Transcripts For CSPAN CIA Director John Brennan Discusses Gl

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Part one errors tonight at eight eastern on cspans q a. Part two will air tonight at 9. M. Eastern on cspan 2 cia director john brennan talks about the recent suicide bombings in istanbul turkey and says he expects that the Group Responsible is plotting attacks within the u. S. He gave his remarks during a speech on global security. He also talked about proliferation, cyber threats, and bioterrorism. This is just over an hour. Hello everybody and welcome to the caps on from relations. Delighted to introduce our speaker this afternoon. I dont think there could be a better time for a moment for us to hear from the director of the central. Without further ado, please welcome director john brennan. [applause] director brennan thank you very much, judy. Good afternoon everyone. It is indeed a pleasure to be back at the council to compare notes on a remarkably complex and Dynamic International scene. I very much look forward to talking with judy and Council Membership on the many topics during the headlines. I would for a sec to offer some brief opening remarks to kick off the conversation today. Whenever i administered the oath of office to new officers at our headquarters in langley, virginia, i tell them they are coming aboard at a critical moment in our agencys history. In the 36 year since afrocentric government, i have never been witnessing a time for such a daunting array of challenges to a nation security. Notable among the challenges is that some of the institutions and relationships that have been pillars of the postcold War International system are under serious stress. Know, United Kingdom voted last week to leave the european union. Of all the crises , the eu and spaces recent years, the u. K. Vote of the video may well be its very greatest challenge. Exit is pushing the eu into a. Of introspection that will persuade basically everything the eu doesnt the coming weeks, months, and even years ahead. Europe,tics around including and denmark, france, italy, and the netherlands, are demanding their own referendums on multiple eu issues. This will surely make decisionmaking and forging consensus in the eu much harder. No member state has ever left the union. So europe is entering a. Of uncertainty as the u. K. And the eu take stock of the situation and begin staking out the negotiate positions. Discussions about how an exit will work will dominate the eu agenda in the months ahead. For the exit agreement will not begin until the Prime Minister formally notifies the eu of the uks intention to leave. Which Prime Minister David Cameron will share under his successor. Leadersr state excluding the u. K. Will be meeting in the coming days and weeks and begin laying the groundwork for those negotiations. Regardless of what lies ahead, i would like to take this opportunity to say that the bags of vote will not adversely affect the Intelligence Partnership between United States and the United Kingdom and the months and years ahead. Indeed, i spoke to my counterpart in london early monday morning and we reaffirm to one another that the bonds of friendship and cooperation between our services are only destined to grow stronger in the years ahead. These ties are and will always be essential to our collective security. I presume a few of your questions about terrorism and. He socalled Islamic State o i know that our collective hearts go out to the families of the latest victims of the horrific terrorist attacks perpetrated as well as infected by isil. The despicable attack it is symbols International Airport yesterday that killed dozens and injured many more certainly sars the hallmarks of isil the privity. Let me take a few moments to say some very about important issues that we had the cia in our colleagues wrote the Intelligence Community are watching closely. I will start with the overarching challenge of instability, which continues to have large sections of the globe. Global instability is one of the defining issues of our time. It is implications are hard to overstate. As instability spreads, extremists and terrorists are finding sanctuary in ungoverned spaces. Energy supplies of being disrupted, political reform suffering, as too many measurests opt for that the expense of democratic principles and respect for human rights. Most devastating of although, is the human toll attendant to instability. Last week, the United Nations reported that the number of people displaced by global instability and conflict have reached 65 million. The highest figure ever recorded. A host of countries from east asia to the middle is, to west africa, governments are under institutionsvic struggling to provide basic services and to maintain a law and order. As governments in these regions received from the center of national life, more people are shifting their allegiances away from the nation state and towards subnational groups and identities. Leading societies that once embraced a National Identity to fracture along ethnic and sectarian lines. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in the middle east. A reason that ive studied closely for much of my life. , i likethere years ago to walk through neighborhoods and villages to observe the rhythms of daily life. I remember seeing people of different backgrounds and Police Living sidebyside. Relations among these groups are too often marred by suspicion and distrust and even outright hostility. Extremist groups have played it to be role in these tensions. In some areas, a generation is growing up in an environment without a just about skills to contribute or even to engage in modern day society. The underlying causes of these trends are complex and difficult to address. The longterm consequences of these developments are deeply troubling. Global instability is an issue that affects all countries. From russia, china, to united it must be met by strong collective response from the International Community. Im certain that this issue will loom large on the agenda of the next administration. Another should future challenges dealing with the tremendous power, potential, opportunities, and risks president resident in the digital domain. No matter how many geopolitical crises seizing the headlines, the liability, security, vulnerability, and the range of human activity taking place within cyberspace are constantly on my mind. Organizations35, of all kinds are under constant attack from a range of actors. Foreign governments, criminal gangs, trim his goods, cyber activist, and many others. In this new and relatively uncharted frontier, speed and agility are king. Malicious actors have shown that they can penetrate the network and withdraw in very short order. Plundering systems without anyone knowing they were there until maybe after the damage has been done. I served at the white house it was always the subject that gave me the biggest headache. Cyber attackers are determined and adopted. They often covered and share expertise. And they, even so many different ways with an everchanging array of tools, tactics, and techniques. Notover, our laws have quite yet adequately adapted to the emergence of this new digital frontier. Most worrisome for my perspective is that there is still no political or National Consensus on the appropriate role of the government. , lawenforcement, henan security, and intelligence agencies in safeguarding the security, liability, resiliency, and prosperity of the digital domain. The Intelligence Community is making Great Strides in countering cyber threats, but much work needs to be done. As a new forward on this issue, one thing we know is private industry will have a huge role to play as the vast majority of the internet is in private hands. Protecting it is not something the government can do on its own. Right up there with terrorism, global instability and Cyber Security is Nuclear Proliferation and the incumbent developments of Delivery Systems both tactical and should take it to make also really potential for a nuclear event. Unsurprisingly, the top of my list of countries of concern is north korea. Whose authoritarian and brutal leader has pursued a Nuclear Weapons program. Instead of taking care of the impoverished and politically repressed men, women, and children of the three. North korea. What else is there be such terrorism, global security, Cyber Security that worries the cia effort officer. Guy from thearts baby boomer generation, the rapid pace of technological change during my lifetime has been simply dizzying. As we of sema just about every scientific report, new technology often carry substantial risk to the same degree that they hold tremendous run is. Promise. Nowhere on the state time for National Security than the field of biotechnology. Recent advances in genome editing that offer Great Potential for breakthroughs in Public Health are also calls for concern. Because the same methods could be used to create genetically engineered biological warfare agents. And those of the overwhelming majority of nationstates at 10 refrain from unleashing a menace of such unpredictable consequences and subnational terrorist and to seek such as isil wouldnt have two compunctions in wheeling such a weapon. The scope of the buyer risk is more potential measures are clearlylate last october and the bipartisan reports of the blueribbon study panel on by a defense. As with the cyber threat, the International Communitys response to this issue like behind the Technology Driving it. Effectively countering this danger requires the development of national and international strategies. Along with the consensus of the laws, standards, and authorities that would be needed. A cia officers and their Intelligence Committee colleagues work hard to protect our country, from the darker side of change, we are mindful of how even beneficial advances can have destabilizing of x in the long run. Effects in the long run. Drying from Academic Studies and elements of the everexpanding open sourceal information cd offer our National Leaders Early Warning of potential challenges that could arise from the advances we are seeing today across the spectrum of technological endeavors. As former defense secretary asiana director bob gates is fond of saying, when Intelligence Officers wallflowers, they look around for a coffin. That remains a pretty good depiction of our intelligence mindset. [laughter] a pagemple, again taking from the biotech and my sciences sectors, is how a wide range of breakthroughs that potentially expectancy, life such as new methods of fighting cancer and a greater understanding of the aging process, could reinforce the trend towards older populations in advanced nations. Some of the worlds leading economies and even the lesser economies, could face Even Stronger headwinds and having significantly larger proportions of retired people and older another example is the array of technologies often referred to collectively as geoengineering. They could potentially help reverse the warming effects of Global Climate change. One that has gained my personal attention is stratospheric aerosol injection. Or sai. A method of seating the stratosphere with particles that can help reflect the suns heat in much of the same way that volcanic eruptions do. A program could limit global temperature increases, reducing some risk associated with higher temperatures and providing the World Economy additional time to transition from fossil fuels. This process is also relatively inexpensive. The National Research council estimates a fully deployed program would cost about 10 billion yearly. As promising as it may be, moving forward would also raise a number of challenges for our government and for the International Community. On the technical side, Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions would still have to accompany sai to address other Climate Change effects such as ocean acidification. Sai alone would not remove Greenhouse Gases from the atmosphere. On the geopolitical side, the technologys potential to alter weather patterns and benefit certain regions of the world at the expense of other regions could trigger sharp opposition by some nations. Others might seize on the sai benefits and back away from their commitments to Carbon Dioxide reductions. And as with other break your tash breakthrough technologies, global norms and standards are lacking to guide the employment and implementation of sai and other geoengineering initiatives. I could go on about things that fascinate me, but rather than talk about them, i thought i would stop here and start the conversation with judy. And then i can take some questions. I very much appreciate the invitation to come back here. To the council on foreign relations. As i say to other groups and speak to, it is a tremendous honor and privilege every day to be referred to as a director of Central Intelligence agency. I lead an organization full of patriotic men and women who take great risks and put themselves in the front lines in order to keep your fellow americans safe and secure and to do what they can to keep the countrys security secure. Thank you so much. [applause] judy i think we are all impressed with the array of challenges and issues you deal with on a regular basis, director brennan. I do want to come back and i want to come back to what is in the news right now. That is the latest attack in istanbul. What the administration has been saying, and i think you referenced it just now, is that it has the earmark of isis. How much is known about who is behind this and why does it point in their direction . Mr. Brennan to my knowledge, there is no credible responsibility of this point, but that is not surprising. In most instances, isis is not has not claimed credit responsibility for attacks perpetrated inside of turkey. I think what they do is they carry out these attacks to gain the benefits from it in terms of sending a signal to our turkish partners. At the same time, not want to potentially alienate some of those individuals inside of turkey that they may still be trying to gain support. Judy why are they able to pull off these attacks with what seems to be great regularity without the ability to prevent them ahead of time. Mr. Brennan i think there is a variety of reasons. First, when individuals are committed to carrying out these attacks, these socalled suicide attacks, they kill and maim so many people, they really dont have to worry about an escape route. It makes carrying out the attack so much easier because what they do is they just want to make sure theyre able to penetrate whatever sort of perimeter defense there might be. In a lot of these civilian areas, there is no perimeter defense. That is part of what an open society is. They are able to get their hands on weapons, automatic weapons, whether they are legally procured in some countries or through the black market in others. Also, they are able to take advantage of the technology that allows them to communicate quite securely without having intelligence agencies able to understand what it is they are plotting. Being able to fabricate a plot, carry it out among a small group of individuals, 1, 2, or more, it is unfortunately a feature of our times that isil has been determined to carry out these attacks. Judy is it something the rest just has to get used to . Mr. Brennan i dont think we should ever get used to it. I think what we have to do is try to redouble our efforts to try to uncover what they are doing, stop them, and also go to the source. Those who are directing and orchestrating these attacks. And isil most of the attacks are either directed or incited by their external Operations Group which is resident in syria. Judy in several news interviews you have done recently, you made a point of saying our efforts have not reduced isiscapability and global reach. There is a frustration that seems to come through, not that there is an expression on your face, but what is it . What does it mean to someone who has been working in this area for so long . Mr. Brennan any intelligence or