[House Hearing, 107 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
COMBATING TERRORISM: IN SEARCH OF A NATIONAL STRATEGY
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY,
VETERANS AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
of the
COMMITTEE ON
GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MARCH 27, 2001
__________
Serial No. 107-18
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house
http://www.house.gov/reform
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COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland TOM LANTOS, California
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut MAJOR R. OWENS, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania
STEPHEN HORN, California PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii
JOHN L. MICA, Florida CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York
THOMAS M. DAVIS, Virginia ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Washington,
MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana DC
JOE SCARBOROUGH, Florida ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio
BOB BARR, Georgia ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois
DAN MILLER, Florida DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
DOUG OSE, California JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts
RON LEWIS, Kentucky JIM TURNER, Texas
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine
TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
DAVE WELDON, Florida WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri
CHRIS CANNON, Utah ------ ------
ADAM H. PUTNAM, Florida ------ ------
C.L. ``BUTCH'' OTTER, Idaho ------
EDWARD L. SCHROCK, Virginia BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
------ ------ (Independent)
Kevin Binger, Staff Director
Daniel R. Moll, Deputy Staff Director
James C. Wilson, Chief Counsel
Robert A. Briggs, Chief Clerk
Phil Schiliro, Minority Staff Director
Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International
Relations
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut, Chairman
ADAM H. PUTNAM, Florida DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York TOM LANTOS, California
STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts
RON LEWIS, Kentucky JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri
DAVE WELDON, Florida ------ ------
C.L. ``BUTCH'' OTTER, Idaho ------ ------
EDWARD L. SCHROCK, Virginia
Ex Officio
DAN BURTON, Indiana HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
Lawrence J. Halloran, Staff Director and Counsel
R. Nicholas Palarino, Senior Policy Advisor
Jason Chung, Clerk
David Rapallo, Minority Counsel
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on March 27, 2001................................... 1
Statement of:
Hoffman, Bruce, director, Washington Office, RAND Corp.;
James Clapper, Jr., Lieutenant General, USAF (Ret.), vice
chairman, Advisory Panel to Assess the Domestic Response
Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass
Destruction, accompanied by Michael Wermuth, project
director; and Frank Cilluffo, chairman, Report on Combating
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Terrorism,
Center for Strategic and International Studies............. 88
Rudman, Hon. Warren B., Co-Chair, U.S. Commission on National
Security/21st Century; and Charles G. Boyd, General, USAF
(Ret.), executive director, U.S. Commission on National
Security/21st Century...................................... 19
Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:
Cilluffo, Frank, chairman, Report on Combating Chemical,
Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Terrorism, Center for
Strategic and International Studies, prepared statement of. 127
Clapper, James, Jr., Lieutenant General, USAF (Ret.), vice
chairman, Advisory Panel to Assess the Domestic Response
Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass
Destruction, prepared statement of......................... 104
General Accounting Office, prepared statement of............. 11
Hoffman, Bruce, director, Washington Office, RAND Corp.,
prepared statement of...................................... 92
Kucinich, Hon. Dennis J., a Representative in Congress from
the State of Ohio, prepared statement of................... 6
Rudman, Hon. Warren B., Co-Chair, U.S. Commission on National
Security/21st Century, prepared statement of............... 25
Shays, Hon. Christopher, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Connecticut:
Article by Sydney Freedberg, Jr., entitled, ``Beyond the
Blue Canaries''........................................ 77
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
COMBATING TERRORISM: IN SEARCH OF A NATIONAL STRATEGY
----------
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2001
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs
and International Relations,
Committee on Government Reform,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in
room 2247, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher
Shays (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Shays, Putnam, Lewis of Kentucky,
Gilman, Kucinich, and Tierney.
Staff present: Lawrence J. Halloran, staff director and
counsel; R. Nicholas Palarino, senior policy advisor; Thomas
Costa, professional staff member; Jason Chung, clerk; Alex
Moore, fellow; David Rapallo, minority counsel; Earley Green,
minority assistant clerk; and Teresa Coufal, minority staff
assistant.
Mr. Shays. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee on
National Security, Veterans Affairs and International
Relations' hearing entitled, ``Combating Terrorism: In Search
of a National Strategy,'' is called to order.
Last week we learned the stalled investigation of the
Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 Americans has been beset
by a long-simmering power struggle between the FBI Director and
the U.S. Attorney assigned to bring terrorism perpetrators to
justice. Transfer of the case to another prosecutor may breathe
new life into the 5-year-old inquiry, but the change is also a
symptom of a suffocating problem plaguing the Federal effort to
combat terrorism--in a word, ``turf.''
In 1995, the President designated the Federal Emergency
Management Agency as the lead Federal agency for consequence
management--the measures needed to protect life, restore
essential services, and provide emergency relief after a
terrorism event involving conventional, biological, chemical,
or radiological weapons of mass destruction.
The FBI, part of the Department of Justice, was directed to
lead crisis management--the measures needed to prevent or
punish acts of terrorism.
Today, more than 40 Federal departments and agencies
operate programs to deter, detect, prepare for, and respond to
terrorist attacks. We put their names out to demonstrate how
difficult it would be to get them all in one room, much less
get them all to speak with one voice.
While some interagency cooperation and information sharing
has begun, substantial barriers, including legislative
mandates, still prevent a fully coordinated counterterrorism
effort. As the organizational charts get more complex, the
effort inevitably becomes less cohesive.
In our previous hearings, we found duplicative research
programs and overlapping preparedness training. Despite
expenditure of more than $9 billion last year, many local first
responders still lack basic training and equipment.
According to our witnesses this morning, the fight against
terrorism remains fragmented and unfocused, primarily because
no overarching national strategy guides planning, directs
spending, or disciplines bureaucratic balkanization. They will
discuss recommendations for reform of counterterrorism programs
that the new administration would be wise, very wise, to
consider.
When pressed for a national strategy, the previous
administration pointed to a pastiche of event-driven
Presidential decision directives and an agency-specific 5-year
plan. Reactive in vision and scope, that strategy changed only
as we lurched from crisis to crisis, from Khobar to the U.S.S.
Cole, from Oklahoma City to Dar es Salaam.
In January, the subcommittee wrote to Dr. Condoleeza Rice,
the President's national security advisor, regarding the need
for a clear national strategy to combat terrorism. The
administration has begun a thorough review of current programs
and policies. In deference to that review, the subcommittee
will not receive testimony from executive agencies' witnesses
today. They will appear at a future hearing. That hearing will
be in the very near future.
Terrorists willing to die for their cause will not wait
while we rearrange bureaucratic boxes on the organizational
chart. Their strategy is clear. Their focus is keen. Their
resources efficiently deployed. Our national security demands
greater strategic clarity, sharper focus, and unprecedented
coordination to confront the threat of terrorism today.
We look forward to the testimony of our very distinguished
witnesses as we continue our oversight of these critical
issues.
At this time I would like to recognize Dennis Kucinich, the
ranking member of the committee.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Christopher Shays follows:]
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Mr. Kucinich. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for
calling this hearing.
I want to welcome the witnesses.
I have a prepared statement. I would like to insert it in
the record and just note that I am hopeful that, as we review
this counterterrorism program, that we would also have the
opportunity to explore causal relationships in terrorism so
that we may learn why our Nation feels it needs such a sweeping
counterterrorism presence.
I thank you.
Mr. Shays. I thank the gentleman.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Dennis J. Kucinich
follows:]
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Mr. Shays. At this time I recognize the vice chairman, Adam
Putnam.
Mr. Putnam. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also have a
statement to submit for the record, but I appreciate your
calling this hearing. Clearly, as the charts around us
indicate, the national strategy against terrorism is that there
is not one national strategy against terrorism.
Recent events--Khobar, Oklahoma City, a number of other
places around the world--have clearly indicated the need for us
to further refine our efforts and our preparations for these
types of acts of violence against American citizens and our
interests, and I look forward to the testimony from the
witnesses.
Mr. Shays. Thank you.
I recognize Ron Lewis from Kentucky.
Mr. Lewis of Kentucky. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would just like to welcome our witnesses. I'm looking
forward to their testimony. This certainly is a complex
problem, but we certainly need to be doing everything we can to
solve this as soon as possible.
Thank you.
Mr. Shays. Thank you.
Before calling our witnesses and swearing them in, I just
want to get rid of some housekeeping here and ask unanimous
consent to insert into the hearing record a statement from the
General Accounting Office discussing the fragmentation and lack
of strategic focus in current Federal counterterrorism
programs. Based on many of the studies and audits conducted for
this subcommittee, GAO recommends greater use of Results Act
principles to measure progress toward a truly national
strategy.
Without objection, so ordered.
[The prepared statement of the General Accounting Office
follows:]
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Mr. Shays. And I ask unanimous consent that all members of
the subcommittee be permitted to place an opening statement in
the record, and that the record remain open for 3 days for that
purpose.
Without objection, so ordered.
I ask further unanimous consent that all witnesses be
permitted to include their written statement in the record.
Without objection, so ordered.
At this time, I would welcome our primary witness, the
Honorable Warren B. Rudman, who is co-chair, and Charles G.
Boyd, General, executive director. Mr. Rudman is co-chair on
the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century.
As you know, Mr. Rudman, we swear in all our witnesses, and
I would welcome both our witnesses to stand.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Shays. Thank you. Note for the record both of our
witnesses responded in the affirmative.
Senator Rudman, what we do is we do the 5 minute, but we
turn it over because we do want you to make your statement and
we do want it part of the record, and then we'll ask you some
questions.
Thank you.
STATEMENTS OF HON. WARREN B. RUDMAN, CO-CHAIR, U.S. COMMISSION
ON NATIONAL SECURITY/21ST CENTURY; AND CHARLES G. BOYD,
GENERAL, USAF (RET.), EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, U.S. COMMISSION ON
NATIONAL SECURITY/21ST CENTURY
Senator Rudman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't think I
have more than 5 minutes, and I expect General Boyd has a few
minutes, and we are here for as long as you need us.
Mr. Chairman, I'm honored to be here today on behalf of the
U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century. I co-chair
this with former Senator Gary Hart. Senator Hart is in London
and unable to be here, and I am delighted that General Boyd is
able to accompany me.
For those of you that are not familiar with the background
of the membership of this Commission, it was very unique. It
was the brain child of former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who looked
at the fragmentation that was called to his attention in this
area of terrorism against our homeland, approached President
Clinton, and together they put together legislation which
created this Commission. It was then turned over, for
administrative purposes, to the Department of Defense. The
funding came out of the Department of Defense.
We have been at this for more than 2 years. This has not
been a staff-run activity. This has been an activity run very
much by the commissioners, themselves, who spent a great deal
of time over this period of 2 years, including a number of
weekends at various retreats going over and fighting out these
issues. When you read the report, you'll find that it is not
like many reports which try to recommend that which is
possible; this report recommends what we think you ought to do.
Now, politically that's your problem and not ours, but we
didn't think we ought to give you our political judgment. We
thought we ought to give you our best judgment, and we have
given you a road map of how to do these things.
For those of you who unfamiliar with the Commission, let me
tell you alphabetically who served, and it was totally
bipartisan: Ann Armstrong, former chairman of the PIFIAD and
also Ambassador to the Court of St. James; John Dancy, some of
you know, international correspondence for many years for NBC
News; Les Geld, president of the Council on Foreign Relations;
Lee Hamilton, familiar to all of you here in the House; Donald
Rice, former Secretary of the Air Force, former head of RAND
Corp.; Harry Train, former commander in chief, Atlantic, a
four-star admiral; Norm Augustine, well known to many of you
for his work in Government, but, of course, best known probably
as being chairman of Lockheed Martin; Jack Galvin, former head
of NATO; Newt Gingrich; Lionel Almer, Under Secretary of
Commerce at one time in the Reagan administration for
international trade; Jim Schlesinger, who held, I believe, four
or five Cabinet posts in various administrations; and Andrew
Young, a former commissioner--former Ambassador to the United
Nations and former mayor of Atlanta.
I want to get directly to the question that your letter of
invitation posed to us, and you asked: why is there no
comprehensive national strategy to combat terrorism?
I would start my answer by pointing out that dealing with
terrorism is an enormously complex problem. As we all
understand, terrorism is varying and varyingly motivated.
Sometimes it emanates from States, sometimes from groups, or
even from individuals. Sometimes it comes from combinations of
state sponsorship and non-State actors, or either one. The
source of these groups are wide, coming from no one region of
the world. And, as we have had the misfortune to learn, it can
include domestic elements, as well.
Terrorism also takes several tactical forms--
assassinations, bombing, biological or chemical attack, cyber
terror, and potentially terrorism perpetrated by the use of
weapons of mass destruction.
Terrorists may also choose a wide array of targets, a
complexity that has generated considerable confusion. While
some scholars define ``terrorism'' in its basic form as
essentially unconventional attacks on civilians for any of
several purposes, others include attacks on uniformed military
personnel operating abroad as forms of terrorism, such as
Khobar Towers, such as the U.S.S. Cole incident. Others
disagree. They consider such attacks to be another method of
waging conventional warfare. The distinction is not just
definitional or theoretical. Unfortunately, it influences how
the U.S. Government approaches policy solutions to these
problems.
Clearly, given this diversity of motives, sources, tactics,
and definitions, the responsibility of dealing with terrorism
within the U.S. Government ranges over a wide array of
executive branch departments and agencies, as well as several
Senate and House committees on the legislative branch side.
Developing any effective comprehensive strategy for dealing
with terrorism would be difficult in any event, but under these
circumstances even more so.
And I must say, Mr. Chairman, I'm a great believer in
graphics. Whether these have just been placed here for future
witnesses or whether they are here to illustrate the problem,
there it is in front of you. You could not have a more clear,
definitive definition of what we're talking about than looking
at the names, all of them great organizations, well motivated,
trying to do the right thing, but look at the number of them.
Whoever on your staff came up with that idea deserves an Oak
Leaf Cluster. [Laughter.]
Mr. Shays. Why do you make an assumption, sir, that it was
staff that thought of that? [Laughter.]
Senator Rudman. Maybe that's because I served in the
Senate.
The U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century
concluded that, however difficult the problem with terrorism
may be, we simply must do a better job of dealing with it.
There is no national security problem of greater urgency.
The Commission phase one report on the national security
environment of the next 25 years concluded unequivocally, based
on unbelievably lengthy, complex, and detailed testimony from
many in this Government, concluded that the prospect of mass
casualty terrorism on American soil is growing sharply. We
believe that over the next quarter of a century the danger will
not only be one of the most challenging we face, but the one we
are least prepared to address.
The Commission's phase two report on strategy focused
directly on this challenge, arguing that the United States
needed to integrate the challenge of homeland security fully
within its national security strategy.
The Commission's phase three report, released on January
31st and delivered to the President on that day, devotes an
entire first section, one of five, to the problem of organizing
the U.S. Government to deal effectively with homeland security.
We have argued that to integrate this issue properly into
an overall strategy framework there must be a significant
reform of the structures and processes of the current national
security apparatus.
As you know, Mr. Chairman, the phase three report
recommends the creation of a National Homeland Security Agency.
Before I discuss this proposal, I wish to stress what the
Commission intends and does not intend to achieve with its
recommendations, because some of it I believe has been
misunderstood--probably by people who didn't read it very
carefully, but it has, nevertheless, been misunderstood.
The United States needs to inculcate strategic thinking and
behavior throughout the entire national security structure of
Government. In the Commission's view, and notwithstanding the
early exertions of the new administration, we have a long way
to go in this regard. We have not had in recent years a process
of integrated strategy formulation, a top-down approach led by
the President and the senior members of his national security
team, where priorities were determined and maintained and where
resources were systematically matched to priorities.
There has been almost no effort to undertake functional
budgeting analysis for problems that have spread over the
responsibilities of many executive branch departments and
agencies, the result being that it is extremely difficult for
the Congress, in its oversight role, to have a sense of what
any administration is doing with respect to major national
security objectives.
Finally, there has been no systematic effort from the NSC
level to direct the priorities of the intelligence community to
align them with the priorities of national strategy.
I might say to you in another hat that I've worn for the
last 8 years as chairman and vice chairman of PIFIAD, I can
tell you that statement is absolutely sound and something that
needs to be addressed.
It needs to be clear, before we discuss the proposal for
National Homeland Security Agency, we conceived of the National
Homeland Security Agency as a part of, not a substitute for, a
strategic approach to the problem of homeland security.
Clearly, even with the creation of that agency, the National
Security Council will have a critical role in coordinating the
various Government departments and agencies involved in
homeland security.
The Commission's proposed strategy for homeland security is
threefold: to prevent, to protect, and to respond to the
problem of terrorism and other threats to the United States.
The Department of State has a critical role in prevention,
as does the intelligence community and others. The Department
of Defense has a critical role in protection, as do other
departments and agencies. Many agencies of Government,
including, for example the Centers for Disease Control in the
Department of HHS, have a critical role in response. Clearly,
we are proposing to include sections of the intelligence
community, the State Department, the Defense Department, and
the Department of Health and Human Services in this new agency.
As with any other complex functional area of Government
responsibility, no single agency will ever be adequate for the
task.
That said, the United States stands in need of a stronger
organizational mechanism for homeland security. It needs to
clarify accountability, responsibility, and authority among the
departments and agencies with a role to play in this
increasingly critical area. It needs to realign the diffused
responsibilities that sprawl across outdated concepts of
boundaries. It also needs to recapitalize several critical
components of U.S. Government. We need a Cabinet-level agency
for this purpose. The job has become too big, requires too much
operational activity to be housed at the NSC level. It is too
important to a properly integrated national strategy to be
handed off to a czar. We seem to have czaritis in this
Government for the last 10 years. It didn't work in Russia, and
I don't think it has worked very well here. It requires an
organizational focus of sufficient heft to deal with the
Departments of State, Defense, and Justice in an efficient and
an effective way.
Mr. Chairman, the Commission's proposal for a National
Homelands Security Agency is detailed with great care and
precision in the phase three report. With your kind permission,
I would like to include that section of the report in the
record here, for I see no need to repeat here word-for-word
what the report has already said and is available to all.
Mr. Shays. Without objection, we will be happy to do that.
Senator Rudman. So I will give that to you.
However, I would like to describe the proposal's essence
for the subcommittee. I will not mince words. We propose a
Cabinet-level agency for homeland security whose civilian
director will be a statutory advisor to the National Security
Council, the same status as that of the Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff. The director will be appointed by the President and
confirmed by the Senate.
The basis of this agency will be the present Federal
Emergency Management Agency. Added to FEMA will be the Coast
Guard from the Department of Transportation; the Border Patrol
from the Department of Justice under INS; the Customs Service,
the law enforcement part of Customs Service, from the
Department of Treasury; the National Domestic Preparedness
Office [NDPO], currently houses the FBI; and an array of cyber
security programs now housed varyingly in the FBI, the Commerce
Department and elsewhere.
Together, the National Homeland Security Agency will have
three directives--prevention, critical infrastructure,
protection, and emergency preparedness and response--and a
national crisis action center to focus Federal action in the
event of a national emergency. The agency will build on FEMA's
regional organization and will not be focused in D.C. It will
remain focused on augmenting and aiding State and local
resources.
The purpose of this realignment of assets is to get more
than the sum of the parts from our effort in this area. Right
now, unfortunately, we are getting much less than the sum of
the parts. We are not proposing vast new undertakings. We are
not proposing a highly centralized bureaucratic behemoth. We
are not proposing to spend vastly more money than we are
spending now. We are proposing a realignment and a
rationalization of what we already do so we can do it right. In
this regard, we intend for the union of FEMA, Coast Guard,
Border Patrol, Customs, and other organizational elements to
produce a new institutional culture, new synergies, and a
higher morale. We are proposing to match authority,
responsibility, and accountability. We are proposing the solve
the ``who's in charge'' problem.
Perhaps the most important of all, we are proposing to do
all this in such a way as to guarantee the civil liberties that
we all hold so dear. Since it is very likely the Defense
Department assets would have to come into play in response to a
mass casualty attack on U.S. soil, the best way ensure that we
violate the U.S. Constitution is to not plan and train ahead
for such contingencies.
The director of the National Homeland Security Agency, I
repeat, is a civilian. If no such person is designated,
responsible ahead of time to plan, train, and coordinate for
the sort of national emergency of which we are speaking, I
leave it to your imagination and to your mastery of American
history to predict what a condition of national panic might be
produced in this regard.
Mr. Chairman, one final point, if I may. All 14 of us on
this Commission are united in our belief that this proposal is
the best way for the U.S. Government to see this as a common
defense. All 14 of us, without dissent, agreed to put this
subject first and foremost in our final report. All 14 of us--7
democrats and 7 Republicans--are determined to do what we can
to promote this recommendation on a fully bipartisan basis.
But we are not naive. We know that we are asking for big
changes. I know, as a former member of the legislative branch,
that what we are proposing requires complex and difficult
congressional action. This proposal stretches over
jurisdictions of at least seven committees, plus they are
appropriations committees counterparts of the House and the
Senate. This is why, Mr. Chairman, the work of this committee
and the Committee on Government Reform is so critical to the
eventual success of this effort, and that is why I again want
to express my gratitude for the opportunity to be here today.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, before General Boyd testifies, I
just want to tell you a little bit about General Boyd which
would not be known. General Boyd was asked by Speaker Gingrich
at the time, who he knew personally, to head up this effort.
General Boyd spent 6\1/2\ years in a Hanoi prison. He is the
only POW who reached four-star rank, and following that held
enormously responsible positions throughout our Government
until his retirement. We were very fortunate to have General
Boyd lead our effort. I always told him I thought it was a
little bit beneath his pay grade, but he was willing to take
this on as executive director.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Shays. Thank you, Senator.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Warren B. Rudman and the
report referred to follow:]
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Mr. Shays. It may have been beneath his pay grade, but I
think he realizes the important work of the Commission and,
therefore, was happy to serve.
It is wonderful, Senator, to have you here. You are such a
distinguished witness, and the Commission has done such an
outstanding job.
Obviously, General, it is a tremendous honor to have you
testify before the committee, for your service to our country.
I'm just going to acknowledge the presence of Mr. Gilman,
Ben Gilman, who is the former chairman of the International
Relations Committee. We will be calling on him shortly.
General Boyd, we are happy to have you make your statement.
General Boyd. There's not much I can add to that statement.
Mr. Shays. Is that because you wrote it? [Laughter.]
General Boyd. That is his statement, sir. That is his
statement.
I might add one piece of evidence or emphasis or
amplification. I believe at the outset of this enterprise if
you would have queried the 14 commissioners and asked them if
they were going to end up at the end making their most
important recommendation, their highest priority
recommendation, the forming of a National Homeland Security
Agency I think they would have scoffed at the idea. But as time
went on--and I watched their thinking develop, and they watched
and saw the evidence from the intelligence community, as they
traveled about--and they traveled throughout the world to over
two dozen countries--there was a gradual coming together of
their thinking along the lines as follows.
One, that the resentment focused toward the United States
throughout much of the world I think came as a surprise. As a
symbol of the globalizing vectors that we are on and the
exclusion of so many people and nations from that process, and
the emphasis of the United States being the symbol of that
vector has produced a degree of resentment that, as I say, I
think came as a surprise to many.
It was crystallized one night as we were in Egypt talking
with a group of scholars, and one of them, a distinguished
gentleman, looked at us and said, ``The problem for you over
the next quarter of a century is managing resentment throughout
the world against your country.'' At some level I think that
was a message we got everywhere.
When we coupled that with all of the intelligence that we
have access to and saw that the proliferation of these
capabilities, these weapons of mass destruction, weapons of
mass disruption into the hands of State and non-state actors
who never before in history had that kind of power that they
could wield against a great State, and coupled with what they
might consider reason to be resentful of us, we had the formula
for a security problem that, as the Senator said, we feared we
just weren't addressing in any sophisticated or complete way.
I think that's what drove these commissioners to the set of
conclusions that they reached at the end. Stacking this as the
most important, the highest priority national security
objective that our Nation should adopt.
Mr. Shays. Thank you very much, General.
It is, candidly, a very stunning recommendation, and one
that I was surprised by, but, given the work that our committee
has done, we, I think, can fully understand why it was made.
I would make the point to you that Mac Thornberry has
introduced legislation that incorporates your recommendations.
It was sent to this committee, and it will--excuse me, sent to
the full committee, I think probably sent to this committee,
but not sure. But, at any rate, I believe it will be seriously
considered by the committee.
Senator Rudman. Mr. Chairman, I believe that Congressman
Skelton also is introducing or has introduced or about to a
major piece of legislation, not precisely like Congressman
Thornberry's, but dealing with this issue based on our program.
Mr. Shays. That's great to know. We will be following that,
as well.
At this time I would call on Adam Putnam, the vice chairman
of the committee, to start the questioning.
Mr. Putnam. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I thank the panel for their very intriguing and unnerving
testimony, but certainly you fulfilled your role in thinking
outside the box and bringing us a very innovative approach.
You make great reference to managing this resentment. How
much of this resentment is of our own doing that could be
addressed through consistency policy or redirection of
policies, and how much of it is, as you alluded to, an overall
vexing discomfort that we see even in our own country over the
uncontrollable forces of globalization?
Senator Rudman. Well, I'll answer briefly and let General
Boyd comment.
There were some things that will change only if and when
American foreign policy changes in some areas--and I'm not
suggesting it should be changed, I'm just trying to answer your
question. Certainly in the Middle East it is our foreign policy
in the middle east that drives this resentment. I've had that
kind of--some up-close and personal experience with that
recently, and there is no question that there was deep
resentment, and the Osama Ben Laden activities are driven by
our policy. I have always thought our policy was the correct
policy, but obviously people out there don't.
In other parts of the world it is not so much our policy as
our projected strength. You know, nobody likes the big guy.
Sometimes we haven't been over the years too circumspect in how
we dealt with our bigness, so there's that kind of resentment.
And that, of course, plays right into the last part of your
question, Congressman Putnam, and that was the fact that
undoubtedly globalization tends to put all of us under a
magnifying glass. And you put it all together and you find this
resentment at an extraordinary level, which I think surprised
even some of us who had major foreign travel, had served on
major committees that dealt with these issues, but the
resentment was substantial.
Chuck, do you want to add to that at all?
General Boyd. Just this--that if you develop a strategy, a
national security strategy, for dealing with this problem, it
seems to me that the--and along the lines that we have
suggested, the framework of which would be a protection--
prevention, protection, and response.
The prevention piece deals at the heart of this problem.
The Diplomatic Corps would be at the forefront of dealing with
this problem over the rest of the planet.
I think that the kind of self-absorption that we often
project, or maybe even arrogance, is all a part of that, and
that can be worked in a solid approach, a diplomatic approach
to this problem.
But in the end, as the Senator says, we're going to be the
symbol of power and wealth and influence, and there's going to
be resentment, no matter how effective our diplomatic approach
is, so this is something we just simply have to deal with, have
to live with, and prepare for, it seems to me.
Mr. Shays. Has our hierarchy of threats that all of these
establishments have identified, has it evolved too match this
changed philosophy, this newfound globalized resentment that
has developed at the close of the cold war? Are we prepared for
the proper threats, both at home and abroad?
Senator Rudman. Well, I think the answer is clearly no. Let
me give you an anecdote of something that got all of our
attention about 6 months ago. I really commend to you an
article in ``Foreign Relations Magazine'' about a young Coast
Guard commander who was doing a fellowship up there in New York
who decided to look at the threat of weapons of mass
destruction to the United States. I mean, it's stunning, and
let me just give you in a paragraph what essentially the
findings were.
There are 55,000 containers that come off ships into the
United States every day--55,000. A small fraction of them are
opened at the port. Most of them go to their destination, be it
St. Louis or Chicago, Dallas, Boston, whatever, on the West
Cost, into the southwest or along the West Coast. Some of them
aren't opened for a matter of months, I believe--am I correct,
Chuck?
General Boyd. Could be a month or two. Yes.
Senator Rudman. Month or two. It doesn't take much
imagination, with the technology available to so many people
who ought not to have it, that the acquisition of a small
amount of fissionable material put in the right kind of a
design and placed on one of those carriers--I mean, the thought
is horrendous, but it is real. It also goes to biological and
chemical.
So, although I am not here to comment on the proposal that
is being debated about missile shield defense, if I wanted to
set off a weapon of mass destruction in New York I think I
probably wouldn't do it with something that had a return
address on it.
We had testimony from the intelligence community and from
people looking at this problem, and we need more intelligence,
but, most of all, we don't only need more prevention, but we
have to understand how to respond.
You may remember that former Secretary of Defense Bill
Cohen, about a year-and-a-half ago--I believe it was before you
came to Congress, Mr. Putnam, but it is worth getting a look
at, in response to your question. Secretary Cohen wrote an
article that essentially said, ``It's not a question of if, it
is a question of when.'' I'm sure the Members of Congress here
remember reading that. It was a very stunning article--it
appeared in the ``Washington Post'' op-ed page--in which the
Secretary of Defense said, ``We're going to have a horrible
incident in this country over the next 10 to 15 years, sooner
or later. We don't know. It's going to happen, and we're not
prepared to deal with it.''
You know, I was thinking, as we were developing this
report, of the horrible events of Oklahoma City. Mr. Chairman
and members of the committee, that was a horrible event. That
was infinitesimal compared to what we're talking about, and it
has to be addressed. It is a moral responsibility for this
Congress to address this issue. You don't have to come up with
our solution, but you have to come up with a solution.
Mr. Shays. Thank you.
Mr. Kucinich, and then we'll go to Mr. Gilman.
Mr. Kucinich. Senator, again, welcome.
Senator Rudman. Thank you.
Mr. Kucinich. In your testimony you said, ``Perhaps most
important, we are proposing to do all this in such a way as to
guarantee the civil liberties we all hold dear.'' I had a
chance to review the phase three report, and I may have missed
the section, or maybe it wasn't included, but I didn't see any
comprehensive statement in here of how civil liberties would be
guaranteed in such a framework.
Senator Rudman. On page 11, top paragraph, let me read you
that paragraph so you don't have to look it up. ``Congress is
perched, as well, for guaranteeing that homeland security is
achieved within a framework of law that protects the civil
liberties and privacy of American citizens. We are confident
that the Government can enhance national security without
compromising Constitutional principles. In order to guarantee
this, we must plan ahead. In a major attack involving----''
Mr. Kucinich. Senator, with all due respect, I did see
that.
Senator Rudman. All right. Fine.
Mr. Kucinich. With all due respect, I did see that.
Senator Rudman. What is your question? How do we do it?
Mr. Kucinich. I'll go over it again.
Senator Rudman. All right.
Mr. Kucinich. You said that we're proposing to do this in
such a way as to guarantee the civil liberties.
Senator Rudman. Correct.
Mr. Kucinich. How do you establish a national security
apparatus in the United States, in effect implement a national
security state, and simultaneously protect civil liberties? I
think we'd all be interested to know----
Senator Rudman. I'd be happy to answer the question.
Mr. Kucinich [continuing]. How you would do that.
Senator Rudman. You see, Congressman, that's a great
question. The problem we were all concerned with was, without
this kind of planning, if something happens in Cleveland it is
going to be the military that is going to be there instantly,
and you may have to even declare marshal law if there are
enough casualties and enough destruction. You've not planned
for it. You don't have interfaces between Federal and State
government and city government which are already planned and in
place with civilians in charge. That's what will happen today.
That's what happens in the event of massive tornadoes or
massive hurricanes along the Southeast Coast back about 10, 12
years ago and more recently.
What we say is, if you have a civilian in charge of this
agency and you are planning and training in prevention is
involved with setting up scenario planning with city and State
governments across this country, then if something does happen
you are in a position to have civilian control with the
military assisting them.
Now, the military has so-called ``posse comitatus''
restrictions, as well it should, but in times of marshal law,
you know, those essentially aren't observed.
Mr. Kucinich. So you are envisioning marshal law?
Senator Rudman. I'm envisioning that there would be marshal
law unless you had this agency in place. That's what we're--
absolutely.
Mr. Kucinich. So a Governor doesn't have the ability to, in
effect, declare an emergency? A mayor doesn't have that ability
to declare an emergency?
Senator Rudman. They certainly do, but they do not have the
authority to declare marshal law on a national basis, I can
assure you that.
Mr. Kucinich. Local police departments don't have the
ability to enforce law within a community?
Senator Rudman. Congressman, as good as local police forces
are--and I'm a former State Attorney General and I have a high
regard for them--they could not possibly cope with the kind of
thing we're talking about. They don't have enough resources,
enough people. And, by the way, they may be the victims,
themselves.
Mr. Kucinich. And when we speak of homeland security, we're
implying that we are not protected right now.
Senator Rudman. We are not.
Mr. Kucinich. There's $300 billion a year the American
taxpayers pay for a Department of Defense, and billions more
for State patrol and billions more for protection of their
local police departments, and you're saying that, despite
spending billions and billions and billions of dollars, we're
still not protected. And so I would ask you, Senator, just as
coming from Cleveland, OH, as you so kindly recognized, how
could I convince my constituents that, in an environment where
hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent and that's not
enough, that they should spend more, particularly when their
schools are not up to par, when people don't have decent health
care, when they have roads and bridges falling apart. Please
enlighten me, Senator.
Senator Rudman. Sure. I'd be happy to.
No. 1, we're not saying you have to spend more. These
agencies spend quite a bit of money now, themselves, but we
think that we're not getting the right bang for the buck.
No. 2, with all due respect to your comments about national
security, almost all of our expenditures for national security,
up to now, at least, are for conventional warfare in a two
major theater war scenario, which I expect will soon be done
with, but that is the current plan. All the aircraft carriers,
all the Army and Marine divisions, the entire Air Force, none
of that is directed toward homeland security.
The only thing that we know is that if something bad
happens today the only organization in the United States, the
only organization in the event of a weapon of mass destruction
going off or being put in the water supply or what, the only
people who could respond would be U.S. military. There is no
one else. They have the transportation the communication, the
medical supplies, they have it all. Unfortunately, it has not
been coordinated in the way that it has to be, and we believe
this agency, in its prevention and response missions, would do
just that.
Mr. Kucinich. I'd like to go back to something, Senator,
and that is: how do we guarantee civil liberties in a national
security state? I mean, we're really talking about a profound
change in the way we view ourselves as a Nation. We're talking
about a fortress America here. How do we guarantee people's
basic Constitutional rights to privacy, to being able to freely
associate with who they want, to be able to freely speak in the
way that they want? How do we guarantee that within the
framework of a bill that, frankly, its linguistic construction
raises some chilling possibilities of something that is anti-
democratic.
Senator Rudman. You know, we debated that and we don't
think it does. We had people on our Commission such as former
NBC correspondent Bud Dancy that was very concerned about that
very issue, and we don't think our recommendation amounts to
that at all.
As a matter of fact, Congressman, I can almost guarantee
you that the people of Cleveland, OH, wouldn't even know this
agency existed except for those people who are police, fire,
medical, who would be getting training from this agency and
recommendations. No one would even know it existed because it
has no interface with the community until something happens.
Now, when something happens I would say to you, quite
frankly, that if it was bad enough I suppose there could be
some period of time where the Governor, the mayor, or the
President might decide that they would have to suspend things--
for instance, if a nuclear weapon went off in a major American
city. But we're not talking about any deprivation of civil
liberty in normal circumstances.
In almost all circumstances, including hurricanes and
floods in this country, including in your own State, there have
been occasions where the National Guard had to be called out to
keep order and to suspend certain liberties until the situation
could be simmered down to protect law-abiding citizens, and
that is not part of our recommendation, that's just what
happens.
Mr. Kucinich. I think, Senator, it would be enlightening
for this committee to be able to have some kind of proceedings
of those debates that took place within your Commission over
the issues and concerns about civil liberties.
Senator Rudman. We would be happy to respond.
Mr. Kucinich. I mean, I would be happy to take the
Senator's word for it, but we could also perhaps learn on this
committee about some of the concerns that were expressed,
because I think that an appropriate forum would be this
committee and the Congress to have a wide and open discussion
with which perhaps our constituents could be involved in what
the implications would be for the democracy of having such a
structure in place, particularly since it would be, by your
statement, invisible.
Senator Rudman. Well, I would hope it would be, as FEMA is
invisible to most of the residents of all of our States until
something bad happens. When something bad happens they suddenly
realize that something called ``FEMA'' they have heard of. And
I must say I think that under former Director Witt they did a
first-rate job.
Mr. Kucinich. I think you would concur, though, that the
broad scope of this homeland--the Homeland Security Act goes
far beyond anything that encompasses the purpose of FEMA.
Senator Rudman. Absolutely. It expands it, it gives
coordination to it. It is heavy on prevention. It is heavy on
intelligence gathering abroad, obviously, and to some extent
domestically by the FBI. But all the people that do what they
are supposed to do would continue to do the same thing, but
there would be a lot more coordination and planning. Right now
there have been a number of exercises around the country
conducted by various organizations directing it toward a mass
destruction weapon being imposed on a State or a city, but
hardly enough.
Mr. Kucinich. Senator, thank you.
Senator Rudman. We will get to you, Congressman----
Mr. Kucinich. What do you mean by that?
Senator Rudman [continuing]. A summary--[laughter.]
Senator Rudman. We will get--well, if you'd like to put an
exclamation point after the first six words, that is your
privilege. We will get to you, Congressman, a position paper
that will summarize the debate and how we concluded what we
concluded on the very issue of civil liberties that you are
rightfully concerned about.
Mr. Kucinich. I appreciate that, Senator.
Senator Rudman. We'll get that.
Mr. Kucinich. I certainly also appreciate your service to
this country, as well as General Boyd's.
General Boyd stated several times about this concept of
managing resentment. Would you like to elaborate on that,
General.
I guess we're out of time right now. I'm sorry.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Shays. Mr. Gilman, it is a privilege to have you here,
and thank you for your patience.
Mr. Gilman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to welcome Senator Rudman and General Boyd.
I commend you, too, Mr. Chairman, for focusing your
attention on this very critical problem, and I want to comment
Senator Rudman and General Boyd for the report that they've
issued focusing our country's attention on what has to be done.
Apparently, there is no central entity at the moment and the
fragmentation is abundant throughout the Government and nobody
is truly prepared to take the preparations for avoiding
terrorism in the first place and then have it properly
addressed.
In our International Relations Committee we focused a great
deal of attention on the usual targets--our embassies abroad.
You know, I was present when Admiral Lindman came before us
many years ago. You were there, Senator Rudman.
Senator Rudman. I served on that commission, Chairman
Gilman.
Mr. Gilman. And there you are. And he tried to focus
attention on what we should be doing, and we reacted very
belatedly, and still have yet to prepare the proper security of
those posts abroad. Then Admiral Crowe, Ambassador Crowe, came
forward reiterating it.
Last year we tried to put some real money into the budget
to try to move back the Embassy posts abroad--move them back
from streets, move them back from danger areas. They say that
every 10 feet means another floor you could save in the long
run. Yet, we have been very reluctant to do these kind of
things.
So I hope that your Commission will continue to remind our
Nation of what we should be doing to protect those agencies
that we have abroad, and particularly our Embassies, which are
a target that have often been addressed.
I note that in your report you talk in part of prevention,
as well as prosecution. We need better human intelligence, and
that seems to have been a big problem over the years.
CIA had a restriction on who they recruit for these kind of
activities, and I hope that will be changed in the future so
that we can have proper intelligence. That's three-quarters of
the battle, if we have some advance information about what's
happening in these terrorist organizations. And we have to find
a way to breach those organizations to become involved with
them.
And then, too, you talk about the better coordination and
that we have no coordination at the moment. It is a band-aid
approach, a reaction approach, as we've had in so many other
disasters, and I think that having your Home Security Agency is
a sound method of bringing people together.
Let me ask you what has been the attitude of the
administration, the present administration, with regard to your
proposal?
Senator Rudman. Well, you know, they are in their first 100
days and they've got a lot of things to do. Of course, there
are five or six major chapters of this report with
recommendations for DOD. We've had a major meeting with
Secretary Rumsfeld, who has asked us on that aspect of it to
work with them. They liked a number of our recommendations.
For your personal interest, we had an excellent meeting
with Secretary Powell, and, as a matter of fact, we were asked
by the House Budget Committee to testify following General
Powell 2 weeks ago on the State Department, which I think you
would find that part of our report--knowing some of your public
statements, I think you'd agree with virtually all of it.
General Powell likes a good deal in that report, and they're
moving toward it.
As far as the President and the National Security Council,
it is kind of interesting that our recommendation on the NSC--
and I'm sure it's not because we've said it, but,
coincidentally, they have embodied our recommendation to make
the NSC more of a coordinator and certainly not operational or
a second State Department within the White House, which has
been, I know, a concern of many people for a long time.
So I would say the administration has responded well. We
haven't got a specific response to this, but I know they're
looking at it.
Mr. Gilman. Is there specific legislation that you've
proposed for the National Homeland Security Agency?
Senator Rudman. We have 50 recommendations, and from those
recommendations we thought the Congress ought to draft the
legislation. We thought it would be presumptuous of us to draw
a bill, as a Presidential commission.
Mr. Gilman. And has anyone undertaken that, Senator, to
incorporate----
Senator Rudman. Mac Thornberry and Ike Skelton.
Thornberry's bill tracks our recommendations very closely on
homeland security, and Mr. Skelton also embodies much of it,
but it is a bit different.
As I said before you arrived here, Chairman Gilman, we are
not saying that this is the only way to do it, but we are
saying, ``Here is the problem. There's got to be a way. Here is
our suggestion,'' and let the Congress work its will and do
something to improve the current situation.
Congressman Kucinich was talking about money, a very
important subject. We are not talking about particularly
expanding money, but when you look at these signs up here, the
future speakers from all the departments they come from--I
don't know if they are on both sides. I don't know whether you
can see them from your side or not, but there are about 40 or
42 of them. They spend a huge amount of money right now. We say
it can be spent a lot better.
Mr. Gilman. Let me ask you what's the response by the
Intelligence Agency? Have you discussed this with Mr. Tevin?
Senator Rudman. Absolutely, because I've had an ongoing
relationship, because I still chair the President's Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board. They are very aware, as is the
FBI.
I might say--and I can't get into detail in this kind of a
session, but I think that the intelligence community and the
FBI has been doing a first-rate job on prevention--not enough,
not good enough--very hard, though, to figure out what some guy
in a tent in Afghanistan is thinking about doing to somebody
who is living in New York unless you really have human
intelligence, terrific signals intelligence, and all of these
things.
But I must say that it is a high priority of both the
agency and the Bureau.
Mr. Gilman. I'm pleased the Federal Bureau is now planning
to create a police academy training unit in UAE, just as
they've done successfully in Budapest, in South Africa. I think
these can be extremely helpful.
Senator Rudman. Our liaison relationships with these
countries is probably the most valuable thing that we have in
terms of understanding terrorism that has its origins overseas.
Mr. Gilman. Well, thank you, Senator Rudman and General
Boyd for being here today.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Shays. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Lewis.
Mr. Lewis of Kentucky. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Rudman and General Boyd, how did the Commission
deal with the question of preparing for so-called ``low-
probability, high-consequence'' threats like mass casualties
for biological weapons, chemical weapons?
Senator Rudman. Under our proposal in the response section
of that we believe that the model should be what has already
been done in exercises carried out by DOD with local Guard
units in local cities and counties and States in which you have
scenario planning based on if this were to happen, which you
refer to as low-probability but high-damage, high-impact
events, that the medical services, the police services, the
municipal services, the Office of the Mayor, the Governor, that
everybody understands what you try to do, knowing that
communications will be disrupted, key people will be disabled,
but you put together a plan, and that is one of the major roles
in the response side of the new agency.
However, in order to be able to do that you need the
prevention and the training, and you have to do it across a
broad spectrum of these agencies, which is, unfortunately, done
but rarely.
Do you want to add to that, Chuck?
General Boyd. I think the essence of--there are two things
that I'd like to come back to, because I think they are
absolutely critical. One is the notion of a national strategy.
If this is not integrated in a national strategy, if it is a
separate entity--an entity that is dealt with independently--it
doesn't work the whole issue.
And the second thing is, we need somebody in charge.
There's an old saying that nothing concentrates the mind like
the prospect of hanging. As a military guy, a lifetime military
guy, I can tell you nothing concentrates your sense of
responsibility like taking command, being placed in command--
somebody who is put in charge with authority, responsibility,
accountability, and some capability to do his mission, and
that's what we really call for--putting somebody in command at
a sufficient level that he or she can deal with other
counterparts in the executive branch on an equal footing.
Senator Rudman. I would add one thing. The problem with the
czar approach is that you've got all of these agencies that
have very powerful heads, and now you've got somebody who is
supposed to direct them. Well, they have no budget authority
and no command authority, and that's why most of them had
failed.
General Boyd. If you do that and someone defines then
someone to define the requirements, to refine the training, to
be held accountable here in Congress, to come and report what
they're doing or what they're not doing, I think that all of
these loose ends that don't now get coordinated will be
coordinated.
With respect to the issue of civil liberties, let me just
go back to that for a moment. I think Congressman Thornberry's
proposed legislation calls for an IG function on this, to deal
with this issue, and with reports back to the Congress on how
we are doing with civil liberty. These are mechanisms that
almost ensure that responsible person has to address such
things as civil liberties or such things as medical
preparedness. All of these things he or she will be accountable
for.
I think there is no other mechanism that I know of, other
than putting somebody in charge and holding them accountable,
to ensure success.
Mr. Lewis of Kentucky. Is there any preparation at all
being done at the local, State level today, or----
General Boyd. Some.
Mr. Lewis of Kentucky. Some?
General Boyd. There has been some, but it has been
sporadic, fragmented. But people certainly are trying, and
these agencies are trying. Nothing that we say here this
morning should be indicated as being critical of them. We are
not.
General Boyd. There is an important issue, an article in, I
believe, the most issue of the National Journal, entitled,
``Beyond the Blue Canaries,'' which deals with--and the Blue
Canaries are the policemen. They are the first one in the
chemical environment that are--you're going to find that know
that there's a chemical attack going on. The allusion is to the
canaries in the mine shafts of old.
In that article, there is a description of the varying
capabilities throughout the country, and it is a mixed bag.
There are some communities in some States that are doing better
than others with respect to this kind of preparation.
What we are suggesting is that, with a central focus in a
National Homeland Security Agency of this kind, with setting
some standards and setting some priorities and a coherent
avenue of resource provision to the States and assistance, that
unevenness can even out across the Nation.
Mr. Lewis of Kentucky. Thank you.
Mr. Shays. Thank you, Mr. Lewis.
One of the challenges I think we have, Senator--``we,`` you
and this committee--is what do you say that you know to be the
truth without frightening the hell out of people. But the fact
is that we've had the Secretary of Defense say what needed to
be said--it is not a matter of if there will be an attack, it's
a matter of when. I really believe that. And that attack can be
chemical, it can be biological, or it could be nuclear. So we
know that to be the case, or believe it to be the case.
In your report--I reacted a little differently than my
colleague, the ranking member, and I loved the synergy of the
tough questions that were asked of you, but I basically read it
from the standpoint of if we don't do something you will end up
taking away more of American's privileges.
When Abraham Lincoln had to basically sneak his way into
D.C. because he didn't know who was friend or foe--was Maryland
going to be on what side, or was Virginia going to be on what
side, who was friend, who was foe--and there were tremendous
suspensions to our liberties. That's not something we, as
Americans, want to see happen, but they had to happen. But they
happened because of the disaster.
It's interesting. If we could have prepared for it
differently, would we have been able to not have seen those
suspensions take place of our civil liberties.
What I'd love to know to start with is: where do you draw
the line of telling people what you believe to be the truth
without overdramatizing what you think may happen.
Senator Rudman. Well, that's probably the toughest question
of all, and I will answer it the best I can, because I have
been asked to speak about this report at various places around
the country, and I have, and I have to be careful because you
don't want, you know, people running out of the auditorium,
Congressman Shays, for the bomb shelters.
Essentially I say this: that the U.S. Government spends a
great deal of money every year planning for a series of
eventualities of foreign threats to our national security.
Anyone who serves on the International Relations Committee or
what we call in the Senate the Armed Services Committee or the
Intelligence Committee is well aware in detail of all of the
plans that we have for a whole line of contingencies that could
happen in the Middle East, Asia, Taiwan. The military has
catalogs of these, and that was one of Chuck Boyd's assignments
many years ago in that planning function with the Joint Chiefs.
The one thing we haven't done, I tell people, is to do the
same kind of scenario planning for our own defense.
In a fairly mild way, I try to tell people there are a lot
of folks out there who don't like us. The people in Oklahoma
City happened to be Americans, but they didn't like us or
themselves, evidently. But we have what happened in New York,
which could have been a terrible disaster, even more so than it
was, with the Twin Towers in New York if other types of weapons
had been used. We've had other threats coming across our
border, as you'll recall the first of the year a year ago up in
the Pacific northwest.
All of these people have a desire to inflict punishment on
us as citizens, and all we're asking, I tell people, is that we
put the same level of planning behind that threat as we do to a
threat that might happen in southeast Asia or in the Middle
East or who knows where. And I think that is probably the best
way to explain it to people. People understand that.
And, by the way, Congressman Shays, Mr. Chairman, people do
understand this threat. People have thought about it.
Mr. Shays. I make the assumption--yes, General Boyd?
General Boyd. Could I just add one thing, sir? One of the
things that we've said in relation to dealing with resentment--
but I think it applies really to your question, too--is tone
matters. The President is the one, above all others, who must
articulate what the threat is to the United States with respect
to the homeland, but the tone that he uses is going to be
critical.
You can panic the people or you can be honest with them and
forthright with them and, at the same time, be calm and
dispassionate about the nature of it, and a call for taking
those prudent kind of consolidating moves that we are calling
for.
This is not--we don't call for a huge new expenditure of
funds. We call for a rationalization of capabilities we already
have. We don't create new agencies. We don't create any new big
bureaucracies. We simply rearrange the furniture in such a way
that it has coherency and makes sense. It is FEMA on steroids.
Mr. Shays. I want to ask both of you this question: do you
think that--I want to ask it very bluntly--do you believe that
this country will face a terrorist attack?
Senator Rudman. Frankly, I think that it would be
miraculous if in the next 10 years it didn't happen.
Mr. Shays. All right, sir. General Boyd.
General Boyd. I believe that it is a very high threat.
Mr. Shays. All right.
General Boyd. Yes, sir, I believe that.
Mr. Shays. Now, I found myself embarrassed that I laughed
at your comment, because I've tried to find a way to express
it, and that was--when you were talking about missile defense,
which I think we need to move forward on for all the reasons
that have been documented on a system that works, but I fear
more the possibility of a terrorist threat from nuclear weapon
put in a shipment that is in this United States.
And, by the way, they are usually opened within 2 months,
but if this is a shipment that someone is looking to protect
and send a particular place, they may find a way to have it not
opened for years. It is just stockpiled, ready to use when
someone wants to use it and detonate it, and it could be a
nuclear device.
But I found myself laughing and being uncomfortable when
you made the comment ``something without a return address.''
That's really the reason I fear it.
Senator Rudman. Well, that's right.
Mr. Shays. Yes.
Senator Rudman. That is exactly right, and if you will take
the time to read this article, which is fairly short, it is a
wonderful article, wonderfully researched by a brilliant young
Coast Guard commander who writes about this very threat. And
there are a lot of ways to do it. Libya could have a ship come
to the 10-mile limit and then just cruise into New York Harbor.
I mean, there are all sorts of things that can happen, and that
is why intelligence, as somebody in the panel talked about
earlier, is so vital to know what's going on and to be able to
trace it. But, you know, unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, you know,
in this business almost perfect isn't good enough.
Mr. Shays. This gets me to this issue of why--so one reason
is that it doesn't have a return address. Another is that
certain countries may not have the capability to respond except
by a terrorist attack.
Senator Rudman. Correct.
Mr. Shays. And in the process of our doing work both at
home and abroad on this issue--and it is our key concern of
this committee, the terrorist threat--in meeting with the
general in France who is in charge of their chemical, nuclear,
and biological response, he said, ``You Americans don't seem to
understand--'' in so many words he said this--``that you are
such a world power that the only way a force can get to you is
through a terrorism attack.'' And he used the word
``resentment.'' He said, ``You are resented throughout the
world, and this is the way they're going to get you.''
So now it does raise another question, maybe a little
beyond what you've recommended, but I'd like to know your
response. It does seem to suggest that, as important as our
Defense Department is, that our State Department is
extraordinarily important and may be helping us minimize the
resentment and then isolating it to certain areas.
I'm interested to know, did you get into this? How do you
manage----
Senator Rudman. We sure did.
Mr. Shays [continuing]. The resentment?
Senator Rudman. If you will read whatever chapter it is in
the report on the State Department, we make that very point. I
referred to it in my comments here this morning about the
statement. There are two things the State Department does which
people don't always appreciate outside of Government. I'm sure
you do here. No. 1, of course, in terms of advising the
President on American foreign policy and its result in a
variety of ways, including resentment it may cause; but, two,
and equally important in my view, is that the State Department
has a very important intelligence role to play. Intelligence is
not gathered necessarily with people wearing long rain coats
and dark fedoras meeting on street corners in Budapest. It is
quite often collected by Ambassadors, charges, other people
from the mission meeting counterparts from various countries at
a lot of events who hear things, and when you put them all into
a matrix they suddenly tell a story.
The State Department's INR unit has done very good work in
the intelligence area, and that's one of the reasons we
recommend that there be reorganization as well as more funding
for the department.
Mr. Shays. That would raise the question--and then I'm
going to call on Mr. Kucinich--but that would raise the
question that we are potentially put at a disadvantage when we
don't have relations with, say, Iran, or even with Iraq,
frankly. We don't have people there. We begin to lose the
language, we begin to lose contacts. It does make that kind of
suggestion.
Obviously, there's value in having people in all parts of
the world.
Senator Rudman. There is no question that is a judgment
that Presidents have to make. If you don't have people in a
particular country, the amount of intelligence you gather in a
variety of ways falls off very sharply.
Mr. Shays. I'd like to come back for a second round, but,
Mr. Kucinich, you have the floor.
Mr. Kucinich. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Senator
Rudman, and General Boyd.
As I'm listening to this discussion here, it really appears
that the discussion of a Homeland Security Act is not only
about our homeland, but it is really about America's mission in
the world, as well, about how we see ourselves as a Nation and
how we conduct our foreign policy.
I would hope that any discussions that take place about a
Homeland Security Act would be within the context of those
essential pillars of principle.
For example, this discussion, whether we like it or not, is
undeniably drenched in fear.
Senator Rudman. Is what?
Mr. Kucinich. Undeniably drenched in fear. I remember a
President who once told the American people, ``We have nothing
to fear but fear, itself.'' I also know that we have some
steps, positive and constructive steps, apart from a Homeland
Security Act which could be taken to lessen tensions in the
world. As a matter of fact, the Congress has spent many years
working on such steps long before I got here, and they
include--and I know the Senator has probably been involved in
many of these--a nonproliferation treaty, an anti-ballistic
missile treaty, a comprehensive test ban treaty, STAR-II, STAR-
III, and the entire panoply of arms control initiatives which
have, at their kernel, a belief that people can back away from
the abyss, can learn to cooperate, and can learn to live
together.
At this very moment there are proposals to build down the
Russian nuclear stockpile. Russia has asked for help in getting
rid of fissionable material. Russia has asked for help in doing
something about their nuclear scientists who are out of work.
Russia has asked for help in disposing of 40,000 tons of
chemical weapons, all of which represent a challenge for the
security not only of their Nation but for potential security
problems abroad.
The chairman pointed out in his discussion perhaps an
opportune moment exists to review our policies with Iraq, Iran.
The administration recently announced its intention to move
forward with the sale of missiles to Taiwan, which puts us in a
particularly difficult position with China.
I think that when we talk about homeland security, which
encompasses a fortress America or national security state, it
is helpful to broaden our vision and to say, ``What is our role
in the world that we are creating circumstances that could
cause resentment?'' Because I think that if we do not inspect
cause and effect, we're missing out on an opportunity to go
beyond the analytical framework which you have spent a good
deal of time working on, and I think we are all grateful for
your doing that because it helps us focus on exactly where are
we at at this moment with respect to our condition of a Nation
which is said to be the object of resentment in the world.
I think another question that might be asked that would be
appropriate is: if we are so resented as a Nation, as the
testimony has said, then are there other steps that America
could take other than becoming a fortress that would help to
lessen its vulnerability and this portrait of vulnerability
which is being drawn here.
General Boyd.
Senator Rudman. Well, let me see if I can address two or
three of the things in that question.
First, it was not our mission----
Mr. Shays. General, may I ask you a question? You are a
four-star? They told me Congressmen have four stars, so what do
you do when both are four stars?
General Boyd. He has got five.
Mr. Shays. OK. [Laughter.]
Mr. Kucinich. I directed the question to General Boyd,
though. If I have five stars, then I want General Boyd----
Senator Rudman. Oh, I didn't know you directed it to
General Boyd. You go right ahead and answer it, General Boyd,
and I'll comment after you answer.
Mr. Kucinich. Thank you.
General Boyd. A couple of points maybe I think that might
be useful.
First of all, I think it is really important to recognize
we've never suggested for a moment that we ought to develop a
fortress America or a national security state. What we have
suggested is that we rearrange some of the capabilities we have
in a coherent way to address a problem that seems not to be
well addressed.
But I think the Commission goes in exactly the direction
that you are suggesting, with respect to the first order of
dealing with this problem, to deal with it in a diplomatic way.
You'll notice on page 12, right at the top, under the first
pillar of a national security strategy, prevention, we say
that, most broadly, the first instrument is U.S. diplomacy. We
go into addressing grievances in the world on the diplomatic
front, to begin with.
Protecting us at home is a global mission, and all of the
elements that you've talked about in preventing the
proliferations of weapons of mass destruction, arms control
measures, diplomatic measures, conflict prevention, etc., all
are elements of a strategy that would deal with homeland
security at the end of the day.
I think we are in complete agreement with what you are
saying, and I think it is all right here in our text.
Senator Rudman. I want to----
Mr. Kucinich. Yes, Senator, please, if I may add, we are in
complete agreement that a structure exists currently apart from
this proposal. I agree with you on that.
Senator.
Senator Rudman. You have to understand our charter from the
Congress. Our charter from the Congress was, ``Take a look at
U.S. national security in its broadest sense in the 21st
century. Don't recommend, you know, new foreign policy for us.
Don't tell us what weapon systems we ought to buy. But give us
a broad brush of some of the things you think are wrong and how
to correct them.
Now, I want to just make one point, Congressman, because I
think it is a very important point. And you're right, I was
involved in all of these things that you spoke about--the SALT
treaties, the ABM treaties, the anti-proliferation treaties,
and many more. But those were all dealing essentially with the
Soviet Union. We were concerned about conventional warfare. We
had a policy for years which I never like the name of, but I
guess it worked--we're all here. It was called ``mutual assured
destruction,'' and it went on the basis that the Soviets
weren't about to launch at us because they knew the result
would be a launch at them. We'd all be gone, but that wouldn't
be very good unless you're dealing with madmen.
So all of these are directed at what we assume would be
rational governments that were identifiable. What we're talking
about are irrational governments and individuals and
organizations that cannot be identified. That's where terrorism
comes from, unless you can pin it to a particular country like
Libya and a particular incident.
So I agree with General Boyd's response to your comments. I
agree with those. But I want to point out that all of these
treaties are good in terms of preventing the American people
from having inflicted upon them conventional nuclear or
chemical warfare. They are not good for a wit, to use an old
New Hampshire term, when it comes to dealing with the Osama Ben
Ladens of this world. He doesn't care about the bomb
proliferation treaty. If he could buy some Ukrainian-enriched
uranium and get a Russian scientist to bolt it all together,
believe me, he would do it.
Mr. Kucinich. I also remember a New Hampshire term, I think
it is ``Live Free or Die.''
Senator Rudman. That's correct.
Mr. Kucinich. And I just wonder if, in making this
transition from a world of mutually assured destruction, which
we've----
Senator Rudman. It's still there.
Mr. Kucinich [continuing]. Had a whole system of arms
agreements to back us away from that nuclear abyss, that we
don't get to a condition where we effectively chip away at
basic civil liberties and go from MAD to SAD, self-assured
destruction.
Senator Rudman. Right.
Mr. Kucinich. And so, I mean, that, again, I know, Senator,
coming from New Hampshire--and it is good that you are on that
committee, because I know that's something you are sensitive
to. I'm from Ohio and I'm just as sensitive to it.
I have a question which kind of fits this into a budget
framework, and perhaps Senator could help me with this. Would
the director of the new Homeland Security Agency have budgetary
authority over other agencies? In other words, could the
director tell Secretary Powell or Secretary Rumsfeld to change
their budget priorities?
Senator Rudman. Absolutely not.
Mr. Kucinich. Well, the----
Senator Rudman. The only place where that exists now in any
way is between the CIA and the Defense Department. That is more
advisory than mandatory.
Mr. Kucinich. Right. Well----
Senator Rudman. That would not work.
Mr. Kucinich. That's what I assumed. So the next question
is: if that's the case, what else remains here but a domestic
national security apparatus?
Senator Rudman. Well, that's exactly what exists; however,
the job of the President and the national security advisor is
to coordinate these agencies, both domestic and overseas.
All of these little blocks out here on this table have some
little piece of this. Now, obviously, we're not talking about
dissolving any of these agencies--the FBI, the CIA, FEMA,
Justice, State. What we are saying is that those that have
roles like Justice and State will keep them, but all these
other agencies that only have a piece of the action will be in
a central unit that will be run by a civilian director who will
have to coordinate, obviously, with the CIA, the DOD, the State
Department, but will be a far easier job of coordination
because it will be down from 45 to probably around 5.
Mr. Kucinich. I just want to add this, Senator. I know we
are moving on. Again, I want to thank Senator Rudman and
General Boyd for appearing today. This is an important subject
and it requires extensive discussion and questions, and I
appreciate your participation in this.
One final note. As somebody who has served as a local
official--as a councilman and as a mayor of a city--I have a
lot of confidence that perhaps there might be a way of
strengthening security through using local authorities. I think
our local police are well trained and they have the ability to
respond to crises that come up, and I think, in democratic
theory, the idea of municipal police organizations may, in the
long run, be able to sustain any concerns about threats to
civil liberties. I want to make sure we aren't in a situation
where we are being told that we're gaining our liberties by
parting with some of them.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Rudman. Mr. Chairman, could I just say one brief
thing to the Congressman?
Mr. Shays. Sure.
Senator Rudman. You know, your concerns are properly held.
We have spent a lot of time on them, and one of the things we
recommend is one of the things that isn't happening that will
happen is the using of local resources, but they can't be used
if they are not trained and coordinated and equipped. In many
cases they don't have the funding--as a mayor you would know--
for the kind of equipment they need.
And let me point out that one of our recommendations that
has been vastly misunderstood is we talk about forward
deployment of U.S. forces. The U.S. National Guard is forward
deployed in this country, and, in the event of the kind of a
holocaust we're talking about, they are the best people to aid
local authorities in their States, as they do now. Some of them
have thought that we were recommending--who didn't read the
report--that be their primary mission. We say it should be a
secondary mission. Their primary mission is the one to support
the regular forces in time of national emergency, particularly
in times of war.
Mr. Shays. Thank you, Senator.
You have the floor for 10 minutes.
Mr. Gilman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Just one brief question of Senator Rudman and General Boyd.
The Conference Committee report of 1998 in the Appropriations
Act for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, State, Judiciary,
and related agency required the Department of Justice to issue
a report, a 5-year plan that was mandated at that time by the
Congress, how to deal with terrorism.
Congress intended the plan to serve as a baseline for the
coordination of a national strategy and operational
capabilities to combat terrorism.
Now, did you examine that report, either Senator Rudman or
General Boyd?
Senator Rudman. Well, we looked at a lot of reports. I'm
not sure that one has been published yet. That was authorized
in, what, 1998?
Mr. Gilman. It was authorized in 1998, and in December 1998
the Department issued the Attorney General's 5-year plan.
Senator Rudman. We've seen that, but I think there's
something else that was supposed to be produced, as well, and
I'm not sure that--I'm confused about that. I have seen that.
Mr. Gilman. It is a classified plan.
Senator Rudman. I have seen that.
Mr. Gilman. And what are your thoughts about that?
Senator Rudman. It takes a narrow--it takes the approach
you would expect them to approach, considering who they are,
Justice. It is their counter-intelligence plan and it is their
view of coordination of local agencies.
I did not see that here. I saw that in another hat that I
wear. I'm well aware of it. But it does not have the breadth of
the report that we have submitted. It wasn't supposed to.
Mr. Gilman. Thank you very much. And thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Shays. I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We made reference to a particular article by Sydney
Freedberg, Jr., entitled, ``Beyond the Blue Canaries.'' I'm
going to put it on the record, without objection, and I'm just
going to read the first paragraph and a half.
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Mr. Shays. It starts out,
When you walk into clouds of poisonous gas for a living, it
helps to have a sense of humor, even a morbid one. That's why
fire department hazardous materials specialists often call
their police colleagues ``blue canaries.'' It is a reference to
the songbirds that old-time miners took with them underground
as living or dying indicators of bad air in the shafts. The
joke goes like this, ``There's a policeman down there. He
doesn't look like he's doing too well. I guess that's not a
safe area,'' explained John Eversole, chief of special
functions for the Chicago Fire Department.
In their oxygen masks and all-enclosing plastic suits,
``hazmat'' specialists such as Eversole can approach industrial
spills with confidence--and they do, dozens of times a day, all
across the country. Fortunately, so far, they have not had to
don those suits in response to some terrorist group that has
doused an American city, subway, or airport with lethal
chemical weapons.
What we did in our District is we invited a response team
to come to the District and act out a scenario where an Amtrak
train had encountered a derailment, and the police went in, and
they were the first responders, and they didn't come out alive
because of the chemicals.
We had about 40 agencies--some Federal, but we had the
local police, we had the State police, we had the National
Guard, who were the response team, and it was a fascinating
experience to see how everybody would coordinate their
activity.
I mention that because we focus primarily on the national
response, but we have three levels of government, and they
could put up charts, not maybe as complex as this but somewhat
as complex.
So I envision your recommendation is that this homeland
office would--and I don't ever see it as a fortress America,
but this homeland office would also work, what, to coordinate
this and the response? Maybe you could explain, Senator.
Senator Rudman. Yes, it would. One of its primary functions
is to work with localities, municipalities, counties, States,
so if something went wrong then there would be a plan, people
would know who did what and when and where in terms of what if
the local hospital becomes disabled. What if the local police
department is disabled? What if the local fire department is
disabled? What if the communications network goes down? What do
you do? And that's what we ought to be talking about.
Mr. Shays. Would it also get involved--I'm looking at one
of the charts that you can't see because it is closest to me,
but it says, ``Department of Agriculture.'' I'm just thinking,
``Now, what would the Department of Agriculture do,'' and then
you have a real, live example of the civil liberties of farmers
in Great Britain who are seeing their personal property
destroyed against their wishes, in some cases, because of foot-
in-mouth disease.
Now, a terrorism could simply do what, General Boyd, as it
relates to that?
General Boyd. The proliferation of disease, with biological
warfare in animals as well as human beings. I mean, there is
almost every aspect of Government has some piece of this where
potentially it has involvement. But, again, the point that you
made and the point that certainly we've made in our report is
the coordination of all of that in an effective, coherent way
just doesn't get accomplished.
Mr. Shays. We're going to shortly get on to the next panel,
but let me ask this question. We obviously have a deterrent. We
want to prevent and we want to protect the public from a
terrorism attack. That is obviously our first interest. But
obviously we then have a response to an attack. It can be
basically disarming a nuclear weapon. Obviously, that is
something that we are prepared to do very quickly. But take any
of the three areas of mass destruction, you have communications
problems, you have health problems, you have the property, the
fire, the police, and so on. You have the hospitals. But you
also want to solve the crime, because we want to hold people
accountable for what they may have done. It relates to this
issue here. My biggest interest, obviously, is to prevent, and
yours, as well, and to protect.
In the process of your doing your research, only the
intelligence allows us to sift through hosts of vulnerabilities
to distinguished the real threats. What was the Commission's
view of the currency and reliability of U.S. threat assessment?
And how could it be better?
Senator Rudman. Well, I'll be happy to answer that, as I
answered, I believe, before to Chairman Gilman. I think that
there has been a vast improvement in the human intelligence
aspects of the work of the CIA overseas and the FBI here within
this country in terms of identifying threats, not only against
cities and citizens but against individuals, such as the
President. Having said that, it is the most difficult, because
unless you are 100 percent you lose.
So I would add to your comment, Mr. Chairman, that the
response be planned meticulously so every place in this country
knows how it would respond, and a good place to look--and your
staff can get it for you very easily--is get all of the
Japanese Government's reports and all the publicly available
information on the attacks of deadly gas in the Tokyo subway
system by a terrorist group several years ago. We've looked at
all that and the U.S. intelligence community has all that. It's
all available.
Here was a city with a fire department pretty well
organized dealing with a mass of people in such a small area,
and look at the confusion that resulted and the problems that
existed. And we're talking about a fairly minor attack in terms
of the number of people affected and the number of stations
that were affected. We've got to look at that. It will help to
answer your question about response.
Mr. Shays. Thank you. But your bottom-line point is that
you have a good amount of confidence in our capabilities?
Senator Rudman. I do. Unfortunately, I want to stress you
can't have 100 percent confidence. You would be a fool to. And,
unfortunately, in this business just one slips through--and my
greatest concern, incidentally--personal opinion, not in the
report, but based on a lot of work that I have done--I am more
concerned about chemical and biological right now than I am
about nuclear.
Mr. Shays. OK.
Senator Rudman. I think it is a serious threat, easily
deployed, and hard to deal with.
Mr. Shays. Let me conclude this just asking if either of
you would like to ask yourself a question that you were
prepared to answer.
Senator Rudman. I think you've asked them all.
General Boyd. You've asked the best ones.
Mr. Shays. OK. Is there any final comment that either of
you would like to make?
Senator Rudman. My only comment would be that, to the
extent that Members of the House and Senate recognize the
seriousness of this problem and recognize that we're dealing
with, you know, missile defense and we're dealing with a lot of
other issues which we should be dealing with, this should be
dealt with. This is a major threat to the American people. I'm
not saying it is imminent. We have no such intelligence. But it
is a major threat.
If you look at what happened to those wonderful, young
American soldiers on the U.S.S. Cole, to the Air Force men and
women in Saudi, and you just amplify that a bit, you'll
understand what we're talking about.
Mr. Shays. I'd like to thank both of you and also thank our
panel to come for their patience, but this has been very
interesting, very helpful, and we'll look forward to continued
contact with both of you.
Senator Rudman. We'll cooperate with you in every way we
can. And, Congressman Kucinich, we will get an answer to you on
the specific question you asked and how we address that issue.
Mr. Kucinich. Thank you.
Senator Rudman. Thank you.
Mr. Shays. Thank you, gentlemen.
At this time we will call our second and last panel, Dr.
Bruce Hoffman, director, Washington Office, RAND Corp.; General
James Clapper, vice chairman, Advisory Panel to Assess the
Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons
of Mass Destruction; accompanied by Michael Wermuth, project
director; and Mr. Frank Cilluffo, chairman, Report on Combating
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Terrorism,
Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Do we have anyone else that may be joining us, as well? Is
that it? Is there anyone else any of the four of you might ask
to respond? We'll ask them to stand as we swear them in.
I would invite the four of you to stand, and we'll swear
you in. Raise your right hands, please.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Shays. Thank you very much. We'll note for the record
all four have responded in the affirmative.
It is possible, gentlemen, that I might be out of here
before 12 for just a few minutes because I need to testify
before the Appropriations Committee and they adjourn at 12. I
will come back, and it's possible I'll still be here. We'll
see. But don't take offense if I all of the sudden take off
here.
If you could go in the order I called you, we'll go first
with--well, I guess we'll just go right down the line here, OK?
Mr. Wermuth, my understanding is you will not have a
statement but respond to questions; is that correct?
Mr. Wermuth. That's correct, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Shays. OK. So, Dr. Hoffman, thank you for being here.
We'll take the clock 5 minutes. We'll roll it over and hope
that you can be concluded before we get to the 10; 5 minutes,
and then we'll roll it over.
We have sworn in everyone.
OK. Thank you.
Dr. Hoffman.
STATEMENTS OF BRUCE HOFFMAN, DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON OFFICE, RAND
CORP.; JAMES CLAPPER, JR., LIEUTENANT GENERAL, USAF (RET), VICE
CHAIRMAN, ADVISORY PANEL TO ASSESS THE DOMESTIC RESPONSE
CAPABILITIES FOR TERRORISM INVOLVING WEAPONS OF MASS
DESTRUCTION, ACCOMPANIED BY MICHAEL WERMUTH, PROJECT DIRECTOR;
AND FRANK CILLUFFO, CHAIRMAN, REPORT ON COMBATING CHEMICAL,
BIOLOGICAL, RADIOLOGICAL, AND NUCLEAR TERRORISM, CENTER FOR
STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Mr. Hoffman. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman,
distinguished members of the subcommittee, for this opportunity
to testify.
Clearly, much has been done in recent years to ensure that
America is prepared to counter the threat of terrorism; yet,
despite the many new legislative and programmatic initiatives,
significant budgetary increases, and the intense Governmental
concern that these activities evince, America's capabilities to
defend against terrorism and to preempt and to respond to
terrorist attacks arguably still remain inchoate and unfocused.
As last November's tragic attack on the U.S.S. Cole
demonstrated, America remains vulnerable to terrorism overseas.
Indeed, within the United States it is by no means certain 6
years later that we are capable of responding to an Oklahoma
City type incident.
Today, however, the question is no longer one of more
attention, bigger budgets, and increased personnel, but rather
of greater focus, of better appreciation of the problem, a
firmer understanding of the threat, and the development of a
comprehensive national strategy. My testimony this morning will
discuss how the absence of such a strategy has hindered
American counterterrorism efforts by focusing on the critical
importance of threat assessments in the development of a
national strategy.
The title of this hearing, ``Combating Terrorism: In Search
of a National Strategy,'' is particularly apt. Notwithstanding
many accomplishments that we've had in building a
counterterrorism policy, it is still conspicuous that the
United States lacks an over-arching strategy to address this
problem. This is something that on numerous occasions,
including before this subcommittee, the Gilmore Commission and
its representative, its vice chairman, General Clapper, has
called attention to.
What I would ask is that the articulation and development
of a comprehensive strategy is not merely an intellectual
exercise; rather, it is the foundation of any effective
counterterrorism policy.
Indeed, the failure to develop such a strategy has
undermined and forwarded the counterterrorist efforts of many
other democratic countries throughout the years, producing
ephemeral if not nugatory effects that in some instances have
proven counterproductive in the long run. Indeed, this was one
of the key findings of a 1992 RAND study, which I'd like to
enter the executive summary of four pages into the record but
leave a copy of the report for the subcommittee staff to
consult at their leisure.
Using select historical case studies of close U.S. allies,
such as the United Kingdom, West Germany, and Italy, this was
precisely the conclusion that we had reached.
Accordingly, the continued absence of such a strategy
threatens to negate the progress we have achieved thus far in
countering the threat of terrorism.
A critical prerequisite in framing such a strategy is the
tasking of a comprehensive net assessment of the terrorist
threat, both foreign and domestic. Indeed, this is something,
as well, that numerous witnesses before this subcommittee from
the General Accounting Office, John Parkin from the Monterey
Institute have previously called attention to. They have cited
that there has been no net assessment for at least the last 6
years, and also that no means exists to conduct such an
assessment of the terrorist threat within the United States,
itself.
Equally as problematic, it is now nearly a decade since the
last NIE--national intelligence estimate--on terrorism, a
prospective, forward-looking effort to predict and participate
future trends in terrorism that was undertaken by the
intelligence community. Admittedly, a new NIE on terrorism is
currently being prepared as part of a larger process viewing
all threats against the United States.
But let us ask, given the profound changes we have seen in
the character, nature, identity, and motivations of the
perpetrators of terrorism within the past years, one would
argue that such an estimate is long overdue.
Certainly, the Global Trends 2015 effort undertaken by the
National Intelligence Council last year was a positive step
forward in this direction; however, at the same time, at least
in the published, unclassified version of that report, little
attention was paid to terrorism.
The danger of not undertaking such assessments and
constantly revisiting previous assessments is that we risk
remaining locked in a mindset that has become antiquated, if
not anachronistic. Indeed, right now we very much view
terrorism through a prism locked in the 1995-95 mindset, when
some of the key or pivotal terrorist incidents of that
particular period--some that were discussed by Senator Rudman
and General Boyd this morning, the 1995 attack on the Tokyo
subway and the bombing a month later of the Oklahoma City
bombing--have framed our perceptions of understanding of the
terrorist problems.
Now, those perceptions and that understanding may still be
accurate, may still be correct, but, without constantly going
back and asking and applying them to current developments in
terrorism, we don't know that. Let me give you one example.
At the time and in my written testimony I refer to several
statements made by directors of Central Intelligence that said
in the mid 1990's we faced a worsening terrorist problem. The
number of terrorist incidents was increasing. Terrorism was
becoming more lethal. Therefore, this argument was used to
present a framework that terrorism involving weapons of mass
destruction had not just become possible, probable, or even
likely, but that it was inevitable, imminent, and even certain.
This may well be the case, but at the same time, though, by
not taking advantage of the long or unfolding of trends, we may
miss the point.
For example, lethality in terrorism, in fact, at least as
targeted against Americans, declined rather than increased
throughout the 1990's. For example, overseas six times as many
Americans were killed by terrorists in the 1980's as in the
1990's. On average, international acts of terrorism that
targeted Americans in the 1980's killed, again, on average, 16
Americans per attack; in the 1990's, that average was 3.
The situation is not all that different domestically,
either. Nearly eight times more terrorist incidents, according
to FBI statistics, were recorded in the 1980's as compared to
the 1990's. Admittedly, the death rate in the United States was
greater--176 persons were killed by terrorists in America
during the 1990's, compared to 26 in the 1980's. But, at the
same time, viewed from a slightly different perspective, 95
percent of that total come from one single incident--the
tragic, heinous bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in
Oklahoma City.
My point, though, is that, of the 29 terrorist incidents
reported in the United States by the FBI in the 1990's, only 4
resulted in fatalities.
So yes, Oklahoma is something we have to pay attention to,
we have to prepare to, but Oklahoma City, at the same time, is
not emblematic of the trend of terrorism in the United States.
Now, this isn't by any stretch of the imagination to
suggest that the United States should become complacent about
the threat of terrorism or that we should in any way relax our
vigilance. Rather, what these statistics, I think, highlight is
the asymmetry between perception and reality that a
comprehensive terrorism threat assessment would go some way to
addressing.
Without such assessments, we risk adopting policies and
making hard security choices based on misperception and
miscalculation, rather than on hard analysis built on empirical
evidence of the actual dimensions of the threat.
Without ongoing, comprehensive reassessments, we cannot be
confident that the range of policies, countermeasures, and
defenses required to combat terrorism are the most relevant and
appropriate ones for the United States.
Regular systematic net assessments would also bring needed
unity to the often excellent but, nonetheless, separate,
fragmented, and individual assessments that the intelligence
community carries out on a regular basis.
This would enable us to present the big picture of the
terrorist threat, which would facilitate both strategic
analysis and the framing of an overall strategy. It would also
profitably contribute to bridging the gap that lamentably has
begun to exist between the criminal justice law enforcement
approach to countering terrorism and that of the intelligence
and national security approach.
This dichotomy, which has characterized the United States'
approach to terrorism during the 1990's, is not only myopic but
may also prove dangerous.
In conclusion, only through a sober and empirical
understanding of the terrorist threat we will be able to focus
our formidable resources where and when they can be most
effective.
The development of a comprehensive national strategy to
combat terrorism would appreciably sustain the progress we've
achieved in recent years in addressing the threat posed by
terrorists to Americans and American interests, both in this
country and abroad.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Shays. Thank you, Dr. Hoffman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hoffman follows:]
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Mr. Shays. General Clapper.
General Clapper. Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the
subcommittee, I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak on
behalf of the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response
Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass
Destruction, less-awkwardly known as the Gilmore panel, after
its chairman, Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia.
I might mention that I guess the epiphany experience for me
with respect to terrorism was my participation as a senior
intelligence investigator in the aftermath of the Khobar Towers
attack in June 1996 in Saudi Arabia.
In the brief time I have for these remarks, I will cut to
the chase on the two specific findings and recommendations in
our last report that you asked that we address--one, lack of a
national strategy, which has already been spoken to at some
depth this morning, for combating terrorism, and that the
administration should develop one; and the other major point
was the reorganization of the Federal Government's programs and
at the present should establish a national office for combating
terrorism in the Executive Office of the President and seek a
statutory basis for it.
So our suggested solution organizationally and structurally
is different than what you heard this morning from Senator
Rudman and General Boyd.
On strategy, it is our view, after 2 years of looking at
this, that the Nation now has many well-intended but often
disconnected programs that aim individually to achieve certain
preparedness objectives. Some of the sorted several policy and
planning documents, such as the Presidential Decision
Directives [PDDs] 39 and 62; the Attorney General's 1999 5-year
plan, which Mr. Gilman mentioned; and the most recent annual
report to Congress on combating terrorism, taken as a whole,
constitute a national strategy.
In our view, the view of the panel, these documents
describe plans, various programs underway, and some objectives,
but they do not, either individually or collectively,
constitute a national strategy.
We recommended in our report published in mid-December that
the new administration develop an over-arching national
strategy by articulating national goals for combating
terrorism, focusing on results rather than the process.
We made three key assumptions about forging such a
strategy, and I think these are reflective of the composition
of our panel, which was heavily numbered with State and local
officials representing emergency planners, fire chiefs, police
chiefs, and emergency medical people, public health people, and
State emergency planners. So our perspective, I think, was a
little bit different perhaps than the Hart-Rudman Commission
because of the composition of our group, which was heavily
influenced, heavily populated by State and local people.
So the first assumption that we kept in mind in suggesting
a national strategy was that local response entities will
always be the first and conceivably only response. In the case
of a major--God forbid--cataclysmic attack, however you want to
define it, no single jurisdiction is likely going to be capable
of responding without outside assistance.
What we have in mind here is a multiple jurisdiction,
perhaps a multiple State event, rather than one that is
localized to a single locale or a single State.
Maybe most important, we have a lot of capabilities that we
have developed over many years for response to natural
disasters, disease outbreaks, and accidents, so these
capabilities can and should be used as the foundation for our
capability to respond to a terrorist attack.
I'd like to briefly highlight some of what our panel sees
as the major attributes of such a strategy.
It should be geographically and functionally comprehensive
and should address both international and domestic terrorism in
all its forms--chemical, biological, nuclear, conventional
explosives, and cyber. It must encompass local, State, and
Federal, in that order. It must include all of the functional
constituencies--fire departments, emergency medical, police,
public health, agriculture, etc.
To be functionally comprehensive, the strategy, we believe,
should address the full spectrum of the effort, from crisis
management, as well as consequence management, and it must have
objective measures in order to set priorities, allocate funds,
measure progress, and establish accountability.
The main point I would leave you with, with respect to a
national strategy for combating terrorism, is that it must be
truly national, not just Federal. It should be from the bottom
up, not the other way around.
Our other major recommendation, that we need somebody in
charge--a theme you have already heard--is directly tied to
devising a strategy. The display boards behind you are from our
first report that we published at the end of 1999. It was our
attempt to depict objectively the complexity of the Federal
apparatus, all the organizations and agencies and offices that,
in one degree or another, have some responsibility for various
phases of combating terrorism.
We found that the perception of many State and local people
is that the structures and processes at the Federal level for
combating terrorism are complex and confusing. Attempts that
have been made to create a Federal focal point for coordination
with State and local officials such as the NDPO have, at best,
been only partially successful. Many State and local officials
believe that Federal programs are often created and implemented
without including them. We don't think the current coordination
mechanisms provide for the authority, coordination, discipline,
and accountability that is needed.
So for all these reasons we recommended a senior
authoritative entity in the Executive Office of the President
which we called the ``National Office for Combating
Terrorism,'' obviously a different construct than the Hart-
Rudman Commission suggested.
This would have the responsibility for developing a
strategy and coordinating the programs and budget to carry out
that strategy. We feel strongly that this office must be
empowered to carry out several responsibilities which are
outlined in our full report. I will highlight three here by way
of example.
First and foremost, of course, is to develop and update the
strategy, which would, of course, be presented and approved by
the President.
The office should have a programming and budgeting
responsibility in which it can oversee and, through the process
of certifying or decertifying, ensure that our programs and
budgets among all the plethora of departments and agencies are
synchronized and coherent.
An area that is of particular interest and near and dear to
my heart is the area of intelligence, which Bruce has already
spoken to. This office would also be responsible for
coordinating intelligence matters, to foster the national
assessments that Dr. Hoffman spoke to, to analyze both foreign
and domestic intelligence in a unitary way, rather than as two
separate, disparate pursuits, and to devise policy for
dissemination to appropriate officials at the State and local
levels.
We believe this office should have certain characteristics
or attributes that we think are important. The person who heads
the office should be politically accountable--that is,
nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate--and enjoy
Cabinet-level status.
The office must have complete oversight over all the
Federal programs and funding to influence resource allocation.
It should be empowered to certify what each department, agency,
or office is spending in the interest of following a strategy,
sticking with priorities, and minimizing duplication.
Finally, the office should not have operational control
over execution. Indeed, we don't want to see the various
Federal stakeholders abrogate their responsibilities. What we
do want to see is to have them carried out in a coherent,
synchronized, coordinated way.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman and members of the
subcommittee, the Gilmore panel members are convinced that
these two recommendations are crucial for strengthening the
national effort to combat terrorism. We need a true national
strategy and we need somebody clearly in charge. This is not a
partisan political issue. We have members on our panel who
identify with each of the parties, virtually all the functional
constituencies, and all governmental levels--Federal, State,
and local. This is simply something we all agreed that the
country needs.
Contemplating the specter of terrorism, as you are doing
this morning, in this country is a sobering but critically
necessary responsibility of Government officials at all levels
and in all branches. It is truly a national issue that requires
synchronization of our efforts--vertically, among the Federal,
State, and local levels, and horizontally among the functional
constituent stakeholders.
The individual capabilities of all critical elements must
be brought to bear in a much more coherent way than is now the
case. That fundamental tenet underlies our work over the last 2
years.
Our most imposing challenge centers on policy and whether
we have the collective fortitude to forge change, both in
organization and process.
I would respectfully observe that we have studied the topic
to death, and what we need now is action.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my brief statement. I would be
pleased to address your questions.
Mr. Shays [assuming Chair]. Thank you, General Clapper. We
will reserve the opportunity of questioning you at the
conclusion of our panel's testimony.
[The prepared statement of General Clapper follows:]
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Mr. Gilman. I now call on Frank Cilluffo, chairman,
Committee on Combatting Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and
Nuclear Terrorism of the Homeland Defense Initiative Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
Please proceed.
Mr. Cilluffo. See, even think tanks have an alphabet soup
of acronyms following them.
Mr. Gilman. That's quite a lengthy one.
Mr. Cilluffo. Mr. Chairman, distinguished Members, I
appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today on a
matter of critical importance to our Nation's security. I want
to echo the previous panelists and commend you for your
foresight in seizing the occasion to identify gaps and
shortfalls in our current policies, practices, procedures, and
programs to combat terrorism.
In considering how to best proceed, we should not be afraid
to wipe the slate clean and review the matter anew to
thoroughly examine the myriad of Presidential decision
directives and policies with a view toward assessing what has
worked to date, what has not, and what has not been addressed
at all. This, in turn, lays the groundwork to proceed to the
next step of crafting an effective national counterterrorism
strategy, a theme we've obviously heard a lot of today.
My contribution to this hearing will focus predominantly on
terrorism involving chemical, biological, radiological, and
nuclear weapons, or CBRN terrorism, and the threat to the
homeland, but, by and large, I think the comments will be
relevant--at least I hope--to counterterrorism more generally.
During our deliberations we concluded that, although
Federal, State, and local governments have made impressive
strides to prepare for terrorism--specifically, terrorism using
CBRN weapons--the whole remains far less than the sum of the
parts. Let me briefly explain.
The United States is now at a crossroads. While credit must
be given where credit is due, the time has come for cold-eyed
assessment and evaluation and the recognition that we presently
do not have but are in need of a comprehensive strategy for
countering the threat of terrorism, and, I might add, the
larger dimensions of homeland defense.
As things presently stand, however, there is neither
assurance that we have a clear capital investment strategy nor
a clearly defined end state, let alone a sense of the requisite
objectives to reach this goal.
Short of a crystal ball--and I do think it is fair to say
that, since the end of the cold war, political forecasting has
made astrology look respectable--but, short of a crystal ball,
there is no way to predict with any certainty the threat to the
homeland in the short term or the long term, though it is
widely accepted that unmatched U.S. cultural, diplomatic,
economic, and military power will likely cause America's
adversaries to favor asymmetric attacks in order to offset out
strengths and exploit our weaknesses.
Against this background, military superiority, in itself,
is no longer sufficient to ensure our Nation's safety. Instead,
we need to further, by broadening our concept of national
security so as to encompass CBRN counterterrorism.
Make no mistakes, though. The dimension of the challenge is
enormous. The threat of CBRN terrorism by States and non-State
actors presents unprecedented challenges to American government
and society, as a whole. Notably, no single Federal agency owns
the strategic mission completely, nor do I think that's even a
possibility. For the moment, however, many agencies are acting
independently in what needs to be part of a whole.
Importantly, a coherent response is not merely a goal that
is out of reach. To the contrary, we now possess the experience
and the knowledge for ascertaining at least the contours of a
comprehensive strategy, a comprehensive response, and a future
year program and budget to implement that strategy.
It bears mentioning that strategy must be a precursor to
budget. Now there's a concept, huh? Of course, none of this is
to say that we have all the answers. Quite the contrary.
Indeed, our recommendations represent just one possible course
of action among many--and you've heard some others today--and
it is for you, Congress, and the executive branch to decide
precisely which of these avenues or combination thereof should
be pursued.
In any case, my vision of a comprehensive counterterrorism
strategy would incorporate a full spectrum of activities, from
prevention and deterrence to retribution and prosecution to
domestic response preparedness. All too often, these elements
of strategy are treated in isolation.
Such a strategy must also incorporate the marshaling of
domestic resources and the engagement of international allies
and assets, and it requires monitoring and measuring the
effectiveness or benchmarking of the many programs that
implement the strategy so as to lead to common standards,
practices, and procedures.
In our report on CBRN terrorism, we set out a roadmap of
near-term and long-term priorities for senior Federal
Government officials to marshal Federal, State, local, private
sector, and NGO resources to better counter the threat.
With your patience, I will elaborate upon the highlights of
our blueprint, beginning with a clear outline of the structure
of our suggested strategy.
In our review, a complete CGRN counterterrorism strategy
involves both preventing an attack from occurring--our first
priority should always be to get there before the bomb goes
off--which includes deterrents, nonproliferation,
counterproliferation and preemption, and, second, preparing
Federal, State, and local capabilities to respond to an actual
attack.
In short, our counterterrorism capabilities and
organizations must be strengthened, streamlined, and then
synergized so that effective prevention will enhance domestic
response preparedness and vice versa.
On the prevention side, a multi-faceted strategy is in
order. The common thread underpinning all of these, as we've
heard earlier today, is the need for a first-rate intelligence
capability. More specifically, the breadth, depth, and
uncertainty of the terrorist threat demands significant
investment, coordination, and retooling of the intelligence
process across the board for the pre-attack, the warning,
trans-attack, possible preemption, and post-attack--``who done
it'' phases.
In the time that remains, I want to focus on issues of
organization and domestic response preparedness. In my view,
effective organization is the concept that not only lies at the
heart of a comprehensive strategy but also underpins it, from
start, from prevention, to finish--consequence management
response.
We must ask ourselves whether we are properly organized to
meet the CBRN terrorism challenge. This requires tackling very
fundamental assumptions on national security. Are our existing
structures, policies, and institutions adequate? CBRN terrorism
is inherently a cross-cutting issue, but to date the Government
has organized long vertical lines within their respective
stovepipes.
Our report treats the wide-ranging question of organization
by breaking it down into three different sub-themes, and you
saw some of the comparison and contrast between the NSSG and
the Gilmore report here. Ours is actually a mishmash of both.
Effective organization at the Federal level, top down;
effective organization at the State and local levels and the
Federal interface, the bottom up; and effective organization of
the medical and public health communities, as you alluded to
earlier, Mr. Chairman.
I thought I'd make some very brief remarks on each of
these, in turn.
As a starting point, we've heard to death that there is a
need for better coordination of the 40-some Federal
organizations that have a CT--counterterrorism--role. To ensure
that departmental an agency programs, when amalgamated,
constitute an integrated and coherent plan, we need a high
level official to serve as what we refer to as a ``belly
button'' for our overall efforts, and that position needs to
marry up three criteria, and we keep hearing the same criteria
description is same, some of our prescriptions are different,
but authority, accountability, and resources.
One way to achieve this end and the course that we have
suggested is to establish a Senate-confirmed position of
assistant to the President or Vice President for combating
terrorism. The assistant for combating terrorism would be
responsible for issuing an annual national counterterrorism
strategy and plan. This strategy would serve as the basis to
recommend the overall level of counterterrorism spending and
how that money should be allocated among the various
departments and agencies of the Federal Government with CT
responsibilities.
Remember the golden rule--he or she with the gold rules.
To work, the assistant must have some sway over
departmental and agency spending. After all, policy without
resources is rhetoric. Accordingly, we recommend the assistant
be granted limited direction over department and agency budgets
in the form of certification and pass-back authority. That's
not to get it mixed up with a czar. Obviously, a czar needs
Cossacks, and I don't know too many of those around. We have
too many little czars. But we do see the need to pull that away
from the National Security Council, keep it in obviously the
Executive Office of the President or Vice President, and not
get it confused with operations. It should have no operational
responsibility, period.
Let me make two very brief points on lead Federal agency.
First, we need FEMA to assume the lead role in domestic
response preparedness. We must capitalize FEMA with the
personnel, as well as administrative and logistical support and
assign FEMA the training mission for consequence management. It
makes little sense to ``hive off'' training for consequence
management from the very organization that would handle
consequence management. Now that rests at Department of
Justice. Moreover, FEMA is already well-integrated into State
and local activity in the context of natural disasters.
While FEMA has been revitalized and has distinguished
itself when responding to a series of natural disasters
recently, the same cannot be said of its national security
missions. Put bluntly, it has become the ATM machine for
chasing hurricanes.
An additional point I wish to make concerns the role of
Department of Defense. Obviously, this is a subject of much
debate. Realistically, though, only Department of Defense even
comes close to having the manpower and resources necessary for
high-consequence yet low-likelihood events such as catastrophic
CBRN terrorism on the U.S. homeland. But even the mere specter
of suggestion of a lead military role raises vocal and
widespread opposition on the basis of civil liberties.
That being said, however, it is wholly appropriate for DOD
to maintain a major role in support of civilian authorities,
though we must grant the department the resources necessary to
assume this responsibility.
Perhaps it is just me, but I find it difficult to believe
that, in a time of genuine crisis, the American people would
take issue with what color uniform the men and women who are
saving lives happen to be wearing.
Even more starkly, the President should never be in a
position of having to step up to the podium and say to the
American people, look them in the eye, ``We could have, should
have, would have, but didn't because of.'' Explaining to the
American people the inside-the-beltway debates just will not
stand up in such a crisis.
Moving now very briefly to State and local, obviously we
need an effort----
Mr. Shays [resuming Chair]. I'm going to ask, could you
finish up in a minute?
Mr. Cilluffo. Sure.
Mr. Shays. OK.
Mr. Cilluffo. On the State and local side, we see the need
for more resources to make their way to State and local for
implementation and execution. Obviously, the threat is
perceived to be low and the cost exceedingly high that we need
to be able to work toward nationwide baselines. And we need to
be able to dictate that we have an optimal transition from an
ordinary event--responding to a heart attack--to an
extraordinary event.
I think that the value of to be and exercising must not be
under-estimated. Hopefully, it will be the closest we get to
the real thing, and, if not, it allows us to make some of the
big mistakes on the practice fields and not on the battlefield,
which in this context could be Main Street, U.S.A.
I'll skip the public health section, but I want to close
very briefly on a personal note. Last year, on April 19th, I
had the privilege to attend the dedication of the Oklahoma City
National Memorial on the 5-year anniversary of the attack on
the Alfred P. Murrah Building. Just last week I was again in
Oklahoma City and had the opportunity to visit the Memorial
Center's Interactive Museum. I highly recommend visiting the
museum. It was profoundly moving. I was reminded that America
is not immune from terrorism and that if such an attack can
occur in America's heartland, it can occur anywhere. I was
reminded that the consequences of such acts of violence are
very real. In this case 168 innocent lives were lost and many,
many more affected.
I was reminded that those first on the scene of such a
tragedy are ordinary citizens, followed up by local emergency
responders such as fire fighters, medics, and police officers,
all of whom were overwhelmed except for the desire to save
lives.
I was touched by the experience, of course, but, most of
all, I left proud--proud of Oklahoma's elected officials; proud
of the survivors; proud of the many thousands of men, women,
and children who lost family members, friends, and neighbors;
and, perhaps most importantly, I left proud to be an American,
for what I saw was the community strength and resilience. I
believe this indomitable spirit, the will of the people to
return, to rebuild, to heal, and to prosper best represents
America's attitude toward terrorism, and I'm confident that,
with these hearings and all of our reports, that the powers
that be in the executive branch and Congress will develop,
implement, and sustain such a strategy.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Shays. Thank you, Mr. Cilluffo.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cilluffo follows:]
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Mr. Shays. I'm going to recognize my colleague from New
York, but first let me put in the record, Dr. Hoffman requested
the executive summary of the RAND Report, Strategy Framework
for Countering Terrorism and Insurgency, be placed in the
record, and without objection we will be happy to do that.
Mr. Gilman.
Mr. Gilman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, since I arrived late, I'd like to introduce
into the record at this point in the record or the appropriate
place my opening statement.
Mr. Shays. That will be done without objection.
Mr. Gilman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'd like to address the entire panel with one question. You
all had focused on the need for better coordination, avoid the
fragmentation, put someone in charge, the need for a sound,
effective, coordinated program. What has prevented us from
doing that? We go back to the Gilmore Commission, the Attorney
General's report on the 5-year interagency terrorism,
technology crime plan. All of these have focused on the same
conclusions--that we need to have a central agency, we need to
have coordination, we need to get rid of the fragmentation.
What has prevented us from doing that over these years? I
address that to all of the panelists.
General Clapper. I think, sir, that it has been somewhat of
a function of perhaps inertia, unwillingness, reluctance to
step up to the recognition of at least a potential threat here
to reposture.
There is the issue, I suppose, of giving up--the concern
about giving up turf, jurisdiction, and to make do with sort of
the interagency coordination processes which basically diffuse
responsibility and accountability.
There has been, I think, a reluctance to step up to the
notion of perhaps having to give up some authority or turf in
the interest of having someone who is clearly in charge and who
is accountable.
Mr. Gilman. Thank you, General Clapper.
Dr. Hoffman, do you have some comment?
Mr. Hoffman. It is something of a chicken and the egg
question, but I think it is the absence of a strategy that has
deprived us of a focus that would enable us to marshal our
efforts and to focus on how to address the threat through
organization. I think the trouble is it is much too fragmented
and piecemeal, and it represents too many different things to
too many different agencies.
Mr. Gilman. Dr. Hoffman, we have these reports--the U.S.
Commission on National Security, Gilmore Commission, Attorney
General Report--all said we need a national strategy. What I'm
asking is what has prevented us from adopting it? What can we
do to overcome that inertia that General Clapper is referring
to?
Mr. Hoffman. I think it is a national will to bring
together this comprehensive net assessment, that it has to
start for that position and it has to come from the Executive.
Mr. Gilman. What do you recommend? How do we bring that
about?
Mr. Hoffman. I think that there has to be, first, the
process of net assessments has to begin, where we take the
disparate pieces that have been used to define a threat and
bring it together and have a coherent definition of what we
need to plan against. I think that would better identify what
the requirements are than to approach it in the direction we do
now without----
Mr. Gilman. But I think the experts have all identified the
problem. What I'm asking is how do we implement now the
recommendations from the problem that you've assessed?
General Clapper. Well, there's probably two ways that can
happen, sir. Either the Executive can step up to the task and
champion a strategy and assume a position of leadership, or
that direction can come from this institution.
Mr. Cilluffo. Mr. Gilman, if I can also expand on that
briefly, I agree that the executive branch plays a key role
here. While we have seen a lot of talk for the past 8 years, it
could be summed up--and perhaps unfairly--long on nouns, short
on verbs. There was a lot of focus, but very little action and
implementation.
I think that you clearly have to get someone who is above
the specific agency roles and missions, so I can only see that
coming from the leadership, and that has to be someone--because
you have different roles and missions. For example, law
enforcement wants to string them up, the intelligence community
wants to string them along. It's not that they don't
necessarily fight, but they've got very different missions in
terms of their perceptions of the world.
I think that there are only two times in our rich yet,
relatively speaking, young history where we really needed to
ask these very fundamental questions, and those were the
founding fathers, the very issue of the federalism debates, and
then again right after World War II, where we created the
National Security Act of 1947, where we saw the need to turn
OSS into the Central Intelligence Agency.
So I think this is unprecedented in terms of timing in
terms of asking the very basic national security needs and
architectures we need to have in place, but I think that, with
the new administration in place and some of the principal
cabinet members, this will happen.
Mr. Wermuth. Mr. Gilman.
Mr. Gilman. Yes, Mr. Wermuth?
Mr. Wermuth. To further answer, it really is a leadership
issue, but it is more than that, too. If you look at these
charts, all of these agencies have very clear statutory
responsibilities, and all of the ones that are sitting there on
the table will have pieces of this, depending----
Mr. Gilman. It is obvious we've got too much fragmentation.
Mr. Wermuth. We do, but let me suggest that part of the
process, in terms of accountability and responsibility, is
following the money. One of the specific recommendations that
the Gilmore Commission makes, in terms of its structure, is
giving a senior person in the White House some budget
responsibility--certification and decertification--requiring
all of these agencies to bring their budgets to a table to
eliminate duplication, to match their budgets against the
priorities established in the national strategy, so it has to
be a focus that is centralized, with all respect to the
proposal from Hart Rudman. If this isn't done in the White
House at a very senior level with someone who is sitting very
close to the President and has the President's authority to do
it all, we came to the conclusion that an agency, a single
agency, would never be able to pull all of this together. I
think, to a certain extent, that view is reflected in the CSAS
recommendation that it needs to be in the White House, that
there needs to be some senior oversight over this entire
mishmash of organizations.
Mr. Cilluffo. Mr. Gilman, could I build on that----
Mr. Gilman. Yes, please.
Mr. Cilluffo [continuing]. Very briefly. And, if I could be
so bold, I sort of feel like a fisherman being asked his views
on hoof-and-mouth. Obviously, it is a problem, and I'm here to
tell you it is worse. But I think that Congress also needs to
look at how it is organized to deal with this challenge.
Right now you've got a series of both committees with
authorization oversight, and everyone claims----
Mr. Gilman. Well, that's what this committee is all about.
Mr. Cilluffo. And that's why I think this committee----
Mr. Gilman. We're doing the oversight. We're trying to
focus on that problem. But, more important, if I might
interrupt you, more important, Mr. Wermuth said we need someone
close to the White House. Several years ago there was a
national coordinator appointed within the Security Council to
take the responsibility. What I'm asking our panelists--and
you're all experts now--how best can we implement the
recommendations that are obvious to all of us--to have a
national strategy, to get rid of the fragmentation, to make it
an effective, coordinated policy? How best can this Congress
act to accomplish that? Any recommendations by our panelists?
General Clapper. Well, sir, I tried to suggest that if the
executive branch, the new administration, takes this on and
devises a strategy and appoints a leadership with sufficient
staff, wherewithal, and the authority, to include program and
resources, I would hope that such a move would be endorsed by
the Congress.
In the absence of that, then I guess I would suggest that,
to the extent that people think that this is an important
issue, that these things need to be fixed, that the Congress
would legislate, as they have in the past, to mandate the
creation of such a national strategy and the appointment of a
leader.
Mr. Shays. Well, General Clapper, I welcome your
recommendation. What do you think about the report by Senator
Rudman today bringing about a commission in securing the
national homeland.
General Clapper. Sir, if you are referring to the----
Mr. Gilman. The Rudman Commission.
General Clapper [continuing]. Their proposal for a Homeland
Security Agency----
Mr. Gilman. Yes.
General Clapper [continuing]. An embellished FEMA. Sir, we
spent in our commission, our panel, a lot of time looking at
various models of what might be the best construct for a lead
element in the Government, and so we went through a lead
element, a lead agency, picking one of the current departments
of the Government, whether it is Defense or Justice or Health
and Human Services, and basically we for lots of reasons
rejected that. We looked at the notion of an embellished,
strengthened FEMA, and we're concerned there about the mixture
of law enforcement and consequence management kinds of
responsibilities. Of course, one of the major law enforcement
elements, the FBI, itself, would, of course, not be in this
construct.
The other difficulty we saw was an agency, subcabinet
agency, somehow directing the coordination across Cabinet-level
agencies.
So we just decided that FEMA, which has been very, very
successful, particularly under its recent leadership, is very
well thought of, I have learned through my interactions with
State and local people, by State and local officials, and that
we shouldn't jeopardize the very important mission that it
performs, perhaps embellish that and give them more resources,
but not jeopardize what it does now by adding on these other
agencies.
So our conclusion--and, again, I would mention that I think
the nature of our recommendations is heavily influenced by the
composition of our panel, which was heavily populated by State
and local people--was an entity in the Executive Office of the
President, politically accountable, appointed by the President,
confirmed by the Senate, which would have this oversight and
authority over the entire range of all these agencies and their
programs, all individually well intended but not necessarily
coordinated, and that would be the entity to do that.
Mr. Gilman. Thank you, General.
Do any of the panelists disagree with General Clapper's
conclusion?
Mr. Cilluffo. Well, I wouldn't say disagree, but different
areas of emphasis.
I do not think the breakdown is where the rubber meets the
road and it is at the agency level, so I'm not sure if we
really do need an agency, nor do I think we should ever have a
super-agency, because it gets to some of the very fundamental
presumptions of American ethos.
But I think the real problem is at the policy level, and a
lot of that stems from policy without resources are rhetoric.
You need someone who can marry up authority, accountability,
with resources. The budgetary role which I think both of our
reports alluded to, accentuated in different ways, is where the
real problem, where the real breakdown is.
Mr. Gilman. Thank you. I want to thank the panelists. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Shays. Thank you.
Mr. Kucinich.
Mr. Kucinich. Thank you very much.
I thank the witnesses for being here today.
General Clapper, I looked at your testimony here about the
major elements of a national strategy. Do you think preliminary
to the execution of such a strategy there would have to be a
comprehensive risk assessment nationally.
General Clapper. Yes, sir. And that topic was addressed
quite substantially in our first report we published in 1999,
which Dr. Hoffman had a great deal to do with, since he was
working with us then. So we treated that subject--the whole
issue of threat and the need for threat assessments, much along
the lines of what Dr. Hoffman testified to in our first report.
So the short answer to your question is yes.
Mr. Kucinich. Thank you, General.
Now, I looked at your testimony, and you say the national--
you speak to a national strategy should be geographically and
functionally comprehensive, should address both international
and domestic terrorism. Then you go on to say that the
distinction between terrorism outside the borders of the United
States and terrorist threats domestically is eroding. What do
you mean by that?
General Clapper. Well, I think in many--we've had a
proclivity, I think, has been historically to sort of separate
domestic threats as one set and those emanating from foreign
sources as another. Of course, as we've seen the World Trade
Center being, I think, an example that those nice, neat
boundaries probably are not going to apply. I think this is
particularly true in the case of the cyber threat and the
potential terrorist threat posed in the cyber world or cyber
arena, where the long arm of terrorism can reach out from
anywhere else in the world and be reflected as an apparent
domestic attack.
I think the mechanisms and the apparatus, the
jurisdictional distinctions that we have in this country are
going to be put to the test because of that erosion between
heretofore distinct foreign threats and domestic.
Mr. Kucinich. Would you agree that the FBI and the CIA have
distinct and quite different missions in this Government?
General Clapper. They do, although I think they have done a
lot toward working together in recognition of the fact that
terrorists don't necessarily recognize political boundaries.
Mr. Kucinich. So would you see then more of a role for the
Central Intelligence Agency in domestic intelligence-gathering?
General Clapper. No, sir, I don't. What I see is what
they're doing, and what I hope continues to occur, which is a
close working relationship so that when the baton is handed
off, so to speak, that it's not dropped between when there is
evidence that a foreign-emanated threat is reaching into the
United States, that baton is handed off, so to speak, between
the CIA, which has a clear foreign intelligence charter, and
the FBI, which has a domestic intelligence charter.
Mr. Kucinich. Your sense is that right now we don't have a
national intelligence-gathering apparatus? Is that what you're
saying?
General Clapper. No, I didn't say that at all, sir. We do.
Mr. Kucinich. Well, you say----
General Clapper. One of the elements of the entity that we
are suggesting, the National Office for Combating Terrorism,
would be a robust intelligence effort under the national
coordinator, who would serve to bridge both the foreign
intelligence overseen by the Director of Central Intelligence
and the domestic intelligence, and we would see that as a major
coordinating role----
Mr. Kucinich. So it would be----
General Clapper [continuing]. As a part of that national
office.
Mr. Kucinich. General, would we be hiring new people then
to do the national intelligence gathering?
General Clapper. I don't think so, sir. I think a few,
perhaps, but I think what this really represents is somewhat
the same thing that Senator Rudman was speaking of and General
Boyd, which is a re-arraying, perhaps, in a more-efficient,
coherent manner to deal with what this threat represents.
Mr. Kucinich. In your testimony you say that to be
functionally comprehensive the national strategy should address
the full spectrum of the Nation's efforts against terrorism,
and No. 1 you put intelligence. So what role does intelligence
have then in your Homeland Security Act?
General Clapper. Well, I think intelligence is a key, as
Dr. Hoffman testified, a key element of this. It should
underpin our national strategy. I think there is a lot that can
be done to disseminate intelligence, regardless of where it
comes from, whether it is foreign or domestic, to selected
appropriate State and local officials.
We have many intelligence-sharing relationships with
foreign countries, so we certainly ought to be able to figure
out mechanisms whereby we can share intelligence, for example,
with State Governors or senior emergency planners in the States
and selected local officials. Right now there is not a real
good mechanism for doing that.
I would think--and our report describes--that this is a
role that the National Office for Combating Terrorism could
perform, and specifically the intelligence staff that we would
envision that would be a part of it.
Mr. Kucinich. I'm looking at these dozens of agencies and
departments here which have various intelligence functions. I'd
like to focus on the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a
moment. Would it be your opinion that the FBI is not doing an
adequate job in handling matters and challenges relating to
intelligence gathering for the purposes of protecting the
United States against domestic terrorism?
General Clapper. No, sir, I would not say that. And, on the
contrary, I would emphasize something that I said earlier--that
I think a lot of progress has been made because of what we've
experienced in terms of a closer working relationship between
the CIA and the FBI, so, as a lifelong professional
intelligence officer, I wouldn't--I'm certainly not suggesting
that they're not doing their job. They could certainly do it
better if they had more resources.
Mr. Kucinich. We've had testimony in front of this
committee, Mr. Chairman, that would imply that we have a
profound national security challenge, and if we do it would
seem to me that the FBI would be the appropriate agency to deal
with it and not to create an entirely new Governmental agency.
I share with you the opinion that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation does an excellent job in handling a variety of
challenges of a law enforcement nature. It seems to me that the
Federal Bureau of Investigation has the specific charge to
handle a number of the elements of a national strategy that you
have already spoken to----
General Clapper. Yes, sir, in a domestic----
Mr. Kucinich. May I--I'm not finished, General, if I may.
Speaking of intelligence, deterrence, prevention,
investigation, prosecution, preemption, crisis management,
consequence management--that almost defines what the Federal
Bureau of Investigation is about, at least the Bureau that I am
familiar with, and it seems to me that in offering an entirely
new structure here we may be wading into waters of duplicating
existing Federal functions.
General Clapper. No, sir. On the contrary--and, first of
all, I'm not suggesting--we weren't in our report a profound
new agency. What we are suggesting is a comparatively small
staff effort appended to the Office of the President to ensure
it has the focus and the responsibility and the authority, and
what we're really talking about, I believe, is simply
marshaling the totality and focusing on the totality of our
intelligence effort by ensuring coordination between the
foreign and the domestic.
The CIA, in a foreign intelligence context, has potentially
a role to play in all those dimensions that you enumerated. In
virtually every case, I believe, the CIA potentially would have
a role to play, as well, in working in partnership with the
FBI.
Mr. Kucinich. If that's the case, then, the CIA would
inevitably become involved in matters relating to handling of
domestic law enforcement challenges.
General Clapper. No, sir. I don't think so. I think this
would be in every case, as it is done now, if it turns into a
domestic scenario--and we're hypothesizing here--the CIA I
think would be in support, if it turns into a domestic
situation, in support of the FBI. I don't----
Mr. Kucinich. But they would be sharing----
General Clapper. I do not----
Mr. Kucinich. They would being intelligence.
General Clapper. I'm sorry, sir?
Mr. Kucinich. They would being intelligence.
General Clapper. Yes, sir.
Mr. Kucinich. And they do that now?
General Clapper. Yes, sir.
Mr. Kucinich. And what do they do with the intelligence
there if it is a domestic matter? The CIA would give it to the
FBI and the FBI would handle it.
General Clapper. Well, I'm not sure I understand your
question.
Mr. Kucinich. Well, I'm just going back to the point I'm
making, and that is that we talk about a Homeland Security Act,
and I'm just wondering what's--there's implied here a criticism
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's abilities to respond.
General Clapper. No, sir. I don't think that's implied at
all.
Mr. Kucinich. Well, I would think that if we're talking
about creating a reorganization here of some sort and with new
oversight structure with budgetary authority, as Mr. Cilluffo
had talked about, we're certainly talking about something new,
and you cannot countenance such a discussion without it
reflecting on the service of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation to this country.
And one final comment, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your
indulgence. I agree with all of the panelists about the role of
Presidential policymaking, because that really helps to set the
tone as to what a Homeland Security Act would--what milieu it
would operate in terms of policy. And I see two paradigms, Mr.
Chairman, and I'll just be completed here.
If we look at a paradigm or a model of cooperation with
other nations in solving security challenges, then this
Homeland Security Act could be beneficent in its scope.
On the other hand, if a President, any President, began to
ramp up the rhetoric and become involved in a cold war type
atmosphere, if we go into a new cold war theater with implied
threats, confrontation with other nations, a Homeland Security
Act in its scope would necessarily have a totally different
meaning.
This is not, as you state, this is not neutral with respect
to the policy that comes from the Executive, so it has to be, I
think--always we have to think in terms of the context of the
operation of the act and the international and national policy
of an administration.
So if we enter into a cold war type scenario again, this
particular proposal would have implications that some may feel
would be quite challenging for the maintenance of civil
liberties in our society.
I thank the chairman for his indulgence.
Mr. Shays. We're going to have opportunity to have dialog
back and forth. This is the last panel, and we only have four
Members. At this time I'd recognize Mr. Tierney. And we'll go
for a second round. I still have my first to do.
Mr. Tierney. Thank you. I'll try not to cover any of the
other ground. I apologize, I was at another committee meeting.
General Clapper, you, I believe, talked a little bit about
a comprehensive terrorism policy. In that, are you also
factoring in nuclear issues, threats of nuclear issues? And, if
so, how do you go about prioritizing which is the more serious
concern for us at any given time--threat from a nuclear problem
or threat from terrorism?
General Clapper. Well, from a process standpoint, I would
reinforce what Dr. Hoffman spoke to, which is the necessity for
having the nationally sanctioned, nationally recognized threat
assessment which would deal with specifically those issues.
Now, those are not static. They're not set in concrete.
That could change.
My personal opinion, I'm inclined to agree with Senator
Rudman. I think our current main focus perhaps ought to be in
the chemical and biological arena, although I would comment
that the weapon of choice continues to be for terrorists a
vehicle-borne conventional explosive.
Mr. Tierney. Mr. Cilluffo, you talked about having or you
alluded to a substantial amount of good news that deserves to
be told. Will you tell us, you know, being aware of some of the
critical challenges we face, what have been the
accomplishments, in your view, in the last decade or so?
Mr. Cilluffo. Sure. I do think there are some pockets of
very good news, ranging from State and local exercises, which
never seem to make its way, though--what goes on in Portsmouth,
NH, or what goes on in Denver, CO, as we saw in a major
exercise called ``Top Off,'' often stays in those cities. So,
while there have been some specific exercises, there have been
some programs that are highly successful, State departments
foreign--FEST team and the role linking in CDC and USAMARID
within the Department of Defense into those programs are highly
successful.
But, again, the whole remains far less than the sums of the
pieces, and until you start looking at ways to work toward
common standards, baselines, and the like, you are going to
continue to have some areas of excellence but other areas that
are neglected.
Mr. Tierney. Let me ask the other witnesses what they see
have been the biggest improvements over the last 8 or 10 years.
Mr. Hoffman. I'm perhaps too much down in the weeds, but I
would have to say, at least in the intelligence realm, it was
the creation of the Counterterrorist Center at the Central
Intelligence Agency that, on the one hand, knits together both
the operational and intelligence sides of that agency, but also
is an all-community entity that involves the FBI and all other
agencies involved in anticipating foreign terrorist threats.
I think the proof, frankly, in a sense I think has been
demonstrated that it has had a very good record in deflecting
and thwarting terrorist acts in recent years.
Mr. Tierney. General.
General Clapper. Sir, I have been very impressed with the
commitment and the concern at the State and local level. As a
Federal servant whole professional career, this is not an area
I was very familiar with, and through my engagement with the
Gilmore panel and the SECDEF's Threat Reduction Advisory
Committee and some other boards and panels I have been on, I
have really been impressed by what is going on at the State and
local level. In fact, I have been so impressed with it, and I
think that's really where the focus needs to be.
I think there is a tendency on the part of us beltway
denizens to sort of look from the top down, and there's a lot
of good work, a lot of sophistication, I might add, at the
State and local level about what is involved and what is
needed, and there's a great commitment out there.
What the Federal level needs to do, I think, is to get its
act together and complement and support and buttress what is
going on at the State and local level.
Mr. Tierney. Would you do that with research and resources?
General Clapper. Actually, as indicated in our second
report, there are a range of activities where the Federal level
can facilitate and support--exercises and training, equipment
standards, a medical plan where the Federal Government--that's
a function that, from a national perspective, I think that
leadership has to come from the Federal Government.
Mr. Tierney. Thank you.
Mr. Wermuth. And if I could just expand on that a bit--and
this is a view that is slightly different than the one that
Senator Rudman and General Boyd espoused earlier--some of the
really good news has been in the actual activities and programs
undertaken at the State and local level.
There is a lot going on out there. In fact, my personal
view is that most State governments, and even some larger
municipal areas, are much better organized, much further along
in their thinking about how to approach this problem than the
Federal Government is.
There is a process called ``emergency management assistance
compacts.'' It is agreements between States to help each other
in the event of an emergency like this or a natural disaster,
and those are now in place in 42 States, and that continues to
grow every day until we're going to--we'll probably be at 50
before the end of this year.
There are some great stories to be told in terms of multi-
jurisdictional compacts and agreements within States. The Los
Angeles area in California now has a consortium of some 72
jurisdictions that are focused on terrorists. They have a
terrorism early warning group, a working group where all these
jurisdictions get together and plan how they would respond. So
those are great stories out there in the heartland, and General
Clapper mentioned supporting those efforts, supporting their
plans to create incident command systems, unified command so
that they can approach this, the possibility of an attack,
cohesively when the attack occurs, and that would mean then
integrating the support, as well, from the Federal level that
might have to be brought to bear if the incident were large
enough.
Mr. Tierney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Shays. I thank the gentleman.
I'd first like to ask each of all four of you what was said
by the previous panel that you would disagree with.
General Clapper. Sir, I think the only thing we disagree on
is the instrumentality or the entity to put someone in charge.
Our construct in the Gilmore Commission was an office tethered
to the Office of the President, as opposed to embellishing
FEMA.
Other than that, I think we are in pretty much uniform
agreement, certainly on the need, on the threat, on the need
for a strategy, and on the need for firm, assertive leadership.
I think the issue is implementation.
And, as Senator Rudman said, there's probably a number of
ways that this can be accomplished. The important thing is the
recognition of the need, the threat, and to have a national
strategy.
Mr. Shays. Dr. Hoffman.
Mr. Hoffman. I think my expertise is more in the area of
terrorist organizations and motivations than in the U.S.
bureaucracy, so I have a different perspective. I would focus
on their depiction of the threat.
I think that fundamentally the--I don't disagree
completely, but I think the United States has to be capable of
responding along the entire spectrum of terrorist threats, not
just the high end ones.
I think that is important because there's the difference
between WMD terrorism and terrorist use of chemical,
biological, or radiological weapon that could not be at all
motivated to kill lots of people but could be motivated to have
profound psychological repercussions, and I think the
terrorists realize that, and that has to be as much a factor.
We've responded, I think, very much to the physical
consequences and to emergency management. I think we also have
to focus equal attention on the psychological repercussions.
Mr. Shays. Thank you.
Mr. Wermuth.
Mr. Wermuth. The Hart-Rudman proposal on structure
envisions, at least in our reading of their proposal, a super
Federal agency that somehow is in charge. We have suggested--
the Gilmore panel has suggested that the likelihood of the
entity being in charge is most probably going to be the local--
either the mayor or perhaps the Governor, and more so inside
the State.
Our proposal suggests that you don't need someone at the
Federal level being in operational control, a single entity
because all these agencies have part of that. You need to
coordinate that piece in advance so that everyone clearly
understands the role of all of these agencies, and then provide
the support mechanism to whichever lead Federal agency might be
selected, depending on the type of the incident, and
particularly to support the State and local entity that
probably is going to be really in charge of handling the
overall response.
It is different in approach. Hart-Rudman, in the short
definition, is top-down. The Gilmore Commission approach is
bottom-up, recognizing that State and local entities are likely
going to be the entities clearly first responding and really in
charge of the situation, and the Federal piece is going to be a
support mechanism.
Mr. Shays. So bottom line, though, again, with the General,
it's the issue of how you structure the response?
General Clapper. Yes, sir. That's correct.
Mr. Cilluffo.
Mr. Cilluffo. We, too, in terms of description, are very
much singing off the same sheet of music. It's where the
prescriptions----
Mr. Shays. With the general----
Mr. Cilluffo. Actually, with both Hart and Rudman and with
the Gilmore panel.
Mr. Shays. OK.
Mr. Cilluffo. We don't see it as a top-down or a bottom-up;
we see it as the convergence of both. And we placed more
emphasis on the public health communities, but we didn't get to
discuss the bioterrorism challenge in great depth and the
threats to agriculture and the threats to livestock.
But the big issue is we all see the same need. We see the
need for a whole slough of gaps, and they are all pretty much
on the same topic. We see the need to marry up the same three
criteria--authority, accountability, and resources. We, too,
did see the need to enhance and capitalize FEMA; we just didn't
see the need to balloon it as large as it may have been and
incorporating other agencies and missions that have other very
important missions at hand.
So, in reality, it is sort of a mix and match of all of the
above here.
Mr. Shays. OK. I think we would all agree that the attack
in Oklahoma was done by a terrorist; is that true?
Mr. Cilluffo. Correct.
Mr. Shays. But more or less siding with you, Dr. Hoffman,
on this issue, it wasn't a weapon of mass destruction. But let
me ask, as it relates to weapons of mass destruction, the
world--the cold war is over. I view the world as a more
threatening environment that it's a more dangerous place. I
happen to believe the cold war is over and the world is a more
dangerous place.
Dr. Hoffman, do you believe that it is not a question of if
there will be a terrorist attack using weapons of mass
destruction but a question of when? I'm going to ask the same
question of you, General, and you, Mr. Wermuth, and you, Mr.
Cilluffo.
Mr. Hoffman. If you phrase it in terms of mass destruction,
I would disagree with that.
Mr. Shays. OK. General Clapper.
General Clapper. The question, sir, is when?
Mr. Shays. Yes, not if, in the next 10 to 20 years.
General Clapper. Well, guess I would be more concerned,
again, about--I mean, we have to be concerned with the full
spectrum of threats. We can't just pick one and disregard the
other. But I think the more likely threats will remain, at
least as far as I can see, the conventional, perhaps large-
scale----
Mr. Shays. You know, that's not really the question I
asked. Dr. Hoffman, you've been clear. You believe there will
be no attack by a terrorist in the next 10 to 20 years using a
weapons of mass destruction. That's what you believe.
Mr. Hoffman. Against the United States, yes, but I would
qualify that by saying a chemical or biological or radiological
weapon, that I do believe.
Mr. Shays. Let me----
Mr. Hoffman. From a mass destruction----
Mr. Shays. Yes. I view chemical, biological, and nuclear--
they are defined as weapons of mass destruction, aren't they? I
mean, am I misusing the term?
Mr. Hoffman. I think incorrectly. I think they are three
different weapons that have very different----
Mr. Shays. OK. Let's break it down. And I do want to be
very clear on this. You all have been involved in this issue a
lot longer than I have, but I ended up asking to chair this
committee with the proviso that we would have jurisdiction of
terrorism at home and abroad. I happen to think, what I have
been reading, frankly, for the last 10 to 20 years makes me
very fearful, so I have my own bias about this.
But let me just ask you, as it relates to each of the
three--we'll separate nuclear as a weapons of mass destruction,
I'll put chemical and biological together--and ask each of you
if you think that the United States will face an attack by a
terrorist using these weapons. First nuclear, Dr. Hoffman.
Mr. Hoffman. I would put nuclear on the low end of the
spectrum, but phrased chemical/biological/radiological, yes, I
do.
Mr. Shays. So it is a question of when, not if, on those
two?
Mr. Hoffman. Yes.
Mr. Shays. General Clapper.
General Clapper. I agree with that.
Mr. Shays. OK. Mr. Wermuth.
Mr. Wermuth. I'm going to answer your question a little bit
differently by saying that it is easy to say it is a question
of--it's not a question of if, but when, but that really goes
to the heart of what we're talking about.
I believe that terrorists will attempt to use chemical and
biological weapons. Those I would kind of put in the same
category. Radiological and nuclear, I would say that the
chances of that are no. But I don't even think you can say for
chemical and biological that it is not a question of if but
when unless you're doing what we're all saying here, unless
you're collecting good intelligence, unless you're analyzing
that good intelligence. I'm unwilling to say that there will be
a mass destructive attack in the next 20 years because I don't
think anybody has that crystal ball. We don't have any
intelligence right now that indicates that anyone has that
capability, but we'd have to keep watching it.
Mr. Shays. Wait. You misspoke. You clearly have
intelligence that people have the capability.
Mr. Wermuth. We have intelligence that nation states have
capability; we don't have any intelligence that any terrorist
group or individual currently possesses the capability to
deliver a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attack
against the United States presently that would result in
casualties in the thousands or tens of thousands.
Mr. Shays. OK. With all due respect, I would accept that on
nuclear, but could I just--and we'll get to you, Mr. Cilluffo--
I am really unclear as to how you can make a statement that
there is not the technology for an individual cell of people, I
mean a group, a small number of people to mount a terrorist
attack using a chemical agent that would have devastating
injury and death.
Mr. Wermuth. I tried to be very careful with my choice of
world.
Mr. Shays. I know. I don't want you to be so careful.
Mr. Wermuth. I said no current intelligence that indicates
that anyone currently possesses the capability. Is the
technology there? Could they try to acquire the capability?
Could they culture and perhaps transport and deliver an attack?
Yes, that's in the realm of possibility, but there is nothing
to indicate that any entity currently possesses that capability
where they could deliver the attack.
Mr. Shays. Now, in Japan they didn't pull it off? Didn't
they have the capability?
Mr. Wermuth. Dr. Hoffman is more of an expert on this than
I am, but I would argue that they didn't have the capability
because they didn't have the effective means of delivering what
it was they wanted to deliver so that the result was mass
fatalities. That's clearly their intention.
Mr. Shays. And I would argue--but I'm probably foolish to
do it, given Dr. Hoffman and you all are such experts--but I
would argue that they didn't pull off what they had the
capability of doing.
Mr. Wermuth. They punctured plastic garbage bags with
umbrellas as a means of dissemination. They did not have a
capability effectively to disseminate the agent that they had
in their possession.
Mr. Shays. That was in part because they didn't want to
hurt themselves in the process. The issue of, you know, we have
the mutual assured destruction seemed to matter to nations. It
doesn't seem to matter to terrorists when they are willing to
blow themselves up in the process.
So if they had been willing to release them and do it
manually, they might have succeeded, and they had the
technology. They just had to do it in person.
Mr. Cilluff.
Mr. Cilluffo. Yes, Mr. Chairman, nor can you bomb an actor
without an address, so deterrence needs to be rethought.
Mr. Shays. Say that again.
Mr. Cilluffo. Nor can you bomb an actor without an address,
so deterrence and compellence in terms of a national strategy
needs to be re-thought-out in terms of foreign deployment and
projection of power. It's a little different. This requires
personalizing, knowing some very specific information on what
could be a very small cell or organization or group.
Mr. Shays. OK.
Mr. Cilluffo. In terms of likelihood----
Mr. Shays. Not a matter of if, but when, on first nuclear--
--
Mr. Cilluffo. Yes.
Mr. Shays [continuing]. And then----
Mr. Cilluffo. I agree on the bio, on the chem side with the
caveat it depends on consequences. You may have small-scale
biological or limited-scale chemical attacks that could be, in
some cases, even major, major events, worse than in Oklahoma
City, but that doesn't mean necessarily an attack that will
damage the fabric of American society.
But with that in mind, yes, I do think. The capabilities,
as you referenced, exist. The intentions exist. There's no
shortage of actors with views inimical to the United States out
there in the world; it's when you see the marriage of the real
bad guys wanting to exploit the real good things. Luckily, we
have not seen that yet, but I do think we will.
Mr. Shays. See, my feeling about terrorists is they just
don't have as good an imagination as I have, which--I mean,
seriously.
Mr. Cilluffo. Let's keep it that way.
Mr. Shays. And it's not a challenge to them, but most
don't--one, two, and three are probably almost as far away from
me as they are from Congressman Tierney. What would prevent
terrorists from coming in and exploding that plan up and, in a
sense, not causing maybe the deaths in the thousands and
thousands, but certainly it would make all of lower eastern
Connecticut uninhabitable for the next 10,000 years? What would
prevent that? I mean, do you have to have some great weapons to
do that?
Dr. Hoffman, tell me first about Tokyo and then respond to
the question I just asked.
Mr. Hoffman. In Tokyo I would say what's interesting in the
case is that something on the order of 50 scientists working
full-time precisely on the means to develop and deploy
chemical, and probably fewer than 20 scientists biological
weapons. They attempted, through more sophisticated techniques
than puncturing trash bags, to use biological weapons nine
times through aerosol sprayers and the like, and it failed.
That's why they moved on to chemical. They thought it was
easier.
I think the lesson is not that some other terrorist group
may not succeed but may not, indeed, learn from their mistakes,
because one thing we do know that I think all terrorist experts
will agree on is that terrorists learn from their mistakes much
better than governments, the governments they raid against.
But I think what the Me case shows is that this is far more
difficult to develop an effective chemical or biological weapon
and then to achieve the dispersal.
On two other occasions Ome did use chemical weapons and
used more-sophisticated aerosol spraying devices, and it also
didn't work.
I think this is part of the issue, too, is that--and that
goes to your question why wouldn't terrorists use some of these
more-heinous types of weapons, and I think, on the one hand, it
is because terrorists know that they have problematical
effectiveness. Let's look at the last conventional conflict
where chemical weapons were used, and were used promiscuously
by Iraq against the Iranians during the Iran/Iraq War. Chemical
weapons accounted for fewer than 5 percent of--sorry, I want to
make sure I'm right about that, sorry--fewer than 1 percent. Of
the 600,000 fatalities in that war, 5,000 were killed with
chemical weapons. And I have to say, in World War I, although
the first use of chemical weapons shocked many people, fewer
than 12 percent of the casualties were with gas.
So these I think psychologically are very powerful weapons,
which the terrorists realize, and they realize that using them
in a very discreet way will have profound psychological
repercussions that I would argue we are not as prepared to deal
with as perhaps the physical repercussions of them.
Tokyo is a perfect example to figure over 5,000 persons
injured in that attack is widely cited, but in the issue of the
``Journal of the American Medical Association'' last year
confirmed that approximately 75 percent of all those
``injuries'' were, in fact, psychosomatic, psychological
effects of people checking into hospitals because they were so
panicked, because there was an effect of not only could the
fire department not respond to the physical consequences, there
was not a very effective governmental communications strategy
in place, so therefore exactly what the terrorists want, to
sell panic, to create fear and intimidation.
Mr. Shays. I wonder, though, if when Great Britain had
hearings and they had experts come and talk about the threat
that Hitler presented in the 1930's, they would have had a lot
of people give you 100 reasons why Hitler wasn't a threat, and
then 1 day it dawned on people that he was one heck of a
threat, and I wonder if it is the same kind of scenario here--
that we are kind of coasting along, and you all are the
experts. If you, Dr. Hoffman, don't feel the technology exists,
then I have to concede that it doesn't exist because you are
the expert. But it just flies in the face of so much of what
this committee has uncovered.
General Clapper. Sir, if I could----
Mr. Hoffman. If I could just say one thing--it's not that
the technology doesn't exist and it's not that I don't think we
should prepare for it. I don't think we should focus on that
exclusively.
If you're asking me as a terrorism expert what is the
preeminent terrorist threat that the United States faces today,
I would say a series of simultaneous car and truck bombings
throughout the country, which would cause panic, which would
demonstrate that terrorists coerced the building, which would
be easier for them to do.
Mr. Shays. I mean, it wasn't very difficult, except they
were caught, to bring--a few years ago I went down to Colombia
because the DAS operation of Colombia, their FBI, lost their
building. It was exploded. There was a chemical weapon that
basically caused 700 injuries and 70 people killed in Colombia.
The question that I had there was it was agricultural
chemicals. They took a big bus, they loaded it with
agricultural weapons, and they blew up the building.
When you went into one of the tunnels--the Holland Tunnel,
I think it may have been, but it was one of the tunnels in New
York--they were simply going to take a truck with a chemical
explosives, a car in front, and they would stop the truck
catercornered, they would hop into their car, and drive off,
and the bomb would detonate, you know, a minute or two later,
and you'd have flames coming out like they were coming out of
the barrel of a gun on both ends. I doubt people would take
comfort and use the tunnels much. I mean, that can happen.
But let me ask you this: what is to prevent them from
blowing up a nuclear site, a nuclear generating plant? I mean,
do you have to have the technology to have radiation go then?
What would be the technology? Dr. Cilluffo, what would it be?
Mr. Cilluffo. Just the Mr. I'm not a doctor.
To be honest, what you are bringing out is what hopefully
the terrorists don't think, and that's better-placed bombs--
conventional terrorism on new targets which could cause mass
casualties. A well-placed bomb at a LNG--liquified natural
gas--facility or a nuclear facility or something lobbed into
something else, yes, security and safeguards at our nuclear
facilities do need to take these sorts of threats into
consideration. Absolutely.
And you're right, it is partially imagination here, and
hopefully they don't become too imaginative. And that, again,
is not to say----
Mr. Shays. You know, that's really kind of--you know,
``hopefully'' isn't good enough.
Mr. Cilluffo. I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Mr. Shays. And we know that's not the case. I mean, you
know, they aren't unimaginative people. I mean, we can joke
about it and we can say it, but they aren't.
Mr. Cilluffo. I was actually referring to your comment. And
I also agree that bits, bytes, bugs, and gas will never replace
bullets and bombs, as Bruce referred to, either. But one of
these could be a transforming event, where, as tragic as a
major conventional terrorist attack can be, that's not going to
shake the country's confidence to the very core.
So I agree, it is somewhat like looking into Hitler during
World War II. It's finding the unexpected, not looking for the
expected and trying to look for it within that noise level.
It's looking for the thing that you're not looking for, and
that is a concern, and I think that by all means one of these
events, if successful, could transform society.
Mr. Shays. Yes. And my point in asking these questions is
then to ask the reasons why we are here for the hearing. But, I
mean, I don't like to have experts come--and I don't want to
say it is going to be worse than it is going to be. I think,
Dr. Hoffman, what you're doing is you're saying, you know, you
need to know the threat as it exists and as it might exist so
you can respond in an intelligent way. I mean, I value that
tremendously. But I'm concerned that in the end that we will
talk about this problem after there is an event, because I do
think there will be an event. I don't think it will probably be
nuclear, although, you know, if you speak to someone like my
colleague, Curt Weldon from Pennsylvania, he's concerned that
the nuclear backpacks in Russia aren't all accounted for and
the Russians say they are. But, you know, I happen to think
that Curt Weldon, who has made so many visits to the Soviet
Union, has a point that we should be concerned with.
I have more questions, but I am happy to----
Mr. Tierney. My only thought, just the one question on
that, is that we are so reliant on a lot of things that work
through satellite technology these days. What's our exposure of
vulnerability if someone decided to go after satellites?
Mr. Cilluffo. That is a topic that broadens the scope of
the discussion today, and I do think vulnerabilities to our
space assets is a critical issue that the United States needs
to look at and needs to take steps to harden those targets.
And you could make the case, a very good case, that yes,
that is part of homeland defense in the larger context. We are
more dependent than anyone else on these forms of space
satellites.
Mr. Tierney. When you look at how much we do depend on
them, entire systems.
Mr. Cilluffo. And you are absolutely right. From a
dependency standpoint, whether it is our national security
information or whether it is telecommunications, surveillance,
radar----
Mr. Tierney. Well, a number of different things.
Mr. Cilluffo. You're absolutely right, and that is
something I do hope. And, looking at Secretary Rumsfeld's
thoughts on this in the past, I do think that this is something
we're going to see an awful lot of effort brought to bear, at
least within OSD. You may even have--there's some discussion
about a new Under Secretary for Space and Command and Control
Communications, C4ISR, intelligence and surveillance, so I
think that, with Secretary Rumsfeld in charge, those sorts of
concerns will be addressed and first priorities. But I agree
with you.
General Clapper. If I might add a comment, no one can say
with certainty--none of us, and certainly no one in the
intelligence community can say that there isn't another Omshon
Rico somewhere out there that we don't know about who may be
going to school on what--on the Japanese cult. This is an issue
that the intelligence community is often critiqued for. In
other words, the dilemma is do you only go on what is
evidentiarily based, or do you go or plan on what is
theoretically possible. That is kind of the dilemma we are in
here with respect to potential terrorist attacks.
Mr. Shays. Thank you.
Let me be clear on this. You all have basically said--first
off, you have responded by saying that it is not a question of
when as it relates to nuclear. I mean, I think you all have
made it--agreed that chemical, biological may be a question of
when, but you particularly, Dr. Hoffman--and others reinforced
it--are saying, you know, let's not lose track of what
terrorists can do without having to use weapons of mass
destruction. They can do a heck of a lot of damage.
But you all are saying to us--and if you're not, tell me
this--that we do not have a strategy, a national strategy, to
combat terrorism.
Is that true, Dr. Hoffman?
Mr. Hoffman. Yes, sir.
Mr. Shays. OK.
General Clapper. Yes.
Mr. Wermuth. Yes.
Mr. Cilluffo. Correct.
Mr. Shays. OK. And tell me--and each of you have done it
well, but I'd like you to attempt it, in as succinctly as
possible, why do you think we do not have a national strategy?
I'll start with you, Dr. Hoffman.
Mr. Hoffman. It goes back to our assessment of the threat.
I think we have disparate parts that we don't completely
understand; that it has led us--and this is a very personal
view--it has led us to focus perhaps exclusively or, if I can
say that more kindly, perhaps too much on the high-end threats
and to ignore the entire spectrum.
My concern is, again, how we would respond to and address
an Oklahoma City type threat. I think certainly we've made
tremendous strides in addressing the potentiality of biological
and chemical threats, but at least--and perhaps my experience
is too narrow, but when I was meeting with first responders in
Oklahoma, Idaho, and Florida, the complaints from three very
different States were very similar--that they felt there were
tremendous opportunities to get chemical and biological kits to
respond to that end of the threats, but things that they
needed, such as concrete cutters, thermal imaging devices that
would respond equally as well in----
Mr. Shays. You're just telling me a little bit more than I
need to know right now.
Mr. Hoffman. OK.
Mr. Shays. So the bottom line is that--why?
Mr. Hoffman. I think we need a strategy----
Mr. Shays. I want to know why.
Mr. Hoffman [continuing]. And a threat assessment to plan
against, and we don't have a clear one now.
Mr. Shays. And the reason? I'm just asking why? I want
you--you said it once, but I just didn't want to lose track of
it.
Mr. Hoffman. There is not a net assessment or a process to
gather together the differing strands from different agencies.
Mr. Shays. OK.
General.
General Clapper. Inertia.
Mr. Shays. OK. Thank you. You did it very succinctly, even
more than I wanted. Can you expand?
General Clapper. Let me suggest, if I may, sir, maybe
another way to think about this----
Mr. Shays. Yes.
General Clapper [continuing]. Is that if you think of the
terrorist threat in a military context--if I can put my former
hat on--as a major contingency for this country, and the issue
is whether we are basically--and I'm speaking broadly here--
still working with the legacy of the cold war and the structure
we had to confront the cold war and the bipolar contest with
the former Soviet Union, now we are confronted with a very
different threat, not necessarily a nation but nation state
based, yet fundamentally the Government is still structured as
it was, so that's another attempt on my part to answer your
question.
Mr. Shays. Well, I think it is a very helpful one, frankly.
I mean, our institutions are prepared to deal with something
quite different than a terrorist threat, and there are lots of
implications, aren't there? There are implications that the
military might have to say, ``As important as this, this, and
this is, this may be a more serious threat,'' and to
acknowledge that may put some people, frankly, out of business
or devalue in some ways their importance to someone who may
have a more-important role to play in this new day and age.
I don't want to put words in your mouth, but that's what it
triggered to me.
Mr. Wermuth.
Mr. Wermuth. In my opinion, Mr. Chairman, the answer is
leadership; specifically, leadership from the other end of
Pennsylvania Avenue. The executive branch has the
responsibility for developing national strategies of any kind.
Congress can't do that. Congress can direct the strategy, but
Congress doesn't have experience in developing national
strategies.
Part of the problem I think, not to be too critical of
efforts, well-intentioned efforts that have taken place,
particularly in the years since Oklahoma City, but it is a lack
of recognition on the part of the executive branch about the
nationality of this issue. It can't be fixed with a couple of
Presidential decision directives directed at a couple of
Federal agencies. It can't be fixed by the Justice Department's
view exclusively on how to handle this problem. It is a
national issue. As General Clapper said, it is not just a
Federal issue. It has got to be part and parcel of a national
approach to addressing the issue.
From my own perspective, that has not been well recognized
by the executive branch to this point.
Mr. Cilluffo. As I did bring up earlier, I also agree
executive leadership is absolutely critical and is probably the
single-most-important element and ingredient to actually seeing
action on what we are discussing today.
I also think that the different agencies that now need a
seat at the national security planning table has changed.
Public Health Service, Department of Agriculture were never
really seen as agencies that needed a front-row seat at the
national security community.
And I also agree with Mike Wermuth's comments that there's
a tendency to look at the world through your own lens, through
your own organizational chart, to look at the world's problems
through your own organizational chart, when at reality you
can't look at it through an individual lens but rather a prism
that reflects all these different views. But then, again, that
requires that belly button, that individual who can marry up
authority, accountability, and resources.
And I do get back to resources. The Golden Rule: he or she
with the gold rules. If you don't have anyone who has some----
Mr. Shays. No, that's the Gold Rule. That's not the Golden
Rule.
Mr. Cilluffo. The Gold Rule. Forgive me.
Mr. Shays. OK.
Mr. Cilluffo. But it is----
Mr. Shays. I don't even have the courage to ask you the
analogy of the belly button. That's a show stopper for me.
Do you have the courage to ask him?
Mr. Tierney. No.
Mr. Shays. OK.
Mr. Cilluffo. One point.
Mr. Shays. One point?
Mr. Cilluffo. A focal point.
Mr. Shays. A focal point. OK. That's good enough.
So you basically establish the problem exists, you
basically agree that there isn't a national plan. You've
explained to me why, and all of you have had slightly different
responses, but they all, I think, are helpful to me to
understand because that can then enable us to see how we work
around that. So I get to this last point of each of you have
kind of focused on the solutions of how we should approach
dealing with this problem, and I'd like you succinctly to tell
me, is it important whether we get in debate--it is important--
I'll tell you what I've heard: that the position that Mr. Clark
has within the White House needs to be brought more out into
the open. I mean, we haven't really been able to get him to
testify before our committee, for instance, and have a
meaningful dialog because he is, you know, not under our
jurisdiction. So at least should be someone that Congress has
the right to review and look at and question and all that.
And then the question is: does that person end up becoming
a czar? Does he end up becoming something a little more
different, like was suggested by Senator Rudman? What is that?
You've said it, but tell me what--is it important that the
debate be about whether he is a czar or not a czar or so on?
What is the important part?
General Clapper. Well, as far as the Gilmore Commission is
concerned, we developed a great aversion for the term ``czar''
and steadfastly avoided using that term. That implies--I think
it has sort of a negative connotation.
What I think I would characterize it as is an authoritative
coordinator who is accountable and responsible and has the ear
of the President.
Mr. Shays. With significant powers?
General Clapper. I think--well, significant powers----
Mr. Shays. A budget?
General Clapper. Well, has to have oversight and visibility
over all the agency budgets that are--that we've got lined up
here who have some role to play in this.
We were very concerned that the departments and agencies we
do have who are lined up on the wall here do not abrogate their
obligations and responsibilities that they are now charged
with. We're not suggesting that, or that those should be all-
subsumed, gathered up under one central organizational
umbrella. That was not our intent at all.
What we were suggesting is that there needs to be an
orchestrator, a quarterback, or whatever metaphor you want to
use, who does have oversight and influence over the allocation
of resources and funds and can account for and address
duplication, overlap, or omissions where there is something
that no one is doing that this entity--and it has to be
something more than a very capable staffer on the National
Security Council to do it.
Mr. Shays. So it is someone that is answerable, in the
executive branch, answerable to the White House and Congress.
General Clapper. Absolutely. It should be someone appointed
by the President and confirmed by the Senate, so that personage
is politically accountable.
Mr. Shays. Dr. Hoffman.
Mr. Hoffman. Congressman, my expertise is very narrow. I
can tell you how to organize a terrorist group, but much less
so----
Mr. Shays. You look smart to me, though.
Mr. Hoffman [continuing]. But much less so how to tackle
the U.S. Governmental structure. I defer to my colleagues on
that one.
Mr. Shays. Sure?
Mr. Hoffman. Absolutely.
Mr. Shays. OK.
Mr. Wermuth.
Mr. Wermuth. I would simply concur with what General
Clapper said, with the addition that it is not just a matter of
taking the national coordinator's position in the NSC and
elevating it to Presidential appointment with Senate
Confirmation. If you look at all the agencies on this table, it
is more than just national security issues. When you consider
the CDC and the other HHS functions, when you consider the
Department of Agriculture and the possibility of agro
terrorism, when you consider some of the other aspects, it is
not just an NSC function as we know the National Security
Council. It is much broader than that, which is why we
suggested that this new director or this new entity should have
oversight over all of these. Even though there is still an
important National Security Council input and focus here, it is
significantly broader and takes, of course, into consideration
State and local functions, as well.
Mr. Shays. Mr. Cilluffo.
Mr. Cilluffo. Well, to be blunt, Dick Clark has done some
very good work as a national coordinator. I think that perhaps
he has had too much on his plate. He's the coordinator for all
things that go boom in the middle of the night, from cyber to
CBRN to trans-national crime--drugs, thugs, and bugs, I guess
you could call it in the vernacular.
The difference that I see is the need to--is the ability to
have some sway over budget, and this means certification and
pass-back authority, in our recommendation, and, additionally,
that would require congressional oversight.
You do want to be able to fire someone, too. Let's be
honest here and get down to--I mean, when it comes to
accountability, you want to point a finger to see why we should
be doing things, why aren't we doing things, and why didn't we
do something.
So I do think that it needs to remain within the executive
branch, but within the EOP, in the Office of the President or
Vice President. And, while it is a coordinator, that
coordinator would define the yearly strategy, the annual
strategy, and budget should be dovetailing through that
strategy, and then they can even decrement a certain amount of
an agency's counterterrorism-related budget if that particular
agency isn't adhering to that.
Mr. Shays. You all have been very interesting, very
helpful.
Is there a question that we should have asked that you
would have liked to have responded to? Or is there a question
that came up that you think you need to respond to before we
close the record?
General Clapper. Sir, there is one issue I would like to
bring up, since it came up in the Hart--in the earlier
discussion with Senator Rudman and General Boyd, and that had
to do with the issue of lead Federal agency and the
implications there with respect to civil liberties.
I will tell you that this was probably the most intensely
debated issue that has come up in the Gilmore panel in its thus
far 2 years of existence. It is an issue the Governor, himself,
feels very strongly about, and it is why we specifically
recommended in our panel a discourse that in every case, no
matter how cataclysmic an attack, that the lead Federal agency
should always be civilian and never the Department of Defense.
That's one issue that we weren't asked that I would like to
address, and particularly on behalf of Governor Gilmore because
I know that he does feel very strongly about it.
Mr. Cilluffo. Can I just add to that very briefly?
Mr. Shays. Sure.
Mr. Cilluffo. The debate is normally cast as an either/or,
as if security and freedom are mutually exclusive. I don't
share that. In fact, I see them as enabling one another.
Obviously, we should never infringe upon liberties in order
to preserve them, but, at the same time, the American
Government at the Federal, State, and local level have a
responsibility to protect American citizens and their
livelihood. Look at how much we've spent on projecting and
protecting abroad. I don't see why protecting us at the
homeland, given the potential threat, should be seen as
anything else but truly the very core of what our national
security community in the end is all about.
Mr. Shays. Would you agree, though, that it should be a
civilian?
Mr. Cilluffo. Yes. We did make--I did make reference in my
testimony to the role of Department of Defense, but yes, I
think it has to be civilian. But I also, at the same time,
don't want the President to have to turn to that cupboard and
then find it bare. So I would also say that many people think
that DOD capabilities are arguably more robust than they are
because of the civil liberty discussion. The truth is, there's
not a whole lot there, either. We need to capitalize that
capability so the President, who has the decision, could then
decide who is taking charge, has those assets and capabilities
at hand if and when, God forbid, needed.
Mr. Shays. Any other comment, any of you?
Mr. Hoffman. If I could have one final word?
Mr. Shays. Sure.
Mr. Hoffman. I think we should--and this is a much bigger
picture, a comment. I think we need to resist the temptation to
reflexively write off terrorists as fundamentally irrational or
fanatical, as often has been the temptation in recent years.
Mr. Shays. Sure.
Mr. Hoffman. I agree entirely with Senator Rudman and
General Boyd about the resentment against the United States. I
was in Kashmir last month and certainly first-hand witnessed it
from relatively educated people, actually, and not even the
fanatics necessarily, this anti-Americanism. But at the same
time I think if we lose sight of the fact that terrorism, even
for groups like Ome, who we don't understand, still remains
instrumental and a logical weapon, and if we misread and
misunderstand terrorists, I think we risk not preparing for the
threats we really face.
I agree with you entirely about Hitler. My only difference
is how Hitler would have attacked, not whether he would attack.
Mr. Shays. OK.
All of you have provided some tremendous insights, and I
appreciate your patience in waiting to respond and your
patience with our questions. We're learning about this every
day, and you've added a lot to our knowledge. Thank you very
much.
Mr. Hoffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
General Clapper. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wermuth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Cilluffo. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Shays. With that, we'll adjourn this hearing.
[Whereupon, at 1:12 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned,
to reconvene at the call of the Chair.]