Thread: Napolitano's USA TODAY Interview

'We will always live' with terror threat

Homeland Security chief on immigration, Gitmo, an improved FEMA and the expected fall flu outbreak

By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano answered reader questions during a USA TODAY editorial board meeting.Plans to do video fell through. Instead, we used three reader questions in an audio segment.


A quick scan of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website provides a sense of the broad and daunting tasks for which the department is responsible: "Counterterrorism," "Border Security," "Preparedness, Response, Recovery," and "Immigration." Though eight years removed from the 9/11 attacks, terrorism is still front and center. Four years ago, Hurricane Katrina exposed weaknesses in this country's disaster preparedness planning. And though the furor over illegal immigration has subsided a bit, border security and immigration reform are evergreen issues. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona, sat down with USA TODAY's editorial board to discuss these and other topics. Her comments were edited for length and clarity.

Question: It is striking how attitudes have changed since 9/11. Do you perceive a reduced sense of urgency about the terrorist threat?

Answer: When I was serving as a governor, I thought I knew a lot about homeland security from the terrorism aspect. Now that I'm serving as the secretary, I know that there was much I did not know. I've come to the conclusion that we will always live in a terrorist threat environment, that it is al-Qaeda, but it is other groups and wannabes as well, that the environment is constantly changing, and that it is something that we just have to be prepared to live with. We need to be in a state of preparation and readiness — not a state of fear. We need to do all we can to mitigate the risk. But that means individuals undergo a certain amount of inconvenience at times.


Q: After 9/11 there were a flurry of stories about our vulnerabilities, particularly on infrastructure around the country. How would this story be written today?

A: Many of the things we have done would prevent all but a couple of the 9/11 terrorists from even being able to get into the country. In many areas there's a lot more protection than there was previously.

Q: Where do you see the primary risk now?

A: I don't rank them. This is not preseason NFL football where you rank who's going to be top of the division. We need to be prepared for all kinds of realistic risks. We know, for example, that there are risks associated with the transportation sector. We know that certain parts of the country have greater risks than other parts. So we're trying to emphasize this notion of shared responsibility. Everybody has some responsibility for themselves, their family, communities, state, local, tribal, territorial — shared responsibility among all our federal agencies and then with our international partners.

Q: Will there ever be a time when travelers can go through security with their shoes on and with more than 3 ounces of shampoo?

A: Technology ultimately may provide the answer. But people take off their shoes because there was a shoe bomber and because there's intel about others who would use materials conveyed in shoes to get on an aircraft to do damage. But some research is being done to see if there's a better way to scan, particularly with respect to liquids.

Q: A study last week said the number of illegal immigrants in the country was down by 1.7 million. Do your numbers reflect the same decline, and if so, what do you attribute that to?

A: We see a number of indicators of decline. There's a decline in remittances (money sent back to one's home country). The number of apprehensions is down. I would say it's a combination of the two things, the declining economy and increased enforcement. Whenever I hear somebody say, "The border's out of control!" I know that that's somebody who's just trying to gin people up because in reality there is way more physical infrastructure, technology and manpower down there than there ever was. So it is not the same border as it was in the early '90s. It's changed remarkably, and it is very, very difficult to cross illegally.

Q: As a former Arizona governor, how have you applied your knowledge of that region to immigration and border enforcement?

A: We have changed guidance on how we do work-site enforcement to really focus on building cases against employers. If there were a new comprehensive law, one of the things that the law needs to do is make it easier to actually bring a case against an employer. A second is really focusing on how we do these 287(g) agreements (federal and local law enforcement partnerships), which were kind of all over the map when I came in office. We are prioritizing using training to focus on jails and prisons so that you don't have people released who are in the country illegally. Instead, that immigration removal process actually begins during their period of incarceration. A third change is we are reviewing the detention system for immigration detainees. The preliminary parts of that review will be done in the next day or two.

Q: Is it possible to close Guantanamo Bay and move some prisoners to U.S. soil in a way that does not raise concerns for Americans about their security?

A: Before we move any inmates to American soil there would be a risk assessment done about the safety of that. Under the Obama administration, that would be a top priority.

Q: Given the other kinds of prisoners held on U.S. soil, do you see any reason why terrorist suspects would create a special problem?

A: We hold terrorists in U.S. prisons. We hold serial killers in U.S. prisons. We hold lots of really, really bad people who have been adjudicated in U.S. prisons and, particularly in the federal system, in the maximum security process. So we need to make sure that Americans are educated about that — about who already is there, who is already removed from Gitmo to American soil under the Bush administration. This is not totally new.

Q: The cyberterrorism threat seems to be growing. What is being done to protect us?

A: We need to move cybersecurity from the 1.0 to the 3.0 quickly. We appointed a deputy undersecretary for cyber. The direction I gave him was: Hire the best and brightest to bolster the cybersecurity center; that we needed more robust interaction with the private sector because 85% of the critical infrastructure is controlled by the private sector. We need to be doing more research — or contract for more research — to protect existing networks with the dot-org, dot-gov, dot-com side of the cyberworld.

Q: The most spectacular failure of Homeland Security in the previous administration was during Hurricane Katrina. What's your perception of the quality of FEMAright now?

A: FEMA today is not the FEMA of Katrina. It's much better prepared. There's still work to be done, but one of the things I hope happens over the next year is that I actually read a FEMA story that doesn't have the word "Katrina" in it, because they've done significant work to prepare, not just for hurricanes, but to really streamline some of their internal processes. One of my first out-of-district travels was down to New Orleans. We've done quite a bit there to get the Katrina recovery going. One of the elements of education that I would like to get done is that FEMA is not the first responder in emergencies — it is the individual.

Q: One important subject we haven't touched on is flu. What are you expecting for the fall flu season? Also, will a vaccine be ready in time, and will it have to be rationed?

A: It is highly likely that the flu will be back before any vaccine will be available, because the earliest the vaccine is going to be available is in mid-October. There will be prioritization on vaccine, and those decisions will be made through the Department of Health and Human Services.

Q: Is Homeland Security the agency that will be thinking about what happens if H1N1 outstrips even our most worrisome expectations?

A: You can speculate about a 1918-type situation, (but) the data suggest that we will have an outbreak more similar to what happened in the '50s, or perhaps what happened in 1968. I prefer that we educate people about what we are more likely to experience: a heavy outbreak in the fall that has a focus on young people, including college-age and pregnant women. Then, we will focus on what we need to do to work our way through that, such as keeping schools open as much as possible.

Posted at 06:05 PM/ET, August 04, 2009 in Q&A
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Whenever I hear somebody say, "The border's out of control!" I know that that's somebody who's just trying to gin people up because in reality there is way more physical infrastructure, technology and manpower down there than there ever was. So it is not the same border as it was in the early '90s. It's changed remarkably, and it is very, very difficult to cross illegally.

Gee, Ya think, Nappy?! Maybe because they HAD to beef up border security because more and more and more invaders were crossing it!

But hey, you inherited this, right?

USA TODAY needs to hear from everyone here.

You can post a comment on the USA TODAY Online site at this link:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/ ... .html#more

What a joke! Softball anyone?

She has been making the media rounds lately, anyone know what she is really doing?

The link above no longer works for me. I think they are tired of hearing from us.

Originally Posted by ELE

She has been making the media rounds lately, anyone know what she is really doing?

Obamanation Propaganda Campaign.

Dixie

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

USA TODAY needs to hear from everyone here.

You can post a comment on the USA TODAY Online site at this link:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/ ... .html#more

try this one
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/ ... .html#more

Here...go straight to the source if you like


Eileen Rivers

Web Content Editor

Editorial Page, USA TODAY

703-854-5849, erivers@usatoday.com[/i]

Lets all help Lou!


http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-165543.html
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