With people they felt were smarter. Q and a, former secretary of defense and former director of the cia robert gates discusses his book. He has served under several president s, most recently, george w. Bush and barack obama. At the at the end of the cold war, i came to believe very strongly that the American People had given the cia a pass on a lot of things because of this exit essential conflict with the soviet union. I believe that after the end of the cold war, we would have to be more open about what we did and why we did it and even to extent, how we did it to help the American People better understand why intelligence was important to the government and to president s and why president s valued it. Tonight on cspan. On tuesday, Intelligent Intelligence Community leaders testify before the Senate Intelligence committee on Global Threats to the u. S. , including the islamic state, north Koreas Nuclear provocation, russian aggression and drug trafficking. Cia directorlude john brennan, fbi director james comey, Defense IntelligenceAgency Director vincent stewart. This is almost two hours. I would like to call this hearing to order and welcome our witnesses, director of National Intelligence james clapper, director of central Intelligence Agency john brennan, director of Defense Intelligence agency, vincent stewart, director of the federal bureau of investigation, jim komi and director of the National Security agency, admiral rogers. Director klapper and general stewart have already appeared before the Senate Armed Services committee and i appreciate you suffering through a long day of testimony. I also think our other attendants. Todays hearing presents an opportunity for both the witnesses and members of the committee. It is my hope that our discussion will shed some light on the dedicated and tireless work of our Intelligence Community. The men and women represented by eyewitnesses by our witnesses. Their work does not go unnoticed. I spent the better part of 20 years as a part of the Intelligence Committee and have seen the scales go the scales of types of threats to our nation evolve. We no longer live in a world defined by a few distinct threats. A range of actors from nationstates and homegrown violent extremists. In your statement, director clapper quote of the expertise of the extraordinary men and women. The value you lay out to our benefit in a decentralized system of threats that imperil this nation and its interests across the globe. I ask that everyone take a moment to reflect on the range of expertise required to make sense of this information. Thate in your statement cyber and technology headliner Global Threats. Headlined your Global Threats. We will have significant consequences on societies way of life and more specifically, how your officers perform their mission. I look forward to your highlighting some of the challenges and consequences as you see them. By theremain concerned technological reach of isil and the danger of their using the Information Technology social media and Research Patent capabilities we use every day to propagate their eric message. Their barbaric message. I do hope you will layout that particular threat and i thank you again for being here. I would like to holly highlight my colleagues that the committee will hold a classified hearing on worldwide threats, later this week to the degree it needs saying, please reserve any questions that you think might not be appropriate for an open session until the thursday hearing. With that, i welcome our witnesses here and i turned to the vicechairman fernie comments she might have. Thank you very much for any comments she might have. I thank you very much and i think our witnesses and the Intelligence Community for its service to this country. I also share your sentiment that this hearing is important to help explain to the American People the threats that face this nation and the efforts of the dedicated men and women of the Intelligence Community to keep us safe. I want to open my comments by recognizing the significant contributions made by you, director clapper, as the leader of this community. You are the longestserving director of National Intelligence to date and i think most both the chairman and i remember when the dni was developed and put into effect, you are youre capable stewardship of the community has driven it to be a more integrated and Capable Organization than at any time in history. I want to personally thank you the contributions you have made to this countrys security. As you know, there is no rest for the weary. The threats that face this nation and our allies seem only to grow. The syrian war is approaching its fifth year, yet Bashar Alassad is still in power and a refugee crisis is destroying the lives of millions of innocent families and wreaking havoc across europe. We are witnessing the resurgence of an unpredictable russia in Eastern Europe and syria. North korea, last month conducted its Nuclear Bomb Test and two days ago, conducted what it called a space launch. Of course, this is a thinly veiled test to develop missiles that could deliver weapons of mass instruction against a number of countries, including the United States. While these threats are significant and troubling, we are all deeply concerned about the threat from i sold, the is the islamic isis, state from iraq and iran and other terrorist. Roots to us, isis is much more than a regional threat. Army,a terrorist armor a global exporter of terrorism. The official count is 11, including isis affiliates. Some of our friends like the king of jordan have said there are as many as 17 countries and isis has the ability to spread its message of hate and violence around the world using social media in a very sophisticated way. Director klapper, i have read your written comments and im interested in your assessment of these Global Threats. Your status today and the outlook for the future. I would also ask you to comment on how the Intelligence Community is positioned to address these threats. Is it better today than it was five years ago . For instance, well the coalitions campaign is helping some territorial safe havens and financial resources, how do we degrade and destroy it, and all they need to carry out an attack in the west is an Internet Connection and encrypted Message Application . I would like to hear your assessments of how the rise of end to end description has impacted our nations ability to identify and track individuals who seek to do us harm. Director call me has spoken of this concern often. Director rogers highlighted it as well. Im interested in your views about its impact and how you recommend we tackle this problem of terrorists and criminals communicating the of these encrypted Message Application. The u. S. Freedom act that passed last year a limited the book collection of Telephone Communications and the new law now requires specific clearance with buys a Court Approval to individual telecommunication companies. As this change affect has this change affected your ability to discover new threats and relationships . I will save the rest of my comments or questions, but thank you very much for being here and we look forward to the discussion. Thank you vicechairman. Before i recognize director klapper, let me say to members, it is my intent that all members will be recognized for five minutes in the order that you exception, ifone there is no objection, when director clappers testimony is over, i like to recognize senator langford for the first set of questions for the simple reason that on tuesday, he asked to resign over the senate and he ,as to reside at 3 20, today and i like to let him get a set of questions in. With that, the floor is yours, director clapper. First, thank you very much for the intelligent, particularly of the great men and women of the u. S. Intelligence community, whom we represent. It is appropriate that you do that for the great work that they do. Metavicechairman, thank you for pillaging my long service, that is very gracious. We are here to update you on some but not all of the pressing intelligence and National Security issues facing our nation, many of which you both alluded to, so it will be a certain amount of echo. In the interest of time and getting to questions, we will cover some of the tops and mine will be the only Opening Statements so we can get to your questions. I apologize in advance to the crossover members who are here. As i said last year, i predicted on stability has become the new normal and this trend will continue for the foreseeable future. Violent extremists are operationally active in about 40 countries, seven countries are experiencing a collapse of Central Government authority. Countries raise a significant risk of instability through 2016. A record level of migrants, more than one million, arriving in europe is likely to grow this year. Migration and displacement will strain countries in europe, asia, africa and the americas. There are 60 Million People worldwide considered displaced. Change,weather, climate environmental that relation, rising demand for food and water, poor policy decisions and inadequate infrastructure will magnify this instability. And aious diseases vulnerability in the Global Supply chain for medical countermeasures will continue to pose threats. The zika virus first acted in the western hemisphere in 2014 has reached the u. S. And is projected to cause up to 4 million cases in this hemisphere. I want to briefly comment on both technology and cyber, specifically. Innovation during the next few years will have an even more Significant Impact on our way of life. This innovation is central to our economic prosperity, but will bring new security vulnerabilities. Tensnternet will connect of billions of new devices that could be exploited. Artificial intelligence will enable computers to make autonomous decisions about data and physical systems and eventually disrupt labor markets. Russia and china continue to have the most sophisticated cyber programs. China continues Cyber Espionage against the United States, iraner the commitment and north korea continue to conduct Cyber Espionage as they enhance their attack capabilities. Nonstate actors also pose Cyber Threats. Isis has used cyber to his advantage, to hack and release Sensitive Information about u. S. Military personnel. Actor, isise displays unprecedented online provisions the. Cyber criminals remain the most pervasive cyber threat to the financial sector. They use cyber to conduct theft, extortion and other activities. And terrorism, there are no more sunni my with extremist members in safe havens than in any other time in history. The rate of foreign fighters traveling to comment zones in the past year is without precedent. At least 38,200 foreign fighters, including at least 6900 from Foreign Countries have traveled to area from at least 120 countries since the beginning of conflict in 2012. As we saw in the paris attacks, they pose a dangerous operational threat. Demonstrated sophisticated attack tactics and tradecraft. They have a established and several more establishing branches. They have attempted or conducted scores of attacks outside of syria and iraq in the last 15 and their estimated strength globally now exceeds that. Their leaders are determined to strike in the u. S. Homeland, beyond inspiring homegrown violent extremist attacks. Although the u. S. Is a harder target than europe, isis external operations remain a critical factor in our threat assessment. Al qaedas affiliates have also proven resilient despite counterterrorism pressure that is largely decimated the core leadership in afghanistan and pakistan, al qaeda affiliates are positioned to make gains in 2016. The chapter in syria are the 1 the increased use by violent extremists of encrypted and secure mobilebased technology has enabled actors to go dark and serves to undercut intelligence and Law Enforcement efforts. A ron continues to be the foremost state sponsor of terrorism and exert its in lawrence in regional crises in the middle east through the Islamic Revolutionary guard. Hezbollah and proxy groups as well. Iran and hezbollah continue to be a terrorist threat to partners worldwide. We saw the threat posed in the in the attacks in chattanooga and send regina. In 2014, the fbi arrested nine isis supporters and in 2015, that number increased over five old. North korea continues to conduct test activities of concern to the u. S. On saturday evening, pyongyang anducted a satellite launch a subsequent claim that the satellite was successfully placed in orbit. Additionally, last month, they conducted their last theres their Fourth Nuclear test, claiming it was a hydrogen bomb. Nucleartinue to produce material and test launches of Ballistic Missiles. They are also committed to developing a longrange Nuclear Armed missile capable of threatening the u. S. , although the system has not been flight tested. Despite its economic challenges, russia continues its aggressive military modernization program. It has the largest and most capable foreign nuclear arms force. It has developed a crews hell that china continue to modernize its Nuclear Missile force and is driving for a secure second strike capability. Continues to profess a no first use doctrine. Plan ofn cap or has a action over jc poa provides us much Greater Transparency in irans missile production. Increases the time iranians would need to produce highly enriched uranium from a few months to about a year. They probably views the jcp oa as a means to remove sanctions while preserving some Nuclear Capability. Their perception of how the jcp away houses achieves its overall strategic goals will dictate its level of adherence or compliance to the agreement over time. Chemical Weapons Convention pose a threat in syria and iraq. Isis has used toxic chemicals in iraq and syria, including the blister agent sulfur mustard. Grouprst time a extremist has created and used a chemical weapon since 1995. Engaged ins are now the space domain. Will understand how the military fights and how heavily rely on space. They are pursuing constructive and destructive antisatellite systems. China continues to make progress on its antisatellite vessel program. Counterintelligence, the threat from foreign intelligence entities, both state and nonstate is persistent, complex and evolving. Targeting a collection of u. S. Military, political and Technical Information by Foreign Intelligence Services continues unabated. Russia and china pose the greatest threat followed by iran and cuba on a dutch on a lesser scale as will as a threat from insiders taking advantage of their access to collect and remove sensitive National Security information will remain a persistent challenge. With respect to transnational organized crime, i want to touch on one crime issue, specifically drug trafficking. Southwest border seizures of heroin in the u. S. Has doubled since 2010. Died of000 people heroin overdoses in the u. S. In 2014. Much of it laced with methanol which is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin. 28,000 died from opiate overdoses and cocaine production in colombia has increased significantly. That may move through a future regional issues a few regional issues. Chinese leaders are dealing with much slower economic growth. Chinese leaders have also embarked on a most ambitious military reform in their history. Regional tension will continue as china pursues construction and its outposts in the china sea. Russia has demonstrated its military capabilities to protect itself as a global power, command respect from the west, maintain Domestic Support for the regime and advanced russian interests. Locally. Moscows objectives in the ukraine will remain unchanged, including maintaining longterm influence over gf and frustrating his attempts to integrate into western institutions. Putin is the first leaders and stalin to expand russias territory. Leader since to expand russias territory sense stalin to expand russias territory. Demonstrate the improvements in Russian Military capabilities and the crowd once confidence in using them. Bases the reality of economic recession driven by F