    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2001, Book II)]
    [September 25, 2001]
    [Pages 1160-1162]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to Federal Bureau of Investigation Employees
    September 25, 2001

        Thank you all. Thanks. It's been my honor to come over to thank
    everybody for their hard work. I know there's a lot of folks here at the
    FBI who are working long hours. People are away from their families more
    than they want. But my presence here should assure you that I recognize
    the important contribution you make and that the FBI and the wonderful
    men and women who work here are an incredibly important part of the army
    that is going to win the war on terrorism.
        You've got some pretty good generals here, starting with General
    Ashcroft, who is doing a fine job as the
    Attorney General of America. I told the country when I picked the man
    that you don't have to worry where he stands and the values he brings to
    the job. I'm proud of the service. And I appreciate so very much
    Larry as well, coming up from Atlanta,
    Georgia, to serve our country.
        As you know, I made an important pick to head the agency. I picked a
    good, solid American, a man who has been under fire before and who
    doesn't flinch under fire this time around, either, and that's Bob
    Mueller. Thank you for your service.
        First, I--as I mentioned to many of your colleagues, we're facing a
    different kind of war than our country is used to--that 2 weeks ago
    there was an act of war declared

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    on America. No one could have possibly dreamed that it would come in the
    way it did, and it shocked our Nation, of course. And we've had time to
    think about it here in the country, and we're angry. But we're also
    clear--we've got clear vision about what the country needs to do. This
    is a nation that has come together to defend our freedom and our way of
    life.
        I see things this way: The people who did this act on America and
    who may be planning further acts are evil people. They don't represent
    an ideology; they don't represent a legitimate political group of
    people. They're flat evil. That's all they can think about, is evil. And
    as a nation of good folks, we're going to hunt them down, and we're
    going to find them, and we will bring them to justice.
        Ours is a nation that does not seek revenge, but we do seek justice.
    And I don't care how long it takes to rout out terrorism, we're going to
    do it. We will take the time and effort and spend the resources
    necessary to not only find these who--these evildoers who did what they
    did to America on September the 11th; this is a larger campaign against
    anybody who hates freedom, anybody who can't stand what America and our
    allies and friends stand for.
        And so I'm here at the FBI to thank you for your work. Most of your
    job is to help us win the war here at home. Most of your job is to
    prevent something else from happening. And I know that hundreds of FBI
    agents and other employees of the agency are working long, long hours to
    do that. I was able to see the war rooms where information is being
    collected and analyzed and dispersed. I was able to see the consoles
    where people have been sitting at long hours, detailing every piece of
    information that is being gathered across the country. I know there are
    over 4,000 employees of the FBI working on not only gathering evidence
    for the particular actions that took place on September the 11th but
    running down every scrap of information that is being found all across
    our land and analyzing that information and preparing our great Nation
    to disrupt any action that may be being planned.
        There are some other things we can do in the country, and our
    Congress needs to work with us. And I believe--I had breakfast this
    morning with Republican and Democrat leaders, and I will tell you, the
    spirit on Capitol Hill is good for America. It's a united spirit, and I
    want to thank the leaders from both parties and both Houses for their
    willingness to listen to anybody who has got a good idea about how to
    fight terrorist activity in the country. And I believe the Attorney
    General has taken some good ideas to Capitol
    Hill, and I'd like to share some of them with you.
        First, what we've seen is these terrorists are very sophisticated,
    and so are their communications. They must--their calls must be
    penetrated when we feel there's a threat to America. We've got to know
    what's on their mind. And so, therefore, we must give the FBI the
    ability to track calls when they make calls from different phones, for
    example.
        Now, this is what we do for drug dealers and members of organized
    crime. And it seems like to make sense to me, if it's good enough for
    the FBI to use these techniques for facing down those threats to
    America, that now that we're at war, we ought to give the FBI the tools
    necessary to track down terrorists. And so I hope Congress will listen
    to the wisdom of the proposals that the Attorney General brought up, to give the tools necessary to our agents in
    the field to find those who may think they want to disrupt America
    again.
        We're asking Congress for the authority to hold suspected terrorists
    who are in the process of being deported, until they're deported. That
    seems to make sense--[laughter]--that if a suspected terrorist is
    detained, and our Nation has decided to deport the person, then they
    ought to be held in custody until the action actually takes

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    place. We believe it's a necessary tool to make America a safe place.
        Now, this would of course be closely supervised by an immigration
    judge. Now, the only alternative is to let suspected terrorists loose in
    our country. I don't think anybody wants to do that. [Laughter] I
    certainly hope not.
        And we're asking for the authority to share information between
    intelligence operations and law enforcement, so we can direct the best
    of both in the critical effort. That, too, is a reasonable request to
    make of Congress.
        I want you to know that every one of the proposals we've made on
    Capitol Hill, carried by the Attorney General,
    has been carefully reviewed. They are measured requests; they are
    responsible requests; they are constitutional requests. Ours is a land
    that values the constitutional rights of every citizen, and we will
    honor those rights, of course.
        But we're at war, a war we're going to win. And in order to win the
    war, we must make sure that the law enforcement men and women have got
    the tools necessary, within the Constitution, to defeat the enemy.
        And there's going to be one other thing that's required to defeat
    the enemy, and that's the will and determination of the American people.
    I believe the evildoers miscalculated when they struck America. They
    thought we would shy away. They thought their threats could hold this
    Nation hostage. They must have felt like they could diminish our soul.
    But quite the opposite has taken place. They've strengthened the spirit
    of America. They have united the country. They have awoken a mighty
    nation that understands that freedom is under assault, a mighty nation
    that will not rest until those who think they can take freedom away from
    any citizen in the world are brought to justice.
        They've got a problem on their hands. We're going to find them. And
    if they're hiding, we're going to smoke them out. And we'll bring them
    to justice. And not only will we bring them to justice, we will bring
    those who harbor them, who hide them, who feed them, who encourage them,
    to justice.
        America is a nation built upon freedom and the principles of
    freedom, the values of freedom. And this is a nation that will not--will
    not--blink from the fight. This is a nation that will stand strong for
    the great values that have made us unique.
        I'm proud of the work of the FBI. I want to thank you all for your
    dedication. Stay at it. The Nation is counting on you. You're making a
    great, great contribution for the country.
        May God bless you all and your families, and may God continue to
    bless the United States of America.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:37 p.m. in a conference room at the
    Operations Center at the FBI headquarters building. In his remarks, he
    referred to Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson.