Senior US intelligence and law enforcement officials told a Senate panel on Wednesday that a “moving landscape” of rapid and interconnected global threats – ranging climate change to cyber attacks – would mean that the agencies will have to reformulate part of their approach to national security issues.
No threat, they said, appears greater or more thorny than that posed by China, which national intelligence director Avril Haines called an “unparalleled priority” and a “formidable challenge.”
“China is increasingly a close competitor, challenging the United States in several arenas as it presses to review global rules in ways that favor the authoritarian Chinese system,” Haines said in the opening opening statements.
Haines testified with the directors of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee for an annual public hearing on global threats. .
It was the first time since 2019 when the hearing took place, a tradition of over a decade. Intelligence leaders opposed public testimony last year to avoid a public rebuke from then-President Trump, who previously reprimanded its own intelligence officers for providing assessments in apparent conflict with its administration’s policies.
The testimony of officials followed the publication of a written report on Tuesday that presented the collective assessment of the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies on major threats.
After Haines recapitulated the report’s major conclusions in his opening statement, Virginia chairman Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said there were “as many terrible things in ten minutes as I’ve heard lately.”
Warner focused on the technological threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which he said he feared would seek to “dominate” a wide range of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
The intelligence community “must have a clear view in assessing the range of threats posed by the CCP,” he said.
Florida Republican Vice President Marco Rubio pressured Haines on the ongoing work of the intelligence community to determine the origins Covid-19 pandemic. A laboratory accident scenario, Rubio said, remained “plausible.”
Haines responded that the intelligence community “does not know exactly where, when or how” COVID-19 was originally transmitted, but said that both theories of natural occurrence and laboratory accident were still being explored.
CIA Director William Burns added that the Beijing leadership “was not fully future-oriented or fully transparent” in what it shared with relevant global health authorities or the US government.
Senators have also expressed repeated concerns about the country’s own readiness to fight cyber intrusions, including how it faces failures in cyber intrusion. Russian SolarWinds espionage campaign and Hack Microsoft Exchange attributed to Chinese spies.
ANS Director General Paul Nakasone, who also heads the US Cyber Command, said the visibility of agencies in cyber security of internal entities is limited because opponents “structured their activities” to exploit US legal and political boundaries. He also said that cyber intruders have moved beyond techniques such as spear phishing and password guessing to “above best practices” – more sophisticated maneuvers, such as targeting supply chain vulnerabilities and using exploits from zero-day.
Nakasone has repeatedly told the commission that he is “not looking for” consolidated authorities for either the NSA or the Cyber Command, but that the existing “blind spots” are a challenge, and ultimately the relevant agencies should “be able to address”.
The senators seemed to have the most sensitive questions about current threats with real-time political implications – including Iran’s nuclear program and Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s border – for the scheduled closed-door session following the public hearing. .
On Tuesday, President Biden proposed a US-Russia summit in a third country, in an appeal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a reading of the White House, which also said that Mr. Biden is looking for a “stable and predictable” relationship with Moscow.
The administration also sent officials to Vienna for indirect talks aimed at reviving 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Several lawmakers have lifted the administration’s planned withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, which President Biden announced on Wednesday afternoon.
“When the time comes for the US military to withdraw, the ability of the US government to collect and act on threats will diminish; it is simply a fact,” Burns said. But, he added, the CIA and other partners will retain “a range of capabilities” that would help the United States “anticipate and challenge” new threats that may arise.
“I think we need to be clear about the reality of the potential terrorist challenges that both Al Qaeda and ISIS in Afghanistan remain intent on regaining the ability to attack US targets,” Burns said. “After years of sustained pressure against terrorism, the reality is that none of them have this capability today.”
Burns will testify with the same group of witnesses before the House Information Committee for his version of Thursday’s hearing.