BUILDING
THE FUTURE FBI
Director Mueller discusses "today's changing threat, our new mission, and
the future of the FBI"
06/23/04
On 6/22, Director Mueller
addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in very specific terms on the
truly new FBI that is being built to address today's evolving threats.
Please read the speech
in its entirety. But just a few highlighted quotes to whet your interest.
The fight against
terrorism "will be a long and difficult war."
"Today, terrorists
and criminals use sophisticated business practices to achieve their goals,
not unlike that of legitimate multinational corporations."
"Terrorists who
shun our way of life are more than willing to use our technology to carry
out and publicize their attacks. Increasingly, the global community of
the Internet is used not only to break down barriers, but also to sustain
and nurture centuries-old hatreds."
"There is a growing
convergence of these threats both old and new. We see organized crime laundering
money for drug groups. Drug groups selling weapons to terrorists. Terrorists
committing white-collar fraud to raise money for their operations."
"The players in
the espionage game have diversified...we are no longer dealing exclusively
with intelligence agents. Today the threat can just as easily come from
students, business executives, or hackers."
These are problems as
old as human history, and we cannot expect them to be solved overnight."
What "new" FBI
will address these threats?
"I envision tomorrow's
FBI as a highly trained, electronically sophisticated, internationally
networked organization that has terrorism as its principal target...more
flexible, more agile, and more mobile."
"This is why we
are establishing a Directorate of Intelligence within the FBI...the next
logical step in the current evolution of the FBI's intelligence capability."
"...a fully operational
modern information technology infrastructure."
"...offices or
Legal Attaché offices in every country with a major impact on the
United States...likely in an official international anti-terrorism alliance."
"...a truly diverse
workforce...with specialty backgrounds, who understand international law,
are fluent in foreign languages, or have a background in intelligence."
"...agents who
are capable of changing countries as easily as they change cities."
"...guardians of
civil liberties operating with full adherence to the Constitution."
What's the upshot?
"The enemies of
the United States seek to take full advantage of our technology to attack
us. They think they are stealing the best part of the West to use against
us. But they do not understand what the best part is. It is not our technology;
it is not our weaponry; it is not our wealth. The best part of America
is freedom--freedom to think, freedom to create, freedom to change. These
are the true treasures of this nation. And they are the tools we will use
to defeat this enemy."
Links: Read
Director Mueller's full
speech.
