John Kerry: “I agree with all but the last judgment that was made by the Senator. Any appropriate apolitical reading--and I am going…”

“I agree with all but the last judgment that was made by the Senator. Any appropriate apolitical reading--and I am going over to read the full NIE, but I have read the public accounts of it and I have talked to some people about it. I would agree that, of course, we have done some hard work. Of course, it is more difficult to penetrate our country. Absolutely, one would hope. My God, after all the money we have spent, after the reorganization of Homeland Security, after what we have done at airports alone, let alone some of the efforts of the FBI and others with respect to foreign cooperation, of course, we have hardened. I don't question that. Have we done even as much as I and others want to do? The answer is no. We have a lot of undone work with respect to chemical plants and nuclear facilities and ports and communities. Frankly, I would have had every bit of our baggage x-rayed and inspected. We put passengers through this incredible rigmarole, but you can put a piece of baggage on an airplane that hasn't gone through it. That is absurd. Not to mention our ports and the question of port security. We had a vote here not so long ago to guarantee that we upgrade our port security even more so that the containers that come in by the millions are more secure. There is a lot we can do still. But, yes, we have hardened. I agree with that. Are we a tougher target today vis-a-vis al-Qaida than we were on September 11?...”