U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence

U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence - Press Release Current and Projected National Security Threats to the United States 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, February 16, 2005 Statements

Senator Roberts Chairs Intelligence Committee Hearing on the Worldwide Threat to the United States FULL STREAMING VIDEO

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today held an open hearing to give the public the Intelligence Community’s best assessment of the current and projected national security threats to the United States.

Chairman Roberts laid out the priorities of the Intelligence Committee going into the 109th Congress, “First, we look forward to the naming of a Director of National Intelligence. As soon as the president nominates this individual we will schedule a confirmation hearing. Second, we will monitor closely the implementation of the intelligence reform bill. We will focus a great deal of attention on how this committee can support the new Director of National Intelligence in the exercise of his or her authorities. And, because no legislation is perfect, we will also look at whether any legislative fixes are necessary. Third, in the area of oversight, we will focus on the Intelligence Community’s collection and analytical capabilities.”

Witnesses before the committee included: FULL TEXT in PDF format

Honorable Porter J. GossDirector of Central Intelligence Central Intelligence Agency

Mr. Robert S. Mueller, IIIDirector Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby (USN) Director Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

Mr. Thomas Fingar Assistant Secretay of State Intelligence and Research

“This committee learned from our Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) inquiry that we can not and should not always take the Intelligence Community’s assessments at face value,” Senator Roberts said. “The Vice Chairman and I have therefore decided to change the way the Senate Intelligence Committee does its work. We haven’t launched anything, we haven’t begun an investigation or an inquiry, nor have we ruled them out. We have simply adjusted our approach based on the lessons we learned while reviewing the Community’s assessments on Iraq’s WMD programs.”

“Applying the methodologies we used in that review, we will now look deeper into the Intelligence Community’s work on critical threats,” Senator Roberts said, “Instead of examining these issues after the fact, as we did on the Iraq WMD question, we are going to be more proactive to try to identify our strengths and weaknesses ahead of time. We have already begun to examine our intelligence capabilities with respect to nuclear terrorism and also Iran.”

“In closing,” Chairman Roberts said, “I want to say something about the limitations of intelligence. Even the best intelligence will not be absolutely precise and tell us what to do. However, it is a necessary and crucial tool used by policymakers to make difficult decisions, nothing more, nothing less.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 16, 2005CONTACT: Sarah Ross Little(202) 224-4774