Remembering 9/11

September 11th, 2006

Five years ago a horrific terrorist attack took place against the United States and nearly 3,000 innocent Americans were slaughtered. Today, we honor and remember those Americans who died. We also pledge to do all that we can to not only prevent another terrorist attack against our country, but to effectively fight international terrorism. Unfortunately, five years after the 9/11 attacks, our country is not as safe as we can be or as we should be.

Much work in Congress remains to be done if we are to be successful in protecting our homeland and fighting terrorism. Sadly, many of the key recommendations outlined by the non-partisan 9/11 Commission have not yet been implemented by the Bush Administration and the Republican Congressional Leadership; and the Commission has given them very poor grades. Among many other areas where improvements must be made are:

Our borders remain porous and people who may want to do us harm can easily slip into the United States. To address this concern we need, among other things, to substantially increase the number of Border Patrol agents and improve the security technology on our borders.

Today, only 6 percent of the cargo containers that enter our country are screened. We need to move to 100 percent screening.

Our chemical and nuclear plants remain vulnerable.

We need to substantially improve the screening of cargo carried on passenger airlines. W also need more advanced screening technology to detect explosives.

We need to substantially improve the equipment, training, and resources for our first-responders in the event of a national emergency.

We need a new course in Iraq. As is now widely acknowledged, Iraq was not involved in the attack on 9/11. Unfortunately, since the war began Iraq has become a training ground for terrorists and for supporters of Osama bin Laden. Further, the war has had a very harmful impact upon our military readiness. It has drained enormous resources in the fight against Al Qaeda and international terrorism, and has made us less safe. Let us never forget that Osama bin Laden, the man whose organization staged the 9/11 attack, still remains free and terror groups remain active around the globe.

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