NOMINATION OF VICE ADMIRAL MICHAEL NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2007 U.S. SENATE, SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, Washington, DC. Committee Members Present: Senators Rockefeller, Feinstein, Also Present: Senator Collins. Chairman ROCKEFELLER. This hearing will come to order. There is one formality that we need to dispose of before we can Vice Chairman BOND. I was going to make the motion. So it is Chairman ROCKEFELLER. It's agreed. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, Welcome to all. And we begin today with a very serious confirma- Before we get into the substance of the statements and the ques- Admiral MCCONNELL. Well, thank you, sir, very much. You just mentioned my wife who's sitting just here in the white Chairman ROCKEFELLER. Good. I welcome them too. (1) And, of course, we welcome our valued colleague, the distinguished Senator from West Virginia—I mean, senior Senator from Virginia-who is obviously a valued-you see, it always goes the other way. Usually people call West Virginia, Virginia. Senator WARNER. We in Virginia will take you back. You ran away, but we'll take you back. [Laughter.] Chairman ROCKEFELLER. Senator, we seceded for a good and just cause. And Senator Warner is going to be introducing Admiral McConnell in just a moment. Admiral McConnell appears before us after a long absence from Government service. He has not, however, been absent from the field of intelligence. He served in the U.S. Navy for 29 years, rising to the rank of vice admiral, which is, I am told, a very rare accomplishment for an intelligence officer. During the period of public service, he served as Director of Intelligence on the Joint Staff during the Persian Gulf war and as Director of the National Security Agency, our Nation's largest intelligence agency. Upon retiring from the Navy, Admiral McConnell went to work for Booz Allen & Hamilton, where he has been a senior vice president for intelligence and national security. He is also currently chairman and chief executive officer of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an industry group that works with the Government looking for ways to solve some of our complex intelligence problems. Admiral McConnell, I was particularly interested in reading in your responses to our questions that we sent you prior to this hearing on how you came to be an intelligence officer. As you described it, after serving a tour in combat in Vietnam, you wanted to know how to provide better intelligence to those who are, in fact, in combat. This tells me some very important things about you. First, you know what combat is really like and how important it is to try to keep the young men and women serving in our military out of harm's way whenever possible. Secondly, you know how important intelligence is to our military commanders and to those who make the decisions affecting our national security. And finally, it tells me that you are an intelligence professional by choice, not by accident. And that means you have a huge dedication to the field. If you are confirmed, you'll be taking over an experiment still in its early stages, an experiment intended to make sure that U.S. intelligence provides policymakers, our military commanders, and other decisionmakers with the best information available. While the Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 in the wake of the 9/11 Commission report and this Committee's report on problems with prewar intelligence related to Iraq, those were only the most recent in a long line of studies and reports describing the structural problems in the intelligence community. The question we will have for you today, and the challenge you will face if confirmed, will be to figure out if we got it right. I'm convinced that separating the DNI from the day-to-day operation of the Central Intelligence Agency was the right step. For the first time ever, we now have somebody whose primary responsibility is organizing the different pieces of the intelligence community. I also think this arrangement benefits the CIA since it now has the undivided attention of its Director. But beyond the act of separating the two jobs, it is less clear whether the structure of the DNI office is ideal to accomplish its mission-hence, a work in progress. We did not pull the technological collection agencies out of the Defense Department and we did not give the DNI direct authority over the main collection or analytical components of the community. We gave the DNI the authority to build the national intelligence budget, but we left the execution of the budget with the agencies. We gave the DNI tremendous responsibilities. The question is, did we give the position enough authority for him to exercise those responsibilities? I will also want to hear from you today about how you envision your relationship with us, and this will be an important line of questioning for me. The Committee is charged with overseeing the operation of the intelligence community. It's a job that Vice Chairman Bond and I and all the Members of our Committee take very, very seriously. We care very much about intelligence that intelligence work for our Nation and for our fighting forces. And therefore, it's important that our relationship be a comfortable and frank one. Congressional oversight is sometimes viewed only as a criticism. And at times, we do criticize, but it is our goal to make the intelligence community the best that it can be. And oversight should be cooperative, not confrontational. In order to accomplish this goal, we will have to work together to ensure that this Committee has the access to the materials it needs to conduct oversight. It is no secret that neither Vice Chairman Bond nor I have been happy in the past with decisions by some to restrict access to required information by our Members and staff. Depriving our Committee of the information it needs, or over-restricting access to the information we need, not only weakens congressional oversight of secretive intelligence programs, it generates unnecessary suspicion and, worst of all, undercuts the effectiveness of activities generally. Vice Chairman Bond and I are committed to working together to overcome this problem. And the Vice Chairman, I have to say, has been extremely effective on that so far. But we will need your help, sir. In our discussion today, I'm not interested in rehashing what has or has not transpired in the past. I want to establish a positive and collaborative relationship for the future. I look forward to getting your views on these and other issues that you are going to be facing. now recognize Vice Chairman Bond. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, VICE CHAIRMAN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM MISSOURI Vice Chairman BOND. Thank you very much, Chairman Rockefeller. I join in welcoming you, Admiral McConnell, and your fine family. I had an opportunity to meet briefly with your lovely granddaughters. I know that's a source of great pride. I associate myself with all the things the Chairman has said. And we are working together. We do need access and we look forward to a constructive relation. But I have a few comments on which I wish to elaborate. And that is the fact that, as has already been said, the intelligence community has come a long way since 9/11. Significant intelligence and Government reforms have been enacted, including creation of the Director of National Intelligence. The DNI is and should be central to transforming the community. In the face of unknown and known enemies who are determined to cause us harm, we need strong, decisive leadership to make sure we pull together the IC's considerable resources, talents, and capabilities. It's certainly no secret to anybody I've talked to, or who has watched the record, that I specifically voted against the intelligence reform legislation 2 years ago because I believe it gave the DNI a whole lot of responsibility without the requisite authority. I had hoped for more robust legislation. If you're confirmed, Admiral McConnell, as I am sure you will be, I expect and hope you will give this Committee your full unvarnished opinion about your authority so that we can ensure that the one we hold responsible for intelligence matters has the requisite authority. Mr. Chairman, I believe the President has made an excellent choice in nominating Admiral McConnell. With the long and distinguished career that you mentioned, he certainly has the background. He and I have had time to spend together in my office after the nomination. We discussed the progress and areas where further reform is needed. He testified that he shared my concern with the fact that within the IC-the intelligence communitythere are no fully auditable financial statements and he plans to change that and we want to work with him. I believe Mike McConnell has the right background for this important job and is the right choice. As an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy and numerous leadership positions, including Director of the NSA and his private sector work, I think he brings not only subject matter expertise to this important job, but leadership. And Admiral, I look forward to hearing about your ideas on continuing the transformation of the community. Human intelligence-absolutely essential. Our enemies are agile and diverse. We need to stay ahead of them and prevent them from realizing their evil intentions, but we need better human intelligence which does not necessarily mean more human intelligence. And ideology-I believe that the global war on terrorism must be regarded largely as an ideological war. Twenty percent of the war is kinetic, and I fully support that in many ways, but also 80 percent is ideological and we're going to have to win on both fronts. I'm concerned we haven't been doing enough to focus on the ideological front raised by the radical Islamist fundamentalist terrorists. Next, information sharing and analysis. Our officers are doing good work. But I think they can do better, particularly when sharing intelligence across the IC. You've written about these ideas, and I look forward to hearing more about them. And financial management, again, right now the IC cannot tell us exactly how the National Intelligence Program funds are being spent, and I believe you and I regard that as unacceptable. And in reference to the Committee issues that the Chairman raised, we're well aware that the intelligence community has learned important lessons about the Iraq WMD failure and made important changes. But we've also learned important lessons from that failure, and as a result, we're changing our approach to oversight. When the 2002 NIE on Iraq WMD programs was provided, there was no evident problems with the document. However, at that time, the Committee did not examine the underlying intelligence that supported it. After the start of the war, we did examine the underlying intelligence, and we quickly realized that the NIE's characterization and interpretation of this intelligence was overstated, and in many cases just plain wrong. I have said before that Congress demanded that immediately in the worst way, and that's unfortunately how we got it. We are not going to accept national security issue judgment without examining the intelligence underlying the judgments, and I believe this Committee has an obligation to perform due diligence on such important documents. When we ask for documents, however, we've run into resistance, and the IC claims we should not be looking over its shoulder and checking its work. To me, that's basically what oversight is all about. And I think the Committee must look into the materials on which you base the judgment. Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, when we're seeking documents supporting the 2005 Iran NIEs, we're experiencing significant resistance. This baffles me. If you're confirmed, I hope you will work with us, support our efforts to get these documents and perform our duty for the Senate and the American people. In conclusion, I thank you so much for taking on this job. I congratulate you on your nomination. You are our best hope of being able to develop the intelligence we need to confront the untold enemies who are united in their hatred of America and the freedoms, hopes, and opportunities for our country. Best wishes, thank you, Admiral, and thank you, Mr, Chairman. Chairman ROCKEFELLER. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chairman. I now recognize the distinguished senior Senator from Virginia, Senator John Warner. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN WARNER, U.S. SENATOR FROM VIRGINIA Senator WARNER. Thank you, Mr., Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman and colleagues on the Committee. I'd like to have my entire statement placed in the record. |