Good morning. I call this hearing to order. I’d like to begin by welcoming our esteemed panel of witnesses: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; CIA Director John Ratcliffe; FBI Director Kash Patel; Director of the National Security Agency and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command General Timothy Haugh; and DIA Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse.
Thank you for your leadership and for appearing before this Committee today. I’d also like to recognize the hard work and dedication of thousands of men and women in our intelligence community whose efforts directly contributed to the report we are here to discuss. Their successes are seldom celebrated, and their accomplishments are often unseen. But our nation is grateful to each one of these individuals for the vital work they do to keep our nation safe, prosperous, and free.
Today’s annual worldwide threat hearing comes at a critical moment. It is an opportunity for the American people to receive an unvarnished and unbiased account of the real, prescient dangers that we are up against in this fallen world.
As we will hear from each of our witnesses, many of the threats we face from our adversaries are existential in nature.
Communist China is actively working to replace the United States as the world’s dominant superpower. Using coercive military, economic, and influence operations short of war, Communist China deploys complex, whole-of-government campaigns to create a world favorable to its interests. These include modernizing its military to counter the U.S. in the Pacific; rapidly expanding and diversifying its nuclear forces; providing critical assistance to help Russia withstand U.S. sanctions; obscuring its role in accelerating the spread of COVID-19 beyond Wuhan; turning a blind eye to Chinese companies that enable the production of fentanyl flooding the United States; and putting space-weapons on orbit.
Iran, despite setbacks inflicted on its “Axis of Resistance” by Israel, still harbors intentions to destroy the State of Israel and the “Great Satan” – the United States. It continues its decades-long effort to develop surrogate networks inside the United States to threaten U.S. citizens and continues to arm the Houthis’ attacks on global shipping. In a remarkable reversal from the weakness and indecisiveness of the previous administration, President Trump launched a series of large-scale military strikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen earlier this month. This overwhelmingly successful offensive sent a clear message to Iran and its proxies: terrorism will not be tolerated and will not go unanswered.
Furthermore, Iran’s nuclear program continues apace, and it is actively developing multiple space launch vehicles – which are nothing more than flimsy cover for an ICBM program. But this is coming to an end. The Supreme Leader now has a stark choice before him, thanks to President Trump. The Supreme Leader can fully dismantle his nuclear program, or it will be dismantled for him.
Finally, this report acknowledges the fact that illicit drug production endangers the health and safety of millions of Americans. It is the first time that the Annual Threat Assessment lists Foreign Illicit Drug Actors as the first threat to our country. Thank you for that, Director Gabbard. As you highlight, Mexican-based cartels, using precursors produced in China, still smuggle fentanyl and synthetic opioids into the United States. Last year, these deadly drugs tragically killed 52,000 Americans – more than the number killed in attacks by foreign terrorists or foreign nations last year.
All of us in this room are here for the same reason: to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
As the world has become more dangerous, our intelligence agencies have gotten more politicized, more bureaucratic, and more focused on promulgating opinions than gathering facts. As a result of these misplaced priorities, we have been caught off guard and left in the dark too often.
As policymakers and lawmakers, it is our job to make prudent decisions based on the world as it is, not as we wish it was or hope for it to be.
The members of the intelligence community have a fundamentally different role. The job and core mission of the intelligence community is to steal adversary secrets and convey them to policymakers to protect the United States.
Let me be clear: It is not the role of the intelligence agencies to make policy, justify presidential actions, or operate like other federal agencies. It is their job to take bold and innovative action to collect clandestine intelligence from foreign enemies.
The intelligence community must recommit to its mission of collecting clandestine intelligence from adversaries whose main objective is to destroy our nation.
The reason is not that our intelligence community lacks dedicated patriots who show up to work every day trying to protect the American people – it has an abundance of them. The reasons are the mis prioritization of resources; bureaucratic bloat; a default to play it safe; and an administration that prioritized social engineering over espionage.
Coupled with recent failures, the findings in today’s worldwide threat report should be a wake-up call to get our house in order. The status quo is proving inadequate to provide the President and policymakers with the intelligence needed to protect the American people.
In a renewed era of heightened great power competition, America's intelligence capabilities require urgent reforms and revitalization.
As chairman of this committee, I look forward to working with you all to strengthen America’s intelligence edge and refocus our intelligence community on its core mission: stealing secrets.
The American people deserve nothing less. We’ve assembled an impressive team to get this done, and I look forward to hearing your comments.
Now, I’ll turn it over to my colleague, the Vice Chairman.
