We've made great strides at U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the last ten months, with more than 42,000 men and women from four legacy agencies working to share their expertise and blend their talents to achieve our mission. Instead of competition, we've seen cooperation and camaraderie. In place of turf, we've seen teamwork, and throughout CBP, we've witnessed a growing pride in our new agency. The bonds that bind us together may be new, but they are strong.

A recent bipartisan Commission tasked with examining the events that led up to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. reminded us with startling clarity that we are different people today, different as a nation, different as law enforcement professionals. The ten-member panel of the Commission has noted that the threats we believed were most dire before 9/11-drug trafficking, illegal immigrants, commercial fraud in the trade sector-have now taken second place to the threat of terrorism, a phenomenon Americans once believed could never cross our borders.

We know now that international terrorists will stop at nothing to strike at our citizens and our communities, and that for many terrorist groups, the suicidal attacks that marked 9/11, are the rule, not the exception. At CBP, insights about the nature and the goals of terrorism have dramatically altered our mission and our perspective. In many cases, we have had to turn on a dime, redesigning policies and processes to meet unfamiliar and unanticipated dangers. Almost overnight, we have trained ourselves to be ready for threats many of us could barely imagine before 9/11. But no other agency is in a better position to prevent further terrorist attacks than we are; and there is no better way to prevent terrorist attacks in the U.S. than preventing terrorists from entering the U.S. in the first instance.

As difficult as it is to listen to the members of the 9/11 Commission describe what we might have done to prevent the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., it is immensely rewarding to consider how far we have come since then, and how much we at CBP have done to strengthen this nation's defenses against terrorism. The willingness of our people to work as long and as hard as we asked them to immediately after 9/11, your acceptance of change and the impact it has had on your personal lives, and your heroic determination to defend this nation's borders at any cost-all of this proves, once again, that the greatness of a generation can only be measured accurately during history's darkest hours.

One of the success stories showcased by the 9/11 Commission involves a legacy Immigration Inspector named Jose E. Melendez-Perez, who denied entry to the United States to a Saudi national named Mohamed al-Qahtani in August 2001. Al-Qahtani had a genuine Saudi passport and a valid U.S. B-2 visa. CBP officer Melendez demonstrated the kind of initiative that I know characterizes our agency today when he decided that al- Qahtani's story didn't add up. There were just too many inconsistent and evasive answers to allow Mohamed al-Qahtani to enter our country. Officer Melendez used immigration authority to deny entry to a person who was attempting to enter for a purpose other than that for which he was issued a visa.

Officer Melendez did his job and did it well. Al-Qahtani was captured a few months later fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was unquestionably a terrorist attempting to enter the United States and Officer Melendez courageously denied him entry into the United States.

Like Customs Officer Diana Dean, whose questioning of Ahmed Ressam led to his arrest and prevented a terrorist bombing attack at LAX. Both Officers Melendez and Dean used questioning techniques and skills to evaluate, identify and stop potential terrorists. These skills are the hallmarks of legacy INS and Customs inspectors. Now, we combine those skills, our legal authorities, our questioning and targeting abilities as a unified agency, CBP, to prevent terrorists from entering our country.

Officer Melendez also had that all-American quality we call "gumption" to trust his instincts. By painstakingly building a case that persuaded his supervisors that Mohamed al-Qahtani might indeed be a dangerous man, Officer Melendez displayed a diligence that went far beyond anything his daily routine demanded. Because he placed his mission first, and the safety of the American people above all else, Officer Melendez has become a role model for thousands of CBP officers working across the nation and the world. He has our respect and our gratitude.

Today, Officers Dean and Melendez represent "standard operating procedure" for CBP officers at our ports of entry. Every CBP officer is the first and the last line of defense in this war on terrorism. No matter how many material resources we bring to this campaign, there is no weapon, no piece of detection technology or equipment, that can ever replace the intelligence, initiative, behavioral observations and instincts of our men and women in the field.