more independent, more diffuse and more willing to attack american interests. this evidence by their part to washington restaurant, the rulers in iran clearly pose a more direct threat to us than

many would've assumed just a year ago. that is on top of the hostile actions in which iran has been engaging for years, including killing americans in iraq and afghanistan and supporting terrorist groups across the middle east. destabilizing your countries and probably not in the assad regime in syria and continuing on the shared pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability. the threat posed the iranian regime could soon bring the middle east to the brink of war if it's not there already. north korea is in the midst of a potentially dangerous and destabilizing transition and inexperienced 29-year-old is now in charge of a government that continues to produce nuclear weapons to develop ever more sophisticated ballistic missiles with the republic of korea and administer the most brutal

apparatus of state oppression of any country on earth. the chances of conflict are israel is ever before. the people's republic of china continues with a nontransparent ellipse of its military forces while engaging in provocative acts against its neighbors in international waters. indeed i'm intentions in the south china sea have rarely been higher. at the same time the number and sophistication on american targets by chinese at various likely with chinese government involvement in many cases is growing increasingly severe and damaging. indeed, last year's report from the office of the national counterintelligence executive makes clear quote, chinese actors are the world's most days and persistent perpetuators -- perpetrators of economic espionage. and afghanistan, the taliban and

insurgencies damage but not broken and regrettably there will to stay in the fight against the international coalition and afghan partners has only been increased by the administration's repeated public commitments to certain date for withdrawing our military forces regardless of conditions on the ground you meanwhile, pakistan remains as fragile and combustible as other ms eyewitnesses statements are clear, pakistan's intelligence service continues to support terrorist elements inside afghanistan that are attacking and killing americans. direct the fragile stability of democratic gains that iraqis have been able to forge thanks to the search now seemed to be unraveling. prime minister malloch he appears to be consolidating his power at the expense of the other political blocs. france is up significantly since

the departure of u.s. troops. al qaeda and iraq invalid shia extremist groups are still very much active and threatening to iraq's stability. it is increasingly difficult to argue that iraq to use the president's words this quote, stable and self reliant. one in to gear up spring, and the situation remains fluid, uncertain and in places very troubling. tunisia and libya, yemen and bahrain, countries undergo monumental changes and now comes of those changes are still far from clear and then there is the area for the conflict appears to be enee than 6000 lancet have lost and there appears to be no end da bd and we should rule out no option that could help save lives. we could consider among other

actions preventing opposition groups inside. the political and military with better means to organize activities and care for the wounded and find safe haven, to communicate securely to defend themselves and fight back against the forces. the time has come when all options must be on the table to add the killing and forced aside to leave power. we should continue for some time listening to marry the other threats facing our nation and i've come to brutal cover most of them in today's hearing. what should be clear is that by no object of assessment at restaurant on national security decrease to the contrary they are increasing as they prepared testimonies of eyewitnesses make vividly clear. so the question members of congress and the members of this committee in particular need to think long and hard about is

this. why in an international environment of growing uncertainty, risk and credit would we choose to add to those risks by making large and misguided pastor and national defense budget? cuts that by themselves will not significantly reduce our national debt, the real driver which is our domestic entitlement programs. i do not see a compelling answer to this question at this time and i imagine today's hearing will underscore that point. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you so much. senator mccain. mr. clapper. >> thank you. distinguished members of the committee for inviting us to present the 2012th worldwide threat assessment. i observe you probably are the given up for us. i'm joined today by the defense intelligence agency, friend and colleague lieutenant general ron

burgess. these are marks in her statement for the record reflect to collect event sides of extraordinary men and women of the united states intelligence community would be recognized and we must appreciate that and have it is our privilege and honor to the. we are most appreciative of your knowledge of the work, sometimes under various conditions around the world. with all its attempt to cover the full scope of worldwide threats in these brief or remarks, said like to highlight some of the issues we identified for the coming year, some of which you party done for us a sense that. earlier this month, there was the 51st anniversary of my enlistment in the marine corps. entering my entire career, i don't recall a more complex and interdependent arete challenges that we face today. the capabilities, technology, know-how, communications and

environment of forces are combined by borders and transnational disruptions astonishing feat. never before has the intelligence community been a call to so many issues in such a resource constrained in my area. continue to integrate the intelligence community and implementing new efficiencies and is always simply working hard. but candidly maintained the world's premier intelligence enterprise in the face of a shrinking budget will be a challenge. we will be as accepting and managing risk more so than we have had to do in the last decade. when i say we, i mean both legislative and executives. we begin our threat assessment as he did last year with the global issues of terrorism and proliferation. the intelligence community sees the next two to three years as a critical transition phase for the terrorist threat, particularly al qaeda and

like-minded groups. with osama bin laden's death, the global jihad movement lost its most iconic and inspirational leader. the new al qaeda commander is less charismatic and to capture a prominent al qaeda figures has shrunk the group's top leadership there. even with this capability some focus on smaller simpler plots, i'll qaeda remains a threat. as long as we sustained pressure, we just al qaeda will be largely symbolic importance to the global jihad is movement. regional fillets to a lesser extent small cells and individuals will drive the global jihad agenda. proliferation that his efforts to develop, acquire or spread weapons of mass destruction is also a major global strategic threat. among nationstates, as you've alluded, iran's technical advances particularly in uranium arrangements to an assessment there has more capable of

producing if it's political leaders specific way a supremely there himself chooses to do so. north korea's export of ballistic missiles and associated materials including iran and syria illustrate the reach of the norse proliferation activities. we don't expect that it kim jong un to change the policy of attempting to export most weapons systems. i would note that in this your statement that the record as you have noted, as yourselves of the elevated our discussion of cyberthreats to follow terrorism and proliferation. and perhaps in something of the newcastle just to affirm the cyberthreat is one of the most challenging ones we face. we first see a safer environment in which emerging technologies are developed and implemented before security responses can be put in place.

among state actors, particularly concerned about entities within china and russia conducting intrusions into u.s. computer networks and stealing u.s. data. the rule that nonstate at her side playing in cyberspace is a great example of the easy access that could potentially disrupt legal technology and know-how by such groups. two of our greatest strategic cyberchallenges their first native real-time attribution of cyberattacks come in knowing who carried out such attacks and were perpetrators are located. second is managing older abilities within the i.t. supply chain for u.s. networks. in this regard, cybersecurity bill was recently introduced by senators lieberman, colin, rockefeller and feinstein and addresses the core homeland security requirement that approves cybersecurity for the american people, nation's critical infrastructure and the federal government's own networks and computers.

intelligence committee considers such legislative steps essential to addressing our nation's critical infrastructural vulnerabilities which pose serious national and economic security risk. briefly looking geographically around the world and in afghanistan and general burgess will have more to say about this coming during the past or the taliban and lots of god, because mainly mainly a place to the international security forces or isaf were concentrated. the leaders begin to enjoy safe haven in pakistan. the efforts to partner with afghan national security forces are encouraging the corruption and governance continued the afghan forces effectiveness. most provinces have established basic governance structures but struggled to provide services. the international security force in support of afghanistan's neighbors notably in particular pakistan will remain essential to sustain the gains achieved.

although there is broad international political support for the afghan government, particularly in europe about how to find afghanistan initiatives after 2014. in iraq, then it's been sporadic high-profile attacks continue. prime minister maliki's recent aggressiveness against sunni political leaders have heightened political tensions. but for now, we believe the sunnis continue to be the political process as the best venue to pursue change. elsewhere across the middle east and north africa, those pushing for change are confronting ruling elite, such caring ethnic and tribal divisions, lack of experience with democracies, stalled economic development, military and security forces and regional power initiatives. these are fluid political environments that offer evidence for extremists to produce a more assertive in political life. states were authoritarian

leaders have been toppled such as tunisia, egypt and libya have to construct to reconstruct the political systems are complex negotiations among competing factions. and nowhere is this transition i believe more men egypt, which i think will be a bellwether and of course and so strategically important because of its size, location and of course the peace treaty that now has with israel. in syria, regime and transit social divisions are prolonging internal struggles and could potentially turn domestic upheavals and two regional crises. in yemen although the political transition is underway can the security situation continues to be marred by violence and fragmentation is a real proper though the. as the ancient roman historian task this once observed the best day after he batted for is the first. after that, i would have been scared very problematic. the intelligence community is

also paying close attention to african continent throughout the western hemisphere, europe and across asia. and here are two issues are self-contained. virtually every region has a bearing on our key concern to terrorism, proliferation, cybersecurity and stability. throughout the globe, whether their environmental stresses on water, food and natural resources as well as whole thread, economic crises and organize fancy ripple effects around the world and impacts on u.s. interests. amidst these extraordinary challenges, it is important to remind this distinguished body in american people in all of our work the u.s. intelligence community's choice to exemplify values. the chariot or omissions with respect to look on protection of civil liberties and privacy. that pledge leads me to mention our highest legislative priority this year and require support of both houses of congress.

our first specifically to foreign intelligence surveillance act amendments act for saa, which is set to expire at the end of 2012. title vii allows the intelligence community to collect battle information about international terrorists and other important targets overseas. the law authorizes surveillance of non-us persons located overseas who are foreign intelligence importance for information about threats such as proliferation. it also provides comprehensive oversight by all three branches to protect privacy and civil liberties of u.s. persons. department of justice in my office conduct extensive oversight use of activities and report to congress and compliance twice a year. intelligence collection under fisa produces crucial intelligence that is vital to protect the nation as international terrorism and other threats. ..

by thank you and the members of the committee for your dedication to the security of our nation and your support for our men and women of the intelligence community and your attention here today. with that i will stop and turn it over to general burgess. >> thank you director clapper. >> i want to thank you for the opportunity to join my longtime

friend and professional colleague, director clapper in representing the men and women of the united states intelligence community. i would like to begin with current military operations in afghanistan, where we assessed that endemic corruption and persistent deficiencies in the army and police forces under mod -- undermine efforts to extend governance and security. the afghan army remains reliant on isaf for key combat support such as logistics, intelligence and transport. while afghan army performance and grouped in some operations, when partnered with isaf units, additional gains were required sustained mentoring and support. despite successful coalition targeting, taliban remains resilient and able to replace leadership losses while also competing to provide governance at the local level. from the pakistani safe havens that the taliban leadership

remains confident of eventual victory. to the west, iran remains committed to threatening u.s. interests in the region through its support to terrorist and militant groups including in iraq and afghanistan while it remains committed to strengthening its naval, nuclear and missile capabilities. iran can close the straits of hormuz at least temporarily. and they may launch missiles against united states forces and their allies in the region if it is attacked. iran could also attempt to employ terrorist circuits worldwide however the agency assesses iran is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict. iranian ballistic missiles and development could range across the region in central europe. iran's new lacks -- space