The director of National Intelligence dan coats was before the Senate Armed Services committee this week to take questions on Global Security threats. At one point he was asked about a recent report that donald trump asked him to deny evidence of collusion between russia and the campaign. There was also testimony from vincent stewart. This is just over two hours. Sen. Mccain good morning. Senate Armed ServicesCommittee Meets this morning to receive testimony on worldwide threats. We are pleased to welcome our distinguished witnesses. Dan coats, who is the director of National Intelligence and ewart director of the , Defense Intelligence agency. Out of respect for the scheduling commitments and members, we will conclude the hearing at 11 30 in the interest of time and ensure senators ask questions i will be brief. I know that comes as a disappointment, especially to the senator from south carolina. I would ask witnesses to please submit their written statements for the record if they can. That is not required but anyway. , last nights horrific attack in manchester was a gruesome reminder the world is on fire and everywhere we turn we can see threats to the world order. It underpins Global Security and prosperity. And when it comes to the Great National security challenges we face, u. S. Policy and strategy are consistently lacking, whether it is china or russia or iran, Islamic Radical terrorism, i have heard few compelling answers about how the United States intends to use diplomacys,ades, but most of all the military to defend our National Interest and rulesbased order that supports them especially with , sequestration still the law of the land. This is still a young administration. Strategy takes time to develop, but we should be mindful that our adversaries are not winning for us to get our act together. Time is of the essence. Senator reed. Sen. Reed in keeping with your spirit, i will abbreviate my statement. But ask the full statement be part of the record. Sen. Mccain without objection. Sen. Reed i want to thank our witnesses for appearing here today to provide their analysis of National Security threats and other challenges facing around the world. I would like to welcome back our former colleague director coats. And general, thank you for your continued strong leadership in the defense agency. The National Military strategy is organized around the socalled four plus one. Primary threats facing your our nation today, namely russia, china, north korea and iran, and the enduring challenge of violent extremism. An example of what was witnessed in manchester, england last night. Our hearts go out to the people of england and the world. We are pursuing these issues and i know you gentlemen are at the forefront in terms of the intelligence efforts. I appreciate what you do. The four plus one threats i touched upon inform the capabilities we develop, the size of the force we build, and the scenario we plan against. However, to paraphrase former secretary gates, we have a near perfect record in predicting the nature of the next threat. We have always gotten it wrong. We rely heavily on the Intelligence Community to highlight the emerging threats and the ones we have identified already. I hope our witnesses will provide the committee with thoughts on the other challenges we should play close attention to moving forward. Sen. Mccain i ask committee to answer six nominations in the list of 818 pending military nominations. First, consider the nomination of David Norquest to be director of cross Assessment Program evaluateion of department of defense. Kerry binging to be principle deputy. Robert to be assistant secretary for interNational Security affairs. Mr. Kenneth to be assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Security and Global Security. Motion of favor, six nominations. So moved. Sen. Mccain all in favor say aye. Aye. [in unison] sen. Mccain welcome to general coats. We begin with you. I think you, given your advanced age. [laughter] thank you, mr. Chairman. We have an ongoing race between who is the most aged and experience. And you win every time. Which is quite in a competent. [laughter] a congressman. General coats i am pleased to be before you, chairman mccain, Ranking Member reed and members of the committee. I must admit when i walked through the door, i made a right turn trying to find my seat up on the panel. And i thought come i have to come down here. Sen. Mccain you are welcome at any time to come take a trip down memory lane. General coats thank you. Let me reiterate what you said about what happened in manchester last evening. I just returned from london a couple days ago and met with all my Intelligence Community colleagues there. We spent a significant amount of time discussing threats to our respective homelands, it is a tragic situation we see all too much of happening in countries around the world, in particular our allies. It reminds us this threat is real. It is not going away and needs significant attention to do everything we can to protect our people from these kinds of attacks. I am here today to discuss the assessment of the multitude of threats facing our country. Vince will give some brief opening comments as well and i have tried to condense my opening remarks knowing this is an unclassified so they will have plenty of time for your questions. We are here to describe in an unclassified way the complextyity of the threat environment, which is everexpanding and has challenged us to stay ahead. It has not been an easy task. We appreciate the support from this committee to address the threats in a way that will give the president , congress and other policymakers the most integrated intelligence we can assemble. In the interest of time, i will discuss just some of the many challenges we currently face. The written statement summit earlier discusses these and many other threats in much greater detail. Let me start with north korea. North korea is an increasingly grave National Security threat to the United States because of , the growing missile and Nuclear Capabilities combind pp combined with the aggressive approach of its leader kim , jongun who is trying to prove he has the capability to strike the u. S. Mainland with a Nuclear Weapon. We assess all flight tests this year, including two this month , have demonstrated capabilities just short of an icbm at this time. North korea updated its constitution in 2012 to declare itself a Nuclear Power and officials consistently state Nuclear Weapons as the bases for the basis for regime survival suggesting kim does not intend , to negotiate them away. Assess the regime will maintain momentum on the battlefield, provided it maintains support from iran and russia. The continuation of the syrian conflict will worsen already dangerous conditions for syrians in regional states. Furthermore as you know on april , 4th, the Syrian Regime used the nerve agent serin gas in what was probably the largest chemical attack by the regime since august 2013. Since that attack, we have observed more than five allegations of Syrian Regime chlorine use. We assess syria is proudly both willing and able to use chemical weapons in future attacks. We are still acquiring and continuing to analyze all intelligence related to the question of whether russian officials had before hand knowledge of the attack in syria on april 4th. Cyber threats continue to represent a critical, National Security issue for the United States for at least two key reasons reasons. Our advisories are becoming more first, bold, capable and adapt at using cyber to threaten our interest and shake the outcome. The number of adversaries grow as nation states and terror groups and criminal organizations continue to develop Cyber Capabilities. Second, the potential impact of the Cyber Threats is amplified by the ongoing integration of technology into our Critical Infrastructure and into our daily lives. We see this today in the form of cry ransomeware attack. As this activity continues, the u. S. Government investigation is ongoing. The worldwide threat of terrorism is geographically diverse and multifaceted and it cruises and it poses a continuing challenge for the United States, for our allies and partners who seek to counter it. Isis is experiencing territorial losses in iraq and syria, however we assess isis will continue to be an active terrorist threat to the United States due to its Proven Ability to direct and inspire attacks against a wide range of targets around the world. I might mention isis has claimed responsibility for the attack in manchester, although they claim responsibility for virtually every attack. We have not verified yet the connection. Outside iraq and syria, isis is looking for interconnectedness among global branches and networks. Aligning their efforts to a strategy to withstand efforts. We assess isis maintains the intent and capability to direct, enable, assist and inspire transnational attacks. Al qaeda and affiliates continue to pose a threat overseas as they remain primarily focused on local and regional conflicts. Homegrown violent extremists andin the most frequent unpredictable threats to the United States homeland. This threat will persist with many attacks happening with little or no warning. I would like to take a quick run through key areas of the middle east. Baghdads primary focus is recapturing and stabilizing mosul and other territory controlled by isis. We assess iraq will still face serious challenges to stability, political liability, and territorial integrity, even as the threat from isis is reduced. Will costtion billions of dollars and political reconcilation will be an enduring challenge. In iran, public statements suggest they want to preserve the joint comprehensive plan of action because they view the deal as a means to remove sanctions while preserving some Nuclear Capabilities. We assess the jcpoa agreement has extended the amount of time iran needs to produce a nuclear from a few months to about a year. In the meantime, toronto tehrans activities continue. Iran provides arms, financing, training and manages as many as 10,000 iraq afghan and pakistan , fighters in syria to support to support the the assad regime. The iranian populace also probably supports the nuclear deal. Shortly before the election, the rcg, called for iran to start interaction with the world and not be under the evil shadow of war. Certainlyputting will fighting will persist between the alliance forces, trained by iran and the human government my back by a saudi led coalition. Neither side have been able to achieve decisive results through military force. Al qaeda in the caribbean peninsula and isis branches in yemen have exploited the conflict in yemen and the collapse of Government Authority to gain new recruits and allies and expand instruments. The ic assesses that the political situation in afghanistan will almost certainly deteriorate through 2018, even with a modest increase in military assistance by the United States and its partners. This deterioration is underpinned by afghanistans dire economic situation. Afghanistan will struggle to curb its dependence on external support and until it contains the insurgency. Order reaches a Peace Agreement with the taliban. Meanwhile, we assessed that the taliban is likely to continue to make gains, especially in rural areas. Afghan Security Forces performance will worsen due to a combination of caliban of caliban operations, combat casualties, desertions, poor Logistic Support and weak leadership. Pakistan is concerned about International Isolation and the and sees its position through the indias Rising National status including indies foreign outreach and deepening ties to the United States. Pakistan will likely turn to china to offset its isolation. Empowering new relationships that will help beijing to protect influence in the indian ocean. In addition, islamabad has failed to curb militants and terrorists in pakistan. These groups will present a sustained threat to u. S. Interests in the region, and continue to plan and conduct attacks in india and afghanistan. Russia is likely to become a more assertive nation in Global Affairs more unpredictable in , its approach to the United States and more authoritarian in its approach to domestic politics. We assessed russia will continue to look to leverage its military support to the assad regime to drive a political settlement process in syria under russian terms. Moscow is also likely to use Russian Military intervention in syria in conjunction with efforts to capitalize on fears of a growing isis and extremist threat and expand its role in the middle east. We also have noticed and discussed in significant detail and may do so during the session , russias influence campaign and strategies to undermine Democratic Institutions and interfere with elections. As i said, i returned from europe. Clearly in frances election, now in germany with its pending election, and england with its pending election, we are seeing the duplications of what has happened here in our election , so the russian strategy continues. Let me talk a little bit about ukraine and russia. We assessed that moscow s strategic objectives in ukraine, maintaining longterm influence over kiev and frustrating ukraines trying to integrate into western russia continues to exert military and diplomatic pressure to coerce ukraine into implementing moscows interpretation of the political provisions of the minsk agreement, among them constitutional agreements that would effectively give moscow a veto over kievs strategic decisions. I will finish up here with china. China will continue to pursue an active foreign policy, especially within the asiapacific region, highlighted by a firm stance on competing territorial claims in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. Relations with taiwan in this pursuit of Economic Engagement across east asia. China, which reviews a Strong Military as a critical element in advancing its interest, will also pursue efforts aimed at fulfilling its ambitious one belt, one Road Initiative to expand chinas Strategic Influence and economic role across asia through infrastructure projects. In the interest of time and to get to your questions, i will defer assessments on western hemisphere issues, which i trust we will discuss during the question period. However i would like to make one final on a Key Authority going point forward. As you are all well aware, section 702 of the fisa amendments act is due to expire at the end of the year. I cannot stress enough the importance of this authority in how the ic does its work to keep americans safe. Section 702 is an extremely effective tool to protect our nation against terrorists and other threats. As i described in my confirmation hearing, 702 is instrumental to so much of the ics critical work in protecting the American People from threats from abroad. We are committed to working with all of you to ensure that you understand not only how we use this authority but also how we protect privacy and Civil Liberties in the process. In conclusion, intelligence the Intelligence Community will continue its tireless work against these and all other threats, but we will never be omniscient. Although we have extensive insight into many threats and places around the world, we have gaps in others. Therefore, we very much appreciate the support provided by your committee and will continue to work with you to ensure that the Intelligence Community has the capabilities it needs to meet its many mission needs. I will now turn to general stewart for a few brief remarks. Dir. Stewart chairman mccain, Ranking Member read, members of the committee thank you for this , opportunity to appear with dni to provide an assessment of threats to our National Security. I concur with the directors statement in its entirety. However i would like to reinforce to this committee and by extension the American People that your Defense Intelligence agencys