Remarks as prepared for delivery by Director of Central
Intelligence, George J. Tenet, at Georgetown University
United States Government
February 5, 2004
Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction
I have come here today to talk to youand to the American
peopleabout something important to our nation and central to our
future: how the United States intelligence community evaluated
Iraqs weapons of mass destruction programs over the past decade,
leading to a National Intelligence Estimate in October of 2002.
I want to tell you about our information and how we reached our
judgments.
I will tell you what I thinkhonestly and directly.
There are several reasons to do this. Because the American people
deserve to know. Because intelligence has never been more important to
the security of our country.
As a nation, we have over the past seven years been rebuilding our
intelligencewith powerful capabilitiesthat many thought we
would no longer need after the end of the Cold War. We have been
rebuilding our Clandestine Service, our satellite and other technical
collection, our analytic depth and expertise.
Both here and around the world, the men and women of American
intelligence are performing courageouslyoften brilliantlyto
support our military, to stop terrorism, and to break up networks of
proliferation.
The risks are always high. Success and perfect outcomes never
guaranteed. But there is one unassailable factwe will always call
it as we see it. Our professional ethic demands no less.
To understand a difficult topic like Iraq takes patience and care.
Unfortunately, you rarely hear a patient, careful or
thoughtfuldiscussion of intelligence these days.
But these times demand it. Because the alternativepoliticized,
haphazard evaluation, without the benefit of time and factsmay
well result in an intelligence community that is damaged, and a country
that is more at risk.
The Nature of the Business
Before talking about Iraqs weapons of mass destruction, I want
to set the stage with a few words about intelligence collection and
analysishow they actually happen in the real world. This context
is completely missing from the current public debate.
- By
definition, intelligence deals with the unclear, the unknown, the
deliberately hidden. What the enemies of the United States hope to
deny, we work to reveal.
- The question being asked
about Iraq in the starkest of terms is: were we right or
were we wrong.
- In the intelligence business, you are almost never completely wrong
or completely right.
That applies in full to the question
of Saddams weapons of mass destruction. And, like many of the
toughest intelligence challenges, when the facts on Iraq are all in, we
will be neither completely right nor completely wrong.
As intelligence professionals, we go where the information takes us.
We fear no fact or finding, whether it bears us out or not. Because we
work for high goalsthe protection of the American peoplewe
must be judged by high standards.
Lets turn to Iraq.
Reviewing the Record on Iraq
The History
Much of the current controversy centers on our
prewar intelligence on Iraq, summarized in the National Intelligence
Estimate of October 2002. National Estimates are publications where the
intelligence community as a whole seeks to sum up what we know about a
subject, what we do not know, what we suspect may be happening, and
where we differ on key issues.
This Estimate asked if Iraq had chemical, biological, and nuclear
weapons and the means to deliver them. We concluded that in some of
these categories, Iraq had weapons. And that in otherswhere it
did not have themit was trying to develop them.
Let me be clear: analysts differed on several important aspects of
these programs and those debates were spelled out in the Estimate.
They never said there was an imminent threat. Rather,
they painted an objective assessment for our policymakers of a brutal
dictator who was continuing his efforts to deceive and build programs
that might constantly surprise us and threaten our interests.
No one told us what to say or how to say it.
How did we reach our conclusions? We had three streams of
informationnone perfect, but each important.
-
First: Iraqs history. Everyone knew that Iraq had chemical
and biological weapons in the 1980s and 1990s. Saddam Hussein used
chemical weapons against Iran and his own people on at least 10
different occasions. He launched missiles against Iran, Saudi Arabia,
and Israel. And we couldnt forget that in the early 1990s, we saw
that Iraq was just a few years way from a nuclear weaponthis was
no theoretical program. It turned out that we and the other intelligence
services of the world had significantly underestimated his progress.
And, finally, we could not forget that Iraq lied repeatedly about its
unconventional weapons.
- So, to conclude before the war that Saddam had no interest in
rebuilding his WMD programs, we would have had to ignore his long and
brutal history of using them.
- Our second stream of
information was that the United Nations could notand
Saddam would notaccount for all the weapons the Iraqis had: tons
of chemical weapons precursors, hundreds of artillery shells and bombs
filled with chemical or biological agents.
- We did not take
this data at face value. We did take it seriously. We worked with the
inspectors, giving them leads, helping them fight Saddams
deception strategy of cheat and retreat.
- Over eight years of inspections, Saddams deceptionsand
the increasingly restrictive rules of engagement UN inspectors were
forced to negotiate with the regimeundermined efforts to disarm
him.
- To conclude before the war that Saddam had destroyed his
existing weapons, we would have had to ignore what the United Nations
and allied intelligence said they could not verify.
- The
third stream of information came after the UN inspectors left Iraq in
1998. We gathered intelligence through human agents, satellite photos,
and communications intercepts.
- Other foreign intelligence
services were clearly focused on Iraq and assisted in the effort. In
intercepts of conversations and other transactions, we heard Iraqis
seeking to hide prohibited items, worrying about their cover stories,
and trying to procure items Iraq was not permitted to have.
- Satellite photos showed a pattern of activity designed to
conceal movement of material from places where chemical weapons had been
stored in the past.
- We also saw reconstruction of dual
purpose facilities previously used to make biological agents or chemical
precursors.
- And human sources told us of efforts to acquire
and hide materials used in the production of such weapons.
-
And to come to conclusions before the war other than those we reached,
we would have had to ignore all the intelligence gathered from multiple
sources after 1998.
Did these strands of information weave into a perfect
picturecould they answer every question? Nofar from it.
But, taken together, this information provided a solid basis on which to
estimate whether Iraq did or did not have weapons of mass
destruction and the means to deliver them. It is important to underline
the word estimate. Because not everything we analyze can be known
to a standard of absolute proof.
The Estimate
Now, what exactly was in the October Estimate? Why did we say it?
And what does the postwar evidence thus far show?
Before we start, let me be direct about an important factas we
meet here todaythe Iraq Survey Group is continuing its important
search for weapons, people, and data.
And despite some public statements, we are nowhere near 85% finished.
The men and women who work in that dangerous environment are adamant
about that fact.
Any call I make today is necessarily provisional. Why?
Because we need more time and we need more data.
So, what did our estimate say?
Lets start with missile and other delivery systems for WMD. Our
community said with high confidence that Saddam was continuing and
expanding his missile programs contrary to UN resolutions. He had
missiles and other systems with ranges in excess of UN restrictions and
was seeking missiles with even longer ranges.
What do we know
today?
- Since the war, we have found an aggressive Iraqi
missile program concealed from the international community.
-
In fact David Kay said just last
fall that the Iraq Survey Group discovered sufficient evidence to
date to conclude that the Iraqi regime was committed to delivery system
improvements that would have, if [Operation Iraqi Freedom] had not
occurred, dramatically breached UN restrictions placed on Iraq after the
1991 Gulf war.
- We have also found that Iraq had plans and advanced design work for
liquid propellant missiles with ranges up to 1000 km activity
that Iraq did not report to the UN and which could have placed large
portions of the Middle East in jeopardy.
- We have confirmed
that Iraq had new work underway on prohibited solid propellant missiles
that were also concealed from the UN.
- Significantly, the Iraq
Survey Group has also confirmed prewar intelligence that Iraq was in
secret negotiations with North Korea to obtain some of its most
dangerous missile technology.
- My provisional bottom line
today: On missiles, we were generally on target.
Let me turn to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The Estimate
said that Iraq had been developing an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, probably
intended to deliver biological warfare agents. Baghdads existing
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles could threaten its neighbors, US forces in the
Persian Gulf, andif a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was brought
close to our shores — the United States itself.
What do we know today?
The Iraq Survey Group found that two separate groups in Iraq were
working on a number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle designs that were hidden
from the UN until Iraqs Declaration of December 2002. Now we know
that important design elements were never fully declared.
The question of intentespecially regarding the smaller Unmanned
Aerial Vehiclesis still out there. But we should remember that
the Iraqis flight-tested an aerial Biological Weapon spray system
intended for a large Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
A senior Iraqi official has now admitted that
their two large Unmanned Aerial Vehiclesone developed in the early
90s and the other under development in late 2000were intended for
delivery of biological weapons.
My provisional bottom line today: We detected the development of
prohibited and undeclared Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. But the jury is
still out on whether Iraq intended to use its newer, smaller Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles to deliver biological weapons.
Let me turn to the nuclear issue. In the
Estimate, all agencies agreed that Saddam wanted nuclear weapons. Most
were convinced that he still had a program and if he obtained fissile
material he could have a weapon within a year. But we detected no such
acquisition.
- We made two judgments that get
overlooked these daysWe said Saddam did not have a nuclear
weapon and, probably would have been unable to make one until 2007 to
2009.
- Most agencies believed that Saddam had begun to
reconstitute his nuclear program, but they disagreed on a number of
issues such as which procurement activities were designed to support his
nuclear program. But let me be clear, where there were differences, the
Estimate laid out the disputes clearly.
So what do
we know today?
- David Kay told us last fall that
the testimony we have obtained from Iraqi scientists and
senior government officials should clear up any doubts about whether
Saddam still wanted to obtain nuclear weapons.
- Keep in mind that no intelligence agency thought that Iraqs
efforts had progressed to the point of building an enrichment facility
or making fissile material. We said that such activities were a few
years away. Therefore it is not surprising that the Iraq Survey Group
has not yet found evidence of uranium enrichment activities
- Regarding prohibited aluminum tubes a debate laid out
extensively in the Estimate and one that experts still argue over —
were they for uranium enrichment or conventional weapons? We have
additional data to collect and more sources to question.
-
Moreover, none of the tubes found in Iraq so far match the high
specification tubes Baghdad sought and may have never received in the
amounts needed. Our aggressive interdiction efforts may have prevented
Iraq from receiving all but a few of these prohibited items.
- My provisional bottom line today: Saddam did not have a
nuclear weapon. He still wanted one and Iraq intended to reconstitute a
nuclear program at some point. But we have not yet found clear evidence
that the dual-use items Iraq sought were for nuclear reconstitution. We
do not know if any reconstitution efforts had begun but we may have
overestimated the progress Saddam was making.
Let me
turn to biological weapons. The Estimate said that Baghdad had
them, and that all key aspects of an offensive programResearch and
Development, production, and weaponizationwere still active, and
most elements were larger, and more advanced than before the first Gulf
war.
We believed that Iraq had lethal Biological
Weapon agents, including anthrax, which it could quickly produce and
weaponize for delivery by bombs, missiles, aerial sprayers, and covert
operatives. But we said we had no specific information on the types or
quantities of weapons, agent, or stockpiles at Baghdads
disposal.
What do we know today?
- Last fall, the Iraq
Survey Group uncovered (quote) significant
informationincluding research and development of Biological
Weapons -applicable organisms, the involvement of the Iraqi Intelligence
Service (IIS) in possible Biological Weapons activities, and deliberate
concealment activities. All of this suggests Iraq after 1996 further
compartmentalized its program and focused on maintaining smaller, covert
capabilities that could be activated quickly to surge the production of
Biological Weapon agents. (unquote)
- The Iraq Survey Group found a network of laboratories and
safehouses controlled by Iraqi intelligence and security services that
contained equipment for chemical and biological research and a prison
laboratory complex possibly used in human testing for Biological Weapon
agents, that were not declared to the UN.
- It
also appears that Iraq had the infrastructure and talent to resume
productionbut we have yet to find that it actually did so, nor
have we found weapons. Until we get to the bottom of the role played by
the Iraqi security serviceswhich were operating covert
labswe will not know the full extent of the program.
- Let
me also talk about the trailers discovered in Iraq last summer. We
initially concluded that they resembled trailers described by a human
source for mobile biological warfare agent production today. There is no
consensus within our community over whether the trailers were for that
use or if they were used for the production of hydrogen. Everyone agrees
they are not ideally configured for either process, but could be made to
work in either mode.
- To give you some idea of the contrasting
evidence we wrestle with, some of the Iraqis involved in making the
trailers were told they were intended to produce hydrogen for artillery
units.
- But an Iraqi artillery officer says they never used
these types of systems and that the hydrogen for artillery units came in
canisters from a fixed production facility. We are trying to get to the
bottom of this story.
- And I must tell you that we are finding discrepancies in some
claims made by human sources about mobile Biological Weapons production
before the war. Because we lack direct access to the most important
sources on this question, we have as yet been unable to resolve the
differences.
- My provisional bottom line today: Iraq intended
to develop Biological Weapons. Clearly, research and development work
was underway that would have permitted a rapid shift to agent production
if seed stocks were available. But we do not know if production took
place and just as clearlywe have not yet found biological
weapons.
Before I leave the Biological Weapons story, an
important fact you must remember. For years the UN searched
unsuccessfully for Saddams Biological Weapons program. His
son-in-law, Husayn Kamil, who controlled the hidden program defected,
and only then was the world able to confirm that Iraq indeed had an
active and dangerous biological weapons program. Indeed, history matters
in dealing with these complicated problems. While many of us want
instant answers, this search for Biological Weapons in Iraq will take
time and patience.
Let me now turn to Chemical Weapons. We said in the Estimate
with high confidence that Iraq had them. We also believed, though with
less certainty, that Saddam had stocked at least 100 metric tons of
agent. That may sound like a lot, but it would fit in a few dorm rooms
on this campus.
Initially, the community was skeptical about whether Iraq had
restarted Chemical Weapons agent production. Sources had reported that
Iraq had begun renewed production, and imagery and intercepts gave us
additional concerns.
But only when analysts saw what they believed to be satellite photos
of shipments of materials from ammunition sites did they believe that
Iraq was again producing Chemical Weapon agents.
What do we
know now?
- The work done so far shows a story similar to that of his
biological weapons program. Saddam had rebuilt a dual-use industry.
David Kay reported that Saddam and his son Uday wanted to know how long
it would take for Iraq to produce chemical weapons. However, while
sources indicate Iraq may have conducted some experiments related to
developing chemical weapons, no physical evidence has yet been
uncovered. We need more time.
- My provisional bottom line
today: Saddam had the intent and the capability to quickly convert
civilian industry to chemical weapons production. However, we have not
yet found the weapons we expected.
Ive now given you
my provisional bottom lines. But it is important to remember that
Estimates are not written in a vacuum. Let me tell you some of what was
going on in the fall of 2002. Several sensitive reports crossed my desk
from two sources characterized by our foreign partners as
established and reliable.
The first, from a source who had direct access to Saddam and his
inner circle said:
- Iraq was not in possession of a nuclear weapon.
However, Iraq was aggressively and covertly developing such a weapon.
Saddam had recently called together his Nuclear Weapons Committee irate
that Iraq did not yet have a weapon because money was no object and they
possessed the scientific know how.
- The Committee members
assured Saddam that once the fissile material was in hand, a bomb could
be ready in just 18-24 months. The return of UN inspectors would cause
minimal disruption because, according to the source, Iraq was expert at
denial and deception.
-
The same source said Iraq was stockpiling chemical weapons and that
equipment to produce insecticides, under the oil-for-food program, had
been diverted to covert chemical weapons production.
- The source said that
- Iraqs weapons of last resort were "mobile
launchers armed with chemical weapons which would be fired at enemy
forces and Israel."
- Iraqi scientists were
dabbling with biological weapons, with limited success,
- But the quantities were not sufficient to constitute a real weapons
program.
A stream of reporting from a
different sensitive source with access to senior Iraqi officials said he
believed:
- production of chemical and biological weapons was taking place,
- that biological agents were easy to produce and to hide, and
- prohibited chemicals were also being produced at dual-use
facilities.
This source stated that a senior Iraqi
official in Saddam's inner circle believed, as a result of the UN
inspections, Iraq knew the inspectors weak points and how to take
advantage of them. The source said there was an elaborate plan to
deceive inspectors and ensure prohibited items would never be found.
Now, did this information make a difference in my thinking? You bet
it did. As this and other information came across my desk, it
solidified and reinforced the judgments we had reached and my own view
of the danger posed by Saddam Hussein and I conveyed this view to our
nation's leaders.
Could I have ignored or dismissed such reports at the time?
Absolutely not.
Continuing the Search
Now, I am
sure you are asking: Why havent we found the weapons? I have told
you the search must continue and it will be difficult.
As David Kay reminded us, the Iraqis systematically destroyed and
looted forensic evidence before, during and after the war. We have been
faced with the organized destruction of documentary and computer
evidence in a wide range of offices, laboratories, and companies
suspected of WMD work. The pattern of these efforts is one of
deliberate rather than random acts. Iraqis who have volunteered
information to us are still being intimidated and attacked.
Remember finding things in Iraq is very tough. After the first Gulf
War, the U.S. Army blew up chemical weapons without knowing it. They
were mixed in with conventional weapons in Iraqi ammo dumps.
My new Special Advisor, Charles Duelfer, will soon be in Iraq to join
Major General Keith Dayton commander of the Iraq Survey Group
to continue our effort to learn the truth. And, when the truth
emerges, we will report it to the American public no matter what.
Reviewing Our Work
As Director of Central Intelligence, I have an important
responsibility. I have a responsibility to evaluate our performance —
both our operational work and our analytical tradecraft.
So what do I think about all of this?
Based on an assessment of the data we collected over the past 10
years, it would have been difficult for analysts to come to any
different conclusions than the ones reached in October of 2002.
However, in our business that is not good enough.
We must constantly review the quality of our work. For example, the
National Intelligence Council is reviewing the Estimate line-by-line.
Six months ago we also commissioned an internal review to examine the
tradecraft of our work on Iraqs weapons of mass destruction. And,
through this effort we are finding ways to improve our processes. For
example, we recently discovered that relevant analysts in the community
missed a notice that identified a source we had cited as providing
information that, in some cases was unreliable, and in other cases was
fabricated. We have acknowledged this mistake.
In addition to these internal reviews, I asked Dick Kerr, a former
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, and a team of retired senior
analysts to evaluate the Estimate.
Among the questions that we as a Community must ultimately reflect on
are:
- Did the history of our work, Saddam's deception and
denial, his lack of compliance with the international community, and all
that we know about this regime cause us to minimize, or ignore,
alternative scenarios?
- Did the fact that we missed how close
Saddam came to acquiring a nuclear weapon in the early 1990s cause us to
over-estimate his nuclear or other programs in 2002?
- Did we
carefully consider the absence of information flowing from a repressive
and intimidating regime, and would it have made any difference in our
bottom line judgments?
- Did we clearly tell policy makers what we knew, what we
didnt know, what was not clear, and identify the gaps in our
knowledge?
We are in the process of evaluating just such
questions - and while others will express views on the questions sooner,
we ourselves must come to our own bottom lines.
I will say that our judgments were not single threaded. UN
inspections served as a baseline and we had multiple strands of
reporting from signals, imagery, and human intelligence.
After the UN inspectors left Iraq in 1998, we made an aggressive
effort to penetrate Iraq. Our record was mixed.
While we had voluminous reporting, the major judgments reached were
based on a narrower band of data. This is not unusual.
There was, by necessity, a strong reliance on technical data, which
to be sure was very valuable, particularly in the imagery of military
and key dual use facilities, on missile and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
developments—and in particular on the efforts of Iraqi front companies
to falsify and deny us the ultimate destination and use of dual use
equipment.
We did not have enough of our own human intelligence.
We did not ourselves penetrate the inner sanctum - our agents were on
the periphery of WMD activities, providing some useful information. We
had access to émigrés and defectors with more direct access to WMD
programs and we had a steady stream of reporting with access to the
Iraqi leadership come to us from a trusted foreign partner. Other
partners provided important information.
What we did not collect ourselves, we evaluated as carefully as we
could. Still, the lack of direct access to some of these sources
created some risk such is the nature of our business.
To be sure, we had difficulty penetrating the Iraqi regime with human
sources, but a blanket indictment of our human intelligence around the
world is simply wrong.
We have spent the last seven years rebuilding our clandestine
service. As Director of Central Intelligence, this has been my highest
priority.
When I came to the CIA in the mid-90s our graduating class of case
officers was unbelievably low. Now, after years of rebuilding our
training programs and putting our best efforts to recruit the most
talented men and women, we are graduating more clandestine officers than
at any time in CIAs history.
It will take an additional five years to finish the job of rebuilding
our clandestine service, but the results so far have been obvious:
- A CIA spy led us to Khalid Sheik Muhammad, the mastermind of Al
Qa'idas September 11th attacks.
- Al
Qa'idas operational chief in the Persian Gulf, Nashiri the man who
planned an executed the bombing of the USS COLE was located and
arrested based on our human reporting.
- Human sources were
critical to the capture of Hambali, the chief terrorist in South Asia.
His organization killed hundreds of people when they bombed a nightclub
in Bali.
So when you hear pundits say that we have no human intelligence
capability
they dont know what they are talking about.
Beyond Iraq: The Larger Role of US
Intelligence
Its important that I address these misstatements because the
American people must know just how reliable American intelligence is on
the threats that confront our nation.
Lets talk about Libya where a sitting regime has volunteered to
dismantle its Weapons of Mass Destruction programs.
This was an intelligence success.
Why? Because American and British intelligence officers understood
the Libyan programs.
- Only through intelligence did we know
each of the major programs Libya had going.
- Only through intelligence did we know when Libya started its
first nuclear weapon program, and then put it on the backburner for
years.
- Only through intelligence did we know when the
nuclear program took off again. We knew because we had penetrated
Libyas foreign supplier network.
- And through
intelligence last fall when Libya was to receive a supply of centrifuge
partswe worked with foreign partners to locate and stop the
shipment.
- Intelligence also knew that Libya was working with North
Korea to get longer-range ballistic missiles.
- And we learned
all of this through the powerful combination of technical intelligence,
careful and painstaking analytic work, operational daring, and, yes, the
classic kind of human intelligence that people have led you to believe
that we no longer have.
- This was critical when the Libyans
approached British and US intelligence about dismantling their chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons programs. They came to the British and
American intelligence because they knew we could keep the negotiations
secret.
- And in repeated talks, when CIA officers were the
only official Americans in Libya, we and our British colleagues made
clear just how much insight we had into their WMD and missile programs.
- When they said they would show us their SCUD-Bs, we
said fine but we want to examine your longer range SCUD-Cs.
- It was only when we convinced them we knew Libyas
nuclear program was a weapons program, that they showed us their weapon
design.
- As should be clear to you, Intelligence was the
key that opened the door to Libyas clandestine programs.
Let me briefly mention Iran. I cannot go into detail. I want
to assure you that recent Iranian admissions about their nuclear
programs validate our intelligence assessments. It is flat wrong to say
that we were surprised by reports from the Iranian
opposition last year.
And on North Korea, it was patient analysis of difficult-to-obtain
information that allowed our diplomats to confront the North Korean
regime about their pursuit of a different route to a nuclear weapon that
violated international agreements.
One final spy story:
Last year in my annual World Wide Threat testimony before Congress in
open session, I talked about the emerging threat from private
proliferators, especially nuclear brokers.
- I was cryptic about this in public, but I can tell you now
that I was talking about A.Q. Khan. His network was shaving years off
the nuclear weapons development timelines of several states including
Libya.
Now, as you know from the news coming out of
Pakistan, Khan and his network have been dealt a crushing blow, with
several of his senior officers in custody. Malaysian authorities have
shut down one of the networks largest plants. His network is now
answering to the world for years of nuclear profiteering.
What did intelligence have to do with this?
First, we discovered the extent of Khans hidden network.
We tagged the proliferators. We detected the network stretching from
Pakistan to Europe to the Middle East to Asia offering its wares to
countries like North Korea and Iran.
Working with our British
colleagues we pieced together the picture of the network,
revealing its subsidiaries, scientists, front companies, agents,
finances, and manufacturing plants on three continents.
Our spies
penetrated the network through a series of daring operations over
several years. Through this unrelenting effort we confirmed the network
was delivering such things as illicit uranium enrichment
centrifuges.
And as you heard me say on the Libya case, we stopped
deliveries of prohibited material.
I welcome
the Presidents Commission looking into proliferation. We have a
record and a story to tell and we want to tell it to those willing to
listen.
Conclusion
I came here today to discuss our prewar estimate on Iraq and how we
have followed Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction programs
for well over ten years. It is absolutely essential to do so openly and
honestly.
I have argued for patience as we continue to learn the truth. We are
no where near the end of our work in Iraq, we need more time. I have
told you where we are and where our performance can be improved.
Our analysts at the end of the day have a duty to inform and warn.
They did so honestly and with integrity when making judgments about the
dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.
Simply assessing stacks of reports does not speak to the wisdom
experienced analysts brought to bear on a difficult and deceptive
subject.
But as all these reviews are underway, we must take care. We cannot
afford an environment to develop where analysts are afraid to make a
call. Where judgments are held back because analysts fear they will be
wrong. Their work and these judgments make vital contributions to our
nations security.
I came here today also to tell the American people that they must
know that they are served by dedicated, courageous professionals.
It is evident on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq.
It is evident by their work against proliferators.
And it is evident by the fact that well over two thirds of
al-Qa'ida's leaders can no longer hurt the American people.
We are a community that some thought would not be needed at the end
of the Cold War.
We have systematically been rebuilding all of our disciplines with a
focused strategy and care.
Our strategy for the future is based on achieving capabilities that
will provide the kind of intelligence the country deserves. The
President has ensured that this will be the case.
We constantly learn and improve.
And at no time, will we allow our integrity or our willingness to
make the tough calls be compromised.
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