It is important for the American people to understand what CIA and the
Intelligence Community were doing to try to prevent the attack that occurred - and to stop
attacks, which al-Qa'ida has certainly planned and remains determined to attempt.
It is important to put our level of effort into context.. .to understand the tradeoffs
in resources and people, we had to make - the choices we consciously made to ensure
that we maintained an aggressive counterterrorist effort.
We need to be honest about the fact that our homeland is very difficult to protect.
For strategic warning to be effective, there must be a dedicated program to address the
vulnerabilities of our free and open society. Successive administrations, commissions,
and the Congress have struggled with this.