Id like to call this hearing to order i apologize to our witnesses but we had a vote that was called at 10 00 and most members are in the process of making their way from there to here. This morning the committee will engage in an activity thats quite rare for us. An open hearing on an on going critical intelligence question. The role of russian active measures past and present. As many of you know, this committee is conducting a thorough, independent, and nonpartisan review of the Russian Active Measures Campaign conducted against the 2016 u. S. Election. Some of the intelligence provided to the committee is extremely sensitive and requires that most of the work be conducted in a secure setting to maintain the integrity of the information and protect the very sensitive forces and methods that gave us access to that intelligence. However, the advice chairman and i understand the gravity of the issues that were here reviewing and have zhad its crucial that we take the rare step of discussing publicly an ongoing investigation. Thats why we convened this second hearing on the topic of open russian measures. And i can assure to you the extent possible the committee will hold additional open hearings on this issue. The American Public, indeed all Democratic Society need to understand that malign actors are using old techniques with new platforms to undermine our democrat Democratic Institutions in the hearing entitled disinformation a primer in russian actors and influence campaigns will consist two panels and will provide a foundational understanding of russian active measures and Information Operations campaigns. The first panel will examine the history and characteristics of those campaigns. The second panel will examine the history and characteristics of those campaigns and the role and cap abilities of Cyber Operations in support of these activities. Unfortunately, you will learn today that these efforts by russia to discredit the u. S. And wae weaken the west are not new. These are at the heart of russia and Previous Soviet Union intelligence efforts. You am learn today that our community has been a target of russian Information Warfare, propaganda and cyber campaigns and still is. The efforts, our experts will outline today continue on unabated. The take away from todays hearing, were all targets of a sophisticated and capable adversary and we must engage in a whole of government approach to combat russian active measures. Today well receive testimony from experts who have in some cases worked directly to respond to active measures who understand the history and the context of active measures, and whose significant experience and knowledge will shed new light on the problem and provide useful context. Drz goodson and rumer, mr. Watts, were grateful for you for your appearance here today. This afternoon we will reconvene and welcome witnesses who will discuss the technical side of the question, Cyber Operations including Computer Network exploitation, social media and unwanted propaganda activities and how they enable and promote russian ininfluenced campaigns and operation information. We have a full day ahead of us and im confident that the testimony you will hear today will help you to establish a foundational understanding of the problem as the community continues its inquiry into russian activities. Finally, id like to commend the advice chairman for his dedication to the goals of the committees inquiry and to the integrity of the process. The advice chairman and i realize that if we poe lit size this process, our efforts will likely fail. The public deserves to hear the truth about possible russian involvement in our elections, how they came to be involved, how we may have failed to prevent that involvement, what actions were taken in response, if any, and what we plan do to ensure the integrity of future free elections at the heart of our democracy. Thank you again for your willingness to be here and i turn to the advice chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I also want to welcome our Witnesses Today. Todays hearing is important to help understand the role russia played in 2016 president ial elections. As the u. S. Intelligence committee unanimously assessed in the january of this year, russia sought to i had jack our democratic process, and the most important part of that process, our president ial elections. As well learn today their strategy and tactics are not new but their president enness certainly was. The hearing is also important because its open, as the chairman mingsed, which is sometimes unusual for this Committee Due to the classified nature of our work we typically work behind closed doors. But todays public hearing will help, i hope, the American Public at large understand how the kremlin made effective use of its hacking skills to steal and weaponize information and engage in a coordinated effort to damage a particular cand indicate and to undermine Public Confidence in our democratic process. Our Witnesses Today will help us understand how russia deployed this de luth of disinformation in a broader attempt to undermine americas strength n and leadership throughout the world. We simply must and we will get this right. The chairman and i agree it is varietially important th vitally important that we do this in a transparent, bipartisan manner as possible. Chairman burr and i trust each other and equally important we trust our colleagues on this committee that we are going to move together and were going to get to the bottom of this and do it right. As this hearing begins, lets take just one moment to review whoa we all you are ready know. Rushs president Vladimir Putin ordered a deliberate campaign carefully constructed to undermine our election. First, russia struck at our Political Institutions by electronically breaking into the headquarters of one of our Political Parties and stealing vast amounts of information. Russian operatives also hacked emails to steal personal messages and other information from individuals ranging from Clinton Campaign manager john podesta, the former secretary of state cole lin powell. This stole ininformation was then weaponized. We know that russian intelligence use the guccifer 2 persona and others like wikileaks and coreau graphed times that would cause maximum damage to one candidate. They did this with an unprecedented level of sophistication about american president ial politics that should be align of inquiry for us on this committee and candidly while it helped one candidate this time, they are not favoring one party over another and consequently should be concerned for all of us. Second, russia continually sought to diminish and undermine our trust in the American Media while blurring our faith in what is true and what is not. Russian propaganda outlets like rt and sputnik successfully produced and peddled disinformation to american audiences in pursuit of moscows preferred outcome. This russia propaganda on steroids was designed to poison the National Conversation in america. The russians employed thousands of paid internet trolls and bot nets to push out this information and fake news at a high volume also focusing this material on twitter and facebook feed and flooding our social media with this information. This fake news and disinformation was then hyped by the American Media echo chamber and our own social Media Networks to reach and potentially influence millions of americans. This is not innuendo and false allegations. This is not fake news. This is actually what happened to us. Russia continues these sorts of actions as we speak. Some of our close allies in europe are experiencing exactly the same kind of interference in their political process. Germany has said that its parliament has been hacked. French president ial candidates right now have been the subject of russian propaganda and disinformation. The energy are lands, their recent elections, the dutch hand counted the ballots because they feared russian interference in their electoral process. Perhaps most kriktally for us there is nothing to stop them from doing this all over again in 2018 for those of you who are up or in 2020 as americans again go back to the polls. In addition to what we already know, any full accounting must also find out what, if any, contact, communications, or connections occurred between russia and those associated with the campaigns themselves. I will not prejudge the outcome of our investigation. We are seeking to determine if there is an actual fire but theres clearly a lot of smoke. For instance, an individual associated with the Trump Campaign accurately predicted the release of hacked emails weeks before it happens. The same individual also admits to being in contact with guccifer 2. 0, the russian persona responsible for these Cyber Operations. The platform for our two parties was mysteriously watered down in a way which promoted the interest of president putin and no one seems to be able to identify who directed that change in the platform. Campaign manager of one campaign played such a Critical Role in electing the president was forced to step down over his alleged ties to russia and its associates. Since the election, weve seen the president S National Security adviser resign, and his attorney general recuse himself over previously undisclosed contacts with the russian government. And, of course, the other body, on mar march 20th, the director of the fbi publicly acknowledged that the bureau is, quote, investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russian efforts, end of quote. I want to make clear at least for me, this information is not about whether you have a d or an r next to your name. It is not about relitigating last falls election. It is about clearly understanding and responding to this very real threat. Its also, i believe, about Holding Russia accountable for this unprecedented attack on our democracy. And it is about arming ourselves so we can identify and stop it when it happens again. And trust me, it will happen again if we dont take action. I would hope that the president is as anxious as we are to get to the bottom of what happened. And i have to say editorially that the president s vent contact with his wild and uncorroborated accusations about wiretapping and his inappropriate and unjustified attacks on americas hardworking intelligence professionals does give me grave concern. This committee has a heavyweight of responsibility to prove that we can continue to put our political labels aside to get us to the truth. I believe we can get there. Ive seen firsthand and i say this to a lot of us, how serious members on both sides of this diet have worked on this sensitive and critical issue. As the chairman and i said repeatedly, this investigation will follow the facts where they lead us. If at any time i believe were not going to be able to get those facts and were Work Together very cooperatively to make sure we gets the facts that we need from the Intelligence Community, we will get that done. Mr. Chairman, again, i thank you for your commitment to the serious work and your commitment to keeping this bipartisan coop operation, at least if not all across the hill, alive in this committee. Thank you very much. Thank you advice chairman. Members should know the they will be recognized by seniority for fiveminute questions. Well go as expeditiously as we can. Let me introduce our Witnesses Today, if i may, and we will hear from those witnesses. Dr. Roy godson, merit tus professor of Georgetown University. Ive got some special r specialized in Security Studies and International Relations at Georgetown University for more than four decades. Thank you for that. As a sclol lar he helped pine near Higher Education editing a seven volume sear yez in intelligence requirements for the 1980s, 1990s, and cofounding the consortium for study of intelligence. Hes directed, managed and published with other skol letters and ingel dominance consistent with the rule of law practices and strategies from encountering global organized crime. Dr. Godson as served as consultant to the United States security council, president s foreign intelligence Advisory Board and related agency of the u. S. Government. Thank you for your service and thank you for being here. Dr. Rumer is a senior fellow and director of russian and youre rashs program at the endowment for international peace. Prior to joining carn negativegy he served as russia and asia u. S. National council from 2010 to 2014. Earlier he held esearch appointments at the national university, international ibs ought to for strategic studies ant ram corporation. He has served on the National SecurityCouncil Staff and at the state department, taught at Georgetown University and George Washington ufrpt and published widely. Welcome, dr. Rumer. Clint watts is a robert thoughts fellow for the Foreign PolicyResearch Insurance tucson ought to and a sen r senior fellow at George Washington university. Hes a consultant researcher forecasting threat accurate bee havior and developing count irrelevant measures for did he feeting state and nonstate actors. He designs and implements customized training and Research Programs for the military, intelligence, Law Enforcement organizations, at the federal, state, and local level. Clint serves as a United States army infrontitry officer, fbi agent on jant Terrorism Task force as the executive officer of the combating terrorism at west point and as a consultant to the fbis Counterterrorism Division and National Security broonch. Welcome and thank you for your service. With that, i will recognize our witnesses from my left to right and dr. Godson, you are recognized. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And like so many members of the committee for inviting me to this hearing. Id like to begin with just a minute or two on the long history of the soviet active measures and then talk a little bit about some of the major advantages the soef yets have and the russians have reaped from their history abusing this instrument. Finally, id like to come to what we have done in the past to reduce the effectiveness of soviet behavior and what we might want to consider for the future. I think if one looks at the history of last hundred years youre going to find that the russians and the soviet pret predecessors have believed attacking measures is a major tool for their advancement. They actually believe whatever we think about it, that this gives them a possibility of achieving influence well beyond their economic and social status and conditions in their country. I think when you look at what they say now, what they do now, and with the way they act and practice and talk about their active measures, they take this subject very seriously. Sometimes we, in the United States, have been aware of this, but for many, many decades we do not take this subject seriously and they were able to take enormous advantage. I think today that they basically believe they can use these techniques rather similarly to many of the ways they did in the past. I do think that they are repeating many of the same practices that they did in the past. Yes, there may be some new techniques that are being used now, there are and some of my colleagues in the panel and this afternoon are more expert on those techniques, particularly the use of the internet and particularly cyber space. But we can sort of more or lets be rest assured that the soviets will be looking at other techniques and will be seeking to adapt and make their active measures much more productive for them in the future. Yes, the activities in the United States that youre particularly interested in do seem to be exceptional. We dont have very many other examples of where they interfere with election machinery, electoral apparatuses. What we do have are many, many examples of where the soviet dollas working togethering with their allies aboard, agents of influence abroad to actually affect the election in many, many countries in the 20th and early 21st century. Soviets and their russian successors took the view, take the view that theyre able to hit above their waist. They can fight above their weight if they take these active mesh urds. They dont want to go to war, neither of them want to go to war, but they take the view they can actually achieve a lot of what they want to do through their active measures. That is the combination of over and covert techniques and resources. Overt and covert combined together, one pennsylvania pattern and that they have the authority and the responsibility as leaders of the count