide, Assyrians have four major denominations: 

Chaldeans, Syriacs, Syriac Orthodox, Catholic, and so on, of, you 

know, sectarian names. Forty-five percent are Chaldean Catholic, 

26 percent are Syriac Orthodox, 19 percent are Assyrian Church of 

the East, 4 percent are Syriac Catholic. 

The refugees are living in streets, open fields, schools, church 

halls, courtyards; abandoned, condemned, and unfinished buildings; and in large tent camps. Winter is coming, and winter in this 

area is so cold. Those children will really not survive if the situation is in the state of today. The displaced children will miss their 

school, and even the local children will miss their school because 

the displaced people are occupying the schools. 

What we would like to really suggest, we suggest long-term and 

short-term solutions. The short-term solution is providing humanitarian aid to the refugees. Aid is inadequate actually now. There 

65

is a lack of shelters, lack of food and water, lack of medicine and 

clothing. 

A second point, and I think is the first is clear ISIS from Mosul. 

If Mosul is not freed, we have no insurance to stay any more near 

to Mosul, so—and the Nineveh Plain so that displaced residents 

may return to their homes ahead for winter. They will not return 

if ISIS is still in Mosul. 

Designate the Nineveh Plain as a safe haven and provide an 

international force for protection to stabilize the region, regardless 

of whether Iraqi or Kurdish forces or Iraqi Army forces. 

The Nineveh Plain has been neglected by both the Kurdish and 

Baghdad regimes. This long-term safe haven would be similar to 

the one provided for the Kurdish in 1991. Financially compensate 

all displaced persons for their property and income losses, because 

everybody has lost house and everything in house and even their 

own clothes. 

Long-term solutions, establish an autonomous region for each—

the Assyrian Christian and the Yezidis—to be administered by 

them. Create Assyrian Christian and Yezidi manned units with 

Iraqi police and military, and all kinds of security tools, in the different institutions of security tools. And station these in Assyrian 

and Yezidi areas, so that they will defend themselves and their villages. 

I was contacted from Sinjar Mountain by Sheikh Kamal, who is 

a Yezidi, who was really requesting and saying to me, ‘‘Please tell 

our brothers and our friends to send us the weapons, to us directly 

to defend ourselves from Sinjar Mountain.’’ So there is a problem 

of confidence there. 

Gain international recognition for the genocide against Assyrian 

Christians, which has been ongoing since 1915. It is not of today. 

Since 1915, we are in ongoing genocide. Each 10 years, each 5 

years, we have genocide in different areas of Iraq. 

The solution for the Iraqi displaced by ISIS is not offer them passage out of the country, but to remove the threats to them, whether 

from ISIS or from their neighbors who collaborate with ISIS and 

stabilize the region, providing civil and economic security. This will 

insure that Christian Assyrians, Chaldean, Syriacs, and others will 

remain in their land where they have been since more than 6,700 

years. 

The ideology which controls the Muslim jihadists is criminal Islamic ideology, which is based on two sources, the Koran as the 

obligatory word of Allah, and the Sunna—Hadith—of the Prophet 

Mohammed. This is encapsulated in the Muslim Brotherhood in 

one sentence, ‘‘Allah is our goal. The prophet is our ideal, the 

Koran is our constitution, the jihad is our way, and the death for 

the sake of Allah is our aspiration.’’

How we can get really a real insurance of the life here if we are 

not protected internationally? Please, international protection, this 

is the request of Patriarch Sako, is the request of all Christians 

and Yezidi on the ground. 

This phrase was repeated in the streets of Paris while French 

Muslims were demonstrating, most of them Arab origins. The Muslim Brotherhood is the base cell from which stems all of these curVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:24 Oct 23, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00071 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\091014\89741 SHIRL
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rent Islamic terrorist movements, regardless to their denominations. 

ISIS is not just a danger to Iraq and Syria only. It is a danger 

to all democratic countries. Therefore, democratic countries must 

hold accountable all countries and entities that support ISIS and 

similar groups. I think the problem is not really local or original. 

It is international. That is why we need an international solution, 

we need international protection. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Warda follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Warda, very much for your testimony. And, finally, we will hear from Johnny Oram, who is with 

the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce in California. Again, Bishop 

Ibrahim was slated to testify, was here earlier, but fell ill. And so 

please send him our best, but please, if you could fill in for him. 

STATEMENT OF MR. JOHNNY ORAM, PRESIDENT, CHALDEAN 

AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF CALIFORNIA 

Mr. ORAM. Thank you very much, Chairman, and I thank you, 

distinguished members and guests, for the opportunity. My name 

is Johnny Oram of the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce 

of California. However, I am here on behalf of Bishop Ibrahim 

Ibrahim, who is the Bishop Emeritus of the Eparchy of St. Thomas 

the Apostle, which represents the largest Chaldean population in 

the world outside of the Middle East, right in the metro Detroit region, of about 150,000 strong. And this is a statement on behalf of 

the Bishop, and who actually is the representative of the Patriarch 

Sako, who is the leader of the Chaldean Church worldwide. 

I am writing to provide you an update on the ongoing crisis impacting Iraq’s Christians and other minority communities. Our organization and others have been working diligently to assist the 

displaced communities. We are in daily contact with our religious 

and political leaders in northern Iraq. They are providing updates 

on the displaced communities which are primarily in Erbil and 

Dohuk. 

Currently, more than 500 families are living in streets and 

parks, and we have been working to find shelter for these families. 

The Detroit community has raised more than $800,000 and sent 

much of the money to northern Iraq for immediate humanitarian 

aid, primarily to find shelter for those that are on the streets. 

The United Nations has stepped up their efforts and are providing food, water, and basic necessities, and our friends at the 

United States State Department have provided us with contacts on 

the ground in Iraq that our people can call on if they need immediate humanitarian aid. 

Senator Carl Levin visited Erbil on September 3 and had the opportunity to meet with Assyrian, Chaldean, and Yezidi religious 

leaders in which they provided a summary which is consistent to 

the recent statement issued by Patriarch Sako of what their immediate request and needs are. 

They are primarily, number one, the international community 

must immediately intervene to provide direct humanitarian aid to 

the displaced Christians and other minorities in the regions of 

Erbil and Dohuk. 

Number two, Christian and other minority villages in Nineveh 

Plains must immediately be liberated, and the community must 

have safe passage to return. 

Number three, the Christian and other minority villages in the 

Nineveh Plain must be protected by an international force under 

the supervision of the United Nations. 

During the conversation, they also stressed the importance of a 

coalition to defeat ISIS, and that they are a threat not only to minority communities but to all Iraqis and to the United States of 

America. 

80

Furthermore, they asked the Senator specifically if there is a future for minorities in Iraq and if the minorities, specifically Christians and Yezidis, are a part of the overall plan for Iraq because 

they are feeling hopelessness. 

They specifically requested immediate support. And if it is not 

going to come, as many meetings such as this have taken place 

with other dignitaries throughout the world, they may be allowed 

to leave with dignity, so that they are just waiting around and hoping for the best while they continue to be eroded. 

I have attached a photo I want you to review which was sent to 

me by Bishop Nicodemus Matti, the Syriac Orthodox Bishop of 

Mosul. He took this photo while in Erbil last week as one of the 

government processing centers open up for people requesting visas 

and passports. As you can see, most people would like to leave 

based on their current horrific conditions that they are living in. 

This week, you are probably aware of the In Defense of Christians Conference that is taking place in Washington. Many people 

throughout the world, including several of the Middle East patriarchs, are in town trying to raise awareness of the plight of the 

Christians in the Middle East, especially those in Iraq and Syria. 

Although they are a minority community, a Middle East without 

Christianity will be radicalized. As Christians leave the area, it 

will become much more turbulent. Although they are a minority, 

Christians are a disproportionate number to the population of educators, physicians, lawyers, engineers, and entrepreneurs. 

We are anxiously awaiting to hear what President Obama will 

say in his remarks tonight. We continue to appreciate all the efforts you are providing our community and the guidance and direction you are providing our leaders. 

There are a few pending bills that have been brought up recently 

to try to increase the number of visas to come to the United States 

specifically for the Christians of Iraq as well as other minority communities that have been impacted by ISIS in Syria and elsewhere. 

The visas are for those displaced in Syria, Turkey, Jordan, and 

Lebanon. 

I would like to also add that Deputy Assistant Secretary of State 

Brett McGurk tweeted the following remarks yesterday, which we 

are in full support of: ‘‘Iraq’s National Program, adopted last night, 

calls for the formation of National Guards ‘from sons of each province’ to secure local areas.’’

We think the long-lasting solution for minorities in the Middle 

East, specifically the Christians in Iraq, is for them to have their 

own safe haven that is protected initially by international forces 

and subsequently by their own members in which they can secure 

an area that would be part of the greater Iraq but have some sort 

of self-governance. 

Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to speaking with you in the future. 

[See the appendix for the prepared statement of Mr. Oram.] 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much for your testimony and for conveying those very strong sentiments to the two subcommittees. 

Just a few questions, and, again, I apologize for the lateness and 

thank you for your patience with the intervening votes that we 

had. 

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I just want to note that Dr. John Eibner is in the audience, and 

he testified at our hearing on Syria last June. And the issue was 

very strongly made by the panel of experts, of which he is an admitted expert, about this being—what is going on then in Syria. 

Now, of course, that border has been breached, and it is Iraq as 

well, that there is genocide. 

And as Ambassador Galbraith pointed out by simply reciting the 

definition, if this doesn’t rise to the level of genocide, I don’t know 

what does. And my question would be, in your view, what would 

be triggered if that word were to be used in a demonstrative fashion? If the genocide convention, the expert treaty body, were to 

take this up? It is my understanding that both countries are signatories to it. 

It certainly would have a level of focus that it continues to evade. 

And if you could, while you are answering, you did talk about how 

we should do more, the United States, to assist the KRG in the 

care of the displaced Iraqi and Syrian refugees in Kurdistan. 

You do point out that the Iraqi Government has been derelict in 

providing funds that they are obligated to provide. Are we, the 

United States, using our diplomatic leverage, our Ambassador, Secretary of State, and others, to admonish, if not insist, that the Iraqi 

Government live up to those obligations? 

You also point out that Kurdistan needs the weapons to defend 

itself. Yes, there are some weapons flowing. Is it sufficient in your 

opinion? 

And if I could also ask—again, I thought, Dr. Farr, you made a 

very important series of recommendations, and I did read some of 

those, some of your testimony, to Tom Malinowski in particular 

during his presentation. And I did ask him how he responds, how 

does the administration respond, not only to being late, which I believe is a no-brainer, they were late, they were asleep at the switch. 

I mean, many of us were saying this 1 year ago, 11⁄2 years ago, and 

others were saying it even before that, while the President golfed. 

And my question would be about not utilizing the very significant tools embedded in the International Religious Freedom Act. 

One of the beliefs or one of the undergirding and important elements of that law is to train Foreign Service Officers. You talk 

about, and your points are well taken, that we need to update the 

law, make it mandatory in a number of areas. That seems not to 

happen. Or if it is, it is part of a module somewhere in their training that almost diminishes it in application and by its juxtaposition 

to other things. 

So if you could speak to this low priority under the current President to promoting religious freedom. And I think your point is 

missed by most people in this discussion, and the others might 

want to speak to this as well. That when you get the Saudi Arabias 

of this world and the others, you know, with their anti-apostasy 

laws and your example, which you didn’t read, but it is worth noting for the record orally, of the person in Afghanistan who wrote 

a statement—where was that—a graduate student in Afghanistan 

submitted a research paper that argued from the Koran that Islam 

supports the equality of men and women. 

His professors turned him in to local police. He was charged with 

blasphemy, convicted, and sentenced to death. I mean, Afghan is 

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a country where the United States spent considerable treasure and, 

more importantly, lives—and I used to chair the Veterans Affairs 

Committee, and I have been in so many veterans’ hospitals over 

the course of my 34 years. Men and women are walking around 

missing limbs, and then this particular student is condemned to 

death because he talks about equality between men and women. 

That is where that strategy I think that you are talking about 

needs to be far more robust than it has been. So if you could elaborate on that, and any other points any of you would like to make 

before we conclude the hearing. 

Ambassador Galbraith. 

Ambassador GALBRAITH. Thank you. You would think with all 

the years I was at the Foreign Relations Committee I would at 

least know the mechanics of this. 

The first question you asked was, what are the implications of 

saying something is genocide? In my testimony, I discuss 

Samantha Power’s book. Of course, she is now our Ambassador to 

the U.N. But her argument is that U.S. policy on genocide has done 

exactly what Presidents have wanted it to do, Presidents of both 

parties, which is nothing. 

And that is why when I was Ambassador to Croatia, Secretary 

of State Christopher went to great contortions to avoid describing 

what was going on in Bosnia as genocide, because if it is genocide 

we would have to act. And while I have some criticisms of President Obama—and, in fact, I started writing on August 7 and had 

had accepted an op-ed earlier that day criticizing him for not using 

the word ‘‘genocide,’’ he in fact did use the word ‘‘genocide.’’ And 

I think that is really important, because once it is genocide, we 

have an obligation to act. 

President Obama described it as potential acts of genocide. It 

isn’t potential acts of genocide. Genocide actually took place, because ISIS is engaged in killing with the intent of exterminating 

the group. That is very much within the four corners of the treaty, 

perhaps the most clear-cut case that I can think of. Even if the 

level of killing doesn’t match some other recent cases, the intent is 

abundantly and completely clear. 

So there is an obligation on the part of the United States and 

on the part of other countries to act. It is both a legal obligation 

and a moral obligation. 

On the question of U.S. aid to Kurdistan, and I emphasize that 

because the only place where people are safe is in the Kurdistan 

region. And the only reason they are safe is because the peshmerga 

is defending them, but it also imposes an enormous burden on the 

local government, and especially Dohuk Governorate, which is 

where most of the people have gone, it is the area that is closest 

to Sinjar, there is one refugee for every resident of that region. And 

so imagine you have a situation where the government in Baghdad 

has not been providing the money for services for 7 months, and 

your population doubles. No wonder people are sleeping in the 

streets and are having a hard time getting medical services, and 

that kind of thing, because the resources are not there. 

And in some ways it is quite extraordinary that the Kurdistan 

Government and the population has been as forthcoming and generous as it has. It has a second problem, which is it doesn’t know 

83

who all of these people are. There has been exactly one major act 

of terrorism in Kurdistan since 2003, and those were the bombings 

that took place on February 1, 2004. 

There have been a few minor attacks, but their whole economy—

and until last year it was the fastest growing place in the world 

economically—depends on the security. They have more than 1 million IDPs, not all of whom are Christians and Yezidis. Some are 

Sunnis. How do they vet them? They need assistance to take care 

of people, erect camps. 

And that, then, leads to the need for military assistance. There 

were 17 Iraqi divisions, my understanding—this may not be exactly 

right, but roughly right—at the beginning of 2014. There may be 

five now. The peshmerga, there is no doubt that they were pushed 

back, and I think that has been deeply shocking to the Kurdistan 

Government. And there is a recognition that they need to do more 

training. A lot of people had—they hadn’t fought since 2003. Now 

they have gone on to help develop their own country, but now they 

recognize they need to do more training, but they were absolutely 

underequipped as compared to what ISIS had. 

But the important point is, when they withdrew, they withdrew 

as units. So they are there. They are capable of being armed. And 

if you want to talk about the defense of these people, of the people 

who have come there, including Christians, Yezidis, the Shabaks, 

the Shiites, then we need to arm them. 

Air power, as has been said earlier, it only works when there are 

forces on the ground. There is no prospect of U.S. forces on the 

ground, but these are forces on the ground that we can help with 

our air power. 

You asked, are we sufficiently engaged in the diplomatic leverage? Well, the fact is that all of the leverage we have been using 

has been on the Kurdistan Government and the Kurdish Block to 

join the Government of National Unity. They did so in the most 

openly reluctant way. They had a series of demands. Frankly, 

Prime Minister al-Abadi didn’t engage on—in a discussion on those 

demands. None of them were met. 

There are three Kurdish Ministers—three out of 30, although 

their share of the population of the Parliament would entitle them 

to six. They actually refused to be sworn in. They have said, ‘‘We 

are going to give al-Abadi a 3-month trial period.’’ This really isn’t 

a government of national unity. They have said very clearly that 

the only reason they joined at all was U.S. pressure and the deadline related, frankly, to the President’s speech tonight. 

But there hasn’t been, in my view, sufficient leverage on doing 

some pretty basic things, like paying the budget. Yes, there is a 

dispute over the oil issue, but, frankly, that can be set aside. The 

Kurds have been clear they are prepared to share the revenues. So 

let it go forward, share the revenues, and then resolve it later. 

Don’t try to fight this internal political battle at the time that the 

country is in grave peril. But that is exactly what the previous 

Iraqi Government has done, and there is no sign that the new one 

is doing anything——

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Ambassador, if you don’t mind me interrupting, 

how much are we talking about? I mean, ballpark. 

84

Ambassador GALBRAITH. I think it is in the range of $10 billion. 

It is a lot of money. And that is not an amount of money that can 

be made up with money from UNHCR or from USAID. First, it 

isn’t the kind of money that international agencies provide. It is for 

salaries, it is to pay the police, to pay the peshmerga, to pay teachers, to run the electricity, all the things that go with a functioning 

state. 

And, finally, you asked whether the military assistance was sufficient. And the answer is in terms of the small arms I believe it is 

now sufficient. But if you are talking about a force that is self-sufficient, able to defend their territory, able to help recover the 

Nineveh Plain, because much as one might like to see an international force there, I think we know that isn’t going to happen, 

and certainly not in the foreseeable future. 

So if that is to be done, then the one force that is capable of 

doing it is the peshmerga, but they need tanks, MRAPs, helicopters, and training. I think that is the only realistic possibility. 

The Iraqi Army is not even close to there. I mean, just look at the 

map and you will see where ISIS is. 

The Kurds make the point that they have a 1,500-kilometer border with ISIS and 30 kilometers with Iraq. So the possibilities of 

joint operations are really limited. They are the force that is close 

to Mosul. They are the force that is close to the Nineveh Plain. 

They are the force that is still intact. 

So, yes, it is good that things are started, but not sufficient. 

One further point, we have an arrangement now in which the 

arms that are going to Kurdistan, the planes fly to Baghdad, and 

then fly to Kurdistan where they are inspected and where presumably any shipment could be stopped. That also is ridiculous. 

If there really was a concern about the country and about fighting the common enemy, you wouldn’t be having that kind of cumbersome system. The flights would go straight to Kurdistan, to the 

airports in Erbil and Suleimaniya. And, frankly, at this point, one 

of the Kurdish demands, which hadn’t been a previous issue, is 

that they should control their own airspace. 

Why? Because the government, after June, as I said in my prepared testimony, actually closed down the airspace to stop the 

peshmerga from being able to defend themselves, even though they 

were also defending many non-Kurdish Iraqis. At least 20, 25 percent of the people there are not Kurds. They are other Iraqis who 

have fled there. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, if I might first just say that Patriarch 

Sako played a part in my prepared testimony. He is a good and 

holy man who is, frankly, a hero of mine. I had the honor to meet 

him at a conference we did in Rome in December, and I hope that 

you will convey that back to him. I will give you a copy of my prepared remarks that reflect some of the things that he has had to 

say that he repeated in what was said today. 

I will be brief, conscious of the lateness of the hour. Let me make 

three points, Mr. Chairman, and offer to the committee, if useful, 

to provide elaboration in writing. You asked why you think this is 

such a low priority. There are many technical and pretty good answers to that. I think there is a big picture answer. Religious freeVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:24 Oct 23, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00090 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\091014\89741 SHIRL
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dom is no longer seen as the first freedom by many of our political 

and foreign policy elites. 

By ‘‘first freedom,’’ our founders understood it to mean ‘‘necessary to individual human flourishing and to the success of any 

society.’’ We no longer believe that, and that is why we are not very 

effective in convincing others that it is good for them. We don’t 

even try. I’m happy to elaborate. 

Second, you mentioned the training recommendation I made. I 

want to say something good about this administration, particularly 

under Secretary Clinton. As you know, Mr. Chairman, there was 

begun a 3- or 4-day course on religion and foreign policy at the Foreign Service Institute. I have been honored to teach there several 

times. 

The problem with it is that it is voluntary, and the people that 

go have time to go, and, you know, you get lucky sometimes. But 

mainly it is folks that have time on their hands rather than the 

people that need to be trained. And even the course that exists, it 

kind of goes like a college seminar, and I think sometimes people 

are entitled to be confused when they come out of a debate on 

whether all of this is unconstitutional or not, whether we should 

be doing it at all. 

Well, you know, if you want to have that, have it at Georgetown. 

But teach our Foreign Service Officers how to promote religious 

freedom. The law says do it; let us do it. We are not doing that, 

and I think it is not a complicated point. 

Finally, the Afghan grad student, thank you for bringing that up. 

This young man is a Sunni Muslim, pious as far as I know. He was 

punished for writing a graduate term paper because he was taken 

to be offending Islam. 

The idea that those who offend Islam must be punished is a malevolent idea. I once wrote a piece, ‘‘The Idea that Threatens the 

National Security of the United States.’’ That idea is it. This is not 

unusual in religious history. The Catholic Church, for a long time, 

frankly, had to get over the idea that it had to punish those who 

either left it or criticized it. 

And one of the great examples is Dignitatis Humanae of 1965 

where the church said, ‘‘We no longer claim privileged authority to 

civil and political authority to silence those who disagree. What we 

demand is freedom to make our claims.’’ And we require that for 

everybody else. 

What if Islam could come—all the Muslim majority countries of 

the world could come to that very simple but very powerful idea? 

It doesn’t mean that it is good to criticize somebody’s religion. It 

simply means that if you criticize my religion, which, frankly, I believe the New York Times does daily, the response is not violence. 

That is the idea that threatens peace and, frankly, freedom in the 

world. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Warda? 

Ms. WARDA. Thank you very much. I would like to come back to 

the diplomatic assistance. I think it is very, very important to see 

that we can do something. As America, as I think all democratic 

countries, it is in their hands to put pressure on countries which 

we know they support ISIS. 

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So the pressure, I don’t know, in political—other political ways, 

but it is in the hands of countries to really be aware of this dramatic situation, which is genociding people and with indifference. 

The second point I would like to mention is the humanitarian 

help. The humanitarian help I think is not necessarily—and we 

saw this experience of Iraq—is not necessarily—will arrive on time 

and in good way just throughout the officials. I think the NGOs are 

there, and they are the most present, more than all governments, 

even Baghdad, even KRG, which is really—KRG, which is the area 

which really receives and serves all those people. 

But for this humanitarian help, I think NGOs they are the most 

concerned, and they are the most present. So please, we would like 

to ask you to really insist on NGOs role, directly to NGOs present 

in the area to help because this is, you know, the bad time and we 

would like not to press our time and policies and trainings, and et 

cetera, et cetera. That is the way of officials, and NGOs are really 

not very welcome in this, because we say, ‘‘No, now we must do.’’

Thank you very much. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank so very much to each of you for sharing your 

extraordinary insight and wisdom with the two subcommittees. 

This will obviously help all of us be better informed going forward. 

You know, the world awaits what the President has to say tonight. I hope we are not disappointed, and I hope especially those 

who are beleaguered and being destroyed, literally, exterminated, 

get a ray of hope from tonight’s speech by the President. 

We have received letters, written submissions from the following 

organizations, which will, without objection, be made a part of the 

record, the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce of California, Yezidi Human Rights Organization International, One Free 

World International. And hearing no objection, they will be made 

a part of the record. 

Again, thank you so very much. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 5:02 p.m., the subcommittees were adjourned.] 

(87)

A P P E N D I X 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, 

A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, AND CHAIRMAN, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD FROM HIS EXCELLENCY IBRAHIM N. IBRAHIM OF THE

CHALDEAN EPARCHY OF ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE


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STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD FROM MR. JOHNNY ORAM OF THE CHALDEAN AMERICAN

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF CALIFORNIA


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STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD FROM REV. MAJED EL SHAFIE OF ONE FREE WORLD

INTERNATIONAL


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STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD FROM MR. MIRZA ISMAIL OF YEZIDI HUMAN RIGHTS

ORGANIZATION-INTERNATIONAL


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Æ


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