(Hart and Rudman) Rebuffed before the attacks

[maddezmom]

BY THOMAS FRANK
WASHINGTON BUREAU

June 4, 2004


WASHINGTON - The authors of a January 2001 government-mandated report urging homeland security improvements said yesterday they were refused meetings with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney after the report came out.

Former senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman also said that after the Sept. 11 attacks, it took five months to get a meeting with Tom Ridge, then the newly appointed White House homeland security adviser.

"There was no sense of urgency," Hart, a Democrat from Colorado, said in an interview.

Rudman said: "We were told by the White House that they were going to take this report and look at it very carefully. They were looking at it on Sept. 11."

The two also said the country remains underprepared for a terrorist attack because federal homeland-security money has been misspent and the private sector has done too little to protect infrastructure.

~snip~
more: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushart043832863jun04,0,3867921.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines

[maddezmom]

1. Former senators offer harsh assessment of nation's security

By William New, National Journal's Technology Daily


The next terrorist attack is coming and the United States is far from prepared, two former senators who are experts in the homeland security movement, said Thursday.

"Myself, my hair is on fire," said former Sen. Gary Hart, borrowing a phrase recently popularized by former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke.

~snip~

Both senators said the federal government should act at home more like it is engaged in war. Hart said tax cuts should be curtailed and the private sector, which controls most of the nation's critical infrastructure, should be commanded to better secure assets under wartime conditions. "What bothers me is the rhetoric doesn't match the performance," he said.

Some of the Hart-Rudman report's recommendations included investing more in domestic security and in math and science education, which Hart said has not been done. They also urged the reorganization of national security, Congress and finding ways to attract the best people to government. Their recommendation to create a domestic security department initially was opposed by Bush.

Rudman criticized policy makers for being driven by events rather than foresight, and said Congress has ceded too much power to the White House. He said the government has poured money into air travel security because the attack used that means but that if the attack had come at a seaport, the spending would have been there instead.

He said the top priority should be to provide first responders basic equipment, and to allocate funding to localities based on threats, not population.

~snip~
more> http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0604/060304td1.htm

[joeybee12]

2. "Rhetroic doesn't match the performance"

That pretty much sums it up!

[dusty64]

3. Hope they keep telling

the truth. Too bad Hart didn't run for the Senate again.

[Tellurian]

4. Another spike into Cheney's cold pacemaker...

I remember reading where Al Gore personally handed the Hart-Rudman Commission Report to Cheney before he left his term at the WH..

I googled and read the ORIGINAL version online and recall the recommendation to tighten lax airport security was a top priority in the report. I've googled since then, but the original seems to have been compromised...iow...scrubbed.

[maddezmom]

5. here's the PDF version of the report

http://www.nssg.gov/PhaseIIIFR.pdf

[Tellurian]

6. Thanks, MM

Quicktime won't work with the pdf format.

the only page showing is the cover page.

and the date of 2/01 is indicative it is not the original report anyway.

[maddezmom]

8. not sure if this helps since it's in PDF

http://www.nssg.gov./Reports/reports.htm

but perhaps the original is here. :)

[Tellurian]

9. Thanks, MM.. thats the one...

Sept/99..

I'm thankful the report hasn't disappeared completely.

I'll download another adobe reader for viewing..

:hi:

[Norquist Nemesis]

7. "the country remains underprepared"

and a huge percentage of our Guard and Reserve are in Iraq.

Another surefire bullet point for Bush's competency as a Great Leader. </sarcasm> I wonder how long it will take the FReakers to start their shrill howls of how it's all libral's fault that we can't get things up and going quickly after the next catastrophic terrorist attack...yeah, right. They'll blame it on Clinton cutting the military simply because they can't do the math. :mad:

[cally]

10. So the press will ignore their comments

now just like they ignored the original report. After all, Scott Peterson is on trial. :eyes: