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One of the things that we on the Intelligence Committee
struggled with before 9/11 is how you, you get people
to appreciate the, the threats that were out there.
And in this time, you know, there were,
there were budget debates about priorities, and,
and I’d say there was always a frustration within the
intelligence community as well as on the committee and
among the staff, is, is how, how can we, as a one small committee,
try to advocate for capabilities that, that we thought were needed.
But we had no argument. You know this, this was just sort
of theoretical. And, and so I think that day,
it kind of—it was revealing in that you know it,
it was an event that finally might cause people to appreciate
sort of the world that we’re living in. So it, it was—
I wouldn’t say frustration, but I, I think it was,
it was a recognition that you know we are facing a new day.
And it was a new day, not, not just because terrorism
suddenly was with us. We knew that, that it was with us
you know in the decade before, but it was a new day in that
people would recognize that as, as a threat that
that perhaps we could deal with. So frustration was not
the feeling I would describe on that day. It, it was really
just trying to get a sense of, where, where will we be heading now?