[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 6 (Monday, February 11, 2002)]
[Pages 180-184]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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

[[Page 181]]

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 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 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

[[Page 182]]

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 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

[[Page 183]]

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 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

[[Page 184]]

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.