Government failing to prevent another terror attack, warns 9/11 panel

THE former September 11 commission gave dismal grades yesterday to the federal government’s efforts to shore up national security and prevent another terror attack on the United States.

Meeting for the last time since being appointed by Congress in 2002, commission members gave the government "more F's than A's" among the 41 grades measuring progress on security recommendations they issued last year.

"We're frustrated, all of us frustrated at the lack of urgency in addressing these various problems," said former commission chairman Thomas Kean, a Republican and former New Jersey governor.

Specifically, the panel gave the government an "F" on homeland security spending for cities most at risk, on improving radio communication for emergency agencies and on airline passenger prescreening. They awarded only one A actually an A-minus for the administration's efforts to curb terrorist financing.

"We shouldn't need another wake-up call," Kean said. "We believe that the terrorists will strike again, so does every responsible expert that we have talked to. And if they do, and these reforms that might have prevented such an attack have not been implemented, what will our excuse be?"

The official commission, tasked with investigating government missteps that led to the September 11, 2001, attacks, disbanded after issuing its recommendations in July 2004. It has since been operating with private funds at the 9/11 Public Discourse Project to monitor government progress. Since the commission's final report in July 2004, the government has enacted the centrepiece proposal to create a national intelligence director, but it has stalled on other ideas, including improving communication among emergency responders and shifting federal terrorism-fighting money so it goes to states based on risk level. "There are so many competing priorities," said vice-chairman Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "We've got three wars going on: one in Afghanistan, one in Iraq and the war against terror. And it's awfully hard to keep people focused on something like this."