[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 93 (Monday, June 21, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5197-S5198]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NOMINATION OF S. LESLIE IRELAND

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today to urge the confirmation 
of Ms. Leslie Ireland, the President's nominee to be the Assistant 
Secretary of the Treasury for Intelligence and Analysis.
  This is an individual who is well qualified, nominated to an 
important national security position, and whose nomination has sparked 
no opposition or controversy to the best of my knowledge. Nonetheless, 
for more than 3 weeks her nomination has languished on the Senate 
calendar as Ms. Ireland has waited to be confirmed.
  Let me speak briefly about Ms. Ireland and the position to which she 
has been nominated.
  Leslie Ireland is a 25-year veteran of the Central Intelligence 
Agency. She has substantial experience in just about all aspects of the 
intelligence profession. Following a successful career at the CIA, her 
two most recent positions were that of Iran mission manager in the 
Office of the Director of National Intelligence and as one of the 
President's daily intelligence briefers.
  In both capacities, she has worked extensively with all parts of the 
intelligence community. As the President's briefer, Ms. Ireland has 
been familiar not only with the breadth of intelligence analysis the 
community produces, but also the policy context in which intelligence 
is used.
  She worked directly for the Nation's premier intelligence consumer--
the President. His evaluation of her professionalism and capability is 
reflected in the fact that he nominated her for this Senate-confirmed 
position.
  As Iran mission manager, Leslie Ireland was given the responsibility 
over intelligence collection and analysis of what is perhaps our 
Nation's most challenging intelligence target. She oversaw, 
prioritized, and directed efforts to understand the Iranian government, 
nuclear program, military, and society. This is a position with deep 
management and analytic challenges.
  Through Ms. Ireland's work as Iran mission manager, she was already 
well known to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence before she 
was nominated to be an Assistant Secretary of Treasury. She had 
appeared at numerous hearings and far more briefings, both for 
committee members and the staff.
  Under the leadership of both of our past chairmen, Senators Roberts 
and Rockefeller, the committee had an Iran study group to follow, 
oversee, and authorize intelligence activities with respect to Iran. 
The staff met often with Ms. Ireland, and I believe it was a productive 
relationship on both sides.
  So it was no surprise that when Ms. Ireland was nominated on April 
12, the committee moved quickly to consider the nomination. She was 
voted out of the committee on May 25 with the committee's unanimous 
support. She is ready to assume her new duties, and it is well past 
time for the Senate to act.
  For the benefit of my colleagues, let me say a few words about the 
Assistant Secretary's position. It is a fairly new one, having been 
created in December 2003 in that year's Intelligence Authorization Act.
  The Office of Intelligence and Analysis at Treasury has one foot 
within the Department of the Treasury, assisting the Secretary and 
other senior departmental officials to set policies on sanctions and 
declarations.
  A notable recent example is the effort by the Treasury Department to 
push, successfully, for the strongest international sanctions to date 
against Iran in United Nations Security Council Resolution No. 1929. 
Sanctions and international efforts such as this require careful 
analysis and are the product of intelligence designed to shine a light 
on the financial and other illicit activities of bad actors, including 
in this case the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
  At the same time, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis has its 
other foot inside the intelligence community. Its personnel focus and 
help prioritize the financial intelligence collection efforts of those 
agencies that collect human, signals, and geospatial intelligence that 
analysts need.
  The Treasury office also provides expertise on financial and economic 
matters that are necessary for broader intelligence community issues. 
For example, a recent issue of great interest is the financing of 
terrorist groups like al-Qaida and the militant and extremist groups 
with which they operate, like the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and the 
Pakistani Taliban, the TTP. The Office of Intelligence and Analysis 
helps inform the intelligence community on this topic.
  It is critical to understand the financial activities of these groups 
both to understand how they operate and to provide keys to disrupting 
them.
  In Afghanistan, our troops face a well-funded Taliban enemy that 
relies on illicit funding for its lifeblood--and for the ammunition and 
improvised explosive devices that put our troops' lives at risk.
  In the tribal areas of Pakistan, al-Qaida affiliated terrorist groups 
may be seeking to fund attacks on our homeland such as the unsuccessful 
car bomb attempt in Times Square. Among the most important impacts of 
the recent death of the third highest ranking al-Qaida figure, Shaykh 
Sa'id Al-Masri, is the anticipated loss to the organization's 
fundraising.
  As North Korea continues its erratic violent behavior and considers a 
transition of power from Kim Jong Il to his son Kim Jong Eun, its 
economy has been further wrecked by a disastrous devaluation of the 
currency.
  These are the issues that confront the Assistant Secretary of 
Treasury for Intelligence and Analysis. It is a position that has been 
vacant since September 2009. There is no excuse for that vacancy to 
continue another week. The Senate has before it a nominee who is well 
qualified to fill this role. She has the full support of the 
Intelligence Committee, and there has been no controversy or opposition 
to her throughout the confirmation process.
  I urge the Senate to confirm Leslie Ireland.

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