Today,
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held
its annual hearing on major national security
threats facing the U.S.
The
participants? CIA Director George Tenet,
Defense Intelligence Agency Director Vice Admiral
Lowell Jacoby, and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Director
Mueller, for his part, spoke to:
1) the top three security threats being addressed
by the FBI;
2) how we're transforming our agency to meet these
threats; and
3) major successes of the Bureau and its partners
over the past year in tracking down terrorists
and their supporters in the U.S.
Here's
a quick run down of Director Mueller's comments
in all three areas:
Threats
- "The
greatest threat remains international terrorism
-- specifically Sunni extremists, including
al-Qa'ida. While our successes to date are
dramatic, we face an enemy that is determined,
resilient, and patient .... This enemy still
has the capacity to strike the U.S. both here
and abroad with little or no warning ... [A]l-Qa'ida
retains a cadre of supporters within the U.S.
which extends across the country."
- The
other two major threats: foreign intelligence
and cyber. According to the Director: "We
are particularly concerned about terrorists
and state actors wishing to exploit vulnerabilities
in U.S. systems and networks."
The
FBI's Ongoing Transformation
- Centralized
management of counterterrorism, counterintelligence,
and cyber programs to strengthen information-sharing,
accountability, and liaison.
- Analyzed
the overall threat environment and devised
and implemented new strategies to address
the most critical threats.
- Put
in place key pieces of a new enterprise-wide
intelligence program.
- Added
resources: 1,000 more Agents focused on terrorism;
400 new analysts; and twice as many permanent
and contract linguists with skills in critical
languages.
Successes
in the U.S. over the last year
- In
concert with our partners, identified terrorist
operatives and supporters in Cincinnati, Baltimore,
Tampa, Newark, and Minneapolis.
- Conducted
10,000 interviews of Iraqi expatriates, gathering
information that proved valuable to troops
in Iraq and to our counterterrorism/counterintelligence
programs.
For
more information, read Director Mueller's full
statement.
