http://www.boston.com/news/daily/16/anthrax_priority.htm

U.S. identifies bioterrorism as No. 1 priority

By Reuters, 10/16/01

WASHINGTON -- Fighting bioterrorism is the No. 1 priority for the U.S. government now and in the weeks ahead, Tom Ridge, director of the White House Office of Homeland Security, said Tuesday.

Ridge, interviewed by Tom Brokaw on the "NBC Nightly News," said there was not yet "credible evidence" to tie the present anthrax panic to the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington.

"But ... we ought to operate under the presumption that it is," Ridge added.

Asked how seriously the Bush administration was taking the threat of bioterrorism, Ridge replied: "It's the number one priority this week and for the weeks ahead."

In his first interview since taking up the new Cabinet-level post, created after the Sept. 11 attacks, Ridge also revealed that in the future he would be the person to advise President Bush if a hijacked commercial airliner should be shot down if it was a threat.

Ridge, 56, the former governor of Pennsylvania and a close friend of Bush, has a mission to organize a wide-ranging security plan that would coordinate the activities of more than 40 agencies including the FBI, CIA and the Defense Department.

U.S. authorities are on alert for new cases of anthrax, a potentially deadly germ warfare agent, after one man died this month from the rare disease and others have been infected, frightening Americans and people around the world.

Ridge said he also was looking at whether immediate precautions should be taken to head off a smallpox attack that would be devastating to children.

"Obviously that (smallpox) is something that is contagious, unlike anthrax. And we understand that it could potentially be a problem," Ridge told Brokaw, who was the addressee of a letter that contained anthrax.

Ridge said he believed steps should be taken to swiftly build up a supply of smallpox vaccine.

Asked if that meant the United States would start vaccinating children again, Ridge replied: "Well we've got to get the vaccine first."

"And we're going to move aggressively to increase our supply and deal with inoculation as soon as we get the supply," Ridge added.

He said there needed to be a "higher level of security and higher degree of competency" at airport check in areas and believed the federal government should take over their running.

"I think there is a role for the federal government to federalize the secure areas around airports. The baggage, the access to the ramps," Ridge said.

Asked if he would make the call to the president recommending the shooting down of commercial airliners if they were a danger, Ridge replied: "Once I'm staffed up and have immediate access to the kind of information that's out there, I'll be the one making the phone call."

-- Anonymous, October 16, 2001