There are nine major recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission that remain unfinished, leaving the United States less safe than it could, or should, be, say the former heads of the panel charged with investigating the 2001 terrorist attacks against the country and making dozens of recommendations for reorganizing the government to better face the terror threat.
Continued attacks and attempted attacks by terrorists in the United States and abroad “mean that we must not become complacent, but remain vigilant and resolute,” says a report released yesterday by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 hijackings, and subsequent intentional crashes, of four commercial passenger planes. “We have significantly improved our security since 9/11, but the work is not complete. We should begin by tackling the unfinished recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.”
The report was prepared by the Center’s National Security Preparedness Group, which is co-chaired by former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean (R), chairman of the 9/11 Commission, and former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton (D), vice chairman of the Commission.
Of the nine unfinished recommendations, three are unfulfilled and six need improvements, according to a report card included in the BPC’s report. The Commission made 41 recommendations.
The nine unfinished recommendations, and what still needs to be done, are:
· Improving unity of command and effort, which is the primary responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and state and local governments, still needs improvement and is a “long way from being fully implemented,” the report says. While there has been much progress here, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was flawed, despite improvements over previous management responses to crises, it says. While the Coast Guard chief was put in charge, state and local officials were “often at odds with the overall plan for strategic response and clean up as they had to answer to local “political pressures,” the report says. More planning at the federal level is necessary to further determine “agency roles and responsibilities,” which in turn will make it easier for state and local officials to create plans that mesh with the federal government, the report says. And state and local authorities need to create unified command structures, which is a “political problem,” their governments must solve, it says.
· Prioritizing radio spectrum for public safety purposes and creating interoperable communications systems for first responders is the responsibility of state and local governments and the U.S. Congress and still needs improvement, the report says. The BPC supports allocating the D Block radio spectrum for public safety purposes. However, Congress continues to debate whether to do this or auction it off to a commercial wireless bidder but give the government priority access in the case of emergencies. Regarding interoperability, progress has been made to improve communications across jurisdictions, yet establishing these emergency communications still takes too long but more needs to be done in terms of planning, technology deployment, creating standard operating procedures, training and exercising, the report says.
· The executive branch has not fulfilled the recommendation to create a board to oversee matters of privacy and civil liberties amid increased surveillance of potential terrorists by the FBI and intelligence community, which could interfere with the rights of Americans. The BPC commends the Obama administration for nominating two members for the board, which haven’t been confirmed by the Senate, and certain agencies for creating chief privacy officers. But the lack of a board so far means implementation of the recommendation is failing, the report says.
· Fragmented congressional oversight of DHS remains a problem, duplicating efforts and costing extra money, the BPC says. The 9/11 Commission’s recommendation to create single authorization committees in the House and Senate to oversee DHS hasn’t been done, with the department reporting to over 100 committees and subcommittees, resulting in conflicting guidance and an inability to better help the sprawling department become integrated.
· The creation of a Director of National Intelligence to replace the CIA Director as the principal coordinator of national intelligence has been accomplished and has improved information sharing and coordination, but it remains unclear of the new position has been able to drive integration of the intelligence community and has the necessary authority over budgets, the BPC says.
· More needs to be done in the area of aviation security to detect explosives, particularly with the reliability of technology and its capabilities for automatic detection, which are lacking, the report says. Moreover, it says that public health concerns around whole body imagers being used to screen passengers at airport checkpoints have not been “fully addressed” by DHS. The BPC says that the Transportation Security Administration needs to do a better job defining its requirements and of testing technologies to ensure they can work when fielded.
· The recommendation to create a biometric-enabled entry-exit border security system has been partially fulfilled, with the US VISIT program helping to screen the entry of foreign nationals into the country. However, biometric-based exit screening still doesn’t exist and is a “high priority,” the report says.
· There are still no fully implemented standards for driver’s licenses and birth certificates due to continued delays. No more delays, the report says. Instead, “compliance should be accelerated,” it says.
· The Obama administration has made strides in ending the harsh interrogation of detainees, the report says. However, the administration and congress need to resolve the conflict over indefinitely detaining alleged terrorists based on codified rules, it says.
As Kean and Hamilton have discussed before, the report points out the growth, and danger, from home grown terrorists in the United States. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, says it is important that the “homegrown” issues are highlighted in the report, adding that she is “troubled that the White House has not named a lead federal agency to coordinate disparate efforts to combat homegrown terrorism.”