we are arranging an aggressive program to recover m.p.a.d.s. we recovered about 5,000. there are many others that we are certain, although, we can't count them all. we are certain they were destroyed by virtue they were in bunkers that were in the contest between the opposition with the regime or nato air strikes. that said, there are a large number that are unlocated and problematic in recovering since they have them all over the place. libya was awash in weaponry. we will continue to count for the ones destroyed or damaged in the demonstrations and encounters and as well, i would guess continue with the recovery

program that the state department team is running. >> and how often are we seeing these come up with the militias in libya as they are continuing conflict there? >> there are many of the libyan militias have not fold under a central government yet. many of them are keeping their weapons for one reason or another. that, too, is another agenda or another issue we are trying to watch. >> i want to pick up on senator udall's questioning about pakistan which i believe continues to be one of the most dangerous parts of the world. especially given the continued

back and forth in our relationship with pakistan. can you talk about what the current vulnerabilities are of their nuclear program and the lead to the proliferation of sensitive material or technology? >> i would be pleased to talk about that in closed session. >> i thought that is what you would say. can you talk about how confident you are that the pakistani nuclear program has the current safeguards and protections? >> i'm reasonably confident they do. >> and given -- are we also feeling like the next level of military leadership down from general cannai also shares the same commitment to safeguarding that arsenal that we have seen from the top leadership in the

military? >> i believe they do. >> thank you. obviously pakistan's relations with india plays a role in their defense plans and operations. there has been some small good news in terms of the potential for a thaw in that relationship in the last year or so. can you talk about how you assess the potential for improved ties between the two countries and how that might effect stability in that region? >> obviously from pakistan's standpoint, they view india as a threat. there has been some encouraging breaks here in light of the context of the dialogue between the two countries. i know from having traveled and

dialogued with indians, it would be interested as well in relaxing tensions, but there are long-standing fundamental issues there that will be hard to overcome. obviously, if they did reach some agreement, it would be huge, but there are lots of count countervailing factors that are left for closed session that will make that difficult. >> when we were there last summer, i was there with chairman levin. this issue came up. the political leadership was quick to reassure us that they were taking measures to try to thaw relations. do you -- is our assessment that there is a commitment at the top levels in both india and pakistan to try to address this long-standing conflict that has existed between the two

countries? >> i think that's probably a fair assessment. i think at the top levels, they would both see advantages to that. mutual advantages. >> thank you. general burgess, for nearly two decades submarine forces and the modernization has been something we have seen from china. to what extent do those ongoing modernization efforts and its focus on expanding its submarine force raise concerns with our navy and our ability to respond to that chinese build up? >> i think across the board, the chinese are making modernization improvements whether it is in

the air force or navy and other aspects of what they are doing. they are taking a very. submarines are part of that. we, in defense and intelligence, along with the navy and others are watching that very carefully. we continue to watch their developments. >> thank you. director clapper, i want to go back to russia as i chair the european affairs sub committee and the foreign relations committee. we have been watching closely what is happening in russia now. the protests, the reaction to putin's announcement that would switch to being president again. you talked in your january testimony about putin's return to the presidency is resulting in more continuity than change.

can you talk about how we view first of all the impact of demonstrations in russia and what change that might affect as we are looking at a changeover in putin's role there? >> i find this evolution in russia very interesting. again, this is another manifestation of the impact of social media. i think the russian government, the russian elite are finding real challenges in putting that free information flow via social media flow back in the bottle. i often wonder if mr. putin will rue the day that he comes back. i think he is better to quit while he is ahead. he comes from the old school.

i don't think the old order will work in russia. i think when the thousands of people willing to turn out in a bitter, bitter moscow cold in january or february is a great testament to some profound change that i believe is going on in russia. >> thank you bother thank you v shaheen. i have a few or the end of round two and depending if any other first, in response to a question about how long an israeli military attack on iran would postpone iran getting a bomb, secretary of defense panetta said that at best it might

postpone it one, possibly two years. does the intelligence committee agree with that? >> i don't disagree with it but there are a lot of factors that, you know, that could play here. how effective such an attack was and what the targets were and what the rate of recovery might be. so there are a lot of issues there that could affect a guess. >> has the intelligence committee made an estimate of that issue? how long it would take to resume after an israeli military attack? >> we have not come up with a single number because of the reasons i alluded to. it is hard to come up with a number because it would have to be an assessment as well as how well the iranians could recover

and how much damage -- how effective the attack was. >> okay, you indicated that our intelligence community and the israeli intelligence community are aligned on issues relative to iran. do the israelis agree with you that iran has not made a decision as to whether or not to have a nuclear weapon? >> i would be happy to talk about that in closed session, sir. >> thank you. by the way, i don't believe there is a need today for that closed session, to give us all hope for lunch. director clapper, what is the intelligence community's assessments of the afghan security forces and providing security in those areas where they assumed the lead? >> well, i think so far so good. the areas that have been turned

over and the initial launch have performed reasonably well. let me ask general burgess if he wants to add. >> i think we would agree with what you just stated and in fact this is one of the places where the intelligence community is in agreement with the commanders on the ground in terms of how the afghan forces are performing. >> and that is that they are performing? >> they are performing well. when they are backed up by enablers from my staff. >> thank you. a d.o.d. press briefing recently. the general commander and who is in charge of operations in afghanistan describes progress by thean security forces. he indicated that he gave a

positive view of the progress to build a capability of the afghan army and the afghan police and i think, general burgess, you share that view and director clapper indicated the same thing. this is my question to you, general. you share general dempsey's of of the afghan security forces are on track to assume the lead for providing lead for security throughout afghanistan by 2014 while still requiring support from coalition forces for key enablers for intelligence and lift? >> yes, sir. agreement. >> the question on pakistan. according to news reports, a

leaked nato report entitled, quote, state of the taliban, 2012. included claims by taliban detainees that pakistan is providing support to the insurgency and it reportedly also portrayed a strained and distrustful relationship between the pakistani intelligence and isi and key insurgent groups, including the ikana network. quote, there is a quite spread assumption that pakistan will never allow the taliban the chance to become independent of isi control. do you share that same assumption that pakistan will never allow the taliban the chance to become independent of

isi control? director? >> i don't -- i haven't seen this report, sir. i think the pakistanis via the isi, would want to maintain visibility. i would not go as far as dominance. they want insight and influence in afghanistan, particularly in a post-2014 context. remembering that their primary interest is india. >> general, in your assessment, does the pakistan military have the intention to take steps to stop the akani's use of the fatah or province as a safe haven for conducting cross border attacks into afghanistan?

>> the army has within its capabilities and in light of the other obligations, has done a lot in the fattah. has lost a lot in the process. >> the steps to stop the akanis? >> i don't think so. >> sir, i would agree with that. if you look at what pakistan army has done, they have actually cut forces from 2010 until now in terms of the number of brigades in there. they have a sustainment issue. >> okay. relative to the reconciliation talks. director, what are the taliban's motivations for participating in the reconciliation talks? >> well, that is a great question, sir. i think they want to, i believe, achieve some legitimacy.

they want to be players in some form in a government of afghanistan. of course, they obviously see us as key to that end. >> okay. thank you. senator portman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i may be between you and a much-deserved break for lunch. first of all, thank you for your testimony today. i had two other hearings. i bounced around. i got to hear some of the opening and i also listened to senator mccain in his open. he talked about the reports about the link between al qaeda and iran. director clapper, last year, the treasury department talked about the high-ranking members of al qaeda who operated a facility in iran. there is a press release announcing the issue from david

cohen. we are illuminating the match for terrorism. that is a troubling statement. what is your understanding of the secret deal, so-called, between iran and al qaeda? >> iran and al qaeda have had sort of a to a certain extent, a shotgun marriage. i think iran has harbored al qaeda leaders and facilitators, but under house arrest conditions. remembering that iran is a shi'ite state and al qaeda is sunni. they don't agree ideologically in the first place. i think iran was, of course,

pays attention to our pursuit of al qaeda and what we have done in afghanistan and iraq. next door neighbors to them. on the one hand, they had this stand off arrangement with the al qaeda allowing them to exist. we will leave this. you can find it online. we take you live to the royal oak theater in michigan for a grass roots rally with candidnde mitt romney. >> thank you so much. welcome. you touch our hearts. thank you so very much. what an honor to have the governor introduce me and have he and his family there. to have this young lady with me. she and i went to elementary school together. oh, yeah.

she was in second grade. i was in fourth grade. i didn't notice her. when she was almost 16, i noticed. i noticed. she went to a party at a friend's house. she came with someone else. i went to that guy and i said i live closer to anne than you do. can i give her a ride home for you? he said yes. we have been going steady ever since. my sweetheart anne romney. >> this is wonderful. the only thing is i cannot see your faces very well because of the lights. it is wonderful to be in michigan. mitt and i grew up here. if they cut me, i bleed vernor's. i had a little pink transistor radio. i walked around listening to tigers baseball. al is still my favorite baseball player. we love michigan.

and we are michigan bred and born. when mitt is president of the united states, guess which state we will care about and jobs and the economy being strong here? we will be partners with the governor over here and we will help bring michigan back. we love michigan. we are michiganers through and through. i climbed the sleeping bear dunes and sleeping in michigan. here we are. i have known this guy, as he mentioned, a long time. we have five sons together. 16 grandchildren. when i was a young mom, he my j important than his. i have a feeling, his next job

might be more important than mine. and everything he has done, he has done it with excellence, integrity and just success in everything he has done. in business, they turned to mitt to turn things around. at the state of massachusetts, he goes in with a $3 billion budget and guess what? he leaves $2 billion in a rainy day fund without borrowing money and without raising taxes. [ applause ] that's what we need to have happen in washington. i'm ready for some sanity to be brought back to washington. can't wait to see this guy do it. [ applause ] >> thank you, sweetie. she's amazing. i should stop right there. i really appreciate your

willingness to be here tonight. i know you will make a difference tomorrow. i need you to vote at least once. get out and vote tomorrow. this really is a race about the nature of america. what kind of america we're going to have for ourselves and what we will leave to our kids. the president said he would cut the deficit in half. he doubled it. if we let him borrow $787 billion, that he would hold unemployment below 8%. it has not been below 8% since. [ booing ] >> we have booers. have you seen the tax cuts yet? this is a time when we have a president with all of the challenges we have, is out of ideas, he is out of excuses. in 2012, we will get him out of office. [ cheers and applause ]

the course that he would take and the course that i would take could not be more different. he just gave a state of the union address. he did not mention the deficit or the debt. even the nations in europe are swallowing massive debt and are in peril. if i'm president of the united spending and cap it and finally balance the budget. [ cheers and applause ] i will do what your governor is doing. i'll do my very best to take programs and eliminate them. my test is simple. is this program critical that we need to money from china to fund it? the first program i will get rid of is i'm also going to work to get jobs in america. you might that? there are a lot of things you can do.

one is to lower the regulatory burden. he has added regulations at a rate two and a half times that of the predecessor. there is a lot more. you have to get taxes down. particularly for small businesses. small business -- i don't know whether you know this or not, but there are a lot of businesses that are not taxed as big corporations. they are taxed like individuals. and so the taxes of the business are the individual tax rate. so he has proposed raising the top individual tax rate from 35% up to 40%. that will kill jobs. that will kill small business. what i will do is lower across the board taxes for americans by at least 20%. [ cheers and applause ] by exactly 20%. i'll get america working again with regulations that work and

encourage the private sector with taxes to allow small businesses to grow and hire people. i want to talk about something that relates to jobs. that is energy. we send hundreds of billions of dollars a year out of our economy to buy energy from other nations. this president says no to drilling for offshore oil. makes it harder to get coal out of the ground. has the epa slow to get natural gas out of the ground. fails the easy decision a president has to make. that is should we get oil from canada. if i'm president of the united states, we will get that pipeline from canada, keystone, and get energy independent. this president believes in crony capitalism. he will continue to take your money to give to his cronies. he did that with tesla and so n

solyndra. if i'm president, we will turn to free enterprise and energy and get america going based on the american people. [ cheers and applause ] you're going to have to ask yourselves and your neighbors and people across michigan and the nation will have to say what do we want in our next president? we know what we have now. an eloquent speaker who makes a lot of promises he cannot keep. what do you want in the next president? thank you. i believe you want someone who understands how to get the economy working. who understands how to get jobs again. who understands what it takes to see rising incomes. do you realize the median income in america has dropped 10% in last four years. this president has failed the american people. i believe we need a president who will get the economy going because if we have a strong economy and a vibrant economy, that means that kids coming out

of high school and college will have jobs waiting for them. it means people -- [ cheers and applause ] -- it means if you are in your 50s or 60s or the prime of your life and you need to move or if you find a business that goes out of business, you can find a new job right away. you don't have to wait years and years. if you are in your retirement years, you know your savings will be growing because american enterprises are growing in their value. if we have a strong economy, we can provide for a military that is second to none in the world. because this economy is faltering, the president is saying where can i cut? there is one place he is willing to cut. that is the military. at the very time our military -- you knofewer ships in our navy than in 1917?

we have fewer in aircraft since 1947 when the air force was formed. this president with all of the dangers in the world, he wants to cut the active duty personnel by 150,000. he will say we know longer have the capacity to be engaged in two conflicts at once radical d since harry truman. we want a strong america because we can be strong enough to prevent war from occurring. no one will test america. [ cheers and applause ] and so it comes back to an economy. an economy that is strong and can maintain a strong military. an economy that is strong so people have good jobs when they come out of school and when they come back from afghanistan and iraq. when people want to change places in the country, they can find good work where they want to go. a strong economy is central. i happen to believe if we want to have a strong economy and

good private sector jobs, it helps to have a president who has had a private sector job and i have. [ cheers and applause ] i think the reason that i'm going to beat barack obama in michigan in the fall -- [ cheers and applause ] -- is because this is going to be a contest about who can strengthen the economy. we'll look at his record and it has been a failure and we will look at my record and the successes i have had and i will talk about the economy with credibility that he doesn't have. my commitment to getting america working again will be second to none. for that reason, i will win in michigan and i will win across the country. [ cheers and applause ] now to get to that spot, of course, i first have to be our