    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
    [February 5, 2002]
    [Pages 174-179]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh
    February 5, 2002

        Thank you very much. Thanks for that warm welcome. It's great to be
    back in Pittsburgh. Never did I think I'd come back and say, ``America
    is under attack.'' Never did I dream I'd come back to this beautiful
    city and say, ``We've got to be on alert.'' But here I am, and that's
    what I'm saying.
        I walk in the Oval Office every morning--and by the way, walking in
    the Oval Office is a fabulous experience. [Laughter] It's unimaginable.
    I can't tell you what an honor it is. It is--it's great. It is a
    beautiful office. I get there early in the morning. Spot, the dog, goes
    with me. [Laughter] I don't let Barney go. Got a brand new rug, so he
    doesn't get to go. [Laughter]
        But I sit at this magnificent desk. It's a desk that was used by
    President Roosevelt, President Kennedy, and President Reagan. And I read
    threats to the United States of America. Every morning, I'm reminded
    that my most important job is to

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    make our country secure, is to protect the homeland of the United States
    of America. And that's what I want to talk to you all about today, how
    best to protect the homeland.
        The best way to start to do so is to pick a good general, somebody
    who knows how to organize, somebody who's tough, somebody who's smart,
    and somebody who can articulate the issues we face. And I found a good
    one right here in Pennsylvania in your former Governor.
        I've also got a great team, a wonderful team of Americans who are
    there to serve something greater than their own self-interests. Not only
    do I have a great foreign policy team, I've got a wonderful domestic
    policy team. And one of the key members of that team is a former
    Governor, friend of mine, who is doing a fabulous job, and that's Tommy
    Thompson of Health and Human Services.
        I'm sorry your current Governor couldn't
    be here, but he's giving his budget address. I completely understand why
    he's not here. But I also want to thank him publicly for his work in
    coordinating the antiterrorist activities of the State of Pennsylvania--
    the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with the Federal Government. He's doing
    a fine job, and you need to be proud of his efforts and his desire to
    make Pennsylvania as safe a place as possible.
        I also want to thank two Members of the United States Congress who
    are here: one Democrat, Mike Doyle; one
    Republican, Melissa Hart. The reason I bring
    them up with their party affiliations is there is no difference, as far
    as I can tell, in Washington, DC, about love for country. You don't have
    to be a Republican to love the country or a Democrat to love the
    country. We all love our country. And one of the healthy things that I
    think is beginning to happen in Washington, DC, is we're beginning to
    recognize that it's time to put aside partisan differences and focus on
    what's best for America and do what's right for our citizens. So I want
    to welcome you both here. Thank you.
        I also want to thank those who have briefed us on some of the
    innovative work that is going on here at the University of Pittsburgh as
    well as with Carnegie Mellon, Mike Wagner
    and Andrew Moore. They gave us a fascinating
    presentation of a program I'm going to explain briefly in a second.
        I appreciate D.A. Henderson, the Director of the Office of Public Health
    Preparedness, who's traveled from Washington with us. D.A., where are
    you? Thank you for coming, D.A. D.A.'s got a big job. His job is to take
    some of the interesting things that have been developed in places such
    as Pittsburgh and make sure they're duplicated around the country, make
    sure others go to school on what you've done at this school, so that
    America is safe as it can possibly be.
        I also want to welcome Tony Fauci here
    of the NIH. Tony, thank you for coming. Tony does a fabulous job at the
    NIH. He represents a very important part of the research and development
    arm of the United States. We've significantly boosted the NIH budget,
    not only to help fight the war against terror but also to help fight the
    war against disease. And I'm proud of the efforts of our NIH folks, and
    thanks for coming, Tony.
        I want to thank Mark Nordenberg for
    letting us come. It kind of strains the resources when the President
    shows up, I fully understand. But thanks, Mark, for letting us use your
    beautiful campus. And Jared Cohon as well,
    from Carnegie Mellon, thank you for greeting us and briefing us today.
    And Arthur Levine, I want to thank you as
    well. You did a fine job of explaining what's going on. And I look
    forward to kind of sharing some of that with the American people.
        Homeland defense takes many forms. One, of course, is to secure our
    borders, to make sure we understand who's coming in and out of our
    country. Part of making

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    sure America's safe is to have as good information as possible about
    what takes place in our ports of entry. That's why I spent a little time
    in Maine the other day, talking about how we're going to boost the
    presence of the Coast Guard, for example, to make sure our border and
    our homeland is secure as possible.
        Part of having a secure homeland is to have a good airport system
    that's safe for people to travel, an airport system that is inspecting
    bags by inspectors who are qualified to inspect bags. Part of a homeland
    defense is to have good intelligence sharing between the Federal, the
    State, and the local level. Part of homeland security is to have a
    first-responders mechanism that's modern and current. And part of
    homeland security is to be prepared to fight any kind of war against
    bioterror, and that's what I want to spend some time talking about
    today.
        Some of us remember that back in the fifties we had what was called
    the DEW line on the Arctic Circle, to warn us if enemy bombers were
    coming over the North Pole to attack America. Well, here in Pittsburgh,
    I had the honor of seeing a demonstration of the modern DEW line, a
    real-time outbreak and disease surveillance system, developed right
    here, which is one of the country's leading centers on monitoring
    biological threats.
        What we saw was how to take real data on a real-time basis to
    determine if there was a outbreak of any kind, including a terrorist
    attack. The best way to protect the homeland is to understand what's
    taking place on the homeland, so we can respond. And so the modern-day
    DEW line, to me, was fascinating. And I appreciate those who have worked
    so hard to come up with a incredibly useful tool for America, a useful
    tool to protect ourselves.
        I also appreciate the fact that the University of Pittsburgh and
    Carnegie Mellon Institute launched what's called a biomedical security
    institute to help protect the Nation in all ways from the insidious
    biological attack.
        You know, I've come to realize, having spent some time in Pittsburgh
    and particularly after hearing the briefings today, that while
    Pittsburgh used to be called ``Steel Town,'' you need to call it
    ``Knowledge Town.'' There's a lot of smart people in this town, and I'm
    proud to report to my fellow citizens, they're working in a way to make
    America safe.
        A lot of the money, obviously, comes from the State Government, and
    for that we are grateful. But the Federal Government has a role to play,
    as well. I'm proud to say the Department of Defense, the Centers for
    Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human
    Services all provide financial support to the Biomedical Security
    Institute. But as you can tell from reading the newspapers and tell from
    my--hopefully, if you listened to my State of the Union Address, I have
    made the homeland security a top budget priority. And I ask Congress to
    respond in a positive way to this request.
        For example, we're asking for $1.6 billion. This is additional money
    for State and local governments to help hospitals and others improve
    their ability to cope with any bioterror attack. One, it's important to
    be able to recognize what's happening, and secondly, we've got to
    respond, respond in a modern way, a way that will help the American
    people survive any attack if it were to come. I want to make sure that
    each region around the country has the proper equipment and the right
    amount of medicine for the victims of any attack, should it occur.
        We've got to upgrade our communications, not only between the
    Federal Government and the State government but between State
    governments and local communities and between counties and local
    jurisdictions. We've got to be able to talk to each other better, so
    that there's real-time communications, so that we can share information
    in a crisis. Information sharing will

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    help save lives. And so part of the money is to bring our systems up to
    speed, to make them more modern and more responsive.
        The budget also adds $2.4 billion to develop new test protocols and
    new treatments for bioterror weapons. We were able to save lives during
    the anthrax outbreak, but some infections were identified too late, and
    some people were too badly infected to save. We must do everything in
    our power, everything to protect our fellow Americans. We need better
    testing, better vaccines, and better drugs if America is going to be as
    safe as it can possibly be.
        And there's some hopeful news. Scientists tell us that research we
    do to fight bioterrorism is likely to deliver great new advances in the
    treatment of many other diseases, such as tuberculosis, pneumonia,
    malaria, and HIV/AIDS. The monies we spend to protect America today are
    likely to yield long-term benefits, are likely to provide some
    incredible cures to diseases that many years ago never thought would be
    cured. It's an investment that will pay off not only for better security
    but for better health. And I ask Congress to support me on spending this
    money.
        We're also going to expand our Nation's stockpile of antibiotics and
    vaccines. We're going to have more of these important antibiotics and
    vaccines readily available. By the end of the current fiscal year, we'll
    have enough antibiotics on hand to treat up to 20 million people for
    anthrax, plague, and other bioterrorist diseases. We're preparing for
    the worst. We'll provide funds to States to make sure they can
    distribute medicines swiftly.
        And we're also going to expand our bioterror intelligence service.
    During the Korean war, we created what was called an Epidemic
    Intelligence Service to help defend America if any of our cold war
    enemies tried to use bioweapons against us. Now we need to adapt the EIS
    to a new era and to a new mission. We'll make the commitment to expand
    and modernize the service and to work with scientists in this country
    and friendly nations around the world.
        All in all, my budget will commit almost $6 billion to defend
    ourselves against bioterrorism--as Tom
    mentioned, an increase of over 300 percent. It's money that we've got to
    spend. It's money that will have a good impact on the country. It's
    money that will enable me to say that we're doing everything we can to
    protect America at home.
        But I want to remind you all, the surest way to protect America at
    home is to find the enemy where it hides and bring them to justice. The
    surest way to protect America is to unleash the mighty arm of our United
    States military and find the killers, wherever they hide, and rout them
    out and bring them to justice.
        History has called us into action, here at home and internationally.
    We've been given a chance to lead, and we're going to seize the moment
    in this country. As we've mentioned more than once, what we do here at
    home is going to have lasting impact for a long time. And I want to tell
    you what we're doing abroad is going to have lasting impact, as well.
        I view this as an opportunity to secure the peace for a long time
    coming. I view this as a struggle of tyranny versus freedom, of evil
    versus good. And there's no in-between, as far as I'm concerned. Either
    you're with us, or you're against us. Either you stand for a peaceful
    world for our children and our grandchildren, either you're willing to
    defend freedom to its core, or you're going to be against the mighty
    United States of America. I truly believe that by leading the world, by
    rallying a vast coalition, by holding people accountable for murderous
    deeds, the world will be a more peaceful place for our children and our
    grandchildren. And I'm honored, and I'm proud to report this country
    understands what I just said.
        We are patient; we're deliberate. Oh, I know the news media likes to
    say, ``Where's

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    Usama bin Laden?'' He's not the issue. The
    issue is international terror. I like our chances against bin Laden,
    however. [Laughter] There's no cave deep enough for him to hide. He can
    run, and he thinks he can hide, but we're not going to give up until he
    and every other potential killer and every other body who hates freedom
    will be brought to justice.
        You know, the enemy hit us, and they said, ``Oh, this great country
    is going to wilt. They're not great. They're weak.'' I like to needle
    them by saying they must have been watching too much daytime TV.
    [Laughter] They got the wrong impression of America, because quite the
    opposite is happening. We're unified; we're focused; we are deliberate;
    we're patient. We're certain of our values and sure of the need to
    defend freedom. And for that, the enemy is going to pay a serious price.
        You know, I'm asked all the time here at home, ``What can I do to
    help?'' Well, when I look out and see the docs, every day you show up
    for work you're helping, by helping develop some antibiotic or perhaps
    helping some poor person who can't afford health care.
        The reason I bring that up is because I think the way to fight off
    evil is to do some acts of goodness. See, the great strength of the
    country is the hearts and souls of our fellow Americans. And the best
    way to declare our position, the best way to make our position known to
    the world, is through what I like to call the gathering momentum of
    millions of acts of kindness and compassion and decency, acts of
    compassion and decency which take place on a daily basis, in all kinds
    of ways.
        People say, ``How can I help?'' Well, just walk across the street
    and tell a shut-in you love her, and what can you do to visit, to make
    her day complete? Or how about mentoring a child in a school and
    teaching that child how to read? Maybe if you're interested in helping
    fight the war on terror, you should become a mentor to a child whose
    mother or dad may be in prison, so that child can have somebody put
    their arm around them and say, ``I love you. In America, it belongs just
    as much to you as it does to me.''
        Now, there's all kinds of ways to join this war against terror. And
    it starts by Americans leading with their heart. There's no doubt in my
    mind we'll make the right decisions here at home. There is no doubt in
    my mind that the United States will prevail in the war of terror. And
    there's no doubt in my mind that out of the incredible evil that was
    done, great goodness will come, and America will be better off for it.
        May God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:55 p.m. in the Ball Room at the Masonic
    Temple. In his remarks, he referred to Director of Homeland Security Tom
    Ridge, who introduced the President; Gov. Mark Schweiker of
    Pennsylvania; Michael M. Wagner, director, Biomedical Security
    Institute, Mark A. Nordenberg, chancellor, and Arthur Levine, dean,
    School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh; Andrew W. Moore, director,
    Biomedical Security Institute, and Jared L. Cohon, president, Carnegie
    Mellon University; and Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist
    organization. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish
    language transcript of these remarks.

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