Without further a do, but like to introduce secretary michael chertoff, the cofounder of the chertoff group. He was the secretary of the department of Homeland Security. He took that job at a very difficult time and frankly, remade the organization and brought it up to a status where it was extremely effective. I say that as having been the department of defense counterpart to dhs during my time as deputy assistant. I have the opportunity to work extensively with the secretarys folks and quite a few rather interesting events both natural and manmade. He is also a former federal judge for the u. S. Court of appeals for the Third Circuit and was a federal prosecutor who conducted the investigation of the 9 11 terrorist attacks. With that, i will ask secretary chertoff to join us. [applause] steve. K you, good to see some familiar faces in the crowd and veterans. One of the things i did when i was secretary of Homeland Security is i was engaged in expanding the visa waiver 2007, 2008ch in expected to incorporate a number of nations and Central Europe. In two dozen eight, had the opportunity to go around and meet with the leaders of those countries. It was a remarkable experience. It was one of the highlights of my professional tenure at the department because i was made aware of how meaningful that inclusion into the Visa Waiver Program was to the citizens of those countries. I was told whether it was the baltics or the Czech Republic, slovakia that the inclusion of these countries was the final step in recognizing their migration from being under the control of the former soviet union into becoming full members of the association of freedom loving and democratic states. It was not just an economic or travel issue, it was a moral and political issue for these countries. By the way, if you ever want to go toence real gratitude, a country which has been admitted into the program and see how even everyday people told they are finally in the category is equivalent of that we have had when the program started. Even my barber here in the u. S. Points from korea made a of saying the next time i want to get my haircut thank you very much for it meeting korea to the Visa Waiver Program. It was very meaningful. Im here to talk about the program not in light of my experience in 2008 but in where we are now. Obviously, we are in a dangerous place in the world. Perhaps, more dangerous than any time in the last 10 years. A couple of years after the events of 9 11. That is because of the proliferation of terrorist groups really ranging from parts of africa all the way east into afghanistan and pakistan. A notable element of what we have seen in the last year or so has been the rise of groups like thatin syria and iraq delivery recruit deliberately recruit westerners in order to have them not only train and participate in terrorist activities in the middle east or in africa, but also to prepare people who may come back to United States the United States and western europe and try attacks in those locations. Of thecently, we learned individual who attacked the jewish facility in belgium was a frenchman who engaged in activities with isis in syria and iraq before he went back to western europe. This raises the question of security of travel and the security we have with respect to visitors. Suggestedt some have maybe we need to revisit the Visa Waiver Program. Im here to say that that would be a huge mistake. It will be the equivalent of trying to conduct an operation would acquiring a scalpel by using a chainsaw. Youll end up killing the patient at as well. I think within the Visa Waiver Program, we can be more effective. To take a few minutes to lay out what i see as the benefits to the United States of having a vigorous and effective Visa Waiver Program and talk about a few of the things we might do to make sure that we can continue to protect ourselves even within the framework of the program. First, and needs to be clear that the Visa Waiver Program is not a program that allows anybody willynilly to come into the United States. When we in the argument of the expansion of the program several element we had an the Electronic System of travel authorization. This is a very simple and straightforward process that requires Visa Waiver Program participants both the new and existing members requires their citizens periodically to file online with the u. S. Government a brief statement about the their particulars the kinds of things we collect at the border itself, but to do so in advance. What that does is it creates an opportunity for our government to look at the details of somebodys birthday, address, things like that. Determine whether what is based on the intelligence is, this person poses a risk perhaps that requires a closer look. It is a very unobtrusive and convenient way to collect information in advance that we need to collect only when somebody arrives in the u. S. That gives us the opportunity to analyze that kind of basic data so that we can determine whether people are maybe red flagged. Added to that, we have the capabilities now through our ability to review and analyze passenger name record information which is basic travel data about peoples address, Contact Information and travel route. By combining this, we are able to take a deeper look at the kinds of connections or contacts that might suggest somebody is a themthat we can then pull when they arrive. These have been very powerful in allowing us to avoid the problem of people coming in as operatives from overseas because we have an early warning. That applies to respect with western europeans and those from other parts of the world. Now there are some other benefits we get from the Visa Waiver Program that are a little visibility. Er one of them is increasing solidarity that the Program Gives us with countries in europe and Central Europe. It will not escape through notice that we are in a time now maybe for the first time in many years that there is a Serious National Security issue on the european continent. I am talking about what is going on in ukraine and the various threatening noises that have been made from time to time from mr. Putin. From a strategic standpoint, it would be eight National Security a National Security, problem of the first order of the countries of Central Europe began to feel they were being isolated and cut loose from the very time when russia is making noises about expanding its sphere of influence and power. One of the things the Program Allows us to do with these countries is to reaffirm our solidarity in our belief that the new democracies of europe are every bit a part of the as familiarrprise democracies like england, france and germany. Sense ofng that solidarity, particularly at this moment, as a critical importance to americans and all nato National Security alliance. There is economic benefit. Centrality for europeans and koreans and others to travel to the u. S. And for us to travel to their countries without the need to get a visa facilitates trade, Economic Activity and even cultural exchange. But take a time when the global fragile climate remains and recovery is uneven to say the least, promoting Economic Development has a positive benefit for this country as well as the countries that we travel to or that have citizens that travel to us. Are we saying about these new threats with respect to foreign fighters . One point to be made is that with respect to american to go to iraq and syria to fight with that isgo to somalia, not a visa waiver issue because these are american citizens who are entitled to come back to the u. S. And they dont need a visa under any circumstances. What we need to do to identify these returning fighters and the same principle applies to fighters who are coming via western European Countries and then traveling into the u. S. What we need to do is have a judicious and analytically sound information of the travelers that allows us to identify patterns of behavior and connections that suggest we need to take a closer look. That may be email contacts that turn up connected to emails of terrorists. It may be telephone Contact Numbers that we have previously identified. It may be behavior in terms of travel patterns that suggests somebody has gone perhaps to the middle east. Been there for several months and emerges and we dont have a clear picture of where they were. That as i do say that is necessarily proof of guilt, but it is proof we need to look a little more closely. Likebility to use programs that to collect information, the ability to use what weve been doing in respect to passenger name record information as a way of identified patterns that require a closer look this is exactly the kind of scalpel that we need to use in order to identify those who might be a risk in terms of terrorist activity and to then take a closer look at them. You an idea of how effective this can be we look back at the 9 11 hijackers after we put this program into affect. We wanted to see if we had the current programs we had in place prior to september 2001 whether we wouldve picked up connections among the 19 hijackers. When we ran the current programs retrospectively, we discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers we wouldve found connections to. We wouldve found some of those i think there are a couple other things we can do. We have begun to expand overseas. We have preclearance in ireland. I know the department of Homeland Security is looking at preclearance in other areas. The thing with preclearance is is it is a program where it is a country overseas. In an put officials overseas airport and effectively they conduct immigration and customs before people boarded the plane. That is a convenience to the people that come to the u. S. Because they dont longer have to come to a gateway that is a customs presence in the u. S. They can travel directly to other cities but it is a benefit to us excuse me because we get an early look at the people coming into the United States. We get not only to look at the paper records and whenever we are able to collect, but we are able to have trained officers look facetoface and examined the people who want to come into the u. S. To determine whether their behavior suggest questionable activity. That is an extra level of protection for us. It is also a convenience for the traveler because if you have to , we can catch it before the person gets on the airplane. That creates an extra level of security with respect to aviation security. Preclearance is a winwinwin for the u. S. Government, the traveling public and the countries that are hosting our preclearance program. A second thing we can do in order to make sure that we have the full benefit of what our current protective programs are with respect to this waiver, is to continue to support what is being done in the can intelligence community. To collect information about telephone numbers, email addresses overseas that are potentially connected to dangerous terrorists. You need to look at the content to recognize that when you have a particular ip address or phone number that u. S. Previously seen related to terrorist financing activity or even operational activity, anybody that connects with that number you need to take a closer look at. Could there be an innocent reason . There could be, but at the very least, it puts you on notice that you should be asking more questions. One of the things i try to say when that subject comes up about dealing with isis an increased risk of foreign fighters is this is not the time to handicap or dismantle our intelligence collection programs using nsa and other intelligence agencies that have been the cornerstone of protecting the United States since 2001. It has made it much more difficult for the enemy. It has yielded concrete results and at a time that we need this more than ever because of what is going on, we dont want to reduce our capability in this area. In conclusion, i will take a couple minutes of questions. I think the Visa Waiver Program is a plusplus for our National Security and for the economic security. I think we have constructed a program that makes it a reduction of vulnerability very powerful. There are some additional things we can do and are doing to enhance our ability to protect ourselves. The way to deal with the issue of foreign fighters is to use the scalpel of identifying the precision and taking them out and not a chainsaw of dismantling a program that is not only served the United States well but our foreign allies overseas. I am happy to take a few questions. Yes . Thank you for speaking here today. What else is there they look at that can help identify the bad guys, for lack of a better word, then emails or phone numbers . Is there any other data this Program Allows the government to look at . Yes. I am not going to tell you what the suspects look like. The answer is yes. Yes . Mr. Secretary, you mentioned the value in the preclearance program. Looking at the person facetoface. Go back to the visa process. What purpose, if any, does the traditional interview to get a visa serve and is that the value of the facetoface interview lost because not everybody goes through this preclearance process . Y of these are arrivals what value does the divisional visa interview have in counterterrorism . It is supposed to look at a number of different things. It has value in terms of it is aerrorism but different context where it was designed to detect people who might come to the u. S. And overstay and not leave. A lot of it was focused on what are your roots back home, what is your reason for coming things like that. People show in a vase of nest or nervousness. It does not show you exactly what that does but it tells you it is something you should look at closely. The visa interview adds a certain dimension but on balance, it does not really give you the kind of granularity you get with the data and analytics that are far in advance than we were before. The look at the tradeoff, positive benefit of the program and the marginal issue of in terms of protection i think the marginal cost is very sm all. The benefit remains very powerful. I will take two more. Thank you. When you see efforts in congress right now some democrats and republicans have even signed on to suspend the Visa Waiver Program. How do you go about talking to them about that . What you said today would you even be able to fathom suspending something that is letting millions of people 3. 8 million brits last year. Do we have staff that can do the type of work that can replace it . If we dont, how long will that take how much money are we talking about . Can you go over some of those however weak they maybe . If you started to visualize what the consequences of turning this protest terminating this program would be of terminating this program would be, it is hard to figure out the cost. There would be an immediate drop off of travel. That would not only affect tourism, it would affect Economic Activity. All those people would wind up going to the visa process. As you observe quite rightly, we have to to staff up tremendously in terms of pity putting people overseas to manage the demand for visas. And that would have a serious impact on the federal budget. We would be shooting a trip he does right into the ships a torpedo into the economy if we did not do that. I am confident it measures the impact on the Global Economy and the u. S. Economy almost instantly. We would irritate our friends and allies who we go to for help when we put together a coalition. Boost would really give a to mr. Putin who will turn to the Central Europeans and the baltics and say see, they told you they were friends of yours but they did you at the first sign of trouble. Of cannot calculate the cost our National Security and the cost of the economic benefit and our federal budget in terminating this program. One more and then your answer regarding the facetoface interview and the importance of that makes me think that perhaps we would be best off making the continuance of the program for eight particular country contention of them implementing the preclearance so that we would be sure we have the facetoface interview on an ongoing basis. Preclearance can be a useful addition. Money and thethe capability to really go into preclearance in all the visa waiver countries. For people worried about the budget, there is a limit to how much money you have to spend. Again, wall that facetoface element is a useful element, it is by no means essential. The most important tools you have are the tools of intelligence collection and analysis. If you get a nervous person, that facetoface is helpful. But, if youre looking at the marginal benefit versus the marginal cost, i think the cost of doing it for every visa waiver country is far exceeding the benefit. Thank you. Take a minute to thank the secretary. [applause] ok, i asked the panelists to come forward. I think the secretary has been a great job of establishing the issues that we are attempting to deal with here this morning. I guess it is afternoon now, sorry. We have a lot of wellmeaning people over on capitol hill and were sayingators the Visa Waiver Program needs to be terminated, suspended, Something Like that. That was the gene