opening remarks. >> thank you to our witnesses for being here today to invite testimony on the department of defense's strategy, policy programs and preparedness countering weapons of mass destruction and in the fiscal year 2019. in 2014, the department released it's strategy for wmd that outlined three new end states, that there be no wmd use and that should wmd used that there will a minutization of their effects. the strategy notes that fiscal constraints require the dod make strategic choices. however increasingly bold rogue actors are challenging the goal of ensuring that the u.s., it's allies or partners are not attacked, or coerced by adversaries. earlier this month, we witnessed a peacetime attack of the united kingdom of one of russia it's former military intelligence officers. this attack on one of our closest allies, demands a strong and unequivocal response, which is why i introduced house resolution 786 last week in condemnation of this attack in support of our allies. in syria proregime forces on civilian populations is advantageous. tech technological advancements especially in biotech

the department of defense has long supported the efforts of dhs to protect her nations border. this includes all ongoing narcotic missions, persistent surveillance operations training and aerial support throughout the western hemisphere. the poor department of defense's longtime partner of the department of homeland security and i thank them for their support. while plans are being finalized is our expectation that the national guard will deploy personnel in support of the border security mission. it will take time to have the details in place but we are beginning today and moving quickly. we are anxious to have the support. i have spoken with all of the governors and will continue these conversations. it's very encouraging that some of them have already taken dramatic steps in their own state to confront illegal immigration and to strengthen border security to prevent the criminal activity and the inflow of drugs. these leaders understand the importance of enforcement and border security and how it improves public safety. another forward to working with each of them. as a resul

the department of defense has long supported the efforts of dhs to protect the nation's board. this includes ongoing counter narcotic mission and infrastructure construction and training and aerial sport throughout the western hemisphere. the department of defense is a long time partner of the department of homeland security and i thank them for their support. while plans are being finalized, it is our expectation that the national guard will deploy personnel in support of cbp border security mission. it will take time to have the details in place but we are beginning today and we are moving quickly. we are anxious to have the support. i have spoken with all of the governors and will be continuing these conversations. it is very encouraging that some of them have already taken dramatic steps in their o-- the states to strengthen the borders and the inflow of drugs. they understand the enforcement of border security and how it improves public safety in their states. i look forward to working with each of them. as a result, i will not provide the full details today because much of

garamendi: i understand that but i'm awaiting a legal document from the department of defense specifying the exact authority and circumstances that cause you to use that protection of forces. >> yes, sir, i'll provide it. mr. gare men tee: thank you very much, i appreciate that. obviously there'll be a debate about this. the -- in your testimony you indicated that there's some $12 billion for missile defense, that that's an imminent threat to the united states. there's also a week ago, two weeks ago from the department of homeland security an iminnocent threat from russia hacking -- an imminent threat from russia hacking into systems what is the department of defense doing to protect against those kinds of attacks that could lead to shutdown of the grid or some other critical infrastructure, thereby bringing physical as well as social and economic harm to the united states. >> sir, as you know, we have a fair amount of money that's given to our cyber command for cyberspace operations. and we have a number of mission teams. ut these are primarily focused on our own defense, department of

in an effort to prevent a consequence, directed the department of defense and the department of homeland security together with our governors to deploy the national guard to the southern border. when the president took office last year, he issued a series of orders and directives that empowered dhs to fully support our border and laws. we saw a drop in border crossings. 44% down in the first few months after his inauguration. this trump effect as many of you have referred to it as we have as well, the border activity was undeniable and those for elicit activity were forced to wait and see if enhanced enforcement effort would scale back their criminal activity for good. in the last 15 months under the president's leadership, he's taken a step to strengthen border security. let me give you a few. we're happy to provide additional details. we stepped up ms-13 star gets. we removed thousands of criminal aliens and we no longer except entire classes of illegal aliens from the consequences of breaking our immigration laws. we began the first new border system in close to a decade, we modified

of it as a large corporation. the problems are a very large corporation. the defense department has something called the digital service, which is a good example where patriotic men and women both take a year or two off of their current jobs if they give permission to do so obviously and they come in and fix problems. the service is very successful and very small 20, 30, 40 people we need 100, 200 or 300. given the way the government in general the software in particular, these kind of programs are effective and i would encourage the expansion. corporations are not going to hand over their top talent but there's enough motion in the system where people are willing to take a leave for work. in order to do this as long as it is time limited. time-limited. you emphasize the importance of stem education. it's clear that it is more of an emphasis on stem education of all kinds, community college etc.. >> these are all things that we think are good to do and some of them of course are being done. we need to scale that back more. do you see, and i know that you are in this position som

in an effort to prevent such a consuences, the department of defense and the department of homeland surityk together with our governors to deploy the national guard to our southwest border, to assist the border patrol. the president will be signing a proclamation to that effect today. when the president took office last year, he issued a series of directives that empowered dhs, the first time in almost a decade, to fully enforce our border immigration laws. we saw a precipitous drop in unlawful crossings, in the months after his inauguration. border activity was undeniable as smugglers and transnational organizations were forced to wait and see if enhanced enforcement efforts would scale back their criminal activity for good. in the last 15 months under the president's leadership, the administration has taken major steps to methodically strengthen border security. we're happy to provide additional details. we stepped up the targeting of criminal games such as ms-13, removed thousands more criminal aliens than the year prior. we no longer exempt entire classes of illegal aliens from the con

defense capabilities how to improve them technologically with the transformation and how to hedge against uncertainty and engineer by training most recently from the university of alabama at huntsville before returning to the department of defense serving as administrator of nasa 2005 through ten -- 2009 prior to their key with head of the space department at john

which is the department of health and human services is one of the richest fields along with a massive opportunities and health related computer spending by the departments of defense veterans affairs and treasury the d.o.d. market is very weak said steve coleman a harvard management professor and contracting specialist the two growth markets are cybersecurity and health care so everybody is trying to get into those so like i said when we look at two thousand and eleven the charts go parabolic they go in a direction very much like the dot com sector was that libya no i think we can prove because they're saying the analysts looking at the time this is in two thousand and fourteen they're saying the department of defense contracts are very weak where is all the new money going well the department of health and human services and how to plunder those and this has done very well for them and in fact for traditional defense contractors health care isn't the new or it is the new f. thirty five fighter or is the class destroyer of course the f. thirty five which lockheed martin built is the largest defense contract in global world history it's the one and a half trillion

security related satellites industry officials said they don't know who which division of the department of defense this was the satellite was. made for purely was some sort of earth observation or surveillance technology but it just blew up a three point five billion dollars blow up. two million dollar missiles were intercepted and blown up over syria so this is like could explain also why we can't have any inflation you know that the central bank keeps on trying to create inflation and then we keep on evaporating these are basically currency if they if the us dollars backed by the military and missiles blow up and three point five billion dollars payloads blow up and nobody knows well i'll show that many times that the fed prints the money and then the pentagon blows it up in various countries around the world or sends us soldiers out there to get maimed and blown up you don't die for your country to protect democracy you die in america to stop inflation that's what the soldiers out there are dying for they should replace the american flag with an upside down dollar sign or something they're figh

if we could shift to the end of the second world war and have a department of defense. you see many of these legal issues, the need to have defense, i agree with that but don't have to be doing the kind of counterproductive offense, just shift the money both for normal development and protection. >> particularly on the design, the meeting, the software designer. >> we are facing these problems in all sectors, big data. and ecosystem, multiplicity, numerous actors being involved in producing, using, analyzing the data. who is responsible for the outcome. we have to help ourselves to a richer notion of responsibility to share that. >> we have such notions in regular peacetime and product liability. we know how to hold a bad designer responsible but a whole different thing if you're holding her responsible for an unintended failure of a defensive system versus actually killing people unlawfully so you get out of that second parameter if you think in these more day today but i don't think europeans have made that jump despite we all remember they are venus, we are mars. if y

the president has directed the department of defense and the department of homeland security work together with our governors to deploy the national guard to our southwest border. amy: a new wave of troops could soon be deployed to the u.s.-mexico border even as border crossings by undocumented immigrants are at their lowest levels since 1971. the move comes the move comes as a caravan of central american migrants and asylum-seekers has prompted a series of threats from president trump against them in mexico. we as migrants are being affected because the decisions trummake we ve tpayor with our liv. it is not so easy, you know. amy: we will get an upda from a volunteer who has just returned from the people without borders caravan in mexico and speak with reporter todd miller, author of "storming the wall." been a new expose in the nation magazine reveals how big made us think that cell phones are safe. we will speak with mark hertsgaard. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the brazian supremcourhas rejecte

which is the department of health and human services is one of the richest fields along with a massive opportunities and health related computer spending by the departments of defense veterans affairs and treasury the d.o.d. market is very weak said steve coleman a harvard management professor and contracting specialist the two growth markets are cyber security and health care so everybody is trying to get into those so like i said when we look at two thousand and eleven in the charts go parabolic they go in a direction very much like the dot com sector was that libya no i think we can prove because they're saying the analysts looking at the time this is in two thousand and fourteen they're saying the department of defense contracts are very weak whereas all the new money going well the department of health and human services and how to plunder those and this has done very well for them and in fact for traditional defense contractors health care isn't the new oil it is the new f. thirty five fighter or is the class destroyer of course the f. thirty five which lockheed martin built is the largest defense contract in global world history it's the one and a half trill

in an effort to prevent such a consequence the president directed the department of defense and homeld secity work together with our governors to deploy the national guard to our southwest border to assist the border patrol. the president will be signing a proclamation to that effect today. when the president took office last year he issued a series of executive orders and directives that empower dhs for the first time in almost a decade to fully enforce our border security immigration law. at that time we saw a drop in unlawful border crossings. 44% down in the first few months after his inauguration. this trump affect as many of you have referred to it and we have

proclamation suggesting that the national guard will be used in a title-32 status to help the department of defense assist the department of homeland security and border security mission. the border security mission effectively is a national security issue and the secretary of defense in coordination with the secretary of homeland security are working together to increase the security on the southwest border. using the national guards of the states and right now it is only the states along the southwest border, texas, mexico and as and soon to be california perhaps. to deploy the national guard in a title-32 status under the command and control of the governors to assist the custom and border protection agency with security of the border. as of right now, the way it is working, requiring requirements through dhs to the department of defense. the secretary of defense created a border security support cell in the staff that is validating those requirements. once those requirements are validated by the assistant secretary of defense for homeland security and defense which chairs it, they will relay to

dod runs a competitive bidding process and i would refer you to the department of defense on the specifics of how that process would work. this is a process run by dod and its competitive bidding process so i refer you to them. >> the president railed against amazon over the past few weeks calling the deal they have with the united states postal service a sweetheart deal. my question to you has to deal with another sweetheart deal and that's $50 night payment that the epa administrator scott pruitt pays to a lobbyist with the epa. as you know the president promised to drain the swamp. his behavior seems very swamp like. why is the president okay with this. >> we are reviewing the situation. we have had the chance -- will have the chance to dive deeper, we will let you know. the president thas he has done a good job, particularly on again we take this seriously and we are looking into it and we will let you know. >> to questions. last week buz feed reported that christopher steele was claiming in a report with documented evidence that the fbi had a second report on the mysterious death of t

president donald trump really surprised all of his staff and a lot of people the department of defense when he said he wanted all of the u.s. troops out of syria right away now the department of defense was able to convince him that perhaps he should wait he has said fine just a couple of months basically what he said on the campaign trail is what he's doing in office let somebody else deal with that we know he's held back millions of dollars that was designed to be spent on syrian reconstruction so what his message is is pulling out the fighters somebody else go in you make sure that isis doesn't come back well the department of defense is going to be very wary of this plan from saudi arabia although they won't common comment on it right now wall street journal is reporting that mr bolton the new national security advisor. the saudis and the united arab emirates to send troops and to also give funding for syria now why would they possibly be against this well there is great concern among leadership inside the military about the ability of saudi forces i mean let's just look at the war

bring about the civilian collapse through such features or malware than what sense can the department of defense have to defend the nation? if you think about it the purpose of our national security is it to defend bricks and mortar but our economy and way of life. if we cannot rely on our software that implements and we cannot fully trust the microelectronics and the software that we purchase and implement then in what sense can we be sure we can defend the nation? it isn't a comforting thought. what do we have to do? how do we have to reinvest to get american microelectronics back at the top of its game not because we subsidize but because economically it competes with the best in the world and once again comes free choice? how do we develop hypersonic systems that they can hold our assets at risk? how do we expand and have a missile defense system be everywhere all the time? instead of waiting on the ground in case an adversary shows up in the skies overhead? that is the last place not the first place to start engagement. the grounding principles behind the undersecretary search and engineeri

command for cyberspace operations and we have a number of mission teams and these are primarily focused on our own defense of the -- the department of defense and offense against an adversary for the defend the nation mission comes under the secretary of homeland security. secretary nielsen, we were in close contact with her. we have the only capability to try and defend whether it be an electrical grid and a financial system or something like that, and i think that right now we need to get a lot stronger in the defense of our critical infrastructure, all aspects of it, and i realize that some of that can come under the department of defense which is gpg to take congressional initiative and action in order to balance the constitutional safeguard for our citizens with the real they we've got to be able to protect them and this is an area that needs a lot of work. i'll be the first to admit it. >> if i might just -- in a hearing that we had yesterday it became very, very clear that the coordination between the department of homeland security and the department of defense is lacking, and i appreciate your attention to it. >> yes, si

most recently taught at the university of alabama at huntsville before returning to the department of defense. he of course served as administrator from nasa from 2005 to 2009. prior to service at nasa he was head of the space department at johns hopkins university applied physics laboratory and of course served as president and chief operating officer of incutel a private, nonprofit enterprise funded by the c.i.a. to identify and invest in cutting edge technologies that serve national security interests. as i mentioned, undersecretary griffin will be engaged in conversation with hudson senior fellow rebeccah heinrichs. she's well known in defense circles both for her work on missile defense and other policy issues. she's frequently called to brief on capitol hill, at the white house and the pentagon. she's a former congressional staffer who helped launch the missile defense caucus, writes regularly for "the hill" and is a frequent guest on fox news as well. without any further ado it's my , pleasure to turn it over to rebeccah. rebeccah: thank you so much, ken. thank you all for being here.

decided to abandon those and on november 13, 2,001,001 issued a military order that said the department of defenseof justice has the authority to try and detain prisoners under military commissions and that's how i had to execute as a chief investigator and mohammed wound up at guantÁnamo with the president turned away from the constitution and the federal courts and instead the federal court system is incapable of trying terrorist. not factual historically we have been very successful over the years and very successful visiting information that was viable from people and on january 11, 2002 i thought it was an incredible opportunity i really did to show the world that we are fair and just and an alternative to those regimes we don't compete with them but it didn't take long for me to realize by that summer as a right in the book those tactics from the cia related to guantÁnamo bay and on septembe september 25, 2002 a planeload of the torture architects like snakes on a plane because it came to guantÁnamo bay to explain and authorize and sanction the same techniques the cia was using it on that pl

i also want to highlight that she was a professional military educator for the is department of defense as part of her career and i think think that combination of the client practice and the theoretical and ethical debate is exactly what we want in today's discussion. she will be our keynote speaker. followed by a panel that ted will introduce but will comprise of jeroen van den hoven and charles dunlap, my welcome to both of them. i'm going to ask our special guest, mayor of the hague, pauline krikke, to come to the stage and join me in welcoming the panel. [applause] >> excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for the invitation to attend this justice breyer lecture. i consider it a privilege. not least because the brookings institution is the world's foremost think tank. the theme of this meeting is the influence of artificial intelligence on weapons and warfare and the challenge these developments bring in these areas of international law, ethics, and human rights. you will appreciate that this is very much a topic of interest of the hague, too. it is certainly not som

. >> what he meant was there are some lands that the department of defense owns where we see illicit activity. we're looking into options for the military to build a wall at military installations on the border. >> reporter: this has cnn learns new details about the tense meeting tuesday. sources say the president grew te irritated when they advised him against withdrawing troops from syria. >> we'll be coming it of syria, luke, very soon. let the other people take care of it now. >> reporter: senior administration officials said the president complained at length about the amount of money being is spent in the region, telling advisers he wants troops

proclamation suggestion that the national guard would be used in a total 32 status to help the department of defense assist the department of homeland security. the border security mission effectively is a national security issue. and the secretary of defense in coordination with the secretary of homeland security, are working together to increase security on the southwest border. using the national guards of the state. right now, it's only the states on the southwest border of texico, mexico, arizona, and perhaps soon to be california. to deploy the national guard in the title 32 status under the commanding control of the governors to assist the customs and border security agency. the way it's working is cbp is providing requirements through dhs to the department of defense. this -- they've created a border security support so that is validating those requirements. once those requirements are validated by the assistant secretary of defense for homeland security, which chairs this border security cell, they are relayed to the national guard in the state to be filled with national guards, soldiers, a

one of it is process, the process system what it takes for a small company to deal with the department of defense is still very cumbersome. number two, there is a value of deaths between the sbil program and what follows. if we are going to move fast, this problem has to be solved. i wonder what's your opinion. >> well, i get a lot of questions like that, but it's difficult for companies to deal with the department of defense and frankly i served other places in the u.s. government, it's difficult for companies to deal with any part of the u.s. government. that's a fact. it is in our interest to make it easier for you to deal with us and that relates to the authorities we've been given by congress for different contracting mechanisms. i'm going to throw the first part of your question, i'm going to throw that challenge back at you. when you see an rfp come out or when you are -- if you put in an sbir proposal and what you get back from the department is unnecessarily cumbersome or bureaucratic, raise the game. okay? identify what you think is nonvalue added and bring it back to our attention. go

he eliminated programs necessary in my state to keep the department of defense going, to help our nuclear weapons stay strong. zeroed them out. didn't just cut them. can you imagine if he got his hands on this he would use this bill not for the purposes my colleagues intend, but to basically hold back money, punish and in other ways delay very necessary programs that 90% of this congress agrees to. 90%, maybe 95%. i'm concerned that this legislation, left to the implementation and oversight of a man so hostile to government services up and down the line, whose budgets have been dramatically and repeatedly rejected by democrats and republicans alike in the house and the senate, he would use it for ill, not good. the potential down side to this legislation far exceeds the potential up side. dramatically. i cannot in good conscience support a bill that would give mr. mulvaney more tools to slash federal programs that most every american would agree serves the public good. so in conclusion, i support the goal of this bill, which is to provide more transparency to taxpayers, but a, i believe i

the president has directed the department of defense and the department of homeland security work togetherth our governors to deploy the national guard to our southwest border. amy: a new wave of troops could soon be deployed to the u.s.-mexico border even as border crossings by undocumented immigrants are at their lowest levels since 1971.

would utilize expertise from across our government, including the intelligence community, the department of defense, the state department, the department of homeland security, and the treasury department and would allow effective coordination and collaboration on policy to counter russia. the minority staff report for the senate foreign relations committee on russian asymmetric operations in europe recommended a similar mechanism. i think this is a good way forward and intend to continue to work with my colleagues on the foreign relations committee and other committees of jurisdiction on how best to stand up such a capability. the senate intelligence committee of which i am a member has recently issued recommendations to improve election security. the committee urges retaining state's primacy in running elections and providing them with necessary assistance, creating effective deterrence, improving information sharing on threats, and securing election-related systems. all these important steps and should be implemented without delay. several of my senate colleagues have thoughtfully incorporated th

one of the roles of the department of defense, the department of justice and federal bureau of investigation and of course the department of homeland security, how do we ensure there's cross talk, there's roles and responsibilities that are fully delineated i think that's an important piece. with regards to options in the future, if confirmed i would see that as my role as commander of u.s. cyber command to provide a series of options within cyberspace that the secretary of defense and the president can consider. i would offer, however, that that may not be the only set of options that are necessary. when we look at the strength of this nation, the nation has tremendous strengths diplomatically, information alley, economically and those might also be options presented. >> but who is the clearinghouse to be able to gather those and be the final presentation to the president? >> so in terms of military options, senator, i think that would be myself to the secretary of defense and then the president. >> that's what we need to hear. thank you very much. >> senator king. >> thank you, mr. chairma

details are worked out with dhs and department of defense and border states. >> the national guard mission is unclear. federal law bars the military from involvement in immigration enforcement. in the past when obama and bush deployed guards to the border, they worked in training roles. for more, we turn to cnn's jeff zeleny at the white house. >> reporter: dave and rene, the president wants to send troops to the u.s. and mexico border. part of the effort to increase the strength of the border patrols. this is coming as a fast announcement this week. the president is saying the laws are not strong enough and congress has not acted. the question why this is urgent came up on wednesday when i asked the secretary why now. >> why is this an urgent matter? >> april is a time when we see more folks cross the border without legal right to do so. we are seeing more advertising by the traffickers and smugglers to our south. specifically how to get around the system and stay. why today and not yesterday or tomorrow? today is the day. today is the day we start the process. the threat is real. >> repo

department of commerce, the national weather service, department of defense, primarily the air force, and the department of transportation, we share this radar network and those data are collected for the use of the agencies and then shared with anyone who would like to get the data. ours is a different system than other places in the world where even the government felt that radar data or other weather data to the public, in our country, we don't do it. sell thate government radar data or other weather data to the public, in our country, we do not do that. we share the data and make it available. if you see weather radar data on television, it could be coming from one of our government radars. we have a long history with radar. we want to continue to make radars at her. where we are going now, the next big innovation that will provide improvements to the forecast that we give, it is something we called to -- we want to take the data from the radar and other sensors, the surface stations and other kinds of data from aircraft or drones, whatever we can get, but a lot of it is driven by

for the department of defense. the strategy stresses the need to modern easing equipment, advance capabilities and advance the readiness of a joint force for a high-end fight. many analysts estimate a conflict on the korean peninsula could bog us down there for years, degrading our equipment and potentially resulting in thousands of casualties, both to our allies and to our own troops. so, admiral, what would be the impact of a long-term conflict on the korean peninsula on our ability to prepare for a high-end conflict like those that are described in the defense strategy. >> certainly, senator, i think just our history in the last 15 years has demonstrated that any long-term conflict has significant financial costs and costs around the globe and people costs within the armed services. we have to consider that as we look forward. >> good. actually, let me add one more. would it be more difficult to maintain our technological investments to counter china if we were fighting a sustained ground war in north korea? >>

are saying it is not os according to a statement by the pentagon it says at this time the department of defense sorry the department of defense is not conducting air strikes in syria but we also got reports from the lebanese media which are saying that the missiles were coming from the direction of the mediterranean sea through lebanese airspace and another news outlet from lebanon saying that unknown jets have entered syrian airspace from lebanon and they are speculating that these jets could be from israel now what may back this up in one way or another is that this particular air base in the homs province previously has been targeted by israeli jets but when the military representatives from that country were asked whether they know anything about it they said we're not going to comment on that for now also we don't have the reaction of the russian ministry of defense to that it's early in the morning here so perhaps they're going to come up with some statement a little bit later so indeed the situation is getting complicated and all of this is happening right after the chemical attack that