Transcript of Janet Napolitano interview

On Sunday 30th January Andrew Marr interviewed US Secretary of State for Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano.

Please note 'The Andrew Marr Show' must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

ANDREW MARR:

After this month's shootings in Tucson, Arizona, President Obama appealed to his countrymen to unite, and alongside the President on that day was his Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano. She's one of the most powerful people in America, responsible for securing the borders, and her department covers everything from counter-terrorism to airline security. In the week that the UK government replaced control orders for terrorist suspects, I spoke to Miss Napolitano. She'd been in London meeting the Home Secretary, and I asked her what her government was now doing to try and curb attacks by home-grown extremists.

JANET NAPOLITANO:

One is to support local police departments in things like neighbourhood watches - local police efforts who really get to know neighbourhood, the people in neighbourhood, and who are trusted by people in neighbourhood. So we do a lot …

ANDREW MARR:

Something funny goes on, phone up and tell somebody?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

Yeah. And also relying on individuals. We have something in the United States called the 'See Something, Say Something' campaign, and what it's designed to do is to say, look, everybody needs to be on alert, and if there is something that is suspicious, so forth - an unattended package is the great example of that - let someone know, so it can be dealt with appropriately.

ANDREW MARR:

You yourself before you took on this job were famously highly successful Governor of Arizona, and you spoke movingly at the service after those terrible shootings in Tucson. It has been said that Arizona has almost no gun control laws. Do you think that your state and other parts of America have got some lessons to learn from what's happened?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

First of all, Arizona is my home state and I knew many of the people who were shot and killed and it was a tragedy for all concerned. One of the things that I think though came through is that Tucson as a community is resilient. It has come back. This tragedy brought the community even more together. One of the issues in the case ultimately will be the behavioural health system, the mental health system …

ANDREW MARR:

Sure.

JANET NAPOLITANO:

… and whether it could have picked up somebody like Loughner earlier.

ANDREW MARR:

Because, as I understand it, I mean if you're over 18 and you've got a clean record, you can buy a gun and walk around with it hidden around Arizona?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

Well in any state, yes that's correct.

ANDREW MARR:

I just wonder whether there is going to be a debate about whether that's sensible anymore given …?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

You know I don't, I don't see it.

ANDREW MARR:

Okay, okay.

JANET NAPOLITANO:

I don't see it. I think there will be a discussion about mental-health services.

ANDREW MARR:

And you talked about Arizona coming together. Of course congress has come together. We've seen Republicans and Democrats sitting side by side …

JANET NAPOLITANO:

Yes, just the other night.

ANDREW MARR:

… .listening to the President. It was an extraordinary sight.

JANET NAPOLITANO:

Yes.

ANDREW MARR:

But what about the level of rhetoric? Sarah Palin came under a lot of criticism for the blood libel comment and so on. Do you think that the time has come for people on all sides of the political debate to tone it down from now on; that actually it got overheated?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

Well, it is really hard to solve difficult problems if the rhetoric has gotten so overheated that it's become personal. And so I think that there is an effort in Washington DC to make it less personal, to recognise that people are sent to Washington DC to help solve problems, and that the problems that they are asked to solve are not particular to Democrats or to Republicans; they are common to all of us.

ANDREW MARR:

As we all see this week from our television sets, Egypt and many other parts of the Middle East are aflame at the moment. How much of a concern is that for America? What is the American view at the moment of what's going on in these countries, which are not democracies but have been staunch supporters of America and the West in the past?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

The President has already spoken, Secretary of State Clinton has already spoken, so I would echo what they said. Egypt is and has been a close ally of the United States, but we urge all sides to non-violence and to open, transparent and democratic traditions and values. And that is important.

ANDREW MARR:

Is it important for President Mubarak to listen to what's going on in the streets and to respond, do you think?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

I think it's very important that he listen. That's part of a democratic society.

ANDREW MARR:

Returning to your main responsibility, your most prominent one on the terrorist side and transport and so on, an awful lot of British people when they go to the States find it jolly hard to get in. I mean you know they're queuing for a long time. It's a very … it's become a difficult, lengthy, and for a lot of people quite irritating process.

JANET NAPOLITANO:

We are always looking for ways, if we can, if I can say it, to be a little more customer friendly. So, for example, we are going to be expanding so-called trusted traveller programmes. I think that will facilitate travel.

ANDREW MARR:

That means that people who go regularly and give a little bit more information will find it easier to get in. Is that the idea?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

That is correct. Yes, we are constantly looking for ways to make it better and easier to come to the United States, but always with safety and security in mind.

ANDREW MARR:

An awful lot of people watching this programme hear about this level of threat, that level of threat; they must be constantly on alert, there could be a Mumbai style attack at any stage, and they don't really know how to calibrate or work out how serious these threats are. What would you say to people who say well actually the world's become … everyone's taking this too seriously; our airports are getting jammed up, we have to fill in too many forms, it's perhaps gone over the top?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

We are trying to get as much information to people as we can and to tell them not only what we know but what we want them to do. So, for example, I announced in the United States that we were getting rid of the colour code system. Why? Because it didn't tell anybody anything and everybody was always constantly at the same code …

ANDREW MARR:

(over) Oh it's red or it's purple or … We don't know what that means.

JANET NAPOLITANO:

Exactly, it got exactly that kind of reaction. So I said 'look', and we had a bi-partisan commission look at it and give us advice. And I took their advice, and we have now scrapped that system and are implementing one where we actually give people information about specific …

ANDREW MARR:

(over) Scary, very scary, not so scary.

JANET NAPOLITANO:

(laughs) Specific or credible threats applicable to them and what they can do.

ANDREW MARR:

A lot of information. But al Qaeda in 2011 isn't quite as dangerous as al Qaeda back when, is it?

JANET NAPOLITANO:

Well it depends on what you mean by al Qaeda. If you mean core al Qaeda, there's information to suggest that our efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, etcetera, have had good effect. But we also see al Qaeda spin-offs as it were in the Arabian Peninsular, for example, and other places, and so it remains part of the ever-changing threat environment in which we live and that's what we have to deal with.

ANDREW MARR:

Secretary, thank you very much indeed for talking to us.

JANET NAPOLITANO:

Thank you.

INTERVIEW ENDS

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