When asked during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday whether or not the U.S. can adequately prevent future terrorist attacks, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said "as a result [of] the recent rash of the attacks last year both successful and unsuccessful, identifying individual terrorists, smaller groups, short histories, using simple attack methods is a much more difficult task."
Blair identified the current violent extremism facing the U.S. as a tough situation and said the intelligence community is "working hard to improve."
"The violent extremism threat is evolving," Blair added.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) questioned Blair on whether the U.S. has adequate resources in place to prevent future terror attacks from happening. Replied Blair, "however much we improve, we cannot count on intelligence to catch and identify every threat."
Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) asked Blair to address issue of the intelligence community leaking information to the media prior to informing Congress.
"We are emphasizing administrative measures, which we can take with any agency, to investigate quickly, to check the various ways of keeping in track of what our people are doing," said Blair.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) , the committee's Ranking Member, told Blair that the intelligence community's biggest concern should be the growing trend of enemy groups recruiting Americans to fight against their country. "There's nothing more dangerous to this country than Americans who have joined the enemy," said Hoekstra.
Blair responded by saying, "We take direct action against terrorists in the intelligence community. If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that."
Identfying Attacks Becoming Increasingly More Difficult, Says Blair
When asked during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday whether or not the U.S. can adequately prevent future terrorist attacks, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said "as a result [of] the recent rash of the attacks last year both successful and unsuccessful, identifying individual terrorists, smaller groups, short histories, using simple attack methods is a much more difficult task."
Blair identified the current violent extremism facing the U.S. as a tough situation and said the intelligence community is "working hard to improve."
"The violent extremism threat is evolving," Blair added.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) questioned Blair on whether the U.S. has adequate resources in place to prevent future terror attacks from happening. Replied Blair, "however much we improve, we cannot count on intelligence to catch and identify every threat."
Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) asked Blair to address issue of the intelligence community leaking information to the media prior to informing Congress.
"We are emphasizing administrative measures, which we can take with any agency, to investigate quickly, to check the various ways of keeping in track of what our people are doing," said Blair.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) , the committee's Ranking Member, told Blair that the intelligence community's biggest concern should be the growing trend of enemy groups recruiting Americans to fight against their country. "There's nothing more dangerous to this country than Americans who have joined the enemy," said Hoekstra.
Blair responded by saying, "We take direct action against terrorists in the intelligence community. If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that."