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Tenet: 'We have learned an important historic lesson'
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At the end of his evidence Thursday before the Joint Intelligence Committee, which is investigating the U.S. intelligence services' performance leading up to the September 11 terror attacks, CIA Director George Tenet gave this assessment of the current state of the response to the terror threat and his views on the work still to be done: TENET: Let me close with some points, Mr. Chairman. Success against terrorist targets must be measured against all elements of our nation's capabilities, policies and will. The intelligence community and the FBI are important parts of the equation, but by no means the only parts. We need a national integrated strategy in our fight against terrorism that incorporates both offense and defense. The strategy must be based on three pillars: continued relentless effort to penetrate terrorist groups, whether by human or technical means, whether alone or in partnership with others; intelligence military law enforcement and diplomacy must stay on the offense continually against terrorism around the world; we must disrupt and destroy the terrorist operational chain of command and the momentum to deny them sanctuary anywhere and eliminate their sources of financial and logistical support. 'Al Qaeda must never again acquire a sanctuary anywhere'Nothing did more for our ability to combat terrorism than the president's decision to send us into the terrorist sanctuary. By going in massively, we were able to change the rules for the terrorists. Now they are the hunted. Now they have to spend their time worrying about their survival. Al Qaeda must never again acquire a sanctuary anywhere. On defense we need systematic security improvements to protect our country, country's people and our infrastructure, and create a more difficult operating environment here in the United States for terrorists. The objective is to understand our vulnerabilities better than the terrorists do, to take action to reduce those vulnerabilities, to increase the costs and risks for terrorists to operate in the United States and, over time, make those costs unacceptable to them. We have learned an important historic lesson: We can no longer race from threat to threat, resolve it, disrupt it and then move on. Targets at risk remain at risk. In 1993 the first attack on the World Trade Center was damaging, maybe modestly so compared, but nevertheless very damaging. A plot around the same time to attack New York City tunnels and landmarks was broken up. We all breathed a sigh of relief and moved on, focusing the effort mostly on bringing the perpetrators to justice. The terrorists came back. At the millennium a young terrorist panicked at a Canadian-U.S. border crossing and his plan to attack an airport in Los Angeles was exposed and thwarted. We breathed another sigh of relief and prepared for his trial. Al Qaeda's plans had only been delayed. 'At this point we're smarter'Last winter another young terrorist on an airliner ineptly tried to detonate explosives in his shoes, and was stopped by alert crew and passengers. At this point we're smarter. We started checking people's shoes for explosives. It's not nearly enough. In the last year we have gone on high alert several times for good reason only to have no attack occur. We all breathed a sigh of relief and thought maybe it was a false alarm. It wasn't. We must design systems that reduce both the chances of an attack of getting through and the impact if it does. We must address both the threat and our vulnerability. We must not allow ourselves mentally to move on while the enemy is still at large. Two final points: Our people need better ways to communicate. Moreover, we also need systems that enable us to share critical information quickly across bureaucratic boundaries; systems to put our intelligence in from of those who need it wherever they may be, whatever their specific responsibilities for protecting the American people from the threat of terrorist attack. This means we must move information in ways and to places it never had to move before. We're improving our collaborative systems. We need to improve our multiple communications links, both within the intelligence community and now to homeland security. Now more than ever before we need to make sure our customers get from us exactly what they need, which generally means exactly what they want, fast and free of unnecessary restrictions. Chiefs of police across the country express understandable frustration at what they do not know. But there's something else. Intelligence officers in the federal government want to get their hands on locally collected data. Each could often use what the other may have already collected. The proposed Department of Homeland Security will help. So, too, will the intelligence community's experience in supporting our armed forces. We're going to have to put that experience to work in supporting the police chiefs. We don't have the luxury of an alternative. 'This fight is going to be long and difficult'This fight is going to be long and difficult, it will require the patience and the diligence that the president has asked for. It will require resources sustained over a multi-year period, to recapitalize our intelligence infrastructure on a pace that matches the changing technical and operational environment that we face. It will also require countries that have previously ignored the problem of terrorism or refused to cooperate with us to step up and choose sides. It will require all of us across the government to follow the example of the American people after September 11th, to come together, to work as a team, and pursue our mission with unyielding dedication and unrelenting fidelity to our highest ideals. We owe those who died on September 11th and all Americans no less.
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