Posted on 10/26/2002 5:01:45 AM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
The next terrorist strike against the United States could be more deadly and disruptive than the Sept. 11 attacks, former top government officials, academics, and business leaders warn in a new report.
''America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on US soil,'' said the task force led by former senators Gary Hart, a Colorado Democrat, and New Hampshire Republican Warren Rudman. The report was released late yesterday.
Few ships, trucks, and trains that enter the United States are searched, the report said. Emergency personnel are unprepared for chemical or biological attacks. Oil refineries and energy distribution lines could be sabotaged. State and local police still lack access to State Department terrorist watch lists.
''When it comes to combating terrorism, the police officers on the beat are effectively operating deaf, dumb, and blind,'' it said.
The report comes a week after CIA Director George Tenet warned that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network is expected to soon strike the United States and that the current situation is similar to what existed before the Sept. 11 attacks. Tenet previously said a terrorist attack would be more likely if the United States attacks Iraq.
Because a year has passed without a major terrorist attack against the United States, the report says, ''there are already signs that Americans are lapsing back into complacency.''
Rudman and Hart had led a previous commission whose warnings in January 2001 of the likelihood of catastrophic terrorist attacks seemed prophetic eight months later. That commission, created by Congress, said the threat of terrorism was growing and recommended creating a Homeland Security agency.
President Bush created a Homeland Security office shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hart and Rudman's latest panel was formed by the Council on Foreign Relations. Its 17 members included former secretaries of state Warren Christopher and George Schultz and former CIA director William H. Webster.
In a forward, Leslie Gelb, the council's president, noted that federal, state, and local officials have taken many steps to strengthen security, but their effects won't be seen for some time. ''You cannot turn a nation as large and complex as this one on a dime,'' Gelb wrote.
That's the price of freedom. It's worth every penny; every lost life.
We really must root out the illegals and secure our borders. Not to say that there won't be additional homegrown sniper/terrorists.
The area of Homeland Security should be our governments top priority. What else matters if our country is not secure?
Our country has an opportunity now to be PROACTIVE with the development of Homeland Security, instead of REACTIVE like we have been in the past.
Da$$hole is putting our country and our families in jeopardy by tying up the Homeland Security Bill.
If, and God forbid, we have another 9-11 in the near future, it should signify the political death knoll for Da$$hole along with his DemoRATS and their party.
Think of the jobs we could create...
By CHB News Services
Oct 25, 2002, 06:28
Amtrak is increasing patrols of its trains and stations because of an FBI warning about a possible al-Qaida attack soon against passenger railroads.
Officials said the warning, based on information obtained from al-Qaida prisoners in mid-October, suggested that terrorists may try to destroy bridges or key sections of tracks.
"The group has considered directly targeting U.S. passenger trains, possibly using operatives who have a Western appearance," the FBI said Thursday in a statement issued to state and local law enforcers.
Captured al-Qaida photographs of U.S. railroad engines, cars and crossings raised concern about the threat, the FBI said.
The warning is the second this month. On Oct. 9, the FBI and several federal agencies overseeing high-risk sectors such as transportation, energy and agriculture sent warnings urging extra precautions.
Gordon Johndroe, Homeland Security spokesman, said the agency is coordinating efforts to tighten security with the Department of Transportation and other federal agencies, as well as the private sector and state and local governments.
"The American people should still ride our nation's rails and know that this warning has been provided to state and local law enforcement, and the appropriate security officials, so they can take the appropriate steps to increase protective measures," Johndroe said.
Amtrak President David Gunn said federal transportation officials told him about the warning.
"The threat, like a lot of others, is not specific," Gunn said.
The passenger railroad is taking steps to enhance security, Gunn said, though he declined to describe them except to say riders won't notice them.
Around the Sept. 11 anniversary, Amtrak announced it intended to enforce tighter identification requirements, including random ID checks of passengers on trains. But Amtrak decided to reconsider that plan and has never implemented it.
New York Gov. George Pataki said his office had contacted the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the port authority and local law enforcement.
"We are vigilant in protecting public services and infrastructure points across this state," Pataki said, adding there was no specific threat against New York.
Edward R. Hamberger, president of the Association of American Railroads, said in the past year railroads developed a security plan that includes a round-the-clock operations center linking railroad control centers with law enforcement agencies and increased surveillance.
"The nation's railroads will not be a soft target for terrorists," Hamberger said.
Intelligence officials continue to believe that al-Qaida plans to attack other symbols of U.S. economic interests, the FBI said.
U.S. intelligence has learned from additional al-Qaida prisoners that the terrorist group may be planning strikes on oil tankers as part of an attack on the global petroleum industry, the FBI said.
"Such attacks may be a part of more extensive operations against port facilities and other energy-related targets including oil facilities and nuclear power plants," the FBI said.
Terrorists believed linked to al-Qaida attacked an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen earlier this month.
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On the Net:
Homeland Security's Web site
Being that China owns and has our east and west coast locked up shipping wise, makes you wonder about anyone that is pro- globalization and how we will be the jackasses all under the globalization guise and ploy.
The above quote sounds eerily similar to that by Chief Moose, a couple of days before the sniper/murderer shot the kid going to school.
Thanks for the link, TaRa.
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