Wild Pitches set up Homeland Security Blowout, Bushquotes 1, Facts 12

"Our strategy is clear. We have tripled funding for homeland security and trained half a million first responders because we are determined to protect our homeland."
--George W. Bush, September 2, 2004

So how about all those "first responders"--the firemen, the police, the ambulence crews, the emergency rooms?

"With help from a federal homeland security grant, Grand Forks, N.D., now has more biochemical suits and gas masks than police officers to wear them. Mason County, Wash., used money from the same program to buy a $63,000 decontamination unit for hazardous materials, even though it has no hazmat team. In Big Horn County, Wyo., officials received $546,000 in federal counterterrorism grants last year, just $237,000 less than Louisville, Ky., which has 60 times the population.

"These examples are cited in a congressional report that questions whether federal homeland security money is going to where it's needed the most. The funding system favors rural states by guaranteeing that they receive antiterrorism grants regardless of their population or the terrorism threat....

"This issue already has hit home in New York City, which has fewer police officers than it did on Sept. 11, 2001. This year, New York state was given $5.42 per person in federal homeland security grants, the third-lowest amount in the nation. In all, the state received $103 million. The city received some additional federal money to fight terrorism, but the amount wasn't enough to significantly boost the state's rank."

Then let's take a look at nuclear security here at home.

"These were tests in which U.S. Special Forces, playing the role of terrorists, armed with simulated weapons, would try to penetrate the facilities, steal imitation nuclear material, and then escape. The security guards there were expected to stop the attackers. “Overall, the test results that I was responsible for showed a 50 percent failure rate,” says Levernier.....the mock terrorists were able to penetrate nuclear weapons sites half the time -- even though the security guards knew exactly what day and virtually what time to expect the attacks.

"When Levernier conducted an unannounced inspection....he was stunned by what he found. “We found....that the vast majority of the patrols were in a facility watching the Super Bowl game.”

"The Department of Energy has admitted that security guards at other nuclear facilities have recently left front gates wide open, and failed repeatedly to respond to emergency alarms in top-security areas. Some have actually been caught sleeping on the job. “People should know that the Department of Energy facilities cannot withstand a full terrorist attack,” says Levernier....

"Hundreds of master keys and electronic key cards - some of which provide access to classified areas - have disappeared....the locks have just been changed -- three years after keys there were reported missing.....Republican Sen. Charles Grassley....finds [this] hard to believe. “If you were going to have your house keys stolen, you would change your locks right away, wouldn't you?...."

So how about chemical plant security?

"But what about the 15,000 facilities across the United States that produce or store deadly chemicals - chemicals that terrorists could use against us as weapons of mass destruction? ....the Justice Department calls that threat "real and credible." Yet, almost three years after Sept. 11, chemical plants are still not subject to federal regulations when it comes to security....

"There are more than 100 chemical plants - in backyards all across the United States - where a catastrophic accident or an act of sabotage by terrorists could endanger more than a million people. One plant in Chicago could affect almost three million people. And in California, the chemicals at one site have the potential to kill, injure or displace more than eight million people....

"This is why Sen. Corzine [D.-NJ] introduced a bill - six weeks after Sept. 11 - putting the federal government in charge of chemical plant security. He said he expected quick passage, but he under-estimated the clout of the $450 billion dollar chemical industry.

“My bill was crushed by the American Chemistry Council. It was crushed by those who were looking after their private interests and not the public interests,” says Corzine. The American Chemistry Council did oppose Corzine's bill -- which required chemical companies to stockpile less chemicals on site and to use safer technologies whenever possible."

Now the skivvy on trucks and truck bombs.

"Truckers carry 70 percent of the nation's freight, yet the federal government spends 100 times more on airplane safety than it does on trucking security, safety experts said....

"Terrorists have repeatedly used heavy vehicles in attacks, said a July 30 information bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security and FBI. "Some terrorists consider trucks to be one of the best tools to breach security measures and carry explosives since the U.S. airline industry significantly increased security procedures," the bulletin said. Terrorists also have shown an interest in planning attacks that use a truck's hazardous materials, officials believe....

"There are plenty of trucks from which terrorists can choose. Every day between 3 million and 3.2 million tractor-trailers crisscross the country."

"At agricultural co-ops across America, it's available by the truckload. Farmers spread more than two million tons of it across the U.S. every year. It's ammonium nitrate, one of the world's cheapest fertilizers. But it can also be a powerful explosive when mixed with ordinary diesel fuel....

"It's also a terror weapon of choice for making car and truck bombs....Now, with new warnings that al-Qaida planned to hit U.S. financial targets using car and truck bombs, some in Congress are calling for tighter restrictions on ammonium nitrate.....

"You can be on a terror watch list and walk up to any store that sells farm goods or other types of goods and buy as much ammonium nitrate as you want," says Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. South Carolina now requires ammonium nitrate dealers to get a restricted fertilizer permit and record the driver's license number of every buyer. Nevada will soon do the same. The fertilizer industry — already urging dealers to keep records of sales and report suspicious buyers — actually supports the state laws....

"The federal government has yet to take a position on any of these proposals, ideas that advocates believe could quickly make America safer."

And, finally, where we stand after three years on overseas shipping and cargo.

"Currently only a very small percentage of shipping containers is opened and inspected.

"Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the problem is lack of money. She said spending on port security last year was about $1 billion short of what the Coast Guard said was needed....Murray unsuccessfully proposed tripling the amount of federal money to tighten security at ports to $450 million. The vote was largely along party lines.

"On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Senate turned aside a Democratic effort to double port security spending in deliberations on legislation to allot money for Homeland Security operations. An amendment by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to double the bill's $150 million for developing equipment to detect nuclear weapons hidden in containers entering U.S. ports also died."

Some determined strategy, Mr. President.


You can find more on the confrontation of Bushquotes with the Facts right here.