Tom Ridge Quotations

You have to enable and empower people to make decisions independent of you. As I've learned, each person on a team is an extension of your leadership; if they feel empowered by you they will magnify your power to lead.

Liberty is the most precious gift we offer our citizens.

There's just no doubt in my mind - under any set of rules - water boarding is torture.

One of America's greatest strengths is the soft power of our value system and how we treat prisoners of war, and we don't torture.

This war on terrorism is going to continue for an indefinite period of time.

I'm confident that the terrorists are aware that from the curb to the cockpit we've got additional security measures that didn't exist a couple of years ago.

More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it. Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on alert, There were times when the White House was really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' We often lost the argument.

we're concerned about targets beyond these and are working to get more information about them.

Let us to do all we can to honor all those who rose up with resolve to defeat evil, who were released into the arms of angels to see the grateful face of God,

I am saddened that this job is even necessary. But it is necessary. So I will give it everything I have. The task is enormous.

I can't imagine a better place to begin the renewal of America's purpose than the cradle of American democracy,

God forbid, there may come a time when the local authorities or national authorities will tell you that you've got to use them. But for the time being, we just don't want folks sealing up their doors or sealing up their windows,

If America has the opportunity to make a strategic investment that not only enhances security but makes us a better, safer, stronger, or healthier country, then we need to do that. If you secure every home town, then the homeland is secure.

Celebrity or unknown, our job is to act on information that others have given us,

Bush is willing to tackle the tough issues -- the ones some leaders refuse to touch, ... Issues such as real education reform, national security and defense, preserving Social Security and restoring America's values to government.

to date, there is no specific intelligence that tells us or indicates to us that the convention itself would be subject to an attack.

We think at the end of the day, a lot of this is going to be about turnout in the battleground states,

We think, based on the initiatives that we've announced today, that we can absorb that cost.

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.

I am going to step back a little bit, breathe deeply and then decide.

if the Brazilian government thinks it's in their interests (to fingerprint and photograph Americans), so be it.

He is not one to parse. He has said he will serve out his term and that has not changed,

Terrorists are strategic actors, ... They choose their targets deliberately, and they choose them based on the weaknesses they observe in our defenses and in our preparations. They use speed and surprise to terrorize.

I think for a long time we thought we were 'fortress America' and that we were impenetrable. Maybe in our heart of hearts we knew sooner or later that it was going to happen, ... But to take a look at the president and extraordinary vice president ... I couldn't think of a better team at a tougher time to be leading America, so I'm optimistic about it.

Maybe that's very much the reason that you'd be worried about it, because you hadn't seen it before,

I think they moved as quickly as they could,

It all adds up to this: your country is ready, not waiting,

It is as reliable a source, group of sources that we've ever seen before.

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,

requesting some $36.2 billion clearly communicates this administration's commitment to investing in our Homeland Security.

Our goal is to deter any potential attack with multiple layers of security and, based on what I have seen and heard, I can tell you that the security plans and arrangements and commitment of federal, state and local officials is very, very strong,

I think Gov. Bush, with his record in Texas and with good support from the Republican Party here and his message, I think he can win regardless of who's number two,

I think we've accomplished a great deal in a short period of time, ... We have to be right a billion-plus times a year. ... The terrorists only have to be right once.

to make North America more secure and more prosperous.

Today the United States government raised the national threat level.

Yeah, we weren't certain, ... Still, in the context of everything else (intelligence chatter and a terror attack in Saudi Arabia), we could not set it aside and dismiss it as not credible.

The quality of this intelligence, based on multiple reporting streams in multiple locations, is rarely seen and is alarming in both the amount and specificity of the information,

The president has given me an extraordinary opportunity to serve my country in this incredible period since September 11th, 2001.

unify people, priorities and programs under a single line of authority.

We have more protective measures in place at yellow today than we did six months or a year ago, ... And there will be more put in place on a day-to-day basis every single day, for as long as the department exists.

We could go back over the past two years and pick out threat reports of pretty much the same substance,

We can be afraid or we can be ready,

We know they have the capability to succeed and they also hold the mistaken belief that their attacks will have an impact on America's resolve,

might require an added level of protection, an added layer of safety.

We realize that's a vulnerability that could be exploited with potentially catastrophic consequences,

While your government is doing everything it can to prevent an attack, citizens also should know what to do, ... Because in the end, being prepared, knowing what to do, can and will save lives.

We'll be ready to answer every danger and every enemy that threatens the American people.

will be a president we can respect and we can trust.

We'll want them to pull in all that information and sort it out between rumor and suspicion and fact and speculation and misinformation and do an assessment, do an analysis and then communicate it -- if it's a real threat -- communicate that to state and local governments,

Today we announce the Homeland Security Advisory system,

You don't need too many committed to martyrdom to wreak havoc.

Time will tell if we can directly link him to a specific organization or not,

We are confident they are taking this threat seriously,

We are working with the pilots' association in Great Britain and other foreign carriers, ... We hope to convince them in time that, on targeted flights, the use of well-trained air marshals adds another level of security for international travel.

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.

We have to give people something to do.

We're going to continue the convoy of food and water, particularly water and ice, over the next several days, ... We are working with the state and local communities to determine the debris removal needs and we're prepared to do everything we can to accelerate that process.

We got very specific information regarding when and what flights. It didn't quite have the specificity with regard to the nature of the attack, but there was certainly enough credibility associated with the when and the where, the date and the flight

What he needs to understand is that the turnaround in Pennsylvania has everything to do with the people in Pennsylvania, and not the people on Pennsylvania Avenue,

We're going to have an entry-exit system based on a machine-readable passport, so we'll be able to verify and validate they are who they claim to be,

And they are constantly evaluating procedures, both in the United States and elsewhere, to find gaps in our security posture that could be exploited.

Be wary and be mindful, ... Let's make sure that every individual citizen who sees something suspicious reports it,

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.

do all we can to honor those who rose up with resolve to defeat evil.

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,

Every single day since September 11, we've made ourselves safer, stronger and more secure, ... We still have a lot of work left to do. We're making progress every day.

Every step of the way we've made aviation more secure, but we're still not where we need to be,

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,

As the world community combats terrorism ... you're going to see more and more countries going to a form of biometric identification to confirm identities,

The tapes are new, the threat is not,

These credible sources, ... suggest the possibility of attacks against the homeland around the holiday season and beyond.

With so many symbolic gatherings in the next few months, we must be aggressive,

There are a lot of us who think that some of the information we share with the public probably should be restricted in some fashion, ... We may have to take a look at these kinds of issues from a different perspective because of the tragedy of September 11.

We want visitors from abroad to continue to come to the United States, but we also want to secure our borders,

variety of checks normally done with government employment.

We do recommend that individuals and families in the days ahead take some time to prepare for emergency,

to start sealing up their doors or ... windows.

We are struggling to make sense of what appears to be yet another brutal racist rampage,

Some people have questioned, 'well, you put us on a general alert a couple of weeks ago and nothing happened,' ... This war on terrorism is going to continue for an indefinite period of time, and from time to time we may issue the same general alert again.

We had specific information that needed to be acted upon relative to the Air France flights.

Sometimes people confuse the notion that you're going to compromise sovereignty with collaboration.

compared to previous threat reporting, these intelligence reports have provided a level of detail that is very specific.

As of today, we now have full nationwide connectivity to the Homeland Security Operations Center, a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week nerve center for homeland security information and incident management,

That's nothing more than sharing some information that may be relevant to pilots and may be relevant to the law enforcement community. Nothing more, nothing less,

that those who would do us harm may choose that date or any time around the commemorative period to do us harm again.

They tell us that avoiding panic and confusion in a crisis helps them do their jobs better. So when you protect yourself, you're protecting your community, and it's one less concern that the first responders have at the time of an incident,

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.

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,

with as much information as possible as quickly as possible.

The passengers and crew are an emblem of America's great glory: freedom and patriotism demonstrated at its highest regard, ... Here upon this field of honor, lives were saved and heroes were made.

This enforcement action represents an outstanding example of international cooperation in disrupting the proliferation of radiological material,

This is something we've waited for, planned for a year and it feels real good to be under way. Right now, people feel good about the warm hospitality Philadelphia has extended, and I'm pretty excited about the positive tone Gov. Bush has set.

You might want to access those dollars as well, ... tap into this existing resource.

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.

Your characterization of it as being a significantly different threat environment, based on what we historically have heard, is absolutely correct, ... So there certainly is a diminution, reduction in the amount of intelligence, and the decibel level is lower.

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 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.

I'm not trying to condone the sloppiness or inaccuracy of the work that was done, ... We saw that ourselves.