Security czar sworn in, begins daunting work

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — In a windowless space 10 paces from the Oval Office, Tom Ridge reported for duty Monday at the new Office of Homeland Security. His assignment: figure out where America is vulnerable to terrorist attack and try to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

"The task before us is difficult, but not impossible," said Ridge, 56, who resigned as Pennsylvania governor just three days earlier to accept the daunting challenge laid out by President Bush.

In an executive order, the president instructed Ridge to bring all federal, state and local agencies together in drawing up a plan "to detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from terrorist attacks within the United States."

The six-year governor and former six-term congressman began work on the second day of U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan. That operation will likely spark terrorist reprisals, according to intelligence community warnings.

As if to underscore that threat, Vice President Dick Cheney remained at a secret location and left Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to administer Ridge’s oath.

Ridge will not have an automatic seat in the president’s daily intelligence and National Security Council briefings, but will be invited in on an "as required" basis, said press secretary Ari Fleischer.

Ridge will set the agenda for a new Homeland Security Council — a domestic version of the National Security Council — that includes the secretaries of Treasury, Defense, Transportation, and Health and Human Services; and the directors of the CIA, FBI and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Likening his mission to construction of the transcontinental railroad and putting a man on the moon, Ridge said it will take patience. He quoted the Army Corps of Engineers motto: "The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer."