21st Century Essential Guide to the Military Equipment of North Korea by Progressive Management

Author:Progressive Management
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: communism, korean, weapons, north korea, nork, dprk
Publisher: Progressive Management

Worldwide Threat Assessment to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Location: 216 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Time: 10:00 a.m. EDT

DIRECTOR CLAPPER: Chairman Feinstein, Vice Chairman Chambliss and distinguished members of the committee, as you indicated, we're here to present the 2013 worldwide threat assessment.

You already introduced my colleagues, but I do want to speak very briefly about sort of the alpha and omega of tenure in the Intelligence Community. And Bob Mueller approaching now 12 years in office and the very distinguished director of the FBI and a tremendous colleague for me in this job and the previous ones I've held.

And of course, I could not be more delighted and more proud to have John Brennan confirmed and installed as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. It's my view that John will go down as one of the distinguished directors of CIA.

These remarks and our two statements for the record, the one unclassified and much more detailed classified one, reflect the collective judgments of the extraordinary men and women of the United States Intelligence Community. And it's our privilege, those of us who are here and those who aren't, a privilege and honor to serve in these positions, to lead them and now, as I will discuss shortly, our solemn duty to try to protect them.

As you know, Madame Chairman, I have serious reservations about conducting open hearings on the worldwide threat, especially the question-and-answer sessions. While I believe it's important to keep the American public informed about the threats our nation faces, I believe that can be done through unclassified opening statements and statements for the record. As you also know, we're ready to answer any and all of your questions in closed session. But an open hearing on intelligence matters is something of a contradiction in terms.

While our statements for the record and your opening statements can be reviewed in advance for classification issues, our answers to your questions cannot. And our attempts to avoid revealing classified information sometimes leads to misinterpretation or accusations that we're being circumspect for improper reasons. It's a hazard we've encountered when publicly discussing sensitive details of national security matters.

So when we ask to discuss certain matters in a closed session, it's not to evade, but rather to protect our intelligence sources and methods and, if I might add, to be sensitive to the often delicate relations we have with our allies and partners. They, too, all carefully listen to and watch these hearings, as I've learned the hard way.

The topic that you have both alluded to, the topic that's foremost on our minds this year is, of course, sequestration. You haven't seen much public discourse on the impact of these indiscriminate cuts on intelligence. We haven't been on the talk shows and you don't read much about it in the printed media.

So let me now be blunt for you and for the American people - Sequestration forces the intelligence community to reduce all intelligence activities and functions without regard to impact on our mission.

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