Ohio Representative on Israel-Hamas War, southern border and Section 702
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Ohio Representative and Intelligence Community Chairman Mike Turner spoke with Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan Sunday on a CBS report that Israel soldiers warned about a potential Hamas attack before October 7.
"I think what you saw was just a general dismissal by Israel and Israel's intelligence community of the possibility of this level of a threat, which really goes to, you know, the complete breakdown that occurred here. It's been amazing to have our intelligence community now working closely with the Israeli intelligence community and see the gaps that they have. And this obviously could have been an institutional bias that the result of them dismissing it, but the other aspect that made this so dangerous, is that even when the October 7th began to unfold, their their forces didn't react, they didn't have the deployment ability to respond, not just the intelligence ability to prevent it."
Rep. Mike Turner, Intelligence Committee Chair (R-OH)
When asked if the United States can take assurances that everything the Israeli government is doing is precise, targeted and exact, Turner responded with:
"Certainly the United States is assisting in the location of Hamas leadership as Israel moves to eliminate the threat of Hamas. And I just received a briefing from CIA Director Burns on Friday, who just came back from the Middle East. He's been working diligently, he's doing a great job on negotiating for the release of hostages, and also in trying to make certain that our intelligence apparatus is working closely with Israel to try to fill some of those gaps that they clearly have."
Southern border and Section 702
During the interview, Brennan and Turner talked about the likelihood of aide for Israel and Ukraine being passed through the Republican controlled House if House Speaker Johnson says it also must include stipulations for the U.S. southern border.
"Speaker Johnson's doing a great job. And he is directly negotiating both with the White House and with the Senate on the aid package, which would include aid to Israel, aid to Ukraine, and also Southeast Asia. But more importantly, in the negotiation process, it would include changes in our southern border policy, which even Director [Christopher] Wray has identified as a national security threat. Those negotiations are ongoing, and it's going to take the administration coming to the table and recognizing that their policy needs to change. America overwhelmingly wants the southern border addressed, it represents a national security threat, as his own security advisors are telling him. You know, we can't have millions of people continue to cross our border, and at all believe that we have, you know, a secure country with our national security.
Rep. Mike Turner, Intelligence Committee Chair (R-OH)
Before the interview concluded, Brennan and Turner touched on the possible reauthoritization of Section 702. According to Intelligence.gov, it is a provision that "authorizes targeted intelligence collection of specific types of foreign intelligence information, which is set to expire at the end of the year.
"702 is one of our most important tools for monitoring foreign individuals located outside the United States who pose a national security threat to our country...It does not monitor United States citizens. I think there are those who look at the behavior of the FBI and want to punish the FBI foolishly by cutting off one of our most important tools to target at foreign individuals. It certainly is also one of our most important tools that we're using to help Israel in this conflict...Through this program, we monitor Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, some of our most ardent adversaries are monitored in this program. And certainly we shouldn't punish the FBI for what they've done in other areas to hinder our ability to track terrorists and our adversaries."
Rep. Mike Turner, Intelligence Committee Chair (R-OH)
