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CNN Live At Daybreak

Homeland Security: Changes and Problems in American Security

Aired November 09, 2001 - 05:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KAGAN: It's been almost two months since we've been watching that scene where the Twin Towers used to stand, and now there are some visible changes to security efforts in the United States.

Our David George explains what's different now, and what could be next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID GEORGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: September 11th showed how vulnerable and unprepared the American homeland was. It took the administration less than a month to finalize plans for a beefed up homeland defense.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today I sign an executive order creating a new Homeland Security office.

GEORGE: Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge got the job and his marching orders.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY: Detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from terrorist attacks -- an extraordinary mission.

GEORGE: Americans shouldn't have been surprised that such a mission was necessary. After all, terrorists had set off a bomb under the World Trade Center in 1993 and destroyed two U.S. embassies in East Africa five years later and rammed the USS Cole in port in Yemen.

It wasn't as though it was news that terrorists had U.S. targets in their sights. Now that terrorism has our attention, things are starting to happen. The National Guard is providing added security at airports and train terminals. Fighter jets patrol the air over certain cities. The Coast Guard has launched the biggest port security operation since World War II.

The U.S. capitol is newly equipped with biochemical sensors. Blast-resistant mylar has been applied to some of the windows. Guards stand at the Golden Gate Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, and atop a hydroelectric dam in Georgia. The National Governors Association says every state is reviewing security plans, with virtually every state appointing a head of Homeland Security.

All this extra security has costs. Police officers across the land are working hours of overtime, threatening to bust their department's budgets. Hazardous materials response teams are being run ragged checking out false anthrax alarms.

Governor Ridge, who promised the nation's mayors he would be their best friend in Washington, couldn't help when the cities asked for immediate emergency financial relief. Then again, when the postal service needed money to make post offices safer, Ridge came up with $175 million within hours.

That kind of bureaucratic odyssey shows how Ridge has an unenviable -- some would say almost impossible -- job coordinating the efforts of the 46 federal agencies with anti terrorist responsibilities with the more than 18,000 state and local authorities responsible for domestic security.

All this without a budget, not even the prestige that goes with a Cabinet seat. And the most high profile attempt to solve one of the most glaring homeland security weaknesses has gotten bogged down in all too familiar partisan wrangling.

Both Houses of Congress agree airport baggage screeners should be higher paid and better supervised. But the House and Senate don't agree on whether these workers should be federal employees or private hires. So while politicians wrangle, travelers continue to attempt to carry an amazing array of weapons and contraband onto aircraft and some of them get through a system that is still riddled with holes two months after terrorists attacked America.

David George, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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