shows. it's a mixed cocktail of opposition groups and so forth. is defeated, what are we facing? face re we continuing to in syria whether assad stays or whether he goes. is going to be significant questions raised as what we're going to be facing. there's maybe some people coming to the conclusion isise have to do is defeat in syria and in iraq and then will be fine. we know that they pha it is an to a number of other nations. what is syria going to look like and when that happens and what kind of challenges are we have. to >> you're absolutely right. syria is a cocktail of actors which are in violent conflict with one another.

two principal tourist organizations that operate inside of syria. talked about d we and the other is al-qaida in syria. that has formidable capabilities and presence throughout the ountry of several thousands of fighters. some of them just engaged in the battlefield against president who are plotting o carry out terrorist attacks outside syria. the u.s. government supports the moderates. if we're able to eliminate the terrorist groups this is still a order to to grow in address some of the outstanding issues. opposition was generated because of concerns had the sunni majority hassad regime that was abusing its ability and

powers. needs to be resolution between shia and sunni. you have others inside of syria this is where we believe hassad needs to depart the scene so this can be a more epresentative and legitimate government that's able to reside over this syrian country. in addition to have tension with northern syria and the arabs so of tension.ot it's very similar in some to the cocktail that lebanon.n it's serious for lebanon to have a functional political system. go, but a long way to the important thing is to destroy the terrorist stop theions there and and bring in the

humanitarian assistance and then be able to make sure we're able to develop a structure that is representative of the syrian address the le to represent he reconstruction of the country. given the russian government they atever decisions make, how does that complicate resolution for some kind of a settlement, cease fire or whatever? >> well, as you know russia to ght its military force bear last september in syria ith aircraft, artillery and prevent as a way to what they saw as an imminent collapse of the regime. regime forces and they are involved right now in carrying out strikes against the opposition. we work very closely and talk with the russians about how to conflict down of the see what to them to

terrorism ounter front. i'm disappointed with russia constructive role to bring the military force down their engagement and to be more helpful as far as the track.ating this problem of syria won't be resolved in the battlefield. t has to be resolved on the political front and secretary kerry has been working hard and try to stimulate some traction there. and the russians i believe can both in terms of restraint they can put on the syrian forces but also more on the tive engagement political front. stronger today or weaker than a year ago? his back ago he was on foot as the opposition forces operations g out that really were degrading the million tear reufplt as a result

military sian intervention he is in a stronger position than he was in june of year. >> is that enhancing the ability diplomatic solution en it?s >> right now the strengthen military and russian unwillingness to use the iterage that it has has made i think more difficult. >> sounds like the russians have a position es in which we hoped they'd never be. thank you very much. on a quick director encryption since it has come up. it's important to remember that is restricted in the united states, it will still easy to download strong from hundreds of sources overseas.

n my judgment requiring companies to build back doors in heir products to weaken strong encryption will put the personal at risk at aricans dangerous time and i want to make it clear i will fight such with everything i have. now with respect to my first i want , mr. director, at alk about accountability the cia. response to torture stayed that the agency agreed i quote herere and "significant short comings in of accountability or problems in conduct and management for cia activities." they must ensure to accountability extends those responsible for any broader and systemic failures.

three years en since the cia said that. the case that no one has been held accountable for systemic failures that the agency has acknowledged? wantrst of all, senator, i to say that i respectfully disagree with your opening comments. irst of all, u.s. companies dominate the international market as far as encryption are available at through these various apps and i think we'll continue to dominate them. right there is the ability of foreign companies o be able to have those encryption capabilities and available to others, i do believe that this country and private sector is integral to addressing these issues and i this committee on to continue to work on it. course of over the the last several years took ctions to address the short comings that we have fully

the detention and interrogation program. there was individual account accountabilitynd for some of the management and systemic failures. would be happy to had in a different setting the details of i think the hat committee is aware of. >> i want to make sure i heard that right. believe you said that individuals have been held the believe -- ccountable for systemic structures. heard you say there have been individual account ability and i'd like to see the details on that. failure me of systemic is going to be related to the individual

individu individual's failure of performance. >> were individuals held accountable? yes or no answer. >> yes. >> i'll look forward to getting hat response and i appreciate that because i think that's very important. up with a question about an upcoming policy that we're all going to be tackling committee. ection 702 of the foreign surveillance act is up for renewal and the office of the of national intelligence is disclosed and conducts utinely warrantless searches for e-mails and other communications of americans in a year efore the cia conducted nearly 2000 of these warrantless searches. if there is evidence that an merican is involved with terrorism or espionage the ought to pursue it aggressively. i strongly pack they can even right the communications

away and get judicial review after it. if there was a rule that said cia could only search for under ns' communications section 702 with the justice epartment has obtained a warrant with the exception of the emergency situation or when a person is in danger would the cia be able to comply with rule? > that's a complicated issue and i don't want to give you an off the cuff response. you get the e sure answer that that question reserves. could we have that within two weeks. >> we'll do our best to do that. >> i think two weeks ought to be mr. director and i appreciate the fact that in both areas you're going to get back to me and we'll look at what part of the responses have to be classified and what part can be discussed in public. with respect to individual accountability to

702.ure and >> i think something that you of, a fullpreciative of the senior staff will be involved in all the activities that the cia is make sure we're protecting the civil liberties. has the person been appointed >> the person has been appointed and operating within the cia. this is his second or third week. >> please ask that person to appointment with me. >> surely. >> thank you. senator. you for beinghank here with us. see you in get to huh-uh public session like this. the tkre y leaders, of national int ntelligence say they're facing

more threats from more directions than ever before. that assessment? >> yes, i do. the at kinds of things has cia done to become more agile to dealing with more threats from more directions than ever before? this embarked on modernization effort to try to make sure we're taking full of the great expertise and capabilities that we have organization. i'm a strong proponent to capabilities and that a why we set up our mission enters where we have our regional and functional mission bring to bear e capabilities and insights and technical to bring and ability these different still sets and expertise together because as

of noted i think the array challenges we face proliferation and the cyber a that is d terrorism plaguing so many countries and threatens us, i have never in my service of security seen a time when there is such a of ying array of issues national security consequence. i'm constantly going down to the and participating in meetings so we're able to address these issues. make sure i want to take full advantage of the esources that you provided to our agency so we optimize the officersions of agency around the globe. >> how much has all of those those from all directions how much is that appear to bey what the new edition of self the alization within country. >> these so-called rules, the

as a result ofte he encouragement of the terrierist organization it's exceptionally challenging for us with.l we tragic attack in orlando, have not been able to uncover any direct link between that and the foreign terrorist organization. can lead someone to destruction and maybe do the surveil sense and carry out an attack without riggering any of those traditional signatures we might toerroristreign organization tries to employ someone here. those individual actors presents a serious challenge. closely with fbi and department of homeland security and others to give them have er intelligence we that might help them identify some of these individuals.

asked ink you've been this particular question already today. today we're ain eager to hear from you the kinds with ngs to better deal his really unique and hard to penetrate self-radicalization because you don't have the other contacts that all your other sources may come across. additional ne question about china and cyber attacks. president he announced a common understanding with china's leadership that conduct orntry would knowingly support cyber enabled intellectual property for commercial advantage. does that mean that theft of led intellectual property from ended? of china has >> no. >> do you see any good faith ffort on the part of the

chinese government to crackdown on this? effort to follow through on some of the commitments they provided. entities and t of organizations and people outside of china. some are operating as part of the government of china and some working on contract. we are exceptionally vigilant bout all the attacks that individuals or countries could attempt to use in order to and rate our systems networks and databases whether they be government systems or sector to steal property. i continue to be concerned about the cyber capabilities that china as well as the actions that some continue to undertake. director and thank you chairman. >> senator warner. >

>> thank you, chairman. to reiterate once again personal thanks for you and all intelligence professionals who serve in day the ay out without recognition they deserve. are leading efforts to recognize the efforts. do small things like the intelligence professional days, a lot oflessed have to the intelligence community in virginia and i hope you will to folks at the agency how grateful we are for what you do day in and day out, number one. number two, i do want to raise terms of your response to senator widen. the issue around tkeupbl ittal security is one of the complex i've ever been

engaged with. encryption just a small component of that. i think public press has the terrorists in used telegram, a belgium encrypted company and technology. apps a day are added to the store. over half of those are foreign entities. it's here te whether or not, we have legitimate challenges and issues on how we there a way within our legal structure to get information. i personally believe it would it would make america less safe and do great economic as security harm l mandate initigate or any way a solution set that would push the bad guys on to

hardware and software. it'somplex as this issue is only going to get more complex of e move into the internet about it.we think we think about our kids' toys interactive. only going to grow larger. my's approach is to put experts room beyond frank lit our ility of some of individual members to try to help guide us to a solution set. it's the best one. the point being that this is an a ernational problem and not problem that can be solved by

only and will require an enormous collaboration and what about is that ed we are of this issue has newspapers from the from a daily basis. event thatsome other would lead us encrypted us nology that would lead into a critical solution set and wrong would do enormous harm to our security preeminence. one issue. raise trip members had a recently. i don't want to speak for all some concerns t about the ability of our european allies in terms of information sharing. we obviously saw the horrific brussels, but as our nation grieves over the killings there were what's

also you're well aware that on a french police officer and wife in front of a and then exploited outrageously. can you comment on post-belgium this incident in france cooperation and information europeans ngst the and particularly some concerns i allies?th our german >> well, first of all, thank you for your comments, senator about workforce and i want to thank all the senators visit agency officers overseas when you travel. it sends a powerful message that have the support of the authorizing committee here in senate. we have engaged with the european partners since the belgium attacks but we've had long standings over

many years. over the past two months myself and other senator leaders of the community have traveled out to europe and we the heads of ervices to talk about our experience here in the united states since 9/11 in erms of how we are able to bring together different capabilities and i.t. architecture in order to take of data that is available. as challenging as it was we are so we were vernment able to operate within one legal system. you hallenge for europe as know, there are 28 countries in the e.u. with 28 legal of ctures and within each those countries they have some imes several intelligence security services. they do not have either from a ty mission or i.t. perspective. so we have talked to them about mechanisms that we can use to better facilitate information

sharing among them. because that's the key to take a bit of data and be able to as border, ze it security point or cop on the take action.y can so, for example, cia, we share terrorism information ith the counter terrorism group, ctg. o that we're able to push out to those 30 countries simultaneously information relate to terrorism. so that they have the same information but they know they can talk to one another about it. we have talked to them about ifferent mechanisms that we it use to set up different types of systems. ut they have still i think a ways to go. they've made some important progress. there are some of the countries europe that are much better able to share information within governments and systems as well as across the sovereign

borders. this is something that the europeans will have to work on ecause it's not just a technical or i.t solution, it is also an issue how are they going protect the privacy of individual citizens and what is for putting in an individual's name and putting them on a watch list. way re working their through that and we are trying to provide as much assistance support as we can. cane.nator >> thank you. i appreciate the question and i think this ause is very important it strbg me hen we were there, the political rivalries and ancient elationships between the countries will make it difficult or ifore some neutral poll think ctg it seems to me that's got to be the answer. to you continue to encourage them.

unless they get a handle on this, they're going only to be weakest link r particularly where you have open sharing.and not that's a disaster waiting to has happened several times. i support the concept but as you know i have concerned about analytic oss of integrity when you combine operations andut analysis in the same box. could you update us on efforts the analytic integrity organization.e >> it's legitimate. the center has its roots in the counter counter terrorism center where

were comingled in the same area. effort up the analytic inside of ctc back in the early was aware that we needed to make sure we objectivity and integrity. those safeguards and some of the that we used to make maintains that objectivity and integrity is part of the instruction and the program that all analysts go through. we also want to make sure we managers mindful about the respective analysts.ilities of and the rubric analysis goes a number of areas. >> i just don't want the covert action to drive the analysis. that's right. there needs to be that separation in terms of the independence. analysts that i

-- they very, very analytic uard that integrity. we want to make sure it's built into the system. issue but i am -- i've been satisfied we've been maintain that while also getting the benefits of the co-location. intelligence e community and the cia in the iranians ess compliance thus far? so good. so far so good. >> another question about of the cia. seems to me we have distinguish and en effort effectiveness. do you have a standard po cedar measures effectiveness of programs after action reskpraouz assessment. we've got to understand what's working and my question is, is systemic way within the agency of assessing what is

working and how it's working? a number of ways senator. inspector general has a regular of a number of those programs and make sure they're consistent in the law and also are looking at how effective they've been. ut in the area that usually generates the most concern and controversy which is in covert last year ave set up a new office called the covert of effectiveness office. when he we have senior officers working and reviewing all of action programs to make sure that we understand what's the ethicacy of the program, not just whether or not have reached the milestones that have been established for but how grams, effective has it been in terms of realizing objectives that out.been sent a number of ways that we have established these reviews we'll to additional information on it. life is my mottos in know? ork and how do you

i.g. of why been an the delay. is there a nomination forthcoming. i think this is a very -- one of the most important positions in government particularly in the intelligence agencies which oversight that other more public agencies do. going to get an i.g. nomination. i hope you'll convey back to the administrations the importance that he committee puts on position and we believe an appointment in the immediate futuring appropriate. best to do that. >> thank you. chairman., mr.

apologize i've not been present in person. listening intently. hear his opening statements and many of the other statements f the members of the committee thanking you on behalf of all at men and woman who served the cia and i want to associate comments. cas y our officers deserve all the recognition that our troops get as well. cooperation cuss with our intelligence community from silicon valley, twitter and a minor.y called data

according to the "wall street ournal" as well as other media reports, data minor which is the authorized to streamthe full real time of public tweets that twitter as has cooperated with the cia but a few weeks ago ended that cooperation. noour intelligence community longer has access to data minor's information. could you comment on these reports? data appears as though inor was directed to not provide its service to cia intelligence community. need to be fore we able to leverage other in order to make sure that we have the insight we country.protect this >> so those reports are correct.

dispute t going to them. >> "wall street journal" also ceo of twitterhe jack dorsey directed data minor the contract because he was worried about the optics of helping intelligence agencies. that to be ve accurate? his motivation for any corporate decision that no basesy to have dispute that. data minorstomers of remains russia today a of the da outlet government which putin has said trying to break the english monopoly. to your knowledge are they a of data minor? >> i don't have any information that they've been excluded from their services. i believe so. >> is it disappointing to you that an american company would

to russia today a propaganda arm of the overnment of russia yet not cooperate with the united states intelligence community? that there pointed cooperation ctive consistent with our legal authorities that might be from the u.s. private sector. >> thank you. want to turn now to the open skies treaty. the commander has testified that the open skies treaty has become of the al component of russiace community of america. would >> i would be happy to look into to you.et back >> general stewart has testified the open skies construct was era and for a different i'm concerned how it's applied today. he further said the things that

you can see the amount of date you can collect and the things you can do with post to get ng allows russia incredible intelligence and ases ports and all our facilities. it gives a significant advantage. processing se post analysis to enhance their open collection? tremendous e been technological advancements and therefore i'm sure that russia take advantage of those technological developments to advance your collection capabilities. >> do you believe that these procedures and the advance tphp advancement technology might advanced knowledge. >> i might have to look at the on how it could

exceed those. thank you. >> welcome director. you talked a little bit in your statement, you outlined the sort of disconnect between that has been ss made with isil in terms of progress and limiting their financial resources and he reality of inspired terrorist attacks that have global reach including here in seen this d as we've week. hat progress is being made in degrading isil's ability to inspire terrorist acts through digital or traditional media and how have we learned how to that progress? we're trying to do is go up stream and find out who is responsible for spewing this into the internet that inspires individuals to attacks. these so working with our military artners, we are trying to mike

sure that the appropriate action would be taken in syria and iraq emanates t of this from. share rying to information with as many global partners as possible so they can individuals who may be involved in these not justs because it's the up stream activity but the downstream propagation of this. issues that we were talking earlier about which the government's role s far as trying to limit this material.

director, you and the advice chair noted the inherent security challenge in the age of encryption. one of the challenges the encryption horse has left the barn. do at this point can take access to that away from our enemies or isil or anyone else in the go d when you can simply online and download telegraph on your phone or device anywhere in the world. we're not careful about how we address these challenges date weakness into the personal ing and financial records of americans at risk from hostile from state level actors and from criminal actors. we main date sort of solution to a

21st problem we could see jobs to avoid thoseas on break. we need to have continued conversations around this. they need to be technologically grounded. i know senator warner wrote and co-sponsored a bill that seeks p to set up a commission that include perspectives from law enforcement and the business and technology communities. a perspective on that legislation? of all, i rst strongly support encryption as a our wayty that protects our fe, our prosperity and national security. ut at the same time i fully agree with you, senator warner and others, we need have to the

to deal with this new environment of the digital the government can appropriately safeguard its interests and its citizens and future. and that requires the experts to be able to get together, the the technical and the practitioners to find some way won't be perceived as a back door but allow the government to legitimately carry out its responsibilities while not compromising the great enefits that accrue to encryption. i don't know whether or not as an executive branch officer i'm llowed to endorse a piece of sort of legislative initiative, ut i have talked to other members of the congress. i think a congressional commission on this issue is do ahing that really could great service because this is not just a government only issue. it is largely a private sector issue and there needs to be an understanding between the and the ector government about what our

respective roles and be, to be lities will able to find some sort of solution that is able to we're trying it is to achieve, which is security, prosperity and liberty is evolving.at i encourage you to educate the american people about what it is don't fear the government's role which is what happens right now because they don't understand it. we need to make sure they understand that that frontier is just like the maritimedomain and the omain of the we have an obligation to protect our people. >> thank you, chair. senator langford. > you helped lead or did lead when president obama was resident-elect obama the intelligence transition team. as part of your responsibility future president of some of the issues that were blinking red on the intelligence

committee. you were helping to organization for that next transition because we'll have a what aredent next year the key things that are blinking red for the new president? cyber certainly. hat individual whoever is elected we need use all 4 or 8 years to tackle this issue take time s going to in order to come up with the types of understandings that are necessary. terrorism will continue to plague us and that's related to how we're ssue and going to be able to make sure that others will be able to do this job to protect country. proliferation we can't forget bout and it's brought into relief by the activities of korea and kim jong-un. it's a threat to the region and also to us. number of in a countries in the middle east and

lack of d the governance capabilities within these countries so that they are the political, and conomic and societial ultural challenges and i'm worried about instability is and more and e more individuals because of being eelings of with other sed groups. they're identifying themselves confessional group or terrorist organization. that is a very, very disturbing believe that this country can play a role in trying to help address. it on our own. >> do you think that we would proliferation of isil want to whatever you all them today and have less a

terrorism if there was not a in syria and iraq. because it gives them opportunity to use these and fight.ain and their control of large ities as well as oil fields it generates revenue not just to keep their spiders on the some of ld but support terrorist organizations. >> is there something we're not happening atuld be a higher tempo? > i think the u.s. led coalition is doing a good job after going after them. with a lot of ed the locals and civilians who are existence.ave an i think the military has done a very good job. more work to be done. that's where intelligence is so

important. understand the tempo of the post syrian forces including the russians and and their air strike tempo compared to ours? unfortunately they're directing a lot of air strikes gainst the free syrian army that is trying to unseat assad. the past two er weeks the amount of air strikes syrian ny of the moderate opposition operate has cessation of re hostility totals. syrians russians and have gone after isil but a large portion of their strikes are what we against consider to be the legitimate trying to that is assad.heir country from >> it seems to be a piece of paper at this point. doesn't seem to be an actual ses session.

holding by a thread. >> let me ask on intelligence agreement that's we have. skies and other things that we hold to so strongly to the letter and spirit of it. do the russians also hold to the letter in the spirit of those agreements? to get back to you in another setting on that. >> okay. all right. you.k >> thank you for being here. mentioned in your remarks about cia modernization and the identify the rse of the e reflective diversity not only in our own country and all the entities deal with in the world. can you briefly go over what you're doing to increase cia?rsity in the >> over the past three years by general itiative

etraeus on trying to advance women in leadership within the agency. and so we have had implementation teams that have working over the last three years to make sure that this, the objectives and goals of this study, are being operationalized promotional and assignment panels and other types of programs that we have inside the agency. asked vernon jordon who is a member of the advisor board to an effort on leadership in the cia and took a look at all the different fast in terms of representation and leadership and training and development of why we have fallen short of even federal standards what our diversity composition should look like. hey came up with a number of recommendations and put together action teams on that as well. i have a lead officer who is in it.d i have made mandatory training for my senior leadership team. three weeks ago we had several ours of diversity and

leadership training. involved to be heavily involved in t we have been so driven by crises we not paid attention to the imperative that's we needed to. we need to have our leaders actively involved from development to recruitment efforts. i talk to schools and to various groups. >> that's great. you have a time frame for when some of the ee results of these kinds of efforts? what would that time frame be? is the first one. i want to make sure we're able milestones that we need. it's not just the numbers. i want to make sure that we have some of the programs that are going to sustain these efforts. it's putting in place the elements of this. i think then the numbers that in e going to be looking at terms of representation are going to increase over time. but i'm most interested in of theseonalizing some changes so it's not just a study that is forgotten about.

you also said in a number of ways during your responses that what is a role entitiesment as we see isil every means to spread propaganda and spreading lone wolf acts across the world. you seem to indicate in order or us to determine what the appropriate governmental role a uld be one would be commission. i think that's what senator warner's bill is. out what the government's role should be with folks like you. you have said that the role of government is one that we out.n't quite figured >> i don't know what the best way is but i just know that it has to be an effort undertaken the government and the huh- a very r in

manner and going to come forward with a number of options and recommendations to optimize what we're trying to do on a national securitisy civil liberties front protects this country and this environment to the harm.ist to do us with the advances with encryption they are taking liberties that we have fought so hard to defend. > and i think right now although other people have talked about the need to figure to be doingre going i don't yber space, think we've put in place any kind of a cohesive process. china.turn to the hague is expected to rule china's claims and anticipated the ruling will

philippines case. you can tell us your assessment hat the ruling and the ruling be a trigger for further escalation by china? recent in the conference in singapore, the chinese representative made very clear they don't understand the tribunal nor ihe think will accede to its findings. so, secretary carter made it very clear we certainly do needs to beat there this type of arbitration given that there are a number of to some of these it's notin the sea and just the philippines but other countries as well. an agreed uponbe mechanism that will be able to outstanding disputes. i think the united states has made it clear the importance of

freedom of navigation world and t of the will continue to take steps to make sure that people understand the united states is committed freedom of navigation worldwide. >> thank you. you, senator. additional ors seek questions. one.tor widen has asked for the advise chairman asked me to ask you a couple of questions. had to leave for an appropriations meeting at 10:30. north your assessment of korea's cyber capabilities and ntentions? >> i think that the north cyber have developed a capability as we've seen. some recent incidence offer the year where it has been employed. to s something that we need be concerned about given kim

jong-un's pension to use whatever capabilities to cause get back to we can the advice chairman with a more capabilities the and intentions. >> one last question from the vice chairman. getting all the attention today. they're not the only terrorist there.ation out what are we doing and how can a q. a. p. e you on nd other potential organizations? >> advice chairman is absolutely right. number of terrorist organizations. thousand several fighters and recent efforts, efforts, between the united states along with ua and saudi arabia and yemen to dislodge them. but there is active effort to

the nue to dismantle organization. ut also there is the organizations in the area led by -- this is something that we continue to have to dedicate a lot of resources to. know, the head of al-qaida still is out there and audio es to put out statements and other things exhorting thinks followers. this is a continued challenge us. >> senator widen. a just a quick comment and fast question. n this encryption issue you feel that there is a government ole here. you got me on hello on that. there are ways that the give us safety in a dangerous time and i think it

to hire people with technology and experience. to go backwards on igital security which is what is what is going to happen if the government requires back built.o be we'll continue that debate as we wrap up. langford asked an appropriate question with respect to brief is a new president or what would you say new president. i think i heard you touch on this but i'd like to get it formally for the record. director, if the next president of the united states directs the cia to directs the esume the use of coercive interrogation techniques how would you respond? do notve to say public i believe such aggressive coercive necessary. are as you know, the cia's

nterrogation program was disbanded. while i'm director of cia have no intention of bringing such a and would not ngage in waterboarding and other things ever. >> thank you, mr. chairman. about icele tion and libya. any chance they're going to get hraelibya's oil where a lot of revenues have come from? how do you assess the security libya?oil assets in >> i don't think anything in libya is overly secure. attempts made and assaults made on the oil facilities but get te they're not able to control of them. i'll have to get back and see whether or not there are pockets has been here isil able to encroach, but there are some challenges there and there number of security militias and firms that are in

from ea that prevent isil taking over. ut we'll get you a more thorough response. >> my wife says i say finally too much and gets people's hopes up. she's a smart woman. [laughter] haven't hanistan we all.ed about it at what is your assessment of the security situation in afghanistan. there is a proposed draw down of our troops which has start in the early fall if it's going to chieve the 5,000 troop number in january. give us an assessment of the situation. is there -- i guess the short government es the have a chance or is taliban just waiting and they're going to take back over? > we're in the height of the season. the number of casualties on both terms of the nsf and the taliban i think are greater

than we have seen in a long, long time because of the number of engagements which that i think the afghan forces are stepping up and as ging in the fight more u.s. forces have drawn down but reflects the intensity of the taliban efforts. to erode the government. we have worked closely with the better consolidate the forces. taliban is determined working with the sub group of this is an, so continued concern about the aliban's ability to carry out these attacks. both in some of the outlying but also as they go after the provincial capitals. uncertain in my mind whether or not the taliban is oing to continue to make incremental progress. we are providing support to our

intelligence partners so they have the capabilities that they need. is still a long hard fight ahead in afghanistan for the afghan the afghan government. >> thank you. >> director, thank you. >> two takeaways from your testimony that i certainly heard that are relevant for today. there will be an increase in global terrorism as more pressure is applied in the battle space and i think that's something that we certainly have seen up to this point there. it's no reason to demand that doesn't increase. and that isil has become a global organization. and i think sometimes we treat them in a footprint but they have quickly grown to that organization. i'd like to give a closing statement. i am not sure i have done that before, but i feel compelled. i'm not going to speak for vice chairman. but i this she'll associate with what i have to say. this feud between the tech

companies and law enforcement has to stop. encryption is the issue that we -- that we describe it as. but this is much more. technology is going to drive the united states economy for the next 50 years and the global economy, as well. it is the secret sauce for our children and our grandchildren to have unlimited opportunities. not success, but opportunities. when the vice chairman laid on table encryption it wasn't , with the belief that we were smarter than anybody else. it was we understood what was at stake and we were willing to take the heat and as you know, , director, we've taken a lot of it. and i don't regret it because we need to start a conversation about what the appropriate is. for the american people to

understand for our agencies to prevent and protect them that it comes with a price. and this debate is about what that cost might be and what we're willing to accept. we cannot separate the world based upon whose domain domestically and who is domained in foreign countries. yet, that's the beauty of the internet. it really doesn't matter. but if it wasn't important to locate the united states, we would have little manufacturing because most customers are overseas, but they are here. they're here because we have in our foundational structure things that they find important. and at the top of the list is rule of law. and that point to what one tech chair,said, as the vice and i launched the encryption debate to the level it is today. we can't trust a judge on the bench to hear from the