U.S. may be backsliding on security - Chertoff

By Jason Szep

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb 6 (Reuters) - From weak border controls to the risk of chemical bombs, the United States could be backsliding on national security since the Sept. 11 attacks, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said on Wednesday.

"A couple of years after 9/11 it would not have seemed conceivable that a 'business as usual' mentality could creep back into our public mind-set. It has begun to return," Chertoff told a forum at Harvard University.

"I'm concerned that we are beginning to backslide," he said, citing several areas where the United States has faced trouble while seeking to get tougher on security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He said many residents, mayors and business owners are resisting the Department of Homeland Security's plan to build a border fence on private land -- a key part of his department efforts to stop "potential terrorists."

"They feel the cost of putting these measures in place keenly on a personal level, so they go and file lawsuits or create political agitation against building the fence," he said. "It's their property but we would pay for it."

They say "the fence may spoil the view, that it's an unfriendly signal to trading partners on other side. Maybe they are concerned that the fence will inhibit the ability of their cattle to get to the river," he added.

He also expressed concern over last year's postponement of rules that would require passports for U.S. citizens reentering the country by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or Caribbean countries.

"Border businesses are concerned that people who have to carry documents may not want to cross the border on impulse to go to a football game or to purchase something in the United States now that the dollar is a little bit cheaper," he said.