What Has Changed Since Last Year on 9/11?

By Andrew Cochran

As we approach the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it's informative to recall what our Contributing Experts said last year at this time and compare their statements with the events and disclosures of the past year (we don't mind being held to account for what we say). We held a live panel on Capitol Hill at that point titled, "Are We Safer?" Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, was our keynote speaker, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, provided a statement. You can read the presentations of the Experts and the Congressmen at that panel here (punctuation anomalies are due to thte transfer of the post from the old website). Here is an excerpt from each Expert's statement last year and a link to their recent posts on the same subject - I admit that this is the pessimistic view:

Dennis Lormel: "In fact, U.S. investigative, intelligence and regulatory agencies have achieved noteworthy successes in the disruption of funding flows. Unfortunately, most of these successes cannot be made public because of investigative or intelligence considerations." (Remember the SWIFT program disclosures this year?)

Michael Cutler: "(I)t is my belief, that at least where the immigration component to the issue of national security is concerned, we are at least as vulnerable today as we were on September 10, 2001." (See his testimony last week on continued immigration vulnerabilities.)

Victor Comras: "Most countries have failed to take any action against tangible assets supporting terrorism, including businesses and other income-producing assets..." (Europe still hasn't designated Hizbollah as a terrorist group.)

Douglas Farah: "A second example is the slow nature of the response to the crucial role that leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood have played in the radical Islamist financial infrastructure, including that of al Qaeda." (Nothing has changed.)

Zachary Abuza: "The radical Abu Sayyaf have regenerated from a group of kidnappers into a bonafide terrorist organization, who have stepped up ties to JI (Jemaah Islamayah) and hence improved their technical proficiency." (No change here either.)

Michael Kraft: "(W)hen it came to the hard work of providing the actual funding for key counterterrorism programs, both the Executive Branch and Congress have fallen short." (Guess what - no change here either.)

I really hope we're not writing the same stuff on September 11, 2007.

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