Senate Intelligence Committee holds hearing on world threats

The heads of the FBI, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency testified on Monday before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the international threats currently facing the United States.

What sorts of threats did they discuss?  Senators quizzed the intelligence officials on their responses to technological aggression from state actors like China, and the fentanyl distribution they alleged China was also supporting. Intelligence officials also stated their support for continuing aid to Ukraine, saying Ukrainian forces would continue to lose territory, as they did recently in Avdiivka, without continued Western support.

What sort of documentation did these officials provide the committee?  Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines provided a report to the committee before the hearing. The 2024 “Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community,” assembled by the U.S. intelligence community, details the threats facing the nation. The report identifies China and Russia as two of the biggest state threats to U.S. national security, along with North Korea and Iran. The report also noted “disruptive technology”—artificial intelligence and biotechnology—as a “transnational issue” the intelligence field was confronting.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report in WORLD Magazine about an international police effort to crack down on the ransomware group “LockBit.”