http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=3142325
Think Tank Gives U.S. Homeland Security 'D' Grade
Wed July 23, 2003 09:36 AM ET
By Deborah Charles
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has been slow to tighten domestic security and has failed to spend enough on some essential programs, a center-left think tank said on Wednesday.
The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), which has ties to the Democratic Leadership Council, gave the government a "D" grade in its report card on homeland security and said much improvement was needed.
"In spite of satisfactory results in a few areas, taken as a whole, the Bush administration's efforts to protect the homeland have been surprisingly lax and inadequate," the institute said in its report.
"The Bush administration has not brought the same energy and attention to homeland security that it has brought to overseas military efforts," it said. "In short, President Bush has failed to fulfill his promise to make homeland security his top priority."
Six months after the creation of a new department charged with protecting the nation and nearly two years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the country is still not well protected, the report said.
PPI gave the government a failing grade on a comprehensive national threat assessment which has been mandated by Congress but has yet to be completed.
Until the assessment is completed, the federal government is forced to operate under the assumption that every facility in every state is equally at risk of being attacked.
"Without this information, the administration and the state and local governments who rely on Washington for threat evaluation have been flying blind," PPI's report said. "Many of the administration's other failures on the homeland security front can be tied to this failure."
PPI gave the administration an average grade on coordinating inter-agency intelligence but gave it an "F" for failing to integrate "terrorist watch lists."
"One of the most egregious problems is a failure to develop an integrated watch list," said PPI vice president Rob Atkinson. "It's emblematic of their problems, because it's so easy to do."
PPI's report said the administration had done well in improving aircraft security and gave the administration an "A" for nuclear power plant security.