[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 28 (Monday, July 17, 1995)]
[Pages 1237-1241]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia

July 14, 1995

    Thank you so much. Director Deutch and Mrs. Deutch, Deputy Director 
and Mrs. Tenet, Members of Congress, members of the Aspin Commission who 
are here, men and women of the intelligence community: I can't help 
thinking here at the Central Intelligence Agency that if we were giving 
intelligence awards today they would go to the people back there under 
the trees. [Laughter] Congratulations to all of you for your adaptation 
of the natural environment to the task at hand.
    Before I begin my remarks today I'd like to take care of an 
important piece of business. Just a month ago it was with regret but 
great gratitude for his 32 years of service to our country that I 
accepted the resignation of Admiral Bill Studeman as the Deputy Director 
of Central Intelligence. Today it is with great pleasure that I award 
him the President's National Security Medal. Admiral Studeman, Mrs. 
Studeman, please come up.
    This is the highest award a member of our intelligence community, 
military or civilian, can receive. And no one deserves it more and the 
honor it represents. Most of you are well aware of Bill's extraordinary 
and exemplary career in the Navy, at the National Security Agency, and 
then here at the CIA. Let me say that as Deputy Director of Central 
Intelligence, he served two Presidents and three DCI's. For two extended 
periods he took on the responsibilities of Acting Director. He provided 
continuity and leadership to this community at a time of change and 
great challenge. Here, in Congress, and throughout the executive branch, 
he earned a reputation for integrity, competence, and reliability of the 
highest order. He has dedicated his professional life to making the 
American people safer and more secure. And today it is only fitting 
among those who know best the contributions he has made to our country 
to award him this medal as a small measure of thanks for a job well done 
and a life well lived.

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    Thank you, Admiral.
    You know as the Studemans make their way back to their chairs, I 
have to tell you that even though I have a lot of important things to 
say, I am loathe to make this speech in this heat. Once in the middle of 
a campaign for Governor I went up to a place in northeast Arkansas to 
make a speech for a county judge who was determined that I had to come 
to celebrate this road that he had built with funds that I gave him. He 
neglected to tell me that the road ended in the middle of a rice field. 
[Laughter] The only people that are laughing are the people that 
understand what this means. In the summertime in a rice field, there is 
nothing but heat and mosquitos. And a swarm of mosquitos came up in the 
middle of his introduction, literally hundreds of thousands of 
mosquitos. It was so bad that people were slapping at their cheeks and 
their legs and blood was streaming down people's faces and cheeks. And 
this judge was one of the rare people that mosquitoes would never bite. 
I had been Governor for 10 years; these people knew me better than he 
did. He took 6 minutes to introduce me. It seemed like it was 6 years. 
[Laughter] And I finally was introduced, and I gave the following 
speech: Folks, I have a good speech, if you want to hear it, come to the 
air-conditioned building down there. If we don't get out of here, we'll 
all die. If you reelect me, I'll kill every mosquito in the county. 
[Laughter]
    I have to tell you that after that I never received less than two-
thirds of the vote in that county. [Laughter] So I'm loath to give this 
speech. But I will cut it down and say what I have to say to you because 
it's very important that I say these things, and very important that 
America know that you're here and what you're doing.
    Fifty-four years ago, in the weeks that led up to Pearl Harbor, 
there was a wide range of intelligence suggesting a Japanese attack that 
made its way to Washington. But there was no clear clearinghouse to 
collect the information and to get it to the decisionmakers. That is 
what led President Truman to establish a central intelligence 
organization.
    In the years since, the men and women of the CIA and its sister 
agencies have done more than most Americans will or can ever know to 
keep our Nation strong and secure and to advance the cause of democracy 
and freedom around the world.
    Today, because the cold war is over, some say that we should and can 
step back from the world and that we don't need intelligence as much as 
we used to, that we ought to severely cut the intelligence budget. A few 
have even urged us to scrap the central intelligence service. I think 
these views are profoundly wrong. I believe making deep cuts in 
intelligence during peacetime is comparable to canceling your health 
insurance when you're feeling fine.
    We are living at a moment of hope. Our Nation is at peace, our 
economy is growing, all right. All around the world democracy and free 
markets are on the march. But none of these developments are inevitable 
or irreversible, and every single study of human psychology or the human 
spirit--every single religious tract tells us that there will be 
troubles, wars and rumors of war until the end of time.
    Now instead of a single enemy, we face a host of scattered and 
dangerous challenges, but they are quite profound and difficult to 
understand. There are ethnic and regional tensions that threaten to 
flare into full-scale war in more than 30 nations. Two dozen countries 
are trying to get their hands on nuclear, chemical, and biological 
weapons. As these terrible tools of destruction spread, so too spreads 
the potential for terrorism and for criminals to acquire them. And drug 
trafficking, organized crime, and environmental decay threaten the 
stability of new and emerging democracies, and threaten our well-being 
here at home.
    In the struggle against these forces, you, the men and women of our 
intelligence community, serve on the front lines. By necessity, a lot of 
your work is hidden from the headlines. But in recent months alone you 
warned us when Iraq massed its troops against the Kuwaiti border. You 
provided vital support to our peacekeeping and humanitarian missions in 
Haiti and Rwanda. You helped to strike a blow at a Colombian drug 
cartel. You uncovered bribes that would have cheated American companies 
out of billions of dollars. Your work has saved lives and promoted 
America's prosperity. I am here today first

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and foremost to thank you and your families for the work and sacrifices 
you have made for the security of the United States of America.
    I want to work with you to maintain the information and the 
intelligence advantage we have and to meet the demands of a new era. 
Today our Government is deluged with more and more information from more 
and more sources. What once was secret can now be available to anybody 
with cable TV or access to the Internet. It moves around the world at 
record speed. And in order to justify spending billions of dollars in 
this kind of environment on intelligence and to maintain our edge, you 
have to deliver timely, unique information that focuses on real threats 
to the security of our people on the basis of information not otherwise 
available.
    That means we have to rethink what we collect and how we organize 
the intelligence community to collect it. We must be selective. We can't 
possibly have in a world with so many diverse threats and tight budgets 
the resources to collect everything. You need and deserve clear 
priorities from me and our national security team.
    Earlier this year I set out in a Presidential decision directive 
what we most want you to focus on, priorities that will remain under 
constant review but still are clear enough at the present time. First, 
the intelligence needs of our military during an operation. If we have 
to stand down Iraqi aggression in the Gulf or stand for democracy in 
Haiti, our military commanders must have prompt, thorough intelligence 
to fully inform their decisions and maximize the security of our troops. 
Second, political, economic, and military intelligence about countries 
hostile to the United States. We must also compile all source 
information on major political and economic powers with weapons of mass 
destruction who are potentially hostile to us. Third, intelligence about 
specific transnational threats to our security, such as weapons 
proliferation, terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, illicit 
trade practices, and environmental issues of great gravity.
    This work must be done today, and it is vital to our security. But 
it cannot be immune to the tough budget climate in which we are all 
living. That's why I'm pleased that more than every before, our 
intelligence agencies are cooperating to work efficiently and to 
eliminate duplication. You are already implementing on or ahead of 
schedule 33 streamlining recommendations set out by Vice President Gore 
and former DCI Woolsey, as well as changes proposed by Director Deutch. 
Acting apart, our agencies waste resources and squander opportunities to 
make our country more secure. But acting together, they bring a powerful 
force to bear on threats to our security.
    Let me also say that I believe there is no zero sum choice to be 
made between the technological and human dimensions of intelligence. We 
need both, and we will have both. We've used satellites and signals to 
identify troop movements, to point agents in the right direction, to tap 
into secret important conversations. Today, some of your extraordinary 
in-house innovations are available for broader use, and I am interested 
in learning more about them: imagery technology, developed for the cold 
war, now being used in aid to natural disaster relief; imagery 
technology with great hope for the fight against breast cancer. We have 
to keep moving on this kind of technological frontier.
    But no matter how good our technology, we'll always rely on human 
intelligence to tell us what an adversary has in mind. We'll always need 
gifted, motivated case officers at the heart of the clandestine service. 
We'll always need good analysts to make a clean and clear picture out of 
the fragments of what our spies and satellites put on the table.
    And if we're going to continue to attract and keep the best people, 
we have to do a better job of rewarding work. I think the best way to do 
that is for the communities leadership to demonstrate to you that 
excellence of performance, equal opportunity, and personal 
accountability are the only standards that will count when it comes to 
promotion. And that is what Director Deutch has pledged to do.
    Let me say that I know the Ames scandal has colored a lot of what is 
the current debate over the future of the CIA. I imagine most of you who 
work here think that the Ames scandal has colored what the average 
American thinks about the CIA, although my guess

[[Page 1240]]

is that you're probably overestimating that and underestimating the 
common sense and balance of an average American citizen. It's important 
that we don't minimize the damage that Ames did or the changes that need 
to be made to prevent future scandals. But Aldridge Ames was a terrible 
exception to a proud tradition of service, a tradition that is reflected 
in the 59 stars that shine on the CIA's memorial wall in honor of those 
who gave their lives to serve our country.
    So we owe it to all of you in the intelligence community and to the 
American people to make sure we act on the lessons of his treason, but 
also to remind the American people that the people who work for the 
Central Intelligence Agency are patriotic Americans who have made a 
decision that they are going to devote their careers to keeping this 
country safe and strong. And I thank you for that.
    As soon as Ames was brought to justice, I ordered a comprehensive 
reexamination in both internal and external studies of our 
counterintelligence operations. As a result, we changed the way 
intelligence community does its business. Each agency now requires more 
attention and continuous training in counterintelligence and evaluates 
its employees more thoroughly and frequently.
    Above all, we are insisting that those involved in an operation take 
responsibility for its integrity. That requires careful advanced 
planning that integrates counterintelligence into everything you do from 
day one. This isn't just about safes and locks, it's about designing 
operations that minimize the possibility of a security breakdown.
    Director Deutch and I want to ensure that these new policies are 
carried out carefully so that we can avoid creating a climate of 
suspicion that embitters rather than empowers you. As we guard against a 
repeat of the Ames episode, we have to be careful not to produce a 
culture so risk averse that case officers refuse to take chances and 
analysts are afraid to speak their minds. You must not be paralyzed by 
the fear of failure.
    This administration will continue to support bold and aggressive 
actions by the intelligence community consistent with the laws of the 
land, consistent with our interests, and consistent with our values. I 
applaud Director Deutch's plan, for example, to issue new rules on 
dealing with foreign agents suspected of human rights abuses. We owe you 
clear guidance on this issue. And as a country, we have to resolve it in 
the right way.
    Finally, we owe the American public and Congress a full role in the 
debate over the future of intelligence. For over 40 years, bipartisan 
support for the work you perform has been central to your success. That 
support and the confidence of the American people were built on the 
unique oversight and consultative role Congress plays in intelligence. 
That's why Director Deutch and I will take with the utmost seriousness 
the concerns and suggestions of both the Congress and the Aspin 
commission.
    Every morning I start my day with an intelligence report. The 
intelligence I receive informs just about every foreign policy decision 
we make. It's easy to take it for granted, but we couldn't do without 
it. Unique intelligence makes it less likely that our forces will be 
sent into battle, less likely that American lives will have to put at 
risk. It gives us a chance to prevent crises instead of forcing us to 
manage them.
    So let me say to all the men and women of our intelligence 
community, I know and you know the challenges we face today will not be 
easy, but we know that you are already working every day to increase the 
security of every American. You are making a difference. Now we have to 
work together and I have to support you so that we can meet the 
challenge of doing this work even better with even more public support 
and confidence in its integrity and long-term impact. That is my 
commitment to you as you renew your commitment to America in a world 
fraught with danger but filled with promise that you will help us to 
seize.
    Thank you very much, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Director of Central Intelligence, John M. Deutch, and his wife, 
Patricia; Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, George J. Tenet, and 
his wife Stephanie; and former Director of Central Intelligence, Adm. 
John O. Studeman, USN, (Ret.), and his wife, Diane.

[[Page 1241]]