IEDs seen as a rising threat within U.S.

[Contrary1]

Well, duh.

:hide:

Chertoff vows to step up planning for bombs that have ravaged Iraq

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..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21386918/

[shadowknows69]

1. Valuable information for sleeper cells in our country

that will activate once we bomb Iran. Thanks Mike. I'm all for an informed populace but sometimes it just seems these stories are released with the intent to undermine the security they profess to be protecting.

[Contrary1]

3. Sometimes....

I even wonder if this type of warning is a "go ahead and do it signal".

Sadly, I do not believe this administration is above that sort of thing.

[lectrobyte]

8. or just more "keep the fear cranked up until the '08 elections".

[MrScorpio]

2. Hey, I know who can help with stopping this threat - BLACKWATER!!!

With a billion dollars in taxpayer funds, tons-o-guns, the political connections and the "right" attitude... THEY CAN DO ANYTHING!


Stay tuned for a right wing, para-military road block in your area!

[ixion]

5. yep... you'll have roving bands of Blackwater thugs roaming the hiways and biways

picking off US citizens in the name of security. :crazy:

Boy, what a great country we've become. :sarcasm:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

4. Safer, my ass. When the DHS head hocho can make statements like this with impunity,

we've sunk to another collective low. MKJ

[ixion]

6. agreed. this is just like his "gut" feeling a few months back

he's really nothing more than a replacement for the color coded threat level thingies, meaning what he says has significance only insofar as it evokes the fear response from the sheeple.

[ThomWV]

7. Horseshit. To be a 'rising' threat they must have been a threat in the first place - they aren't.