Report: Water systems are still easy

"Aquathin OP-ED Commentary"

Let me start with the way I end most news bulletins..."I love my Aquathin". What you will read below is incomprehensible for today. It says "We know there is bad about to happen...we cannot stop it". The most serious point here is for you to address this with your Customers...that the Patented Aquathin Process is designed to protect against these serious concerns. You can read that all the legislation, CIA and FBI will not provide adequate protection....and if its of this high a degree of concern here, multiply it exponentially for overseas....who would have thought that such a terrible event could have taken place in a paradise of Bali two weeks ago. It is up to each and every Authorized Domestic and International Aquathin Dealer to educate that only Aquathin provides the very best in home water security. I love my Aquathin.

 

Report: Water systems are still easy terrorist target

 

WASHINGTON — A federal task force says American water, food, power, communications and banking systems remain easy targets for terrorists despite the government's efforts at tightening the nation's domestic security in the past year.

The Washington Post said the panel, sponsored by the private Council on Foreign Relations and chaired by former senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, suggests that the task of protecting the nation is so complicated and expensive that the government's multibillion-dollar efforts will barely dent the problem.

"A year after 9/11, America remains dangerously unprepared to prevent and respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on US soil", the commision said, according to the Post.  "In all likelihood, the next attack will result in even greater casualties and widespread disruption to our lives and economy."

But the Office of Homeland Security, headed by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, said yesterday that the new report is out of date and doesn't recognize the administration's efforts, the newspaper reported.

Among the looming crises that the task force says require immediate attention, the Post said, are:

• The nation's 650,000 state and local police officers operate "in virtual intelligence vacuum" because they are denied access to terrorist watch lists compiled by the State Department..

• Local police, fire and emergency medical personnel can't communicate with each other in an emergency because their radios are incompatible, and they lack the training and protective equipment in the event of a chemical or biological attack.

Numerous legal barriers exist that discourage major industries from addressing security concerns; specifically, most private water systems avoid checking water for signs of sabotage because of fear of litigation.

The panel's leaders said they do not intend to criticize the Bush administration, but rather to focus the nation's attention on what they consider a crisis, the article said.

The report said there are not enough laboratories in the country to test water for contamination, the newspaper reported.  That was only one of many instances in which the panelists proposed the lifting of laws or regulations that discourage firms from joining the war on terrorism, said the Post.  Energy executives, for example, fear that they will be sued for antitrust violations if they develop industry-wide plans for responding to attacks on the energy infrastructure, the report notes.

Besides Hart and Rudman, the other members of the 15-member task force include former secretaries of state George P. Schultz and Warren Christopher; retired Gen. John W. Vessey Jr. and retired Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., both former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; William H. Webster, former director of the FBI and the CIA; and Harold Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health.

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Edited from Tech Bank 10/25/02