with the rest of my statement in the record and the ranking member of the committee from texas thank you mr chairman mr chairman following the terrorist attacks of nine eleven the mission of the bureau changed investigative techniques and more effectively analyze and respond to intelligence information america is safer today because the men and women of the bureau and other agencies work tirelessly to terrorist were there for a reason to keep americans safe i understand at the bureau as part of the process established by president obama i hope that the bureau will express its concerns to the administration about the threat posed to americans here at home while the national security efforts i know it will continue its law enforcement mission including the investigation of widespread fraud associated with america's financial crisis many factors contributed to this collapse including predatory lending by corrupt lenders mortgage fraud and even foreclosure fraud another important focus of preventing crimes against children particularly internet crimes involving child today the f b i is a stronger organization binding better intelligence capabilities with a long standing commitment to protect the american people from criminal threats and we are also ever mindful that our mission is not just to safeguard american lives but also to safeguard american liberties certainly the threats currently present present in the national security arena continue to be a grave concern terrorism remains our top priority and as was illustrated by the mom by attacks we cannot become complacent al qaeda lesser known groups and homegrown terrorists will continue to pose a threat to the united states when the f b i must also continue to guard our country's most sensitive secrets from hostile intelligence services and remember that our nation cyber infrastructure is vulnerable to compromise or disruption be it from a terrorist or an international criminal enterprise but by now no means our priorities americans justifiably worry about terrorism it is crime in their communities that often most directly impacts their daily lives public corruption continues criminal priority the f b i has twenty five hundred pending all the corruption investigations in the last two years alone has convicted more than six hundred federal state and local officials and we remain committed to ensuring that those given the public trust do not abuse as was pointed out economic crime is of course a critical concern now more than ever for example the f b i s mortgage fraud case load has nearly tripled in the past three years from over eight hundred to over twenty four hundred active investigation the f b i currently has more than five hundred eighty pending corporate fraud investigations including cases directly related to the current financial crisis in response we have been shifting personnel within the organization to the extent possible we have been using new analytical techniques to better identify trends and violators and we have been building upon existing partnerships to further leverage expertise and resources for example we created a national mortgage fraud at f b i headquarters to prioritize pending investigations provide additional tools to identify the most egregious violators and provide strategic information to evaluate where additional manpower is needed we also have established eighteen mortgage fraud task forces and fifty working groups with other government agencies across the country we may more effectively focus on these problem areas while the f b i is surging resources to mortgage fraud public corruption investigations our expectation is that economic growth is that economic crimes will continue to skyrocket the unprecedented level of financial resources committed by the federal government to combat the economic downturn will lead to an inevitable increase in economic crime and public corruption cases historically the bureau has handled the merging criminal threats by transferring personnel within its criminal branch to meet the new threat since september eleventh we have lost some of this in response to the september eleventh  attacks permanently move two thousand of its criminal agents to our national security this transfer has substantially improved our counterterrorism program and we have no intention of retreating from preventing another terrorist attack on american soil as our number one priority with the logical consequence of cannibalizing our criminal resources to augment our national security efforts is that we have reduced the ability to surge resources within our criminal branch although we have begun an effort to rebuild our criminal resources back to our pre nine eleven levels we still have a substantial way to go as always the f b i will step to attack the most severe threat obviously is a very serious concern and although data indicates violent crime continues to decline across the country in general the citizens of many communities especially small to mid sized cities continue to be pla by gang violence and gun crime since two thousand and one our gang cases have doubled and the spread of international gangs such as m s thirteen has increased the f b i continues to combat this threat for more than two hundred  gang violent crime and major theft task forces across the country these task forces enable us to work effectively with state local tribal and international partners to provide an immediate response to surges in violent crime and so too must we continue our work with state and local counterparts to combat crimes against children the most the most vulnerable members of our communities all the f b i is committed to combat sexual child sexual exploitation the child pornography via the internet trafficking in child prostitution or abuse on federal lands or indian country more must be done i thank the committee for its support of increased resources to the bureau in this area and would be happy to continue working with you to ensure our nation's children are protected we are also deeply concerned about high levels of violence along the southwest border gang activity drug cartel competition for supremacy murders and kidnappings plague the border in both the united states and mexico the impact of crimes and even if well beyond the border into american communities we will continue our strong alliance with our mexican and domestic law enforcement partners to address border related crime especially as a relates to public corruption gangs and intelligence analysis finally we will continue our efforts to combat healthcare fraud mindful estimates that more than sixty billion dollars of our nation's healthcare spending is lost to fraud two thousand and eight f b i investigations lead to nearly seven hundred convictions of healthcare related crime and we will continue partnerships with the national health care organizations and other federal agencies to address these cases as we are able i also want to spend just a moment to update you on key changes we have made within the f b i both in our structure and in the way we do business to more effectively meet the challenges presented since september eleventh we know that the f b i best  strongest asset is our people and so we have paid attention to recruiting training and maintaining a workforce with the skills necessary to meet the challenges of today's mission are our own goals include agents intelligence analysts  specialists linguists and professional staff and this year we have received more than four hundred fifty thousand applications and i've already extended fifty five hundred job offers finally a few words regarding improvements in the technology set and all our web based management system is on time and on target the bureau currently has more than thirty thousand workstations in the unclassified network providing desktop internet connectivity to employees throughout the enterprise blackberries within that capability to twenty four thousand of our employees and we are strengthening other information technology programs to help us  content of a call is absolutely on the order to building the problem because we need for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance act and we would be badly hampered if we did not have that tool available to us with the justice on the other hand in any investigation particularly when it comes to child pornography or even terrorism where you may identify an individual who is utilizing the  prosecution but those records historical records may be available that enable you to further both the investigation and undertake the prosecution longer record retention would be helpful isn't the international standard  and it depends on the circumstance of the national security of its larger something i think would be very difficult for the person to get out and very difficult for the person ho concern because i think the american people ought understand that some people held at guantanamo bay are most likely not subject to criminal prosecution we're not holding them for that purpose we're holding them because they are combatants in the traditional technicians intelligence analysts and professional staff as you pointed out we have number of task force we have eighteen and then another forty seven working groups me as a member of the financial services committee i contacted the federal reserve to find out whether this person that didn't exist he was representing in fact been the entire time that agents rotating through almost the entire time and the f b i has presence virtually every place we have an embassy in the world correct we have over sixty around the world maybe not virtually but but all the may all the places the administration made a determination to do this enhanced interrogation technique or as now is commonly one of the one of the techniques being waterboarding when were you first made aware of it and when was the f b i first made aware of it overall i believe i would first became aware of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques sometime in the summer of two thousand and two with an agent who was involved in interrogation indicated that additional techniques beyond what we traditionally do would be used we determined that it was not appropriate for him to continue in the conduct of that particular interrogation was that agent in two thousand  triggered the withdrawal of him from that particular interrogation earlier you mentioned that once or twice was that one of the once or twice that your organization was involved in techniques that would qualify enhanced interrogation what were the once or twice can you just one second certainly a treatment that is not the treatment that we ordinarily would use but it is certainly not in the category of the enhanced interrogation techniques that we've been talking about i just want to be clear that the report  pointed out two instances where we could have done a better job ok do you ever given people large amounts of water and then told them to wait to go to the bathroom that you know wasn't available right now not to my  knowledge left lights on deliberately to deny people sleep or rest i can't say for sure but i have no knowledge of such treatment that would go against our protocol ok so each and every one of those techniques that has now become public for an answer intricacies of the referral process that has been established in such circumstances i know that that generally is triggered by a referral from congress to the justice department and then we do that may well be others can be asked but generally were asked to do the investigation from being recognized director appreciate your testimony and i think it reflects a long service to this country and significant depth of knowledge that build upon that experience and i would based upon that i would ask you  statute to be applied and when with your long and deep experience and we have i think about fifteen members of the intelligence community their their sense of integrity and their office when the think that your detractors are off base and should there be a reluctance to provide that briefing to whichever individuals would have security clearance could that potentially impact negatively on our national security due to that lack of information and perhaps a lack of appropriations and perhaps policy changes and flow from that flow from that relationship that could be could be interrupted or distrust because of the i'm sorry i'm not familiar with the predicate of the question terms of briefing and i'm seeking to ask the question hypothetically and maybe it sounds a little vague and i'll try to keep it hypothetical director  for the benefit of everyone in this room when that relationship of trust is severed then the working relationship would i think certainly be damaged as it relates to and i have a concern that that is unfair label and some of indicated that that label  came about as a result of communist chinese intelligence which i would submit is extremely suspect given the history of   by the department of justice inspector general and i'm going to read an excerpt to you and ask you to respond report is obviously based on a report by a f b i special agent apparently and you would not contradict that i have no knowledge of the incident so i cannot contradict you but it is in the and i know i would like to have an opportunity to interview the f b i that actually wrote this report and would make that request to you so that we can actually make  protecting us from terrorists and i was struck to find out that someone in the obama administration however seems to have no difficulty in articulating what a terrorist is and that is the director of homeland security secretary of homeland security janet  the report indicated several factors including the election of the first mix present in the person of barack obama future gun control measures illegal immigration the economic downturn beginning two thousand and eight disgruntled military veterans possible vulnerability to recruitment which proven efforts by extremist groups as risk factors for right wing extremism in a kind of went on to plane and define right wing stream ism in roughly general terms like opposing restrictions on firearms or opposing lax immigration opposing the policies of the obama administration on the expansion of social programs opposing continuation of free trade agreements paranoia foreign regimes fear of communist regimes  fear of one world governments and the moaning to decline of u s stature in the world mr director not to be tongue in cheek here too much but that that includes about seventy percent of my district and  predicate here is illegal activity and generally it is violent extremism and i don't believe the intent of the report was to paint with such a broad brush but i  do not believe that the question is should persons be concerned about our undertaking investigations against individuals who are exercising rightfully so their first member privilege or rights under the downtown hotel making calls that we couldn't and we knew it was him but we couldn't monitor his calls without a warrant and i think because he was here in the united states i think that makes sense to me i think that comforts me a great deal  counterintelligence and the directorate of intelligence the criminal branch we have the criminal division we have a cyber division probably missing one or two but there has been that might be effective in stemming the tide of drugs from mexico in the border wars in the immigration problems from mexico if you consider this as a possibility i think anybody who looks at this problem considers it and ultimately when you look at it rejects it i tend to about many people i'm sorry but the too many individuals of parents and others who have lost their lives to drugs to to give a ready answer is that it should be legalized i agree with you and there are lots of parents who've lost their lives to crack cocaine who may inadvertently pick something up in this country i want to make sure that that's not being violated and i know you're concerned about impropriety and this was certainly before your watch but reporting the crime scenes where f b i and a t f agents threaten to arrest each other or battle over jurisdiction and i think that was a problem it was much more of a problem several years ago i think we've done border and one of my colleagues discuss the issues represented mexico concern how we're tracking weapons weapons or most of the weapons that are being used in mexico come from the united states being here for a follow up on the weapons in mexico is it true that there's been at least one hundred thousand members of the military that deserted most of them took their weapons many of them if not all of them are made today what was somewhat disturbed that the tourney general came in here and i asked him what he thought terror was and terrorism was and he could not give me an answer so he supposed to give us a written answer on that at least the f b i knows terrorism when that there's a a plot to blow up the brooklyn bridge a plot to crash a plane into the tower in los angeles reading on the cell of seventeen including my job on bali rushmore and gun gun gunawan he's an interesting fellow and yahoo that jose padilla and iyman faris all that information turned out to be true what he told us that's a very broad  what progress has been made in the diversity of the work force of the f b i i think that is crucial i also want to emphasize that i have great respect for your special agent in charge agents in charge across america but i think it's important for them to be made aware that collaborating with the community is ok we realize that the resources are to be spent on investigation but say for example there's a child abduction and the community is in an uproar or a predator on the loose and in fact a few years ago i called on the special agent in charge in houston to help our police department find and a predator but a community and now the way they handled that was that they were able to use the the other aspect to comment on the work that the f b i is doing as relates to civil rights investigation what level what percentage of work involves that and i would include crimes in that a few very pivotal ones that had not yet been implemented in terms of preventing penetration one was created unit within the bureau focused on internal penetration the second was developing a computer need to know system but now that we have gone from virtual case file system to sentinel will the sentinel have that kind of safeguard in it and will that be ready by the end of the year and then finally