US 'dangerously unprepared' to deal with another terrorist attack

THE US remains "dangerously unprepared" to deal with another major terrorist attack, said a report by former top government officials, academics and business leaders.

"In all likelihood, the next attack will result in even greater casualties and widespread disruption to American lives and the economy" than the September 11 attacks, said the task force chaired by former Senators Gary Hart, D-Colo, and Warren Rudman, R-NH.

The report comes a week after CIA Director George Tenet warned that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network is likely to strike against the US sometime soon and that the current situation is similar to what existed before the September 11 attacks. Tenet previously said a terrorist attack would be more likely if the US takes military

action against Iraq.

Because a year has passed without a major terrorist attack against the US, the report says, "there are already signs that Americans are lapsing back into complacency."

Few of the ships, trucks and trains that enter the US each day are searched, the report said. Emergency personnel are unprepared for chemical or biological attacks. Oil refineries and energy distribution lines could be sabotaged. State and local police still lack access to State Department terrorist watch lists.

Rudman and Hart had led a previous commission, created by Congress, whose warnings in January 2001 of the likelihood of catastrophic terrorist attacks seemed prophetic eight months later.