From: Travis <twmccoy@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 8:33 PM
Subject: 9 Incomplete Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission
To: baconlard@gmail.com
9 Incomplete Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission
By: Mickey McCarter
09/01/2011 ( 4:15am)
Nine of the 41 recommendations issued by the 9/11 Commission seven years ago remain unfilled, leaving the chairmen of the commission to press for their complete implementation in a report card issued Wednesday.
Former 9/11 Commission Chair Tom Kean and Vice Chair Lee Hamilton, now co-chairs of the National Security Preparedness Group at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank, unveiled their Tenth Anniversary Report Card: The Status of the 9/11 Commission Recommendations at a press conference in Washington, DC, calling upon the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), state and local governments, the White House, and Congress to complete work on the nine remaining recommendations. The two chairs were joined by seven out of 10 of the 9/11 commissioners.
"The good news is that a lot of progress has been made on a good many of those recommendations," Kean said at the conference. "One of these is the transformation of the intelligence community and breaking down the barriers that were so terrible, so costly, in information sharing. Legal policy and cultural barriers between agencies created serious impediments to information sharing that prevented disruption of the 9/11 attacks."
He added, "It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than it was before 9/11."
The first incomplete recommendation involves unity of command and effort, which requires action from DHS and state and local communities, Kean said. Every disaster response requires someone in charge, as demonstrated by large catastrophes like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, where failures in leadership cost lives.
Still, many metropolitan areas have not addressed the question of who's in charge in a major disaster, he lamented.
"Failure to resolve the basic building blocks of established roles and responsibilities in dealing with catastrophic disaster planning can result in confusion at a scene and it will cost lives in the future and it has cost lives in the past," Kean stated.
And first responders coming together in a disaster still are not assured of their capabilities to talk to each other, Kean noted, leaving radio interoperability as the second recommendation not completely fulfilled.
Congress has stalled on various proposals to allocate the D-Block of radio frequency spectrum to first responders, Kean said, leaving many firemen, policemen, medical personnel, and rescue workers unable to talk directly in a disaster scene. People have died due to that shortfall.
"They died because of that in 9/11; they died because of that in Katrina; and they will die in the future unless this particular problem is not solved," Kean remarked.
Congress must reform itself to consolidate jurisdiction over DHS to complete a third unfinished recommendation. It also should stand up appropriations panels that fund the intelligence agencies instead of allocating that responsibility to defense subcommittees, Kean said.
Reforming Congress is very difficult to do but very necessary, Kean emphasized. But DHS spends so much time preparing and testifying before nearly 100 committees and subcommittees that it loses valuable time protecting the American public.
"Congress should immediately consolidate jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in the House and Senate homeland security committees," Kean said.
Hamilton noted that Congress established a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board as recommended by the 9/11 Commission but that board has laid dormant for more than three years now. As dormant, the board constitutes a fourth unfulfilled recommendation.
Since 9/11, the executive branch has received expanded authorities to conduct surveillance and to collect information, Hamilton said, making a strong board a public necessity.
"Even if these powers are being employed in a careful way respectful of civil liberties, the history of the abuse of such powers should give us pause and make us commit that mechanisms are in place to protect our liberty," Hamilton said.
He called upon President Barack Obama to appoint the board's five members and for Congress to confirm them quickly. Obama recently appointed only two members, who have not yet received confirmation.
The president or Congress also should move to strengthen the power of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The implementation of that position remains a fifth unfulfilled recommendation.
In the last six years, the DNI has improved information sharing and coordination among intelligence agencies, Hamilton acknowledged, but it remains unclear that the DNI is the driving force for intelligence integration envisioned by the 9/11 Commission.
The DNI has no or ambiguous powers on the budget and personnel for intelligence agencies, leading to a need for further clarity. Congress could clarify the DNI's leadership on these matters through legislation or the president could use executive power to align the intelligence agencies more closely under the DNI's command.
As a sixth unfulfilled recommendation, Kean and Hamilton identified the incomplete DHS system for biometric entry-exit screening to track foreign nationals as they enter or leave the United States.
"The Department of Homeland Security has deployed a system that checks all individuals who arrive at US borders, ensures they are who they say they are, and helps prevent known terrorists from entering the country. But the exit portion of the system has not been completed, so we do not know with any certainty who has left the country or remains here on an expired visa," Hamilton said.
An exit tracking capability would have helped law enforcement searching for two of the 19 hijackers who had overstayed their visas, he added, calling on DHS to add the exit capability to the US-VISIT system.
Seventh, state governments must move to comply with DHS regulations for secure identification, including driver's licenses, Hamilton insisted, noting that 18 of the 19 9/11 hijackers obtained 30 state-issued IDs amongst them, thereby enabling them to easily board airplanes on 9/11.
Due to the ease of fraudulent activity to obtain official identification, the 9/11 Commission pressed the federal government to set standards for the issuance of secure birth certificates and identifications. In 2008, DHS promulgated regulations for secure standards and benchmarks for state driver's licenses, but it has waived compliance with those regulations until 2013.
"This delay in compliance creates vulnerabilities and makes us less safe. No further delay should be authorized and instead the deadline in our view should be accelerated," Hamilton said.
Eighth, DHS must improve the way it sets requirements for screening technologies and how it works with industry to test and field those technologies, according to the report card.
"Unfortunately, the explosives detection technology lacks reliability and lags in its capability to automatically identify concealed weapons and explosives," Hamilton asserted. "The next generation whole body scanning machines are also not effective at detecting explosives hidden within the body and raise privacy and health concerns that DHS has not fully addressed."
Finally, the White House and Congress must resolve issues related to standards for terrorist detention.
Obama largely fulfilled this recommendation with executive orders on the treatment of detainees when he became president, bringing the US treatment of detainees into line with the Geneva Conventions, Hamilton said. But terrorist detainees still languish in the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, contrary to ideals of due process.
"Congress and president must decide how to handle detainees ground in fairness, respect for due process, and protecting the American people," Hamilton stated.
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