Good
morning. It's a pleasure to be here with you
today to talk a bit about the FBI and our intelligence
and counterterrorism programs. I'm actually
going to try to keep my remarks under 20 minutes
to give everyone the maximum amount of time
possible to ask questions. So forgive me if
I cover a lot of territory quickly!
At NASIC, you spend much of your time literally
plucking information out of the air -- and even
out of the vacuum of space. As I understand
it, your focus is primarily on MASINT and SIGINT.
At the FBI, we're more "boots on the ground."
While, we may occasionally collect information
from cyberspace and wiretaps, for the most part,
our focus is on HUMINT gathered from assets
and informants and thousands of tips from ordinary
citizens.
Since September 11, 2001, the FBI has worked
with you and our other partners gathering and
using intelligence to disrupt a number of terrorist
operations both here and overseas. But, contrary
to what some believe, our efforts in gathering
and using intelligence and our investigation
of counterterrorism did not begin on September
12 -- they have been part of the Bureau's mission
for decades.
The FBI was created nearly a century ago to
investigate criminal activity that had begun
to cross county and state lines. As America's
crime problem evolved, so did the Bureau. Its
mission grew and changed through the gangster
era and into the Cold War, when national security
and espionage threats came to the forefront.
The FBI has always used intelligence to solve
cases. It is how we pursued Nazi spies during
World War II and La Cosa Nostra in the seventies
and eighties. Over the years, we have developed
very sophisticated intelligence-gathering capabilities.
And the FBI has always investigated domestic
terrorism whether it involved lone actors
like the Unabomber or conspirators like Timothy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
What has changed over the years is that criminal
and terrorist threats increasingly have an international
dimension. Jet travel, cell phones and the Internet
have made it the rare case that does not cross
international boundaries. The dark side of globalization
is the dangerous convergence it has encouraged
between terrorist, intelligence, and criminal
groups, which all operate to some extent over
the Internet and through interconnected, sophisticated
networks. In this environment, the traditional
distinctions between organized crime, cyber
crime, espionage, and terrorism have broken
down. Credit card fraud is being perpetrated
by the Russian mafia and by al Qaeda operatives.
Spies from enemies and allies alike are trying
to hack into our computer systems and steal
trade and defense secrets. Organized crime is
laundering money for terrorists. Al Qaeda operatives
are some of the world's largest heroin dealers.
And earlier this year we busted yet another
cigarette smuggling operation that was funneling
money to terrorist organizations.
To meet the challenges of today, the FBI changed
the way we did our work in three important ways.
The first is that, in the past, the investigation
of terrorism threats was generally focused in
the field office where they originated
along with all the information and records pertaining
to that case. This made it difficult to see
connections and patterns. Now the FBI operates
under centralized management of our counterterrorism
program. The result is better coordination within
the FBI, and between the FBI and our law enforcement
and intelligence counterparts.
The second change is directed at upgrading our
technology. Today more than ever, the FBI must
rely on integrated information technology systems.
We have made significant progress in upgrading
our information technology to improve our ability
to search for information, analyze it, draw
connections, and share it both inside the Bureau
and outside with our partners. We have begun
utilizing software that will, eventually, move
the FBI from being a paper-driven organization
to a digital organization.
The adoption of intelligence technology has
already improved our capabilities. This year,
during the Super Bowl in Houston, we were able
to conduct over 65,000 queries in three days.
In the past, an analyst would have to work three
months to do the equivalent.
The third change is in how we support our operations.
An organizational re-engineering is making the
FBI more efficient and more responsive. We have
also strengthened our recruiting and hiring
to attract persons with the skills we need to
carry out our counterterrorism and our intelligence
missions, such as backgrounds in computer sciences,
Middle-Eastern studies, or foreign languages.
Aside from our aggressive recruitment efforts,
we have developed better training and new leadership
initiatives to keep our employees learning and
growing throughout their careers. And as a final
administrative change, we have built up our
internal security to protect us from spies.
To confront an enemy as cunning as Al Qaeda,
it was clear that the FBI would have to become
more flexible, more agile, and more mobile.
First, we needed more manpower. Since September
11th, we have not only doubled the number of
Special Agents, but we have also increased the
number of intelligence analysts. We expanded
their career path, set performance standards,
and developed training that will be ongoing
for their entire career. And we have incorporated
elements of our basic intelligence training
course into the New Agents Class curriculum.
We also established specialized operational
units that give us new capabilities to address
the terrorist threat. One focuses on terrorist
financing, and another exploits evidence found
overseas. Yet another conducts background checks
on individuals seeking biological agents here
in the United States. A special task force is
dedicated solely to finding terrorists overseas
and keeping them out of the United States, while
multiple "Fly Teams" travel wherever
and whenever they are needed to lend their counterterrorism
expertise.
And our new Field Intelligence Groups (FIGs)
integrate analysts, Agents, linguists, and surveillance
personnel in the field to bring a dedicated
team focus to intelligence operations.
The goal is to integrate intelligence into all
of our operations to produce a seamless, predictive,
analytical capability. And, as a result of these
efforts, we are on course to triple our intelligence
production this year.
But intelligence can only help if it is shared.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, "We must
indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly,
we shall hang separately." Today, we produce
daily intelligence reports and bulletins to
share with the intelligence community as well
as with our state and local partners. We cannot
defeat terrorists without strong partnerships
throughout the law enforcement, the intelligence
and the international communities.
Today, we all find ourselves standing on the
50-yard line, suited up and facing tough opponents.
The only way we can defeat today's sophisticated
criminal and terrorist's networks is with strong
networks of our own. More than ever, we have
to come together as a team. And that means everyone
-- law enforcement, the intelligence community,
small businesses and large corporations, and
the community as a whole. One team. One motivation
- protecting our country. All of us are part
of that team.
Knowing this, we have focused on improving the
level of coordination and information sharing
with state and local law enforcement. Our 100
Joint Terrorism Task Forces put federal, state,
and local law enforcement together to investigate
threats and share information. In communities
across the country, they are the eyes and ears
in the fight against terrorism.
And our partners in the CIA and the military
have removed the sanctuary of Afghanistan. Working
together, we have captured thousands of Al Qaeda
operatives around the world, including much
of their leadership.
While we have made steady progress in the war
against terrorism, our work is not yet finished.
As evidenced by the March 11 attacks in Spain
and other recent incidents overseas, terrorists
remain capable of organizing large-scale attacks.
The age of global threats has moved the Bureau
into an age of global partnerships. The clear-cut
divisions of responsibility and jurisdictions
that once existed between agencies and
between countries are becoming less and
less relevant.
That is why the FBI, like many institutions,
has gone global. Our first international office
was established in 1940. Today, we have 56 of
these "Legal Attaché" offices
in embassies around the world.
To help strengthen our partnerships at all levels,
the FBI provides training to state, local and
international law enforcement. We offer FBI
academies in Budapest and Dubai, where the FBI
trains officers from other countries. And we
reap the benefits of that training in improved
international cooperation. For example, we have
trained officers from Saudi Arabia. And when
the FBI responded to the bombings in Riyadh,
the Saudi's told us: "We trained together,
now we can work together."
Just last spring, our improved international
relations helped us tackle crime on the South
Pole. That's right, Antarctica. A United States
scientific research station located in the coldest
spot on the planet called us for help after
their computer systems had been hacked into
and their data corrupted.
Because of the sub-freezing temperatures, it
was impossible to send Agents to the scene
no aircraft could land or take off from the
site for months. But working from thousands
of miles away, our investigators were able to
trace the source of the intrusion to a server
outside Pittsburgh. From there, we identified
two Romanian suspects. Thanks to the cooperation
and hard work of the Romanian authorities, they
were arrested outside Bucharest shortly thereafter.
Conducting operations in Antarctica from FBI
offices in DC; Los Angeles; and Mobile, Alabama.
Working hand-in-hand with police in Romania
based on data from a server in Pittsburgh. It's
a whole new world. But it's a world that the
FBI is adapting to cope with, as we have throughout
our history. And it's a world in which we will
still fulfill our primary mission in partnership
with others, like you -- to protect America.
Thank
you for having me today. I am happy to take
your questions