Robert
S. Mueller, III, Director, FBI
West Virginia Homeland Security Conference
Shepherdstown, WV
November 10, 2003
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Thank
you. I also want to thank Senator Rockefeller
for bringing us together today at this important
homeland security summit. It is a pleasure
to be here.
The FBI is indeed lucky to have a very special
relationship with West Virginia. As you know,
our Headquarters are in downtown D.C., but
in many ways West Virginia is our second home.
Clarksburg is home to our Criminal Justice
Information Services Division. Fairmont hosts
the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. And West
Virginia University is a very close partner,
having worked with us in designing the nation’s
first degree programs in forensic identification.
Thousands of FBI employees and their families
work and live in West Virginia, and they are
just as committed, as you are, to keeping
this state safe and free.
I want to begin by thanking everyone here
for serving on the front lines of homeland
security. Dealing with terrorist threats is
not the job many of you signed up for –
but you have met the challenge. Together we
are out there every day tracking terrorist
threats and ensuring the safety and the security
of your communities. And, I know that many
agencies are doing all of this with reduced
budgets and even reduced workforces. Thank
you for what you are doing to protect West
Virginia and to protect America.
West Virginia does have a number of special
areas of concern in terms of homeland security.
You have a number of federal facilities, and
I know that you have already coordinated with
them on potential emergency response efforts.
In Charleston, first responders have been
working closely with the local chemical industry
to ensure that they are prepared for any contingency.
A Jefferson County postal facility had its
ow – – n biological weapons scare
recently, with white powder that thankfully
did not turn out to be Anthrax.
These are indeed difficult times. But, thankfully,
West Virginia is ahead of the curve in many
ways. You quickly stood up emergency plans
in the wake of 9-11. You already have outstanding
partnerships among federal, state and local
agencies, and you are able to draw on the
resources of other local federal agencies.
We are all concerned about how our agencies
would operate in response to a crisis, and
specifically to a large-scale terrorist incident.
But today I want to talk to you about the
FBI’s – along with state and local
law enforcement’s – number one
priority. Since 9/11 there has been a shift
from law enforcement to determining what we
can do to prevent the next terrorist attack.
The FBI participates in a number of projects
in West Virginia to accomplish this goal.
Our most important anti-terrorism tool is
the West Virginia Joint Terrorism Task Force,
which was stood up in March. Of course, the
truth is that the FBI was working in close
partnership with West Virginia officials long
before that. We worked hand-in-hand to prepare
for emergencies that might arise as a result
of Y2K, and those relationships grew stronger
after 9-11. The West Virginia JTTF has members
from state and local police, fire departments,
and other local agencies. It has already participated
in several field training exercises with first
responders and industry, including a Weapons
of Mass Destruction exercise.
The West Virginia JTTF is but one of 50 JTTFs
that we have added since 9-11, bringing our
total nationwide network up to 84. We know
that you are the ones on the front lines,
gathering vital intelligence and protecting
your communities. The JTTFs play a critical
role in getting that information back to FBI
Headquarters and disseminating it to our partners
around the country.
Our local InfraGard Chapters help us accomplish
a similar goal. InfraGard is a partnership
between private industry and the FBI to share
information that will help protect critical
information systems and infrastructure. West
Virginia has its own InfraGard chapter that
plays a vital role in this effort. Last summer's
blackout in the Northeast and Midwest was
a wake-up call to the vulnerability of our
systems to accidental shutdowns, much less
coordinated attacks. And that is why our InfraGard
Chapters are working daily to address threats
from hackers, organized crime, industrial
espionage, terrorism, foreign intelligence
agencies, and others.
The Internet Fraud Complaint Center in Fairmont
is also doing its part for Homeland Security.
Over the past three years, the Center has
evolved as a gateway for incoming intelligence
on cyber crime matters, including: computer
intrusions, identity theft, economic espionage,
child pornography, and a growing list of internationally
spawned Internet fraud matters. The Center
is now receiving more than 10,000 complaints
per month, and last year, it referred more
than 48,000 fraud complaints to law enforcement.
You may ask that this has do with homeland
security. The fact is that the new millennium
has seen the dawn of an unusually dangerous
convergence of terrorist, intelligence, and
criminal threats, all using the Internet.
With financial systems, power grids, and other
critical infrastructure at stake, we must
guard against cyber threats as seriously as
we guard against bomb threats.
In addition to physical threats and cyber
attacks, we must also be prepared for biological
threats – both in terms of prevention
and response. In this region, we have a unique
effort called the Strategic Medical Intelligence
Program. The program is partnership between
the FBI and area doctors to combat terrorism
by sharing information that could prevent
or contain a biological attack. The effort
includes doctors with terrorism expertise
from UPMC, the West Penn-Allegheny Hospital
System, West Virginia University, and Marshall
University, among others. These doctors, like
the members of our JTTFs and InfraGard chapters,
have been given clearance to receive sensitive
information from the FBI, and, in turn, they
will coordinate with us in responding to unusual
incidents – for example, a patient who
appears to have smallpox – which could
signify a terrorist attack. This pilot program
has been so successful that we are hoping
to extend it to other areas of the country.
The West Virginia JTTF is also working with
the State Department of Health and Human Resources,
the U.S. Attorney's Offices, and other State
agencies to conduct six regional sessions
on forensic medical training. These two-day
sessions are designed to improve the working
relationships between law enforcement and
public health officials in addressing bioterrorism.
As I mentioned earlier, West Virginia is also
home to one of the FBI's crown jewels –
the Criminal Justice Information Services
Divison, or CJIS. It sets the standard for
criminal databases. CJIS's fingerprint database,
in particular, is the envy of law enforcement
agencies around the world.
That database is now helping us to track down
terrorists as well as criminals. For example,
CJIS now has “flyaway” teams that
travel around the world to load fingerprints
into the system. The teams have gathered prints
from terrorists and military detainees, and
performed the sad duty of identifying the
victims of terrorist attacks.
The FBI also has a number of other nationwide
and international partnerships that are helping
protect West Virginia and the rest of the
nation.
Because criminals and terrorists now operate
at every level – local, regional, global
– we have to fight back at every level.
One of our most important missions since 9-11
has been to strengthen our partnerships at
home. I have already talked about how we have
strengthened our partnerships with state and
local agencies. However, the truth is that
we also had to strengthen our relationships
with our partners in the Intelligence Community,
particularly the CIA. Prior to 9-11, our two
agencies were legally prohibited from cooperating
in many ways. Most critically, we were not
allowed to share much of our terrorism-related
information. Now, thanks to the U.S.A. Patriot
Act, those walls have come down. The FBI and
CIA are working together in ways that were
impossible before 9-11.
From my daily morning briefings with CIA officers
and Director George Tenet to the widespread
assignment of executives, Agents, and analysts
between the two agencies since 9/11, the FBI
and the CIA have become integrated at virtually
every level of our operations.
Just as we have developed better relationships
here at home with partners such as the CIA,
we have also strengthened our relationships
with our partners overseas. Let me just give
you an example of how we are now working with
law enforcement agencies from around the world.
In May, a United States scientific research
station in Antarctica asked for our help.
Their systems had been hacked into and their
data was corrupted. Normally, we would send
Agents out to the scene to investigate. But,
because of the subfreezing temperatures, it
was impossible to land in Antarctica for another
six months.
Working from somewhat warmer climes here,
our investigators were able to trace the source
of the intrusion to a server in a trucking
company outside Pittsburgh. From there, we
identified two Romanian suspects. And, with
the help of the Romanian authorities, they
were arrested outside Bucharest shortly thereafter.
Today, cases such as these have become the
rule rather than the exception for the FBI.
Technology has made the world smaller. And
in this environment, the traditional distinctions
between organized crime, cyber crime, espionage,
and terrorism have broken down. Organized
crime may launder money for terrorists. Credit
card fraud may be perpetrated by the Russian
mafia or by al Qaeda operatives. In fact,
unlike the old mafia, al Qaeda actually has
training manuals on the subject.
That is why the FBI, like many institutions,
has gone global. In 1940, we established our
first international office. Today, we have
46 such offices around the world, in locations
from Riyadh to Rome and Tokyo to Tel Aviv.
And, increasingly, these offices are helping
to stop crime and terrorism from being exported
to our shores. These are some of the actions
we in the FBI are taking to prevent terrorist
attacks. But, as first responders, many of
you must consider the effect of a potential
attack.
If a major homeland security incident were
to take place, we want to be there with West
Virginia’s first responders –
handling the crisis, evacuating people, helping
victims and keeping order. People will turn
to their local police and fire departments
for help. We will be there beside you. Setting
up joint operations centers, as we did at
the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Cooperating
in the investigation as we did in Maryland
and Virginia during last year’s sniper
attacks. Bringing all our resources to bear
to protect the public and to bring those responsible
to justice.
In October of last year, newspaper reports
praised the sniper task force for its coordinated
investigation and quick sharing of intelligence
and information. Sadly, the past two years
have brought too many opportunities for us
to do exactly that. But we have learned from
each incident, and we have done training exercises,
such as those yesterday, to further refine
our skills. And all the work we have done
to build partnerships and relationships through
our JTTFs, InfraGard, and other initiatives
will help ensure our response is strong and
unified.
More than ever, we know that success depends
on an extensive network of partnerships and
alliances. In the future, the FBI can only
achieve success by continuing to develop relationships
with our partners locally, nationally, and
internationally.
We discuss homeland security in the sense
of crisis management, technical resources,
personnel training, and coordinated emergency
planning. But the heart of homeland security,
and our primary mission at the FBI, is making
sure people feel safe enough to run their
errands, drive to their jobs, and live their
normal lives. Each of you in this room contributes
to that goal. You worry so that others do
not have to. Thank you for all that you do
to protect your communities, and God Bless
you and the work you do.
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