Posted on 09/07/2003 5:09:37 PM PDT by Libloather
Homeland defense mission may take decades
By Gary Martin
Express-News Washington Bureau
Web Posted : 09/07/2003 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON — Two years after the 9-11 attacks, the massive federal agency created to consolidate and improve domestic security efforts is struggling with a mission that some say could take decades to complete.
President Bush and Secretary Tom Ridge have hailed the new Homeland Security Department as a powerful weapon against future terror attacks.
"We reorganized the government and created the Department of Homeland Security to better safeguard our borders and ports and protect the American people," Bush said last month in Portland, Ore.
But others describe the agency as a work in progress, and many express concerns that the country is still vulnerable to attacks.
The newly created department consolidated 22 federal agencies under one roof, the largest government reorganization since 1947, when the armed services were grouped under the Defense Department in a process that finally was completed in 1986.
"There is no reason to believe that something far more complicated than even the creation of the Department of Defense is going to happen any time sooner or quicker," said Ivo Daalder with the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.
"It's not working now," Daalder said of the homeland security initiative. "It's going to take three years to get the initial merger done, and 40 to 50 years to get it right."
Recent studies by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, highlight the difficulties in such a massive undertaking.
Since 9-11, Congress has more than doubled the amount of federal funds devoted to homeland security, spending $37.8 billion this year alone.
A hefty portion is for protection of the nation's transportation system, which includes 5,000 airports, 500 rail stations, 300 ports and 600,000 bridges.
But a GAO study, released in June, found poor communication among federal, state and local jurisdictions. It also concluded that airplanes are vulnerable to shoulder-fired missiles from outside airport perimeters, and to bombs that could be planted in checked baggage and cargo.
One of the problems, the GAO said, is inadequate resources.
"This is not a question of money. It's a question of priorities," said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
Markey is urging the Bush administration, on the second anniversary of the attacks, to begin screening small packages and airline baggage "that can be used to create another terrorist nightmare for the United States of America."
The screening of cargo and travelers entering the United States along the borders with Mexico and Canada, meanwhile, has presented its own difficulties.
Under the reorganization plan, agencies such as the U.S. Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service and Border Patrol were moved to Homeland Security from the Justice and Treasury Departments.
The renamed, revamped agencies have stepped up security along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, but often at the cost of increased traffic delays at busy ports of entry like Laredo.
"We are a big free-trade area and we need to make sure those trucks and trains are moving back and forth every day. We also have to make sure the bad guys aren't trying to sneak something across," said Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio.
"You not only have the systems that are being adjusted right now, with all the federal agencies, but you have people who are trying to beat the system with fake IDs, passports, computer manipulation," he said.
"It's constantly going to be a work in progress. It's going to be a constant evolution," he said.
Besides stepped-up security, the Homeland Security Department also is responsible for coordinating emergency preparedness with first responders — such as firefighters and police — in cities and states.
Speaking to the nation's governors last month, Ridge said there is "an enormous amount of mutual support and significant communication" between the federal department and the states and cities.
More than $4 billion is being distributed to states and cities this year to better prepare for potential attacks.
But two private studies released just days after Ridge addressed the governors found that first-response emergency personnel feel they are unprepared for terrorist attacks.
A survey of 40 cities by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made public by the Rand Corp., found that a majority of firefighters, emergency medical technicians and police said they were underprepared and unprotected for chemical and biological attacks.
Another study, by the National Association of School Resource Officers, found that 76 percent of security personnel think schools are inadequately protected.
The findings give credence to critics of the Bush administration, who argue that states and cities need more federal resources to adequately prevent and prepare the public for a potential terrorist attack.
Ridge told the governors that it's not "just a matter of putting billions of dollars into the system," but also getting the best return on the investment.
Two years after suicide hijackers carried out their plot on U.S. targets, Ridge and others agree that much remains to be done.
A directive to consolidate "watch lists" from a half-dozen separate federal agencies has yet to be done.
That task became a priority after 9-11, when lapses in intelligence sharing between the CIA and FBI were exposed.
"A relatively simple thing, like the merger and integration of the watch list, has not happened, two years after 9-11," Daalder said.
"Eighteen-plus months after we found out that had they been merged we might have been able to prevent 9-11, it still hasn't happened.
"There are no success stories," he said.
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gmartin@express-news.net
And this I declare, as the funniest quote of the day.
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