Living With Terrorism

What's your advice for people living in the age of terrorism?

My advice to people about living in the age of terrorism is the same as living in the age of any other crime. I think people need to be educated. I think they need to be aware. As a nation, I think the greatest asset we could have is our media and educating people to the real threat. Making sure people understand what's going on. Letting people know that things are happening, being done. The toughest part about our job is that in most cases, we can't send accolades or publicize some of the good things we're doing, because it compromises what we're doing. So I think that people living in the age of terrorism should at least come to some level of trust that when they're told a certain thing, that by and large it's probably true. I don't think that anybody in the way of an elected official is going to mislead the public in that respect and tell them something that's not true to make them feel good. The public has to understand that when they hear "evacuate," they need do. When they hear that there's a threat, it's real. But when they don't hear that there's a threat, they should not assume that nothing's happening and there is no threat. And that to me has been, if you will, disconcerting things. Nothing's happened since September 11th. We're already starting to hear, nothing's happened in 6 years. Why are we doing all of this? Why do we have to keep spending all this money and all this effort. Well, just remember there were 8 years between 1993 and 2001. There are a number of things that are thwarted every single day that the American public will never hear about. So they need to rest assured, there is still a threat. It is still real. I know that lots of reports have come out saying that there's no cell in America. I would never go so far as to say that. I just wouldn't do it, because I know of too many instances in this country where cells have been disruptive, plots have been thwarted, and those not meant to just scare us.

Will we ever see anything as bad as 9-11?

I hope not. I hope not. We are dealing with a group that pulled off 9/11 that thrives on spectacular attacks. So I would have to say again that I hope we don't ever see something like that. I think that operationally it's much more difficult to do now than it was then. I don't think that Al Quaeda specifically anticipated the blowback of an entire war because of what we did. If you go back historically after the bombings in 1998 on the embassies and the bombing of the USS Cole; the bombing on the embassies brought about a very limited strike on a pharmaceutical plant which you may recall in the Clinton Administration. The bombing on the Cole brought no response at all. I can't believe they anticipated a war over the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. So keeping that in mind, I'm not saying they're afraid to do it again, it's operationally more difficult to pull off if they understand what the blowback might be, so it's tougher. I hope we never see that.

Why haven't there been more major attacks on the US since 9-11?

There's a lot of theory about why more major attacks on the US hasn't happened. I think it's more difficult. I think the environment's more hostile. With all due respect, if you want to talk about the domestic threat, it is something we're paying attention to. It's been limited in scope. The FBI has been quitet effective in some of the efforts that they've had with some of those extremist groups. From the international threat, as I mentioned earlier, it's more difficult. Keep in mind that the Muslim communities in this country are not the same as Muslim communities in Northern London and other places where you have a community that's disenfranchised, some people are unemployed, uneducated. Muslim communities here are as mainstreamed as any other minority if you will, and I think that's due in large part to some of the reason you don't see that. However what we are seeing are African Americans, Whites, Asians, if you will, who have been radicalized into Al-Qaeda type groups so it's very interesting that you should ask that question. You've seen the very limited, very small in scope, those kinds of efforts being put forth, but on the grand scale of September 11 I think that operationally, it's just more difficult to do. They don't have the apparatus or the resources put in place, I don't think, to pull off a major attack on the US.

Is there an 'acceptable risk' when it comes to terrorism?

Acceptable risk? I do not know that there is one. Acceptable risk for me is that it is not going to happen. But acceptable risk I think is one that engages a security design and practices that does not disrupt our way of life to the point where we cannot function with some efficiency. And that is what terrorism wants to do, is to disrupt normal life. If you have ever been to the Middle East when there is an attack, specifically in Israel, that business, that block is open for business again in 6 hours. In London, when there is an attack they quarant it off. Those businesses are open again. In Madrid, the following day they had a huge peace rally and march and they were over after that. So the one thing you want to do is build some sustainability and resilience if it does happen to show these attackers it is not going to disrupt our way of life. That is very important.