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Threat Assessment I: Despite Improvements, U.S. Still Unprepared, Report Says Despite Bush administration efforts to improve domestic security after the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. infrastructure still remains vulnerable, a report released today by the Council on Foreign Relations says (see GSN, Oct. 25). “A year after 9/11, America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on U.S. soil,” according to the report, prepared by a commission co-chaired by former Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. “In all likelihood, the next attack will result in even greater casualties and widespread disruption to our lives and economy.” The report outlines a number of remaining security flaws in the U.S. infrastructure, according to the Washington Post. For example, only a small number of cargo containers entering the United States are searched, posing a risk terrorists could attempt to smuggle in a weapon of mass destruction, the report says (see GSN, Oct. 21). An attack on a U.S. port could also cause massive economic damage, the report says (John Mintz, Washington Post, Oct. 25). “If an explosive device was loaded in a container and set off in a port, it would almost automatically raise concern about the integrity of the 21,000 containers that arrive in U.S. ports each day,” the report says. “A three- to four-week closure of U.S. ports would bring the global container industry to its knees” (James Dao, New York Times, Oct. 25). The report also found that U.S. law enforcement personnel and first responder units are unprepared to handle terrorism, according to the Post. State and local law enforcement officials lack necessary intelligence information because they do not have access to U.S. State Department-prepared terrorist watch lists, the report says. In addition, firefighters and emergency response personnel are equipped with inadequate communications systems and lack the necessary training to respond to a WMD attack (see GSN, Oct. 3). The U.S. National Guard is also unprepared to respond to a terrorist attack within the United States, according to the report (Mintz, Washington Post). In an interview, Rudman decried the apparent lack of urgency in responding to the remaining gaps in U.S. homeland security. “I don’t know what we need in this country,” he said. “It’s not a question of if” there will be another terrorist attack against the United States, said Rudman, “It’s a question of when” (Vicki Kemper, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 25). The White House Homeland Security Office yesterday defended its efforts in improving U.S. domestic security, saying the council’s report is out of date and does not recognize the office’s new measures. “We’ve been actively implementing what we can, while waiting for Congress to act on the president’s homeland security proposals made in February, such as increased funding for first responders, bioterrorism and critical infrastructure protection,” said Homeland Security Office spokesman Gordon Johndroe. The purpose of the report is not to criticize the Bush administration, but to raise awareness of security concerns, the commission’s leaders said. “Starting from the point that nobody took any of this seriously (before Sept. 11), the Bush administration has made an adequate start,” Rudman said yesterday. “But I think [Homeland Security Director] Tom Ridge and his staff have been so involved in process, so distracted by the security alerts and by the pending legislation, that they do have a ways to go. … Our message is, for God’s sake, do it” (Mintz, Washington Post).
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