Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has been accused of lying to Congress, is scheduled to speak at George Washington University in early April.
The former Obama administration official, who oversaw the U.S. intelligence community, is expected to address the issue of cybersecurity threats, especially from Russia. The Russian Federation has been accused of waging cyber-warfare against the United States during the 2016 election – they’ve also been accused of attempting to influence elections elsewhere. The talk will be followed by a discussion with David Ensor, who led Voice of America under former President Barack Obama and is now the director of George Washington’s Project for Media and National Security.
Clapper, now a CNN contributor and outspoken critic of President Trump, is known for falsely testifying in front of Congress in March 2013 that the National Security Agency does not collect data from millions of Americans, despite reports which suggest otherwise. Last week, Clapper avoided perjury or any related charges to the 2013 testimony due to statutes of limitations.
This upcoming appearance at G.W. won’t be Clapper’s first. Last September, Clapper spoke at the university’s international affairs school about North Korean, Russian, and other geopolitical threats.
“It doesn’t matter if they work, they created what they want, which is deterrence and attention. They crave the attention,” Clapper said regarding North Korea. “They want the recognition. They want to be included as that 10th nuclear country and all that demands.”
He added, “As far as denuclearizing, I’m afraid that train left the station a long time ago.”
Regarding Russia and its alleged role in the 2016 election, Clapper said, “This is what the American public needs to be concerned about because this is going to continue. The Russians don’t care, by the way, the next time they’ll stick it to the Republicans, they don’t care.”
Clapper also defended the intelligence community, which has been under near-constant attack by the Trump administration.
“What the American public expects from the intelligence community is to provide timely, accurate, relevant and anticipatory intelligence all the time. Don’t miss, no mistakes. But do that in such a way that there is no risk and do it in such a way that if a foreign government finds out about it they won’t be mad,” Clapper said. “We call that new paradigm immaculate collection.”
Finally, Clapper appeared at George Washington in 2015.
“The facts of the past decade show that, while we have made mistakes, to be clear, the Intelligence Community never willfully violates the law,” he said then. “That relates directly to our fourth principle: ‘We demonstrate integrity in our conduct, mindful that all our actions, whether public or not, should reflect positively on the Intelligence Community at large.’”
