Testimony
of Pasquale J. D'Amuro, Executive Assistant Director
for
Counterterrorism/Counterintelligence Division, FBI
Before
the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
United States Senate
February 26, 2003
"Consolidating Intelligence Analysis: A Review of the
President's Proposal to Create a Terrorist Threat Integration
Center"
Good
morning Madam Chair Collins, Ranking Member Lieberman, and
other distinguished Members of the Committee. I would like
to express my gratitude to the Committee for the opportunity
to testify today. I am honored to be included in such a distinguished
panel of executives from the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement
communities. I would also like to thank the Committee for
allowing me to add the following remarks to Mr. Wiley's written
statement submitted for the record:
President
Bush recently emphasized during a speech at FBI Headquarters
that “the FBI has no greater priority than preventing
terrorist acts against America.” The FBI strongly supports
the formation of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC)
and is proud to be a partner with the CIA, the Department
of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and all the
other participating agencies. The FBI's experience in conducting
complex criminal and terrorism investigations has shown that
analysts are most effective when they are in constant and
close communication with investigators. For this reason, the
FBI strongly supports and looks forward to the expeditious
implementation of plans to co-locate the FBI's Counterterrorism
Division (CTD) with the CIA's Counterterrorism Center (CTC),
the Department of Homeland Security, and other U.S. agencies
participating in the TTIC.
As you
may know, the FBI has established sixty-six Joint Terrorism
Task Forces (JTTFs) in FBI field offices around the country
and a National Joint Terrorism Task Force (NJTTF) at FBI Headquarters.
The JTTFs partner FBI personnel with hundreds of investigators
from federal, state, and local agencies. These partnerships
provide an effective and efficient mechanism to collect domestic
threat-related information. The TTIC will fuse the information
collected domestically by the FBI's JTTFs with threat-related
information gathered abroad. The fusion of domestic and international
threat-related information at the TTIC is critically important
for the FBI to accomplish its mission of preventing terrorist
attacks in the future.
The FBI views the TTIC as an important resource. The TTIC
will not only provide all-source, integrated analysis to the
FBI, but also to the officials in state and local law enforcement
who are essential partners in the fight against terrorism.
We recognize that the two-way flow of information between
federal and local law enforcement is necessary to continuously
sharpen both the collection and analysis of threat-related
information. Once again, the dozens of FBI JTTFs around the
country provide an effective channel to share the TTIC's analytical
products with our partners in state and local law enforcement.
The FBI is committed to working with the Department of Homeland
Security to push information and analysis out of the TTIC
to other federal agencies, and to state and local officials.
We are expanding our ability to collect, analyze, and disseminate
intelligence. The centerpiece of this effort is the establishment
of an Executive Assistant Director for Intelligence who will
have direct authority and responsibility for the FBI's National
Intelligence Program. Specifically, the EAD for Intelligence
will be responsible for ensuring that TTIC's reporting requirements
are met by field offices.
Our support of the TTIC will not change our mission, priorities,
or operations. In fact, the TTIC will only strengthen our
capabilities. The FBI is uniquely positioned to bring both
national security and law enforcement authorities to bear
in the war against terrorism. Recently, the ability to develop
intelligence on terrorist activities and use law enforcement
powers to disrupt them was exemplified in Buffalo, New York,
where we arrested seven al-Qaeda associates and sympathizers
indicted in September 2002 for providing material support
to terrorism. Every FBI agent is trained to recognize that
along with these broad authorities comes the responsibility
to implement them fairly and in accordance with the protections
provided by the Constitution. It is important to note that
the FBI’s role, and the roles of all TTIC participants,
must and will remain consistent with the protections provided
by privacy laws, Executive Orders, AG Guidelines, and other
relevant legal authorities in order to protect Constitutional
liberties and privacy interests.
Again,
I offer my gratitude and appreciation to you, Madam Chair
Collins, and the Governmental Affairs Committee, for dedicating
your time and effort to this issue and I would be happy to
respond to any questions.
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