 America Remembers
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Sept. 11, 2003 — The United States has built up massive defenses against terrorist attacks since Sept. 11 which forced unprecedented changes in security management, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Thursday to mark the anniversary of the strikes.
Ridge highlighted the 50,000 government security guards now monitoring passengers at U.S. airports, the greater inspections of U.S.-bound cargo at foreign ports and the stockpiling of one billion doses of antibiotics and vaccines, including enough smallpox vaccine for every person in the United States.
In a letter to the Washington Post for the second anniversary of Sept. 11, Ridge said "just as the United States adjusted its priorities and tactics to defeat the enemies of old, we have now developed a new set of strategies to meet the current and constant threat to our future."
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He said unprecedented cooperation between 22 government agencies is "systematically building layers of defense that increase our ability to disrupt terrorists' actions and reduce our vulnerabilities."
Ridge's department was created following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington with the merger of a host of government agencies that previously took care of internal and border security.
The Sept. 11 attacks have led to "a powerful multi-directional flow of threat information" that facilitates "consistent, effective actions can be taken by homeland security professionals at all levels to protect the country," Ridge said.
"In the past two years we have achieved a great deal — much of which was considered impossible before tragedy challenged us to rise above the usual impediments to change," Ridge added. "More remains to be done, but working together, we will continue to progress and ultimately prevail."
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