Jon L. Christensen: “we know that September 11 was now almost 2 years ago, and that my country has a limited attention span. Even so, I…”

“we know that September 11 was now almost 2 years ago, and that my country has a limited attention span. Even so, I cannot believe that 2 weeks after a bipartisan report told us that we are terribly unprepared for a bioterrorism attack, there have been no hearings. Specifically, the report, compiled after interviews and assessments around this country, said that our first responders, the first line of defense and response in any kind of terrorist attack, is not even close to being prepared. Yet we have hardly heard a whimper up here, which makes me wonder if we have heard what the report said. So I want to use this time to just highlight a few things, that hopefully will finally get everyone's attention. First, while there may be a few places that are ahead, on the average fire departments cannot communicate or protect their staff in the case of a WMD attack. Only 10 percent have the capability to respond to a building collapse. Neither are police departments prepared, and most cities do not have the means to identify a hazardous agent. They are underfunded by almost $100 million. But even if the money was there, it is not likely it would improve the situation, because the task force found that underlying all this, there is no preparedness, coordination or standards. Local jurisdictions have had to develop them on their own, so we probably have a zillion plans, uncoordinated and with no clear guidance and direction from the Department of Homeland Security.”