Traveling in Afghanistan, Gov. Cuomo said he wants New York to develop “the most sophisticated homeland defense system ever designed by any state.”
Cuomo spoke to reporters in a conference call on the second day of a trip he said he has spent receiving classified briefings from Department of Defense and CIA officials, and meeting with soldiers from New York.
“My goal is to have the most sophisticated homeland defense system ever designed by any state, period,” he said. “New York is at the top of everybody’s threat list…I’m telling you we’re going to be the most prepared. And we are going to design the most sophisticated homeland security system ever designed. If we’re saying the terrorists are becoming more sophisticated, well, we’ll become more sophisticated.”
Cuomo also said the U.S. must do more to cut off terrorism at its source, though he did not recommend specific foreign policy changes.
“You have to get to the Middle East and we have to do something about stopping the development of the problem,” he said.
“When you start to go through all the potential vulnerabilities, you realize there has to be another leg to the strategy. It can’t just be, we’ll have the best intelligence and the best security system and we will catch every threat before it gets here and we will not miss one. Because if you miss one, you’re talking about massive damage.”
Cuomo has been playing up his anti-terror role as he runs for re-election, holding repeated briefing on security preparations before departing on the surprise trip.
The four-day mission puts him above the fray of a reelection campaign and gives him a platform on security issues that Republican opponent Rob Astorino has no way to match.
Cuomo denied the trip had anything to do with future political ambitions.
“I am doing my job as governor of New York. That’s exactly what this is about,” he said.
“You want to be the best governor you can be, you have to come to grips with…new homeland security and emergency management systems and anti-terrorism systems. And that’s what I’m doing over here. There’s no other good reason to be here.”
Cuomo met with wounded soldiers in Germany en route to Afghanistan, where he was impressed at the work of America’s military and diplomats.
“The feeling here is job well done,” he said, noting an inauguration of the country’s new president is scheduled for Monday.
“There’s a democratically elected president, and they have a prime minister and a power-sharing agreement. (The troops) feel that they accomplished the task. The Taliban, al Qaeda has been significantly, significantly reduced. And that’s what they came here to do. They also significantly improved the country. They feel good.”
Yet the threat has moved elsewhere and “metastasized,” Cuomo said, citing “a virulent strain of terrorist activity and culture” embodied by ISIS.
“We accomplished what we set out to accomplish. But along the way the problem changed,” he said. “We went to solve one problem, and now we have a different problem.”
Astorino didn’t comment on Sunday, but suggested last week that Cuomo was exploiting the terrorism issue for political gain.
“We all want to make sure people are safe,” Astorino had said, before adding “the governor is in a political campaign; I think everything the governor does is through the prism of politics right now.”
