President George W. Bush
Documents & Texts from the White House
08 March 2008
President's Radio Address
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week, I addressed the Department of
Homeland Security on its fifth anniversary and thanked the men and women
who work tirelessly to keep us safe. Because of their hard work, and
the efforts of many across all levels of government, we have not
suffered another attack on our soil since September the 11th, 2001.
This is not for a lack of effort on the part of the enemy. Al
Qaida remains determined to attack America again. Two years ago, Osama
bin Laden warned the American people, "Operations are under preparation,
and you will see them on your own ground once they are finished."
Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials
have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists.
Unfortunately, Congress recently sent me an intelligence
authorization bill that would diminish these vital tools. So today, I
vetoed it. And here is why:
The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable
tools in the war on terror -- the CIA program to detain and question key
terrorist leaders and operatives. This program has produced critical
intelligence that has helped us prevent a number of attacks. The
program helped us stop a plot to strike a U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti,
a planned attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi, a plot to hijack a
passenger plane and fly it into Library Tower in Los Angeles, and a plot
to crash passenger planes into Heathrow Airport or buildings in downtown
London. And it has helped us understand al Qaida's structure and
financing and communications and logistics. Were it not for this
program, our intelligence community believes that al Qaida and its
allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the
American homeland.
The main reason this program has been effective is that it allows
the CIA to use specialized interrogation procedures to question a small
number of the most dangerous terrorists under careful supervision. The
bill Congress sent me would deprive the CIA of the authority to use
these safe and lawful techniques. Instead, it would restrict the CIA's
range of acceptable interrogation methods to those provided in the Army
Field Manual. The procedures in this manual were designed for use by
soldiers questioning lawful combatants captured on the battlefield.
They were not intended for intelligence professionals trained to
question hardened terrorists.
Limiting the CIA's interrogation methods to those in the Army Field
Manual would be dangerous because the manual is publicly available and
easily accessible on the Internet. Shortly after 9/11, we learned that
key al Qaida operatives had been trained to resist the methods outlined
in the manual. And this is why we created alternative procedures to
question the most dangerous al Qaida operatives, particularly those who
might have knowledge of attacks planned on our homeland. The best
source of information about terrorist attacks is the terrorists
themselves. If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA
to methods in the Field Manual, we could lose vital information from
senior al Qaida terrorists, and that could cost American lives.
The bill Congress sent me would not simply ban one particular
interrogation method, as some have implied. Instead, it would eliminate
all the alternative procedures we've developed to question the world's
most dangerous and violent terrorists. This would end an effective
program that Congress authorized just over a year ago.
The fact that we have not been attacked over the past
six-and-a-half years is not a matter of chance. It is the result of
good policies and the determined efforts of individuals carrying them
out. We owe these individuals our thanks, and we owe them the
authorities they need to do their jobs effectively.
We have no higher responsibility than stopping terrorist attacks.
And this is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven
track record of keeping America safe.
Thank you for listening.
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