way we define intelligence here in the united states is not just the activities of the central intelligence agency it's also the support we give to our soldiers who are were engaged in iraq and also engaged in afghanistan they need what we call signals intelligence they need photography that helps them win a particular battle and so we define intelligence rather broadly in four of the challenges that the united states has we think it's been an appropriate level of spending although it has contract it a little bit in recent years now you mentioned earlier that you believe that the americans got what they paid for in terms of their increased security but if we look on the foreign policy if. the u.s. intelligence has totally a job the ball on multiple issues for example they were wrong on the arab spring they totally miscalculated syria they allowed the disaster in bin gaza to take place there is a major instability looming in africa on the domestic front again multiple warnings on the boston marathon bombing run missed and. you know all that domestic spying revealed by edward snowden only added. an

the defense would you agree with that no no no i wouldn't agree with that at all look the central intelligence agency is overseen very closely by the us congress our congress unlike parliaments around the world have complete insights into what the central intelligence agency is doing that's unique in the united states we have a level of transparency that exceeds any one in the world and so we have a very careful system constructed here of checks and balances and yes mr allen despite that extensive congressional oversight of he alluded to it's not a secret that the cia is often referred to as the president agency and many american presidents in the past have used covered operations as this sort of gray middle ground tactic between diplomacy on one hand and military operations on the other hand given how substantially the scope of the cia operations has widened in these past decades do you think that the tools available to barack obama compared to his predecessors have expanded as well well no i think it's not just to president obama look i worked for president bush for eight years president bush asked

the agency, of course, meant marie's secret employer, the central intelligence agency. >> she worked for them, and they never offered a reward for her, any information regarding her case or anything. >> the letter continued. her former colleagues at work had been placed under a gag order by their office. they have ordered these people to cease all contact with you and marie's family in pennsylvania. someone in your family needs to stir the pot. >> we didn't know where the letter came from because of course it was anonymous and of course she worked for the cia, so it appeared up that door of suspicion that maybe they had something to do with it as well. >> remember, when marie first disappeared, the fbi investigated, on the theory it might have been espionage. but the family didn't know the results of that investigation. and didn't know why police hadn't moved against andre. >> and since we didn't have the answers, it was always a wonderment to us on why it was taking so long. maybe they all were working in cahoots with each other. >> despite their dark suspicions, the family turned t

>> guest: no, he--that doesn't--he doesn't begin a formal, official central intelligence agency until the summer of 1941. what he has before that are the military services, the office of naval intelligence, he has the military intelligence division of the army, and he has the fbi and he ha--he tri--he's very unhappy with the lack of coordination--and doesn't that ring a bell today? for example, at one point, to try to get these people moving in the same direction, he--he calls a meeting of--of hoover as the head of the fbi and the head of military intelligence and naval intelligence. hoover doesn't dane to come. c-span: just says, 'i'm not coming'? >> guest: well, he had to be ordered by fdr finally to come. we had the army and navy with the lunatic handling of--of the messages that we were decoding, particularly japanese diplomatic traffic. they had this rivalry in which the army would decode messages on even days, the--and the navy would do it on odd days. they had a s--a s--a system where they would share who got to deliver the plum traffic to the president. the army would do it in

continuing covert black presence in afghanistan and in the surrounding region led by the central intelligence agency in the joint special operations command. always. the grave revelations of. the football world. view. the international. director of. reaching its conclusion a trial. today. looks at the story. the final act in a case as dark as anything to grace the famous stage an acid attack that exposed to the world that russia stop theater in reality is a battle of filled where the struggle for glory when the curtains for the all songs in the theatres artistic director sid gave fillin that almost made him blind shocked the world leaving the question who was the mastermind behind it so giggling was returning home after an evening at the theatre world gala to this apartment building a man concealing his identity with this golf course the is named right after that threw some liquid in his face saying it was a greeting for him another leader a court appearance for len described the pain as unbearable and terrifying he was left suffering in agony and the snow right outside this building it was late at

an american who was kidnapped in iran nearly seven years ago was in fact working for the central intelligence agency and an off the books intelligence operation just before he disappeared this is all according to an a.p. news investigation that reveals levinson was a cia operative it comes despite years of repeated denials from the white house. the state department and the intelligence community who over the years called levinson a private citizen there is no confirmation of who captured levinson or who may be holding him now and there has been no hints of levinson whereabouts since his family received photos and this hostage video back in two thousand and ten. one more. migrants. in response to the recent news levinson's family released a statement that said quote the u.s. government has failed to make saving this good man's life the priority it should be it is time for the u.s. government to step up and take care of one of its own today the white house addressed the issue and its press briefing affirming that it was still trying to locate levinson and that the a.p.'s report was dangerous. and that

nelson mandela really was and what he really stood for and how it was actually the good old central intelligence agency that was responsible for his arrest in the first place that's right a former cia official admitted in one thousand nine hundred eighty it was the agency that provided the details of mandela's whereabouts and turn him over to south african security they had dasa to call it quote one of our greatest coups so what else is the media not telling you to start did you know mandela was a communist yes the big red. scary c word has just confirmed that he was indeed a member of the south african communist party at the time of his arrest and it's not too much of a shock when you consider how mandela equated poverty and inequality to slavery in apartheid as social evils same quote overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity it's an act of justice it's a protection of a fundamental human right the right to dignity and a decent life while poverty persists there is no true freedom. here's another tidbit that the mainstream media won't touch mandela never brought into america's never bought into a

and we're just learning that a central intelligence agency covert. action program bolstered by eavesdropping from the national security agency has helped the colombian forces kill more than two dozen leaders of rebel groups including the fark over the past decade this is all according to a new washington post report that reveals how the u.s. had been providing the colombian army with both human intelligence and a g.p.s. guidance kid when used together it would transform a regular bomb into a perception guided smart bomb that could accurately target specific leaders even in dense jungle the multibillion dollar covert program was authorized under president george w. bush and continued under president barack obama r.t. political commentator and sachs has more so there are a few interesting takeaways from the washington post report of the week that the cia and the n.s.a. are covertly assisting the club mean government in its fight against fark rebels now it was just this month that the president of colombia won mineral santos was after a white house meeti

portland reserves in russia not only building related to the u n or just learning that us central intelligence agency covert action program to bolster night eavesdropping from the national security agency has helped colombian forces killed more than two dozen meters of rebel groups including the far over the past decade. this is all according to a new washington post report that reveals how the us had been providing the clumsy an army with both human intelligence and a gps guidance kit. now when used together it would transform a regular bomb into a precision guided smart bombs. i could accurately target specific leaders even in dense jungles the multibillion dollar covert program was authorized under president george w bush and continued under president barack obama on rt political commentators anzacs has more can. and we are just getting that package for you we will have very shortly. having some technical issues you take away from the washington post reporter of the weekend that the cia in the end of the park overtly assisting the colombian government in its fight against four rebels nope he was j

now he becomes, in effect, the first head of a central intelligence agency in the united states.

as chief of national intelligence, he oversaw the central intelligence agency, the defense intelligence agency and the national security agency. few people know as much about cyber warfare, and our dependency on the power grid, and the computer networks that deliver our oil and gas, pump and purify our water, keep track of our money, and operate our transportation systems. >> if i were an attacker and i wanted to do strategic damage to the united states, i would either take the cold of winter or the heat of summer, i probably would sack electric power on the u.s. east cost, maybe the west coast, and attempt to cause a cascading effect. all of those things are in the art of the possible from a sophisticated attacker. >> do you believe our adversaries have the capability of bringing down a power grid? >> i do. >> is the u.s. prepared for such an attack? >> no, the united states is not prepared for such an attack. >> it's now clear this cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation. >> four months after taking office, president obama

video clip] >> i said the united states loyally as a covert operational officer for the central intelligence agency work on behalf a national security of our country and on behalf of the people of the united states until my name entry affiliation were exposed in the national media july 14, 2003, after a leak by administration officials. how then can the president make the most important decision of all about the security of our country? i do feel passionately about that. you have to get the politics out of the policy process. >> i appreciate that. >> someone who is in the military was very upset about the invasion of iraq and came to spend some time in washington. she was very upset about george bush taking us into a war that she considered lies. she wanted to get her message across. >> the t-shirt said? >> impeach bush. she wrote on her shirt. >> when did you learn you could not have any signs? >> somewhere online. >> how much do people on capitol hill, either the police or the staff of the committee or members, talk to you ever? >> we have meetings all the time with people on the hill. even today

robert levinson was working for the central intelligence agency. we have that report. >> it was seven years since bob levinson disappeared while in iran. he's the longest held american hostage in history. his family last received a video of him back in 2011. >> i'm not in very good health. i'm running very quickly out of diabetes medicine. i have been treated well. i need the help of the united states government. >> reporter: but in the past almost three years there has been nothing to confirm that he's still alive. he was on a business trip when he disappeared. now the associated press news agency is reporting that levinson was in iran on an unapproved intelligence mission for the c.i.a. when asked about him on a trial to israel, john kerry refused to say that he was spying. >> i don't have any comments whatsoever on the condition with respect to employment or any other issue except to say to you that we've raised the issue of his whereabouts on a continuous basis. i've continuous leo raised it with the iranians in our discussions, and we'll conti

he says he was coerced into confessing that he was a spy for the central intelligence agency. >> do weat he was doing over there in iran? >> i don't. but, as you can see the charges in all of these rogue states individual of creating espionage. >> the state department is quite clear is saying don't go to north north korea. don't go to iran. if do you and these men did, they can pick you up and throw you in prison and obama administration they should have at least got these three guys out with the nuke deal. let's go over to cammeron. congress now goes on a long christmas vacation pretty soon, right? >> they have got lots of stuff to do and not a lot of time to do it. it's a big big to do list, bill. >> they have to pass the authorization bill to they can get paid next year. >> when do they go on vacation? >> well, actually, they're just now getting back from their thanksgiving day breaks. if you add up all the time over the course of the remaining calendar year, the house and the senate are only going to actually be in session together simultaneously for a total of five days, not a lot

nelson mandela really was and what he really stood for and how it was actually the good old central intelligence agency that was responsible for his arrest in the first place that's right a former cia official admitted in one thousand nine hundred eighty it was the agency that provided the details of mandela's whereabouts and turn him over to south african security they also said they had to call it quote one of our greatest coups so what else is the media not telling you to start did you know mandela was a communist yes the big red scary c word was just confirmed that he was indeed a member of the south african communist party at the time of his arrest and it's not too much of a shock when you consider how mandela equated poverty and inequality to slavery in apartheid as social evils same quote overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity it's an act of justice it's a protection of a fundamental fear of human right the right to dignity and a decent life while poverty persists there is no true freedom. here's another tidbit that the mainstream media won't touch mandela never brought into america's ne

. >> it is an honor to appear before you today to be the president's nominee of the central intelligence agency. i'm deeply grateful to president obama and director john brennan for their trust and confidence in me and also to the committee for considering my nomination. i appreciate the opportunity i've had to meet with you to discuss a number of important issues. i also want to thank my family, who i just introduced, for their love and support. i see the general counsel position as having four key duties. first, the general counsel must give sound and clear legal advice to the deputy, deputy director -- deputy director and other agency employees. as the chief legal officer of the cia, the general counsel must ensure cia is complying with the constitution and other applicable u.s. laws. in almost 20 years as an executive branch lawyer i've had the privilege of legal advice on a wide range of difficult legal issues to many government agencies including the cia. second, the general counsel must work closely with lawyers across the executive branch. the protection of our nation security and achie

honor to appear before you today the president's nominee to be the general counsel of the central intelligence agencyand i am grateful to both president obama and john brennan for their trust and confidence in me and also to the committee for considering my nomination. first, we must give advice to the deputy director and the deputy and other agency employees. as the chief officer of the cia from the general council must ensure that the cia is compliant with the constitution and other applicable u.s. laws and in almost 20 years as an executive branch lawyer, i have had the privilege of providing legal vice on a wide range of difficult issues for men in government agencies, including the cia. and second, the general council must work closely with lawyers across the executive branch and the protection of our nation's security and the achievement of our foreign policy goals depends upon an integrated approach. >> this is especially important for the general counsel of the cia. this includes the justice and the state of defense. and over the years i have worked with many lawyers. and i have been impresse

for appear before you today as the president's nominee to be the general counsel of the central intelligence agency. i am deeply grateful to both president obama and director john brennan for their trust and confidence in me and also to the committee for considering my nomination. i appreciate the opportunity i've had to meet with many of you before this hearing to discuss a number of important issues. i also to want thank my family, who i just introduced, for their love and support. i see the general counsel position as having four key duties. first, the general counsel must give sound and clear legal advice to the deputy, deputy director -- i'm sorry, the director, the deputy director, and other agency employees. as the chief legal officer of the c.i.a., the general counsel must ensure that the c.i.a. is complying with the constitution and other applicable u.s. laws. in almost 20 years as an executive branch lawyer, hive the privilege of providing legal advice on a wide range of difficult legal issues to many government agencies, including the c.i.a. second, the general counsel must work close we

intelligence system camino, but the national capabilities and the organizations like the central intelligence agency and definitely do with the director of national intelligence to their national intelligence managers firmer when anam's. particular region or a particular function. those conversations and discussions and assessments are done fairly routinely and time in, you know, documents that we would call national intelligence estimates, and there are other national estimates that i've done on things like water, things like, you know, weapons of mass destruction, things like developing economies. there are long-term projects and assessments that are done. and frankly, they are done by both defense because we will look at defense issues, long term kirk -- let's just say defense investments by some of the -- you know, some other regional partners and round the world, how much they are investing and the next five, ten years. same thing on our side. we will do that kind of assessing as an example of something that we would do, and we will participate, certainly in other assessments that taking place

one of the biggest concerns we had at the fbi, because the fbi is, unlike nsa, unlike the central intelligence agency. 95% of what the nsa collects against our u.s. persons. not foreigners. so we've always been very concerned about that. i probably received at least one phone call a day from agents in the field who ask, can i do this quest should i do this? where is the line? so this is something -- i mention that only to emphasize the fact that this was a real issue. if you come up to today and look at what the nsa is doing, several different things. first of all, what the nsa is doing is collecting metadata. what the newspapers have not told you is the metadata is constitutionally unprotected. it is third party information. it does not belong to you. it belongs to the telephone companies and telephone companies can do anything they want with it, except give it to a federal officer without being compelled to do so. that's one thing. i will say that when i argued for the creation of that statute, article ii 15 of the patriot act, when i argued for that one, i never anticipated and i don't think anybo

agencies that are now under the the umbrella of homeland security i think that. there's certain things that could be brought together like technology developments could be centralized for the intelligence community and separate from those agencies so that they couldn't have all of vested interests pulling them away and you'd have a central point as long as you maintained the the atmosphere of creativity and innovation and made sure that that was and you have to keep it you can't keep the same people there because they get corrupted over time so you have to keep rotating them and i would argue that we need people like hackers coming in people who have interests in making sure that privacy is maintained fascinating things like that many thanks so much for being with like you. coming up the federal reserve has just announced that it will begin drawing down its bond buying program assess january what does this mean for everyday americans and could it be the beginning of the next big economic crisis answer both of those questions as well as a breakout of other economic news the week right after the break. thank you. i've got a quote for you. that's pretty tough. stay where it's about story.

the nsc will coordinate intelligence among ministries and agencies and take a central role in crisis management. members held their first meeting last week. the council will collect and analyze highly classified information received from the u.s. and other countries. to do this, abe needed to show japan's allies that the government can be trusted to protect such information. abe wanted to push this before the diet session ended last week. opposition members demanded more time for discussion. the ruling party extended the session for two days, then went ahead with the vote. >> why are so many lawmakers opposed to the law? >> many lawmakers say the law gives the government too much power to decide what the public can and can't know. they argue that the definition of a state secret has become too vague and too broad. many voters had grown tired of the cycle of unstable politics they've seen for years. that came to an end when they handed abe control of the upper house in an election in july. the ruling coalition now has control of both houses and can push through policies without worryi

he and his scene will question the intelligence among ministries and agencies to take a central role in crisis that has been. members held the first meeting last week the council calling can analyze any classified information japan receipts from the us and other countries. to do this i'll be needing to show to pounce allies that the government can't be trusted to protect such information. they wanted to curse those girls who were to die since the disaster opposition members demanded more time for discussion the ruling party sixteen assists in fifteen games. i went ahead with it. many lawmakers say the line is that it be too much power to decide what the and you can't know. they argued that the definition of a state secret has become to the king tupou on it many voters had grown tired of the cycle of unstable politics the scene for years. that keen mind and when they handed out the control of the upper house of bricks in july the moon coalition now has control of both houses. you can coast through policies without warning on campuses this post as voters may not support this season. an

you're on to something and that's one of the central questions in my book blinking red which is all the institutional reforms and new intelligence agencies that we set up after september eleventh and after the intelligence failure in iraq whether they have done a good job as we say here in the united states connecting the dots trying to collect information and connect it to each other if they have some sort of effect that might give us a warning of a terrorist attack like in boston or any islamic extremists that might be coming after the united states or our allies well one thing that has definitely changed is the massive infusion of money since two thousand and one the united states has spent i think over five hundred billion dollars on intelligence during that period and american officials have long claimed that you know the main outcome of that exorbitant spending was the lack of any. additional catastrophic terrorist attack but of course many other countries that have the same result for much much less i wonder if these. you know all that spending has really led to any increase in efficiency of operations or rather what they've had p

central intelligence. people felt free to go to them with complaints about how the agency was being run and the u.s. lligence community, nsa, cia and all the rest is the most heavily overseen regulated and scrutinized intelligence community in the world. it is scrutinized heavily by the court system, the foreign intelligence surveillance act courts. there are many judges who have, over the course 15, anyway, approved the collection of so-called meta data, the phone numbers, not the content of telephone calls. this is something that we have worked on, many of us in the intelligence community for some time and this very particular thing that was raised about the meta data has been approved for government surveillance for decades. the government can look at, and this has been true since around the '60s or early '70s, can look at and keep a record of what's on the outside of an envelope of a first class letter. they can keep track of the postmark and so forth. they have been able to do the same thing with telephone calls for many years. under supreme court decisions and for mr. snowden or anyone else to

agency, head of the commander and begin to serve the u.s. academy at west point. previously serves security command and director of intelligence and u.s. central command. your full statement will be made part of the record. the time you have, feel free any points you on to summarize any lady lake. >> chairman, thank you. i will keep my opening remark sure. i would like to get a few key things. first come nsa is a foreign intelligence agency. those action tools we do are to connect what we know about foreign intelligence to its going on here in the united states. we need tools to bring that together. i want to type recently about some of those tools. some of those tools six section 215 in my opinion and the courts are constitutional or authorized by congress. they are legal, necessary. from my live, the threats are growing. when we look at what is going on in iraq today, what's going on in syria, the amount of people killed from one september 23 december is over 5000 terrorist related action and several other countries around the world. in iraq alone, in 2012, total number killed was 2400. from one september 223 december, that is risen to 2200

agency. began service at the u.s. military academy at west point. previously served as the commanding general of the u.s. army intelligence in security command. director of intelligence, u.s. central command. of course, general, i thank you for being here. your full statement will be made part of the record. but in the time you have, please feel free to hit any points you want or summarize any way you'd like. >> chairman, thank you. i'll keep my opening remarks short. but i would like to hit a few key things. first, nsa is a foreign intelligence agency. those acts and too manies that we do are to connect what we know about foreign intelligence to what's going on here in the united states. we need tools to bring that together. i want to talk briefly about some of those too manies. and some of those tools, like section 215, in my opinion, and i think in the court's, are constitutional. were authorized by congress. they're legal. they're necessary. and they've been effective. from my perspective, the threats are growing. when we look at what's going on in iraq today, what's going on in syria, the amount of people killed from 1 september to 3 december is over 5,000 from terrorist rela

intelligence council and served as assistant director of central intelligence for analysis and production. he led the establishment of the dci in the agency balkans task force. he headed the white house team at the department of homeland to get a transition planning office and was staff director of the house of representatives committee on homeland security. in 2004, the president awarded him the national security medal, the nation's highest intelligence toward. please join me in welcoming dr. john gannon. [applause] >> thank you, terry, very much. i would like to also join in thanking some of the wonderful folks have helped us get here and have supported us since we have gotten here. terry garner, the director of the clinton library. joe lambert, the director of cia's information management and services, and david, who has been our right hands supporter for several weeks on this conference. also, rob and dana, the archivists here at the library have been super helpful and we much appreciate it. really is an honor for me to be back and to be seated again with people like secretary albright, nsc, sandy berger, nancy soderberg and leon fuer