[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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