The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, December 01, 2004, Page 6, Image 6
■ SEATS
Continued from page 1
everyone.”
Although Mooty hasn’t had many
scheduling conflicts with
undergraduates who want to
participate in student senate,
Alabama’s student government offers
flexible, but mandatory, office hours,
where in addition to attending the
weekly meetings senators must spend
two hours in the student government
office or their respective colleges.
“We try to make it as convenient as
possible to get them committed. I
■
would say it is not too much of a time
burden,” Mooty said.
With elections every February and
inaugurations every March, time might
not be something that USC’s student
senate has in which to fill the vacancies.
“I don’t ever think anything is too
late because as we raise awareness,
develop relationships, and create
interest with these students, of course
you will have more people,” Miller
said. “There is not a lot of the term
left, but I think the addition of these
senators would be wonderful.”
Comments an this story? E-mail
gamecocknews@gurm.sc. edu
A- .1
Ridge steps down as homeland security secretary
By KATHERINE PFLEGER
SHRADER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Tom Ridge, the
nation’s first homeland security secretary,
announced Tuesday that he is resigning
after three years of reworking American
security and presiding over color-coded
terror alerts. He’s the seventh Bush
Cabinet officer leaving so far.
Ridge oversaw the most significant
government reorganization in 50 years.
He’ll be remembered for his terror alerts
and tutorials about how to prepare for
possible attacks, including the
controversial “disaster kits” that caused
last year’s run on duct tape and plastic
sheeting.
Amid warnings that the country may
face increased terror risks around the
holidays and the Jan. 20 presidential
inauguration. Ridge said he will remain
on the job through Feb. 1, unless his
replacement is installed sooner.
Ridge acknowledged he could not
prove the costly and complex security
measures that have been put in place
have foiled any terrorist attacks inside
the United States, but he said the
country is safer today than before the
suicide hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001,
killed nearly 3,000 people in New York,
Washington and Pennsylvania.
“I am confident that the terrorists are
aware that from the curb to the cockpit
we’ve got additional security measures that
didn’t exist a couple years ago,” Ridge told
reporters at the department’s Washington
campus, which he helped create.
“His efforts have resulted in safer
skies, increased border and port security
and enhanced measures to safeguard our
critical infrastructure and the American
public,” Bush said in a prepared
statement Tuesday evening.
Ridge sent his letter of resignation to
President Bush at midday Tuesday, after
attending a morning White House threat
briefing with CIA and FBI officials. The
former Pennsylvania governor thanked
Bush for giving him the opportunity to
fight back against terrorists. He recalled
that the passengers on Flight 93 who
forced their hijacked plane down in a
Pennsylvania field had also fought back.
“There will always be more to do, but
today, America is significantly stronger
and safer than ever before,” Ridge wrote
Bush.
Ridge is the seventh of Bush’s 15
member Cabinet to announce they won’t
be pan of the second term. More are
expected, and administration officials say
Health and Human Services Secretary
Tommy Thompson appears to be next.
Among those mentioned as possible
candidates to replace Ridge are Bernard
Kerik, the former New York City police
commissioner who helped rebuild Iraq’s
police force; former Federal Emergency
Management Agency Director Joe
Allbaugh; Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt; and
White House homeland security adviser
Fran Townsend.
Others are also believed to be
interested in the job, including Asa
Hutchinson, undersecretary for border
and transportation security in the
Homeland Security Department.
Ridge leaves behind a department
that’s still learning to work together.
Culled from 22 often disparate federal
agencies, the 180,000-employee
organization still faces criticism over
aspects of its massive government
merger, including the coordination of
finances to computers systems.
Ridge, consistently a defender of the
department, stood by its efforts to warn
the public of possible terror threats,
saying it preferred to disclose more
information than some officials believed
was wise.
“That’s something we take pride in,”
Ridge said. “America is prepared to deal
with the reality of the post-9/11 world.
It’s in our best long-term interest to
share more information about the threat
to America rather than less.”
Ridge, who is married with two
children, said that for the future he
intends to “raise some family and personal
matters to a higher priority,” including
attending his son’s rugby games.
In an e-mail circulated to Homeland
Security officials, Ridge praised the
department as “an extraordinary
organization that each day contributes
to keeping America safe and free.”
In October 2001, Ridge became the
nation’s first White House homeland
security adviser, leading a massive
undertaking to rethink all aspects of
security within the U.S. borders in the
wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Congress subsequently passed
legislation establishing the Homeland
Security Department, with Ridge taking
over as the department’s first secretary in
January 2003.
He has presided over six national
orange alerts _ second highest on the
five-color scale when the government
boosted security out of concern that an
attack may be coming.
Yet Ridge, a politician by nature
fought criticism leading up to the election
from those who said he was using terror
warnings to boost support for Bush. Ridge
repeatedly said: “We don’t do politics in
the Department of Homeland Security.'
Ridge, who has spent 22 years in
public service, came home from
Vietnam, earned a law degree and went
into private practice in Pennsylvania. He
ran for Congress in 1982 and was re
elected five times.
He became the Pennsylvania
governor in 1995, leaving the state —
capital in October 2001 after the White
House called.
The six other Bush Cabinet figures
who are leaving are Attorney General
John Ashcroft, Commerce Secretary
Donald Evans, Education Secretary Rod
Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann
Veneman, Secretary of State Colin Powell
and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
Bush has chosen national securin’
adviser Condoleezza Rice for the State
Department, White House counsel
Alberto Gonzales for the Justice
Department, Carlos Gutierrez for
Commerce and Margaret Spellings for
Education.
Associated Press writer Ted Bridis
contributed to this report.
Ridge resigns I
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge,
who presided over six “orange alerts,”
announced his resignation Tuesday.
Risk of terrorist attack
March 12 - Color-coded
threat level begins Oran9®
Yellow “elevated"
2001 2002 2003 2004
October - Ridge was sworn in as the nation’s 4
first White House homeland security adviser
NOTE: 2004 orange alert was for select financial institutions in
York, northern New Jersey and Washington, D.C. only
6
SOURCE: Department of Homeland Security AP
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