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 | The WTC Recovery Effort
Photo: MTV
| On September 11, 2001, America lost more than almost 3,000 of its citizens. The nation also lost its innate sense of invincibility. The synchronized hijacking of four airliners over the east coast revealed in horrifying detail that acts of 21st century terrorism can take place anywhere, anytime.
No government response can restore belief that the U.S. is immune from the world's most disruptive elements. In the last 12 months, however, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have tightened security, stepped up investigations, and arrested hundreds in efforts to prevent further attacks and bring those responsible for September 11 to justice. The moves have been hailed by those who have long sought more aggressive counter terrorism measures but criticized by civil liberties groups, who say the government has frequently violated individual rights in its pursuit of subversive elements.
Below is a look at a few key issues that are defining the war on terror here at home.
The Homeland Security Act
To address to the ongoing threat of terrorism, last spring President Bush proposed the most sweeping overhaul of the federal government in decades. His legislation would bring 170,000 federal workers from a wide variety of government departments into one agency known as the Homeland Security Department. The department's responsibilities would include:
- Border Security
- Emergency preparedness
- Defense against chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks.
The new department would have access to information gathered by the CIA and the FBI, though both those agencies would continue to function independently. It would also issue warnings about potential threats to domestic targets.
The bill received relatively swift approval from the House of Representatives and the White House had hoped to sign it into law by September 11, 2002, but the legislation has hit a roadblock in the Senate.
The president argues that the new department should not be bound by the same civil service guidelines as other agencies because of the importance of its proposed responsibilities. Specifically, the legislation he supports would allow the executive branch to hire, fire, and re-assign employees in the Homeland Security Department as it sees fit. Ordinarily, federal workers enjoy certain rights that protect job security. The president says these rules would hinder the new department from performing optimally, especially in times of crisis.
Bush says he will veto the legislation if it arrives on his desk without the management provisions he wants. Speaking at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on August 15, the president said, "If you're trying to defend the homeland, if you need to act quickly in response to a threat, we need to be able to move resources."
Democrats say Bush is using the legislation to water down the rights of federal workers that were established through collective bargaining agreements. They accuse the president of leveraging public fears about terrorism to push an agenda of de-unionization.
Appearing September 2 on NBC's "Meet the Press" program, former Democratic vice presidential nominee and current Senator Joseph Lieberman said, "It is not a real issue and certainly not reason to veto this bill and delay the security of our defenses, the raising of our guard against terrorist attack."
Resolving the dispute is likely to be one of the thorniest issues facing Congress as the September 11 anniversary arrives and the fall elections approach. Both Republicans and Democrats want to appear to be taking the lead in combating terrorism, but neither side is willing to cede ground on the federal worker issue — yet.
Airport Security
The relative ease with which the September 11 hijackers took control of four U.S. airliners highlighted the need for improved airport security. In the weeks following the attacks, armed National Guard personnel were deployed to stand by as civilian inspectors checked bags.
The guardsmen have since been replaced by a better-trained, more closely monitored security staff. Still, the new system has hardly proven to be airtight. In the latest and most glaring example, a 37 year-old woman traveled from Atlanta to Philadelphia on August 25 with a loaded semi-automatic pistol in her carry-on luggage. She said her bag had been checked by hand in Atlanta by a male security officer who failed to find the gun. (He has since been fired.).
Partially in response to incidents like these, in July the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the Homeland Security Act that would allow commercial pilots to carry weapons while in flight. The measure then flew through the Senate by an 87-to-6 margin on September 5. The Bush administration had not been supportive of arming pilots on a wide basis, but may shift its stance as a result of the strong support the amendment has received.
"Enemy Combatants"
That is the term used by the Justice Department to describe individuals it says have direct ties to al Qaeda. Most of those who have been designated enemy combatants were captured in Afghanistan as part of U.S. military operations there and are currently being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
According to the Justice Department, an enemy combatant can be arrested anytime and anywhere without being formally charged with a crime. This has infuriated civil rights groups who point out that one individual who received that designation is an American citizen. Jose Padilla, a 31-year-old born in Brooklyn, was arrested at a Chicago airport. Justice officials have accused him of aiding al Qaeda in the development of a "dirty bomb", a conventional explosive packed with radioactive material. But Padilla, who is being held in a military facility in South Carolina, has yet to be formally charged with a crime.
Immigration and Deportation
One of the great quandaries facing government officials in the wake of the September 11 attacks is how to monitor and control the flow of foreign nationals in and out of the United States. Balancing security issues with civil rights concerns makes that challenge all the more difficult.
Investigators now believe that the visas three of the 17 accused September 11 hijackers used to enter the U.S. had expired when they launched their attacks. And incredibly, it was revealed last spring that the government's Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) renewed visas for two of the terrorists six months after they led the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
These and other missteps have infuriated policy makers in Washington, who have called for a complete overhaul of the INS. One key member of Congress says the agency should be abolished altogether and replaced by new divisions within the Justice Department.
Civil libertarians have taken issue with the way immigration regulations are enforced, but for different reasons. They say the government uses the laws to detain foreign nationals it suspects of having ties to terrorism because it has no other legal way to do so.
The groups have also criticized the closed-door deportation hearings government prosecutors have held since September 11, claiming that they violate defendants' rights to public trial. In a setback to the Bush Administration, a five-judge panel ruled in August that such hearings were "in complete opposition to the society envisioned by the Framers of our Constitution." The Justice Department has appealed the ruling and the matter may ultimately be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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