Chertoff: Emotional responses to security issues could damage our economy

[elehhhhna]

He also calls our government a "regime". BTW, the crappy economy is OUR FAULT.

US focus on risk ‘poses threat to economy’
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Published: March 12 2006 22:04 | Last updated: March 12 2006 22:14

Michael Chertoff, the US homeland security secretary, has warned that emotional responses by Congress to security issues, such as the recent flare-up over ports, threaten to damage the nation’s economy.

“We do not want a regime in which we are so focused on risk to the exclusion of all else that we lock everything down and we destroy our country,” Mr Chertoff told the FT. In his first interview since congressional opposition forced Dubai Ports World to divest the five US terminals it obtained through its acquisition of Britain’s P&O, Mr Chertoff said Congress underestimated the progress made by the Bush administration in promoting port security.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7294684c-b1ed-11da-96ad-0000779e2340.html