The 9/11 attacks may have happened 16 years ago, but to many people, particularly New Yorkers, it feels more like 16 days, former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday.
"9/11 happens to also be my birthday," Johnson, who served in the Obama administration, told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" program. "I don't celebrate any more on 9/11. This morning I went to the World Trade Center. Last year, I was at the World Trade Center. Two years ago, I was at Shanksville [Pa.] and I've gone to the Pentagon on 9/11."
The events of the day, said Johnson, remain fresh in the minds of New Yorkers and Americans, "particularly when the weather is clear and crisp like it is today."
Meeting spouses and children of the people who died on that day is a fresh reminder of the pain and tragedy, he continued, and "reminds us to rededicate ourselves to fighting terrorism and to our homeland security."
Johnson's former agency was created because of the 9/11 Commission's report, which determined, in part, that the nation's intelligence agencies were not communicating, and Johnson noted that before the DHS was created, all the agencies and their missions were "scattered."
"Agriculture, Treasury, Energy so a lot of national security, homeland security, public safety missions were consolidated into DHS, but it is very much still a work in progress," said Johnson. "When I was in office, we worked hard at managing reform, forming joint task forces for the DHS mission, among all these stovepiped departments."
Johnson said he is glad that Congress codified several of the reforms he made, but there is still much to do.
Chief of Staff John Kelly was moved to his current position from his initial appointment as director of Homeland Security, and Johnson said Kelly's replacement should be named soon.
"It's not just counter-terrorism and natural disasters," said Johnson. "It's cybersecurity, aviation security, maritime security, border security, the Secret Service, immigration, border security, and so it's a job that needs to be filled. You need somebody at the cabinet level to keep their eye on all of this."
Johnson continued that the spectre of cyberattacks is a growing cause of concern, especially considering the activities during the 2016 presidential election.
However, he said he didn't know at the time Russians were using Facebook ads to present misinformation, but he's not surprised.
"We were focused, I was focused on the cybersecurity around our election infrastructure and what we saw happening with the DNC," said Johnson. "It continues to be an emerging picture. At this point, nothing would surprise me. I hope our investigators in Congress continue to focus on this."
Johnson testified before Congress in June that he believes cyberattacks will become worse before they get better, and those on the offense side have the upper hand.
"They are tenacious, ingenious, aggressive,' he said. "My worry is that our election infrastructure may be as exposed as it was nine months ago when Jim Clapper and I called out what we saw. "
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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