"It's better to be

safe than to be sorry," Collins said, "But it shows how hard

our intelligence community and the military and Homeland Security Chief

Tom Ridge have worked to prevent a terrorist attack against America. We

have good intelligence and our military is doing a great job. Americans

should thank them and our commander in chief President George W. Bush

for their vigilant efforts in keeping America safe."

The American public, according

to Collins, had to be made aware of the heightened security. "It

is only common sense that we have heightened security to make the public

feel more secure during this holiday season," he said.

"The people like what's

going on and they like the fact that things are working much better. They

see a lot of heightened security. They see that our intelligence community

is working very, very well along with our military. The American people

are taking it in stride because they know the heightened security is to

protect themselves and their families.

"We have people in foreign

lands that are making sure that we have protection against terrorism and

that we will have less risk here on our soil," Collins added.

Collins thinks Ridge's

action was well thought out. "It was a precautionary measure and

not a knee jerk reaction. The terrorists would love nothing better than

to slip in on us and attack during the holiday season," he said.

Terrorists, Collins believes,

"want to disrupt our economy and they want to spread panic here."

Even though Saddam Hussein

is in custody, Collins said Americans shouldn't put the threat of

terrorism behind us.

"It doesn't matter

whether you take down Saddam or Bin Laden. Because each time you take

out the number one person, somebody else is usually in the wings and anxious

to take their place. They have lieutenants and other people in place to

create havoc and create problems because their number one target is still

America. So we must stay on alert," he said.

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