Representative Heather Wilson: “I think intelligence is underestimated; and the reason is that we see the old newspaper headlines of the victory of the…”

“I think intelligence is underestimated; and the reason is that we see the old newspaper headlines of the victory of the Navy at Midway, but you don't learn until years after that it was the breaking of the Japanese code that allowed our ships to be in the right place in the first place. We see the tremendous success of the Battle of Normandy, but we never knew until years later when it was finally declassified that we had broken the German code. So intelligence is often underrated. But in the war on terror, trying to prevent the next terrorist attack, intelligence is even more important than it ever was in the Cold War. I served in the Air Force during the Cold War, and the great thing about the Soviets was that they were certainly easy to find. They had the same exercises at the same time of year using the same barracks and the same rail lines and the same radio frequencies. When we are fighting against terrorism, the problem is completely reversed. If we can find them, we can stop them. The difficult part is finding them.”