Battling Terror, Chertoff Felt 'Invisible Burden'

Jan. 9, 2009— -- With his tenure nearly over, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff now openly talks about the pressures that have come with his job keeping America safe from the world's terrorists -- and what he calls the "invisible burden" of being on edge at all times.

"I've never taken a vacation where I haven't held my breath waiting for the call to come," he said. "And I've never had a family event where I didn't half expect a tap on the shoulder to go outside and take an emergency phone call."

That's how he summed up the challenge at the center of the war on terror when ABC News asked him in an exclusive interview for any advice he has for Janet Napolitano, the Arizona governor who has been nominated to replace him.

In 11 days, Chertoff will leave a job that many believe is one of the more difficult and, perhaps, thankless in government.

Ironically, he said his worst moment had nothing to do with terrorism.

"I think Katrina was a very dark moment," he said, reflecting upon "the frustration of seeing people who had been rescued from their houses but then were in the convention center or were in the Superdome and we were not able to get them out as quickly as we wanted."

Asked if he felt like quitting in the days after the devastating 2005 hurricane, in which the government took heat over slow response and poor organization, he simply said, "You know, deserting under fire is not in my playbook."

From frustration to fear, 2006 brought Chertoff's scariest moment: The disruption of the August 2006 plot based out of London, which would have targeted U.S.-bound planes for mid-flight attacks with liquid explosives.

"The scale, had it been successful, would have been equal to 9/11," he said, "and it would have been devastating to not only our country, but to Britain, as well."

Chertoff said the fear sprung from "the uncertainty and the real live concern that it [an attack] could be imminent" -- and then that perhaps not all the potential terrorists had been identified.

"While we thought the British authorities knew everybody in the conspiracy, we all agreed, both in Britain and here, that there might be some loose ends that we hadn't detected," he said.

The unknown. What's been missed? That is always the worry of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence.

Chertoff said he worries people have become complacent and that the Obama administration should know coming in that al Qaeda remains lethal, and Westerners trained to carry out terror attacks are operating off the radar, still out there.

Chertoff said there have been successes in "pushing back" against al Qaeda in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where the Westerners are believed to have trained, but that "we still have some unaccounted for, trained terrorists who are somewhere. And we wonder where they're gonna be and what their targets are."

Though, at present, "there is no specific, credible threat of a terrorist attack," Chertoff said a "strategic shift" in focus took place in the department in the summer of 2007 as a result of the activity in Pakistan. The fear is that the new recruits, who could easily blend in with Western society, were taking the first step toward a potential attack on the United States or Europe.

"So, that has remained with us as a concern -- what has happened to those people, what's going on in the pipeline, so to speak, since that summer about 18 months ago," Chertoff said.

Though he would not discuss specific operations, such as the recent uptick in drone attacks in Pakistan, Chertoff said that "if the enemy is worrying about its own safety and security, they're not spending as much time and they're not as effective in plotting attacks against us."

One such strike took out two top al Qaeda figures, U.S. officials confirmed Thursday.

Finding out that information on unaccounted for terror suspects is the crux of a large part of the department's intelligence gathering, Chertoff said, and it's also "why we are working so hard to put additional measures at our border to make it difficult for people to come in."

Chertoff added there also is evidence that terrorists are constantly attempting to get into the United States.

"Every month, I get a report from our border authorities about people who are stopped" as they attempt to enter, he said.

Though it's somewhat rare, he said some are stopped "based on what they have in their laptop or what they have in their luggage or based on what we know about them, people who are dangerous, who are coming in either with a plan or a recipe to build an improvised explosive device, or people who we know have affiliations with terrorist groups.

"Fortunately, we have stopped them at the border and that's what protects this country," he added.

Though he wouldn't say how many individuals are stopped for such reasons, he said, "it's certainly a number that would concern me if we stopped doing what we are doing."

Chertoff said progress has been made in fighting the war on terror and strengthening the country's vulnerabilities. He does not believe another 9/11-scale operation aimed at aviation would be successful, but acknowledged some areas remain vulnerable -- such as mass transit, shopping centers, restaurants -- the kind of places targeted in the recent Mumbai attacks.

This war, Chertoff said, is far from over.