James Clapper, the man nominated to head the US spy community, told US senators on Tuesday that he fears a period of “direct attacks” by North Korea on its southern neighbor.
Clapper testified on Tuesday before senators who must confirm his nomination as director of national intelligence (DNI) — a post intended to coordinate the sprawling and often inefficient US intelligence bureaucracy.
In a written response to questions from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Clapper said he fears new violence on the Korean peninsula.
South Korea, the US and other nations accuse the North of sending a submarine to torpedo a South Korean navy corvette near the tense Yellow Sea border in March.
The North denies involvement in the sinking, which claimed 46 lives, and says any retaliation could spark war.
“The most important lesson for all of us in the intelligence community from this year’s provocations by Pyongyang is to realize that we may be entering a dangerous new period when North Korea will once again attempt to advance its internal and external political goals through direct attacks on our allies in the Republic of Korea,” Clapper wrote. “Coupled with this is a renewed realization that North Korea’s military forces pose a threat that cannot be taken lightly.”
Clapper, who currently serves as US Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s top intelligence adviser and as the Pentagon’s liaison to the Director of National Intelligence, knows the region well — he was posted in South Korea in the 1980s.
Clapper faced members of the Intelligence Committee on Tuesday for a public hearing in which he pledged to wield strong leadership over the 16 agencies that fall under the DNI’s purview.
He is the fourth nominee in five years to the post, which has been criticized as an ineffectual office lacking either the mandate or the will to corral a bureaucracy that plays a crucial role in keeping Americans safe.
“I would not have agreed to take this position on if I were to be a titular figurehead or a hood ornament,” Clapper said.
He told lawmakers the DNI’s office already has “the explicit or implicit authority” to oversee the agencies that fall under its purview.
“There needs to be a clear, defined and identifiable leader of the intelligence community,” Clapper said, adding that he would seek to “push the envelope” in terms of the DNI’s authority.
Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, emphasized that the post requires a strong leader who “must assure coordination between intelligence agencies to eliminate duplication and improve information sharing.”
Obama tapped Clapper, a retired Air Force general and veteran of US spy efforts, to replace retired US Navy Admiral Dennis Blair, who left after 16 months on the job.
Blair quit after a string of high-profile security lapses including the failure to detect a Christmas Day airline bomb plot.
If confirmed Clapper would be the latest in a string of officials who have attempted to improve coordination between 16 US intelligence agencies, which employ an estimated 200,000 people and have a combined budget of about US$75 billion.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS