Perfect timing: Bush approval at 24% as Chertofff "vows to step up planning for" domestic IED threat

[Amerigo Vespucci]

IEDs seen as a rising threat within U.S.
Chertoff vows to step up planning for bombs that have ravaged Iraq

By Spencer S. Hsu and Mary Beth Sheridan
Updated: 9:28 p.m. PT Oct 19, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI agree that the homemade explosive devices that have wreaked havoc in Iraq pose a rising threat to the United States. But lawmakers and first responders say the Bush administration has been slow to devise a strategy for countering the weapons and has not provided adequate money and training for a concerted national effort.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who told the Senate last month that such bombs are terrorists' "weapon of choice," said yesterday at a local meeting that President Bush will soon issue a blueprint for countering the threat of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Chertoff's department said in a draft report on IEDs earlier this year that national efforts "lack strategic guidance, are sometimes insufficiently coordinated . . . and lack essential resources."

Among the shortcomings identified in the report: Explosives-sniffing dogs are trained differently by various federal agencies, making collaboration between squads "difficult if not impossible." Federal agencies maintain separate databases on bomb incidents. Separately, bomb squad commanders have complained of inadequate training for responding to truck bombs.

Local officials say preparedness efforts around the country remain a patchwork. For instance, the Los Angeles Police Department's bomb squad, which responds to about 1,000 calls a year, has 28 full-time explosives technicians and is about to move into a new, $8 million downtown headquarters. The squad has an explosives library, a research facility for testing and access to an explosives range for training.

Bush's approval at new low in Reuters: 24 percent

by Mark Silva

President Bush's approval rating has reached a new low in the newest Reuters/Zogby Poll -- with just 24 percent of those surveyed approving of Bush's job performance. That is down from 29 percent last month.

It is lower than the latest register of Bush's approval rating in the Gallup Poll -- 32 percent in Gallup's newest October survey.

The newest gauge arrives as President Bush prepares for a press conference in the West Wing this morning -- at 10:40 am EDT -- and as the president prepares to fend off an override of his veto of an expansion of children's health care on Capitol Hilll tomorrow.

Public approval for the job that Congress is performing -- 11 percent in the new survey -- matches the all-time low that Reuters found last month.

Posted by Mark Silva on October 17, 2007 10:22 AM

[marmar]

1. Cheney hasn't been hanging out in his basement lab lately, has he?

:tinfoilhat: