[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 88 (Thursday, June 27, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S6237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S6237]]
                            GETTING ANSWERS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, during England's darkest hour in 1940, 
Winston Churchill spoke of an unwavering sense of purpose. ``You ask, 
what is our aim? I can answer in one word: it is victory, victory at 
all costs, victory in spite of all terror,'' he told members of 
Parliament.
  Sixty years later, we here in the United States are fighting a 
different kind of terror, terrorists who hide in caves and plan the 
murder of thousands of innocent Americans, but our resolve to defeat it 
matches that of Churchill. Some have expressed concerns that the 
investigations of how our intelligence and law enforcement authorities 
handled information prior to 9-11 will weaken our efforts to defeat 
terrorists.
  Frankly, I think the questions that are being raised will strengthen 
our efforts to defeat terrorism. We have a lot of good men and women 
working in the CIA, the FBI and other agencies. But evidence, we have 
learned in recent months, suggests that there is a layer of bureaucracy 
and resistance in the management of some of these critical agencies 
that stifles the efforts of good law enforcement and good intelligence 
when tracking terrorists.
  We have to fix that. Our job is to prevent the next act of terror and 
if the bureaucracy is clogging the arteries of our intelligence and law 
enforcement agencies, then we have to get rid of it.
  Consider this: six months after Mohammed Atta and MarwanAl-Shehhi 
flew huge jets into the World Trade Center, the U.S. Immigration and 
Naturalization Service inexplicably sent notice their visa status had 
been changed from travel to student. In recent weeks, reports indicate 
a Phoenix FBI agent alerted headquarters of his suspicions about Middle 
Eastern men taking flight lessons. Minneapolis agent Coleen Rowley has 
complained bitterly that her office's efforts to obtain a search 
warrant about a suspected highjacker were ignored. Now the CIA says 
that it was tracking two of those who committed terrorist's acts on 9-
11, but there is controversy over whether the FBI was actually 
notified. As a result the terrorists moved in and out of our country 
with ease. These and other reports, in recent months, raise real 
concerns about how these federal intelligence and law enforcement 
agencies are working to prevent future acts of terrorism.
  When people begin to raise questions about these issues, some claim 
that the intent is to criticize President Bush.
  President Bush, indeed any President, would have moved heaven and 
earth to prevent the catastrophe of 9-11 if he had received any advance 
warning. These inquiries are not about the President or the White 
House. They are about the effectiveness of our Federal agencies in the 
war against terrorism here at home.
  The information disclosed in recent months about some of the failures 
of these agencies has come from people working inside the agencies. 
These are employees of the FBI and other agencies who are blowing the 
whistle on agency managers who fail to see the gravity of this 
situation and refuse to take appropriate actions.
  For example, Minneapolis FBI agents were admonished by their 
superiors for sharing information with the CIA in the case of suspected 
terrorist, Zacarias Moussaoui, who had links to Osama bin Laden. That 
is unacceptable. These agencies need to work together. Preventing the 
next terrorist act is a tough job, and we will succeed only if we have 
all of the resources working full time and cooperating fully.
  In recent months and weeks, the head of Homeland Security has warned 
our country the terrorist attacks against the Untied States could 
happen at any time. That's why these agencies and their officials have 
to be fighting the battle against terrorists, not turf battles between 
their agencies.
  Big, bureaucratic and slow doesn't get it anymore. We deserve better 
from these agencies. What if there is critical information right now in 
the possession of one agency that is not sharing it with another? Are 
those who dropped the ball last year in these agencies. The same ones 
we now rely on to prevent another terrorist nightmare?
  The answer to these questions is why this is such an urgent matter. 
We, the President, the Congress and the American people, deserve the 
unvarnished facts so that we can move ahead and protect our country, so 
I say let's do these investigations. Let's make sure that they don't 
turn into a circus. As Sergeant Joe Friday used to say, ``Just the 
facts, ma'am.'' Let's use those facts to make the changes these 
agencies so that the men and women of the FBI, the CIA and other 
agencies who are very capable and serve America well, are able to do 
their jobs successfully.
  Only then, as Winston Churchill did, can we finally win the war 
against terrorism.

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