Chertoff: U.S. 'Unequivocally' Safer Now From Attacks

The United States is "unequivocally" safer from terrorist attacks than it was six years ago, but security gaps remain, notably for private airplanes and small boats, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today.

In testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee, Chertoff said his department would shortly unveil plans to tighten security for private planes coming to the United States from overseas and screen the aircraft for radiological or nuclear material before they take off.

He said the government also is starting a pilot program on the West Coast to screen small boats for such material.

Speaking less than a week before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Chertoff credited the administration with thwarting further strikes on United States soil despite the determination of al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups to attack again.

At the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, "no one would have been bold enough to predict that six years would pass without a further successful attack on the homeland," Chertoff said.

"By any measure, this is a remarkable achievement," he told the committee in written testimony. "It is the result of our comprehensive efforts to secure our safety, while maintaining our liberty and way of life, including our privacy. It is a tribute to the successes of our armed forces abroad and to our law enforcement efforts at home."

Chertoff cited the efforts of Customs and Border Protection officers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and other agencies, including the FBI and the State Department.

"Yet despite this accomplishment, our nation remains at risk," Chertoff said. "Clearly, our terrorist foes continue to plot against us and target our people and infrastructure. Over the past year, we helped disrupt a number of planned attacks, notably the plot last summer in London to hijack planes heading for America."

While these plots were thwarted, "the terrorist threat remains a potent one," he said. Al-Qaeda, "while weaker than it was on 9/11, is growing again in strength," and the danger from "homegrown terrorists" cannot be discounted, he said.

The United States cannot eliminate every risk, and trying to do so would make security efforts so heavy-handed that "we would end up destroying exactly what we are trying to protect -- the normal, daily fabric of life across our nation," Chertoff said. "So instead of trying to eliminate risk, our overarching strategy is to reduce and manage it." The reality of the threat was shown by the arrests in Denmark and Germany Tuesday of suspects who were allegedly planning terrorist attacks, Chertoff said. The arrests are "a sobering reminder of the fact that six years after 9/11, the intent of al-Qaeda and its allies to wage war on the West and the United States remains unabated," he told the committee.

Security gaps that require particular attention include private planes and small boats, which represent potential sources of threat because of relatively lax scrutiny of them, he said.

"We do worry about the fact that someone could lease or occupy a private plane overseas and use that to smuggle in a dirty bomb," or that attackers could bring in dangerous cargo aboard a small boat, Chertoff told the committee.