Though the United States is safer now than it was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it is not yet safe, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said yesterday as he visited Pittsburgh as part of an effort to visit each U.S. attorney's office in the country.

His first public stop in the city was at a breakfast hosted by the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. Then Mr. Gonzales went on a tour of the Allegheny County Emergency Operations Center in Point Breeze.

The top law enforcement official in the country, Mr. Gonzales focused his speech at the Omni William Penn on efforts by the Department of Justice to protect the country from terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks.

"During this period, our way of life has changed very much," Mr. Gonzales said. "The most dramatic change is the nature of the enemy our country now faces."

The new enemy, he said, is patient and smart. It also has the capacity to recruit new members from around the world simply by using the Internet. There are now 5,000 to 6,000 extremist Web sites, Mr. Gonzales said.

"Winning the war on terrorism requires us to win the war of information."

Sworn in on Feb. 3, 2005, Mr. Gonzales outlined the four prongs now being used by the Justice Department to prevent terror attacks: aggressive criminal and intelligence investigations; cooperation at the international, national, state and local levels; prosecution and incarceration of terrorists; and containment of the radicalization that leads to homegrown terrorists.

Toward the first and second goals, he noted that communication and intelligence-sharing among governmental agencies has improved vastly in recent years. In addition, the FBI has doubled the number of intelligence analysts it employs and increased its number of linguists, he said.

Mr. Gonzales cited the disrupted terror plot that led to the arrests of two dozen people in Great Britain last week as a perfect example of international cooperation.

"Investigating and prosecuting terrorists after they have killed our countrymen would be an unworthy goal," Mr. Gonzales said. "Preventing terrorism is a meaningful and daily triumph. Every day is Sept. 12. Every day is that day after."

When he spoke about radicalization, Mr. Gonzales said that prevention efforts have been focused on academic settings, mosques and community centers that "can foment radicalization."

"Anywhere that the disaffected can gather can become a home base for the development of radicalism."

He also said that the United States is not at war with any one religion or any one nationality.

"It is a war against a group of killers who have attempted to hijack a religion," he said. "Here in America, we have great respect for the Muslim religion."

Later, as he answered reporters' questions at a news conference, Mr. Gonzales said that whatever the setting, law enforcement has to be mindful of individual civil liberties.

"I believe you can have both. You can have security, and you can have protection of our civil liberties," he said.