clapping. so we will now proceed next door where you will have an opportunity to briefly see one of the existing units for who dont know the units and precede to the merit center where the Ribbon Cutting will our. Ill count down everybody 3, 2, 1 clapping. something you guys cooked up in here does if ring a belthat ring a b . The notice of meeting a paragraph headed meeting decorum. It reads as follows the Ethics Commission encourages and promotes integrity in government by education and example and is committed to treating all Staff Members of the public and colleagues with courtesy respect objectivity and fairness. Members of the public who attend Commission Meetings are also expected to behave responsibly in respectfully. Persons who engage in namecalling, shouting, interruption or other distracting behavior may be asked to leave. The following behavior or activities are discouraged inside the hearing room. Applause or vocal expression in support or opposition eating or drinking pro
[inaudible conversations] good morning, everyone. Good morning. Our team is here. The subcommittee on Capital Markets and gics will be hereby called to order. Todays hearing is entitled continued oversight of the secs offices and divisions. Without objection the chair authorizes a recess of the subcommittee at any time and also without objection, members of the Financial Service committee who are not members of the subcommittee may still set and participate in todays hearing. At this point i will now recognize myself for three minutes for an opening statement. So today the Sub Committee will continue efforts to conduct vigorous oversight of the ics sec and the individual offices that make up the sec. The last years are subcommittee has heard testimony from directors of trading and market, corporations by its enforcement and Investment Management division of the sec. These hearings have allowed us to take a thorough look at the agencys operations, rulemaking agenda, enforcement practice
Its at this point a definitive history of the secret organization and its so thick i want to start with this one because if you are a normal reader you might think that its easier to get information and get you say i want to quote you here because it is pretty succinct that i began the project that research and writing a book that the secret organization that controlled other secret organizations was going to be a challenge and so it proved several people who figure prominently in the events described in this book to requests to be interviewed. So how hard is it or how hard was it and how long did it take . Guest it took three years of research and writing. Thats not counting my two decades plus as a reporter on the Security Issues prior to that in the previous books and just by osmosis its also not counting the time spent in the editing process after the three years were up. It was very difficult but obviously not impossible to find the people and the other published words or unpublis
And then it obviously to the pentagon and white house a very short order. It really works for the secretary of defense and the president. And the difference between what j sock does compared to what the cias special activities or paramilitary division does, what is the real difference . Guest there is certainly an overlap between those two organizations now, and you will often find the members of each organization on the same battlefield, as battlefield, as it were, or in the same embassy doing the same work. The obvious difference is the joint special Operations Command leader who has a lot more, a lot more firepower. The special Activities Division you would expect to be working and battlefields in which the United States is not at work with, perhaps, slightly shadier characters in the military. And the different authority, different Legal Authority in the military, but there is not increasingly, especially in the last few years, joint special Operations Command, special Mission Unit
So how hard was it to do this book, how long did it take . Guest it took three years of fulltime research and writing, obviously thats not counting my two decades plus as a reporter on military and National Security issues prior to that, you know, gaining a lot of that information of previous articles, previous books and its also not counting the time spent in the editing process after those three years were up. It was very difficult but, you know, obviously not impossible to find the people and, you know, in some cases the other publish works or unpublished works that could power the story of this organization from its roots in 1980 all the way to the fight of Islamic State. Joint special Operations Command is the command United States military secret special Operations Missions. It was formed in 1980 as a result of the failure of operation eagle claw which was the at the same time to rescue the american hostages in iran. The pentagon put together a Blue Chip Board of half a dozen ret