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The nation has become safer, but our job is far from over
U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas
Nearly three years later, the images, sounds and emotions are still as clear as the cloudless sky that September morning. It was the wake-up call that came too late. Sept. 11 opened the world�s eyes, and the 9-11 Commission has opened our minds.
After 2.5 million pages of documents and more than 1,200 individual interviews, the 9-11 Commission issued a final report on our security shortcomings before Sept. 11, 2001. No one will dispute that we were unprepared for the terrorist attacks, but the commission�s findings help pinpoint our weaknesses.
No single step would have prevented this horrible day, but there were some missed opportunities to intervene. For example, the government did not discover false statements on visa applications, recognize fake or manipulated passports, nor did it require a thorough screening of airline passengers. The arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was �interested in flight training for the purpose of using airplanes as a terrorist act,� was not linked to heightened indications of an attack.
The bipartisan commission found that our failures took place over many years and administrations. As your U.S. senator, I have worked judiciously since 9-11 to make sure we are never caught off guard again.
As the commission reminds us, we are safer today than we were on Sept. 11, but we are not safe. Their recommendations provide us the opportunity to re-evaluate our homeland defense. Above all, the vice chairman called for a need of unity within the government and within the world. The report recommends that we integrate all the elements of national power: diplomacy, intelligence, covert action, law enforcement, economic policy, foreign aid, homeland defense and military strength. Another overriding theme was that the U.S. must continue the dialogue between the West and the Islamic worlds along with sustaining a coalition of nations that cooperate bilaterally and multilaterally. To successfully implement these proposals, the commission recommended a national counterterrorism center and, at the top, one national director to unify the entire intelligence community. This would require major changes to the federal government, and it is an idea that deserves serious consideration.
It is important to remember, however, that over the course of the last three years we�ve made great strides to secure our people and our nation. We have implemented a new policy on terrorism by holding to account terrorist groups and the states that sponsor them. No longer will we allow dangerous threats to gather overseas unchecked.
We have transformed the FBI into an agency focused on preventing terrorist attacks. The Patriot Act gives law enforcement the capability to pursue terrorists, considering the technology now used for communication. We conducted the largest reorganization of the federal government since 1947 by creating the Homeland Security Department, bringing unparalleled focus and resources to defending our homeland.
One area in which I have been particularly active is aviation security. From my role as chair of the Senate aviation subcommittee, I worked to pass air security legislation that ensured security screeners have uniform qualifications and standards, placed air marshals on flights and provided bomb detection machines in airports, among other safeguards. We are providing much greater support for America�s first responders � nearly tripling spending on homeland security since 2001.
And we have killed or captured a majority of al-Qaeda�s leadership, toppled the Taliban, which gave al-Qaeda sanctuary, and liberated the people of both Afghanistan and Iraq from ruthless regimes with well-established records of supporting terrorists.
Yet we know our job is not over. As the 9-11 Commission declared, this is the end of the beginning, the threat is still real � and we do not have the �luxury of time.� If there is one thing to learn from both that clear September morning and this comprehensive report, it is that we must be eternally vigilant. Our nation and world are safer today than they were three years ago, but our job is far from over. We will stay the course, we will win the war on terror, and freedom will prevail.
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