Thank
you, Mark [Mershon], and good afternoon everyone.
George [Vinson], thanks for your comments.
And thanks to the Global Trade Council for
inviting me. I always appreciate a good excuse
to come home.
Before
I begin, I want to take a moment to thank
your President, Harry Orbelian. A certain
unnamed source tells me that Harry once did
an important favor for the Bureau. Here's
the untold story.
A
number of years back, as some of you may know,
Harry managed a large antiques enterprise
in town. One day, an FBI Agent paid Harry
a visit. The Agent asked for his help in locating
a certain highly valuable statue, one of thousands
if not millions of pieces of artwork in the
area. The time was 10 a.m. By 2 o'clock that
same day, Harry had called the Agent to say
that he not only knew exactly where the statue
was, he even had a picture of it.
Well,
it turns out, the head of the FBI office here
at that time, and a beneficiary of Harry's
detective work, was none other than my father.
So I'm here to thank Harry officially on behalf
of the FBI, and hopefully to repay in some
small way our family debt.
What
Harry asked me to talk about with you today,
in line with George's comments, is the threat
of terrorism and how we can go about defeating
it together.
Let
me start with the threat as we see it in the
FBI. Terrorism is really nothing new. The
term has been around since at least the French
Revolution, and the Bureau has been addressing
various forms of terror here in the U.S. since
its earliest days.
Al-Qai'da,
however, represents a new, more insidious
form of terrorism - a far cry from anything
we have seen before.
First,
unlike other terrorist groups, al-Qai'da doesn't
just want to influence policy or to make a
statement. It seeks to destroy the United
States and any other country it considers
an enemy. To achieve that goal, al-Qai'da
is willing to use any weapon, to forge any
partnership, and to sacrifice as many lives
as necessary.
Al-Qai'da
is a global, multi-ethnic movement, with a
presence in some 60 nations and direct and
indirect links to any number of terrorist
groups around the world. It has been compared
to a holding company, bringing together many
different entities under the common roof of
international jihad.
Second, al-Qai'da's leadership is highly educated
and experienced. Its operatives are often
well-disciplined, well-trained, and well-armed.
Al-Qai'da is incredibly patient, often taking
months and years to plan intricate attacks.
It mutates and adapts as we make progress
and learns from its own failures. It is constantly
generating new recruits, and its resources
are deep.
What's
important to understand, though, is not just
the global reach of al-Qai'da but also its
global focus. The list of countries that al-Qai'da
has attacked or attempted to attack - along
with those it considers its enemies - grows
longer with each passing month. It includes
the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France,
Italy, Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Israel,
Jordan, Indonesia, Morocco, India, Kenya,
Pakistan, Singapore, Yemen, and the Philippines,
to name a few. Unlike terrorist organizations
of the past, al-Qai'da is essentially picking
a global fight.
The
question for all of us is: what can we do,
individually and collectively, as distinct
nations and as a global community, as representatives
of both the public and private sectors, to
defeat al-Qai'da and related terrorist groups?
Let
me talk for a moment about how we in the FBI
are addressing the threat and how we fit into
the broader international campaign to defeat
terrorism.
The
FBI, as you probably know, is the lead federal
agency in the U.S. for protecting the American
people from acts of terror. Our primary mission
today is one of prevention. That has always
been our goal, and we have headed off quite
a few potentially serious attacks through
the years. But today - considering the scope
of the attacks of 9/11, the continuing capabilities
of terrorists, and al-Qai'da's desire to develop
weapons of mass destruction - prevention is
measured by a different yardstick. Heading
off attacks here in the U.S. - and to the
extent we can, overseas - is not just our
number one priority, it's also the standard
by which we are now judged.
Our
strategy for doing that has several different
pieces. First, it means identifying and disabling
potential sleeper cells and lone wolves who
may be planning attacks. Second, it means
helping to create an environment in this country
where terrorists find it difficult to plan
and operate. Third, it means taking down terrorist
logistical and support structures, all those
who help with training, recruiting, fundraising,
and the like. And fourth, it means tracking
down one-by-one the various operative and
leaders of terrorist networks.
To
do all of that, the FBI is bringing to bear
all of its law enforcement and intelligence
capabilities. Our investigative skills. Our
forensic and financial expertise. And our
experience in developing assets and penetrating
organizations, which we've put to use over
the years in taking down major organized crime
syndicates.
We're
also improving in some critical ways. We're
in the process, for example, of modernizing
our information technology infrastructure.
That's Silicon-Valley speak for "fixing
our computers." Technology is key to
our ability to draw connections and share
information in ways that are proactive and
preventative. To help us improve, we've hired
some of the best and the brightest from private
industry, including executives from the likes
of IBM, HP, and Lucent. And we're making progress
day-by-day.
Information
and intelligence are also fundamental to prevention,
and we are gathering more intelligence and
analyzing it more quickly than ever before,
centralizing it in Washington and sharing
it with partners far and wide. Intelligence
has now become for the FBI an effort that
is recognized as important in its own right,
and its status is on par with our major investigative
programs. We recently hired a long-time intelligence
expert from NSA to strengthen our overall
intelligence efforts, and she is already making
a difference.
Another
important focus is partnerships. I've been
with the FBI nearly 30 years, and I have never
seen a greater priority put on relationships
and teamwork. Today, we work more closely
than ever with the CIA and other federal partners,
with state and local law enforcement, and
with our many international colleagues. We
have plenty of new partners as well - like
George and everyone in the Department of Homeland
Security. Our cooperation today is such that
if you hear about a success against terrorism
- whether it's rolling up a sleeper cell here
in the states or arresting a top al-Qai'da
lieutenant like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in
Pakistan - you know that it was the product
of teamwork.
The
key operational forces for fighting terrorism
here in the U.S. are what we call our Joint
Terrorism Task Forces. There are 84 nationwide
- including one here in San Francisco and
several in the Los Angeles area. These task
forces - which include representatives of
a range of local, state, and federal agencies
- do all the investigative legwork and keep
their finger on the pulse of what's happening
in a given community.
Another
important partnership - announced two weeks
ago - is the new Terrorist Screening Center.
This multi-agency center will support those
who work to keep terrorists from crossing
our borders by creating a single, comprehensive
watch list available across the board 24 hours
a day.
Overseas,
as many of you know, we have 45 international
offices - what we call Legal Attaches or Legats.
These offices are where we build the partnerships
that are so critical to fighting international
terrorist and criminal networks. It is hard
to forge agreements, arrange renditions, make
persuasive arguments on issues, and discuss
cases when your "partner" is sitting
at a desk thousands of miles away. We need
to be on the ground overseas, with Agents
who know the cultures, the legal and criminal
justice systems, and the players in a given
country. Our Legats give us that presence.
Our success against terrorism will be determined,
in large part, by the quality of the relationships
we develop worldwide. On his various trips
around globe, Director Mueller has heard again
and again from international officials that
we have to stop meeting at crime scenes. We
need to meet more often before attacks, so
we can prevent them from occurring in the
first place.
More
and more, we're doing that. The cooperation
internationally since September 11 has been
outstanding. More than 3,000 terrorist operatives
have been arrested worldwide in the past two
years, including top al-Qai'da leadership.
And even when there are attacks, our partnerships
are only getting stronger. In recent months,
for example, the FBI has sent teams to cities
like Riyadh, Jakarta, Casablanca, and Baghdad
to help investigate terrorist strikes. Before
September 11, when the FBI went overseas we
were focused on developing evidence for a
prosecution in U.S. courts. Today, we are
giving little thought to where a case will
be tried or who will get credit. We are just
going to help. And we have seen the difference
in cooperation from international partners.
In
line with that theme of cooperation, let me
talk about some specific ways we can help
each other in this broader campaign to defeat
al-Qai'da.
As
much as they would like to, terrorists cannot
spend forever hiding in the remote corners
of the world. They have to interact with society,
particularly if they intend to strike inside
the United States. They will go shopping and
set up bank accounts. They will buy equipment,
weapons, and technology. They may contact
and communicate with supporters and fellow
operatives here and overseas. They may try
to go back and forth across borders. They
may try to commit petty crimes - like credit
card fraud - to support their activities.
All
of these are opportunities to identify and
stop terrorists from doing harm. And everyone
can play a role by keeping their eyes open
and reporting any unusual or suspicious activities
to our Joint Terrorism Task Forces or to our
Legats overseas.
If
you are in the diplomatic community, for example,
you may encounter individuals with questionable
backgrounds who are attempting to obtain passports.
You may pick up bits of useful information
on suspicious characters from your respective
countries. I understand that several consulates
on the West Coast have provided the FBI with
relevant information relating to terrorism
in recent months. In one case, a diplomatic
establishment gave us information on stolen
passports that it had reason to believe were
in the possession of individuals from the
Middle East. That's exactly the kind of cooperation
it takes to defeat the global threat of terror.
Those
of you from the business world can - and have
- played an important role as well. A number
of banks and financial institutions, for example,
have helped us track down sources of terrorist
funding. Other organizations have provided
us with information on specific individuals
or specialized experience on key issues. We
appreciate that help. We also appreciate your
keeping an eye on suspicious purchases, whether
it is chemicals or weapons or technology.
In
this day and age, I would also make this suggestion:
know whom you are hiring. We had a case recently
where a company used a temp, liked his work,
and brought him on board full-time without
conducting any background checks. That employee
later raided the company's electronic systems
and fled to the Middle East. Which brings
me to another point: make sure you have good
digital security. If you haven't already,
you might want to join our local chapter of
InfraGard, a joint effort between the FBI
and private sector companies focused on guarding
critical infrastructure by sharing information
and strategies.
Our
relationships, of course, go both ways. We
in the FBI understand that it is in our best
interests to support you just as you support
us. It is up to the FBI to help you understand
what to look for, to share strategies, to
work with you to harden targets, and most
importantly, to share threat information that
may impact this community or your countries
back home. I believe we're doing a better
job of that -- not perfect, but better. Please,
if you have questions, concerns, ideas, or
issues, don't hesitate to contact us. When
it comes to terrorism, we want to make sure
that no stone is left unturned.
Let
me close on a personal note. When I left San
Francisco 17 months ago, one of the things
I took with me was a picture of the Golden
Gate Bridge that was given to me by my friends
and colleagues here. That picture now hangs
in a central spot in my new office in Washington.
It shows the bridge back in 1936 when it was
still under construction. You can see both
sides of the bridge as they are being formed,
but the structure doesn't yet fully span the
Bay.
I
like that picture not only because it reminds
me of the city I consider my home, but also
because it says a great deal about our work
ahead. Our future success, in my mind, hinges
on our ability to build bridges of cooperation
and mutual support between our countries and
our organizations. The stronger those bridges
are, and the faster we build them, the safer
we will all be. More than anything, that is
the message I want to leave you with today.
Thanks
for having me, thanks for your support of
the FBI, and God bless.