National Defense

It is a primary responsibility of Congress to protect Americans from threats to our national security. The events of September 11, 2001, heightened our national awareness of the external threats our nation and our democratic values face. In an increasingly interconnected world, we must be vigilant, boldly meeting this challenge on every front. The war on terrorism is a new kind of war, requiring a wide range of policy tools in order to achieve victories and prevent terror attacks on U.S. soil. Ideally, we need to employ the multiple, influential tools of statecraft we have at our disposal: economic, military and covert operations, diplomatic, educational, cultural, humanitarian and moral.

One of the first challenges highlighted by the 2001 terrorist attacks was the need to improve intelligence collection and analysis. Congress took steps in enacting the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which sought to upgrade our nation's counterterrorism initiatives. It created the coordinating office of the Director of National Intelligence.

While in Iraq in June 2004, Senator Crapo meets with two Idaho soldiers deployed there. Counterterrorism also requires close coordination between intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Through the Homeland Security Act, Congress reorganized many agencies charged with related responsibilities into a single, unified cabinet-level department. The most significant transformation of the U.S. government in over half a century, the Department of Homeland Security combines parts of eighty-eight agencies with the primary mission to protect the American homeland.

The USA PATRIOT Act was enacted to remove previously existing statutory barriers between various law enforcement organizations. Initiatives to starve terrorists and states that sponsor terrorism of financing remain long-term strategic goals of U.S. foreign policy. An overarching goal of U.S. counterterrorism policy since the September 11, 2001, attacks has been to expose, disrupt and incapacitate the financial networks of terrorist groups. A key instrument in this effort was Presidential Executive Order 13224, which blocked "all property and interests in property" of certain designated terrorists and individuals and entities materially supporting them.

Simply stated, we must:

Use all available financial tools to disrupt and seize terrorist funding;
Engage in intensive public diplomacy to trumpet the importance of democracy and human rights;
Use our intelligence agencies effectively and continue to improve the quality of our intelligence;
Use and develop technology to defend our skies, borders and citizens;
Work with foreign states to combat hotspots of hatred and promote tolerance;
Work with our allies whenever possible to meet shared security challenges;
Strive to keep confrontations between the terrorists and Americans far from American soil.

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