Property, and saved lives. This type of training is happening every day in the fdny and is essential to our ability to serve the city of new york. By investing in core areas, planning, incident management, leadership, communications, patient triage and treatment, hazmat, marine firefighter and search and technical rescue, we are better prepared to adapt to a changing threat environment if disaster strikes. We have structured our Core Competencies to respond to routine and extreme events, including acts of terrorism. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak here today on this important topic. Thank you. Chair recognizes mr. Ielpi. Thank you for inviting me here. Its a pleasure to be able to speak to you. Before i start, id like to acknowledge behind me theres a large number of family members who lost their loved ones here that are here to listen to this talk today. Id like to thank the Port Authority who lost fabulous 37 guys and gals, 12 still missing today. New York City Police department behind me, lost 23, 7 still missing today. And the fire service who lost 343, including my beautiful son, jonathan. Who today, 127 new york city firefighters are still missing. Along with 1, 113 Beautiful People who were murdered on 9 11 who are still missing this very minute. I have listened to mayor giuliani and you folks who have done yeoman work to keep us safe in this country of ours. I had the privilege of going around the country, ive spoken many cities, many states, have traveled out of country, speaking about 9 11 and the importance of understanding what happened to our country, our world, on 9 11. I spend nine months here in recovery work. I work with the best of best that this country had to offer. Not just the police, not just the Fire Department, emergency people but our civilians from every one of your states, every one. They gave of themselves. They are now sick. Sick. And its up to you people of congress to speak up and support this bill. I heard many of you talk about the importance of making thus a national memorial. Its critical, we make this a national memorial. And your support to do that is instrumental in making this just that, the most powerful memorial this country has, the worst attack on our countrys soil in history. It was not an attack on new york city or the pentagon or flight 93. It was an attack on portland maine. It was an attack on houston, texas, in north dakota. It was an attack on our soil, our beliefs, lifestyles, freedom, by people that do not believe that. I listened to you talk about, and the commissioners, how we protect ourselves. The police force, military what we need to do. But i am very, very concerned that there is one thing that weve totally lacked in 14 years, and thats education. And i can look at every one of you, every one of you, and we do not have a state in our country that i know of that has a curriculum to teach the history, what happened to us on 9 11. Not a state. Find that very troubling. We have teachers now that are 22, 23, 24, 25 years old that 14 years ago were 9, 10, 11, 12 years old, 13 years old. They went to school, theres no curriculum. They werent taught about 9 11. They dont know about 9 11. And now theyre teachers. And when i tell you they dont know, i speak in these schools. I speak in these states. The last place i spoke was omaha, and very large class of graduating students from high school who did not know about 9 11. The principal called me up, emailed me, three, four days later and said, lee, i have students walking in the hallways of this school asking about 9 11. What happened on 9 11 . I have parents calling me up saying, you dont teach 9 11 . You dont educate our children about what happened to our country on 9 11. And the answer is no. And just to drive that point home, a few days from now on september 11th, new York City Schools do not have to have a moment of silence, not do they have to talk about the significance of the day unless the teacher wants to. And so many of them do. But theyre handcuffed. We teach to the test. You all know it. Ive spoke to teachers again throughout the country and theyve all said the same thing, were failing our children. Continue your beautiful work. You have to continue to keep us safe. But, please, when you go back to your individual states your constituents, its up to you to say to michigan, to texas, to california, we dont have a curriculum in our state to teach what happened . We can fight these terrorists all day long, we know theyre coming back, we hear it from our commissioners, we hear it from you, but wouldnt it be powerful to be able to say that our young people can take a stand with this by understanding, by enlightenment. Understanding that this terrorism fact is here to stay. One of the big of the things that we were taught from our forefathers is education. And it will solve problems. And i will end, i spoke with an educator in london whose husband was murdered here. She within baent back to speak must educate here in the uk, in london. This is a few years back, and this is an individual, just one person, and she came back and said to me, lee, i was told no, we are not going to teach 9 11 in the uk. We do not want to to aggravate muslim community. I never heard such foolishness. But to be ignorant that we are afraid to be politically correct is a downfall. So we do have a lot of missions in our lives, dont we . I would sincerely i would beg you, when you go to your states, ask that question, and youre going to be very surprised with then then answers youre going to ge. No, we dont teach. Thank you. Thank you, sir, for your passion and advocacy for the victims. Chair recognizes mr. Thomas. Good morning, chairman, and members of the House Committee on Homeland Security. My name is gregory thomas, National President of the National Organization of black executives referred to as noble. Im pleased to bring to you testimony on behalf our executive board and 3,000 members who we represent internationally or africanamerican chief officers of Law Enforcement at the federal, state, county, municipal levels. Since 1976 we are proved to have served as Law Enforcement by taking steps to ensure equity in administration of justice in all communities of the United States. In response to the similar events that occurred in our country over the past year, noble is proud to played efforts to improve the level of respect and police and citizens they serve. Whether serving a key member of president obamas policing or working closely with the department of justice on the ground in ferguson, missouri, weve been an important part of the discourse sought to bring a fresh look to the manner in which police professionally engage with communities that they serve and in the manner in which communities engage. Noble is pleased to present this committee with a view from the field on levels of cooperation between federal, state, local Law Enforcement agencies and joint efforts to prevent, prepare for, respond to, mitigate, recover from a terrorist attack. As we approach the 14th day of wreck nati recognition, noble would like to o offer well like to thank men and women and everyday citizens who responded to the sites of the terrorist attacks both here in new york city and pennsylvania and in pentagon in virginia. The Lessons Learned from the september 11th attacks, a day referred to as 9 11, are many. Arguably the most important one is that there must be a unified intelligence gathering effort to make share we can properly identify plots and plans to attack our homeland and bring those who are behind these attacks to quick and determined justice. Recent statements from director comey that the Islamic State known as isis or isil poses a more challenging Terror Threat in the United States than al qaeda does, highlights the need for us to keep our collective eyes open for those who will choose to act in a singular manner to create terror, the likes of which evidence in a thwarted attempt in france. This ever present threat requires top level effort on the part of federal, state, local Law Enforcement officials, an effort enhanced if these officials are given the structure to function properly. Fortunately, since 9 11, theres been significant progress made in regards to information sharing between agencies, but in order to achieve a more reburst environment that promotes horizontal and vertical information sharing, noble believes Intelligence Centers can serve a dual purpose, battling terror up and fighting crime. In 2006 issued guide lines on Intelligence Fusion Centers the department of justice defined the center as collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provides resources and information to the center with the goal of maximizing their ability to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity. Many members across the country either work in or worked with the centers and have hutsuch commented to provide a forum in government and private sector entities can unite to maximize available resources, build trusted resources, networks, and relationships and thoroughly investigate and prevent criminal and terrorist activity. With some of the cities experiencing upticks in crime and with the general call for government to do more with less, expansion of centers can serve to provide effective sources of timely intelligent related to violent gangs, drug trafficking, weapon smuggling and other crimes that have a nexus to violence. Fusion centers have a viable place in the communities noble continues to work with periodic independent review and held to high standards like those previously established by the department of justice, for example, as to minimize the chances of civil liberty or private a and buss. Example of properly functioning Fusion Center can be found in georgia, where the Analysis Center named Fusion Center of the year by the u. S. Department of Homeland Security. In addition to creating and properly funding Fusion Centers, noble urges congress to continue to support, create, Fund Programs that ensure that equipment purchased after 9 11 like those that were purchased, for example, to properly respond to chemical, biological, radio logical, nuclear, explosive threats remain current and usable by our nations first responders. Lastly, we recommend that a strong emphasis put on providing objective Technical Assistance and support for agencies who want to apply for Homeland Security grants and assistance but because of their size and Financial Capacity have difficulty employee grant writers, for example, on a short or longterm basis. On the National Organization of black Law Enforcement executives i thank you for the opportunity to provide our views on this important and timely topic. I will remain and look forward to responding to your questions. Want to thank all of the witnesses. Chair recognizes himself for questions. Commissioner bratton, you and i have talked a great deal about the evolving threat, in the days of bin laden, caves and couriers used to communicate. A different type of threat, more of a command and control structure. But we see a threat today that you talked about the garland case and talked about the fourth of july plot in new york, here. Many of these new threats we worry about foreign fighters but many new threats are internet driven, coming out of places out of syria, by what we call the cyber sort of isis commanders, if you will. Sending out directives to attack military to kill police officers, and you, sir, i think have dealt with a majority of these threat i think you mentioned in your testimony, 20 plots have been thwarted just here in new york. And weve arrested over 60 the last year. This is a threat that i believe is growing exponentially, its a very different type of threat, more difficult to manage because of the sheer volume. Its loud. Theres a lot of chatter. 200,000 tweets, isis tweets per day. We did have a recent victory with the air strike, it was sending many of these directives, sometimes with different twitter handlers, sometimes in dark space, we cant even monitor if we even if we have a court order. We just, my understanding, just recently now took out the number two isis cyber recruiter and thats good news but there will be many more to replace them. So i guess my question is, its very challenging, how what is nypd doing working and with federal partners to rise to this challenge to protect the American People . Let me just say, i commend you and your department for the Great Success you have had. But the, again, the volume is so high, it worries me that we wont be able to stop all of this. You comment about the volume being so high reinforces the need for what new york has been very actively engaged in the collaborative effort with all of our various colleagues to ensure we have seamless interaction with them. Its been a trial and error process going back to the events immediately after 9 11. As chief in los angeles, along colleagues among the major city chiefs we had to use a battering ram in washington to break down the doors of Homeland Security to allow us into the room to share information, to share what we had. Fortunately those days are largely behind us and in new york city, id like to think they are totally behind us, that in this effort there is too much to do to be bickering among ourselves or keeping information from each other. And my predecessor, ray kelly in the days after 9 11 and 12 years he ran nypd, developed an extraordinary operation that not only would work with our federal colleagues, which was an absolute necessity, but also because of the Critical Issues facing new york being probably the most significant terrorist target remaining in the world and continuing. Created a very large and robust counterterrorism capability. To that end, as the threats have changed and particularly last 18 months since my appointment as commissioner by mayor de blasio january 2014, we have seen the threat of isis, isil expand exponentially with each passing month using social media. Also a strategy very different than al qaeda, al qaeda was focused on the big event, multiple big events which had been their practice. Isil has gone in a very different direction, a direction that is really a 21st Century Initiative on their part, the idea that social media allows them to not only attract fighters to syria, but also inspire fighters elsewhere in the world who dont have to be trained in Training Camps or experience warfare to conduct attacks. And youve referenced the 20 attacks that have been focused on new york city. 16 in 12 years thwarted by nypd, fbi and others. But increasing pace, the idea that we have had four in just the last now 19 months, the pace is increasing because of the social media. Were going to continue to expand our response. Were going to continue to expand our pro activity. Just during my time as commissioner with Additional Resources mayor de blasio has been providing, 1300 additional officers added to the department for the first time in 15 years. For 15 years it was decreasing. It is now increasing a number of the officers going into Strategic Response group expanding from 400 to 800 offices. A large part to train for counterterrorism capabilities. Many are policing u. S. Open, running Security Check points that go into that facility. Additionally, commissioner millers creating 415person unit that will be very specifically focused on protecting sites in new york city, equipped and armed to take interim measure created by commissioner kelly and institutionalized because of the nature of the threat were facing has now become so big and weve referenced issue of cybersecurity, something whose full extent of potential harm we dont fully understand. I know mayor giulianis concerns, we are not doing enough but we are continually with our resources in new york trying to do more, 250 detectives assigned to cybersecurityrelated investigations, a year or so ago, and recently the increase in assignment of personnel to the bureau, as well as District Attorney vances office. We are fully engaged and we are constantly looking at the exponential expansion of the threats in the new direction the threats are going. I certainly commend you for your service. Thank you very much. Chair recognizes ranging member. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And its nice to have all of you gentlemen before us. Commissioner bratton, good to see you again. I used to work a little with yall in los angeles. Im pretty thrilled there are so many members here today especially some of our newer members. So, in the interest of time i have just one question and it will go to the commissioner. We have been investing a lot of resources. The resources that we have at the federal level, of course we have diligently worked to help new york city. My question is, youre so far ahead in so many ways on this whole counterterrorism and how to deal with your communities and policing, how do you share that with some of the other cities, maybe smaller cities, that dont get those types of resources . Thats a great question. We consciously seek to take what we learn and share it. There is the major city chiefs organization, noble, here at the table, continually throughout the year but then at various annual conferences that the issue of terrorism is now almost always a major topic of discussion at those roundtable