07 November 2001
Transcript: Tom Ridge at Homeland Security Briefing, November 7
(Comments on state of alert, anthrax investigation, port
security)(2790)
Tom Ridge, director of Homeland Security, responded to questions
during a White House briefing November 7 about the challenges of his
office, the continued state of alert, the anthrax investigation, and
port security.
Ridge said one of his office's challenges is "to integrate all the
Americans who want to help be part of homeland security into a
national strategy." To this end, he said, he has spoken with Governor
Hodges of South Carolina, Governor DiFrancesco of New Jersey, several
mayors, as well as private sector groups that have offered their help.
On the subject of the nation's state of alert, Ridge said, "We will be
on alert indefinitely. And when we have specific information from
credible sources, we will appropriately give it to law enforcement."
Ridge responded to questions about the anthrax investigation, saying,
"we have not ruled out whether this was an act of an individual or a
collective act, whether it was a domestic source or a foreign source.
And I think -- hopefully one of these [days] we'll be able to answer
both questions. Today we cannot."
Ridge also commented on increased security efforts in U.S. ports.
"They've heightened security, they've integrated a lot of their
resources with local and state resources, and they've tried to move
the perimeter outside the ports as part of enhanced security," he
said.
Following is the White House transcript:
(begin transcript)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
November 7, 2001
PRESS BRIEFING BY HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR TOM RIDGE
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
11:40 A.M. EST
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I thought I'd like to give you an update on homeland
security activities over the past several days, and then respond to
your questions.
The President's directive was to coordinate a national homeland
security strategy and an integral part of that effort involves
governors and local officials. And we continue our outreach to those
officials this week as we -- begun last week. We've had a couple
opportunities this week to talk to Governor Hodges of South Carolina,
Governor DiFrancesco of New Jersey. We'll be meeting with Mayor Morial
of New Orleans and five or six of his colleagues. As you know, he
chairs the League of Cities.
One of the other challenges that the Office of Homeland Security --
and it's a wonderful challenge -- is to integrate all the Americans
who want to help be part of homeland security into a national
strategy. And, to that end, this week the National Organization on
Disability visited the office.
Obviously, they've got some unique and very special challenges that
we'd have to deal with, but they also have some very unique and, I
think, probably helpful ideas and we want to integrate them in the
process of developing a national strategy.
I'll be meeting with the business executives of the Business
Roundtable. Again, the national strategy didn't say just a public
sector strategy -- it involves the private sector, so we've got to
continue to work with our friends in the private sector, as well.
NASCAR dropped by and said, what can we do to help. And, obviously,
they're involved in huge, outdoor public events. They've got ideas
relative to security. We think there will be ways that we could learn
from them, and they may learn a thing or two from us. But, again, it's
just fusing all of these groups and all of these Americans who want to
help this President and help their country. And we continue to find
ways to integrate them into the development and, ultimately, the
implementation of both the short and long term homeland strategy.
The first couple of weeks we've spent some time on the Hill. Today, I
concluded my fourth caucus visit. Last week I was going to try to hit
the House Democrats and the House Republicans on the same day. Former
colleagues from the House on the Democratic side kept me a little
longer than we anticipated, so we had to postpone that meeting to the
Republicans. Today, we concluded that this morning.
And, again, the international interest in supporting our effort -- not
only in Afghanistan, but here at home -- is reflected in the visit of
the Ambassador from Great Britain, Chris Meyer, who spent some time
with me yesterday. Again, this is a country that, unfortunately, has
had real world experience with political terrorism of different sorts.
He brought some of the security people in. We will be putting together
a team to sit down with him and the other members of our international
coalition that are helping us in the war in the Afghanistan. But they
also, again, want to be participants and helpful in addressing our
homeland security needs, as well.
That reflects some of the activity of the Homeland Security Office.
Finally, you should know -- I think four post offices remain closed:
Brentwood, Trenton, the Stamp facility in Kansas City and the Pentagon
sub-station. I should note that the post office has received they
estimate about 10,000 hoaxes they've had to deal with, which has
resulted in closing different post offices for various periods of
time.
They've investigated and to follow it up, and they've made 25 arrests.
And, obviously, the Postal Inspectors and the Department of Justice
will move as aggressively to bring them to the courtroom and to
justice as quickly as possible.
QUESTION: Do you think that the anthrax flow now has been stopped,
really? Do you have any better idea of the source? There seems to be
some indication -- well, the Pakistani letter turned out to be
negative -- is that right -- do you think it's more at home, the whole
source?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Well, I am hopeful, like the rest of America, that the
anthrax has stopped permanently. But there's nothing in --
Q: Is there any --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Well, we certainly haven't seen, nor detected, any
other sources of new anthrax. Obviously, we move systematically and
aggressively to still deal with the traces of the problem in Trenton
and in Washington, D.C.
The investigation continues to preserve -- we haven't included or
excluded either a domestic or an international source for the anthrax.
There have been some suggestions that it could be domestic, but that
has not been confirmed in any manner, shape or form.
Q: Can I follow on that, Governor? Because Barry Mawn, of the New York
FBI is quoted in today's Boston Globe as saying it was produced in the
U.S. He said, "It was made here." Is that incorrect?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Well, he may have a suspicion that it was made here.
But, clearly, in talking with the FBI Director and other individuals
involved in the FBI, there is no credible evidence that points
specifically, at least to date -- it may be his suspicion, his
instinct; because, clearly, a microbiologist with some sophisticated
equipment that could be in this country or elsewhere, we don't know
each origin.
And so I would say, it may be his suspicion, but has been confirmed by
the investigation.
Q: He also said he believed that an individual, rather than a group,
is responsible. He said the FBI suspects an individual rather than a
group. Is that your suspicion, as well?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Well, it is -- we have not ruled out whether this was
an act of an individual or a collective act, whether it was a domestic
source or foreign source. And I think. hopefully, one of these days
we'll be able to answer both questions. Today, we cannot.
Q: Can you tell us where we are in terms of the FBI, the threat that
was issued last week and the state of alert in the United States?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: We're still on alert. We're still on alert.
Q: And for how long is that expected to continue?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I think this heightened sense of awareness -- I mean,
one of the challenges is to take the legitimate anxiety and fear that
Americans still have and just -- we will be on alert indefinitely. And
when we have specific information from credible sources, we will
appropriately give it to the law enforcement community.
Q: So there's no change in that status from last week?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: No change.
Q: But the FBI was specific bout something happening, or -- alert over
the next couple of days. A couple of days has passed, nothing has
happened, so is this just sort of a general state of alert,
indefinitely?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I have talked to a variety of governors about this
issue, and many of them, even before that alert, had deployed initial
state police, initial national guard, they've really beefed up their
security, not only around public facilities, but have worked with the
private sector to enhance security around their facilities, as well.
I suspect that there will be an ebb and flow as governors who are on a
heightened state of alert, redeploy their resources. But for the time
being, we believe America should stay on alert.
Q: Governor Ridge, one of the problems of anthrax seems to have been
the preliminary tests are taken; sometimes they're right, sometimes
they come back with the opposite -- positive negative. There seems to
be two outfits coming out with new tests. The Mayo Clinic is one, I
think Walter Reed is -- and another one. Is your office trying to get
them? Because they also are going to need government approval to be
able to go out to the public. What are you doing about it?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: You would be amazed at the number of -- they're not
solicitations, but inquiries we have received in the Office of
Homeland Security about the potential application of this or that
technology. Clearly, not only will we look to the private sector to
help us identify some of the problems, but also come up with some of
the solutions.
So we are in the process of vetting out some of these recommendations.
And whether it's through the United States Army, through the Selective
Service, through the Office of Science and Technology, there is enough
expertise within the federal government to take a look at these
things. And if they appear to provide a commercial solution, a quick
turnaround that has application to our environment, then we follow it
up.
Q: Is it feasible this stage? Does it seem feasible --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I'm not in a position to make a technical judgment,
but we want to explore all potential ideas and suggestions,
particularly when they seem to be further along in terms of research
and development.
Q: You mentioned that you had talked to officials in South Carolina,
New Jersey and New Orleans. What's your assessment right now of
security at U.S. port facilities? How much cargo is actually being
screened, and what prospect is there for actually securing the amount
of cargo that comes into the United States?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: The Coast Guard, Customs officials, everybody that had
a remote connection or a direct connection with maritime security has
really ramped up all their assets and, frankly, probably deflected
some assets that were involved in other areas to provide the highest
possible state of security.
One of the things that has happened, again, that's very, very
reassuring, that there has been tremendous integration, and many
examples -- and Governor Hodges' provided me one, where some of the
facilities are publicly owned by the state, others are federal
facilities, and they've integrated their resources.
So, again, it is a point of vulnerability because of international
commerce. These are our eyes on the world, windows on the -- as it
were. The opportunity for us to move in and out of our commerce,
hundreds of billions of dollars worth of commerce, so we take that
security, enhanced security. But we're looking continually, day by
day, for ways to improve it.
Frankly, I think one of the things they have done to enhance security,
they're inspecting more of the cargo than they've ever done before.
They've identified ships that they're bordering out in the sea.
Instead of giving 24 hour notice with regard to cargo and crew,
they're giving 96 hour notice, so they can match the crew with any
list that they may have generated.
So they've heightened security, they've integrated a lot of their
resources with local and state resources. And they've tried to move
the perimeter outside the ports as part of the enhanced security.
Q: Can I go back to John's question? When you issued the threat,
initially, last week, you indicated that there was specific
intelligence that an attack might be imminent. You say we're on an
alert indefinitely. But are we still getting that type of intelligence
information?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Well, the alert, as I recall, as you recall, last week
from multiple sources deemed credible over a specific period of time.
Obviously, that frame of reference, the calendar has passed, but we
ask people to stay on that same heightened sense of alert.
Q: But I'm not asking you about the alert, I'm asking about the
intelligence. Are we getting the same kind of indications that an
attack might be imminent?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: We get threat reports on a daily basis, and the
challenge and one of the most difficult challenges within the
intelligence community is to assess these reports and to assess the
credibility and to go back and, if possible, interrogate the sources
of these reports. We get them every day. And for that reason, we keep
everybody at a heightened state of alert.
Q: I know you get them every day, but I'm wondering if the
intelligence that you're getting now is similar to the intelligence
you got before, which said that an attack might be imminent?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: The intelligence that we get every day suggests that
an attack or attacks could be imminent. But there has been no
suggestion of specific venue or weapon of terror that might be
employed.
Q: The FBI counterterrorism chief testified on the Hill that they did
not know how many labs produced anthrax. You, this morning, said on
the Hill there were 80 to 90. Can you explain, did you guys find that
out overnight? Did he just not know? Can you explain why you know and
he didn't know?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: The reason I knew -- and I don't know it to be true,
absolutely -- but I saw it was referenced during that committee
hearing. And we know there are several dozen university laboratories
and pharmaceutical laboratories and there are several dozen
laboratories out there that have access to the anthrax strain.
The FBI and the Department of Justice have been in the process of
talking to individuals associated with those laboratories to follow up
and determine if there is any leads, any information they can glean
from the people who are participating in that research. I cannot tell
you whether they have exhausted the list and they have contacted
everybody they want to talk with.
They're clearly aware of the list, they're aware of the facilities,
they're aware they've got the need. So it is a part of an ongoing,
daily, intense investigation as they follow up leads on anthrax,
follow up leads on the New York tragedy, follow up leads on the hoaxes
that they have to take as a serious -- potential serious threat. So
you've got the law enforcement community totally engaged in a variety
of different investigations, some of which, unfortunately, lead them
down a false path.
One final question.
Q: On the tests, a few days ago there was an apparently inaccurate
report that bentonite was the binding agent in the anthrax that was
tested from the Daschle letter. I assume we now know what the binding
agent was. And can you tell us what that suggests about the source of
the anthrax?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: There were accounts of reports that said bentonite was
the binding agent; none of those reports ever came across my desk. The
reports that came across my desk suggested that they were looking to
see if that was a component of the anthrax. And we concluded without
internal investigation that it was not.
Q: What was the binding agent?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: The ingredient that we talked about before was
silicon. But there's no additional information with regard to
additional characteristics that have come across in any of the
additional tests that we've conducted since that time.
Thank you.
(end transcript)
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