Chairman johnson good morning. This hearing will come to order. I want to first welcome and thank our witnesses, the honorable christopher wray, the director of the federal bureau of investigation, bell honorable christopher miller, director of the National Counterterrorism center, and honorable kenneth cuccinelli, senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary. This is an annual threat hearing. When i look at all the threats that this committee has considered and all the threats facing this nation, i think it is pretty interesting how many hearings we have held on so many of these things. Before i proceed, i guess i would ask for consent to have my written Opening Statement to be entered into the record. When you consider these threats, for example, i will just go down the list cyberattacks, ransomware, intellectual property theft, something we are concerned right now as we try to develop vaccines. But the hundreds of billions of dollars of Economic Loss due to intellectual
Security and Global Threats with fbi director christopher ray, at National Counterterrorism director chris miller, the talk included Election Security, cyber campaigns from russia, iran and china, extremist or threatened domestic threats. This is 2 hours and 40 minutes. This hearing will come to order, thank our witnesses, the honorable christopher wray, director of the federal bureau of investigation, the honorable chris miller, director of the National Counterterrorism center and the honorable Ken Cuccinelli, senior official performing duties of the deputy secretary. This is the annual threat hearing. When you look at the threats, and interesting how many hearings you held on so many of these things. I want to ask for my Opening Statement to be entered into the record. If you consider these threats, down the list, cyberattacks, ransom, intellectual property theft, something we are concerned about if you try to develop a vaccine, hundreds of millions of dollars of Economic Loss due to
My friends im not talking about the marvel universe character who is far as we know is still sitting on a bench handing out shields and bits of wisdom as an old man by a lake no im talking about Master Sergeant Andrew Marcus sano a 34 year old active duty 82nd Airborne Ranger and green beret who got the nickname of captain america for among many things surviving 6 tours of duty in afghanistan tragically tragically marcus sato committed suicide a monday the 6th of july reportedly while standing in front of his wife. Just 48 hours of the United States celebrate its independence our heart goes out to his family another soldiers life lost to the longest running war in u. S. History a war with no end in sight because my friends just before the tragic suicide of Master Sergeant mark assad on the United States House Armed Service Committee Led by Congressional Democrats were patting themselves on the back after passing an amendment to this years annual and v. A. The Natural National Defense A
The Natural National Defense Authorization act which would prohibit the expenditure of monies to reduce the number of u. S. Troops deployed in afghanistan below 8000 without a series of conditions 1st being met yes reduced and just what are these socalled conditions well according to the men according to the amendment the department of war sorry the department of defense must be able to certify that leaving afghanistan will not will not increase the risk for the expansion of existing or formation of new terrorist safe havens inside of afghanistan and that it will not compromise or otherwise negatively affect the ongoing United States Counterterrorism Mission against the Islamic State al qaeda and associated forces. In other words my friends lets set the bar for leaving afghanistan so high so impossible to reach that no president no matter how just or unjust in their intentions for leaving will ever be able to bring our troops home from the war that never read and that is why we are alw
Congressional democrats were patting themselves on the back after passing an amendment to this years annual n. D. A. The Natural National Defense Authorization act which would prohibit the expenditure of monies to reduce the number of u. S. Troops deployed in afghanistan below 8000 without a series of conditions 1st being met yes reduced and just what are these socalled conditions well according to the men according to the amendment the department of war sorry the department of defense must be able to certify that leaving afghanistan will not will not increase the risk for the expansion of existing or formation of new terrorist safe havens inside of afghanistan and that it will not compromise or otherwise negatively affect the ongoing United States Counterterrorism Mission against the Islamic State al qaeda and associated forces. In other words my friends lets set the bar for leaving afghanistan so high so impossible to reach that no president no matter how just or unjust in their inte