Posted on 07/27/2004 8:47:51 AM PDT by areafiftyone
p>To: National Desk and Political Reporter
Contact: Mark Kitchens of Kerry-Edwards, 202-464-2800, Web: http://www.johnkerry.com
NORFOLK, Va., July 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the Kerry-Edwards campaign:
Flanked by Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, fellow Vietnam veteran Skip Barker, Rep. Jane Harman and Rep. Bobby Scott, John Kerry called for extending the role of the 9/11 Commission today, so that they can help ensure their recommendations are implemented as soon as possible. Part of his plan to build a stronger, more secure America, Kerry made the remarks today in Norfolk, Va.
A decorated combat veteran who has dedicated his life to serving his country, John Kerry knows real leadership means making America as safe as it can be. Just days after the commission released its recommendations, he offered his full support and called for their immediate implementation.
Kerry's plan for fighting terrorism has been praised by the Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under both Presidents Reagan and Clinton and his campaign's Senior Military Advisory Group is made up of prominent retired admirals and general officers.
The following is the prepared text of Kerry's statement:
"I'd like to say a few words about the 9-11 Commission Report that was just released. The Commission has done an extraordinary job. It has issued a clear set of recommendations to protect us from terrorism and make America safer.
"Now that the 9-11 Commission has done its job, we need to do ours. We understand the threat. We have a blueprint for action. We have the strength as a nation to do what must be done. The only thing we don't have is time.
"Leadership requires that we act decisively to protect America. That is why we created this commission in the first place. And it is why when the commission issued their report it called for immediate action. Not talk. Not vague promises. Not excuses. Peddling and back peddling is something America can't afford. It will take real, bipartisan leadership and real action to protect America. The stakes are too high to treat this commission's report as something to just go away. The threat will not just go away. The commission's recommendation should not just go away. It is time for leadership.
"We must act on the Commission's recommendations now, and keep working, without pause, until we have done everything possible to prevent another terrorist attack.
"That is why I support the 9/11 Commission's commitment to continue pushing for progress and make sure its recommendations are implemented without further delay.
"The Commission should stay on the job for at least another 18 months and beginning this December, the Commission should issue a status report every six months to address the following questions with absolute candor: First, are we doing enough, fast enough to strengthen our homeland security? Second, are we reorganizing our intelligence agencies to meet the terrorist threat? Third, are we building a true global alliance to fight the terrorists and their extremist ideology? Fourth, are we leading and uniting the world, so that we isolate our enemies, not ourselves? Fifth and finally, are we doing everything we can do to make America as safe as it can be?
"The President and Congress have it in their power to make the Commission's first progress report a hopeful one. The President has the authority to implement many of the Comission's recommendations by executive order. And Congress must do its part where legislation and funding are needed. We simply must act, not as partisans, but as patriots, not to win an argument about what was done or not done in the past, but to win a war upon which our future depends. So I hope the President will now take the necessary steps.
"So I hope the President will now take the necessary steps. If he does not, then the day I become president I will lead, in a bipartisan manner, to ensure that the Commission's recommendations are implemented immediately. These are common sense ideas from a bipartisan Commission -- and we can't continue to ignore them, as doing so would be at our peril."
The following is a fact sheet:
-- 9/11 Commission Recommendations --
Sixteen of the recommendations can be implemented directly by the President without any congressional action.
CHAPTER 12. WHAT TO DO? A GLOBAL STRATEGY
1. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 367) The U.S. government must identify and prioritize actual or potential terrorist sanctuaries. For each, it should have a realistic strategy to keep possible terrorists insecure and on the run, using all elements of national power. We should reach out, listen to, and work with other countries that can help.
President can act alone.
2. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 369) If Musharraf stands for enlightened moderation in a fight for his life and for the life of his country, the United States should be willing to make hard choices too, and make the difficult long-term commitment to the future of Pakistan. Sustaining the cur-rent scale of aid to Pakistan, the United States should support Pakistan's government in its struggle against extremists with a comprehensive effort that extends from military aid to support for better education, so long as Pakistan's leaders remain willing to make difficult choices of their own.
President with funding.
3. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 370) The President and the Congress deserve praise for their efforts in Afghanistan so far. Now the United States and the international community should make a long- term commitment to a secure and stable Afghanistan, in order to give the government a reasonable opportunity to improve the life of the Afghan people. Afghanistan must not again become a sanctuary for international crime and terrorism. The United States and the international community should help the Afghan government extend its authority over the country, with a strategy and nation-by-nation commitments to achieve their objectives.
President with funding.
4. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 374) The problems in the U.S.-Saudi relationship must be confronted, openly. The United States and Saudi Arabia must determine if they can build a relationship that political leaders on both sides are prepared to publicly defend-a relationship about more than oil. It should include a shared commitment to political and economic reform, as Saudis make common cause with the outside world. It should include a shared interest in greater tolerance and cultural respect, translating into a commitment to fight the violent extremists who foment hatred.
President can act alone.
5. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 376) The U.S. government must define what the message is, what it stands for. We should offer an example of moral leadership in the world, committed to treat people humanely, abide by the rule of law, and be generous and caring to our neighbors. America and Muslim friends can agree on respect for human dignity and opportunity. To Muslim parents, terrorists like Bin Ladin have nothing to offer their children but visions of violence and death. America and its friends have a crucial advantage-we can offer these parents a vision that might give their children a better future. If we heed the views of thoughtful leaders in the Arab and Muslim world, a moderate consensus can be found.
President can act alone.
6. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 376) Where Muslim governments, even those who are friends, do not respect these principles, the United States must stand for a better future. One of the lessons of the long Cold War was that short-term gains in cooperating with the most repressive and brutal governments were too often outweighed by long-term setbacks for America's stature and interests.
President can act alone. 7. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 377) Just as we did in the Cold War, we need to defend our ideals abroad vigorously. America does stand up for its values. The United States defended, and still defends, Muslims against tyrants and criminals in Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. If the United States does not act aggressively to define itself in the Islamic world, the extremists will gladly do the job for us.
Recognizing that Arab and Muslim audiences rely on satellite television and radio, the government has begun some promising initiatives in television and radio broadcasting to the Arab world, Iran, and Afghanistan. These efforts are beginning to reach large audiences. The Broadcasting Board of Governors has asked for much larger resources. It should get them.
The United States should rebuild the scholarship, exchange, and library programs that reach out to young people and offer them knowledge and hope. Where such assistance is provided, it should be identified as coming from the citizens of the United States.
President with funding.
8. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 378) The U.S. government should offer to join with other nations in generously supporting a new International Youth Opportunity Fund. Funds will be spent directly for building and operating primary and secondary schools in those Muslim states that commit to sensibly investing their own money in public education.
President with funding.
9. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 379) A comprehensive U.S. strategy to counter terror-ism should include economic policies that encourage development, more open societies, and opportunities for people to improve the lives of their families and to enhance prospects for their children's future.
President with funding.
10. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 379) The United States should engage other nations in developing a comprehensive coalition strategy against Islamist terrorism. There are several multilateral institutions in which such issues should be addressed. But the most important policies should be discussed and coordinated in a flexible contact group of leading coalition governments. This is a good place, for example, to develop joint strategies for targeting terrorist travel, or for hammering out a common strategy for the places where terrorists may be finding sanctuary.
President can act alone.
11. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 380) The United States should engage its friends to develop a common coalition approach toward the detention and humane treatment of captured terrorists. New principles might draw upon Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions on the law of armed conflict. That article was specifically designed for those cases in which the usual laws of war did not apply. Its minimum standards are generally accepted throughout the world as customary international law.
President can act alone.
12. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 381) Our report shows that al Qaeda has tried to acquire or make weapons of mass destruction for at least ten years. There is no doubt the United States would be a prime target. Pre-venting the proliferation of these weapons warrants a maximum effort-by strengthening counterproliferation efforts, expanding the Proliferation Security Initiative, and supporting the Cooperative Threat Reduction program.
President with funding.
13. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 382) Vigorous efforts to track terrorist financing must remain front and center in U.S. counterterrorism efforts. The government has recognized that information about terrorist money helps us to understand their networks, search them out, and disrupt their operations. Intelligence and law enforcement have targeted the relatively small number of financial facilitators-individuals al Qaeda relied on for their ability to raise and deliver money-at the core of al Qaeda's revenue stream. These efforts have worked. The death or capture of several important facilitators has decreased the amount of money available to al Qaeda and has increased its costs and difficulty in raising and moving that money. Captures have additionally provided a windfall of intelligence that can be used to continue the cycle of disruption.
President can act alone.
14. RECOMMENDATION: (p.385) Targeting travel is at least as powerful a weapon against terrorists as targeting their money. The United States should combine terrorist travel intelligence, operations, and law enforcement in a strategy to intercept terrorists, find terrorist travel facilitators, and constrain terrorist mobility.
President can act alone.
15. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 387) The U.S. border security system should be integrated into a larger network of screening points that includes our transportation system and access to vital facilities, such as nuclear reactors. The President should direct the Department of Homeland Security to lead the effort to design a comprehensive screening system, addressing common problems and setting common standards with systemwide goals in mind. Extending those standards among other governments could dramatically strengthen America and the world's collective ability to intercept individuals who pose catastrophic threats.
President with funding.
16. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 389) The Department of Homeland Security, properly supported by the Congress, should complete, as quickly as possible, a biometric entry-exit screening system, including a single system for speeding qualified travelers. It should be integrated with the system that provides benefits to foreigners seeking to stay in the United States. Linking biometric passports to good data systems and decisionmaking is a fundamental goal. No one can hide his or her debt by acquiring a credit card with a slightly different name. Yet today, a terrorist can defeat the link to electronic records by tossing away an old passport and slightly altering the name in the new one.
Congressional action is required.
17. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 390) The U.S. government cannot meet its own obligations to the American people to prevent the entry of terrorists without a major effort to collaborate with other governments. We should do more to exchange terrorist information with trusted allies, and raise U.S. and global border security standards for travel and border crossing over the medium and long term through extensive inter-national cooperation.
President can act alone.
18. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 390) Secure identification should begin in the United States. The federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as drivers licenses. Fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft. At many entry points to vulnerable facilities, including gates for boarding aircraft, sources of identification are the last opportunity to ensure that people are who they say they are and to check whether they are terrorists.
Congressional action is required.
19. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 391) Hard choices must be made in allocating limited resources. The U.S. government should identify and evaluate the transportation assets that need to be protected, set risk-based priorities for defending them, select the most practical and cost-effective ways of doing so, and then develop a plan, budget, and funding to implement the effort. The plan should assign roles and missions to the relevant authorities (federal, state, regional, and local) and to private stakeholders. In measuring effectiveness, perfection is unattainable. But terrorists should perceive that potential targets are defended. They may be deterred by a significant chance of failure.
Congressional action is required.
20. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 393) Improved use of "no-fly" and "automatic selectee" lists should not be delayed while the argument about a successor to CAPPS continues. This screening function should be performed by the TSA, and it should utilize the larger set of watchlists maintained by the federal government. Air carriers should be required to supply the information needed to test and implement this new system.
Congressional action is required.
21. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 393) The TSA and the Congress must give priority attention to improving the ability of screening checkpoints to detect explosives on passengers. As a start, each individual selected for special screening should be screened for explosives. Further, the TSA should conduct a human factors study, a method often used in the private sector, to understand problems in screener performance and set attainable objectives for individual screeners and for the check-points where screening takes place.
President can act with funding.
22. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 394) As the President determines the guidelines for information sharing among government agencies and by those agencies with the private sector, he should safeguard the privacy of individuals about whom information is shared.
President can act alone.
23. RECOMMENDATION: (pp. 394-95) The burden of proof for retaining a particular governmental power should be on the executive, to explain (a) that the power actually materially enhances security and (b) that there is adequate supervision of the executive's use of the powers to ensure protection of civil liberties. If the power is granted, there must be adequate guidelines and oversight to properly confine its use.
Congressional action is required.
24. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 395) At this time of increased and consolidated government authority, there should be a board within the executive branch to oversee adherence to the guidelines we recommend and the commitment the government makes to defend our civil liberties.
President can act alone.
25. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 396) Homeland security assistance should be based strictly on an assessment of risks and vulnerabilities. Now, in 2004, Washington, D.C., and New York City are certainly at the top of any such list. We understand the contention that every state and city needs to have some minimum infrastructure for emergency response. But federal homeland security assistance should not remain a program for general revenue sharing. It should supplement state and local resources based on the risks or vulnerabilities that merit additional support. Congress should not use this money as a pork barrel.
Congressional action is required.
26. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 397) Emergency response agencies nationwide should adopt the Incident Command System (ICS). When multiple agencies or multiple jurisdictions are involved, they should adopt a unified command. Both are proven frameworks for emergency response. We strongly support the decision that federal homeland security funding will be contingent, as of October 1, 2004, upon the adoption and regular use of ICS and unified command procedures. In the future, the Department of Homeland Security should consider making funding contingent on aggressive and realistic training in accordance with ICS and unified command procedures.
Congressional action is required.
27. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 397) Congress should support pending legislation which provides for the expedited and increased assignment of radio spectrum for public safety purposes. Furthermore, high-risk urban areas such as New York City and Washington, D.C., should establish signal corps units to ensure communications connectivity between and among civilian authorities, local first responders, and the National Guard. Federal funding of such units should be given high priority by Congress.
Congressional action is required.
28. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 398) We endorse the American National Standards Institute's recommended standard for private preparedness. We were encouraged by Secretary Tom Ridge's praise of the standard, and urge the Department of Homeland Security to promote its adoption. We also encourage the insurance and credit- rating industries to look closely at a company's compliance with the ANSI standard in assessing its insurability and creditworthiness. We believe that compliance with the standard should define the standard of care owed by a company to its employees and the public for legal purposes. Private-sector preparedness is not a luxury; it is a cost of doing business in the post-9/11 world. It is ignored at a tremendous potential cost in lives, money, and national security.
President can act alone.
CHAPTER 13. HOW TO DO IT? A DIFFERENT WAY OF ORGANIZING THE GOVERNMENT
1. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 403) We recommend the establishment of a National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), built on the foundation of the existing Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC). Breaking the older mold of national government organization, this NCTC should be a center for joint operational planning and joint intelligence, staffed by personnel from the various agencies. The head of the NCTC should have authority to evaluate the performance of the people assigned to the Center.
Congressional action is required.
2. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 411) The current position of Director of Central Intelligence should be replaced by a National Intelligence Director with two main areas of responsibility: (1) to oversee national intelligence centers on specific subjects of interest across the U.S. government and (2) to manage the national intelligence program and oversee the agencies that contribute to it.
Congressional action is required.
3. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 415) The CIA Director should emphasize (a) rebuilding the CIA's analytic capabilities; (b) transforming the clandestine service by building its human intelligence capabilities; (c) developing a stronger language program, with high standards and sufficient financial incentives; (d) renewing emphasis on recruiting diversity among operations officers so they can blend more easily in foreign cities;(e) ensuring a seamless relationship between human source collection and signals collection at the operational level; and (f) stressing a better balance between unilateral and liaison operations.
President can act alone.
4. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 415) Lead responsibility for directing and executing paramilitary operations, whether clandestine or covert, should shift to the Defense Department. There it should be consolidated with the capabilities for training, direction, and execution of such operations already being developed in the Special Operations Command.
President can act alone.
5. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 416) Finally, to combat the secrecy and complexity we have described, the overall amounts of money being appropriated for national intelligence and to its component agencies should no longer be kept secret. Congress should pass a separate appropriations act for intelligence, defending the broad allocation of how these tens of billions of dollars have been assigned among the varieties of intelligence work.
Congressional action is required.
6. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 417) Information procedures should provide incentives for sharing, to restore a better balance between security and shared knowledge.
President can act alone.
7. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 418) The president should lead the government-wide effort to bring the major national security institutions into the information revolution. He should coordinate the resolution of the legal, policy, and technical issues across agencies to create a "trusted information network."
President can act alone.
8. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 420) Congressional oversight for intelligence-and counterterrorism-is now dysfunctional. Congress should address this problem. We have considered various alternatives: A joint committee on the old model of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy is one. A single committee in each house of Congress, combining authorizing and appropriating authorities, is another.
Congressional action is required.
9. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 421) Congress should create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security. Congressional leaders are best able to judge what committee should have jurisdiction over this department and its duties. But we believe that Congress does have the obligation to choose one in the House and one in the Senate, and that this committee should be a permanent standing committee with a nonpartisan staff.
Congressional action is required.
10. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 422) Since a catastrophic attack could occur with little or no notice, we should minimize as much as possible the disruption of national security policymaking during the change of administrations by accelerating the process for national security appointments. We think the process could be improved significantly so transitions can work more effectively and allow new officials to assume their new responsibilities as quickly as possible.
Congressional action is required.
11. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 425) A specialized and integrated national security workforce should be established at the FBI consisting of agents, analysts, linguists, and surveillance specialists who are recruited, trained, rewarded, and retained to ensure the development of an institutional culture imbued with a deep expertise in intelligence and national security.
President can act with funding.
12. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 428) The Department of Defense and its oversight committees should regularly assess the adequacy of Northern Command's strategies and planning to defend the United States against military threats to the homeland.
President with Congressional oversight.
13. RECOMMENDATION: (p. 428) The Department of Homeland Security and its oversight committees should regularly assess the types of threats the country faces to determine (a) the adequacy of the government's plans-and the progress against those plans-to protect America's critical infrastructure and (b) the readiness of the government to respond to the threats that the United States might face.
President with Congressional oversight.
I'm not sure why...
I'm John Kerry and Sandy Berger approved this speech.
Oh wait it hasn't even started yet. Wait until they make it a Vietnam Veteran festival. That is coming up soon Not sure which day though.
Unless of course it means actually fighting a war or, gawd forbid, racial profiling against Muslims. And oh, of course we need the approval of the UN and France.
Oh and of Germany.
Oh, I forgot..............Russia.
Damn.............. China and Begium. Yes unless Belgium is with us, well we should not go there.
Oh, and of course when I say we have the strength to do what we must do, we will follow the guidelines of the Geneva Convention in my administration.
I mean no panties and Dog collars, that sort of stuff is reserved for fun and games between a consenting adult and his Dominatrix, right Ted?
Bed In For Peace
Colin Powell quote...
When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by
the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example
of empire building by George Bush.
He answered by saying that, "Over the years, the United States has sent
many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for
freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked
for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."
It became very quiet in the room.
Gee, remember when he said this?
Kerry: Bush plays on U.S. fears
http://www.freep.com/news/politics/pols16_20040416.htm
What's the rush implementing these recomendations? I distinctly heard Kerry say the threat of terrorism has been overhyped. I'm just waiting for the sound byte of this answer he gave in the debates before his nomination to be played.
And since all these recommendations are the responsibility of the Congress, one might wonder why Mr. Kerry hasn't been in Washington working!?
And since all these recommendations are the responsibility of the Congress, one might wonder why Mr. Kerry hasn't been in Washington working!?
Does Kerry mean that being a peddler is Un-American?
The verb ""peddle" has 1 sense in WordNet.1. peddle, monger, huckster, hawk, vend, pitch -- (sell or offer for sale from place to place)
Except he mistook peddle for pedal
You're exactly right.
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (known as the 9-11 Commission) was created by Public Law 107-306, signed by the President on November 27, 2002. P.L. 107-306 originally required the Commission to report to the President and Congress 18 months after enactment, or no later than May 27, 2004. Recently Congress passed and the President signed legislation which extends the reporting deadline by two months, to July 26, and the termination date by 30 days, to August 26. This additional time will allow the Commission to fulfill its mandate.
You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.
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