intelligence community. ms. pearson has over 20 years of service in the intelligence community. she was awarded the president meritorious rank award for officers in 20 and became the national intelligence manager in 2017 and became the national intelligence manager for eurasia. jeff hale is the director of the election security initiative at the department of homeland security. he is his body is charged with coordinating federal support to the election infrastructure community. he is a certified information systems manager, an experienced cyber operations planner, and has supported the office of cybersecurity communications at the department of homeland security since 2010. as a personal point, i will note that he shares with me the honor of being an alum of the university of virginia. so we will get started. i will join you here at the table. given i think these are just on given the numerous the newness of your position and the efforts that you would lead, i think it would be helpful that you start by givi

doesn't sign guns and has a crucial difference between human intelligence or an artificial intelligence is a human beings or so to speak to personification a struggle for existence not. leaves machine they have been optimized over millions of years to survive or to maintain their existence fest you may consider the motion has a kind of you find it rife in them and in water but actually it is not to the mass you may have a longer rifles than the humans fear it's also. in on the design of these are yours you put my c. want to stop by when this war you know the day my senior do have a doc i know a feeling to protect itself you know. he she grows robots have not yet been able to develop intelligence that is similar to that of humans but they are capable of engaging in simple conversations. as you have a so now we're going to interview an android named erica. we've been given a list of questions that she'll be able to respond to what do you think the difference is between you and the human. well i'm certainly not biologically human as you can see i have made of silicon plastic and metal mayb

you were an intelligence officer in the marines. i want to play for you how the defense secretary described the intelligence leading up to the soleimani strike and get your reaction to it. have a listen. >> probably and could have been, that is -- that sounds more like an assessment than a specific tangible threat with a decisive piece of intelligence. >> the president didn't say there was a tangible -- he didn't cite a specific piece of evidence, said, probably, he believed -- i didn't see one with regard to four embassies. >> probably, believed, could have been, you dealt with a lot of intelligence here, is that an imminent threat? >> well, let me say thank you for having me on. served in the marine corps, you know, was an intelligence officer, worked in a secret compartmentalized facility for a living for a while there, and in iraq, we collected intelligence to bring back to the general -- >> intelligence in those circumstances, that could be a

i want to hear what was the intelligence, the degree of certainty of the intelligence, what were the facts that gave rise to the imminent, and i underline and, you know, emphasis on the imminent threat to the united states that was uniquely posed by soleimani and that eliminating soleimani eliminated the threat. not just eliminated it temporarily, and soleimani had to be working with others and say he was the intellectual head of it, but at the end of the day, he is not the operational figure who was going to carry out whatever supposed threat existed, so you have to give us the reasoning why uniquely eliminating soleimani and that other administrations, republicans and democrats, alike passed on, because of the consequences that would flow from that and this administration made a different choice, and give us the facts for, that and this is ultimately going to make the case of one, would the president have the authority to do this, and two, the follow-on or the strategy for the follow-on, and what we have seen is a path where the president had s in syria and iraq, and then you have

but not intelligence itself. fredricka, this is raising more questions, frankly, about the administration's rationale for carrying out this strike, the question, of course, of an imminent threat at the heart of all of this. >> thank you very much, jeremy diamond. the white house messaging has shifted in the last few days to take a listen to how the reasoning has unfolded. >> soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on american diplomats and military personnel. >> if you're looking for imnegligence, you need to look no further than the days that led up to the strike. >> we did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy. >> he was looking very seriously at our embassies and not just the embassy in baghdad. >> we don't know precisely when. and we don't know precisely where, but it was real. >> we had specific information on an imminent threat and that included attacks on u.s. embassies. >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies. >> the president never said there was specif

the job of the cia director is to say, this is what our intelligence shows.calts telus wl b thegentliel repeercussions if you take soleimani out. that is the principle role. it is the president's call whether that justifies taking a strike, but that should be done in consultation with congress and approved by congress and neither of those things happened here. >> brennan: should other irgc leaders be targeted? >> i think that we have escalated enough. >> brennan: even though iran says it is standing down and the president used that phrase? >> well, i think what we are likely to see at least in the near term is the end of iran's overt attacks like the missile attack on our bases. i don't think that we coconclude at all we have seen an end theu, shia and the risk to our military and 57 civilians is greater now because of this administration's actions, iran has been humiliated by this taking out of their top leadership, but also by their disastrous shootdown of this esvilian aircraft.hem, ith thiatnkak, m more dangerous and provocative in the sense that we may v

simply simply put ai is an attempt to recreate human intelligence in computers of computer. as i can help machines and robots adapt to unpredictable situation so. you know 1st but . what's interesting about these robots is that if a technical problem turns up they can heal themselves that's why this is an example of sensor more toric intelligence the interleague it is a desert as far as you know it's similar to the regeneration process and scorpions are salamanders if they're attacked and give up their tails to escape they can grow a new one and move on or. leave alltel is testing an intelligent technology device smart glasses at a link to a wristband that measures her stress level is a she is old and lives in berlin she's taking part in studies conducted by the sheraton medical center on how this kind of technology can make life easier for older people. i knew tim let me i guess i'd heard that they were developing a lot of these sophisticated devices so i thought i'd give it a try this people complain a lot about their problems but they don't do anything about it. so i did

we had exquisite intelligence. think when we tell the american people there was exquisite intelligence and there was going to be an attack on americans, we had to stop that. >> we briefed the gang of 8, the legitimate representatives in affairs of 2that when you have exquisite intelligence. >> watched and relied on capable men and women giving exquisite intelligence. >> the exquisite intelligence that was one of the factors that led to the strike at soecleiman. >> that brings us to our weekend presidential brief. the most pressing national security issues the president will face this week. here with us is who helped prepare the daily brief for president obama. we heard it over and over again. exquisite intelligence. >> this was not a term i was familiar with. i spoke with the former acting director of the cia. he said in 33 years of service at the cia this was not a term he had heard before today. now, "the washington post" has reported that exquisite intelligence has to do with collection methods. and satellite in

of intelligence. so we had this target folder on soleimani and this opportunity presented itself. and i'm certain what happened was the president made the determination let's pull the trigger now and i would say it's not causely linked to what occurred at the u.s. embassy a few days before. >> that's one of the questions we'll ask secretary pompeo. is this something that was months in the making? weeks in the making? days in the makes? >> well, intelligence certainly was, john. i mean, that's how the -- that's how target folders -- jim laid this out. that's how target folders are produced. over the course of incredible amounts of diligence and time, intelligence experts and special ops guys and intelligence community writ large, you build up this evidence. >> but when was the decision made to kill general soleimani if the opportunity presented itself? take that in conjunction with the emphasis that we're now hearing today from senior u.s. officials that this was due to an imminent threat which has leg

if it's true for the intelligence community to have actionable intelligence and a president that takes immediate decisive action when he gets that intelligence. >> well, the congressman is entirely correct. this is a huge move. for our commander in chief to have the intelligence at this moment with everybody on the sidelines saying what happens next? to then escalate -- this isn't escalation, this is proportional. he's right. to kill the top commander of the kuds force, the islamic corps, this is the deadly nation of the iranian state. they're not just in iraqened syria and afghanistan. they're in hezbollah, this is the top anti-american, anti-israel, anti-western force in the world. this is like the iraq surge when i served in iraq or shortly have after, the insurgents killing general patreaus. this would be schwarzkopf or macarthur any conflict. we're not inclined to have to go to war with iran. they're reminded today like every day in the trump administration that the americans are the top dog. we can find you where you are -- we will find you at the baghdad international airport wh

special counsel mueller the manr putin a former russian intelligence officer rather than his own intelligence agencies. we can see a pattern here. president trump solicited interference from russia as a candidate and in his campaign welcomed russian interference. in helsinki president trump believed putin over his own agencies. i don't see any reason why it would be, referring to russia. instead of denouncing russia's interference he denounced those investigating russia's interference. and he raised that now familiar dnc crowdstrike server thing. i really do want to see the server. i don't think we can go on without finding out what happened to the server. that's the exact same server that president trumpity manded ukraine investigate -- demanded ukraine investigate during his july 25th call to president zelensky. when he talked about the dnc server in helsinki with vladimir putin standing by his side he was resting the same discredited conspiracy theory of interference in 2016 that putin repeatedly promoted. let's look at this washington post article from july 20, 18. in the end trump's perf

intelligence to establish that. but that in and of itself isn't something new as it relates to iran or soleimani. and, obviously, he wasn't working -- he himself wasn't going to carry out these attacks if those attacks were imminent. so the question is, why didn't you target the military groups within iran that could have carried out any such attack, and how strong was that intelligence, and how imminent was it? and so i need to see the intelligence to be convinced because we have history already that establishes that sometimes this intelligence is aggressively looked at one side to promote a purpose, but doesn't substantiate itself on the garish light. >> so what if the intel doesn't satisfy you sntomorrow? what if you conclude the president acted unlawfully as you have suggested is possible? then what? >> this is why i'll be sitting today with senator kaine who introduced a war powers resolution. it seems to me that we need to constrain the president while making sure the language protects our troops in the region

had not acted on that intelligence. let me ask you, again, as former house intelligent committee chairman, would you be angry right now if you were still in that same position that you had not been briefed as a member of the gang of eight? because a lot of democrats are saying that. >> listen, i think this is part of the credibility problem with the administration and a big part of the credibility problem with congress. you both have to act like adults in these circumstances. this is serious. somebody's going to lose their life. yes, i would have been engaged. my counterpart from maryland worked very closely. a great example of that was the osama bin laden raid. we were brought in, in january to go over evidence that we had at the cia along the way, including up to the raid in may, including a preannouncement of the raid. that just doesn't happen anymore. and that's a credibility problem. and so i can't say honestly in good faith if you're sitting in the situation room of the white house you want to run down and tell th

that what we have gathered in terms of intelligence does indicate. a very clearly that this could very well have been an unintentional surface to missile surface to air missile strike and for the families of the victims who want answers . if the investigation isn't done with the vocal operation of iran how can you reassure canadians that you're really doing everything possible to get answers and to get to have a credible transparent investigation. well we understand justin trudeau that giving his interpretation of the crash of the ukrainian airliner on wednesday morning killing anjan 76 people he said multiple sources indicated that the plane was shot down by the rain in surface to air missile and that that shooting down could well have been unintentional and he called for a credible and thorough investigation to find out exactly what happened to that airliner with loss of so many lives more news in a couple of minutes. violence is how. things is the political wildcard that ultimately shapes world order the structure that is defended at all cost. be

i saw the intelligence. >> mike rogers, former house intelligence chairman. you've seen a lot of intelligence at difficult and crucial times here. probably, could have been, he believed, is that exquisite intelligence that indicates an imminent attack? >> probably not. i think when the national security adviser uses the term exquisite, what i think he's referring to is the fact that a piece of intelligence came from either a source where not many people would have access to that information, meaning that source was very, very close to the inner circle of soleimani and/or same with signals intelligence, they were able to get a connection very close so they're getting real time kind of intelligence. that's normally when i hear someone say it was exquisite, it means, boy, that's not a lot of people ought to know about how we get that information and you have to clean it up a little bit. this -- here's what i -- this is my assessment on this, i'm trying to walk through this, look at it, i think they went down a rabbit hole when they started using the term imminen

and they task their intelligence services to do that.ce services are the people who direct this capability. so one of the things we're going to see is these actors going after government policymakers, diplomats, military, and try answering the questions and understand what our next move is going to be. we're also concerned that they are using the capacity for surveillance against individuals, we know that they're breaking into places like telecommunications firms, hospitality, also travel. that's what allowed them to track people individually, of course, there is some physical risk with the concept of an organization that has a history of terrorism targeting specific individuals. >> exactly. i've spoken to officials worried about the safety potentially of u.s. diplomats overseas. the point has been made that via cyberattack that that's a way iran could attack the u.s. homeland in effect. i'm curious what the vulnerabilities are. we have spoken about how russia and china planted malware in critical infrastructure here in the u.s., that th

we had to gather additional intelligence. i thought this were gaps in terms of what was being said about wmd and its imminence. that term was used then as well. you fast forward and see what's going on today, yeah, there is some challenges with that. i think the administration is frankly tying itself in knots with this. they did that when they used the imminent description to begin with, which i think was unnecessary based on the aumf. didn't have to do that. soleimani was a high value target, head of terrorist organization, legally described, could have gone after him at any time and they took this opportunity. so the imminent term was, in my mind, was justification looking for a standard, a solution looking for a problem. didn't have to be done. >> when it comes to the overall impact, we heard in the minutes after and days following from the president, from the secretary of state mike pompeo, that the world is a safer place now and americans are safer. we have the first set of polling in about how americans really feel, and

he's free to know me if any intelligence service intelligence agency we are so very me and my war i'm doing in the public interest. or the factory so i regenerate on the right side so why do they why should they spy on us. while the surveillance of journalists within germany is restricted germany's intelligence services may spy as much as they like outside the country they can collect masses of data for example what happens to the information the b.m.d. collects is unknown but in an era of international terrorism intelligence agencies are cooperating more closely than ever before everybody hormones for a little bit more about. contemporary history and laws and specifically in the intelligence right and all of that in government service as a slovenia specifically it is to have been the shaped and played and coordinated by germany that's why it's gaga and other journalists demand the same constitutional protection as their german counterparts they believe the intelligence services surveillance techniques are making journalists' jobs more difficult. investigative journalists already have

intelligence committee is not flawless. we get it wrong. in this case intelligence community got it fundamentally right even the reflections wheezing after the effect, after the strike that qassem soleimani is limited that we are quite right was an imminent attack, active plotting and we took an action that we felt was likely to create less risk for the american people and we're confident that we did that. .. about what the right structure is. we are there to perform a training mission to help the security forces to be successful and continue the campaign against isis. we are going to continue the mission but as times change and we get to the point we can deliver the right structure with fewer resources dedicated to that mission we will do so. we have today, the nato team is working to develop a plan that will give burden sharing in the region as well to continue the important mission to protect and defend and keep the american people safe while keeping the cost and risks to our soldiers and sailors in the region. >> you said the imminent t

it was good intelligence. our intelligence communities do a good job. there are 17 of them. they keep us safe at home. they keep our troops safe in the field. this man was involved in actually participating in the orchestration of attacks against americans. he had been actively engaged in the american that was killed in the most recent days and the americans -- the four americans who were injured. he's done awful things over the years, not the least of which was running the ied program that killed and maimed so many of our young men and women who are in service there. this guy was on the battlefield. he was a general. and he was taken out by military action, absolutely lawful. i'm embarrassed for chris murphy when he said this is an assassination. this is not an assassination. this is an act of military conduct fully justified and that is what happened. >> well you heard senator murphy just now, former vice president biden said that president trump has, quote, just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinder box, unquote. what is your response in general to the criticism you're

jeremy, first to you, from your intelligence and military background and your intelligence background as well on capitol hill before that, what do you make of this information that u.s. intelligence believes it was a missile that took out that commercial airliner? >> andrea, the very same intelligence systems that would detect iran's ballistic missile launches against u.s. forces in iraq may well have also picked up iranian anti-aircraft activity on that same night. and i think it's important to distinguish, i don't believe what the reporting suggests is that iranian ballistic missiles somehow by coincidence intercepted the aircraft. i think what they're suggesting is that iranian integrated air defenses were on a very high state of readiness, high state of alert and they either mistook this commercial airliner for a u.s. military aircraft or there was some painting of the target by radar and the missile went off automatically as you suggest. i think what this all points up to, andrea, is that during the fog of war, when there's an exchange of fire, terrible things can unfold. and wha

intelligence bracing -- u.s. intelligence and the u.s.or how iran might respond to all of this after president trump ordered the assassination of a critically important leader in iran. we'll talk to a former cia operative, next. wow! that's ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. it's a sit-up, banana! bend at the waist! i'm tryin'! keep it up. you'll get there. whoa-hoa-hoa! 30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. ensure max protein. most people think as a reliable phone company. but to businesses, we're a reliable partner. we keep companies ready for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business. (second man) virtualize their operations. (woman) and build ai customer experiences. (second woman) we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. like 5g. almost all of the fortune 500 partner with us. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation... verizon keeps business ready. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only

bending the intelligence. this is the secretary of defense challenging what the president has said what the secretary of state has said about the intelligence. you know, this is a country that has gone to war in iraq in 2003 behind intelligence that turned out to be not what the administration said. that's not something that just democrats were upset about. it is something that much of trump's base was upset about that many republicans -- basically the entire country was upset about. donald trump himself said in 2008 that he thought that nancy pelosi should've impeached president george w. bush for lying to the country about the intelligence. of course, bush administration officials say they got the intelligence wrong, that the intelligence was not right, not that there was lying going on. so this is a huge issue. and obviously the invasion of iraq was different on the scale than the strike on soleimani. but the question of whether intelligence is being bent or being created or invented is a very huge one with

we had exquisite intelligence, and the intelligence showed that they were looking at u.s. facilities throughout the region and that they wanted to inflict casualties on american soldiers, sailors and marines as well as diplomats. the threat was imminent. i think imminent generally means soon, quickly, in process. i think those threats were imminent, and i don't want to give a definition further than that, but we took the measures necessary to protect american diplomats. >> reporter: and remember, fred, how important this argument of imminence is to this administration. they are using that for the reasoning that they didn't get congressional approval, for the reasoning that they didn't brief any members of congress. i want to note one other thing adviser robert o'brien said. he didn't want to compromise the intelligence by disclosing evidence, but he has been the first one to give away a lot of these intelligence details, so a lot of questions here surrounding what exactly happened, and again, whether or not this attack, whether or not taking out soleimani was necessary. >>

trudeau: we have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence. the evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an iranian surface-to-air missile. ros: all 176eople on board including 63naanadians died. da is going for a ful investigatio iran is denying the investigation, saying it is scientifically impossible. the queeo n tryingnd a suitable role for the duke and duchess of sussex after they announced they were stepping back. and a spotlight on fossil fuel industry as the bushfire crisis continues to wors. ros: canada's prine minister ju trudeau says that intelligence suggesting that the ukrain crashed near tehran on wednesday was shot down by no irann missile. di6 people were killed inc 60 canadians. mr. trudeau said this at a press comierence. prim trudeau: we have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence. the evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an iranian surface-to-air missile. this may well have been unintentional. this new information reinforces the need for a thoroug investigat

that kind of underlie this strike is intelligence that across the board intelligence officials wouldd present threat to u.s. citizens. so i think there are a lot of questions here. this is going to be something that we're going to have to follow very closely because this will escalate tensions in the region more than anything in the past couple of decades. >> everybody wants to see this intelligence and hopefully they'll release it, as much as they can. guys, stand by. the bankrupt-- breaking news co. why america saw suleimani as a serious threat to american lives. financial health, monitor your credit score, see your cash flow and find out how you can cut your monthly bills. download it now to see how much you can save. when it comes to using data, everyone is different. which is why xfinity mobile is a different kind of wireless network that lets you design your own data. choose unlimited, shared data, or mix lines of each and switch any line, anytime. giving you more choice and control compared to other top wireless carriers. save up to $400 a year when you switch. plus, unwrap $2

certainly that's a concern for the intelligence community because as we pointed out the intelligencemunity is focused on doing the work of intelligence. the last thing that any intelligence leader needs right now is to be pulled into the political fray. so while i think it's appropriate for a public hearing to take place, i understand the concerns on the part of the intelligence community. we don't need any more rifts between the intel community and this administration. >> in that case the american people lose outright, they don't get a fulsome discussion of what the threats are. turn to the impeachment question here, open question, will there be votes there to call witnesses, a witness like john bolton who has raised his hand to do so. majority leader schumer said he's going to try to force this question at the start when they are voting on the rules. not clear if they have the votes then in particular. how does that play out? more likely lose it then but might get four republican votes you need after a couple of weeks. >> maybe revisit after a couple of weeks. people like susan col

he is disregarded intelligence in this case, and he has disregarded the intelligence of the last threeffort to build a nuclear, you know, to expand the nuclear capabilities and ignored the intelligence community when it comes to what russia did with our election in 2016 and what they continue to do. it is very dangerous the have a president who disregards intelligence like that. i doubt very much that we have ever had a democratic or a republican president who has disregarded intelligence the way this president has. >> senator michael bennet of colorado, thank you for your time. >> thank you, jake. >>> and coming up, reporting that could further undermine the president's justification for taking out the top iranian general when he did. stay with us. when crabe stronger...strong, with new nicorette coated ice mint. layered with flavor... it's the first and only coated nicotine lozenge. for an amazing taste... ...that outlasts your craving. new nicorette ice mint. and my lack of impulse control,, is about to become your problem. ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. hey! my foc

i can tell you as an intelligence officer by training, intelligence is never 100% certain. you're always making a hard call, particularly battlefield intelligence involving the fog of war. but certainly we don't even need that to understand what happened because the iranian proxies, kataib hezbollah, had killed an american in iraq recently and attacked our embassy. >> but just to be clear. again, i don't think that americans are comfortable being fed intelligence that isn't spot on. in what you saw, was it specifically about u.s. embassies? >> the iranians attacked the u.s. embassy. so, clearly -- >> in baghdad. >> you have demonstrated that the embassy in baghdad. >> they were attacking us in the country. >> did you see intelligence that there were going to be attacks, imminent attacks on u.s. embassies, plural, outside of baghdad? >> as a counterintelligence officer, i'm not going to reveal to you the specifics of classified intelligence. >> but the president declassified it last night. to be clear, the president talked about it, which means that it was declassified last

bush's decision to invade of iraq, faulty intelligence, president trump has been critical of intelligencenity, mike pompeo was on 6 sunday shows today defending the intelligence saying it did show possibility of imminent attacks, should the media press, continue to press not just pompeo but the white house state department on the question on what exactly is the intelligence which they understandably say we can't reveal too much without getting into sources and methods. >> i think we have to, the reason why that's important many americans see war in iraq and especially the war in afghanistan which we are waging for 18 years, so americans are very weary and i think they are saying to themselves, if we get into this entanglement with iran, how long would we be here, what's the intelligence, are you telling us the truth, that's a valid question to ask the white house when truth is a problem for them. >> yeah, but no one is talk about a ground invasion of iran. a strike in iraq where there was congressional authority to operate in iraq, he was a terrorist and we took him out. >> guy, i hear th

what about the intelligence? was there specific intelligence that the iranians were wanting to plot four american embassies. >> there is intelligence that they were going to target the embassy in baghdad. what the president said is what i believe as well. he said they probably and could have been targeting the embas embassies in the region and i believe that as well as did other national security team members and that is why i deployed thousands of other paratroop members to reinforce the embassies in baghdad and other embassies in the region. >> and there is no question that soleimani killed many people. >> for 20-plus years. >> and the question is not whether he posed the threat in an existential way, because he did. he had been doing it for years. >> yes. >> and was there specific intelligence that he was plotting to attack four u.s. embassies? did you see any intelligence like that? >> i can't discuss intelligence matters here on the show. >> but the president did though. >> and it is the president's prerogat

later on, he compared the intelligence community to nazis. so this has been a very tough relationship between the intelligence community and the president, and now we are seeing the intelligence community fearing again that they will raise the ire, that they will anger the president if they come out in public with this threats briefing. i should note that there is no expectation that the actual report will not come out. in fact, as expected, the committees will reject this request for no briefing, so we will expect to get that report, and as things stand now, there is an expectation that this public briefing from the heads of the intelligence community will happen. jake, wolf? >> it's a pretty amazing development when you think about it, especially -- alex, thank you very much. those of us who have covered the evaluation intelligence community for years, this comes out every year. they brief the president on the threats. it's a public statement, it happens every time. the president was repeatedly criticizing the intelligence community's leade

yet and very limited intelligence shared with some staffers and intelligence committee, very limited information. do you expect administration officials right now are lying? >> i'm not prepared to say that. i hope certainly not. if they were lying about something of this magnitude, i hate to think of the consequences for the united states. but as i said, given their track record one can't be certain, as one would hope to be in a context like that the commander in chief and his top lieutenant are giving us the whole story. >> do you agree with leon panetta, former defense secretary, the u.s. is closer to outright war with iran than in 40 years? >> i think that's correct. >> you think it's realistic? >> i think it's very much a risk now. never in the last several decades have we or they taken an action quite so provocative and explosive. we have leadership on both sides that had made quite clear that they're not backing down, at least in the foreseeable future. >> susan rice, thank you for coming in. a very difficult moment in u.s. history. >>> just ahead, more on president trump's ord

intelligence. here's the genius of at the. what's the biggest question of u.s. intelligence?> i've dealt with some people that aren't very intelligent having to do with intel. i have great confidence in my intelligence people. but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> you disagree with the assessment? >> as i think you've all learned the intelligence agencies have run amuck. >> when we waste our time with intelligence that hurts our country because we had poor leadership at the top, that's not good. my people came to me, they said we think it's russia. i have president putin, he just said it's not russia. i will say this i don't see any reason why it would be. >> and that's unfortunate. intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dacngers of ira. perhaps they should go back to school. that is actually unintentionally ironic. back to grisham, it seems we are the only ones concerned over the lack of press briefings. take a look at this tweet. to press secretary stephanie grisham, i'm up

so if the intelligence community has been directed to withhold crucial intelligence from the congresscommittee, that is very, very bother some, i'll put it that way. >> it comes in conjunction with schiff saying that intelligence agency officials, they don't want to testify in public during what is a normal annual testimony during the worldwide threat assessment. and it seems because past public comments by intelligence officials krilkted the president's sometimes unfounded opinions and statements, and it seems they may not want to face that again. what exactly are the agencies and these officials' obligations to elected officials in the house and the senate? there is an obligation, is there not, to testify and provide information? >> there is, and i never understood it to be optional. you know, left to my own devices, i would have always preferred not to testify in public. but for lots of reasons, the main one is the delicate position you can be placed in with -- by virtue of responding to questions. you're always on the horns of a dilemma about whether you're risking compromising so

intelligence? >> i've dealt with some people that aren't very intelligent having to do with intel. i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> you disagree with that assessment? >> i have intel people. that doesn't mean i have to agree. as i think you've all learned, the intelligence agencies have run amok. when we waste our time with intelligence that hurts our country because we had poor leadership at the top, that's not good. my people came to me, dan coats came to me and some others. they said they think it's russia. i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this. i don't see any reason why it would be. >> and that's unfortunate. the president even questioned intelligence on iran in the past. here's the tweet. the intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of iran. they're wrong and, quote, perhaps intelligence should go ba

intelligence agencies had been running amok. he spent most of the past three years he's been in office denigrating and attacking the intelligence community and disputing findings, whether it's on russia or north korea, or really any area that contradicts things that he has -- [indiscernible] -- why then should americans suddenly believe your assertions that you had good intelligence on this when the head of the executive branch has been casting aspersions on the intelligence community for most of his time? office? -- of his time in office? mr. pompeo: i served as the c.i.a. director for the first year and a half of this administration. i watched the president rely on the work that the intelligence committee did for the entire time i served as the head of the central intelligence agency. i watched him rely on the capable men and women who are delivering exquisite information to the executive branch. i watched the president have confidence in that information. we all challenge their work, we have to make sure we get it right. the

we have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence. the evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by in a rainy and surface to air missile. this may well have been unintentional. this new information reinforces the need for a thorough investigation into this matter u.s. officials have told us media they have quote a high degree of certainty that it was a missile that hit the plane early u.s. president donald trump had suggested it might have been unintentional i have my suspicions it was very i don't want to say that because other people have those suspicions also. it's a tragic thing when i see that it's a tragic thing. but somebody could have made a mistake on the other could've could've made a mistake ukrainian officials have also said that they were quote not ruling out a missile attack having sent a team to tehran to investigate. and at the u.n. ukraine iran fully cooperate. the circumstances these guys are still unclear it is not up to the actors. and to find answers to the questions of what caused the crash to do so all ac

he is confirming, notjust from intelligence sources in washington but from canadian intelligence as well thorough investigation of what we have heard from the iranian side is that they are prepared to give access to the ukrainians and to the canadians. much access but not entirely sure what they are not giving is access to the manufacturer, boeing. whatever the cause of this tragic crash. foreign minister, the minister made it clear that the canadian officials must immediately be granted access to iran in orderto immediately be granted access to iran in order to provide services and identify the victims and participate in a thorough investigation. he also condemned iranian strikes the targeted military bases in a rack for coalition forces, including canadians are currently stationed. the minister committed to continuing this dialogue with canada as we seek a nswe rs. this dialogue with canada as we seek answers. i spoke with the ukrainian president earlier today and conveyed my condolences to the many ukrainians who perished in this tragedy. he assured me that the ukraine is taking all n

intelligence agencies. those are members of the intelligence community that there is fraud, abuse, something unlawful in those activities. not to create an inspector general of the presidency. and inspector general of the oval office. to report or determine whether the president and exercising his constitutional authorities had done something that should be reported. this law is narrow. and it does not cover every alleged violation of law which will be explained or every abuse that comes to attention of the member of intelligence community. just because your have to see something else does not make this law apply. in the law does not make the inspector general for the intelligence community responsible for investigating and reporting on allegations that do not involve intelligence activities or the intelligence community. now nonetheless, the president of course released the july 25 call transcript and it was also not the end ofer the matter that the whistleblower complaint, the dni -- the ici g slaughter w

this is in any intelligence activity going on within the intelligence community under the supervision of the dni. it's the head of the executive branch exercising his constitutional authority engaging in foreign relations with a foreign head of state. so in reaching that conclusion to office of legal counsel look at thee statute, , case law, te legislative history, and it concluded that this phrase, urgent concern, includes matters relating to intelligence activities subject to the dni's supervision but does not include allegations of wrongdoing arising outside of any intelligence activity or outside the intelligence community itself. and that makes sense. this statute was meant to provide for the inspector general of the intelligence community overseeing the activities and intelligence community to receive reports about what was going on at intelligence agencies, those that are members of intelligence community, if there was fraud, waste, abuse, something unlawful. it was not meant to greatat and inspector general of the presidency and inspector general of the oval office. to purport

we had the intelligence. what he would -- that he was in the process of planning these attacks and we acted to defend american lives. >> does that explanation make you feel better? >> no, not really. again, soleimani wasn't an executer in that he didn't plant ieds and he doesn't launch rockets. he's a planner, an architect. and has been for decades. so i just fail to see the connection here. and the absence of the intelligence which he's seen and we haven't, you know, to make that believable in light of the track record here in the regard or lack thereof as the occasion calls for it for intelligence. >> but as the former director of national intelligence, exactly what evidence would you need to see to believe it? >> well, that's a great question, alisyn. i worry here about, you know, depending on the sensitivity of the intelligence the potential compromising of sources and methods. the president has indicated he might declassify the intelligence which is certainly his prerogative to do. and in this case the o