We have cruel and erratic despots like Saddam Hussein and Kim Chong Il. We have two great nuclear powers, Russia and China, still in the process of massive political, economic, and social transformation. Instead of the painstaking search for information, we are flooded with information. Our adversaries, too, have access to the advances of the information age. Terrorists can use the Internet to acquire the expertise to build chemical and biological weapons, and they can research potential targets thousands of miles away.
Drug traffickers can move their profits across continents with the stroke of a computer key.
Instead of the massive Russian military complex, which we could track closely with satellites, we have weapons of mass destruction that can be slipped into a cardboard box and left on a seat in the subway. We must focus our resources relentlessly on those who pose serious danger to the physical security of the United States, our armed forces, and our citizens. To succeed, we must set our goals high. First, we must remain the best espionage service in the world. We have to take the lessons learned in the hard school of the Cold War and apply them to the hard targets of today.