DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE TRANSCRIBED SPEECH DISTRIBUTION PREFERENCE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS PROGRAM 11 MARCH 1993

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP97M00518R000600780002-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 28, 2011
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 11, 1993
• Content Type: MISC

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DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
TRANSCRIBED SPEECH DISTRIBUTION PREFERENCE
Smithsonian Institution
Distinguished Speakers Program
11 March 1993
(Unclassified)
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(Public)
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Remarks BY
R. 7amee Woolsey
Director of Central Intelligence
At The
Smithsonian'Institution
Distinguished Speakers Program
11 March 1993
""The End of the Cold War: Where Do We Go from Here?"
Having been a Regent of'.the Smithsonian
Institution, it gives me a special pride to appear at
the Resident Associate Distinguished Speakers Program.
I'm told that this is the first Smithsonian sponsored
meeting here at CIA Headquarters, and I-think your
presence here tonight helps to underscore the
importance this Agency attaches to being as open as we
possibly can about the work-that we do.
Last December, we dedicated a new and important
monument right here at CIA. It's a plain monument --
it has a simple concrete base that holds erect three
sections of the Berlin Wall. I'm told that these
three slabs of reinforced concrete were removed from
an area near the Brandenberg Gate in the wake of the
peaceful revolutions which swept communist governments
from power in Europe.
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For members of the CIA and the intelligence
family, this monument is much more than concrete and
steel, it represents an important part of CIA history.
Few realize that in 1961, as the wall was being built,
we were beginning to occupy this Headquarters
building. And for the next 29 years much of our work
was devoted to breaking down the barriers to peace and
freedom created by the Cold War.
Now that the cold War is over and a portion of
the Wall rests at the foot of our building, some have
wondered, to paraphrase the title of this speech,
"what's Next For The CIA?"
Some of our critics complain that CIA and the
Intelligence Community are stuck in some kind of a.
Cold War rut -- unable to move forward because of a
mindset mired in the past. Nothing could be further
from the truth.
But before I talk to you about how we are
changing and evolving to meet the future challenges to
our country, I want to reflect a bit on how our past
has prepared America's intelligence service to meet
the future.
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When people think of CIA, they think of
surreptitious meetings and secret spy swaps at
midnight. across the Glienecke Bridge in Berlin. But
while much of the mythology about CIA has to do with
clandestine operations, the history of American
intelligence is just as firmly..rooted ..in .the
traditions of academia -- of painstaking research and
objective analysis.
Bill Donovan, the father of modern American
intelligence, realized that merely collecting
information from spies -- or any other source -- was
not enough. The information had to be analyzed,
placed in proper context and most importantly, the
finished intelligence product had to be timely -- a
lesson made painfully clear at Pearl Harbor. And so
in creating a central intelligence organization after
the war, Donovan enlisted the support of noted Harvard
historian William Langer, Sherman Kent of Yale and
others, who together built a strong tradition of
scholarship in intelligence.
Building on this tradition of scholarship, and
over the 46-year history of CIA, we've accumulated a
wealth of knowledge and developed unique insights into
different peoples, languages, cultures, economies of
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countries in all corners of the globe -- information
that has relevance today.
in earlier years we were concerned that
underdeveloped and unstable countries would be
susceptible to communist.influence. Today, many of
these same countries are still unstable, threatened by
fanatics, or facing humanitarian crises that not only
endanger their sovereignty but also challenge regional
stability. We had to understand how sophisticated
weapons technologies could influence the outcome of
war -- the same technologies that some unfriendly
third countries now seek to acquire to threaten their
neighbors.
In many other areas -- from understanding the
Soviet economy, to defense conversion, from the
problems of Soviet oil production to understanding the
many important religious and ethnic rivalries -- our
knowledge, gained from decades of careful study and
research, can be placed in a broader context,
important for understanding the issues of today. Our
country's leaders -- both civilian and military --
rely on our vast reservoir of knowledge. They count
on our analysis of global events, and they look to us
for judgments that are not only sound, but objective
and fair.
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Yet, while' we focused on Cold war issues we were
never wholly consumed by them. We had experts looking
at everything from the stability of major foreign
currencies to water resources in the middle East. On
economic issues, our analysts_.monitored.both the
international economy -- trade, finance, economic
competition -- and the domestic performance of
countries around the world. We had -- and continue to
have -- recognized authorities on international
monetary affairs, advanced technology developments,
the inner workings of regional economic groupings, and
many other economic issues of direct interest today.
We've learned from our past and we are using that
knowledge as a springboard to the future.
Make no mistake about it. The world has changed
in fundamental ways. In his inaugural address just a
couple of months ago, President Clinton said that,
"today, as the old order passes, the new world is more
free, but less stable. Communism's collapse has
called forth old animosities and new dangers."
Of the many issues that have come to the
forefront in recent years, few have more serious and
far-reaching implications for global and regional
security and stability than the proliferation of
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weapons of mass destruction. Weapons proliferation
poses one of the most complex challenges the
Intelligence Community will face for the remainder of
the century, and no doubt, beyond.
Today, over two dozen countries are seeking
advanced weapons, including nuclear, chemical, and
biological weapons, as well as missiles to deliver
them. And our job is getting more difficult, because
as international awareness of the problem increases,
countries and their suppliers are becoming more clever
in devising networks of front companies to frustrate
export controls and buy what would otherwise be
prohibited to them.
The challenge we face in controlling
proliferation is multifaceted: we must decipher and
untangle the complex web of suppliers, middlemen, and
end users; we must distinguish between legitimate and
illicit purposes and help interdict the flow of
material, technology, and know-how to potential
proliferators.
The Middle East represents an area of special
concern, because half of the countries have nuclear,
chemical or biological weapons programs, at least in
development.
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Iran, for example, has embarked on an ambitious
across-the-board program to develop its military and
defense industries -- and this includes their weapons
of mass destruction programs. Tehran is shopping in
Western markets for nuclear and missile technology and
is trying to lure back technical experts it drove
abroad in the 1980s. Because it hasn't been able to
get what it wants from the West, it has turned to
Asian sources; Iran's principal suppliers of special
weapons and technology since their war with Iraq have.
been North Korea and China.
Iran has an active chemical weapons program and
it makes no bones about its right to chemical weapons
-- especially in light of Iraq's use of chemical
weapons against it. Iran has produced at least
several hundred tons of blister, choking and blood
agents -- possibly as much as 2,000 tons -- at.a
steadily increasing rate since 1984.
Iran's behavior in rearming and rebuilding its
military and developing a strategic deterrent is
ominously analogous to Iraq's action in the 1980s --
and could pose a grave threat to regional stability.
The development of an Iranian nuclear capability would
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not only dramatically alter the regional power balance
but probably would trigger an even greater arms race.
The Middle East is an area in which our core
strategic interests are engaged. Access to oil at
market- (not politically-.)._.determined..prices is vital
to the world's economic health. And as we learned
during the Gulf War, it matters who controls this
vital resource. Israel's security is an abiding
concern, and one complicated by our wider interests in
the region.
But these strategic concerns cannot be viewed in
isolation. Rather, they are caught up in a vortex of
growing regional tension and instability into which we
are increasingly drawn. Even our definition of what
defines the Middle East is changing: the large and
potentially unstable states of Central Asia, with
their ties to neighboring Muslim states, are now part
of this region. Tired authoritarian regimes
identified with failed nationalist and socialist
ideologies are being challenged from below by their
exploding and economically desperate populations.
Some in the Middle East are drawn to a radical brand
of politicized Islam which draws on deep-seated anti-
Western feeling. Frustration and a sense of
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powerlessness give rise to terrorism and put some of
our friends in the region at risk.
Thus, the transfer and introduction of important
and new weapons technology has an incendiary effect on
the stability of the Middle East . and. Central and
Southwest Asia. And the Intelligence Community is on
the look-out for systems and technologies that have
the potential to alter the power balance in the
region.
We are also paying careful attention to R&D
developments and trends in technology that could
affect our nation's security. For example,
semiconductors under development promise to
revolutionize segments of the electronics industry --
and will likely lead to a new generation of smart
weapons that were used with such devastating result in
the Persian Gulf.
But the CIA and the Intelligence Community are
not just focused on weapons technology, because in
many other areas new technologies contribute to the
complexity of the issues that we face.
in the financial marketplace for example, rapid
communications are bringing countries, organizations
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and individuals closer together. Sophisticated
computer networks move literally billions of dollars
across international borders instantaneously. This
has fueled a huge increase in world trade and has led
to greater economic prosperity for many countries.
But those same financial:networks.ar.e..being used with
increasing frequency by drug kingpins and organized
crime syndicates -- groups that now have a vehicle for
moving laundered money quickly among a variety of
front companies. This of course, complicates our job
-- trying to unravel the complex trail of illegal drug
transactions. It also makes more difficult the job of
our partners in law enforcement, who seek to prosecute
those responsible for the flow of illegal drugs into
this country.
All of us have had terrorism on our mind
recently. The tragic bombing at the World Trade
Center in New York and the deadly attack on CIA
employees just outside our gates reminded us that the
world -- including at times our own country -- remains
a dangerous place. While we hope we are not now
beginning a new chapter for terrorism, we have the
organization needed to meet the challenge. CIA and
the Intelligence Community -- through its
Counterterrorist Center -- are working closely with
law enforcement on these cases. We are looking at all
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the angles -- including the possibility of
international involvement. While this investigation
is on-going, our people are working hard -- checking
our sources, following up on leads, using our
knowledge of people and organizations, and making
judgments about who is * capable of ...performing such an
act. And we are reporting our findings to law
enforcement.
Weapons proliferation, narcotics, terrorism,
understanding the interaction of dynamic forces like
religious and ethnic tensions -- it's clear that we
have a pressing set of intelligence priorities on our
plate. But we also have been shifting our resources
in ways that not only accommodate, but anticipate new
issues that are important to our policymakers.
For example, our leaders are increasingly asking
CIA to study environmental issues because we have
special skills, resources, and unique insights.
Last November, we brought in a group of well
known and highly respected environmental scientists to
CIA. After giving them the appropriate clearances, we
briefed them on the technical capabilities of some of
our most closely held intelligence collection systems.
The scientists were then offered the opportunity to
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review what we collected. All of this was done with
an eye toward determining if intelligence can help
answer some of the most pressing environmental issues
of our time -- such as ozone depletion, the effect of
the diminishing rain forests, and global warming.
But it may surprise some of you to know that we
have been looking at environmental issues for some
time now. CIA has monitored Soviet handling of
nuclear waste since 1948, when the reactor that
produced the plutonium for the first Soviet nuclear
weapon began operation. We now look at environmental
contamination due to a variety of nuclear activities
-- most of which supported weapons production -- and
questions about the safety of stored but radioactive
liquid and solid waste. This includes reprocessing of
fuel from civilian and naval reactors, and naval
nuclear activities.
Since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, CIA experts
have worked closely with other US government agencies
to prepare detailed studies of Soviet-designed power
reactors. And we are now working with these agencies
to determine the most effective way to improve the
safety of these reactors.
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Just.as narcotics was considered a nontraditional
intelligence topic ten years ago, today other issues
-- such as the global impact of the AIDS epidemic --
have assumed greater importance for intelligence. We
began to focus on AIDS in the mid-1980s. The
Intelligence Community's ..role ..is ..not . to study the
medical aspects of the AIDS virus itself, but to
collect and analyze information on the impact of AIDS
on people of foreign countries -- and their leaders and on the responses of foreign governments to the
epidemic.
Tonight, I've identified just a few of the. issues
of concern to us. I have not mentioned for instance,
the detailed intelligence support we provide our
military in humanitarian efforts such as we saw in
northern Iraq, in Somalia and most recently, in the
airdrop of food to the Bosnians. I haven't mentioned
our support to arms control negotiations, the reports
and background briefings we provide to the President
and to Congress on countless topics; or the whole host
of other tasks for which we are responsible.
It is clear that in dealing with the aftershocks
of the fall of communism and all of the new issues,
that we in the Intelligence Community cannot handle
tomorrow's problems using yesterday's solutions. We
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must continue to reinvent ourselves on almost a daily
basis.
But of all the challenges that the Intelligence
Community faces, perhaps our most difficult. assignment
in the coming years will be to provide an expanding
level of service within a contracting envelope of
resources.
In the coming years, CIA and the Intelligence
Community will be reducing personnel by about 17 and-a
?half.percent. We face this knowing full well that, as
other defense organizations scale back, there will be
greater emphasis placed on intelligence to provide
vital warning and force multipliers for the military.
We will meet this challenge by revising our
collection priorities, refocusing our technical
collection systems -- learning what we can do and what
we can live without. We know that more emphasis needs
to be placed on the front end -- the collection of
intelligence -- and less in the way of support. This
means that our people will in some areas, need to be
retrained; it means that the intelligence community
will need to rely more heavily on artificial
intelligence and expert systems and on a whole range
of new technologies to help us sort through an ever
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expanding set of information. But most of all, it
means we must be flexible -- in the way we use our
collection systems -- and creative in our approach to
new problems.
But as we work to reinvent-ourselves, we know
there is a set of core responsibilities that will
never change. Intelligence is and will remain the
eyes and ears of the United States -- not just for
warning our leaders of impending crises, but in
providing information, insight and a context from
which these leaders can make informed foreign policy
decisions.
I've barely scratched the surface of the wide
array of issues that confront American intelligence.
But while the topics are many, the history and
traditions of American intelligence -- the traditions
of scholarship, unique insights, effective collection
and timely analysis -- provide for us a sturdy guide
for meeting the challenges of the future. American
intelligence is focused on the important issues of
today -- issues that represent barriers to peace and
freedom for our people and for our friends and allies.
And, like the Berlin Wall, these barriers too will
come down.
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