Proud of the fact that people love us for our macadamia nuts and chocolate. I think when you talk about hawaii and being on the hill there is almost expectation you come with wearing a lei or come with chocolate covered mac nuts. That is what your fellow colleagues oh, yeah, you would be surprised. So i bring them out once in a while. You talked a little bit earlier what you would like to do on the Armed Services committee more broadly. How long do you hope to serve and what are your broader goals here in congress . Im 47 now. So i got elected at 47. I got elected in the legislature when i was 27, served for 20 years. As i mentioned earlier, the commitment our family has made is that were going to put in, if given the opportunity and privilege, to put in another 30 years 20 years. So that would make me7. That is not too old. So yeah, if given the opportunity to stay here i think it is critical for hawaii, especially in this particular seat, to develop senority and as you know, this place, for the most part works on senority. When we started you mentioned serving on the college newspaper, university of hawaii and being a Political Science major. What about your kids, what are they interested, what would you like to see them do . You know, id love for them not to get into politics. [laughter]. I tell people, especially young people, that, you know, you can always run for politics later but get a life, get a job, raise a family and maybe, few years down the road come back and possibly run for office. So i hope they dont have aspirations to follow me right out of college because it was really tough for my wife and me early on. Then they wouldnt get the chance to meet george takei. We almost called you at that kay. Tell us that story about the campaign. Mark tacano, who everybody gets us confused as well as member from california, a sophomore. He and i met through Tammy Duckworth and you know, it was duckworth, honda, and takano, supporting takei. Well, mark mark takano, george. George endorsed me in the primary. The headline read, takei and at that can know endorse takei. It is funny, people get us confused just by name. Is it at that kay, takei or in fact takano . All three of us get confused. We have pleasure calling ourselves friends. I will see george takei in a few months. Well go up to new york. You know he is debuting in a new broadway show, focused on the japanese American Experience and looking forward to that show. We hope we continue to get it right, kong plan mark takai, hawaii. Thanks for being with us. Aloha. Most important thing to me in the candidate having a candidate which would address the most important issue facing the country which is the National Debt and entitlements. Knows we have to reform entitlements. She just doesnt have the guts to come out and say it. Trump doesnt understand that. He said he will not do anything about entitlements which will squeeze entire budget. They know it but dont have the guts to say anything about it. Im a Small Business owner, job creator, were excited about having a job creator in the white house. Im 71 years of age and im still actively engaged in the practice of law. Most important issues to me in this years election are First National security for obvious reasons. But the second one is balancing the budget and eliminating the federal deficit. It is inconceivable to me that these candidates can be running and no one, not one, has addressed balancing the budget and reducing the deficit. That is critical to our children and grandchildrens future. Thank you. I think it has been really great having this attention on our city in cleveland. It brought a lot of business and world attention from other countries, just recognizing the great city and, yeah, i think it will be really great bringing a lot of money into the city and stuff. Yeah, i think it is, put cleveland on the map not only in our country but around the world. The issues important to me are the economy and getting america back on the right track. Stop subsidizing other governments like south koreas military and japan. You know, start having america work for americans. That is why i support trump. This morning in cleveland former new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani and new york congressman peter king speak to new york delegates. Well it live for you at 9 00 a. M. Eastern right here on cspan2. Also at 9 00, the atlantic host as discussion on political campaigns at their Convention Headquarters in cleveland. Thats live on cspan3. On tuesday cia director john brennan said he would have to be fired before he would use torture as an interrogation tactic. He spoke at an event of the intelligence and National Security alliance. Director brennan was responding to a question referring to the statements by donald trump that as president he would direct agencies to use enhanced interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists. This is an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, president chuck alsa. [applause] okay. Im going to get you quieted down here. This is the most responsive audience ever, okay . Give yourself a hand. [applause] okay. I hope yall enjoy your dinner. The one thing i got i always say, we just cant pull off events like this without our sponsors. So i want to add my thanks to tishs thanks to thanks to all of our sponsors for supporting this dinner. So lets give them a hand again. [applause] so it is my pleasure, you know when we do these sponsorship things, to invite and introduce jill singer, who is Senior Vice President with at t to introduce our speakers. Jill is Vice President for National Security at at t, government solutions. She has extensive experience in government and industry. Her last two government posts were as. Cio for nro and deputy cio at cia. Jill is also a member of the insa board of advisors. Jill, thank you for your support. Thank you for at ts support and come on up and introduce our speakers. [applause] chuck, thank you and thanks to insa for hosting this event this evening. Thanks to all of you for participating. I believe well have a great conversation in just a moment. At t is pleased to be a sponsor of the Leadership Dinner and a conversation with director brennan. At t is an iconic american brand and this year we celebrate our 140th birthday. Were very proud to say that we have supported the federal government for almost all of those 140 years. Moreover, we are proud to say that we have supported the predecessor organization to todays u. S. Intelligence community for over 90 years. Its a long time going back. [applause] thank you. As we look forward at t is excited to harness innovative information and Communications Technologies such is as the internet of things in support of intelligence. And we also look forward to our increased participation in the intelligence and National Security alliance. It is now my pleasure to introduce our speakers for the evening. Dr. Jennifer sims is a widely respected expert on u. S. Intelligence and one who has seen it through the eyes of the executive branch, academia and congress. As noted earlier by tish, she is the nonresident senior fellow for National Intelligence at the Chicago Council on global affairs, developing and running National Security and law in cooperation with depaul university. Prior to the Chicago Council jennifer was a professor and director of Intelligence Studies at georgetown washs school of Foreign Service for nine years. Between 1994 and 2001, she served as Deputy Assistant secretary of state for intelligence coordination and then served as the state departments first coordinator for intelligence resources and planning. Jennifer received the highest civilian honor, National Distinguished service medal, in 1998 for her work at state department. Now my pages are stuck together, momentarily. Prior to the state department jennifer served as defense and Foreign Policy advisor to senator John Danforth and the Senate Select committee on intelligence. That is from 1990 to 1994. She received her masters from ober land college and masters and doctorate in european politics and National Security policy from school of advanced International Studies at johns hopkins. Dr. Sims, thank you very much for being here and moderating. [applause] joining her on stage, joining her on stage is the honorable john brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence agency. Hears been the director of cia since 2013, so for the past three years. During his tenure director brennan has initiate ad sweeping modernization including the agencys first new directorate in over 50 years, the directorate of Digital Innovation which will position the cia to optimally carry out its mission in the Digital Domain of the future. He also pursued efforts to advance diversity of cia senior ranks and exclusivity of the agencys workforce. Director brennans Public Service began 36 years ago at the cia. And predecessor to todays directorate of analysis. He specialized in near east and south asia before directing counterterrorismnal necessary in the early 1990s. John graduated from Fordham University with a bachelors in Political Science and later attended the university of texas at austin where he earned his masters degree in government with a concentration on middleeastern studies. And, we never miss an opportunity to highlight that in his brief respite from Public Service, john served as chairman of insa in 2007 to 2008. Director brennan, thank you for your leadership and for your generosity of your time tonight. And with that i will turn it over to dr. Sims. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much for that wonderful introduction, it really warms my heart to be back with insa, an organization that i think does fabulous work binding industry with government and intelligence professionals in academia. Its a wonderful organization, thank you so much for having me here, and john, thank you to you too, joining us for a conversation tonight. That is what i would like to have, a conversation that looks back as well as forward. We worked together eight years ago on the Obama Transition Team and we had the opportunity at that time to look at where the Intelligence Community stood and also where cia was in its mission. Looking back now, these eight years, can you look back on the progress weve made, imagining that were here now, all of us, part of that next transition team, what would you say to them about both the strength and weaknesses of the cia, and the larger Intelligence Community . Well, first of all thank you for inviting me here tonight. I have a special place in my heart for insa since i was serving as chairman here. It was eight years ago. The time has gone by very quickly. I must say i never been objected to an interrogation i assume those lights would be the type of light we would be subjected too. [laughter]. I dont know if this is turnabout of something here. But i do think back and in fact we were meeting today the at agency, preparing for the new change of the administration that is going to be takes place and reminiscing in my own mind and sharing some of my perspectives what we had to deal with at the time as we were ushering in a new administration, a whole new National Security team, changing from one Political Party that was in charge of the white house at the time to a different Political Party. And i must say i give the Bush Administration a lot of credit for just how much they did in order to insure the smoothest transition possible. And that is what were trying to do right now at cia along with odni and others to insure that the transition from the Obama Administration to the next one will be as smooth and strong as possible. Intelligence i think is the continuity that really is relied upon as far as individuals who on inauguration day, all of sudden they will have responsibility for dealing with all of the worlds challenges and all the issues that the United States is involved in. So when i look back over last eight years, there has been such tremendous change in the global landscape, looking just in the middle east, an area that i have worked on. The arab spring had not happened at that time. The instability that has wracked so many countries, authoritarian regimes that have fallen, countries like syria and iraq taken over large part by a terrorist organization as well as challenges we face more so now than in the past on the cyber front which is why we set up a new directorate inside of the cia we can talk about but my advice to the new administration is that there are a lot of things that are going on in the world that in many respects are interconnected to one another as we deal with russia, on ukraine. There are implications how we deal with russia on many other issues as well. And although from the outside some things may look like they are, they could be more easily addressed and resolved, these are the most complex issues ive had to deal with in my 36 years in National Security. And so the new team will be inheriting a series of challenges that need to be addressed simultaneously, need to be addressed comprehensively and they really need to be able to get up to speed quickly because the world is not going to wait for them to understand all the intricacies and complexities theyre having to deal with. Woe had a tremendous event in turkey still ongoing apparently. And one of the challenges is, and i know liaison is a difficult subject to talk about in an open forum, but, when you have major changes underway and nato ally like that, how do you deal with that from an intelligence perspective . How do you work with the turks in these moments . Well, we have a lot of interaction with our turkish partners on a number of fronts, first of all because they are where theyre located as far as next to syria and all the challenges that presents to them, counterterrorism interaction is. Constant and on going. They are a critical partner. First thing you do when you have a situation like that you try to ascertain the facts. A lot of times in the early hours it is very difficult. Because a lot of information is coming in, and it is hard to distinguish between the rumors out there, that seem to gain strength, just by virtue of their being passed around and also trying to understand what the situation is as far as the government, but also as far as u. S. Personnel. One of the first things that the u. S. Government thinks about, what the status of our Embassy Staff in ankara as well as istanbul. What are the security concerns that our folks have. But also, what is it that we need to be mindful of as the situation was very dynamic and that we didnt want to either jump to conclusions about you know, who was in charge or whatever. But i think, what was clear to me is that as a, as a nato partner, and as a government that has a democratically elected president and government, that the attempted push by the some elements of the military was something that really threatened civil order inside of turkey and thats why there was very strong condemnation of the effort by not just this government, by others and strong signals of support that were sent. Can i ask, did we see it coming . We [laughter] there have been a number of developments in the turkish political scene over the last several years with now president erdogan, previously Prime Minister erdogan, with the consolidation of power and authority. It also sits astride a very unsettled area. And with the challenges that the pkk and the kurdish terrorists present to turkey. So we know that there have been stresses and strains on the government and there has been a number of actions that the government has taken to try to address some of the, what they perceived as opposition, domestically. So we were aware of the pressures that the government was under as well as some of the sentiments people expressed but we made sure that our policymakers were kept informed about developments in turkey and thats where most of our intelligence assessments go as opposed to here. Right. But good try anyway, jennifer. Got it, got it. But this raises a interesting question because the terrorist attack in nice, we had a series of bad events and i dont need to list them for all of us here, we know what they are, but if we define success against terrorists and isis in particular, as countering these individual threats, and certainly we do have to try to stop terrorist incidents, but we need to understand what winning is against isis. How do you achieve decision advantage, how do you achieve intelligence advantage, against this kind of adversary in a larger sense . How do we win, and what is intelligences role in helping us get there. This phenomenon of isil is much different than al qaeda was, given the sheer number of individuals who are involved in the organization both in syria and iraq as well as in franchises around the world. Its growth was quite fast and expansive. And there is a phenomenon that is going on right now in the region that has taken full advantage of the unstable environment. Youre right, there is the need for both tactical and the strategic, and i think what is going to allow us to prevail and prevail we will, is persistence and determination and attacking the organization both downstream as well as upstream and things in between. There is a need, a need for just constant effort to try to uncover and up root what isil has sent out either in terms of operatives, individuals who have served in foreign fighters units inside of syria and iraq but also to try to deal with their propagation of their venomous narrative in the internet. This is i think going to take a number of years. It is not something that is going to go away quickly. I think the most important thing for us to do getting ahead of it in a Strategic Perspective is taking away its bases which is in syria and iraq. They controlled territory. They have revenue. It allows them to use this as a basis for their continued efforts worldwide. Were making, i think, significant progress there. They have already heralded some additional setbacks that theyre going to experience, sending word to their people that despite those military verses they will continue to engage in the type of activities they have outside of the middle east. This is going to take constant effort. As good as cia is, and as good as u. S. Is we have to work very closely with our partners in europe and the middle east. There needs to be International Effort and architecture which means sharing information so that were able to identify individuals that might have plans to carry out these devastating attacks, but also find out who is some of the masterminds behind orchestrating these attacks and inside of syria, in raqqa, which is one of the major cities in northeastern syria, that is the place where a lot of external plotting takes place. So there is a multidimensional and a multiple Geographic Area effort to do as much damage to isil, at the same time a lot of the factors and conditions that led to its growth need to be address. It is not just as trying to dismantle as much as possible in iraq and syria but trying to address some of those sectarian tensions as well as those deepseeded feelings of alienation that a number of communities have there. The government in baghdad, the government in damascus, really needs to be seen as much more representative of the peoples of those countries. Whether or not they can be put back after all of this devastation i think is something to be determined. Certainly the United States is trying to keep those countries whole. I have a handful of questions that i do want to get to from all the folks here but i do want to ask a question that spins off of what you just said because certainly countering the terrorist threat, isil in particular is front and center on our national agenda, but over the years, we were talking earlier about the fact that im working on a book on the history of intelligence going back to the spanish armada, trying to derive lessons about what makes for winning in the intelligence context. One of the things that is important is strategic warning. And the more we focus on a single adversary, the more vulnerable we are to strategic surprise. How are we dealing with strategic surprise today and warning problem . If we, if we think of warnings seeley in the context of the highest requirements of policymakers, were still staring in an in box. That may be tactical warning in the sense were already looking there. But a savvy adversary will look where were not looking and try to operate there. Strategic warning, therefore is particularly challenging because you almost have to get outside the policymakers in box and say what is the policymaker not thinking about that could bite us where were, where were most vulnerable . Are you satisfied were correctly positioned on strategic warning today . I have come to realize the world is a very big place. The United States is the worlds sole superpower, from a political, economic, military perspective, no matter what happens anywhere on this globe, the United States is looked to, to help to try to address the problems that are there. No other country has either, that capability, potential capability as well as that reputation as well as looked to. So while were dealing with the situation in syria and iraq or libya or north korea, we also have to be worried what is going on in venezuela. Is it close to some type of an implosion . What is going on in the Central African republic. What is happening in south sudan. Are we looking back at potential humanitarian devastation or genocide. So the cia, which has a global responsibility, we are frequently the organization working with our partners in the Intelligence Community that has asked for whats happening because we have people around the globe. We have relationships with Security Services around the globe and, although were focused on maybe a big issue today dominating our in box like turkey and the coup that was attempted last week we can not lose sight of what is going on other places because we keep having to pivot from one to the next to the next. And so are we positioned for that strategic warning . The demands have gone up. The demand signal has gone up as far as what policymakers want from intelligence in terms of the insight, the knowledge, the information about what the situation is, what the opportunities are, what the, what the dynamics are underway. And what we need to do is to make sure that were able to optimally utilize our resources so that we have as much coverage as possible on all these additional issues, regional, country, functional. Which is why we decided as an organization last year that we were going to restructure because i am a very strong believer that integration of effort and capability and expertise and tools will give you much greater ability to address multiple issues simultaneously. And i felt that the organizations structure of the cia was not optimally configured to give us that. And i think this is going to allow to us have a better opportunity to insure that various regions of the world have constant attention of cia officers who are working together to identify what might be over the horizon. It is not just a question of whats blazing today. It is what is starting to emerge and you need to have a variety of professional experiences, a variety of background and experiences in order to understand what is happening because it may not be the type of political instability weve seen in the arab spring. It is something much more insidious, something much less obvious. The Agency Working with our great partners at nga, nsa, and others are able to keep a watch over these areas and see if we can pick up some of those early indicators. I must say there are actions that individuals take that are difficult for us as Intelligence Community to discern in advance. The decisionmaking process inside of moscow is very closed and a lot resides in the head of one individual, in consultation with others. So they can make decisions very quickly, might not be able to have any type of advance warning on. So, this is increasingly a challenge. That is why we need to make sure that we are as best positioned as possible to be able to dedicate as many resources to as many of these problems as possible. So, speaking of getting inside of the heads of hard target countries leaders, how are we doing on iran . Are you confident we have the capabilities we need to monitor the iranian agreement . I am confident that the u. S. Intelligence community is second to none in terms of its ability to look for the signs, the indications, that things are happening that may be inconsistent with the agreement that iran reached. We also have the benefit of having a very intrusive, inspection regime as far as iaea is concerned. So there are a number of different features of that agreement that compliments what it is that the u. S. Intelligence community is able to do, which is then further complimented by a number about other intelligence agencies worldwide keen interest in trying to detect whether or not iran is trying to circumvent some of these arrangements as well as working on the terrorist front or trouble making front or ballistic missiles. So i am never going to say we have perfect view or insight but i do believe that the weight of the Intelligence Community, the capabilities of this Intelligence Community, are dedicated appropriately to deal with that type of eventuality. Okay. I have a number of questions here on your modernization program, particularly your centers, so could you talk a little bit more about the rationale behind the centers and whether, whether they have made a difference and where the problems have been, if there have been any. The whole concept behind cias modernization effort was to try to leverage in a more integrated fashion, as i mentioned, tremendous capabilities, expertise, authorities the agency has. Having worked at agency in my first stint for 25 years and working with it from the white house and now, i felt the cias structure, which was really started in the 50s and the early 60s and stayed with the directorate structure, did not allow our officers to be able to interact with one another in a way that i believe is very empowering. I had some great opportunities throughout my career working in cias counterterrorism center, working as part of the National Counterterrorism center standup, to be part of efforts where you have people from different backgrounds, different agencies and departments, who have different data sets and different ways to look at things. When you bring them together, i found it to be very enlightening for the people who are part of that team. We do it when theres a crisis. We form a task force. We bring it together, we need to have type of speed and integration of effort to deal with this crisis. Well, if we need it for a crisis, why arent we doing it on a regular basis . To me were facing crises on regular every day. The military went through process with goldwaternichols in 80s. I cant think of if we still had services separate from each other. The integrated command demonstrates we can gain more from the individual parts if were able to integrate them in a common mission. I know people raised questions, youre bringing analysts together with case officers and operations officers and is this going to affect the integrity and objectivity of analysts . And i met with a new group of analysts earlier this week and i told them that, as an analyst, you should be thirsting for whatever data, whatever input, whatever additional perspectives you can get because that really is going to allow you to put all of those pieces together, and then for you to do the analysis and bring your tradecraft expertise to bear in order to provide the type of assessment and also finish analysis to the policymaker. Operations officers and case officers who spent many, many years overseas, they have some real feel for what is going on in these societies and these cultures. So the analysts want that type of input and interaction. So the construct is we have six regional centers, for functional centers, each one of our now five directorates have deployed officers there. Theyre working as teams. I want the motherships of directorates to fuel and support these Mission Centers. They should be providing the type of assistance and help that they need and people in the center should be receiverring back to the mothership for additional, you know, help or assistance or the tools. We have responsibility in Intelligence Community for open source, the open source an enterprize, has been a tremendous i think, advantage as far as to fulfill our various missions and were trying to deploy more and more of open source specialists into our Mission Centers because whether or not youre doing analysis or operations or targeting or liaison work, anything, having ability to leverage those, the open source environments, and open source tools and bring it together with your clandestinely acquired information is just so enriching in terms of how were able toe understand and create new knowledge. And by having the centers where officers of different backgrounds, different tradecraft experiences and capabilities, it is to get i think a very empowering environment that will allow the agency to a better opportunity to cover the worlds challenges more effectively and more efficiently. Does that help bridge with the policy community having been on the policy side . Are the sort of the bellybuttons into the Intelligence Community for policymaking as well . Absolutely. What we are trying to do is limit greater coherence to the agency to all of us within the agency understand how we can interoperate with one another more effectively. But also its much more understandable for the outsider in the past people would say i want to go to the agency for this issue. What aspect do want to go to . Now have assistant directors of the cia who are responsible for the near east or africa or counterterrorism, counter proliferation. From the outside they have counterparts, assistant secretary, senior directors. So it is much more hospitable for people to engage with the agency because it is a more coherent organizational structure. Right. I have two questions and maybe its because theres part of me that Still Old School and im not, i been out of the Intelligence Community for some years, but two questions come to mind. The first one is counterintelligence but im not sure i understand why counterintelligence is the center instead of a directorate. Counterintelligence i believe is been for years misunderstood or underplayed in the u. S. Intelligence establishment. I wonder how it operates as a center, and why a decision was made not to think of it as a resource, and agencywide resource that can feed into the other centers . Thats questionable when. Question number two is i wondered about the limits of integration, frankly, because one of the things about the community is the richness of the diversity of the culture within the community. I know we all talk about integration as being an important thinker it was one of the lessons we learned from 9 11. On the other hand, when people are being asked to risk their lives as you well know, there is something to the culture, something to the mothership that is important. All this talk about breaking down cultural walls, well, theres a purpose to that culture because it makes people feel as if each of the house with her back. So too much integration can sometimes break down that a spree decor, that sense of family, and it can also, i would worry that they would lead less diversity of you when you sit around the table and hash things out. The station chief coming back with his you on the political situation that is vastly different from an analytic view. So when i think about wanting to keep that vibrant diversity of view and that rich set of cultures within the Intelligence Community i wonder when weve reached the limit of integration . On the first issue, counterintelligence is a mission. It is absolutely a mission to a directorate represent capabilities. A directorate of operations, analysis, signs, technologies, support and Digital Innovation. Does need to infuse the mission throughout the organization. The Counterintelligence Center is a mission itself is like counter proliferation and counterterrorism the it has in why responsibilities. But its not the capability. Against of the operation, analysis, science, technology and no deterrent the nation. Thats what it is a missioncentric all those Mission Centers our missions. The directorates represent the capabilities that are therefore deeply. On integration, right. There is a balance that need to be struck. Just like you dont want to have everybody independent and separate from one another. What you dont want to do is bring everybody together because its just impossible. What is the right balance . What were trying to do is not to diminish in any way that cultures that develop in different parts of the agency over the last few years. Just like the marines identity that esprit de corps of the marine corps was not diminished anyway by goldwaternichols. They still have the pride of being a marine. Same thing in the only. Air force and marines. Same things in the cia. Theres a great pride in being a case operations officer, great pride in being what i think is the Gold Standard of analysis being an analyst in the cia. We want to leverage that the bring together so that they are able to interact with one another in a manner that empowers both of the capabilities and mission. When i look out, i was part of this to the National Counterterrorism center and we could create a selfsustaining organization but the real challenge in setting it up from scratch was how youre going to make sure that it interoperates with the rest of the counterterrorism ecosystem. That ecosystem is embedded within a Intelligence Community ecosystem which is part of the National Steady system and the government. So the real challenge looking out in the next administration will have this certainly, how are you going to ensure that you design a system so that you have the optimal advantage of the capabilities, the networks, the authorities, the expertise that resides in the u. S. Governments that is bigger than any of the government that has tremendous capability so its not just a question of putting together the i. T. Architecture that will facilitate and enable interaction. It is putting together the nation architecture that allows you to leverage the data, the authorities, the people, the expertise, the operational authorities, whatever, and doing it at the speed of light. You can always migrate more into it. The engineers are the ones i look to to try to ensure that individual components are configured in an optimal fashion. Those components interact with the rest of the environment in optimal fashion. I think its very important for us to have Dynamic Structures that you are able to continue to adapt. The operating environment were in right now is changing at the speed of light. The Technological Innovations that have come forward over the last decade have profoundly changed the intelligence business. Cia having to operate clandestinely overseas in an environment where the Digital Domain is so ubiquitous and everything we do we pick up digital dust, how are we going to be able to operate whether it be in russia, china, where ever and do it anonymously, without any trace of an intelligence mission. This is something that is very challenging. Exactly. If theres one thing ive learned from looking at some kind of intelligence history, it is that the successful Intelligence Services have had publicprivate partnerships, working to support the government. Over and over again the private sector has been crucial to getting decision advantage. How are we doing on working with the Public Sector . We took some big hits. Snowden, the whole discussion over encryption. How do we build partnerships with our Industry Private sector colleagues likes we have many of them in the room tonight and we are very grateful for their support, but what can we do to get a stronger, more robust relationship . We have some tremendous partners here tonight and with longstanding relationships that go back since our founding. We are exceptionally grateful for those partnerships. Yes, as a result of unauthorized disclosures we took a number of hits from companies who were very concerned about having a relationship with the Intelligence Community exposed which could affect them. A number of ceos and boards of directors were almost pleading with the Intelligence Community to have them compelled to provide support or certain types of data. And that couldnt happen in many instances, and they basically said given their fiduciary responsibilities that they could not absorb the costs associated with some type of exposure that because of the view of the public as well as others, that any type of relationship with a Intelligence Community was going to taint them in terms of their commercial interests. I think weve been able to overcome a lot of that. We have tremendous interaction with people, not just youre in the washington, d. C. Area. A lot of support in Silicon Valley and other areas to recognize the Intelligence Community is essential to keeping this country secure and ensure its future prosperity. I do think there needs to be much more candid discussion and honest discussion publicly about the role of government in the Digital Domain. This is what is really i think going to affect our ability, Intelligence Community, to keep this country safe. Unfortunately, there have been a polarization editor i think a dishonest sort of representation about what it is the government is doing and what the government wants to do. I was at an event or a very, very wellknown technologist basically said, explaining encryption and then said well, thats why when the government said they dont want encryption, it is wrong. The government wants encryption to the government wants strong encryption. We rely heavily on that but what we need to do is Love National discussion as well as National Consensus about what is the appropriate role of government in the Digital Domain . When we have adversaries both nationstates as well as organizations as well as individuals who can do tremendous damage to his undertaking for vantage of that environment but yet a lot of that environment is totally walled off from the governments ability to care for its people and fulfill its primary responsibility is the security of the country. The debate that was raised between the fbi and others in terms of access to data on a mobile device, you can put on a mobile device now information and data that would take up many different warehouses in terms of text and photos and other types of data that could be instrumental much in terms of in cold with torey information but also give us insight into what devastating attack we might be facing. So if were going to let individual companies decide what the government should and should not be able to access to, i equate it to the bank has a safety deposit box and a judge issues a warrant based on probable cause. The bank is obligated to open that up. I know a lot of people refer to backdoors and other things but im very sympathetic to jim comey and others were saying we need to be able to find a way that we optimized privacy and Civil Liberties and the security of that environment. But at the same time allow the government to fulfill its responsibility for caring for the american people. I think there has not been an honest discussion on this issue. I recommend to folks that of a Congressional Commission that would be set up the beginning of the next administration. It really is going to take many years to be able to have this discussion that were going to have the Public Sector and the private sector come together. This is not a government, you cannot have a government solution to this. The private sector owned and operated 90 of unit. There needs to be this type of interaction and understanding about what the governments role is and what the private sectors responsibilities are. Is fundamentally a matter of trust, is it not . One of the elements of trust is this oversight process, giving congress involved in a collaborative effort to have this conversation. Out oversight institutions Strong Enough for the discussion on the hill . Is this a likely prospect . Among all the 9 11 Commission Recommendations that came out from that report, the executive branch carried out many of them if not most of them. But the recommendations about restructuring of the Congressional Committee structure was never acted upon. A number of committees of jurisdiction are looking at the specs of this issue. Its not just an intelligence issue. Its not just an issue related to Homeland Security or related to the judiciary. It needs to be something that is going to be comprehensive because that Digital Domain, that environment is were most activity is taking place and more and more of it will take place there. I do think having a Congressional Commission that is composed of the government and the private sector, that they can work through these issues and come up with a way forward in terms of how we are going to optimize the various objectives, they can maintain security, but also ensuring that the government is not going to trample those Civil Liberties, privacy rights that this country is founded on. We only have a couple of minutes left but a want to ask a couple of questions that ive received and also im quite curious about. Related to recruitment into the cia and what youre looking for in terms of people to come in and help with the nation. As part of the inode youve launched an important diversity initiative. Can you speak a little bit how it feels to be an employee at cia from a diversity perspecti perspective . I cant speak personally to that. But i can speak to the people that ive interacted with and that we at cia have launched a major initiative. Asked Vernon Jordan to lead a group of individuals to take a look at our records and he came out with a study and recommendations that we made public that really i think health is to account for not realizing the very laudable objective we set for ourselves the last couple decades. We are so missiondriven all of the strategic initiative, sometimes fall by the wayside as we have to do with inbox issues. We have made it a major part of our modernization and mission effort to bring in as the first the workforce as possible. I can see no other agency that can make a stronger case for diversity than cia. We have to cover the world. We have to understand the worlds problems come the worlds challenges and opportunities. That requires the perspectives of a diverse workforce, so what were kind of do also is maybe update some of our security practices. In the past a number of people hit a wall because they still came in a certain country and were not able to resolve some outstanding issues that made our Security Professionals had come up with 20 years ago. So we need to recognize that if were going to have the variety of experiences, the linguistic capabilities that we need as well as the ability to operate globally, we need to bring that rich diversity into the organization. Im proud of the work we have done but we still love work to do. Great. I think we are at, am i correct . Do we have more time . Sorry . Time for one more question. All right, im sorry to do this to you, but i have to ask. Always the last question last night. I was hoping we could have more time to ask this question. We have one candidate running for president who is talked about enhanced interrogation and torture. [laughter] i know this is a very sore subject but it goes back to our discussion about trust and i dialogue with the american people. What is your advice to Incoming Administration on this question . As the threats rise in peoples fear rise, is it a bad idea to think about enhanced interrogation and torture in changing those goalposts again or do you think we are in exactly the right place . The art of the right of dimensions to this issue and question. As you know the agency carried out at the direction of the president a detention and Interrogation Program that was duly authorized by the commanderinchief who like all programs of the agencies involved in, it was rooted in a president ial finding. It was reviewed repeatedly by the department of justice and deemed to be lawful. In terms of the parameters of those past interrogation techniques that were approved. The cia in the application of those, a number of incidents made mistakes, made bad mistakes. And individuals are held to account for the. But we had no expense in putting together a program like the. I think we were illprepared to do it but like we have done throughout our history when the nation calls, the agency does its best to salute. Thats what cia boots with the first boots on the ground in afghanistan two weeks after 9 11. Thats why cia blood was shed and First American killed in afghanistan was a cia officer. Two months after 9 11. We do our level best to make sure that our families, friends, neighbors and colleagues in the state are kept safe by doing what were asked to do. This program was an example of the. I think we learned lessons. We make adjustments in terms of our covert action programs. We will continue to do everything we can to prevent these types of testing attacks that weve seen recently. I have to ask the director of the cia take into account a number of factors. The cia suffered in many respects as a result of that program, and the mistakes that we made but also the rampant misrepresentation, the mischaracterization of the agencys work during the period of time. Thats why when i look at the Senate Report on the detention and Interrogation Program, it makes my blood boil. Because although there are lot of things in there that were accurate, it really just focused and showed a bright light on the shortcomings of the agency during a period of time. If it was that anymore objective nonpartisan and fair fashion it would have put those shortcomings into a better context. But i believe there was no agency more responsible for preventing a recurrence of 9 11 and cia. Unfortunately, that report i think misrepresented the totality of the worth of that program. I as an intelligence professional, i can say with great confidence that information that was gleaned from individuals who were subjected to that, some of that information was useful in stopping attacks and catching terrorists. As an intelligence professional, as an analyst i can also say that i cannot establish the cause and effect between the application of those the yankees and what an individual simply provided. For individuals who are not subjected to those eits to give up information, from individuals who subjected to those they gave up a lot of information as well. Causeandeffect is something i cannot establish. What i take all that into account and look at what happened to the agency and the difficulties we endured as a result of the aftermath, and some peoples selective memory about what they were briefed on and what they had countenanced, to take into account what at the same time i personally believe that we can fulfill our counterterrorism responsibilities and not resort to those eits. So when
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