More than a year ago the 9/11 Commissioners graded homeland security improvements since September 11th; their report card was riddled with D's and F's.
Since then, several events have reminded us that we cannot afford to ignore these failing grades. A proposal to sell our ports to a Dubai company called attention to the fact that we do not screen all cargo on ships and commercial airlines. Terrorist attacks on rail systems in Mumbai, following similar attacks in London and Madrid, killed hundreds of innocent civilians. Our British allies disrupted a plot to blow up airliners bound to the United States underscoring our vulnerability in the sky.
Yet the Department of Homeland Security cut by forty percent funds for known terrorist targets like Washington, DC and New York City.
Our ports, chemical plants, railways and other critical infrastructure are not secure. Our local police agencies are stretched too thin, and our first responders still cannot talk to each other in the event of an emergency of natural disaster.
This Administration and the Republican led Congress have refused to make the necessary investment. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has even argued that shortchanging homeland defense is justified because Al Qaeda's strategy is to weaken America by forcing us to invest in futile homeland security efforts.
The real question we should be asking is: what does it take to make all of America safer?
The 9/11 Commission gave us a blue print. To be sure, implementing it will cost more. But we can easily afford it - if we change our priorities. This year, the budget for the Department of Homeland Security is $35 billion; at $60 billion, the tax cut for millionaires is nearly double that amount.
President Koos would take back one year of the tax cuts for Americans who make over a million dollars a year, and put this money in a dedicated Homeland Security and Public Safety Trust Fund to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations and invest in law enforcement.
For $10 billion a year over the next five years we could:
• screen 100 percent of cargo containers coming into our ports,
• better protect our chemical facilities,
• improve air cargo screening,
• make sure that our first responders can talk to one another in emergencies,
• hire 1,000 more FBI agents,
• hire 50,000 more local cops, and
• create local counter-terrorism units in our large cities to stop home-grown plots
The Bush administration slashed billions in federal assistance for state and local law enforcement and completely eliminated the COPS hiring program -- and crime rates went up. The most recent reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show a continuation in the upward swing in violent crimes first reported last year when after years of steady declines, violent crime jumped 2.5 percent --- the largest increase in 15 years.
If these statistics show one thing, it is that we need to re-order our homeland and domestic security priorities − now - bef