April 19, 2004
By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government believes it is vulnerable to a terror attack during several key events and holidays in 2004, and has launched a plan to beef up security, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said.

"Between now and the balance of the year there are quite a few high profile events," Ridge said in an interview on Sunday to preview comments he will make in a speech on Monday.

"Terrorists strike at elements of open societies and we are rich with opportunities this year for terrorists to shake our world," said Ridge, whose department is charged with trying to prevent another day like Sept. 11, 2001 when hijacked airline attacks left about 3,000 people dead.

Events viewed by the government as potential targets for an attack include national holidays like Memorial Day and Fourth of July, the G-8 summit in June, the Republican and Democratic party conventions this summer and the November presidential election.


"NUMBER ONE TARGET"

"We know we're the number one target; we know we've got quite a few high visibility, high profile events which are potentially targets of opportunity for terrorists," Ridge said in a joint interview with Reuters and the Associated Press.

"Those are also opportunities for us to tighten our own security, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

Other U.S. officials have also said the United States was vulnerable to attack. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said in a television interview on Sunday that terrorists might try to take advantage of the November election.

"I think we also have to take seriously that they might try during the cycle leading up to the election to do something," Rice said. "In some ways, it seems like it would be too good to pass up for them, and so we are actively ... trying to make certain that we are responding appropriately."

To respond, Ridge said Homeland Security is setting up an inter-agency working group with seven other cabinet agencies to set up a plan to boost security on potential targets and infrastructure like aviation, trains and chemical plants.


"300 CHEMICAL SITES"

The other departments involved in the working group include the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Defense Department, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Transportation and the Department of the Interior.

Ridge said the group would work with the states and the private sector to keep private infrastructure secure.

"For example, we have targeted over 300 chemical sites," Ridge said to explain what types of infrastructure would be targeted for boosted security.

"We will get (identification) of the sites to governors and to the companies, and have first responders go to the companies to make sure they put in these basic levels of protection."

Ridge said there were no plans to raise the nation's terror alert level from its current level of "yellow" or "elevated" to the second highest level of "orange" or "high."

"There is no specific threat information, but we don't need to raise the level of threat to raise the level of security," Ridge said.

"The message is that Homeland Security doesn't wait to raise the threat level in order to make us safer and more secure. Our business is to make us safer and more secure every day. We are going to be using the inter agency working group to promote that," he said.

Ridge will announce plans to create the working group to address the upcoming threats in a speech in Las Vegas Monday.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20040419_38.html