WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says there is no sign of an impending U.S. attack following the alleged airliner bomb plot in Britain.
Chertoff appeared Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" as part of a round of interviews Sunday.
Chertoff's British counterpart, Home Secretary John Reid, has said there may be more alleged plotters than the two dozen arrested in Britain, and the threat against that country continues. An al-Qaida Web site has said there were two major attacks planned.
"We have haven't at this point seen anything coming out of the British investigation that points to that," Chertoff said, and "thus far we've not found anything that's meaningful in the sense of suggesting plotting or operational activity -- activity in the U.S. itself."
Chertoff said the alleged airliner plot "has the hallmarks or the earmarks of an al-Qaida plot in the sense of the scope, the transnational reach ... But ... I don't want to definitively conclude it's al-Qaida until we've had some opportunity to look at all of the facts."
The secretary refused to comment directly on Vice President Dick Cheney's comment that the defeat of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman in the Democratic primary encourages "al-Qaida types."
Chertoff said he stays out of politics, but said the U.S. stance on terror must be bipartisan, "steadfast and resolute."
Chertoff's predecessor Tom Ridge told Newsweek of the Cheney remark, "That may be the way the vice president sees it, but I don't see it that way, and I don't think most Americans see it that way."
