At
the end of each year, The New York Times
writes about the lives of exceptional people
who have died. This year, The Times
told about an American soldier who escaped
from a Fascist prison camp during World War
II. Wandering the Italian countryside and
nearly starving, the man was helped by a small
family who did so at the risk of being shot.
After
the war, the man went back to thank the family.
To repay the couple who had saved his life,
the soldier offered their son a chance to
live in America, along with a job in his family's
dairy business.
The
son, with his wife and children, came to New
Jersey and settled into a home near his own,
where they live to this day.
Our
nation's prosperity is renowned throughout
the world, and this simple story shows the
power of American opportunity. Like so many
others, this family came to the United States
seeking a better way of life.
Economic
opportunity is provided by the businesses
represented here today and many others throughout
the country. But the same opportunity that
brings us great prosperity makes our country—and
your businesses—a target for terrorists
and criminals alike.
When
terrorists struck the World Trade Center,
they destroyed a symbol of America's economic
strength. We lost more than 3,000 of our fellow
citizens on that day. While the attackers
succeeded in bringing down the twin towers,
they failed to bring down our economy.
In
just under a week, the New York Stock Exchange
opened on schedule as a U.S. Marine sang,
"God Bless America." And once again,
the American economy proved its resiliency.
The
September 11 attacks were a watershed event
for the United States and for the FBI. Overnight,
our No. 1 priority became the prevention of
another terrorist attack.
Today
I want to discuss the progress we have made
in the FBI's ability to combat threats to
this country. Secondly, how we are working
to safeguard our national security and the
partnerships that are so important to that
effort. And thirdly, what, specifically, we
are doing to protect your businesses.
Transforming
to meet our new mission of preventing terrorist
attacks required that we improve our capabilities
in three critical areas:
The
first is intelligence. The FBI has always
been good at collecting information, but we
had to become better at analyzing and sharing
intelligence. To prevent attacks, we had to
increase the most important aspect of terrorist
intelligence information—and that is
its predictive value.
To
do this, we took a number of steps to build
a comprehensive intelligence program, including
hiring over 1,000 analysts, centralizing our
case information, and establishing intelligence
teams in each one of our field offices.
Still,
we needed a systematic, focused approach—one
more closely coordinated with the larger intelligence
community. To accomplish this, we have created
the FBI's National Security Branch, which
joins intelligence, counterterrorism, and
counterintelligence under one umbrella.
The
mission of the NSB is to protect the United
States against current and emerging national
security threats: weapons of mass destruction,
terrorist attacks, foreign intelligence operations,
and espionage. By integrating investigative
and intelligence activities we want to quickly
recognize these threats and disrupt them before
they cause harm.
The
second area of transformation—technology—helps
us provide the right information to the right
people at the right time.
We
have dramatically upgraded our technology
since 9/11, particularly when it comes to
replacing computers, updating our networks,
and developing databases. We are in the process
of developing a fully operational, modern
information technology infrastructure.
The
third area of transformation is human capital.
As with your companies, or any organization,
the heart and soul of the FBI is its people.
For that reason, we have focused on human
capital.
Recruitment,
development, and retention are critical to
our success. In the past, we drew our agents
primarily from law enforcement, accounting,
and the military. We still look for individuals
with exceptional leadership, maturity, and
judgment, but we are also looking for individuals
with intelligence backgrounds and experience
in other cultures. We need linguists, computer
programmers, scientists, and engineers.
To
grow our workforce, we are establishing a
national intelligence service with enhanced
recruiting, training, and career development.
In the future, agents and analysts will be
able to specialize in national security, just
as they can already specialize in the criminal
or cyber arenas.
Improving
our capabilities meant we also had to draw
on our strengths. One of those strengths is
leadership.
As
we transform the FBI, one of the key issues
for our organization has been maintaining
the positive culture and effectiveness for
which the FBI has been known throughout its
97 years.
The
FBI is a relatively small organization, with
only 12,000 special agents—compared
with almost 36,000 officers in the New York
Police Department alone.
Still,
our employees have enormous loyalty to the
institution and to the nation. Most people
are drawn to the FBI because they are drawn
to public service. They give up more generous
compensation because of a desire to serve
their country. The FBI is an organization
where the employees have great pride in what
they do, and we are blessed to have that caliber
of individuals in our organization.
Turning
from the transformation of the FBI in the
wake of September 11 to threats to our national
security and partnerships. When the FBI was
established 97 years ago, it was because crime
had begun to cross state lines. Today, criminal
activity not only crosses state lines, it
traverses international boundaries with the
click of a mouse.
Like
your businesses, law enforcement has also
been affected by globalization. While technology
and travel have made the world smaller, crime
is more diverse than ever before—from
terrorism to telemarketing fraud to the trafficking
of human beings.
Our
adversaries may be nation states, militaries,
international terrorists, or criminal organizations
dedicated to stealing our secrets or destroying
our way of life.
I
know Tom Donahue has expressed his concern
about America losing its competitive edge.
We are working every day to make sure that
edge is not stolen from us.
Given
the threats we face, new approaches are needed
to protect the security of our families, our
communities, and our businesses from crime
and terrorism. We must work strategically,
strengthening our partnerships and building
on our successes.
In
the national security arena and elsewhere,
we rely on partnerships more than ever before.
Prior
to 9/11, the FBI and the CIA were prohibited
from sharing information between criminal
and terrorism cases. Even FBI agents working
terrorism intelligence matters could not compare
notes with FBI agents working on criminal
cases concerning the same terrorists. The
Patriot Act changed all that. Removing those
legal walls gave us an indispensable tool
in the war against terror.
Today,
the FBI and CIA are not only sharing information
on a regular basis, we are exchanging employees
and working together on cases every day.
Joint
Terrorism Task Forces are the eyes and ears
of communities nationwide. In the last four
years, we have increased our JTTFs from 35
to 103. They combine the skills of FBI agents
and analysts, along with police officers,
the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security,
and the IRS, just to name a few. Together,
we track down each and every counterterrorism
lead.
We
are also working globally. When I began my
career as a federal prosecutor in San Francisco
in the '70s, rarely was there a case that
had international connections. That is no
longer true. Today, cases with an international
nexus have become the rule rather than the
exception.
FBI
agents are working with our law enforcement
partners from to Rome to Romania. We are gathering
intelligence in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are
training international police from Budapest
to Saudi Arabia.
Since
9/11, our 53 international offices, or Legal
Attaché offices, have become increasingly
important to our overall operations. We plan
to have 60 open by the end of 2006, with more
to come. What began primarily as a liaison
now assists our counterparts overseas on joint
investigations, intelligence-sharing, and
the development of new methods to prevent
attacks.
The
result is terrorists are on the run. Working
with our partners, we have removed the sanctuary
of Afghanistan, we have apprehended many of
Al Qaeda's top leaders, and we have stemmed
the flow of terrorist funding.
Let
me turn to what we are doing to protect business.
We are working around-the-clock to fight terrorism.
But crime, fraud, and public corruption are
still among our top priorities. As you may
know, the FBI investigates everything from
major corporate fraud to money laundering.
You might say protecting business is our business.
Let
me mention a few of the threats to business
and describe how we are fighting them.
Cyber
Crime. While the Internet has opened the
doors to a new world of communication and
commerce, technology is a double-edged sword.
Entrepreneurs and engineers are not the only
ones who recognize the vast potential of the
Internet. Criminals and terrorists do, too.
Even traditional crimes have migrated online,
exploding on the doorsteps of companies like
yours: fraud, identity theft, copyright infringement.
Agents
and analysts in our Cyber Division protect
against the theft of intellectual property,
child pornography, online fraud, and computer
intrusions. Our Cyber Action Teams travel
around the world on a moment's notice to assist
in computer intrusion and counterterrorism
cases.
Public
corruption. There are always a few individuals
whose desire to make money overshadows the
desire to serve. Corrupt public officials
betray the trust of our society and threaten
the foundation of our democracy. We continue
to pursue these cases nationwide.
Organized
crime. Unfortunately, the FBI is not the
only one working together. In the last few
years, organized crime has become a complex,
multinational enterprise that transcends national
and international borders. Today, the structure
and reach of some criminal organizations rivals
that of large multi-national corporations.
The
influence of organized crime on labor unions,
political institutions, financial markets,
and industry is immeasurable. The economic
impact alone was estimated by the Center for
Strategic and International Studies at nearly
$1 trillion per year.
The
FBI is uniquely positioned to dismantle organizations
because of our experience, training, and expertise
in targeting large criminal enterprises.
Corporate
fraud. Enron. Tyco. WorldCom. Adelphia.
One after another, extensive and deceptive
corporate fraud schemes came to light. Each
revelation of corporate malfeasance further
shook investor confidence.
To
give you an idea of the scope of the problem,
the number of corporate fraud cases the FBI
has opened increased over 300 percent between
2001 and 2005.
When
the corporate fraud scandals erupted, we established
corporate fraud reserve teams, composed of
special agent accountants and financial analysts
who fanned out across the country, working
on investigations. We also collaborated extensively
with affected companies, federal partners—particularly
the SEC—and private organizations.
Because
the threats we face are more diverse than
ever, working together is more important than
ever. We recognize that our security is dependent
on the partnerships we develop with our partners
in law enforcement and the intelligence community,
as well as our counterparts overseas. Our
InfraGard program is a vital link between
the FBI and the private sector. Through better
communication and the exchange of information,
we are protecting critical information systems.
We
recognize that in certain areas we lack the
expertise that you possess. We lack the specific
knowledge of threats that affect individual
businesses every day. That is why we need
your help and why we continue to ask for your
cooperation through the InfraGard program.
In
our open society, we will never completely
eliminate crime. Where there is freedom to
choose, there is freedom to choose poorly,
and crime will always be a siren call to those
looking for easy money. Even so, America is
the best place in the world to do business.
History
has shown us that each new century brings
new tests. The challenge of our time is terrorism.
Our nation is the most powerful in the world.
And with that power comes responsibility.
We have a responsibility to stand up for freedom
and for the rule of law, which are the hallmarks
of civilization.
The
men and women who serve in the FBI are fully
engaged in the fight against crime and terrorism.
They are working day and night to protect
the American people, while upholding our civil
liberties.
These
are values that remain constant as we grow
into a national security agency ready to meet
evolving threats.
The
war on terrorism is not over. Bali,
Madrid, and London are grim reminders that
terrorists still have the desire and the ability
to carry out deadly attacks.
But
our enemies are sorely mistaken if they underestimate
our resolve. We will not rest, and we will
not be deterred, until terrorism is defeated.
I
would like to close with a quote written one
year after 9/11. The managing editor of a
Romanian newspaper wrote an editorial titled,
"An Ode to America," in which he
looked back on the events of September 11.
He
said,
"
the
American tragedy turned 300 million people
into a hand put on the heart...Nobody rushed
to empty their bank accounts...The Americans
volunteered to donate blood and to give a
helping hand. After the first moments of panic,
they raised the flag on the smoking ruins,
putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the
colors of the national flag. They placed flags
on buildings and cars
[and] on every
occasion they started singing their traditional
song: "God Bless America!"
The
Americans'...spirit turned them into a choir.
Actually, choir is not the word. What you
could hear was the heavy artillery of the
American soul."
Thank
you for your support.
God
bless you.