he's an irish street cop tom tunney.efusing bombs but it's concerned with the people who make them, the various anarcist groups around the city. tunney has just run a successful undercover operation one of the first ever in the history of the police department, an anarchist group was going to put a bomb in st. patrick's cathedral. he had one of his men infiltrate the group. they were able to while the bomb was left in the front of st. patrick's cathedral, they were able to grab the bomb and stop it from being -- stop it from exploding. this has given him a great deal of credibility with the department. so he's called to a secret meeting at the new york city police headquarters on center street a big domed building that's now luxury condominiums that go for several million dollars apiece. in the commissioner's private office, there's a back way in the back of the building. you go up a private elevator into wood-panelled room with a fire going and there is the commissioner and his deputy guy scull, and they are telling tun

he's an irish street cop tom tunney. at this point he's heading the bomb squad and the bomb squad in those days is really not concerned with defusing bombs but it's concerned with the people who make them, the various anarcist groups around the city. tunney has just run a successful undercover operation one of the first ever in the history of the police department, an anarchist group was going to put a bomb in st. patrick's cathedral. he had one of his men infiltrate the group. they were able to while the bomb was left in the front of st. patrick's cathedral, they were able to grab the bomb and stop it from being -- stop it from exploding. this has given him a great deal of credibility with the department. so he's called to a secret meeting at the new york city police headquarters on center street a big domed building that's now luxury condominiums that go for several million dollars apiece. in the commissioner's private office, there's a back way in the back of the building. you go up a private elevator into wood-panell

tom tunney had become head of homeland security, had to understand everything, and he was a street copguts and was inventive and tenacious, but he had to learn on the job. and also the press -- and part of his edict was to keep this out of the press. and the press really wasn't brought into it until afterwards. >> on the security and freedom debate, what do the naysayers tell you at conferences and things? >> the naysayers who 00:44:09 ? unidentified speaker are against security? well, back then or now? now. against security. well, i mean, it's a very delicate balance. as i said before, we live in an open society. we have to balance our freedom and our privacy against our protection. the classic example is, do you want to be patted down before you go on an airline or take your chances? and at the same time, my kids, i did a piece for the wall street journal several months ago called generation lockdown. i have three kids in college and they're all experienced one way or another being locked down, having to worry about different threats. they have grown up living through 9/11, and the b