Food For Thought?

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Bush plays down food-safety talk

By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - President Bush played down a stark warning yesterday from his resigning health chief that the nation's food supply was largely unprotected from a terrorist attack.

Bush said the government was doing what it could to safeguard the public from threats, but much work remained.

"We're a large country, with all kinds of avenues where somebody could inflict harm," Bush said when asked about the issue after an Oval Office meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. "We've made a lot of progress in protecting our country, and there's more work to be done, and this administration is committed to doing it."

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a speech Friday announcing his coming departure from the Bush cabinet that he worried "every single night" about a possible terrorist attack on the food supply.

Despite dramatic increases in inspections of food imports, only "a very minute amount" of food is tested at ports and airports, Thompson said.

"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do," Thompson said. "We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that."

Asked to respond to Thompson's comments, Bush neither criticized them nor implied that the food supply was safer than Thompson asserted.

Bush asked for Congress' help to boost domestic security, urging lawmakers to confirm quickly his choice to take over leadership of the Homeland Security Department. On Friday, Bush nominated former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to succeed Tom Ridge, who announced his resignation Tuesday from the department created to oversee the nation's protection from attack.

Of Kerik, Bush said, "I hope the Senate confirms him quickly so he can get to work."

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