Thank
you, Roy (Eisenhardt) and good afternoon everyone. It's good to
be back home. It brings back a lot of wonderful memories. My years
in San Francisco were among the most satisfying and enjoyable of
my career. It gave me the opportunity to work with some of the finest
criminal justice and law enforcement professionals in the country.
They taught me a great deal, and it was an honor to serve along
side them.
As
much as I miss San Francisco, I am grateful to have the opportunity
to serve in what I believe to be the world's finest law enforcement
agency -- the FBI. It is particularly rewarding to serve at this
unparalleled moment in history, when America is depending on the
FBI more than ever, when protecting the homeland from terrorist
attacks has taken on new meaning and new urgency.
Like
most Americans, I'll never forget the day it all began. I had been
on the job exactly one week when word came that a plane had struck
the World Trade Center. We rushed down to the FBI's command center,
hoping it had been a terrible accident but fearing the worst. Minutes
later, we watched in horror as a plane hit the second tower. Then,
reality hit even closer to home, when across the Potomac, another
plane rammed into the Pentagon.
Not
long after learning that the third hijacked airliner had gone down,
a controller from the Federal Aviation Administration, who was on
the phone with his agency, told us more shocking news. A fourth
plane had been hijacked. It was heading straight towards the nation's
capitol. And it was just 15 minutes away.
It
was a surreal moment for us all, realizing this plane this
flying bomb was headed our way, yet not knowing where it
might hit: the White House, the Capitol, a school yard, or FBI Headquarters.
As
we all know, Flight 93 never made it to Washington. The brave passengers
on board including many from the San Francisco Bay area
were determined that this flying missile would not reach its target,
and they sacrificed their lives to save our city. They are among
the true heroes of that day.
From
those first moments, we in the FBI, like the rest of the nation,
knew that the world had changed. And we knew that our institution
would never be the same.
Our
first thought was to do what we'd always done after a terrorist
attack: set up command centers and start managing the crisis from
a law enforcement perspective; get control of the crime scenes and
begin gathering evidence; and deploy our vast investigative force
to find out everything we could about the attacks.
At
the same time, we realized that we had to conduct this investigation
somewhat differently. These attacks were not just an act of terror.
They were an act of war. The most pressing issue for the FBI and
for the nation was to find out who we were at war with, and more
importantly, to make sure we were not attacked again.
To
do that, the FBI began working in concert with its many partners
to find out everything we could about the hijackers and how they
pulled off their attacks. We ran down literally hundreds of thousands
of leads and checked every record we could get our hands on, from
flight reservations to car rentals to bank accounts.
What
emerged from our massive investigation was a sobering portrait of
19 hijackers who carried out their attacks with meticulous planning,
extraordinary secrecy, and extensive knowledge of how America works.
The
plans were hatched and financed overseas, beginning as long as five
years ago. Each of the hijackers came from abroad: fifteen from
Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, and one each from
Lebanon and Egypt. All 19 entered our country legally, and only
three had overstayed the legal limits of their visas on the day
of the attacks.
While
here, the hijackers did all they could to stay below our radar.
They contacted no known terrorist sympathizers. They committed no
egregious crimes. They dressed and acted like Americans, shopping
and eating at places like Wal-Mart and Pizza Hut, blending into
the woodwork all the while. When four got speeding tickets in the
days leading up to September 11th, they remained calm and aroused
no suspicion. Since none were known terrorists, law enforcement
had no reason to question or detain them.
The
hijackers also left no paper trail. In our investigation, we have
not uncovered a single piece of paper either here in the
U.S. or in the treasure trove of information that has turned up
in Afghanistan and elsewhere that mentioned any aspect of
the September 11th plot. The hijackers had no computers, no laptops,
no storage media of any kind. They used hundreds of different pay
phones and cell phones, often with prepaid calling cards that are
extremely difficult to trace. And they made sure that all the money
sent to them to fund their attacks was wired in small amounts to
avoid detection.
In
short, the terrorists had managed to exploit loopholes and vulnerabilities
in our systems, to stay out of sight, and to not let anyone know
what they were up to beyond a very closed circle.
The
investigation was enormously helpful in figuring out who and what
to look for as we worked to prevent attacks. It allowed us to see
where we as a nation needed to close gaps in our security. And it
gave us clear and definitive proof that al Qaeda was behind the
strikes.
At
the same time, we were taking other steps to track down any potential
associates who might still be out there. We began to identify individuals
whom we needed to question. We went to the flight schools to identify
associates of the hijackers. We went to those who run a popular
travel website that several of the hijackers used to make their
flight reservations. They showed us the patterns the hijackers followed
and identified others who fit a similar profile. And we ran down
all leads in the hopes that they might turn up associates of the
terrorists.
Through
this process, and with the help of state and local authorities,
we interviewed thousands of persons to develop a full picture of
the hijackers and others associated with them. In the United States,
a number of suspects were detained on federal, state, or local charges;
on immigration violations; or on material witness warrants. Ultimately,
these and other actions with our partners around the world have
helped prevent more terrorist attacks.
As
the days and weeks went by, though, it became clear that the war
on terror had only just begun. Our investigation moved from the
events of September 11th to the anthrax attacks, to the foiled shoe
bombing on the flight from Paris to Miami, to the kidnapping and
murder of a Wall Street Journal reporter in Pakistan. Through it
all, the FBI had become part and parcel of what is now called "homeland
security," a government-wide campaign to protect America from
terrorist attacks. And we have been given a critical role to play,
one that is redefining much of what we do.
The
homeland security effort is being waged on many fronts. The law
enforcement component is building cases against terrorists in the
court of law. The military component is deploying our armed forces
to attack terrorist strongholds overseas. The intelligence component
is using information and analysis to anticipate and prevent attacks,
and to better understand the enemy. The diplomatic component is
building an international coalition against terror. The financial
component is drying up the pool of funds used by terrorists. And
the public health component is preparing now to save lives and protect
our communities.
Today,
the FBI is fully integrated into this campaign. We play a leadership
role, of course, in the law enforcement arena. At the same time,
we are supporting each of the other components of the campaign and
each of its players. In this environment, we realize that what we
do to help our colleagues is every bit as important as what we do
within our own agency.
We
are supporting the military, for example, by sharing information
and intelligence that we gather in our investigations and in our
interviews of prisoners. In some cases, we have also facilitated
the capture and arrest of terrorists overseas.
We
are supporting the intelligence effort by working more closely than
ever with our partners in the intelligence community here and around
the world to gather and share information. We are developing new
tools to make this process easier and more effective.
To
cut off terrorist funding, we've created a financial review group
that is working with many other agencies to investigate shady bank
accounts and wire transfers and to develop predictive models that
can help target suspicious ones in the future. So far, this group
has reviewed over 75,000 transactions and helped freeze millions
in terrorist funds worldwide.
In
the public health area, we continue to investigate any incidents
involving biological or chemical agents. Since September 11th, we've
not only launched a massive investigation into the anthrax attacks,
we've also responded to the 16,000 hoaxes and threats that have
followed in their wake. We have also stepped up efforts to work
more closely with state and local officials, and we continue to
coordinate issues, provide training, and stage exercises.
As I'll discuss later, the FBI also plays a role in the diplomatic
component through our overseas offices, which work closely with
American Embassies and foreign governments.
Our
role in homeland security builds upon what we have been doing for
many years. We're still the lead law enforcement agency for counterterrorism.
We're still assessing threats and issuing warnings and advisories
to our law enforcement partners and to the American people. We're
still leading the multi-agency National Infrastructure Protection
Center, a key force in protecting our nation's critical physical
and electronic infrastructures. And most of all, our top priority
is still prevention.
The
difference is largely a matter of degree. Terrorists have shown
they are willing to go to great lengths to destroy America. We must
be willing to go to even greater lengths to stop them. Our worldwide
network must be more powerful. Our financial commitment must be
stronger. Our techniques and training must be more sophisticated.
And our sense of urgency and intensity must be greater.
This
reality is driven home to me in a very real way each day. Since
the attacks, I have briefed President Bush in the Oval Office each
morning. Together with George Tenet, the Director of the CIA, we
go over what we call the "threat matrix," a list of every
threat directed at the US in the past 24 hours.
During
these briefings, the President is not so much interested in who
has been arrested or who has been prosecuted. What the President
cares about most is what we in the FBI are doing in concert
with our partners to run down each of these threats. He wants
to be absolutely sure that we are aggressively pursuing every angle
and every lead, so that America never wakes up to another morning
like September 11th.
George
Tenet calls those meetings "galvanizing." He recognizes,
as I do, that you simply cannot walk into that briefing without
feeling completely confident that your people are on top of every
issue. More importantly, you cannot come back day after day without
being sure that your agency is taking every step to make prevention
both a priority and a reality.
In
the Bureau, we have taken a long, hard look in the mirror to see
how we measure up to this mandate. We see some strong counterterrorism
capabilities, expertise that has been refined over time and sharpened
by experience. But we also see areas where we could do more. And
we are moving forward to address them as quickly as possible.
First,
we are putting more resources into the fight. As we speak, we are
overhauling our counterterrorism operations so that we have twice
as many Agents focused on prevention. As we hire nearly one thousand
new Agents this year, we are also recruiting the right mix of skills
-- primarily computer, scientific, and language -- that we need
to fight terror.
More
resources also means a much stronger presence at major special events.
We were out in force, for example, at this week's Boston Marathon.
At the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, we stationed nearly 1,400
personnel -- about five percent of our workforce -- to support the
many professionals devoted to ensuring the safety of the games.
We
are also expanding and improving our analytic capability. The September
11th terrorists spent a great deal of time and effort figuring out
how America works. They knew the ins and outs of our systems. We
need to have a complete grasp on how terrorists operate as well.
Our analysts do some great work, but we need more of them and we
need to do more of the kind of strategic thinking that helps us
stay one step ahead of those who would do us harm.
Second,
we are overhauling our technology. Here in the heart of Silicon
Valley, you understand how quickly technology changes and how fast
you can be left behind. The fact is, for all the state-of-the-art
systems in our lab, for all the high-tech services we provide to
law enforcement, the Bureau has simply not kept pace when it comes
to the equipment on our desktops. We have computers discarded by
other agencies that we took as upgrades. We have systems that cannot
talk with other Bureau systems, much less with other federal agencies.
We have 34 different investigative applications, none of which are
easy to use and all of which must ultimately be integrated.
In
the wake of September 11th, we have accelerated our plans to fix
these problems. We will put in place new hardware this year and
we will overhaul our key applications by the end of next year. Our
goal is a near paperless environment, a development that will put
us light years ahead of where we are today.
Technology
will also help us share information more quickly and effectively
outside the Bureau. We don't have the right systems in place now
to make information flow as freely and as seamlessly as we'd like.
We're working to create a database one that sits on top of
all the others that we can use to share information and intelligence
with the outside world. We hope to test it later next year.
We're
also looking for a way to get information out more quickly and universally.
Today, there is no one system no digital pipeline
that we can use to send advisories and information to all of law
enforcement. We have to do it piecemeal and patchwork. We're working
hard to find a solution.
Third,
effective prevention requires strengthening the defensive infrastructure
of the country. This means immigration and customs programs that
keep terrorists out, airports that are secure, and seaports that
are on alert. We are supporting these efforts wherever we can. It
also means a national program where the FBI joins with state and
local law enforcement to form a national anti-terror network. There
are just over 11,000 Special Agents. There are 650,000 state and
local law enforcement officers. An integrated national program that
combines our resources and expertise substantially increases the
safety of all Americans.
Finally,
prevention also means something America has not really focused on
before September 11th. It means an aggressive -- but rigorously
lawful -- program of disruption abroad and at home. The September
11th terrorists had the luxury of time and tranquility to put the
pieces of their plan in place. From the training camps of Afghanistan
to the universities of Germany to the flight schools of America,
they were able to assemble the components of their plan and pick
their moment to execute it. We cannot afford them this operational
luxury again. For America, prevention must include an international
offensive capability in which the intelligence and law enforcement
resources of the global community are integrated into a program
to disrupt and attack terrorist operations in their infancy.
It
is this international component, as much as any other ingredient,
which heralds a new day for the FBI. In a post 9-11 world, partnerships
abroad equal security at home.
We
are working to build these partnerships through our 44 overseas
offices, what we call Legal Attaches. Today more than ever, they
are an important first line of defense against terror. They enable
us to build the kind of face-to-face, personal relationships we
need to track down terrorists around the globe and root them out
of their hiding places.
Last
month, working through our Legal Attache in Manila, a group of 28
senior level government officials from the Republic of the Philippines
came to our National Academy in Virginia for a two-week seminar.
They wanted to learn how to knock the financial legs out from under
terrorists. One of the participants in the class was Jose Calida,
the Undersecretary for the Department of Justice in the Philippines.
He decided to give the class a name. He came up with the word "Balikatan,"
which in his native tongue means "shoulder-to-shoulder."
Because when he looked out at the class, that's what he saw: 28
leaders sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with each other and with us,
united in a common purpose of defeating terror.
Al-Qaeda
and other international terrorist groups have developed networks
around the world. We need the same kind of networks to defeat them.
Even in this age of sophisticated technologies and techniques, it
is critically important that we be able to sit down with a colleague
and develop a rapport that will ultimately help us build a national
and international coalition against terror. That is why our overseas
offices are so important and why we need even more of them in the
days ahead.
As
we in the Bureau move through a period of intense change, as we
adjust to our new role in homeland security, we must be flexible
and open-minded. We can never afford to cling to the status quo.
Where our capabilities are strong, they must be stronger. Where
problems exist, we must acknowledge them, fix them, and move on.
The
reality is, change is never smooth or easy. That is especially true
for an agency like the FBI, one that is always on the cutting edge,
pioneering new tools and techniques to help us catch an increasingly
savvy band of criminals.
In
the past, though, the FBI has sometimes made problems worse by ignoring
or denying them. That can't be the way we do business going forward.
We've got to welcome and even embrace constructive criticism. We
have to acknowledge problems and be ahead of the curve in fixing
them. That has been our approach in recent months, and it will remain
our approach.
Standing
behind all the capabilities that we have now and that we are working
to build is a cadre of FBI professionals, men and women who exemplify
courage, integrity, respect for the law, and respect for others.
We are extremely proud of how they have performed over the past
seven months. They have worked long days and nights, sacrificing
time with their families to get the job done. They have shown grace
under fire in difficult and often dangerous situations.
There
is one Special Agent, though, who made the ultimate sacrifice for
the FBI and for the country he cared about so deeply. His name is
Lenny Hatton, and he is one of the many law enforcement professionals
lost on September 11th.
Lenny
was an exceptional Agent and a remarkable man. He was on his way
to work on September 11th when he saw the World Trade Center on
fire. Instinctively, he went straight to the scene and started working
with police and firefighters to evacuate the buildings. He was last
seen helping a victim out of one of the buildings, and rushing back
in to save more.
Several
days later at Lenny's funeral Mass, an individual by the name of
Chris O'Connell paid tribute to the fallen Agent. Chris talked about
how Lenny devoted his life to serving -- as a Marine, as a volunteer
firefighter, as an FBI Special Agent, as a husband and father --
and how Lenny had served until his last breath, trying to save lives.
In
tears, Chris O'Connell closed his eulogy by saying: "On September
11th, we saw a horrific event in this country and our city. Special
Agent Lenny Hatton stood shoulder to shoulder with the finest and
the bravest. Until we meet again, my partner, my friend."
Chris
O'Connell was Lenny's partner, and Chris O'Connell was and is a
detective with the New York Police Department. Lenny and Chris cared
for each other like brothers. It didn't matter to them that one
worked for the FBI and one worked for the NYPD. They just wanted
to get the job done. They were a team.
Lenny
Hatton exemplifies what the FBI is really all about: defending freedom
through courage, compassion, and cooperation. Just as this tragedy
brought out Lenny's best, it is already bringing about a fundamentally
better FBI.
Thanks
for having me, and God bless.
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