Tom Ridge
Tom Ridge
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Ridgeis an American politician who served as the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security from 2001 to 2003, and the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005. Prior to this, Ridge was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995 and the 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth26 August 1945
CityMunhall, PA
CountryUnited States of America
This enforcement action represents an outstanding example of international cooperation in disrupting the proliferation of radiological material,
An emergency is not the time to plan; it's the time to react, so be informed, ... The actions you would take in a conventional attack may be counterproductive if you took them in response to a different kind of attack.
You ought to consider it potentially a terrorist event because it looked like he was equipped to do massive harm and damage to people, ... Unfortunately, there's some very troubled people within our own country and we've seen they can act out and we have to be prepared and ready for them as well.
Celebrity or unknown, our job is to act on information that others have given us,
In the meantime, as on the other occasions when the national threat level has been increased, we encourage members of the public to continue their daily work, family and leisure activities with a heightened awareness,
We had specific information that needed to be acted upon relative to the Air France flights.
Remember back then we thought about al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and a few other places? well, we've seen al Qaeda metastasize. It is now a global scourge. And you have the ascendancy of ISIL. The combination of those two groups -- their appeal to the lone wolfs and we see them acting in Belgium and in France and in Canada and the United States so the threat factors and the nature of the threats are far more complicated and far more serious today than on September 12, 2001.
Effective firefighters in every community are critical to America's homeland security, ... We want to help the fire service to move quickly to develop and acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and equipment to respond to all emergencies, large and small.
The airlines and aviation today are far better prepared,
I'm not sure we're ever going to be able to say that because we raised it from Yellow to Orange or because we modified, changed or enhanced security at this facility, at this bridge, at this tunnel, that it deterred a terrorist from acting,
I'm not trying to condone the sloppiness or inaccuracy of the work that was done, ... We saw that ourselves.
I'm honored to join the extraordinary team you've assembled to lead America. The size and scope of this challenge are immense ... an extraordinary mission. But we will carry it out.
It needs to be discussed, and we will continue to discuss it,
It's a national effort grounded in the knowledge that states and local agencies play the primary role in emergency response.