-
First, we must be intelligence-driven. To defeat the terrorists,
we must develop intelligence about their plans and use
that intelligence to disrupt those plans.
-
We must be global. We must continue our efforts to develop
our overseas law enforcement operations, our partnerships
with foreign law enforcement and intelligence services,
and our knowledge and expertise about foreign cultures
and our terrorist adversaries overseas.
-
We must have networked information technology systems.
We need the capacity to manage and share our information
effectively.
-
Finally, we must remain accountable under the Constitution
and the rule of law. We must respect human rights and
civil liberties as we protect the American people.
Since
September 11th, the FBI has investigated thousands of threats
to the U.S., and the number of active FBI investigations
into potential terrorist activity has quadrupled. Working
with our partners, we have also disrupted terrorist activities
on multiple occasions inside the U.S., primarily terrorist
financing operations.
To
achieve success in this war on terror, we have transformed
the FBI's Counterterrorism Division (CTD) and CT program
to one that is more collaborative and proactive; we have
transformed the Intelligence Program and integrated our
investigative and intelligence operations; we have improved
information sharing with other federal agencies and state
and local law enforcement entities; and enhanced our operational
capabilities within FBIHQ and all local Field Offices.
A
major element of the Bureau's transformation of our Counterterrorism
Program is our increasing integration and coordination with
our partners in the U.S. and international law enforcement
and intelligence communities. More than any other type of
enforcement mission, counterterrorism requires the participation
of every level of local, state, national, and international
government. A good example is the case of the Lackawanna
terrorist cell outside Buffalo, New York. From the police
officers who helped to identify and conduct surveillance
on the cell members; to the information obtained from sources
overseas; to the diplomatic personnel who coordinated our
efforts with foreign governments; to the FBI agents and
federal prosecutors who conducted the investigation leading
to the arrests and indictment, everyone played a significant
role.
We
recognize that a prerequisite for any operational coordination
is the full and free exchange of information. Without procedures
and mechanisms that allow information sharing on a regular
and timely basis, we and our partners cannot expect to align
our operational efforts to best accomplish our shared mission.
Accordingly, we have taken steps to establish unified FBI-wide
policies for sharing information and intelligence.
Interagency Information Sharing
To
ensure a coordinated, enterprise-wide approach, Director
Mueller recently designated the Executive Assistant Director
of Intelligence (EAD-I) to serve as the principal FBI official
for information and intelligence sharing policy. In this
capacity, the EAD-I functions as an advisor to the Director
and provides policy direction on information and intelligence
sharing within and outside the FBI with the law enforcement
and intelligence communities, as well as foreign governments.
The
FBI shares intelligence with other members of the Intelligence
Community, to include the intelligence components of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through direct classified
and unclassified dissemination and through websites on classified
Intelligence Community networks. The FBI also shares intelligence
with representatives of other elements of the Intelligence
Community who participate in Joint Terrorism Task Forces
(JTTFs) in the United States or with whom the FBI collaborates
in activities abroad. FBI intelligence products shared with
the Intelligence Community include both raw and finished
intelligence reports.
The
FBI uses the Intelligence Community’s Intelink-TS
to facilitate sharing intelligence products up to the Top
Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) level.
Intelink-TS is carried on the Defense Department’s
Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS)
and is known in the FBI as the SCI Operational Network (SCION).
SCION is currently available to over 1000 users at FBI Headquarters,
and the FBI has initiated a pilot deployment project to
the following Field Offices: New York, Boston, and Kansas
City. The plan is to deliver SCION to all FBI Field Offices,
as funding becomes available. Wider access to SCION within
the FBI is planned for the future and will enable more extensive
on-line collaboration with other intelligence agencies.
Limited access to Intelink from other Field Offices is available
through the old FBI Intelligence Information System Network
(IISNET). Most of the Field Offices have two workstations
which have a connection to FBI headquarters.
FBI
offices have access to the Secret-level Intelligence Community
network SIPRNET, and the FBI website on SIPRNET has been
upgraded to provide more information to a wider range of
users.
The
FBI has established a robust channel for sharing information
with the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) by
providing
direct electronic access to classified and unclassified
internal FBI investigative and operational databases, with
narrow exceptions for certain types of sensitive domestic
criminal cases unrelated to terrorism. TTIC also has direct
electronic access to internal FBI headquarters division
websites and e-mail capabilities on the FBI’s classified
intranet system. Both FBI and non-FBI personnel assigned
to TTIC have access to this information.
The
FBI has agreed to provide a substantial permanent staff
to TTIC. By the end of this year, there will be 65 FBI personnel
allocated to the TTIC. TTIC’s mission is to enable
full integration of terrorist threat-related information
and analysis. It creates a structure to institutionalize
sharing across appropriate federal agency lines of terrorist
threat-related information in order to form the most comprehensive
threat picture.
Although
the FBI retains authority to approve dissemination of raw
FBI information by TTIC to other agencies, the FBI authorizes
the TTIC to share FBI intelligence products by posting them
on the TTIC Online website on Intelink-TS. The TTIC Online
website provides additional security safeguards, and access
is granted to Intelligence Community users who have a need-to-know
for more sensitive classified intelligence on international
terrorism from the FBI and other agencies. The FBI also
authorizes the National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX)
to share FBI counterintelligence products on the Intelink-CI(iCI)
website with similar safeguards and access by users who
have a need-to-know for more sensitive classified counterintelligence
products.
The
Bureau fully contributes intelligence analysis to the President’s
Terrorist Threat Report (PTTR). These products are coordinated
with the CIA, DHS, and other ederal agencies. In addition
to the PTTR, the FBI provides Presidential Intelligence
Assessments directly to the President and the White House
Executive Staff on subjects other than terrorism.
-
The FBI is also committed to providing those tools which
assist law enforcement in intelligence-led policing --
from the National Crime Information Center, the Integrated
Automated Fingerprint Identification System, and the Interstate
Identification Index, to Law Enforcement Online (LEO),
a virtual private network that reaches federal, state,
and law enforcement agencies at the Sensitive But Unclassified
(SBU) level. LEO users total nearly 30,000 and that number
is increasing. That total includes more than 17,000 state
and local law enforcement members. LEO makes finished
FBI intelligence products available, including Intelligence
Assessments resulting from analysis of criminal, cyber,
and terrorism intelligence. Our LEO Intelligence Bulletins
are used to disseminate finished intelligence on significant
developments or trends. Intelligence Information Reports
also are available on LEO at the Law Enforcement Sensitive
classification level. The FBI has also posted its terrorism
intelligence priorities on LEO as well.
In
addition, classified intelligence and other sensitive FBI
data are shared with federal, state, and local law enforcement
officials with appropriate security clearances ho participate
in the Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs). The JTTFs partner
FBI personnel with hundreds of investigators from various
federal, state, and local agencies, and are important force
multipliers in the fight against terrorism. Since September
11, 2001, the FBI has increased the number of JTTFs from
35 to 84 nationwide. We also established the National Joint
Terrorism Task Force (NJTTF) at FBI Headquarters, staffed
by representatives from 38 federal, state, and local agencies.
The mission of the NJTTF is to enhance communication, coordination,
and cooperation by acting as the hub of support for the
JTTFs throughout the United States, providing a point of
fusion for intelligence acquired in support of counterterrorism
operations. The FBI will continue to create new avenues
of communication between law enforcement agencies to better
fight the terrorist threat.
With
the creation of the Office of Intelligence at the FBI,
each
FBI field office has established a Field Intelligence Group
(FIG). It is the responsibility of these FIGS to manage,
execute and maintain the FBI’s intelligence functions
within the FBI field office. FIG personnel have access
to
TS and SCI information so they will be able to receive,
analyze, review and recommend sharing this information
with
entities within the FBI as well as our customers and partners
within the Intelligence and Law enforcement communities.
The FIGs are our field centerpiece in managing the intelligence
cycle within field operations. They will complement the
JTTFs and other quads and task forces through the management
of the intelligence cycle functions of requirements; planning
and direction; collection processing and exploitation;
analysis
and production and dissemination. The FIGs play a major
role in ensuring that from now on, “we know what
we
know” and we tell others in the Intelligence Community
and our federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement
partners “what we know”.
On
February 11, 2004 the Attorney General announced the creation
of the DOJ Intelligence Coordinating Council. The Council
is comprised of the heads of DOJ agencies with intelligence
responsibilities, and is currently chaired by the FBI’s
EAD-I. The Council will work to improve information sharing
within the Department of Justice (DOJ) and to ensure that
DOJ meets the intelligence needs of outside customers and
acts in accordance with intelligence priorities. It will
also identify common challenges (such as electronic connectivity,
collaborative analytic tools, and intelligence skills training)
and establish policies and programs to address them.
On
February 20, 2004 the FBI formed an information sharing
policy group, comprised of Executive Assistant Directors,
Assistant Directors and other senior executive managers.
Under the Direction of the EAD-I, this group is establishing
FBI information and intelligence sharing policies.
Intelligence and Analytical Products and Services
In
the past year, the FBI has produced more than 3,000 intelligence
products, including “raw” reports, intelligence
memoranda, in-depth strategic analysis assessments, special
event threat assessments, and focused Presidential briefings.
We also conducted numerous intelligence briefings to members
of Congress, other government agencies, and the law enforcement
and intelligence communities. These efforts mark a new beginning
for the FBI’s intelligence production capability.
Prior
to September 11, 2001, the FBI produced very few raw intelligence
reports. In FY 2003, we produced and disseminated 2,425
Intelligence Information Reports (IIRs) containing raw intelligence
derived from FBI investigations and intelligence collection.
The majority of these IIRs contained intelligence related
to international terrorism; the next greatest number contained
foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information;
and the remainder concerned criminal activities and cyber
crime. These IIRs were disseminated to a wide customer set
in FBI field offices, the Intelligence Community, Defense
Community, other federal law enforcement agencies, and U.S.
policy entities.
In
addition to these raw intelligence reports, the FBI has
begun producing analytic assessments on a par with those
of other Intelligence Community agencies. The FBI developed
and issued, in January 2003, a classified comprehensive
assessment of the terrorist threat to the U.S. This assessment
focuses on the threats that the FBI sees developing over
the next two years, based on an analysis of information
regarding the motivations, objectives, methods, and capabilities
of existing terrorist groups and the potential for the emergence
of new terrorist groups and threats throughout the world.
This threat assessment is used as a guide in the allocation
of investigative resources, as a useful compilation of threat
information for investigators and intelligence personnel
within and without the FBI, and as a resource for decision-makers
elsewhere in the government. The 2004 threat assessment
was released in April 2004. FBI analysts have produced over
100 in-depth analyses and several hundred current intelligence
articles in addition to the work they do supporting FBI
investigations.
We
are preparing to produce, in the near future, the FBI
Daily Report and the FBI National Report to
provide daily intelligence briefings to personnel in the
field and external customers. One will be produced at the
classified level and limited in distribution to upper-level
field managers. The other will be unclassified and widely
distributed to field office personnel and our partners in
the law enforcement community.
A
good example of our ability to exploit evidence for its
intelligence value and share that intelligence with appropriate
members of the law enforcement and Intelligence Communities,
is our use of the al-Qa’ida terrorism handbook. A
terrorism handbook seized from an al-Qa’ida location
overseas in the mid-1990’s was declassified and released
by DOJ shortly after the events of September 11, 2001. We
determined that intelligence gleaned from the handbook could
provide useful guidance about al-Qa’ida’s interests
and capabilities. Accordingly, we produced and disseminated
a series of intelligence products to share this intelligence
with our personnel in the field and with our law enforcement
partners. Nine Intelligence Bulletins were based in whole
or in part on this intelligence. In addition, we used information
derived from the al-Qa’ida Handbook to update our
counterterrorism training, including the Intelligence Analyst
Basic Course at the College of Analytical Studies, the Introduction
to Counterterrorism Course at the National Academy, and
sessions on Terrorism Indicators and Officer Safety in our
State/Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT). The unclassified
version of the handbook is now maintained as a reference
in the FBI Library and is accessible to all the students
at the Academy. It also is included in the reference manual
CD-Rom distributed as part of SLATT training.
One
telling measure of our improved counterterrorism operations
is the development of our capability to brief the daily
terrorist threat information. The development of this capability
reflects the maturing of our centralized Counterterrorism
Program.
Prior
to September 11th, the FBI lacked the capacity to provide
a comprehensive daily terrorism briefing – to assemble
the current threat information, to determine what steps
were being taken to address each threat, and to present
a clear picture of each threat and the Bureau's response
to that threat to the Director, senior managers, the Attorney
General, and others in the Administration who make operational
and policy decisions. With a decentralized program in which
investigations were run by individual field offices, the
Bureau never had to develop this specialized skill. With
the need for centralized management, however, it became
an imperative.
In
the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, we
were asked to begin sending to the White House each morning
daily reports on counterterrorism-related events. We had
no mechanism in place for collecting that information, so
preparation of the reports was initially haphazard. During
the past 34 months, with the assistance of veterans from
the Intelligence Community, we have established the infrastructure
and the cadre of professionals to produce effective daily
briefings and to share briefing materials more widely within
the Bureau and with our partners.
In
2002 we established the Presidential Support Group within
the Counterterrorism Division to prepare daily briefing
materials. In the summer of 2003, this group was renamed
the Strategic Analysis Unit and moved to the Office of Intelligence.
Beginning in August 2003, the Strategic Analysis Unit began
producing the Director’s Daily Report (DDR), a daily
intelligence briefing that includes information on counterterrorism
operations, terrorism threats, and information related to
all areas of FBI investigative activity.
To
produce the DDR, the Strategic Analysis Unit consolidates
and refines information provided in a standardized format
by intelligence personnel in each division. Each morning,
information about new threats is added, and information
about threats that have been thoroughly vetted during the
night is removed. The DDR is distributed to executives in
all FBI operational divisions. The Director uses the DDR
to brief the President nearly every weekday morning. The
FBI also produces the Presidential Intelligence Assessment,
a finished FBI intelligence product covering topics of particular
interest to the President, and as noted earlier, our personnel
at TTIC and at FBI Headquarters contribute to the formulation
of the daily President’s Terrorist Threat Report.
Beyond
these information sharing initiatives, we are increasing
our operational coordination with our state, federal, and
international partners on a number of fronts.
We
have established much stronger working relationships with
the CIA and other members of the Intelligence Community.
From the Director’s daily meetings with the Director
of Central Intelligence and CIA briefers, to our regular
exchange of personnel among agencies, to our joint efforts
in specific investigations and in the Terrorist Threat Integration
Center, the Terrorist Screening Center, and other multiagency
entities, the FBI and its partners in the Intelligence Community
are now integrated at virtually every level of our operations.
In addition, the FBI is a participant in the Gang of Eight
meetings.
The
FBI currently has Agents and Analysts detailed to CIA entities,
including the DCI’s Counter Terrorist Center (CTC).
We also have FBI agents and intelligence analysts detailed
to the NSA, the National Security Council, DIA, the Defense
Logistics Agency, DOD’s Regional Commands, the Department
of Energy, and other federal and state agencies.
The
Terrorist Threat Integration Center is a good example of
our collaborative relationship with our federal partners.
Established on May 1, 2003 at the direction of President
Bush, TTIC has the primary responsibility in the USG for
terrorism analysis (except information relating solely to
domestic terrorism, which is the responsibility of the FBI.
Analysts from the FBI, CIA, DHS and DOD work side-by-side
at TTIC to piece together the big picture of threats to
the U.S. and our interests. TTIC analysts synthesize government-wide
information regarding current terrorist threats and produce
the Presidential Terrorism Threat Report for the President,
the Threat Matrix and other analytic products. The FBI personnel
at TTIC are part of the Office of Intelligence and work
closely with analysts at FBI Headquarters in combining domestic
and international terrorism developments in to a comprehensive
analysis of terrorist threats. In addition to the analysis
developed by FBI analysts detailed to TTIC, FBI analysts
at Headquarters regularly contribute articles to the President’s
Terrorist Threat Report.
At
the same time, we have intelligence analysts from other
agencies working in key positions throughout the Bureau.
The Associate Deputy Assistant Director for Operations in
the Counterterrorism Division is a CIA detailee. CIA officers
are detailed to the Security Division, including the Assistant
Director, the Chief of the Personnel Security Section, and
managers working with the SCI program and the FBI Police.
An experienced manager from the CIA’s Directorate
of Science and Technology now heads the Investigative Technologies
Division and a Section Chief in that division is on rotation
from CIA. This exchange of personnel is taking place in
our field offices as well.
We
have also worked closely with DHS to ensure that we have
the integration and comprehensive information sharing between
our agencies that are vital to the success of our missions.
The FBI and DHS share database access at TTIC, in the National
JTTF at FBI Headquarters, in the Foreign Terrorist Tracking
Task Force (FTTTF) and the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC),
and in local JTTFs in our field offices around the country.
We worked closely together to get the new Terrorist Screening
Center up and running. We hold weekly briefings in which
our CTD analysts brief their DHS counterparts on current
terrorism developments. The FBI and DHS now coordinate all
joint warnings through the Homeland Security Advisory System
to address our customers’ concerns about multiple
and duplicative warnings. We designated an experienced executive
from the Transportation Security Administration to run the
TSC and a senior DHS executive was detailed to the FBI’s
Office of Intelligence to ensure coordination and transparency
between the agencies.
The
FBI is committed to participating in the Attorney General's
94 Antiterrorism Advisory Councils that bring together federal,
state and local law enforcement, first responders and other
federal, state, and local homeland security entities with
an interest in preventing and responding to terrorist threats.
Improving
the compatibility of information technology systems throughout
the Intelligence Community, meanwhile, will increase the
speed and ease of information sharing and collaboration.
Accordingly, the FBI’s information technology team
has worked closely with the Chief Information Officers (CIOs)
of DHS and other Intelligence Community agencies, to develop
our recent and ongoing technology upgrades. This coordination
has affected our decisions on several key technology upgrades.
To
facilitate further coordination, the FBI CIO sits on the
Intelligence Community CIO Executive Council. The Council
develops and recommends technical requirements, policies
and procedures, and coordinates initiatives to improve the
interoperability of information technology systems within
the Intelligence Community. It was established by Director
of Central Intelligence directive and is chaired by the
CIA’s CIO.
On
March 4, 2003, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland
Security, and the Director of Central Intelligence signed
a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing
policies and procedures for information sharing, handling,
and use. Pursuant to that MOU, information related to terrorist
threats and vulnerabilities is provided to DHS automatically
without DHS having to request it. Consistent with the protection
of sensitive sources and methods and the protection of privacy
rights, we now share as a rule, and withhold by exception.
With
terrorists traveling, communicating, and planning attacks
all around the world, coordination has become more critical
than ever before. We have steadily increased our overseas
presence and now routinely deploy agents and crime scene
experts to assist in the investigation of overseas attacks,
such as the May 2003 bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
As of January 7, 2004, 413 FBI personnel were assigned overseas,
over 200 of whom are permanently assigned. Their efforts
have played a critical role in the successful international
operations we have conducted over the past 34 months.
Bureau
personnel have participated in numerous investigations of
terrorist attacks in foreign countries over the past 34
months. Our approach to those investigations differs from
the approach we traditionally have taken. Prior to September
11th, our overseas investigations primarily focused on building
cases for prosecution in the U.S. Today, our focus has broadened
to providing investigative, forensic, and other types of
support. This is paying dividends with greater reciprocal
cooperation and more effective joint investigations.
Information Sharing Systems
The
FBI has a responsibility to the nation, Intelligence Community,
and federal, state and local law enforcement to disseminate
information, and to do so is an inherent part of our mission.
Sharing FBI information will be the rule; filtering the
information will be the exception, where sharing is legally
or procedurally unacceptable. The FBI will deliver its information
through the systems the FBI and its customers and partners
use.
In
the area of organizational message traffic for dissemination
of official information and taskings to other agencies,
the FBI has just implemented its new FBI Automated Messaging
System (FAMS) which is based on the Defense Messaging System
(DMS). FAMS will provide on-line message creation, review,
and search capabilities to everyone connected to FBINET.
FAMS gives us the capability to send and receive critical
organizational message traffic to any of the 40,000+ addresses
on DMS or Automated Digital Network (AUTODIN). The TS/SCI
version of FAMS is currently in testing and will provide
the same capability to everyone on SCION or IISNET in the
near future. The FBI's implementation of the DMS will provide
writer-to-reader secure e-mail to internal and external
users. Within the government, DMS will replace AUTODIN
and a diverse array of e-mail systems currently in use throughout
the Department of Defense and Intelligence Agencies.
In its final form, DMS could become the government's
global secure e-mail system. It will provide certified
interoperability of various commercially off-the-shelf software
products and connect over 2 million civilian and military
users. The system will permit multi-media attachments
to messages and provide end-to-end security.
The
FBI Chief Information Officer is also working with the Department
of Justice on interfaces between the Intelligence Community
System for Information Sharing (ICSIS) and the Law Enforcement
Information Sharing initiative, and with the FBI Criminal
Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division to increase
the sharing of intelligence related information to and from
state and local officials.
The
FBI is currently deploying the SECRET versions of FAMS,
which uses DMS and secure Outlook-like e-mail for organizational
messages, so that our analysts and reports officers can
send and receive timely intelligence with other agencies
in near real time. The FBI is also working on a digital
production capability for IIRs using extended markup language
(XML) that will interface with FAMS and support on-line
digital production of intelligence reports. The FBI is applying
XML data standards and meta-data tagging to facilitate the
exchange of information with the intelligence community.
The FBI is also applying new security technology to deploy
a Protection Level 3 Data Mart capability with discretionary
access controls and Public Key Infrastructure certificates
in support of closed Community of Interests, which will
permit secure sharing of our most sensitive data with trusted
members of other agencies. The FBI is also investigating
the use of secure one-way transfers to move information
between security domains and to permit all-source intelligence
analysis. The use of next-generation, community High Assurance
Guards is being planned to provide for the two-way transfer
of critical intelligence between security domains. Secure
wireless connectivity and Virtual Private Networks are also
being looked at to provide increased access to intelligence
to deployed personnel. The FBI is also starting to use On-line,
desktop collaboration tools such as Info Work Space which
is the foundation for the Intelligence Community Collaboration
Portal to increase intelligence collaboration.
The
FBI plans to use additional systems as the foundation for
additional information sharing with the Intelligence Community,
Federal, State and Local entities.
The
CJIS National Data Exchange (NDEx) has plans for developing
a systems approach to the operation, and maintenance of
several interconnected IT and supporting telecommunications
systems including Law Enforcement On-line (LEO) and CJIS
Wide Area Network (WAN). The NDEx is to be a repository
of national indices and a pointer system for state/local/federal
and inter-governmental law enforcement entities. The NDEx
will also be a fusion point for the correlation of nationally-based
criminal justice information with certain national security
data.
Law
Enforcement On-Line provides web-based communications to
the law enforcement community to exchange information, conduct
on-line education programs, and participate in professional
special interest and topically focused dialog. The system
has been operational since 1995 and presently serves about
30,000 users. LEO has secure connectivity to the Regional
Information Sharing Systems network (riss.net). The FBI
Intelligence products are disseminated weekly via LEO to
over 17,000 law enforcement agencies and to 60 federal agencies,
providing information about terrorism, criminal and cyber
threats to patrol officers and other local law enforcement
personnel who have direct daily contacts with the general
public. The FBI plans to enhance LEO for robust, high-availability
operation. The FBI will use the enhanced LEO as the primary
channel for sensitive but unclassified communications with
other federal, state and local agencies. LEO and the Department
of Homeland Securities Joint Regional Information Exchange
System (JRIES) will be interoperable.
The
Investigative Data Warehouse (IDW) is following a multiple-phased
approach to quickly provide support to FBI investigators,
and JTTF members in the form of a spirally-developed operational
prototype system, the Secure Counterterrorism Operational
Prototype Environment (SCOPE). The IDW provides the
Bureau with a single access point to several data sources
that were previously available only through separate, stove-piped
systems. By providing consolidated access to the data, for
the first time analytical tools can be used across data
sources to provide a more complete view of the information
possessed by the Bureau.
The
IDW, delivered in its first phase in January 2004, now provides
analysts with full access to investigative information within
FBI files, including ACS and VGTOF data, open source news
feeds, and the files of other federal agencies such as DHS.
The IDW provides physical storage for data and allows users
to access that data without needing to know its physical
location or format. The data in the IDW is at the Secret
level, and the addition of TS/SCI level data is in the planning
stages.
Later
this year, we plan to enhance the IDW by adding additional
data sources, such as Suspicious Activity Reports, and by
making it easier to search. When the IDW is complete, Agents,
JTTF members and analysts, using new analytical tools, will
be able to search rapidly for pictures of known terrorists
and match or compare the pictures with other individuals
in minutes rather than days. They will be able to extract
subjects’ addresses, phone numbers, and other data
in seconds, rather than searching for it manually. They
will have the ability to identify relationships across cases.
They will be able to search up to 100 million pages of international
terrorism-related documents in seconds. The IDW will help
meet the law enforcement and the IC need for rapid, secure,
dependable indexed data and will provide data mining access
to FBI investigative files.
We
are introducing advanced analytical tools to help us make
the most of the data stored in the IDW. These tools allow
FBI agents and analysts to look across multiple cases and
multiple data sources to identify relationships and other
pieces of information that were not readily available using
older FBI systems. These tools 1)make database searches
simple and effective; 2)give analysts new visualization,
geo-mapping, link-chart capabilities and reporting capabilities;
and 3)allow analysts to request automatic updates to their
query results whenever new, relevant data is downloaded
into the database.
Another
information sharing project, the Multi-agency Information
Sharing Initiative (MIS), is intended to enable Federal,
state, and local law enforcement agencies to share regional
investigative files and provide powerful tools for cross-file
analyses. A proof-of-concept effort is underway in St. Louis;
additional demonstration sites are being planned. The goal
of the demonstrations is to (1) show the value of sharing
investigative data which can be analyzed by modern software
tools; and (2) help define technical and organizational
approaches for regional shared systems. Final decisions
about deployment of the MIS will be based on the results
of the demonstrations and the department wide plan for law
enforcement information sharing being developed by the Department
of Justice.
Thank
you for allowing me the opportunity to testify before you
today and I will be happy to entertain any questions you
may have.