Today, miss courtney ellwood, the president s nominee to be the next general counsel of the Central Intelligence agency. Courtney, congratulations on your nomination. Id like to recognize your husband john. John, wave your hand there. Thank you. Whos in attendance today and i thank you for the support you give to courtney. Courtney, you served the country with distinction in your Previous Post at the white house in the department of justice and we appreciate your continuing willingness to serve. Our goal in conducting the hearing to enable the committee to consider miss ellwoods qualifications and allow for thoughtful determination by our members. Shes already provided answers to 90 questions presented by the committee and its members. Today, of course, members will be able to ask additional questions and hear from miss ellwood in the open session. Courtney comes before the committee with a distinguished legal career. After graduating Yale Law School in 1994, courtney clerked for the u
Include isil or assad, as you stated in your testimony and that relying on moderate rebels to defeat them both and usher in a political settlement, will the assad regime being supported by iran and russia as they are and with isil being so well financed, how will a group of rebels be able to defeat them both . And what would they need in order to accomplish that goal . The administration doesnt have a comprehensive policy to deal with all of the threats in iraq and syria and iran, nor does it seem to want one. These arent realistic plans that can truly destroy isil, can defeat al news ra and defeat the assad regime. We havent even begun the train and equip mission and were about a year away from even standing that minimal force up, if ever at all. Is that the case . Where are we with that mission, sir . In my testimony, i did focus on the concern about the militias and Prime Ministers batty to reign those in, all armed groups within the structures of state. I also focussed on the desir
Trained or will it be a year from march, 2016 before we have those 5,000 fighters that we send back to syria. Its 5,000 trained per year. And part of the reason is because of the vetting standards were very being careful about this. Were not sitting on our hands. Excuse me, ambassador excuse me, mr. Ambassador. Answer the question. Is it 5,000 in 2016, in march, where we hope thats our plan to have them trained by then . The training we hope will begin in march. We hope but it will take a year to train 5,000 people. Yes, thats right. So march of 2016. Then we have a plan, then we have fighters, then we send them to syria. Theres no telling what isis can do in that year and however ever months it is. Is the United States have some other Strategic Plan other than arming these folks that arent going to show up until 2016, dropping bombs, that are marginal whether theyve been successful, and helping with military aid to some of these coalition countries. Is there a Strategic Plan overall t
Canceled a planned event for the restoration of freedom of religion act. When it comes to boycott in indiana over the religious freedom law we want to get your thoughts in this hour on what you think of them. If you support them, oppose them, or think otherwise about them. Here is how you can weigh in. The numbers are on the screen. You can also waiting on twitter, facebook, and send us email to. There is language, or reports about language, this revision that governor mike pence called for earlier this week for the restoration of freedom of religion act. It is to be announced thursday morning, today. Here in washington, d. C. , the senate for America Center for American Progress comes up with a number because of the religious freedom restoration act of 256 million and counting that could be lost from indiana economy. According to one organization that keeps track of these things, robert king joining us on the phone. Thank you for joining us. Give us a snapshot of the last 44 hours las
Its been about a year since weve had weather like this so remember to bundle up and wear those layers. We have some warming coming up in a few minutes. It feels like green bay around here. Guess who is in town tonight . The green bay packers. The big playoff game is now less than 24 hours away. The 49ers, packers at candlestick. The San Francisco skyline showing off the citys team spirit. At city hall the 49ers flag is flying high with hopes this win tomorrow, if they win, will pave the way to new orleans, the site of the super bowl. Preparations are under way, course, at candlestick. The game is sold out. It will be cold as jeff said, but some people are already tailgating. You see the parking lot. Huey lewis and the news will will sing the national anthem. E40 will perform at halftime. The real excitement is whats going to happen on the field. They embrace that put up or shut up, that win or you go home. And theyre excited about it. Theres no more fun you can have than winning a play