Government gets 5 "F's," 12 "D's" in last 9/11 report

WASHINGTON — The federal government received failing and mediocre grades Monday from the former Sept. 11 commission, whose members said in a final report that the Bush administration and Congress have balked at enacting numerous reforms that could save American lives and prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

The 10-member bipartisan panel — whose book-length report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks became a surprise best-seller — issued a "report card" that included 5 "F's," 12 "D's" and two "incompletes" in categories ranging from airline-passenger screening to improving first responders' communication systems.

The group also said there has been little progress in forcing federal agencies to share intelligence and terrorism information and sharply criticized government efforts to secure weapons of mass destruction or establish clear standards for the proper treatment of U.S. detainees.

"We believe that the terrorists will strike again," the panel's chairman, Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, told reporters in Washington. "If they do, and these reforms that might have prevented such an attack have not been implemented, what will our excuses be?"

Leading Democrats on Capitol Hill immediately seized on the report, accusing the Bush administration and the GOP-controlled Congress of failing to adequately prepare for future terrorist strikes. Republicans and the White House countered that the government has adopted many of the commission's proposed reforms and that administration policies have helped prevent additional catastrophic attacks in the United States.

The report card, which assigns letter grades to the panel's 41 key recommendations, marks the last official act by commission members, whose hearings and findings have sparked three years of public debate over the extent of government mistakes before the Sept. 11 attacks. After the release of the "9/11 Commission Report" last year, the commission re-created itself as a private nonprofit group focused on pressuring Congress and the Bush administration to adopt its recommended reforms.

According to the panel, the government deserves only one top grade, an A-, for its "vigorous effort against terrorist financing." The panel also gave out B's and C's for government performance on issues ranging from the creation of a director of national intelligence to an ongoing commitment to Afghanistan.

But in nearly half the categories, the government merited a D, an F or an incomplete grade, according to the report card. Kean and other commission members said at a news conference in Washington that all the goals should be achievable, but that many have languished amid political skirmishing and bureaucratic turf battles.

"None of this is rocket science," said John Lehman, a Republican and a former Navy secretary in the Reagan administration. "None of it is in the 'too hard' category."

One of his colleagues, former Rep. Timothy Roemer, D-Ill., said that "al-Qaida is quickly changing and we are not. Al-Qaida is highly dynamic and we are not. Al-Qaida is highly imaginative and we are not."

Kean and other panel members focused particular attention on two issues currently stalled in Congress. One proposal would change the way the Department of Homeland Security distributes state grant money, most of which is currently allocated evenly among the states — resulting in less-populous states such as Wyoming receiving nearly twice as much money per capita as major terrorist targets such as New York.

An amendment to a House bill reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act would place primary emphasis for homeland-security funding on risk assessments, but the proposal is not currently included in a proposed House-Senate compromise bill because of opposition from small-state senators.

The panel also sharply criticized Congress for failing to enable first responders to communicate easily by setting aside part of the broadcast spectrum for their use. A pending budget bill would open part of the spectrum for first responders in 2009, but the Sept. 11 panel said that date is "too distant given the urgency of the threat."

These and other criticisms prompted a flurry of news releases and statements from congressional Democrats, who argued that Republicans had failed to make the country safe. Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., said that "an 'F' is too high a grade for the Bush White House and Washington Republicans," while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the report an "indictment of continued failure by the administration."

But in a document distributed to reporters, the White House outlined a lengthy list of changes already implemented after the Sept. 11 commission's findings and highlighted other areas, such as the homeland security funding issue, in which the administration has supported changes.

"We have taken significant steps to better protect the American people at home," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. "There is more to do. This is the president's highest responsibility."

The FBI received a "C" grade from the Sept. 11 panel, which said that the bureau was transforming itself too slowly and that "significant deficiencies remain." While FBI officials "agree that more remains to be done," Assistant Director John Miller said, "the pace of the FBI's change has been sweeping and continuous."