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Deadlines are long past on terrorism defense plan
JOURNAL WIRE REPORT
Monday, October 31, 2005


WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has missed many deadlines set by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for developing ways to protect airplanes, ships and railways from terrorists.

A plan to defend ships and ports from attack is six months overdue. Rules to protect air cargo from infiltration by terrorists are two months late. A study on the cost of giving anti-terrorism training to federal law-enforcement officers who fly commercially was supposed to be done more than three years ago.

"The incompetence that we recently saw with FEMA's leadership appears to exist throughout the Homeland Security Department," said Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. "Our nation is still vulnerable."

Legislators piled on deadline after deadline for reports, plans and regulations while the department, created after the 2001 attacks, had to integrate 22 agencies with 170,000 workers and cope with terrorist threats and hurricanes.