Panel Slams U.S. Security Progress

Sept. 11 Panel Gives 'More F's Than A's' In Improving Security

(CBS/AP)  "It's a scandal that police and firefighters in large cities still cannot talk to each other reliably when they are hit with a major crisis," Kean said.

Bartlett said the Bush administration had acted on some 70 of the commission's recommendations and that others were awaiting congressional action. "It's important that Congress act on those recommendations," he said.

In a statement released by the FBI, Assistant Director John Miller, he said: "In the past four years since September 11th, the pace of the FBI’s change has been sweeping and continuous."

"The FBI has institutionalized our counterterrorism posture by making counterterrorism our overriding priority, shifting resources, and executing an intelligence-driven coordinated national strategy," Miller said.

The FBI's release contrasted some of the agency's progress since Sept. 11, 2001, in numbers. While there were 2,514 total agents on 9/11, currently, the agency has just short of 5,000. On 9/11, the Joint Terrorism Task Force had 912 personnel; now it has 3,720.

Hamilton, in a joint appearance with Kean on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, said, "We believe that another attack will occur. It's not a question of if. We are not as well-prepared as we should be."

National security adviser Stephen Hadley said President Bush is committed to putting in place most of the recommendations.

But citizens visiting Ground Zero told Levinson the commission's findings disappointed them.

"It is kind of sad I think that in four years we don't seem to have been able to bring things up to snuff," said George Eichler, who was visiting Lower Manhattan from North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Monica Gabrielle, whose husband died in the World Trade Center attacks, said: "Each citizen of the United States should be thoroughly concerned and start ... calling their elected officials and demanding answers as to why these things are not fixed." Hear Gabrielle's response to the report (audio).

Some members of the commission, whose recommendations now are promoted through a privately funded group known as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, contended the government has been remiss by failing to act more quickly.

Kean and Hamilton urged Congress to pass spending bills that would allow police and fire to communicate across radio spectrums and to reallocate money so that Washington and New York, which have more people and symbolic landmarks, could receive more for terrorism defense.

Both bills have stalled in Congress, in part over the level of spending and turf fights over which states should get the most dollars.

Congress established the commission in 2002 to investigate government missteps that led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when 19 Arab hijackers organized by al Qaeda flew airliners into New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon and caused a crash in the Pennsylvania countryside.

The panel's 567-page final report (web site), which became a national best seller, did not blame Mr. Bush or former President Clinton for missteps contributing to the attacks but did say they failed to make anti-terrorism a higher priority.