For Immediate Release
July 9, 2004
President Bush Discusses Senate Intelligence Committee Report
Excerpt from "Ask President Bush" remarks in Kuztown, Pennsylvania
For full remarks, click here.
I appreciate the Senate's work. And I'll tell you why. Because one of
the key ingredients to winning the war on terror is to make sure that
our intelligence agencies provide the best and possible intelligence to
the chief executive -- to the executive branch, as well as to the
legislative branch. And so the idea that the Senate has taken a hard
look to find out where the intelligence-gathering services went short
is good and positive. And I commend the chairman of the committee for
doing that.
We need to know. I want to know. I want to know how to make the
agencies better, to make sure that we're better able to gather the
information necessary to protect the American people. One of the key
ingredients and one of the vital ingredients of keeping us safe is to
gather the best intelligence we can gather.
And so this is a useful report. There's going to be a lot of talk
about reform in Washington, reforms of the agencies. And I look
forward to working with members of Congress to put out reforms that
will work. A couple of ideas that I think make sense: One, we need to
bolster human intelligence. In other words, one of the best ways to
figure out what the enemy is thinking is to get to know the enemy
firsthand, I guess is the best way to put it -- is to have as much
human intelligence as possible. Good quality intelligence and enough
human intelligence agents, assets out there so that we can cover the
globe.
Secondly, one of the key ingredients is to use our technologies to
listen and look better. And so we've got to always make sure our
intelligence agencies are on the cutting edge of change. And thirdly,
there are quite a few intelligence-gathering agencies within
Washington, and there needs to be better coordination between the
agencies.
Now, having said that, I want -- I haven't seen the report yet. I
know it's quite critical. It's very important for our fellow citizens
to know there's some really good people working hard in our
intelligence-gathering agencies, taking risks for their lives, doing
the very best job they can. I will remind them that there has been
some failures -- listen, we thought there was going to be stockpiles of
weapons. I thought so; the Congress thought so; the U.N. thought so.
I'll tell you what we do know. Saddam Hussein had the capacity to make
weapons. See, he had the ability to make them. He had the intent. We
knew he hated America. We knew he was paying families of suiciders.
We knew he tortured his own people, and we knew he had the capability
of making weapons. That we do know. They haven't found the
stockpiles, but we do know he could make them. And so he was a
dangerous man. He was a dangerous man. The world is better off
without Saddam Hussein in power. America is safer. (Applause.)
I want to know the truth. I want to know the facts. I appreciate
the fact-finders working hard, and I want to work to make it the very
best system we can possibly have. Because we've got a duty to do for
the American people. This war goes on. There's a mighty ideological
struggle taking place. Remember, it is really -- the better way to
describe what's happening is, this is a war against an ideology which
stands exactly opposite of what we believe. It's an ideology that can
-- if you just think, remember the Taliban -- it's an ideology that
brutalized people because of what they thought. It brutalized people
because of how they worshiped. It brutalized people because of their
gender. The exact opposite of what America stands for.
You see, we believe that you're as big a patriot if you worship the
Almighty as if you don't. You have the freedom to do so. And if you
choose to worship, whether it be as a Christian, Jew or Muslim, you're
equally as patriotic as your neighbor. That's what we believe. You
have the freedom to worship as you see fit in America.
That's the exact opposite of the dim view of the people who are
trying to cause us harm. They use terror as a tool. So this is really
a ideological struggle where the enemy is willing to use terror as a
tool. And they kill innocent life because they know our good hearts
break every time we see an innocent soldier die, and an innocent
citizen die. They know the compassion we all feel. Forget political
parties; all Americans grieve when we see a son or a daughter, a
husband or wife, go down in combat. We weep when we see that. We care
when suiciders bomb innocent children inside Iraq. That's the nature
of our soul. And they know that.
And see, they want to use terror as a tool to drive us out. They
want us to forget our duty. They want us to get scared and pale in the
face of their horrific acts. They do not understand the American
people. Yeah, we'll weep, but we will never cower in the face of
killers and thugs.
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