11.15.2005
US Faulted on Handling Nuclear Threat and Detainees (NZHerald.co.nz)
15.11.05 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - The US government is not doing enough to protect nuclear weapons from terrorists and its handling of terrorism suspects is undermining America's image in the Muslim world, members of a commission that investigated the September 11 attacks said.
Although President George W Bush calls arms proliferation the country's biggest threat and al Qaeda has sought nuclear weapons for a decade, the former commission's chairman Thomas Kean said, "the most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response".
'In short, we still do not have a maximum effort against the most urgent threat... to the American people," he told a news conference, noting that half the nuclear materials in Russia still have no security upgrade.
The bipartisan commission was established by the US Congress to investigate the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network that killed nearly 3000 people.
It formally disbanded after submitting its final report in July last year, but members continue working as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, which tracks implementation of the report's recommendations.
The report recorded little progress on combating weapons proliferation as well as on US foreign policy and public diplomacy issues,
"This kind of grade -- unfulfilled, insufficient, minimal progress -- those grades are failing grades... That is an unacceptable response," Commission member Timothy Roemer said.
(More ... US faulted on handling nuclear threat and detainees - 15 Nov 2005 - World News) ¶ 15:12
WASHINGTON - The US government is not doing enough to protect nuclear weapons from terrorists and its handling of terrorism suspects is undermining America's image in the Muslim world, members of a commission that investigated the September 11 attacks said.
Although President George W Bush calls arms proliferation the country's biggest threat and al Qaeda has sought nuclear weapons for a decade, the former commission's chairman Thomas Kean said, "the most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response".
'In short, we still do not have a maximum effort against the most urgent threat... to the American people," he told a news conference, noting that half the nuclear materials in Russia still have no security upgrade.
The bipartisan commission was established by the US Congress to investigate the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network that killed nearly 3000 people.
It formally disbanded after submitting its final report in July last year, but members continue working as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, which tracks implementation of the report's recommendations.
The report recorded little progress on combating weapons proliferation as well as on US foreign policy and public diplomacy issues,
"This kind of grade -- unfulfilled, insufficient, minimal progress -- those grades are failing grades... That is an unacceptable response," Commission member Timothy Roemer said.
(More ... US faulted on handling nuclear threat and detainees - 15 Nov 2005 - World News) ¶ 15:12
