this round of public hearings. we found these hearings extremely useful in clarifying a number of points, and in the coming weeks, they will be publishing further transcripts of private hearings and documents. there's no plans for any further public hearings, we will, however, need to seek evidence as issue z arise, and may hold further private hearings. .. some further private hearings. in bringing our analysis of the evidence to a conclusion we will also have other individuals or groups for instance parliamentarians to lee which to talk. in the task of writing a report we said we would provide a reliable account of almost nine years of united kingdom involvement in iraq. it is a significant task. we believe it is important we do

justice to the huge amount of written evidence we have received a. my colleagues and i are aware but completely not surprised that different people have different perspectives on the same event which will also reflect on the many submissions we received. we will reach our conclusions and recommendations on the basis of our analysis of the evidence and in the interest of transparency and public understanding, we will seek the declassification of additional documentary evidence to support and explain our report. it will take some months to deliver the report itself. i don't want to set an artificial deadline at this stage. what i can say is my colleagues and i want to finish our report as quickly as possible and i would like to finish by thanking those who have assisted us in holding these public hearings. the q e 2 center itself and

particularly the event operations manager and his team for hosting us. i would like to thank both thai television for ensuring our proceedings can be broadcast and related over the internet. and our stenographer of legal solutions and tirelessly recorded our proceedings. thank you very much. i would like to thank all those members of the public who have attended these hearings and especially if i may say, a few who have been very regular and consistent attendants. we are grateful for that. finally, i would like to say a particularly warm word of thanks to all members of our secretariat. they have put in an immense amount of prolonged hard work both in arranging these public hearings and supporting the committee more generally. with those words i will bring

this session to a close. thank you very much.

president obama's nominee for national intelligence principal deputy director told the senate intelligence committee thursday that the president was informed late last year of the evolving situation in egypt. stefanie o'sullivan said president obama was brief. the committee did not have specifics to what he was told about the situation. if confirmed, she will be the second most senior person in intelligence and oversee the foreign, in a letter to mobus sec support u.s. security efforts. she's crudely as is the director for the cia.

diis is an hour. >> -- who are not here yet but hopefully will be coming along shortly. we are joined on the committee by senators conrad, newell on our side and senator coats, blunt and rubio on the republican side. so we have six new members of this committee which i think both the vice chairman and i look forward to.the i note that senator coats is go fwraurd to.o the committee, having served here in the 105th congress.note thasenator also want toco congratulate senator saxby chambliss on his voice chairmanship. we've worked together on this wo committee since you joined, h senator, in 2002, and i look woh forward to a close, good, positive working relationship, and all i can say is 2002. all i can say is so far very good.

>> there are that provides an opportunity to present to the committee and the public their assessment of current and projected national security threats to the united states. three important authorities under the surveillance act. the business records, roving wiretap and loan wolf provisions will sunset. that's three weeks from now. the attorney general and the director of national intelligence have written to the congressional leadership in

support of legislation that i have introduced to extend these authorities to december 31, 2013. the whole pariot act comes up for review at sunsets in 2013. that's really the time to look at the entire act and make some decisions. >> i am very concerned that these flee sections which are really vital for ongoing operations. so i am hopeful that this will be rule 14 to the floor. and we can have a straight upper down vote.

now to the nomination. miss o' sul vin was nominated to -- on january 5 of this year. if confirmed she will be the second most -- with the significant responsibility to assist dni clapper in his management and direction of the entire community. director clapper had laid out his goal for his office. to force a better fusion in the intelligence community between intelligence collection and analysis and to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. ms. o' sul vlivan shares this goal. the importance of this submission has been underscored

by the instability and protests in the middle east. the president, the secretary of state and the congress are making policy decisions on egypt that's not a question aimed at ms. sullivan. as an associate deputy director of the kcia her role is akin to the chief operating officer. she has served in this roll since december of director of science and technology for four years. in that roll she managed the

kra's technical innovation and support to case officer operations. while almost everything in this area is highly classified and unfortunately can't be discussed here, the committee has taken a real interest in several of these programs and found them to be on the cutting edge of she was former ly. now part of it. as the nominee to be principal deputy dni, she has answered numerous prehearing questions and met with members. her answers to those questions. so i look forward to your statement and answers to member's questions i will now

turn to our distinguished vice chairman. and then if you will, give you an opportunity. >> let me say that at the hearing thor day when you were unable to be with us, i want to make it about the fact that i appreciate as a member of this committee, particularly on the minority side the way that you have conducted yourself as chairman and both our classified and unclassified hearings and all other aspects, you have made sure that every member of the committee, doesn't make any difference which side of the aisle we were on had total input to whatever the issue was. i commend you for that.

want to make sure that i join the chair in congratulating you on your nomination. you have a distinguished career and we appreciate your willingness to serve in the number two job in the intelligence community. your response to the committee's questions, you describe the many serious threats our nation faces. as we watch the events unfold we are reminded how important good timely intelligence is to staying ahead of the rapid changes in your world. a big part of your new job will with b to make sure that our intelligence community directors live up to this task. as we talked yesterday, information sharing is of

critical importance. it's also extremely important to make sure that it gets into the hands of those people making the decisions of yourself in this po suggestion. i want to make sure that we don't give the due diligence of sharing of information in the community. we have a major oversight of that. as the number two person, you will have a major role in that particular issue, too. as you noted, the ongoing threat from al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, the same group responsible for the failed chris mast day attack is high on our radar screen. the fact that former guantanamo bay detainees have joined aqap. how to handle the remaining detainees and insuring that host countries monitor already released detainees remain critical problems.

congress has its own oversight responsibilities. i expect in your new position you will help make sure that this committee has all the information that we have asked for and need to fulfill our responsibilities. today and in the monoing months i look forward to hearing your views on other yooefr sight matter matte matters we will look -- the days of bloated government budgets must be behind us. this committee has a good track record in taking firm stances on bungt issues and i expect that trend to continue in this congress. these are just a few of the issues facing the ic. we look forward to hearing your ideas today. we look forward to a speedy confirmation process and continuing to work with you and

i thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. mst ochlt sullivan? >> it is an honor to appear before you today as the president's nominee to be position of principal deputy director of national intelligence. i want to thank you for welcoming my family and pleased that my family, parents and brother in law could join me. their support and grounding have been essential to my ability to serve throughout my career. that encompasses almost 30 years spent serving our country's intelligence community. i have served in private indust industry, department of defense and more. i have worked across the

intelligence community in partnerships that delivered more than either of us could have alone. i fully kpro hend the challenge and great responsibility. and if confirmed would strive to meet the challenges and fulfill the responsibilities of the office. the dni is charged with protecting our country at a time when we are facing a set of threats and challenges. in this environment, a strong and effective dni has never been more important. if i am confirmed, i look forward to supporting the director's goals to better integrate the intelligence community and ensure that the community is i efficient in structure and operation. i also look forward to supporting the dni to keep congress fully and currently informed.

if confirmed i will insure that the intelligence committee is meeting the obligations to form the oversight activity. thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. and for your consideration of my nomination. i look forward to answering your questions. >> there are several standard questions that might be asked. i think you can answer them with one word. do you agree to appear before the committee here or in other venues when invited? >> yes. >> do you agree to send officials from the office of the director of national intelligence and elsewhere in the intelligence community to appear before the community and staff when invited? >> yes. >> do you agree to provide

documents or any other materials requested by the committee in order for it to carry out its oversight and legislative responsibilities? >> yes. >> will you ensure that the office of director of national intelligence and officials elsewhere in the intelligence community provide such material to the committee when requested? >> yes. >> thank you very, very much. i have a couple of questions. on august 20th, dni clapper established the position of deputy director of national intelligence as the new third ranking position in the office of dni. and he eliminated the four

deputy dni positions that had existed previously. the same day dni clapper also announced that robert, former deputy director for analysis at the dia would serve as the first deputy dni for intelligence integration. in your written responses to our committee's prehearing questions you stated that, and i quote, the pddni is responsible for insuring the adequate and appropriate resources, policies, and process to maximize intelligence integration. you also wrote who is in charge of making sure intelligence information is integrated and shared a.

>> both he and i will support his objective in doing that. i would feel that is a primary responsibility. >> now i am confused. you are say iing. >> both of will be supporting us in that role. >> which person? >> that would probably fall into my area of primary responsibility as i understand the structure of the office. robert's primary role is in integrating collection and analysis and identifying intelligence gaps which are

passed to the rest of the community to effect solutions. i would be responsible for overseeing the process of trades and implementation across the rest of the community. >> good. that is clear and on the record. so thank you. i wanted to ask you a question on contractors if i can find it here. >> the actual numbers are classified at the secret level. but past agency heads have all generally agreed that there is an overreliance on contractors that has put inherently governmental work in the hands of the private sector.

and contractors have increased costs. roughly 70% per position. in other words, it is much more expensive to do it that way. it means that the government does not develop and obtain its own expertise. your answers to the prehearing questions state your beliefs that contractors can help the government meet its short term needs. if the immediate security of the nation or the united states citizens are interests or threatened then the surge use of contractors is an appropriate consideration. now it's budget is likely to have cuts as you may guess. >> madame chairman, if

confirmed, i would pledge to take a close look at the kroktors. the keyword and my response was surge use. that does not mean sustained forever. contractors bring unique and valuable skills. we should take a look at it periodically on an ongoing basis to make sure they are not just continuing out of inertia. >> as long as you look at the numbers. >> i would pledge to do that. >> the department has pledged itself to a 5% reduction of contractor use a year which can dadly is rather di min mouse. i would like deminimous. i would ask you to look at that, and we will be questioning you in the future. >> i experience doing that already. >> okay. thank you. >> mr. vice chairman? >> the committee has been

reviewing the process used to decide whether to release gitmo detainees. we need to make sure that transfer countries really do have eyes on any release detainees. the committee is still waiting for key documents from the administration on this issue. will you commit to working with the committee to help us get all the documents that we have requested? >> if confirmed, i would pledge to make available all the documents you need including on this issue. >> the dni acted in a policy role in the decision making process for transferring detainees. do you believe that's an appropriate role for the dni and if so, why? >> the process by which we are working the gitmo detainee is a

cross communication process. they also have a statement as to the risk involved. so it's appropriate that the community informs in inner agency process as to what the risks are, and the capabilities of liaison countries. >> do you think the dni is an appropriate person to be on that policy making side? >> i think he's appropriate to consu consult. >> let me just express a concern that has been brought up from time to time since the creation of the dni, it's something you and i talked about a little bit yesterday. and that's the size of the dni. i don't want to put you in a position of saying the dni is too big or not big enough, but certainly, one of the problems that we've had in the

intelligence community is sometimes wading through the bureaucracy. i would just urge you that in your position as the general's right hand person. you look at the size and the scope of the work being done by the dni. if we can, from the policy side help make decisions and work with you with regard to either trimming down or making it more efficient, i just urge you to think outside the box and let us help you do that. lastly, since the wiki leaks disclosure began. the tug between the need to know and the need to share has come under increased scrutiny. what are the key factors you believe should be considered in resolving this tension between need to know and need to share. >> to your first question on the size of the dni. i agree with you it would be

difficult for me to make a substantive assessment looking at the dni's office from the outside. however, if confirmed i would pledge to do what i have always done when i'm responsible for leading a group of intelligence committee men and women. i would make sure theirests are not wasted. i would make sure that their efforts had an impact. and i would make sure they had the tools and resources needed to do the job you expect of them. i would look at the mix, the skills mix across the organization, and that would include looking at the signs of the organization. i do this because every single person in the intelligence community wants to feel that they are making an impact and having a bottom line addition to the community. they want to feel value added. they deserve to feel their work is value added. that means taking a careful look at what we're asking them to do. on your second question about intelligence sharing. need to share and need to know

are not and cannot be mutually exclusive for the intelligence community. we definitely have intelligence sources this must be protected. lives are indeed at stake. we cannot afford to give up the grains we have made, the very real gains we have made and sharing we've had since 9/11. that has been important to keeping our country safe, and it's really truly meant we were able to do things we haven't in the past. there are things we can do to balance those two competing objectives. and the way forward, i think has been laid out by the dni staff, working with the intelligence community and focused on looking at access across the community. looking at the configuration of systems, so it's not possible any more to have a cd that you put in a computer and walk out with data. and it's focused on audit and monitoring. we have started moves to implement that capability to

make it stronger and not sacrifice our duty to share. >> thank you very much. and thanks for the great work you've done in the past with the community. and we look forward to continuing to work with you. >> senator byrd? >> thank you, madam chairman, miss o'sullivan welcome, and i say on behalf of all of us, thank you for your commitment to the country and to the effort up to this point, and i for one hope this is an expeditious process, that we move on and we can have you within the dni and your expertise which i think are invaluable to us. let me follow up on what's been raised. i think we can all agree there is duplication within the dni as it relates to analysts. now, there's not a part of the ic community that analysts aren't crucial to their work. and i guess i would ask you, is

there a point we can get to where we have overanalyzed an issue? do you have the lack of confident of the ic community that you strongly feel there is a need within the dni or is that an area you feel comfortable relying on the products in a come from the rest of the intelligence community? >> the dni's role is that of setting standards, making best practices move between organizations, doing common training and sharing the skills that we have across the community. it's a valuable role and it needs to be there. we have the dni's function and we've had it for a long time in the community to integrate analysis that cops from all the disperate and different skills

sets of the community. to get the full picture of intelligence, someone needs to integrate that, and the dni has picked up the ongoing community responsibility. i do not believe they have added to it unnecessarily, that integration job is a very, very big job. >> in most cases would you agree that within the dni, they take that raw data that is available and an lisz that with their own snapshot? >> i think they take the raw data that's available and see what happens when you put it together. >> let me ask you, if i could, one of the frustrations i go through as a member of the committee, and i don't mind speaking on behalf of the entire committee, we're asked to do oversite on the intelligence community. in most cases we're denied access to raw data. i would ask you, if confirmed today, would you do everything you can in the instances that we

feel we nied the raw data as a committee to be supplied the raw data due to our oversight job. >> i would indeed pledge to do everything possible to get the information you need to do your job to the best of my ability. i understand there are sometimes competing jurisdictions across committees, and that the raw information may fall into that bucket. but again i would pledge to do everything possible to make this committee's role oversight of intelligence -- >> i would hope with the coordinating role that you see director clapper in he could overcome those territorial boundaries and make sure -- especially within the ic community that we have the tools we need to make -- >> the director is quite persuasive. >> let me ask you one last question if i could. this is regarding the 2007 nie, that estimate was on iran's nuclear program, and former cia director jim woolsly said this

was the worst and most irresponsible national intelligence estimate that had ever -- that had confused -- confused its headlines with the footnotes. the headlines was that iran stopped its nuclear weapons program. the footnote said, by the way, it's still enriching uranium. my view was the key judgments of this nie were publicly released. now, this is not only complicated our intelligence efforts within our allies and partners, but it could also serve to have a chilling effect on future nie's. if analysts believe there's a chance that any part of their work may be made public they could alter or hold back their fullest analytical assessments. what's your personal view as it relates to publicizing the national intelligence estimates? >> the men and women of the

intelligence community are responsible for informing policy makers and the decisions that they have to make. we are committed to providing the most fullsome reviews to those policy makers including all the footnotes, including all the debates. policy makers then make the decision to how best take that information forward and use it. of course, we are concerned for the security and sensitivities that you noted. we would make those sensitivit sensitivities clear as part of our production of the product. >> would you agree that that could affect the analytic product if too much of that became public? >> i think that the analysts in this community are more devoted to making sure that policy makers have the information on their desk that they would not withhold anything because of that. >> thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> thank you, madam chair. thank you, miss o'sullivan. i really have one main question. how would you assess the state of affairs in collecting and analyzing intelligence from detainees that we're capturing around the world? >> i believe that we're doing across the community including with our partnerships with dod and law enforcement, we're getting the best access to information we can. when we can get access to people, we are getting the information we need. the capabilities and tools we have are effective in supporting that. >> the other question i had, i think as we're watching events in the middle east unfold, are there any lessons you take in terms of long term strategic examples for our intelligence

community. >> the intelligence community is working full out to track them on the ground. but the minute that things started earlier on in tunisia, the intelligence communities started looking at the longer term strategic impacts. that's a balance that we have always pursued. we set aside and value as part of our trade graft, the stand back look, the rejections of things. as well as our obligation to keep policy makers informed as the events unfold. i don't think we would ever lose sight of that. we will look to see if there's more we should have done as we look back. >> madam chair. i appreciate this hearing, and i also want to say how great it is to see you back as the picture of good health as we begin this hearing. we are glad you're here. let me ask you, picking up on

senator rubio's question, because i think the whole question of egypt and what we knew when is critical. can you tell me when the intelligence community first alerted the president and other policy makers that egyptian street protesters were likely to threaten president mubarak's hold on power? >> the ic has assessed for some time that political stag nation in these countries was untenable in the long run and briefed that to policy makers. our experts have been closely following the drivers of change from economic stability and conditions to the bulge in these areas. the factors that underlie the current crisis, we will continue to monitor developments as we go forward. and we will continue to feed in a continuous process indicators of additional instability across the region. >> that's helpful, but that's not the question i asked. the question i asked was when

did the intelligence community first alert the president and policy makers that protesters were likely to threaten president mubarak's hold on power? >> we have warned of instability -- we didn't know what the triggering mechanism would be for that. and that happened in the last -- end of the last year. >> so did you give him a sense at the end of last year -- i mean, if you don't want to give me a specific date. i am interested in when the president was told how serious this was. i mean, if you tell me it was the end of last year or last week or last month, you don't have to give me a specific date. but this goes again to the function of intelligence. to me the intelligence community's primary job is to collect information from people

who know important things. you can't just gaze into a crystal ball and try to guess what can't be predicted. i do want to get a general sense of when you all told the president that we were faced with something that was as serious as what we had seen in recent days. >> i'm afraid i'm not going to be able to satisfy your specific question. my duties involved more general understanding of the debates that were going on in that face to face briefing of the president over this past year. >> you were told yesterday i was going to ask this question, weren't you? >> not in this detail, sir. >> all right, because i think -- i'm told by staff that we notified you specifically because i wanted to get into this area. i think it's unfortunate that we're not getting more specifics given the fact that you were put on notice. do you think it's realistic to expect u.s. intelligence

agencies to have deep coverage of every country in the world, or should policy makers just expect to focus really on high priority countries and issues? >> the intelligence community has to have coverage of every area of the world that we possibly can, in preparation for those hotspots that policy makers need to focus on. we don't get to relax our vigilance on global coverage as we chase the current unfolding crisis. >> what's the role of the dni in all this? when the dni, for example lays out certain priorities for intelligence collection and analysis, how will you expect the various agencies to react? >> the dni has a very critical role. the dni add jude indicates between competing requirements and then allocates resources aligned to those top priority requirements. and the classic example you just laid out is one that we

frequently wrestle with, how do we cover the whole world and maintain the crisis collection and assessments on ongoing unfolding events. >> let's see if i can get one other question in, madam chair. that's in relation with the dni and the cia. the congress created the position of dni so there would be somebody responsible for looking across all of the various intelligence agencies to make sure the enterprise was as effective as possible. one of the questions that those of us on the committee ask every time we confirm a new director or deputy director of national intelligence is how well is the concept working? so from your vantage point as a senior manager at the cia, how well is the concept of a director of national intelligence working in practice? >> i can tell you unequivocally that we are fully on board with the dni's leadership and vision

for the community. it resonates with us, his vision with all the men and women in the community, his vision focused on mission and integration works, it makes sense to everyone. we went through a lot of standup pains in the community. but in my assessment, in my experience over the last year or so, and especially instructor clapper has come on and laid out his vision, i believe that most of that is behind us. >> thank you, madam chair. >> thank you, madam chair. thanks for coming by and having a chance to visit yesterday. and i'm pleased to be here with the missouri nominated for such a high and important position in the security of our country. you've been at the cia for what, the last 15 years? >> since 1995. >> so you've been there during the entire time that we've

changed structure from -- >> that's correct. >> from 2001 until today. a handful of years ago, what was your job at the cia? the last job before the one you have now? >> i was the director of science and technology at the cia. >> i was going to ask senator widen's question, you probably have had as good a view of this from inside as almost anybody. and i heard your answer yesterday which you gave the same answer today. i hope your optimism's well founded. what do you think about dni -- how is the reorganization that he is in the midst of impact the way the dni responsibilities are handled differently than they have been before the reorganization. >> his reorganization reflects his vision. so it's focused on integration,

it's focused on efficiency and both the structure that he's standing up and the management team that he has, which is why he's restructured the way he has. it resonates because it's true from top to bottom, he's not just -- he's walking the talk in his own organization as well as letting the pageant for the community. >> and how would you describe his vision as different as he so very focused on integration as the principle responsibility? how would you see his vision for what the job is as opposed to maybe what the job has been doing before 1234. >> well, i'm very thankful for all the people that came before in these jobs, there was a lot of heavy lifting that needed to be done. so we're standing on their shoulders, what general clapper is able to do now, because i think the community is at that point and the vision he's brought, starts with mission. and mission is what motivates the men and women of the intelligence community.

that's why we are here every day, that's why they make the sacrifices they do. when you start with mission and you lay that out and then show how integration can make that mission more effective, you can get extraordinary things out of the people in this community. and that's why i think it's resonating, and that's why i'm optimistic. >> what is the principle mission of the dni? >> to protect our country? >> protect our country and the dni's unique role in that is what? >> the dni has the responsibility of integrating the community, responsibility of being an intelligence adviser to the president, carrying forward all the information that the intelligence community brings. he has the responsibility of making sure that the intelligence community acts in compliance with the laws and constitution and values of our country as well as making sure that all of the intelligence community keeps congress and our oversight committees completely and currently informed. that's the start of the list, but not all of it. >> thank you. thank you madam chairman. >> thank you very much, senator.

senator udall? >> thank you, madam chair, good afternoon miss o'sullivan. i want to thank you for taking the time to pay me a visit yesterday and help me prepare for the hearing today. i sit oftn the armed services committee and have an interest between that and the military, particularly outside of war zones. i believe there's some need to clarify those relationships. do you think there are areas where we need new guidelines or agreements between the ic and the -- i'll use some more acronyms, the dod, the intelligence community and the department of defense? >> i believe particularly in war zones we operate quite effectively together. because our combined and joint mission is so clear. there aren't competing requirements pointing at the same thing. as far as additional guidance or structures, the dni has worked very closely with the dod to set

up a number of bodies to work through conops, policy resource allocation, requirement s allocation. all of those lower level structures are being put in place to make sure we work as effectively back here as we do in the field. >> i don't know if this is necessarily the time to do this, but i think at some point we could more specifically pursue that question, say for example in egypt, what sorts of coordination was occurring there between what our defense analysts see and perceive and those in the dni world as well. let me move to energy security. i think in your written response you mentioned energy security along with climate change, concerns it would have national security implications. what specific actions would you envision the ic taking to make energy security a real priority?

given what we're seeing in the middle east and the potential for this unrest and instability to spread? >> as i was stating earlier, our analysis of the trends and the instability and impacts includes economic indicators. energy security is the huge driver of that. it underlies a lot of the decisions and risks that are made, and decisions that are made as we go forward. the analysts in the community have stood up, all of them have long term strategic analysis plans that include looking at those longer term issues such as energy security and including climate change for which we have stood a climate change center. >> again, i look forward to working more with you if you're confirmed. let me turn to cyber security. senator feinstein led a very

worthwhile issue with china a year. one of the things we discussed was cyber security in the meetings with the chinese. i know again in your written responses prehearing questions, i think you said, the occurrence balance favoring cyber actors is to exploit our vulnerabilities is likely to increase over the next five years. you've got an engineering and science and tech background. can you identify areas in which we can be working harder and maybe in a more focused way to address cyber security threats? >> you put your finger on one of the most complex threats our country faces. the advantage goes to the attacker in the cyber world. the ic has very unique skills and capabilities we can contribute. we have a couple responsibilities and obligations as well. we track and identify cyber

threats and warn of them. in addition, we have a responsibility to protect our own networks. it's in the course of that endeavor that we probably have some of the most valuable things we can share. our networks have faced both sophisticated and persistent attacks, we've learned a great deal in the course of defending them. and nsa in particular brings a lot of unique skills which we are working and sharing under the direction of the dni across the national security community. >> so it's no secret that it's much easier to go on offense? it's much harder to defend assets in sib summer. >> particularly in an open society. >> our strengths sometimes is our weakness. but vice versa as well. >> that's what we're here to defend. >> cyber com is standing itself up, and i'm curious if you have any thoughts in regard to the

intelligence community's relationship with cyber com. and more specifically, do you have any concerns with the laws and guidelines lagging behind this area, the threat or capabilities? >> cyber com is standing up and so what we're primarily going through now is setting up the earner face structures between us. making sure we hook up all of the different parts of the community as the organization steps forward and begins to take a more and more active role. so at the time, i don't see any particular laws, authorities that are required, but if confirmed, i would certainly pledge to bring back to you anything that i discover. >> thank you, madam chair, i operate in the spirit of you they ever get in trouble for something you didn't say. although my wife would disagree with me on occasion. i do look forward to working on the committee with the chair

woman and with the vice chairman on cyber security, and the important challenges we face there. i also think we have real opportunities if we get out in front of so again, thank you for the -- >> thank you very much, senator udall. >> senator riesch? i would like to ask one question. when i came on this committee around 2001, it was right after the peru shootdown incident. and this all struck us very very strongly.

since that time you have been chair of the peru air bridge denial program accountability board. and the report which was classified has been unclassified and released. and essentially the peruvian military and the cia which was involved in identifying the bauers klain admitted to the mistake, but claimed the proper procedures had been followed and the plane had refused orders to land. the ig report founded that the cia may have misled congress and the justice department by withholding information about the drug interdiction program and there were other problematic incidents, more than ten where planes were shot down and operational rules were violated as part of the cia program. now, it's my understanding that the board which you chaired

conducted an examination of the conduct of 23 officers and recommended administrative penalties for 16 retired and current officers. in 2009 director panetta accepted the board's specific recommendations, which remain classified personnel decisions. but nonetheless, a substantial period of time had passed and i am very concerned about misinforming the oversight committee. which i think is really untenable to have happen. what are your thoughts having gone through this experience to prevent what happened here from ever happening again. and to really face up to an error and certainly testify or make an accurate report to the

oversight committee about it? >> what we found, that led to the behaviors that were cited in the ig report was numerous instances of people being -- essentially asserting compliance with procedures rather than documenting them in detail. it was sloppy and incomplete reporting. as a result of that, the board made several systemic recommendations, some of which were urged by the members of this committee to implement a lessons learned program. what we've done is just finished the first runnings of lessons learned program based on this as a case study. and we're focused on the management cadre, they're the ones that set the standards for what is acceptable reporting levels. we also, as a board agreed that the greatest offenses committed by the people that were sanctioned were those that

touched on the grave responsibility of people to report accurately and completely to congress. and we reserved our stiffest penalties for the people we found had been careless in those duties. we feel that is a startling standing lesson learned to all of our future management officers and are working hard to make sure that they all hear that lesson. >> well, i very much appreciate that. and i hope that because of your work, something like this will never happen again. not only the shootdown which killed innocent people, but the misrepresentation to this committee and to the other committee and the other house as well. do you feel that this committee can be assured that this will never happen again? >> i think that you can be assured that you have our pledge to do everything possible to make sure that we don't make mistakes of omission, that

people provide full and complete reporting instead of assertions of fact, which is what this committee needs to be able to do their oversight duties. >> that's right. i know this is very painful, but thank you for that. >> i want to go back to the question senator widen asked you about when did the president know and what did he know with respect to egypt? we're going to have a lot of lessons learned, at least the opportunity to have a lot of lessons learned at the conclusion of this procession, however long it takes, wherever it may go. and as part of our oversight duty, we need to make sure that we're asking the hard and tough questions of the community with respect to the job that our folks are doing on the ground and the quality of information that's getting to the number one

customer which is the president. what i would ask that you do based upon the answer you gave, in his follow-up question and the answer to that. i would like for you to go back and you know the people that know the specific answer. and i would like for you to give the committee in writing the timetable that the community advised the president of the seriousness of the situation surrounding president mubarak, what we knew and when the president was told about the fact that he may be -- or that this situation may evolve into one of the type of activity that we in fact have seen over the last week or so. and if we could do that in the next ten days i would appreciate that very much. >> any shortfall on the reresponsible was entirely mine

based on my own background and involvement in the process of noigs. >> i understand that. >> but it's a question that's been asked, and we do need the answer to. >> i think that's right. thank you, mr. vice chairman. >> anyone else have any other questions they would like to ask? >> mr. riesch always has -- he keeps them to himself sometimes. >> it's good to see you again too. >> miss o'sullivan let me thank you for being here. you have answered the questions, there will be some questions in writing, i trust you're answering them as well. and we look forward to processing this as soon as we can. so thank you very much and the committee is adjourned. >> thank you. .. slash