Money
‘Not Well Spent on Anti Terrorism’
More state and local officials are arguing that despite $23 billion in
U.S. federal grants for national security linked to combating potential
terrorist threats, there is not enough intelligence to confirm that al
Qaeda or other terrorist groups will launch an attack on their cities.
Instead, officials want to focus counter-terrorism programmes on issues
such as gangs, gun violence, and drug trafficking, claiming those programmes
should qualify because they can foreshadow terrorist attacks.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the department's programmes
were not designed to help local law enforcement agencies fight everyday
crime. ‘If we drop the barrier and start to lose focus, we will make
it easier to have successful attacks here,’ he said.
Much of the government's domestic security funding has been spent on connecting
federal law enforcement and intelligence officials to over 750,000 police
officers, sheriffs, and highway patrol officers in the nation.
Fusion centres, which gather and examine information to prevent terrorist
attacks, are also federally funded. Now, to qualify for the full allotment
of federal money, many states are being asked to devise a plan to guard
their state from improvised explosive devices.
‘There was no new intelligence about this,’ said Juliette N.
Kayyem, the Massachusetts homeland security advisor. ‘It just came
out of nowhere.’
