This hearing will last 7 days. The Secretary of State has been asked to attend as well as the NID. Questions must be respectful and must pertain to Recent Events in Sudan. Members may ask two questions with 1 follow-up to each.

Please limit extraneous commentary.

Thank You. Questioning may begin.

Mr. Chairman,

As Director of United States Intelligence, I would be happy to speak to the committee and answer any questions I can. If you would like, I would be more than willing to make some opening statements if that would help stimulate conversation. Thank you for the invitiation, I am pleased to have the chance to speak with you all.



This post has been edited by AOB_Synapse on Dec 7 2004, 09:59 PM

Mr. Chairman,

As Director of United States Intelligence, I am thrilled to be here. Let me say first off, it will be pleasure to work with you all and I look forward to some stimulating discussion of the events that have transpired.

We are of course deeply upset about what has happened in Sudan. I will say on behalf of the President and my Office, that countless diplomatic convoys to the region in order to bring peaceful resolution to this issue, however one was responded to (by the AB) and that was towards the begining of the Presidents campaign in the Middle East.

The Department of Intelligence had requested several indepth inquiries into several situations like this around the world, of them only the first was ever responded to (Out of character, I will say the administration and this Department fully recognize the amount of work the AB receives, and are completely and unequivicolly understanding of the difficulty required in producing these reports, however it should be duly noted that this was not a mistake on the part of the Department or anyother including the Office of the President). Unfortunately, beyond that my hands are tied, though I will say we are doing everything we can to fix this problems abroad and here in Washington, and that the President and I are meeting with the necessary officials to make sure this sort of situation does not arise again.

Going forward, we are currently conducted an extensive analysis of the situation, and I will be confering with my colleagues in the State and Defense Departments as well as the President as we move on in dealing with this. The Department and the administration are doing everything in their respective powers to handle the situation with the utmost care, urgency and efficiency. Myself, the President, and my peers in the cabinet are fully committed and are asking for the support of Congress in our endeavor to secure both Sudan, the homeland and American interests and diplomatic localities around the world.

Thank you

Thank you Mr. Brandel for your prompt response.

I have a few questions about further possible courses of actions.

1. Speaking generally, is the military-intelligence community capable of stretching itself even farther and executing a full-scale invasion?

2. Speaking generally, what do we know about the seizure of the embassy, especially preparations and procedure.

Thank you.

I ask committee members to be prompt with they're questions in order to assure adaquate time to respond.

Thank you Mr. Ellison for your questions.

While I cannot speak for the Defense Department as to their analysis of the capacity of the United States Armed Services, I will say that the Department of Intelligence is well equipped to continue strategic intelligence operations on the ground in the region and around the world concurrently. In fact, it has done so since its inception and has never ceased I assure you.

As to military-intelligence cooperation on operational intelligence gathering and analysis, that is predominantly a function of the Defense Department and in fact is the only component of the former Intelligence Community still sovereign from the Department of U.S. Intelligence in accordance with the Intelligence Reform Act - II, recently signd by President Yoshida. I can say that President Yoshida would not act if he did not feel the U.S. armed forces could not sustain such an offensive, and I assure you in doing so he has a plan for winning peace in the region.

Since the incident, the President has launched a barrage of diplomatic dispatches with the intent of making this go as smoothly as is possible.

At this time I'd like to speak to what we know and what we are trying to find out. As the President told the media, we know that the group that conducted the attack were indeed Islamic militants, linked to the Sudanese military. Based on information from our analysts and a lack of diplomatic response from the Sudanese government, it has been concluded that either the Sudanese government condones or aided in the effort, or that they simply are unwilling to cooperate with the United States government. In either case, an attack on United States government property in any country is an extremely serious matter and an infringement on international law. We do have reason to believe there are American hostages being held by the Sudanese, however their whereabouts and their condition is still be investigated. Again, this administration is taking the response of the Sudanese government, or lack there of, as an act directly against the United States. As we speak, my Department is gathering more information about the specifics of the attack, although at the moment I am not ready to make such comments. We are trying to get a detailed picture of what is going on, our men are on the ground there, and I will address the media and appropriate members of Congress when the time comes.

We are still analyzing the events that led up to this attack, and the President and/or myself will shed more light on those specifics as well, when it is appropriate. (again, out of character, we are yet to receive any AB response to any of the President's diplomatic dispatches. The AB has responded to our requests for more intelligence interpretation, and promised a report soon) The Department of U.S. Intelligence will continue to compile pertinent information, and I should have a formal assessment within the next couple of days.

Thank you again for your questions Mr. Ellison, I apologize if they were unclear and for the brevity, however at the moment that is the best that I can provide.

Are there any further questions, either from Mr. Ellison or the other members of the committee?

Mr. Chairman,

I have two questions for the director, hopefully he'll be able to answer them

#1 - Will we just move to secure the successful recovery of the embassy, or will we move troops into Darfur?

#2 - What are the odds that we will cut off relations with the Sudanese in the near future?

I yield to the Director, or whoever

Mr Chairman,

I appreciate the questions, however it is not my position to speak on such matters. Perhaps the Secretary of Defense (once confirmed) and/or the Secretary of State would be obliged to talk to such issues. If there are any other questions on intelligence, I'd be happy to answer them. Thank you to the Congressman who posed the question, I regret not being at liberty to answer.