DOJ Accomplishments in the War on Terror

For decades, terrorists have waged war against U.S. interests. Now America is waging war against terrorists. As President Bush has said, “Free people will set the course of history.” We have promoted freedom over the past two years while protecting civil liberties and protecting people here and around the world from further terrorist attacks.

• The United States of America is winning the war on terrorism with unrelenting focus and unprecedented cooperation. Prevention of terrorist attacks is one of our highest priorities. With the President’s lead, information sharing and cooperation has vastly increased. Today, we are better able to “connect the dots.”

• The Department of Justice has acted thoughtfully, carefully, and within the framework of the Constitution of the United States. Survival and success in this long war on terrorism demands that the Department continuously adapt and improve its capabilities to protect Americans from a fanatical, ruthless enemy, even as terrorists adapt their tactics to attack us.

How we are winning the war on terrorism:

First, we are disrupting terrorist threats, and capturing the terrorists that would carry them out. Over the last two years:

• Our intelligence and law enforcement communities, and our partners, both here and abroad, have identified and disrupted over 150 terrorist threats and cells;
• Worldwide, nearly two-thirds of al Qaida’s known senior leadership has been captured or killed -- including a mastermind of the September 11^th attacks;
• Worldwide, more than 3,000 operatives have been incapacitated;
• Terrorist cells across America have been broken up, in cities including Buffalo, Seattle, Tampa and Portland (Oregon);
• 364 individuals have been criminally charged in the United States in terrorism investigations;
• Already, 193 individuals have been convicted or have pled guilty in the United States, including shoe-bomber Richard Reid and "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh; and
• Over 515 individuals linked to the September 11^th investigation have been removed from the United States.

Second, we are gathering and cultivating detailed knowledge on terrorism in the United States:

• Hundreds of suspected terrorists have been identified and tracked throughout the United States;
• Our human sources of intelligence have increased 40% since 9/11, and the quality of this human intelligence has improved significantly; and
• Our counterterrorism investigations have more than doubled since 9/11.

Third, we are gathering information by leveraging criminal charges and long prison sentences. When individuals realize that they face a long prison term, they often try to lessen their prison time by pleading guilty and cooperating with the government.

• These individuals have provided critical intelligence about al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, safehouses, training camps, recruitment, and tactics in the United States, and the operations of those terrorists who mean to do Americans harm.
• One individual has given us intelligence on weapons stored here in the United States.
• Another individual has identified locations in the United States being scouted or cased for potential attacks by al-Qaida.

Fourth, we are dismantling the terrorist financial network. Already the United States Government has:

• Designated 36 terrorist organizations;
• Frozen $133 million in assets around the world;
• Launched 70 investigations into terrorist financing, with 23 convictions or guilty pleas to date; and
• Established an FBI Terrorist Financing Operations Section (TFOS) and utilized the Joint Terrorism Task Forces to identify, investigate, prosecute, disrupt, and dismantle terrorist-related financial and fundraising activities.

Fifth, we are using new legal tools to detect, disrupt, and prevent potential terrorist plots. Congress has provided better tools to make sure we are doing all we can, legally and within the bounds of the Constitution, to detect, disrupt, and prevent acts of terror. The PATRIOT Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, in the Senate by 98-1, and in the House of Representatives by 357-66.

• The PATRIOT Act allows investigators to use the tools that were already available to investigate organized crime and drug trafficking. These tools have been used for decades and have been reviewed and approved by the courts.

• The PATRIOT Act facilitates information sharing and cooperation among government agencies so that they can better “connect the dots.” In the past, different agencies and departments were collecting data but not sharing it with each other. Now we are able to share that data to prevent future attacks.

• The PATRIOT Act updated the law to reflect new technologies and new threats. The Act brought the law up to date with current technology, so we no longer have to fight a digital-age battle with legal authorities left over from the era of rotary telephones.

• The PATRIOT Act increased the penalties for those who commit terrorist crimes. Americans are threatened as much by the terrorist who pays for a bomb as by the one who detonates it. That’s why the Act imposed tough new penalties on those who commit and support terrorist operations, both at home and abroad.

Sixth, the Department of Justice is building its long-term counter-terrorism capacity since September 11^th:

• A nearly three-fold increase in counter-terrorism funds;
• Approximately 1,000 new and redirected FBI agents dedicated to counterterrorism and counterintelligence;
• 250 new Assistant U.S. Attorneys;
• 66 Joint Terrorism Task Forces;
• 337% increase in Joint Terrorism Task Force staffing; and
• FBI Flying Squads developed for rapid deployment to hot spots worldwide.