Time, money and ever-present terror threats have done little to close gaping holes in the nation's security system, the former Sept. 11 Commission said Monday in accusing the government of failing to protect the country against another attack.
The panel cited disjointed airplane passenger screening methods, pork-barrel security funding and other problems in saying the Bush administration and Congress had not moved quickly enough to enact the majority of its recommendations of July 2004.
"We're frustrated, all of us — frustrated at the lack of urgency in addressing these various problems," said Thomas Kean, a Republican and former New Jersey governor who was chairman of the commission.
"We shouldn't need another wake-up call," Kean said. "We believe that the terrorists will strike again; so does every responsible expert that we have talked to. And if they do, and these reforms that might have prevented such an attack have not been implemented, what will our excuse be?"
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Wrapping up more than three years of investigations and hearings, the former commission issued what members said was their final assessment of the government's counterterror performance as a report card. It gave failing grades in five areas, and issued only one "A" — actually an A-minus — for the Bush administration's efforts to curb terrorist financing.
The five "F"s were for:
_Failing to provide a radio system to allow first responders from different agencies communicate with each other during emergencies.
_Distributing federal homeland security funding to states on a "pork-barrel" basis instead of risk.
_Failing to consolidate names of suspicious airline travelers on a single terror watch screening list.
_Hindering congressional oversight by retaining intelligence budget information as classified materials.
_Failing to engage in an alliance to develop international standards for the treatment and prosecution of detained terror suspects.
The panel, which has operated as a nonprofit group since disbanding last year, also gave the government 12 "D"s and "B"s, nine "C"s and two incomplete grades.
(Sounds like my first semester in college!!)
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White House spokesman Scott McClellan related the commission's findings to the administration's campaign in Iraq, saying, "By taking the fight to the enemy abroad, and by doing so, that is keeping them from plotting and planning to attack inside America."
Yadda Yadda
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On Capitol Hill, Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike agreed that Congress has not done enough to shore up security. Many lawmakers focused on the security funding formula to states — an annual fight between the House and the Senate.
"The report is a top-to-bottom indictment of the federal government's lack of resources, focus, and expertise in fighting the domestic war on terror," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.
Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, said, "Every penny should be directed where it will do the most good, in other words, the places across our nation where terrorists may strike."
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg reiterated his call for a more streamlined command procedure in the city, where the police would take over during major disasters.
"We do train together, we do work together," Bloomberg said. "But I think we have to go and, in advance, solve some of the kinds of problems that would arise if there were a major incident."
Perhaps the most powerful criticism on the government's progress came from a tearful Mary Fetchet, director of the Voices of Sept. 11 advocacy group.
"How many lives have to be lost?" said Fetchet, who lost a son in the World Trade Center on 9/11. "How many tragedies do we have to have before we have a system put in place that's going to protect our country domestically?"
Since last year, the 9-11 Public Discourse Project has operated with private funds. It reported assets of $530,165 for the 2004 tax year, the most recent available, and included the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation among its contributors.
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