Experts debate U.S. security

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge touted new measures earlier this month to improve security in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but some experts say the efforts are futile.

"As all of you know, these tragic attacks required a swift and drastic change to our understanding of what it meant to secure America," Ridge said before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.

At the meeting, Ridge said the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, a brainchild of the Bush administration, will serve to improve the fight against terrorism by making sure the government's intelligence agencies share information.

But some officials are skeptical of the organization's efficiency.

"(The TTIC) pretends to improve the sharing of information among disparate agencies," said Robert Steele, the founder and CEO of OSS.net, a group dedicated to the global dissemination of intelligence information.

He said the TTIC is "a cosmetic attempt to show some form of progress."

He also said President Bush's National Counterterrorism Center, which aims to consolidate most of the nation's intelligence on terrorism, does not further the agency because it does not entertain fundamental reform.

"You can polish a turd all you want; it is still going to be a turd," he said.

But I.M. Destler, a professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland-College Park, said that the new measures are working and that the nation is safer overall.

"There's better security at airports and borders than we had before," he said.

In addition to the counterterrorism center, Bush also created the Homeland Security Information Network - an Internet-based system allowing different operation centers to receive and share the same information. It can be used by governors and homeland security advisers in all states and territories of the United States.

Steele said it won't have much of an effect.

"This (network) is largely fiction," Steele said. "Until Tom Ridge has community intelligence centers, one in each of the 50 states ... Tom Ridge will not be able to communicate downward in an effective manner."

Regardless of the efforts the government makes in preventing terrorism, some experts say, it is impossible to create an organization that will end all attacks.

Cori Dauber, UNC professor of communication studies, said people turn to terrorism because it is almost impossible to stop.

"There are just too many schools, hotels, restaurants, bars, office buildings, et cetera," she said. "The Israelis can't do it, and Israel is roughly the size of New Jersey."

"Protect one possible target," she said, "(and) they attack a different one."

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.