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Release Date: 08/03/04 00:00:00
For Immediate Release
Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010
Secretary Ridge: (already in progress) Pleasure of serving with your governor when I had the opportunity to compete with him as governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Good to see you, George. Commissioner Ray Kelly, I tell you what, when we travel around the country talking about police commissioners and local law enforcement and how important it is to tie in and have great leadership at the local level, somehow your name keeps coming up, appreciate working with you.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let me start by thanking everyone involved with this latest threat situation, for your exceptional response and action in light of this intelligence. I think it's very important to point something out at the outset given some of the conversations and comments that have been made about the quality of this information in the past several hours.
The key things that we referenced on Sunday were updated as late as January of this year. We know this is a terrorist organization that does its homework. Al-Qaeda often plans well, well in advance. We also know that they like to update their information before a potential attack. So I don't want anyone to disabuse themselves of the seriousness of this information simply because there are some reports that much of it is dated, it might be two or three years old. This is a resilient organization that does its homework, and we just have to accept that reality. The other reality we have to accept is you've got some extraordinary professionals, law enforcement and security professionals that can take this information and act upon it.
This information we received from our allies in Pakistan, particularly with the detail and thoroughness, we felt it was essential to share it with the appropriate communities and the companies so they could act upon it. The Governor, the Mayor, the Commissioner and I just met with 25, 30 representatives from financial services sector in this community and region, and as one of them pointed out, as soon as we get information, not even all of us, as soon as one or two of us get information, we can get on a conference call within hours and begin to figure out additional ways we can support one another, based on the kind of information you give us.
So again, the fact that it is old, you need to know that it was updated, and more importantly, you need to know the people responsible for your security, whether it's law enforcement or the security professionals associated with Citicorp or any of these other companies acted upon it immediately.
The leadership of these affected institutions, the local officials and law enforcement personnel here in New York, as well as northern New Jersey and Washington, DC, should all be commended, should all be commended for their swift and extensive efforts to ramp up security procedures. Most importantly, I think we ought to note our gratitude to the employees. In the face of very difficult and very sobering news on a Sunday afternoon, probably when we were enjoying the day with our family, came Monday morning, the thoughts and anxiety associated with Monday morning. And on Monday morning, you were at your desk, you were in staff meetings, and you were carrying on with your daily tasks. The terrorists wish to make Americans that live in freedom live in fear. And just by showing up at work, you have made a powerful statement that they will not succeed.
Thanks to the many steps that have already been taken by this government and the financial sector since September 11th to secure and protect our economy, we have made it much more difficult for the terrorists to achieve their broad objectives.
Those measures include: improved communication systems between and among financial regulators and critical financial institutions, guidance on business continuity planning, and numerous drills and exercises to test backup systems and prepare financial professionals. You know, that connectivity and that communications between these companies also go into the Commissioner's office and there is a line that goes into the Governor's office, so both the connectivity within the financial services industry and to the support services provided by law enforcement exist today and gets stronger every way -- every day.
Now we have in place numerous backup systems to ensure that funds could be made available instantly to prevent any major financial disruption. These layered protections throughout the financial community are part of a larger and overarching effort by this Administration to raise our standard of security and readiness to new and greater heights with each passing day.
Permanent security measures we have put in place since the attack of September 11th at our ports of entry, our borders, air, land and sea, mean that we are better protected than ever before. We've made progress; well, we know we have to make additional progress as well, and the American people can rest assured that thousands, literally hundreds of thousands of dedicated and talented security and law enforcement professionals are working very hard at this very moment, as they do every single day, to secure this country.
Right here in New York, an already high standard of security has been increased to reflect this new threat. At this time, trucks and vans are prohibited from entering the city by certain bridges or tunnels that lead to lower Manhattan. Vehicle stops and searches have been implemented and concrete barriers have been put up at various locations. Local officials and law enforcement are doing their part to make us safer. And I would ask citizens of this great city and all across the country to continue to do your part, to remain vigilant and ever watchful for suspicious activity and behavior and to report that activity.
This intelligence is a solemn and serious reminder that we are a nation at war, and the terrorist enemies we face will not stop until we defeat them. I understand -- believe me, I understand that these warnings and information of this type are difficult to digest. They're very difficult to accept, to take in, and can easily and understandably give rise to feelings of anxiety and fear.
And Americans, as reflected in this great city, have shown time and time again that we are not a people that gives way in the face of great difficulty or great challenge. And so at this time, let us press on with the resolve and perhaps a bit of defiance to say to our enemies: “We know what you want to do, but we are not going to let you do it. We will not become Fortress America. We're going to continue to lead our lives and keep moving forward and hold fast to our freedoms. Nothing, nothing will ever change that.”
I thank you. I'm going to ask the Governor to share a few thoughts with you and then Mayor Bloomberg. Governor Pataki?
(Applause.)
Governor Pataki: Thank you, Secretary. Thank you, Secretary Ridge. Secretary Ridge, thank you again for being here and for all the help that you have provided and will continue to provide to this city and state and the leadership you're providing for our country. Now, it's incredible to think that the Office of Homeland Security didn't even exist just a matter of months back. And the progress you have made in pulling together the different elements that are important agencies and protecting our freedom has been extraordinary.
And I want to thank you as well for taking the extraordinary step of sharing this intelligence over the course of this weekend, not just with the political leadership, but with the people of New York and the people of America.
We are a strong people and we do not cower and we do not live in fear. And having knowledge of what those who detest our freedoms would try to do to us doesn't cower us. It makes us stronger and, as you put it, perhaps there is that touch of defiance.
I have seen New Yorkers on September 11th respond with incredible courage and strength in the face not of threats, but of the most horrendous attacks this country has ever seen and certainly now, with threats, we will show that same courage, that same resolve, that same defiance and go about our lives.
In fact, yesterday morning the Mayor and I went down and the Mayor rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange, one of the identified targets, because it is a symbol of American economic strength. And the report at the end of the day was not only did the stock market go up, but there were more employees on the floor of the exchange yesterday than for a normal Monday in August. That's the way New Yorkers respond and that's the way we will continue to respond.
This is the financial capital of the world and it will be for a long time to come. And from there, the Mayor and I went to the groundbreaking of a new headquarters for the Bank of America on 42nd Street, another symbol of the economic strength of our country, and a symbol of New York, a sign of New York as the financial capital of the world.
We take these threats seriously, and the meeting we just had was a little bit different because it didn't focus so much on public security -- bridges and tunnels and train stations and mass transit facilities -- it focused on private security. And I can tell you that I was enormously encouraged, because not only does this city have the finest Public Security Forces Commissioner anywhere in the world, let alone America, but our private sector companies are light years ahead of where they may have been a few years back in understanding the needs of security in institutions like financial institutions.
Mr. Secretary, we have made enormous progress because of the partnership that we have had with the federal government, the state government, the city government, private sector, and most importantly, with the people of New York and the people of America. Your leadership and the President's leadership in making this happen gives me tremendous confidence that our best days are still clearly ahead of us.
And to all the employees here at Citicorp, you're here. Thank you for your courage and your strength, but we expect nothing less because you are New Yorkers and you are Americans. I'll let the Mayor say a few words and then we need you to get back to work. This has to be a productive company. (Laughter.) Thank you. God bless you all.
(Applause.)
Mayor Bloomberg: Governor, thank you. Mr. Secretary, welcome to New York. I'm glad the sandwiches were good and the run in the park was invigorating. New Yorkers do those things every day and they're going to continue to do that. I think if you go out and you look around this city, yesterday, today, what you see is the hotels full, the theaters doing well, restaurants and bars packed, subways -- people are taking them and getting to work, no company is leaving; every company is thinking of growing here. And that's because New York City is open for business, New York City is open for education, New York City is open for the arts and recreation. And New York City, most importantly, is open for democracy, and it is going to stay open. Nobody is going to dissuade us from making this our home. Nobody's going to change our minds that this is the place where you have the ultimate opportunity for yourself and for your family that this is the place where you can enjoy yourself and you can say what you want to say and not have your rights trampled on by others.
Crime continues to come down on this city. The NYPD continues to make you safer here than anyplace else you could live, and our commitment is to continue to do that.
I'm going from here with the Governor to the opening of the Statue of Liberty, something that was shut after 9/11. It's another symbol, another reason for tourists to come here. It's good for our psyche, it's good for our image, and it's good for our economy. We will continue to do these things.
The Governor pointed out yesterday, we were out going around participating in all of the great things about New York. We will continue to do that. And we are going to also make sure that the Police Department helps the private security part of every organization in this city take care of their own buildings and their own employees. People should be able to come here without fear, work in these buildings, go out on the street and enjoy themselves without having to look over their shoulder.
And I think partially because of the help from Washington, partially because of the help from Albany, partially because of the help from city government, but most importantly, because of the help from the people who live and work in this city, the best days for New York are yet to come and the terrorists are not going to win. And Mr. Secretary, thank you for everything you and the Administration does for this city.
(Applause.)
Question: What are the major issues that the companies raise concerns?
Secretary Ridge: First of all, I think that it was a collective desire of all of us to get together after the news of Sunday and it took us a day to pull everybody together. It was an impressive array from the institutions around this great city and frankly, one of the points that several of the members of the -- several security professionals emphasized was the hope and the desire that we continue to get this kind of specific information in advance of everybody else. I know over the weekend, there's always a great deal of concern about going public and when you go public -- but in fact, we wanted to get some of this information to security professionals before we went public so they could begin notifying their employees.
I'd much rather have these men and women who showed up at work on Monday morning begin to receive notification from their employer before they get it, with all due respect, from the local news channel. It just makes it a little more comforting for them to get some kind of information from the private source rather than public.
Question: Let me clarify then, corporate social security was notified far before --
Secretary Ridge: Not far before, but we began discussing, particularly with the major institutions, the detailed -- not the specific details, but alerted them to the fact that the institutions that we were discussing internally within the intelligence community was volumes of information about them and then over the past 24 hours, have begun to share that information.
This is actual information. I think at the end of the day, when we take a look at these reports, we'll get some insight into what they were looking for and the means by which they acquired this information. And I think that will not only enable us to enhance security in the financial services sector, but that's good information for all security professionals to have.
Yes.
Question: Can you speak to any evidence you have or any concerns you have about al-Qaeda operatives here in the United States, so-called sleeper cells, and does the new information from Pakistan have any bearing on that?
Secretary Ridge: Well, you know, I think in this day and age in a country that is as open and as diverse as ours, when we literally have 600 million people that come across our borders every year, I think within the Department and I think around the country, we just assume that there are operatives here. Obviously, the law enforcement community has a rise on people that believe are connected or sympathetic to the cause, but we don't have the luxury of waiting to identify somebody coming across the border. We just have to accept, for our planning and preparation purposes, the notion that they're here, they're looking to attack us, and we need to do everything we can every single day to try to detect, deter, and prepare for it.
Sir?
Question: Is there anything to suggest that (inaudible)?
Secretary Ridge: I'm sorry, the acoustics aren't real good and my ears aren't real good either.
Question: Is there anything in the information that would indicate the degree to which the al-Qaeda operatives may have been able to infiltrate these entities?
Secretary Ridge: You mean infiltrated the corporate entities themselves? No, there's no such information. It's interesting, when the security professionals in the financial services arena alerted me, there's some fairly rigorous background checks that they do before you can add critical positions in some of these companies as well, but the answer to your specific question is no.
Sir?
Question: Mr. Secretary, do you have any concrete evidence of a plan or a plot or recent surveillance, and how long will this high-level mobilization specifically target these sites?
Secretary Ridge: Well, we have -- again, just because we don't know when it might occur, when you see this kind of detailed planning, you have to take preemptive action to prevent it from occurring. And one could argue, logically, if you've taken a look at potential sites with this kind of information, it leaves you thinking about it and we've got to take that very seriously. And we will review the facts associated with going up to Orange in these three regions in the financial services sector once we completely digest all the information we're reviewing now. There's still quite a bit of information that we're analyzing.
Yes?
Question: Do you have any evidence of a plot or a plan or recent surveillance?
Secretary Ridge: There's no evidence of recent surveillance, but again, I will tell you that the information about the casings that we revealed on Sunday have been updated as recently as January of this year and we know this is an organization that plans in advance, that prepares in its patience. And if anything else, the thoroughness of this information reflects the seriousness as well as the event -- the seriousness of our effort to combat and to bring these terrorists to justice overseas. It also speaks to their sophistication as an operation.
You know, there is a lot of suggestion out there that it's -- these are serious folks. They're patient folks. There is a lot of resolve -- not as much as ours. We're more serious, more patient, more highly motivated and more resolved. But I think you need to take a look at it. It's sobering but it's not stifling information. We'll deal with it.
Sir?
Question: Mr. Secretary, there are a lot of New Yorkers that are skeptical about these kinds of threat alarms and some even see a political motive in all of this. The Republican Administration (inaudible). What can you say to those New Yorkers to dissuade them from thinking that?
Secretary Ridge: Well, I guess I wish I could give them all Top Secret clearances and let them review the information that some of us have the responsibility to review. We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security. Our job is to identify the threat, match that threat information with the, potentially, the targets that have been identified to integrate an entire country, to build partnerships with the state and local government, to invest in technologies so that as we combat international terrorism we can put more people and technology in place to make ourselves safer.
But it is, frankly, I would point out that this is the most significant detailed pieces of information about any particular region that we've come across in a long, long time, perhaps, ever. This is -- and that's why we needed to share it publicly. It's always a judgment call, always a judgment call, but here it went above any kind of threshold we might have had previously.
Every single day, just about every day, there is probably the notation of a community or a company or something like that in the threat reporting stream who have to assess the source and the credibility and whether you corroborate it, and sometimes we pick up the phone and call the company or call the region. The detail, the sophistication, the thoroughness of this information, if you had access to it, you'd say we did the right thing. Government should let the public know about situations like this. It's not about politics. It's about confidence in government telling you when they get the information.
A Participant: Two more questions.
Question: Mr. Ridge --
Secretary Ridge: Sir.
Question: Mr. Secretary, to what degree of confidence do you think that this new detailed, very specific intelligence tells you about a possible ongoing plot?
Secretary Ridge: We have publicly stated that, again, from several sources, that there has been an expressed intention to disrupt the democratic process. It could be interpreted throughout the election year; it could be interpreted to Election Day. But we need to understand we shouldn't be limiting ourselves or expanding ourselves to that timeframe. This is an organization that will attack whenever they feel that they can achieve -- they can be successful.
And so, you've got the general reporting stream from credible sources. They've always talked about undermining America's economy. They began to frame it a little bit around the elective process, but I don't think you ought to get too carried away about the timeframe; when they're ready to move they'll move.
Yes.
Question: Short of Congress changing the funding formula for high risk cities --
Secretary Ridge: Yes.
Question: ---what other means are there at this point for New York City?
Secretary Ridge: Well, you can well imagine whenever I come to town, Mayor Bloomberg raises the issue with me, and very appropriately, I might add, and so does the Governor. So we are in lockstep, as is the President, and we will continue to work the Congress and continue to convince Congress that more money should be shifted to those areas that are high risk.
Let me say this -- and we're still not done with the appropriations process this year -- there are two pools of funds: one distributed per capita -- and the Mayor and the Governor talk about that a lot, so does your Congressional delegation, so do the Senators; the other goes to the urban areas where we take a look at the population density, the threat. And what the President asked this year was to reduce this pot that is distributed per capita substantially and put that in to the other where New York City would be the primary beneficiary.
Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
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This page was last reviewed/modified on 08/03/04 00:00:00.
