Terrorism Targets

How safe are schools from terrorism?

I used to be a consultant that conducted security assessments on schools and schools are safer now then they were when Columbine happened for a couple reasons. Just like terrorism, you've got students now that when things don't look right or they hear something they tell someone. We also have schools that have put together emergency plans. Drills. Parents understand what to do. Teachers understand what to do. But more importantly, detecting that kind of activity might happen makes them safer. I'm not an advocate for armed personnel at schools. I think that sends the wrong message. I don't feel particularly good if I have to send my son or daughter to a school that has armed personnel. But I think its knowledge and awareness that something may or may not look right and people talking about it that makes them safer. So schools are much safer today. Can you have the active shooter like we had at Virginia Tech last year? Absolutely, but those incidences have been reduced significantly since the Columbine attack of years ago.

What do you think of investigations showing airport security screeners are ineffective?

Well, I have two thoughts on that. First, I think it's irresponsible for someone to publicize the kinds of tests and kinds of items that we're able to get through airport screening. That does no one any good. The other thing that needs to be brought to mind or to the public's attention is that, those kinds of tests are a fraction of the thousands of tests that are conducted every week where those items don't get through. What's good about it and which is not often mentioned in those efforts to show that, quote unquote, it's not working, what's not mentioned is the fact that they are self-testing. That is very important. There is no one in TSA, if I can come to their defence, that's saying, you know what, we've got a system, it's great, it works, let's move on to something else. They are self-testing every single day. That is very good. The system is dynamic and that's important. But unfortunately what comes out is that they self-test and they're still vulnerable. There are a lot of arguments to be made with regards to how much better we can do things. But it goes back to your question earlier about civil liberalities. What are you willing to give up? If you're willing to do as they do in Ben Gurian Airport and arrive three hours earlier, where they go talk to you and ask you questions for several minutes and you don't get a boarding pass until your luggage is screened and - and if we're willing to do that we can assure you that you'll never get on a jet that will probably ever be hijacked again in your life. The American people are not willing to get to an airport three hours early and go through that. However, we don't have the same threat level that they have in Tel Aviv so we don't have to do that. So, I go back to the testing. I think the testing is good. I don't know that the American public needs to hear that testing is not working because the testing is working. It's not perfect. It's not a perfect world. We keep testing and trying to see how we get those things through because with all due respect, what got through last week hopefully doesn't get through this week. And we're making sure that doesn't happen.

How does the National Threat Advisory work?

You know that we sit on yellow as a nation and orange in aviation infrastructure or airports. With all due respect, I don't think that is ever going to change. I would not want to be the Secretary of Homeland Security that suggests that we can move from yellow to some other color. That's saying that the risk has been reduced. I just wouldn't take that chance. I think it's appropriate to leave the airports at orange. I will say this to you, that with all due respect to the Department of Homeland Security, we know that those threat conditions exist. We know what that advisory means. We don't change one bit. We do the same thing today that we did yesterday. We'll be even more aggressive tomorrow. We know that airports are number one on the list. We know that transportation infrastructure is very attractive, open and vulnerable. So while that gives us a level of understanding about where we all are, it doesn't drive what we do. We look at this every single day as something could happen. And everyday it doesn't is a good day.