Security threats with the director of the cia william burns, fbi director christopher wray. They joined other leaders from the Intelligence Community to talk about the importance of continued support for ukraine, the israelhamas war, competition with china, and efforts to combat the spread of misinformation. This is about two hours and 15 minutes. Good afternoon. I would like to call this hearing to order and welcome to our witnesses. Director of National Intelligence avril haines, cia director bill burns, fbi director christopher wray, assistant secretary for intelligence and research at the state department, brett holmgren. Director of National Security agency, general timothy hop. And Defense Intelligence agency dea director jeffrey cruz. Thank you for appearing before the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Annual worldwide threats hearing. It is important for congress and the American People to hear directly from the leaders of our Intelligence Community about the threats and challenges facing the United States. I would like to first acknowledge the women and men of the u. S. Intel community. Most americans will never see the work you do behind the scenes, but be assured that the members of this committee know its importance and we thank you for what you do to keep america safe. The threat environment today is one of the most challenging we have seen in recent years. We have seen nations backsliding from democratic institutions, authoritarian systems seeking to impose their will upon neighbors while looking to undermine the International System that has been guarantor of stability and security since world war ii. And we see the rise in competition around new technologies. We must ensure that our institutions evolve to meet these new challenges, which means in my mind redefining what we think of as National Security. The ic was built to collect measures of hard power, how many ships, planes, and military personnel an adversary might have. The nature of strategic competition today revolves as much around not only traditional military power, but nontraditional tools and the ability to harness emerging dual use technologies. For example, advanced Communication Networks can provide ubiquitous connectivity but also ubiquitous surveillance. Artificial intelligence can excel or rate Software Development but also accelerate malicious Cyber Attacks or the spread of misinformation. Biotechnology advancements may lead one day to curing cancer or eliminating famine but also may create genetically engineered super soldiers. Access to Rare Minerals may help determine who shapes the Energy Future for the whole world. Compounding all of this, the nature of conflict increasingly allows adversaries to protect power through asymmetrical means. For example, Cyber Attacks can disable Critical Infrastructure from thousands of miles away and are increasingly available to a wide array of actors. Unmanned systems, drones, can threaten multibilliondollar ships. We are even seeing the possibility of former adversaries weaponizing space in ways that could be massively destructive, not only to National Security but to tools such as gps and satellite communications. Misinformation and disinformation are increasingly deployed cheaply by an array of adversarial actors. We know that more than 60 countries, over half the world population, will vote this year, and i am deeply concerned that democracy is under greater threat than ever from these foreign adversaries. Bad actors like russia are particularly incentivized to interfere, given whats at stake in ukraine. Poll after poll increasingly demonstrates americans are mistrustful of traditional sources of information. While ai has the tools to spread sophisticated misinformation at an unprecedented speed and scale. Our ability to respond has been hamstrung. Recent litigation pending before the Supreme Court has had a Chilling Effect on the voluntary sharing of information relating to foreign malign influence and threats between u. S. Government agencies and social Media Companies. Today i would like each witness to report on how their agencies and the isd as a whole are prepared to meet technologybased challenges, and what more needs to be done. Even with this new landscape, more traditional National Security challenges remain. Terrorist groups still threaten our homeland. Over the last couple of years, we have seen authoritarian powers challenging democratic norms, undermining the international order, and intimidating their neighbors. The peoples republic of china under xi jinping has presented an unprecedented challenge, a technoauthoritarian behemoth whose economy is intertwined with our own, challenging Democratic Values, u. S. Leadership, and global institutions, often using enormous government subsidies. China has used substantial investment power to lead or attempt to dominate a range of key industries, whether it be to the communications and huawei, social Community Social media and tiktok. Another authoritarian adversary, rusher under putin has continued its brutal invasion of ukraine, illegally using military forces to seize territory. Ukrainians have bravely been fending off the Russian Military for over two years, supported by partners around the world. The Russian Military has suffered severe losses of men and equipment. Close to 87 of russias prewar Ground Forces have been taken out of the conflict. Now as a result of his aggression, putin faces what he has always feared, a nato more united than ever. This war is at a critical phase with a serious imbalance of equipment, and my fear is the decision thus far by the house of representatives not to take up legislation that would support ukraine has been one of the most shortsighted decisions on a National Security issue that i could imagine. Without this decision, ukrainian defenses will be drastically undermined, as well as Global Confidence in americas resolve will be undermined. That will be the case whether it comes from putin in europe or the prc in taiwan. We also face continued instability in the middle east. The horrific terrorist attacks by hamas on october 7 have been followed by an incursion by israel that has cost an estimated 30,000 palestinians their lives. While iran and partners such as hezbollah appeared to be deterred from widening the conflict for now, other iranian proxies such as the houthis and she is have attempted to expand the conflict and drag in our country. Israels war against hamas has shown the difficulty of using military force alone to eradicate a nonstate actor embedded in a civilian population, especially one that has been adept at using underground tunnels. I worry that Prime Minister netanyahus conduct in the war threatens to undermine support for israel longterm, including in the United States. This International Support has been key for israels security, and as a longtime friend of israel, this has great concern to me. In addition, we convene this timely hearing as Congress Faces a pressing deadline on a key National Security problem, section 70 two of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provides unique and critical intelligence necessary to protect our National Security, enabling the ic to prevent terrorist attacks, trap foreign spies, uncover economic espionage, protect u. S. Troops, expose human and drug trafficking, and disrupt foreign Cyber Attacks. Allowing this program to lapse would critically damage our National Security. We face an increasing array and diversity of challenges, but we also have an opportunity to reinvigorate americas Democratic Values in the face of autocracies like china and russia. We cannot take for granted either democracy or the International System that has kept americans safe for decades. Maintaining both requires leadership, conviction, and sacrifice. Then you and i also extend my thanks to the men and women who do the important work of keeping our country safe. At what i think you could describe as one of those pivot moments in three what life will be like for a generation is being determined now while events are changing perhaps faster than any other time in human history. I think we have to remind ourselves if we are going to talk about the specific threats, the bigger outline picture of why things are happening the way they are, because i think they are all interrelated. In the late 2000s, the United States was basically the only country in the world that could project power anywhere at any time and we were called upon to do many things in regards of that. Other nations have progressed, and i still think america by every measure, economically, culturally, militarily, remains the strongest nation and should remain that way for the foreseeable future. That order is being challenged by nations that dont like the way the world looks now. They think it benefits america and hurts them and they want to remake or replace the world they think is beneficial to america and our democratic allies with an alternative, if not a replacement. The chinese believe we are in an inevitable decline and that their rise is inevitable as well. They dont like the rules of the world as they believe are written by america and allies, so they are taking it on themselves to challenge. They steal our ideas and innovation so their companies can do the things we do but cheaper and flood markets with those products. I dont need to tell this panel and the general public that they are expanding military keep abilities to include not just projecting power in the indo pacific but around the world. They manipulate loopholes in our country to gain strategic advantage and undermine our industries. They are a major part of flooding this country with deadly drugs that are destroying communities and ravaging entire families. They also have gotten good at hiring lobbyists and deputizing Corporate America to lobby us for things that are beneficial to the chinese goal at the expense of this country longterm. They also have to take control. Anybody who says they dont know what they are talking about, because every company is controlled by the Chinese Communist party, they happen to have one of the worlds best Artificial Intelligence algorithms. It is the one used by tiktok and it uses the data of americans to read your mind and predict what videos you want to see. The reason tiktok is so successful and attractive is it knows you better than you know yourself and the more you use it, the more it learns. The problem is not tiktok, the problem is the algorithm that powers it is owned by a company in china that does whatever the Chinese Communist party tells it. The only way that algorithm works is if that company in china is given access to the data that tiktok provides. Tiktok does not work without that algorithm and that algorithm is controlled by a Company Controlled by the Chinese Communist party under the law of china. In the case of putting bama, he sees america as decadent and in decline. He views himself as a great power and he believes great powers have a right to control the countries around their borders. They already have that in belarus in his mind and it is one of the reasons he invades ukraine. In the case of iran, they want to export the Islamic Revolution to the entire middle east. There are two things in the way, israel and the United States of america. That is why they have proxies in places like syria, iraq, lebanon , yemen, gaza, who they use for their purposes. One of their purposes is to use the groups to attack america so we say it is not worth the trouble. When they leave, they will move on jordan and bahrain and make israel old north korea we have not heard a lot about yet. They have become increasingly aggressive. I would argue we are closer to armed hostilities then we have been in a decade or longer. Why . They feel empowered because putin is buying things from them and helping break international isolation, and i dont know what percentage of their economy is powered by ransomware hacks, but it is substantial. Add to this the fact that terror is still a threat. Iran, as has been publicly reported, is still trying to kill former government officials that live in the United States of america. There are former government officials in this country who require 24 hours a day security because iran is trying to kill them inside the United States. Hezbollah is also looking for ways to conduct terrorist attacks against american, israeli, and jewish interests all over the world and in the homeland. Al qaeda are still involved and also want to kill americans. If they could do it in the homeland, they would love that. All happening at a time in which the single largest eventful migration in history is operating off our border. I think it is a mistake sometimes to divide these problems geographically, because they are interrelated in keyways. These individuals have different ambitions, but they share a common goal, a world friendlier for them and a world in which america is weaker and less able to act. The chinese and russians are probably they do see great benefit to what is happening in the middle east because they figure every second of our attention that is paid there, we are not paying to what is happening in ukraine and the indo pacific. The chinese see great benefit to ukraine as well because the more time and money we spend there, the less we have for them. The chinese think a, we deplete ourselves in ukraine and or the middle east, or b, we cut and run and they can say, i told you america is weak, unreliable. They have a plan for either outcome, which makes it challenging for us as we decide what to do here. These things come together and that is the overarching threat we are facing, an understanding that none of these should be viewed in isolation. The goal that north korea has, that china has may be differing goals, but one of the real goals that threaten our country is they are increasingly partnering with one another. Not a formal alliance, but they are increasingly partnering with each other on selected topics, because they all share one goal, to weaken america, weaken our alliances, our standing and capability and will because it helps them achieve the world that they envision, the world they want that comes at our expense and at the expense of all that has been built over 20 or 30 years. I think one of the greatest dangers we face is the inability to see how these things are interconnected, and one of the greatest challenges is to deal with them as if they are interconnected. I think thats what life will be like on this planet will be determined by what we do or fail to do over the next two or three years. I look forward to hearing from all of you and i appreciate you coming. Thank you very much. Chairman warner, vice chairman rubio, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today alongside my colleagues to present dics annual threat assessment. I want to thank publicly the people of the Intelligence Community, from the collector to the analyst and everybody in between, we are presenting the result of their labor at this hearing and they work every day to make our country safe and prosperous and we are proud to represent them today. I want to thank the opportunity to take the opportunity to thank all of you. Dics relationship to its communities is critically important, and you work with us on a bipartisan basis, especially inspiring. We are grateful for your courage and wisdom. Today the United States faces an increasingly complex and interconnected threat. An environment characterized by three categories of challenges. The first is an accelerating competition with major authoritarian powers that is working to undermine the rulesbased order and the system the United States and our partners rely on for trade, commerce, flow of information, and accountability to the truth. [yelling] sen. Warner i recognize people feel passionately, but the American People deserve to hear from the leaders of the Intelligence Community. Dir. Haines the second category is the intense transnational challenges, such as climate change, production, narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and cybercrime that often interact with traditional statebased economic and security challenges. The third category is regional and localized that have farreaching and at times cascading implications for not only neighboring countries but also the world. All three challenges are affected