CNN Access: Tom Ridge on nation's security

Tom Ridge

Editor's Note: CNN Access is a regular feature on CNN.com providing interviews with newsmakers from around the world.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CNN's Judy Woodruff talked with Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge on Monday.

WOODRUFF: Governor Ridge, we're here at the Vietnam War Memorial and, as Americans think about all this on Memorial Day, and you come to this place, I'm sure, from time to time.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: Yes.

WOODRUFF: What meaning does it hold for Americans today? You fought in Vietnam. You won the Bronze Star for valor. What meaning does it have?

RIDGE: I think when you wander in one group of soldiers, ultimately you wander with all the soldiers. When you come to this memorial, hopefully you're reminded that there were I think 2.6 million men and women who served in one form or another, fought for Vietnam.

The average age of those warriors back then was 19. Many of them volunteers, all of them citizen soldiers. So obviously you think of the sacrifice. And when you see their names, they become husbands and fathers and brothers and sisters. And so I think you really -- it becomes a much more personal experience.

But also I think this is a day that you think of all veterans. We've had, I think in the history of this country, somewhere between 45 and 50 million men and women who proudly put on their uniform.

WOODRUFF: You knew the war in Vietnam very well from having been there. That was in the 1960s. Today we're in 2002. Our country is engaged in a very different war, right here on our own soil. How is it different? I mean, is this one harder because it's here? How is it different?

RIDGE: I think you picked it up. We used to traditional -- when we think of war, we think of it in more traditional terms, with uniformed combatants, country fighting country. And this war, the war on terror, we have uniformed combatants and we've got great military doing great things in Afghanistan.

But we have shadow soldiers in this country. We know that al Qaeda brought in individuals. And because of the diversity and the openness of our country, they were shadow soldiers. They were here from day one to do us harm.

WOODRUFF: As we walk along this area with the Vietnam Memorial behind us, do you think Americans have come to grips, truly, with what it means to be fighting this different kind of war now?

RIDGE: I think we've made a great deal of progress in that direction. I'm not sure that 280 million Americans yet are ready to accept that it is a permanent condition, that it is..

WOODRUFF: And you mean that, permanent?

RIDGE: I think we have to not only operate from our perspective of the office of homeland security, but I've been talking to governors and I've been talking to mayors. And if we're going to secure the homeland, we have to secure the hometown.

WOODRUFF: In the last few days, you're very aware, a lot of terror warnings out there from top officials, from the vice president to the secretary of defense, FBI director and others. You have been out there with new information about terror threats in New York City and other places. Many different voices.

Is there a risk of too many voices here? A question of who is really in charge and who really should be giving this information out? Should it just be coming from one place, from your office?

RIDGE: I'm glad you used the word information warnings. Because you know, we developed a national alert system, a threat advisory system. And we said if we have credible information, corroborating information, that we have to change and the American public has to know we're changing our level of risk, our level of threat. The attorney general is going to make that announcement.

From time to time, we have agencies, the EPA, the FBI, the Department of the Treasury, a variety of agencies who may give information out to the sectors that they work with on a day-to-day basis. They are information warnings.

It's double-check your security precautions. Are you doing enough in one area or another, based on the information that we shared with you? It's not raising the national level of alert, it's just an information warning. It is a reminder, based on information that you see. Better go back and double-check the procedures.

WOODRUFF: It's not a national alert, however there was a poll done a couple of days ago that's just been released, showing 65 percent of Americans now think that a terror attack is likely in the next few weeks. That's up from 52 percent in March.

Is there a danger of raising the anxiety level of the American people? The stock market, for example, is down, and they're saying the reason is anxiety over a terror attack. Is there a danger of doing that, based on just generalized information?

RIDGE: First of all, there are two dangers. There's the danger about what you know and the danger about what you don't know. And I think one of the reasons that the anxiety level may be spiked is that, as a country, we're not used to the notion that from time to time, there will be federal agencies, based on some information they receive, going out to different parts of the country, different sectors of the economy, asking them to double-check their security procedures.

Based on -- the information is specific enough that it would warrant the warning, but not specific enough with regard to time and the type of terrorist attack. And as a country, we're not ready, I don't think, emotionally -- and I understand this. I think we all do -- intellectually and emotionally, because we haven't had to deal with this until since a short period of time, since 9/11. It's tough to digest.

WOODRUFF: Last question.

RIDGE: Sure.

WOODRUFF: Should there be any question about who is in charge of homeland security in this country?

RIDGE: The president ultimately, he tasked the office of homeland security and gave me the opportunity to serve and the authority to get things done. And I think that's exactly what has been going on for the past seven months.

We've affected changes in the budget. We've got the national threat advisory system. We are working on critical infrastructure protection with companies all around the country. We work on a daily basis with 50 homeland security advisers. We've been working with mayors and governors. So I think it's pretty clear who's in charge.

And I think in time, when people look back, we'll say that the president gave Governor Tom Ridge the authority to do what he was tasked to do by the president of the United States.