For Immediate Release
March 29, 2004

Global Message

The Bush Administration was working hard before September 11th to devise a comprehensive framework to deal with Al Qaeda.

The Administration’s work was based on the best knowledge the intelligence community could provide.

Our human intelligence rose markedly from 1999 through 2001. By September 11th, a map of Afghanistan would show that intelligence human networks were in place in numbers to nearly cover the country.

When the military campaign to topple and destroy the Taliban began in October of 2001, we were able to support it with an enormous body of information and a large stable of assets.

These networks gave us the platform from which to launch the rapid removal of the Taliban.

We disrupted terrorist attacks that saved lives. There were actions in 50 countries involving dozens of suspects, many of whom were followed, arrested or detained.

We conducted multiple arrests in East Asia, leading to the arrest or detention of 45 members of the Hezbollah network.

These operations netted anti-aircraft missiles and hundreds of pounds of explosives and brought a bin Laden facilitator to justice.

During the summer of 2001, reacting to a rash of intelligence reports, there were arrests and detentions in Bahrain, Yemen, and Turkey. There were terrorist network disruptions in two dozen countries. We helped halt, disrupt or uncover weapons caches and plans to attack U.S. diplomatic facilities in the Middle East and Europe.

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