Top officials from the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities told a Senate panel on Wednesday that a “ changing landscape ” of fast-moving and interconnected global threats – ranging from climate change to cyber attacks – would require agencies to rethink some of their approach to national security issues.
No threat, they said, is greater or more delicate than that from China, which National Intelligence Director Avril Haines called an “unparalleled priority” and a “formidable challenge.”
“China is increasingly a competitor challenging the United States in multiple arenas as it pushes for revision of global standards in a way that favors the authoritarian Chinese system,” Haines said in a preliminary opening address.
Haines testified alongside the directors of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, all of whom appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee for an annual, public hearing on global threats.
It was the first time since 2019 that the hearing, a tradition in more than a decade, took place. Intelligence leaders refused to testify publicly last year to avoid a public rebuke by then President Trump, who previously accused his own intelligence officers for providing reviews that were apparently contrary to his government’s policy.
The officials’ testimony followed the release of a written report on Tuesday outlining the collective assessment of the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies on the major threats.
After Haines echoed the main findings of the report in its opening statement, Virginia Democrat Committee Chairman Mark Warner joked that it was “as many terrible things in ten minutes as I may have heard in recent times.”
Warner focused on the technological threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which he said he feared would try to “dominate” a wide variety of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
The intelligence community “needs to be keen in assessing the range of threats posed by the CCP,” he said.
Florida Republican Vice Chairman Marco Rubio pressed Haines on the ongoing work of the intelligence community to discover the origins of the Covid-19 pandemicA scenario of a laboratory accident, Rubio claimed, remained “plausible”.
Haines replied that the intelligence community “doesn’t know exactly where, when, and how” COVID-19 was originally transmitted, but said both theories of a natural turnout and a laboratory accident are still under investigation.
CIA Director William Burns added that Beijing’s leadership had not been “completely overt or completely transparent” in what it shared with the relevant global health authorities or the US government.
Senators also repeatedly expressed concern about the country’s willingness to fend off cyber-intrusions, including how it had faced the fallout from the SolarWinds Russian espionage campaign and the Microsoft Exchange hack attributed to Chinese spies.
NSA Director General Paul Nakasone, who also heads the US Cyber Command, said agencies’ visibility of domestic entity cybersecurity was limited because opponents had “structured their operations” to exploit US legal and policy boundaries. He also said cyber intruders have moved beyond techniques like spear phishing and password guessing to “top best practices” – more sophisticated maneuvers such as addressing supply chain vulnerabilities and using zero-day exploits.
Nakasone repeatedly told the panel that he was “not looking” for reinforced authorities for the NSA or Cyber Command, but that the existing “blind spots” were a challenge that relevant agencies should ultimately “be able to address.”
Senators seemed to reserve their most sensitive questions about current threats with real-time policy implications – including about Iran’s nuclear program and Russia’s military buildup on the Ukrainian border – for the private, secret session following the public hearing.
On Tuesday, President Biden proposed a Top USA-Russia in a third country in an appeal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a White House reading, which also said Mr Biden was seeking a “stable and predictable” relationship with Moscow.
The government has also sent officials to Vienna for indirect talks about the 2015 Iran nuclear deal
Several lawmakers brought up the planned withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, announced by President Biden on Wednesday afternoon.
“When the time comes for the US military to withdraw, the US government’s ability to collect and respond to threats will diminish, that’s just a fact,” Burns said. But, he added, the CIA and other partners would maintain “a range of capabilities” that would help the US “anticipate and challenge” new threats that could arise.
“I think we need to be clear on the reality when we consider the potential challenge of terrorism that both Al Qaeda and ISIS in Afghanistan are looking to regain the ability to attack US targets,” Burns said. “After years of sustained counter-terrorism pressure, the reality is that neither of us today has that capacity.”
Burns, along with the same panel of witnesses, will testify before the House Intelligence Committee for Thursday’s version of the hearing.