24 October 2001
Text: Threat Level From Terror Attacks Still "Very High", FBI Director Says
(Speaks October 24 in Washington to summit of mayors from across
nation) (2390)
The threat level from more terrorist attacks remains "very high,"
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller said in an
October 24 speech in Washington to a summit on security preparedness
organized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
"More attempts and possible attacks are a distinct possibility,"
Mueller said, adding that "this possibility requires all of us to
continue walking the fine line of staying alert on the one hand,
without causing undue alarm on the other hand."
Mueller said the government is "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 the edge. We're responding swiftly to each and
every incident," he said.
The FBI "is pouring its heart and soul" into the investigation of the
September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, he said,
noting that the investigation is the largest and most comprehensive
ever undertaken by the FBI.
"Every resource that can be deployed is being deployed; every person
who can be utilized is being utilized," Mueller said.
In addition, he said, the Bureau has "beefed up" its 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," said Mueller.
Following is the text of Mueller's remarks, as prepared for delivery:
(begin FBI text)
Remarks by Robert S. Mueller III
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
At the Mayors Emergency, Safety, and Security Summit
United States Conference of Mayors
Washington, DC
October 24, 2001
Good morning, and thank you. Thank you for having me here today. As
Mayor Morial indicated, I started as FBI director on September 4. And
more than one person has come up to me and said, "You had a relatively
short honeymoon." And that would be accurate.
I want to thank, 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. And at this pivotal -- I
think it's fair to say -- 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 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. This 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.
Now, 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 towards 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 terrorist acts with
proactive investigations and to attempt to predict and to prevent
future scenarios. The work of this group, for example, has led us to
heightened sensitivities on crop dusters in the latter part of
September. We have had in the past, and do today, have 35 joint
terrorism task forces located in your cities and 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
the 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 turned 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 11th 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 the length or the breadth
of talent and expertise. We must work together. Law enforcement, quite
simply, is only as good as its relationships.
Now, 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
Sheriffs' Association, and along with the Attorney General, have 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 start and 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's 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 strength 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
advise and insight you might have. And 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.
(end FBI text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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