For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 24, 2004
President's Radio Address
Audio
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week, the independent
commission on the September the 11th attacks issued its final report.
I appreciate the hard work of the commission over the past 20 months.
They have produced a serious and comprehensive report, and I welcome
their recommendations.
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Indeed, we have already put into action many of the steps now
recommended by the commission, and we will carefully examine all the
commission's ideas on how we can improve our ongoing efforts to protect
America and to prevent another attack.
The events of September the 11th, 2001, dramatically demonstrated
the threats of a new era. In the nearly three years since the attacks,
we have waged a steady, relentless, determined war on terrorists.
We're fighting them in foreign lands so we do not have to face them
here in America, and we are taking unprecedented steps to defend the
homeland. Since September 2001, America and our allies have captured
or killed thousands of terrorists, removed terrorist regimes in
Afghanistan and Iraq, convinced Libya to give up its weapons of mass
destruction, and put the world's most dangerous nuclear trading network
out of business. We're chasing down terrorist enemies abroad, and
within our own borders.
On the home front, we have dismantled terrorist cells and
prosecuted terrorist supporters from California, to Florida, to
Massachusetts. As the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Tom Kean, said
this week, we are safer today than we were on 9/11. But as Governor
Kean also noted, the danger to America has not passed. In a vast, free
society such as ours, there is no such thing as perfect security. And
no matter how good our defenses are, a determined enemy can still
strike us. Yet all Americans can be certain our government is using
every resource and technological advantage we have to prevent future
attacks.
We have created a new Department of Homeland Security with a single
mission -- protecting the American people. We have established better
communications networks to make information on rapidly emerging threats
available to local officials in real-time. We are transforming the FBI
into an agency whose primary focus is stopping terrorism. And we
created a new Northern Command in the Department of Defense with the
mission of defending the American homeland. To better protect the
country, we have posted Homeland Security personnel at foreign ports,
beefed up airport and seaport security at home, and instituted better
visa screening for those entering our country. We have placed state of
the art equipment in major cities to detect biological agents, and
stockpiled enough small pox vaccine for every American in case of an
emergency. And this week, I signed a new law establishing Project
BioShield, which will speed the development of new vaccines and
treatments against biological agents that could be used in a terrorist
attack.
On Thursday, I visited with first responders at the Northeastern
Illinois Public Safety Training Academy. I thanked them for their
service and assured them that America will give them the tools they
need to do their jobs. Since September of 2001, my administration has
provided more than $13 billion to equip and train more than half a
million first responders across America. There's still more to do. As
Commander-in-Chief, it is critical that I receive the best intelligence
to defend the American people. The 9/11 Commission's recommendations
will help guide our efforts as we work to protect the homeland. And we
can be confident, although the threats of this new century are
dangerous, America has the resources, the strength, and the resolve to
overcome them.
Thank you for listening.
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