By either the executive legislative or judicial branches of the federal government has affected you and your life or your community. The competition is open to students in grades six through 12 and students may work alone or in groups of up to three. Contestants are asked to produce a five to seven minute video documentary supporting their chosen topic and to include some cspan programming. That 100,000 in cash prizes will go to 150 students and that the three teachers and the grand prizewinner for the best overall entry will win 5000. The deadline for entry this year is january 20, 2015 and winners will be announced in march. Visit www. Studentcam. Org for more information on this years contest the three branches and you. Today the Senate Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on terror threats, including from global computer hackers, the militant group isis and homegrown terrorists. Officials from the department of Homeland Security, the fbi and the office of the director of National Intelligence testified. This is an hour and 45 minutes. We will hear from the department of Homeland Security about how they can best keep america safe and from those who would seek to carry out deadly attacks against our country and its people. We also hear about actors in cyberspace who want to drain our bank accounts, shut down our fragile systems, our electric grid, steal our identical identifiable information as well as the r d that will enable american businesses and the military to remain preeminent in the world. Accessing these everchanging broad threats and making sure government continues to hone its ability to stop is a toprated for this committee particularly as we approach another 9 11 anniversary. This year hearing takes on added significance as our nation confronts a growing terrorist threat in iraq and syria. As we sit here today are here today or militaries engage in limited airstrikes in iraq and the to dislodge them or tell that threat. Later this evening president obama will address our nation. Hes expected to share with us on the world the steps he is recommending be taken in iraq and syria to reverse the expansion of the Islamic State of iraq and syria and to enable the people who live in those countries to reclaim their lives. Much of the world has been exposed to a steady stream of deeply disturbing images from those regions in recent weeks. Brutal executions, human rights atrocities, repression of women and the seemingly endless possession of mass militants defiantly waving the flag of jihad in celebration of their brutality. Effectively addressing the threat from the newly proclaimed Islamic State will require multifaceted strategy and that strategy will need a military component and a Robust International coalition to execute. Among the goals about strategies to ensure the Islamic State of israel and syria also known as the isis does not establish a longterm safe haven from which it can launch attacks against our allies or our homeland much like we saw al qaeda to in the days before 9 11. Today we will examine the steps are government has taken along with the steps we still need to take to prevent this from happening. We will drill down on the threat and its impact on our homeland both in this open hearing as well as in a classified briefing directly following. That is not all we are going to do. In addition to examining the conventional terrorist threats the instability in iraq and syria may pose we will also closely examine another major threat that affects our homeland and thats daily cyberattacks. Everyday nationstates and their affiliates, criminals, terrorists, and hackers launch cyberattacks against government agencies, our businesses and important parts of our daily lives such as utilities, financial networks. Some of these actors want to steal information to sell it on the black market or to gain a competitive edge. Others are trying to make a political point. Somehow some would like to use a cyberattack to cause widespread damage or physical harm. Many of them are good at it. And they are getting even better. We need to stay a step ahead of them. Today we will hear the open portion of his hearing and the closed portion on how we plan to do that. And the steps we are taking to address terror threats in the wake of 9 11. Congress clearly has a role to play here. Actually several roles. One of them is an oversight ro role. As one that we take very seriously. Others are legislative roles that involves developing legislation to help enable america to anticipate and repel the cyberattacks that we face on an almost daily 24 7 basis. In the last several months this committee has completed action and reported three separate cyberbills unanimously to the full senate. One bill would significantly enhance the capabilities of the department, and security cyberworkforce. Another way to protect federal agencies from cyberattack and a third were codified the cyber center at the department of Homeland Security uses to monitor and respond to the attacks to strengthen its ability to do so. Im grateful to dr. Copeland and his staff are working closely with us on each of those pieces of legislation. Yesterday an oped in the hill newspaper by j. Jones to recognize bipartisan process on this committee and we talked about the legislation in congress. I could not agree more. In closing as we mark the anniversary of 9 11 tomorrow lets keep in mind when of the key lessons we have learned since that fateful day some 13 years ago and that is the threat is always evolving. Not that long ago kirksey is to rob a bank to steal her money. Now they click a button on a distant computer and accomplish the same goal. Nationstates used to employ corporate insiders to steal company secrets. Now they send a spear fishing email. Terrasys to be introduced threats in the mountains in places like afghanistan and now increasing numbers are homegrown and maybe using european or american passports. As the threat becomes more sophisticated more elusive and more diffuse we need to remain ever vigilant to ensure our government is nimble enough to keep up with tomorrows threats as they confront us. We have come a long way since 9 11. In many respects we are more secure than we were 13 years ago but the world in which we live remains a dangerous place and theres always more work to do. When it comes to securing our homeland anticipating the next directly onto the american it to the American People to strive for perfection. As it says in the preamble of the constitution in order to form a more Perfect Union that wasnt the idea to form a union but a more Perfect Union and it took 110 years to approach perfection even if we have never achieved it but got as close as we could. The costs are too severe. Pleased to have a panel of witnesses who Work Together every day to tackle the terrorists and cyberthreats we face. We are grateful to each of you for what you do with your life and for your service to our country. Now i turn to my partner in all this doctor coburn for any remarks that he might wish to make. Dr. Coburn. Well thank you mr. Chairman. I concur ill live with what you said. I want to thank each of our witnesses for testimony. One for what you do a number to cover your vigilance and number three for the criticism you take. Where i would disagree with senator carper is i dont think we are any safer. I think the threat to our country is just as great as it was pre9 11. Based on what is happening in the world, the absolute lack of control of our borders specially our seven border and the inability and the corruption on both sides in terms of Law Enforcement on the border. So i think we have a long ways to go but i know we have dedicated leadership now in all the areas that are concentrating on the same goal. I think its a shame that the leader of the senate wont put a cybersecurity bill on the floor. One that creates true informationsharing. Let the Senate Debate it so we can actually start to really protect the cyberaspect of our government and that requires all of us to Work Together in the cyberrealm to ensure we are vulnerable today. We have seen both at Homeland Security and in the private sector significant breaches. They will continue. Most of them are on nationstate actors, china and russia specifically. We should not fall back from talking about what they are doing and why they are trying to both steal our intellect and damage our economy. These are real issues. This is an important hearing for the American People to hear and in as much detail as possible whats going on and where we need to improve. Again i thank you all for your efforts. The fbi and the nctc are valuable contributions and having the privilege of sitting on both intel and Homeland Security i get to see as well as anybody what everybody is doing and everybody is working in the right direction except the u. S. Senate. My hope would be that we would start helping you rather than hurt you. I yield back. I would like to associate myself with your remarks and my colleagues from oklahoma. We need to move not just the three cyber bills reported out of this committee i think unanimously that some version of informationsharing. I hope is that we will have a chance to do at least those for this year. Thats my goal. If we can do more, god bless us. We have members of our committee. Thank you for joining us today. Our first witness is a retired Brigadier General francis taylor. Mr. Taylors undersecretary for intelligence analysis in the department, security. How long have you been in the job now . Four months. He provides the secretary of dhs leadership in state and local and tribal and private sector partners with, Security Intelligence and information they need to keep our country safer. General taylor came to dhs for 31 years of service in the air force for years at the state department as counterterrorism coordinate or an assistant secretary for Diplomatic Security and eight years as Vice President at general electric. The second witness is james spauldings undersecretary for National Protection and Program Director at the department of Homeland Security. As undersecretary one of the responsibilities coordinating and overseeing policy and operation protection activities including cybersecurity. Mr. Spaulding spent more than 25 years working on National Security issues in congress and executive branch in the private sector. This includes extensive experience working with many Critical Infrastructure. Welcome. Our next witness is Nick Rasmussen Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism center for the office of director of National Intelligence. Mr. Rasmussen has served on the National Security council and is responsible for providing Staff Support of the president National Security adviser and Homeland Security adviser in counterterrorism policy and strategy. Prior to this he served in a variety of key positions within a the purpose debris provided support for the arabisraeli Peace Process in u. S. North korean agreed framework in the persian gulf security issues. Welcome this morning. Our final witness is Robert Andersen executive assistant director of criminal Cyber Response in the Services Branch of the federal bureau of investigation. In this position mr. Anderson oversees all fbi criminal and cyberinvestigations worldwide and national operations. A Critical Incident response and victims assistance. During the 20 years he has worked at the fbis mr. Anderson served in the Hostage Rescue Team Counterintelligence Division and the Intelligence Division as well. What did you do before you were part of the fbi . Sir i . Sir of the delaware state trooper for nine years. Were you any good . I hope so. Were you ever trooper of the year . Yes sir i was in 1989. Did you ever escort the former governor . He pulled me over time or two. One other time fired a warning shot. No damage was done. Great to see you and thanks for what you did for us and for our country now. Our testimony will be made part of the record and what i would ask you to do your testimony in five minutes. General taylor if you would like to lead us out. Thank you chairman carper and Ranking Member coburn distinguished members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss threats to the homeland and environment. Im mindful that tomorrow is the 11th of september and i vividly remember where i was on that day 13 years ago sitting at the state department as the coordinator for counterterrorism. What has changed since 2001 . Are we any safer now . These are questions that have been repeated countless times since that tragic day and rightfully so. I come before the committee today to outline lessons we have learned since 9 11 and how we are postured to address evolving threats in ways that we did not of september 10, 2001. The key lesson we have learned from 9 11 is the need to develop an actual Homeland Security enterprise that constantly collaborates and shares information and intelligence to identify threats and risks and to adjust operations as necessary to address the range of challenges the nation faces. Partners with in the Homeland Security enterprise are the First Responders at the local level or decisionmakers in the Capital Cities across america or here to Nations Capital require predictive intelligence and analytical products that help them make informed decisions to protect our citizens. The cornerstone of our mission at dhs has always been and remains protecting the nation against terrorist attacks. In fact secretary johnson just yesterday reiterated that counterterrorism is their most Important Mission at dhs. We are vigilant in detecting and preventing terrorist threats that may seek to penetrate the homeland of land, sea or air. I will first address the current terrorist environment and then discuss threats to our efforts as they relate to each of the secretaries for priorities. Mr. Chairman mindful of the time limit, i will submit other remarks for the record and summarize just a couple of things. First on terrorism al qaeda and al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and their affiliates remain a major concern for the department of Homeland Security. Despite Senior Leadership the group maintains antenna capability to conduct attacks against u. S. Citizens and facilities and have demonstrated the ability to adjust their tactics, techniques and procedures for targeting the west in innovative ways. The Islamic State of iraq and lenfant is a terrorist Group Operating as a military organization and their experiences and successes on the battlefields of syria and iraq have armed them with the capabilities most terrorist groups do not possess. At present dhs is unaware of any specific credible threat to the u. S. Homeland and isil and we recognize that isil constitutes an active and serious threat within the region and could attempt attacks on u. S. Targets overseas with little or no warning. Isil is a sophisticated propaganda capability disseminating highquality media content on multiple on line platforms including social media to enhance its appeal. Media accounts of the conflict in the propaganda in particular play a role in inspiring u. S. Citizens to travel to syria. We are aware that a number of persons, more than 100 have either made their way or have tried to make their way to syria over the past few years to join the International Foreign fighters. I will conclude with aqap has attempted three times to attack the u. S. Homeland. The airliner plot in december of 2009 in an attempt against a u. S. Bound carb u. S. Bound cargo plane and an airline plot in may of 2012 demonstrate their efforts to adapt to Aviation Security procedures and underscore why Aviation Security is there prior to area outlined by secretary johnson. In response to these recent threats overseas over the past two months dhs has taken steps to enhance Aviation Security at overseas airports with direct flights to the United States and other nations have followed suit with similar enhancements. Mr. Chairman i will conclude my remarks and if you would allow me to submit the rest for the record. Thank you general. Its great to see you. Please proceed. Thank you distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today particularly pleased to be here with my colligan secretary taylor and our partners from the federal bureau of the counterterrorism center. I will amplify with regard to the threat to cybersecurity and to discuss the actions with our partners to understand and address these threats both information and capability building. First however i also want to note as we approach this 13th anniversary of the attacks on 9 11, three efforts that we have underway to heighten public vigilance and public awareness. This month, september is National Preparedness month. October is National Cybersecurity awareness month. We focus on enhancing the resilience of this nation against cyberthreats novembers Critical Infrastructure security and resilience month. All three of these are key Mission Areas for the department and all require daily collaboration with our stakeholders in the private sector and government at all levels. Growing Cyber Threats are an increasing risk to Critical Infrastructure, to our economy, and to our National Security. Dhs uses cybersecurity information to reduce risk, to detect and block cyberattacks on federal civilian agencies, to help Critical Infrastructure entities improve their own protection and also to use the information that we developed collaboratively to protect their customers. We maintain a trusted environment for the private sector partners to collaborate on cybersecurity threats and trends. This trust is based in large part on our commitment to privacy, civil rights and Civil Liberties across all informationsharing programs with a particular emphasis on safeguarding personally identifiable information. So far this year, dh ass 24 by seven Cyberoperations Center come the National Cybersecurity Communications Integration center has processed over 600,000 cyber instances issued more than 10,000 actionable alerts, detected more than 55,000 vulnerabilities and dispatched over 78 Incident Response teams for onsite technical assistance. Let me tell you about one recent success. But in the last few weeks the United States secret service shared information on some malware with our cybersecurity op center for analysis. The results of that analysis form the basis for an actionable alert that was distributed widely to our Critical Infrastructure owners and operators and lead u. S. Businesses to check their systems for this malware and identify and stop ongoing cyber intrusions thereby protecting their customers data. While both the cybersecurity threat and the nations dependence on Cyber Infrastructure has grown exponentially, the Legal Framework particularly regarding the articulation of the departments authorities, has not kept pace. As the chairman and the Ranking Member have noted legislative action is important. Both the house and senate have made Real Progress on cybersecurity legislation. I would like to personally thank this committee for all of its hard work that has ensured progress on this front on a bipartisan basis. But we are not over the yet. As secretary johnson were today their areas of legislation the strong consensus codifying the cybersecurity responsibilities of a department of Homeland Security, making it easier for dhs and the private sector to Work Together to mitigate cyber vulnerabilities and enhance the ability to recruit and retain that essential cybersecurity workforce. These authorities are vital to ensuring that the department has the tools it needs to carry out its mission on behalf of the nation. While deliberations continue on other elements of cybersecurity legislation, we should not wait to pass bipartisan and broadly supported bills. You have come so far and the threat is so great. I urge congress to pass what it can now come even as we continue to work hard on remaining provisions. Let me close by emphasizing that dhss mission to security infrastructure requires us to focus on physical risks to that infrastructure as well as cyber risks because the majority of the nations Critical Infrastructure is all owned and operated by the private sector. Dhs worked with those partners primarily on a voluntary basis to understand the range of threats, share information and promote training and other capability building. Dhs and the department of energy along with other interagency interagency partners for example provide a classified and unclassified threat and we do this on a regular basis to the energy ceos and industry executives on physical and Cyber Threats. In the wake of a terrorist attack on a Shopping Mall in Nairobi Kenya dhs and fbi engaged more than 400 major malls across the United States to facilitate exercises based on a similar attack involving active shooters in the use of improvised explosive devices. Working collaboratively with what theyre private sector where advancing our core mission of strengthening the security and resilience of our nations Critical Infrastructure against cyber and physical threats. Chairman carper Ranking Member coburn thank you for this opportunity to testify today and i look forward to taking questions. Thank you very much ms. Balding. Mr. Rasmussen welcome aboard. Please proceed. Make sure your microphone is on please. Thank you chairman carper Ranking Member coburn and members of the committee for for the opportunity to testify today. Nctc director metals and i dont often testify in open hearings so today is an important opportunity we believe to share what we see is an evolving dynamic of terrorist threat and to share the understanding that the committee and the american public. Indeed earlier this summer 9 11 sound communicate about the threat and we hope to do just that. As i began this morning i would like to frame this evolving threat in broad terms generally applicable across the broad sweep of groups of individual groups and terrorist networks. The threat from terrorist groups we see today is geographically diffuse from a diverse array of factors and is proving overtime to be both resilient and adaptive to the counterterrorism pressure we are putting on it. The Global Justice Movement continues to increasingly decentralize itself both in terms of geography and commandandcontrol. Geographically speaking its no longer generally confined to the afghanistanpakistan and south asian reason region that covers a broad swath of territorys across the entire middle east the levant and Northern Africa and western africa as well. Of greatest concern of the terrorist groups such as isil that taken foothold in areas where governments is lacks in governments are unable to government for lack securities allow groups to coalesce train and plot. In terms of command and control they also see a trend of decentralization. With the amir of an qaeda affiliate in the Arabian Peninsula now serving as the general deputy to al qaeda leader ayman al zawahiri. Additionally the al qaeda core is increasingly encouraging individuals to act independently in support of the movement. Smallholder no longer Holding Expectations that leaders will clear plans with al qaeda Senior Leadership. In this evolution as a result of an adaptive enemy. Our Counterterrorism Operations continue to derail al qaedas attacks from its place in the fata but as result of leaks and disclosures including those attributable to Edward Snowden terrace now understand the scope and scale of western collection capabilities and they are changing the way they communicate. Theyre adopting Encryption Technology trade fair shifting accounts reporting the use accounts reporting these electronic medications all of which frustrate our counterterrorism efforts. In short we cannot connect the dots if we do not collect the dots that matter the most. Our collection is challenged in this new environment. The remaining time i would like to focus on three areas the threat from isil and aqap in the threat we face from homegrown extremist. Starting with a isil. The greatest threat from isil to the United States and its interests is inside iraq right now which combined the syria constitutes isils person there. As we move further isils ability to develop and execute largescale sophisticated attacks initiatives. This is not to say it does not pose a threat outside the region. It certainly desperate indeed the arrest in france of an individual and the subsequent discovery of explosive devices in his possession as well as the killing of four individuals in the Jewish Museum in belgium provide evidence and indication of a isils ambition to operate outside the middle east. Both the responsible individuals are permitted in europe who are in custody reportedly fought alongside isil elements in the middle east. However these examples also demonstrate that right now isils ability to carry out largescale attacks is currently limited. Left unchecked however that capabilities likely to grow. With over 2000 westerners now believed to be fighting in syria and iraq we assess the threat to europe is perhaps more immediate but nevertheless the United States is not a mean as the chairman and Ranking Member noted. Over 100 persons from a variety of backgrounds from all across the country have traveled or attempted to travel or somehow indicated intent to travel to the region including some who look to engage with isil. Most of these individuals are known or believed to have western travel documentation with reentry into the u. S. Or other countries which is why its a toprated for the United States and our partners. Thats why so so important the International Committee challenge isils ambitions now degrade their capabilities and overtime Work Together to defeat and destroy isil. Left unchecked isil opposes it increasing threat to governments it considers apostate. Middle eastern and south asian and african nations as well. But they quickly turned to al qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula. The continue to assess that aqap remains the al qaeda affiliate most likely to attempt to transnational attacks against United States. The groups repeated efforts to conceal explosive devices to destroy aircraft demonstrate his continued pursuit of highprofile attacks against the west. Its increasing awareness of western security procedures and their efforts to adapt to those procedures. The group also continues to present a high threat to u. S. Personnel and facilities inside yemen and saudi arabia and the anyone time we are tracking several plots to her and just inside yemen and inside the Arabian Peninsula hatched by al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The group also continues as the committee will knows to radicalize immobilize individuals outside of yemen for the use of inspire magazine der publication. The most recent issue its 12th issue of inspire was released in march and continues to encourage lone wolf and the lone offender attacks on the west citing specific targets in the United States u. K. And france. Let me also say a quick word about homegrown violent extremists. The boundless on line virtual environment we see today combined with tears increasingly sophisticated use of social media makes it increasingly difficult for us to protect our youth for messaging designed to radicalize and motivate to action homegrown violent extremists. We have nctc are working closely with our partners at dhs and the fbi and department of justice to inform and equip Families Communities local governments and local institutions all of them provide the best defense and have the greatest ability to counter the narrative of bioextremism in equities. Despite her efforts however it remains the most likely immediate threat to the homeland. Individual action by individuals. We expect the overall level of hd activity to remain the same as we have seen over the course of the next year and by that i mean we expect to see him full of uncoordinated and mostly in sophisticated plots emanating from a pool that amounts to a few hundred individuals. Last years boston bombing certainly underscore the threat with little or no warning to act violently by themselves or in small groups and as we have discussed with this committee these lone actors to act autonomously or the most difficult to detect. Mr. Chairman during your hearing you noted identifying and deterring plots is extremely challenging in the Homeland Security committee and i think everyone would agree with that assessment. Let me take one moment to talk about one of her efforts in ctc to a counter the array of events and that is to identify precisely by putting a face and into the threat whenever possible. As you know under the law nctc is charged with maintaining governments shared Knowledge Bank of known and suspected terrorists as well as their contacts and support networks. Nctc tied up with environment is a database of tears and ensures all relevant information collected about identified individuals including syrian foreign fighters all the information shared with intelligence Law Enforcement and screening agencies. Where absolutely realism efforts to ensure the data is as accurate as possible that as possible as it entered ackerley in the records are as comprehensive as they can possibly be and we are mindful of privacy and Civil Liberties concerns particularly with respect to u. S. Persons. In the case of u. S. Persons in a nomination to tie those two at least four layers of review including a legal level overview 10 should underline derogatory information is sufficient and meets established legal standards. Our management at nctc and this unique consolidation of identities as creative form for identifying and sharing information with our partners in the community. It has better integrated our efforts to identify and enhance individuals we suspected the syrian identities. This work greatly increases the chances we will disrupt potential terrorist activity by individuals as they seek to return from syria. In closing mr. Chairman and members of the committee we face an evolving decentralized threat from a diffuse set of actors who are adapting constantly to our countermeasures. Thats why nctc and their partners within the Intelligence Community must continue to adapt to this threat operating within the bounds of our existing authorities and resources. We appreciate the committees continued strong support in a separate semiwould encourage senators to visit nctc to see firsthand the breadth breath of the work we are doing with our partners are mr. Chairman and we have the honor posting on several Community Staff with nctc to talk in detail about those threats and i was gratified to see her interest in the work we are doing along with fbi dhs. Thank you again for this opportunity. Thank you and as i mentioned dr. Coburn and i not only enjoyed that meeting with you but we thank them for their service. It was very informative and frankly quite encouraging so thank you for that. Former trooper anderson its great to see you. Welcome. Please proceed. Thank you mr. Chairman, Ranking Member dr. Coburn and members of the committee. Thanks the opportunity to be a day to talk to you about the cyberterrorism threats to our nation and how we are working with partners to prevent and combat them. In my role as executive assistant director of the fbi is the chairman said i manage multiple divisions within the fbi but the two we will concentrate on is the cyberprogram. As the committee knows the number of cyberattacks attacks against emissions that would have increased or medically over recent years. We truly expect him to continue to climb and grow. I could break on the threats to our country in four broad categories from cyber. Spies, transnational organized sides organize terrorists and act as grocery the bottom line is we are losing a lot of data money ideas and innovation to a wide range of cyber adversaries. Fbi director comey has recognized this and the severity of the threat is made cyber one of the number one priorities in the fbi. Under his leadership the fbis continue strengthening our cybercapabilities and in the same way we enhanced our intelligence and National Security capabilities in the wake of 9 11. Todays fbis National Security enforcement opportunities as intelligence to prevent and respond to all types of threats. We constantly seek to understand the threats we face in each of our offices both here and abro abroad. What is out there, what we see in what we might be missing. We know to effectively combat the cyber threat we must continue to expand partnerships both in government and the private sector. In fact we expects director comey and dhs secretary thompson will soon sign a new cyberunified message for state and local Law Enforcement. This message makes it a federal agencies are working together to ensure that a call to one is a call to all. When Law Enforcement partners report information on a cyberattack or incident. Also for a Law Enforcement partners we launched the cybershield aligns an on line onestop shop that provides cybertraining as well as the ability to report Cyber Incidents to the fbi. Earlier this month we deployed malware repository and analysis system as a malware investigator. Our intelligence and Law Enforcement partners allows them to submit power directly to the fbi that we share with our partners for triage and analysis of whats going on in cyber. We are significantly enhancing our collaboration with the private sector in the past industry is provided information about attacks, we have investigated them but they really didnt share or provide information back. Now we are. As part of farnhams outreach we have identified sector specific threat briefings private companies over the past year alone. Over the past several months the fbi and the department of justice along with many partners at this table and abroad have announced this series of indictments on cyber criminals. Just to name a few on corp or forms which was indictment of the three hackers. Black shades ever had access to Computer Software that steal and infect hundreds of thousands of computers around the world. We are calling these indictments to near nuno because we expect them to continue. While the cyberthreat is one of the fbis highest priorities terrorism continues to be the Number One Party in the fbi. As complex emerge through many parts of our world we expect terrorist groups to use this instability to recruit and incite acts of violence. Syria remains a major concern as a ongoing conflicts shows subsiding. Due to the prolonged nature and the highvisibility of the searing conflict we are concerned that u. S. Persons who have an interest in committing geological beach on to that region and the world. We can address these issues much more in a closed session that follows the session and we look forward to doing that. In conclusion mr. Chairman to counter the threats we face we are engaging in an unprecedented level of collaboration. Within the United States government and our private sectors around the world and with the international Law Enforcement organizations that we each of the tabletop to each another every day. We look forward to continue to expand these partnerships and to work with the committee to defeat our cyberand terrorist adversaries. Thank you again very much for the opportunity to be here today and i would have been happy to answer questions you in the committee would have. Thank you mr. Anderson. Its good to see you and thank you for being a today. Our first question from maine would be for mr. Rasmussen and general taylor. One of the recurring themes in my life is to figure out what works and i want to play off of that for a moment. Go back seven years ago. Iraq the Sunni Awakening and the predecessor to isis was rolling along pretty well and then not so much. Due to the enlightened leadership of general petraeus, i think good work done by the Prime Minister of iraq working with tribal leaders. Al qaeda in iraq was greatly diminished. What can be gained or map doesnt it . Is there anything that can inform what we do today. One of the things we try to do is we try to think about the problem with isil to think of potential vulnerabilities that the group hasnt a to think of ways in which the progress they have made can be addressed. You point to some of the lessons from previous efforts against al qaeda in iraq and there i think we did learn the group very much struggled to gain legitimacy across a broader population of iraq when that population in iraq saw in baghdad they represented government responsive to their needs. The ongoing transition in baghdad they were saying now that you alluded to is an important step in potentially giving the sunni population in iraq a signal that they do not have to turn or rely ill lie with isil in order to have their issues addressed to feel they are represented and protected inside of iraq. Thats an important lesson learned. I think its one where we have seen progress in the last few weeks. Over time we will see if that kind of political transition actually has that effect we are looking to see. I dont know that we can say yet how quickly that will happen but its something i think was a necessary precondition to any strategy against isil. Thank you very much. General taylor and maybe for you nick. What if you or both of you mentioned the ability for isis till mount an effective attack against our homeland is limited. But its not time for us to sit back and assume its not going to calm but to prepare and be ready for it. What are some ways to prepare for that eventuality and to better prepare for it should it come . General taylor want it you lead off then. Certainly sir. As i mentioned we assess the threat from isil primarily to be in the region. Nonetheless with a number of european and american set have gone to fight in syria that threat can manifest itself either in europe or the u. S. I think we have begun with the Aviation Security changes we have made since july to make it more difficult for people to try to get the explosives onto an aircraft to bring those aircraft down that could be traveling to the u. S. We have increased our intelligence cooperation with our partners across the world in attempting to identify people who have gone to serve or to fight in syria. Intelligence is the one thing that helps us identify these individuals before they are able to act and using our Intelligence Systems to learn who they are makes us much more effective in interdicting down. And third i think the focus on getting our communities aware of the risks. Not everyone knows what cve is. Im sorry sir homegrown terrorist violence. As nick mentioned probably the most immediate threat comes from a homegrown violent extremists who listens to the propaganda, reads it and decides that he or she are going to answer the call and take up arms here in the u. S. Community awareness, resilience around these issues with our Law Enforcement partners in the field so they understand what those elements are and what to look for is they encounter folks in communities. I think its a big step towards helping communities learn about this early so we can respond. Thank you. The only thing i would add mr. Chairman two things. One related to often someone related to defense. If youre going to get ahead of isils efforts to develop the thread capability we have to shrink the safe safe haven and attack the safe haven inside iraq. Thats something i know the president secretary of state have spoken to in talking to our foreign partners overseas. Additional western potential operatives into iraq for syria in a safe haven in potentially trained equip and deploy them back to europe in the United States will remain a threat. The more defensive piece of business i think we are engaged in right now that we are making progress on his aggressive informationsharing with all of our foreign partners they face a similar problem. This is an issue we have been engaged with them for going on 18 months engaging with our partners many of whom face this problem more acutely than they do for an easier route and certainly easier path to travel to syria and iraq. Unlike a lot of the situations where its difficult to talk with partners about informationsharing this is a case where we are getting little pushback. They share the same sense of threat so the information we are able to about individuals who travel to syria or iraq can be used potentially to add to or watch listing and screening systems and give us one significant leg up in her efforts to disrupt travel when individuals seek to leave syria and iraq. That is not failsafe and by no means the same pillar of deferred but its an Important Pillar and one that is noise easy to get our partners to work with us on. Its making that level of interchangeable or robust than it often is. Banks it in my time has expired. When we come back may be in our closed session i want to visit the issue of informationsharing and reauthorization information sharing either in open session of the closed session. Dr. Coburn. I hope the media that here today listen to what you have to say. Its a very cogent, open assessment of where we are. Not on the basis to scare people but on the basis to inform them of where we really are. I think the other thing that i would comment on is im really happy to see the fbi being aggressive on deterrence because for so long we thought we could build a higher wall that people cant climb over. They will climb over every wall and cyberthat we have. We have to have both efforts. We have to have the law but we also have to have the prosecutorial deterrence that says its going to be painful. So im very thankful for that attitude coming from the fbi and hope to see more and more both domestically and internationally because of the cost. General taylor let me ask you a couple of questions. Has ina produced and made products in examining the visa program and whether it poses a threat to National Security . Yes sir, we have. We have published several threat pieces to support the Student Visa Program and the risks that come from that particular program working with i. C. E. And cbp. Are those public or are those classified . I believe they are classified senator coburn but i will check. I will ask more questions in the closed hearing. Its reported that millions of People Living on these overstays dhs is struggling with this population we understand that. In the assessment of threat from a population that i it overstats a certain opinion of them on that . We have helped i. C. E. To prioritize its focus on the these overstays from a threat perspective. From my staff has been cooperative by the way, when we review the documents what we see today is approximately 700 miles of our southern border that are not secure. That is looking at the documents that you all gave us. Can you all prepare a Current Assessment of the coverage at the border and a threat to National Security posed by adversaries that potentially might transcend that border . Sir if i understand your question you are asking me cannily or have we . I am asking can we get on the basis of where we stand . Absolutely yes sir and i would also add sir that the secretary has directed a comprehensive southern Border Security strategy which will have an intelligence annexed to it that will address what youve just described, the risk to the border and how we can better focus our efforts in securing those gaps that we identify our existing. Do you have a timeline on that . We just approved it. At least the concept we are beginning to put meat on the bones so i can give an exact date but i will certainly have the staff check and get back to you. Thank you. Mr. Anderson does the fbi monitor cyberattacks against the federal government . We werent to monitor cyberattacks around the world and the federal government but also the private sector. Can you tell me which major departments of the federal government that havent been hacked . I dont know if i can tell you that off the top of my head. I would probably have to go back and look. I agree that the current director that they havent been hacked, i dont know they havent been hacked or we havent realized. They have all been hacked. If you would, would you go back and give us a list of what your record show and you can do that in a secure setting or in an open session. I would like to see what you all see on that. I mentioned the deterrence and im pleased with that because i think you have to have both sides of the sword working. The rest of my questions i think mr. Chairman are for classified setting so i will wait and ask those of nick and suzanne and others in the classified meeting. And senator johnson senator mccain and senator baldwin senator portman and senator ayotte. I would like to associate myself with senator coburns comments about the need for us to face this reality. The need that the American People need to be in. Not about scaring people but facing reality. General taylor you started asking are we safer . I want to break that question down to two parts. One is do we have greater defensive capability to keep us safe but then has the threat grown . I does want your assessment of both of those. What is your assessment over the last 13 years in terms of our defense capabilities and by the way what is hampering our efforts you now and then really your assessment of the growing threat. Thank you senator. As i mentioned i was state department coordinated for counterterrorism on 9 11 and party to her efforts then and have watched the government change its approach to this and indeed our capacity to share information to Work Together is as good as its ever been in the history of our country. We work every day with the fbi with the nctc in gathering information and sharing data so in that sense i think our capacity is much more effective than it was 13 years ago. There is always room for improvement and change but i think the leadership of the ct leadership understands if we dont cooperate that things will happen. The nature of the threat is i think nick characterized it best in 9 11 2001 we were focused on al qaeda and afghanistan. Today ill qaeda, al qaeda hearings adherence and other operating in north africa and the middle east and south afri africa. Its a much more diverse nonetheless they still see us as a threat to the United States and operations around the world. Mr. Rasmussen i believe the threat is growing. I believe its more grave. You had mentioned the effective Edward Snowdens disclosures. Is that degraded our ability to protect ourselves and our intelligence gathering capabilities . I would argue yes and i will talk in greater detail in a closed session about some of the specific information or indicators that we have seen that have led me to that conclusion but i think its arguable that collection data to get ahead of terrorist plots its an arguable that collection environment is more challenging today than it was if we have not been dealing with these disclosures. In the Foreign Relations Committee Hearing we had Deputy Assistant secretary kirk and i asked him about isis. He talked about 30 to 50 suicide bombers. We had an australian and german suicide bomber set themselves off in iraq. Im concerned the talk im concerned the talk coming out of this of that this may take three years. First of all let me ask you to believe isis is something that being can be contained or managed versus destroy . I think of this in phases. In an urn near term we can take steps to degrade and disrupt their ability to carry out attacks. But to prevent yourself from having to deal with that in perpetuity we would have to go beyond that in look to destroy or defeat the organization and that is what the administration and the secretary of state have talked about over longer period of time time. That objective is not as easy to put a specific time horizon to. Understand that im concerned kind of like having a hornets nest. You identify the thread and you want to get rid of them. You dont want to poke it with a stick for three years. Our Intelligence Community partners look around the corner and see not only where their next groups might come from, where the next theaters of concern might be calm but what tactics and techniques and opportunities for innovation might exist in the Terrorism Community as well. That is harder. Often relying on what intelligence. Using your imagination. It is important work that helps us overtime to up targets to get ahead of those particular threats. Cyber is one of those areas where we have not seen terrace necessarily develop great capability today but they certainly understand that the Economic Impact that innovation in the cyber world causes. We ss that over time that is the capability terrorist groups i want to cover that in this briefing. Secretary spaulding, you talked about Critical Infrastructure. He talked about the physical and Cyber Threats. I want to talk to us something that i have been briefed on. The threat of the mp. Both in terms of the highaltitude Nuclear Blast which is kind of what i always knew exists out there and hoping that nobody has the capability of would be stupid enough to do with. And also aware of the fact that the massive solar flare represents a real threat. Is that something that you are certainly aware of kiddy accepted and we are looking toward an excuse me. Absolutely, senator. Thank you for the question. It is certainly something that we have been focused on and working with our colleagues in the electric sector to find ways to address. I was recently in the u. K. At an International Conference for structured security summit. The antis were there a clear focus on those discussions. This is something very much on our radar screen that we are working with them to address. Just real quick in terms of mr. Anderson, the attack of the metcalf pg e substation, do we have any further information you can share in open session, tracked down perpetrators to buy, but dealers in terms of what that was all about . Were heavily engaged in that investigation, senator. It would be easy it discovered that the were doing inside the closed session. I think the chairman. Thank you. I think you pair rita think the witnesses. Taylor or rasmussen, recent reports, twitter and facebook of messages that would urge infiltration into the United States across our southwestern border. Yes, sir. There have been twitter exchanges among adherents. Speaking about that as a possibility. Would you treated as a threat . Any infiltration across our border would be a threat. In the course of Border Security are you satisfied that we have sufficient Border Security to prevent that . I am satisfied that we are trying to build a Border Security capability are you satisfied that we now have the capability to prevent that . I and satisfied that we have the intelligence and capability at our border that will prevent that activity . It is interesting because an american border dressed as gasol but what walked across the border, the Rio Grande River undetected. To Something Like that concern you . Not undetected. He was known to the Border Security agencies. Why did they stop him when he came across . I cant answer that question. You cant answer it because they want there to stop. That is a matter of record. The fact is that there are thousands of people who are coming across our border who are undetected who are not identified. To sit there and tell me that we have the capability or now have the proper projections of our southwestern border, particularly in light of the urgings, facebook and twitter for people who come across our southwestern border is of great concern to the citizens of my state. I would like to hear your response to that. The security of the southwest border is of great concern to the departments and certainly understand the concerns of the citizens of this state. If i gave you the impression that i thought Border Security was what it needed to be to protect against all the risks coming across states, thats not what i intended. Could you give us to the committee for the record what is required . Achieve 90 effective control the border and prevent this threat from materializing . I dont think there is any doubt i dont see when you look at the growth and the influence, it would be logical as theyre saying on facebook and twitter to come across our southwest border because they can get across. The flow of drugs across the southwest border has not been decreased by any significant measure. Would you agree to that . The flow of drugs continues to be significant. Yes, sir. Well, those of us who strongly supported comprehensive Immigration Reform are deeply disappointed and our lack of devotion of assets and funds and capabilities to secure our southwestern border which has been created a credibility problem in our states and across our country that we can guarantee people if we enacted comprehensive Immigration Reform that there would not be another flow of refugees. I ask for illegal immigration into this country. Now we have this phenomenon, currents, thousands of Young Children showing a better border, not trying to sneak across, which is showing a of our border. It has tailed off some, but it is still by the thousands. And it isnt this diverting the assets and the capabilities of our Border Patrol . Having to handle this incredible influx of children from diverting them from other duties like trying to interdict drug smugglers and others . And isnt it true, can i say to him is really astonishing to me our friends on the left and those who were pro immigration and ignore the fact that the brutalities that are inflicted on these young people, particularly young women as they are brought across by these coyotes is absolutely abhorrent and unspeakable. Would you agree . Absolutely. To your earlier question, we assess that the not only assess. We believe the Border Patrol has done an absolutely remarkable job in handling the crisis. They have been diverted. Its been a priority given the number of people of our border to focus on that issue. With resources as they are to our resources have shifted to perris. So it is always a phthisis and the aggressiveness of isis and the information that they have been able to recruit in thd states of america, we know that because americans have been killed over there. It seems to me it dramatically heightens our requirement to have a secure southern and northern border. Would you agree . Absolutely free. Thank you. Finally, entertaining to me that it is like it all just happened. Another will fedora. It is not about isis. People like me and Lindsay Gramm have known about it and went about it and talked about. We have done nothing to release him the tide, ice isis in the gas that we now see. Hopeful that the president of the United States will finally recognize that threat and outline to the American People some actions that need to be taken. Many of us predicted this and side coming. It comes as no surprise. We thank you as well. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Taylor, mr. Rasmussen, what start kilobit more about the estimated hundred u. S. Persons who have left to join the fight. Is this investment or do we have a sense of who this hundred plus people are, names to move there from, how much detail to we have . That travel has not happened. Individuals that travel, individuals that traveled and come back to my travel and perhaps been killed that number is all encompassing and does not reflect an estimate of who is is i quit their right now today. More we can say with greater precision in the closed session. I think we can reassure you that we have some significant detail behind that broad number. Great. Im going to drive past a couple more questions in open session on this topic. We will see how far we can get. With regard to that number is a differentiation, specific differentiation between those who are actually joining isil and those, for example, i traveled to turkey now over a year ago, but there was certainly american citizens of syrian descent who were there trying to provide humanitarian relief in the fight or trying to do what they could to help the moderate rebels from of a moderate elements try to the participate. The individuals who indicate in a tent or have traveled who go over not necessarily knowing who they will affiliate with when they get there. They simply was to join the fight. And where they actually end up affiliating plays out over time. We may and may not have intelligence on that. Youre right, the number of travel to syria coming days and a wide variety of activities. But that hundreds or wherever we are talking, over a hundred, you believe they are engaged in the battle with the isil extremists. With extremist relevance. Want to be careful and not in it down because you know there are a number. Before i get to that second point, do we have a sense that are in particular allies have granny affirmation on their citizens who have traveled to syria as we do yours . I think its not a constant feature across the whole of europe. In some cases was some of our partners with whom we work the most closely the answer is absolutely yes. They have a very detailed understanding of individuals and in fact have done a great deal of work talking to in many cases individuals who have come back from syria in order to try to understand both the appeal and the experience and how they make what contribution to the threat picture back in their homes that they may present. Devoted to adjust that effort. I would not argue that this is constant across all of your. Southern and eastern europeans closer to the front line traveling to turkey and syria, the capabilities just simply are not as well developed, not as low resource to handle a large National Security challenge like this the way that some of the more traditional partners arm. But as i pointed out in my statement is a bit of a good news story that the willingness to at least lock arms and share information is something we have seen pretty constantly across the board. Just to enter for a second. Senator coburn, can you just give me a cautionary note . Are good feeling for what is appropriate to say and what is more or less the clothes setting . Again, ask questions, should be deferred to the next part of our hearing. Please do that. So do we have a sense of how many u. S. Nationals are engaged with al qaeda globally . Obviously a much greater fragmentation. Even in particular al qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula, do we have the same sort of grignard affirmation . Again, i think it varies depending on which Affiliate Group youre talking about. The conservative talk about specific cases involving specific individuals and another seven. Okay. Can you describe in open session for the committee what we know, intelligence about the relationship between isil and it al qaeda . Is it rival, is a cooperative . Are there rudy each other on . What do we know at this point about their relationship . Well, one of the things that i think has been a development that we have spent a great deal of time trying to understand and assess is the degree of conflict and tension between isil and court al qaeda leaders, as i said. And i think what you could argue now youre seeing in a sense a contest for competition for primacy in an overall effort to lead the global gian with isil increasingly posturing itself as the legitimate followon or error to the al qaeda vision and what that is also doing is causing, i would argue, intellectual ferment in that broader purview. We see that in affiliates that seeks to decide for themselves, to be aligned or maintain fidelity to our traditional bonds of loyalty. I think one thing that we can observe pretty obviously is that success breeds success. So that when isil has had success on the battlefield and taking over large swaths of territory 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 to the side would like to know where it is the most talked and where my ability to impact can be felt most acutely. And there is no doubt that the level of individual al qaeda, that is out there. It is something that will play out over time whether isil was a plans al qaeda core in terms of overall. But it is clear that things trend in this direction for a long time and one can make an argument. Thank you. Thank you, senator. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate the testimony in the opportunity nasty questions in another session. And there is some much to go over. I want to talk a little bit about what you have said today and what some of my colleagues have asked about in terms of isil and the situation. I think it is important not only will we do now but also to look to afghanistan. And what we are doing or not doing 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 . I would want to typically the capability to conduct Counterterrorism Operations against the taliban and al qaeda partners. I believe we have made a substantial amount of progress in bringing the Afghan Nationalsecurity force up to the level where they can carry out Counter Terrorist operations against known terrorist targets inside afghanistan. What will be will 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 that they are able to do this as they encounter threats. Greater capability than the iraqi Security Forces . There is no u. S. Support. I am reluctant to put it in comparative terms. The right expertise or knowledge would be happy to give you an answer. I think it would be interesting. Here is my feeling from the reports which were made public. In fact, the Security Forces were further along at the time in which we chose to pull out. If we decide to do the same thing in afghanistan the president has said he has plans, we may have a similar situation given the assessment of their capabilities to be able to have very effective counterterrorism operation. I just make the obvious point that we need your help in terms of learning lessons and a roughly taking those lessons to afghanistan. There has been a lot of attention recently to president obamas comments last january about regional terrorist groups being Like University teams in relation to isil. Following that backandforth. Those years, soldiers that followed to make it a peaceful place, those comments are particularly disconcerting. As you well know, we took serious losses. In 16 month time frame when the time and lost 46 marines. Twentytwo were killed from one Rifle Company in columbus. Obviously it affects a lot of our communities including back, ill. I would ask you, and 2013 to the Intelligence Community identify that al qaeda had expressed interest interest . Yes. We can talk about the war in closed session. In 2013 to they assess the threat exists is . Absolutely. Do u. S. S. That the iraqi Security Forces early this year had been operating without u. S. Troops riverside for two years, took any successful actions to the rest control of pollution from isil after they seized in january 2014 or earlier this year . I would like to give an answer for the record because i am certainly aware of Iraqi Security force counterterrorism actions, but i want to be specific response if. What is it . Wresting control back. Not wresting control back of areas you describe. You know, i just think again we should learn some lessons from this. Over the last two years, access to fighters and resources as well as inconsistent Counterterrorism Operations are pressure from the iraqis to escalate . Certainly true that they have escalated their operations and taken advantage of the lack of our real border between iraq and syria which has allowed them to move resources back and forth to escape counterterrorism pressure. Well, i think your answers to these questions are helpful. Understanding why we should be doing and looking for to afghanistan, being sure that we are prepared to take the steps to avoid a repeat of his. Let me change the topic, if i could. This has to do with the ebola crisis. Amateurs to hear what work your office is doing. And i were 2300 people may die. Who tells us today they expect 20,000 people die relatively soon. Other groups have much higher estimates. If you could tell me how youre monitoring the situation in africa, what youre going. Sir, my office works with the office of Health Affairs leading the department in an interagency response to the ebola virus. The consequences take me to the u. S. As well as the african region. Interagency meetings on an issue and trying to get aid to those countries to stem the spread of the virus. You feel we have an effective interagency and intergovernmental coordination . I think we have affected u. S. Interagency and intergovernmental coordination. This is a global problem and is going to take a Global Solution to solve. The nations in the region are less capable in certain cases of handling the kind of infection that theyre seeing. It will require a global effort to extend this particular issue. I understand Health Affairs is taking the lead. In new take a look at what u. S. Government it . We intergovernmental and entered the agency to interests is a process. Have not personally looked at it. My most recent experience, we had an effective interagency coordination on at. Im concerned that we are not being as aggressive as we could be in of the agency would take a look at what we have done in the past where we have been relatively successful, not just with foreign aid but also the specific steps we have taken to try to get more countries engaged and deal with the issue. One final question, do you have any insights on how you see this developing and what we should be doing here in this country . And noticed that you talked about the national prepared this month. One of my concerns is based on recent reports we are not prepared. We have unfortunately the situation where if a pandemic were to occur there are shortfalls including expirations on down to some of the medical responsibility necessary. Thoughts about that . I would prefer to a respondent holistic way and consultation with my colleagues. We appreciate you getting back to the committee. Thank you. Thank you for those questions. Senator, and after you have spoken im going ask mr. Mr. Anderson. We have not picked on you enough one opportunity, a point you want to make a share with us before we get the closed session. Now. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this important hearing. I want to tinker with this is what they do keep the country safe. Secretary taylor, wanted to follow upon some of the questions that senator baldwin had. 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 travel this area or of interest in traveling to syria and joining with one of these extremist groups, including isil you had testified that more than 100 u. S. Persons your tracking and have identified those who have intended to go, those who have gone and some of own, have been actually engage in killed. I note that the fbi director said in august and i give you the number of 100 americans, i cant tell you with high confidence that it is 10200, 10500, 100 or thousand more because it is so hard to track. Here is a very important question and i think people need to know. That is, do we really know . And how many of these two we really have a track of and how many dont we have a track of . Senator, i would share the directors comments in terms of we dont know we dont know. And i think those the context in which he was making those comments. 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 abcasix here today and give you the number of over hundred and tomorrow it may be based upon intelligence investigation, the fbi, more identities that we did not know about before. But is the reality now while we have confidence in the hundred that we really dont know how many more may be part of this . I think thats a fair statement. I assume thats why the director who i have a lot of respect for made that statement when he was specifically asked about how confident we are in the number. Well, given home run violent extremists, given the nature of foul people radicalize data. Is difficult to say with any degree of certainty that we know all that could be wanting to join this particular effort. Any individual that we can do an investigation is in r. Individual whether abroad or in the United States. We dedicate an immense amount of resources to covering individuals we know about. I cant get into all those in the session but we will detail it in the next session. Let me ask you, the 100 that we know about what authorities do we have to revoke their passports . In other words, you are a United States citizen and obviously you are entitled to certain rights so what can we do to make sure that they cant get back into the community if we believe that they have have joined for example and extremis group like isil who has brutally and perfectly murdered to american journalist . Senator dodd is a very complicated question in terms of taking away americas passport. There are judicial means to do that. I am not an expert and map it became get you the answer of whether the authorities would allow that to happen. We need to understand we certainly dont want a situation where you will talk to someone and you dont have the authority to detain them. They are in a position where they have to appear before a Judicial Authority but in the interim they are not detained and they have open access in america so i would like a followup to what the processes are, what tools you have at your hands when there is obviously evidence that an american is involved with a group like isil so that we can understand whether those authorities are efficient so i would appreciate a followup on that. I also wanted to ask what i understand from your hearing your testimony today you said the threat of isil is regionally focused, meaning the region of where they are operating in iraq and syria and the surrounding regions. What kind of access do they have to financing . That has been one of our great concerns as isil has surged in iraq that they have had the ability to draw on a wider array of sources for financing including kidnap for ransom, simply occupying and taking others holdings. I heard an estimate that they are making 1 million a day. Is that a fair statement . Thats a fair estimate. Is. As i understand they have safe havens and syria, correct . Guests. They are obviously taking over more territory in iraq, correct . Is their design and one of the reasons the concerns we have with regard to whats happening in iraq right now . That is their ambition in iraq in recent weeks Iraqi Security force action in combination with United States military action has been the ability of isil to gain more territory. But they have territory right now, you would agree with me . They have territory and syria and territory in iraq. The elements to make money and when we think about this threat, the passport issue, its not just about americans. I know secretary taylor in your testimony there are about 2000 westerners but i have also seen estimates of 7500 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. I know you talked about a story about more communication between our other countries with regard to these individuals who have joined these extremist groups but we also have a Visa Waiver Program with countries like the United Kingdom and france and so how good is our intelligence and ability to attract those individuals . We talk about the 100 so we are worried about are people but thinking about the individuals that dont need a visa to come travel to the United States of america. As i understand it there are thousands. The numbers that the United Kingdom and Great Britain is facing is much bigger than United States. Can you give us an assessment of how good of 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 you know that james foley video. That individual who committed that barbaric murder, he was clearly from Great Britain. You could tell from his accent so individual like that coming to the United States and then participating in an action here. Can you give us a little more insight on that because i think its important for people to understand. Yes maam. I would prefer nick to talk about the intelligence cooperation that we have which is significant with our European Partners and daily we exchange information. More importantly the visa waiver does not mean people come to this country without screening. Every passenger coming to the United States from outside the United States is screened through our terrorist screening system and if there is derogatory data they are not allowed to come to the United States. That assumes we have the data, correct . That assumes we have the data and that is what intelligence cooperation is all about, 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 obviously a very important issue as well is knowing and tracking who these individuals are who if we dont have the data we may allow them in our country without being able to stop them from coming. My time is up but i just want to say one thing that concerns me. What concerns me as i know we have talked today about believing that really the focus on the threat of isil is a regional threat but here we have sophisticated terrorist organization which our own secretary of defense has said is beyond anything that we have seen and in fact we have a situation where you know secretary dempsey described this group as an imminent threat. We have combined with, they have financial means to make money. They have territory and some safe havens. We know that in january their leader basically threaten the United States of america. We have seen through their actions the brutal murders of these two journalists that obviously the threat that they faced, the type of there barbaric actions they are willing to take against americans and we know that these people who joined this we are not quite sure how many there are and they could return to the u. S. Im concerned that its an understatement to say that this is a regional threat in terms of what my present to us and our homeland. Mr. Chairman qunai response to this one . You are using the word regional and i by no means meant to mean directed at the United States because isil has the capability to threaten the United States not just proper but our embassies personnel and diplomats and unofficial americans. As i set up a lot of her time to utilize the safe haven they currently are enjoying. Right now you dont think they have the capacity . Right now we assess they do not have active ongoing plots in the nicest homeland. Thats a different question whether they have the capacity. We dont know of any active ongoing threats are plots. We do not assess right now that they have it capability to mount an effective largescale plot inside the United States. Large scale. Another piece of this you cant necessarily count for individuals we talked about under the category of homegrown homegrown bioextremist who may selfidentify as acting in sympathy with isil. Maybe perhaps never having touched isl leadership but in the aftermath of a potential attack may be here in the homeland it might self affiliate. I dont mean by any means to minimize the threat to isil. Thats not my intent. I simply trying to describe in a sense concentric rings and the levels of concern we have at present versus what we see developing over time. What you describe at the foreign fighters is what gives them the capability to threaten the homeland over the longer term. Thank you. I was at one point. You have to take in fact the excitation of various members of isil to come across our southern border. Its out there. Its in the social media. I know you while theyre looking at that the factors thats pretty scary. You talk about what we dont know, we dont know the people who are coming across our border and what the threat is. We dont know. I said mr. Anderson we would take the opportunity to offer an opposing thought, please. Thank you mr. Chairman. If i could i would make a closing remark in turn back to cyber for a second. The one thing i think the committee needs to know and they probably do is when it comes to cyber i have never seen more cooperation in my Law Enforcement career than i have in the last year or so. The people at this table dhs secret service a large variety of intelligence partners we all get it. We get that this is something thats going to go through from now until the next several years in our government has a deep concern to Work Together and work towards a fix. You know we talked a little while ago about the number of federal departments within our government that possibly could be hacked or if they were hacked and just didnt know about it. I think one of the things we are all working on in the legislature is also is trying to figure out how to share realtime information with our private sector partners. I think that is absolutely imperative mr. Chairman and i think my colleagues would echo that. One of the main reasons is because everyone knows a lot of are classified and very sensitive technologies are developed, designed and built out in the private sector way before they are ever classified. Our adversaries know this whether his counterintelligence counterespionage economic espionage counterterrorism they have had the pleasure over the years to testify with director of intelligence and chairman feinstein and dr. Coburn many times regarding this kind of scare for us. I would tell you the one thing that i see is the government coming together as one on this thread and working towards a positive fix. Thank you mr. Chairman. I would just add to that the threat of isis and these other terrorist groups, are they a threat quack sure they are. Its not any time to pat ourselves on the back and become complicit. Its time to be more vigilant. We will see what the president has to say tonight. I believe it will be very strong and working with nations around the world to destroy this. That is what we are looking for hopefully that is what well get. I would also say i go back to underlying root causes. We talk about underlying and root causes and i would say number one al qaeda in iraq was on their back. They were almost done about seven years ago. The policies of the Iraqi Government actually help them get off the map and back into the game to be the threat they are today. My hope is the new government that is being stood up in iraq will be part of the solution to help us accomplish what we did seven years ago and to do it again. Not only this time for good. Its been great to have you with us and i appreciate her colleagues being with us here as well. We will move to a secure setting and with that the portion of this hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] dr. James linder is interim president of the university of nebraska. We talked to him about issues affecting Higher Education including college tuition, admission policies, College Athletics and job prospects for graduates. This is 40 minutes. Hosted this week on washington journal week kicked off her a lot monthlong of interviews with the University President s as part of our cspan buses big 10 college tours. This morning joining us on the cspan bus at the campus of university of nebraska in lincoln is the interim president dr. James lender. Thank you for being with us. Let me begin with the size of the university of nebraska lincoln and also the cost. Guest well thank you very much greta. Its a pleasure to be with you today and i appreciate the fact that you arent doing this service to educate students in the public about the importance of Higher Education. University of nebraska system has four campuses one of which is the university of nebraska lincoln which is a big 10 school. It has a little over 25,000 students. There are 51,000 students in the entire system and that actually represents record enrollment for us. The cost of an education at the university of nebraska lincoln is around 8000 a year which actually is the lowest big 10. Host outofstate tuition comes in at 22,000 a year. How much Financial Aid is there available . We made a serious effort to provide Financial Aid for students particularly on the side of grants and scholarships. About threequarters of the students receive some type of grant or scholarship in what what year they are in of education. Host the gallup recently just did a poll back in april. Young adults site College Costs as their top money problem. Im wondering and this has sparked a debate in our country, is college were the . How do you answer that question dr. Lender . Well i think the university of nebraska regents and their state legislature have had access and affordability among its priorities for many years even before the recent discussions on costs. And we believed in nebraska that college is worth it. Really the opportunity to educate the next generation of nebraska and that go out and form companies, serve as businesses and have degrees that can support Higher Technology is really a essential for growing the economy and having an informed citizenry. Host how many majors are available at the university of nebraska . Guest well, that is the stump the president sort of question. [laughter] we have many colleges and many degree programs some of which and then of course there are graduate and certificate programs. It probably exceeds 100 in total and that includes both on line education as well as education that occurs on campus. Host how do you address at the university of nebraska lincoln this issue of job placement . After kids graduate, what is the rate of them getting a job and how do you encourage or do you encourage kids to pick majors, professions that will get them a job when they graduate . Guest while there are a lot of important questions that you have asked there and i will dissect that it did. First of all in terms of the college experience, we want our students to be aware of the fact that they should obtain some skill during college that is valuable to a potential employer. Now that doesnt mean we want to provide a technical education. We want to make sure that students first of all have a range of experiences that lead them to have a full and productive life. Good counseling for those students as well as opportunities for internships, working with companies, seeing what its like to be in the workforce to evolve Critical Thinking skills and having experiences with other cap buses or outside of the country in terms of studying abroad. Host the boston globe recently reported with this headline that Business Leaders downbeat on workers prospect and despite an improving economy and record corporate profits Business Leaders are skeptical about their ability to compete abroad and downright pessimistic about the prospects of increasing pay or improving Living Conditions for american workers. In this report they cite issues of Higher Education. What are some challenges you see in Higher Education that impact our economy . Guest i think there are several challenges as you have alluded to. One is theres a changing social compact between companies in the workforce and companies are increasingly looking for individuals who have some important technical skill which is why theyre so much dialogue about s. T. E. M. Education. We are fortunate this year at the university of nebraska lincoln to see an 8. 6 increase in arent romans of students in engineering programs and i think students are realizing that having the skills are important because it is what employers are looking for. Host we are talking with dr. James linder the interim president of the university of nebraska lincoln, part of cspan buses big 10 college tour. We kicked that off this week and we will continue next week a monthlong series on washington journal talking to University President s about Higher Education issues. We want to get your thoughts as well so we have divided the lives by students, parents educators and nebraska residents. There they are in your screens parents 202 5853881 and educators 202 5853882 and nebraska residents as well we will hear from you 202 5853883. Also send us an email if you would like at journal at cspan. Org. President dr. James linder is aboard the cspan bus in lincoln nebraska to talk about his university and issues of Higher Education. We will begin with michael who is in new jersey. Michael r. U. A former student at the university of nebraska . Caller unfortunately i wasnt. I was a student in new jersey and if i may i just wanted to comment on the kind of culture around resources and providing them for students. A lot of students in my experience have felt as if there Career Service officer didnt offer them that much and couple that with the fact that they may not be aware of all the resources in addition to the fact that a lot of students really lack a lot of confidence. A lot of it has to do with career resources, juggling a parttime job after college and searching for jobs as a parttime job. With that said its about banishment of time and management of really understanding yourself and having confidence in yourself afterwards. Guest i agree with you completely. Its a process. Its one that goes from being an entering students are graduating that it can be very for students to have the opportunity individually or as a group walk into the workplace in philly excitement of the team. Say they are trying to bring a new product to market to open their ideas to what the world will be after they graduate. We try to provide that experience to our students. Host dr. Linder we want our viewers to call in and we have provided the lines by students parents educators nebraska residents. Nebraska residents, talk about your outreach to the state of nebraska and how much support resources the university of nebraska gift from the states . Guest the university of nebraska has always felt that we have a Strong Mission to educate the next generation of nebraska. Our state is geographically very long, 500 miles so we often talk about the faculty campus. We have resources in every county in the state there are extension services, through telehealth and teleeducation and a variety of programs that try to bring the university to every community. We are very proud of that. We are humbled by actually the opportunity to shape our future in this day state. Host you have an agile annual budget of 1. 2 billion in endowment of 1. 3 billion alumni contributing a little over 188,000. Can you talk about those numbers and what is the cost and how is the money spent . Guest the budget at the university of nebraska lincoln is as you say 1. 2 billion. Of that money it is spent principally on instruction. Theres also a strong Outreach Program in our Service Activities through the state to extension and of course the Research Budget is substantial approaching 300 million in itself. We have been very fortunate in the state of the fresco to enjoy solid support from our state legislature which has helped us keep tuition rates low. We have also had a very Successful Campaign to the university of Nebraska Foundation to raise funds for student student scholarships. The Campaign Just created more than 1000 different scholarship funds as well as building the infrastructure that supports the university. So really you see a broad gamut of people in the state of nebraska working together to support Higher Education. Host idea is next, a parent. Go ahead. Cocco yes, i am a parent and i went back to school after i got laid off at work. I got it to create in engineering. I had my classes, classes that i really didnt need for that degree like history, music and i want to go back and get a degree in engineering technology. The first two classes i have to take were and i think thats a big problem. I look at all colleges and theyll have classes in these degree programs that you dont need to do that job. I think we want wellrounded students that we want welltrained students in that profession. I think it would drive the College Costs down if they could give these classes that you dont need out of the degree programs and the colleges dont want to admit that. That was half the cost of my associate degree with classes that i didnt need for the degree. You can give me degrees and have the time. Host all right, dr. Linder. Guest the color make several good points. First of all of you can get a lot of courses in high school you can shorten your college experience. Here in nebraska we operate was called the university of Nebraska High School and this provides University Level courses to students throughout the state that are basically dual credit so they are satisfying some of their College Requirements while they are in high school. The other important point that you make is the issue of transferability. Once you have had certain courses and one educational experience you should have systems that allow those forces to transfer to your next degree