James Oberstar: “If this is war, as the President has repeatedly said, then I am astonished by the repetition of the cannot-do attitude…”

“If this is war, as the President has repeatedly said, then I am astonished by the repetition of the cannot-do attitude that I have been hearing so far. At the outset of World War II, we took on a million men in one year. Fourteen years ago, Pan Am 103 was blown from the ski over Scotland. In response the British Government screened every piece of baggage. And we are told we cannot do it here. Guess where they bought the technology? Right here in the United States of America. Every machine that I observed over there was manufactured in this country, but we cannot do it in the United States. Why not? Because special interests are holding us back and because of the incompetence of this administration. Ten years ago, Ramsi Youssef developed a plan to blow 12 747s simultaneously from the sky, U.S. planes, over the Pacific. He was only discovered and thwarted by accident. They will return to these patterns. This is a known threat. How quickly we have forgotten September 11 in this body. How quickly we bow to the powerful special interests and campaign contributors. We can meet this deadline. Now, last week the Bush administration fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration for incompetence. Thank God he is gone.”