Senator says citizens hold keys to a safer country
Sen. Bob Graham gave a lecture on the potential of an attack similar to that of Sept. 11 on the United States and what needs to be fixed in our country’s intelligence on Tuesday, Feb. 9. Hosted by the College of Social Sciences, the lecture asked, “Eight Years after 9/11 – Are we Safer?”
For Graham, the answer is no. After his work with the Joint Inquiry in 2003 and 10 years of service on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, including 18 months as chairman, Graham has accrued a great deal of knowledge on the subject.
Graham believes the U.S. is too concerned with looking in the "rearview mirror" to focus on future threats.
“A familiar pattern regarding U.S. intelligence has recurred,” Graham said. “We have become fixated on the rearview mirror to the exclusion of what is coming toward us.”
Graham is currently the chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, whose purpose is to further the work of the 9/11 Commission. The Commission’s’ report, titled “World at Risk,” was published in 2008 and came to some alarming conclusions.
“It is more likely than not that such a weapon will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere before year-end 2013,” Graham said.
A second attack could leave the country stunned.
“When he asked ‘If we went to code red, would you know what to do?’ I don’t feel like anyone even knew,” sophomore finance and management major Ashlee Darby said. “There was a wide range of ages here, and for even the older people not to know what to do—that was the scariest thing.”
Not satisfied with researching solutions only within U.S. borders, Graham traveled to the U.K., which, according to him, has a reputable and admirable system of counter-terrorism intelligence.
According to Graham, Scotland Yard had asked their public, “If you were a terrorist and you wanted to deliver a bomb in a neighborhood terrorist city, what do you think they would use?” Many respondents suggested an ambulance, because they believed most people would defer to one. The U.K. government then searched the country and found hundreds of unaccounted for ambulances and now have started a system to keep tabs on each one’s location.
Graham said that intelligence research in this country must model after the U.K., and get the people involved.
“Senator Graham raised a yellow flag on this issue. It is something that Americans should be concerned about,” senior criminology major Sam Lyons said.
Despite the challenges ahead, Graham said he remains optimistic about the America people’s potential to overcome the terrorist threat.
“I believe that the American people when informed of their status and realizing the consequences, will act. I am optimistic that we can turn that ‘No’ into a ‘Yes’ and in doing so, make our families, our neighborhood and our nation a safer and more vibrant place.”
