Mike Quigley: “In today's world, the threats we face are constantly changing. Our ability to keep America safe relies on our capacity…”

“In today's world, the threats we face are constantly changing. Our ability to keep America safe relies on our capacity to adapt quickly to these new and evolving threats. In the years following 9/11, the U.S. made significant changes to our intelligence and law enforcement capabilities that have stopped over 60 terror plots against the U.S. and saved countless American lives. But 9/11 was 15 years ago. The threats we face today are vastly different than the threats we faced then. It is time we reprioritize resources to confront this new reality. The recent terror attacks in Brussels and Paris confirm that one of our largest security vulnerabilities is soft targets, relatively unprotected venues where large groups of people gather. Soft targets include places we all frequent, like airports, transit systems, stadiums, restaurants, and shopping malls. They are easy to attack and difficult to protect. The recent attacks also showed that threats are becoming harder to detect. The ability to collect intelligence on terrorist intentions and terror plots is more challenging because of new encryption technology and the reliance on lone-wolf attacks. Because specific and credible threats are increasingly more difficult to uncover, we need to redouble our efforts and reprioritize our funding to reduce our vulnerabilities. Yet, alarmingly, current funding for the Federal programs designed to keep America safe fails to meet the new and growing threats we face.…”