White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card

AUG. 2 — At the White House Press briefing, the focus was on the President’s decision to appoint a National Intelligence Director, based on the 9-11 bipartisan National Commission’s report. Asked what role the international community has played to stop terrorism in the U.S., White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said, “The international community is very important, and we are working very closely with our allies around the world to identify terrorist cells and have better intelligence and respond to that intelligence, working in partnership. And I think we’ve got a great track record of doing that. The efforts centered around our understanding of the current threat have been assisted by many of our allies. The Italians and the British, for example, have been very cooperative, as well as the Pakistanis. So we’ve got a good international effort to help better understand the nature of the threat and how best to prevent it from manifesting itself.”

Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism Frances Fragos Townsend told media at the same briefing that foreign intelligence was critical to domestic security, and that steps taken even before the 9-11 Commission report, had led to a stronger intelligence community. “The fact is, because we are fighting this war overseas in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan, and working to strengthen our relationships with those allies, has led to this intelligence stream. The fact is, our military, intelligence and diplomatic efforts in that part of the world fed directly into the homeland security system. Tom Ridge and Bob Mueller are the beneficiaries of that. They’re able to then focus the homeland security effort more directly, and work with state and locals, so that as we move to defensive measures, they’re more targeted.

Frankly, the stream went all the way from overseas to the hands of the people that could really do something about it in this country to make the country safer.”