I want to improve TSA's counterterrorism focus through intelligence and cutting edge technology support the TSA workforce and strengthen the agency's relationships with stakeholders and the traveling public. All of these priorities are interconnected and are vital to TSA's mission - and I would say all of our collective mission.
Intelligence is our first line of defense against terrorism and we must improve the collection capabilities and analysis of intelligence to protect the security of the United States and its allies.
According to Richard Clarke the former White House counterterrorism chief Bush was so obsessed with Iraq that he failed to take action against Osama Bin Laden despite repeated warnings from his intelligence experts.
Terrorists continue to exploit divisions between law enforcement and the intelligence communities that limit the sharing of vital counterterrorism information.
One of the great intellectual failures of the American intelligence community and especially the counterterrorism community is to assume if someone hasn't attacked us it's because he can't or because we've defeated him.
The E.U. has moved to combat global terrorism by instituting common European arrest and evidence warrants and creating a joint situation center to pool and analyze intelligence.
The PATRIOT Act brought down the wall separating intelligence agencies from law enforcement and other entities charged with protecting the Nation from terrorism.
The actions that we take on the counterterrorism front again are to take actions against individuals where we believe that the intelligence base is so strong and the nature of the threat is so grave and serious as well as imminent that we have no recourse except to take this action that may involve a lethal strike.
The original PATRIOT Act greatly increased our nation's ability to share intelligence information made better use of technology and provided terrorism investigators tools that have long been available in cases involving illegal drugs and organized crime.
In the fight against terrorism national agencies keep full control over their police forces security and intelligence agencies and judicial authorities.
Our intelligence community needs better coordination of operations and exchange of information and that's why we need an overall director of national intelligence and a national counterterrorism center.
Fighting a war on terrorism is like fighting against crime. We can never hope to eradicate crime so we shouldn't bother fighting it.
At the end of the day we want to bring stability and hope to Iraq. That's the only way to defeat terrorism.
Terrorism takes us back to ages we thought were long gone if we allow it a free hand to corrupt democratic societies and destroy the basic rules of international life.
The war on terrorism has made national security a legitimate concern and a rising deficit changes brought on by globalization and even the price of oil have thrown the nation's economic health into question.
I look forward to working with our leadership team to advance the causes of smaller government lower taxes eliminating terrorism and providing affordable health care among other issues.
The next few months are critical to Pakistan's future direction as a democratic state committed to promoting peace fighting terrorism and working for social justice.