[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[January 22, 1999]
[Pages 85-88]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the National Academy of Sciences
January 22, 1999

    Thank you very much. Jamie, Dr. 
Lederberg, I'd like to thank you for your 
service in this and so many other ways. I would like to thank Sandy 
Berger for many things, including indulging 
my nagging on this subject for the better part of 6 years now. I was so 
relieved that Dr. Lederberg, not very long 
ago--well, last year--brought a distinguished panel of experts together 
to discuss this bioterrorism threat, because I then had experts to cite 
for my concern and nobody thought I was just reading too many novels 
late at night. [Laughter]
    Madam Attorney General, Secretary 
Shalala, Secretary Richardson, Director Witt, Deputy 
Secretary Hamre, Commandant of the Coast 
Guard and our other military leaders who are

[[Page 86]]

here, Mr. Clarke, ladies and gentlemen. 
I'm delighted to be here to discuss this subject--with some trepidation. 
Sandy Berger noted that Dr. Lederberg won a 
Nobel Prize at 33, and I was Governor; you can infer from that that I 
was not very good at chemistry and biology. [Laughter]
    But any democracy is imbued with the responsibility of ordinary 
citizens who do not have extraordinary expertise to meet the challenges 
of each new age. And that is what we are all trying to do. Our country 
has always met the challenges of those who would do us harm. At the 
heart of our national defense, I have always believed, is our attempt to 
live by our values, democracy, freedom, equal opportunity. We are 
working hard to fulfill these values at home. And we are working with 
nations around the world to advance them, to build a new era of 
interdependence where nations work together not simply for peace and 
security but also for better schools and health care, broader 
prosperity, a cleaner environment, and a greater involvement by citizens 
everywhere in shaping their own future.
    In the struggle to defend our people and values and to advance them 
wherever possible, we confront threats both old and new: Open borders 
and revolutions in technology have spread the message and the gifts of 
freedom, but have also given new opportunities to freedom's enemies. 
Scientific advances have opened the possibility of longer, better lives; 
they have also given the enemies of freedom new opportunities.
    Last August, at Andrews Air Force Base, I grieved with the families 
of the brave Americans who lost their lives at our Embassy in Kenya. 
They were in Africa to promote the values America shares with friends of 
freedom everywhere, and for that they were murdered by terrorists. So, 
too, were men and women in Oklahoma City, at the World Trade Center, 
Khobar Towers, on Pan Am 103.
    The United States has mounted an aggressive response to terrorism, 
tightening security for our diplomats, our troops, our air travelers; 
improving our ability to track terrorist activity; enhancing cooperation 
with other countries; strengthening sanctions on nations that support 
terrorists.
    Since 1993, we have tripled funding for FBI antiterrorist efforts. 
Our agents and prosecutors, with excellent support from our intelligence 
agencies, have done extraordinary work in tracking down perpetrators of 
terrorist acts and bringing them to justice. And as our airstrikes 
against Afghanistan--or against the terrorist camps in Afghanistan last 
summer showed, we are prepared to use military force against terrorists 
who harm our citizens. But all of you know the fight against terrorism 
is far from over. And now, terrorists seek new tools of destruction.
    Last May, at the Naval Academy commencement, I said terrorist and 
outlaw states are extending the world's fields of battle from physical 
space to cyberspace, from our Earth's vast bodies of water to the 
complex workings of our own human bodies. The enemies of peace realize 
they cannot defeat us with traditional military means, so they are 
working on two new forms of assault, which you've heard about today: 
cyber attacks on our critical computer systems, and attacks with weapons 
of mass destruction, chemical, biological, potentially even nuclear 
weapons.
    We must be ready--ready if our adversaries try to use computers to 
disable power grids, banking, communications and transportation 
networks, police, fire, and health services, or military assets. More 
and more, these critical systems are driven by and linked together with 
computers, making them more vulnerable to disruption. Last spring, we 
saw the enormous impact of a single failed electronic link when a 
satellite malfunctioned: disabled pagers, ATM's, credit card systems, 
and television networks all around the world. And we already are seeing 
the first wave of deliberate cyber attacks, hackers break into 
Government and business computers, stealing and destroying information, 
raiding bank accounts, running up credit card charges, extorting money 
by threats to unleash computer viruses.
    The potential for harm is clear. Earlier this month, an ice storm in 
this area crippled power systems, plunging whole communities into 
darkness and disrupting daily lives. We have to be ready for adversaries 
to launch attacks that could paralyze utilities and services across 
entire regions.
    We must be ready if adversaries seek to attack with weapons of mass 
destruction, as well. Armed with these weapons, which can be compact and 
inexpensive, a small band of terrorists could inflict tremendous harm. 
Four years ago, the world received a wake-up call when a group unleashed 
a deadly chemical weapon, nerve gas,

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in the Tokyo subway. We have to be ready for the possibility that such a 
group will obtain biological weapons. We have to be ready to detect and 
address a biological attack promptly, before the disease spreads.
    If we prepare to defend against these emerging threats, we will show 
terrorists that assaults on America will accomplish nothing but their 
own downfall.
    Let me say first what we have done so far to meet this challenge. 
We've been working to create and strengthen the agreement to keep 
nations from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, because this can 
help keep these weapons away from terrorists, as well. We're working to 
ensure the effective implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, 
to obtain an accord that will strengthen compliance with the Biological 
Weapons Convention, to end production of nuclear weapons material. We 
must ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to end nuclear tests once 
and for all.
    As I proposed Tuesday in the State of the Union Address, we should 
substantially increase our efforts to help Russia and other former 
Soviet nations prevent weapons material and knowledge from falling into 
the hands of terrorists and outlaw states. In no small measure we should 
do this by continuing to expand our cooperative work with the thousands 
of Russian scientists who can be used to advance the causes of world 
peace and health and well-being but who, if they are not paid, remain a 
fertile field for the designs of terrorists.
    But we cannot rely solely on our efforts to keep weapons from 
spreading. We have to be ready to act if they do spread. Last year, I 
obtained from Congress a 39 percent budget increase for chemical and 
biological weapons preparedness. This is helping to accelerate our 
ongoing effort to train and equip fire, police, and public health 
personnel all across our country to deal with chemical and biological 
emergencies. It is helping us to ready Armed Forces and National Guard 
units in every region to meet this challenge and to improve our capacity 
to detect an outbreak of disease and save lives, to create the first-
ever civilian stockpile of medicines to treat people exposed to 
biological and chemical hazards, to increase research and development on 
new medicines and vaccines to deal with new threats.
    Our commitment to give local communities the necessary tools already 
goes beyond paper and plans. For example, parked just outside this 
building is a newly designed truck we have provided to the Arlington, 
Virginia, Fire Department. It can rapidly assist and prevent harm to 
people exposed to chemical and biological dangers.
    Our commitment on the cyber front has been strong, as well. We've 
created special offices within the FBI and the Commerce Department to 
protect critical systems against cyber attack. We're building 
partnerships with the private sector to find and reduce vulnerabilities, 
to improve warning systems, to rapidly recover if attacks occur. We have 
an outstanding public servant in Richard Clarke, who is coordinating all these efforts across our 
Government.
    Today I want to announce the new initiatives we will take to take us 
to the next level in preparing for these emerging threats. In my budget, 
I will ask Congress for $10 billion to address terrorism and terrorist-
emerging tools. This will include nearly $1.4 billion to protect 
citizens against chemical and biological terror, more than double what 
we spent on such programs only 2 years ago.
    We will speed and broaden our efforts, creating new local emergency 
medical teams, deploying in the field portable detection units the size 
of a shoebox to rapidly identify hazards, tying regional laboratories 
together for prompt analysis of biological threats. We will greatly 
accelerate research and development, centered in the Department of 
Health and Human Services, for new vaccines, medicines, and diagnostic 
tools.
    I should say here that I know everybody in this crowd understands 
this, but everyone in America must understand this: The Government has 
got to fund this. There is no market for the kinds of things we need to 
develop, and if we are successful, there never will be a market for 
them. But we have got to do our best to develop them. These cutting-edge 
efforts will address not only the threat of weapons of mass destruction 
but also the equally serious danger of emerging infectious diseases. So 
we will benefit even if we are successful in avoiding these attacks.
    The budget proposal will also include $1.46 billion to protect 
critical systems from cyber and other attacks. That's 40 percent more 
than we were spending 2 years ago. Among other things, it will help to 
fund four new initiatives: first, an intensive research effort to detect 
intruders

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trying to break into critical computer systems; second, crime--excuse 
me--detection networks, first for our Defense Department, and later for 
other key agencies so when one critical computer system is invaded, 
others will be alerted instantly, and we will urge the private sector to 
create similar structures; third, the creation of information centers in 
the private sector so that our industries can work together and with 
Government to address cyber threats; finally, we'll ask for funding to 
bolster the Government's ranks of highly skilled computer experts, 
people capable of preventing and responding to computer crises.
    To implement this proposal, the Cyber Corps program, we will 
encourage Federal agencies to train and retrain computer specialists, as 
well as recruiting gifted young people out of college.
    In all our battles, we will be aggressive. At the same time I want 
you to know that we will remain committed to uphold privacy rights and 
other constitutional protections, as well as the proprietary rights of 
American businesses. It is essential that we do not undermine liberty in 
the name of liberty. We can prevail over terrorism by drawing on the 
very best in our free society: the skill and courage of our troops, the 
genius of our scientists and engineers, the strength of our factory 
workers, the determination and talent of our public servants, the vision 
of leaders in every vital sector.
    I have tried as hard as I can to create the right frame of mind in 
America for dealing with this. For too long the problem has been that 
not enough has been done to recognize the threat and deal with it. And 
we in Government, frankly, weren't as well organized as we should have 
been for too long. I do not want the pendulum to swing the other way now 
and for people to believe that every incident they read about in a novel 
or every incident they see in a thrilling movie is about to happen to 
them within the next 24 hours.
    What we are seeing here, as any military person in the audience can 
tell you, is nothing more than a repetition of weapons systems that goes 
back to the beginning of time. An offensive weapons system is developed, 
and it takes time to develop the defense; and then another offensive 
weapon is developed that overcomes that defense, and then another 
defense is built up--as surely as castles and moats held off people with 
spears and bows and arrows and riding horses, and the catapult was 
developed to overcome the castle and the moat.
    But because of the speed with which change is occurring in our 
society, in computing technology, and particularly in the biological 
sciences, we have got to do everything we can to make sure that we close 
the gap between offense and defense to nothing, if possible. That is the 
challenge here.
    We are doing everything we can, in ways that I can and in ways that 
I cannot discuss, to try to stop people who would misuse chemical and 
biological capacity from getting that capacity. This is not a cause for 
panic. It is a cause for serious, deliberate, disciplined, long-term 
concern. And I am absolutely convinced that if we maintain our clear 
purpose and our strength of will, we will prevail here.
    And thanks to so many of you in this audience and your colleagues 
throughout the United States and like-minded people throughout the 
world, we have better than a good chance of success. But we must be 
deliberate, and we must be aggressive.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 10:30 a.m. at the National Academy of 
Sciences. In his remarks, he referred to Jamie Gorelick, vice chair, 
Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and former Cochair, 
Advisory Committee of the President's Commission on Critical 
Infrastructure Protection, who introduced the President; Dr. Joshua 
Lederberg, Nobel laureate and Sackler Foundation scholar; and Richard A. 
Clarke, National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, 
and Counterterrorism.