[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 138 (Thursday, October 2, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12362-S12363]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           LESSONS OF 9/11 AND THE D.C. AREA SNIPER SHOOTINGS

  Mr. KENNEDY. A year ago, the entire capital region was terrorized by 
unknown killers striking randomly, without warning, without any 
discernible pattern, and without mercy. Sadly, we know now that those 
savage murders could have been prevented.
  On 9/11/2001, we had learned that the oceans could no longer protect 
us from the terrorism that has plagued other nations. We learned that 
our law enforcement agencies and our intelligence agencies were not 
adequately organized, trained, or prepared to identify the terrorists 
and prevent them from striking.
  We learned, especially from the report of the Senate and House 
Intelligence Committees, that there were serious problems with 
information analysis and information sharing between agencies at the 
Federal, State and local levels, and even between Federal agencies.
  As the FBI Director told the committees, no one can say whether the 
tragedy of 9/11 could have been prevented if all of the problems of our 
foreign and domestic intelligence and law enforcement agencies had been 
corrected before 9/11. But 9/11 was certainly a wakeup call to these 
agencies. They were on notice that, whatever the reasons for their 
failure to connect the many ``dots'' which their separate activities 
had uncovered before the terrorist attacks, they needed to change their 
ways.
  The tragic DC area killings of a year ago, in which 13 people were 
shot and 10 lost their lives, provided a dramatic test of how well we 
had learned the lessons of 9/11. At the time, we had no way of knowing 
whether the shootings were the work of demented citizens, homegrown 
terrorists, or foreign terrorists bent on spreading mortal fear among 
the people.
  In many ways, the law enforcement response was a model of the lessons 
already learned. Over 1,300 Federal agents of all types joined hundreds 
of State and local law enforcement personnel in a joint intensive 
effort to identify and apprehend the killers. The cooperation among law 
enforcement agencies in the area was close and seemingly effective.
  But in some vital respects, the events of last October revealed 
shockingly that a year after 9/11, we had not yet filled obvious gaps 
in our day-to-day law enforcement and intelligence activities.
  We had not made sure that all of the Nation's police agencies at all 
levels were communicating with each other with the fastest possible 
technology, and acting in real time to share the useful information 
they had gathered.
  Unfortunately, too much of the national effort had been invested in 
arguing over broad and controversial new investigative and enforcement 
powers that threatened draconian violations of basic rights and 
liberties, with little benefit to homeland security.
  These debates deflected attention from the urgent need to assure that 
every jurisdiction in the Nation has--and uses--full access to the vast 
array of already available Federal resources specifically designed to 
assist them in their local responsibilities. The DC sniper case showed 
us a year ago that we need even more focus on this very practical and 
achievable goal, and less focus on the distracting shortcuts urged on 
the Nation by those who believe we must sacrifice our rights to gain 
security.

[[Page S12363]]

  A year ago, we learned again that the national law enforcement system 
is only as strong as its weakest link. If all jurisdictions everywhere 
are not full partners in the legitimate, practical, day-to-day 
operations of the existing national system for information sharing and 
Federal-State cooperation, each of us anywhere is at risk.
  The information now available demonstrates that the enormous 
tragedies of a year ago might well have been entirely prevented if 
authorities in a State far from the Washington area had used the 
existing Federal resources available to them.
  The fact is, on the night of September 21, 2002, 11 days before the 
sniper shootings began in the Washington area, the local police in 
Montgomery, AL, obtained a clear fingerprint of a suspect in a brutal 
robbery and murder. As we now know, that fingerprint matched a print on 
file in the FBI electronic matching system.

  That information could have quickly led the authorities to Malvo and 
Muhammad, the two people later charged with the Washington area 
killings that began on October 2 that year.
  A State crime laboratory with a few thousand dollars worth of proper 
hardware and free software from the FBI could have transmitted the 
Alabama fingerprint to the FBI system on Sunday morning, September 22. 
That system would have automatically compared the print with the 45 
million prints in the system. The matching print could have been found 
and identified by the FBI by noon on that Sunday. In fact, the FBI's 
average response time on such print matches was 3 hours and 16 minutes 
last year.
  The FBI's State assistance program makes it easy and inexpensive for 
a State to transmit unidentified prints directly to the automated 
fingerprint system. The Justice Department even provides grants to help 
with the costs.
  But 15 States, including the State of Alabama, are not yet fully 
connected to the FBI system. They cannot transmit the fingerprints 
found at crime scenes directly to the FBI's automated 24-hour-a-day 
fingerprint searching system.
  In the Alabama case, had the full facilities available from the 
Federal Government been utilized, look-out alerts or arrest warrants 
for the Alabama murder suspects could have been circulated throughout 
the Nation some time between September 22 and September 24, followed 
quickly by the description and license plate number of the car they 
were using.
  In other words, at least 7 full days before the first shooting in the 
Washington area, Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies 
could have identified Muhammad and Malvo and could have been searching 
urgently for them, because they were wanted for the robbery/murder in 
Alabama. Tragically, we now know that local police officers in two 
other States made traffic stops of the suspects' car and checked the 
driver's license and plates with the national databases during those 7 
days. But because the readily available national system had not been 
used, those checks produced no response. Malvo and Muhammad were not 
apprehended, and the DC area sniper shootings took place.
  It is not my purpose to single out Alabama for special blame. This is 
a national problem. Fifteen States are not fully connected to the FBI's 
electronic matching system. Many other States may not take full 
advantage of this and other Federal resources.
  The FBI spent $640 million building its fingerprint system, because 
it persuaded Congress that ``if we build it they will come.'' The 
system works well beyond the planners' dreams. It usually responds on a 
ten-fingerprint check of an arrested suspect within 20 minutes. It 
usually reports on an unknown single fingerprint within about 3 hours.
  Thirty-five States are fully using this valuable resource. They use 
the system routinely and automatically, because as one police official 
put it, ``You catch bad guys'' this way. In fact, some police 
departments sent the FBI all the old unidentified prints they had as 
soon as they connected to the system. Time after time, even very old 
prints from unsolved cases were matched with prints in the system, and 
old crimes were finally solved.
  On this sad anniversary of the DC sniper shootings, I hesitate to 
discuss these painful facts, when the victims' families are still 
grieving. But I, too, have been where they are now, and so I feel I can 
speak the painful truth, the truth that will teach us how to make the 
future better than the past.
  The truth is that we now know this tragedy could have been 
prevented--not by tougher laws or more intrusive investigative powers, 
not by ethnic or racial profiling, but by strengthening and fully using 
the effective systems we already have in place.
  Attorney General Ashcroft wants even more law enforcement powers that 
will threaten still more basic rights. But I say, let's fix the nuts 
and bolts of the system we already have. It is a scandal that 15 of our 
States are still not fully linked to the FBI system. The financial cost 
is small, and Federal grants are available to defray it and pay the 
cost of any training that is needed. Hopefully, no such avoidable 
tragedy will ever happen again, and the victims we mourn and honor 
today will not have died in vain.

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