Counterterror Chiefs: London Terror Suspects Were No Threat to U.S.
In interview with Diane Sawyer, officials assure public ahead of holiday travel.
Dec. 20, 2010— -- On a day of frayed nerves and false alarms in the U.S. counterterrorism community, ABC's Diane Sawyer sat down with President Obama's national security team in Washington D.C.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Chief Counterterrorism Advisor John Brennan spoke with Sawyer about the threat of terror around the globe, particularly in the wake of today's arrest of 12 men in England said to be in the final stages of a major bomb plot.
"As far as I know, we have not yet found any connection between those arrests and any threats to the United States," said Napolitano.
The trio declined to speak about the particulars of the British threat but sought to assure the American public ahead of a busy week of holiday travel. Just today, travelers at Newark Airport in New Jersey were held up after authorities closed a terminal to investigate a suspicious package that turned out to be a computer monitor.
"What I say to the American people is that... thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 [sic] days a year to keep the American people safe."
Sawyer asked about recent comments from Michael Leiter at the National Counterterrorism Agency, asserting that not all attacks can be stopped and some innocent lives will be lost.
"I think Mike Leiter was correct," Napolitano said. "You cannot hermetically seal the United States."
"We're not going to bat 1,000 necessarily. We can't guarantee that," said Clapper. "But we're certainly doing everything we can to ensure that we do thwart any kind of an attack."
For more of Sawyer's conversation with the nation's counterterror officials, visit ABCNews.com/WorldNews tomorrow and watch "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer."