REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE NORMAN Y. MINETA
U.S.
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
ARAB COMMUNITY CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SERVICES
GALA
DINNER
COBO HALL CONFERENCE CENTER
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
APRIL 20, 2002
Good evening, and thank you for that very warm introduction. It’s wonderful to be here with all of you this evening, and I am proud to bring you greetings from President Bush and Vice President Cheney, along with their best wishes for the event this evening.
Under the leadership of Ish Ahmed, the Board of Directors and the staff of the ACCESS have built this organization into a pre-eminent social service agency for the Arab American community, one that serves as a model for similar agencies around the country.
The Arab American community, along with the entire nation, has been faced with an unbelievable challenge in recent months. Thankfully, with commitment from our citizens, from the Congress, and from the Administration, the nation is rising to meet that challenge.
Tonight, I would like to tell you about some of the things that we are doing to fight terrorism, and specifically the steps we are taking to provide Americans with a secure transportation system that both ensures mobility, and helps achieve economic growth.
It has been just over seven months since that fateful day on the 11th of September. And I will always be proud of the way that our nation responded to those attacks.
On September 11, I took the unprecedented step of ordering the Federal Aviation Administration to shut down the civil and commercial aviation system -- and to land every aircraft at the nearest airport as soon as possible.
With that single call, air traffic controllers, pilots, and flight attendants worked together -- and in an amazing achievement -- safely landed thousands of aircraft and saved other tragedies from occurring.
Since that day of decision and heroism, every person on President Bush’s team has been focused on fighting this war abroad and here at home.
At the Department of Transportation our mission has included bringing the air system back up and literally working day and night to develop a security system that prevents terrorists and other criminals from using our aviation system again to kill or injure Americans.
In less than six months, we have made airplanes safer, increased our federal air marshal force, restricted flights over high-risk areas, and improved the screening of passengers and baggage at 429 commercial aviation airports in this country.
The President has worked with a bipartisan force in Congress to create the Transportation Security Agency, and we have hired the former Director of the Secret Service -- a renowned counter terrorism expert -- to head it.
In an effort not seen since World War II’s “dollar-a-year men,” we have brought volunteers from American industry to help design an aviation security system that provides world-class security with world-class customer service.
Across the Nation, we are now swearing-in the first Federal Security Directors -- each of whom will run security operations at major airports. So far, these individuals include big-city police chiefs, a retired admiral who commanded an aircraft carrier, a Marine Corps general, a Coast Guard admiral, and career Secret Service agents -- all of whom have answered the call to build the safe and secure aviation system that the country deserves.
Within fourteen months of the September 11th’ attack, we will have a security network of trained law enforcement officers, new detection technologies, and an unprecedented number of federal air marshals flying in planes that have been made safer.
In addition to these advances we are developing security procedures that are designed with three goals in mind -- to keep Americans safe and secure, to keep them mobile, and to help keep our economy growing.
All Americans have a stake in our success. And as a nation, we are continuing to debate what steps must be taken to ensure that success.
I would like to spend some time tonight talking about one such step that some have proposed -- large-scale profiling based solely on race -- and why I believe it falls short of the mark in guaranteeing our national security.
There are times when race and ethnicity are relevant to law enforcement -- for instance, when we have information that a crime is being planned or has been committed and among the specifics we know about the suspects are their race.
But there is a firm distinction between that situation, and one where a law enforcement officer is willing to assume, based on no reason other than race alone, that a particular person is likely to be a criminal -- or a terrorist.
As you are so very well aware, some commentators have been critical that the Administration has not engaged in large-scale racial profiling at airports in the wake of September 11. The criticisms they have raised are often based on misperceptions of the steps we are taking. Unfortunately, one of the problems I face in correcting these misperceptions is that, for security reasons, there are some details we cannot publicly discuss or disclose.
But there are some responses that can be made, and I would like to take the opportunity tonight to do so.
Those who have advocated a policy of routine profiling based exclusively on race generally raise three arguments:
First, they argue that because the September 11th terrorists were all young men of Arab ancestry, a system that singles out young men who look like Arabs is an effective way to stop the next attack.
Secondly, they argue that time spent searching people in other population groups is a waste of time. For example, they ask, how could a baby or a grandmother be a security risk?
And thirdly, they argue that random searches should be eliminated because they are indiscriminate and a waste of time. Those who make this point apparently believe that most or all of our searches are random. In fact, only a small proportion fall into that category.
The aviation security system in place today is a multi-layered one that incorporates examination of every single airline passenger, and then extra scrutiny for some.
It requires searches of every person and every carry-on bag passing through an airport security checkpoint.
It includes additional searches triggered by a classified computer-assisted passenger pre-screening system, by suspicious behavior observed by security personnel, and by some random selections.
The critical question is what criteria should we use in making selections for these additional searches.
The criteria we use are undergoing constant revision to meet current threat conditions, and current intelligence and law enforcement information.
There may be times when that information gives us knowledge concerning a possible crime or a threat to our national security.
But we are very clear on one point -- routinely pulling passengers out of line and subjecting them to searches need not, and should not, be done on the basis of race. Establishing such a policy would be counterproductive to our efforts to build a solid basis for aviation security.
This is not a knee-jerk response. It is based on the nature of the national security threat we face, and on the realities of managing a security screening system in aviation facilities across the Nation.
It is very tempting to take false comfort in the belief that we can spot the bad guy based on appearance alone. Some are yielding to that temptation in their arguments for racial profiling, but false comfort is a luxury we cannot afford.
It is true that each of the hijackers involved in the September 11th hijackings had some characteristics in common -- they were all young men of Arab ancestry.
But we cannot, we must not, and we will not assume that all future terrorists will fit that particular profile. Without more information, we simply cannot tell -- and it certainly has not been true in the past.
Let me give you some examples:
In 1986, a 32-year-old Irish woman, pregnant at the time, was about to board an El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv when El Al security agents discovered an explosive device hidden in the false bottom of her bag. The woman’s boyfriend – the father of her unborn child – had hidden the bomb.
In 1987, a 70-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman – neither of whom were Middle Eastern – posed as father and daughter and brought a bomb aboard a Korean Air flight from Baghdad to Thailand. En route to Bangkok, the bomb exploded, killing all on board.
In 1999, men dressed as businessmen (and one dressed as a Catholic priest) turned out to be terrorist hijackers, who forced an Avianca flight to divert to an airstrip in Colombia, where some passengers were held as hostages for more than a year-and-half.
Time permits me to cite only these few examples; there are many more.
So, how do we stop the terrorist – say one recruited from Chechnya – who is disguised as a priest if we are wasting our time on an unworkable profile of thousands of travelers who look a certain way?
There is no universal racial, age or gender profile for terrorism -- and we cannot pretend that there is. As President Bush has already noted, more than 60 nations are hostile to the United States.
We must be alert for threats to our national security -- from whatever population group they might emerge.
Even if we were to assume that all young Arab men -- or all young men who practiced Islam -- were potential terrorists, a directive to our security personnel to focus solely on people with those characteristics would inevitably fail.
First, it would assume that persons of Arab ancestry could be identified simply by their facial features. In fact, the diversity of the Arab world makes this impossible. Ultimately, anyone of Mediterranean or African ancestry would have to be separated out.
Second, it would send a signal to our security personnel that their efforts should be concentrated on people with certain physical features. Such an operation would generate so many “false positives” that it would seriously hamper screeners in making the behavioral observations they need to make.
Most importantly, it would tell our enemies that extra security could be avoided simply by sending people who don’t look like the stereotype that our security system was using.
Look at Timothy McVeigh, Richard Colvin Reid and John Walker Lindh -- as law enforcement agencies around the globe gain greater success in identifying and detaining potential terrorists, using the least likely suspect becomes the most likely tactic for future attacks.
Racial profiling, or as it might be called, “facial profiling,” cannot provide us with the security that we need.
Some advocates of racial profiling have also focused their attention on what they consider unnecessary searches of people who appear to be innocent -- elderly women, pregnant women, people traveling with children, priests, or even politicians.
Why subject a gray-haired grandmother to extra security screening? Because terrorists do not always look like today’s prevailing stereotype. And, because one does not have to look like a stereotypical terrorist to be used by terrorists.
If a grandmother has been pulled aside by airport security, it is almost certainly because she has been selected for a random search.
For security reasons, I can’t tell you what percentage of our searches are random, but I can tell you those random searches are essential. No matter what aviation security system we use, we always add a layer of random searches and we always will.
We do this first because introducing a random element into our security pre-screening system makes it more difficult to figure out how that system operates.
And, along with the possibility of a random search at a security checkpoint, it sends a signal that -- even if you think you’ve beaten the system -- this still does not guarantee you won’t be pulled aside.
I know it is an inconvenience, but taking any group of people and leaving them out would -- by definition -- remove the random element from the system. Along with the security benefits it brings.
Equally importantly, it would make that protected group of people, like somebody’s grandparents, a prime target for anyone trying to smuggle an item on board in someone else’s carry on luggage.
We are hard at work on security tools that will significantly diminish – but not eliminate – the current amount of random wanding at departure gates.
In addressing the range and the scope of the threats we face, we cannot rely exclusively on race or age or gender. We need other, credible, current information. We know this from cold, hard experience.
Terrorism has a chameleon’s face. And it will use people in whatever way it can to achieve its goals.
My good friend, Congressman Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, a 29-year veteran of Congress and a long-time advocate for our nation’s transportation system, summed it up best when he said, “Now we know that terrorists are capable of anything. They will use old women and children as bomb carriers if we let them. Our vigilance has to match their ruthlessness.” And our vigilance will match them.
Make no mistake, our aviation security system does regularly profile passengers -- it examines every single one. But it conducts that examination on the basis of many relevant factors, including what a person does, what we know about that person, and what information we know about a potential crime or threat to national security.
The details of the computer assisted passenger pre-screening system we use to identify possible security risks are not publicly disclosed -- and cannot be publicly disclosed if those factors are still to be useful.
What I can say is that we focus mainly on behavior. We look at travel patterns. We look at a person’s citizenship. We look at how much information we have on a particular passenger and information we have about particular national security threats -- an extensive list of other factors.
Our aviation security system is now in the hands of the new Transportation Security Administration, led by Under Secretary John Magaw. Our overall security system will always ensure that there are several lines of defense against a threat -- never just one.
The computer pre-screening selection system will continue to undergo constant refinement.
The TSA will train new federal screeners to identify threats, to respond to current threat alerts, and to engage other elements of the security system whenever needed.
And we will constantly work to ensure that every possible threat is met -- and countered -- across all modes of transportation.
Will this system be perfect? No. No system operated by human beings can ever achieve perfection.
Focusing solely on race might give some Americans a false sense of security. But make no mistake about it, that sense of security would be false. It would simultaneously cast so wide a net as to ensnare far too many innocent people, and so narrow a net as to miss the mark.
A policy based on the belief that terrorists can be identified by their race or religion without more information would be utterly flawed. An unflinching security analysis shows that it would not only be useless, but actively counterproductive.
To assume that skin color and character can be equated would be wrong. It would not only violate our most basic principles, it would send our transportation security system down a blind alley -- and away from the real threats which it must face and overcome.
Our fellow Americans know that we live in a dangerous world, and that we are confronted by an unprecedented threat. They expect us to take every step possible to meet that threat, and ensure their safety and security. And I assure you that we will.
Today, our aviation security system is better than it was yesterday. And, tomorrow it will be better than today.
President Bush has given us a clear mission. He has asked outstanding individuals like John Magaw to join in fulfilling the mission. American industry has stepped forward with their talent and resources. And polls show that the majority of Americans know that when it comes to air travel – patience is patriotism.
In all my time of public service – over thirty years – the dangers to our homeland have never been more clear and present.
I am honored that President Bush has given me the opportunity to help in the fight against these threats -- and I will always be grateful for the leadership he has shown in this crisis.
When a Sikh American was murdered in a violent crime of hate, he called Sikh leaders together at the White House to condemn that act and promise a swift response.
And just six days after the September 11 attacks, the President visited the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C. where he sent a clear message to the Nation and to the world:
We know who our enemies are – a violent band of extremists who would twist the Islamic faith into a justification for terror.
And we know who our enemies are not – the millions of Arab Americans of all faiths who call this country home, and the hundreds of millions of true followers of Islam around the world.
The President’s message is a clear one: we will not allow this crisis to divide us as Americans.
From my own life I can tell you – it has not always been this way.
I am honored to be part of an Administration that understands the fundamental truth that all of us, regardless of race or religion, are equally entitled to call ourselves Americans.
Again, on behalf of the President and the Vice President, congratulations on thirty one years of outstanding service to your community.
Thank you for inviting me here this evening. It’s good to be with you all, God bless ACCESS, and God bless America.
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