Posted on 12/02/2005 2:38:55 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The government is still failing to enact many swift and strong security changes to prevent terror attacks, the former Sept. 11 Commission has concluded.
More than four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the government has not done enough to stop nuclear proliferation, give emergency first responders adequate communications systems and ensure that homeland security grants are going to the most high-risk communities, former commissioners said Friday.
"We're taking small steps when we need a giant leap," said former Democratic commissioner Timothy Roemer, who is now president of the Center for National Policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. "We're watching al-Qaida change and spread out like mercury on a mirror while our bureaucracies are still sometimes stuck in Cold War mentality and cultures."
Congress established the 10-member, bipartisan commission in 2002 to investigate government missteps that led to the 9/11 attacks. It issued its findings — that the United States could not protect its citizens from the attacks because it underestimated al-Qaida — in a sweeping July 2004 report.
But since then, any sense of urgency by Congress and the Bush administration to safeguard key national vulnerabilities has dissolved or gotten tangled up in turf wars, the former commissioners said.
The group — now operating as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project — began a series of hearings in June to examine what it described as the government's unfinished agenda in the campaign to secure the country. It will issue a report Monday grading the government's overall response to its recommendations as well as assessing Washington's performance on each of a dozen potential problem areas.
"This is an end-of-the-game summary," said former Republican commissioner Slade Gorton.
Added former Democratic commissioner Jamie Gorelick: "No parent would be happy with this report card."
A spokesman at the Homeland Security Department declined comment until the report is issued. Spokespeople at the House and Senate homeland security committees had no immediate comment Friday.
The group — now operating as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project ..
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Wasn't there a sunshine clause on this pig?
And if not, shouldn't there be?
Old commissions don't just go away, they just spin on and on and on, like the MSM trying to re-link Iraq to 'Nam and the Tonkin Bay incident.
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Hey Roemer, I know where ya can take a leap from..
The Obelisk of Buenos Aires is covered with a giant condom to commemorate World AIDS Day December 1, 2005. According to a report issued by ONUSIDA (UN AIDS), the number of people infected with the HIV virus in Latin America had risen over the last year from 1.6 to 1.8 million. REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian
Dear 9/11 Commission;
You failed in your primary task of sinking George Bush. Your boy Kerry lost. No one cares what you losers think, despite what the MSM is feeding you. Sit down, shut up, go home and get over it.
Oh, and Merry Christmas.
Oh, Please!!!!! What does Jamie Gorelick have to say????? I have to know!!!!! She is the real expert, let's face it! Please, Jamie: tell us what to do!
Chairman of 9/11 Commission Thomas Kean (L) discusses recommendations in the report as Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton looks on during a news conference in Washington November 14, 2005. The U.S. government is still failing to adequately protect nuclear weapons from terrorists and its handling of terrorism suspects is undermining attempts to improve America's image in the Muslim world, members of a commission that investigated the September 11 attacks said on Monday. REUTERS/Jim Young
Key word in this article is: "FORMER"
We need read no further.....
FaiR question.
America is a big country.
How does one protect ever internal asset?
Commissions, independent prosecutors & the courts... why bother to elect anybody?
Weren't half the members Republican?
What's wrong with trying to highlight problems we have with storing/protecting nuclear materials?
It's amazing how some people will try and politicize ANYTHING.
Now operating as the 9-11 Democrat Propaganda Front Group.
There are not interested in solutions just chicken little whining about everything they can dream up to keep the donations flowing in. When they refused to remove a material wittiness (Jamie Gorlic) to the event they were investigating (9-11 Atrocity) from their Commission, they demonstrated clearly they were NOT an objective group seeking truth. When they come out and issue statement after statement that is 100% negative, the fraud of their "objectivity" is prove beyond doubt. Nothing in life is wholly negative. If they were actually seeking truth they would have SOME positives to report, they don't, thus proving they are political motivated frauds.
You know full well if this were a Clinton in the White House you would be screaming "Partisan Witch Hunt".
Local municipalities have been wasting their HSD dollars.
This should not be a shock, but clearly more pressure needs to be applied to these city/county types on what actually constitues emergency prepareness infastructure improvements. The main complaint seems to be that few have upgraded their communications systems to make them more cross-service integrated, and instead have directed $$$ at buying garbage trucks, etc.
This could have been predicted, of course, but our representative are experts in throwing our money at problems with no expectation of plan, accountability or results.
On whose nickel?
Sure is. Such as the 9/11 Commission itself. The Republicans on the commission were quivering jellyfish who were only interested in getting invites to the A-list cocktail parties and making sure the media never said anything mean about them, while the democrats on the commission were rabid partisan attack dogs, or in the case of Jamie Gorelick, agents of the Clinton Administration who were placed there to destroy evidence, misdirect and otherwise cover for the Toon's malfeasance.
The Commission allowed itself to be used as a tool for the far left. It served as a star chamber for Bush Administration officials, softballed the Clinton people, allowed Code Pink and Kristen Breitweiser's crew to use the hearings as a stage for their sloganeering and fund raising and openly supplied campaign fodder to John Kerry. And when they got the President himself to appear before the Commission, half the democrats walked out because his appearance wasn't broadcast by the MSM and they were thus unable to bloviate and grandstand.
And then, it turns out that they completely ignored the information turned up by the Able Danger team because it didn't fit their blame-Bush-for everything-involved-with-9/11 agenda. The 9/11 Commission was worse than useless, has zero credibility and frankly has no friggin' business whatsoever discussing anything involved with national security.
if President Lewinski was still in office the headline would say that the panel is stunned by the effectiveness of the response since 911.
Start with two words for these people: Able Danger
which gives them ZERO CREDIBILITY
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