Thank you Anthony.
Thank you members of the American Civil Liberties Union. It is an
honor to be here.
I welcome
the opportunity to speak to you today, and I want to recognize the
ACLU for its commitment to protecting our civil liberties. You have
a long and proud history of standing up to defend the freedoms guaranteed
to us by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. The FBI and the
ACLU share these values, as well as concern for the safety of all
Americans.
However, since
9/11, many complex law enforcement issues have arisen, and on some
of those issues, we disagree. In meetings with Anthony and other
ACLU members, we have discussed some of these differences. I think
that this exchange of ideas is important especially with
those who disagree. Because as a citizen of this country, I believe,
like you, that our freedoms including the right to disagree
are sacred.
The current
situation reminds me of when I returned home after serving in Viet
Nam. America was deeply divided over the war. I entered the University
of Virginia Law School, where I had good friends who were conscientious
objectors. We talked about the war, and how you define service to
your country. Not surprisingly, we often did not agree. But in the
process we gained respect for each others views.
That is what
I hope we can accomplish here today. I would like to continue a
very important discussion taking place in our country right now
by reflecting on three issues. First, the difficult challenges we
as the FBI, and as a nation, face in addressing terrorism. Second,
how the FBI has changed since 9/11 and why it is uniquely situated
to carry out the counterterrorism mission. And third, the importance
of protecting both our homeland and our civil liberties.
To understand
the FBIs response to the terrorist attacks, you have to go
back to September 11, 2001 . . . to that blue, cloudless morning.
The World Trade Center towers have each been struck by a plane.
The towers have collapsed, killing how many? We do not know. A hijacked
plane has plunged into the Pentagon, killing how many? We do not
know. A plane originating from Newark is in the skies. Radar shows
it heading toward Washington. Communication is lost. That plane
crashes into a field in Pennsylvania. We learn from cell phone calls
made by passengers on the doomed planes that they had been hijacked.
We do not know by whom, or even how many hijackers are involved.
Most importantly, we do not know if other terrorists in the United
States are preparing a second wave of attacks.
For the FBI,
the immediate challenge was to identify the hijackers, and anyone
associated with them, and to uncover any other plots. Our 24-hour
command center at Headquarters was operational within minutes of
the first attack. In New York, being close to the Towers, we had
to evacuate our space and operate from a garage, setting up a command
post with 300 investigators from 37 different agencies.
The scope
of this investigation is unprecedented. The FBI followed over 500,000
separate investigative leads, and conducted more than 167,000 interviews.
On September
10th, we had only 535 international terrorism agents around the
world and only 82 at headquarters. Within days of the attack, almost
7,000 Agents were reassigned from other areas. Remember, too, during
the next six months, the FBI was dealing with anthrax, the Daniel
Pearl kidnaping, investigating the crash of an American Airlines
flight in Queens, and participating in the security for the Salt
Lake City Olympics.
America responded
strongly and rapidly to the terrorist attacks of September 11th,
and, thankfully, our country has not experienced further catastrophe.
In less than two years, we have made substantial progress against
Al Qaeda. But the war is far from over. Removing the sanctuary of
Afghanistan was a huge loss to Al Qaeda, as has been the apprehension
of many of its senior leaders. But despite our progress, Al Qaeda
still seeks to attack us, and they have the capacity to do so.
Al Qaeda,
of course, is not the only threat. Prior to September 11th, Hizballah
had killed more Americans than any other terrorist group. Other
terrorist organizations have launched strikes: like the one we saw
on Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996. And, we cannot forget
domestic terrorists who operate in our own country. They also use
violence to intimidate and coerce Americans, and they are also a
deadly threat, as we came to understand by the April 1995 bombing
in Oklahoma City.
Recent terrorist
attacks abroad have provided more stark reminders of the deadly
threat posed by groups and individuals with the desire and the ability
to kill. I have just returned from the Middle East, where I met
with my counterparts in a number of countries. In Tunisia we discussed
the attack on a synagogue, where 14 German tourists were killed.
In Saudi Arabia we reviewed the investigation into the May 12th
bombings of three compounds in which 34 people were killed, eight
of them Americans. In Morocco we discussed the Casablanca bombings
of May 16th in which 41 people died. And in Israel I met with Shin
Bet and our other counterparts where deaths from terrorism are,
tragically, an everyday occurrence.
Despite the
success of these and other attacks, it is important to remember
that many have been prevented. How many Americans would have died
if anti-government extremists had blown up two large propane fuel
tanks in a populated area of Sacramento three years ago, as planned?
Or if international terrorists had not been stopped from blowing
up a series of New York landmarks in 1993? Or if Ahmed Ressam had
succeeded in bombing Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's
Eve in 1999?
This history
of prevented, and executed attacks, bears testimony to the difficult
challenges posed to our country by terrorism. The fact is that terrorist
groups behave much like deadly viruses. Their reach is global in
nature, they are tenacious, and they adapt quickly to increase their
chances of survival. The evolving nature of terrorist groups is
why we can report progress in the war on terror, and yet say the
threat is still there. In order to root out terrorism, law enforcement
must also be ready and able to change.
The September 11 attacks against New York and Washington changed
the course of history. They changed the meaning of national security
for the United States and dramatically shifted FBI priorities so
that the prevention of terrorist attacks became the FBI's top priority
and overriding focus. While we remain committed to our other important
national security and law enforcement responsibilities, the prevention
of terrorism takes precedence in our thinking and planning; in our
hiring and staffing; in our training and technologies; and, most
importantly, in our investigations.
With this
shift in priorities has come a major shift in our operations. We
have greatly increased the number of Agents devoted to terrorism.
We have hired nearly 300 new counterterrorism translators specializing
in Middle Eastern languages. We have completely overhauled our counterterrorism
program.
Critical to
preventing future terrorist attacks is improving our intelligence
capabilities so that we can increase the most important aspect of
terrorist intelligence information its predictive value.
We have taken a number of steps to build that capacity within the
FBI. We have centralized our case information. We set up a National
Joint Terrorism Task Force at FBI Headquarters, staffed by representatives
from 30 different federal, state, and local agencies. It coordinates
the two-way flow of information and intelligence between Headquarters
and the 66 local joint terrorism task forces around the country.
We have also quadrupled the number of strategic analysts at Headquarters.
And we are building a cadre of more than 700 analysts nationwide.
As a result of these efforts, we are now able to produce a better
analytical product and to share that product more effectively with
policy makers, with the intelligence community, and with our law
enforcement partners.
Another key
to the Bureaus transformation is the complete overhaul of
our information technology systems to move the FBI from a paper-driven
organization to one that employs the latest technology. We have
brought in professionals from private industry to help bring the
Bureau into the digital age. From the rollout of new hardware, to
the upgrade of critical networks, to the redesign of investigative
applications, we are making progress. Thanks to these new initiatives,
we will soon have a system that will better search and analyze data
and allow Agents to manage their case files electronically for the
first time in history.
As we have
been transforming the Bureau to meet new challenges, some have asked
if America should instead create a new domestic intelligence agency.
But I believe this would be a mistake.
Proponents
of a separate agency see an advantage in separating law enforcement
and domestic intelligence. They see a dichotomy between intelligence
operations that prevent attacks and law enforcement operations that
catch those who would commit terrorist acts. The reality is that
the two functions are synergistic in the fight against terrorism.
The combined responsibilities make the FBI uniquely situated to
make strategic and tactical choices between our law enforcement
options of arrest and incarceration and our intelligence options
of surveillance and source development.
The global
aspect of terrorism creates an even greater need for the FBI to
integrate its intelligence program and criminal operations to prevent
attacks. We have done this in ways a separate domestic intelligence
agency could not. This approach has already paid off. Over the last
20 months, the FBI has identified, disrupted, and neutralized a
number of terrorist threats and cells by bringing criminal charges,
demonstrating that one of the most effective ways to catch terrorists
is by cracking down on their criminal behavior.
Because terrorists
operate at every level from local, to regional, to global
the terrorist threat must be fought at every level. Success
depends on an extensive network of partnerships and alliances. As
a result of our presence in communities across the U.S. and in our
45 international or "Legal Attache" offices, the FBI already
has the benefit of established relations with our partners in law
enforcement. We have cultivated these relationships over time, and
we must continue to expand and strengthen them.
Aside from its jurisdictional and organizational strengths, the
FBI has another advantage that should not be underestimated
its people. The men and women of the FBI have the experience and
the training to do their job within the framework of the Constitution.
They are thorough, tireless, and fully committed to protecting Americans
and their civil liberties. When it comes to working within the limits
of the law, the FBI has hard-won experience making the difficult
judgment calls that are sometimes necessary during investigations.
There have been mistakes in the past, but it is in response to those
mistakes that the Bureau has become better. Over the years, strict
legal limitations and vigorous oversight structures have been enacted
to specifically regulate how domestic intelligence operations are
conducted and enforce strict adherence to the Constitution. But
we have to continue, of course, to evolve and make changes and adjustments
as necessary.
The FBI puts
a premium on thoroughly training our Special Agents about their
responsibility to respect the rights and dignity of individuals.
In addition to extensive instruction on Constitutional law, criminal
procedure, and sensitivity to other cultures, every new FBI Agent
makes a visit to the Holocaust museum to see for themselves what
happens when law enforcement becomes a tool for oppression.
We live in
dangerous times, but we are not the first generation of Americans
to face threats to our security. Like those before us, we will be
judged by future generations on how we react to this crisis. And
by that I mean not just whether we win the war on terrorism, because
I believe we will, but also whether, as we fight that war, we safeguard
for our citizens the very liberties for which we are fighting.
So how do
we today and tomorrow prevent, deter, or disrupt terrorist
attacks before they have been initiated? How aggressively should
the FBI investigate suspicious activity that might be related to
terrorism? There are no easy answers. And these are precisely the
issues that we wrestle with every day in the FBI, whether it be
Agents in the field or personnel back at headquarters.
The men and
women who serve in the FBI are devoted to upholding and protecting
those laws. But we are also resolute in pursuing an investigation,
and we do not and I do not shy away from using every
tool that Congress has given us to protect Americans against terrorism.
Using those tools we must concentrate on is obtaining the facts
and presenting them in an objective, unbiased manner to prosecutors,
to our oversight committees, and to decision makers who forge policy
and legislation.
As we seek
this information and these facts to prevent future terrorist attacks,
the FBI will live up to its obligation to protect the citizens of
the United States as well as the rights afforded to each citizen
under our Constitution. In our free and open society there is no
guarantee that there will never be another terrorist attack. Therefore,
we must thoroughly investigate every threat, whether at home or
abroad, while carefully observing the Constitutional rights of all.
The ACLU seeks
to prevent the tyranny of the majority from destroying
our fundamental liberties. But in fighting terrorists, we seek to
prevent the tyranny of the minority from destroying
our fundamental way of life. The FBI will be judged not just on
how we effectively disrupt and deter terrorism, but also on how
we protect the civil liberties and the Constitutional rights of
all Americans, including those who wish us ill. We must accomplish
both, so that future generations can enjoy lives that are both safe
and free. The FBI is dedicated to protecting Americans,
and Americas freedoms, and we will.
Enjoy your
stay in Washington. It was an honor to be invited to speak to you.
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