captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2008 "these operations benefitted from unprecedented help from the, kr ia, a partnership that has blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying." we have january 27th from the associated press, the cia's inspector general completed an investigation into the relationship between the cia and the nypd, after ap articles showed the police collaborated with the federal spy agency to set up operations, scrutinize muslim communities and they've helped build programs that have angered muslim communities. we have members of congress sending around a "dear colleague" letter asking the attorney general to carry out an investigation saying "we are deeply troubled by ap press reports that the new york police department with the help of the cia has been collecting

information on the muslim community in new york city and surrounding areas. this would be a violation of civil rights and trigger a number of federal laws." they then call on the attorney general saying that the nypd with the cooperation of the cia has engaged in efforts to collect information on the muslim community in new york city and other jurisdictions. recently in "the new york times" says the cia and the nypd have an unusual and highly troubling relationship. i think it's disgraceful that the media has carried out these false reports for a number of reasons. the cia can defend itself. the nypd can defend itself but these lies cause such trouble and confusion and consternation in the muslim-american community, makes it harder for the in, ypd to carry out its job. i wish members of congress before they talk about press reports would look into the facts behind them and i just again want to go over with you general petraeus, the cia inspector general said there was

no violation of the security act as far as the nypd and the cia. is that correct? >> that's correct, and if i could point out congressman, the ig of the cia is an independent individual. he is the only person in the agency beyond the director who is nominated by the president, and confirmed by the senate. >> did he find out there was no violation of the national security act. he also concluded -- did he also conclude that there was no executive order violated by the cia or the nypd? >> that's correct. >> is there any evidence at all the inspector general find any evidence at all that the cia carried out or engaged in any spying or any type of surveillance or clandestine activity in new york oh on its own or with the nypd? >> no. >> was there any evidence the nypd in any way lated or abused its relationship with the cia? >> no. >> i think it's very important that this be made known again and again, because this is causing again real problems within the muslim-american

community,' allowing politicians in new york and other places to take cheap shots at the nypd which again they can handle themselves but it makes it very difficult for them to carry out their job. we have been attacked twice. i lost 150 in my district alone. i know there's always room for legitimate criticism. there's been friction between the nypd and the fbi. there is friction when you have twro two-leading law enforcement agencies but also acting as if this is something unusual to me is disgracement and the ap reporters are up for pulitzer prize and the new york times is engamd in a campaign against the nypd. as far as i could tell i hope the cia does nothing at all to diminish its support whatsoever for the nypd. >> in fact i went up to new york, congressman, to see things for myself and for what it's worth, my assessment is, and met

with the commissioner, met with other law enforcement personnel, my impression is that there is a very good and very productive and very proper relationship between the various law enforcement agencies that includes the fbi, by the way, and then also with elements of the intelligence community that are appropriately provide in a proper way products of their intelligence collection and analysis. >> thank you, skra. i think it's important to of on the record the level of distortion. the ap when they wrote the story about what they disclosed, which is totally untrue about spying by the cia in new york, they call on the justice, they announced the fact or reported the fact that the council on american islamic relations cair referred to them as a muslim-american civil rights organization never ever mentioning cair was an unindicted coconspirator in the

major funding case in this country and the fbi cut off its contact with cair. we as a committee should speak up and line up against. they should not ally themselves with cheap press reports. i yield back. >> thank you, mr. king. mr. schiff? >> thank you, gentlemen, for your service to the country. general petraeus i have three questions. my chief concern about afghanistan is the safe haven in pakistan and my questions are these. first, do you anticipate any change in the status of the sanctuary that the insurgency finds in pakistan, and second, if we can't expect there is to be much of a change in that safe haven, for the taliban insurgency, can we reasonably expect that the afghan forces will be able to defend against an insurgency that enjoys that safe haven once we draw down our troops, and finally, should

afghan special forces be allowed to take the fight to the enemy leadership in pakistan, and the sense of immunity from risk, that the senior taliban leadership enjoy in pakistan? >> well first of all there's no question that there are elements in pakistan that have enjoyed sanctuary, and that cause major problems for afghanistan and for the afghan and coalition forces that are seeking to provide security to enable the development of the new afghanistan. having said that, there's also no question, but that our pakistani partners have confronted a number of the extremist organizations there, foremost among those, al qaeda and that cooperation does continue in various forms, but also the taliban pakistani and a

number of its affiliations. that organization is focused mostly on destabilizing pakistan but not entirely. it does cause problems for afghanistan as well. but when it comes to the hakani network and the afghan taliban there's no question that more needs to be done to them. there is an important case recently where a very significant improvised explosive device expert and builder has been detained in pakistan, again, that say very significant step. there are a couple of other developments recently, but i think we should be cautious in what we anticipate in terms of the ability of our pakistani partners and in some cases the willingness to go after again the hakani network in the federal tribal areas of the afghan taliban in beligisa. they've engaged heavy operations between the tariki pakistani and

populations and tried to squeeze others and thought they had go in and go after them is probably overly optimistic. if no change the prospect of the afghan security forces can continue the defense as in the past, i think that will depend on the amount of assistance that is provided, the character of that assistance, if you will. are there enablers in addition to say money or equipment or various traditional forms of security assistance. we have obviously nearly three years before the end of 2014 to develop that kind of, what that will consist of, noting again, that not just president obama but the leaders of the other major coalition countries of the nato forces in afghanistan have all pledged continued support in varying forms for afghanistan, beyond the end of 2014. with respect, should the afghan

forces be allowed to go, well, i think that's obviously a question for afghanistan, but i think they probably have sufficient fights on their hands without invading the soil of another country, even as significant as is the threat that is posed by some of these safe havens across the border. >> i wasn't suggesting so much a safe haven -- an invasion as to whether they should be able to carry targeted actions against leadership figures in the hakani network, for example. >> well, look, this is probably one that is best continued in a closed session, i think, to flesh out all the different issues that are at play here, and i'd ask that we probably do that. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, director. >> mr. nunez? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i find it rather ironic that ten years ago, the intelligence community was chastised for being stove piped action for

stove piping, for holding information back and just to expand on what mr. king was pointing out, that here we have the various intelligence agencies who are trying to work with the local pd to try to prevent terrorist attacks in the future, the very thing they were criticized for ten years ago when 9/11 occurred. now they're being criticized for actually doing what the congress and the american public asked them to do, which was to work as closely as you can, to protect civil liberties, but to make sure that we're sharing information across the board. and as it relates to the folks i represent i hope that folks are focusing within the intelligence community on the activity of these drug cartels, who are now, who are operating in mexico, and other parts of south america, who are also operating in california and parts of the

west, and i assume all over the country. every day innocent americans are being killed in this country because of foreign drug cartels and other criminal activity, and so my only request of all of you in the intelligence community is that you, please, look for ways to cooperate and share information with the folks that i represent and the various sheriffs and d.a.s and folks that can be helpful, if they need information on the cartels or other extremists, if king's constituents need help, i hope that you're hearing from at least some of us on this committee who do not want you to take this incident that occurred in new york or in the false press reports that are out there and somehow think that the congress is now asking you and the american public is asking to you go ahead and start stove

piping go enand not share information with our local law enforcement folks who are on the ground. >> sir, if i may, let me say a have director petraeus add to this. this is one of the profound changes that's occurred to the intelligence community in the last ten years, which was not the case prior to 9/11, is the interaction with state, local, tribal and private sector. i take this as a major responsibility that i have, and my staff, to foster those interactions. i have engaged a lot with what i think is a great organization, the international association of chiefs of police, who are very, very committed to this, and very sophisticated in the ways of intelligence, and one of my thrusts for 2012 is to further working with the dhs and the fbi to refine and bring greater

fidelity to that relationship. so i take your point, whether it's drugs or any other issues connected with terrorism or proliferation. dave? >> well, i think firstly, the advent of the dni and dhs in particular and all that has followed in the wake of that has brought about considerable progress in intelligence sharing, and intelligence integration. obviously we're all committed to furthering that progress in the years that lie ahead. with respect to your comments congressman, i was just in mexico and colombia, met with the heads of state in each of those countries and with intelligence counterparts and other security officials, in fact all tactually we're hostin a delegation from mexico in return to discuss the with a i ahead in some of the areas that we were discussing there.

i have to say i was impressed by the concepts that the mexican leadership has adopted, the comprehensive approach is clearly the right way forward, and also by the establishment of institutions, still early days in some cases, but the dramatic expansion of the national police, for example, of the penitentiary system, the corrections system, the attention to the need for various additional laws and so forth, all are exactly what are required to stem what is obviously a very, very serious challenge, and as manifested by the violence and the breakdown of the rule of law in some of the areas, in mexico. colombia, on the other hand, has adopted a comprehensive approach for a number of years, it's now looking literally to take it to the next level and we're obviously partnering with them as effectively as we can. the agency has a counter narcotics center, this integrates not just those from within the agency but throughout

the intelligence community and indeed with law enforcement agencies as well. and that is something that we continue to focus a great deal of effort on, given the threat that it poses to our country and really to the world. >> myself and mr. boren were down in colombia and mexico, i think just prior to your arri l arrival, and we're very happy with the success that all of you are having there, in the intelligence community with our war on drugs and international crime. mr. muleeller? >> i wanted to add with working with state and law enforcement, that has been the key to our success since september 11th. we have hundreds of task forces state and local represented, we have hundreds of task forces related to violent crime, narcotics traffics and safe streets task forces and leveraged our cape abltsz throughout the country by coming

together with state and local law enforcement and the task forces and even with the threats of the future, including cyber t is going to be in part some large part dependent on our relationships, not just with other players, nsa, cia, dia and the like but relationships with state and local law enforcement and building up the state and local law enforcement's capacity to address that threat as well as ourselves. >> i also might imagine the 72 state and major metropolitan fusion centers for which the national intelligence policeman provides some funding to ensure which is the nexus for providing information upward from local level to the national community and downward, which are another instrumentality network that have grown since 9/11. >> thank you to the panel and mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thank you. mrs. bachmann. >> thank you mr. chairman and

gentlemen, thank you for the work you've done on behalf of the american people. i know that my constituents are extremely grateful as well for the work that all of do you. i just wanted to note that it was a year ago when we had all gathered here in this room for the public hearing, and at that time, we all had our televisions on and we literally were observing history in the making with the arab spring and we saw the events and the demonstrations occurring in cairo, even as you are all speaking to this committee, and i'm just struck by the fact of what has occurred just in this last year. my questions are regarding egypt in particular, and as we were observing that on television, since then we've seen an attack on the israel embassy in egypt. we also have calls for -- we've seen calls for breaking the 30-year peace treaty that's been enjoyed between egypt and israel, and also in this last year, we saw elections take place in egypt, when 75% of the parliament is now controlled by

either the muslim brotherhood or elements of solafists, islamist groups both hostile to the united states and with calls as well for implementing sharia law in egypt. and i wondered if you could comment particularly with director clapper you said to the committee a year ago that the muslim brotherhood was a secular organization. i just wondered, in light of some of those events in the last year, do you still stand by that statement that the muslim brotherhood is a secular organization? >> i did not make myself clear in that statement clearly, obviously, and that's a danger of sound bites and all that sort of thing. in a subsequent appearance for the ssci, i tried to clarify that. what i was referring to was, to that point, their behavior within the political system you know, to participate in elections and this sort of thing, that the muslim brotherhood in egypt is not run

by religious scholars. it's mostly middle class people, but to your point, to whether this is going to be for us a sheep in wolf's clothing remains to be seen. they have the other salafist groups, al noor and other related parties, a wide spectrum of political parties that emerged as a result of the upheavals that have gone on in egypt. this is something we need to watch carefully as to what their real objectives there are. there have been calls for the review of the treaty with israel, not surprisingly israel is very concerned about that. so i was not as precise when i made that statement a year ago about the muslim brotherhood, as i should have been. >> and thank you for your response, and i had another

question about egypt as well. since mubarak was overthrown, the sinai has become a highway for the transport of terror personnel and material and the cross-border terror attacks on israeli motorists en route to iliyat in august and the bombing on the pipeline are two notable examples we've observed. egypt opened its land border with the hamas controlled gaza and currently we have two battalions i believe stationed in northern and southern sinai as the lead force and the mfo observers in charge of the implementation of the egypt/israel peace treaty. would you in your estimation say our u.s. forces are at risk and have the rules of engagement changed and are they involved in all in efforts to prevent the transportation of sinai into another tear haven that will continue to destabilize the peace between israel and egypt, and if so, how, and if not, why

not? >> i think at best, unless director we trpetraeus knows th probably best to consult with the department of defense on your question about the sinai battalion that's there, and whether or not the rules of engagement have changed. i don't know the answer to that, so we'll get that and supply it to you. >> congresswoman, first of all, i think it's important to note that, in all of our interaction with our egyptian counterparts, that the egyptian government very much shares the concern over the emergence of the challenges in the sinai that some extremists have flocked there, that it has been used as a transit point for weaponry and so forth. and indeed our sense is that they do take this seriously and

we can talk about that perhaps in a closed session. with respect to the multinational force and observers, that's my old area when i was central commander. unless there's been a change there's one u.s. battalion there in the southern part of the sinai, which is actually further away from this area that we're talking about, and there's another battalion from another international country that is in the north. i again would refer to the department of defense on the rules of engagement, although i can't imagine why there would need to be a change to them. they've been given every opportunity for self-protection, force protection so again i'm surprised if there has been a change. >> thank you, thank you mr. chair. >> thank you very much, mr. kelvert? >> thank you, i'd like to visit our southern hemisphere again, mr. nunes and miss myrec brought it up. the united states stepped in

colombia forcibly and turned that around and i think everyone here would say it's been a success story, colombia is coming back. we entered into a trade agreement which is mutually beneficial. we have significant problems in our southern hemisphere, venezuela, ecuador, bolivia, central america is a basket case. guatemala has the highest crime rate in the world. last time i was there they managed to make that list, and obviously mexico. 50,000 people have been killed in mexico in the last three years. we had a discussion recently, as horrible as the number of deaths in afghanistan and iraq are, i suspect they may be higher in mexico. right on our border, of the united states and that violence is coming across our border,

along our southern states, especially states like arizona, texas, we still have problems in california, and i'd like to hear what is our focus in south america? obviously we have significant problems in central america, but we've got big problems right on our border, and these are our friends and by golly we need to make sure that we can help them out and help ourselves at the same time. i just want to mention i head up the meth caucus, a number of us, bipartisan group. the methamphetamine coming across the border is the worst drug we've ever seen, it's tremendously addictive. 90% of it director mueller i think comes from mexico. precursors coming from china, india, and everybr elsewhere they're mixing this stuff up and the amount of money made is corrupting to the folks in mexico and to the united states.

we've seen we've seen significant problems so i want to hear all your comments about what can we do in south america to focus on that problem that we have, which i think is a huge national security issue. thank you. >> let me start and then ask director mueller and director petraeus to add in. i think share your concern, not only as leaders in the intelligence community but as american citizens, about the threats and issues that confront us in this hemisphere, and obviously we've been focused on other things, with two wars and all that sort of thing, and we've had problems right here in our own backyard. i think your mentioning of colombia and director petraeus was just there, is a marked success story certainly from an intelligence perspective and the partnership that we forge with the colombian government.

we are extrapolating lessons learned from that in other places, notably mexico. i think it also shows that this is a long, hard slog, and once a country is willing to partner with you, which some of them are, then the work begins. what concerns me is the network and that exists in central america as a highway, if you will, for the drugs flowing northward, and we even as we draw down are trying to bring more resources to bear which we can talk to perhaps in a closed session about can do for our partner nations, and i think director petraeus could share in more detail in a closed

session what we're attempting to do. >> congressman, we're quite obviously very concerned about not only the numbers of homicides in mexico, for mexico but also for the possibility of the spreading of the violence north of the border. our focus and number of directions first of all where there have been a spate of kidnappings we have a number of kidnapping task forces that our agents on the border work with mexic mexican counterparts. second the corruption is an issue south of the border and north of the border and we have 14 border corruption task forces that are addressing that particular area. the third area is making certain that the intelligence that we gather or dea gathers or i.c.e. gathers or other law enforcement or intelligence agency in the united states is matched up with that intelligence that is

derived below the border by the mexican authorities, by the u.s. intelligence agencies, and consequently there is a concerted effort to make certain that there is substantial information sharing along the border. the last point i'd make has been pointed out, that the cartels from mexico have reached into the united states, seen the lucrative markets quite obviously and not being, suffice it to move the drugs over the borders but exit control and have pockets of cartel personnel inside the united states and to the extent that is happening, bev enterprise investigations addressing those aspects of the movement of the car tells within the united states. understanding that the thrust of the defense along the border is customs, border patrol and dea. >> congressmen, if i could,

first of all with respect to colombia, you know we really have to give credit to some vae courageous colombian leaders over the years who implemented a very difficult strategy certainly we provided considerable assistance but it was their police and their military that really implemented the strategy that was developed. with respect to mexico as i think i mentioned earlier, there was actually a delegation here today quite high ranking. i'll meet with them this afternoon after we get back to the headquarters, how we can further our work together, noting again steps that mexican leaders have taken to develop a comprehensive approach under their current president, and to begin building the institutions needed to implement it, but again that's going to take a good bit more of a lot of hard work ultimately to develop the kinds of forces, judicial structures, corrections facilities and all the