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“REMARKS OF SENATOR DANIEL K. INOUYE” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S9557-S9558 on Sept. 23, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
REMARKS OF SENATOR DANIEL K. INOUYE
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, there are times when one reads a speech that has been given by another Senator and reaches a conclusion and says: I could have given that speech.
Today I was given a copy of the statement made by my Senate brother from Hawaii, Senator Inouye, at the David Sarnoff Award Banquet last night. I came to the floor to commend that speech to Members of the Senate. I do think if Senators read it, some of them at least might change their position on some of the issues that are going to come before us next week.
This is a very thoughtful speech that Senator Inouye made. This David Sarnoff Award, as we all know, is named after the founder of the Association of Communications, Electronics, Intelligence and Information Systems Professionals, a group of people who have devoted their lives to improving the technology for our people who are engaged in the intelligence-gathering system of the United States.
This is an award that has been given to many distinguished people in the past--former Secretary Bill Perry, Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Senator and Vice President Al Gore, our current Vice President, Dick Cheney. It is an award anyone would be proud to receive, but as a practical matter, I bet those people did not expect the speech of the type they heard. It is one that I think, as I said at the beginning, demonstrates what we say from time to time: That the two of us think alike and speak alike.
I commend this speech to Members of the Senate and hope Members will read it and understand it. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Inouye's speech be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Statement of Senator Daniel K. Inouye at the David Sarnoff Award
Banquet, September 22, 2004
Admiral Browne, General Renzi, distinguished guests, I want to thank you for bestowing this great honor upon me. I am pleased to accept the David Sarnoff Award, named after your founder of the Association of Communications, Electronics, Intelligence and Information Systems Professionals.
Moreover, I am humbled to be included with such notables as Bill Perry, Colin Powell, Al Gore, and Dick Cheney in receiving this award.
David Sarnoff was a visionary who provided so much to the communications industry.
Rising from humble beginnings to become a powerhouse in the radio and television business, he is indicative of the American success story. As one who has served in government most of my adult life, I especially admire Mr. Sarnoff for his goal of fostering a partnership between government and industry.
This partnership between the communications, electronics and information technology business has been critical to our Nation's security and to the advances in our defense and intelligence capabilities. So, I thank you most sincerely for this award.
My friends, we live in interesting and very dangerous times. Many felt with the collapse of the Soviet Union we had entered into a new era of global peace. Today however, we recognize that we face a new enemy, one that knows no borders and operates beyond the norms of civilized society.
Much of what you in the AFCEA Association do helps to fight this new threat and we thank you for that. Your hard work pays great dividends for our Nation's security every day. Through your efforts we have made tremendous improvements in command and control and communications and in information technology. These improvements are so critical to our Nation's defense and its intelligence capabilities.
I often remark that we have the greatest military in the world, perhaps in the history of mankind. Our young men and women who put on the uniform of this country serve us all magnificently.
Let me remind you that it is only one percent of our citizens who serve in our armed forces to protect the remaining 99 percent of us. We are truly in their debt.
It is for them that I strongly encourage our leaders to approve a robust budget to strengthen defense every year.
Your members also help to strengthen our defenses by improving electronics, communications and information technology programs. Your work helps every day to protect these young men and women and enable them to perform their mission more efficiently and effectively.
I would like to note tonight, in addition to our military, our Nation is lucky to be served by the men and women in our intelligence community. They truly represent the best in public service. And your work means a great deal to their success.
Today in Washington we are focused on intelligence, specifically on the intelligence community and the need for further improvement. The tragedy of 9-11 and the faulty intelligence which had many believing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction led the 9-11 Commission and many others to call for reforming intelligence.
The Commission contends that we had an intelligence failure, that it was a systemic problem as opposed to several mistakes being made by our intelligence community. They blame it on a failure to connect the dots and a lack of imagination.
In their analysis, they note that several terrorists met in Malaysia and that a few proceeded from there to the United States and took part in the attack on 9-11. They conclude that the CIA should have recognized that these terrorists were linked to the bombing of the USS Cole and should have informed the FBI and the State Department about the meeting.
It is this type of error which they say necessitates an overhaul of our intelligence infrastructure.
We all wish that our analysts would have been prescient enough to recognize the relationship among these terrorists, and their connection to the Cole bombing, and the importance of the Malaysian meeting.
We all wish that these same analysts would have made that information available to the FBI and State Department where there exists a possibility that it would have triggered an investigation of their movements here. But I for one believe it would have taken a lot of luck for that to have happened--more than simply connecting the dots or having better imagination.
Consider this point. It has been 3 years and 11 days since the attack on our Nation. In that time, we have devoted billions of dollars and we have sacrificed many young lives in the war on terrorism, but as far as we know, Osama Bin Laden remains hidden from view directing the far flung al Qaeda network.
Would anyone seriously claim that we have not worked hard enough to connect the dots?
Let's assume we capture Osama soon, somewhere in Pakistan. When we then learn how he escaped from Tora Bora and made his way to Pakistan will we blame faulty intelligence for letting him slip through our grasp?
I fear in today's environment some will offer that critique.
Ladies and gentlemen, intelligence is a tough business. Many of you, perhaps most of you have been involved as providers or users of intelligence in your distinguished careers. I am not telling you something new.
You have witnessed and in some cases taken part in the advances in communications and in command and control which have revolutionized intelligence. You know the incredible progress we have made through information technology. But, with all the highly sophisticated tools in our arsenal we still can't find Osama.
So I ask you, is then a failure of our intelligence system? I think most, if not all of you would agree it is not.
As you know, as ranking member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I have access to virtually all of our Nation's secrets, including those in the Defense Department and in intelligence programs as well.
I am well aware of what happens day to day in our intelligence business.
But, because of the necessary secrecy of intelligence, most Americans never hear about the success in intelligence.
If the CIA breaks up an al Qaeda cell in southern Europe or western Africa, it is not reported.
If a ship transporting raw materials for the construction of weapons of mass destruction is stopped in port before it reaches its destination, the world is unaware. You know, sometimes I just shake my head when I hear those in the media and even some of my colleagues criticize our intelligence capabilities because all they can see are the failures.
Over the past 3 years my committee has been informed of multiple threats most of which have never been publicized. The intelligence community must treat each warning with utmost care. They must research and investigate each one to determine its veracity, and then respond appropriately to those incidents which are deemed credible.
In many cases what some call connecting the dots is really like searching for a needle in a haystack. And, just to make it more difficult, there are many haystacks to examine and in some cases the needle looks exactly like hay. Sure the needles are there and theoretically they could be found, but should we really expect our analysts to find them every time?
My friends, intelligence is tough business. Our experts are working round the clock on these issues.
Furthermore, I want everyone to realize that we are not standing still. The intelligence community has come a long way in improving intelligence cooperation.
We created the terrorist threat integration center to bring analysts from various parts of the community to work together. The enactment of the PATRIOT Act brought down a wall which had previously blocked information sharing between various parts of the intelligence community and the FBI.
Our leaders have successfully worked to break stovepipes and to ensure that information sharing is working.
The American communication and electronics business has been instrumental in assisting this effort. You have provided the technology to allow us to share information across agencies.
You have invented new ways to protect certain sensitive issues while still allowing many analysts to see essential data. Certainly more improvements are needed in intelligence cooperation and in new technology to improve information sharing. Together that partnership that David Sarnoff talked about a half century ago can help make this work. With your assistance I am confident we will succeed.
Ladies and gentlemen, our Nation has the finest national security apparatus--defense and intelligence--in the world. It's not perfect and it never will be. Some areas can be improved. But it is a critical capability. Our warfighters--our young men and women who, as we speak, are serving in harm's way--depend on seamless intelligence. Many of you help provide that capability to them. It is our solemn duty to ensure that we can continue to provide them the best.
You who represent the providers of these systems, you who are responsible for the revolution in information technology, I offer you my most heartfelt thanks for what you do. I say this because you provide the tools that protect our military.
You provide the tools to our first responders and homeland security managers that will help them hopefully deny and certainly defeat any additional terrorist activity. We are grateful for all you have done to improve our Nation's security.
And to those that want to rush to change our intelligence system and congressional oversight I urge caution. I would urge all to remember the old medical adage, first do no harm.
Again, I thank you for inviting me here to join you this evening and to receive the David Sarnoff Award. I wish you all the best. Thank you.
Mr. STEVENS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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