Cheney: Precautions to Become Normal

Thursday October 25 9:00 PM ET
Cheney: Precautions to Become Normal
By DAVID HO, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) said Thursday that homeland security is not a temporary measure for the current crisis, but ``will become permanent in American life.''

``I think of it as the new normalcy,'' Cheney said.

The vice president spoke to a Republican Governors Association fund-raiser, which said it raised about $1 million. More than a dozen Republican governors participated, including Gov. Frank Keating of Oklahoma and the association's chairman, Gov. John Rowland of Connecticut.

Cheney has raised his profile this past week, speaking at several events after having spent much of the time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks out of the public eye at a secret location.

``It's just good to see somebody,'' Cheney joked. ``You know these days, we don't get many visitors at the cave.''

Cheney said the federal government has been working closely with governors to improve homeland security on the local level.

``We are taking every measure to improve both our prevention capability and our response capability,'' Cheney said. ``Many of the steps we have now been forced to take will become permanent in American life. They represent an understanding of the world as it is, and dangers we must guard against perhaps for decades to come.''

Cheney said government health care labs and law enforcement teams are working overtime to track down those responsible for sending letters containing anthrax.

``We do not yet know who has been sending the anthrax, nor at this point do we have evidence linking these incidents to the terror network responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11,'' he said. ``Wherever they are, they will be found, they will be stopped and they will be punished.''

President Bush (news - web sites) was originally scheduled to address the gathering, which the governors' association billed as ``An Evening With President George W. Bush.'' He sent Cheney in his place, however.