John S. Pistole
Remarks as Prepared
Aero Club Speech
9-23-2010
Thank you for that kind introduction
and thanks to the Aero Club for inviting me here today.
When preparing with my staff, I was
impressed to learn that the Aero Club has been around for more than 100 years,
with a legacy stretching all the way back to the Wright Brothers. After being
in this job for a few months now, I can already see how airline security may
have been a bit different back in those days-I doubt, for instance, that Orville
or Wilbur ever insisted they be allowed to fly with their lattes, and I'm sure
they didn't take off their shoes!
While some only see TSA telling people
what they can't bring on planes, our mission is, as you know, much broader than
that, and the threats we face today are a lot broader as well.
My job - and the agency's challenge -
is to lead TSA through the next stage as it matures into a truly
high-performance, world-class organization that utilizes smart,
intelligence-driven security solutions to facilitate travel, without
compromising the safety, privacy or liberties of the American people. And just
as a reality check, I know TSA is not necessarily universally regarded in this
light.
With that in mind, I've spent my first
two and a half months travelling the country, meeting with employees in Town
Halls and talking and listening to passengers, industry partners, local law enforcement
and other stakeholders.
I've had the opportunity to learn more
about TSA's greatest strengths, as well as some of its challenges and
frustrations, and my resulting goals and priorities for taking this agency to
the next level are simple and straightforward.
My first two goals go hand-in-hand: I
want to sharpen TSA's counterterrorism focus through timely intelligence and cutting-edge
technology, and I want to support TSA's workforce, which is currently more than
60,000 members strong, while at the same time challenging them to reach the
highest professional standards as a critical component in the U.S. Government's
layered security.
The nation relies on the security
expertise of our frontline personnel-particularly at our airports and other
transit hubs-to prevent terrorists from harming Americans. But a key lesson I
took from my 26 years at the FBI is that one of the best tools we possess in
our effort to combat terrorism is accurate and timely intelligence. Our enemies
constantly evolve their methods and their tools as we so clearly saw on
Christmas Day - and it's our job to stay ahead of them. That's why I firmly
believe that intelligence must drive all that we do at TSA.
I, along with my senior staff, begin
each morning with an intelligence briefing. And we work with our law
enforcement and intelligence community partners to help inform our decisions
and judgments, acknowledging that there are always gaps. But this alone isn't
enough. The need for up-to-the-minute information about the threat we face
extends beyond the senior levels of the agency.
Valuable intelligence must be
distributed rapidly to our employees in the field-our frontline Transportation
Security Officers, Federal Air Marshals, explosive specialists and Behavior
Detection Officers, among others - in order to better combat those who would do
us harm. One important change that we're implementing, which I'm pleased to
report to you today, is our expansion of secret-level security clearances to a
greater number of TSA employees. TSA's explosive specialists already receive
these clearances, but TSA is now providing behavior detection officers, supervisory
transportation security officers and transportation security managers with a
secret security clearance. This will impact approximately 10,000 employees and significantly
enhances TSA's ability to leverage the best intelligence and elevate our
security practices across the board.
We're also working hard to get our
employees the cutting-edge technologies they need to protect our aviation
system. Of the $1 billion allocated to TSA under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act or ARRA for aviation security projects-with approximately $741
million dedicated to screening checked baggage and $259 million allocated for
airport checkpoint screening and closed circuit surveillance technologies-I am
pleased to report today that we have allotted all of that 1 billion. The
investment includes over 450 Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units that will
be deployed to the nation's busiest airports - all of which we plan to deploy
this year. Also included are 600 advanced technology (AT) X-ray units for
carry-on baggage screening, 500 bottled liquid scanners, over 1,600 new
explosive trace detection units and 200 reduced-size explosive detection
systems for checked baggage screening, just to name a few.
All this technology is important, but
equally important, perhaps more important, are TSA'S partnerships with you and
the traveling public.
The security initiatives and standards
that TSA currently employs are united by a common factor-they all require the cooperation
and partnership of airlines and airports, as well as the American people. If
anyone knows how critical smart security is to the aviation industry, it's
you.
So I want your input and your
expertise. Security practices are only effective when they are workable for the
industry stakeholders that implement them.
This is a dialogue – a
partnership.
Over the past several years, TSA has
focused on transforming our working relationships with our key aviation stakeholders
into strategic partnerships-allowing us to work together on security solutions
to help mitigate a dynamic and changing threat landscape. This collaborative
model yields a better, faster security response with reduced impact on our
operators. And as TSA's Administrator, I want to continue and expand the valuable
partnerships that have been one of the trademarks of our successes over the
past nine years.
For example, in July I joined my boss,
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano in
We also made two important
announcements underscoring our shared commitment to engaging with the general
aviation community.
The first was the launch of the
general aviation component of the "If You See Something, Say
Something" campaign-which gives general aviation passengers and crew the
tools they need to better recognize and report suspicious behaviors and
indicators.
We also announced our streamlined
process for pre-screening passengers and crews entering and exiting the
We now allow pilots and operators of general
aviation flights to submit a single manifest to the Electronic Advance
Passenger Information System or eAPIS-U.S. Customs and Border Protection's
online tool for submitting general aviation data. This program fulfills both
CBP reporting and TSA international waiver requirements, and is an example of
ways we are leveraging the latest technology to make security
smarter-eliminating redundancies and making life a little easier for our
industry partners, without compromising security.
We are all partners in protecting our
aviation system and must remain vigilant as we face a diversity of threats. This
means recognizing that these plots not only originate overseas, but on our own
shores. We all know the threats are out there, and our enemies won't publish
the how, when and where of the next attack.
So it is on us to work together-to
leverage all our resources and continue an open dialogue about how we can
enhance security around the world. We must also better engage our
passengers-and the American public-in our security processes.
By utilizing initiatives such as TSA's
"Why" campaign, we are actively educating the public about the
reasons behind many of our current security policies. This helps us create a
safer and more positive travel experience for everyone, which in turn improves
security.
As you know, Secretary Napolitano and
I will be attending the ICAO Assembly in
The world has changed considerably
since the Wright Brothers took those first flights, and this audience is well
aware of the rapidly evolving threats that we face today-threats that we never imagined
years ago.
Thank you again for having me. I look
forward to working with you.