How Safe Is The U.S. From Terror?
This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.
The War on Terror started in earnest five years ago. Sept. 11 changed everything, right?
Our CIA and FBI upped their games in no uncertain terms so that the terrorist threat could be pinpointed and eliminated wherever and whenever it began to raise its ugly head ... or so we'd like to believe.
Several weeks ago I mentioned here in passing the problem with keeping up with the jihadists is they spread their info and ideology all over the Internet on thousands of sites. Before 9/11, there were perhaps a half dozen sites. Now the Internet sites are growing like mushrooms in a cave — come back tomorrow and they'll be more.
You and I would assume that our FBI would be full of Arabic-speaking analysts who could comb through those sites to find the bad guys. But we'd be wrong.
The Washington Post reports today that the FBI has only 33 agents with quote "even a limited proficiency in Arabic". And none of them — none — works on international terrorism.
Have a nice day.
Harry's daily commentary can be heard on manyCBS Radio News affiliates across the country.
By Harry Smith