[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 37 (Monday, September 15, 2003)]
[Pages 1190-1195]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy in Quantico, 
Virginia

September 10, 2003

    The President. Thanks a lot. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm 
welcome. I'm proud to visit the FBI Academy here at Quantico, where so 
much hard and essential work in the war on terror goes on.
    The FBI Academy, new agents who risk their lives to keep America 
safe learn their craft. In forensics lab, experts examine vital evidence 
that leads to victory against terror. In the engineering research 
facility, specialists apply the latest technology to fight crime and 
terror. You do a terrific job for the American people, and I'm here to 
tell you our Nation is grateful.

    Quantico is also known as the ``crossroad of the Corps''----

    Audience members. Hooah!

    The President. ----since so many Marines pass through the Marine 
Corps University here. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Quantico, 
population 561 fine souls, is said to have the highest number of barber 
shops--[laughter]--per capita than any town in the Nation. What strikes 
me, it looks like all those barbers specialize in one kind of haircut. 
[Laughter]

    I appreciate the men and women who wear our Nation's uniform. The 
Marines make us proud. I appreciate the men and women from the 
Department of Homeland Security who are with us today. You've been given 
a great responsibility, and you're carrying it out with focus and 
professionalism.

    I want to thank the DEA agents who are with us today. By working to 
keep drug money from financing terror, you're playing an important part 
of this war. I also thank the first-responders from the nearby 
communities who are with us today. You're the ones Americans count on in 
times of emergency, and you do not let us down.

    The lives of every person here were changed by the events of 
September the 11th, 2001. You felt the anger and the sense of loss that 
day. You stood ready to serve your country in a time of need. And each 
of you now has a part in protecting America against the threats of a new 
era.
    For 2 years, this Nation has been on the offensive against global 
terror networks, overseas and at home. We've taken unprecedented, 
effective measures to protect this homeland. Yet, our Nation has more to 
do. We will never be complacent. We will defend our people, and we will 
win this war.
    I appreciate the Attorney General being here today. I picked a good 
man, who's doing a fine job on behalf of all Americans, when I picked 
John Ashcroft to be the Attorney General of the United States.

[[Page 1191]]

    I appreciate my friend Tom Ridge. See, we were both Governors at one 
time, so I got to know him as the Governor of a relatively small State--
[laughter]--Pennsylvania. He did a great job as Governor. He's been 
given an enormous task to reorganize our Government. I'm proud that he's 
taken on the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. I'm proud 
of the job he's doing on behalf of America.
    I'm also honored to be up here with Bob Mueller, who is the head of 
the FBI. He was just recounting what it was like to go to the Marine 
Corps University--a couple of decades ago. [Laughter] A proud Marine 
then, he's now proud to run the FBI. He knows what I know: Our Nation is 
fortunate to have such fine men and women work for the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation.
    I appreciate John Gordon being up here. He's the Homeland Security 
Adviser, works right there in the White House. I meet with him every 
single day. He's got good, sound judgment and good advice. I'm honored 
that Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis is with us today. Congresswoman, we're 
glad you're here. Thank you for coming today. I appreciate Dwight Adams, 
who is the Director of the FBI Laboratory. He just gave me a fine tour. 
It's pretty sophisticated facilities. I appreciate the chance to see it.
    Tomorrow, America will mark a sad anniversary. The memories of 
September 11th will never leave us. We will not forget the burning 
towers and the last phone calls and the smoke over Arlington. We will 
not forget the rescuers who ran toward danger and the passengers who 
rushed the hijackers. We will not forget the men and women who went to 
work on a typical day and never came home. We will not forget the death 
of schoolchildren who were on a school trip.
    And we will never forget the servants of evil who plotted the 
attacks. And we will never forget those who rejoiced at our grief and 
our mourning.
    America honors and remembers the names of all victims. And tomorrow, 
some families will be thinking of one name in particular, a person they 
still love and deeply miss. The prayers of our whole Nation are with the 
families of the lost who feel a grief that does not end.
    Tomorrow's anniversary is a time for remembrance. Yet history asked 
more than memory. The attacks on this Nation revealed the intentions of 
a determined and ruthless enemy that still plots against our people. The 
forces of global terror cannot be appeased, and they cannot be ignored. 
They must be hunted; they must be found; and they will be defeated. We 
will not wait for further attacks on innocent Americans. The best way to 
protect the American people is to stay on the offensive, to stay on the 
offensive at home and to stay on the offensive overseas.
    And that is what this country is doing. We've undertaken a global 
campaign against terrorist networks. We're going after the terrorists 
wherever they hide and wherever they plan. We will keep them on the run. 
We'll bring them to justice. We have made clear the doctrine that says, 
``If you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you hide a 
terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists.'' We're holding 
regimes accountable for harboring and supporting terror.
    We're determined to prevent terrorist networks from gaining weapons 
of mass destruction. We're committed to spreading democracy and 
tolerance and freedom in the Middle East, to replace the hatred and 
bitterness with progress and hope and peace.
    These 24 months have been a time of progress against the enemy. 
Terrorists have lost their training camps in Afghanistan. They lost the 
protection of the Taliban. Al Qaida has lost nearly two-thirds of its 
known leaders. They've either been captured or they've been killed. 
Terror networks have lost access to some $200 million, which we have 
frozen or seized in more than 1,400 terrorist accounts around the world. 
The terrorists have lost a sponsor in Iraq. And no terrorist networks 
will ever gain weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein's regime. 
That regime is no more.
    Now we are engaged in other essential missions in the war on 
terrorism. We're helping the Afghan people to build free institutions 
after years of oppression. We're working with the Iraqi people to build 
a new home for freedom and democracy at the heart of the Middle East. 
The spread of freedom is one of the keys to the victory against terror. 
The Middle East will either be a place of

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increasing hope or a place of a bitterness and violence that exports 
terrorism--exports terrorism to America or other Nations. By removing 
the tyrants who support terror and by ending the hopelessness that feeds 
terror, we are helping the people of the Middle East, and we're 
strengthening the security of America.
    The terrorists understand what is at stake. They understand that the 
advance of freedom will discredit their cause, and they know that the 
advance of freedom will isolate them from sources of support. That is 
why Saddam holdouts and foreign terrorists are desperately trying to 
throw Iraq into chaos by attacking our forces, by killing aid workers, 
by destroying innocent Iraqis. This collection of killers is desperately 
trying to shake the will of the civilized world. But America will not be 
intimidated.
    We are following a clear strategy with three objectives: We're going 
to destroy the terrorists; we'll enlist the support for a free Iraq--
international support for a free Iraq; and we'll quickly transfer 
authority to the Iraqi people. We're aggressively striking the 
terrorists in Iraq with great troops. We're using better intelligence, 
because we know when we defeat them there, we won't have to face them in 
our own country.
    We're calling on other nations to help Iraqis build a free nation, 
which will make us all more secure. We're helping the Iraqi people 
assume more of their own defense and move toward self-government. I 
recognize these are not easy tasks, but they're essential tasks. And 
this country will do what is ever necessary to win this victory in the 
war on terror.
    As we wage this war abroad, we must remember where it began, here on 
our homeland. In this new kind of war, the enemy's objective is to 
strike us on our own territory and make our people live in fear. This 
danger places all of you, every person here and the people you work 
with, on the frontlines of the war on terror.
    Our methods for fighting this war at home are very different from 
those we use abroad. Yet our strategy is the same: We're on the 
offensive against terror; we're determined to stop the enemy before they 
can strike our people.
    Every morning I am briefed from the latest information on the 
threats to our country, and those threats are real. The enemy is wounded 
but still resourceful and actively recruiting and still dangerous. We 
cannot afford a moment of complacency. Yet, as you know, we've taken 
extraordinary measures these past 2 years to protect America. And we're 
making progress. There are solid results that we can report to the 
American people.
    We have shut down phony charities that serve as fronts for 
terrorists. We've thwarted terrorists in Buffalo and Seattle, in 
Portland, Detroit, North Carolina, and Tampa, Florida. More than 260 
suspected terrorists have been charged in United States courts; more 
than 140 have already been convicted.
    We're making progress because we have got skilled professionals on 
the job, and we've got a clear strategy. We reorganized our Government 
to enhance our strategy, and we set three national objectives for 
homeland security: One, to prevent attacks on America; to reduce our 
vulnerabilities; and to prepare for any attack that might come.
    Under Director Mueller, the FBI is transforming itself to face the 
new threats of our time. Instead of just investigating past crimes, the 
agency is now dedicated to preventing future attacks. Since September 
the 11th, the share of FBI resources dedicating to fighting terror has 
more than doubled. The agency remains fully committed to its traditional 
law enforcement duties. Yet now the FBI is better at analyzing threats 
and sharing more information with other agencies at every level of 
Government. The FBI, much to the chagrin of the enemy, is fully engaged 
on the war on terror. America is proud of your efforts.
    To make our antiterror efforts more effective, we established the 
Terrorism Threat Integration Center to merge and analyze in a single 
place all the vital intelligence on global terror from across our 
Government. We're doing a better job of talking to each other. The left 
hand now knows what the right hand is doing. We're gathering 
intelligence and preparing the homeland and the people in charge of 
protecting the homeland with the best information we can possibly find.

[[Page 1193]]

    We also have merged 22 Federal agencies into the Department of 
Homeland Security. Employees of DHS go to work every day with a single 
overriding responsibility, to make America more secure. Secretary Ridge 
and his team have done a fine job in getting the difficult work of 
organizing the Department, and we appreciate your service to America as 
well.
    DHS has spearheaded a massive overhaul of security at America's 
airports. Some 48,000 professional screeners, employed and supervised by 
the Transportation Security Administration, are now on the job across 
America. With new equipment, we're now screening every bag that goes to 
every airplane. The cockpit doors of every large passenger airplane that 
flies in the United States have been hardened. Thousands of Federal air 
marshals are flying on commercial flights. We're determined to protect 
Americans who travel by plane and to prevent those planes from being 
used as weapons against the American people.
    The Department of Homeland Security is focused on making the border 
more secure. Our Smart Border strategy uses technology and background 
checks to allow law-abiding travelers to cross the border, while 
officials concentrate on possible threats. We've improved the entry 
process. People coming into the United States will soon be met by a 
single uniformed officer, rather than the separate officials from 
Customs, Agricultural, and Immigration.
    Working with the State Department, DHS is doing a better job of 
screening visa applicants and keeping track of short-term visitors while 
they're in our country. America will remain a welcoming society. We 
welcome families and tourists, students and business people from other 
countries. But our border must be closed to criminals and terrorists.
    Since September the 11th, 2001, America has made the largest 
commitment to securing our seaports since World War II. In these 2 
years, the Coast Guard, which is now part of the Department of Homeland 
Security, has conducted more than 124,000 port security patrols, more 
than 13,300 air patrols, and has boarded more than 92,000 vessels. DHS 
now requires electronic advance cargo manifests from ships 24 hours 
before containers are loaded onto ships, giving officials time to check 
for potential dangers. We're enforcing tough rules that require ports 
and vessels and facilities to upgrade their security. This Nation is 
determined to protect our ports from all the threats around the world.
    We're determined as well to reduce the vulnerabilities of our 
Nation's infrastructure. The Department of Homeland Security is working 
closely with State and local governments to identify key vulnerabilities 
in our communications systems, our power grids, and our transportation 
networks, and we're taking action to protect them. DHS has established a 
National Cyber Security Division to examine cybersecurity incidents, to 
track attacks, and to coordinate nationwide responses. DHS is also 
helping the operators of chemical facilities improve security. We're 
working on Congress--with Congress on new legislation that establishes 
uniform standards for security of chemical sites.
    Even with all these measures, there is no such thing as perfect 
security in a vast and free country. So all levels of government must be 
prepared to respond quickly and effectively to any emergency. In 
responding to most incidents, local officials such as firefighters will 
be the first on the scene. America's first-responders need to be well-
equipped, and they need to be well-trained.
    The Federal Government has a responsibility to help, and we're 
meeting that responsibility. We've committed nearly $8 billion over the 
past 2 years to better equip and train our State and local first-
responders and hospitals and laboratories. I proposed more than 5 
billion more for the coming fiscal year. We're spending this money 
wisely, I want you to know. We're targeting resources where they're 
needed, where they'll do the most good.
    An effective response system requires effective communications. You 
know that. First-responders know what I'm talking about. So we're 
upgrading communication systems all across the country to make sure that 
people from all agencies, at all levels of government, can talk to one 
another in crisis.
    We're making a special effort to prepare for the possibility of a 
biological or chemical attack. We've improved our ability to quickly

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detect such attacks if they occur. We've enlarged the strategic national 
stockpile of drugs and vaccines and medical supplies. We now have on 
hand, for instance, enough smallpox vaccine to immunize every American 
in the case of an emergency.
    Earlier this year, I proposed Project BioShield which will speed the 
development of new vaccines and treatments for biological agents that 
could be used in a terrorist attack. The Senate needs to act on this 
important measure. The House has acted, and I appreciate their action. 
For the sake of national security, the Senate needs to pass Project 
BioShield.
    Since September the 11th, this Nation has been unrelenting in the 
work on protecting the homeland. And we'll stay that way. That's our 
duty. That's our job. We accept the responsibility.
    Across our Government, there's a new spirit, sense of mission. In 
our country, Americans are volunteering to help, and I want to thank 
them for that. For example, they're volunteering their expertise in the 
Citizen Corps efforts to help local communities prepare for emergencies. 
And I appreciate the bipartisan efforts in Congress to prepare our 
country and to give law enforcement officials the tools they need.
    Almost 2 years ago, I signed the USA Patriot Act. That essential 
law, supported by a large bipartisan majority in the Congress, tore down 
the walls that blocked America's intelligence and law enforcement 
officials from sharing intelligence. It enabled our team to talk to each 
other, to better prepare against an enemy which hates us because of what 
we love, freedom.
    The Patriot Act imposed tough new penalties on terrorists and those 
who support them. But as the fight against terrorists progressed, we 
have found areas where more help is required. Under current Federal law, 
there are unreasonable obstacles to investigating and prosecuting 
terrorism, obstacles that don't exist when law enforcement officials are 
going after embezzlers or drug traffickers. For the sake of the American 
people, Congress should change the law and give law enforcement 
officials the same tools they have to fight terror that they have to 
fight other crime.
    Here's some examples. Administrative subpoenas, which enable law 
enforcement officials to obtain certain records quickly, are critical to 
many investigations. They're used in a wide range of criminal and civil 
matters, including health care fraud and child abuse cases. Yet, 
incredibly enough, in terrorism cases, where speed is often of the 
essence, officials lack the authority to use administrative subpoenas. 
If we can use these subpoenas to catch crooked doctors, the Congress 
should allow law enforcement officials to use them in catching 
terrorists.
    Today, people charged with certain crimes, including some drug 
offenses, are not eligible for bail. But terrorist-related crimes are 
not on that list. Suspected terrorists could be released, free to leave 
the country or worse, before the trial. This disparity in the law makes 
no sense. If dangerous drug dealers can be held without bail in this 
way, Congress should allow for the same treatment for accused 
terrorists.
    Let me give you another example. Under existing law, the death 
penalty applies to many serious crimes that result in death, including 
sexual abuse and certain drug-related offenses. Some terrorist crimes 
that result in death do not qualify for capital punishment. Sabotaging a 
defense installation or a nuclear facility in a way that takes innocent 
life does not carry the Federal death penalty. This kind of technicality 
should never protect terrorists from the ultimate justice.
    These and other measures have long been on the books for other 
crimes. They have been tested by time, affirmed by the court, and what 
we are proposing, they are fully consistent with the United States 
Constitution.
    Members of the Congress agree that we need to close the loopholes--
not every Member, but a lot of them agree with that. People in law 
enforcement are counting on Congress to follow through. We're asking a 
lot of these folks out here. You need to have every tool at your 
disposal to be able to do your job on behalf of the American people. The 
House and the Senate have a responsibility to act quickly on these 
matters. Untie the hands of our law enforcement officials so they can 
fight and win the war against terror.

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    Two years ago, this Nation saw the face of a new enemy. We 
discovered that there is no safety behind vast oceans. For our own 
safety, we resolve to take the battle to the enemy. America is making 
progress on every front--every front--in this war. For that progress, we 
know who to thank. We thank the men and women who wear our Nation's 
uniform. We thank their families. We thank our intelligence officers. We 
thank every branch of law enforcement. We thank our first-responders.
    All of you may serve on different fronts, but you're serving in the 
same war. I don't know how long this war will go on, but I do know this: 
However long it takes, this Nation will prevail.
    May God bless you all. Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 3:04 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Dwight E. Adams, Assistant Director, Laboratory Division, Federal Bureau 
of Investigation; and former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The 
Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of these remarks.