President Obama praised the work of those at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in a speech yesterday [1]at its headquarters in McLean, Virginia.

Obama thanked NCTC for its work, including the coordination of intelligence collection and analysis efforts between federal, state, and local government agencies. The President warned that no one can promise that there will never be another terrorist attack on American soil, but he pledged to provide the support and tools needed to keep America safe and vowed to continue to target al Qaeda and "its bankrupt vision." 

In its coverage of the speech, The New York Times notes [2] that:

Administration officials said the United States has killed or captured 11 of the 20 most wanted figures in the Afghan-Pakistani border area over the last year, as well as another four who were later added to the list. They said Al Qaeda’s capacity has been severely damaged and that some foreign fighters, like Uzbeks, Chechens and Yemenis, have begun going home.

Obama spotlighted the recent arrests in Denver and New York as one of NCTC's many successes at stitching "together the intelligence." The arrests broke up an an alleged plot to attack American targets with hydrogen peroxide bombs, allegedly masterminded by Denver shuttle bus driver Najibullah Zazi.  Zazi was arrested in late September.

Attorney General Eric Holder spoke with reporters yesterday and, according to The Washington Post [3], he called the Zazi plot "very serious," and stated that it "could have resulted in the loss of American lives." 

Holder used the occasion to call on Congress to swiftly reauthorize provisions of the USA Patriot Act, including tools that allow the FBI to conduct roving wiretaps of suspects, that have helped the bureau and its law enforcement partners in multiple cases. He nodded to the concerns of civil liberties advocates by acknowledging, "There's certainly a conversation that can be had about, do they need to be reexamined," but Holder went on to assert that "the tools as they exist are valuable and not in a theoretical sense."

This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding meetings on the USA Patriot Act Sunset Provisions Act, which addresses Patriot Act provision that will sunset at the end of this year unless reauthorized by Congress.  Those provisions are the authorization for roving wiretaps, the "lone wolf" measure, and the Section 215 orders for intangible things, known as the "library records" provision, according to a press release by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy  [4](D-Vt). 

The proposed legislation also expands reporting requirements to allow congressional and public monitoring of the  Patriot Act's powerful surveillance methods, while strengthening judicial review of the government's information-gathering powers.

Photo of Barack Obama by Wa-J/Flickr [5]

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