This sort of thing makes me crazy. What's with the Deer in the Headlights Syndrome? Hurricane Katrina hits and it takes, what, ten days for FEMA to give any actual help, while WalMart, of all places, has already been providing water? 9/11 happens, and we see complacency when it comes to actually protecting us, and we find that no real plans are in place and there are no real protections in place to prevent anything of the sort from happening? And what about this bird flu? I've been reading for almost two years about how some sort of superflu, whether it's the bird flu or not, is going to kill millions of us and they are only NOW starting to try to see if they can make TamiFlu (which will take a long time), and they have no real plans in place?
Do you have any ideas about what you would do were you in charge, or just any suggestions as to what should be done? Not that it makes much difference, because nobody listens to us regular citizens, but dang, there has to be some better ways out there than what is being done -- or not being done -- in Washington.
US faulted on handling nuclear threat
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent 2 hours, 49 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is not doing enough to protect nuclear weapons from terrorists and its handling of terrorism suspects is undermining America's image in the Muslim world, members of a commission that investigated the September 11 attacks said on Monday.
Although President George W. Bush calls arms proliferation the country's biggest threat and al Qaeda has sought nuclear weapons for a decade, the former commission's chairman Thomas Kean said, "the most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response."
"In short, we still do not have a maximum effort against the most urgent threat ... to the American people," he told a news conference, noting that half the nuclear materials in Russia still have no security upgrade.
The bipartisan commission was established by the U.S. Congress to investigate the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network that killed nearly 3,000 people.
It formally disbanded after submitting its final report in July last year, but members continue working as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, which tracks implementation of the report's recommendations.
Monday's report recorded little progress on combating weapons proliferation as well as on U.S. foreign policy and public diplomacy issues,
"This kind of grade -- unfulfilled, insufficient, minimal progress -- those grades are failing grades ... That is an unacceptable response," Commission member Timothy Roemer said.
The panel attributed the poor results to the difficulty of the tasks and a divided government that is easily distracted even from urgent priorities.
GROWING DIVISIONS
The 9/11 commission had stressed the need for leaders to work together to protect the country but "if anything, we have become less unified and more partisan," commissioner Jamie Gorelick said.
Although the panel was encouraged by the appointment of Karen Hughes, Bush's close aide, as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, Vice chairman Lee Hamilton said Muslim world distrust remained high and "detainee abuse in
Abu Ghraib (prison in
Iraq), Guantanamo and elsewhere undermines America's reputation as a moral leader."
The United States was sharply criticized for its handling of detainees after photographs of guards abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq shocked the world.
U.S. forces have held hundreds of detainees at known facilities outside the United States, such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since September 11 but senior al Qaeda leaders have been kept in secret detention facilities overseas.
The Washington Post last week disclosed the existence of
CIA secret prisons in eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, Vice President
Dick Cheney has spearheaded an effort in Congress to have the CIA exempt from an amendment by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) that would ban torture and
inhumane treatment of prisoners. Bush threatened to veto the defense bill containing the amendment without the exemption.
Commissioner Richard Ben Veniste strongly endorsed the McCain amendment and said as leaders debate it, "the moral authority of our nation hangs in the balance."
Others on the 10-member commission did not specifically take sides on this politically-charged legislation.
Do you have any ideas about what you would do were you in charge, or just any suggestions as to what should be done? Not that it makes much difference, because nobody listens to us regular citizens, but dang, there has to be some better ways out there than what is being done -- or not being done -- in Washington.
US faulted on handling nuclear threat
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent 2 hours, 49 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is not doing enough to protect nuclear weapons from terrorists and its handling of terrorism suspects is undermining America's image in the Muslim world, members of a commission that investigated the September 11 attacks said on Monday.
Although President George W. Bush calls arms proliferation the country's biggest threat and al Qaeda has sought nuclear weapons for a decade, the former commission's chairman Thomas Kean said, "the most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response."
"In short, we still do not have a maximum effort against the most urgent threat ... to the American people," he told a news conference, noting that half the nuclear materials in Russia still have no security upgrade.
The bipartisan commission was established by the U.S. Congress to investigate the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network that killed nearly 3,000 people.
It formally disbanded after submitting its final report in July last year, but members continue working as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, which tracks implementation of the report's recommendations.
Monday's report recorded little progress on combating weapons proliferation as well as on U.S. foreign policy and public diplomacy issues,
"This kind of grade -- unfulfilled, insufficient, minimal progress -- those grades are failing grades ... That is an unacceptable response," Commission member Timothy Roemer said.
The panel attributed the poor results to the difficulty of the tasks and a divided government that is easily distracted even from urgent priorities.
GROWING DIVISIONS
The 9/11 commission had stressed the need for leaders to work together to protect the country but "if anything, we have become less unified and more partisan," commissioner Jamie Gorelick said.
Although the panel was encouraged by the appointment of Karen Hughes, Bush's close aide, as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, Vice chairman Lee Hamilton said Muslim world distrust remained high and "detainee abuse in
Abu Ghraib (prison in
Iraq), Guantanamo and elsewhere undermines America's reputation as a moral leader."
The United States was sharply criticized for its handling of detainees after photographs of guards abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq shocked the world.
U.S. forces have held hundreds of detainees at known facilities outside the United States, such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since September 11 but senior al Qaeda leaders have been kept in secret detention facilities overseas.
The Washington Post last week disclosed the existence of
CIA secret prisons in eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, Vice President
Dick Cheney has spearheaded an effort in Congress to have the CIA exempt from an amendment by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) that would ban torture and
inhumane treatment of prisoners. Bush threatened to veto the defense bill containing the amendment without the exemption.
Commissioner Richard Ben Veniste strongly endorsed the McCain amendment and said as leaders debate it, "the moral authority of our nation hangs in the balance."
Others on the 10-member commission did not specifically take sides on this politically-charged legislation.
