Ridge: Homeland security efforts don't threaten personal freedoms

SEATTLE (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge defended the USA Patriot Act at a town hall meeting, saying the government is being careful not to use its post-Sept. 11, 2001, investigative powers to trample on civil liberties.

”Unlike our enemies, we will continue to do everything we can on a day-to-day basis to preserve our freedoms, to protect America,” Ridge said Tuesday. ”We will not give up any freedom in order to secure ourselves. And clearly, I think we can do both.”

About 350 people packed into a ballroom at Seattle University to hear the last of seven panel discussions the nonpartisan Council for Excellence in Government has scheduled across the country since last fall to gather citizens' input on homeland security issues.

The council's president, Patricia McGinnis, encouraged critics of the Patriot Act to take a careful look at the law and suggest ways to improve it, drawing applause when she mentioned it is set to expire.

”Please don't stay on the sidelines and criticize. Get involved. We would love your input on how to get this balance right,” she said.

Ridge and others on the panel said Seattle fits the profile of a city likely to be hit by terrorists, given its dense and diverse population, its busy port and airport and its proximity to the Canadian border.

”The bad news is on the big target, we're at the bull's eye. … If I were on the dark side, rather than the good side, I would look at Seattle as a target,” said A.D. Vickery, assistant chief of operations for the Seattle Fire Department.

Maj. Gen. Timothy J. Lowenberg, head of the Washington National Guard and homeland security adviser to Gov. Gary Locke, said the agencies working on homeland security remain vigilant to threats facing the entire state.

”We're a central corridor for commercial activity, both domestically and internationally. So yes, Seattle is a target-rich environment, but there are many other targets and interests in the state of Washington,” Lowenberg said.

Scores of people raised their hands when the panel's moderator, public television journalist Frank Sesno, asked how many were concerned about homeland security. Fewer people raised their hands when asked if they worried about terrorism on a daily basis.

”I like the notion that people are concerned about it,” Ridge said. ”I also like the notion that there aren't too many people that are so anxious about it that it disrupts their daily lives.”

One woman in the audience asked what the government expects her to do when it raises its threat-risk level. ”We're not asking you to spy on citizens. We're asking you to be more vigilant,” Ridge said. ”If you see an unattended bag, we want to know about it. Chances are it's benign, but draw it to somebody's attention.”

One man complained he's heard plenty of talk about how the country is vulnerable to terrorism and wants to hear more about why.

”I think it's important to note the people with whom we're concerned the most are a small group of people who the president has said have hijacked a religion,” Ridge said.

At times, the discussion veered to cybersecurity. Ridge applauded Microsoft Corp., which sponsored the event, for the help it has offered the government in its push to make the country's technological infrastructure less vulnerable to attack. ”We need the private sector,” Ridge said. ”They've stepped up. We'll need more from them in the future.”

Microsoft's president, Steve Ballmer, said the company is working to make more of its security patches and other virus protections automatic. He also mentioned software the company has developed to ”blast” emergency information from schools to parents, delivering personalized information in different ways, depending on how parents want to be notified.

Police and fire departments are now better prepared to help school districts, because many have digital layouts of all the campuses in their area, said Delores Gibbons, superintendent of the Renton School District south of Seattle.

The Council for Excellence in Government, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., plans to issue a report on the homeland security town halls in May. Other meetings were in St. Louis, Miami, San Diego, Houston, Boston and Fairfax, Va.

After Tuesday's meeting, Joyce Glasgow, 53, said the discussion focused on ”the symptoms instead of the disease.

”There wouldn't be terrorism,” she said, ”if we knew how to treat people around the world with compassion and empathy.”

On the Net:

Department of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/

Council for Excellence in Government: http://www.excelgov.org/