U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said Monday there are numerous "challenges" in America’s efforts to protect its citizens six years after 9/11 -- the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, speaking a day before the sixth anniversary of 9/11, said in an interview that he questions whether federal agencies can provide the necessary protection if terrorists act again.
"To say we’ve been fortunate that we have not had a terrorist attack since 9/11 is positive, but the question is since that time, have we done all we need to do to make sure if or when it happens again, we can we prevent it or respond in a manner that will protect as many human lives as possible?" Thompson asked BlackAmericaWeb.com.
Thompson said he is concerned that America’s first responders still do not have the technology to communicate in a "coordinated fashion" during an attack.
More than 3,000 people died on that day in 2001, the worst terrorist attack on American soil, so Tuesday's anniversary has renewed questions about whether the country is safer today.
Asia Cottom, an 11 year old girl, was on that American Airlines Flight 77 when it was flown into the Pentagon on 9-11. Now, six years later, Aisa would have been heading to college and in honor of Asia the family has started a scholarship fund to send students to college.
LISTEN NOW To the Cottom Family September 11, 2001 story.
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Thompson, the first African-American to chair the Homeland Security Committee, said "despite the [Bush] administration’s resistence" his committee is pushing legislation to assist first responders with the necessary communications tools while also sponsoring a plan to inspect cargo on airplanes before flights.
"It’s a challenge," he said.
The congressman said Hurricane Katrina made it clear that America was not prepared to respond to a natural disaster, much less, a terrorist attack.
"Some of our health-care facilities are not up to acceptable standards for handling mass casualties," Thompson said. "We can plan all we want, but it all boils down to whether we have the trained personnel that can execute in times of crisis."
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Construction has reached the halfway point for a memorial honoring the 184 people killed at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Families of the victims have played an integral role in the memorial, which is scheduled to open in September 2008.
VIDEO: How Safe Are We Six Years After 9/11 Attacks?
The co-chair of the 9/11 commission talks about the security issues the U.S. still faces.
According to The Washington Post, "The U.S. homeland confronts a "persistent and evolving terrorist threat," especially from al-Qaeda, according to a National Intelligence Estimate issued in July. Six years after the attacks, following a series of ambitious reforms carried out by dedicated officials, how is it possible that the threat remains so dire?"
"The answer stems from a mixed record of reform, a lack of focus and a resilient foe," the Post reported. "Progress at home -- in our ability to detect, prevent and respond to terrorist attacks -- has been difficult, incomplete and slow, but it has been real. Outside our borders, however, the threat of failure looms."
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"We face a rising tide of radicalization and rage in the Muslim world -- a trend to which our own actions have contributed, according to the newspaper. "The enduring threat is not Osama bin Laden but young Muslims with no jobs and no hope, who are angry with their own governments and increasingly see the United States as an enemy of Islam."
Seemingly taunting Osama bin Laden, President Bush's homeland security adviser said last week the fugitive al-Qaida leader is "virtually impotent" beyond his ability to hide away and spread anti-American propaganda.
The provocative characterization came just days after bin Laden attracted international attention with the release of a video in which he ridicules President Bush about the Iraq war and reminds the world that he not been captured.
Ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes, White House aide Frances Fragos Townsend made a clear attempt to diminish the influence -- or the perception -- of the man who masterminded those attacks.
"This is about the best he can do," Townsend said of bin Laden. "This is a man on a run, from a cave, who's virtually impotent other than these tapes."
In appearances on two Sunday talk shows, she used the "virtually impotent" reference both times, suggesting the language was chosen with careful purpose.
"We know that al-Qaida is still determined to attack, and we take it seriously," Townsend said. "But this tape appears to be nothing more than threats. It's propaganda on their part."
Townsend was considerably more direct than even Bush in rebuking bin Laden. The president responded to bin Laden's tape last week by saying it was a reminder that the world is dangerous and that Iraq is part of the war against extremists. He never identified bin Laden by name.
The consensus of the nation's top intelligence analysts is that bin Laden's terrorist network is anything but impotent.
Terrorism experts say the network is regrouping in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. The latest National Intelligence Estimate says al-Qaida is growing in strength, intensifying its efforts to put operatives in the United States and plotting against U.S. targets that will cause massive casualties. The U.S. is in a "heightened threat environment" and al-Qaida is the most serious threat, the analysts found.
"Six years later, we are safer in a narrow sense: We have not been attacked, and our defenses are better," wrote the chairmen of the independent Sept. 11 commission, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, in Sunday's Washington Post. "But we have become distracted and complacent."
Townsend disputed that assessment. She said the government has made considerable progress in protecting the country.
"We are safer than we were in 2001," she said.
But Thompson does not agree.
"Unfortunately, there is much left undone in homeland security," Thompson says on his website. "The Committee has found numerous vulnerabilities and gaps in the Department’s efforts to date to protect our nation."
"I never want to see terrorists using our own airplanes against us again," Thompson said. "Our borders need to be protected from illegal entry by terrorists and other criminals. Our ports, trains, highways, and critical infrastructure must be shored up and protected. With avian flu spreading around the world, we must make sure that it does not spread in this country."
The recent tape was the first time bin Laden had appeared in a new video since 2004. In the recording, bin Laden tells Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end. He makes no overt threats and does not directly call for attacks.
"While he may be physically contained, his influence is not bounded by any physical barriers," said Thomas Sanderson, an authority on terrorism at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"Obviously, in a sense, it does not matter that we've got him trapped in a cave. He has sent forth enough messages to incite violence worldwide against us," he said in an interview Sunday.
Townsend said experts are doing a technical analysis, looking for clues about bin Laden's health and whereabouts.
"There's nothing overtly obvious in the tape that would suggest this is a trigger for an attack," she said.
She emphasized another finding from the intelligence estimate released in July -- that worldwide counterterrorism efforts have constrained the ability of al-Qaida to hit the U.S.
"We ought to remember, six years since the tragedy of the September 11th, we haven't seen another attack," Townsend said.
The anniversary of the attacks comes in the same week that Bush is expected to announce the next stage of U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq. The war is portrayed in starkly different terms by Bush, who sees it as vital to stopping al-Qaida, and by his critics, who view it is as unrelated to the terrorist attacks.
"This is an insult to everybody in the world that this man is still sending his tapes," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) of bin Laden. "And it is the real failure because Iraq has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden in the beginning."
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona -- who has stuck by Bush's war strategy -- nevertheless described bin Laden as a "great danger."
"He continues to communicate, he continues to lead, and he continues to be a symbol for them of leadership in this radical hatred and evil radical Islamic extremism," McCain said.
Taunting bin Laden as "virtually impotent" would likely not provoke him to respond, because his strategy of attacks involves lengthy planning that would not be derailed by a single comment, said Sanderson, a senior fellow at CSIS. But such a comment could prove incendiary to like-minded followers of bin Laden who see themselves as a "vanguard of a global assault on the United States," he said.
"A provocation like that," he said, "is not helpful."
