In the wake of 9/11, president George W. Bush tapped Tom Ridge to head up America’s new Office of Homeland Security. Mr. Ridge, now 66, presided over efforts to protect America against further terrorist attacks. He was also personally named in a lawsuit filed by Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who said he was tortured in Syria after being extradited there by U.S. authorities. Sonia Verma spoke with Mr. Ridge, now CEO of a Washington advisory firm, by telephone from Cairo just a few days after tens of thousands of Salafi Muslims protested in Tahrir Square, calling for an Islamic state
Tom Ridge: You’re not hanging around Tahrir Square, are you?
Sonia Verma: I am in fact.
What are your impressions? One of the concerns that some of us have had privately is better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. And [former Egyptian president Hosni] Mubarak wasn’t someone who we would necessarily want to embrace for his commitment to democratic ideals, but when he’s out the door it’s always a question of who comes in the door. And when they had that hundred thousand group of those Salafists in the square the other day, that sent a chill up and down my spine.
What do you think is the most important legacy of 9/11 for America?
I think the events of 9/11 did not make us more vulnerable as a country. It simply made us more aware of our potential vulnerability. … The emergence of this country as a very specific target has frankly been the legacy of 9/11.
Do you feel, in retrospect, that some of the policies that were implemented to protect homeland security had a negative effect on America’s reputation?
A small group of jihadists and extremists were the target. Not the Muslim community. There was a tremendous effort to build greater understanding between law enforcement and the Muslim community and president Bush and President Obama have continued to act in that fashion. Having said that, there are two things about the Muslim community I would observe: One, this is a small, extremist group out of that community. And, secondly, those who practise the faith of Islam within that community have an ongoing responsibility to discredit the jihadist belief system.
The one issue I thought impacted America’s brand was Guantanamo. I fully supported president Bush. I believed it was appropriate to identify a venue to take individuals who are not prisoners of war. They don’t wear the uniform of a country. They embrace a belief system. I think what undermined the brand of America was that it would incarcerate in perpetuity those they had taken off the battlefield. That flew in the face of who we are as a country. It took us several years to decide that they had to have some form of due process. That delay in identifying what that due process would be probably hurt us with the Muslim community. Some of our allies questioned it because it seemed uniquely un-American. If there’s anything that diminished the American story or the American brand overseas it was probably those couple of years when they were there in Guantanamo without the appearance of any kind of due process.
What about the relationship between the American government and American Muslims? Of course you’re aware of Maher Arar, who said he was tortured in Syria after being deported there by American authorities.
