and how a jury it likely would perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial. these are the types of issues that prosecutors analyze every day. and because these issues were important to my ultimate decision i had to include a description of themn the attorney general park earlier this week special counsel robert her testified about his investigation into president biden's handling of classified documents wn he served as vice president or the obama ministration. i nearly four hours of testimony he responded to concerns about his depiction of the presidents memory and the decision to not seek criminal charges. you c watch the entire hearing saturday 8:00 p.m. eastern on an now are freed mobile video app and online at c-span.org. ♪ c-span is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies and more including

cox. ♪ is extremely rare. but friends don't have to connee not alone. supporc-span as with these other television providers. giving a front row seat to democracy. ex- house hearing on national security and global threats testimony from the director of national intelligence cia director bill burns fbi director christopher wray. they highlight the israel hamas war the illegal entry of terrorists into the u.s. foreign intelligence survelaac of the mg issues. how select intelligence committee hearing is nearly three hours. >> the committee will come to order prove that objection the

chair may■@ declare a racist at any time. today, we come together to discuss the intelligence community 2024 annual threat assessment. we begin with an open session streamedadcast live in on the committee's youtube channel. the open ssion is entirel unclassified. all participants are reminded to refrain from discussing classified information or other information for publicc and resume for the closedn session the committee hearing from 130 -- 210. without any disruptions of the committee will result in the nicest capitol police restoring order and the protesters will be removed and arrested. it's my pleasure to welcome a renowned group of intelligence leaders for today's proceedings will hear from the honorable admiral haynes national intelligence, the honorable william burns central

agency's, christopher wray director of the federal bureau of investigation, general timothy hoch director of cyber command lieutenant jeffrey cruz i want to pause for a minute to give my pso burns youe worked with this committee over the past year now and both a bipartisan way, working with jim, myself and met work with their members to make sure the information we need being available for discussions on important issues i greatly appreciate your contributions to the success and i want to drecognize that. the annual threat assessment to update congress the american people and serious threats to protect the american people policy and decision-makers of the threats posted national security includes critical

infrastructure, ■economic security, cybersecurity, food security several other components of national security. each year of the world evolves during morer adversaries are ale emerging technologies are changing. we are in the midst of shifting geopolitical landscape with strategic competition at the forefront. now more than at any other time at least not since the cold war nationstate threats are dominate the knights' national security concerns. beijing, moscow and to render anti-american working together these common adversaries of overlapping interests and approaches include russia invasion of ukraine hamas attack on israel continued iranian proxy assaults in the region and the people's republic of china regular military show of force threatening taiwan. also concerning the recent testj of ballistic missile based on the missiles in flight that a south korean japanese assets are

at risk and has the potential range of striking the united states. this is a flagrant violation ofc the united nations security council. one is fragmented and vague the homeland is under constant assault weatherby from cyber ■%alignks influence. what is not clear is how the intelligence community communicates those threats to other federal, state local tribal or private sector partners. the lack of clarity is the issue of the federal government is organized appropriately■x the kinds of nuts america space bar foreign adversaries here. some up, up the warn of threats to homeland security from people's republic ofhr china, te prc is compromising persistent access u.s. critical

infrastructure classified prc is targeting arnie compromise telecommunications, energy and transportation w■.er sectors" in some cases cyber actors is living inside destructive cyber attacks the event of a major crisis or conflict with the united states.y the advisory states this actively is been going on rise to phenomenon of the prc app and for structural united states. in addition to preit infrastrucy means possible china is attempting to advance as a technology superpower by offering investment and

acquiring or stealing intellectual property agriculture, quantum computing at semiconductors. russia contends an unjust war bolstering artillery shells use against an anti- for u.s. and satellites. has built and funded a network of processes to iran's regional objectives. iran subject the attack on israel and continues to hamas. weapons and intelligence for terrorist attacks on u.s. personnel in the regions and attacks on the global supply chain transiting the red sea. the annual threat assessment

hearing i said the committee's plan for the reauthorization section 702. an immense amount committee work is got into the bill reforming them. the guard rails provides the tools necessary to protect our countr authority we know the danger of american or allies at the intelligence community does not have the capability to produce intelligence from the pfizer collection. perceived lack of accountability than most troubling aspect of congress and the american public to c community correcting actions aggressively the pfizer process to address past abuses the face of all intelligence community's core mission stand to identify foreign threats and provide warning to protect americans. our committee oversight work takes itercontinually examine ar

improvement and provide bipartisan legislation solutions were needed. today you'll hear questions from our members on variouserest areas to be respectful of everyone's time i ask you be direct and succinct. with that i look forward to hearing answers from o esteemed panel and recognize my ranking member. >> think it mr. chairman welcome to our distinguished panel and in particular general hock genera■&l cruz we are enjoying s new directors of nsa and dia. this annual hearing is a vital part of our oversight. it public to hear directly from each of you about the assessment of a range of threats and issues. the stuff we hear every single day behind closed doors. the world can sometimes feel it straining under the weight of conflict. putin's ongoing in ukraine, the people's republic of china saber rattling in ongoing crisis in gaza with the deterring situation and i could go on. see

community that can soberly complicate threats and challenges are based on facts and analysis. we are fortunate to see this it daily on a classified basis i know your parents are today i will return to this during my questions we are amid another presidtial election. and at previous a federal campaign cycles we know foreign powers have attempted to interfere the latest assessment says it is a possibility they may do so again. we need to ensure in it no way do i disagree with a catalog of foreign threats that the chairman laid out, i agree with them in their entirety. we need to ensure in particular foreigners stay out of american elections. we need the community to credibly collect against and warned the public when they determine such malign aivities targeting our political process

are occurring. next we get that working level we have seen past interference efforts by russia, c run and others of different sorts we have every reason to believe some or all of them will try again. i am particularly concerned putin is exploring opportunities because he has already done so and part we hope you'll give us a sense of what the russian leader's calculus may look like as welle as that of other potential actors. i'll also note the first general election in the era of generative ai which can create realistic video photos audio and sophistication that was unimaginable just a year ago. we need to be ready. the job is to focus its collective powers t outward to protect our nation but i feel

strongly some of the greatest threats to our security in the world security unfortunately are homegrown. i fear we are slouching towards an election in which decisions will be made based on what excites us. what enrages this, what an raptures us that we will substitute for the critical faculties that are f essential r a citizen in a doc scratching ot prior beliefs and opinions i tell my constituents regularly e will work hard to try to take down the temperature is to restore the intelligence of our politics. but at the end of the day americans in their decisions about how they will act as citizens of a democracy will get the democracy they deserve. we are faltering. with a continued failure to support ukraine. e russian leader has been emboldened to believe he can

snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. our ukrainian partners of both incredible couragere against the russian war machine have won victories that are beyond anyone's expectation. it appears our nerve at the critical juncture. director burns he recently returned from another visit and i hope you will share withtz t committee some reflections on what is at stake and the urgency with which we need to act. finally as the chairman of ply concerned section seven oh two expires in a month unless congress acts. as the witnesses can attest 702 is our most important intelligence authority we need to reauthorize it right away.ea i appreciate all the work the witnesses at the table have done to help make that the case but we are not done yet. before turning back to the chairman tried to touch briefly on technology adoption and innovation in the■■ i see have long championed this work and authored a report on the topic

several years ago. forr all of china's strengths they cannot compete with the culture and innovation that we regularly achieve here in the united states. getting that innovation into the icy mission and to the dod mission is going to define our success over the next decades we spent a lot of time in this place debating whether capitol should flow how i protected whether we should shut down chinese owned social me platform the merits of those efforts are open to debate. but if we continue to innovate the way we always have we will win. for being here i look forward to a will hopefully be a very valuable session for the american public in a yell back. >> will now turn to the director from national intelligence tooll presenting the opening statement on behalf of. >> thank you so much chairman turner, ranking member and members of the committee.

thank you for the opportunity to be here alongside my wonderful colleagues to present the i see annual threat assessment. before i started to probably think the people of the intelligence community from the collector, to the analysts in every way in between. we are presenting the result of their labor at this hearing. they worked tirelessly every day to keep our country safe and to represent them. i also want to take the opportunity to thank all of you for the extraordinary support you havert shown to the intelligence community. the i see relationship with oversight committees quite obviously critically important and you all work with us on a bipartisan basis that is especially inspiring in today's environment we are grateful for your encouragement and for your wisdom.nd■7 ■■( united states fs increasingly complex and interconnected threat environment characterized by three categories of challenges. the first is accelerated

strategic competition with major authoritarian powers that are actively working to undermine the rules -based order and open international system thehe unitd states and our partners rely on for trade, commerce, the free flow of information and■ accountability to the truth. the second category is a set of intense and unpredictable not mass challenges climate change, corruption, narcotics trafficking, health security terrorism and cyber crime that often interact with traditional state based the political economical and security challenges. the third category is regional localized conflicts that have far-reaching and at times cascading quotations not only for neighboring countries but also for the world. all three challenges are affected by trends and new and emerging technologies, environmental changes in economic strain that are soaking oninstability it may get that mh more challenging for us to forecast the development and

their implications. these dynamics are putting unprecedented burdens on the institions and the relationships the united states relies on to manage such a challenges and perhaps more than ever highlight the need for sustained u.s. leadership to uphold the rules -based order. i will just touch on these three categories and challenges starting with strategic competition in china in effort to provide context and highlight some of the intersection. president xi continues tot envision china as the leading the power on the world stage in chinese leaders believe it is essential to project power globally in order to be able to resist u.s. pressure for they are convinced the united states will not tolerate a powerful china. nevertheless the prc seeks to ensure china can maintain positive ties to the united states will likely continue to do so this year. as the ability is important to capacity to attract direct investment. boosting the domestic economy is a fundamental priority for

president xi. yet he appears to be doubling down a long term growth strategy that would deepen investor to pessimism over the near p term. with use unemployment about 14.9%, no majormption forthcomi, massive local debt and property market contraction 2024 is likely to be another difficult . all against the backdrop of an aging and a shrinking population and slowing economic growth. president xi is counting on china's investments in technology such advanced manufacturing and robotics artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, tord spur growth in the future but yet he is increasingly concerned about the united states ability to interfere with china's technological goals. consequently in an effort to protect for china's capacity to complete technologically which president xi views as a fundamental to his long-term growth strategy prc leaders and

modify their approach to economic retaliation against the united states over the last year end posting at least tane firmss they continue to moderate such action to avoid domestic cost. chinese leadership is furthermore pursuing a strategy to boost china's indigenous innovation and technological self-reliance. effortso acquieel or compel prf intellectual-property capabilities from others and continue to engage in coercive behavior to control quick critical global supply chains. in the meantime president xi is emphasis on control and central oversight is unlikely solve the challenges posed by chinese endemic corruption, demographic decline, and structural economic constraints. over the coming year tension between these challenges and china's aspirations for greater geopolitical power will probably become all the more apparent too. given its ambition beijing will continue to use military forces

to intimidate its neighbors and shape the region's actions in accordance with thexpect pla wie advanced platforms deployed new technologies and grow more confidence in joint operations with a particular focus on taiwan and the western pacific. the role intended for china's great nuclear forces and cyber capabilities in this effort and the ultimate intent behind unprecedented growth in remains priorities for us they are not unrelated to the actions innd russia. president putin's war of aggression against ukraine continues unabated. ukraine's retreat from their strule to stave off further territorial in the past few weeks have expose the erosion oy ukraine's military capabilities and the declining availability of external military aid. the assistance that is contemplated in the supplemental is absently critical to ukraine's defense right and, without that assistance

it's hard to imagine how ukraine will be able to maintain the extremely hard fought advances it made against the russians. especially given the sustained surge in russian ammunition production and purchases from north korea iran. meanwhile president putin is increasingly defense spending reversing his long-standing reluctance to devote a high percentage of gdp to the military as he looks to rebuild. in many ways this iso prompted part military losses than any time since world war ii 2000 casualties of armored combat vehicles setting back years. thatat membership in nato putin believes a requires expansion of russia ground forces. time is on his side and assumes larger better equipped to military will also serve the purpose of driving that point

home to western audiences. such messaging is important because of putin's strategic goals remain unchanged. hehe continues to see nato enlargement western supports ukraine is reinforcing his long-held belief the united states and europe seek to restrict russian power and undermine him. and of course in the meantime russia continues to modernize and fortify its nuclear weapons capabilities even though it maintains the largest and most diverse nuclear weaponsns stockpile. we remain concerned moscow will put a great r long-standing global norm against the use of asymmetricic christian strategic weapons. including in space and cyber domain. another critical intersection we are monitoring is the relationship among the governments of russia, north korea, china and■g iran. which is evolving as the four countries expand collaboration through a web of bilateral and in some cases trilateral arrangements. this growing cooperation a willingness to exchange aid and

military economic political and intelligence matters enhances their individual capacities. enabs them to cooperate in competitive actions, system to further undermine the rules -based order give them each some insulation frominternational pre nevertheless we assess these relationships will remain far short of formal alliances or multilateral access. desire to avoid entanglements and wearing instability from each other's actions will likely limit their cooperation and ensure it advances incrementally absent directing complex between one of these countries and the united states.ics are shifting among them this is creating new challenges in particular russia's need for support in the context of ukraine has forced it to grant some long-standing concessions to china, north korea and iran with potential to undermine among other things long-held nonproliferation norms. as i noted in the beginning intensifying are interacting

with the more traditional threats but for example with the advent offo generative ai states and nonstate actors who are interested in conducting foreign malign influence operations no longer need to master a new language or create potentially believable false content. the threat of malign actors exporting tools and tec to undercut u.s. interest in democracy is particularly as voters go to the polls and more than 60 elections around the globe this year.n a massive increase in the number of rents and where attacks globally went up roughly 74% in 2023 from what as in 2022. u.s. entities were the most heavily targeted. many of these are conducted by nonstate actors with russia criminal group remaining the most popular rinse and work service as a provider. service provider. i was responsible for and off te

quarter of all link to a joint effort by 11 countries to seize the resources to take down its online domain. transnational criminal organization human smuggling operations increasingly exploit kidnapping and human trafficking. in particular the threat from illicit drugs remains a historic level is mexican transnational criminal organizations applying and moving large amounts of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl into the united states. more than 100,000 americans have died from drug-related overdoses during the past year end most of the staff said been attributed to illicit fencing of her as such the threat from conv other synthetic drugs to thehe health and welfae of every day americans remains a top priority for the intelligence community. the third categoryith multiple regional conflict with far-reaching implications perhaps nowhere more obviously than in the middle east. the crisis in gaza as a stark example of how regional depakotr and global implications.

now, hadn't lasted for more than five months the complex has ty presenting and security paradigms and humanitariannd challenges while pulling in a range of actors. the conflict has dynamics even as it is entrenched. we continue to assess has bill and i run do not want to cause a conflict into a full out war. get the houthis entered the war and were willing to do so without iran acting first. becoming one of thet in the conflicts. the iranian aligned militia groups in iraq and syria that have been attacking our forces have been more focus on the united states and israel is the conflict is an opportunity to pursue their own agenda. moreover the crisis is galvanized violence in a range of actors around the world and while it tell it is likely the gaza crisis will have a generational impact on terrorism. both al qaeda and isis inspired byamas or directive supported to conduct attacks against israel with the u.s. interest we have seen how it is inspiring

individuals to connect exits into sandwiches in an islamic for terror worldwide. and then the third category of regional localized conflicts we have many more we might discuss including haiti, sudan, what's happening in the eastern dramatic republic of congo and the list goes on. this finally breaks me section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act as was ioned wñáhich will expel april l action. the intelligence gathered pursuant to section 702 was essential in preparing the annual assessment as absolutely fundamental to every aspect of our work. section 702 provides unique insighnto foreign intelligence targets such as sport adversaries, terrorist organizations, including how muscle weapons proliferators, proler actors in fencing of traffickers. it does so at a speed and reliability we simply cannot replace with any other authority. as congress pursues reauthorization we understand there will be reforms we support those in both of the compliance

and oversight regimes in place operational agility that's vital to keep in the nation safe and we know n how much this committe has worked on that option. we thank you very much and look for to your questions. >> thank you director haynes. i also want to thank director burns director wray and former director of nsa fort ewers systems the process this committee undertook in drafting our 702 reform bill and reauthorization. the reforms in thatcommittee woy responding to eachnt of the ares where we found abuses. and this bill not ability for te community to collect intelligence on foreigners abroad, not american citizens concerns we have and concerns of the public discussion in

congress of abuses. i appreciate the fact you have that we cooperated but assisted us in the overall process of drafting that. and the advocacy for it. directorate rate you've been very public over the past several months. and including yesterday the worldwide threats in the senate. warning of a potential terrorist attack occurring in the united■■ states. the intelligence we see is clear and i appreciate that you have publicly entered into the discussion of the are's currently facing people who want to do america harm i've entered our country illegally and are here. now, you have continued to cite thatat warning. i would like your comments. do you believe we here from the possibility of a terrorist attack?

>> i believe the terrorist threat level we are■o c now is e another level from already heightened terrorist threat level we are seein october 7. i say that for a variety of reasons. calling for terrorist attacks against us. we seem to see ini on this. i would add to that the loan actors here this is a time not for panic but for heightened vigilance given the risk. >> director, going to ask you a couple questions about the fbi'u role in designating individuals

is known terrorist, suspected terroriso-fly list. when there are concerns that an individual might be affiliated with the terrorist organization or have the intent to undertake a terrorist attack, there are designated categories suspected terrorist, no-fly list. could you describe those designations? >> the fbi maintains so-called terrorist watchchwn list a suspd terrorist list based on information that o comes from a variety of sources. that could comeinvestigative wot comes from information from our intelligence partners or from and so that it's when the derogatory information about the individual puts them on the list. and then armed w us to engage wh dhs as running names when they come in.te someone on the

no-fly list? >> a different screen no-fly list in the selectee lisay theyh individuals who based on the list don't fly or should not fly. and then there those who are identified for heightened screening. it is an interagency process that determines who is in which category. >> was the fbi scattered. >> the fbi contributes its own threat intelligence and obviously maintains itself requested of fios is maintained fbi?e >> that is my understanding. >> of any individuals who are known terrorist, suspected terrorists who were on the no-fly list presented themselves at the southern border are been apprehended the southern border united states?ly i t >> we have seen over the last i think five years and increase in

the number known or suspected terrorists attempting to cross the southern border. >> of individuals in the known terrorist this is suspected or no-fly list presented them at u.s. airports atit once entering the united states, attempting to fly? >> i believe the answer to that is yes as well. even though i do not have that for me at this moment. >> have the phone? >> oh well, there may have been instances where as part of an investigation and in close coordination in order to potentially apprehend somebody, someone is allowed to fly in order to see where they are going and then take action. but not intentionally. >> at the end of ultimately no-fly list been permitted to >> i believe again, depends upon what time. you are talking butav i believe there have been individuals and

coordination to investigators anothege individual we want to see where they are going and potentially arrest them there may have been situations type of situation. >> is the fbi have a role to soe presents themselves at a u.s. airport with the that is on the no-fly list? the fbi involved in permitting them to fly or downgrading their status for them to fly? >> no. we provide information to the dhs agency but the decision to allow them to fly is not ours of some from the no-fly list shows upnc fly? but certainly that's most of the time is my understanding. haines, ukraine is a significant issue for united states as we

are unfortunately in a position where we are in the legislative process that is not yet resolved the issue of continued u.s. support fory ukraine against russian aggression. there are still individuals who claim this war, this aggression by russia where they invaded ukraine is about russia wanting to prevent ukraine from being ic nato. perhaps russia instigated this incursion by russia. or it russia itself is strength to counter nato in ukraine. >> 's conflict is much more than this is an wealth? help us understand you served as the u.s. ambassador to russia you know putin well for you see

the intelligence. you have been active in working with ukraine and this administration on this issue. what is this conflict about?eekn ukraine? >> @vater putin seeks but caused years ago was his fixation on subjugating ukraine and controlling his choices. much broader than the issue of nato. i think putin and i have heard them say this many times in the past, believes ukraine isn't a real country it's weak and iadivided. what ukrainians have done is demonstrate the real countries. i think there's a great deal atl assistance the congress is considering where there's a great deal at stake that way for you creating an european security, for interests around the globe including in the indo pacific. >> ukrainians onto part of

>> i'm sorry. >> ukrainians want to be part of russia? what's the vast majority of your grades are specially reinforced by putin's brutalf a sovereign independent ukraine. that's what they felt such bravery and valor with our support which has been incredibly important and remains incredibly important to their success. >> if there was support in ukraining this conflict seen an insurgency and uprising of individuals who are carrying the cause of russia? wee ukraine, have we? >> no. you've seen incredible bravery and valor on the part of the but their independent democratic ukraine. >> are people there safe house russia treating ukrainians once the incorporated territory?

-class citizens with a fair amount of pressure as well but. >> just i would add they treat many of their own citizens. >> one of the most vicious of those crimes have been illegal transportation and abduction of ukrainian children. i think those the one i think strikes at all of our hearts. >> is this about nato, would you be kidnapping children and ukraine? >> know, as i said i don't think this is jt nato. it's a wider fixation putin has about subjugating ukraine. >> director haines, tell us in your review of the intelligence what is this conflict about? >> director burnsta subjugationf ukraine. but also one of the things very consistent with that as he

bees century he perceivesos they lost a tremends amount in that context that loses even further influence of those states that were a part of the soviet union. and in fact also bring it back to its former glory. i think the other aspect of this is the importance of our continuing to support ukraine anheg russia and china is also watching what is happeningg her. that's onecenarios where china sees we are able we already over exceeded their expectations in terms of coming together with europe and actually countering russian sinner if they see that we we canresolve we can, our inabio

maintain assistance that's a lesson there going to lynn for the future or their own assertive efforts in the region. >> director haines tom■aorrow if ukraine or nato or the united states had no native for ukraine would this be over? >> no. >> director burns, we have unfortunately taken a significant amount of time for congress to act for ukraine aid to be approved. we have stood by ukraine. we have provided the weapons they have needed, that they have thought, we he not fough fought to counter russian aggression with great loss. what is our delay costing now? what's happening on the battlefield? is ukraine at a disadvantage because we■3 have not approved aid? >> yes is a short answer. i came back a couple weeks ago for my tenth visit to ukraine during the war in conversations

just with president zelenskyy but with our intelligence counterparts in the ukrainian military officers. i was struck byeveral things but first ukraine is not running out of courage and tenacity they are running out of ammunition we are running out of time to help them. briefed on the battle which caused a rushed withdrawal of the ukrainian forces are about two days before i arrived. one of the senior ukrainian partners was in the battle told me our men fought as long as ammunition. could. and the russians just kept coming but what i worry about without supplemental assistance as you are going to see more that ukraine is going to lose more ground notwithstanding their courage and t tenacity and may beround overtime. as director haines s said i thik that has consequences for american interests to go well beyond ukraine and european

security itts goes directly to r interest in the end of pacific. i think they are likely to have that kind of outcome will stoke the ambitions of the chinese leadership liquids undermine the faith our allies have in our reliability as well. with supplemental assistance however i think it is possible to >> a strategicuc f the west s for putin to defeat him in his goal ofnt subjugad ukraine and controlling its choices to put ukraine in a position whereby the end of 2020 fort could 2020n the initiative on the ground but more importantly negotiate from a position of relative strength with putin's russia. i don't think putin today about negotiating. he may be interested in the theater of negotiations but he is not interested in compromise see his interest in negotiation where he can dictate the terms.

without supplemental assistance i think that is the future that ukrainians could face a year from now with supplemental assistance. i think it is possible to puncture his arrogance, his confidence that time is on his position they could negotiate an outcome from a position of relative strength. an outcome which i said putin's goal is t it. ukraine remains a sovereign independent state. anchored in western institutions. in has the time and security to. what russia has to live with the long-term consequences of putin's british invasion of uka> last question doctor burns and director haines. their people in congress who support aid for ukraine. but believe, and i believe mistakenly thatat we this is nol junction juncture. that we canro take our time in approving this aid. director burns, director haines are they

>> and think as i said before mr. chairman the ukrainians are running out of ammunition. i saw that in the description of what happened, they are running out of munitions for both their defense and artillery. one at the ukrainian brigades told in the two daysrc before they were ford to withdraw had a grand total of 15155 entire brigade of something like 2500 personnel. another brigade had a grand total of 42 mortar rounds for the entire bde the end of that. it is not d that they did not fight with courage and tenacity. it's that they ran out of ammunition. you can already ukrainian military rationing ammunition. you can also see them becoming more vulnerable to russian attacks from the air, from drones, from missile, from aircraft. that is a future we are going to see i think without providing them that munitions they have used so effectively in the past

which i believe are the key to a serious status negotiation down the road. n >> doctor haynes? >> i have nothing more to add than that. >> jim? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i particularly appreciate you highlighting the urgency of this house axing to support the ukrainians. much as the balance of thank you for doing that printed 200 chart might attention to the topic approving the election interference for the chairman an wanted to spend a minute or two of the southern border. i want to say upfront every country needs a secure border. as think it's important to put into contextrl in hearing called worldwide threats with the threats are from the southern border relative to north korea, e it. so directory i guess so start with you. give me a time.

five or 10 years. over a five or 10 year. what percentage of domestic terrorist attacks in this country were undertaken by gundocumented aliens or groupsf undocumented? >> there wereom attacks here domestic terrorism? ataxia in the united states? >> exactly. >> i do not have a percentage. a large number have been conducted but would call■, hv's homegrown violent extremists who are inspired. "he number onet' category of the who perpetrate domestic terrorist events the number one category? >> well again the number one category of terrorist attacks here are loan actors in small cells or small groups using readily accessible weapons. >> what i'm trying to get at here, loan actors are they undocumented? what percentage of domestic undn

by the undocumented? >> i don't have a percentage frequencies of 50%? >> no. >> is a 25%? >> i'll be surprised. you would be surprised, okay. what percentage of the fentanyl that enters this country comes on the backs if you will of these undocumented relative to that percentageit which comes in through legitimate ports ofentr? >> again i do not have the percentage frequency majority question what's the vast majority of pencil in this country obviously comes from mexico the other side of the■: border. >> it is my understanding and contradict me if i'm wrong the vast majority comes through legal ports of entry, is that your understanding as well? >> i have been told that. >> okay. would it surprise you to know the southern border and the third year of this presidents presidency in the third year of 23 were aboute

encounters with known or suspected terrorists in the third y year of the previous and present you with that number is? >> no i do not have those numbers. i know the numbers over the last five years is what the information i have over the five years. >> making a comparison and the answer to that question is in the third year of the biden presidency counters on the southern port of known or suspected terroriststhird year s administration the equivalent number is 280. i am sorry we have to talk about this, this is a serious issue i would put into the context of the many, many threats we have i am sorry wouldn't it talk about this because the chairman and i were with the present in the cabinet t room when then leader mcconnell said to the speaker you will not get a better border deal if donald trump is present at the republicans controlled the senate and if they call the house. what it lost t opportunity to address the problems i republican friends make such a over. with that i want todq turn to wt

it really am concerned about. which is in particular for an interference in our election for the unclassified threat assessment before uss, today is the latest in a string of icy analysis going back years, documenting forfluence our elec. i am pleased the community assessment leans forward to describe these threats in such plain terms because our best defense isericans across the pol spectrum are informed and aware of the range of adventures and what they may do. so, at which the remainder of my time until the cheering gavels me down around three questions. what is a threat look like question working by the way to prompt thatt report and discussion of reproduce within your times report on last week they were little hazy they attributed to the russian setting up for completely fake newspapers online. the d.c. weekly the interestingly named new york news a daily that set the daily news that the new state of the chicago chronicle and the miami chronicle for the "new york

times" report of these websites have since been taken down. they mixed local with actual crime on propaganda. i'm putting that out there to prompt what i'm getting att here y what foreign interference may look like? specifics we have red russians may seek to start grassroots demonstrations. again three categories of - questions that is one. number two and this is really important, what are you doing about it? directory i'm going to close with you. every american has a right to know that what you are doing about this is also consistentert amendment. so let me devote some time. what exactly should americans expect to see if there are attempts to interfere with our election beyond what i posted back here? >> thank you. i can start.

thanks for obviously raising this issue. it's absolute ctical importance to us. as you noted we had our assessment unclassified and on our website on these issues. as we look back at 2020 election cycle russia engaged in it multi- prompt effort to heighten broad existing a politicalru tensions and so distrust and democratic processes. precious online influence actor sought to amplify mistrust in the electoral process denigrating mail in ballots highlighting irregularities with the intent to distract and weaken reduced support to craig targeting demographics moral

issues.s. what we do about it the point is they may have a multipronged attack as they may see things in the "new york times" but they also use for example commercial firms,d others that are go-betweens there's a whole series of different ways of approaching effectively their information operations in the space. what we do in the intelligence community as we stood election security group them differently in some different elements that participate these elements are working collectively effectively to identify this type of information operation. what we do is provide larger to the department of homeland security into the fbict for them to act and interact precook semy want to focus on what it looks

like. something you said caught my attention. accusations the system isup rigged which are a hallmark of the previous president speeches and to be fair most recently raised by a california senate again on the california side those statements these systems are rigged may be designed to cause americans to lose confidence in their electoral system is that fair of me too emphasize? >> yes. they have for years the russians have for years and trying to basically discredit the legitimacy of our processes and ultimately our democratic system that sort ofhe main objectives and information operation progress or any of you aware let's get on the record in the last seven years of any material are rigged? >> and i get an audible. thank you no evidence in last american elections having any material way been rigged okay thank you.

director haines before we move on until you to talk about what you're doing about it but what else we have fake news sites hate to use the term those are fake news size of accusations the system is rigged the amer being weaponize against americans what else? >> sure there's also efforts to go after particular policy positions to stoke divisions in society.y. >> how do you stoke divisions amongst americans? >> you effectively take where there is real content. where there is disputes within american sie socioeconomic issues and otherwise and effectively lift and highlight those divisions up it's with th identify what the impact is because largely it's an exacerbation of an existing division and so it is one of the areas they seek to focus.

>> let's spend a minute or so on what you're doing about it. you areta talk to dhs and director wray we are going to close because i think the efforts you make against these attempts at misinformation and division are critical but there is a very hazy line ngbetween identifying this effos going out to those efforts in compromising constitutionally ec and speech. so director haynes, give'r us a sense of what you're doing about it. >> sure and i welcome to the extent to hear from so my other colleagues. i think all of us are involved in this in many respects in pporting ultimatelyhs and fbi efforts on these questions. we stood up od and i the election threat executive in 2019 which was incorporated into the malign influencere center. that center is responsible for integrating intelligence on foreign malign influence or■8■u interference targeting u.s. elections. it also strategically manages

collection and analytic resources on the issue. foster's partnership with other government, private and foreign entities and in 2022 we added the position of national intelligence officer for our client influce and the national intelligence council for leading analysis across the i see on foreign influence for u.s. elections. it isth also, as we work with different groups and i mentioned dhs obviously director rate will 'stalk about fbi's foreign influence task fce and their influence that dhs in intelligence and analysis they provide collection support with threats to infrastructure as well as u.s. organizations, campaigns, public officials they work closely with dhs cybersecurity infrastructure agencies which is charged with assisting election officials and private sector partners to mitigate risk and enhance the physical security and resilience of election facilities and

equipment. from an alternate then. >> thank you the efforts are critical. director wray it is essential americans have confidence in these issues are identified without the fbi or anybody else stepping on their constitutional right so give us a 90 seconds of why we should be confident you can do that? >> our focus is notn content. our focus is on the actor, the foreign actor and that is a key distinction we are not the arbiter we do not seek to be the arbiter of what is fake. we are doing is trying to identify the hidden hand of foreign adversaries, foreign intelligence services, fake accounts that in fact belong to some foreign adversary and alerting the right people to that. that's the primary category in the safar might influence. there is a second category that is important in an election year which is lies about where and when to vote for example. it's a form of voter suppression that can be anv crime there is a

criminal investigation that would ensue there and we alert the appropriate election officials so that they can make sure people know where they actually can vote and with the time the polls are open and that kind of thing. but that is a separate categ >> thank you. i appreciate that. i will yield back but i've been ldoing this now for almost a decade aou every manner of threat out there. though i've seen every manner of threat out there, and appreciate their severity i still believe what lincoln said in 1838 and a speech he gave lincoln said america will never be destroyed from the outside. if we falter and lose our freedoms that will be because we destroyed ourselves. thank you. as a point of privilege for the chairman, the u.s. customs and border protectio encounter statistics for the years fy-17 through fy-24. my questions that were directed to director wray did not include a time period or a criticism of the administration. however, since the comparison

was made, my my esteem calling use the numbers of individuals that were the terrorist watch list in the third year of the last administration and the third year of this administration, those encounters for the field operations encountered at land borders are the numbe believe you were siding because it relates to the ones that you used 280 and 280 of the biden administration those arere land ports were a field operation were someone presen as a border the people are seeking to cross, the years of comparison fy 19 and fy23, aggregate which is the third year of the trump administration was the land ports and for the biden veadministration was 564 relatively consistent. over the category below that

encounters between pointsfch iss specific field operation with the third year of the trump fy 9 this indicates on the southwest border the number was . for the number of the biden administration fiscal year '23 was 169 with the record without objection. >> thank you, mr. chairman thana pleasure to be with you today and have the opportunity to work with you now and over the years appreciated. i want to go back to something about up a couple of years ago in■# june 14, 2017. i won't go into as much depth as i did a couple of years ago 136 rounds fired that day upon republican membershe baseball fe capital police weren't there and

he could've easily of killed 20 - 30 members of congress on the republican side i might add which would've led to a change in the balance of power in the house of representatives. i guess we didn't use the term that much back then but would consider an insurrection■á somee who came to kill republicans that had her name and description in our pockets. omd ihs came on determine this was a domestic violent extremism and the fbi claimed it was a suicide and director wray that was not under your watch and we had this conversation and they made the determination without talking to the witnesses were the victims in two years ago after i spoke on this in this hearing you responded to me and i appreciated that and youro change that from suide by cop to domestic violent extremism we

have serious players on this committee today and i think we work well together and we want to work well with intelligence community as one nation. two years ago we need walls around the sometimes butot walls between us. i'm afraid that's what werett finding, we have a responsibility of oversight. i'm theve this committee and refund your agenco keep in mind. our efforts can only be productive if we can proceed with the speed of trust, that arequires that we have a proce where there is accountability. when you have the leading investigative body of the united states investigation, they don't talk to the witnesses or the victims and they reach a bizarre conclusion that no one else can reach even you cannot reach i cn we have to have accountability of when the process is■d clearly

insufficient. we need to make sure there is integrity, professionalism, appropriate methodology taken place, yet as i'm seeking information as far as who made this decision to call ito suicie by cop and he went forward with it's inappropriate.tigation i don't even think it's awful and i know there's times to cite the lunar memo that comes out of the department of justice that is a memo that is not the law. is not the law of the land we are a country of we the people and where the representatives of the people. especially on this committee when we inquire with going on od the fbi got a bad. how is the process flawed, we want to make it better, but we can't do it if you will not talk to us. information give us that we need. and don't allow us to

investigate. it ces across as very contentious against this body and the people and that is a problem and i want to continue to move forward so we can have a better process in place and make sure that our agencies are functioning at a high level o cy but you have to work with us. i'm going to askit you and maybe in a classified setting that we do this that you commit to providing this committee, the name of the person who practice the gross negligence and politically to motivated decision because we can investigate as well as any punitive actions with persons or persons involved that may have faced. we can investigate further and create a a better process, will you commit to that to me? >> congressman, let me say first, as we discussed before no conversation on the subject

should proceed without first saying how much i respect your heroism on the day in question and i appreciated our conversations i know we provided also as of information in a variety of settings to you in your office and many of which is not something that would be shared about. we will continue to try to work with you, i will double down our efforts to see if there's more information we can provide to be r have to take further action. i want to be an acquiescence that we can work together. the law says this is under gh oversight. the congressional intelligence committee are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activity of theta united states. insured. , the memo means nothing. it is not law you cannot write laws for yourself, congress writes the laws.

>> i appreciate that, there are things that i will talk about more in the classified setting that are of great concern such as bio threat and fentanyl and i just want to publicly comment on how grateful in those arenas i have w been in working with director haynes and director burns, thank you very much, i think there's a lot more that we can do so we can be better in the future and see how well we've done on so many things already. we will do more than classified setting. i yield back. >> thank you, chairman, directoe annual demographics report for fiscal year 2022, iat despite pt highlights ongoing disparities for minorities and women employed in the i see compared to the rest of the federal workforce this includes decreases the number of pay

grade increases, representation of the highest-paid grade in promoting and retaining these officers as they approach leadership ranks. white. insro■h2 would like your respom the dia nsa and fbi on the following questions. when will we see when will we finally see sustained document progress on these key benchmarks, what is holding the ii see back, where can i see improving the recruitment efforts specifically. do you feel comfortable with the i see is engaging with underrepresented communities and institutions of higher learning academic excellence.ers thrgh also what additional resources could be used to recruitment from all background and walks of life? >> thank you so much.

this ist an issue that i'm obviously quite passionate about and i know we've had nkconversations on as well i thk there is no question that we are not where we in terms of representation that we see minorities and women and persons with disabilities in the i see in terms of reflecting the broadernt country, as we know in the report and in the last report we started to do some intersection analogy to show some of theha challenges of the crossing groups, we also see that the representation when you look at the i see as a whole as one thing in the upper ranks you basically see itas significantlc minorities. here is a couple of things that we are doing, the recruitment pieces is a piece and that's s where we've seen it get better in a sense of applicants from the i see is robust demographic

mix in a sense for the i see that does not mean that we don't need to continue to improve that. we've been trying to get out to different parts of the country and you mentioned the centers of academic excellence is to grant sticky universities and basically work with universities to have programs that help us te coalition of schools letter attached to them and one of the things intended to do was to help us get to more diverse poputions across united states and what i were doing is tryingo apply metrics to demonstrate what is working and where it may e of best practicesan take where we do see improvement, that is one piece but another key element, you see this in the demographic report just coming to congress will be here this month, one of the key challenges

were finding his retention in the first five year period ofoy diverse employees and that's an■ area were trying to dig into and resources matter that.e explain what i mean by in order to understand why were having challengesll wit retention, particularly of diverse population we need to ecollect data we need to do more exit interviews and a variety of barrier studies and other things to help us across the i see, that something we requested money for in dia budgets, that will help us understand whatrs s happening so we can address the challenges that are being seen and that we can promote programming that helps us. we've seen some places where the cycle that were trying to create which is gather the data, understand what is happening and

then takection to try to fix it and see whether or not that works is having an impact and i think for example director cruz may tell you a little bit about what's happening in dia's as an example of this. it's a long-term that's going to take a while. when are we going to see it, and years is longer than any of us that we push hard on but i also appreciate your advice and thoughts on things that we could do better in this area as well. let me let others talk as you'd like. >> sure, i'll be very brief, i share not shared over the three years that i've been director at cia a high priority to making ourselves more diverse hing to do as americans is the smart thing cia operates in extremely diverse landscapes around the world,

werema makin for h example we had one of the highest percentages in terms of new officers we've ever had women and minorit community officers 48% women 38% minority and equally importantromotion ir intelligence and senior jobs at cia we hit an historic high of three quarters of a century of cia 47% women, 27% minority because the key to retention as they learned the hard way over many years in public service you have to show people whatever their background they could get promoted to the most senior jobs in the agency, this is just a step we have to continue and is not a blip that becomes a pattern but that's what were determined to try to do. >> the gentleman's time is expired. >> thank you all for beingth hee today this is important that we have these conversations

periodically in the open is important for the making people understand we have a responsibility of overseeinggent into a couple of questions director wray do you still believe the biggest threat to the unitedrity is domestic violt extremism? >> the most significant terrorist threat to the united states is loan actors acting with readily assessable weapons targeting soft targets and that includes domesticnt extremist and homegrown violent extremists which are jihadist >> i have some concerns about the potential for the important industries to be attracted national security industries,s, agriculture and the last ia we were able to bring usda into the

i see with title 50 authority so they become a member of t i see and all the subject matter expertise that that implies and hehow important in the safeguarding of our food supply. i have s concerns of other industries for example. invited article earlier this week about the chinese manufacturers atun our ports and the only manufacturers of cranes we don't build those types of things unfortunately in this country. the chinese h supply chain withr of surveillance devices and someone and cranes were found to have been seated with some devices. we've seen this with the manufacture of commuter rail and other supply chain components th tnto our supplies, do you have some concerns about that, if so what you doing to reach out to the

industry to make sure were safeguarded against those things from happening. >> put your finger on a very important point is something we refer to typically as a hybrid commercial threat which is essentially what could otherwise be legitimate businesses that can be leveraged by the chinese government to engage o in espionage or potential disruptive action and s about a lot and i testified in terms of cyber penetration of critical infrastructure but there's other finger to get control over critical infrastructure which is through ordinary businesss transactions. we put the authority and title 50 authority in usda, can you think of other agencies that we might need to consider the same perspective. >> let me give some thought i would like to circle back, this is one of the last talked about but yb

dimensions of the chinese communist party threat that deserves attention and does require engagement because you're talking about activity that is itself lawful but still present vulnerabilities that the chinese government can explain ut a better way to tighten it up. >> while i got you director wray i have to say we have had difficulty over the last few months trying to tap into the expertise that your agency brings in your organization continues to hold counterintelligence within the i csee you have a lot of very experienced counterintelligence agencies within your workforce and neighboring a valuable perspective to the table and even so this committee has really struggled to be able to get access to those individuals and we ask the fbi to participate in hearings, my question why are we only allowed to hear from your intelligence analyst to prove talking points?

>> i'm not aware that is a restriction that we have. >> i hope not that's ame presentation in the latest engagement with the fbi which was unsatisfactory why do cia agents have to defer to headquarters and analyst to provide perspectives on the ci threat when this is an important issue in their vast expertise. >> r counterintelligence is a headquarters division are you referring to people in the field office. >> when we bring someone in as a witness and we asked them questions and they say i have to defer to headquarters why are they here we asked them to come in and inform the committee so we can what's taking place anand then we get stonewalled ad there's a back-and-forth of how they can say this or that. in a secure setting i might add. so much so that they've suggested that you're not cleared for that. i have to say again we are cleared because were the ones oversee the agency. it insulting when i hear

someone from your organization suggests that were not clear to accept or to hear certain information in the ci space or any other space that you have purview. >> obviously what you're saying concerns me greatly let me have my staff follow-up on we can get the specific examples and i can see what we can do to mitigate that. >> thank you i appreciate that my time is expired. >> thank you chairman and thank you for your testimony today. director burns, thank you so much for your effort on achieving a peace agreement with the turn of the hostages that a cease-fire, thank you to the president for calling for cease-fire and theti administration. i want to ask you about part of your testimony yesterday in the senate in regards to gaza and the situation there. yesterday the senate select committee regarding gaza that the reality that therere children who were starving and their malnourished as a result of the fact that thehe humanitarian assistance can't get tot

impediments humanitarian assistance getting to gaza and who isho responsible. >> i think the challenge is a real one and i think it is a fact children face incredibly difficult circumstances and desperate circumstances inst noh gaza is partly a function of humanitarian assistance not getting to them in the quantities required is partly a function of not being distributed and conditions in which conflict is still i goingn and that's why as i try to important that we continue to work with our partners in israel w produce ideal and an agreement which would involve not only the release of a significant joint significant number of hostages for all the hostages because they are in desperate circumstances and so wereli ther families but would also provide within exchange with the defined number of palestinian prisoners

held by israel and allow six weeks and as a step two more enduring arrangements and in terms of humanitarian assistance it would allow practical not only were very significant search and humanitarian assistance coming in for under the conditions of the cease-fire, you could actually distrite effectively. >> let me ask you i appreciate all that work i think is eincredibly important to end the dire situation there but you're intimately familiar what's going negotiations and a longtime diplomat a skilled negotiator and on top of all of this, who is responsible for keeping the humanitarian assistance from getting into the starving children of gaza. >> i think anybody who has an interest this deeply to produce the humanitarian assistance. obviously required is an interest in trying to get thisd.

as the president has made clear, israel has the right to defend itself especially after the attack on hamas. >> nobody disagrees with that. >> is the same time the president made clear, israel has an obligation civilians particularly innocent women and children. >> i have to get the one where issue after this. >> one mark grossman, hamas shares responsibility as well. and if hamas is interested in the fate of women and children an in gaza people also work hard to produce this an agreement. >> you agree even in wartime there obligation by all sides that humanitarian assistance reaches and the humanitarianue aid of assistance to countries when it's made known to the president that the government of such country prohibits or

indirectly the transporter delivery of the united states humanitarian assistance. let me ask you a quick follow-up as the president's principal advisors on intelligence has a positive bed made wear underwear afterward under israel directly indirectly restricting u.s. humanitarian assistance to gaza? >> i think in director can speak to this too but we provide every bit of intelligence that we have. >> i wonder question on classification questions. has the president been made aware of this, matt miller made it very clear, that israel did have some role in blocking the assistance, does the president know that? >> i think the president has made clear that israel can and should do more in terms of ensuring the humanitarian assistance gets in. >> thank you, director wray and radirector burns.

in recent decades united states intelligence community has worked to reform practices that led to the illegal disruption of rights movements particularly in 1950s, 60s and 70s i'm sure you're aware of some of the most egregious examples of this behavior including fbiom operatn against martin luthering jr. and cia operation chaos. yesterday i sent a letter asking her to seek to declassify and possible materials related tot surveillance of latino civil rights movementsist in your hol. i would ask you whether you commit to working with me to improve historical record and ensure that u.s. intelligence agencies can correct the mistakes of the past with regards to surveillance of latino civil rights organizations - yes. >> we will see what we can provide. >> thank you. >> i a yield back. >> director right have you read robert her national council report? >> i have reviewed it. you believe joe biden mishandled

classified misinformation. >> i'm not going to discuss the report. >> in your opinion as a director of the fbi do you thankou mishandled classification. >> i'm going to refer to the report in the special counsel can speak to himself. >> this is breaking news are you aware there an audio recording of joe biden saying to the ghostwriter in february of 2015 i just sent all the classified stuff downstairs, are you aware of the audio recording. >> i would respectfully refer to the council. >> areg you where as director of the fbi you're either aware or not. >> am i aware of what. >> whether the audio existed joe biden same fabric 2017 i just found out the classified stuff downstairs" to his ghostwriter. >> i get referred to the special counsel and his testimony in his report. >> you sound like you may be aware of it then. in front of this very committee in open session your predecessor jim comey testified he did not follow the protocol regarding notification of congress of the opening of the crossfire

hurricane that will be the counterintelligee to address thf power by the fbi this committee included direction to the fbi and the iaea requiring notification to congressional leadership of any counter intel investigation to a federal candidate for office. nyis there any counterintelligee to joe biden or donald trump? >> i would just say i will refer you to the special counsel. >> it's always question of the council as an ia of the fbi is eric cannot intelligence into either joe biden or donald trump. >> no investigation i can confirm. >> is her counterintelligence investigation. >> i'm not confirming any investigation into either candidate. >> are you required by the iia to notify congress ofhe law. >> of you already complied with the law is there notification.

>> i believe we've been in compliance with the law. >> you believe or has there been a notificationnif to congress of any counterintelligence investigation of a federal candidate. >> i believe we have complied with the lawz. >> has there been a counterintelligence assessment conducted on president biden or president trump? >> there is no assessment that i would confirm in any believe we have been in compliance with the law. >> how about on an immediate family member in spouses or children of either preside biden and president trump. >> i'm not in the business of confirming not an open hearing assessment or anything like that when it comes to counterintelligence. >> you will cfirm in a classified setting when we ask you this question of whether a counterintelligence investigation because you're aware according to the iaea you

were required by law to notify congre o investigation not just for presidential candidates by any federal candidate. >> we will comply with the law. >> you'll answer this in the classified hearing later today. >> we will comply with the law. >> what your understanding of the--f law. >> a whole series of oversight requirements that we have related to counterintelligence matters are knocking to go through all of them. >> specifically the notification of the counterintelligence investigation to a federal candidate, what is your understanding of the law. >> i would want to refer to the lawyers to make sure i'm ererappropriately complying buti tell you we will comply with the law on my understanding as we >> is your assessment that you required to notify congress of any counterintelligence investigation into federal candidates. >> and get it different to the lawyers as a decision of that. >> you the director of the fbi they report to you what is your understanding of the requirements in the iaea? >> working to comply with the law including whatever is in iaea. >> i want to turn to the search warrant and the search in one case that mar-a-lago anden's lel

team, were you or your staff did you have any communication under the execution of the search warrant on mar-a-lago or documents working with joe biden's lawyer was there any communication with joe biden? team? or your >> not to my knowledge. >> with any white house staff? >> by me or my team? >> you or any personnel to fbi. >> i want to make sure i got'vio your question right, by me or my staff with youou about which. >> with the white house staff about the execution of a search warrant on mar-a-lago or the search working with joe biden to lawyers of classified information. >> not to my knowledge. >> what about the attorney general. >> i cannot speak to the attorney general. >> was any communication with your staff to the attorney general or you regarding the execution of the search warrant or the search of joe biden's classified documents? >> any search would be john and

coordination with the department of justice. as to who may have communicated. >> i'm asking you, i'm asking if you can mitigatet. >> whether i communicated? >> fire or after the execution of mar-a-lago. >> prior or after? >> prior or after. >> i would had conversaty genert the appointment of mr. laotian. >> what were those conversations? >> about the fact that he was going to be named but that's not about the search itself i suppose. >> my last question do you think it's a national securityeral can account on tiktok? >>'vviews about tiktok in the

national security concerns that it presents and we band tiktok on all fbi devices. as what campaigns choose to do with their platforms all leave that to them. >> you don't think it's a national security threat. >> i'm not weighing in on that. >> is a director of the fbiy agreed tiktok is a national security threat and i think it's a threat to have campaign account on tiktok, you cannot stayer here today and say that'a national security threat. >> i think tiktok represents all sorts of national security threats, ase to exercise their right to access tiktok account i'll be back to >> waive disagreements a national security threat after presidential campaign on tiktok. i yield back. >> thank you missed her last week director wray chairman gallagher mike gallagher and i introduced a bill to address tiktok which you have spoken about before you did last year's

worldwide threat assessment in march of last year you said tiktok is a tool that ultimately within the control of the chinese government and to me screams and national security concerns. >> correct. >> mike gallagher and i introduced this bill which requires an investment of tiktok from bytedance, bytedance is a. pacompany of tiktok and is controlled ultimately by the chinese government. interestingly, after we introduce this bill it got marked up in the house energy and commerce committee and interestingly on the morning of the markup a certain pop-up message and push notification went out to thousandsti and thousands of users country and it look like this. essentially it said, stop eight tiktok shut down congress is

planning a total ban of tiktok. setting aside the misinformation of the message we are not calling for a ban of tiktok but a divestment. what was very interesting to us actually use the ■egeolocation targeting data associated with minor children to push this notification to them to causehem to call many congressional offices with thousands and thousands of phone calls. when they called these offices, they asked the question such as the following, what is congress, what is a congressman, let me have my tiktok back. on top of tne case one member of the energy and commerce committee had someone call impersonating his son asking to sak w his dad and allow tiktok to come back. mr. ray, you also talked about various threats associated with tiktok including its ability to

mobilize public opinion. this particular push notification pop-up ended up convincing many members of the house energy and commerce to changethat day from being lenient to hard yeses because they felt this was the nature of the threat that the legislation was being proposed to address, can y > talk about whether this is an example of the typ of mobilization of the control of the chinese communist party might conduct in the future? >> i cannot speak to the specific example, i tell you the kind of thing that you are describing illustrates why this is a concern. think americans need to understand that distinctions that we take for granted in our system between businesses and government and businesses and the government itself don't exist all practical purposes in china. american seem to ask a themselvs

whether they want to give the chinese government the ability to control access to the data, whether they want to give the chinesehe government the abityot they get with the recommendation algorithm and whether they want to give the chinese government the ability to leverage the data of the software on the devices that allows the chinese government to compromise their devices if they so choose to exercise. >> but the record reflect, when you were talking about the type of algorithm or example of what to happen, you were pointing to this very poster with a pop-up menu. let me make it clear you could not rule out that the chinese communist party actually ordered this particular pop-up to appear on people's phones that day. >> that is writing illustrates why it comes to the algorithm of the recommendation of algorithm and the ability to conduct influence operation is extraordinarily difficult to detect. >> that's what makes this a pernicious risk. >> you cannot tell because the

ccp controlled bytedance and bytedance can manipulate the algorithm and as access to all this data. director haynes, dishes threat assessment on page 12 you said tiktok accounts run by a prc propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the u.s. midterms in 2022. can you speak up? >> i was just getting to the page's tiktok is being used to influence elections in 2022 and on the same page it says tiktok could attempt to influence director haynes, you cannot rule out that the ccp could again just like they did here used tiktok as a platform to influence 2024 elections.

>> we cannot relock that the ccp could use it, correct. >> i yield back. being here, director wray i want to double tap on what congressman doctor winchester talked about. i do not feel like we've been completely given the files from the 2017 baseball shootings and other relevant information. i feel like there has been a serious lack of transparency. i appreciate what you've done but everything has been redacted or powerpoint's and being a lawyer by profession and a former prosecutor, there may be thinking that i would see that other people don't see and vice versa, i just ask that we open this up and be transparent. it is not okay to keep that information especially since a perpetrator the terrorist that attacked us that day has been over seven years and he was

killed that day there is no reason for any lender arguments or anything else that are left, we need to know who those people are who made those decisions so there could be accountability or see if there's been accountability. the second thing, i'm very concerned with the number of people that we are catching it en more concerned by those that we are not catching that are crossing our southern border. i don't care which administration on the terror watch list or known or suspected terrorist. when we apprehend oratch them at the border what part does the fbi have in tracking, arresting, sending back, are we coordinating with homeland security director wray to make sure that these people are not. i think they're here to do was harm when and where i don't know but what is fbi doing once we know there's a known or suspected terrorist or somebody on the watchlist outer border. >> when somebody is apprehended

whether at the border orotherwie run against the terrorist watchlist the fbi maintains the watch this so we maintain the hit back to dhs so they know that this person is on d the li, it is a short version and for instances for one reason or another that somebody gets into the country, the fbi through the joint terrorist and task force is working with state and local law enforcement another responsibility of trying to apprehend and find and get back to dhs and some of the same . >> if a suspected or known terrorist one the watchlist landed in dca today, with the fbi respond to the person who landed at dca, would you respond to that in conjunction with the homeland? >> if we knew that someone who was on the watchlist was landed

at a particular airport let's say, there should be and would be and most of the time in my experience communication between dhs and fbi and depending on th circumstances fbi might deploy to the scene to interview, obviously arrest but it depends on the particular circumstances. >> are we confident with every interaction thatan we have witha known suspected terrorist or someone on the watchlist at the southern border or anyt other border that the fbi is responding and we know t know where those people are in the united states that they're arrested, deported or tracked within theit united states for every single encounter of a known or suspected terrorist or somebody on the watchlist. >> let me answer that this way, a few different categories of people that we are concerned about. when a known or suspected terrorist as it known that the at the border, i am confident and the vast majority of

instances there is close/out bigger concern. the bigger concern is the situation where somebody presents or fake identification documents at the border and there's not biometrics to match up so there's no way to know that they're not who they say they are and then they get into the country and somehow we find out that they are somebody on the list and at that point we have to hunt down and try to find them. that is one category or another way in which somebody.seconds. first of all i look forward to seeing you this month or next month in my district. second the southern hemisphere and north africa especially north, we have a lot of challenges politically and a lot of great competition. what assets or what things to

the intelligence community need to make us safer in america inn the s north africa. >> thank you so much i'm very much looking forward to my trip to miccosukee. i would say in those areas i agree we had tremendous challenges we haven't spent as much time obviously hearing on many of them, the things that we need and asking for in our budget in the context of our work is largely about making sure that we have sufficient resources within the intelligence community to provide analysis collection and all the things that we normally do in these areas to help all of you have a better sense of what is happening and whether key advanced that you might be able to affect as to actually review the tensions and threats that exist, there are many i recognize given the time my colleagues can start going through them. if there's anything particular and to focus on let us know. >> with that i yield back my time is expired. >> thank you chairman, director haynes you outlined the

atrocities that russia has committed in ukraine. last year, this body passed the statutory provision for a russian atrocity special coordinator that appointed this position, you move forward in complying with it which i thank you for the effort. opposition in the intelligence committee coordinator for russian atrocity accountability is working and you shared briefly what you are learning and how this process is working and how it might be a model for other instances. >> absolutely. thank you very much for your support for this issue in your efforts to help us essentially produce this. the person that we have as a nadir is somebody who has a long history and knowledge on working on accountability issues and intelligence and it may be a specialized field in the sense that part of what you're trying to do his best to understand what kind of information is going to be useful for promoting

accountability in these areas, that means understanding what the policymakers in the department of state injustice were typically the ones who are effectively making determinations in this area really need as evidence in order to produ accountability and how it is that we draw that together and provide it to the institutions and ways uim varios bodies and folks working on these issues and how we can help to promote these issues. one of the things that he's done is working across the i see but also with folks as the state department of the department of justice who are consistently iterating with him on what is needed in the space in order to produce that kind of flow. i think it's serving and we also point him in the context of accountability with respect to

chinese and prc issues according to the law that requested that we do so and i think he has been community of interest within these issues. >> i appreciate your leadership. director wray you said earlier that there's a veritable gallery of terrorist organizations have now articulated threats against united states and there is a surge of those threats including among groups who previously don't get along they foundgainse united states, what is causing the surge and threats? >> these are all foreign terrorist organizations that have leveraged the conflict in the middle their excuse to serve as a rallying cry to the followers. >> the israel hamas war in gaza? >> correct. >> that is causing the surgeon threats against the united states? >> correct. >> in what way how aremore deta?

>> and varies depending on the organization but for example we have seen al-qaeda call to make the most specific call for attacks against the united states in the last five years an they're invoking both hamas success, brutal, horrifying unacceptable success on october 7 in the conflict that has been emerged that israel tried to defend itself. >> es that include civilian casualties in gaza and part of the articulation in the leveraging. >> it probably depends on a specific group but some of them sure. >> director brings you spent your career on national security in decades helping us find our war on terror, based on the experience to believe it is possible to destroy the terrorist ideology or an ideology that underpins the

terrorist organization with military for alone? >> military force can severely degrade the terrorist military capacity of any terrorist groups and that is a fairly well-defined goal in a movement or an idea or ideology in my experience the only way that you killed or destroyed as with a better idea. >> what with those included in your professional opinion. >> i'm setting aside for a second the understandable goal terrorist group i think after provide more broadly of diplomacy thanelligence. it's a sense of hope and purposn and for palestinian so there's a way of undermining the ideology like folks like thomas. >> thank you very much i yield

back. >> thank you, mr. chairman i want to thank you for your service to our country and the many women that serve under you that allow us to live in the greatest country of the world. i want to focus on section 702 and pfizer which is been talked about. over the last 15 months this committee under chairman turner has looked at how do we fix in reform 702 and the statutory obligation that we have going back to 2008 that was created every five years and we f figure out what we revise, what we fix how do we make 702 b now we have an obligation to responsibility to do it this time. we focused on three different areas on how to do that, how do we hold the fbi accountable and making sure that the abuses articulated over the last five or six years don't happen again. secondarily how do we make sure with what happened with crossfire hurricane and carter page never happens again and how do we bring more transparency and openness to open up a little bit more our bill that we

together does exactly that we reduce 90% the amount of fbi agents and analysts i dovidencee create specific penalties and punitive measures for seven or two leaks we make fbi compensation contingent on all query compliance. we mandate independent audits of allfvbi we prohibit queries to suppress political opinions or religious beliefs. i'm making sure on what happened crossfire hurricane we create enhanced terminal penalties that violate pfizer and leak pfizer applications were lied to the fisa court. we give the fisa court the authority to prosecute for contempt and we prohibit the use of political opposition research and press■z reports to get a pfizer order. lastly on the fisa court we now mandate transcripts for what

goes on in the fisa court we assign counsel to scrutinize u.s. person surveillance application and we require the same fisa court judge to rule o surveillance expansions, those are the reforms and the feedback that we got from personnel on how we fix this process and i would like to submit for the record a letter to speaker johnson onde december 7, 2023 tt supports our bill from mike pompeo, former secretary state and director of national intelligence, john ratcliffe, devin nunes, william barr and robert o'brien which they say section 702 must be reauthorized and they also go on to say that putting a work requirementtt in their is not what they recommend. if i submit that for the record. >> objection. >> there is no doubt that the value from a national security standpoint from what 702 has brought to this countrys is years.e over the last 1

we have some that would want a requirement as a part of this. it would be detrimental to 702 in the work that we've done. can t you comment on what it wod do to the work that you're engaged in. >> congressman a warrant requirement would effectively get the fbi's ability to use 702 to protect americans wherever it was applied. the reality is at the stage of an investigation where we are running these queries, it is only after we review the information that we query this is information that is lawfully inner holdings ore we know that there may be probable cause and the agent was foreign power, the key is to put us in a position to make sure that we continue to stay in a position and have the upfront there was an example recently where we had information that

foreign terrorist was in contact some kind of contact with the person believe t know the nature of the contact but we knew that was something that caused us interest. we would not have probable cause at tt point to get a warrant to run the query but we run the u.s. person identifying information through holdings and that's what allowed us to look at the content which suddenly showed us this is serious, this is urgent and within a few weeks less than a month we had disrupted and it turned out the individual had weapons, bomb making components and other information inor his home, that would never have happened without 702 and would never have happened with the warrant requirement. >> i want to switch when we think about how essential next presidential 702 has been. over the last nine years the so go to director burns. i think about instances likee te taking on the al-qaeda leader

and couple, thinking about taking out soleimani and al-baghdadi the leader of the state of iraq, also donnie, the isis leader in somalia and the osama bin laden, five over the last nine years. can you talk about how essential 702 was in general for those instances and other counterterrorism actions. >> it was crucial in each of the areas that you mention and another area and 2022, the united states took and couple ae leader of isis as well as 702 was also crucial in the operation as well. as you know congressman well beyond ct in the fentanyl crisis 702 is been absolutely crucial, 70% of the successful cia disruption of

drug operations came as a result of02 there is an expanding area of concerns and threats that are crucial to the protection of americans that hinge on the successful application of 702 with the reforms that i know you are l/rightly working on. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman, director burns you veryon in gaza in the urgency of getting humanitarian aid of massive starvation, i applaud the president looking at getting aid to maritime in the passage as well. within the urgency or the urgency of getting extended cease-fire for five or six weeks. in the visit that we've had that you negotiatedith that still

remains a possibility of finding a peaceful long-term solution to the middle east and the israeli people and the palestinian people can also live with dignity and security is that your specimen, it is. the longer this conflict goes on, get in my conversation for some of the foreign ministers, it becomes harder and harder because of what they're seeing, there is urgency to get that opening and use the 45 or six weeks to negotiate a longer-term solution is that correct. >> i think you're exactly right, you sat here and you asked the question, i would've thought a long time ago u supplemental aid and i do firmly

believe that the majority of my colleagues democratic and republican firmly support the people of ukraine and want to get this done and have to get it done urgently and for the american people, the american taxpayers that made the question, the funding is accurate to say much of the supplemental funding will go to u.s. companies and u.s. production and u.s. jobs in the defensive peace and freedom in ukraine? >> grossman, thank you for the question is accurate to say much of the supplemental aid goes all of that equipment to the defense industries among others and some of the supplemental come star agencies to allow the things that we need to do in both advise you into advising ukrainian and the prosecutors. >> i think that's a really important point to the american

american the taxpayers, while were defending freedom, supporting the ukrainian people■ as they defend their own solvent here, is not a diceglie of funds is supported are values of americans and it will also go to american jobs and american forth. i think that is very important, let me shift we spend a lot of time looking at the threats in china. a lot of my focus areas in the indo pacific overseeing on the peninsula and kim jong-un starting to do a little bit a saber engine saber rattling and no longer talking about unification and for director haynes or director burns, can you, in the setting your assessment of whatss is happenig in receiving additional ballistic test and obviously ard

the north koreans as well will y start to bring another swinging on this, you're absolutely right in some respect given the crowded environment that we are in for threats these days in north korea is not getting as much attention as it might normally get in there has been a number of rhetorical and action that have been taken by kim jong-un that a bit more provocative and in particular aimed at south korea andrepublig that the republic of korea is enemy number one calling for an amendment to the constitution thatat makes clear that they are an enemy doing things like blowing up an effective liaison between the two countries, whole series of things that are lifting up the tension and we believe that i is clear that he

is increasingly provocative in a sense and there is more anxiety about the potential of him taking certain military action including on the northern line limit which is basically the demarcation ofhe border between the maritime border in south korea and north korea in the space. our analysis right now is respectively he will engage in increasingly provocative behavior and is not interested in escalating this into a full on more and there is a limit on this. one of the challenges that we see is a factor in the landscape. he is potentially feeling increasingly emboldened by virtue of the relationship with russia advancing as a has in the fact that putin needs the north for the munitions and weapons and other things and as a consequence less likely to effectively stand up in the un security council and other

places to push back against north korea in the actions with their provocative andarly in thr space, i think that is something that we are carefully watching and it does increase the risk of miscalculation and we've been working very closely with the republic of korea and our counterparts to try to manage that. >> thank you, mr. chairman thank you for being here in your service termination. as we have seen time and time again with america strong it projects the strength in the american the world are safer and weak and divided we projects les the world and the world is much less safe, director wray you have reminded all of us of the heightened terrorism threat that should come as no surprise given to the past several years a disastrous pullout of afghanistan which projected

weakness, green lighting of nord stream to which projected weakness and coupled with those to a right up in southern border which projects weakness, now we have people in this chamber in national security tool section 702ec of isa. director wray i want you to address this myth that is being perpetuated about a so-called requirement which is not a warrant requirement at all, it's a secondary warrant requirement as secondary warrant requirement that never existed in the u.s. law. a warrant requirement is based on collections of on u.s. citizens with constitutional protections. it does not apply to foreign national with no constitutional pr colleagues are trying to do now to querying lawfully collected data inside of t a database, tae into the logical extension that

includes a warrant running the license plate that would impose a warrant requirement on a fugitive squad with s the marshs querying a tsa flight manifest for somebody that they are trying to safely arrest at an airport. it is a secondary warrant requirement, that is a policy. let's focus on the numbers, last year the fisk find at about 371 warrants and we have a warrant requirement to query a database based on the never/or, that would t be there 750 judges in the judiciary about nine to 11, we would have to expand the judiciary by five, if not more it was shut down the system but maybe that's what some of our colleagues want to do. for the ones you think this

requirement would benefit but the actual manifestation would be in creating a wire requirement brand-new that's never existed in american law. not for collecting data, but for querying databases. >> and congressman you readily put your finger on a number of key points. the first is there is a constitutional underpinning or legal requirement for a warrant to query our own information. and so this would be if congress were to impose when a policy choice congress would be making too blind to the fbi to information lawfully in our holdings. that is important because the stage at which we are looking at the information is at the front end. but we are trying to figure out what are we dealing with? is this something we have to be concerned about? is this a threat? i started to give an example but

i will unpack it a little bit more. it really tells the story we have a situation we had it known force tarrant terrorist some kind of conduct we did not know the nature of the contact was. what appeared to be a u.s. person. so we did the thing you would all want us to do be around that u.s. person query information that identified lawfully collected information to find out what are we dealing with? is it something to be concerned about or not? lo and behold will be subject content that is what realize this is serious. very clear investigative action using other tools and disrupted a plot within less than a month. ed a plot, the individual had weapons, bomb making components, infrastructure targets identified et cetera. there is no way we could have access that information only ran the initial query if we had a

warrant requirement. it would not have happened. so who knows what would have happened to that plot. >> with my remaining time mr. chairman, is safe to say colleagues across the spectrum in this chamber, anyone advocating for functionally open borders at the same time advocating for stripping national security tool at a time when the director of the fbi is through the roof. we'll be doing an incredible disservice to our country and will be inviting at the terror attack that healed back. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i am very appreciative of my colleagues last statements. his assessment wholeheartedly in agreement with him aboutwh that. so her colleagues and i went to

increase the warrant to requirements and in fact shut down the system. same individuals who called the generate six insurrectionist victims and patriots. we are not. i also understand that director wray and the others who are here are doing everything possible to make sure we have free and fair elections. and foreign interference cannot be a part of that. we have to stop that. i am grateful for your work to ensure those enemies foreign and domestic are dealt with through the systems we have in place. i had a question actually first effort director burns and potentially director haynes you may comment as well. ny colleagues know i am very interested in the ongoing

instability in africa particularly i am cycle of coup, democracy taking place. we are in a global fight for dominance of our adversaries both in china, russia, particularly the waggoner group who were using africa to extract wealth for themselves to the detriment of the african people and the continents.n the last 1s of had the sudan three times molly twice, chad, and others. if americans do not think this is going to upset them, it willr the minerals, the wealth as well as the fermenting of disease, instability, economic downfall of these countries are very much

of importance to the american people. in assessment flag sudan, ethiopia as well as additional countries that my fall. i want to, and considering the power vacuum, what can the united states do? how are wee formulating and implementing a comprehensive strategy to address these challenges and opportunities that are outside of the focus we have had on counterterrorism? which i believe needs to move away from really focus on instability, democracy and our fight against foreign adversaries. >> thank you very much. i think the first step for us as an intelligence service is to pay attention and highlight for olpolicymakers exactly what you just described. the future of africa is up an enormous importance to the security of americans into the interest of our country.

i was in africa last about six ago and east and southern africa i was reminded vividly of what is at stake for us and the importance of the work our officers do there toc7 collect d analyze intelligence as well for of the first cia director actually three of the several places i've visited. this is extremely important for us as an agency and for all of us in the intelligence community. last yr challenge you described are very real and they have grown since then because you have a lot of predatory players. where there it's the russians or the wagoner group or whatever the wagoner group will become in the future as well as a variety of terrorist groups who are taking advantage of coup and insecurity of the fact some of f her closest partners like the french are being pushed in some ways out of the role they have traditionally played there. so there is a lot at stake for us in the united states and certainly for us as an

intelligent service. i thin all of us are determined to sustain that sharp focus on africa as we look over the rest of the year for. >> thank you and also i know general krause you may as well have some■■i thoughts about thi. >> i certainly do want to save time for director haynes that she has anything she would like to add. i would certainly say it from the military intelligent side the instability that is you so eloquently laid out for everybody, the contributions to that actors that don't have the best interest of the populations in mind, director burns mentioned a few of those whether it's russia, whether it's enterprising and economic side of china were over a billion dollars in chinese loans may not be the best interest of d the populations within africa averages create additional angst and instability i think from the military perspective and it's a trickle-down effect to the military perspective and you've already talked to the eight

military coups we've seen across africa. it is a topic we need to address. >> ill thing i would add is one of the key points you make is this overlap between terrorism and insurgencies and instability. that's absolute right be one of the things we see in the spaces are insurgencies sometimes on the mantle of terrorist organizations to provide fundraising at other things and the challenge of disaggregating these issues in a way that helps us to actually address some of the problems in the second thing is just the challenge we are seeing the various actors take advantage and a sense of competition between major powers. to sort of allow them to alleviate the international pressure they would otherwise receive and they try to play us all off of each o in a way that gives them more space to take some of the actions are taken within their own

government that are not adding to the stability or the good governance of this country so thank you. >> think your gentle lady i want to thank our witnesses and sherman to step out briefly. after nearly two hours of testimony and 40 pages of written testimony under the annual threat assessments i have heard very little about the open southern border policies for this is a man-made problem coming out of the white house which poses one of the most if not the most significant threat to our nation security right now. i do not make that statement glibly i do not make the■[ following statement which is i feel we are more vulnerable today than we were on september 10 of 2001 as a result not just china, not just russia, not just the debacle in afghanistan and iran and its proxies in the middle east transnational criminal organizations. but because of our open borders and this is a continuation of a statement i made last year which

as the primary advisor to the es dod for all things intelligence, your failures to convey and impart on this president the vulnerabilities of this open border policies is continuing to put us at risk. just in thee last year we sucked 2.45 million crossings across our southern border. in december alone which was our last data sets we sought saw 100 crossings illegal crossings across our border. we had lincoln rightly killed back on february 22. and it's not until age 35 of 40 after climate change that the border is even alluded too and i use the word alluded very loosely it's alluded to under the terms of migration director haynes you'd note the pressures

of external political instability and countries in central and south america as a reason for this mass migration problem we are seeing. but the reality is we have an open southern border as a whitee as president ran on these policies that is now in my opinion a greater threat than the sum of all the other threats we have discussed here today to luinclude russia, to include china, iran and its proxies in all terrorist organizations. they are aware of her open southern border they are taking advantage of our open southern border want to talk about data. rankingg member heintz cited daa from third year of the last ands administration. here's data from the actual numbers from customs and border protection figures that there were two encounters of terrorists on the terrorist screening data set are the known terrorist watch list if you want 2018 there were six encounters in 2019 there were three, and

2020 there were amiri six. after that it goes parabolic we are now talking about hundreds, hundreds of people coming across the border in the last three years in each of the last three years that are on the parent known watchlist this does not include the people that we have not caught. this is the existential threat this is the biggest threat i am disappointed yet again that in this hearing it and all threat assement we are not talking about the open border policies. mr. hines mentioned earlier a quote which has evolved over the last couple of centuries i will summarize it as if we falter and lose our freedoms as a nation it is because we destroyed them ourselves fromin within. this is a policy that is a direct result of a president has sits in the white who intentionally opened our southern border, has created a migration challenge as he puts

it that in 75000 americans dying of fentanyl poisoning each year. dozens of people being murdered at the hands of illegals and out cumulative 7 million people who are in our country unaccountable for it have court cases and some cases and we have no idea where they are living they are victims of human smuggling victims of effective slavery within her own borders working out their debt to the cartel. so my question to you is why have you failed to impart on this president the level of threat national security perspective thafct his policies aree creating not being briefed. in either the secretary of defense director haynes and interest on addressing this. why has the president.

man-made problem are themselves the biggest threat termination. >> thank you. i think the question as i understand it for me is are we providing border? and as you indicate we have our annual threat assessment the challenges and why it is for seeing so many folks at the board it would do provide that information on a regular basis. quickset exit was not my question for my question is why has the president, in your opinion not taken this on board? the fact in 2022 there 98 encounters with known terrorist on the terror watch list in 202-3172. these numbers are parabolic for their exponential inti nature.

why is this administration not listening to you? is there someone preventing you from conveying this data is sent sent tothe president? the southern border and the repercussions thereof. cracks in my experience that cares deeply about the national security of this country they are doing what they think is best i would not hesitate to suggest echo provided opinion about what the president thanks on these issues are why he'shi come to the conclusions he has. >> results speak for themselves i've no doubt the agents in the field of border patrol agents fe deeply better nation securityit for their just as scared as we are. his as a result of the southern border put at last above all

things is very concerning americans in eighth. i look forward to deeper dives of the classified site i now recognize for five minutes. >> thank you for the opportunity to sit in public with you all. i am grateful for the chance to talk about what is mentioned page 32 which is biology. synthetic biology critical technologies would not turn of conversation from ourselves as policymakers or intel officers as well who talk about biology with the same sense of urgency as we do about ai or quantum as

an example. biotech has enormous upside and some really scary downsides as well. our competitors see that as well. so i was wondering, since we don't china is indeed trying to catch up to us in this area, if you all in this open setting i recognized as a little bit more difficult, could talk about two things. what is it you see and also what are we doing and what can congress do to help you preparey in terms of workforce in terms of making sure we have the proper lineup and authorities to be able to address the opportunities and the challenges and threats biology has i will serve director haynes. >> thank you very much for raising this. and i share your concern about this issue. this is a fundamental question it is when we spend a lot of time trying to invest more resources in. particularly to your second point the force point it's

not an area to grow the expertise within the i see. that is going to reside outside of the intelligence community yet it's absolutely fundamental we havefu access to the expertie we are bringing it int the community as we do. and part but we are trying to encourage us opportunities for exchanges where folks are able to work in we have also been working to try to expand and advisor groups and fellowships and other types of mechanisms and i'm sure others will talk about it and there's others inlr first point i think the threat issue and in many respects more of the challenges is biotech is almost by its nature dual use the advances there are ones that are often going to be providing great opportunities for society

d at the same time can create some challenges not the least of which are in the context of bio weapons. being able to understand the dueling nature, then be able to find what is the greatest priority from a national security perspective and let that up for policymakers. and do that in a way that does not hamper the science that is ultimately hopefully going to serve to produce opportunities but at the same time protect our national security in the spaces. we can just leave it to that and leave it to others. >> know all i would add with what director haynes adjust and mention as you're describing you describingbiotechnology offs promise and a enormously troubling trend lines as well you see our adversaries looking at ways innd which they can invt in those trendlines. whether it is in terms of use of infectious diseases and pathogens or the whole idea of

building super soldiers of the future using biotechnology. all of those are deeply worrisome. what are we doing about it? we set up a new mission center that celebrated second anniversary on transnational technology issues which has as one of its highest priorities biotechnology with increed hiring so we have a dedicated unit of officers who can help us and help policymakers betterderd threat and disrupt them too. briefly on the military intelligence side. focused on ai and quantum and me recently bio security. partnering with industry medical

communities and with her fellow members that will help to strengthen the resource brickwork structure ready? >> i would add from our. [inaudible] while protecting. [inaudible] thank you, mr. chairman for thank you all for being here to get there quickly. september your staff notified the committee was hosting a 90 day effort called interagency spread on intelligence suppo to counter narcotics. folks identifying opportunities for improved intelligence operational outcomes. when it with the outcome was of that pilot program at your call? >> yes. it was a sprint we hosted that

from across the intelligence community. folks here folks representative on it. but also included for example parts of dhs that are not in the intelligence. other folks for example in treasury and so on through the idea was really to see are there ways in which we can better support within the intelligence community white dea is doing. what treasury is doing in sanctions. >> you have recommendations based on that? >> yes. they just finalize the report we get your copy of that. >> look forwardo it. general, how are they currently using collection to target narcotics trafficking i really want you to focus on the fact that because counter narcotics is not categorized within pfizer 702 that prevents us from actually targeting a lot of these affiliates of the mexican

drug cartels they are subcontractors once they do speak to that? >> represented thank you for the question read section 702 is about the national defense of relation and so many different ways. as you have highlighted it does give us flexibility of targeting foreign insurance threats overseas. the area we have been accessible as being able to identify some of the precursor chemicals as they are transiting from china. but we do hit limitations in how we can use that authority. that is an area that within the counter narcotics giving us an opportunity to pursue additional authorities is really to section 702 and counter narcotics would give us more options to be able to further illuminate what that threat looks like coming into the united states brickwork that's extremely important we've tried to make those changes we have run into problems so it is important the american people know we are literally tying her hands behind her back in our anr effort to battle fentanyl production and trafficking we are not in talk about american

citizens were talking foreigners and foreign lands. directorate rate, i went to ask you what is your view especially from law enforcement perspective, or the cost and benefits of designating cartels as a foreign terrorist organization? >> so, from a law enforcement perspective the principal benefit of a designation it would give us in enhanced abilities to go after their money that we don't have it we have some already doing to make us like we don't have any but it would enhance that. i think the principal effects of an fto designation would be more in line of other agencies authorities that they would have. >> this may be a question for everybody. the common question i have is who should be in charge of a whole of government strategy to battle the drip mexican drug cartel is a law enforcement

problem or national securitys apparatus problem or mix of both? if you could have your way if you could pick somebody to be a grand strategist where would they live what office would be the white house? the attorney general's office? would it be the dod or cia? what are your opinions on that? on a leave that to anyone i suppose. >> i think it's obviously in a sense beyond our scope. what i would say is my sense of it is, it needs to be a whole of government strategy. meaning you're effectively moving forward on prosecution dea spends the bulk of their time on going after cartels and their networks. it is and also an effort by treasury and others to do sanctions for there's also an effort by dhs too interdict they have had success in the space as

well it's also an opportunity for us to support that broader introduction through the intelligence that we provide and i think all of those should be pools we are using in this content are quixotic under said it cut you off guard this is a longer conversation he must have i have one more really important question i want to get to it. adversaries have no problem they have no hesitation infiltrating our critical infrastructure. through cyber it means they have no problem doing it, attacking olicy orcritical infrastructure. will to do the same backer. i view this as a deterrence problem. it is the same to me as nuclear deterrence. do you view with the same and should we view cyber threats the same we view nuclear deterrence and have the policies in place and the abilities to engage in the same kind of offensive cyber operations arere adversaries are

perfectly willing to do? >> representative i think this is an area for.. us, as we lookt it first and foremost we look at through different lands first it is our job to really understand and generate insights about the threat. that is an area we work across the community to understand this threat looks like. second is enabling defense how do we enable den government, alr our industry and for our allies in these type of threats. the third is we have to impose costs that could be through any number of means using all the tools available to the executive branch to impose costs on anyone that are willing to target a criticalv infrastructure. we have to inform them. >> could not agree more we need to impose costs on her enemy has to know we are willing to impose costs which effectively a philosophy of deterrence i have i willover time so thank you chn for indulging me and i yield back.

>> thank you, mr. chairman. want to follow up on some of the recent questions for my tcolleagues related to the bordr related to the financial crisis we heard you loud and clear about the importance of 702 and our ability to understand in attempt to disrupt on the fence don't related networks. i appreciate that in the public version of the worldwide threat we talk transnational criminal r organizations, there threat to u.s. and our public health systems. our financial systems and the safety and security tunited sta. director haines i also heard you loud and clear in your response to my colleagues questioninformo the policy community i wouldt assert we are the policy community it is also up to us here in congress to legislate utand put forth bills that will keep, as you note on page 36 more than a 100,000 annual drug

deaths in the united states that are attributed to illicit fence adult mostly supplied by mexican based tco even as u.s. law enforcement seized a record amounts of illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and pill pressing equipment. in china as it states he remains a primary source for illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals. this is a global issue. this" is an issue that gets at the heart of our national security overseas and abroad and i look forward to working with my colleagues on this because we are the policy community that should be solving it. there is a bill in the senate that was proposed it did not move forward. we can discuss that at a later date. i want to move with my actual questions related to terrorism issues. specifically recently my colleague congresswoman houlihan and i spent time in nairobi and in somalia. a focus on the threat.

and the threat of terrorism as it continues in africa. specifically the large impact we've seen incidents of mass kidnappings of nearly three to school-age children and women in northern nigeria likely perpetrated by islamic extremists, al-shibaab and somalia most capable al qaeda affiliates. last year isis lined up militants in uganda at stage a series of attacks include a massacre to boarding school that murder of a british couple on the honeymoon safari. africa continues to be on the iates are growing. my sincere gratitude to every person on the ground both military personnel and intelligence community personnel who are working in this fight. but can you please update the committee on your effort to comb isn't ma from africa at what threat africa based extremist groups proposed to the u.s. and allied interests either in direct attacks or as was w a topic of conversation

during our time in east africa, money finally out to eight other affiliated organizations and i'll open up to whomever would like to take it. >> iill start but i'll be quick. you are absolutely right. africa is a growing space for terrorism. isis and al qaeda we spent a lot of time on remained intent on attacking the united states and u.s. interests. but they are more capable of striking essentially u.s.in interest in the regions where they operate in that is true whether it is in africa or the middle east and other spaces rather than in the homeland following the years of frankly sustained pressure we have engaged in on those issues. but this is part of what is creating the environment youhe describe which is fueling instability and ultimately exacerbating many of the challenges africa already facesr

particularly talk about working on these. i could not agree more and the significance not just us were discussing earlier but in east africa i was in mogadishu and nairobi not long after you are there. i have huge adm for all sorts of u.s. officials are doing right now. i think you are right underscore somalia.at posed not just in somalia but more broadly because they are flush withh money some of that money s moving out it would emphasize finall importance of our partnerships. the canyons have proven to be very effective partner on a lot of these issues. we can talk in closed session about some of the things that we are trying to strengthen. not just in that partnership but other ones as well. think in africa the sense of partnership is going to be incredibly important in dealing with what is a growing terrorist

threat. cook said that he affect thank you. >> think it mr. chair, ms. haynes, special counsel her is here on the hill today. he is put into his report president biden has top secret compartment documents knowingly in his basement he knowingly provided those documents to his author. officer. have you seen those documents? >> i have seen i think all of the documents that were part of the special counsel progress there are special boxes worse. >> i've seen all of them but it of them. they went through a classification review we did within the intelligence community. >> will be to provide that review to this committee the damage assessments of this committee will you commit to

that? >> we did an overall damage assessment with respect to all the different former documents et cetera that is been provided to the hill to i think the gang of eight will see whether or noa we can provide any further. >> who has i possession of those documents now? >> the department of justice. >> great. i would look forward to mr. chairman, the broader coittees seeing the extent of these documents. they could have been fairly benign or they could have been incredibly serious. i would encourage the intelligence community to debrief the committee on the extent of the damage of those documents that apparently have been sitting for quite some time both in the university of pennsylvania center and in this house on vice president and perhaps those president. athank you. switching to afghanistan.

the un is reporting al qaeda has established eight new training camps in afghanistan and lists these specific providences where al qaeda currently has training camps including a new base to stockpile weaponry. yet the threat assessment says al qaeda is basically not much of a threat. do you disagree with that asses? >> and we are processed in closed session please question if i look forward to that but would you say at this point al qaeda is more oroi less of a threat than 2020? does al qaeda fully does it still intends to attack the homeland in western interest if opportunity? >> we think they continue to have the intent but not the

capacity. >> quick so they grow that capacity if given theunity? >> sure prick works the un sees to think they are growing that capacity so i will look forward to whether you agree or disagree with that assessment. switching to russia. russia is still selling an incredible amount of oil through india, through brokers and china i think it is safe to say rush up benefits for the price of oil is high correct does anyone hows fueling its war machine in ukraine in its emissions elsewhere do we agree? >> that's true prick. >> i think you would also agree less oil and gas on the international market drives the price high therefore both putin in tehran for that matter3w have their work offers full does anyone disagree with that? so, it is safe to say lng■á vann exporting american cleaner by the way more plentiful gas is

indirectly fueling putin's war machine. does anyone disagree with that? i will take that as a no in fact i will share with the witnesses i just sent out the speaker from she said we buy 85% of our gas from most terminals in texas and louisiana. at some point soon they are going to have to go back to buying russian gas. we are literally our domestic energy policy is creating dependencies fueling russia's war machine then we are being asked to spend against by also supporting continuing to support you. we obsolete should stop putin. but we have to examine our own policies and what that is doing for bothes tehran and for moscow and the assessment there is nothing on energy policy.

gaza's hamas and honest actor? do they tell the truth on a habitual basis? anyone? >> no. >> okay. we have a casualty figure coming from the hamas run health ministry that is continually reported. i do not think if putin was talking about a russian run health ministry in their casualties we would take that at face value do we take the intelligence committee take 30,000 figure at face value or you have some independent verification there? >> we do not take on face value but it is i hope it was just indicated actually not that far off from what the idf assessment is. >> okay. but it is not accurate on the face of it as you said you don't take that at face value. >> we just don't take itt on fae

value break. >> and neither should the president in both the state of the unit and national television. and finally it mr. ray, domestic terrorism we have 16 16universities teaching as partf their curriculum a book how to bomb oil pipeline. sixteen universities i would considerer that facilitating domestic terrorism wouldn't you? >> i do not know. >> i like to enter into the record reporting let's eat university teaching students to blow up oil pipelines with a book in their curriculum how to bomb oil pipelines. i think you would agree that's unacceptable and could be considered domestic terrorism. >> totally unacceptable. >> mr. ray can i get your commitment to look into it what i would call obsolete unacceptable left wing domestic terrorism and not only the activities but who is finding

it? >> will certainly look into all forms of i terrorism including funding too. >> think it will look for that briefing thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. gome departed patients towards resetting this entire time during your comments and the hearing when to ask questions. >> think it mr. chairman. director haines, director burns, in general, director wray and general cruz. i want to be clear i have called for a cease-fire in order to ha. allow more humanitarian aid to enter gaza to relieve suffering especially of the and hopefully begin to set the stage for a two state solution. for the establishment of an independent pestinian state living in peace next to a secure

israel. additionally hamas must not have any role in the future palestinian states especially after the october 7 attack where they committed w atrocities killing, raping, and kidnapping innocent civilians. leader is not starving ors suffering and is using hostages as a way to protect end if he jd himself in. but we know that won't happen. director burns, he recently returned from yet another visit to the middle east to assis ceah will release additional hostages held by hamas while increasing the flow ofam humanitarian aid into gaza. can you provide an update o h d? >> there is still a possibility of such ait deal.

as i said it will not be for lack of trying on our part working very closely with our israeli and egyptian counterparts. this is a very tough process i don't think anyone can guarantee success. the other thing you can guarantee is the alternatives are worse. they are worse for innocent civilians who are sufferinger in gaza. there worse for the hostages and their families i think they are worse for all of us. we will continue to work very hard in this as i said and as the president said there's still a possibility. as long as there's the smallest possibility it isen all of us to do everything we can. >> are the major obstacles to achieving a cease-fire? >> is a lot of very complicated issues in this negotiation do not want to go into all of them in an open session. i would be glad to enclose session as well. as i said it is still possible to make progress but there are a

number of very complicated issues that have be sorted through. it is not impossible and i think it's absolutely urgent. >> i appreciate that director you meant you d numbers at face value. neither would i. does i see have a reliable assessment of the number of civilian casualties in gaza as well as the humanitarian toll? >> tnk we really do not have our own collectiono to be able to tell you withdrawal confidence with the numbers are. what we look to as was indicated what is out there the health ministry reports we also talked to and largely rely on is really ocounterparts and the numbers e not that different. i think around the time of these estimates it was 30,000 roughly 31 was closer to it.

theth idf was reporting about 28 or something like that. it is considerable and the challenges of course the health ministry is not differentiate between civilians and fighters inin that context so you are looking at a broad range of folks and again very challenging for us to independently corroborate effectively what the numbers are. issue that was mentioned a few weeks ago there was a concern about escalating tensions in absence of a cease-fire once ramadan started. particularly in the west bank is that a significant concern? >> it is i think the west bank remains pretty combustible place right now for a variety of reasons. i think the risks of a spillover of increased violence on the west bank in places like jordan and elsewhere in the region are

also considerable. everybody's trying to get to the kind of cease-fire hostage till we were discussing before. that is the best way in many respects to calm the situation on the west bank and also elsewhere in the region two to because you've got iranian proxies from lebanese to the sheer militia groups to the houthis and yemen innocence feeding off this crisis in conflict and are experienced in the last cease-fire in hostage release that took place in the latter part of november. all those groups observed a cease-fire that resulted and is certainly beer hope in this case. >> thank you, without a yield back. such an important opportunity for the american people to get a view of the leadership of our intelligence community issue assess worldwide such an important opportunity for the americ ptelligence community ise assess worldwide threats and to have views expressed are both republicans andit democrats abot those threats.

when you think about worldwide threats whether it's from space, from another country, from a terror group of course the ones most important that affect the american people in their daily lives and daily communities you have heard a lot today starting with chairman turner a mr. garcia. mr. kellyanne others about the threats being encountered along our border. those are people that terror watch list to cross the border and are in the united states we tehave encountered■q we've asked them to leave the united states we do not have any idea of 7 distractedve uniform people alog that border. i want to start with following up on their thoughts ice has reported a number of al-shibaab

who is on the terror watch list enter the united states," according to the directory testified in january, "roamed around the country for a year" and was not really apprehended or known about until he used his real identity documents to try to get a job. so director wray, to draw out this main issue we have from an oversight point of view is whether it's one or 69 people ie last three fiscal years, where are the people on the terror watch list? you arepeor asked if they'd floa domestic flight but is this a priority for fbi, domestic countered terrorism counterintelligence operations that these people are targets they have been encountered? >> let me answer it this way. certainly all of our joint

terrorism tax taskforces in all 56 field offices have as a significant part of theirif work focusing on terrorist to subject subjects of investigation many of whom may be people in fact all of whom if we have an openet investigation will be on the watchlist. quickly stop you there. the triggering for that 56 field offices triggered by an open investigation for it so here's my question. we had counterintelligence and fusion center testify before us recently. i am interested in the data integration. if tsa or cbp encounters these people and they go into our database is that automatically go through the sai sees this person is now in the united states? pavement mother is not quote an open investigation.;

>> in other words as a general information about our week using that information to our domestic counter intelligence is somewhat on the no-fly list or the terror watch list they have been encountered they have now taken the southwest airlines flight from texas to boston does the boston saic know that? are they notified of that? >> the way t system works they should be i cannot tell you it's happened in every instance but that is how the system should work the bigger concern frankly are individuals hope with them into categories one, someone who is on the list but presents a fake documents because of the basis for which being on the list they're not biometrics fingerprints or others to match the mckesson so no one catches erthem. or somebody you shoul have been on thehe list but intelligence s not developed to say that should be on the list until after brick

works in the case of the al-shibaab romer and they domestic he presented fake documents to get in the country. but what concerned us in december alone the estimate of 300,000 encounters in that month alone on the border they acknowledged eagle pass wenere e that 6000 people cross the border one day there were noic documentation process no biometrics, no photo, no interviewed no run against the list. no checking of documents they just pass themhr into the u.s. that's a small sample out of 7.1 million. i think we are concerned on this committee that data is not being shared effectively i woulded ask director haynes is it a legitimate question for me and my oversight capacity to askew is our director, tsa cbp, fbi, fusion inc., coordinating, integrating the data of the people who you have heard about

all morning who have crossed the border with fake documents or not have been encountered on the terror watch list over actually not subject to an open investigation can i have your commitment we can actually get an answer to our question we wrote you and what is the status of the 169 people were encountered and we have never got an answer. here is person at one he was deported here's person to presented fake documents would pick them up in boston, thick person three would pick them up in chicago. we don't know we actually do not know the answer to the question. what happens is not public but that number one to 69 people the american be blessing where are they? we are just reflecting the common sense question, where are they? may i have your commitment? >> absolutely could have mcdevitt to try to work to get you whatever information you're looking for.

i will talk about whatever the letters you sent and look at send your answers. >> thank you very much leo back mr. chairman. >> of no other members in the queue i s offer if there's anytg in willis to add a closing comments or clarification of, they made earlier? until 2:15 p.m. thank you very much. [background noises] [background noises]

[background noises] [background noises] >> generate second of 2022 doma.

bandit my personal account. i wish i was campaigning for congress, raising money and using free speech to inform the voters in my district they can vote for me. this was not by a company owned by china. this was by american owned twitter. this came on the heels of her own united states governments, working with big attack at work with social media companies to censor and ban americans free speech. i believe thisil cause and i am opposed to this bill. i on tiktok. i am a grandmother i understand the entertainment value by the educational value the communication value this is not an attempt to ban tiktok but it's an attempt to make tiktok better tic-tac-toe a winner.

>> this week the u.s. house debate a bill requiring video sharing app tiktok to be spun off from his china owned parente u.s. this was in response to repeated concerns among lawmakers about the apt collection of personal data posing potential national security threats the legislation was passed with wide bipartisan support and will now need to go to the said that prettych the entire house debatey at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. it is also availablehe fruit c-span apt or online. c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including ♪ ♪. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ support c-span is a public service along with these other television providers. a front receipt to democracy. ♪■v cell during the 20th anniversary annual student cam documentary competition for this year c-span s middle and high school students across the country to look forward while considering the pastor. having the milestone of the anniversary each participant was given the option to look 20 years into the future or 20 years into the past in response we received inspiring and thought-provoking documentaries for more than 3200 students across 42 states. through conducting in-depth research and interviews with experts students tackled critical topics such as technology and social media. >> for what it's already started replacing human and limiting entire fields of work rep clima.

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opportunity. we really thank you a lot. >> we extend our gratitude to educators, participants. plus you can catch each of the 150 award-winning student cam films online any time at student studentcam.org. join us in celebrating inspiring young minds as they share theirr world. next hri federal law enforcement use of surveillance. this follows congressional investigation examining how fbi and other law enforcement agencies have used theirhe financial data of americans in the wake of events on january 6th, 2021. this runs just