still is -- isil is seeking to radicalize followers around the world they are extraordinarily visible. if you look at aqap, just as much a danger to us, but much more invisible. the uniforms of isil, the equipment, they're taking over the city, the children that have been beheaded, the christians who have been sacrificed, the iraqi army that having frog-walked, and then shot down in cold blood, all of this has been on television. americans have come to know the threat that isil is. the guidance from isil to potential terrorists is clear. it wants westerners to come to syria and to iraq to fight. isil instructs them how to carry out attacks at home, and that's what we're up against. there are more than 100 americans who have either

traveled to syria or attempted to travel there and who will return home. at least 3400 of them are from western europe. and that includes visa waiver countries, where they're a plane ticket away from the united states. what we don't know is how many people are inside the united states following isil, and who are becoming inspired to carry out their own attacks. separately al qaeda remains focused on conducting attacks against or homeland while aq in the ungoverned areas of pakistan may be's weak as it has been in many years, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, or aqap still poses a clear threat. the group is enjoying a safe

haven in yemen, with the huiti -- the group has already attempted to sense nonmetallic and essentially undetectible bombs into our country on four occasions, beginning with the christmas day 2009 bomb. aq has published step-by-step directions for building that bomb in the latest "inspire" magazine. our efforts to confront aqap are significantly diminished with the removal of the president in yemen. the huitis may have no love for aqap, but over time the yemeni had become a partner that we no longer have. closing or embassy in sanaa was the right choice, but it gives

them new freedom to roam and kill. elsewhere this is a power vacuum in libya, maybe even civil war. much of northwest africa groups are using that territory for a safe haven. i could go on and on, but let me just conclude with one remark that i hope director rasmussen with address. on june 1, three provision of the foreign intelligence surveillance act, which we cause fisa, will expire. if these authorities sxhir, the intelligence community will lose key tools to identify terrorist groups and to protect the homeland. this includes nsa's metadata

program as wet as the authority for domestic fbi investigations, but also other important authorities. i looked forward to your testimony, director, and again i thank you for the excellent work you are doing. it's my intern once the testimony has been received, we will go to five-minute questions based on the order of attendance. hopefully that's been shared with everybody, and we will at this time turned to the director for as much time as your testimony might take, nick. >> thank you, mr. chairman madam vice chairman, members of the committee. i have submitted for the record a much longer statement that is kind of gone around the world

and discussed in some depth the threat picture as we see it. thank you, first, for inviting me to discuss the terror threat that united states is facing and the attempt to counter that threat. it's dynamic as the why array of actors driving this environment. those actors of located across africa, asia, the middle east, and increasingly reach into the west, even into the united states. the emergence of iraq and syria as extremist battlefields, and isil's related expansion and reach has brought about changes in that terrorism landscape. the emergence of new groups since 2011 has also altered the threat pictures, as most of the groups are focused on achieves -- we're also experiencing a new level of specialization and fragmentation within that larger terrorism landscape. we believe we might be enter into an era in which the leadership groups matters than it did previously. we may be entering a time in which group affiliation and

identity is more fluid, and strippist narratives are more focused and as paris showed us this may also be a time when personal connections by individual terrorists may be more relevant to their plotting. even in this dynamic and increasingly complex threat environment, i still believe it's possible to differentiate to some degree the threat we are facing in the u.s. and the west from the threat we are seeing in the regions where many adversaries are located. as we look at that global terrorism picture, we are trying to be careful to not paint that picture with a single broad bush. in the united states and the west, i traditionally mean western up, the threat of cat terrific attack has been significantly reduced as we and our partners have applied pressure to some of the most dangerous groups that we face. now clearly sustaining that

counterterrorism pressure and the key elements of that pressure in the key places around the world is an essential condition to preventing the reemergence of some of the more complex threats that would aim at having cat trophic -- but in this current environment, our assessment is we face a much greater more frequent recurring -- measured in terms of frequency in numbers, it is attack from those sources that are increasingly the most noteworthy feature of the terrorism landscape. since may of last year, 10 of 11 attacks in the west were in fact conducted by these individual extremists. two here in the united states and nine others occurring in europe, canada and australia. now, the majority of these 11 attacks look more like what we would expect from random acts of violence rather than the large-scale destruction we saw in terrorist plotting immediately after 9/11. in going forward we believe individuals and smaller networks will try to capitalize on the moment.

it's also important to know. >> hype in no way seeking to minimize the impact that such attacks can occur. furthermore, or increasing more level attacks in the west should not in any way subject we're no longer concerned with the -- and even some individuals to target western aviation, which would certain constitute a large scale and potential catastrophic attack. mitigating that threat to aviation remains at the top of our priority list. it also remains true that we still face modern and small-scale threats from groups that are more -- and some of the traditional al qaeda affiliates

and allies. although the group -- the number of groups posing that truly transnational threat is somewhat smaller in our efforts to place pressure on them has met with some success, it's important to remember these groups are persistent and they're patient with their desires and plans to strike the homeland. in contrast to the threat we face here at home and western capitals, our allies and partners in africa are facing in some ways a much different threat. in countries continuing to work during the effects of the arab uprising, in places like egypt iraq. other terrorist groups are very active in countries undergoing insurgency -- places like afghanistan, somalia, egypt, iraq, syria and again yemen. in all of these countries, terrorist groups are trying to display weak government or maid significant gains.

in other countries, terrorists are contributed to population displacement. this is happening in places like iraq, syria, nigeria and afghanistan. some of these groups are also responsible for stoking sectarian tension and contributing to the proliferation of sunni on shia violence. amid all of this political instability, terrorists are carrying out ever-more violent attacks much more frequently and on a much greater scale than we have seen recently conducted in the west. hundreds of attacks that have unfortunately caused thousands of deaths. just last month as the world focused its attention on paris and the attacks there, attacks on local populations like boko haram and nigeria that were taking place on a significantly larger scale. now despite the fact that i've tried in some small way to differentiate between the

threaten viernment in the west and the threaten viernment we see in the middle east and south asia, there is one phenomenon which draws those two separate threat pictures tightly together and that phenomenon is the continued flow of foreign fighters to syria and particularly those fighters that come from western countries. while the majority of the roughly 20,000 foreign fighters have in fact come from the middle east and from north africa, more than 3,400 have, we assess, come from western countries. at nctc, we are working to advance a broad effort across our center to track foreign fighters working very closely with the rest of intelligence community and with our partners around the world. nctc compiles information on known and suspected terrorists who travel to syria and we house the data in the datamart environment known as tide. that effort has created a valuable forum for identifying and tracking information on unknown or suspected terrorists for key stake holders and that includes the law enforcement community, and the

counterterrorism community and it also, this tide effort has directly helped to resolve inconclusive identity information and enhanced tide records with more information and most importantly upgrade watch list status for known or suspected terrorists. nctc officers are also working to fully identify foreign fighters who potentially have access or connections to individuals in the homeland see they, too, can be watch listed. to do all of this my officers are using nctc's unique access of i.c. and law enforcement information, wider than anywhere else in the i.c. this access includes our own data holdings, but as well as our embedded officers from ten other intelligence organizations. now to prevent individuals from traveling to syria in the first place my officers are also working to diminish the appeal of terrorism in partnership with doj, the department of justice and the department of homeland security and the fbi. we have helped develop tools to counter violent extremism and raise awareness among law enforcement and community leaders around the country.

we try to tailor these tools particularly in the updated isil context and we've received a significant amount of feedback from communities with whom we have worked and there is a demand signal from those across the country. the nature of today's threat as we discussed in the be givening and was evident in the chairman and vice chairman's statement. it is challenging our ability to identify and disrupt terrorist plots and this is coming at a time when we are unfortunately losing capability. today the terrorist-related communications of our adversaries are increasingly intermingled with communications that are not relevant to our terrorism work and they are not separate and easily identified streams of information. signals intelligence are increasingly important in denied areas around the world where they face challenges of getting information from sources. it's difficult to operate in places like syria and libya and increasingly now in yemen and the possibility that they'll be infiltrated.

due to the snowden leaks and other disclosures terrorists have a greater understanding of how we seek to have surveillance with the tactics and the scope and scale of the efforts. they've altered the way they communicate and this has lead to a decrease. the terrorists who have adopted greater security measures such as using various new types of encryption. terrorists who have dropped or changed email addresses and terrorists who have stopped communicating in ways they have before in part because they understand how we collect. leaks have also been a wedge between government and providers and technology companies. some companies that were formerly recognizing that protecting the nation was a valuable and important public service now feel compelled to question or oppose our efforts. these challenges that i just described in the collection environment and they go to the question you raise, mr. chairman, all of this places

information sharing. this information sharing gives us the best chance to identify potential lone actors and loose networks of the sort that are carrying out the most frequent attacks. while the sheer number of foreign fighters that i talked about earlier threatens to overwhelm the law enforcement and intelligence capabilities of key partners around the world, the problem has actually spurred information sharing to a level that we've rarely seen, if ever and that's a positive development. so i would argue that this is one tiny bit of good news embedded with a threat picture and the foreign fighter that is of increasing concern as i hope i've made clear. i'll stop there for now, mr. chairman and madam vice chairman and i look forward to your questions and the rest of the committee. thank you. >> director, thank you very much. i'll restate, we'll go to five-minute questions based upon the order of attendance and that's verifying warner coates, collins, langford and rich.

mr. director, i'm going to go right to the issue the vice chair raised with you and that's the three fisa provisions that are set to expire on the first of june. if we allow those to expire, what would be the nctc's ability to discover and thwart attacks at home? >> it's important to reretain these capabilities that the ability to have insight into what our adversaries are doing the connections they may have both internationally and potentially into the homeland is an essential part of the business of identifying individual terrorists and building out the picture of the networks in which the terrorists operate and so fundamentally reauthorization is something that we're counting on in the intelligence community as an important part of our work.

>> director, earlier this week the administration announced the creation of a cyber threat intelligence integration center where they refer to it as ctec. the national center will reportedly be modeled after nctc and the national counter proliferation center which has struggled under the odni management. i'm hesitant to authorize the creation of a new center until some of these lingering management challenges can be resolved not least of which is nctc's inability to fully hire. can you assure the committee that nctc will be able to fill the majority of your open vacancies by the end of the year? >> i believe i can, mr. chairman. i am happy to report that i would tell you over the last five, six months we've taken significant strides forward in addressing that concern and problem. not only improving our ability

to hire analysts and officers from outside of government to bring new blood into our center, but also increasing the level and inflow of detailees and officers detailed into nctc which as you know, mr. chairman, that's part of the lifeblood and having that contribution of officers from fbi, from the defense department, dia and every member of the community and we're making, i think tremendous progress. if we had this discussion a year ago i would give you a much more cautious response because we can get where we needed to be, but just in the last few month it is i've had productive engagements with fbi and cia to the levels we need them to be, and i'm pretty confident i can give you the assurance that you're looking for, mr. chairman. >> in many ways, the threat to terrorism is not declining. the number of claims you are facing is shocking and your ability to the collect

intelligence on those threats is waning. is the principal adviser to the president on counterterrorism, are you concerned about the trend and the impact it's having on our security? >> in my statement, i certainly talked about the wider array and the more diverse array of threats and terrorist actors that we're seeing around the globe and clearly that puts increasing pressure on our capacity to respond and to react in all of those different places to develop effective strategies in all of those different places. as we've talked about in closed sessions, as well, it's not always possible for the united states to transform the environment in some of these areas where the terrorism threat is growing and so we have to develop an approach that allows us to mitigate and disrupt the terrorist threat networks that are most particularly aiming at u.s. interests and while also looking to see if there are ways in which we can over time

develop stronger partnerships with countries in particular regions so that we don't own the burden ourselves of doing the mitigating and disrupting, but unfortunately, while you were doing that long-term work to establish the more sustainable counterterrorism framework with our partners, you have to deal with, as you said, mr. chairman, every day a constant inflow of new terrorism-related threats and you're trying to keep up with every one of those most recent threats while trying to build a more sustainable network of ct partnerships around the world. so doing that long-term work while we're also managing the day to day is increasingly a challenge, i will admit. >> thank you, mr. director. vice chairman? >> thanks, mr. chairman. mr. rassman, last year when we had our worldwide threat meeting and this was different than that and it was put out there as a group that could really be effective in launching an attack

against the united states and as i'm reading your written remarks particularly on page 8 you talk about two highly capable aqim offshoots and the battalion and wahid jihad in west africa merging to form the violent extremist group al morabitum which we haven't really heard of before. how big is this is the first part of the question and secondly, how do you rank the groups and their threats toward the homeland? which one should we be the most wary of? >> let me bite that off in a couple of different chunks madam vice chair. we did point out in our statement this year to the emergence of this group in north africa which is an offshoot on which is al qaeda and ghraib

and internal fights about direction is a group that we know of as the al mura battalion which includes known links to al qaeda and they have engaged in internal feuding that has put them into separate organizations from the way we look at them. we look at that grouping as a significant threat to our interest in and across north africa. as far as the ability to project a threat potentially to the homeland i would describe that as more potential than actual at this point, but they certainly have taken note of what happened in western europe and over time i would be concerned about groups like this in north africa having the ability to project into europe, and of course, i consider attacks that could happen in europe potentially as attacks that could involve significant u.s. interests. we have significant diplomatic business and other presences in most western european capitals and i don't take for granted that americans would not be a

part of any attack that took place in europe. to your question of the khorasan group and that is a network of individuals with a long sense of affiliation with corale al qaeda in the tribal areas and we worry about their ability to not only engage and impact the fighting in syria which they're engaged in doing, but also while they're engaged in that activity also looking for opportunities to engage in external operations in western interests in europe and ultimately even the homeland. there's not much more i can say about that in this session as you well know, but this is among the very, very highest counterterrorism priorities to understand this network with more granularity, with more specificity and to develop disruption options. >> is qap still number one? i'm talking about the homeland now.

>> i guess i try to avoid number one, number two, number three because as soon as you say that, someone who isn't watching the picture as closely as you are and we are, they say your number three isn't getting the right attention, and they would be right to say that, but they would be missing something. as i said in my statement, each though what we're seeing more frequently in the west are the low-level attacks conducted by networks, we are still absolutely fixated and focused on aqap's efforts to develop an attack on the united states for all of the reasons mentioned in the chairman and vice chairman's statement with the attempt to propagate the recipe for putting explosives on the airplane and the continued effort even amidst the fighting in yemen for them to mountain external operation and that is at the top of the counterterrorism priority list and from the disruption perspective, and so that's when something like isil seizes, and

rises to the forefront of concern we don't have the luxury of downgrading our effort against some other threat stream or set of terror impactors that we had at the top of the list. >> thank you very much. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. director, it's great to see you again. i think you've done a good job of laying out counter terror challenges and my years on the committee, we've seen the threats move from al qaeda and afghanistan to insurgents in iraq to al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. so these are very real threats very real threats and the question then becomes how do we focus on ways to deal with these threats rather than in effect, use approaches that waste time and resources? we have to focus approaches that work. the bulk collection, the bulk phone records collection that has been widely debated has been

described by the president's review group, and i'll just quote here, as information that could readily have been obtained in a timely manner using conventional section 215 orders. these are all public documents public reports, mike morel, for example, a veteran of the cia supported this document, and my question to you is first, if congress passes the legislation ending bulk collection would intelligence agencies still be able to collect the information you and they need to protect our country against terrorist operations? >> i look at this in terms of as the president said last year making sure that we're in a position to preserve the capability that the bulk collection gave us and that's why i support, as did the director of national

intelligence, the legislation that would transition that program to one that would preserve that capability without requiring them to hold the records in the way they had previously. >> so you're proposing that we end the bulk collection program, but in effect, the phone companies can still keep their record-keeping practices, right? >> i'm comfortable with that capability. that step would preserve that capability. >> very good. one another question. mr. director, my understanding is and it would be very helpful here that there are some questions about whether the office of national intelligence has provided you all at the counter terrorist center with the copy of the full, classified version of the committee's report on the use of torture. have they provided you that report? >> a select number of my officer his access, i'm certain, to the executive summary. i would have to get back to you. >> have you seen it?

>> i've seen pages of it, senator. >> have you asked for a copy of the report? >> i've not personally asked for a copy of it, no. i asked that i be allowed access to it in order to perform the role that we performed at the tail end of last year when we were asked to participate in the effort to develop threat assessments. >> there are some additional details in the classified version that i think are relevant. so i hope that you will ask for a copy and review it. i look forward to working with you, and i think it is helpful to have on record that if the congress passes the legislation in the collection, you and the other intelligence agencies can go forward doing the important work to deal with the threats of this country. they are very real and i am interested in working with you on the matter of the report, as well. i hope you will ask for a copy of the report and review it.

thank you. >> nice to see you again and thank you for your great service. i do think, i want to make a brief comment to senator wyden's comments that we'll have a spirited debate on the fisa issue. i do think there are challenges as we've discussed before both privacy and security related around holding data at the telcos and that will be the subject of ongoing conversations. i want to raise isil and focus on most of your testimony. i would like to hear before the group when we were all at that moment astonished by the actions of boko haram in nigeria seizing 300 girls in the school and 200

of which are still missing and subsequent actions of the united states and sending troops and advisers to that region. we've seen since that time 1.5 million people displaced, more than 3000 killed in 2014 and a coalition arrives most recently nigeria joined with chad and cameroon for a force. could you give us an assessment whether these countries have the capability, whether the tide is swaying, obviously and nigeria has postponed their collections. first question can be can they take on boko haram? it's remarkable with the atrocities they commit are still pushed off the page and what type of threat that poses beyond that immediate region?

>> thank you, senator. i think you're on to something by raising the question of regional partners. no question that nigeria faces significant challenges mounting on its own response against boko haram. even in the most stable political environment they would face those challenges as the committee well knows, right now nigeria is in the midst of a potential political transition that would test even further their ability to mount a coherent response among the political intelligence and military communities. so one solution to that is to try to get regional partners as you described, niger, cameroon and other partners and they are increasingly stepping off of the challenges with the limited resources, but their shared sense of threat. i think we will be in a position to enable the partners to develop a regional approach to

boko haram and doing what we can principally through advising assisting and providing intelligence where it's appropriate and i think that can increase their effectiveness. i think it remains to be seen. it certainly isn't the case yet that the tide has been turned against boko haram and it remains to be seen if the regional parties can, in concert, turn that tide, and i -- i would not want to get out ahead of that in terms of predicting anything. this is a part of the world where we do not have the largest resource footprint. so we do what we can, but we may have to reevaluate boko haram's trajectory over time if we see the regional partners are overmatched. >> and do you see any evidence that there have been some reported at. evidence of boko haram's in terms of other networks. can you comment on that. >> the increased intercommunication between boko haram and the terrorist groups

in the northwestern part of africa and even with isil and all of that just adds to the picture of an interconnected terrorist network with the ability to share resources personnel, expertise and trade graft in a way that serves as a multiplier for their own capabilities and that's a disturbing trend. >> mr. chairman, this is an area that we need to keep our eye on, as well. thank you. >> thank you, senator. senator coates? >> thank you. in response to the questions that senator wyden raised you indicated that you and the director of national intelligence have assessed that ending the bulk collection program and transferring it to the communication companies would not impede with any way in doing the necessary tracking and usage of that to reach the solution -- the information that you want, but since that hasn't

been done and since we haven't laid out a procedure in which how we're going to do that and we don't know exactly how it's going to be collected and so forth and so on with a much shorter period of time of holding that information, how can you be so certain that it's not going to degrade in any way your ability to access that information? >> i guess i can't say anything with complete certainty, senator, but looking at the provisions, it would maintain the essential capability that we are requiring to maintain. >> the legislation that calls for a shortened period of time for holding that information we've seen in paris and in some other instances where we need to go deeper than that in order to determine the connections and the network that we need to assess. >> i certainly agree.

>> well, then how can you say with assurance that ending that collection will leave you shorthanded in what you need to assess? >> i can't predict in the future exactly how what information requirements we would have. >> well, how can you come to a conclusion? don't you leave a little, we're not sure, senator, exactly how this is going to work so we can't guarantee that will give us the same access as we have under the bulk collection program? >> again, i -- i look at this in terms of capability and my understanding of the legislation is it would have provided us with that essential capability. i'm a little bit burdened here because as nctc director i follow in the footsteps of two previous nctc directors and distinguished national security lawyers who lived this architecture in ways that i haven't and so i'm less in a

direct position to speak on exactly how these programs work in the same way that my predecessors were. >> that's why i raised the question in my mind about your answer to senator wyden who i think took that as a definitive yes, and i think this is fine and nctc director thinks it's fine and therefore why in the world would we question it. there is a difference of energy in most instances in the community as to whether or not this is the right thing to do. >> i understand that. that's why i'm relying on my experts who assured me that the preservation of this gives us what we need. it certainly involved giving and take on particular provisions. i would be happy to talk to you in closed session or come at you -- >> i understand. i think we should do that because there are still major questions that need to be resolved here.

in the remaining time, did you through your agency or someone in the i.c. community, what is the appeal to the thousands of westerners that fall prey to the appeal of engaging in this depravity which they're obviously all aware of and are so attracted to this. how can someone who has perfect capability see exactly what they're walking into think that's the thing to do? now if you're the same ideology but coming from western europe or america, more civilized and cultured societies, and civilized might not be the right word, but i think you know what

i mean, are you looking at that and a way for us to counter with social media saying this is what you're getting into which is a pretty tough situation and >> that's a good question, senator. isil's propaganda runs the gamut. you are absolutely right to point to these horrific videos and pointing to executions of hostages and opposing fighters on the battlefield. that clearly sends the signal and that attracts its own element and isil's propaganda also includes a fair number of messages or messaging examples in which they paint a very bucolic, fulfilling life in the caliphate that they project to individuals who are maybe disenfranchised, disadvantaged and dissatisfied in their home environment and for the range of factor that grab people who end up going to syria right now, ranges from the ideological which you pointed

to, but also to the psychological. >> ok. >> catering to some sense of wanting to belong to something no matter how depraved that thing they're belonging to is. for others, there's the sheer sense of adventure and a chance to throw your hat into the winning side is a part of the calculation and we've tried to disaggregate all of these different factors and the messaging that we're seeing and we can develop counter messaging strategies to go at it. the president is convening this cve summit next week drawing in our europe even partners and many of the middle eastern partners to get a better handle on this and unfortunately, as we all know, the government is probably not the best platform to try to communicate with the set of actors who are potentially vulnerable to this kind of propaganda and this kind of recruitment and that's something that we deal with all of the time and we try to find ways to have the counter

narrative and the counter messaging without having a u.s. government hand on this. people who are attracted to the that don't go for the government in terms of what to do. so statements in middle east is useful. in many the cases with more voice that's like these young people will have more impact. >> it shouldn't be government directed and it ought to be coming from other areas of the culture and letting them know about people and which is not the promise they make during recruitment. >> senator collins? >> thank you, mr. chairman. director, i want to follow up on

the issue of the telecommunications companies holding the data in two different ways. first of all, there are hundreds of telecoms in this country and by contrast, many people who have access to the database in this country was strictly limited and they were well trained. if more people have access to the database isn't that likely to raise additional privacy problems and questions? >> i would have to ask exactly how the architecture would look. >> related question, would you be troubled if there was no requirement for the telecommunications companies to retain the data for a certain length of time?

>> it's obviously in the interest of the intelligence department to access that data for as long a period of time as we can. in terms of specific provisions to compel, i can't speak to that. i can only speak to the interest that we have in maintaining that capability which is to have that access. >> let me turn to the issue of homegrown terrorism and to countering violent extremists. you said in your testimony today, and i completely agree that we face a much greater recurring threat from lone wolves and loose networks of the individuals and you talked about the number of the texts since last may that ten of them were from violent, islamic extremists. as you may have seen, former

defense and intelligence agency director michael bland recently commented that he could not identify which agency or individual in the u.s. government is in charge of the fight against radical islamic extremists. obviously dhs and the fbi, dod to some extent, the department of state and nctc are all important players. who is in charge? >> i would argue, senator, as with most elements of our counterterrorism effort, we're approaching it on a whole of government effort without a single agency overall with the whole responsibility. with the effort of homegrown violent extremists here in the united states, we have a tight-knit community focused particularly with the homeland security with nctc along with the deputy directors of those

organizations and matt olsen before me met every other month at that director or deputy director level to synchronize and coordinate all of our activities aimed at dealing with the homegrown violent extremist phenomenon, working to make sure we coordinate and partner with each other so that when we go to a community and i used denver in my testimony as an example of a community we had gone to in the wake of the arrests there last year of the three young somali-american women who were disrupted on the way to syria. we go arm in arm, lockstep with each other and all four of us together working hand in hand with the local fbi office and the u.s. attorney in that capital and all of the homeland security effort in the city so we're speaking with one voice as a federal government and when we get there we are dealing with the widest possible array of community leaders and community organizations because most of this homegrown violent extremism effort is going to be carried out by those communities and our role in many cases is to empower

and provide information and one of the things we did in that experience in denver was provide a community awareness briefing that explains exactly what senator coates was talking about. the appeal of this narrative the kinds of things that their kids might be seeing on the internet if they weren't supervised or if parents were not involved with and engaged with what their children were doing and so i'm very comfortable that we are working well and harmoniously together. could i -- could i make the case for one single agency with given the lead role, if we had discord and disharmony i might make that case, senator. could we do better? i'm not going to sign up to the idea that we couldn't do more and do better, but we're trying and we're looking to resource this more robustly and the problem we face is not a result of the lead agency. >> i guess from my perspective the problem is if no one's in charge it's very difficult for us to assess the effectiveness

of a program to budget appropriately, to hold people accountable to assess whether what we're doing is making a difference when we did the fort hood investigation in 2010. one of our major recommendations of the homeland security committee was that there needed to be a strategy, but there needed to be a lead agency or person in charge. it's not that these efforts aren't worthwhile, but we can't budget for them. we can't assess them if there isn't a person who can come and report to us and my concern is that the national security council appears intent on trying to exercise the role of policy implementer rather than just policymaker. >> thank you, senator.

we are all trying to operate the four agencies i mentioned under the rubric of the strategy here in the homeland. we are looking at ways in keeping with your suggestion to try to come up with funding mechanisms that cross departmental lines so we can do exactly what you described and give some sense of the joint work that is going on without relying solely on department budgets and department stove pipes, and i'll certainly make sure we get more information to you on that. >> thank you. >> senator blount? >> thank you, mr. chairman. let's talk about yemen a little bit. i understand our embassy there is closed. most of the people we had there certainly from the state department at the embassy are all out of the country, cars left with keys in them at the airport and whatever it took to get out of there. it's been a few months ago that yemen was supposedly a great

example of how efforts were working and how the plan was working and how do you think that changed so quickly and what -- looking back do you think that you and others might have seen to give more warning than we got of that? >> the situation in yemen for some period has been stable or unstable politically and for a long period of time the yemeni government faced this problem of a houthi conflict emanating out of yemen and that was not a new phenomenon and for many years the influence of the houthi community was largely contained in the northwest corner of yemen along stride of the saudi border, and that changed rather dramatically when the houthis moved out of the historical location they held and moved towards sanaa, and much as we

saw in dealing with the isil phenomenon, the one thing that's very difficult to assess from an intelligence perspective is the ability of the military organization to actively confront another insurgency. director clapper i know, has talked about the challenge the intelligence community faced in predicting whether the iraqi security forces would have melted away the way they did in the wake of isil's advantage last summer. in a smaller scale something like that would happen in yemen where president hadi faced a complicated environment in managing his security organizations as the houthi advances toward sanaa took place, it simply became the case that they were unopposed in many cases and that's something that we have to try to find a better way of the intelligence community to find ways of fighters to fight and you have to find resources available to the various sides and you would

look at that and say there's no way that happened and obviously, it did and it's left us in a position now where on relatively short notice, just over the past few months the security situation deteriorated far more rapidly than we expected and particularly because we could not assure the safety and security of our officers there and the decision was made to leave. >> i don't want to get into any kind of ongoing discussion with you about the specifics of how i would see these things now, but you've got an example of isil or isis where the j.v. one day and they're virtually a nation state 90 days later or yemen which is a great example of the successful foreign policy and six months later it appears to be a total disaster, but i think what you are now -- is it fair to say that the intelligence community has to reevaluate how

we -- what you've answered and reevaluate how those insurgencies may match up against the ability to face them? >> i think that's fair, senator. >> on another question i have, and i noticed the information sent up yesterday from the president to accomplish is that the focus was against isil or associated persons or forces how would you define the second part of that? is that another terrorist group who actually is somehow fighting? what does that mean? is that al nusra or some of these al qaeda groups that don't seem to be that much in line with isil? how would you define associated persons or forces you were me? >> i guess i would look at it and take it pretty much at face value, senator, in concluding that that language likely allowed for the possibility that

other networks, maybe not even formal groupings, but other networks might align themselves with isil and as we know, right now isil and isis is in conflict with core al qaeda and the al nusra front and the designated al qaeda affiliated operated in syria. >> so core al qaeda or al nusra would not be included in that definition because they're actually not associated with isil? i mean, that's my belief, and i think that's what you just said. >> i'd have to check, but i guess what i'm saying is when i look at the words associated forces i was thinking ahead to the development of new alliances or new alignments that we can't foresee today. i wasn't trying to say that anybody was in or out that definition, inside or outside of that particular definition. >> i don't want to take more time than i should, but today we have to base looking at this of what we do foresee today, and i

think what you've said are there significant terror groups that are clearly not associated with isil. would that be right? >> there are certainly terrorist groups that are associated at this point with isil. isil has reached out and developed affiliated relationships or endorsement like relationships with groups outside of iraq and syria including north africa including in algeria and including i believe yemen, as well. >> i'm out of time. thank you, chairman. >> senator langford. >> i need to ask you, in page 10 of your written report you use the statement here iran remains the foremost state sponsor of terrorism and then a couple of notes on that. i would like to get additional details on that. we can talk about iran being the foremost state sponsor of terrorism.

how far does that extend? how many countries are they engaged in or terrorist groups are they engaged in sponsoring? >> iranian sponsorship and association with particulary lebanese hezbollah gives -- provides a global reach to that organization and i could not give you a direct answer to how many countries. >> there are clear lines where iran is engaged in terrorism and advancing that ideology or being a state sponsor? >> certainly in portions of west africa, portions of southeast asia, portions of latin america. i could go into more detailed in a classified setting. >> it begs the question the foremost non-state sponsor. are we able to identify individuals or groups of individuals as well that you identify iran as a state sponsor, a lot of these groups have to have funding, support,

coordination from somewhere. are we able to identify some of those non-state sponsors? >> we have a robust effort across the intelligence community to try to understand particularly where individuals play a role in the financing of terrorist organizations and where -- where we can identify through intelligence those individuals developing approach using every tool we have whether it's designation by the treasury department, other law enforcement or intelligence action and any tool we have to try to shut down the financing pipeline. that is an area where it is a constant, constant struggle because these organizations are ubiquitous in their efforts to fundraise. i would be happy to talk in closed session with the work the community is doing in that area. >> is there a sense for iran as the state-sponsored terrorism? is that on the decline? is it consistent that they continue to increase? have you noticed a significant change in iran in their behavior

in the last several years. >> i guess i would describe it as consistent and steady and the degree of concern has been consistent and steady over time. we're particularly mindful of their support for militant groups in places like iraq where the front line -- that front line activity where shia militant groups that have connections to iran could be potentially threatening to our personnel on the ground in iraq. >> okay. let me ask about one other country and location. libya has fallen into total chaos with no functioning government anymore and every time they form a government it collapses within months and have -- and were border line as the vice chairman mentioned earlier near civil war at this point. terrorist groups seem to enjoy a vacuum. what do we see is on the rise in libya and what is our status there as far as the spread of organizations and the spread of

terrorism there? >> you're absolutely right, senator. if i had to identify one of the greatest areas of emerging concern with respect to the counterterrorism it would be libya. we were already facing the chaotic political environment there in which the resident north african-based terrorism groups that we talked about, the al qaeda and ghraib and al sharia were already active and potentially threatening in libya and with the potential ability to threaten u.s. interests across north africa which changed more recently and what made the environment there more difficult is that isis and isil has looked to take advantage of the chaos in libya and establish a foothold there, as well. we are still looking to try to assess whether that capability will manifest itself in external operations outside the region of north africa or if the intent is to give themselves the ability

to attack cairo or algeria or tunis and potentially affect our interests there. >> one final question. if iran stopped supporting terrorism, what effect would that have on the region and on the terrorist operations? >> well, if iran got out of the business of providing state sponsorship to terrorist organizations it would obviously lower our potential level of concern about the capabilities of some of the groups that we worry about. i don't necessarily know that it would look like an on/off switch and these are the capabilities that developed over decades and decades, so i don't know if that would be unraveled or unspooled by just flipping a

switch. >> obviously, that's not a switch that we have access to, but there are lots of connections there. >> thank you, sir. >> senator rubio. >> thank you, mr. rasmussen. i want to go deeper into libya. isn't it a fact that there have been multiple open source reports in the media that it is a growing hub for isis, is that not right? >> i do think yes, sir. >> and there are open source reports that isis is the predominant group in benghazi? >> that's correct. >> and there's been open-source reporting that isis was behind a terrorist attack at a hotel in tripoli that killed an american citizen. >> yes, the corinthia hotel. >> and there was open-source reporting that an isis commander was killed in afghanistan. >> yes. >> there is an isis presence in afghanistan, including open-source reports of terrorist training camps being set up in portions of afghanistan?

>> that's correct. we've seen in recent months isis, isil has looked to expand its reach into a number of different places around the world and you've highlighted two of the most recent examples in afghanistan and libya. i would also highlight algeria and egypt as others. i would also highlight algeria and egypt as other places. >> on the front, it is the port city. there is no assad bombing them there, fax. from my understanding it is one of the most important hubs because they are access to shipments and foreign fighters to take it. i think that is an area of an ordinance growth. including to the sinai. would it not be a great spot to launch an attack to the sinai or get iso-groups involved? >> that is exactly right.

the egyptian-based terrorist group that recently affiliated with isis, we worry about the threat they would close to western interests in egypt and the sinai. taurus, american business, and also our troop. >> it would be a mistake in your opinion as simply focusing on syria and iraq? it is increasing its blueprints and presence in multiple stages now. including afghanistan, north africa and particularly libya. >> that is correct. they have expanded their region. >> out to talk about guantanamo. 101 former detainees were engaged in terror and in the latest report we got in july 2014, is dated from 2009 july 2014, 88 detainees transferred out of gitmo. six of them had been confirmed to return to terror activity and one additional one was suspected. by my calculation, 107 of the 120 total transferred have

reengaged in terror. and another 77 are suspected of doing so in addition to the 107. can you tell us of july 2014 report canal, how many have returned to terror? >> we are just on the cusp within the next couple of weeks of providing the next iterated of that unclassified report. those numbers will be out very shortly. >> as it stands now, when out of six of those who have been returned with black while we do not have >> right -- but i expect is that the portions will be roughly in line with what we reported last july, as well. >> as it stands right now, it looks like it is approximately one out of six individuals release from guantanamo have reengaged in terrorism, maybe more. >> as a net figure, that is correct. but the population released since 2009, that number is a

lower number. >> lastly, on the question of ironic, i want to return back to the thread senator langford was pursuing. we know that i wrong -- iran has heavily indebted and controlled militants. do we have any evidence that iran is trying to set up similar groups in places like kuwait saudi arabia, jordan? >> i have to address that in a closed session, senator. >> thank you. >> we would be happy to provide the answer, but it would have to be in a closed session to the committee site. >> next, somebody stops you in the street and those you the director and they say, mr. director, what did -- what do you do and why should i care.

what would your answer be? >> i would tell that person that an ctc -- nct strives everyday to bec a part of gravity to these terrorists attacks. a center of gravity that provides information, and analysis, strategic landing and provide our counterterrorism efforts. they asked, i would say they have a large number of officers to come to work every day to assess and analyze to provide information in educating our terrorist adversaries. guys but i would say. >> why should i care? >> you should care because as we talked about in my opening statement and your opening statement, the thread -- the threat to the environment we face right now is the most multifaceted and a verse that we have ever faced and could

manifest communities all around this country and is not just in one place around the world. the potentially low-level attacks that are terrorist group inspired individuals are the kinds of attacks that could literally happen in any of our 50 states. >> he said to me when we first met, i believe america needs to know something about what we do and the intelligence community cannot be this black hole forever. i just want to thank you for what your organization does and all your employees. it is not nctc first, but everybody in the intelligence community is a custom me -- customer of yours. we look to the analytical product that you produce being

policymakers and they look at it more from a standpoint of actual information. i think you have some of the most talented folks working for you that you possibly could and i do want to reiterate something. it or some reason you feel that there are constraints that do not allow you to build out your workforce to the degree that we have authorized and to the degree that i think we both agree you need, i hope you would sure that with the vice-chairman and myself so we can hope to try and remediate that. >> i will certainly do that i am in enormously grateful to you and the vice-chairman for the sustained support of our work force overtime. i think one of the biggest contributions the congress could make to that end would be to not put us in a position where we are dealing with the sequestration environment going into the future. obviously that impacts all

federal agencies and the ability to operate, but are but our organization is so detailed that that kind of budget approach has a ripple effect because it reduces the ability of other organizations to do the hiring and developing of personal that we need to fill our ranks so it has a double have the effect on organizations like nctc when there is an uncertain budget environment. >> i thank you, mr. chairman. any follow-up questions? >> i would like to put a paper in the record if i might. senator rubio mention the citizen rates of former gitmo detainees and i would like to -- the problem is really, whether it is bush or obama, people are more.

the rates of change dramatically. free january of oh -- of 2009, the recidivism rate was 101532, that is 90%. since the obama administration, that is six out of 88. you have to look at it in versions of time. i would like to put this paper in the record if i may. i have one other question to ask the director. director, days before the public released the report on cia detention and interrogation, we received an intelligence assessment predicting violence throughout the world and a significant damage to the united states relationships. nctc participated in that

assessment. do you believe that assessment proved correct? >> i can stay particularly to the threat portion of that rather than the partnership aspect because i would say that is the part nctc would have the most direct purchase on. i cannot say that i can does aggregate the level of terrorism and violence we have seen in the. since the report was issued. disaggregate on that level from what we might have seen otherwise because as you know, the turmoil in those parts of the world, the middle east, africa south asia, was a number of factors that are going into creating the difficult threat environment that we face. assessment would be made at the time. as a community that it would increase or add to the threat picture in those places. i do not know looking backwards now that we can say a-ha, it

did bite -- it did by a certain percent or did advisor percent. we won't know until we have the benefit of time to see how it would play out in different locations around the world. >> oh, boy do i disagree with you. but that is what makes the serving, i guess. the fact in my mind was that this threat assessment was not correct. thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me go back to where i was when i ran out of time earlier. just trying to figure out in my mind where is it ums that's proposed and how it relates to the various terror groups. -- aums that is proposed and how it relates to the there is terror groups.

any groups fighting alongside isil or any hostilities against the united states or coalition partners, losing two of you -- list a few of the terrorist groups that would not be associated in that way with isiil? i'm not asking you for an exhaustive list. >> i think terrorist group we see operating in latin america i don't believe would qualify under that degree of associated force or some of the al qaeda affiliated groups operating in southeast asia, for example. those are some examples off the top of my head. >> if we just take that definition, does that mean isil

and its associated groups are the only people we have authorized the president to go and do whatever is necessary within the restrictions of that? or does the 2001 sumf give the president authority to go after other terrorist groups? >> i would have to get you an answer on that because i'm not confident enough that i know enough about the new suaumf. >> what authorization in the 2001 does that give us? >> we can carry out operations on al qaeda and associated forces. that is the one, i think that is right. it also set our future terrorism against the united states in that 2000 -- that is the one the president proposed that we let stand and we eliminate the 2002 that is more i rock specific --

iraq specific and add this one to it as the proposal. >> what i guess i am thinking is what do we really add by adding this complicated definition of terrorist that associate with isil? is isil covered under the 2001 aumf? >> i believe not. > you believe not. so how are engaging with isil now in syria? >> i want to be precise and correct with what i provide you so that we refer to the record. >> do you understand the question? i assume we might be able to pursue isil or isis in iraq through 2002 -- if the 2001 --

i guess my point is that the 2001 is broad enough to cover isil now i do not know what we add to it let me add another authorization and leave that one on the books. i think we do have a significant complication here of who is a closely related associate of isil when we begin to find this and these groups like core al qaeda is generally not anywhere when it was at one time, but various renamed or affiliated groups have sprung up everywhere from the philippines to well over the world. i am going to be very interested in how we define and why we bring -- why we would specifically defined individual groups as opposed -- and how broad the 2001 authorization was, which is i guess the beginning of that question. thank you and i look forward to response on that. >> thank you.

i think it gets even more confusing when they are in the same geographical battle space. it would be the 2001 aumf that would allow us to go after course on, but in the next door geographical area the other one went. >> senator king, we are glad you could join us. >> thank you. hopefully i will not confuse this discussion further, but i think it is important to talk about the 2001 aumf actually the term associated forces does not appear anywhere in it. that is a gloss upon a gloss of the 2001 a ums is very clear. he determined plan come on --, committed or harbored such

organizations like attacks on september 11 and to prevent future acts of terrorism, that has been used very broadly and i think that is one of the concerns and i think the president has realized to stretch it into attacking an organization that didn't even accessed in 2001, operating in a country that was at least partially stable in 2001 is quite a stretch. i think that is why we have the new authorization to cover the isil situation. i think that as a matter for the foreign relations committee, but the 2001 has been stretched very far and i frankly one who was glad to see the president has brought forward and you authorization. mr. asmussen, a couple of questions. counterterrorism intercepting

drones and all that thing, we are learning that part of but we have to do is intervene before people get radicalized. and yet when you raise that, the fbi says we are not social workers and county sheriffs say we are not social workers. if it is not going to be law enforcement that does that kind of integration -- intervention who was going to do that and is that part of the counterterrorism mission? >> certainly the effort to counter violence and terrorism is part of the mission. i do say that the fbi does embrace that mission even if some individuals may have said what you said, senator king. earlier in the discussion, we talked about some of the work that nctc isn't doing along with fbi, homeland security, and the justice department to do exactly what you describe. from the federal government, the

effort is to enable and empower local communities to carry out this kind of intervention in their own communities. to enable them to do that in a way that does not scream law enforcement context because as you know, it can have a chilling effect on the kind of community engagement and dialogue that would help you get that and the underlying causes that lead to violent extremism. the role we have taken from the federal government has been a little more circumscribed aimed at providing communities with the tools to do this kind of work and understand how terrorists and how these days, isil is using social media to go after their children in their communities and to let parents teachers, schools, and other authority figures understand what is coming at them and where intervention might be necessary to prevent a foreign fighter from developing. what we are doing in this area is useful and important, but thus far, it is not scaled on

the size i was say has been packed we want all across the country. the presidents countering violent extremism summit during the part of next week three pilot cities, los angeles minneapolis, and boston will report to the group on their efforts in this area. those are three tremendously important cities the government has been working with two. -- to do this kind of work. it is to demonstrate whether or not it can be done on a scale that will have impact far beyond those three cities. >> i take it that you are concurring that this kind of effort is not to be part of the overall counterterrorist strategy? >> absolutely. and particularly as part of the counter-isil strategy, we are trying to do this abroad because most of that foreign fighter population emanates from countries other than the united states, so we need to help other

countries the more effective at this. i do not want to sound condescending and say they need to do it how we do, but we need to learn from them and the cases are you -- our european partners are doing it tremendous work on the community level to counter the work and spread of violent extremism in their communities. i think that is going to be one of the other sidebars at next week's summit. to get some of the lessons learned out of our partners. >> i understand the british developed a program for dealing with this problem in prisons were a lot of idolization takes place -- radicalization takes place. >> that is correct. i know our part -- department of justice has engaged in that issue in an effort to make sure we have that identified and possibly under control here. i would have to get you more detail on that. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. senator for your willingness to send --

spend an hour and half with senator mccain and still come to the hearing. >> i'm a patriot, mr. chairman. >> you will be rewarded in heaven, i can assure you. >> director, thank you so much for sharing your insight with those and please carry back to your employees how grateful we are for the employees nctc at and the work they do. >> the hearing was adjourned. [indiscernible] >> oregon democratic governor has announced his resignation. amid allegations that his fiancee uses relate -- her relationship to enrich yourself. he says is like the donation will be effective on wednesday. in a statement, he says he broke no laws but apologized to the people who helped him get reelected in november and supported him for the last three

decades. john kitzhaber has consistently maintained that he and his fiancee, sylvia hayes, worked hard to avoid conflicts between her public and private roles. here is a portion of the audio statement that was released. >> i am announcing today that i will resign as governor of the state of oregon. it is not in my nature to walk away from a job that i have undertaken. it is to stand and fight for the cause. so i apologize to all those people who gave their faith time, energy, and resources to elect me to a fourth term last year and who have supported me over the past three decades. i promise you that i will continue to share -- pursue our shared goals in the venue. i must also say it is deeply troubling to me to realize we have come to a place in the history of this great state of ours where a person can be charged, trout, convicted, and sentenced by the media with no due process and no independent

process of the allegations involved. and even more troubling on a personal level, as someone who was given 35 years as public service to oregon, is that so many of my former allies have been willing to accept the judgment as a spy. it is something that is hard for me to comprehend and something we might expect in washington dc but not in oregon. i do not know what that means for our shared future, but i do know that it is seriously undermining civic engagement in the state and the quality of the public discourse that once made oregon stand out from the pack. nonetheless, i understand that i have become a liability to the very liabilities -- institutions that i gave my tired alike do. as a former presiding officer, i understand the reasons for which i have been asked to resign. i wish the speaker and colleagues on both sides of the aisle success on the legislation and beyond. i hope that they are truly committed to caring for the spirit of bipartisanship and

cooperation that has marked the last four years in oregon. in 1968, i was inspired to commit my life to publix -- to public service. i started work as an emergency doctor with the goal to make life better for those. emerson's then, i sought to keep that focus by trying to make things better for the people in the communities of this state that i love. i have had the extraordinary privilege of pursuing network as a state representative, state senator, and as a governor. over those years i have had the honor to be part of a remarkable achievements. we have responded to the worst recession and financial crisis since the great depression by rebuilding organ economy -- oregon economy and like many other parts of our nation, we did it together with cooperation and respect for each other and oregon. we successfully defended oregon's clean water, clean air farmland, and special places.

we created nearly nine water councils. we also found ways to -- to support brutal communities and provide jobs while enhancing the environment. when forces sought to divide us, we stood up for the principle that every oratory and deserves respect including the right to choose and marry the person we love. i am proud that oregon has not evoked the death penalty on my watch. we have stood by working men and women and supported collective bargaining in the right to form a union. we have transformed our health care system improving access while lowering costs through our new cord needed care organizations. tonight, over 95% of oregonians will go to bed knowing they have health insurance coverage. we do that together. in a three-day special session we reformed pension system, provided tax related to small businesses, and raised new revenue for mental health and public education the foundation

of our future. we have passionately pursued the goal of equity and opportunity especially for those oregonians left and left behind. communities of color, english language learners, and is a party. those in the rule part of our state, the very old, very young. we eliminated the achievement gap and ensure that over 90% of our children could be reading at the level of record with five years and were poised to agreements that were beside the century-old water crisis in the basement and expand irrigation. it is important what we accomplished, and how we accomplish it is even more important. we have had a great tradition of overcoming partisan differences and doing what is right for oregon. that tradition faltered, but over the past four years we have rebuilt the medical center, reaching across party lines to do difficult and important things by building community. i ran for fourth term as your

governor to continue that progress. the questions that have been raised about my ministrations specifically allegations against me concerning the work done by my the asay sylvia hayes and the context she obtained during my last turn and escalating media frenzy, has clearly reached the point of no return. i confident i have not broken any laws or taken any accidents that have been dishonest in their intent or outcome. that is why i asked both the ethics commission and attorney general to take a full confidence of look at my actions that will continue to fully cooperate with the ongoing efforts. i am equally confident that once the evidence has been concluded oregonians have seen that have never put anything before my love for and commitment to oregon. it is also clear that this process will take months and i have always had the deepest

respect for the remarkable institution that is legislator officer of the governor and i cannot continue to be the element that undermines it. i have always tried to do the right thing and now the right thing to do is to set aside. one thing i hope people know about me is that i love this state its people, its rivers, mountains, landscapes with every fiber in my being. because of that lot, i resigned from governor effective at 10:00 a.m. on february 18, 2015. secretary of state kate brown will take both of governors or -- oregon's governor at that time. oregon will be in good hands and i wish her well. thank you for allowing me to serve you in our state. it has been the honor of my life and i believe that i can say looking back over those years, we have left it better than we found it. unlike most states, oregon does not have the tenant governor. the oregon state constitution puts the secretary of state

. secretary of state kate brown, a democrat like john kitzhaber, is expected to resume the office and become the first openly bisexual governor in the country. governor kitzhaber said his resignation will take effect next wednesday at 10:00 a.m., pacific time. this president prostate on the c-span networks, c-span starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern that is why today i proudly announce my candidacy for president of the united states of america. >> a special presentation on presidential campaign announcements from ronald reagan in 1979 to barack obama in 2007. and we will re-air these announcements later in the evening at 9:00 p.m. on book tv, c-span two finalists for the nationalist book award starting at noon eastern.

david brian davis on his third and final volume on the history of slavery, focusing on emancipation. at 1:30, elizabeth colbert argues we are currently undergoing a six massive extinction and that this one is the result of human action and will be the most devastating. then after :00, french economists with senator elizabeth warren talk about wealth and economic inequality. on american history tv, c-span three, at 8:00 eastern cartoonists draws 10 presidential caricatures as historian discusses the presidents and some of their most memorable qualities. at 7:00 p.m. eastern, a 1960 nbc interview with -- former president herbert hoover discussing his life beyond presidency. at 9:30, our conversation with playwright and actor on the fourth peter production of "the widowed lincoln." to mark the anniversary of

president lincoln's assassination. finer -- find a complete schedule at c-span.org and call us at 202, 60 -- 202-626-3400 or comment at c-span.org or send us a tweet or join the conversation on facebook and follow us on twitter. the former texas governor rick perry discusses the range of issues with republican women in new hampshire. after that, kentucky senator rand paul with remarks at the gala. then former hewlett-packard ceo carly fiorino discusses politics in new hampshire. former republican rick perry spoke to a meeting of the seacoast republican women in portsmouth, new hampshire on wednesday. he discussed a range of issues including energy, immigration, border security, and the economy. former governor perry ran for

president and the 2012 primaries and has said he is considering another campaign in 2016. this is just under one hour. [indiscernible] >> i go down there pretty often, actually. the burn center is there and we have a lot of kids -- >> pardon me? >> wilford hall and i think it was right outside of kelly. and then they had a facility at georgetown.

>> it was such a great place. >> we have had some changes since then. >> we went back a few years ago, about five years ago and it was really so different. it has really expanded. >> when i got out of training in 1970, i think they had a 130 there that was -- as i recall, i think they had a tenant unit there that was a 130. i was on the same in abilene. it was a little more modern and the 130 was the new were models

and they are still using them. they have been around for 50 -- 60 years now. last year, it was 60 years. i flew out of kuwait city into baghdad i think in 2007 in 19 model that belonged to one of the state guardians and after looking back at some of the records in the 1970's, it was like a 1968 or 1969 model e-model. they would put things on as you need it to keep it going. favorite turned it into and it is a good transition. we have a lot of them come in

and go to different parts of the world and it goes out ok. >> i have not seen much more. they still quite a lot of there, don't they? >> oh, yes, sir. they have a new hampshire air guard and a refueling part there. that is correct. they are still flying that. >> what about the mohawks? >> oh, the old mohawks. those have been out. there are two. >> i told the colonel it was so interesting.

[indiscernible] >> it is what it is. i am not doing everything. how are you? [indiscernible]

>> i stayed as an average citizen during that 14 years. for three weeks, i have been driving and my wife says, you are a better driver than you were. >> on sundays, you can drop us off at church. [laughter] >> she is still a very good judge of my driving. anyway, thank you.

i am going to say hi to folks and we are going to make. -- going to wait. >> thank you so much. this is one of my favorite people. >> tni knew each other and i was trying to think, taylor, that was the old one. >> steve, steve. >> stephen i knew each other back in the 1990's. he came up and it was in the summertime, so it was very beautiful. >> three?

>> well, to back to back. two doors? >> yeah, two tours. that is right.

>> can also energy problems. and take an approach for these instances. >> we had some innovators working on the storage and once we break that code, -- 10 years ago that allowed us to

use an energy source and let us in texas -- pat down ignitions by extraordinary rate. nitrogen levels were down and sulfur was down. the total carbon footprint was down 9%. it is important for us to talk about that we can have job creation. >> good to see you. i have heard a lot about you.

>> nice to meet you. >> you are with the blonde? >> yes. >> i work for a small strategic firm. he would love to meet you. >> i lost -- always intrigued from meeting people that i know somehow. >> i really respect you. it for you.

>> jackie. lovely to meet you. >> governor, nice to meet you. we have met several times. then amos tori bisbee -- the name is troy bisbee. >> friday, i think it is going to be a little chilly. >> they do they put an arrest warrant out for that hedgehog?

-- groundhog? some hills of texas get a little snow. >> with that said, in 1985, i was a young legislator and it snowed eight inches or nine inches in san antonio. there was so much snow. it totally shut down the city. if you get too much snow in austin with the hilly town, down at the bottom all of the cars slide down there and banking to -- bang into each other.

i drop in green. it is kind of the panhandle of -- it is for counties down of the panhandle. west texas. it is cold in the winter time. we get a lot of wind. >> my wife's son is stationed near houston. >> i actually manage an independent living facility. >> good for you. >> i love it. >> thank you and welcome back to new hampshire. >> governor, how are you. >> good to be back. three years ago when i was here

this time you made up for it. >> are you coming tomorrow? more meetings? >> yes ma'am. i will be here late in the evening. >> will i see you again? >> wait a minute, -- >> i think i'm in dover. >> we collect dirty dover. over is awful. -- dover is awful. >> am actually doing a meeting there tomorrow night. i will be back. >> very nice to meet you.

>> i really like your hair. we are thinking of moving to texas, especially after all of the snow. [laughter] >> in august you will go, and is so hot here. we all have our weather. >> not quite the same as new england. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you for coming. [indiscernible] >> she is working at the department of physiology right

now and she is loving it already. >> they have a fantastic medical community. [indiscernible]

[indiscernible] >> was suggesting the first way

is by hiring really good people and have -- that have experience and that you trust to go and do this type of work. we spent the last 14 years -- [indiscernible]

>> you are going to texas? >> in july. i felt bad with what happened with the bola -- ebola. they are so persnickety about

property because they really care about quality there. >> it was the left field they and we have to deal with it. it was a mistake we had as well. >> make them sit down. >> ok. >> it is good to be back here. a little chilly. this is spring the? a beautiful day today and let's leave it at that. i got up this morning and checked what the weather was one degree in concord. i took a little screensaver shot and sent it to my wife.

the difference is pretty substantial between austin and here. anyway, to all of you who are here today, thank you for coming out and the republican woman, thank you for hosting tonight. i was sharing with his table the election in november was pretty awesome. the election results were just pretty stunning across the country. as some of you know, i belong to the texas house of representatives back when i was a boy and see new hampshire with their house and senate in republican hands is pretty awesome. it sends a powerful message across the state that conservative thoughtful

physically conservative leadership is what will really drive the state and we are at that point in time -- you talk about the economic models and i went to talk about a couple of things tonight if i may. i want to share with you the vision that i have, not just for new hampshire, but for the country from an economic standpoint and why it is so important as you go forward. i want to leave you with some visions of foreign policies and why the economic side is important. and why our country and the world is in jeopardy from the lack of foreign policy standard. are up -- we are not sure where our allies are going to be on any given day unfortunately.

they do not fear the united states and why all of that is tied together and dividing the dream for the american middle class, if you will. working men and women in this country and white is important for them can be so powerful as we go forward. we look in see the numbers in america today at the precipitation -- precipitation rate in the workforce is as low as it was in 1978. how many of you really remember 1978? i had just got out of the air force and moved back home in that rural community where 16 miles was the post office. i would tell them the place was so rural, everybody had their

own tomcat. some people would ask, what is he talking about? we lived a long way from our neighbors, i will assure you. being able to read that american dream, my father came home from world war ii as a 20-year-old young man who had spent one year in east anglia on a b-17 flying over germany. he came back to that little remote area to live in peace. he knew that his future was bright because this country had sacrificed greatly to put these and bring liberty -- to put peace liberty, and freedom to places all around the world. that is exactly what he did.

today, i am not sure that that american dream is attainable. it can be and i happen to think the best years are in front of the country. i know for a fact that we can put policies in this country that will get america back on track again. the idea that the opportunity and security have been replaced with anxiety and with worry in this country, and it does not have to be that way. we know that there are places in this country where freedom still reigns and economic opportunity is optimistic. i come from one of those places. for the last 14 years, we have seen the job creation in my home state. 1.4 million new jobs are created from the end of 2007 two 2014.

unfortunately, if you back those job creation numbers out of the total u.s. job creation, american -- america would be a quarter of a million jobs below the waterline. the president assad economic recovery. i heard them say it in the state of the state, and i kept listening for him to say, i want to say thank you for governor perry and the people of texas were creating all of these jobs are making economic recovery possible. [laughter] i may have missed that. there are places where those policies have made a real difference. the leadership and the house and the senate here can implement tax policy regulatory policies legal policies, and put education policies into place that make accountable public schools which in turn means you have a skilled workforce. as you try to your this is to

new hampshire to organically grow in the state. that skilled workforce will send a message that you want those type of technology companies to come here. facebook and ebay, google, every macbook pro is made in austin, texas, today. i can assure you they are not coming to texas because we have great weather in august. those are the four things, that is the foundation of the economy. it's really simple. the heart part is finding men and women who have the kurds to implement the policies. over the course