For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 2, 2001
Friday's Homeland Security Briefing
Press Briefing by Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, FBI Director Bob Mueller, Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan and Director of Bacterial and Mycotic Disease for the CDC Mitch Cohen
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
11:00 A.M. EST
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Good morning, again. Joining me this
morning is our FBI Director Bob Mueller; Dr. Mitch Cohen, from the
Center for Disease Control; and United States Postal Service Assistant
Postmaster John Nolan.
We will all be available to answer your questions regarding the
ongoing anthrax investigations and to provide an update on our
investigative and public health efforts.
Director Mueller will specifically discuss with you the status of
the investigations that have been undertaken since September 11th.
Once again, I think it's very, very important to thank the
thousands of Americans, both at the federal, state and local level, who
continue to work around the clock to meet the extraordinary challenges
that have confronted this country since September 11th.
Our law enforcement professionals and public and private health
care providers have done an extraordinary job and they've made us all
very proud with their efforts.
I would also like to give you a brief glimpse into my week as
Director of Homeland Security, to help illustrate how we have begun our
work to respond to the President's directive that we create a blueprint
for a safer America.
As you know, the President led our week by establishing a foreign
terrorist tracking task force, a recommendation from the Homeland
Security Office -- where we will fuse information from the INS and FBI
and State Department. And it will be housed in the Attorney
General's Office.
We are consolidating our intelligence data bases, strengthening our
immigration policies to keep terrorists and their supporters out of
this country; tightening restrictions on student visas; and also
working with our friends in Canada and Mexico to improve border
security, enhance, facilitate commerce, and to try to bring a greater
harmony to some of our immigration and customs policies.
As the President regularly meets with the National Security
Council, he now regularly meets with the Homeland Security Council.
On Tuesday I met with Democrat and Republican congressional leaders
at their policy luncheons, and I appeared before the House Democratic
Caucus on Wednesday. My daily discussions with members of
Congress have focused on both the war at home today -- obviously a
great concern is to where we devote some resources in the short-term --
but also talking with them, both individually and collectively, about
long-term plans, as we work with them to create that blueprint for a
safer America.
I've had private discussions with the leaders of our airlines
industry, to discuss mutual safety and economic concerns. I
was certainly encouraged by the discussions we've had; and I had
earlier this week with leaders of the pharmaceutical industry, who
pledged to share, if needed, to share their facilities, their products
and their scientific genius, to help meet America's needs.
I had a very productive meeting with Washington Mayor Tony
Williams. We discussed the resource challenges he is facing with the
anthrax attack. We also discussed several public safety planning
initiatives, which we look forward to working with the Mayor and his
staff on.
I met with the Australian Foreign Minister this week, as I have met
with Canadian, German officials in recent weeks, as well. We
obviously share mutual interests. And I'm very, very
encouraged, both personally and professionally, by the international
attention to our homeland protection initiatives.
Yesterday, I met with leaders of local law enforcement at the
state, the county and the local level. Obviously, they're
part of the front line of public safety. They're very much,
today and for all time, a significant part of the homeland security
structure that we are developing.
I am certainly pleased to report that their spirit of partisanship,
their desire to be engaged, a desire to work with federal officials, as
we go about combatting the terrorist threats that confront us today,
and may appear in the future, is sincere, it's intense, they're on the
job 24-7. And you can well imagine, as someone charged with a national
-- developing a national plan for homeland security, the one group of
people we have, the 365-24-7 in our neighborhoods, on our streets, in
our communities, our local law enforcement community. And
obviously their integration into what we do and the information we
receive at the national level is very critical to them, to being able
to effectively be that first line of defense.
I'm certainly most grateful to Secretary Rumsfeld and Secretary of
the Army White, for their decision. We work with them to
keep national guard troops stationed on our northern border up there,
to help the good men and women of Customs. As you can well
imagine, there are five or six major points of ingress and egress from
Canada to the United States. We're going to continue to beef
up the men and women there charged with security. And it's
critical that we devote the attention and the resources, given the
extraordinary commerce -- level of commerce that flows between these
two allies and friends and neighbors.
I would ask Director Mueller to share a few thoughts with you, and
then the four of us will be available for questioning.
DIRECTOR MUELLER: Thank you, Governor, and good
morning. I want to update you on the FBI's growing efforts
to track down those responsible for the biological attacks on America
and also to ask for your help in generating new leads from the citizens
of our country.
In concert with many state, local and federal partners, we are
moving aggressively to investigate the 16 confirmed cases of anthrax,
as well as to investigate every contaminated site. We are
pursuing more than a thousand leads, including more than 100 that have
taken us overseas. We have conducted more than 2,000
interviews to date in that investigation. We are deploying every
available resource in that investigation.
I will tell you that our combined anthrax and hijacking
investigation -- the hijackings relating to September 11th -- are being
worked by in excess of 7,000 FBI agents and support personnel around
the country and, indeed, around the world. With regard to
the anthrax investigation, we have heavy concentrations of agents and
support personnel working in Miami, New York, Newark and in the
Washington field offices.
Despite speculation about the possible source of the anthrax and
the motive for the attacks, nothing yet has been ruled out, and
investigators continue to follow the evidence wherever it may
lead. We are currently looking closely at the recent
fatality in New York of Ms. Nguyen to see what that might tell us; but
it's still too early to draw any conclusions.
Since September 11th, the American people have been an important
set of eyes and ears in our investigations -- both our investigation of
the terrorist hijackings and our investigation into the anthrax
attacks.
Through our Internet site and our toll-free hot line, they have
contributed more than 170,000 potential leads and tips which our agents
and support personnel are pursuing. That 170,000 is but 40
percent of the 420,000 total leads that have been generated in our
investigations since September 11th.
Over the past month, a number of private citizens and businesses
have provided us with information, support and
expertise. And that is helping to move the anthrax
investigation forward; and we greatly appreciate all of those
contributions.
I will say that we had hoped that the $1 million reward announced
by the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service on October 18th would encourage
many more of our fellow citizens to step forward with important
information. And so far, we have not received as many tips or leads
under that program as we would like.
And so today, I'm calling upon all of you and the news
organizations to basically speak for us, to ask our fellow citizens to
join us in trying to bring leads to the front that will help us, both
the anthrax investigation, but also solve the September 11th hijacking
investigations.
I want to reiterate that there is a $1 million reward, and I also
want to reiterate our toll-free telephone number and our Internet
address for any of you or others out there who have leads that we
should be following.
The hot line number is 1-800-CRIME-TV; that is,
1-800-CRIME-TV. I see some of you smiling, it's easy to
remember. 1-800-CRIME-TV. And the Internet web
site is www.ifccfbi.gov.
Q Director Mueller?
DIRECTOR MUELLER: I'm not through
yet. (Laughter.) If I might just have a second,
sorry.
I want to follow-up by urging in the strongest terms possible every
American to join us in tracking down those responsible for using
anthrax to murder Americans. We ask you throughout the
country to report any suspicious behavior that involves the United
States mails or individuals -- or individuals knowledgeable about
anthrax.
I also ask you to study closely the images of the anthrax envelopes
which we released last month, that many of your publications had in
them -- and we also put that on our web site -- to look at those images
and determine if you know who was the writer of those
envelopes. And by that I mean comparing the handwriting on
it to any handwriting that you may be able to recognize.
Finally, I want to say a few words about law enforcement
cooperation. I was at the International Association of Chiefs of
Police last Sunday and Monday and had an opportunity to talk to a
number of my fellow brothers and sisters in law
enforcement. I want to say to them and to you that the FBI
is making concrete steps -- taking concrete steps to improve the level
of cooperation and information sharing with state and local law
enforcement.
We are dedicating a senior FBI official to address concerns that
were raised in the course of my discussions at the IACP. And
we are going to establish an advisory group made up of state and local
authorities, as well as FBI representatives, to identify issues and
resolutions to those issues. I have urged state and local leaders to
contact me and other FBI officials if there appears to be any gap in
that coordination.
And, finally, we in the FBI realize that the general threat warning
that was issued last Monday was frustrating to many law enforcement
officials. However, as we work to prevent future acts of
terrorism, we believe in the FBI and I believe in the Homeland Defense
Office that we have a responsibility to keep everybody informed, even
when the level of information may not be as specific as any of us would
like.
By issuing the warnings, we are sending a strong signal to
terrorists that we are focused, prepared and united in our
determination to keep them from attacking our freedom.
And, finally, I want to thank all our partners throughout law
enforcement, the intelligence community, the public health communities
for their unwavering commitment and support since September 11th,
whether it be with regard to the attacks of September 11th or the more
recent anthrax attacks.
Q Given the fact, Director Mueller, that the
threat advisory on the western suspension bridges apparently contained
the suggestion that it not be shared with the media, could Governor
Davis' release of it have jeopardized ongoing investigations?
DIRECTOR MUELLER: We put out that warning to law
enforcement with the expectation that it would go to the senior
officials in any particular state. And with regard to what
that senior official does, that is up to that senior official in the
state.
Q Even though you advised not to share it?
Q Director?
DIRECTOR MUELLER: Yes, sir?
Q A couple of points on the Nguyen case in
New York. Are you investigating or tracking other cases that
may overlap her infection and, therefore, provide more guidance to
investigators? And, secondly, you've talked about all the
leads, all of the interviews. Are you in any better position
to tell the American people who is behind this anthrax, specifically,
the letter to Senator Daschle?
DIRECTOR MUELLER: Let me address that. With
regard to Ms. Nguyen, we, along cooperatively with the New York
authorities, with Mayor Giuliani, with the New York police, operating
out of out joint task force that has been operating for a number of
years, are investigating every lead, and we are exploring all those who
knew Ms. Nguyen. We have jointly been into, as I think the
Governor -- or, the Mayor has already indicated to you -- have been in
to explore whether or not there were any anthrax spores found in her
apartment or found at work, and to date that has been negative.
So we are trying to reconstruct her life to determine whether there
are any leads that would help us determine how she contracted the
anthrax.
With regard to the status of the investigations, the investigations
to September 11th is moving along. It's moving
at apace both here and internationally. As I have
indicated before, one of the initial responsibilities of that
investigation was to determine who the hijackers were. We at
this point definitely know the 19 hijackers who were responsible for
that catastrophe. We have spread the investigation in the
United States -- it has been spread out in the United States, as well
as overseas, and following up leads.
And we have been successful in working with our foreign
counterparts in identifying places where the conspiracy we believe was
hashed, as well as others who may have been involved in the
conspiracy.
Q I'm sorry, but I was asking specifically
about the anthrax letter, sir.
DIRECTOR MUELLER: I'm sorry, go ahead.
Q I was trying to get you to talk
specifically about who would be capable of producing the kind of
anthrax that has been sent through the mail, and where you believe this
is happening? Is this somebody doing it domestically or
overseas?
DIRECTOR MUELLER: I will tell you that the three letters
at issue, the letter to NBC, the letter to the New York Post and the
Daschle letter all were mailed from Trenton, which you all
know. And we are pursuing every conceivable lead to
determine who was responsible, who would be capable of developing that
anthrax strain, as well as who would be responsible for utilizing that
type of envelope, and mailing those envelopes in Trenton.
Q Governor, could you give us your
perspective on what happened yesterday with this threat warning on
suspension bridges in California, what might have been learned from
what happened; and whether or not you're considering at all some kind
of perhaps more regularized threat warning -- sort of like the military
does, with some threat-con level that would clue people in as to what
level of alert they ought to be on?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: One of the challenges for this office
and for the country, in creation of a national homeland security force,
is that it's a federal government, and that we have to deal with
different levels of -- different political
jurisdictions. And so the integration of federal data
collection and information gathering, the state intelligence and
information sharing on the local is something that we have done in the
past, but it's pretty clear that given the events of September 11th,
how we go about approaching the new normalcy, how we go about dealing
with this new environment has created some real challenges for us.
The information was sent out and it noted that it was
uncorroborated test information. I think we can safely
assume that once we send out from the federal level to the state level
and suggest that it remain within law enforcement, there's not too much
that's kept secret once that kind of information is made available to
somebody in the country.
And the Governor exercised his discretion and made a judgment.
Q But you admitted just a couple days
earlier that if you sent it to law enforcement, it would get out
anyway, so you released it. Why didn't you release this?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Remember one of the criticisms of the
alert -- and everybody is trying to be constructive about this, I
understand -- was that the alert that went out Monday, with the
exception of a time frame, did not offer any additional information as
to the location, the type of weapon and the like.
This, although uncorroborated, targeted a time frame and a
place. It was based on that information that again it was
sent out to the law enforcement community. Governors of all
50 states, since September 11th -- and I think it's very important to
note this, and their state police and their local police and their
emergency responders -- have really upgraded dramatically the security
enhancements at potentially vulnerable targets.
Again, given the federal nature -- and each governor and each
county executive and each region makes different assessments as to the
best way they can harden those targets and the best way they can
interdict or prevent a terrorist attack.
Obviously, Governor Davis thought that one thing that he could do
to enhance the security of people using those bridges was to make a
public announcement. We did not encourage him to do so.
Q In light of that, though, Governor,
following up on Terry's questions, are you going to have conversations
maybe with other governors, lessons learned here, in terms of for
future, that the best guidance --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Yes.
Q So what will your advice be to governors?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Great question. We are
learning every day. We're in constant
conversation. I had -- Wednesday I had four conversations
with four governors. Yesterday, I think I talked to two or
three. As we work our way through better coordination,
better communication, we view every response to every single incident
in the light of what can we do differently, what can we do better.
You know, America post-September 11th is dramatically --
unfortunately, dramatically different than September
10th. So we look at every one.
Q Governor, is it possible -- well, one, was
this information that Governor Davis released to the public part of the
unspecified information you alluded to earlier in the
week? And also, a question for Director Mueller, could you
give us a few more details about the overseas clues -- clues that have
taken you overseas, like how much of this is involving maybe anthrax,
or -- could you also speak to the anthrax letter that showed up at a
paper in Pakistan?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: That information came in on Thursday
morning, and the appropriate agencies -- we're going back to
corroborate it. Remember, the statement went out that it was
uncorroborated. And the FBI moved forward to go back, visit
the source, and make a further determination.
DIRECTOR MUELLER: Let me just say a little bit before I
respond to your question, if I might. In terms of the
contacts with governors and the distribution of information -- this is
not the first time that we have had occasion to call a governor or pass
information to a governor. It's happened on numerous
occasions since September 11th.
In fact, before Governor Ridge was here, down here, I had occasion
to talk to the Governor about a similar matter. And, given
the information, the threat information and what a governor can do to
address a particular threat, different steps have been
taken. So this is not unusual, what happened yesterday, in
any way, shape or form.
Turning to your question, in terms of the overseas investigation.
With regard to September 11th hijackings, that is taking us well
overseas. With regard to the anthrax investigation, that has been more
localized, more localized than the investigation into September 11th,
but that is not to say that there have not been leads that have taken
us overseas.
Q A question for you, sir, and a question
for the Deputy Postmaster General. For you, sir, yesterday,
it seems that on September 11th, from then on, we've had a lot of
bipartisanship in Congress. While the vote yesterday was
very partisan on airport security -- 218 to 214, while the Senate had
voted 100-0 on their bill.
Now, this seems to bode that we will be having -- we'll be having a
fight, and it will take a longer time to get airport
security. There was a major incident in New York last
night. I believe a flight was delayed because security was
missing?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: There have been other occasions, not
just in New York, where people on the ground have decided to delay
flights or to divert flights because of the situations that
occurred. There may have been a bipartisan disagreement on
to the extent that -- on the House bill, but there is absolute
bipartisan agreement that we need to upgrade the standards, we need
higher competency, more training, better pay to get men and women
better equipped, along with the added technology, to get the job done
at the airports. And we're convinced that it will be done.
Q I'd like to ask the FBI Director, does
this mean you're tilting more toward a domestic source?
DIRECTOR MUELLER: I wouldn't say we're tilting -- on the
anthrax, we're not tilting more to a domestic source. What
we're doing is the investigation expands from where we've got the
current evidence. The current evidence puts us at mail boxes
in Trenton, where the critical -- three critical letters were
mailed. And it expands beyond there. And some of
the leads may well take us overseas. But the thrust of the
investigation is where those letters were mailed, and trying to track
back from those mailboxes to the individual who is responsible for
putting those letters, with the anthrax, into those mailboxes in
Trenton.
Q Well, what are you asking the American
people to do? You want us to alert them, they can do
something -- what are they supposed to do?
DIRECTOR MUELLER: Two things. One, if there
are -- if you have persons around you, that are suspicious in terms of
-- if you see something out of the ordinary, in terms of mail -- the
mail, or if you see -- look at the writing, the handwriting that was
disclosed both on the envelopes of the letters, as well as the pages
inside, and either the statements or the handwriting may be somehow
familiar to you, somebody you may have seen, you may have seen a letter
like that, then we'd like to know that.
On the other hand, it may well be that there is somebody in the
United States who is manufacturing the anthrax. We have not,
as I said, we have not precluded any possibility. We have
not said it's domestic, we have not said it is
international. We have not precluded any
possibility. If you know that somebody is doing different
things with anthrax than they should be, and anthrax is studied in
places, if you believe that persons are doing something with anthrax --
you may be in the medical profession, you may be in some other
profession that has something to do with anthrax, and it's somewhat
suspicious, we're asking you to let us know.
Q A question on the post office,
please. I understand that four offices in Rockville, the
FDA, that are being tested for anthrax. Do you have any
results on those yet?
MR. NOLAN: No, those would not -- results would not come
to us; that's being done by those government offices, themselves.
Q How about the rest of the post offices
around the country? I know you had -- I think outbreaks in
Indianapolis and Kansas City. Is that correct?
MR. NOLAN: Well, the Indianapolis and Kansas City things
are very specific, have nothing whatsoever to do with
mail. Nothing whatsoever to do with mail. We have
a spare parts depot in Indianapolis. Spare parts of a
technical nature are sent there for repair. Once we learned
of the contamination of the Brentwood facility, one of the things we
did was examine everything that we did in Brentwood, and who we sent
anything to.
So we began testing that Indianapolis facility, because we know we
had sent spare parts there; we knew the part numbers, so we knew
exactly where to look and, in fact, we found
contamination. That has been cleaned up and should be opened
up shortly.
In Kansas City, we had a similar kind of situation where we have
first-day covers for philatelic, stamp collecting. And those
that were left over after the event were sent to a specified
place. Has nothing to do with our stamp distribution center
where we're sending stamps everywhere. It was a completely
isolated place, it was found in the trash can. And, again,
they were searching for anything that related to first-day covers that
had come back from Washington. Nothing to do with mail;
nothing to do with the receipt of mail by anybody, completely isolated,
and no further problem.
Q Governor Ridge --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Let me just add two other
comments. One, you should know that the Centers for Disease
Control and the Post Office is developing an internal group within the
post office to help detect and decontaminate. They just began, CDC
working with the Postal Service.
The other bit of information that I think is important -- maybe you
could remind people who read, or people who listen, or people who watch
-- that the penalty for using the mail to perpetrate a hoax is 20
years. And we've had several thousands hoaxes that have had
-- again, you put in the cluster of responsibilities that the law
enforcement community has, following up on and responding to potential
threats. A hoax can be punishable for up to 20 years in
jail. We hope everybody knows that.
Q A question for the gentleman from the
CDC.
DR. COHEN: Thank you. (Laughter.)
Q Given that the Ms. Nguyen case can't be
linked to any other previous cases in terms of how she contracted the
anthrax, are public health officials worried that this may be the start
of a new cluster of cases?
DR. COHEN: Well, I think it's very important to conduct
this thorough investigation, both epidemiologically, as well as
criminal, to try to determine how that transmission
occurred. There may be an explanation that could help us to
understand. But, again, I think it just emphasizes the needs
for people to be alert, as has been emphasized by some of the other
speakers.
Q Governor Ridge, a number of states have
beefed up their security around nuclear power plants in the last few
days, in part on your advice. Does the government have specific
information that these plants may be targeted? And, also,
there's been a lot of speculation about the possibility of suitcase
bombs, nuclear -- miniature nuclear bombs in the hands of
terrorists. Is this is a concern of the government's?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I think one of the -- obviously, when we
looked at targets nationally, that are potentially vulnerable, one of
the first places you would be looking would be to your nuclear
facilities owned by both the Defense Department and the public in
general. So it's understandable then, at a heightened alert,
we certainly beef up the security there.
Remember, the charge of the Homeland Security Office is to create a
blueprint for safety that would include preventing and responding to a
variety of attacks. And, unfortunately, all the literature
and all the concern is chemical, biological, radiological and
nuclear. I mean, there is a universe of potentials that we
have to deal with. Unfortunately, in the business we're in,
we have to deal with the what-if.
But there's no -- don't read anything in to the nuclear protection
other than in a general heightened state of alert. Looking
at the vulnerability of these locations, we decided to heighten the
security there.
Q Is the threat level today the same as the
threat level you announced on Monday? Should Americans go
into this weekend believing that the threat level is the same as you
announced for a heightened state of alert last Monday? And
are you doing anything to try to rank these levels, so that there are
different levels of warning?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: For the time being, Bill, we want people
-- whether they're involved professionally in security and law
enforcement, or the public generally -- to be on the highest possible
state of alert. I know that seems -- some people suggest
that that is a contradictory message. But the bottom line is, is that
what the terrorists want us to do is to be so preoccupied with the
threat that we forget what it is about being America and going about
our business of being America.
Director Mueller I believe said it very
appropriately. We have the eyes and ears of citizens who can
help us in this effort. We didn't think we'd have to enlist
them, given the security concerns that the country had on September
10th. But as of September 11th, the need, and one of the
reasons that the alert goes out, was just to remind all Americans,
regardless of whether their daily responsibilities have anything to do
with domestic security, that your eyes, your ears, your being alert,
your being on call to respond to the inquiries that the FBI has made,
to -- if nothing else, that an employee in the airlines now, that
they're just a little more suspicious, a little more attentive; that
individual providing security on the street corner; the local police
officer at a high school athletic event -- just everybody keep their
eyes and ears -- be attentive, be on guard, but go about the business
of being America.
Q What is the nature of the threat
now? I mean, you must be getting new information all the
time. Is it worse than it was on Monday? Does it still
expire in a week? As far as I know, the first treat that you
issued never expired, either.
GOVERNOR RIDGE: We know that bin Laden and al Qaeda have
set up terrorist cells around the world. And we know that
both internally and externally there are people who would murder
innocent Americans. And we know that it may be a long time
-- perhaps we'll never be able to identify and detain every single
human being, whether they're located in this country or elsewhere, that
would do us harm. The world has changed since September
11th, everybody has said it, and everybody probably gets tired of
reading it and saying it. But it is a fact, and a reality
that we deal with.
That simply means that as we go about building on what I found to
be a rather extraordinary infrastructure of homeland security when I
first walked into the office, while we go about building out on that --
on those organizations and those people, we enlist America, citizens,
to help us in that effort. So be alert and go about the
business of being Americans.
Q Are we still -- until Monday, or does it
still end on Monday, it's still a week-long threat?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: We're going to keep everybody on the
Monday alert, that attentiveness indefinitely.
END 11:32
A.M. EST
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