Good
morning, and thank you. Thank you for having
me here today.
Before I go further, I want to thank you for
your leadership -- Mayor Morial, Mayor Menino,
Mayor Garner, and Executive Director Tom Cochran
-- for having the foresight and the wisdom
to call this important meeting, and for giving
me the opportunity to join with you today.
I want to thank all of you for the outstanding
leadership that you're providing to your cities
and to our country. At this pivotal moment
in history, you have been towers of strength
in your communities. And I particularly want
to thank you for your extraordinary support,
your cooperation, and your guidance that you
have provided to the FBI during these past
six weeks.
This morning, I want to let you know how deeply
committed the FBI is to working with you to
ensure the safety and security of your communities
now and in the future. The FBI, as you probably
know, is pouring its heart and its soul into
the investigation of the September 11 attacks.
Every resource that can be deployed is being
deployed. Every person who can be utilized
is being utilized. We now have well over 7,000
FBI personnel involved, and that's about one
in four of our employees. We are examining
every scrap of evidence. In fact, we've gathered,
sometimes working on hands and knees in the
rubble and mud of crash sites, more than 3,700
separate pieces of evidence. It is easily
the largest and most comprehensive investigation
in our history.
But beyond the investigation itself, our overriding
priority right now is prevention, making sure
that terrorists do not succeed in striking
America and America's cities again. Now, it
may well be overly optimistic to think that
every single attack can be prevented. But
we can certainly give it everything we have
got, and that is exactly what we are doing.
We at the FBI are not new to prevention. With
your help, over the last few years, we've
had successes. An example perhaps would be
two years ago when we foiled a plot to blow
up a gas tank in Sacramento, perhaps saving
as many as 12,000 lives. But historically,
we have been better at tracking down terrorists
after the fact than at stopping them in their
tracks before they strike. And we have, in
the past, not always aligned our resources,
our strategies, and our skills specifically
toward prevention, to the degree that they
are now so aligned.
A few weeks ago, we established at FBI headquarters
a terrorist prevention task force made up
of representatives of a dozen different agencies.
Its goal is to identify and stop future terrorists
acts with proactive investigations and to
attempt to predict and to prevent future scenarios.
The work of this group, for example, led us
to heighten sensitivities on crop dusters
in the latter part of September. We have had
in the past and do today have 35 joint terrorist
task forces located in your cities and in
other cities across the country. Those task
forces are working hard to gather intelligence
and pursue any hint of a lead that might help
us identify terrorists or their associates.
We also have beefed up our resources overseas,
where many of the leads have taken us and
where we're getting some outstanding cooperation
from England, Germany, France, Spain, and
a number of other countries.
We're also working with you and other colleagues
at the federal, state, and local level to
shore up security at critical public events
and to protect critical infrastructures like
water and transportation systems. We are assessing
threats in real time and providing warnings
to your cities and to the nation. I must tell
you that the threat level remains very high.
More attempts and possible attacks are a distinct
possibility. This possibility requires all
of us to continue walking the fine line of
staying alert on the one hand, without causing
undue harm on the other hand.
Clearly, we are deeply concerned about the
growing wave of anthrax attacks and related
incidents. At this point, it is not clear
if the few confirmed anthrax exposures were
motivated by organized terrorism, but these
attacks were clearly meant to terrorize a
country already on edge. We're responding
swiftly to each and every incident. By way
of background, we usually are involved in
250 assessments and responses relating to
weapons of mass destruction a year. We've
had more than 3,300 in just the past three
weeks alone, including 2,500 involving suspected
anthrax incidents. And even though most turn
out to be false alarms or hoaxes, we are taking
each report seriously, as I know each of you
in your cities are also. And those who are
pulling pranks and hoaxes won't find our severe
response to those all that funny.
Our work in these investigations, of course,
has been supported at every turn by you and
your colleagues across the nation, as well
as by a host of federal, state, and even international
partners. From the first moment that I joined
the FBI several weeks ago, one of my highest
priorities has been to improve our working
relationship with you, with elected leaders
and law enforcement partners around the world.
And the events of September 11 have only strengthened
my resolve in that regard. I have from my
experience and am now even more convinced
that no one institution is strong enough to
tackle the challenge of terrorism alone. No
one agency or entity at any level, whether
it be federal, state or local, has then length
of the breadth of talent and expertise. We
must work together. Law enforcement, quite
simply, is only as good as its relationships.
These past six weeks have given me a good
opportunity to see how well our FBI supports
you and your cities, and I've seen encouraging
signs. I know that many of our Special Agents
in Charge -- our SACs, as we call them --
are reaching out and keeping you involved
and informed. But at the same time, I heard
that there are some areas where lines of communication
aren't as open as they should be, where we're
keeping you at arm's length, and where we're
not affording you the level of support you
deserve.
As soon as I heard of these issues, I reached
out to key law enforcement leaders and asked
them to educate me on their issues and their
concerns. I asked them to give it to me straight,
and they did.
Building on these initial conversations, I
held a series of meetings last week with representatives
of the major city chiefs, the International
Association of Chiefs of Police and the National
Sheriff's Association, and along with the
Attorney General, had met with a number of
other similar law enforcement associations.
The meetings were helpful, open, candid and
I think productive.
What we heard will likely be familiar to many
of you. We heard that the FBI is not always
calling on your local police professionals
to track down leads; that we're sometimes
not following up quickly enough on leads that
come to us that involve your cities; that
you need information digitally, if at all
possible; and that the FBI isn't giving you
specific enough information on threats; and
that we're even withholding information.
Let me clarify the last point, the point about
specific information on threats and withholding
information. The FBI is not withholding significant
information due to security concerns. The
fact is much of the information we have can
be released to law enforcement. But the fact
is also that often, on most occasions, our
information is simply not as specific or developed
as we would all like it to be.
One issue that has come up and that is our
ability to distribute to your law enforcement
agencies what we call the watch list. The
issue was raised as to why it could not be
put into NCIC and distributed to you digitally.
We now have done that. We've added that watch
list to the National Crime Information Center
list, or NCIC. But, by the same token, we
often do not have much more than names or
aliases. As we get confirmed photos or other
information, we will add them to the system.
There is another point I do have to emphasize,
and that is, when it comes to the electronic
arena, the FBI is often far behind you and
your colleagues. Overhauling our electronic
infrastructure is a major priority for us,
one that we are addressing now.
Beyond these few clarifications, I must say
that many of the concerns that I've heard
were valid, and we are stepping forward to
address them. I've asked the Special Agents
in Charge in cities where we don't already
have a joint terrorism task force to get one
up and running quickly. While these task forces
aren't a panacea, they do break down stereotypes
and communications barriers, more effectively
coordinate leads and help get the right resources
in the right places.
In
short, they are an excellent tool for melding
us together in ways that make information
sharing a non-issue. I've also asked the SACs
to coordinate leads with local law enforcement
wherever and whenever possible. I've invited
law enforcement leaders to identify individuals,
two or more, who can work with us in our Strategic
Command Center at the FBI headquarters on
the national investigation. And I've asked
that representatives be added to our prevention
task force.
I'm also exploring with the leaders of law
enforcement the possibility of establishing
a working group composed of officials from
the FBI and local law enforcement that could
identify other specific issues and find workable
solutions.
Now, in my mind these are some initial first
steps, and more will follow. Some issues may
need to be addressed through legislation.
And as we move through this process, I only
ask that you please bring any problems or
issues to our attention. I want to know what
you're experiencing, how the FBI is treating
you, and you can be assured that we will,
and I will, respond.
In the coming months, we'll continue our work
to strengthen and modernize the FBI. We had
some changing to do before September 11, and
that need has only intensified since the tragedy
of that date. We at the FBI, as well as state
and local law enforcement, clearly have got
to become more proactive and more prevention
oriented. We need to be able to look down
the road five or 10 years and gauge what's
coming and start adapting now. We've got to
look closely at our skill sets to see if they
are tracking where we need to be to cope with
the 21st century and crime in the 21st century.
We've got to rebuild our electronic infrastructure
and digitize our information systems. And
of course, we've got to continue building
a stronger, more seamless, and more supportive
relationship with you and with law enforcement
and with emergency responders nationwide.
These are my priorities for the coming months,
and I welcome any advice and insight you might
have. I welcome and appreciate your continuing
support. As difficult and as trying as these
times are, I have a great deal of confidence
and optimism about the future. We will get
through this challenge as we've gotten through
every other. And we will get through it by
leaning on each other, by falling back on
our bedrock values and by tapping into the
deep reservoir of determination, strength,
and courage that exists throughout America.
And together, I'm confident that we can keep
our cities safe and strong and continue to
make our country a shining example of freedom
for the world. I want to thank you and bless
you and the cities for which you are responsible.