Intel chairs push for robust response to Paris attacks
The Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees called for a robust U.S. response to the terror attacks in Paris last week and faulted President Obama for not having a strategy to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
"We don't have a strategy in Syria as it relates to ISIL," said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, using an alternate acronym for the group. "The president talked the other morning about ISIL was contained. America learned within 24 hours it's not contained. It's rampant everywhere in the world that they intend to carry out these horrific acts. It just so happens the United States is a target. But Paris was easier."
He said the tactic of using "pinpricks" to strike ISIS in the Middle East is not a full strategy and that the current American presence with 3,500 military advisers and 50 special forces soldiers is not enough to make a big impact.
"Mirror that with a global effort and we can take this fight to a very difficult and barbaric terrorist organization," Burr said. He called for more individuals on the ground collecting intelligence and better intelligence about targets the U.S. is preparing to strike. That probably means more special operations efforts in the region, he said.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-California, who appeared alongside Burr on "Face the Nation," called the attacks "a strategic failure on behalf of the administration on not having a real plan to fight ISIS."
A real strategy, he said, "deals with North Africa, the failure in Libya, the problems in the Sinai, Iraq and Syria, and the Afghanistan/Pakistan region."
The "more complicated" issue, he said, is how Europe will respond "now that it appears like ISIS has rooted themselves into Europe with a command and control structure?"
Burr said he hoped that French President Francois Hollande would invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty that obligates all members to treat an attack on one nation as an attack on all and assist them in taking action.
"Maybe we'll put together a coalition that can, for once, attack this horrific terrorist element before they have the ability to carry out another coordinated attack like this," he said. He added that the U.S. should be prepared to bring anything to the table and to work with Arab nations in the Gulf and Russia to defeat ISIS.
Both Nunes and Burr drew attention to the dangers posed by encrypted communication that might allow terrorists to fly under the radar of the intelligence community. Nunes echoed a warning from FBI Director James Comey that the U.S. is losing the capability to track terrorists around the globe. Burr said the U.S. should "redouble our efforts" to make sure it can access the communication it needs in time to "give us a better understanding" of potential plots.
Additionally, Nunes said that U.S. plans to accept Syrian refugees should be "stopped immediately" because there is no way to screen people fleeing Syria to ensure they are not ISIS operatives disguised as refugees.
"We feel for these refugees. But the bottom line, if you don't want refugees, then you have to go into Iraq and Syria and defeat ISIS," he said.