Public Discourse Project

This is the 9/11 commissison's privately funded final report. They have gone to press yelping loudly about the failures, and completely ignoring the successes. Of course there is also the failure of any discussion on whether some of these projects are worth doing at all.

Here are some that I believe are more costly than they can justify for the protections they would provide.

TRANSPORTATION SECURITY
National Strategy for Transportation Security C- DHS has transmitted its National Strategy for Transportation Security to the Congress. While the strategy reportedly outlines broad objectives, this first version lacks the necessary detail to make it an effective management tool.
Improve airline passenger pre-screening F Few improvements have been made to the existing passenger screening system since right after 9/11. The completion of the testing phase of TSA'’s pre-screening program for airline passengers has been delayed. A new system, utilizing all names on the consolidated terrorist watch list, is therefore not yet in operation.
Improve airline screening checkpoints to detect explosives C While more advanced screening technology is being developed, Congress needs to provide the funding for, and TSA needs to move as expeditiously as possible with, the appropriate installation of explosives detection trace portals at more of the nationÂ’s commercial airports.
Checked bag and cargo screening D Improvements here have not been made a priority by the Congress or the administration. Progress on implementation of in-line screening has been slow. The main impediment is inadequate funding.

The TSA prescreening has been a mess from the start and probably won't get much better. No method to fix erroneous listings of citizens has made it impossible for some people to fly. And the explosives screening is a technology that isn't getting there and when it does, it will be far to likely to have major false-positive problems due to what can be used in the world as an explosive.

Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board D
We see little urgency in the creation of this Board. The President nominated a Chair and Vice Chair in June 2005, and sent their names to the Senate in late September. To date, the Senate has not confirmed them. Funding is insufficient, no meetings have been held, no staff named, no work plan outlined, no work begun, no office established.

Guidelines for government sharing of personal information D
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has not yet begun its work. The DNI just named a Civil Liberties Protection Officer (November 2005).

These go along with the following:

Incentives for information sharing D Changes in incentives, in favor of information sharing, have been minimal. The office of the program manager for information sharing is still a start-up, and is not getting the support it needs from the highest levels of government. There remain many complaints about lack of information sharing between federal authorities and state and local level officials.

Government-wide information sharing D
Designating individuals to be in charge of information sharing is not enough. They need resources, active presidential backing, policies and procedures in place that compel sharing, and systems of performance evaluation that appraise personnel on how they carry out information sharing.

Now maybe there is a disconnect, but having universal information sharing between agencies will ensure that sooner or later there will be some agency trodding on civilian rights. Recall the previous discussion of military spying on civilians? CIFA is the project, and people should be concerned about the allowance of such agencies.

The most amusing of the findings though are these:

International broadcasting B
Budgets for international broadcasting to the Arab and Muslim world and U.S.-sponsored broadcasting hours have increased dramatically, and audience shares are growing. But we need to move beyond audience size, expose listeners to new ideas and accurate information about the U.S. and its policies, and measure the impact and influence of these ideas.

Scholarship, exchange, and library programs D
Funding for educational and cultural exchange programs has increased. But more American libraries (Pakistan, for example) are closing rather than opening. The number of young people coming to study in the U.S. from the Middle East continues to decline (down 2% this year, following declines of 9% and 10% in the previous two years).

Support secular education in Muslim countries D
An International Youth Opportunity Fund has been authorized, but has received no funding; secular education programs have been initiated across the Arab world, but are not integrated into a broader counterterrorism strategy. The U.S. has no overarching strategy for educational assistance, and the current level of education reform funding is inadequate.

This is especially entertaining after the recent kerfuffle over the Pay for Press issue in Iraq. The Military puts out factual reporting, though editorially bent to their favor, and the MSM and congress get all twisted into a ball. The commission wants more propaganda broadcasts and don't see any conflict with this issue?

As for Muslim education, either here or there, I find it unlikely that this will ever touch those that are of real concern. The most fanatical groups will see this as more propagandizing in a different venue. Allowances for Muslim students to come to the US has been more restrictive, for security reasons. These students come and then don't leave whent their VISAs expire or they fail to receive the VISA for security reasons. These combined make the number coming over understandably lower. How should the country get more middle-eastern students to come to the US? Lower the security standards?

The preparedness section shows the lack of patience by the commission. Some of these tasks will be very extensive in creating. It also points to the fact that the assessments are going to be done by many people who are making judgement calls on what is "vital" infrastructure.

Provide adequate radio spectrum for first responders F (C if bill passes)
The pending Fiscal Year 2006 budget reconciliation bill would compel the return of the analog TV broadcast (700 Mhz) spectrum, and reserve some for public safety purposes. Both the House and Senate bills contain a 2009 handover date - —too distant given the urgency of the threat. A 2007 handover date would make the American people safer sooner.

Establish a unified Incident Command System C
Although there is awareness of and some training in the ICS, hurricane Katrina demonstrated the absence of full compliance during a multi-jurisdictional/statewide catastrophe—and its resulting costs.

Allocate homeland security funds based on risk F (A if House provision passes)
Congress has still not changed the underlying statutory authority for homeland security grants, or benchmarks to insure that funds are used wisely. As a result, homeland security funds continue to be distributed without regard for risk, vulnerability, or the consequences of an attack, diluting the national security benefits of this important program.

Critical infrastructure risks and vulnerabilities assessment D
A draft National Infrastructure Protection Plan (November 2005) spells out a methodology and process for critical infrastructure assessments. No risk and vulnerability assessments actually made; no national priorities established; no recommendations made on allocation of scarce resources. All key decisions are at least a year away. It is time that we stop talking about setting priorities, and actually set some.

Private sector preparedness C
National preparedness standards are only beginning to find their way into private sector business practices. Private sector preparedness needs to be a higher priority for DHS and for American businesses.

The emergency radio bandwidth failure is just shameful. There is no reason that that little bit of reform couldn't have been completed by now. Especially having to consider that the radio bandwidth will then need to be systemetized into the radios that are used by those groups. Radio upgrades to change the used bandwidth aren't something you do by upgrading software.

The unified incident command system is just funny. They point to Katrina as proof that it doesn't exist, to which you have to credit them with noticing the obvious. Then you have to want to slap them upside of the head for not having a clue about separations of powers between the different levels of government from local to state to federal. You want unified command? You're going to have to talk state and local powers to surrender their control. And that's just not going to happen.

The National Infrastructure Protection Plan is at an interim level at the moment. No full assessment is available. My thought is that there is no surprise at this. Making a full list of the assets and there relative value for the country makes the list incredibly difficult to compile. I imagine it will become even worse when the politicians actually get their hands onto the funding to protect or establish backup infrastuctures. Talk about pork wars. You also have to consider that just because a plan is in place to make the assessment, doesn't mean that everyone using it will actually perform the assesment identically.

As to the private sector preparedness, most businesses have some plan in order to protect their own interests. Then there are those businesses that have interests in letting the government pay for the expensive facility upgrades to make their companies more secure for the citizenry. Who will set the balance here?

Makes you wonder who decides which of these recommendations are of primary concern. Some of these have gotten good grades, but appear to me to be a waste of time and money. Sadly I'm betting it's coming down to politicians making the call. Nothing should make you want a gun and 6 months of non-perishable supplies like that thought.