the issue of airport security continues to trouble the transportation security administration. we are joined by keith lang, who covers transportation issues for the hill. first of all, on this san jose stowaway story, what was the breakdown there? a the issue there was 16-year-old boy was able to get past, not only get through tsa security, where passengers are supposed to have their boarding documents checked, he was able to get access to the runway where it is supposed to be limited to employees of the airlines and airport. he hid in a landing gear of a hawaiian airlines flight, a boeing 767 line to hawaii. to hawaii. some say it is miraculous that the teenager was able to survive. he was unconscious when the plane landed but later regained consciousness at the hospital. it is really tough at the altitudes that commercial flights reach, there is usually

loss of oxygen at that level. it is very cold, so people say it is very surprising that he was able to survive. >> does tsa keep track of attempts like that? that has got to be an infrequent occurrence. >> there are some lawmakers that say it is happening more frequently in recent years. area,s a bit of a gray which is what lawmakers wanted to get into. isport perimeter security usually handled by airport police department, but tsa is also supposed to make sure that every passenger that comes through has accurate boarding documents. there is some overlap in jurisdiction there. youru wrote in one of articles that a representative of california, homeland security committee, wrote a letter to the comptroller general of that perimeter security. what did he want to know? he is calling for a nationwide reassessment of

airport perimeter security. he says this incident shows that there are large gaps in security in some of the jurisdictional gray areas i was talking about. he is calling for an examination for all airports in the country. he said that has not been done in several years. iswe are showing the viewer a field hearing of the house homeland security looking at the 2013 shooting at lax airport. they talked about a number of issues including security. tsa sort of efforts did make, in particular, after that shooting at lax? >> there has been a bunch of changes that have been recommended. the los angeles airport and the authority that oversees it conducted a review of the security situation of the emergency response situation during the november shooting and they found that it took too long for airport police to get over because tsa agents are not

armed. in that situation, there are some groups that are calling for the creation of armed tsa officers. in that situation, the union for tsa workers said that the agents were sitting ducks because they had an active shooter, there were no airport police who were armed, tsa was not. >> once again the issue of security, and back to the stowaway issue, you write the tsa administrator headline in the hill says that they question the tsa chief after the stowaway. what will they want to know? onthat hearing was already the books, probably will take on a different flavor now that this incident has happened. it was supposed to be a broader look at tsa's efforts to develop new procedures to keep up with the new threats that are emerging. that there will be questions from lawmakers from both parties on how a teenager

was able to access a flight in an area where only authorized personnel should of been, and what tsa would be doing to deal with those challenges. >> you can follow keith on twitter. you tweet about a poll dealing with the tsa and how people feel. only 50% believe tsa makes flying safer. did any of those poll numbers translate into fewer flights by passengers? not appear. that poll was conducted by harris interactive. it was more an assessment of passenger attitudes, about flying, they separated the data into people that live very frequently, business travelers, infrequent flyers. it did not seem like there was anything to suggest that people were less likely to fly because of the tsa. >> you can follow keith on twitter and follow his reporting at thehill.com. thanks for the update. >> now to that house homelands

subcommittee hearing held at los angeles airport on march 28. >> the committee on homeland security subcommittee on transportation security will come to order. the subcommittee is reading to them in the transportation security administration preparation for and response to emergencies at airports. before we begin, i want to welcome the witnesses and extend my thanks to those participating in the hearing. i appreciate the efforts of all those involved to have this important hearing. this is an official congressional hearing as opposed to a town hall meeting, and as such, must abide by certain rules of the committee of homeland security and of the

house of representatives. i wish to remind the guest today the demonstrations from the audience coming including applause and verbal outburst, as well as the use of signs or packard's are in violation of the rules of the house of representatives. the rvs and campers are limited to accredited press only. i now recognize myself for an opening statement. i want to thank the witnesses for their participation in this hearing and their commitment to aviation security. also want to acknowledge the sacrifice of tsa officer hernandez who lost his life on november 1 2013. it is my sincere hope that this hearing reminds us not only of the horrible events of that day but also motivates us to make changes that will improve our ability to detect and deter potential threats and respond to future emergencies. i believe we owe it to mr. hernandez and all those impacted by the shooting to examine the fax and shed light on the details and the timeline of this incident in an open setting.

that alone is the purpose of today's hearing. the shooting that occurred here at lax exposes significant weaknesses in the federal or the ability of federal personnel to communicate and coordinate during an emergency. i suspect this exist in other airports across the country. perhaps these witnesses stem from constraints or clashes between agencies, or a believe that an incident like this is unlikely. it is certainly easier to push emergency planning and size on some time to the distant future rather than making a top priority than today when you have so many other competing demands for time and resources. having said that, most of my colleagues will agree, in a 13 years after 9/11, these types of flaws cannot be tolerated, regardless of the reasons. based on reports and pleaded by tsa, it appears there is widespread agreement on this. according to los angeles airports, the response and recovery efforts following the november shooting lasted roughly

30 hours. shooting affected over 1500 .lights and 171,000 passengers among the findings of the report , they highlight significant coordination and challenges among local first responders. i'd agree with the assertion that airport security needs to become more risk-based, emergency communications need to be more streamlined, and it must be a unified incidents command center after an incident like this. the report provided details on certain aspects of the response, but they did not mention where the officers assigned to terminal three were at the time the first shots rang out and what impact if any this may or might have. i believe the location of these officers is crucial to understand the viability of a .lexible response especially when you combine it with a lack of interoperable radio communications that we know exist. if we do not have law-enforcement officers station at heavily traffic screening point or ticket counters, we

should at least have confidence that we know when the first officers will be there to respond to an active shooter or to an emergency. i look forward to discussing this issue in greater detail. we have had the benefit of reviewing tsa's recent report which highlights several recommendations, actions, including mandatory active shooter training for screeners and improved mitigation systems and enhance law enforcement officer presence at checkpoints and ticket counters during peak travel times. bottom line is tsa cannot do it alone. it must rely on local law enforcement partners in an event like this. for i conclude, i want to remind you that we are on a tight schedule today with folks flying out at various times this afternoon, so i will be enforcing the five-minute rule for all members to hopefully we can get through to give you of questions. follow-up on the hearing to look more broadly at what lessons were learned once we put the fax on the record here today and how they can be applied to airport asian wide. i welcome all member -- members

to attend the hearing as well. i now recognize the ranking member of the full committee for any statement he may have. >> thank you for holding this important field hearing today. at the outset, i'd like to acknowledge executive director lancing and chief galen of the los angeles airport for their hospitality. your willingness to aid the committee and oversight for hosting a hearing and accommodating our members request to choose a side of this tragic shooting of november 1, 2013, is appreciated. two administrative pistol, thank you for appearing before the subcommittee to discuss tsa findings in the wake of the shooting and planned reforms to mitigate a similar incident in the future. we placed the security of our aviation sector in the hands of men and women of the transportation security administration every day. , the on the front lines

tsa officers, deserve to know that we are doing everything within our power to see that they themselves are secure when performing the critical jobs of screening passengers. i'm pleased that the national president of the american federation of government employees is appearing before the subcommittee today to give voice to the transportation security officer worked corner. documented, onl november 1, an armed guard -- you been man entered a term of three of los angeles international airport and opened fire on transportation security officer hernandez. the gun then proceeded through the terminal, targeting other tsa employees, shooting and injuring transportation and security officers grigsby and spear. thanks to the bravery of the police officers on duty among the gunmen was open daily -- ultimately taken down and prevented from causing further harm.

while some may wish to point fingers and assign blame for this horrific incident, i believe doing so would be counterproductive. all of our energy should be directed toward not only learning from the incident but also implementing needed reform. frequently, we speak of lessons learned from a tragedy but failed to implement the reforms necessary to present those lessons from having to be learned again. for instance, after 9/11, we identified an indication between and amongst first responders was an area that needed major reforms. despite knowing this and having spent $13 billion to correct the problem, a review of the report the airport released last week revealed more than a decade after 9/11, the police and fire department at this critical airport could not communicate effectively during an emergency. the two transportation security officers have been trained to

use in the event of an emergency did not work. the state of affairs is unacceptable. our police, firefighters, transportation security officers, and emergency medical personnel, along with the american public, deserve better. ther the shooting at lax on targeting intent of passengers incident tsa personnel, untold lives could've been lost. in addition to the communication issue, i have concerns regarding the training of transportation security officers are receiving for active shooter scenarios. i look forward to hearing from the administrator for how he arends to ensure all tso's trained to respond to an active shooter scenario in a matter relevant to their work environment. before yielding back, i would like to acknowledge represent a divorce who represents the district the airport is in, and

representative brown, for their participation in the hearing today. i must also ask for unanimous consent that representative waters and brown be allowed to sit in and question the witnesses at the hearing today. with that, mr. chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. >> without objection, we welcome ms. waters and mr. brown. the chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee, mr. mccall, for any statement he may have. >> thank you. offer my firstst -- sincere condolences to officer hernandez's wife, who we met with briefly before the hearing. i also want to recognize the tsa officers grigsby and spear. from what i've seen, you are true heroes. what you did the day. we appreciate your service. fornt to thank the chairman his leadership on this issue. i also want to thank the los angeles world airport for

hosting us. chief galen, who gave us a tour of the terminal this morning. , ms. lindsey,tsa thank you for hosting us and giving us a briefing this morning. they were very informative and insightful. it is critical that agencies responsible for protecting our airports are doing all they can to keep passengers and employees safe. i believe this hearing is an important opportunity to examine lessons learned from the shooting, what went well, and what didn't. how we should apply those lessons learned to others as we move forward. unfortunately, we live in a very dangerous world. that's like the one that happened here are difficult if not impossible to prevent. but what we can do is improve our ability to protect the threats before someone starts oroting or detonates a bomb hopped a fence or takes advantage of any security thatole or vulnerability

we have failed to close for one reason or another. as chairman of the committee on homeland security, i know how committed our law enforcement officers are and our transportation security officers are, day in and day out to stay ahead of any potential threat. yet, the tragedy that the world watched unfold at this airport could very likely happen again at another airport in the future . so we need to be prepared for that. wherever and whenever it may happen. there are valuable lessons to be learned here today by this incident. first, we need to dissect exactly what happened. among the shortcomings in the response to the shooting, we know that all relevant agencies did not join together in a unified command structure until 45 minutes after the shooting occurred. even then the los angeles fire department did not join the unified command. ins, along with the lack of some cases interoperability communications made the job executing an efficient response

more difficult. what is perhaps most concerning about the problem identified after the incident is that it was as if the government had gunmenooting randomly -- had been shooting randomly rather than targeting tsa, we could've had dozens killed within the 4.5 minutes it took for officers to obtain the gunman. airport police were operating vehicle checkpoints and stopping certain vehicles to check for anything suspicious. yet, as the airport report points out, it was possible the shooter went through one of these checkpoints and the officers were not able to detect or deter him. there is no such thing as 100% security, but the situation reminds us that we cannot become complacent. we need to constantly stay ahead of potential threats with proven tactics and techniques, and there are some parallels to what happened at the washington navy yard just a month and a half before this incident occurred. i do want to close on a positive note. ms. we saw today with

lindsay and chief janet, john pistole, not only prior to the shooting, what was done at the shooter, tostop the stop more bloodshed, the heroes that day, as i pointed out, are tso officers. chief, the great work that you did. i must say, i walked away very impressed with how this incident was handled by all the relevant agencies, but also the way they have looked in a self-critical way to examine what can be done better. that is what it is all about, how can we do a better job so we can prevent this from happening again? i must say i'm very proud of the police, ms.airport lindsay, your efforts with the airport, mr. pistole, what you have done with tsa, to make this place a seizure airport.

with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. now recognizes the gentleman from texas, ms. jackson lee, for any statements she may have. >> might i add my appreciation to you, mr. richmond, and also to the chairman and ranking member of the full committee of homeland security. i also wanted a knowledge my colleagues commerce and waters, who has come up with great honor, served his community and showed great compassion for these issues, and to forratulate congresswoman her important legislation that i hope will be passed and the president will sign. i thank all of you for coming to this hearing, particularly, the witnesses, mr. pistole, who is in service to the nation, ms. lindsay, your guidance of this airport, along with your whoeague, chief gannon, eloquently presented the case today of november 2013. mr. cox, thank you so much for

standing very strong and tall for first responders in the name officers. today we will learn what we can do to prevent or mitigate a similar incident in the future. at the outset, i want to knowledge the ranking member of sir richmondtee, of louisiana, could not attend the hearing today, although he wanted to very much. he has asked that i express his regret, which i will do all that and ask that i sit in his place during the hearing today. at this time, i ask unanimous consent that ranking member richmond's didn't be inserted into the record. >> without objection, so ordered. >> again i think that witnesses for a. before the subcommittee today. a special thanks to the executive director lindsay and chief gannon, the administrator pistol, national friend tocox, a working men and women, for traveling to appear before the

subcommittee. today we have the honor and privilege of having officer hernandez's wife present with us today and as we chatted about her wonderful children, i thought it was important to acknowledge to all of the clear,s, let it be very you serve in the stations defense, and that tso officers across america are first responders and they are serving to protect our national security. mrs. hernandez, your husband fell in the line of duty serving his nation, and we are grateful to all of you for your sacrifice and your willingness to sacrifice, saddened that it occurred, but we thank you for your presence today. today's hearing focuses on an issue that i closely observed in my time in congress and as a member of the homeland security committee. that is the safety and security of our aviation system and airports. i served as easy the chair or the ranking member of the subcommittee and work to enhance

aviation security and the security of our critical infrastructure. indeed, i was the principal author of the last repetition security administration authorization act to pass the house of representatives and i would hope that we soon have the opportunity to look at that again with the many changes we may need to include. understanding the importance of training for transportation security officers, not legislation contains a section focused on the talisman of a centralized training facility for the workforce. i look forward to hearing from administrator pistol today on how he intends to train the entire transportation security officer workforce on active shooter scenarios in a setting resembling their workplace environment, a crucial element to the many tso officers across america. today's hearing also focuses on a topic of great interest to me in light of a similar incident having occurred, as i mentioned earlier, in houston, texas. last may, a man entered the houston internet -- intercontinental airport and was in the parking lot for over an

hour and subsequently fired shots into the ceiling near a ticketed area. thankfully, no passengers or airport personnel were injured in the incident. the shooter ultimately took his own life. as an additional point, it was a tso officer that first acknowledged or thought there was something suspicious about this individual. ultimately, as this tso officer andronted the individual the department of homeland security law enforcement agent came out from under the direction and was part of the overcoming of the individual even though he had begun to look as if he was going to take his own life, taken together, the shootings at lax and houston bush internet -- intercontinental airport shows that airports are target rich environment, as unfortunate as it seems. whether it is the airplane, the area where passengers are, or whether it is in the open space

and secure areas where tso officers are manning. knowing that it is incumbent upon us to implement recommendations and modify policies where appropriate that will make the airport environment more secure, airport personnel and transportation security officers. undoubtedly, russo will require resources and support from federal, state, and local authorities when an incident occurs that prompts support from multiple law enforcement agencies, communication systems are only as good as their weakest link. our challenge is to make that link a strong as possible. it does no good to the washington -- los angeles airport to invest in a communication system and the surrounding jurisdictions fail to do so. i look forward to listening to the testimony and will submit the rest of my statement into the record. >> i think the gentlelady. other members are reminded that you may submit written statement for the record. we are pleased now to introduce our distinguish panel of

witnesses here with us today. first we have the honorable john pistole, the administrator of the transportation security administration and the department of homeland security since 2010. as tsa administrator, he oversees and manages approximately 60,000 employees, security operations of more than four hundred 50 federalized airports throughout the united states, federal air marshal service, mass transit systems, and pipelines. appointedey was general director of los angeles world airport in june 2007. she has over 20 years experience in airport management. she has briefly served as managing director for seattle-tacoma international airport and her attorney aviation for anchorage international airport. aggie for hosting us. mr. patrick gannon, appointed to the position of chief of airport police for los angeles world airports in november 2012 hearing chief of airport police, 100 --non leads over 1100 police officers, security officers, and civilian staff and

ensures compliance with tsa mandates, airport rules and regulations, and international federal, state, and local laws. he retired from the l.a. police department in 2012 after 34 years of service. finally, mr. j david cox is the national president or the association -- american federation of governing employees. the largest federal employee union representing six hundred 50,000 federal and easy government workers nationwide in overseas -- and overseas. mr. coxlso point out, is from the eighth district of north carolina, so he is my constituent. always want to make note of that. i thank all of witnesses for being here today. full written statements will appear in the record. the chair recognizes administrator to stall to testify first. , ranking member, congress numbers, for hosting

this field hearing on this important topic. opportunity to appear before you with these other distinguished witnesses. of november 1 demonstrated the bravery of our front-line workforce as well as their commitment to tsa's mission for protecting the nation's transportation system. in the immediate aftermath of the incident, tsa took a number of actions which i'd like to outline some including assembling a crisis action team to advise me and ensure communication and engagement with the workforce and stakeholders regarding the event. a call for a conference review of tsa policies, procedures, and training to identify improvements to the safety and security for tsa employees and by extension the traveling public. after meeting with the family of officer hernandez, and thank you for recognizing anna and the officers, the day after the shooting, i met with them, and then had the senior leadership team take the following steps. first, we communicated with our workforce what we knew and then

with cricket updates. second, i convened a meeting of external stakeholders where we requested inputs for active engagements to consider and improve officer safety. third, i directed internal teams to assess options and make recommendations. fourth, i redirected a number of fromntermodal viper teams their surface trepidation missions to lax and other high-profile airports to serve as a deterrent to a shooter. from these reviews and assessment, we received hundreds of ideas and have limited over a dozen of them. tsaoyees from all levels of contributed to ideas through what we call our idea factory and then over 100 town halls, i and other senior leadership team convened. we continue to welcome stakeholder work force feedback as we remain engaged in advancing modernization. want toregard, i recognize the immediate and ongoing engagement our senior hasership team here at lax

had with our over 2100 employees here at lax, the largest contingent of tsa employees of any airport in the country. and to thank each and every tsa employee, particularly here at lax, and terminal three, for their resiliency and dedication to the mission. directornt to thank lindsay and to our police for their strong partnership prior to november 1, and since that day. the lax shooting raises a number of issues about the training we provide to our tsa employees, and while they have received a number of different types of training, active shooter training was not a primary focus. since november 1, lies mandated all tsa employees receive this training and am pleased to report over 90% of our six 2000 employees have completed this training. in support of further efforts to reinforce emergency procedures,

we've incorporated a reminder in our shift greece regarding evacuation routes and rendezvous points identified in the local navigation plan. as part of our review, we study how officers notified law enforcement of an emergency most effectively and determined that we need to do two things. existing alarms, and acquire and install many more alarms in airports around the country. interoperability of most federal agencies and state local authorities, it continues to be a challenge worldwide. we also instruct our federal to own adirectors wireless devices preprogrammed with their own emergency numbers to allow them to voluntarily program them into their personal devices. in addition to best practice we when a distress alarm is received it would be

appropriate to automatically focus on the location of the alarm. after carefully studying the presence of law enforcement officers at checkpoints, tsa is also taking the following actions, including incorporating maximum response times in their airport security programs and recommending standards for increased presence at high airport locations, such as checkpoints, ticket counters, to provide a deterrence and quicker it's -- quicker response time. ofconclusion the shooting officer hernandez and three others reminds us of the dangerous world we live in. the shooting serves as a catalyst for tsa to assess its existing safety kerry -- existing safety security policy. there is no guarantee of preventing terrorists and others from doing bad things. the actions i have outlined divide a measured approach to mitigate risk without trying to eliminate it.

clark's thank you. the chair recognizes the chief. member -- >> members of the committee, welcome to los angeles international airport. i am the director of los angeles ofport security and chief los angeles police. airport police is the primary law enforcement agency for los angeles world airport with a staff of 1100, of which approximately 2500 are sworn, the rest are support staff. los angeles airport police is committed to ongoing training. an active shooting exercise was held three weeks prior to the november 1 shooting. during this two-day training exercise we trained over 350 airport police officers in los angeles police officers and los angeles city firefighters to respond to an active shooter in an airport environment. we conducted this training in one of our airports. this training proved to be very

helpful as we faced a gunwielding man at terminal three. on november 1, 2013, the alleged shooter entered terminal three at the departure level near a ticket counter. atwalked to a nearby line the foot of an escalator. at the bottom of the escalator was a podium staffed by geraldo hernandez. assault rifle from his luggage and shot the officer mobile times. he went up the escalator just a few steps but then turned and came back down and shot officer hernandez again. shots were fired passengers ducked for cover. within seconds tsa officers urged passengers to move away from where the shots were being number of tsa officers acted heroically and put themselves in jeopardy to make sure passengers got out of the line of fire. i would like to specifically recognize tsa officers for their

heroic and selfless actions to protect passengers who were slow to exit the area. 10 seconds after the first shots were fired a call came in to airport police dispatch. the call was made by a supervisor who was forced to run from the area and was unable to provide information about the shooting. shortly thereafter an airline contract service employee who was near officer hernandez used his cellular telephone to call airport police within a minute airport police had a full discussion of the shooter and responded as quickly as possible. following the initial shooting he went up the escalator through the evacuated tsa screening area and then into a terminal concourse apparently looking for other tsa officers. fired an assault type weapons as people scurried for cover. this is where he shot and wounded other tsa officers and one additional passenger. airport police officers quickly

converged on terminal three for many different directions as the officers arrived they were directed towards the suspect by a number of people in the terminal. the officers eventually confronted him near gate 35, where an involved shooting took place. he was stopped and taken into custody. the shooting of officer hernandez took place at approximately 9:20 a.m.. one minute 22 seconds later our airport police dispatch center broadcast the shots fired call in terminal three. at 9:25 a.m. airport police officers reported the suspect was down near gate 35. four minutes and eight seconds elapsed from the time the news the shooting was broadcast to our dispatch center to the time our officers reported the shooter was down in the terminal and in custody. this has been speculation event may have been prevented if an airport police officer was posted at the tsa screening checkpoint in terminal three. the facts are that a podium-based officer at the

checkpoint not have prevented this murder and the officer would not have been in a position to keep them from attacking officer hernandez. i believe it podium-based officer would be more vulnerable in a carefully planned attack. school it wasigh 46 minutes before law enforcement was able to make entry into that school. to respond and neutralize the suspect within four minutes to when we had the shooter in custody is remarkable. even so we continually look for ways to improve our response time, even though we work each day to prevent or deter violent acts at lax. we can never guarantee this will always happen. what we have learned is that when a violent attack occurs, speed and quickness will be the key to saving lives. thank you very much.

>> the chair recognizes mr. lindsey to testify. committee,of the thank you very much for coming to lax. and being willing to discuss the events of november 1. of the largest destination airports in the united states serving 66.7 million passengers through nine different terminals. passenger and cargo airlines that end of the 615,000 operations in 2013. november 1 was like any other busy friday morning at terminal three. loant of violence by a gunman set off a sequence of events of which you have heard a great deal. the suspect came to lax and a vehicle driven by a friend and was dropped off by a departure dislike many departing passengers. he was dressed as a typical passenger with luggage typically brought to the airport by passengers. was in custody,

communications, traffic control and tactical operations remained quite obligated. airport police and their partner agencies did not know if there were other shooters. they did not know if there was a vehicle with a bomb or a secondary device placed in the airport area. lax handles about 200,000 passengers per day in its central terminal area and it is a massive undertaking to make sure we keep everyone safe. as soon as dispatch was notified landsideooting all airport access was shut down. we could only reopen once we were certainly were not putting anyone in harm's way. however simultaneously we were still accepting arriving flights. the number of passengers ultimately held on board grow.ft continue to while airport police quickly apprehended the suspect, significant travel disruption resulted in tens of thousands of passengers.

our best estimates were there are 23,000 passengers in the terminals at lax. of approximately 3005 hundred people in terminals 1, 2, and three escaped onto the airfield and were then bused to appropriate holding facilities. that is the plan we have in place and on that day it worked. workers inngers and terminals one, two, and the three ran out to the central roadway. those and other terminals were sheltered in place. others who were still expecting to depart on flights continued to arrive at the airport, adding to the congestion and traffic gridlock outside the central terminal area. flights005 hundred 50 scheduled for lax that day 1200 and 12 actually operated. although 74 of those were cancel 250lines flight and diverted 800 flights to other airports 16 arriving

flights were held on board for longer than 30 minutes. availablee were not what ran workers evacuated. of with lax effectively shut down or ripple effects throughout the national air transportation system that impacted an estimated additional 1500 flights remarkably the airport returned to full normal operations 30 hours after the shooting on november 2. lax established 12 evacuation and shelter sites and distribute it 16,000 bottles of water. there were partner agencies with passenger accommodation that also made extensive use of the news media websites and social media to communicate what information we had. months itt several , everyiewed in detail aspect of this incident and presented a comprehensive report to mayor garcetti and the board

of airport commissioners with several key findings. the report assesses what happened, what could have been prevented, what response efforts worked well, and what areas of emergency management need to be improved. this report is available online. the most significant challenges centered on nasa vacation and public notification. in terms sheltering and customer cares, given the duration of the events, the ability to mobilize an entire airport community in response. lax has implemented a number of specific recommendations and will be implementing others in the coming months. the report also concludes that the immediate tactical response by airport police was swift, heroic, and well executed. collaboration with and in support with response partners was effective. terminal three was rapidly

repaired and returned to service. we thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to answering any questions. >> thank you. of the chair now recognizes mr. cox to testify. of flux thank you mr. chairman and ms. -- mr. chairman and members of the committee. testifyhonor it is to before a majority of the committee that has a southern drawl like me. first i would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family of officer hernandez and our best which is -- best wishes for the full recovery of the officers. attack, -- unarmed, unprotected, and exposed, tsa officers at terminal three checkpoint were easy targets for a man with an irrational hatred of tsa and our

officers. results of our analysis are made fully in abridgments -- in a written statement. i will focus on recommendations for improved security going forward. if she strongly believes tsa should create an arms transportation security law positionnt officer assigned to protect tso's and passengers at airport checkpoints and other key locations. of trained ts eliot 's -- --ts leo rather our proposal would establish a new lawn enforcement unit within tsa. as we have heard, current airport law enforcement operations have gaps and inconsistencies that leave passengers vulnerable. many airports have no law-enforcement officers

stationed at or in the airport. even where they do decisions about taxing, staffing, and the plummet have left many checkpoints without an officer stationed there to provide security for our unarmed tso's and passengers. placing one armed passenger at every key airport location will several security improvements, including integration of law enforcement operations,sa creation of a visible deterrent to those with criminal intent as well of those who subject tso's to verbal and physical assault and provisions for the quickest possible response when an attack occurs. i was interest of time simply list our additional recommendations. protected establish installations at each checkpoint with bulletproof glass to allow

armed officers to better observe the area, detect a problem before it escalates, and create it is able to turn for those who might be planning an attack. tsa should continue to deploy lto's to the new monitor exit lanes. the lack of coordination across horrificcies made a situation even worse as emergency medical attention for our wounded officers was delayed. we recommend implementations -- gao reports on scientific research and enhance training to better identify threats to aviation security. we believe that will increase the likelihood that a bdl will be at the right place at the a potentialo detect

attacker like the lax shooter. he is a must provide active shooter training to tso's relevant to each airport, which includes inter-agency grills -- interagency drills with other first responders. her fallen officers act would grant public safety officer , honor public service killed in the line of duty. we recognize that a very small portion of the population volunteers to be put in harms way to protect their country. receiveshould enthusiastic bipartisan support. we look forward to the same support for proposals we have made today. his concludes my statement, i would be happy to answer any questions. >> i recognize myself for five minutes to ask questions.

i would like to start with you. four minutes eight seconds is quite remarkable from the time he received the call to the time your officers took down the shooter. i just want to acknowledge the heroes of the officers that served under you and the work i think everyone recognizes their action and they were extraordinary. one of the issues we have heard different information about was the location of the two officers in terminal three that day. i would ask we get it on the record and be clear where were .he two officers a >> the other officer was out on the airfield, which was quite a responsibility. my interest is not to get you with any officer.

that ane a policy officer operates under when you're taking a break to you should notify someone, or was it standard operation to quickly take that break and quickly get back on? >> i guess that policy is to ensure that we have coverage in that terminal. somebody to making that kind of determination. i don't have a particular problem with that. i have a problem throughout an entire airport through each of the terminals. a tremendous responsibility throughout those, whether it is in the departure level or arrival level in the baggage claims. there is a lot of difference responsibilities that are officers have.

they were not the only officers working that day. they were the only officers that had responsibilities to that terminal. >> explain what are some of the layers that would have overlapped with terminal three. >> in addition to the officers we had assigned to terminals each day's we have bike officers that have been working that particular day. i have supervisors that are read we haveing roving patrol units working in the central units that they. >> thank you, chief.

you stated the tsa is recommending airport operators conduct active shooter training. assays that the exercise weeks prior contributed to the performance of tsa officers that day. working in coordination -- do you do these training the local law enforcement at the airports? could you explain how that -- >> there are two aspects to the active shooter training. employees all tsa around the world to make sure they know to do in the event an active shooter takes lace. there are three different types of training.

then there is the tactical training. -- its the training combines all three. weprobably did save lives call the in actuation -- -- the evacuation, it was as much a of an escape as an evacuation. it is in concert with the airport authorities and please. of we are requiring that to be done semiannually for all 477 airports around the country. will hold everyone else to their five minutes, with 13 seconds left i will yield to the ranking member of the committee for questions you may have. >> thank you, very much.

simply put, how would the response to an active shooter laxation differ today in compared to what happened november 1? >> i think the response to the actual incident itself and to the shooting this tough. part of the difficulties we had on that day was coordinating all the resources that responded to the airport. that we one challenge had in making sure that we understood exactly where they were being put to work in building out an effective command to be able to deal with those. the other issue is prevention. he spent a lot of time wondering if we could have prevented this incident. theiven the case of suspect, he was not on anybody's

radar screen. i don't think we could have prevented this in that regard. there are ways in which we can educate our employees and educate people within the airport to be better partners with us and be more observant as to what is going on in maybe behavior exhibited by the suspect could have been identified and acted upon before he had an opportunity to shoot. i don't think this particular case it was. we put together a community to finding officers to specific terminals to build relationships with people so we get better information. >> i guess my point i'm trying to get at is you have identified thatination as something will be different now than before. told on what we have been during our visit here it is still very difficult for the

sheriffo talk to the lapdtment, to talk to the what are you doing -- lapd. to affectou doing that inoperability issue that still exists? >> it still exists throughout southern california and throughout the los angeles area. the county is responsible for putting together an nmr -- and inoperability plan. they have a program in development. we have developed our communication systems to be compatible but that is still some time off. in the meantime what we have -- the the short term orociated with this airport

lapd officers that are on campus or close is we provide them with a radio in which they can monitor -- for us in which we can monitor their frequencies. we do have frequencies in which we can talk to lapd on our frequencies. withinave inoperability to some degree but not to the extent that we need in a major instance. >> i think the only thing i would add is we are encouraging l.a. to take the steps they need to take because we have already implemented the technology that they are ultimately going to a whole lot is more of encouraging them the steps they need to take that we can do from airport perspective. >> an active shooter situation is difficult scenario. recommending for

situation like this? that the memo kinds of training tso should have in that situation. >> there has to be an opportunity for the tso's to take the training and were member their jobs are very demanding. and people line up to get into the airports it is time that it is hard to take time to get the drain. they understand how to get to the alarms that are handy, having more radios that would be permissible to use their own cell phone for help. passengers, where to go for a safe harbor type thing. there although differently.

that happens in every .rganization >> the chair now recognizes the chair of the full committee, the gentleman from texas, mr. mackall, for any questions you may have. >> thank you. day in and day out, under very difficult circumstances, tsa officers protect the public from threats that may be terraced street we certainly appreciate the work you do. you don't always hear that. i want you to hear that from the chairman. i look at threats, risks, and vulnerability. this airport has been threats under nine -- under threats since 9/11. it was a target. when i look at this annual -- at

this pattern, it seems to me one goes through proper screening, having a police officer beyond that screening is helpful. it seems to me the real vulnerability is before that before they go through other screening. the shooter actually went through the exit. what were your lessons learned in that regard when you look at what happened that day? >> i agree with you. i think the threat for this airport starts on century into the and extends terminals itself.

our greatest threat occurs -- are please presence should be -- thosephasis should be in particular areas. that is consistent with the strategy we have put together. the way insistent in which we have moved from that podium assignment where we have officers sitting or standing at a podium behind the screening and to move them up front with that in mind. .o reduce the threat there there are a number of challenges that any of our airports and a number of issues that involve crime and other things that we have to address each and every day. i also feel it is important that we protect everybody in this airport environment to the best of our ability. >> there was talks of putting a

police officer in front of each checkpoint and resources obviously are an issue. there ways to be agile, flexible, and to keep the threats guessing? i think if you have one person always in one place they are able to predict better in terms of the threat that particular juncture. the flexibility and agility, do you think that is important to move those assets around -- ?ion mark want for it to be an issue here. -- toprobably going to be watch and look and pay attention how we do our jobs each and every day.

five minutes is extraordinary. i think we can always do better. moreuld have seen a lot budget that they. when you look at resources, and theave to look at that, in bush continental airport there was an officer that responded. -- have a lot of different thatave the viper teams are there today. you have the teams, cvp officers. they are being trained, unlike the tso's. can you speak to that instead of bringing those to prevent that from happening> >> there are a number of multiple layers of security that

could be brought to bear. chief mentioned, it is one thing to have the police doing random controls and having that unpredictable aspect along coordinated with the viper teams which is another layer of security there. when we start introducing other components, who have primary inponsibilities elsewhere addressing what risk and what threat. we do balance this threatened vulnerability for assessing this to make informed judgments. you mentioned if we did have a special cadre of armed tso's, i --e concerns about that, but i do not think is a solution. i would agree with that.

my time has expired. thesa officers are in service of protecting this nation. as we proceed at this hearing, it is a key element, collaborating with local law enforcement. we thank you again very much. that direct thought of in 2013 youurity, did a vulnerability assessment lax with transportation security. in my opening regards, i alluded tso officershat

should have the ability to pick the emergency line and it should work. they should know that the panic button will work or offer a proper response. shooting situation, that is crucial. like question is whether the assessment that was done in 2013 tip into account the communication between first responders. we raise that question. but also the ability as the ability of the tsa officers -- thank you. the joint assessment was in february of 2014. it was part of the previously scheduled one. one of the things we looked at communications a not necessarily in terms of

interoperability, because there is a number of challenges to that, from a number of different aspects. havee police want to police officers on their regular channels and communications -- to ask other questions. please summarize. ofwe looked at a number things. he did not look at communications between first police,rs, fire, sheriff. that is not part of the joint vulnerability assessment. a can we add the ability of tso officer to have immediate response based on what ever -- >> the question we look at is due officers have the ability to communicate directly with their police, and the answer is yes. onthe supervisory tso did november 1, 10 seconds after the

first shot was fired. >> my point is we want to make sure all that is operable from our perspective. they have taken action to direct that. is it your important for the federal tso professional realization as opposed to privatization -- does this point out how important that is? a federalve tsa is workforce. we recognize the congress mandate to have screening. >> i would disagree with that. about the importance tso,aining professional, organization as opposed to privatization. let me comment briefly on what you think is important about a law enforcement entity. thehe american people had

outcry that they wanted the federal government to operate the screening at airports after 9/11. since that time tsa has done a fantastic job in protecting the flying public. i believe that needs to be a function of government, and they are doing an excellent job. art event was having a law enforcement -- part of it was having a law enforcement project inside. i commend of the work of the police department. he did a fantastic job. thatbrave police officers ran into the situation. at the same token, tsa needs a law enforcement affair. my good friend sent the economy would not be looking to the phoenix police department to provide the security of officers he wants to do that. there needs to be some type of law enforcement inside tsa to

provide security at that checkpoint. there are still a very large airport parking lots come all this type of things that have to airported in an operation, at which we need to local law-enforcement and the airport law enforcement to. itse checkpoints and tsa, was one of ours that did not get to go home to his family. >> thank you. i yield back. -- >> the chair -- still have a -- congressionalour district. we recognize you for any questions you may have. >> thank you, and i appreciate you being here. i would like to thank the committee chairman, the ranking

ander, richard hudson congresswoman sheila jackson-lee who is sitting in for organizing .his here by joining with my colleagues to honor the life and service of gerardo fernandez a tsa officer who was killed in the line of duty on november 1. i offer my deepest condolences to his family and friends and 's ando honor all the tso other first responders who risked their lives to stabilize the situation. this hearing follows the release of two reports of the incident, one by the los angeles world airports and the other by the tsa administration. i am concerned about some of

what was revealed in those reports. i am not -- because those things that were revealed, whether it is the red telephone or the panic buttons or even the interoperability are things that can be fixed. i think that ms. lindsay and chief tenant have already talked about a quick response to those kinds of things. they had the resource to do it, and they will certainly knew it. i would like to spend a moment about the need for a consistent law enforcement presence at tsa passenger checkpoints such as the one where officer hernandez was killed. i know that there are differences of opinion about this. what i am anxious to hear it day and in the near future is that the discussion will continue. there may be things that can be

tried. there may be alternatives, but what i do not wish to do is to simply have the issue put to rest. i am concerned that there may be a better mousetrap. i am not sure. following the incident, i discussed airport security issues with leaders of the american alliance of airport police officers. i wrote a letter to the administrator, in which i recognized -- recommended that law enforcement officers be feet ofd within 300 checkpoints. i have a copy of that letter consent i will conclude it. i was pleased to learn that tsa was responsive to the concerns that i raised and addressed this issue in its report. standardsended calling for an increased

presence of law-enforcement officers at high-traffic locations within the airport such as peak travel times and checkpoints and ticket counters. tsa still does not require that law enforcement officers be thesetently present at checkpoints, even during the aforementioned peak travel times. the report on the other time has not addressed the issue. responsea flexible process -- approach to security which allows officers to roam around the airport. fixed approach by contracts requires the police officer to be stationed at each passenger screening checkpoint. airports that support the approach havense argued that this approach provides better visibility of police officers throughout the airport and less predictability for those who are intent of doing harm. a consistent law enforcement

presence is a controversial issue. i would argue that the flexible response message are not exclusive. a major airport cannot have police officers at every checkpoint and still have additional officers patrolling the airport. in the capital comics where we were cheap, in washington, can have please officers stationed as well as additional officers and patrolling the vicinity. i think it is possible for lax. some police departments have stationing ahat police officer at every just just tookpoint is expensive. i do not accept that particular argument. i do not want to compromise airport security in order to

save money by paying for fewer police officers regardless of what the late -- the locals agency is response will for station officer at checkpoints. presence at these checkpoints is critical. i look forward to a bright discussion regarding security today and in the future. i firmly believe that we should not adjourn without at least continuing to address this issue. i want to thank the chief or his perspective on this. he gave me a new insight about predictability and the fact that if it is known that there is an officer of the checkpoint they easy targets. i appreciate that. i want to thank mr. cox. that is why i think it is so important to continue the we can't beecause creative and we can try things. i think there is no reason why we cannot take several ideas,

worksem out, see what best, but i do not want to give up on this discussion. thank you for allowing me to be here today, and i thank you for the one for sure you gave us today. it gave us a editor insight. this is an important facility. lax is an economic engine of this area. i appreciate you. i appreciate all of the tremendous responsibility that you have. i want to be part of the solution, not a part of the problem. >> i think that gentlelady. >> thank you, and i want to thank you and the chairman and the ranking member thompson for hearinghis important here today. as someone who travels every week, to and from lax, i feel very safe.

as chairman mentioned, we cannot be complacent, and this incident informs us on changes we need to make to improve all of our security. i want to thank chief gannon and all the men and women who serve with you, who protect us here at , and allmr. pistole the tsa officers who work very hard every single day and who put their protection or our protection over theirs every single day to ensure our safety. i have to state that when surveying over 200,000 people every single over theirs every single day to ensure our safety. i have to state that when surveying over 200,000 people at lax, ite day here is likely major public event that takes place every single day. so i want to thank all of the andesses who are here today

their willingness to answer our questions, and hopefully the death of tsa officer fernandez -- hernandez and a passenger on november 1 will never happen again. it is incumbent on all of us to work together to identify possible improvements to safety and security for tsa employees and our traveling public. the shooting also raised another one that wee death of tsa and must address. current law does not provide tsa officers with death benefits like those officer did -- offered to state troopers. i'm just naming a few of the law allrcement personnel who

received death benefits. introduced i have the honoring our fallen esa officers act which seeks to eliminate this in equity. my bill would amend federal law to provide for the eligibility of a tsa employee to receive the deathfety officers' benefits. introduceded the tworing our today and officers who are here today, and all of the tsa employees who demonstrate current -- courage and bravery every day in hopes of never having another november 1 incident. god forbid that an incident like this ever happens again, as well as the husband of ms. hernan tho

officers who are here today, and all of the tsa employees who demonstrate current -- courage and bravery every day in hopes of never having another november 1 incident. god forbid that an incident like this ever happens again, as well as the husband of ms. hernandez, the two officers who are here today, and all of the tsa employees who demonstrate current -- courage and bravery every day in hopes of never having another november 1 incident. god forbid that an incident like this ever happens again, as well as the husband of ms. hernandez, but if another tsa officer dies in the line of duty, i believe these benefits are critically important to their families. with that i wanted to ask mr. pistole, having served in the fbi and now with tsa, what is your opinion on whether tso or tsa officers should be afforded the same benefits as the federal partners that help to secure this country every single day. >> let me thank you for initiating the bill, to recognize tsa employees as public safety officers to receive that and if it. it would eat a tremendous overall.o tsa hopefully it won't never be needed again. i appreciate your initiation of support of that and would help that that would him to fruition retroactively, obviously. and then be programmed it in terms of any future losses.

tremendous appreciation and support. thank you. >> thank you very much. i will would appreciate it if you and your organization -- and i know you have -- taken a look at the bill, if you could take a deeper look at the bill and provide any feedback as we move forward with that, i would appreciate it very much. almostee that my time is expired, so i will yield back. >> i thank the gentlelady. i would like to recognize the chairman of the full committee. >> thank you. let me say again to honor our thoughts and prayers. we can never undo what has been done. we want to make you whole again as much as we can. we are determined to help you. to mr. pistole, thank you for the jobs you and your officers

.o ms. lindsay, i did not get to ask your question, but i wanted to close by commending you as well for the model you have created of kawai operation in in your command center. it is important the public be aware of what you have done even before this incident, but more so after it, pulling together the relevant agencies to work to gather to better prevent threats like this from happening. very similar to the joint terrorism task force model where you bring all the relevant layers into the same room with equipment, soeo that god forbid something like this happens again we will be able to respond very quickly and protect the traveling public.

with that i will close by saying thank you for your leadership in holding this hearing. two maxine waters, thank you for hosting us and you're fine district, and you are a lucky woman. the weather is very nice here. thanks for your leadership. >> thank you, mom mr. chairman. i think the witnesses for your testimony and members for your questions today. i am committed to working together in a bipartisan way to look at the lessons learned to make sure that officer hernandez did not die in vain, that we can aswhat we can do representatives of the people to go forward and make the country safer for the flying public, to assist law-enforcement administrators around the country and the top job they do everyday. thank you for making this possible. i would point out that members may have additional questions for the witnesses and ask that

you respond to these in writing. without objection, the subcommittee stands adjourned. >> mr. chairman -- consent to take care of something i did not take care of? i just really realized that mr. james speer and the other here,rs who were shot are so i want to thank you and i am pleased that you are here and getting back to work. >> without objection, the subcommittee stands adjourned. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> prime time begins at 8:00 eastern on the three c-span networks. we will bring you supreme court oral arguments and remarks in a oase to decide where the aere company has the right to transmit without paying copyright fees. and on american history tv, a discussion on the 1954 freedom summer when civil rights activists registered black voters in mississippi. that is american history tv on c-span3. 2:15, a talk about

whistleblowers. snowden looked at these examples, look at chelsea manning, looks at assange and realized he had to be out of the country if he was going to put out this amount of information and be able to tell what he had done, why he had done this, and comment as he has been doing. i was personally 40 years ago to be able to speak. i was out on bond throughout my trial. i was able to speak to demonstrations, to lecture. there is no chance in the world that snowden would have been allowed to do that, as he knew ,rom looking at chelsea manning would be in isolation for the rest of his life. the journalist today almost four years out after this left a map,

no journalist has spoken to chelsea manning, no journalist has spoken to chelsea manning, not in four years written note interviews, no nothing. and they will not either. you are not allowed to speak to him in prison now. snowden more or less had the out of the country. he learned from that. he also learnt you need to put out a lot of documents, and all the more reason he had to be out. one reason, what makes a was a world -- what makes a whistleblower? hardrns out it is pretty to do, since we have been seeing dozens, hundreds, thousands of people knew the secret, who the truths, and many of those, perhaps most of them, knew these involved life or death matters on which major lies were being told. and where the truth could make a difference. and yet they did not speak out. we have to change the culture of

secrecy, a cult of secrecy, change the benefit of the doubt that is given quite wrongly to politicians and to the president in terms of what the public should know and should not know, to allow to even thinking that for example that clapper or keith alexander or the president should be the last word on what the public should know about what they are doing in our name represents a kind of culpable ignorance at this point, unless you're 16 years old. these people do not deserve the benefit of the doubt at this point. behind the veil of secrecy can extremely bad disastrous policy withoutoes on, accountability. as we learned from the pentagon papers, we learned from sedimentation, from snowden, we

learn if we got the iraq papers, which we still do not have, and there have been a number of authorized leaks in some cases, the decision-making is actually very bad. stupid,t only criminal, it is also stupid and ignorant to allow. it is not subjected to a larger debate even within the government or the congress, oversight, let alone within the public, and the reason that the constitution that tom has been talking about so much, is not indeed obsolete, it was a good idea then and it is still a good againsts to be defended the people starting with two presidents and their minions and many people in the press, that after all, after 9/11, we have a new kind of threat here for which the constitution was not suited. we really need a new form of as nixon said,re

if the president does it it is not illegal. >> you can see the entire program which includes thomas , who was prosecuted as a spy. it airs tomorrow at 2:15 pm eastern. service returns monday from its recess. 49 bills atvils in 6:30 eastern. startsn the week, work on 2015 spending bills. you can see the house live on c-span. 2:00 p.m. is back at

eastern where members will be a day

>> let's turn to the senate. during the past week the majority leader harry reid tweeted about the minimum wage. he said he looks forward to a

debate for raising the minimum wage. i hope my republican colleagues will join us to act on it. >> you will see a debate. democratic leaders have promised they will bring this to the floor. wednesday's vote is not expected to receive 60 votes. of the good in terms election year politics for both sides. isublicans have decreed this a measure aimed at driving democrats to the polls. >> billy house is a congressional reporter. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> the house and senate are back at 2:00 eastern. live coverage of the house on c-span, and the senate is on c-span2.

you, mr. speaker. [indiscernible] an american tragedy. act that this violent resulted in the murder of has receded in the streets of our nation. i applaud the young people all land who are making a statement about hoodies, about the real hoodlums in this nation, particularly those who , wearingour laws quasi-official --

racial profiling has to stop, mr. speaker. just because someone wears a them adoes not make hoodlum. the bible teaches us, mr. speaker -- suspend.mber will >> these words -- >> the member will suspend. >> [indiscernible] mercy, and in the testament -- speaks us these

words. the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me -- >> the gentleman will suspend. -- speaks us these words. the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me -- >> the gentleman will suspend. these wordsho hear to heed these lessons. may god -- the member is no longer recognized. the chair will ask the sergeant of arms to enforce the prohibition on to korma. the chair -- on the court. the chair must remember members that the rules for hibbitts the wearing of hats in chamber when the house is in session. the chair finds that the wearing of the hood is not consistent with this role. >> find more highlights of house floor coverage on our facebook page. c-span, treated by cable companies 35 years ago and brought to you today as a public service by your local cable or

satellite provider. up next 18 the washington post journalists and reported from london's guardian newspaper talk about release of nsa documents edward snowden. reporters who is now with "time" says mr. snowden has no input on what stories he writes or what should be published. the event hosted by "the post" is about two hours. proud of the recognition and of the recovered. we recognize that there are sharp divisions of opinion about the source of the documents that form the basis of our coverage, edward snowden, and also about our role here at the controversy has been intense at times, and i expect we will explore that today. u.s. edition of "the

the board embraced the idea that it is in the public interest. " the new yorker" wrote this -- this was a defining case of the press doing what it is supposed to do. the president was held accountable for he has to answer questions that he would rather not have and when his replies proved unsatisfying to the public and some cases false, his administration had to change its policies. congress had to confront its own failures of oversight. private companies had to rethink their obligations to their customers and to law enforcement. people had conversations at home and at school and everywhere about what they themselves would be willing to let the nsa do to them. journalists have had to think about their own obligations to the law among the constitution

am a their readers, and even in the practice of reporting in the age of technical tracking to sources they might expose. on the other hand, representative peter king declared awarding the public 's enablers is a disgrace and suggested we should be prosecuted. a reader of ours were that he was stripped that the paper should be praised for publishing classified information, that has resulted in a lessening of this country's security. i do not think the post should wrap itself in the text of the first amendment and itself an immunity bath. much to talk about here. we will talk about, this story wee to be, how and why decided to publish them how we went about our work, and how we think about issues of national security and our coverage.

national security is an area of intense focus for us. that should be no surprise. the government's powers to make -- to incarcerate, prosecutors kill, rank as the greatest powers of all. if we are to cover the federal government, these are not activities that we can ignore. these are not activities where in my view we can simply defer to the government cost wishes on what we report, what we do not report or how we report. another -- whenever government asserts national security. on the grounds of national security the government has secretly implemented policies with profound implications for individual rights. we here at the post have an experienced staff. discretization relies heavily on their expertise and their history of navigating the most sensitive subjects imaginable.

we take national security's concerns seriously. it is a dangerous world. we know that. as a result our reporters committee kate with the pentagon, the white house intelligence agencies and private companies. on the nsa documents we spent many hours on each story in detail conversations with officials. on many occasions about the request for government officials, we withheld information that would disclose methods. we did not agree to every request of every sort made by the government. had we done so, there would have been no stories whatsoever. the intelligence agencies were opposed to publishing anything at all. what we saw in the documents was something that went beyond specific sources and methods that the press had guarded on grounds of national security. the documents would repeal the national security agency was engaging in surveillance and

data collection of breathtaking scope and intrusiveness. what had transpired was a dramatic shift toward state power and against individual rights, including privacy. with no public knowledge and no public debate. so now the public knows and the debate is well under way. toh that i will turn it over cecelia. she is a national reporter for the washington post who will focus on telecom policy and the social impact of technology on policy -- on families. she joined the post eight years ago. she began her career at dow jones as the bureau chief as -- of the south korea office. all yours, cecelia, and thank you to you for coming. [applause] this work andor your support of a project that

was quite an endeavor as you can tell that involved legions of work behind the scenes, graphic works, editors. i am pleased to announce this panel these reporters who work. barton gellman on my left is a pulitzer prize-winning reporter and author. he is a senior fellow at the century foundation. he is one of three journalists who received classified archives from edward snowden. lead the coverage at the post and is writing a book on the surveillance industrial revolution. he is being humble in his admission of his price. a reporter for the washington post read she covers issues relating to intelligence and government surveillance and civil liberties.

she has written about the nsa and evolution of cyber policy. south eastas the asia correspondent for the washington post between 2002 and 2006. she has reported on the islamic militant network and the indian ocean tsunami. since 1995 she has cover the white house and virginia politics. she grew up in hawaii. ashkan soltani helps understanding that technical capabilities of government surveillance. he served as a technologist in the division of privacy at the federal trade commission. he also worked as the primary consultant for the wall street journal's series what they know.

he is working with the washington post on their coverage of the nsa. timberg is reporter who covers privacy, security, and surveillance. he came to the paper in 1998 and has done stints as a reporter covering africa. he is the author of a book, "tinderbox." thank you for joining us. withld like to start out two minutes from each of you to talk about what the response has been that you have received to the appeal of sir prize. it seems very long ago, actually. my friends like to tell me the stories of what an outrage it is. there have been some.

there are serious criticisms to , and we are not immune from that. -- and thereple have been a number of commentators who said that this was undeserved. there are others who are very -- forrimarily before the validation of the id of debate, the idea that the fundamental boundaries about what secret intelligence can do in a democratic society need to , thatided by the people the government is working for. the information is power, betsy get information is even more power, and that although very clearly the u.s. intelligence cannot operate entirely in the open by any strain of imagination, it it's fun to

limit will -- it's fundamental boundaries have to be subject to public debate. >> i think bart said well. i do not have much more to add, to say that the reaction has positiverally quite from civil liberties communities. sources inmuted from the intelligence community. think the general public has been appreciative. i think my favorite response has been from the tech community, because the response being that the value of understanding technology or bringing technical people out from the basements, to explain

haves more openly, as we seen a lot of interactions now where digital media, over computers, over phones, and i think the response in being able to highlight how those things work and bring them to public debate and demystify how the technology is no different than it was years ago in the sense of how it impacts our lives, that has been a valuable response for me. humbling it has been and inspiring to realize that you had a small role in such important work, but has been a reminder how fractured my life is. i was opposed to coach my son's baseball game tonight. they knew me as coach craig. they did not know i did this.

it has been fun to share in this and understand how much people interact with you in a newspaper in a way that is different from the way people react to you and the rest of your lives. >> there will be plenty of time for questions. we will have almost 40 minutes. you should have received a card in your packet. if you would like to ask a question, that we may not get to, we will continue to answer questions after this event online. after the panel discussion there will be two people with microphones who will be available. raise your hand if you have a question and please stand up when you pose your question. tell us about the development of this story. you have been away from the paper for a few years when you received the documents and access to the story. in that time, in your absence,

artie was appointed the executive editor. i understand you did not know each other very well. it happened to lead to the introduction of this story at the post, the acceptance of the post of this story, and decision to carry forward? >> it is not obvious from the coverage that i am not a washington post employee. i am on contract now. after working for 21 years, i left in 2010. in the first half of 2013i developed a correspondence with the man i later learned to be edward snowden and receive documents from him. i knew that there was only one place to do this story for me. it was going to require resources and the decades of andective experience here the mutual trust of people i had worked with for a long time. fundamentally it was going to need big, hard, risky

decisions to be made by the boss. the boss was one guy i did not know at all. i walked into a room after asking for a meeting and figured out who marty was by process of elimination. he is the managing editor. he is the lawyer. this guy must be marty. i was asking him to take on risks and to put his trust in literally never laid eyes on. it was obvious to us that a story of this magnitude was going to need a lot of lawyering and careful thought about how to balance the risks of disclosure with the necessity of bringing the big policy decisions for the public, and they are going to be really hard problems. how do you verify? you have a piece of paper that says it is an nsa document.

how do you know that is true? how do you know that is authentic, and if authentic, it is accurate? how do i know that this guy who says he is edward snowden used to be a contractor of the nsa is either of those things. a gonesking the paper to all of that and to devote resources and to accept new kinds of security measures that normal newsrooms did not have to have before. i was thrilled at the answers i got. hety understood exactly what was getting into. he was very thoughtful about the what -- about what the big decisions would be and the successive steps would be to carry them out, and he embraced it. >> it was a revelation when you explained your pulitzer speech in the newsroom. some of the research even on the i.t. side that in involve. could you talk about that? >> a little bit, because there

are things i will not talk about. we took very seriously the responsibility to protect material we did not think should be disclosed. we said in every story that we write that we are holding back certain elements of it. we are not doing that because someone told us we have to. we are doing that because having -- to the government and thoughts are the implications, we decided we agreed, we should withhold the stuff. there's no sense saying you're going to hold something back if you leave it on a network or on a hard drive were any competent actor can come in and take it. the post stepped up its game in terms of physical and digital security and encryption and things like that. i do not want to get into the details. your role in the coverage, covering nsa? talk about when you came in, what your guiding mission was

and reporting on this story, and apart how this coverage has affected change in government. >> the disclosures has had an impact on the policy in the process and most significantly on public awareness. i wanted to make a few observations up front about how the landscape has changed from the perspective of a beach reporter who did not receive the documents, at least not directly. certainly we are engaged , that iste unprecedented in breadth and depth. and that would not have happened were it not for the disclosures. edwardized by snowden. it is not for want of trying. lawmakers, journalists, and others, as long ago as 2006,

senator ron wyden was warning publicly but cryptically about the existence of secret law ther the patriot act, counterterrorism law passed after 9/11. but he was bound by classification rules from going any further, from explaining his discomfort with the interpretation, and he and other lawmakers continued to born about the secret law. journalists, including my this -- including myself, try to pry from government officials some insight into what the secret law under section 215 of the patriot act could be. they were bound by custom location rules. they wanted jobs they did not want to risk and it was to no avail the civil liberties

groups, the electronic frontier foundation, which filed lawsuits to try to force the government to be more transparent on this .aw nothing worked until edward stone came along. i remember june 5, last year, the first document emerged. verizon court order to or directing the company to turn over all records of its customers to the nsa. we know that is now not the content, but just a phone numbers and the call times and durations. it quickly became apparent that this was a program of vast scope in terms of collecting data of many law-abiding, and it did stun americans. had beenwhat wyden

warning about. it was quickly followed by more disclosures and stores by bart others -- and >> and nakashima. >> about how to break encryption and significantly its growing overseas collection and attempts to game to edward snowden and his leaks forced a degree of transparency from the government. after june, they declassified the existence of the program. subsequently thousands of pages of court documents, opinions,

reports, a lot of those documents that months earlier intelligence officials have been telling me it was difficult to much of theuse so classified material was intertwined with legal analysis full top -- legal analysis. transparency, a permanent change in behavior or as some suspect, a shift in response to disclosures? i want to say one quick thing. i heard an observation that came from a former inspector general at the nsa, joel brenner. that by withholding the existence of this metadata program, the government may have avoided or obtained a short-term tactical benefit in terms