Oklahoma City bombing anniversary prompts calls against terrorism

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Attacks, be they foreign terrorism or violent domestic extremism remain a possibility, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Monday as she joined hundreds of people to commemorate those killed 15 years ago when a federal office building in Oklahoma City was bombed.

“I wish it were possible to stand here and say that threats from terrorism and violent extremism have gone away since then. We know that’s not the case,” Napolitano said. “Our adversaries continue to look for ways to exploit our openness and take innocent lives. Nor have we shed the reality of domestic violent extremism.”

Domestic terrorists bombed Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds more. Shortly before 9:02 a.m. on Monday, bells tolled through downtown Oklahoma City to commemorate the bombing, considered the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

“Today, our first priority remains protecting against, and preventing, another terrorist attack on America,” Napolitano told the group of survivors and relatives gathered to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the bombing.

“We will continue to work day and night, and constantly ask ourselves if we’re doing everything we can to prevent another terrorist attack,” she said, adding, “We can’t put a dome over our country. We can’t guarantee there won’t be another attack. No one can.

“We can target our resources against emerging threats and evolving risks. And we are working to better empower the American public, and draw on what President Obama has called our greatest national security asset: our values. It is those values that define us as a nation. And those values will always be a force more powerful than the ideology of a tiny few,” she said.

-- Michael MuskalTwitter.com/LATimesmuskal