Former national security officials warn antitrust bills could help China in tech race
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Cyber preparedness could save America s unsinkable aircraft carrier
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Federal law requires the intelligence community to submit an annual worldwide threats assessment, but agencies failed to do so during Trump’s final two years in office. The last worldwide threats hearings were in January 2019.
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“Over the last four years, the Trump Administration discarded the tradition of open hearings on World Wide Threats, when it displeased the former president to have his preferred views of rival nations contradicted by agency heads,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff
The hearing will be the first congressional appearance for many of the witnesses since they were confirmed earlier this year.
It comes as the U.S. is facing a diverse set of threats, ranging from geopolitical tensions, a massive cyberattack on the U.S. government, a pandemic and an increase in domestic extremism.
“After several conversations with Avril, there is no doubt in my mind that President-elect Biden has chosen someone who has all the capabilities and qualities, experience, and leadership to be the next director of national intelligence,” Coats said ahead of Haines’s opening statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
According to acting panel Chairman Marco Rubio
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Coats, who served as DNI for Trump between 2017 and 2019, described Haines as an “exceptional choice,” praising her stated goal of “bringing non-politicized truth to power and restoring trust and confidence in the intelligence community and the American public.”
Coats left the role of DNI after clashing with Trump on multiple issues during his tenure, most notably over Trump’s comments at a 2018 press conference in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin