Good morning.
It's a pleasure to be here with you today to talk a bit about
the FBI and our intelligence and counterterrorism programs.
I'm actually going to try to keep my remarks under 20 minutes
to give everyone the maximum amount of time possible to ask
questions. So forgive me if I cover a lot of territory quickly!
At NASIC,
you spend much of your time literally plucking information out
of the air -- and even out of the vacuum of space. As I understand
it, your focus is primarily on MASINT and SIGINT.
At the
FBI, we're more "boots on the ground." While, we may
occasionally collect information from cyberspace and wiretaps,
for the most part, our focus is on HUMINT gathered from assets
and informants and thousands of tips from ordinary citizens.
Since
September 11, 2001, the FBI has worked with you and our other
partners gathering and using intelligence to disrupt a number
of terrorist operations both here and overseas. But, contrary
to what some believe, our efforts in gathering and using intelligence
and our investigation of counterterrorism did not begin on September
12 -- they have been part of the Bureau's mission for decades.
The FBI
was created nearly a century ago to investigate criminal activity
that had begun to cross county and state lines. As America's
crime problem evolved, so did the Bureau. Its mission grew and
changed through the gangster era and into the Cold War, when
national security and espionage threats came to the forefront.
The FBI
has always used intelligence to solve cases. It is how we pursued
Nazi spies during World War II and La Cosa Nostra in the seventies
and eighties. Over the years, we have developed very sophisticated
intelligence-gathering capabilities.
And the
FBI has always investigated domestic terrorism whether
it involved lone actors like the Unabomber or conspirators like
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
What has
changed over the years is that criminal and terrorist threats
increasingly have an international dimension. Jet travel, cell
phones and the Internet have made it the rare case that does
not cross international boundaries. The dark side of globalization
is the dangerous convergence it has encouraged between terrorist,
intelligence, and criminal groups, which all operate to some
extent over the Internet and through interconnected, sophisticated
networks. In this environment, the traditional distinctions
between organized crime, cyber crime, espionage, and terrorism
have broken down. Credit card fraud is being perpetrated by
the Russian mafia and by al Qaeda operatives. Spies from enemies
and allies alike are trying to hack into our computer systems
and steal trade and defense secrets. Organized crime is laundering
money for terrorists. Al Qaeda operatives are some of the world's
largest heroin dealers. And earlier this year we busted yet
another cigarette smuggling operation that was funneling money
to terrorist organizations.
To meet
the challenges of today, the FBI changed the way we did our
work in three important ways.
The first
is that, in the past, the investigation of terrorism threats
was generally focused in the field office where they originated
along with all the information and records pertaining
to that case. This made it difficult to see connections and
patterns. Now the FBI operates under centralized management
of our counterterrorism program. The result is better coordination
within the FBI, and between the FBI and our law enforcement
and intelligence counterparts.
The second
change is directed at upgrading our technology. Today more than
ever, the FBI must rely on integrated information technology
systems. We have made significant progress in upgrading our
information technology to improve our ability to search for
information, analyze it, draw connections, and share it both
inside the Bureau and outside with our partners. We have begun
utilizing software that will, eventually, move the FBI from
being a paper-driven organization to a digital organization.
The adoption
of intelligence technology has already improved our capabilities.
This year, during the Super Bowl in Houston, we were able to
conduct over 65,000 queries in three days. In the past, an analyst
would have to work three months to do the equivalent.
The third
change is in how we support our operations. An organizational
re-engineering is making the FBI more efficient and more responsive.
We have also strengthened our recruiting and hiring to attract
persons with the skills we need to carry out our counterterrorism
and our intelligence missions, such as backgrounds in computer
sciences, Middle-Eastern studies, or foreign languages.
Aside
from our aggressive recruitment efforts, we have developed better
training and new leadership initiatives to keep our employees
learning and growing throughout their careers. And as a final
administrative change, we have built up our internal security
to protect us from spies.
To confront
an enemy as cunning as Al Qaeda, it was clear that the FBI would
have to become more flexible, more agile, and more mobile. First,
we needed more manpower. Since September 11th, we have not only
doubled the number of Special Agents, but we have also increased
the number of intelligence analysts. We expanded their career
path, set performance standards, and developed training that
will be ongoing for their entire career. And we have incorporated
elements of our basic intelligence training course into the
New Agents Class curriculum.
We also
established specialized operational units that give us new capabilities
to address the terrorist threat. One focuses on terrorist financing,
and another exploits evidence found overseas. Yet another conducts
background checks on individuals seeking biological agents here
in the United States. A special task force is dedicated solely
to finding terrorists overseas and keeping them out of the United
States, while multiple "Fly Teams" travel wherever
and whenever they are needed to lend their counterterrorism
expertise.
And our
new Field Intelligence Groups (FIGs) integrate analysts, Agents,
linguists, and surveillance personnel in the field to bring
a dedicated team focus to intelligence operations.
The goal
is to integrate intelligence into all of our operations to produce
a seamless, predictive, analytical capability. And, as a result
of these efforts, we are on course to triple our intelligence
production this year.
But intelligence
can only help if it is shared. As Benjamin Franklin once said,
"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly,
we shall hang separately." Today, we produce daily intelligence
reports and bulletins to share with the intelligence community
as well as with our state and local partners. We cannot defeat
terrorists without strong partnerships throughout the law enforcement,
the intelligence and the international communities.
Today,
we all find ourselves standing on the 50-yard line, suited up
and facing tough opponents. The only way we can defeat today's
sophisticated criminal and terrorist's networks is with strong
networks of our own. More than ever, we have to come together
as a team. And that means everyone -- law enforcement, the intelligence
community, small businesses and large corporations, and the
community as a whole. One team. One motivation - protecting
our country. All of us are part of that team.
Knowing
this, we have focused on improving the level of coordination
and information sharing with state and local law enforcement.
Our 100 Joint Terrorism Task Forces put federal, state, and
local law enforcement together to investigate threats and share
information. In communities across the country, they are the
eyes and ears in the fight against terrorism.
And our
partners in the CIA and the military have removed the sanctuary
of Afghanistan. Working together, we have captured thousands
of Al Qaeda operatives around the world, including much of their
leadership.
While
we have made steady progress in the war against terrorism, our
work is not yet finished. As evidenced by the March 11 attacks
in Spain and other recent incidents overseas, terrorists remain
capable of organizing large-scale attacks.
The age
of global threats has moved the Bureau into an age of global
partnerships. The clear-cut divisions of responsibility and
jurisdictions that once existed between agencies and
between countries are becoming less and less relevant.
That is
why the FBI, like many institutions, has gone global. Our first
international office was established in 1940. Today, we have
56 of these "Legal Attaché" offices in embassies
around the world.
To help
strengthen our partnerships at all levels, the FBI provides
training to state, local and international law enforcement.
We offer FBI academies in Budapest and Dubai, where the FBI
trains officers from other countries. And we reap the benefits
of that training in improved international cooperation. For
example, we have trained officers from Saudi Arabia. And when
the FBI responded to the bombings in Riyadh, the Saudi's told
us: "We trained together, now we can work together."
Just last
spring, our improved international relations helped us tackle
crime on the South Pole. That's right, Antarctica. A United
States scientific research station located in the coldest spot
on the planet called us for help after their computer systems
had been hacked into and their data corrupted.
Because of the sub-freezing temperatures, it was impossible
to send Agents to the scene no aircraft could land or
take off from the site for months. But working from thousands
of miles away, our investigators were able to trace the source
of the intrusion to a server outside Pittsburgh. From there,
we identified two Romanian suspects. Thanks to the cooperation
and hard work of the Romanian authorities, they were arrested
outside Bucharest shortly thereafter.
Conducting
operations in Antarctica from FBI offices in DC; Los Angeles;
and Mobile, Alabama. Working hand-in-hand with police in Romania
based on data from a server in Pittsburgh. It's a whole new
world. But it's a world that the FBI is adapting to cope with,
as we have throughout our history. And it's a world in which
we will still fulfill our primary mission in partnership with
others, like you -- to protect America.
Thank you
for having me today. I am happy to take your questions.
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