• U.S. intelligence chief orders review of Boston Marathon case

    Win Mcnamee / Getty Images file

    Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has ordered a broad review of how the U.S. handled information before the Boston Marathon bombing.

    By Andrea Mitchell, Michael Isikoff and Tracy Connor, NBC News

    The nation's top intelligence official has ordered a review of the Boston Marathon bombing case amid questions about whether the U.S. should have known one of the suspects posed a threat.

    Retired Gen. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, has asked the inspector general who oversees the intelligence community to take a broad look at various agencies' handling of information they received long before the bombing.


    “Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing, but this is hard stuff,'' President Obama said at a Tuesday news conference.

    In 2011, Russia asked the U.S. to check into Tamerlan Tsarnaev because they suspected he was becoming radicalized. The FBI interviewed him but found no sign of terrorist activity.

    His name and the name of his mother were put into intelligence databases that track possible terrorist ties, and U.S. agents were "pinged" when Tsarnaev flew last year to Russia, a trip that included time in the militant outpost of Dagestan.

    Less than a year after he returned to the U.S., the 26-year-old ethnic Chechen and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarneav, planted two bombs near the finish line of the April 15 marathon, killing three and wounding more than 200 more people, authorities said.

    Since then, there's been debate about whether Russia gave the U.S. enough information about Tsarnaev and whether the FBI and CIA should have been more thorough in vetting Tsarnaev.

    “It’s not as if the FBI did nothing,” Obama said. “They not only investigated the older brother, they interviewed him.”Obama said that while there were “no signs” of terrorist tendencies then, investigators want to know if something happened later to trigger Tsarnaev’s radicalization and what the U.S. can do to detect such shifts in the future.

    He said Russia has been “very cooperative” since the attack, but also noted that “old habits die hard” and that some suspicion between between the two countries’ intelligence agencies, dating back decades, has survived.

    He portrayed the review as an effort to improve intelligence, not find fault with anyone.

    “What Director Clapper is doing is standard procedure around here,” Obama said.

    Still, one U.S. counter-terrorism official said some in the intelligence community are "furious" about Clapper's probe, because it suggests that mistakes were made.

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police. His brother was arrested after a manhunt that shut down Boston for a day and has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

    Related:

    Cambridge Police Dept.

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev is seen in a booking photo from a 2009 arrest in Cambridge, Mass.

     

     

    This story was originally published on Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:54 AM EDT

  • Federal cuts jeopardize national security, intelligence chief warns

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    Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies before the House Select Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

    By John Bailey and Jeff Black, NBC News

    Sequestration – the across-the-board cuts to the federal workforce and services — jeopardizes national security, and unless remedied will lead to an intelligence failure, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned on Thursday.

    Clapper made the remarks to the House Intelligence Committee as part of the intelligence community's annual worldwide threat assessment, a yearly report in which intelligence leaders discuss threats to the United States and American interests around the globe.

    National Intelligence Director James Clapper discusses his assessment of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday.

    “Sequestration forces the intelligence community to reduce all intelligence activities and functions without regard to impact on our mission,” Clapper said. “In my considered judgment as the nation's senior intelligence officer, sequestration jeopardizes our nation's safety and security and this jeopardy will increase over time."

    Clapper was joined by FBI Director Robert Mueller, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Flynn, and recently confirmed CIA Director John Brennan.

    Before the talk, lawmakers were reminded that the session was open to the public and that they should be careful not to discuss classified matters. A closed-door session was scheduled afterward to address sensitive matters.

    “Unlike more directly observable sequestration impacts like shorter hours of public parks or longer security lines at airports, the degradation to intelligence will be insidious,” Clapper said. “It will be gradual, almost invisible, until of course, we have an intelligence failure.”

    The leading threat in the assessment this year is cyber security, but Clapper made a point to say that the threats included in this year's report are particularly diverse.

    On Capitol Hill Thursday, CIA Director John Brennan and National Intelligence Director James Clapper comment on the current status of Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime.

    In addition to cyber threats from foreign countries, organized crime, and terrorist groups, the report also cites the threats of weapons of mass destruction proliferation, and regional instability in the Middle East and North Africa.

    “In my almost 50 years in intelligence, I do not recall a period in which we've confronted a more diverse array of threats, crises and challenges around the world,” Clapper said. “To me at least, this makes sequestration even more incongruous.”

    Speaking on North Korea and its young leader, Kim Jung Un, Clapper called war threats “extremely belligerent, aggressive public rhetoric toward the United States and South Korea.” Clapper said the U.S. was continuing to carefully monitor developments on the Korean peninsula.

    Read James Clapper's full statement on the Worldwide Threat Assessment (PDF)

    Clapper said that the bellicose rhetoric was primarily posturing on the part of the North Korean leader.

    “As far as objectives of the new leader, I think his primary objective is to consolidate, affirm his power,” Clapper said. “And much of the rhetoric -- in fact all of the belligerent rhetoric of late--  I think is designed for both an internal and an external audience,” Clapper said. “But I think first and foremost it's to show that he is firmly in control in -- in North Korea.”

    Rep. Peter King, R-New York, asked Clapper what Kim’s end game might be.

    “I don't think really he has much of an end game other than to somehow elicit recognition from the world, and specifically, most importantly the United States, of North Korea's arrival on an international scene as a nuclear power,” Clapper said. “And that that entitles him to negotiation and to accommodation, and presumably -- for aid.

    NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reports on the military's latest intelligence on North Korea's possible missile strike plans, saying U.S. military officials are "concerned" about where the missiles will be aimed.

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  • James Clapper, top U.S. intelligence official, tightens security rules to avert leaks to media

    AP file

    Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, center, emerges from a closed-door meeting with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees aimed at stopping security leaks on June 7, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

    By Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube, NBC

    U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Monday mandated new measures, including lie-detector tests, to prevent and detect unauthorized leaks of sensitive national security information to reporters.

    The move is an attempt by Clapper to take the Central Intelligence Agency's strict policy regarding leaks of classified information and apply it to employees of the Intelligence Community.

    The Intelligence Community is a coalition of 17 agencies and organizations within the executive branch, including the Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Energy, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office and the National Security Agency.


    Clapper's move comes in the wake of news reports derived from leaked information about U.S. involvement in cyberattacks on Iran and an alleged al-Qaida plot to bomb a U.S.-bound flight.

    From now on, the polygraph test for anyone seeking a classified clearance for any intelligence service will include a specific question regarding contact with journalists and unauthorized leaks to the media.

    In the event of a leak, anyone in the Intelligence Community who would have had access to the leaked information is subject to a polygraph test regarding that specific leak.

    Anyone who fails could have their security clearance revoked and could be subject to a criminal investigation.

    Anyone who refuses the polygraph would immediately have their security clearance revoked and could be subject to additional administrative action and a criminal investigation.

    Also under consider are provisions that would require anyone with a security clearance within the Intelligence Community to report any substantive contact with members of the media or any arranged meeting or any encounter where business was discussed.

    These new rules do not apply to U.S. military with security clearances not assigned to an intelligence agency, or to White House officials or members of Congress.

    Clapper said the inspector general of the Intelligence Community will conduct independent investigations to ensure that unauthorized disclosure cases suitable for administrative investigations are not closed prematurely.

    "These efforts will reinforce our professional values by sending a strong message that intelligence personnel always have, and always will, hold ourselves to the highest standard of professionalism," said Clapper. "It is my sincere hope that others across the government will follow our lead. It is the right thing to do on behalf of the American people and in the interest of our national security."

    Senior U.S. officials tell NBC News that in the end, these new guideline may have little practical effect, since most of the leaks traditionally come from reporters’ sources who do not work directly for the intelligence community.

    Two U.S. attorneys have been appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder to lead a Justice Department inquiry of the recent leaks.

    Republicans have suggested the leaks were orchestrated to boost President Barack Obama's re-election bid.


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