mr. brennan: yes. [laughter] mr. brennan: there are things they can do and have done to address some of the terrorist threats they face, which are similar to the ones we face. one of the things about isis that distinguishes it from al qaeda it has an anti-shia dimension to it. that is how it has sort of rolled over many parts of iraq. because of the years where the sunni community felt shia dominated in the influence in baghdad was not addressing the needs of the community. they are very concerned about that. at the same time, iran is still identified as the leading state sponsor of terrorism because of what they have done. they are both a part of the problem, but they are also -- i am hopeful that maybe with the growing influence and ascendance of some the more moderate elements within the iranian government -- that we may see iran truly move towards rejoining the community of nations and fulfilling its role and responsibility. but while it continues to provide support to terrorist organizations and other groups, the

mr. brennan: no. senator blunt: do you see any good faith effort on the part of the chinese government to crack down on this? mr. brennan: i see some effort to follow through on commitments they've provided. there are a lot of entities, people, organizations inside of china. some of them operating as part of the chinese government, some working basically on contract. and so therefore we are exceptionally vigilant about all the different attack verdictors that individuals or countries could attempt to use in order to penetrate our systems and networks and databases, whether they be government systems or private sector to steal intellectual property. so i am -- continue to be concerned about the cybercapabilities that reside within china as well as the actions that some continue to undertake. senator blunt: thank you, irector, thank you chairman. senator burr: senator warner. senator warner: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. brennan, it's good to see you again. i want to reiterate once again personal thanks

mr. brennan: no. senator blunt: do you see any good faith effort on the part of the chinese government to crack down on this? mr. brennan: i see some effort by the chinese government to follow through on commitments they've provided. there are a lot of entities, people, organizations inside of china. some of them operating as part of the chinese government, some working basically on contract. and so therefore, we are exceptionally vigilant about all the different attack verdictors that individuals or countries could attempt to use in order to penetrate our systems and networks and databases, whether they be government systems or private sector, to steal intellectual property. so i am -- continue to be concerned about the cyber capabilities that reside within china as well as the actions that some continue to undertake. senator blunt: thank you, director, and thank you chairman. senator burr: senator warner. senator warner: thank you, mr. chairman. first of all, mr. brennan, it's good to see you again.

mr. brennan: i think there are a take-aways. one is this country has done a job since 9/11 making the land much more difficult to penetrate, because of the things like the watch ist and the very close cooperation between law enforcement intelligence. we see the most recent examples of those who are here and who incited to carry out these attacks. tremendous respect with the fbi's cables, interacting with jim on a regular basis. the fbi has a real challenge because there are individuals who could be in their home, will >> what is the cia's role? i working with our partners, think we do a very good job of showing as much debt information as possible. anything we have overseas, we make sure despairs -- shared with our partners. isiswant to come back to in syria and iraq. there has been some progress as you said, but it is frustratingly so. -- slow. you are dealing with the iranians playing a role and to a lesser extent syria. d.c. the iranians being -- do you see the iranians being supporting, the supportive role or you see them as

mr. brennan is absolutely correct in his assessment. mr. obama is far too shortsighted on isis.in that's the truth. but it will not be accepted by obama devotes. you will be attacked as a false messenger. no longer does the truth set us free. the current political climate, the truth, gets you hammered. that's the memo. now for the top story. with us here for reaction in new york city eric bolling and geraldo rivera. any quibbles, bolling. >> you are spot on on almost all of it. it is personal. donald trump is getting a lot of attention because of this no holds barred antipolitically correct rhetoric that he wants to throw out there and it's working for him. i will take exception with the one thing you said you think it will be a low turnout election night. i think it's going to be record turnout. >> that's speculation. >> of course it is. the primary has proved it. people are incensed on both sides. you are so right though. if you say you think trump may be right in this area right here this little thing right there they attack you. >> on the left? >> no. some on the center righ

mr. brennan: thank you very much chairman burr and vice president feinstein. inviting me to speak about the central intelligence agency, an agency bet i am enormously proud to apart of. i am privileged every day to lead the when -- men and women of cia. we work around the world, often in difficult and dangerous situations to keep the country strong and free and fellow citizens safe and secure. our hearing today takes place against the backdrop of a pain -- heinous act of wanton violence in orlando, florida last week. we join people mourning the loss of their loved ones killed in the attack. we extend our best which is -- our best wishes for their recovery. this defines us as a nation. in light of events in orlando, i would like to take this opportunity to offer the assessment of the terrorist attack, especially from the so-called islamic state of live thought, or -- islam and isil. , or the group appears to be a vision.from its several people are trending in the right direction. isil has lost large stretches of territory in syria and iraq. financial operations

mr. brennan saying the president is wrong on his terrorism question.have seen this week of course is seeing the president trying to downgrade the seriousness of isil. lou: he has lost all credibility frankly i think. >> on that subject absolutely he has. he is try to pretend like barry radical islamic terrorists who killed 49 people in orlando, he's just another guy. lou: a troop of boy scouts in the middle east. fred let's turn to a quickly to another boy scout and that is paul ryan. >> i knew you would get there. lou: i am there, i really unfair and i think ryan has become one of the most objectionable speakers perhaps congressman. we have had a lot of objectionable commerce meant that of a good objectionable speakers in the country's history. he is fighting and not it knowledge incorporated the party's nominee. he is subverting the party and the will of voters. there are a lot of words from the vernacular that i can use but i will leave them to you. how will this be tolerated by the house republicans and if they lose their jobs as he did not squarel

mr. brennan's boss, the president, said just two days ago. >> isil is under more pressure than ever beforepropaganda war. >> this is united states terrorism. same as the guy that shot up that church. >> yeah. >> it's no different. >> the left refusing to believe that islamic terrorism is the real danger to america. but why won't they believe it? we will tell you. >> a young man feeding a nacho to another

mr. brennan said on the hill last week about there's been no reduction in the isis threat or their globalch to commit terrorism. so i just wanted to get your -- what exactly does the secretary mean when these terrorist attacks happen and he's saying that shows how they're getting weaker or more desperate. >> well, again, i'm not one to parse the secretary's words, but in this case what i think he's clearly indicating -- we've spoken to this, john and myself have spoken to this before -- as you increase pressure, as they losses territory and are under increased pressure on the battlefield in iraq, in syria -- we've seen that, they've lost territory, they're under increasing pressure, they've lost key footholds in fallujah and elsewhere. and as they are under pressure, or, rather, let me rephrase that. they're under pressure. but that does not affect their ability to carry out terrorist attacks either in europe or elsewhere in the world, in turkey especially. but we've also seen in baghdad and we've seen it in iraq. they are still capable, and in their desperation even perhaps more willing

mr. brennan, cia director says we can't do vetting when we know right now a team from the european leaders say are headed to europe to attack europe from so we can't vet these people because we don't have background on them. there is no way to go into the communities and check their records. arrest records or business records. all you have is what they tell you. there is an opportunity to enter the united states and create attacks. >> trump said president obama should resign and hillary clinton should drop out of the race because of the refusal or failure to say the phrase radical islam. here's how the president responded. >> there is no magic to the phrase "radical islam." it is a political talking point, not a strategy. >> now, i understand the argument. you can't beat the enemy unless you identify the enemy. clearly there is an islamisisla jihadist component in this. would you agree with the president that even if you say the name that the real key is what's your plan, what's your strategy to beat isis? >> i don't understand the president's plan on this. when donald trump went at hillar

mr. brennan's boss, the president, said just two days ago. >> isil is under more pressure than ever beforeight, why isis is winning the propaganda war. >> this is united states terrorism. same as the guy that shot up that church. >> yeah. >> it's no different. >> the left refusing to believe that islamic terrorism is the real danger to america. but why won't they believe it? we will tell you. >> a young man feeding a nacho to

mr. brennan said on the hill last week about so i just wanted to get your secretary mean when these terroristhow they are getting weaker or more desperate. in this case i think what he's clearly indicating and we have spoken to this before. as you increase pressure, as they lose territory and under increased pressure on the battlefield in iraq and syria, they have lost territory. they are under increasing pressure. they have lost key footholds in fallujah and elsewhere. as they are under pressure, or rather let me rephrase that. they are under pressure, but that does not affect their ability to carry out terrorist attacks either in europe or elsewhere in the world, in turkey especially but we have also seen it in baghdad and iraq. they are still capable and in their desperation even perhaps more willing and liable to carry out these kind of attacks to continue to exert their will. >> what does that say about the anti-isis campaign? as i recall, it was to fight their capability to inflict harm on the united states not to retake the villages in syria. >> i think we have to do both. it's a multi

mr. brennan said on the hill, that there has been no reduction rtegy toeduction sta reduce terrorism. what does the secretary mean when these terrorist attacks have been, and he's saying that is showing how they are getting weaker or more desperate? again, in this case, what the secretary is clearly pressureg, is as you -- as you increase pressure on the battlefield in iraq and syria. and we have seen that they have must territory and have lost key footholds in falluja and elsewhere. ,nd as they are under pressure or rather -- they are under pressure. but that does not affect their ability to carry out terrorist attacks, either in europe or elsewhere in the world, in turkey especially. we have also seen it in baghdad and iraq. they are capable, and in their desperation, perhaps more willing and liable to carry out these attacks to continue to will.their >> what does that say, then, about the anti-isis campaign? inflicteir ability to harm on the united states, not take villages in syria? >> it is a multi-front effort. we have talked about this before. at the same time that you have fro

mr. brennan today, what went through your mind?ou think of the administration coming out a couple weeks ago and saying that travel to europe this summer is ill-advised, and then you lay that on top of what the cia director said today which was pretty aggressive when it comes to their public position on isis, we have a huge and growing problem with isis. it means there's two kinds of attacks that they're trying to conduct. one is where they coordinate the attacks. that's where the cia director was saying they're actually trying to infiltrate migrant flows. they're trying to either do it through smuggling routes or by ele ele legitimate air travel using stolen passports or false documents and then they're trying to inspire people. the orlando shooting was the inspire part of it that worked and got this individual to slaughter 50 innocent americans. now they're doing these coordinated isis attacks. this could be a very dangerous summer, indeed, and we're going to have to do something about isis in raqqah who is giving these permission

mr. john brennan. within about five days of that, we saw joint staff directive come out, saw congressman gohmert give you last week on the air, that joint staff directive came out tasking the services to scrub their training material and specifically, and the key thing in this, sean, it was targeting intelligence. >> so you're saying from the department of homeland security, the department of defense, you were given a mass scrubbing of any intelligence we had gathered and spent probably billions of dollars accumulating, that would have helped prevent, say it. >> it was top down. it started with the subject matter experts. we call them smes. they went after the ones, two or three in each one of the major branches of the federal government involved with law enforcement. they went after people like us first. once we were out of the way, then they had a very wide latitude to work. >> so when they said man-caused disasters, overseas contingen contingencies and, you know, workplace violence, that was all par

mr. brennan, based on my experience working with him, he's doing his job provided an honest assessment inuation is on the ground. maria: got me ask you about active investigations going on as an outsider looking in at this point. we've been waiting to hear any closure on the scandal and investigation over hillary clinton's e-mails. a lot of people speculating we will see an even bigger investigation as it relates to the foundation. what is going on behind closed doors and does it feel like it's taking longer than people are expecting or is that getting bigger? >> i don't know. this is obviously a very serious investigation of personally for mrs. clinton and politically. it's the middle of a presidential campaign. the fbi wants to get this right. whatever direction they want to move forward again. they want to feel comfortable that it is the right direction. again, i'm not going to speculate what's going on but i have every confidence building forward to doing the thing that's right. maria: we expect james called me will give information on straight order. president obama and vice presiden

mr. chairman, i appreciate the time. thank you, general brennan. i yield back. >> thank you. now recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. boyle, for five minutes. >> yes, thank you, mr. chairman. i was struck by the fact -- i don't know when it was, i think it was recent. that pew research did a poll of favorability ratings of different various government agencies, and the post office came out the highest at 84%. which i can't remember where congress was, but i think postal service was slightly higher than where congress ended up, significantly lower than that. it's made all the more remarkable by the fact you had a decade where there were 200,000 fewer emblployees than there we just a decade ago. my question, though, is regarding the rather unique requirement the postal service lives under where essentially you have to prepay 75 years of obligations within a ten-year window. can you talk about the effect that that has had on the balance sheet? and do you know of any other government agency or for that matter private sector company that hasve u to lier such a unique requ

mr. chair. welcome director brennan.

mr. chair. welcome, general brennan. you outlined the real disconnect in the progress that's been made against isil in terms of kinetic progress, in terms of limiting their financial resources, and the reality of inspired terrorist attacks that have global reach, including here in the homeland, as we've seen this week. what progress is being made in degrading isil's ability to inspire terrorist acts through the digital or even traditional media? and how have we learned how to measure that progress? >> well, what we're trying to do is go up stream and find out who was responsible for spewing this information into the internet that inspires individuals to carry out these attacks. and so, working with our military partners, we are trying to make sure that the appropriate actions are taken in syria and iraq, where a lot of this emanates from. in addition, we are trying to share information with as many of our global partners as possible so that they can be atune to individuals who may be involved in these activities, because

mr. chairman. general brennan, you have an article from "los angeles times" that says after peaking in 2006, total mail handled by the postal service has declined 27%. is that fairly accurate? and is mail volume still slowly declining? and have you taken -- do you feel like you have taken every step you can do thus far to adjust to that decline? >> congressman duncan, you're correct in terms of the decline in total mail volume. the challenge for us is the continued decline particularly in first-class mail, which pays the bills, defines or network requirements, hence our actions to right-size the infrastructure and take costs out of the system. there are still opportunities, but i think as noted, we have reduced our annual cost base by $15 billion. >> i'll tell you a little story. about four years ago they had an article about me and my dad in the knoxville news sentinel. i got the nicest letter from peyton manning about that article. he said he could tell i have the same relationship with my dad as he has with his

i cannot tell you how many times i have quoted the brennan center. >> thank you mr. chairman and members of the community of -- committee for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the brennan center to urge the democratic party to unambiguously and enthusiastically adopt a pulled agenda. i will talk in particular about -- aspect of that which is >> [indiscernible] >> ok. i will not say it all again except thank you. we strongly encourage you to make bold democracy reform a central policy strategy and agenda for the democratic party and the next congress. i will books in particular on voter registration. the nation was founded 240 years ago on the commitment that the government is legitimate only when it rest on the consent of the governed. we have struggled towards that idea ever since. it has been a hard struggle. this party, at its best, has been central to that struggle. as you all 17 states will have new laws to restrict voting on the books for the first time in a presidential election in 2016. the first presidential election in half a century without the full p

mr. chair. welcome director brennan. you talked in your opening statement, you outlined real progress that's been made within isil in terms of limiting their financial resources and the reality of inspired terrorist attacks that have global reach including here in the homeland as we have seen this week. what progress is being made in degrading isil's ability to inspire terrorist acts through the digital or even traditional media and how have we learned how to measure that progress? >> we are trying to go up stream and find out who is responsible for spewing the information into the internet that inspires these individuals to carry these attacks. and working with our military partners, we are trying to make sure that the appropriate actions are taken in syria and iraq where a lot of this emanates from. in addition, we are trying to share as many information with global partners because it's not just upstream activity but the downstream of this but it also gets to issue that we were talking earlier about which is what is t

mr. obama appeared angrier at him than he was at the orlando gunman. margaret brennan reports. >>> it won't make us more safe. it will make us less safe. fueling isil's notion that the west hates muslims. >> reporter: a passionate president obama ripped into donald trump, warning that his rhetoric feeds hate. >> we hear language that singles out immigrants and suggests entire religious communities are complicit in violence. where does this stop? the orlando killer, one of the san bernardino killers, the ft. hood killer, they were all u.s. citizens. are we going to start treating all muslim americans differently? because that's not the america we want. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: that divisiveness hurts the u.s. war against terrorists, he argued, and be s betrays american values. >> if we ever abandon those values, we would not only make it a lot easier to radicalize people here and around the world, but we would have betrayed the very things we are trying to protect. the very things that make this country great. the very things that make us exceptional. and then the terro

mr. chair. welcome director brennan. you talked a little bit in your opening statement, you outlined the disconnect between the real progress that is been made with iso- in terms of genetic progress in limiting their financial resources and the reality that inspired terrorist attacks that have global reach including here in the homeland as we have seen this week. what progress is being made integrating isil's ability to inspire terrorists acts through the digital or even traditional media and how have we learned how to measure that progress? >> well what we are trying to do is to find out who is responsible for spewing this information into the internet that inspires individuals to carry out these attacks on so working with our military partners we are trying to make sure that the appropriate actions are taken in syria and iraq were a lot of this emanates from peer it in we are trying to share information with has many of our global partners as possible so they can be attuned to individuals who may be involved in these a

mr. trump for sure. and it is the david petraeus approach, the brennan approach.within the security establishment that we need to rely on arabs and muslims to help us collect the information and intelligence to make america safer. >> saying we need to strengthen relationships with allies is a plattetude that doesn't get us anywhere because the consensus is so strong that anybody who spends five minutes on the issue at any level of government already knows, of course we have to work with allies and should be recruiting people from inside of these communities, the question then becomes one of a number's game. where are the majority of major terrorist attacks coming from. we talked about some that are home grown, others coming from people from certain countries. some might need additional scrutiny in the immigration process. there are some countries that we can come to the u.s., stay for 90 days. no questions asked. others have to go through a longer process. i think the trump campaign needs more than they deserve. but the clinton is telling us what we've been hearin

brennan, cbs news the white house. >> so sweet. >> i think they did amazing job the president and mrs. obama and mrs.ma's mother grandmother was in the house they really have done amazing job raising these two young ladies. >> always just a heart warming moment any time you see any dad and mom talking about spending the last year because it really is monumental. this is their last year probably ever living in the house together. >> the country has watched her grow up still ahead on "eyewitness news",. >> it could be the longest birthday celebration ever. we'll head across the pond for the latest chapter in elizabeth's big birthday party. it's a milestone year for her magesty. lauren. >> we have another round of sunshine today but storms are on the way for the upcoming weekend and a few could be strong to severe. i'll time out the storms and talk about some toastier temperatures in your full forecast coming up next. ♪ prodders, shuckersers, and sniffers, [ inhales ] all giant produce is triple checked. farm, crate, and store. we're focusing on fresh... ...so you don't have to guess. my giant. >>> well

i cannot tell you how many times i have quoted the brennan center. >> thank you mr. chairman and members of the committee for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the brennan center to urge the democratic party to unambiguously and enthusiastically adopt a bold agenda. i will talk in particular about one aspect of that which is -- >> [indiscernible] >> ok. i will not say it all again except thank you. we strongly encourage you to make bold democracy reform a central policy strategy and agenda for the democratic party and the next congress. i will focus in particular on voter registration. the nation was founded 240 years ago on the commitment that the government is legitimate only when it rests on the consent of the governed. we have struggled towards that idea ever since. it has been a hard struggle. this party, at its best, has been central to that struggle. as you all know, right now, that democracy is facing strains. 17 states will have new laws to restrict voting on the books. it is not a surprise that the first election in a cnetury without prtection of the v

mr. president, if there is one thing that director brennan's testimony made clear, it's that we're not doing enough to confront the threat posed by isis. unfortunately, that's not something that president obama seems to understand. as his remarks last week made clear, the president is more interested in explaining why he doesn't like the term radical islam than he is in offering a concrete plan to actually defeat isis. madam president, it's difficult to understand why the president so resolutely avoids this term. the fact of the matter is isis and its adherents are driven by the radical interpretation of islam. how can we hope to confront this terrorist ideology if we can't actually call it by its name? on the same note, what was the administration hoping to accomplish when it redacted references to isis in its initial release of the 911 transcripts from the orlando attack? was it hoping to somehow distract from the fact that this was a terrorist attack? did it want to play down the fact that isis is now inspiring attacks in the united states? unfortunately, madam president, our commander in

listen to brennan say the islamic state remains as dangerous as ever despite repeated assurances to the contrary from mr. obama. >> unfortunately despite all of our progress against isil on the battlefield in the financial realm our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach. more for the group's foreign branches and global networks can help preserve its capacity for terrorism regardless of events in iraq and syria. in fact as the pressure mounts on isil it will intensify as global terror campaigns to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda. lou: brendan went on to say the islamic state is preparing more attacks by able trading refugees moving into western nations are at a course that is precisely what donald trump has repeatedly warned that the terrorists are using immigrants and refugees. trump is declared the islamic state is strengthening, not weakening and becoming a greater threat while president obama with his staff and he himself have refused to take the war to the enemy. >> where affording radical islamic terrorism into the west are failed immigrati

listen to brennan say the islamic state remains as dangerous as ever despite repeated assurances to the contrary from mrunfortunately despite all of our progress against isil on the

mr. michael german is a fellow with the liberty and national security program at the brennan center for justice at new york university law school. graduate of wake forest university in northwestern university law school, mr. gherman previously worked as a special agent of the fbi. he has taught at the national defense university, the john j. college of criminal justice, and spent several years with the american civil liberties unions washington legislative office and mr. andrew mccarthy is a senior fellow at the national review institute and a contributing editor to "national review." a graduate of columbia and the new york law school, mr. mccarthy served as a federal prosecutor for 18 years in the united states attorneys office for the southern district of new york. he was the lead prosecutor in the terrorism case against the so-called blind sheikh and 11 others convicted in 1995 of inspiring to wage a war of urban terrorism against the united states. mr. mccarthy is the author of several books on terrorism and national security. i would ask that each of you stand and raise your right hand. do

brennan testified before congress. it's not a rosy picture. you have made progress. amount ofeduced the land. they are strong and the gains have a long long way to go. mr.iden: john said two things. are we making progress against the caliphate? that isised areas and syria. iraq he said yes we are but still have a big problem. they can metastasize around the world. the difference between isis and al qaeda, al qaeda never was in a position where they occupy territory.hs of literally threatening the stability of countries. i want you all the time. -- i watch you all the time. solicitous.ng to be about two years ago you were talking about how these guys captured mosul. if they are able to consolidate land and power why did the saudi's start page tension? they realized their kingdom was in trouble. they could take down the government. occupied land and territory. the notion that across a state able to topple entire states was something everybody was concerned about. that is not that within the power of isil to do now. but they can have a cell with 17 people or four people with $3 million, planning a program with a find two suicide bombers were going to figur

mr. brennan, in the intelligence committee, and i pointed out that one of the things that does help americansbe as safe as possible is strong encryption for their smartphones. those smartphones have people's life and their transactions, medical, financial. their whole life is in those smartphones. so if you weaken strong encryption and require companies, as several of our colleagues want to do, require companies to build back doors into these digital products, americans are going to be less safe. for example, a number of the smartphones have a location tracker, so that a parent can keep tabs on a youngster. well, you weaken encryption, you weaken the location tracker, you're pretty much giving a gift to pedophiles, because it'll be easy to track youngsters as a result of weakening encryption. and so had a discussion this morning about it, and in particular the comment i was concerned about this morning was when i said, hey, the reality is, if we weaken encryption in the united states, the reality is terrorists and hackers and others are just going to go overseas, where there are hundreds of p