2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, December 5, 2005
NATION/WORLD
9/11
Commission: U.S. at risk NEWS IN BRIEF
Members say Bush and Congress
have failed to enact strong security
measures in response to Sept. 11
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. is, at great risk
for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the
White House have failed to enact several strong secu-
rity measures, members of the former Sept. 11 com-
mission said yesterday.
"It's not a priority for the government right now,"
said the former chairman, Thomas Kean, ahead of the
group's release of a report today assessing how well its
recommendations have been followed.
"More than four years after 9/11 ... people are not pay-
ing attention," the former Republican governor of New
Jersey said. "God help us if we have another attack."
Added Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic vice
chairman of the commission: "We believe that another
attack will occur. It's not a question of if. We are not as
well-prepared as we should be."
The five Republicans and five Democrats on the
commission, whose recommendations are now pro-
moted through a privately funded group known as the
9/11 Public Discourse Project, conclude that the gov-
ernment deserves "more Fs than As" in responding to
their 41 suggested changes.
Since the commission's final report in July 2004,
the government has enacted the centerpiece proposal
to create a national intelligence director. But the gov-
ernment has stalled on other ideas, including improv-
ing communication among emergency responders and
shifting federal terrorism-fighting money so it goes to
states based on risk level.
"There is a lack of a sense of urgency," Hamilton
said. "There are so many competing priorities. We've
got three wars going on: one in Afghanistan, one in
Iraq and the war against terror. And it's awfully hard
to keep people focused on something like this."
National security adviser Stephen Hadley said Sun-
day that President Bush is committed to putting in
place most of the commission's recommendations.
"Obviously, as we've said all along, we are safer, but
not yet safe. There is more to do," Hadley said on "Fox
News Sunday."
Ex-commissioners contended the government has
been remiss by failing to act more quickly.
Kean said the Transportation Security Administra-
tion was wrong to announce changes last week that
will allow airline passengers to carry small scissors
and some sharp tools. He also said the agency, by
now, should have consolidated databases of passen-
ger information into a single "terror watch list" to aid
screening.
"I don't think we have to go backward here," said
Kean, who appeared with Hamilton on NBC's "Meet
the Press."
"They're talking about using more money for ran-
dom checks. Terrorists coming through the airport
may still not be spotted," Kean said.
Kean and Hamilton urged Congress to pass
spending bills that would allow police and fire to
communicate across radio spectrums and to real-
locate money so that Washington and New York,
which have more people and symbolic landmarks,
could receive more for terrorism defense.
Both bills have stalled in Congress, in part over
the level of spending and turf fights over which states
should get the most dollars.
"This is a no-brainer," said Hamilton, a former
Indiana congressman.
"From the standpoint of responding to a disaster, the
key responders must be able to talk with one another.
They could not do it on 9/11, and as a result of that,
lives were lost. They could not do it at (Hurricane)
Katrina. They still cannot do it."
As for the dollar dispute, Hamilton said, "We know
what terrorists want to do: they want to kill as many
Americans as possible. That means you protect the
Washington monument and United States Capitol, and
not other places."
High Court takes
reriigdebate
Case to decide whether
colleges must accomadate
military recruiters if they
accept gov't money
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S.
Supreme Court confronts a gay rights
issue this week, in a case that asks
whether law schools can bar military
recruiters because of the Pentagon's
"don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Each fall, recruiters of all types
jam law schools seeking top students
in job fairs, receptions and interview
sessions.
Justices will decide whether univer-
sities that accept government money
must accommodate the military even
if the schools forbid the participation
of recruiters from public agencies and
private companies that have discrimina-
tory policies.
Law schools say they would wel-
come military recruiters if the Pentagon
dropped its policy against openly gay
personnel. Gay men and women may
serve only if they keep their sexual ori-
entation to themselves.
It is the first time that the court has
dealt with a gay-rights related case since
a contentious 2003 ruling that struck
down laws criminalizing gay sex. In
2000, the court ruled that the Boy
Scouts have the right to ban leaders who
are openly gay.
The latest appeal pits the Pentagon
against a group of law schools and pro-
fessors. The justices hear arguments
tomorrow.
The government contends if it
provides financial support to a col-
lege - with grants for research,
for example - then in exchange it
should be able to recruit "the very
students whose education it has sup-
ported." In this case, that means hav-
ing the ability to recruit students, a
tool made more essential since the
Sept. 11 attacks.
Federal financial support of colleges
MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan
Missile, al-QaWd death may be linked
Shrapnel that appeared to be from an American-made missile was found yes-
terday at the house where Pakistan said a top al-Qaida operative was killed in an
explosion, although President Bush's national security adviser declined to confirm
the death.
U.S. and Pakistani officials declined to confirm an NBC report, citing anony-
mous officials, that the attack on the house where Hamza Rabia reportedly died
was launched by a U.S. drone.
But local residents found at least two pieces of shrapnel at the blast scene
inscribed with the designation of the Hellfire missile, which is carried by the U.S.
Air Force's unmanned, remote-controlled Predator aircraft.
The metal pieces bore the designator "AGM-114," the words "guided missile"
and the initials "US."
John Pike, director of the defense website GlobalSecurity.org, said the Hellfire is
used almost exclusively by the U.S. military. Al-Qaida operatives would be unlike-
ly to have Hellfire missiles, Pike said, although he said the possibility could not be
completely discounted.
CONCORD, New Hampshire
Family of N.H. children will visit Ohio
The mother of two children who were shot to death and buried by their father 2
1/2 years ago plans to visit the shallow Ohio grave where their bodies were finally
found last week.
The remains of Sarah Gehring, 14, and her brother Philip, 11, were identified
Saturday by the medical examiner's office in Summit County, Ohio. The discovery
of their wrapped bodies, each marked with a duct-tape cross as their father had
said, ended Teri Knight's long search but renewed her mourning.
Her new husband, Jim Knight, said yesterday that the couple would decide in
the next few days when to leave for Ohio, probably to have the children's bodies
cremated there and then return home to New Hampshire with their ashes.
"At some point, we will have a funeral," he said. "These last items, it's just a
series of things we need to do for ourselves."
The children were last seen arguing with their father, Manuel Gehring, at a July
Fourth fireworks show in Concord. After Gehring was arrested days later in Cali-
fornia, he told authorities he had pulled off a highway the night of the fireworks
show and shot both children, then drove for hours with their bodies in his van
before burying them somewhere off Interstate 80.
BAGHDAD
Allawi claims assassination attempt against life
An angry crowd confronted Iraq's former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi at a Shi-
ite shrine south of Baghdad yesterday, forcing him to flee in a hail of stones and
shoes. Allawi called the attack an assassination attempt.
In Baghdad, one of the five judges in the trial of Saddam Hussein stepped down
because one of the co-defendants may have been involved in the execution of his broth-
er, a court official said yesterday. Another official said police had uncovered a plot to
fire rockets at the courtroom when the trial convenes today for a third session.
The confrontation in Najaf began when about a dozen men, some armed with clubs,
tried to block Allawi from entering the Imam Ali mosque, one of the holiest Shiite
shrines in Iraq. Allawi's bodyguards fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports
CORRECTIONS
An editorial in the Nov. 28 edition of the Daily (Trickery at City Hall)
should not have stated that Councilman Leigh Greden (D-Ward 3) proposed
a ban on placing couches on porches in the summer of 2004. Greden sup-
ported the proposed couch ban ordinance, but did not propose it or intro-
duce the ordinance to City Council.
A story in the Nov. 2 edition of the Daily (Ecology center pressures Dow)
incorrectly quoted Environmental Health Sciences Prof David Garabrant incor-
rectly as saying "The study's goal is to discover the best possible method to clean
up the chemicals." The article should have quoted Garabrant as saying "Our study
goal is to find out whether dioxins in the soils get into people's bodies and, if so, the
pathways by which this happens."
Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com.
Ebe 3iduen DuiI
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*
Wisconsin Army National Guard recruiter Sgt. 1st Class Erik Hoffman
talks with Hannelore Davis at his recruiting stand in the cafeteria at
Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville, Wisc.
tops $35 billion (euro30 billion) a year.
"Part of the cultural meaning of the
case is bound up in questions about
gay rights," said Cornell Law School
Prof. Trevor Morrison, a former clerk
to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg. "Indirectly, it's about the
'don't ask, don't tell policy."'
-w ---BM
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