At a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) spoke about the leaked war plans on a Signal chat.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. Castro. Thank you, Chairman. Tulsi, you and I came into the Congress together in 2013,
00:07and Cash, you and I, I was serving on the Intelligence Committee when you worked on
00:10the Intelligence Committee, and John, you and I are both from Texas, and we both served together
00:15on the Intelligence Committee. Y'all, the idea that this information, if it was presented to
00:22our committee, would not be classified, y'all know is a lie. That's ridiculous. I've seen things,
00:29much less sensitive, be presented to us with high classification, and to say that it isn't
00:36is a lie to the country. I want to ask the generals now. The NSA is principally in charge
00:43of intercepting things like signals intelligence from other countries. General, I want to ask you,
00:50if your organization, your agency, intercepted something like this from Russia or China or some
00:56other country, would you consider this classified information?
01:02Representative, we would be classifying based off of our sources and methods,
01:06so those would be the things that, in terms of how we process, how we would be able to obtain
01:12the information, and how we'd report it, we would classify based off of our source and method.
01:16So, if you knew that the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Advisor of Russia or China
01:22and the head of the foreign ministry and all of the folks who are associated with that signal chain,
01:29if you intercepted that information, General, would you consider it classified?
01:34So, it would be classified based off of our collection.
01:37So, the NSA would classify it?
01:39Based off of the protection of our own source and method,
01:44not necessarily based off the content, but how we collected that information.
01:48But it would be classified?
01:52Well, we certainly wouldn't be collecting on a U.S. person conversation.
01:56No, I understand. I'm saying if you did your job and collected it from
02:02the Russian foreign ministry and the National Security Advisor and the Secretary of Defense
02:08and the President's chief advisor, there is no way, no way, having sat on this committee for nine
02:14years, that somebody would come in with that information and give us something that says,
02:20unclassified, you can walk out of this room with this information and give it to whomever you want.
02:26You know, with all respect, you and I worked on the committee at the same time.
02:31Tulsi, you and I came in together.
02:33I've never had an issue of beef with you.
02:35John, you and I are both from Texas.
02:37Y'all know that's a lie.
02:38It's a lie to the country.
02:41I want to ask about the Alien Enemies Act really quick while I have time.
02:46The President has used the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority last used to detain German
02:51and Japanese nationals during World War II, to summarily deport people accused of being
02:56members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Agua.
03:00To invoke this law, the President must demonstrate that the United States is under invasion by a
03:04foreign nation or government.
03:07They have alleged that we are under invasion by the Venezuelan government.
03:11The idea that we are at war with Venezuela would come as a surprise to most Americans.
03:16The unclassified version of the annual threat assessment the intelligence community just
03:20released makes no mention of any invasion or war that we are fighting with the nation
03:26of Venezuela.
03:27You would think our nation being at war would merit at least a small reference in this threat
03:32assessment.
03:34Director Ratcliffe, does the intelligence community assess that we are currently at
03:38war or being invaded by the nation of Venezuela?
03:43We have no assessment that says that.
03:46In invoking the law, the President alleged that Tren de Agua is, quote, undertaking hostile
03:51actions against the U.S. at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime
03:58in Venezuela.
04:00Director Gabbard, does the intelligence community assess that the Venezuelan government is
04:04directing Tren de Agua's hostile actions against the United States?
04:09There are varied assessments that came from different intelligence community elements.
04:18I'll defer to Director Patel to speak specifically to the FBI assessment.
04:26But let me ask you, so you're saying there are conflicting assessments that have come
04:30from the IC?
04:31That's correct.
04:32Okay, thank you.
04:34We'll take it up in closed session.
04:36All right.
04:39You know, your threat assessment makes issue of – highlights fentanyl trafficking as
04:46a top threat to the United States, yet support for law enforcement cooperation with Mexico
04:52has been put on hold and there has been a threat of invasion to Mexico by the United
04:57States.
04:58You assess that Russia's advanced cyber capabilities make it a persistent counterintelligence
05:02cyber threat, yet the administration shut down the unit at the Cybersecurity Infrastructure
05:06Agency tasked with stopping Russian cyber attacks.
05:10There are so many other ways that the actions of this administration have contradicted this
05:15threat assessment, and the administration is making the world and the United States
05:19more dangerous.
05:20I yield back.
05:21The gentleman yields.