Committee on Homeland Security will come to order. Committee is meeting today to exam the most serious threats confronting our homeland. Before i recognize myself for an opening statement, i would like to take a moment to welcome the newest member of our committee, don bacon. Don served nearly 30 years in the air force and is experienced in cybersecurity and Airborne Reconnaissance will prove greatly beneficial to this committee. Thank you, sir, for being here. Thank you, chairman. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. I would like to thank each of the witnesses, acting secretary elaine duke, fbi director christopher wray, ctc director nick rasmussen, for joining us today. You represent thousands of patriotic men and women who go to work every day to insure the safety of their fellow americans. Everyone on this committee is extremely grateful for your service and director rasmussen, for over two decades, you have helped navigate an unprecedented landscape in combat terrorism
Any later than we are. If i could the members of the committee are returning but if i could start with some of my questions, youll be aware that the committee has made repeated requests to twitter for information about the activity of accounts, fake accounts, particularly where they may be connected with russian agencies. It is a similar request made by the u. S. Senate intelligence committee. Thank you, chairman. Thank you for having us today. I would like to defer that question to nick, my colleague from the uk, who does have an update to give you. As he said, and in my letters previously, we have been doing further investigation. I would like to read this because it is i dont want to misread them. Is it very short . Two paragraphs. We have a broader investigation that has been identified a a very small number of suspected internet linked accounts, 49 accounts were active. We had 49 accounts that were active, which represents less than 5 of the total accounts that tweeted about the r
To try to get them as close as they can to what theyre aiming. But yes. By country, we do really well, like nick said. About 2 of our users geolocate at any moment. At any given time, theres a degree of uncertainty. I just want to be really clear. The question im asking, would you sell advertising would you sell an audience based on a location in a country. Yes. Thank you, chair. Now, you mentioned the figure before has gone up in terms of what you said of fake accounts effectively. Weve had security briefings from people who stood at this subject since 2014. Theyre suggesting the figure could be in the tens of thousands in terms of fake accounts. In addition, the phenomena we see which is probably more damaging is the means by which this is used to amplify these fake accounts and disinformation, which are often accounts which have a certain bona fide texture to them. If you drill right down, they have all the signatures of falsehood about them in that respect. Now, obviously you dont
And minority whip limited to five minutes. But in no event shall debate continue beyond 11 50 a. M. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Poe, for five minutes. Mr. Poe thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the president , quote, avoid the battle, complains, and misses opportunities. Those were the words of leon panetta president obamas former secretary of defense and c. I. A. Director in 2011. At the time panetta, along with military commanders and joint chiefs of staff, recommended that the United States leave 24,000 troops in iraq to prevent that country from falling apart and becoming chaos. According to panetta the administration was so eager to rid itself of iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve american influence in our interests. So the president ignored the advice of his own secretary of defense and top commanders and pooled troops out of iraq in 2011. The timing just before the 2012 president ial leaks to me appe
I mean, up or down. Lets just see. The european markets have been open for some time. There we can give you some actual answers. Also, well, largely down other than the ftse in the uk which is up. But no great moves there. Thank you for italy and spain in the control room. I like to see a broader picture other than the big three. As for crude oil which we go to next, 2. 276. Wti back above well above its kind of a stealth move there a little bit. Thats all talk ahead of the opec meeting. Hot air . Yeah. The saudis have cut back by 500,000 barrels because the u. S. Is increasing by that much in if next four months. So interesting. Well talk oil during the show but lets start with retailer. Two are falling sharply. Tiffany with a surprise drop in samestore sales and lowes also missed on its top line. Plus, were awaiting a new outlook from the fed. The u. S. Futures are more or less flat after the longest winning streak is extended. Over in china, a downgrade. Moodys lowers its rating on