CNN news 2010-01-01 加文本

2010-01-01 cnn

KING: We welcome to "Larry King Live." Good to have him back, former Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge. He was the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2001 to 2003. He's President and CEO of Ridge Global and author of the book "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege and How We Can Be Safe Again." Tom was telling me during the break kind of an ironic story. Want to repeat it, Tom?

TOM RIDGE, FORMER SECRETARY OF HOMELAD SECURITY: Well, Larry, a friend of mine actually who worked with me in the White House called me on December 22nd and reminded me that this past year that December 22nd, 2001 is the Richard Reid attempt. Remember the shoe bomber and part of the explosive material he had tried to detonate at that time was the same material that this terrorist used as well. Interesting eight years – at last…

KING: What's your reaction to the president's statement today?

RIDGE: Well, I think he's spot on with regard to beefing up security protocols and the watch list. I think one of the more interesting observations that folks haven't made and I know Secretary Napolitano obviously clarified her statement today.

But I can tell you as first Secretary of Homeland Security, we were only a consumer of information and we really didn't generate it. You can only act on those things that you know, and the question remains in my mind what was the e-mail or what was the communication from the department of state -- from the counselor's office to the terrorist screening center.

The Department of Homeland Security doesn't run the TSA. That's the Department of Justice and the FBI. So there's a shared responsibility to keep us safe, but there's also shared accountability. When the president says we need to take a look at the watch list, I think he's on to something.

What is the mentality, what's the culture, what are we going to do to make sure that more information, particularly those that kind of information that sends warning signals out, gets to the people who can act on it. Whether you're in the battlefield or in Iraq or Afghanistan or you're a screener in an airport, you need actionable information. And I'm not sure this information was in the hands of…