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
The airlines and aviation today are far better prepared,
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.
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.
The intelligence that we've received over the past several weeks is ... a series of general non-specific threats against the United States.
They are insidious, ... a vast paradox of personalities and groups, some spontaneous, some very methodical, yet they are all intent on doing us harm.
We do not know how long it will take to defeat the scourge of terrorism or how many Americans will give their lives for the cause. But we do know one thing with absolute certainty: The passengers and crew of Flight 93 won the first battle,
variety of checks normally done with government employment.
And they are constantly evaluating procedures, both in the United States and elsewhere, to find gaps in our security posture that could be exploited.
Everything we do is designed to keep planes flying, bring loved ones closer, enable sports fans to gather, help businesses stay open; in other words, to keep the country moving,
While there are no indications that terrorists are planning similar attacks in the United States in the near term, we have asked train and rail operators in the country to be on a heightened state of alert,