Tom Ridge Speaks Softly, Carries Dire Warning

June 26, 2002
By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge speaks softly but carries a dire warning.

In urging Congress to create a Cabinet-level department quickly to protect the nation against another attack like Sept. 11, Ridge says terrorists might get their hands on weapons of mass destruction -- and the United States must be ready.

Ridge is expected to make this pitch again on Wednesday when he returns to Capitol Hill for the third time in seven days to testify in support of President Bush's proposed 170,000-employee Department of Homeland Security.

He is to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then go to the other side of Capitol Hill for a date with the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

"The war against terrorism is also a war against the most deadly weapons known to mankind -- chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons," Ridge told a House Commerce and Energy subcommittee on Tuesday.

"If terrorists acquire these weapons, they will use them with consequences that could be far more devastating than we suffered on September 11," Ridge said.

Thus, he said, "We must launch a systematic national effort against these weapons that is equal to the threat they pose."

With Bush demanding fast action on his proposed department, and lawmakers asking lots of questions, 18 congressional hearings on the subject were scheduled for this week.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which argues that the department would be "long on secrecy and short on accountability," questioned on Tuesday "how any coherent and informed conversation about the proposal could emerge from such a harried process."

The hearings are examining various aspects of the president's plan -- from intelligence gathering and food safety to identification fraud and immigration.

Bush wants to fold into the new department all or parts of 22 existing federal agencies, including the Secret Service, Coast Guard, Border Patrol and a portion of the Department of Health and Human Services.

PUBLIC HEALTH WARNING

The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, issued a report at Tuesday's House subcommittee hearing, entitled, "New department could improve coordination but may complicate public health priority setting."

Ridge promised to work with Congress to make sure that transferring some government medical responsibilities to the proposed department did not undermine public health services.

"Work with us on refining the language so it continues to meet the goals of the president as well as (Congress') goal of continuing to build up a public health infrastructure," Ridge said.

While Bush's proposal has drawn bipartisan support in Congress, Ivan Eland, head of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank, ripped into it onTuesday during a hearing by a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.

"The Bush administration's plan to merge disparate agencies into a new department ... will do nothing to enhance homeland security and may actually reduce it," Eland said, complaining that the proposal would "add yet another level of bureaucracy to the fight against terrorism."

FBI Director Robert Mueller and CIA Director George Tenet are to appear on Thursday before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which is examining how the two intelligence agencies would work with new department.

Bush wants the department to be a clearinghouse for information from these and other agencies to stop communication failures that could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks.

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