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
We've engaged the law enforcement community around this country, but there are also certain things we can do within this country outside of law enforcement that would be a deterrent to an attack, ... The president's strategy gives us a road map to accomplish that.
We don't want to broadcast to everybody where we're going to be doing this, but those areas and elements within the private sector, they have already been contacted and they understand that for the time being we want to maintain a similar level of security,
When our incident management team and our coordination center was notified (of the explosion), within in a very short period of time ... we knew what was going on at the local (and) state level, ... We engaged immediately in conversations with the Coast Guard, the EPA, the Health and Human Services.
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.
I think there is a significant minority within the party that would either like it removed from the platform or at least a recognition that decent God-fearing people don't always have the same view on this,
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,
These credible sources, ... suggest the possibility of attacks against the homeland around the holiday season and beyond.
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,
Protecting this information is critically important. Shut them down and you shut down America as we know it,
Our approach at this point is to think big but begin implementing on a small scale, ... We want to get it right.
Biometrics not only accurately identifies and cross-checks travelers and potential terrorists before they enter our countries, but they also provide increased travel document security and important personal identity protections.
Be wary and be mindful, ... Let's make sure that every individual citizen who sees something suspicious reports it,
The tapes are new, the threat is not,