[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the hearing will come to order. good morning, and welcome to our distinguished panel of witnesses, secretary napolitano, and robert mueller, and first time confirmed, happy to welcome the new director of the national counterterrorism center, matthew olson. this past weekend in ceremonies and vigils across the nation, we stopped to remember the nearly 3,000 people killed ten years ago in the attacks of september 11, 2001, and to appreciate the acts of heroism and service by countless americans on that day and every day since to protect our homeland and defeat the violent islamic extremists who attacked us on 9/11 and drew us into the war that we are in. the 9th anniversary of 9/11 last year didn t get, obviously, the same degree of attention, and either will the 11th anniversary next year, and in some sense, that s why we re here this morning. this a
operation forces and their extraordinary capabilities. the nation is safer because of their work and because of the many actions taken by the broad range of federal state and local elements concerned with our security. we ve seen ten years of determined effort by all in the fight and the men and women of the intelligence community stood with our partners every day to ensure success. we have great reason to take pride, but it would be an error to conclude that we have reason to gloat, reason to soften our focus, or reason to relax our efforts. the stark fact is we remain threatened, and the information conveyed over the weekend is an exemplar of that. as terrorists still wish to do us harm, destroy our institutions, and kill americans without conscious. in seeking to counterterrorism in all its forms, the success of the intelligence community, i m convinced has been and will continue to be rooted in three critical factors. the most important is the dedication and skill of our
serious agreements and more are under way. after 9/11 the federal government discovered that information exist about the hijackers well before and after they came to the united states but disinformation had not been coordinated, shared and analyzed. since 9/11, the federal government along with its state, local, tribal private sector partners has made significant improvements to enhance information sharing and analysis with respect to targeting the federal government and dhs in particular has become more effective at analyzing travel related data to better understand and anticipate the travel patterns of known or suspected terrorists. this analysis has been an essential in identifying targeting and interdicting known and suspected terrorists and prompting additional screening before these individuals travel to the united states. we ve established 72 fusion centers with a service focal points for the receipt and of discovering and sharing of threat related information among th