CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Senator James Risch on the Middle East and Government Hackers
Interview
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BLITZER: Brian Todd reporting, thank you.
Joining us now, a top member of both the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee, James Risch of Idaho.
Senator, thanks very much for coming in.
Can you confirm for us that Suleimani is now in Syria, this top Quds commander?
SEN. JAMES RISCH (R), IDAHO: Well, I would only confirm it from the open sources that you have. I really can't go there as far as the intelligence information we have, but this should come as a surprise really to no one.
He has been heavily engaged. As you know, one of the first red flags that went off was when he made the trip to Moscow. And it was shortly after that things really started to happen. I know the report that you said -- your reporter said that this has been a troubling trend for the last year-and-a-half.
That's true, but it is really, really ratcheted up over the last couple of months. We're seeing what is happening here. And this alliance between Iran, Russia, Hezbollah and Assad's forces in Syria, first of all, it is a powerful coalition that's coming together here. No one is opposing them. No one is doing anything about it.
They are obviously preparing the attack on Aleppo, as you reported, and that's going to be a tough situation for the people trying to defend Aleppo.
BLITZER: General Suleimani, who was directly involved, you heard Brian's report, in going after U.S. military personnel in Iraq working with Shia militia, creating improvised explosive devices, and apparently he's got a lot of American blood on his hands. As far as you know, is he on the U.S. target list right now? Is the U.S. trying to either capture him or kill him?
RISCH: To my knowledge, I would say no to both of those.
Right now, the current administration has been doing the things they have been doing with Iran, negotiating with them, entered into this agreement that just happened. And just from watching administration, I believe that they just put Iran on the shelf and are going to let things go from here, which is -- to a lot of us who were against the whole thing from the beginning, it's very troubling.
BLITZER: Are there 2,000 Iranian military personnel in Syria right now?
RISCH: Wolf, I can't give you the exact number for obvious reasons. That's classified.
I would say this. Open sources have reported that there are at least that many in Syria right now. That shouldn't surprise anyone. The more troubling thing for us is, as we all know, there are billions of dollars that are about to change hands and go to Iran.
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What troubles me is that that money, not all of it, of course, but a very substantial amount of those billions that they are going to get, are going to be used to put more people on the ground in Syria, put more weapons on the ground in Syria. And it is simply not a good situation.
As you know, Syria -- as you know, Iran is in control of Hezbollah and the same thing is going to happen there.
BLITZER: And there are about 2,000 Hezbollah troops inside Syria as well? That's what we just reported.
RISCH: Right. There are at least 1,500, maybe more than that, maybe even more than what you reported on. And with this growing threat on Aleppo, one wouldn't be surprised to see that number grow more.
BLITZER: You're talking about those billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets that are about to be unfrozen because of the Iran nuclear deal and you're saying they could do with that money whatever they want to do.
RISCH: Exactly.
Those of us that were critical were pressing the negotiators to say, look, get some sideboards on this money. And they said, oh, don't worry about it, things are so bad in Iran that they are going to use it for social purposes.
Look, when they were broke, they were funding these operations in Syria and putting substantial amount of money in there. That is obviously a high priority for the Iranian nation. What are they going to do when they got real money in hand?
BLITZER: Senator, stand by. We have more to talk about, including the very disturbing reports that the director of the CIA, the secretary of homeland security may have had their private e-mail accounts hacked.
Much more with Jim Risch when we come back.
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[18:16:25]
BLITZER: We're back with Senator James Risch and the breaking news we're following.
The U.S. government now investigating an alleged hacker's claim that he broke into the private e-mail accounts of both the CIA director and the secretary of homeland security.
Senator, you're on the Intelligence Committee. Obviously, this is very disturbing. What do you know? What can you share with us about this?
RISCH: Well, what I know and what I can share are two different things.
But we do know this for a fact. Every day, all day long, there are thousands and thousands of attempts to hack e-mails of the kind of people that you're talking about here, high level.
BLITZER: Brennan, the CIA director, Jeh Johnson, the secretary of homeland security.
RISCH: High-level government officials.
BLITZER: It doesn't get a lot higher than...
RISCH: Doesn't get a lot higher than that.
And there are these all day long all the time. There are attempts to do this. What we also know is, we have an individual who claims he's been successful. Now, why he would do that is absolutely beyond me, particularly because where he's right here in the United States where people can get ahold of them.
He's made claims. Right now, there is no public proof that, in fact, his claims are true. The reports that it is being investigated are accurate. Your reports that we take this very, very seriously are accurate. It's fluid right now. I'm sure it will -- I'm sure it will crystallize over the next day or two.
But the takeaway from this is, don't use your private e-mails. Don't use things that a hacker can get at like that. You need to be behind the government firewall.
BLITZER: Do you have a private e-mail account that you use?
RISCH: I have one, but not for anything government things at all.
If you got there, what you would find is some interesting information about my granddaughter's birthday and when it is and what time it is. You would not find anything with classified information at all.
We all know what's going on in the United States right now, in fact, going to take place this week regarding someone who allegedly used a private e-mail account and got herself in deep trouble.
BLITZER: Because this hacker says he managed to get through the private e-mail account of the CIA director, John Brennan, his names -- the names and contact list. That's obviously pretty sensitive stuff.
RISCH: Sensitive. Plus, he also claimed to have gotten the application, the 27-page application that John Brennan used for security clearance purposes.
There would obviously be a lot of information in there. Again, you want to be a little careful right now because a lot of these guys are boasters. A lot of them do it for that reason. Let's let this play out for a little bit and then we will talk about it again.
This is serious, serious business. You have got to keep classified information behind firewalls.
BLITZER: Because if a young person can do this, can go in and get the personal e-mail accounts of the CIA director and the secretary of homeland security, ostensibly, because the U.S. is too supportive of Israel and not supportive enough of the Palestinians, that's the claim this individual was making, you can only imagine what more sophisticated hackers could really do.
RISCH: Like the Chinese.
BLITZER: Or the North Koreans.
RISCH: Or the North Koreans.
BLITZER: Or others, or other governments.
RISCH: That's correct.
BLITZER: But the Chinese are biggest threat; is that what you're saying?
RISCH: Chinese are a massive threat, because of the number of people and because of their expertise in using the Internet and those kinds of things.
So when we see -- when we see attacks, of course, China, North Korea, those are the people that come to mind. Here, you have a homegrown situation, but we all know that that's not unusual in the kinds of things we're seeing. We see things from overseas and all of a sudden it pops up right here at home.
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BLITZER: Senator Jim Risch, thanks very much for joining us.
RISCH: Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Disturbing...
(CROSSTALK)
RISCH: Glad to be with you.
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