WASHINGTON -- After spending more than $4.5 billion on screening devices to monitor the nation's ports, borders, airports, mail and air, the federal government is moving to replace or alter much of the anti-terrorism equipment.
Many of the monitoring tools intended to detect guns, explosives, and nuclear and biological weapons were bought during the blitz in security spending after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"Everyone was standing in line with their silver bullets to make us more secure after Sept. 11," said Randall J. Larsen, a retired Air Force colonel and former government science adviser. "
We bought a lot of stuff off the shelf that wasn't effective."
The Department of Homeland Security now plans to spend billions of dollars more. Some changes are being made because new technology has emerged. But many changes are planned because current devices have done little to improve U.S. security, according to agency documents and interviews with federal officials and outside experts.
Among the problems:
* RADIATION MONITORS at ports and borders that cannot differentiate between radiation from a nuclear bomb and naturally occurring
radiation from everyday material like cat litter or ceramic tile.
* AIR-MONITORING EQUIPMENT in major cities that is only marginally effective.
* PASSENGER-SCREENING equipment at airports that are no better than screening systems used before federal screeners took over.
* POSTAL SERVICE MACHINES that test only a small percentage of mail and look for anthrax but no other biological agents.
http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_w...-8763007c.html
Besides all the ineffective equipment, some of the security procedures make no sense at all. How many times have you shown your photo-ID at the bottom of the escalator, only to be asked for it again at the top? (Some entrance in the middle that I missed?
)
Linear Mode
