S. Hrg. 108–54 CONSOLIDATING INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS: A REVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT’S PROPOSAL TO CREATE A TERRORIST THREAT INTEGRATION CENTER HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION FEBRUARY 14 AND 26, 2003 Printed for the use of the Committee on Governmental Affairs ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 86–773 PDF WASHINGTON : 2003 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 14:49 Oct 28, 2003 Jkt 086773 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 C:\DOCS\86773.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: PHOGAN COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine, Chairman TED STEVENS, Alaska JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio CARL LEVIN, Michigan NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware PETER G. FITZGERALD, Illinois MARK DAYTON, Minnesota JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire FRANK LAUTENBERG, New Jersey RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama MARK PRYOR, Arkansas MICHAEL D. BOPP, Staff Director and Chief Counsel DAVID A. KASS, Chief Investigative Counsel JOYCE RECHTSCHAFFEN, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel MICHAEL A. ALEXANDER, Minority Professional Staff Member DARLA D. CASSELL, Chief Clerk (II) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 14:49 Oct 28, 2003 Jkt 086773 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\86773.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: PHOGAN C O N T E N T S Opening statements: Page Senator Collins ................................................................................................. 1, 45 Senator Lieberman ........................................................................................... 3 Senator Sununu ................................................................................................ 5 Senator Lautenberg .......................................................................................... 20 Senator Pryor .................................................................................................... 23 Senator Akaka................................................................................................. 26, 56 Senator Coleman .............................................................................................. 47 Prepared statement: Senator Shelby .................................................................................................. 74 WITNESSES FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2003 Hon. Warren B. Rudman, Co-Chair, U.S. Commission on National Security/ 21st Century ......................................................................................................... 7 Hon. James S. Gilmore, III, Chairman, Advisory Panel to Assess the Capabili- ties for Domestic Response to Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass De- struction ................................................................................................................ 9 James B. Steinberg, Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution ................................................................................... 30 Jeffrey H. Smith, Former General Counsel (1995–1996), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ......................................................................................................... 33 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2003 Winston P. Wiley, Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Homeland Security and Chair, Senior Steering Group ....................................................... 48 Pasquale J. D’Amuro, Executive Assistant Director for Counterterrorism/ Counterintelligence, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ............................ 52 Hon. Gordon England, Deputy Secretary, Department of Homeland Security .. 53 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WITNESSES D’Amuro, Pasquale J.: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 52 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 117 England, Hon. Gordon: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 53 Gilmore, Hon. James S., III: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 9 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 76 Rudman, Hon. Warren B.: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 7 Smith, Jeffrey H.: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 33 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 100 Steinberg, James B.: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 30 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 95 Wiley, Winston P.: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 48 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 113 (III) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 14:49 Oct 28, 2003 Jkt 086773 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\86773.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: PHOGAN IV Page APPENDIX Response to Senators Levin and Collins transcript request from Mr. Wiley referred to on page 69 .......................................................................................... 73 Chart entitled ‘‘Primary Agencies Handling Terrorist-Related Intelligence (With Terrorist Threat Integration Center),’’ submitted by Senator Collins .. 119 Responses to Post-Hearing Questions for the Record from Senator Akaka for: Mr. Wiley ........................................................................................................... 120 Responses to Post-Hearing Questions for the Record from Senator Shelby for: Mr. Wiley ........................................................................................................... 127 Hon. England .................................................................................................... 133 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 14:49 Oct 28, 2003 Jkt 086773 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\86773.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: PHOGAN CONSOLIDATING INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS: A REVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT’S PROPOSAL TO CREATE A TERRORIST THREAT INTEGRATION CENTER FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2003 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:32 a.m., in room SD–342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Susan M. Collins, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. Present: Senators Collins, Coleman, Sununu, Lieberman, Akaka, Lautenberg, and Pryor. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN COLLINS Chairman COLLINS. The Committee will come to order. Good morning. Today the Committee on Governmental Affairs will review the President’s recent proposal to create a new Ter- rorist Threat Integration Center. The President’s announcement of this new center is the latest in the series of actions taken by the administration and by Congress to address the government’s seri- ous failure to analyze and act upon the intelligence it gathers re- lated to terrorism. Some of these failures have become well known. For example, in January 2000 the CIA learned of a meeting of al Qaeda operatives that was taking place in Malaysia. The CIA knew that one of the participants in this meeting, Khalid al-Midhar, had a visa to enter the United States. It failed, however, to list his name on the ter- rorist watch list and he entered the country just 2 weeks later. Al- Midhar returned to Saudi Arabia and in June 2001 he received yet another U.S. visa. Although 11⁄2 years had passed, his name was still not on the watch list. The CIA did not conduct a review of the Malaysian meeting until August 2001. Following that review it finally placed al-Midhar on the terrorist watch list. By then, of course, it was too late. He was already in the United States and within weeks would participate in the September 11 attacks on our Nation. Failures such as these were not unique to the CIA. In July 2001, an FBI agent in the Phoenix field office warned his superiors that Osama bin Laden appeared to be sending some of his operatives to the United States for flight training. The agent recommended a number of actions the Bureau should undertake, but his rec- ommendations were ignored. (1) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 14:49 Oct 28, 2003 Jkt 086773 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 C:\DOCS\86773.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: PHOGAN 2 One month later, agents in the FBI’s Minneapolis field office de- tained Zacarias Moussaoui, a former student pilot, based on sus- picions that he was involved in a hijacking plot. FBI headquarters denied the Minneapolis agents permission to apply for a court order to search Moussaoui’s belongings. According to the joint in- quiry conducted by the Senate and the House Intelligence Commit- tees, this decision was based on a faulty understanding of the For- eign Intelligence Surveillance Act. These are only a few of the most publicized and notable examples of the government’s failure to analyze, share, or act on critical in- telligence