i think that is working very well and the dni should be nurturing that but the dni should be above it all looking for where there are gaps where you can better enable it, better resource than two growth that capability for the intelligence. i don't think there's anyway we are going to get back to the old days where you had an essentially control distribution of intelligence support. >> right and i hear you saying that we shouldn't try to get back to that. the world is gone beyond that. >> it is just the expectations we have put on the dni. if successful authoritative dni and by the way i don't see a secretary of defense who worries about a lot of what is going on. i think this is, a lot of the success we have had in afghanistan is because we have developed a networ capability and that means you are not going to have be intrusive central authority getting in the way. >> that is great. thank you. senator collins. >> thank you mr. chairman. we talked a lot about the dni this afternoon. i want to get your assessment of the nctc, the national counterterrorism center. i remember when presid

i think that is working very well and the dni should be nurturing that but the dni should be above it all looking for where there are gaps where you can better enable it, better resource than two growth that capability for the intelligence. i don't think there's anyway we are going to get back to the old days where you had an essentially control distribution of intelligence support. >> right and i hear you saying that we shouldn't try to get back to that. the world is gone beyond that. >> it is just the expectations we have put on the dni. if successful authoritative dni and by the way i don't see a secretary of defense who worries about a lot of what is going on. i think this is, a lot of the success we have had in afghanistan is because we have developed a network capability and that means you are not going to have be intrusive central authority getting in the way. >> that is great. thank you. senator collins. >> thank you mr. chairman. we talked a lot about the dni this afternoon. i want to get your assessment of the nctc, the national counterterrorism center. i remember when presi

i think that is working very well and the dni should be nurturing that but the dni should be above itall looking for where there are gaps where you can better enable it, better resource than two growth that capability for the intelligence. i don't think there's anyway we are going to get back to the old days where you had an essentially control distribution of intelligence support. >> right and i hear you saying that we shouldn't try to get back to that. the world is gone beyond that. >> it is just the expectations we have put on the dni. if successful authoritative dni and by the way i don't see a secretary of defense who worries about a lot of what is going on. i think this is, a lot of the success we have had in afghanistan is because we have developed a network capability and that means you are not going to have be intrusive central authority getting in the way. >> that is great. thank you. senator collins. >> thank you mr. chairman. we talked a lot about the dni this afternoon. i want to get your assessment of the nctc, the national counterterrorism center. i remember when presid

is it necessary for the dni to be the senior intelligence adviser to the president in order for the dnihave the credibility to be the leader of the intelligence community? >> i think that the dni can and should have those responsibilities. i do not think that the dni can have the additional responsibility of commanding the cia. i think it was extremely wise to cut those to loft. i also think that it is essential advising the president be combined in one person so that the advice can be realistic in terms of what is the committee can do, and so that the director, the sorts of information that the present needs, can turn around and say, we have got to work harder on problem x. sometimes people forget that the intelligence successes of today are due to a lot of work done over the last several years. collection, and aggression, spending money on the right place, language capabilities. , as you are the person when shores of all that happens while and iraq's -- and directs, you are not in a position to tell the president. you were just taking a report from some analysts. you might as well hav

so that agencies under the dni could not seek to circumvent the dni on the budget issues. i want to ask how strong the authorities the dni had over the budget have been in the practice at least during your period of time and whether you think the dni has full utilized those authorities over budget development for future fiscal years and research transferred during the fiscal year. >> yes, sir. there are two important background points. in the last ten years, a time of rising budgets for the intelligence community for the department of defense of the tough budget trade-offs have generally been taken care of by putting more money on them rather than read prioritization. we so -- we shall see budgets that are flat and perhaps decrease in and that will make the central ability to make trade offs more important. the second item was just due to the number of tasks in dni early on, there was not a strong support structure for budget trade-offs. my experience was in the department of defense. analysis and evaluation, the strong established comptroller of the secretary of defense h

now that dni we have that position -- now that we have a dni position, they should have intelligence knowledge, but they did not necessarily have to lived and breathed it his or her life. part of the confusion and roles we now have is when you appoint two people to these two jobs, both of whom are sort of considered independently, rather than one being a professional, we get some of the jostling we have seen in recent times. i think the political direction can be sent through the dni, and we should have professionals. >> i think it is it big in sight. what it requires is the president having a different visions and recognizing that the dni is the president's main, if you will, intelligence, main personal intelligence adviser. and also, in his interest and the president's interests, the leader of the committee -- i mean, the general did not dwell on it. but when he made his statement, he said including the incoming head of the cia. nobody in the world thinks that the general came up with the recommendation of general petraeus to head the agency. not that he is opposed to it. so your p

there was a somewhat similar operation that i was involved in when i was an dni form a joint briefing team, we talk to the leadership of both houses, both parties, a very sensitive operation that involved military and the intelligence community actions. and the world and not come to an end. they asked good tough questions and we were able to answer that. i think we can do the notification part of it well. i think we need ways to draw that capability together for the country. >> who was in charge of one of the joint task force is? >> i will look at it and say, you know that this is a mixed set of skills here. on balance, it isn't 51 intelligence and 49 military, or the other way around? i would choose the lead commander on that basis. but the deputy i would take from the other departments so that you have the two top people bringing both sets of skills to bear. and i would make sure that those two top people have qualifications and experience with operating with the other agencies, similar to the way that we do it with joint commanders. i would makes them and i had the staff makes all

in other cases we may have core recommendations to the president or to the dni. i reserve the right to call you and come in and talk about the direction we're going. the combination of your experiences in the service of the country is unique and helpful. you have had the independence out of office to make some of the suggestions that people in office sometimes do not make. this is what i have to look forward to after jan. 2013. >> i hope we can call and your wisdom after you leave the chair. >> you always can do it. thank you and thank your wife for being with you. thank you. we will keep the record of the hearing open for 15 days for any additional questions or statements. great thanks to you for what you have contributed to the hearing. the hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] >> some members of congress have threatened to cut aid to pakistan following suspicions that elements of the security forces may have harbored osama bin laden. tomorrow, a discussion on u.s. relations with pakistan and the future of the country. it is hosted by the asia society

we had complnts even when i was dni that some rank a file in al-qaeda was thinkingthat osama was too detached. so he checked out of trying to be a leader of aqaeda. he went to alace that was safe. what could be sar than being in the midst of a militar area. but that also means you've checked out of any operational leadership role. >> charlie: no telephone and nothing. >> nothing going on. >> charlie: other than a courier. >> right. he was doing multiple cutouts. it would take him about three weeks from the time an event would happen unl a video cassette or a dvd in which he gave his spin on it would be shown on some net. >> charlie: what was the last thing you knew about bin laden before you left government. >> last thing i knew was information a couple years old. in terms of real information. >> charlie: but at that time, 2009, we were operating on the basis of0 10, we then knew there was a courier and that courier might lead us. the cia knew and if the cia knew i assume therefore you knew because you would tell the president. >> we knew he was using a series of multiple -- it's cla

president during the transition mike hayden actually briefed the president on this program actually had a dni representative demonstrate the techniques to the president and his reaction was, that's it? that was all that was left in the program. the reason it still worked is because the terrorists didn't know that. know one knew that. and what president obama did that he canceled that which nobody could consider torture, eliminated that, mandated the army field manual and released all the techniques to the world so the terrorists could learn the legal extent of what we could do in interrogation. so what the president could do looking forward -- >> some people don't want to look forward. >> to look forward you must look back. >> what we could do very simply is restore what he closed, what he shut down what he inherited. the gift mike hayden gave him. he said everything you think you need to do, we've already done, and restore that program. and he can do that in a very, very easy way. he can amend the executive order that he signed on the second day of office with a few words. unless otherwise a

we've been able to merge some of that together and we think get some savings out and that's where the dni has been helpful as well. >> i'm going to open it up to all of you and wait foot mic and to please introduce yourself. >> thank you, ellen. welcome, mike, off the hill to a bipartisan bastian as is the wilson center, too. i'm enjoying my new service here. two things in your announcement you didn't mention the erpsa. it was passed over the implacable opposition of then secretary of defense rhythms and then chairman of the arms services committee duncan hunter. we had to make some compromises but it was bipartisan legislation strongly supported and, in fact, originated in the house intelligence committee. and your predecessor pete hokstra but they credited erpa helping to create the seamlessness that was necessary to put the clues together that were the predicate for finding osama bin laden. i think you would agree with that and i think you would agree going forward we have to continue doing that and do other things. my question is, we seem to be much better than doing that horizontally

community would come in and you have to ask the question, if the directors endorse someone else, the dni, okay, tell us about the search for bin laden, what do we know? and 47 or eight years it was kind of like, we really don't know but if we've got to make a guess, we think he is in this part of pakistan. and it's kind of like, you know what? now we know. military acted competently, they did a great job and were successful. take that, build on this summer with the work fred has been doing. it gives us an opportunity to redefine who we are. >> i want to ask your question that's a bit out of our scope but i can't resist because i want to do what you are going to see. sorry, guys. it's really about what i am interested in. we got bin laden. important in many ways, less important than others. i think there's very little debate about that reality. but the way we got him, persistent intelligence, following the tracks, information about the courier from khalid sheikh mohammed. we haven't picked up a high-value target and a couple of years. and we don't have any interrogation program going on.

the dni structure is still problematic. there still is not the kind of information sharing we would like to see. it has improved dramatically, but we still have some distance to go. now we have the reverse problem with wikileaks. we do not have -- we do not want to have some much information sharing so people have access to an amount of data to be compromised. host: north carolina, hi, pete. republican. caller: good morning. first of all, i would like to address your position. could you go more in depth about how you feel as former house speaker nancy pelosi's comments in regard to president bush's position when he was pursuing osama bin laden in 2005 or in the 2006 she stated it was too late and it would not do any good at the time. now, to catch osama bin laden or kill osama bin laden or whatever, and then when president obama pursued that, and it was a success, suddenly she was praising it as one of the greatest achievements in intelligence history. guest: i do not recall the former speaker ever saying that it was too la

we have been able to merge some of that, and that is where the dni has been helpful as well. >> thank you. i will open it to you all. we for a microphone, and please introduce yourself. i think i will start with jane harman. >> thank you, alan. welcome to a bipartisan bastion. i'm enjoying my new service here. two things -- in your remarks you did not mentioned the intelligence reform legislation of 2004 but alan ask you about that. it was passed over the implacable opposition of the and secretary of defense rumsfeld, and duncan hunter. it was bipartisan legislation strongly supported and originated in the house intelligence committee, and your predecessor played a courageous role in pushing it forward. my question is this -- director of national intelligence clapper credits the reform legislation for helping him leverage and create this aimlessness that was necessary to put up clues to gather that were the predicate for finding osama bin laden. i think you would agree with that, and i think you would agree that we have to continue to do that and other things going forward. my questio

to represent and to lead those great intelligence professionals as well as to work closely with the dnid the other intel community leaders as director panetta has done so superbly over the past two and a half years. as i return to afghanistan tomorrow, i will do so with a sense of guarded optimism about the trajectory of the mission and the exceptional civil-military team the president will nominate to lead that effort. indeed, i can think of no two individuals better suited than general allen and ambassador crocker to build on the hard-fought gains that isaf and afghan troopers and their civilian colleagues have achieved over the past year. during the flight back to afghanistan, i will also reflect on the extraordinary leadership that secretary gates has provided over the past four and a half years at the helm of the department of defense. i believe that all in uniform are deeply grateful to him, but none can be more grateful to him than i am. again, mr. president, thank you very much for the opportunity, if confirmed, to continue to serve our nation. >> mr. president, thank you. i'm d