Thank you.
I also want to thank Senator Rockefeller for bringing us together
today at this important homeland security summit. It is a pleasure
to be here.
The FBI is indeed lucky to have a very special relationship with
West Virginia. As you know, our Headquarters are in downtown D.C.,
but in many ways West Virginia is our second home. Clarksburg
is home to our Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
Fairmont hosts the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. And West Virginia
University is a very close partner, having worked with us in designing
the nation’s first degree programs in forensic identification.
Thousands of FBI employees and their families work and live in
West Virginia, and they are just as committed, as you are, to
keeping this state safe and free.
I want to begin by thanking everyone here for serving on the front
lines of homeland security. Dealing with terrorist threats is
not the job many of you signed up for – but you have met
the challenge. Together we are out there every day tracking terrorist
threats and ensuring the safety and the security of your communities.
And, I know that many agencies are doing all of this with reduced
budgets and even reduced workforces. Thank you for what you are
doing to protect West Virginia and to protect America.
West Virginia does have a number of special areas of concern in
terms of homeland security.
You have a number of federal facilities, and I know that you have
already coordinated with them on potential emergency response
efforts.
In Charleston, first responders have been working closely with
the local chemical industry to ensure that they are prepared for
any contingency. A Jefferson County postal facility had its ow
– – n biological weapons scare recently, with white
powder that thankfully did not turn out to be Anthrax.
These are indeed difficult times. But, thankfully, West Virginia
is ahead of the curve in many ways. You quickly stood up emergency
plans in the wake of 9-11. You already have outstanding partnerships
among federal, state and local agencies, and you are able to draw
on the resources of other local federal agencies.
We are all concerned about how our agencies would operate in response
to a crisis, and specifically to a large-scale terrorist incident.
But today I want to talk to you about the FBI’s –
along with state and local law enforcement’s – number
one priority. Since 9/11 there has been a shift from law enforcement
to determining what we can do to prevent the next terrorist attack.
The FBI participates in a number of projects in West Virginia
to accomplish this goal. Our most important anti-terrorism tool
is the West Virginia Joint Terrorism Task Force, which was stood
up in March. Of course, the truth is that the FBI was working
in close partnership with West Virginia officials long before
that. We worked hand-in-hand to prepare for emergencies that might
arise as a result of Y2K, and those relationships grew stronger
after 9-11. The West Virginia JTTF has members from state and
local police, fire departments, and other local agencies. It has
already participated in several field training exercises with
first responders and industry, including a Weapons of Mass Destruction
exercise.
The West Virginia JTTF is but one of 50 JTTFs that we have added
since 9-11, bringing our total nationwide network up to 84. We
know that you are the ones on the front lines, gathering vital
intelligence and protecting your communities. The JTTFs play a
critical role in getting that information back to FBI Headquarters
and disseminating it to our partners around the country.
Our local InfraGard Chapters help us accomplish a similar goal.
InfraGard is a partnership between private industry and the FBI
to share information that will help protect critical information
systems and infrastructure. West Virginia has its own InfraGard
chapter that plays a vital role in this effort. Last summer's
blackout in the Northeast and Midwest was a wake-up call to the
vulnerability of our systems to accidental shutdowns, much less
coordinated attacks. And that is why our InfraGard Chapters are
working daily to address threats from hackers, organized crime,
industrial espionage, terrorism, foreign intelligence agencies,
and others.
The Internet Fraud Complaint Center in Fairmont is also doing
its part for Homeland Security. Over the past three years, the
Center has evolved as a gateway for incoming intelligence on cyber
crime matters, including: computer intrusions, identity theft,
economic espionage, child pornography, and a growing list of internationally
spawned Internet fraud matters. The Center is now receiving more
than 10,000 complaints per month, and last year, it referred more
than 48,000 fraud complaints to law enforcement.
You may ask that this has do with homeland security. The fact
is that the new millennium has seen the dawn of an unusually dangerous
convergence of terrorist, intelligence, and criminal threats,
all using the Internet. With financial systems, power grids, and
other critical infrastructure at stake, we must guard against
cyber threats as seriously as we guard against bomb threats.
In addition to physical threats and cyber attacks, we must also
be prepared for biological threats – both in terms of prevention
and response. In this region, we have a unique effort called the
Strategic Medical Intelligence Program. The program is partnership
between the FBI and area doctors to combat terrorism by sharing
information that could prevent or contain a biological attack.
The effort includes doctors with terrorism expertise from UPMC,
the West Penn-Allegheny Hospital System, West Virginia University,
and Marshall University, among others. These doctors, like the
members of our JTTFs and InfraGard chapters, have been given clearance
to receive sensitive information from the FBI, and, in turn, they
will coordinate with us in responding to unusual incidents –
for example, a patient who appears to have smallpox – which
could signify a terrorist attack. This pilot program has been
so successful that we are hoping to extend it to other areas of
the country.
The West Virginia JTTF is also working with the State Department
of Health and Human Resources, the U.S. Attorney's Offices, and
other State agencies to conduct six regional sessions on forensic
medical training. These two-day sessions are designed to improve
the working relationships between law enforcement and public health
officials in addressing bioterrorism.
As I mentioned earlier, West Virginia is also home to one of the
FBI's crown jewels – the Criminal Justice Information Services
Divison, or CJIS. It sets the standard for criminal databases.
CJIS's fingerprint database, in particular, is the envy of law
enforcement agencies around the world.
That database is now helping us to track down terrorists as well
as criminals. For example, CJIS now has “flyaway”
teams that travel around the world to load fingerprints into the
system. The teams have gathered prints from terrorists and military
detainees, and performed the sad duty of identifying the victims
of terrorist attacks.
The FBI also has a number of other nationwide and international
partnerships that are helping protect West Virginia and the rest
of the nation.
Because criminals and terrorists now operate at every level –
local, regional, global – we have to fight back at every
level. One of our most important missions since 9-11 has been
to strengthen our partnerships at home. I have already talked
about how we have strengthened our partnerships with state and
local agencies. However, the truth is that we also had to strengthen
our relationships with our partners in the Intelligence Community,
particularly the CIA. Prior to 9-11, our two agencies were legally
prohibited from cooperating in many ways. Most critically, we
were not allowed to share much of our terrorism-related information.
Now, thanks to the U.S.A. Patriot Act, those walls have come down.
The FBI and CIA are working together in ways that were impossible
before 9-11.
From my daily morning briefings with CIA officers and Director
George Tenet to the widespread assignment of executives, Agents,
and analysts between the two agencies since 9/11, the FBI and
the CIA have become integrated at virtually every level of our
operations.
Just as we have developed better relationships here at home with
partners such as the CIA, we have also strengthened our relationships
with our partners overseas. Let me just give you an example of
how we are now working with law enforcement agencies from around
the world.
In May, a United States scientific research station in Antarctica
asked for our help. Their systems had been hacked into and their
data was corrupted. Normally, we would send Agents out to the
scene to investigate. But, because of the subfreezing temperatures,
it was impossible to land in Antarctica for another six months.
Working from somewhat warmer climes here, our investigators were
able to trace the source of the intrusion to a server in a trucking
company outside Pittsburgh. From there, we identified two Romanian
suspects. And, with the help of the Romanian authorities, they
were arrested outside Bucharest shortly thereafter.
Today, cases such as these have become the rule rather than the
exception for the FBI. Technology has made the world smaller.
And in this environment, the traditional distinctions between
organized crime, cyber crime, espionage, and terrorism have broken
down. Organized crime may launder money for terrorists. Credit
card fraud may be perpetrated by the Russian mafia or by al Qaeda
operatives. In fact, unlike the old mafia, al Qaeda actually has
training manuals on the subject.
That is why the FBI, like many institutions, has gone global.
In 1940, we established our first international office. Today,
we have 46 such offices around the world, in locations from Riyadh
to Rome and Tokyo to Tel Aviv. And, increasingly, these offices
are helping to stop crime and terrorism from being exported to
our shores. These are some of the actions we in the FBI are taking
to prevent terrorist attacks. But, as first responders, many of
you must consider the effect of a potential attack.
If a major homeland security incident were to take place, we want
to be there with West Virginia’s first responders –
handling the crisis, evacuating people, helping victims and keeping
order. People will turn to their local police and fire departments
for help. We will be there beside you. Setting up joint operations
centers, as we did at the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Cooperating
in the investigation as we did in Maryland and Virginia during
last year’s sniper attacks. Bringing all our resources to
bear to protect the public and to bring those responsible to justice.
In October of last year, newspaper reports praised the sniper
task force for its coordinated investigation and quick sharing
of intelligence and information. Sadly, the past two years have
brought too many opportunities for us to do exactly that. But
we have learned from each incident, and we have done training
exercises, such as those yesterday, to further refine our skills.
And all the work we have done to build partnerships and relationships
through our JTTFs, InfraGard, and other initiatives will help
ensure our response is strong and unified.
More than ever, we know that success depends on an extensive network
of partnerships and alliances. In the future, the FBI can only
achieve success by continuing to develop relationships with our
partners locally, nationally, and internationally.
We discuss homeland security in the sense of crisis management,
technical resources, personnel training, and coordinated emergency
planning. But the heart of homeland security, and our primary
mission at the FBI, is making sure people feel safe enough to
run their errands, drive to their jobs, and live their normal
lives. Each of you in this room contributes to that goal. You
worry so that others do not have to. Thank you for all that you
do to protect your communities, and God Bless you and the work
you do.
