    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
    [June 4, 2002]
    [Pages 931-933]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Exchange With Reporters at Fort Meade, Maryland
    June 4, 2002

    Intelligence Prior to September 11, 2001

        The President. How are we doing?
        Q. Not bad, sir. I wanted to ask you, yesterday you said in Little
    Rock that a better job could have been--a better job needs to be done to
    prevent terrorism. Does that mean, in hindsight--which, obviously, is
    20/20--a better job could have been done?
        The President. Well, I think there's no question that the FBI, for
    example, did not have as its primary mission a prevention of an attack,
    and now it does. In other words, the FBI was a fine law enforcement
    agency, chasing down white collar criminals and people that were
    committing crimes in America. And that's good, and that's still an
    important function of the FBI. But now the focus is on--the primary
    focus is on preventing a further attack. So the mission has changed, and
    that's a positive change.
        In terms of whether or not the FBI and the CIA were communicating
    properly, I think it is clear that they weren't, and that they--now
    we've addressed that issue. The CIA and the FBI are now in close
    communications; there's better sharing of intelligence. And one of the
    things that is essential to win this war is to have the best
    intelligence possible and, when we get the best intelligence, to be able
    to share it throughout our Government.
        And as you've seen the reforms that both Director Tenet and Bob Mueller
    have put in place, a lot of those reforms had to do with how able--the
    two are able to talk to each other. And it's a very positive reform.
        Q. If the reform had been put in place beforehand, if the FBI had
    been----
        The President. Well, it's hard--it's hard--I haven't seen any
    evidence----
        Q. ----could the attacks have been stopped?
        The President. I've seen no evidence to date that said this country
    could have prevented the attack.

    Upcoming Visit by President Hosni Mubarak of
    Egypt

        Q. Mr. President, President Mubarak told the New York Times this
    morning that he is proposing the idea of declaring a Palestinian state
    and then negotiating the hard things--borders--later. Does that make any
    sense to you?
        The President. Well, I look forward to talking to President Mubarak.
    I'd rather--you know, I think it's probably wise for me to listen to
    what he has to say and not read it, you know, through the filter of a
    fine newspaper. So I'm going to look forward to my meetings with him at
    Camp David.

    Egyptian Intelligence Prior to September 11

        Q. He also--one of the things he said in that was that the Egyptian
    intelligence services had told the United States that they were
    expecting an Al Qaida attack a week before September 11th. Is there
    any--do you know of any reason to believe that?
        The President. No, listen, there's all kinds of speculation. As I
    said, I have seen no evidence that would have led me to believe that we
    could have prevented the attacks.

    [[Page 932]]

    And obviously, if we could have, we would have prevented the attacks.

    Intelligence Community/Congressional Investigation

        Q. Sir, is there any concern at all that all this finger-pointing
    between the FBI and the CIA is distracting them a bit from the mission
    at hand, preventing future terrorist attacks?
        The President. Well, you know, one of the things I've said is that,
    for example--yes, I'm concerned about distractions from this
    perspective: I want the Congress to investigate, but I want a committee
    to investigate, not multiple committees to investigate, because I don't
    want to tie up our team when we're trying to fight this war on terror.
    So I don't want our people to be distracted.
        In terms of the gossip and the finger-pointing--level three staffers
    trying to protect, you know, trying to protect their hide--I don't think
    that's of concern. That's just typical Washington, DC.
        But what I am concerned about is tying up valuable assets and time
    and possibly jeopardizing sources of intelligence. And that's why it is
    very important that the Congress do investigate, but they do so in a way
    that doesn't jeopardize our intelligence gathering capacity. That's why
    they have intelligence committees on Capitol Hill, and that's the
    appropriate forum, as far as I am concerned, for these investigations.

    Iraq

        Q. Mr. President, you've got a lot going on foreign policywise right
    now, the Middle East meetings later this week, the continued efforts
    here. Is this all moving Iraq to the back burner?
        The President. Well, I think you need to read my speech that I gave
    at West Point. If you haven't, I'll get you----
        Q. I was there, sir.
        The President. Oh. I think you need to have listened to my speech I
    gave at West Point. [Laughter]
        No, the war on terror is--and my strong desire to protect our
    homeland is of paramount importance to me. And I think people understand
    my position on these closed regimes that harbor and desire to have
    weapons of mass destruction. And as I said in my speech, we'll use all
    the tools at our disposal to deal with these nations that hate America
    and hate our freedoms. And one option, of course, is the military
    option, but as we've said repeatedly, I have no plans on my desk at this
    point in time. But nevertheless, these nations that I have named need to
    take--they need to take America seriously. When it comes to defending
    our freedoms, they need to be worried about how we defend our freedom.
    We're very serious about this, and we expect them to change their
    behavior.

    Global Warming

        Q. Mr. President, good morning, sir. Do you plan any new initiatives
    on--to combat global warming?
        The President. No, I've laid out that very comprehensive initiative.
    I read the report put out by a--put out by the bureaucracy. I do not
    support the Kyoto treaty. The Kyoto treaty would severely damage the
    United States economy, and I don't accept that. I accept the alternative
    we put out, that we can grow our economy and, at the same time, through
    technologies, improve our environment.

    Morale in the Intelligence Community

        Q. Sir, are you concerned about the morale in the intelligence
    agencies, given the criticism that's been lodged so far, and is that
    part of what you're going to be talking about today with the employees
    of the NSA?
        The President. I believe morale is high. I glean that from the
    leaders with whom I meet on a regular basis. These--our intelligence
    communities understand they are on the forefront of one of the most
    important wars in our Nation's history. And they're--I think I'm more
    worried about

    [[Page 933]]

    them being overworked. These good people are putting in long, long
    hours.
        And one of my jobs is to remind those who sacrifice on behalf of our
    Nation that we appreciate it a lot. And I'd rather have them sacrificing
    on behalf of our Nation than, you know, endless hours of testimony on
    congressional hill. The appropriate place to do that, of course, is the
    intelligence committees. And again I repeat, the reason why that's
    important is because we have got to guard the methodology--methodologies
    of our country, of how--it's important for us to not reveal how we
    collect information. That's what the enemy wants, and we're fighting an
    enemy.
        Thank you all.

    Note: The exchange began at 10:45 a.m. in the Operations Center at the
    National Security Agency.