Gathering and terror threats chair, this is about 40 minutes. Between my time at Fox News Channel and abc news and london i have been covering terrorism since 1987. For 30 years. It reminded me about six years ago that we are celebrating the takedown of Osama Bin Laden and which was a extraordinary accomplishment. Leader in 2011 a successful down the firstok american targeted by death by the cia. Of the digital jihad that we are living in today. I am reminded that it is one thing to kill a man and another to kill his ideas. Environmentin a which is extremely dynamic and extremely diverse. Is topic of our panel today whether the Intelligence Community has the tools it needs to want this threat. I would like to introduce members of the panel. Jane,d like to begin with she is a very familiar face here on capitol hill. From Congress First female director and ceo representing the Aerospace Center of california. She served on all major committees and served on numerous factfinding missions. Northing missions over korea, cuba and guantanamo bay. She has become a expert on National Security issues. She received the defense medal for distinguished service. As well as the cia directors awarded as well as the distinguished Public Service medal. Thank you for joining us. The to her is pete, he is former chairman of the house Intelligence Committee. Ande he partnered with jane practicing landmark legislation buried the first modernization of the Intelligence Community and 50 years. He is working on the investigative process with terrorism. Heard is theill u. S. Representative for the 23rd Congressional District of texas. Which stretches from san antonio to el paso and includes 800 miles of the u. S. Mexico border. He is also the vice chair of the maritime subcommittee. He is on the committee for Homeland Security and the chair for oversight. Then immediately on my left is Nicolas Rasputin and he is the director of the National Terrorism center. Prior to becoming a director he served with the National SecurityCouncil Staff as a special assistant to the president read he was then providing Staff Support to the president and Homeland Security advisers on counterterrorism strategies did he also served on the staff for Regional Affairs in the office of combating terrorism. What, i want to start with you. Was busychigan individual who was on any watch list . I think it is too early to say. Deference to my fbi and local colleagues in michigan step back for a second before we share publicly what was known and what we will learn and the days ahead. That any lawsay enforcement investigation it you will know more in day to than you do do on day one. And you will do more on day nine. I do not want to get the part of my colleagues by whip very far on the specifics of the individual. That being said, the indications are that this individual may have been motivated by the ideology reference in your opening remarks. I think it is too soon to draw affirmative conclusions, certainly the kind of attack that was conducted there some kind of the hallmarks we have seen in other capitals around the world. That are not particularly complex, they are not largescale. They are definitely sophisticated, they can do enormous harm. They can cause loss of life emma they can spread terror and fear and insecurity in the hearts of populations. Our makes them worthy of heightened concern. At the same time it is a different threat environment and it is a environment we have been living with for most of the post9 11. It is more dynamic and more challenging and many ways but it is also worth remembering some of the progress we have made an mitigating some of those threads that we were the most worried about one decade ago for five or six years ago when al qaeda was concern. The threat of a mass casualty attack any u. S. City we have done a tremendous amount to reduce the likelihood of such an attack. Hereikelihood of a attack and the homeland using weapons of mass destruction is also something we have made tremendous progress building of our defenses to defend against that attack. Even as a point to a threat environment that is challenging, concerning, all of those words that you want to use. I think it is worth differentiating what we talk about with that threat environment. Rine j when you sat onane the house ranking committee, is this what it like with a threat environment. Say first of all, let a since you are exerted barely capable as a reporter. I think everyone should respect the quality of journalism you bring to fox. I want to express my distress that fair and balanced has been removed from fox. Comment that this the terrorists are not going to check our Party Registration before they blow us up. Something we have to do on a bipartisan basis. , i didte and i served that. I is also true that when chair the intelligence subcommittee of Homeland Security and mike mikell was my Ranking Member we did that did bipartisanship is not thadead. It needs to be more robust. No, i did not imagine this would happen. We were there on 9 11. There was no contingency survival plan for congress, many of us were in front of the capital. To an apartment of the chair on a new subcommittee. I was in his tiny basement apartment that had no place to go. Theinally commandeered Capitol Police headquarters and went there and try to offer help. We never imagined that what came at us with 9 11 was going to be the size of this. The members ofnd the ic for trying to get ahead of the problem. Speaking for me we did not anticipate it and you are right it is a idea that a person buried at defeating a army as lumping, defeating a idea is another. Congressman . Here. Jane bipartisanship. Thanks, there is no way that anticipated this especially when we were leaving and 2011. I mentioned to jane as she was in the countries who visited, it one that wasention the most notable. Meetingsay it would be qadhafi and libya. You are part of the small part of the process that became a ally and fighting radical jihadists threat out there. Persons we met was a intelligence chief who is a graduate of Michigan State and a big fan of those kinds of things. We went to trip and egypt, we met with arafat and we met with assad later we met with gasol qadhafi. Notle did we know it did think that a wreck would be a failed state with isis, syria , libyae a failed state would be a failed state. Egypt would lose control of the sinai, we would have changed our and started working with the muslim brotherhood. Changed, when you saw those failed states and use of the refugees, when you saw the mass migration into europe. The fire is going from europe, some from United States into syria and into libya. Now coming back into europe and those countries. Those of all Community Threat environment that i do not think anybody really saw coming out on the horizon. Now that the challenge is how do you go back and stabilized syria and how do you stabilize libya, how do you stabilize yemen . We have not gotten a strategy to deal with those issues. Katherine we have a handful of failed states which are effectively safe havens for ic have the the tools to work with entities and those nations to try and gather intelligence successfully . If not how do we do the work around. I will try to answer that question and less than 50 minutes. The Intelligence Community has the capabilities and the result, they have the right people and leadership. Is biggerissue that than just the Intelligence Community. , i think with ambassador crawford is here, one of the things he says is if you have wingtips and on some the ground it prevents boots. Diplomats dok that you can prevent the need for having to come and militarily. We have to support of the state department, we have to make sure that the u. S. Has a strong budget to do their work. We also have to make sure that intelligence communities have the operating authorities to bring the hammer down on the over there. We also have to think about what data we celebrate . ,ne question i always asked what date you celebrate when it comes to the war on terrorism . The best answer i have gotten is from my friend a ambassador and former head of prosecuting the war in 9 11. He said he did not celebrate a day because terrorism will always be there. The strategies that you use to fight this are some of the same strategies you have to do with terrorism. We have to bring the hammer down. Them from having said havens. We have to count of this ideology. When i was chasing al qaeda, they were doing night letters. Now they are doing social media campaigns translated in different languages. We have to counter that and we have to ensure local Law Enforcement and commercial onurity have the information attacks that these guys are using in order to defend the population from this. It is a hard problem, it is broader than just the Intelligence Community. Erine you suggested in your earlier statement that we had disrupted the homeland, is that correct . Ck i am talking about what long periods of time in 9 11. A detailed i would agree with that, we are constantly trying to identify individuals with a design on the homeland, i dont think i would put anything in the category you put it. I would say that we have stop ofple that were capable planning and plotting a major attack on the u. S. You have to remember when you take people off of the battlefield that have the capabilities and the leadership ability to do some of these things that counts. There have been a number of those significant activities over the years. Not disagree with that at all. I did not want to leave the impression that there was some kind of incipient imminent threat pointed at the homeland because they think that would be misleading. I want to pick up on Something Else of the congressman said the Different Things they can do to defend ourselves includes all of the things that the congressman engine. I think one of the things that is under way perfectly and the homeland context is a greater sense of societal resilience. Cope not just cope but prosper and succeed in living our life regardless of what happens in any given day. Unfortunately some form of terrorism will be a semi permanent feature of the landscape. Whether it is this ideology or some future ideology. We continue to look at our capabilities and bring down the hammer when it needs to be prayed a big part of the answer is giving communities around this country the tools they need to protect themselves, information they need to protect themselves and the understanding of the terrorist threat so that they can put that threat in perspective against all the other things they have to worry about. Anel i just want to point out how hard this is, it will never be 100 effective. We have now learned that the new tools of terror are a big truck and a butcher knife. Gun control or more gun control and the country there is something to be people with licensed guns who will go crazy and do dumb stuff. That is not the catastrophic threat that you are asking about, catherine. I do not rule that out either. There are biological weapons that are pretty easily accessible in hospitals. The other point i wanted to make is that resilience matters. Yes it does feed think britain, keep call and carry on. They have had more bombings than anybody else. There are also other things we can do to win the argument. You have said that this is a idea. On theing wingtips ground is a way to win the argument created using diplomacy. There are better arguments against the arguments that recruit child brides to get their Swimming Pool in afghanistan or wherever it is needed someplace that peter and i have been paid id went to yemen, i dont know if you did. Everything he could do to keep up with me, he did. How do we win the argument . Our values paid that is important. A lot of people want to appear because of our values. We also do a effective counter messaging that we need to work on more, when john kelly was talking earlier, i think most of you are here. He was talking about the he was talking about the private sector intercepting bad messages. The private sector is also capable in near simultaneous ofe putting on good messages those who escaped the horror of isis. Those who are respected Community Figures come up in the same states that some kid is looking at and say wait a minute , here is a alternate idea. Having a Community Giving these kids opportunities, these kids who are susceptible to these messages. I think there are some tools that we need to invest in more. If i can add on to what she is talking about. In the cia you learn about covert action. We have to figure out as a counterhow do we do influence. That opens up a whole lot of questions, in order to do counter covert intelligence. You have to have these groups. Thank you for that. All doing onre nafta is awesome, coming from texas that is a and or didnt issue. It is hard to coordinate the various elements within the Intelligence Community. Thinking about how you coordinate the federal intelligence, the local Law Enforcement and the private aena in order to have somewhat coordinated strategy on how we will deal with this ideology is hard. I will say this, jane, the showed isship you great. Two key examples of how we can Work Together across ideological divide to make sure that we are focusing on protecting our homeland. Nick, what tools you want that you do not have right now . Nick i would turn the question a little bit and instead of identifying single tools i said i look at a more transformational exercise. The intelligence and the discipline of the analysis for understanding the modern terrorism threat is changing under our feet as we are doing the job. I often think about this, the analyst he probably hired 10 years ago came with a very Strong SocialScience Spectrum three good writers and thinkers. With Language Skills and understand the dynamics of the areas. We need all of that rate we need to continue to hire those people and training those people. We also need people who also know how to look at stacks of data, sift through it, make sense of it and draw it nonobvious connections to help shrink the size of the stacks so we can shine our life, the limited light we have on those issues of the greatest concerns. Did when i am talking to young people i say i hope you can write, i hope you are digitally integrated i hope i can put you in front of a spreadsheet that has dozens of potential data points and you can make sense of it. Can then use those kinds obviously to hire people and that you have to empower them with the kinds of tools. Most of them are things that are available. Big data is that something the government is limited to have pai. It is the deal with drawing useful information of large firms of data. We can go to school on a lot of that with our private sector friends. I want to make sure we have the right workforce to do what we need to do five or 10 years from now. This is what i love about the Intelligence Community, it is a perfect example. We are going to do it. Yes, the answer is a question, they need more from the technology vision, when you are looking at satellite imagery and you are looking at different parts of the day the human eye is not going to be able to detect a car that was moved a little bit. Y are not going to be deep able to detect a great or silver car. Being able to introduce the technology to the framework will help us deliver the kind of results that we need. Not always as making sure we introduce the technology but folks in the Intelligence Community how to leverage it. That way they can achieve desired outcomes. Went to dartmouths issue of interrogations, one of the criticisms of the last administration is that we got out of the interrogation business. Should we be getting back into it with a more robust way . Let me answer your previous question. In terms of the Intelligence Community have what it needs, then i will answer that interrogation question as well. Overallt the environment and these are some of the things that we worked on when we were on the committee. I am absolutely essential, glad that the bipartisan nature or the nonpartisan nature of the Intelligence Community continues. I do not always see that. But i am not. I think you need that. The other think i think you need is i look forward to the day when the Intelligence Community is not on the and front page every day. That it has a effective oversight with congress. I had not saying to a without oversight on intelligence needs to be done in the background and not on the front page. I look for the day when we have restored the public trust between the Intelligence Committee and we have lost a lot of fat now with what is going on with perceive things that are going on with the nsa or those struggles and debates in congress. Congress has of said that the public is suspicious of what the Intelligence Committee is doing and america to keep us safe. I think they also need to see the creativity and the alternative scenarios that could not have groupthink. This is one of the conference we identified in 2001 and the problem, terr