By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States remains \"dangerously unprepared\" to deal with another major terrorist attack, said a report by former top government officials, academics and business leaders. \"In all likelihood, the next attack will result in even greater casualties and widespread disruption to American lives and the economy\" than the Sept. 11 attacks, said the task force chaired by former Sens. Gary Hart, D-Colo., and Warren Rudman, R-N.H. The report was released late Thursday. The report comes a week after CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet warned that Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)\'s al-Qaida network is likely to strike against the United States sometime soon 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 takes military action against 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.\" Few of the ships, trucks and trains that enter the United States each day 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. 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 international terrorism was growing and recommended creating a domestic security agency. President Bush (news - web sites) created a Homeland Security office shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks and has proposed creating a full Cabinet department, but Congress has not yet approved it. 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 Shultz, former FBI (news - web sites) and CIA Director William H. Webster and retired Adm. William J. Crowe, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In a foreword, Leslie H. Gelb, the council\'s president, noted that federal, state and local officials have taken many steps to strengthen homeland 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. The Office of Homeland Security is reviewing the council\'s report, said spokesman Gordon Johndroe. He said many of its suggestions are similar to what Bush has proposed. \"We continue to implement what we can and are hopeful that Congress will appropriate and enact the homeland security initiatives that the president placed before them,\" Johndroe said. Among the panel\'s recommendations: _Establish 24-hour operations centers in all states to provide terror watch list information. _Provide federal funds to clear the backlog of state and local government requests for protective gear, training and communications equipment. _Strengthen security for sea and land transportation. _Evaluate areas of vulnerability for energy supplies and develop a stockpile of backup components so energy operations could be restored if damaged. _Strengthen health agencies\' ability to detect disease outbreaks. ___ On the Net: Council on Foreign Relations: http://www.cfr.org/
Have any of you seen that movie \'Bowling for Columbine\'? One of the main themes is how our culture is based in fear (I highly recomend it). Honestly I got sick of being scared about a week after 9/11, I can\'t really do much to avoid being blown up; if it happens it happens. If anything, chances are that worrying constantly would hurt me more than not being \'prepared\' (whatever that may consist of) for an attack. Plus I don\'t really trust anything the FBI has to say, their intentions aren\'t to protect me, but to protect their (and their boss\'s) interests. I used to think that I was just kind of paranoid about authority figures in general, but lately I\'m starting to think my general suspicion of them is well founded. Don\'t let them cloud your judgement with fear, it\'s worked for them up until now but it doesn\'t have to be that way.
the US wants to keep the people in a state of fear in order to further take away our rights... ya know all those warnings they\'ve been putting out saying we might get attacked on this day or that... like around the 4th of july everyone was all worried, etc? what terrorist in his right mind would even think about attacking us when everyone\'s on a heightened sense of alert? especially when they\'re saying on the news \"an attack in the near future is almost iminent\"... this is just a ploy by our gov. to keep us afraid. if there was gonna be an attack, the gov. most likely would not know about it enough in advance to issue such warnings, and it would most likely be done when everyone least expects it... not when they\'re waiting for it or around a national holiday when it\'d hurt us the most.
IMHO I think the government may be behind all this to start with. Bush had to get the country behind him after the screwed up election. What better way to do that than to have a terroist attack. Now that he has failed to get Bin Laden, he is starting war with Iraq with or with out the UN\'s help. Sounds like a well thought out plan to be like his daddy! Kinda makes sence doesn\'t it??????
hey bud head, if you think that makes sense... try this one on for size... fact: it was impossible that it was a plane that hit the pentagon (i have pictures to prove it). now... if it wasn\'t a plane that hit the pentagon... where\'d the plane go? now... we all know about the golden crescent heroin ring ran by the cia, etc... i\'m willing to bet that this whole thing could have also been used to smuggle a shit load of heroin (or cash?) from the US to wherever... using the plane that supposedly hit the pentagon, but never did. list of reason\'s 911 would help bush... 1.) war boosts the economy 2.) more of a reason to start war in the mid east (hmm... they sure do have a lot of oil over there) 3.) scare americans... take away rights 1 at a time... gain more power 4.) possible smuggling operation? thus concludes Cottons\' Comspiricay Theory 101
Cottons I agree. There is nothing more profitable than war for the US. I also believe that there was no plane at the Pentagon. Why would they not follow the guidelines and put intersepter planes into the air after the commercial planes went off course and the flight towers couldn\'t communicate with them? That is supposed to be the GOLDEN RULE. We will never know the truth. That I do know!
http://www.asile.org/citoyens/numero13/pentagone/erreurs_en.htm there ya go namron... spread the knowledge
well..slap me upside the head and call me shirly... i dont see no damned plane. ive already sent like 8 people the link
i like where it\'s like... did ya find the plane? if so... don\'t forget to get ahold of the master of illusion, david copperfield. lmao... that cracks me up. i\'ve showed my parents the picture, and they still don\'t believe me. my mom\'s like \"some guy who works for the pentagon said he saw the plane crashing into it\" and i\'m like \"mom... he works for the pengaton... he has to say whatever they tell him to\"
There is no plane. If a plane the size of a 757 hit the building then the top two floors would have been hit as well.. I know the Govt. wouldn\'t lie to us now would they? Complete Bull Shit!!!!!
i like bringing up the point that the explosion alone would have blown a hole through at least 3 of the rings... i mean, look at what happened to the towers. the plane went in one side, and out the other came a massive fire ball... it\'s insane to think a plane could cause so little damage but you\'re probably right bud head... why would the gov. want to lye to us??? <=dripping with sarcasm