SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland Security Secretary you never mentioned the word "terrorism." Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?
Napolitano: Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word "terrorism," I referred to "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.
"Man-caused" disasters. It's almost like terrorism is our fault for not having construction codes calling for blast resistant buildings. Now that's nuance.
God help us all, but we're really not that far from calling terrorists "happy Islamist friends" in the name of nuance.
