We start in Eastern Ukraine where intense fighting between Government Forces and prorussian insurgents is continuing. The troops have made big gains, capturing a Police Station which has been in rebel hands for months. The rebels are not backing down. They are still battling to hold onto control. Thousands of people are caught in violence. They are desperate from them much greeted needed relief. Theas officially recognized convoy as humanitarian aid. They wait to continue. We are now waiting for our orders. As soon as they get the goahead we will set off. It hasred cross says still not received security guarantees for the convoy to continue which is in the met by fierce battles. The Ukrainian Army has surrounded the strongholds. The troops have reportedly seized a Police Station. Overnight the prorussian shutdown a ukrainian fighter jet. Theres also heavy fighting in damascus. The rebels are doing all they can to hold onto the stronghold. They announced against the approaching governme
Why do you think a lot of those recommendations were ignored . I think the service itself has noted it has not always done what it needed to do in terms of following through on recommendations. The hope is coming out of this report, that there will be a real opportunity to focus on these specific recommendations and follow through with tracking to make sure actually get implement it. If there is a real process, and i am sure this committee will have a role in it and others will have a role in it to ask of the service, and where is that going, and i also assume that this at future president s will hold them accountable as well. The last question, how do you define that success if you have implemented recommendations properly . From our perspective the kind of cultural change in leadership change weve talked about, that really defines the commission paired we talked a little bit in the report say it has been five years that the service submitted to congress looks about the same with litt
The tea as a is a new creation of that but obviously there was a coast guard before that. The secret service and interaction with the coast guard and the coast guard provided, and the department of Homeland Security. My sense is the cooperation is enhanced with in the same agency. I would like to add the panels conclusion is we identified a substantial number of issues that needed reform. For those issues we didnt think moving from one agency to another would address any of the issues we identified and so while we understand that was a serious debate, the focus needed to be solving the problems we had. If i could say one interesting piece on treasury was being an older guy, i remember well a lot of discussions treasury officials, wall street guys, finance guys dont understand the Enforcement Mission well, and wherever we are you think it is somewhere else. I believe it was correct to say at that point of the director of the secret service reported u. N. Assistant secretary or undersecr
Did you look at that and what sort of assessment did you give that . We did, and our views on that are that theres certainly some benefits to be gained from the investigative mission, to some extent. Now, theres a continuum in those investigative activities. To the extent for example, that cyber investigations involve the safety of the first family, of the president , thats probably going to be part of the core mission of the secret service. To the extent that cyber involves looking at whether a movie studio has been act or a Health Insurance company or a multinational retail type into the, that might be further afield in other parts of the federal government that are involved in cyber activities might be better positioned to handle the lead on them. Again, all through the core prism of what the main mission of the secret service is. We had a couple months to look at this. We dont purport to have the final answers but we think the guidepost on this will be whats the core mission of the
Committee on Homeland Security, congressman thompson, and i quote, he stated within the next five years, the secret service will provide protection through two president ial election cycles two Democratic National conventions, two Republican National conventions, the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and other National Security special events. To his point, on top of your current responsibilities, of protecting the president and protecting your area of responsibility, and we know that theres some problems with leadership resources. Were also entering a period where theres going to be additional demand. My background is in hr and i know that when you start hiring and training, there is a gap in your resources. So we have to be realistic about that. For us to get to where we need to be, were going to have to pull resources that we already have. Do you agree with that . I think thats right. One of the concerns that the panel had, and again, pointing to the chart that the chairman put