Gwen Graham: “The declassified version was released to the public on July 24, 2003. I filed legislation, S. 1520, September 11, the…”

“The declassified version was released to the public on July 24, 2003. I filed legislation, S. 1520, September 11, the Memorial Intelligence Reform Act, to implement those recommendations 1 week later on July 31, 2003. Each of these panels, in common, concluded major changes were needed to better protect the American people, including such steps as much longer human intelligence capabilities. Yet we did not see the leadership that was needed to fully implement any of those recommendations. Rather, when it comes to reforming our intelligence community, our Nation's leaders can be described as lethargic, at best, negligent, at worst. Let me be clear, my condemnation is not directed only at the current administration but previous administrations, as well. For instance, in my judgment, the Clinton administration was guilty of two principal failures. One, it did not seriously consider or initiate the changes necessary to move our intelligence agencies into the 21st century; second, it did not take adequate steps to wipe out the al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan, camps which produced thousands of extremists trained in the effective skills of terrorism. The blame is not totally at the White House. This Congress deserves blame for its failure to move with a greater sense of urgency. I will discuss those failures in a future date. Now we have the 9/11 Commission report. We are likely to see passage of an intelligence reform package before the election.”