*EPF209 02/15/00
Transcript: U.S. Officials on Counterdrug Intelligence Plan
(Reno and McCaffrey cite improved inter-agency coordination) (2070)
U.S. officials report that release of the General Counterdrug Intelligence Plan, which contains over 70 action items, will help in the ongoing effort to rid society of the threats inherent in drug trafficking.
Attorney General Janet Reno said at a White House briefing February 14 that the plan's action items focus on the need to improve the system of collecting, analyzing and exchanging drug information between the 13 federal agencies involved in the drug effort, and the need to share this information quickly.
Reno said the plan calls for the creation of two new coordinating structures that will enable routine dialogue between the agencies on drug-related issues. The plan will also enhance cooperation with local authorities and coordination with foreign entities.
General Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), commenting on the need for better coordination with local law enforcement agencies, said the goal is to get them the right information rapidly without losing control of that information.
"I think it's safe to say five years ago there was zero linkage to local law enforcement," McCaffrey said. "Now it's getting better."
Following is the transcript of briefing:
(begin transcript)
OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY (ONDCP) BRIEFING
SUBJECT: GENERAL COUNTERDRUG INTELLIGENCE PLAN
BRIEFERS: GENERAL BARRY R. MCCAFFREY, DIRECTOR, ONDCP, AND ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO
450 EISENHOWER OLD EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING, THE WHITE HOUSE
2:30 P.M. EST MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2000
ATTY GEN. RENO: Thank you, Secretary Slater. I forgive you. (Laughs.) (Laughter.)
Director McCaffrey, thank you for your leadership.
And my colleagues Jim Johnson and John Gordon, I am proud to serve with you.
Congressman, thank you so much for being here today. Your commitment to this effort is so important. And we appreciate it very, very much.
We have watched in these last seven years an unprecedented success in the fight against violence fueled by drugs. Crime is down for seven and a half years in a row. It is at its lowest level in a generation.
But there is still so much to do. Drug trafficking and related criminal activities continue to pose a grave threat to our country, our communities and our citizens. The threat of drugs knows no geographical or political boundary. It cuts across the range of government activities. It is for this reason that our efforts to fight drugs must also cut across all government agencies that are involved in this fight.
With modern technology, we have an extraordinary opportunity to use intelligence, to use information; to collect it, to analyze it, to put it in such form that it can be a tremendous tool for law enforcement at the local, state, federal and international level. Too often we have not taken advantage of it.
But more than two years ago, we commissioned a task force to conduct a thorough assessment of how we fight drugs in this country. Today's plan is the result of that multiyear effort. And I want to thank everybody who was involved in that effort. It was professional, thorough, comprehensive and just what we needed in order to develop a plan that was not talk but was real and could work.
It contains 73 actions items. These action items focus on the need to improve our system of collecting, analyzing and exchanging drug information between our federal counterparts and the need for this information to be shared quickly.
To facilitate interagency cooperation, we created two new coordinating structures. General McCaffrey has described them. The group will serve as a cross-section of 13 agencies involved in the drug effort, therefore, enabling a routine dialogue on drug-related issues.
But very importantly, and particularly for me who have been there when I asked the feds for information and they said, "Hm," it's only one way. For those who are here from federal, state and local authorities, thank you.
It is so important that we develop mechanisms for sharing accurately, securely, and with confidence the information that is so important to enforcement.
The plan will build on the cooperation we have established with local authorities. We will seek to enhance our coordination with foreign entities, and we will also provide for training for analysts in how we assess the information and the intelligence, and provide it to you in a form that is most useful to you. That includes current information.
These steps will help enormously in our ongoing effort to rid our society of the threats inherent in drug trafficking. By continuing these efforts, we grow better positioned to make the drug epidemic a problem of the past.
I think we can do so much if we use the tools that have been developed in this plan and use them wisely. The Department of Justice commits to doing everything we can to achieve that goal.
Thank you so very much. (Applause.)
GEN. MCCAFFREY: The attorney general's got another appointment, but let me -- there are three people I should have introduced:
Assistant Secretary Ana Maria Salazar -- ma'am, if you will wave your hand -- representing Secretary Bill Cohen. And obviously, the Department of Defense plays an enormous role, not only the service intelligence agencies, but also DIA.
And from State Department, Mr. Kojm -- are you here, sir? Yes. Thanks very much for representing Randy Beers and INL, who also has a role to play, obviously, in coordinating foreign counter-drug-related intelligence.
And then, finally, probably the most important person to all of us, our servant for over two years, is Air Force Colonel Ben Harvey (sp). Where are you? Who has loyally -- stand on up now, Ben -- and effectively worked on this issue. (Applause.) We thank you for your leadership.
Let me just, if I may, open the floor to your own questions or comments. And any of us are available to respond to them. Normally we plant a couple of questions with the -- (chuckles) --
(Soft laughter.)
Any thoughts, press? Yes, please.
Question: Thank you. I wonder what may be the possible expansion for this plan internationally. I've heard Secretary Slater talk about the fourth or fifth goal in the -- (inaudible) -- international aspect of the proposed plan. How will you expect this to be shared with other nations at some point?
MCCAFFREY: Yeah. The question was, essentially, how would we share this information with other nations. Fortunately, again, there's been lots of work on this area. And I just give as an example, one of the most important intelligence centers is radar data on criminal drug flights. Commissioner Kelly (sp) has a Mexican vetted officer or representative at his center at Riverside, California. And so we've gotten -- that's one of the many explanations for the enormous increase in seizures by the Mexican PGR and navy, in particular, in the last year. But there's other things we're doing. We're sharing information at Key West, Florida, in our joint interagency task force. And then, finally, each of our country teams, our ambassador by law is charged with coordinating our intelligence fully with our allied nations.
But I think this gives us a better opportunity in the coming years to bring all this together. The Coast Guard has done a tremendous job in the Caribbean, along with the DEA, of coordinating with island nations who are under attack.
That's an excellent comment. Any other thoughts? Yes, sir.
Q: The 13-member body, panel, how often will they meet? Where they will be? Who will be the head of that? And how will they be communicating the information to the various --
MCCAFFREY: We tried to model this on the National Security Council. One of the things we didn't want to do was to try and create an operational body, but instead, a coordinating policy body. So the actual responsibility for giving instructions to law enforcement agencies, to the Coast Guard, to Defense Intelligence Agency remains with the secretaries involved and with the appropriate national federal law.
So what you're going to see is the same thing I've done for the last seven or eight years, an interagency body that brings together drug-related intelligence, and the individual members of that policy body can go back to their secretaries and change reality.
Now, I would anticipate the (CDX), the secretariat, will stay in session on a continuous basis, seven days a week. They'll set up meetings, they'll find the issues, they'll call together the policy body, and that's when we'll start getting action.
Yes? Mr. Congressman, yes, sir?
Q: General McCaffrey, is this going to require any statutory legislation?
MCCAFFREY: It's not clear to me -- I think when you see the general counterdrug intelligence plan as it now stands, probably not. But I think as this body starts deliberations -- first of all, we're going to ask you to appropriate $1 million in the supplemental, $950 million supplemental we sent down, part of that for the (CDX). We've also asked for $3 million in the FY 2001 budget, so Congress will have to decide if that's an appropriate amount.
But I would anticipate in the coming year or more, as this policy body finds the solutions, the DCI and the attorney general may well ask you for legislation. We're going to have to be very careful to avoid some of the pitfalls of bringing all this information together.
Yes?
Q: How does this change the way local law enforcement agencies fight drug dealers, drug users in inner cities?
MCCAFFREY: Well, I think the attorney general talked to that point, and I know Undersecretary Johnson feels very strongly about it. And we've got a lot of the operating law enforcement agency heads here.
The quality of the counterdrug-related intelligence inside the National Drug Intelligence Center, inside EPIC, inside CNC, is simply unbelievable, as a user for the last five years of this information. The problem is, how do we better support sheriffs and police chiefs, Border Patrol sector commanders, Customs SACs, DEA SACs, et cetera? How do we get them the right information rapidly without losing control of it? And I think it's safe to say five years ago there was zero linkage to local law enforcement. Now it's getting better.
We want a systematic way to better support local law enforcement. That's where almost all criminal justice in America actually takes place. DEA and Customs and the rest of them are working the vertical integrated crime structure. But retail criminal groups in Chicago, in Boise, Idaho, that's where we've had the shortfall.
Yes, sir?
Q: General, in your comments you mentioned getting the latest in sharing information firewalls. How do you establish -- how do you set up such firewalls to make sure that sensitive information does not fall into the wrong hands?
MCCAFFREY: Well, we've been working on it. By the way, this isn't sort of the (start). We've been working on this for several years, obviously. And it's vitally important that foreign intelligence collection sources and methods and means not end up in a federal court case. And even more importantly, it's vitally important that we scrupulously obey the law in terms of the Privacy Act; that we safeguard grand jury information. There's a bunch of restrictions here, where in particular on the law enforcement side of the community we have to be absolutely differential to existing law. But I think we can do that, and we are doing that.
The DEA, in particular, does lots of operations where they provide cuing information to local law enforcement without showing them how they got the information. And I think Financial Enforcement Center is another area that's phenomenal. It's one of the few pieces of magic I've seen in the unclassified world, the way they're trying to bring together, you know, data from commercial databases, from the Bank Secrecy Act, et cetera. So I think we are moving in the right direction.
What other thoughts? (Pause, no response.)
Well again, thanks very much on behalf of all of us -- the attorney general, secretary of the Treasury, secretary of Transportation. And George Tenet and John Gordon, thanks for being here, and particularly the three congressmen. Thank you, sir. (Applause.)
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State)
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