Chris Mellon, a key conduit for strategic DC partnerships

Transcript

my name is Christopher Mellon I'm the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Clinton and Bush administration's and the former minority staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee I worked on Capitol Hill for over a decade for various Senators on the Armed Services and intelligence committees I was privileged to be involved in the intelligence community for nearly 20 years reviewing intelligence activities on behalf of the American public obviously they need to remain in the shadows they need to remain classified but they need to be consistent with our values and our interests and it's important to have oversight of those activities the Secretary of Defense has a huge span of control over 40 different agencies he has to depend on a staff of people around him to keep an eye on many of these agencies and activities when they involve sensitive intelligence activities so that was a part of my function on the Secretary of Defense's staff to review sensitive reconnaissance activities programs that I've exposed could cause embarrassment to the United States senate intelligence committee conducts oversight of all u.s. foreign intelligence agencies and programs some of the most sensitive activities involve covert action programs where we're seeking to covertly influence events abroad those are particularly sensitive activities but the budget of the community is huge there's a lot of oversight to be performed from the standpoint of this taxpayer making sure the taxpayers getting their money's worth and that the country's needs are being served