Ridge leaves post as chief of security

WASHINGTON – Declaring that the United States has become a much harder target for terrorists to strike, Tom Ridge announced his resignation Tuesday after nearly two years as the nation’s first Homeland Security secretary.

A former governor of Pennsylvania and a decorated combat veteran of Vietnam, Ridge said he wanted to spend more time with his children after two decades in public service. Ridge, 59, has a daughter in college and a son in high school. He is the seventh member of the 15-member Cabinet to announce his resignation since President Bush’s re-election.

Among possible successors to Ridge are Asa Hutchinson, the department’s undersecretary for border and transportation security, and White House adviser Frances Townsend. Another possibility is Raymond W. Kelly, the New York City police commissioner who was U.S. Customs commissioner in the Clinton administration.

Ridge took on a gargantuan task in building the Department of Homeland Security after it was created by Congress in late 2002, a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The job required him to meld 22 agencies with vastly different missions and levels of effectiveness into a cohesive and responsive network.

His portfolio includes responsibility for immigration and airport security, as well as rescuing mariners in distress and tracking down counterfeit currency. Overseeing a $32 billion budget and 180,000 employees, he achieved mixed results.

“Somebody had to take on the job of trying to put this whole thing together, and I think he did a reasonably good job,” said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank.

“But my biggest concern is that there never seems to have come out of DHS any real priority-setting for where we could get the most bang for the buck in security spending,” he added.

As a result, national priorities remain skewed, Poole said. Billions have been spent to secure airports, while other transit systems received only tens of millions. Wyoming gets more federal homeland security aid on a per capita basis than does California.

“While Ridge has performed admirably in a near-impossible job, the nature of that job has, in effect, diminished his star a bit,” said political analyst Charlie Cook.

Ridge’s tenure includes significant accomplishments, but he will also leave his successor some festering problems.

On the whole, aviation and border security have improved noticeably under Ridge, and port security enhancements are taking root.

Emergency communication between the federal government and its state and local counterparts is much better, as is coordination with critical industries, such as railroads and nuclear power.

“I am confident that the terrorists are aware that from the curb to the cockpit, we’ve got additional (airport) security measures that didn’t exist a couple of years ago,” Ridge said. “I’m confident they know that the borders are more secure. … I’m also confident that, based on what detainees have told us, that if you increase your security and your vigilance, that’s a deterrent.”

Ridge also cultivated a close relationship with Mexico, at times taking a more visible role than did Secretary of State Colin Powell. He also aimed to ease the concerns of immigrants who feared a general backlash against foreigners as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Nonetheless, some security loopholes remain. And the department faces challenges in managing complex new technologies and discontent within some of its units.

Transit systems, a target of terrorists around the world, have received relatively little federal attention in the United States. Even at airports, passengers are not routinely screened for explosives on their persons or in their carry-on items, although checked luggage is.

Several technology procurements could run over budget and fail to meet lofty expectations. Among them is US-VISIT, a digital fingerprinting and photography system designed to check foreign visitors against security watch lists.

Ridge may be best known to the public for the government’s system of color-coded threat alerts, another source of controversy. He raised and lowered the national threat level five times. Eventually, local and state officials began to complain that the warnings were too vague and caused them to waste scarce resources on unneeded security.