A new report from the former Sept. 11 commission should prod citizens into demanding that the government plug lingering homeland security gaps.
Last year, the commission’s compelling report led to some reforms, such as creation of a national security czar. The commission’s final report, issued this week, should put protecting America from terrorism back on the front burner – where it should remain. “We shouldn’t need another wakeup call,” said commission co-chair Thomas Kean. “We believe that the terrorists will strike again.” Yet, said his co-chair Lee Hamilton, “we are not as well-prepared as we should be.”
The Bush administration says it adopted 70 of the commission’s original 74 recommendations, but the claim belies the fact that implementation has ranged from incomplete to shoddy. Even preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has gotten short shrift.
The government doesn’t need to reshuffle its bureaucracy; it needs a wholesale change in mindset. A list of just some of the new report’s findings illustrates how elusive real homeland security remains.
The problems stem not only from the Bush administration’s distraction with Iraq and other issues, but also Congress’ habit of turning matters of national importance into opportunities for pork barrel spending.
The government should allocate homeland security funds based on likely vulnerabilities, not the desire to win votes. Laws are still needed to protect critical infrastructure and compel the private sector to guard chemical factories, cargo shipments and the like. The FBI should stop treating its anti-terrorism mission like a career-ending backwater.
The commission’s original report highlighted the problems police and firefighters had communicating during the 2001 attacks. Four years later, communications are still a problem, as shown by the inability of emergency crews to talk with one another during Hurricane Katrina. Yet Congress doesn’t plan to allocate more of the radio spectrum to first responders until 2009, a deadline “too distant given the urgency of the threat,” the new report said.
Of course, there’s a need for some secrecy in national security, but the 2004 report found that too much secrecy impeded timely data sharing. “No single step is more important to strengthen our intelligence than to improve information sharing,” this week’s report declared. Among other items, the report called for declassifying the overall intelligence budget.
Protecting civil liberties today is as much of a concern as when the commission published its first report, yet key recommendations have fallen by the wayside.
For example, in 2004 the commission said Congress should create a privacy and civil liberties oversight board. In June, President Bush nominated a chair and vice chair for the panel, but the Senate still hasn’t confirmed them.
The commission’s original work masterfully explained how intelligence failures and bureaucratic barriers were important factors in the 2001 attacks.
This week’s report should remind the president, Congress and the U.S public to stay focused on the need to maintain and improve homeland security.
