In the effort to lead the global jihad. With isil increasingly posturing itself as the legitimate followon or heir to Osama Bin Laden or al qaeda vision. And what that is also doing is causing intellectual ferment in the Community Around the world. We see this from other affiliates as they seek to decide for themselves, do we align with isil or maintain fidelity to our traditional bonds of loyalty to al qaeda core . One thing we can observe pretty obviously is that success breeds success. When isil has had success on the battlefield in taking over large swaths of territory in iraq, that has served as a draw not only to foreign fighters who might want to choose where to bring their capabilities but also to individuals who may be affiliated with other al qaeda groups who decide id like to go where the jihad is the most hot and the where my ability to Impact Global jihad can be felt most acutely. And theres no doubt that theyre at the level of individual Al Qaeda Affiliated individuals that draw is out there. And its something well see that will play out over time whether isil would supplant al qaeda core in terms of overall leadership of the global jihad, but its clear if things trended in this direction for a long period of time, one could make that argument. Thank you. All right. Thank you, senator. Senator portman, please. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And i appreciate the testimony today and the opportunity to ask you followup questions in another session. And theres so much to go over. But im going to talk a little bit about what you said today and what some of my colleagues have asked about in terms of iraq and isil and how we got into the situation were in. I think its important not only to determine what we do know in iraq, but also to look to afghanistan. And what we were doing or not doing there to ensure that we dont have a similar situation. With regard to afghanistan, how do you assess the Security Forces there . The afghan Security Forces as compared to the iraqi Security Forces, mr. Rassmussen . Id want to come back specifically, their capability to conduct Counterterrorism Operations against the taliban and al qaeda partners. I believe weve made a substantial amount of progress in bringing the Afghan NationalSecurity Force up to the level where they can carry out counterterrorist operations against known terrorist targets inside afghanistan. What will be what we will not know until we see over time is whether the Afghan Government is able to sustain that capability, invest in resource and sustain that capability over time so they are able to do this as they encounter threats you think they have greater capabilities than the iraqi Security Forces assuming that as was the case over the last few years, there is no u. S. Support . Im reluctant to put it in comparative terms because im not sure i have the right expertise or knowledge through that. And id be happy to get you an answer from that. I think itd be interesting. Heres my feeling from some of your reports, which were made public and other assessments is that, in fact, the iraqi Security Forces were further along at the time in which we chose to pull out. And if we decide to do the same thing in afghanistan and that the president has said he plans to have no more troops in afghanistan by the end of 2016 that we may have a similar, and i would say worse situation, given the assessment of their capability to be able to have an effective counterterrorism operation. I just make the obvious point that we need your help in terms of learning lessons from iraq. And hopefully taking those lessons to afghanistan. Theres been a lot of attention recently to president obamas comments in last january about regional terrorist groups being like jv teams in relation to isil seasoning of fallujah, im sure you followed that back and forth. And mr. Taylor, general taylor and mr. Rassmussen, im not going to ask if you shared that assessment at the time, because that was an assessment that he had. But i will say, given all the bloodshed and resources expended in the two attempts to take fallujah in 2004. And i was privileged to go there at one point in 20042005 time period. And those years of toil by our marines and soldiers in anbar that followed to make it a are particularly disconcerting. As you all know, we took serious losses. In one sixmonth period in 2005, lost 46 marines in one battalion, 22 killed from one Rifle Company in columbus. Obviously this struggle affects a lot of our communities, including back home in ohio. I would ask you, mr. Rassmussen, in 2013, did the Intelligence Community identify that al Qaeda Associated groups in syria had expressed interest in external operations . Yes, and we can talk about that more in closed session. Yeah. In 2013, did the Intelligence Community assess the threat existed into western europe in the homeland from foreign flow fighters . Absolutely. Do you assess that the iraqi Security Forces who early this year have been operating without u. S. Troops by their side for two years took any successful actions to the control of fallujah after they seized it in january of 2014, earlier this year . Id like to get an answer for the record from you on that. Im certainly aware of Iraqi Security force counterterrorism actions. But i want to be specifically let me ask a more general question, were they successful in resting control back . Not in resting control back of the areas you describe as i understand it. Okay. You know, i just think again, we should learn some lessons from this. And finally i said do you assess in syria as well as inconsistent terrorism operations or pressures from the iraqi in iraq to escalate their operations . Certainly true that they have escalated their operations and theyve taken advantage of the lack of a real border between iraq and syria, which has allowed them to move resources back and forth to escape counterterrorism pressure whether it comes from the iraqi Security Forces or other elements inside syria who are fighting. Well, i think your answers to these questions are helpful in terms of us understanding what we should be doing in iraq but also, again, looking forward to afghanistan being sure that we are prepared to take the steps to avoid a repeat of this. Let me change topics, if i could. And this has to do with the ebola crisis. General tailor, im interested to hear what work your office is doing to monitor the spread of ebola in africa. We now have over 2,300 people who have died. The World Health Organization tells us today they expect 20,000 people to die relatively soon. We had another u. S. Citizen infected this week. What are you all doing . Sir, my office works with our office of Health Affairs who is leading the effort of the department and the inner Agency Response to the ebola virus. And its the consequences intently to the u. S. And as well as the africa region. Their daily inner agency, trying to get aid to those countries to stem the spread of the virus. Do you feel we have been effective inner agency and inner governmental coordination . I think we have effective coordination, but this is a global problem and its going to take a Global Solution to solve it. And the nations in the region are less capable in certain cases of handling the kind of infection that theyre seeing. So it will require a global effort to stem this particular issue. Have you i understand Health Affairs is taking the lead here, but have you had the government did in relationship to malaria. In that inner Agency Process weve used . Ive not personally looked at it, sir, im just aware of the efforts. My most recent experience has been with h1n1, which i think we had a very effectivenr inner Agency Coordination on that. But not the malaria. Im concerned that we are, again, not being as aggressive as we could be, and i would hope that the agency would take a look at what we have done in the past and where weve been relatively successful and not just with foreign aides but also with the specific steps we were taking on the malarian issues. One final question, do you have any insights on how you see the spread of ebola developing. And what we should be doing here in this country. I noticed that you talked about the National Preparedness month. And one of my concerns is based on some recent reports were not prepared. We have, unfortunately, a situation where if a pandemic were to occur that there was some shortfalls, including explorations on some of the medical response that will be necessary. Do you have thoughts about that . Sir, i would prefer to respond in a more wholistic way in consultation with my colleagues. So if i could take that. We appreciate you getting back to the commissioner. Thank you, thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thanks for those questions, especially the last ones. Senator ayotte. And after youve spoken, im going to give mr. Anderson an opportunity. Ill give you one opportunity to point that you want to make or share with us in the open session before we go to the closed session. Youll have that opportunity, okay. For now, senator ayotte. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for holding this important hearing, i want to thank our witnesses for what they do to keep the country safe. So secretary taylor, i wanted to follow up on some of the questions that senator baldwin had asked. And i would ask all of you to give me some insight on a comment that i heard from our fbi director. I think its important that the American People understand what were dealing with in terms of not only americans, but westerners who have potentially traveled to syria or have interest in traveling to syria and joining with one of these Extremist Groups, including isil. So you had testified that more than 100 u. S. Persons youre tracking and youve identified those as those who have intended to go and some of whom have been engaged and killed in this conflict. I note that the director said in august, when i give you the number of 100 americans, i cant tell you with high confidence that its 100 or 200 that its 100 or 500, that its 100 or 1,000 more because its so hard to track. Heres a very important question that i think people need to know. And that is do we really know . And how many of these do we really have track of, and how many dont we have track of . Senator, i would share the directors comments in terms of we dont know what we dont know. And i think those thats the context with which he was making those comments. I think we have very high confidence on the number that we do know. And we have systems that help us identify more day in and day out. So i could sit here today and give you the number of over 100. And tomorrow, it may be based upon our intelligence investigation with the fbi, wed have more identities that we didnt know about before. But is the reality that while weve had confidence in the hundred, that we really dont know how many more may be part of this . I think thats a fair statement. I mean, assume thats why the senator made that statement when he was specifically asked about how confident we are in the number of 100. Well, given home grown violent extremism, given the nature of how people radicalize, given the nature of the data in the, on the internet, it is very difficult to say with any degree of certainty that we know all that could be wanting to join this particular effort. So we know it may be more than the 100 that were talking about. With respect to the 100 that we do know, do we have track of all of them . Yes, maam. I would defer to my colleagues of the fbi who lead the joint task force looking at this issue for our government. Senator, if i could address that. So i agree with general taylor whole heartedly. I could tell you any individual, and they definitely fit into the three categories mr. Rassmussen had talked about. Whether theyre abroad or in the United States. We also dedicate an immense amount of resources to covering individuals that we know about. I cant actually get into all those in this session, but we will in detail in the next session. Let me ask you, the hundred that we know about, what authorities do we have to revoke their passports . In other words, your United States citizen, youre entitled to certain rights, but so what can we do to make sure that they cant get back in the community . If we believe theyve joined, for example, an Extremist Group like isil who has brutally and horrifically murdered two american journalists . Senator, that is a its a very complicated question in terms of taking away an americans passport. There are judicial means to do that. Im not an expert in that, but we can get you the answer of what what are the authorities that would allow that to happen. Well, i think thats really important. Because we need to understand. We certainly dont want a situation where you all talk to someone you dont have the authority to detain them. Were in a position where they have to appear before a judicial authority, but in the interim, theyre not detained and they have open access in america. So i would like a followup to know what those process are, what tools you have at your hands when there is obviously evidence that an american is involved with a group like isil so we can understand whether those authorities are sufficient. So i would appreciate a followup on that. I also wanted to ask, what i understand from hearing your testimony today is that you said that the threat of isil is really regionally focused, meaning the region of where theyre operating in iraq and syria and this surrounding regions. What kind of access do they have to financing . Its been one of our great concerns is that theyve had the ability to draw on a wider array of sources for financing, including kidnap for ransom. Simply occupying and taking over Federal Reserve holdings. I heard, an estimate of theyre making at least 1 million a day. Is that a fair statement. Thats a fair estimate. Okay. And as i understand, they have safe havens in syria, correct . Yes. And theyre obviously taking over more territory in iraq, correct . That is their design and one of the reasons, concerns we have with regard to whats happening in iraq right now. That is the ambition in iraq in recent weeks. Security force action in combination with United States military action has stemmed the ability of isil to gain more territory. But they have some territory right now. You would agree with me . Yes. They have territory in syria, in iraq, they have a means to make money. And when we think about this threat on the passport issue, its not just about americans, right . I know secretary taylor, in your testimony, theres about 2,000 westerners. But ive also seen estimates of 7,500 potential foreign fighters from all Different Countries that have joined this conflict starting in syria. I dont know how many of those have joined isil, but this threat goes beyond thinking about americans. How good, i know you talked about a good news story about more communication between those, our other countries with regard to these individuals who have joined this Extremist Groups. But we also have a Waiver Program with countries like the United Kingdom and france. And how good is our intelligence and ability to track those individuals . And we talked about the hundred, so were worried about our people. But thinking about the individuals that dont need a visa to come travel to the United States of america. And as i understand it, theres actually thousands, the numbers that the United Kingdom, Great Britain is facing is much greater than even the United States. Can you give us a good assessment of how good a track we have on them and what ability we have to stop them from coming to the United States or to know exactly where they are so that we dont face a situation where someone is a the james foley video, that individual that committed that murder, he was clearly from Great Britain, you can tell from his accent. An individual like that coming from the United States and then participating in an action here. So, can you give us a little more insight on that . Because i think its important for people to understand. Yes, maam. I would defer to nick to talk about the intelligence cooperation that we had, which is significant with our european partners. And daily, we exchange information. More importantly, visa waiver does not mean people come to coming to the United States from outside the United States is screened through our terror screening system. And if there is derogatory data there, theyre not allowed to come to the United States. But that assumes we have the data, correct . Well, that assumes we have the data and thats what intelligence collaboration, cooperation is all about. Is making sure that with our partners in europe and other places that we are getting that data and getting it in a consistent fashion. So i think this is all, obviously, a very important issue, as well, is knowing and tracking who these individuals are who if we dont have the data, we may just allow them in our country without being able to stop them from coming. My time is up, but i j