Remarks by Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge at the Allegheny County Emergency Operations Center

Release Date: 07/15/04 00:00:00

Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
July 15, 2004
(Remarks as Prepared)

Good afternoon.  It is great to be back here in Pittsburgh and to see so many friends who continue to work tirelessly to protect the community. Thank you for all that you do each and every day.   Today I am here to talk about the Patriot Act -- and how its core tools are essential to the success of the single most important mission of the Department of Homeland Security – to prevent another terrorist attack from happening in the United States.

I've said it many times.   We share nearly 7,500 miles of land border with Canada and Mexico, across which more than 400 million people, 130 million motor vehicles, and 2.5 million rail cars pass every year.

We patrol almost 95,000 miles of shoreline and navigable waters, and 361 ports that see 8,000 foreign flag vessels, 9 million containers of cargo, and nearly 200 million cruise and ferry passengers every year. We have to get it right millions of times a week.

But the terrorists only have to get it right once.

Under President Bush’s leadership, the Department of Homeland Security now has many new tools at its disposal to help us “get it right”. Today, I want to talk about one of these new tools: the USA Patriot Act.  The Patriot Act includes two of the most powerful mechanisms available to America today to prevent future attacks.

One is the potent new information sharing provisions contained in the Patriot Act. By tapping in to these new authorities, the Department has been able to go on offense – to substantially expand America’s information sharing capabilities. It enables us to get terrorist threat information quickly to our homeland security partners who need it most here on the front lines.

And the second is the investigative tools of the Patriot Act -- many of which have been used for years to catch mafia dons and drug kingpins. Today those tools are being used by Homeland Security and other investigators across the country and overseas to identify, apprehend and stop terrorists before they can complete their plots.

As many of you know, the roots of the Patriot Act trace back to 9/11. When the Twin Towers crumbled to the ground, and the Pentagon burned, and the brave passengers of Flight 93 made their heroic good-byes in the skies here above Pennsylvania, I knew – we all knew – that we needed to think differently about how we would prevent another attack.

We needed a new philosophy – a philosophy of shared responsibility, shared leadership, and shared accountability.  The integration of a nation.

Better information-sharing between agencies, as well as with our state and local partners, was a critical part of our new thinking, and critical to this integration.   Like I said, prevention is our ultimate goal.  To accomplish this goal requires, among other things, new tools and technologies.  It requires a robust intelligence gathering operation.  And it demands unprecedented information sharing and cooperation across all levels of government and the private sector.

Let me put this in context. Before September 11, intelligence officers and criminal investigators often couldn't share information with each other.  In many cases – even just within the FBI – FBI intelligence officers and FBI criminal investigators couldn’t share vial threat related information – even when they were right down the hall and working on the same terrorist cases. Our ability to fight terrorism was inhibited by the inability to coordinate within our own government.

But the Patriot Act helped change all that.

The Patriot Act equips law enforcement and intelligence officials at the Department of Homeland Security and other Federal agencies with the tools we need to mount an effective, coordinated campaign against our nation’s terrorist enemies.  

The Patriot Act enables the kind of intelligence sharing necessary so that a complete picture of information can be compiled, so that first responders like the State troopers here today, can better understand what terrorists might be planning, and how to work together with us to prevent attacks.  

Intelligence officers can now consult with federal law enforcement agents to coordinate efforts to investigate or protect against threats from foreign powers and their agents. This coordination between intelligence and law enforcement is vital to protecting the nation’s security.

This increased ability to share information has directly led to the disruption of terrorist plots and numerous arrests, prosecutions, and convictions in terrorism cases, such as the “Lackawanna Six” up north near Buffalo, and the “Portland Seven” terrorist cell out in Oregon.  Both involved cases in which the defendants went to Afghanistan or attempted to do so, to train or take up arms against America with Al Qaeda.

We must continue to foster cooperation and information-sharing among national security and law enforcement personnel. We must continue dismantling roadblocks that prevent communication between the federal government and our partners like those here with us today in Pittsburgh.

We must do this because we must uncover terrorist plots before they are launched, and the Patriot Act is a critical part of this.

But information sharing, by itself, is not enough. We also need the vital investigative tools of the Patriot Act, so that law enforcement officials on the front lines can do the job America expects of them.

We're talking about Homeland Security heroes like our Federal Air Marshals, who stand guard in the sky.  Border Patrol officers on watch through the night, and the Coast Guard officers at sea, and the men and women of the United States Secret Service – one of the world’s great law enforcement agencies.  And yes the crack criminal investigators of ICE -- Immigration & Customs Enforcement – today at the cutting edge of DHS enforcement capacity.  

And let me tell you about one such ICE agent who stepped up and made a difference.

At the Miami International Airport not long ago, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents intercepted a money courier named Libardo Florez-Gomez.  He was suspected of laundering an estimated $1.3 million per month for the Columbian leftist rebel group “FARC” – a group designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.

Thanks to Special Agent Norman Bright, an alert ICE agent who used his knowledge of key new elements of the Patriot Act in the investigation and interrogation, Florez-Gomez was arrested and charged with being an unlicensed money transmitter.  His conviction last year demonstrates how the Patriot Act has helped to stem the flow of funds to terrorists by enhancing our ability to prosecute those responsible for funneling money to terrorists.

The work of Special Agent Bright and dozens of other cases in which Patriot Act provisions made a difference for America is included in a special new report that was sent to Congress on Tuesday.  It’s an unprecedented compilation of real life cases from across the country in which law enforcement officials have used the tools of the USA PATRIOT Act to protect America's families and communities, and even to save lives.  

Right here in Pennsylvania, for example, local police received a call in early 2002 that a 13-year-old girl had disappeared.  She had been lured from her parents’ home and was being held in chains, two states away, by a 38-year-old man she had met online.  The clock was ticking.  But thanks to Section 212 of the Patriot Act, federal agents here in Pittsburgh were able to quickly obtain the critical Internet evidence needed to locate the perpetrator and rescue the girl.  The man was convicted and will spend most of the next 20 years in jail.

Unfortunately, the key information sharing provisions of the Patriot Act are under assault. Key information sharing provisions will expire next year. And there are those who would roll back some of the most critical investigative tools.  

So let me state it plainly:  The tools of the Patriot Act are vital to our ability to prevent terrorist attacks.   It is not a zero sum game. Like the Department of Homeland Security and so many federal agencies, the authorities of the Patriot Act exist to protect the very liberties that our Founders established in the Constitution.  By protecting our freedoms, our civil liberties are enhanced, not diminished.  

If we are truly going to be successful in protecting our country from those who wish to do us harm, the strategy must be a layered one – a series of tools designed to make sure homeland security professionals have the information they need to do their jobs – and to disrupt a potential attack before it can happen.

Homeland Security has not rested on the significant progress of the Patriot Act. Under President Bush’s leadership we have also instituted other new initiatives to aid the flow of threat related information to state and local partners as well as the private sector.

The Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) is one example of a new information sharing capability now in place.  State and local officials brought it to us, told us, “This is a system that works, the demand is great, and we need it now.”  They were right.

So we worked with our state and local partners and established this real-time Internet collaboration system.

The Homeland Security Information Network allows multiple jurisdictions, disciplines, and emergency operation centers to receive and share the same intelligence and the same tactical information.  Those who need to act on information now have the same overall situational awareness.  And, as many of you in this room know, you now have this capability in Pittsburgh.

We are one team, with one mission: to prevent a terrorist attack.  

The Department sees communication as a two-way process: we collect information from the field and listen to what you, our partners, need from us to do your jobs better.  This means heightened awareness, better intelligence, wiser decisions, and improved coordination at every level.  

The President has said, “The true strength of the country lies in the hearts and souls of our citizens.”  He is absolutely right.  The federal government cannot micro-manage the protection of America.  Instead, homeland security must become a priority in every city, every neighborhood, every home, and with every citizen.  

One of the most important jobs at the Department of Homeland Security is to support local first responders in their pursuit of this mission with resources, training and new tools. Tools like the prime mover, equipment trailers, decontamination tents, and personal protective gear that Region 13 counties are receiving today.

I am pleased to report that you purchased this equipment using Department of Homeland Security grant money through our Office for Domestic Preparedness.

I know that Pennsylvania understands our “one team, one fight approach” and that is a credit to the strong leadership here in the state.  I would like to congratulate Paul Konschak with the state homeland security office and Chief Bob Full and all the members of Pennsylvania Region 13 for the good work you are doing to protect your state and our nation.  

Every day we work to make America more secure.  Every day the memories of September 11 inspire us to live our vision, a vision to preserve our freedoms, protect America, enjoy our liberties and secure the homeland.  

If there is one lesson we learned from 9-11, it is that freedom’s greatest companion is fellowship; unity, the integration of a nation – everyone pledged to freedom’s cause, everyone its protector, everyone its beneficiary.

Tools like the Patriot Act have put us on the right path. Our state and local partners have contributed to the success with good ideas such as the Homeland Security Information Network.

The key to the future lies with the continued success of new tools such as these and the commitment of people like you - our state and local partners across the country - to this all important mission.

Thank you.

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This page was last modified on 07/15/04 00:00:00