Rep. Peter King, House Homeland Security CommitteeAl Qaeda "very much alive"; U.S. needs to be "aggressive and preemptive"
Representative Peter King (R-New York), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, reflects back on the 9/11 attacks, discusses critical lessons learned, and the greatest threats facing the United States over the next decade; “—we have largely learned that we need to be aggressive and preemptive when it comes to our national security. Increasingly, we do not wait for an attack before we respond, but we go after and disrupt the threat before an attack can be launched; Law enforcement at all levels must follow suit, thinking more imaginatively and “outside the box.”
Rep. Pete King (R-NY), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee // Source: house.gov
Homeland Security NewsWire: Reflecting back on 9/11, what is the most valuable lesson that you learned from the attacks and has the U.S. government taken adequate steps to learn from its mistakes?
Representative Peter King: I would say the most valuable lesson that we learned from the attacks of 9/11 is that our national security posture was far too reactive in nature. In the case of 9/11, as we have historically, we waited for our enemies to attack us before responding. Some people refer to this as a “pre-9/11 mentality” or a “law enforcement approach to terrorism,” a reference to the traditional policing method of investigating and solving a crime only after it has occurred.
As a result of 9/11, I believe we have largely learned that we need to be aggressive and preemptive when it comes to our national security. Increasingly, we do not wait for an attack before we respond, but we go after and disrupt the threat before an attack can be launched. Obviously, our military has adopted this strategy, as has the FBI, which works to investigate and disrupt planners of attacks. Law enforcement at all levels must follow suit, thinking more imaginatively and “outside the box.”
A number of significant reforms and reorganizations, including the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have improved our ability to be proactive in fighting terrorism. They have resulted in increased cooperation across federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community, and post-9/11 legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act has given these agencies new tools to defend us from attack and combat terrorists.
Though we are safer today than we were a decade ago, a number of the 9/11 Commission recommendations remain unfulfilled. According to 9/11 Commission co-chairs Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, one of the most serious homeland security shortcomings continues to be the lack of interoperable communications for first responders. The 9/11 Commission recommended that Congress allocate additional spectrum to ensure police, firefighters, and EMS are able to adequately communicate during emergencies. Congress has not yet done so. I have introduced bipartisan legislation to reallocate for public safety the most effective portion of the spectrum, known as the D Block. Also, Kean and Hamilton pointed out that congressional oversight of DHS remains “dysfunctional” with more than 100 committees and subcommittees overseeing DHS. The result is wasted resources and conflicting guidance to DHS.
HSNW: Given the ongoing budget battles on the Hill
