U.S. 'dangerously vulnerable' to attack: report

[Praxius]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080909/terrorism_US_080909/20080909?hub=World

WASHINGTON -- An independent study reportedly concludes that the United States remains "dangerously vulnerable" to chemical, biological and nuclear terrorism seven years after the September 11 attacks.


Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana who now chairs the independent group, also says the recent political rupture between Moscow and Washington only makes matters worse.


The report produced by Hamilton's bipartisan Partnership for a Secure America, says efforts to reduce access to nuclear technology and bomb-making materials have slowed.


It also says thousands of U.S. chemical plants remain unprotected, and criticizes the U.S. government for continuing to oppose strengthening an international treaty to prevent bioterrorism.


The group includes leaders of the disbanded 9/11 Commission, the bipartisan panel that investigated U.S. government missteps before the 2001 terror attacks on the United States.


Meanwhile, a report by congressional Democrats accuses the Bush administration of missing one opportunity after another to improve U.S. security.

Maybe because they don't think there is a major threat... their actions do not match their talk.

Their report, written by the staffs of the House homeland security and foreign affairs committees, found little or no progress across the board on national security initiatives.


"The Bush administration has not delivered on a myriad of critical homeland and national security mandates," the Democrats' report states. That report was being released Tuesday.


The independent report focuses narrowly on weapons of mass destruction.


"The threat of a new, major terrorist attack on the United States is still very real," concludes the report to be released Wednesday, the same day a congressional commission will hold a hearing in New York on nuclear and biological terrorism threats.


"A nuclear, chemical or biological weapon in the hands of terrorists remains the single greatest threat to our nation. While progress has been made in securing these weapons and materials, we are still dangerously vulnerable," the report said.


The report and supporting studies describe the failure of international co-operation to prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, which they call a major problem.

Oh yeah, blame the rest of the world. It's not our responsibility to protect the US's arse.

Many countries continue to ignore a United Nations mandate to prevent the spread of weapons; the ability of many countries to monitor potential bioterrorism is "essentially non-existent," and dangerous chemical weapons stockpiles remain in some countries, including Russia and Libya, the report said.


Russia has been a significant player in U.S. efforts to secure nuclear weapons and to eliminate inventories of chemical weapons in the former Soviet region. That co-operation could be jeopardized as the two countries face off over the Russian invasion of Georgia and concerns about a U.S. missile defence base in Poland, Hamilton said.


On Monday, Bush cancelled a civilian nuclear co-operation deal with Russia.


"The things we do to penalize Russia will make it more difficult for us to deal with Russia on other matters," Hamilton said.


State Department spokesman Robert Wood said he hasn't seen the report. But he said there have been a number of successes in recent years, including negotiations to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program and Libya's agreement to end its nuclear and chemical weapons program.


"We have been engaged multilaterally with a number of countries to deal with this issue of weapons of mass destruction," Wood said.

Yeah wow... you guys sure were doing such a great job..... so why is N.Korea starting their nukes back up again? Apparently because the US didn't hold up to their end of the agreement.

Wood said he also has not seen the Democrats' report. "I fundamentally reject the charge that the administration has made the world less safe from terrorism," he said.


House Democrats also blasted Bush policy in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia as damaging to national security. U.S. efforts to combat terrorists in Pakistan have suffered because of "unyielding support for a military dictator"; Iraq has drained resources from the fight in Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia continues to serve "as a major source of terrorist activity," the Democrats' report states.


The independent study, however, did credit the Bush administration with progress in a number of areas. It cited improved U.S. port security, reduction of military chemical stockpiles, increased U.S. funding for securing nuclear weapons sites in Russia and new international programs aimed at preventing crimes involving biological weapons.

Sounds to me like an overall failure.

 

[#juan]

B.S. mostly. But it should get a few more $ billions in the defense budget. They might even squeeze in an invasion or two. :angry3::roll:

 

[Praxius]

B.S. mostly. But it should get a few more $ billions in the defense budget. They might even squeeze in an invasion or two. :angry3::roll:

Well if billions already was put into it and people got nothing out of it.... who would approve the idea of putting billions more into it?

But then again, this will work well with scaring Americans into voting for a warmonger who can protect them... so the invasion concept is pretty feesable

 

[darkbeaver]

U.S. 'dangerously vulnerable' to attack: report finally the truth in a headline, not in the article though. As the forigne creditors circleing the bloated reeking financial body of the USA approach closer and closer waiting to pluck the eyes out, the half dead beast exhausts itself strikeing out at lucrative but imaginary boogy men, there are too many closets for the dying pakeyederm to watch with it's beady little eyes. My favourite part is when they pull the endtrails out especially if the poor thing still has a little heart and faint hope. Good carrion is hard to come by.:smile: