so it was a long process that involves many stakeholders and different opinions. we gave them greater guidance and clarity going forward. >> my time is up. we should consider in this case and other cases, whether fda or anything else, what the difference is between a law and a regulation. there is no opportunity for the the of a but comment that future has. murray.ve senator >> thank you.

the department of education investigates violations of cleary act entitled -- and title ix violations. what are the best practices that universities can take to proactively prevent sexual assault? >> among the actresses we hope to see is the conduct of a climate survey with i and a fine whetherents feel and the message has been received about where to go, what is tolerated and not tolerated, who took complained to and whether there is a feeling of safety on the campus so we think a climate survey is an important first step and it is critically important to communicate about

hostile environments so the school community is clear about what is and what is not acceptable. it is important to let students ix courtthe title nader is. it is extremely important to have a transparent and fully functional investigative process where students need to complain so interim relief is available when they need it so students can be clear that effective and appropriate steps are taken to address sexual violence when it occurs. >> i sponsored along with senator all gwen and many other members the legislation called the tyler clemente antiharassment act. it establishes a grant program to support antiharassment programs.

addressing campus sexual assault? >> it would be enormously helpful. i cannot tell you how much that tool would do for us. , i visitedmy role campuses around the country as part of the office of violence against women to see what kinds of success they're able to see from the grants and i have real jealousy that they are able to get those grants and to ask for changes they know need to be made and for research about best practices that can come from the delivery of those grants. it would be incredible he meaningful for us. >> yes, senator, thank you for the work on the initiative. we find, with the cleary act, it is one of the reasons that we are excited about the work that is being done with regard to the climate survey, you have to

understand what the climate and culture is before addressing it. one of the new tools in the requirements requires schools to have primary prevention programs. it only works if you understand if you understand what is going on on your campus. if you have problems in the athletic department and sororities, you have to make sure the training is designed to address all of those issues. if you get to these issues of culture and climate and tradition that are problematic on campus, we have to get the understanding of harassment and hazing. several other factors, if we're going to be effective. >> thank you. thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> senator warren. >> thank you. the topic could not be more important. young people go to college to learn about the world and start their careers. they're working hard to build futures. they should feel safe on campus. they should feel confident that,

if they are victims of crimes, people respond to them quickly with respect and compassion. i know that, for 20 years, the government has been can just assembling and disclosing data. you noted that the department of education wrote draft rules on expanding data collection. data can be powerful in helping us understand the problems we face and the possible solutions. i want to ask about how the data is used. can you tell me about the analysis that the department of education conducts with the data

and what the analysis has shown? >> thank you. what we do to validate this information as we go out to schools to conduct compliance assessments. when we do that, we look at substantial samples to see their they were classified the right way. >> you validate that you are getting good data coming in and make -- you look through what kinds of records? >> student conduct records and sometimes, you have to go into athletic department. anyone who can adjudicate discipline or investigate it, we have to look at the records. >> you look at the records and what was reported. you see how good the match is as you know about the quality of your data. i presume that, if the match is not good, you have an ongoing relationship with the school and how it is they need to improve the reporting.

>> there are several things we do. if we find something that constitutes misrepresentation, the school is subject to administrative action and that would mean a fine. >> you try to get everyone into compliance. my question is about the information we have been collecting for 20 years now. presumably, the quality of the information has gotten better and more complete. what do you do with the information? >> we collect from all of our institutions and track trends in campus crime. >> we look for them on a school by school basis? >> sometimes. also, across sectors. we look at community colleges and the friends there. the crime environment is different. for profit education do not have sports programs. we look at traditional institutions that have more types of crime occurring. >> you make the report public

when you do this? do you put them out there? >> the statistics are out there the analysis is not. >> so, you do the analysis. what happens with it? >> we use it to formulate and compliance program and we use it in terms of proposals for changes to the rules. >> let me switch it over. >> you use the data as part of your enforcement strategies and designing it? >> we do.

we have concerns with the analysis done. he may refer something to us and we will take a look at the data to decide whether we should do a proactive investigation of our own. sometimes, it is loaded from a school and it is a reason for us to go to investigate. we use the data often for where we should look at his school and what we should do. >> i am out of time. let me ask another question that ties this together. is there other data that you should be collecting that you would find helpful in making decisions about where there is compliance and there is not that you feel ought to be there? >> yes. there is a thing that i would like to have that we do not have now. i have a civil light -- civil rights data collection and it

gives me a picture of equity health that i find useful for the work that we do. i do not have the same access at the higher education level and i think it would be useful. i think it would be helpful to have. >> as i said, i appreciate this and i think that we have to be careful about the quality of our data. i am glad to hear about the data. i think the focus on prevention needs to be more intense than it has been. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator casey. >> thank you very much. i appreciate the hearing and i want to thank the witnesses for their testimony and their word on this.

you have to commend -- even the other is a long way to go -- the work -- i have to commend, even though there is a long way to go, the work that has been done. this problem has persisted for generations and we are at a point where we are reacting appropriately. we should react with a sense of outrage because this is the ultimate betrayal of a woman who attends college. we want people to get a higher education and we say it is important. we send them to institutions where they do not seem to take the issue seriously. it should be under the category of zero-tolerance and the perpetrators should be labeled as such or labeled with words like "coward." or, whatever else we can come up with. i know it upsets some. that is the way i see it. institutions should be doing things without laws and regulations. some have not gotten the message

and we have to send it more directly to have some rules. i'm glad that we have made great progress we reauthorize the violence against women act because one of the component parts of that was my law that you are working on implementing. we are grateful for that and i'm grateful for senator leahy and his works get that done. we have to get it implemented. there will be big gaps and other matters that were not addressed. so, we have made progress and we have a long way to go. in light of the campus save elements which you have spoken to a little bit in your testimony on page four, talking

about clarifying definitions, keeping data, having better convention strategies, getting bystanders involved, too many students to do not want to do with the should be doing to help when they are bystanders. a range of changes which will take lace but the one that wanted to ask you is now that you are in the process of making sure these provisions get implemented how long will schools have to come into compliance? >> thank you for the question. thank you for your work on the campus save act. you make me very proud as a fellow pennsylvanian. what we have been very clear and we're are going to issue additional guidance in the coming days to reiterate the institutions have to make their best faith effort in this first year. the best good faith effort to

comply with the statutory language because we do not have final regulations. when institutions issue their annual security reports what we thatbe looking to see is schools are looking for ways to implement these requirements. we will have a full year to recalibrate that properly. issue additional guidance to clarify where there are problems. with all the work we have done on this you could guarantee that there is a piece here or there that we did not consider. we will go back and adjust that in the guidance. we will also have a complete rewrite of our handbook. that will be available to the schools. we are also working on training materials that will be available free of charge so by the time we get to october in 2015, everyone should be on the same page. >> that is great. i want to ask in the remaining time i have on the question of the educational institution, i

belies institutions feel that they're overwhelmed with rules, but this is one they have got to comply with. you can't really go to the university or college if you're allowing this problem to exist. tell me currently or how upon implementation the department will be helping to educate institutions going forward. >> one of the things we have done is we have increased our presence at training conferences and we have increased both the number of guidance documents that we have put out in the quality of those documents. we have brought them down to a level that should be easy for all institutions to implement. that is one of the issues. you have 6000 schools, some with

25 students and maybe three or four employees and a strip mall running a cosmetology school. it is a very flexible program. it requires schools to take the line implemented. they're using the implementation plan. this new guidance we are putting together, we want to give them best practice information that would allow them to avella that land inappropriate way at the little and large schools. >> i appreciate that. thanks for your work. senator baldwin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. earlier in this discussion of congress, we took some incredibly important and i would argue long-overdue steps towards combating the epidemic of sexual assault in the military. in examining the problem of

sexual assault in the military and the steps that were taken, i discovered there were no specific focus on looking into and collecting data on sexual violence in our reserve officer training corps programs on our nation's college campuses. i view rotc programs as standing at the intersection between the issue and crisis of sexual assault in the military and sexual assault on campus. nearly 40% of all new officers commissioned into the army and

the navy combined since 2012 have come out of rotc programs from our nation's campuses. it is critical we understand how the issue of sexual assault is being addressed among the commissioning military future leaders. earlier this session i asked the department of defense and the white house to ensure that data from the rotc programs contributed to the full understanding of the problem of sexual violence at our colleges and universities. i was disappointed that the report by the white house task force to protect students from sexual assaults that was released in april didn't address these issues, nor as i understand it any department of education speak specifically to how rotc conduct should address this issue. to both of our panelists, while i understand that instances of sexual assault against students who are in rotc programs should be investigated and reported in the same manner as other cap the sexual assaults, i guess my questions are having undertaken any formal or informal collaboration with the defense department on the issue of

sexual violence in rotc programs on college campuses? can you tell me why the department of education has not spoken to this aspect? >> thank you. one, i'm sorry to have disappointed you in the task force so far. i hope that we could redeem ourselves. >> it is a focused criticism. >> fair point. our goal was to make very clear that there is no student on the college campus whom the college, obligation does not extend to. it was our goal not to take away from that overarching message, that timeline obligations extend to every student of every type on every campus so schools can make them all safe. i have some worried that we

might undermine that message. i would be pleased to work with the office as we go forward to make sure we are sending a clear message about the rotc students. we have been in and working with rotc students. one complaint that comes to mind is in the k-12 space. she said she was not able to be promoted to commander and her army rotc. we investigated and found some facts about the way she was treated and the way the rotc lead and talks to her and sexually discriminatory ways in the school. we find out she is a young woman ever to be promoted in the rotc

campus. we are working in this space and trying to send a clear message. to your question on the ways we work together, we are working in the white house and the work is ongoing. we have been reminded repeatedly that they expect an annual report with new progress each time going forward so there will be further steps. >> thank you. >> senator baldwin, thank you for your work on the defense aspect of this. i think one of my takeaways from the fine work that you wanted was that you have to have meaningful punishments for sexual assault if you're going to change the culture. one thing i can assure you is that in our work, we look at institutions across the board you were looking at crimes that occur on campus regardless of where they occur. one of the important changes is that we are going to start to look more closely at issues of

culture, climate, damaging traditions. there's a lot of that in the military come especially along the line of hazing. we create that culture where these things are allowed to occur, you have sexual assaults happen in a high number without proper law enforcement sponsors a disciplinary response. this is something that we would like to work with you on going forward and to also look beyond rotc to a very enduring problem that we see in the athletic problems and other kinds of organizations on campus. >> thank you. >> thank you both for being here. i want to follow-up on a question that was asked about the best practices with respect to prevention. i want to turn to the investigation and the well-publicized case. they talk about the fact that many students there feel a second victimization when they go through the process of reporting and then testifying to

that of used. she tells a story of being asked some incredibly insensitive and the relevant questions in the process of trying to gain justice. it speaks to the broader concern about there being a rather uninformed and untrained set of investigators and people overseeing the disciplinary process. what have we learned from columbia? what recommendations are you making at school so we don't have a reputation of revictimization happening when someone has the courage to report and bring it to a disciplinary board?

>> thank you. it is critically important. we have seen too often that the investigative process can be so invasive and unpleasant and ill handled. there are my -- recommend not to use it. they recommend that it is not safe and not worth coming forward. that is one of the key things we want to see campuses change. it will not involve inappropriate questions about students backgrounds. it won't involve a way of revert to revictimizing people who have the courage to come forward. when we investigate, that is exactly what we saw with military institutes. we have been able to highlight what it is that we thought was wrong with the way those investigations were conducted. we have been able to highlight what it is that universities have agreed to change going forward and we are monitoring to make sure.

>> how do you monitor? in these processes happen behind closed doors. you don't get data. how do you track whether this is getting better or worse for students other than hoping that there's a handful of students who go through an experience that is unpleasant and reported back to a chain? >> the schools where we have resolution agreements, we get there case and see the ways that investigate. that is an important piece of data for us. it is important component of getting to a place where we can save the school is behaving in an appropriate manner and we don't need to continue monitoring.

we look at the degree of which they satisfy their students. >> senator murphy, this is a very key point. whatever number you look at, if it is one in five or one and six, if it is something else, what we know is that cap the sexual assaults are ghastly underreported. one of the main reasons is that there isn't a good address. the criminal justice system is often revictimizing and these campus judicial systems if not well formulated can be even more so. one of the things we did in these new rules is we try to fix some of the procedural elements around these hearings. now there's a notice requirement. there have been student to have come to us and shown documentation they were given an

hour or two hours to prepare for hearing or evidence that was opposed to be provided to both sides and given to them as they enter the door for the hearing and no opportunity to review it. we allow students on both sides, both accused and accuser, have an advisor to take with them, and advisor of choice. one thing that might be viable to consider in the future would be a basic relevancy rule in these hearings. i can tell you having reviewed documents for many of these hearings the kinds of information you can call evidence that is cemented and considered by the board of undertrained people here is frightening. i have seen cases where people take things off of facebook pages or something like this and submitted as evidence as if it is positive of something. this is something we might want to look at going forward. they even want relevant evidence excluded if it has unfair prejudice. >> thank you both for being here. it strikes me that the

relationship between the college or university and the local police department is very important. missteps in the relationship are fraught with danger both for the alleged victim and alleged perpetrator, including loss of an opportunity to gather evidence if the police are not brought in or interference by the university or college in an ongoing criminal investigation. there is a public safety value to making sure that these offenses are reported and there's a potential liability for the university if he keeps one students confidence and that causes another student to be attacked by the individual about whom they had not brought that information to the police.

enforcement authorities is not very well managed in a lot of places and there are very simple things that could make a big inference. there is a big difference if the victim or the alleged victim is having her conversation with the university if they say you should consider reporting this to the police and go downtown.

the student is going off into the unknown and waiting in line at the police station and not know who you are going to talk to. we have a very good relationship with the local police department. she works all of these cases. we know her very well. you really should let her into this conversation. you will be making choices now that really change the way you could pursue this down the road if you don't have her him in this conversation. that seems to be an area that is

in the attention that it \/deserves. i guess my question is have you identified colleges and universities that you would say has a model relationship with her local police department in terms of making sure that the handoff isn't mishandled from the perspective of the students that have their interest involved? >> yes, we have. i also want to say how strongly i agree with you of the concern. there is an even a local law-enforcement agency near by the has the capacity to take a rape kit. you mentioned a problem, the disconnect. it is a significant issue for us. >> what are your model relationships? i don't expect to have them off the top of your head right here. i would like a response for the record, have each of you identified where you think model relationships existed a train

campuses and the local police department and what you think the elements are in that relationship that makes them a model relationship? >> i come at this from a different respective. it is a little bit alarming to hear how much completely untrained, completely inexperienced, completely unauthorized people are meddling around in a manner in which a felony has been alleged. if you don't ring people in who know what they are doing and to have the process in place to make sure that evidence is gathered and integrates very rapidly in some cases, you have created a real problem. similarly, if you force a college to go and maintain an investigation and produce a

report at a time when the police are saying we are investigating this, knock it off, we can't having you running around and interviewing witnesses. this is a criminal investigation. that seems to be a pretty big challenge as well. >> jim and i have been working together with the department of justice to create a model of understanding. >> my time is up. i should ask you to follow-up for the record. i know that our police departments and universities welcome that. >> the next panel, there will be a witness. she said that it should be appropriate to the violations. it should be to the level of felony. she'll help schools into

compliance. i think you might've thought that we should take away the nuclear option. that's all i'm saying. that's fine too that is the only thing you have in your arsenal. it makes it very hard to respond to incidents that may not rise to level of felony, but still are egregious actions on the part of one student to another student. i wanted to make that clear here i thought you were saying you don't need anything other than one option.

>> if i may, i think -- i didn't hear you would take it away. i have a worry if we have a lesser tool, it would make it harder for universities to expect us to use the nuclear option. >> you will disagree then. i see now. i have been involved in some of these in the past when my wife was a prosecuting attorney. a lot of the times, students who are the victims of this, they need to know what to do. they need to have somebody that they can trust and go to on a campus that has been trained and has the qualifications to at least initially be on the side of the person who has been victimized to give them the kind

of information about where they should go. how many colleges have that kind of -- did you have them or not? >> they can come -- function as that. >> the title ix person is sort of like in the hierarchy of the school. that is a problem. that is the problem. we need someone not in that hierarchy of the school. got that. our military academies exempt from title ix? i'm told they are. i just found that out. do we know? senator warren, do you know? >> i think that is a yes. >> i'm talking about the military academies. i have been informed they are exempt from title ix. no one seems to know.

>> does that mean they're not reporting data either? >> senator, the military academies are exempt. >> you collect no data? >> it is something that probably should be corrected. the cause of the way the financial aid rules -- the rules say if you don't receive funds rom our programs, you don't have to comply -- from our programs, you don't have to comply. >> wait a second come i thought that apply to any school that receives federal funds? >> it is only entitled -- >> on that topic and looking into this and i asked earlier about the rotc program, when congress did take some new steps on combating military sexual assault in the defense authorization budget, we did include the military academy under those provisions.

yet rotc was not included, which is why i feel like we have to focus some attention on the training of many of our future officers. you are accurate about the title ix? >> they don't have to report under that act like other colleges? i didn't know that. thank you very much. i appreciate it. thank you both very much. we will call up the second panel.

>> mr. chairman, while the next panel is assembling itself, let me say that i understand that there are circumstances that come through the sexual assault reporting mechanism at these universities that amount to less than criminal activity. my point is that unless you have somebody in the room who understands what felony sexual assaults is any don't have an expert -- and you don't have an expert -- an institution cannot support connecting with the police department anyway that is easy and supportive for the alleged victim. then you have real problems down the road. by the time they do figure it out, it could be too late to gather the appropriate evidence. really put the individual at risk in terms of defending her rights as a victim through the law enforcement process. >> i got that. i think we will hear from someone on this panel, it may be the victim gets caught up and they get pushed into a felony accusation and that takes on the life of its own and that is not

really what they were seeking. maybe they get a little reticent to to go down that path. >> and a person presents the risk of being a serial offender, there are good reasons why sometimes law enforcement process goes forward even with an uncooperative victim didn't -- victim. a woman reacants, or you go with the utterance because there is the statistical likelihood of it happening. >> i think this panel has some thoughts on this subject. it will start with emily. she is a graduate from the university of virginia. onpleted her thesis reporting rates. on completed research resource utilization. i am told now that she works as a special internet the office of the vice president at the

university of virginia to help with title ix compliance efforts. next we have mr. john kelly, a rising senior at the university where he studies religion. he is a college student should he is a special project organizer at a campaign that aims to educate students about their rights under title ix. we are grateful that you are here. we have james, a codirector at the university of new hampshire prevention and practices for ending violence against women. he has experience to end violence against women in university settings. he's the lead development -- she is a lead developer of a campaign. she trains on how to facilitate

and implement strategies to end this kind of violence. with that, could you please start and some maybe in five minutes the essence and then we will move on? hopefully we'll have time for questions and answers. welcome. >> thank you, senator harkin, and other members of the committee for the opportunity to speak. my name is emily. i'm a recent graduate at the university of virginia. in my expense as a survivor and in the course of my work, i have learned a great deal of the dynamic of sexual assault on campuses. i hope to be informative to the committee today. i talk about the challenges survivors face and the way the government could influence. expand the mandate for education outreach. it is critical we ensure colleges are providing education about peer support. victim blame and self blame are

among the primary factors that determine victims from reporting. especially reinforced by peers. undermine the survivor sense that it is his or her right to seek justice. one survivor i worked with did not report the attack because she confided in peers put in a believer and said she was wrong and that didn't happen to her because those were all great guys. that means those five young men went unpunished and remained a threat to other students that year. the current national media spotlight has only focused on the lack of sanctioning for students found responsible and sexual assault cases. maintain a range of sanctions for colleges to employee and respects survivors needs and wants come especially in cases where the perpetrator is known or in the case of a relationship abuse. survivors were scared to report because they didn't want to ruin

his life or get him into trouble. in the case of one young woman, the dean of students was only able to take his letter action by reassuring her that disciplinary action could be used to get him help. have mandatory expulsion being the only option, she would have waited longer if she even reported at all. getting more survivors through the door rather than discouraging them -- also, as investigation shed light on universities, it might discourage survivors -- the resolution should include recommendations and requirements to form working committees of students and administrators and keep students involved and informed on the steps

universities taken to rectify issues on an initial complaint. the knowledge of an opportunity for input is certain to reassure students administration is transparent about the way it handles cases and will handle cases in the future. by including formal requirements, the resolution agreements could help address some fears raised so that survivors could feel safe and supported when they seek resources from the officers and administrators best suited to connect them to resources and remedies. in order to address concerns about equity, me being raised mimic be helpful to define the requirements and procedures and sexual assault hearings on campus.

codifying some recommendations, it could clarify concerns about how to appropriately -- if you're hesitant, they may appeal to the school. this might contribute to wear a hostile environment exists. recommendation might help distinguish boundaries so that colleges have a clear sense of how to proceed and adjust hostile environments without fear of civil action from students. when it comes to their enforcement, the practical nation -- nature of the only sanction is -- it is more of a tree trunk. they should be given latitude to design smaller more flexible sanctions appropriate to the violations. rather dan finds of various sizes, it should be allocations to help push schools into compliance. -- rather than fines a very sizes, there should be allocations to help push schools

into compliance. finally, i think it is important to know what the user title ix to just sexual assault and sexual discrimination is incredibly important, and more copperheads of approach would consider potential reforms to state, federal, and criminal law. we would not have to rely heavily on colleges to adjust the problem of sexual violence. colleges could be more effective at addressing sexual violence and much more meaningfully. to make it possible to better address this problem holistically. and you for the opportunity to speak. i'm happy to answer questions. >> mr. kelly, welcome. >> thank you, mr. senator. when i was an 18-year-old

college freshman, entered into what would soon become an abusive relationship with another student. on the last night of my freshman year, he ignored my no's and physically grab me and restrained and would not let me leave his room until i told him i loved him. three weeks later for my sophomore year, he rate me again. since then -- he raped me again. since then, i started a group of survivors. senators, thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk about college campus assault. fine schools auto compliance with title ix. we need the full removal of federal funds. schools auto compliance must be punished to signal their failure and also to prevent schools from becoming repeat offenders. that -- no fines were levied.

secondly, congress must compel the department of education to continuously release a list of schools with complaints. tough university was under investigation when i was applying to schools and i made the choice to go without investigation. when i was raped, tuft was under investigation and i still didn't know. had i known, i might have attended a different school.

perhaps i might have attended tuft just the same. still, i wish i had known they were under investigation when it began going through my campus judicial process so i could have some preparation for the humiliation i would endure at the hands of administrators that i trusted to protect me. they didn't protect me and i had no cause to suspect anything but support from them. i was thrilled to see that ocr recently released a list of schools currently under investigation. that must become the norm. lee's compel them to continuously and publicly release the names of schools under investigation that my experience can soon become an outlier and not stay the norm. the partner didn't use physical force at first. indeed, he didn't use physical force until the last day of our relationship. in the weeks leading up to that

moment, he would inflict psychological abuse. an outburst here and there and it's all here and put down their -- insult here and put down there. the effects are just as bad as any bruiser broken bone. 99% of survivors of domestic violence experience different kinds of abuse. what we do not have the authority to expand the definition of dating domestic violence to include emotional, psychological, and economic abuse without the statute stating as much. please state as much. policies and form expectations of culture. education should not be wait until you have a hospitalization under your belt before you could see justice. myself identity as a rape survivor is not a reflection. it is time for congress to standardize rules so they apply equally to male survivors. that's all for gay and bisexual men is 30%. for lesbians and bisexual, it it

is a different percentage. about one half of transsexual experience violence in their lifetime. it is staggering. the policies of the local, state, and federal level fail to see justice. it's failure perpetuates the silence of survivors and prevents queer college students from being able to fully access their college education. make this cease to be an issue. all students have a right to education. ignoring marginalized identities -- senators, members, thank you for including me in this opportunity to provide testimony. transparent and inclusive policies are a must for

institutions of higher education and for the federal government. thank you. >> think you come in mr. kelly, for being here and being so forthright in your testimony. >> good morning. thank you. i'm from the university of new hampshire. and the codirector of prevention innovation research and practices for ending violence against women. it is an honor to be asked to testify before the house committee on an issue that has been an important art of both my personal and professional lives in the past 30 years. our organization is made up of people who work together to create and evaluate, and disseminate evidence-based prevention and responses to sexual and relationship violence

and stalking. we are investing in building the capacity to respond to survivors and measure climate and incidents and prevent violence and apply with recent federal laws and mandates. we believe that to truly end sexual violence on campus, we must understand what works in prevention and response. if value effectiveness and document climate incidents and readiness to change and implement evidence that has best practices. i have had the opportunity to witness a dramatic shift in prevention approaches. in the early days, we attempted to end the problem by educating people about the facts and risk reduction. talking to women on how they can stay safe and asking men to please don't rate. -- rape. by standard intervention is a different approach. they're not approach as victims or potential victims and men are

not approached as perpetrators or potential perpetrators. everyone has a role to play in ending sexual violence and stalking. we have developed and evaluated and implemented by standard intervention strategies where we teach college students, staff, administrators to safely intervene before, during, and after instances of sexual and relationship violence and stalking. prevention innovation bystander intervention strategies include bringing in the by standard and the program and to know your power, a bystander intervention social marketing campaign. both have been proven to reduce participants rape acceptance and i standard behaviors, increase people's willingness to intervene before, during, and after. increase people's self-reported bystander behavior.

our prevention strategy has been developed with considerable input from student, staff, and faculty and representing a diversity of backgrounds and has been adopted by colleges and universities across the country and adapted for the u.s. army. several have administered unwanted sexual -- study. a campuswide survey measures our male and female undergraduate students experiences of unwanted sexual intercourse and sexual contact. in 2012, the survey incorporated questions related to relationship violence and stalking. it included participants from 8 lingering colleges and universities. i colleagues developed and evaluated a community readiness to engage the survey. for campuses to measure the community measured ness and social norms and policies and

practices to prevent sexual relationships and stalking. there's an effort to provide technical assistance to colleges and universities as they were to make -- meet legislative requirements to reduce campus sexual and relationship violence. finally, they have been asked by the white house task force to protect students from sexual assault on campus and conduct a on sexual assault policy education for first-year students. i'm delighted to see the extent of which the u.s. department of education through title ix and how they have prioritized campus safety. not only related to sexual assault, but also dating and domestic violence and stalking. when discussing these important reforms, it is important to remember that there are multiple forms of violence and not just a focus on sexual assault, as well and as an acknowledged of survivors. the recent mandate -- sensitive and confidential support

services for survivors and prevention education are essential to stopping these preventable offenses. all of the recent federal mandates by colleges -- hold colleges and universities accountable and ensure safety and dependability on campuses. for some, this build upon work and service and policies they have begun to develop and implement. for many campuses, these mandates provide an opportunity to have -- to work for the first time you're thinking about how the federal law needs to be reformed to strengthen and to jesse's issues, i suggest federal regulations -- address these issues, i suggest federal regulations. have strategies and responses

that focus on dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. a communitywide prevention that engages all members of the campus community, including undergraduate students, staff, faculty, administrators, errands, community members, businesses, and alumni. conduct regular studies that measure the extent and nature of the problems of sexual relationship violence and stalking. i'm a study results should be made public both -- climate study results should be made public. they must and can utilize uniform questions. strategies that are scientifically evaluated and evidence based research

informed. too many solutions are popping up everywhere. for profit companies are seizing the opportunity to make money off reason federal mandates. a number of these solutions are not research informed or evidence based. campuses need to advertise support to provide support for evidence based research informed prevention. having andantly, everyone need to keep survivors in the center of all prevention and compliance strategies. i would echo the discussion on the department of education to identify a grants

andram focused on dating domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. thank you very much for inviting and i'd be more than happy to answer questions. much.nk you all very i'll just have basically one question because we have votes at 11:45, so we've got minutes.more let me ask you, miss stapleton, information, data on college orientation? do colleges have sections on sex sexual assault, other forms of it'snce as you point out, not just assault, it could be stalking, it could be mr. kellyon that spoke about in terms of that type of intimidation of students. do we have any data? >> we don't actually have any

data. cleary doents to outline, as mr. moore did talk preventionry programs for dating and domestic violence, sexual assault and dataing, but we have no and that's what we've been asked to do a study for the white on.e task force >> when is that going to be done by? >> it is a campus wide study campuses anden we're conducting it in september and we will report to the white january. >> miss render, you are also a survivor of assault, and i read last night and it seems to me we have a bit of a difference with miss lehman. advocating,cally let me just get this, you're basically advocating that we different levels of and maintain a range of sanctions.

deter survivors from reporting. sort of guiding us into what senator white house and i were talking about. to the levelrise of felonies? but maybe the survivor doesn't to push it that far? and i'm a little confused myself. i agree with senator white house, you don't want to permit perpetrator who is guilty of a felony and who may be a serial perpetrator, from escaping, or provisions of law pertaining to felony assault. on the other hand you're saying there ought to be other approaches also. so can you help me think this through? >> i think a clear point of distinction is that maintaining is aboutf sanctions being able to offer survivors a range of different outcomes and be able to say that we can use this to mandate that you get

something along those lines. that's not to say that a maintains the same goals or wishes. a lot of times the recovery cause us to change your intentions over time. selfvictims feel a lot of blame. that changes the more that involvement on the school's part so thatavailable. range of sanctions is a comfort theome ways and also allows school to act. once the school has initiated the formal proceeding, it's possible they can determine a hostile environment exists, the survivor what wants and would be able to work with that person to say we believe this person poses a threat to other students so we have to take that action. way of cooperating with survivors on their needs thatith and throughout process that still allows the school to evaluate a hostile make choicesnd that are best for the campus as

a whole. in thekelly, again, office civilthe rights, what they can levy against institutions out of compliance. meorm me, mr. kelly, inform this,how you might see rather than just threaten to ore away all your funds we're going to the police and prosecuted as a criminal, are there other things att we need to be looking

here in approaches on this? especially as it pertains to the community.bian >> thank you for your question, senator harkin. i think that in the testimony i provided i think that what makes the most sense is to provide the office of civil with numerous avenues for compliance, and for the punishment of noncompliance. so if i school is found out of onlyiance right how the option is the removal of federal funding or no fun at all. so be a middleto ground here. recently students have been act more andary more because they levy some fines. cleary act fines are not tied to a campuses endowment or like that, anything it's one standard set fine that's pretty low and doesn't really have any effect on schools with hundreds of millions of dollars in their endowment. most sense isthe to have fines tied to a school's

operating budget or a school's funds, in some way. so that way you see fines that are not unduly affecting the campuses, you know, the small for-profit schools that things likeents, that. but also if you have a school like university of michigan or tennessee,of something like that where you have hundreds of millions of at theirf not more disposal, that does really have some effect, and i think that's really important. >> do you agree with that? absolutely agree. i think that the key issue is that idea of budgetary reallocation on a year to year base is that can be flexible. the office of civil right command date that they provide $5,000 a year to fun those programs for a certain number of years, and that will push

ispliance in a way that voluntary, but would have more teeth to it. >> what do you think of that, stapleton? >> i'd like to see the discussion focus on prevention as well. that.y, i got >> i think if we are truly looking to stop the problems, of have survivor,to we want to have responses to we really need to focus on stopping the problem much. >> i agree. to set uplleges better structures, better or yntation. need structures in place that informs student as to what is, campus violence, sexual violence, stalking, what intimidation is. >> absolutely. and i think an important piece of the cleary statistics is that really aren't, they're what gets reported to formal structures. >> say that again? >> the cleary statistics really throughrts that come the university through formal structures.

so that in many campuses the campus police or the dean of students office. in our climated studies, our unwanted sexual we do ises study that that actually a very small percentage of students who their sexual assault experiences actually report to those formal structures. most likely to report to a friend or their i think. so that's why by-stander intervention is so important. to also it's important release the findings of those climate studies so that when a prospective student and their family look at the cleary statistics and they say, well, low, it's not necessarily indicative of what's appening on the campus. so climate study would give them a more comprehensive view of on that campus. >> thank you. senator baldwin? >> thank you. want to salter by thanking this panel for your testimony

of youticularly those survivors who have taken itething horrible and turned into a very positive advocacy others.ort for i want to continue to highlight one aspect of the issue of campus sexual assault, the one mr. kelly spoke to in his testimony, namely how it may impact lesbian gay by and transgender people. same sex violence has not always seriously by law enforcement and social stigma and discrimination still mean lgbt communitye are reluctant to report that been victims of crime. and further mire while title 9 prohibits all forms of sex discrimination including that based on sex stereotypes and the act requires reporting of campus hate crimes based on

genderorientation and identity. there are no, there's no federal law that specifically addresses discrimination, education based on sexual orientation and gender identity. as you heard earlier today with murray's questioning, that she and i and other colleagues have introduced len legislation called the tyler clemente higher education anti-harassment act, which would require colleges and universities to address harassment including cyber sexualg based on sex, orientation, gender identity and other characteristics. and this thelegislation would add to important protections that we're already discussing today and that are already on the books ensure that colleges and universitieses take steps to harassment in all of its forms. i would like to hear from the mr. kelly, i'd love to start with you. i know you've outlined specific

things in your written testimony. but are there other ways in which congress or the der ensureion with that our response to campus sexual assault and other forms campus violence is truly lgbtqive of the community? >> thank you for your question your work on for the legislation that you're speaking about. so incredibly important. when we're talking about the studentst that queer have occur to them, in the aboutr way that we talk sex discrimination under title 9 is including sexual harassment we sexual violence, i think could be talking about sex discrimination that queer students face. is the unfortunate reality is that hate crimes still happen .n campus sexual violence within the queer community is still

rampant. policiesre that indicater to those who have been most often hurt by it is the place to start. of talk about lot the criminal justice system here. criminal justice system, but i didn't have a case because i'm a male and so i never prosecute against my assailant. so we immediate to talk about how better to have state legislation, local legislation, that expands dech anythingses of to include male survivors and survivors of same sexual assault. some of the states that senators on the help committee are from are have laws that discriminatory on the books. and i was doing a quick search, pro nouns when we're talking about assailants, pronounce when we're talking about survivors. bengs like that need to eradicated from the law from the top down.

i appreciate all the work that you've done on this topic and it's one that we have to keep and keepbout legislating. thank you. >> i would reiterate that point language. so something as simple as called against women act and it paints a very clear picture of who violence happens violence. perpetrates and really leaves those people out. something to be mindful off as is that we are requiring colleges to consider doing surveys. and that those should be made sure to have language that acrossmeasures incidents groups and that doesn't presume op sit sex assailants. >> i would agree with my two that i knowd say that we work very hard to bill prevention strategies that are inclusive as well. and again we need evidence to works.at

started.te has i just have one thing i want to bring up and get your thoughts on. the department published a --posed rule to to the cleary act last week. one of the provisions that's newing attention is the provision clarifying that both parties may have others present during an institutional disciplinary proceeding, theiring an advisor of choice. on the one hand, some argue that an institution's ability to control its own proceedings, that it chips away ability toitution's marshall its students and community members to police their own. that this offers both parties the right to have someone to accompany them and offer advice during what could amount to a very traumatic proceeding on either side. what are your thoughts on that?

>> i would say i think both very sale yent in -- salient, it important for a have someone sit to consult, accused students also desend that right. comes withbelieve lawyers and advisory counsel, coulde inequity that occur if one student can afford a lawyer and the other cannot. and the types muched avoice that might be given that would be privileged in one sense to one of the investigation but is then not available because the other student cannot afford it. >> very good point, you're right. one student mate have the financial resources to have all thes of lawyer, legal and other person may not. mr. kelly, any thoughts on that? >> what i think is important to note is that it does not limit who thed avirs can be but gives

the school leeway to limit what the advisor can do in the meeting. so a school has the ability to limit the advisor to only be present in the room and not allowed to speak. schools, especially smaller schools be don't have resources, so i'm talking about rape crisis counselors, advocates,olence things like that. where as an outside crisis haveeling center would those resources. so to be able to limit who the only members be to within the institution, which a historicallys have done can be really problem at ib. i do under the difficulty with having attorneys present. but again if you're limiting what is able to be said in these meetings, as long as you have to have someone present, i think that's what

most.s the >> i think it's really essential to allow survivors to have people, because i think sometimes, and i've seen it happen, colleges and universitieses do not provide survivors with the most informed and supportive people. would advocate heavily to have survivors have outside people. and i agree with john on schools can limit what those advisors do. >> but again i just raise this, this,r whitehouse said and i raise the issue of having somebody that a student can go who is not the hierarchy of school structure, not the a director. >> particularly if that person can have confidential communicationings either through a counseling or health center or victim advocate provision is the go.to >> but they may not be trained the legal know all nuances. >> victim advocates are, yes.

say, so mostt to district attorneys office have whoim witness advocates, operate basically to provide victims of crimes a variety of resourcesh all the another their disposal and accompany them through the legal process. witness advocate liaison to a specific campus i be a good solution to that problem. left.e got two minutes first i'd like to thank all our witnesses for sharing your today.se with us i particularly want the hang the survivors who are with us here today for your personal courage in coming forward and speaking with us. when i hear you i put a lot of weight on what you are suggesting rather than perhaps others. that. a lot of weight to that goes to that issue of scale, that ing seem to have a disagreement with

the department on. thank you for that, miss stapleton thank you for all research you've done. you're right, i'm sore of the father of prevention and health to everythinges and we have do a better job of having structures in our schools that students, that set up prevent that active measures, yes, that is the first. thank you for all your work. >> but again we have to do also to respond to the assault victims that are there. know it's underreported. second i just want to say, i that thed out academies, the military candidate misses don have to act.t under the cleary that needs to be fixed, too. so again i thank all of you, i colleagues. i want to thank senator alexander for his partnership on this hearing, he had to go vote and he had a plane to catch. thei want to thank committee efforts to examine this critical issue.

higher be a part of our education act reauthorization. exactly how it's going to do it, that's why we're having this hearing. remain opene record until july 10 for members to submit statements and additional questions for the record, and committee will stand adjourned. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> you've been watching a special issue spotlight program on campus sexual assault. shortly after the senate hearing a bipartisan group of senators announced an effort to pass new legislation on the issue. here's an interview with a reporter looking at what the house and congress are doing to address the concerns of parents, students and sexual survivors.

>> kristen lombardi. >> thank you for having me on program. # the obama administration ramped up its efforts to combat assaults when president obama created a federal task force dedicated to the topic in january. so by april senior hadnistration officials released a set of recommendations for how campuses to incidents of sex ultimate saul and they describe these guidelines as aimed atirst steps identifying the scope of the problem on college campuses, pond morehools effectively to student allegations, and most people'sly in some eyes beefing up the federal government's own enforcement of topic. one of the key recommendations increase transparency on the part of the federal government so the administration

a website, it's called not alone.gov and it gives students information to them file complaints with the en indication and justice department against their schools haveey feel their schools responded inappropriately to allegations of student sexual assault, among other resources. and it's also made public federal enforcement data sexual assault. so in may the education department released a list of 55 and colleges now under investigation for how they sexualcomplaints of assault. that number is around 70, seems almost daily, and that's because a lot more students are file complaints schools.heir just as officials are reportedly developing new training programs campus police officers and school administrators to indicatete and ajew sexual assault cases on their

and how to improve services for student victims. so they are doing a lot of making up of policy and sure that schools are better equipped. >> there are four pieces of legislation now filed in the house and senate, and i say form around what most of these bills have in common with each other and with the white house task force. instance the task force recommended that school surveysrators conduct on the scope of sexual assault on their own campuses, and most legislation s most of the bills include a similar requirement for school to conductors

surveys. the senate bill in particular such annualking surveys standard and anonymous and requiring schools to publish results online. so we'll probably see something i would say,ne, any other consensus bill would probably force the education to make public all of its settlements involving universitieses, that's another fear task force recommendation and all bills have this requirement of more transparency and openness on the part of federal government. >> are there issues related to campus sexual assault that will have difficulty dealing with through legislation? that thereo think will be some controversy. we've already seen some controversy meshers in the senate and house create more substantial fines and first ever colleges andinst universitieses for violating the cleary act and title 9. the senate bill in particular

boosts cleary act violations the current $30,000 up to it,000 per violation, and also would institute sanctions equaling 1% of an institution's operating budget. so this sanctionsbeefing up against colleges and universities, especially the 9, has a lot of support among student survivors, victim advocates and others who have pushing for more aggressive federal enforcement. from someading report professional organizations that they're opposed to this notion sanctions ande they will be fighting these provisionings pretty hard. the publicat integrity report, the sexual assault on campus report available at public integrity.org, what were some of uncoveredproblems you during your investigation? >> i would say overall we found students that are deemed responsible for campus sexual

assault, which is the equivalent collegey in the judicial system, often face little or no punishment from their victims' live are turned upside down. data that found that responsible findings rarely lead punishment like suspension or expulsion, while student victims drop out of altogether or transfer altogether, often out of fear of having to see their alleged campus.ts on we found other troubling aspects to the process, students reported being the victim of sexual assaults on campus faced a host of barriers that left them feeling victimized again. some administrators discourage pursuing rape complaints. these are very basic federal law.under victims who went through the oftenary process encountered mystifying disciplinary proceedings where just weren't part of the

process at all, or off the record negotiations and even gag orders. so we found a lot of problems the the process at both white house task force and these legislations are trying to address through policy and even standardized responses. >> for our viewers that report available at public integrity.org. a reminder too all all the hearings we've covered on campus sex assault are available on our website, c-span.org. kristen lombardi with the center public integrity, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, bill. >> on the next "washington journal," we'll get an update on the start of the nato mit being wales. robert levinson will talk about some of the new challenges russia'sto including intervention in ukraine. then coauthors will discuss book, what women really want, about women, society and rejection of feminism.

"washington journal" is live 7:00 eastern,t and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter.

call us, send us a tweet, or you can e-mail us. join the c-span conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. counterterrorism center director matthew olson talks about the threat of isis qaeda in iraq and syria. he spoke at the brookings

institution for just over an hour. -- next caller. brookings has a long-standing relationship. we have been changing thoughts and opinions for several years. we have been hosting officers under our federal executive fellowship program here. the national counterterrorism center is a relatively new part of the united states national security bureaucracy. it is only about 10 years old. it has many responsibilities, but the most important is to prepare the national terror threat assessment.

ac -- it decides how serious to both terrorist threat is, how serious the terrorist environment is. when president obama meets with his homeland security principles, it is matt who opens the meeting by saying here is the threat and how serious it is. it is a heavy responsibility. not the secretary of state or the secretary of defense. he does not decide what targets we bomb, whether we cozy up to assad or not. he is extremely well-qualified qualified for the position he is holding. those in the audience have already seen his bio. he is a graduate of university of virginia and harvard law school, has worked in the department of justice and the national security agency. he worked on the glenn, no bay review process. -- the guantanamo bay review

process. this is extremely timely. iraq,he islamic state of the killing of another american yesterday with an american commander operating in somalia. and for many other reasons, it is especially good to have him here today. the format will be simple. matt will speed for 20 or 25 minutes and then i will take the prerogative and we will open it up to the audience. if you have your telephone on, please turn it off. i know you have an awesome sound but might is even better so please turn years off. thank you so much. >> thank you very much. this past may, a man walked into a juice museum in belgium, opened fire, killing four people.

, a 20 nine-year-old french national, had recently returned from syria, where he fought alongside the islamic state of iraq. the very next day, a 22-year-old american from florida blew himself up. while detonating a massive truck bomb in a restaurant in northern syrianone frequented by soldiers. the bomb killed dozens. the american suicide bomber was with me on the news front and and al qaeda affiliate posted online the video attack. finally, over the past two weeks, and isil terrorist executed two american journalists who were taken hostage. isl then posted these images for the world to see. our thoughts and prayers are

takenhe families together, these her thick acts of violence highlight why security and intelligence officials across europe and around the world are alarmed about the rise of isil. and the terrorism threat we see emanating from syria and iraq today. threats in the region as well as to the u.s.. just to the west. the president spoke directly to these concerns, calling isil an immediate threat to iraq and people around the region. likewise, the british prime minister is increasing its threat level, citing information . this morning, i would like to spend a few minutes talking about the nature of the terrorist threat we see in syria and iraq. i will talk about the rise of isil and the challenges we face, but also why isil is

not invincible. situationcuss how the in syria and iraq fits into the broader terrorism landscape as i tried to put this into the overall context we see. i will finally touch on the steps to address the threats they pose security. let me thank the brookings institution to death for inviting me to speak. also everything that goes on here at brooking. there is a natural connection mentioned between the work of brookings and the work at ntc -- nt tc. analyzing ther terrorist threat information. we have sent some of our best and brightest here to brookings to serve as fellows. the other thing i would like to say is as a director of -- i talk it is our role to

about this and share our insights. this summer, the 9/11 commissioners issued a new report and asked national security leaders to communicate to the public in specific terms about what the threat is and how it is evolving. i see the event as an opportunity to do this and shed a measure of light. there is no doubt the american newsc is gripped with the of the violence we see in iraq. this is completely understandable, particularly in light of the video we have seen yesterday and a couple of voice ago. isil is a dangerous organization by every measure, extremely dangerous, operating in a chaotic part of the world. it has exploited the conflict in the -- in syria, pleaded tensions in iraq, both to enrich itself in these countries, and it now spans the geographical

center of the middle east. the group uses terrorists and insurgents tactics. like an insurgency, it has seized and is trying to govern territory. isil poses a direct and significant threat to us and to iraqi and syrian forces in the region and potentially to us at home. the group's rapid step from the battlefield, it's tactics, it's claimed to be the new ideological leader of the global jihadist movement, these all account for our intense focus on the group. beyond isil, other terrorist networks in syria pose a threat to us, even as we continue to terrorist organizations across the middle east and much of north africa. i will talk now about how we assess the threat from isil. i will take a few minutes to walk through this. i will begin with the background. i think it is important to start their.

a veteran sunni terrorists founded the group in 2004 and pledged his allegiance at the time to bin laden. iraq, targeted u.s. forces, targeted civilians using suicide bombers, car bombs, to pressure the u.s. and other countries to leave iraq and quickly gained a reputation for brutality and tyranny. isil's continued targeting and oppression of sunni civilians in iraq caused a widespread backlash against the group, often referred to as the sunni awakening. a surge in forces as well as iraq he counterterrorism operations that only denied and led to a sharp decrease. in 2011, the group began to reconstitute itself amiss growing sunni discontent in iraq and the civil war in syria. in 2012, isil conducted an average of 5-10 suicide attacks per month in iraq. by last

summer, the number had grown to 30-40 such attacks per month. iraq,gaining strength in it exploited chaos in syria to expand its operations across the border. the group established a front as a cover for its activities in syria. --april last year, it presence in syria under the isil banner. they publicly pledged their allegiance -- their allegiance. year, isil of this was declared no longer a branch of the group. at the same time, isil accelerated its efforts to overthrow the iraqi government this past january. the group marched from a safe haven in syria across the border in northern iraq, slaughtering thousands of iraqi muslims, sunnis, on its way this june.

through battlefield victories, the group gained weapons, equipment, and territory, and isil we think takes in as $1 million per day from oil sales, smuggling, and ransom payments. by late june this past summer, it declared the establishment of .he islamic caliphate three overarching factors, and i rise and about the success of isil. first, isil has asked weighted the failure of the syrian and iraqi states to maintain control over their more remote regions. assad's brutal treatment of its suppresse, to forcibly the opposition, has acted as a magnet for extremist and foreign fighters. the withdrawal of security forces during military ofagements has left the loss

military largely ungoverned there. the group can plan and train and .lot, as well as to coordinate with little or no interference. iso has been able to move personnel supplies. secondly, it has proven to be a fighting force. it's battle strategy is complex and adaptive. terrorist operations, hit and run tactics, military assaults come enabled the group of his rapid gains. tactics mayfield have helped the group hold and administer territory. sunnis have few alternatives in iraq and syria. the leadership has pushed them to the sidelines of the political process for years, and i so has been recruiting young sunnis to the fight.

it views itself as the new leader of the global jihadist movement. it operates the most significant propaganda machine of any extremist group. it disseminates timely and media content on multiple platforms, including social media, all designed with widespread following in the group. to tout itsedia military capabilities, its execution of captured soldiers, and its consecutive number of battlefield victories. the group's supporters have more recently sustained the momentum on social media by encouraging attacks in the united states and against u.s. interests in retaliation for our airstrikes. it uses propaganda campaign to bring foreign fighters to the group, including many western -- from western countries. qaeda is the dominant voice of influence in the global extremist movement.

today, isil has more than 10,000 ,ighters, it controls much crossroads of the middle east area, about the size of the kingdom, and its strategic goal is to establish a caliphate to armed conflict with apostate regimes. those it considers apostates such as iraq, syria, and the united states are at it poses a multifaceted threat to the united states. i will talk about this now in detail. in january, its leaders warned the u.s. will soon be in direct conflict with the group. there is little doubt isl views the u.s. as a strategic enemy. the threat is most acute in iraq. safe haven and resources their present an immediate and direct threat to america. this includes our embassy in baghdad, our conflict, and americans held hostage by isil.

in the region, lebanon, turkey, jordan, isil has the capability to carry out small-scale attacks and threaten americans as a result. but the threat extends beyond the region to the west. it has the potential to use it safe haven to plan a coordinated attack in europe and the united states during the threat became real this past year. also, with the arrest of an individual recently in france, connected to isil and upon his arrest, several explosive devices were discovered. at this point, we will have no credible information that isil is planning to attack the united states. we know more than 12,000 foreign fighters have flocked to syria in the past three years, including more than 1000 europeans and more than 100 americans. many of the foreign fighters

have joined isil ranks. fighters may use these to conduct external attacks. the foreign fighters are likely to gain experience in training and eventually to return to their own country. return to their own country battle hardened. many are likely to possess western passports and travel documents. the fbi has arrested more than half a dozen individuals seeking to travel from u.s. to syria to support isil. we remain mindful of the possibility that an isil sympathizer motivated by online propaganda could conduct attacks with little or no warning. any threat to the u.s. homeland from these types of extremist is likely to be limited in scope and scale. dire as all of this sounds, from my vantage point, it is important that we keep this threat in perspective and we take a moment to consider it in the context of the overall

terrorist landscape. that is certainly part of our responsibility. viewede of isil can be as one man assisted -- of the global jihadist movement in the past several years. we have seen the movement diversify and expand in the aftermath of the upheaval and political chaos since 2010. the threat now comes from a decentralized array of organizations and networks. isl is only one of the groups we are concerned about. al qaeda core continues to support attacking the west and for now remains the recognized leader of the global jihadist, even as it struggles to mount operations under sustained pressure. veteran al qaeda fighters have traveled from pakistan to take advantage of the permissive operating environment there. they are focused on plotting against the west.

al qaeda's official branches in yemen and somalia remain extremely active. we have seen al qaeda at the arabian peninsula repeatedly try to keep down an airline in the u.s., targeting personnel in yemen. he capability to carry out its terrorist attack against the united states. it is now a leader within al qaeda and the group's propaganda continues to resonate outside yemen. it threatens u.s. and western personnel in the region, even with the losses since 2011. al qaeda has taken advantage of the security vacuum, the flow of weapons across borders to unify north and west africa. unprecedented levels of violence are being carried out in advance of elections that year. here in the united its, last year's bombing at the boston

marathon is a sober reminder of the sustained threat we face from self-directed violent extremist. you can see the terrorist threat emanates from a broad area. terrorist networks have exploited the lack of governance and lack of security in these areas. terrorist groups we think are active in at least at length -- at least 11 insurgencies and these groups contribute to insurgencies and exploit the government's ability to fight on multiple fronts. i want to point out identifying these threats is increasingly challenging for us. the groups are adapting tactics to avoid our intelligence collection. terrorist groups are looking for simpler, smaller scale attacks easier to pull off. lester ats an attack the westgate mall in a row be. -- in nairobi. terrorists are changing how they communicate to avoid surveillance or they are moving

usinge secure platforms, encryptions, and in some case -- this is a problem for us. to identify and disrupt plots. the point is this. isl has captured our immediate focus. it is only one of the myriad groups that poses a threat to us as a terrorist landscape evolves and becomes increasingly complex and challenging for us. mind, letcontext in me spend the last minutes talking about the strategy to defeat isil. as formidable as it is as a group, it is not invincible. broad coalition of international partners, we have the tools to defeat isil based on a determined and

comprehensive all of government approach. near-term, we are focused on protecting personnel on the ground and in iraq, including staff, while addressing the humanitarian crisis isil has created. our military is taking the fight to isil. we have conducted more than 100 and 20 airstrikes in support of iraqi security forces, and provided the necessary force to allow these forces to regain infrastructure. because of successes of these strikes, isil is moving on and moving territory. these measures by an iraqi and u.s. forces have revealed isil is vulnerable to coordinated and effective military action. to zapike had begun momentum and gain space for kurdish forces to gain momentum.

the u.s. and its allies have provided over one million pounds to survive, including food and water to populations under siege by isil. averteps have helped to humanitarian crisis is -- crisis es.ed -- tracy' humanitarian aid must be part of a broader -- over -- here at home. ofh a clear eyed assessment the threat isil poses inside and outside the region, we're implementing a comprehensive strategy that calls for a global coalition, using all tools, diplomatic, military, intelligence, law enforcement, to in -- to defeat the group. only the government iraq that is representative of all iraqis will unite the country.

we have concentrated on working with iraqis to ensure the new iraqi government stands for all iraqis. this will reduce tensions throughout the region not just iraq and indicates a marginalized sunnis that there is an alternative. >> iraqis have made progress to this goal in recent weeks naming a new prime minister. the strategy requires regional and international partners. some nations will provide military assistance. direct and indirect. others will provide humanitarian assistance. the effort is underway in iraq where others have joined with us in providing humanitarian aid and military assistance. this week at the nato summit, secretary john kerry and hagel will meet with counterparts to enlist the broadest possible assistance and then both secretaries will travel in the middle east.

country can support the horrors perpetrated by isil and no civilized country should shirk its responsibility. a broad international consensus will provide the foundation for a concerted action to achieve a number of objectives. we will continue to take direct action unilaterally with our partners. isil's capacity to wage war and diminished control in iraq and syria. we are continuing our support for iraq moderate and for syrian opposition. next, we will counter isil's extremist messaging campaign by working with partners to emphasize battlefield successes of our iraqi and kurdish forces and to highlight the atrocity and the grave threat the troop poses to our iraqi sunnis.

finally, we will continue to enhance our intelligence collection within the region and will build on an established security measure here at home to combat any threat we see. this includes working to -- to stem the flow here in iraq. our attention is concentrated on the security crises in both iraq and syria and rightly so. and other groups operating in syria threaten our people and our interests in the region and, left unchecked, they will seek to carry out attacks closer to home. no terrorist group is invincible. the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent syrians and iraqi civilians has shocked and united all civilized people for the barbaric murders of two american journalists and an attack has demonstrated these terrorist threats are not confined to one part of the globe. the president has set -- has

said the u.s. will continue to do what ever is necessary to .rotect at home and abroad we work with our partners in the region and allies over the long term to bring peace and security to a chaotic heart of the world. thank you very much gorelick forward our discussion. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> thank you very much for that hystericaland description of the threat that we face today. you started in belgium. i would like to go back to belgium. i listened to what you said. you are portraying an which hason followers, sympathizers, and some cell structure in europe. if i would compare that to al qaeda in 1999-2000, when we knew

it had a pretty well-developed cell structure in europe and asia, and,outheast as we now know, in the united states of america, what i'm hearing from you is we are not past that level of acute threat today but we could be there. is of whereir summary we're standing today? let's that is a useful point of comparison. you are spot on in saying we are certainly not there. isil is not al qaeda pre-9/11. think we are also not as a country and as a counterterrorism community here, but also across europe, we are not where we were in pre-9/11. we are so much better postured in so many ways to see, detect,

stop any type of attack like we saw on 9/11. concern and i highlighted this, the number of europeans who travel to syria. certainly some of them, perhaps many, have joined forces with isil. they're the ones returning home. that is the model we are most concerned about, and it is highlighted by what we saw in the judicial museum in brussels. , possibly acting atits own, possibly acting isil's direction. a smaller scale type of attack, brutal and lethal, but nothing like a 9/11 scale attack. thought a queue was capable of at that time. that is an important point of comparison. arrows --nd endless hours reading propaganda.

also, your intelligence collection. from looking at the propaganda and the whole terror threat to ensure you have, do you have any doubt about their long-term intentions, vis-à-vis both europe and more importantly american homeland? we do spend a lot of time reviewing their propaganda and information we are able to glean that is not part of what is in the open source is, i think yes, there is no doubt in our view that that is have the old really see us. they ultimately see us as a strategic threat and one, as they publicly stated, they will inevitably confront. i do think at some point in time, allowed to proceed on the path they are on, left unchecked, they would turn their sites more to the west and potentially to the united states. organizationf this is a very mysterious figure.

literally meaning he is a descendent of the prophet mohammed. if anything he says is true. do you feel the american intelligence community has a solid handle on who this guy is, where he comes from, what his ideology is, or is this still a work in progress? >> we have a pretty good sense. i do think that your characterization of him as somewhat shadowy is absolutely fair. publicnot struck a persona in the way others have. their other members of the group that have a large public persona. we spend a fair amount of time in the broader community learning what we possibly can about him. >> do you think he comes from the same ideological bent as our