Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Chertoff: Don't divide Homeland Security

|
|
 
  
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff 
License photo
Published: Dec. 4, 2008 at 4:30 PM

ELIZABETH, N.J., Dec. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said Thursday at New Jersey's Kean University his department should not be divided into smaller parts.

Chertoff said the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama should not heed any suggestions for a divided Homeland Security department, The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger reported.

"If you look at the challenges we face, the last thing we need to do is to go back to the days of stove-piping and everybody protects their own turf," Chertoff said.

Chertoff also credited his department's handling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, particularly after Hurricanes Ike and Katrina.

"Far from stifling FEMA, it has actually been an enabler for them that has permitted them to do things they could never do as a stand-alone agency," the U.S. official said.

The Star-Ledger said Chertoff, assigned to his post in 2005 by U.S. President George W. Bush, also pointed out the lack of any major terrorist attacks in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.

Topics: Barack Obama, George Bush, Michael Chertoff
Recommended Stories
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...