Tom Ridge Quotes (133 Quotes)

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,

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,

This realignment offers a sweeping gain of additional armed law enforcement officials who will be able to provide a 'surge capacity' during increased threat periods or in the event of a terrorist attack.

based upon advanced information.

Celebrity or unknown, our job is to act on information that others have given us, ... And in this instance, there was some relationship between the name and the terrorists' activity with this individual's name being on that no-fly list, and appropriate action was taken.

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

I hope that in a post-911, post-Katrina world, there wouldn't be a mayor in the nation who wouldn't go back to the drawing board and say, 'What have I done in terms of communication systems'

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.

Effective firefighters in every community are critical to America's homeland security, ... We want to help the fire service to move quickly to develop and acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and equipment to respond to all emergencies, large and small.

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,

Anybody that's spent any time combating terrorists ... will tell you that being old doesn't necessarily mean being irrelevant, ... Good intelligence can be appropriate, no matter how old it is.

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.

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

By and large, I think you're going to see any country that hosts Olympics -- it's a wide international stage -- to go to those lengths to provide maximum security,

I just met a fireman who was trying to save somebody else's house when his went up in flames, ... In the operations center, there are a couple of people on duty today -- 12-hour shifts. They lost their homes, but they know they still have a job to do, and maybe their presence will help save somebody else's homes.

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

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

We do not cower, we are coming after you -- whether you are a nation bent on tyranny, a terrorist group or cell, as the president said, 'We will prevail.'

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.

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,

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.

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.

There was X number of dollars, so we have to set priorities and we had to move people and money around.

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

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

In spite of everything we have done, we are only at the beginning of what will be a long struggle to protect this country from terrorism,

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.

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

We have to give people something to do.

America understands and hopefully appreciates, ... when there is that kind of information, we share it no matter how incomplete it may be.

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

All other systems failed, so they decided to use the Internet to create their own call centers. It shows the application of what you do to help our first responders.

at the very heart of the discussion.

are the result of offensive intelligence and military operations overseas, as well as strong partnerships with our allies around the world, such as Pakistan.

These are pieces of information that we could trace comfortably to sources we deem to be credible.

For the first time ever, this international effort will establish one world standard for ship and port security,

a very unfortunate characterization of the work that people are doing.

The bottom line is that homeland security is not about one department, one level of government or one organization, ... It is a national call to action, a philosophy of shared responsibility, shared accountability, and shared leadership.

Completion of the plan has been one of my department's highest priorities,

Our approach at this point is to think big but begin implementing on a small scale, ... We want to get it right.

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,

From many, many sources from around the world, we've seen a significant increase in the level of chatter and the number of reports with regard to imminent threats against the homeland,

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

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,

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

Trust is a great force multiplier.

It was serious enough from our perspective ... a credible enough theory that at least we ought to tell folks we are mindful of it and that you ought to be mindful of it out there as well,

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.

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.

There will always be more to do, but today, America is significantly stronger and safer than ever before,