
 |
|
May 20, 2013
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Dec. 8, 2005
/ 7 Kislev, 5766
Too many of the same people who demanded the 9-11 commission to protect against future attacks also ready to kick intelligence workers for their every mistake
By
Debra J. Saunders
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's truly a shame that the panelists on the 9-11 commission
were such self-important windbags their 41 recommendations, they never
fail to remind, were (all bow) "unanimous and bipartisan" that they blew
their chance to make this country safer.
Don't' get me wrong. Washington has been unconscionably slow in
doing the practical things needed such as providing a radio spectrum for
emergency first-responders to make America more secure. The panel also
was right to criticize the Senate for larding a homeland security spending
bill with pork.
That said, the panel's hodgepodge recommendations the radio
spectrum was the panel's 27th recommendation, yet it magically moved to the
top of the list in the commission's devastating report card allowed the
good stuff to get lost. It didn't help that Congress and the Bush
administration were better at acting on the panels' many meaningless or
wrong-headed recommendations than practical reforms.
What do I mean by meaningless? Try: The panel refused to take a
stand on the Patriot Act. Instead, it recommended that the executive branch
make a case for "retaining a particular governmental power" and suggested
there be a "full and informed debate."
And here's wrong-headed: As Judge Richard A. Posner, a judge on
the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, noted in his new book,
"Preventing Surprise Attacks, Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11," the
panel was wrong to push for more centralized intelligence and Washington was
wrong to heed that call. As Posner noted over the phone yesterday, "Whenever
you take a bunch of agencies and pretend to turn them into one agency,"
there is a loss of momentum as employees worry about their jobs and work at
re-establishing a chain of command. "These reorganizations generally do more
harm than good."
Another problem with "blame commissions," as Posner called this
panel: "One unfortunate consequence is that the people who get blamed for an
undesired outcome are the people who were doing their best and their best
may have been very good to prevent it from happening," Posner wrote. So,
as America was clamoring for better intelligence, the panel issued
recommendations designed to "weaken the CIA."
I prefer Posner's recommendations to those of the 9-11
commission: Detailed evacuation plans for major buildings, biometric
screening by U.S. Customs officers at ports of entry, inspecting incoming
freight, better airline passenger screening, training more Americans in
Arabic, Farsi and other languages, more spies, diverting money from the "war
on drugs" to counterterrorism and creating "a domestic security agency on
the model of England's M15."
It would help if Americans and the media got real about
how you fight terror. They demand better intelligence, but are hostile to
the CIA. Critics want the government to discover domestic terrorist plots,
but oppose the Patriot Act.
It's time for the American media to stop expecting perfection.
There seems to be a crusade for a war without setbacks and for
intelligence-gathering that doesn't invade anyone's privacy. That's simply
and utterly unrealistic.
There is also an odd hubris in expecting any set of
recommendations to prevent, "surprise" attacks. Acting on panel
recommendations, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, boasted that "just as the
National Security Act of 1947 (which established the CIA) was passed to
prevent another Pearl Harbor, the Intelligence Reform Act" which she
authored "will help us prevent another 9-11." As Posner noted, "She
overlooked the fact that 9-11 was another Pearl Harbor."
And, let me add, Collins is the chairwoman of the Senate
Homeland Security Committee, which produced a pork-heavy homeland security
bill earlier this year.
Posner observed, "Our government has somehow gotten into a
position where it's extremely difficult to accomplish anything."
I'd say that it's nearly impossible. What Americans don't need,
they get pronto. A top-heavy intelligence apparatus has already made it
through Congress: Washington can overload a bureaucracy in record time. But
the radio spectrum for first responders is simply too practical to be
urgent.
Too many of the same people who demanded the 9-11 commission to
protect against future attacks also have been ready to kick intelligence
workers for their every mistake. That's simply not intelligent.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here.
Debra J. Saunders Archives
© 2005, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|