senator johnson: good morning. this hearing of the senate committee on homeland security, government affairs committee, is called to order. this is our annual threats to the homeland hearing. i want to welcome our witnesses. i d like to start, though, by acknowledging the victims of the hurricanes in houston, texas, in florida, throughout the caribbean but in particular puerto rico. i m sure we ll be discussing that quite a bit. maybe wasn t contemplated when we first set up this and scheduled this hearing on the other enormous threats, but there s real threats to human life occurring now throughout our nation and we ll certainly acknowledge that. all those individuals are in our thoughts and prayers. i m sure everybody on this committee joins me in that. we are pleased to welcome the acting secretary of homeland security, elaine duke. director of the federal bureau of investigation, christopher wray. and nicholas rasmussen. we want to thank all of you for your service. these
prisoners in northern iraq, secretary carter promised there would be more raids like that, and today s move is an effort to make good on that promise. in more than three hours of testimony before the armed services committee, ashe carter and joseph dunford faced predictably sceptical questions. are we winning, mr. secretary? we will win. are we winning now? we re going to win. reporter: have we currently contained isil? we have not contained isil. both democrats and republicans seemed dissatisfied with the pentagon talking points, but they re making progress, and gaining momentum. i can climb down from here and say that i m making progress, and if i run the next 15 feet, i m gaining momentum. reporter: carter unveiled one wrinkle to the plan, something that he called a special expeditionary targeting force, u.s. comandos to be based in irbil, iraq, to conduct raids in both iraq and syria. sometimes jointly with the iraqi forces and sometimes unilaterally. wi
to see how people are reacting to this change. top story this hour, the syrian opposition made a list of demands ahead of u.n. brokered peace talks due to happen later this month in geneva. they want confidence building steps from the syrian government, including an immediate end to the bombardment of opposition held areas. here s victoria gattenby. the civil war in syria is almost five years old and it s estimated a quarter of a million syrians have been killed. u.n. backed talks to end the fighting and restore the peace are due to start later this month. syrian opposition leaders want confidence building measures from the syrian government before the talks begin. they want sir i can t be government forces to stop bombarding opposition held towns and cities. they are calling for political prisoners to be released and they want humanitarian aid delivered to those in desperate need. you can t enter negotiation whilst people are being slaughtered en masse. at least stoppi
citizens. well, there are now plans set for a summit, a day of action designed to keep up the pressure on washington to lend a helping hand. here to tell us more about the upcoming day of action, marcos crespo, our good friend, new york state assemblyman, brenda torres, prima not really director of the new york regional office of the puerto rican federal affairs administration. thank you both. you were just back on the island. in fact, it was you, it was the council speaker, the governor, the mayor, as well. and i was there with you back in mission. around? what was the goal, and what was accomplished? well, joe, we were hosting conference. yes. .which we ve now re-branded as somos now. we believe we are a community that s existing and in power now. and we had the participation of not only the folks you mentioned, but we registered close to 600 registered guests at our conference. and we participated in these conversations. we participated in a rally that took pla
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