September 22, 2003—According to Mike Cherkasky, president and CEO of Kroll Inc., an independent risk consulting company, America is still unprepared for terrorism two years after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
Cherkasky is the author of “Forewarned: Why the Government is Failing to Protect Us and What We Must Do to Protect Ourselves,” and he supervised the Joint Terrorist Task Force after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. He says that progress has been hampered by political infighting and financial concerns. “Politicians have been unwilling to confront difficult issues such as the lack of cooperation between the CIA and the FBI, and corporations have been unwilling to make the financial investment in security. Overall, there has been a return to complacency and a failure to recognize the seriousness of the terrorist threat.”
He adds that successfully fighting terrorism requires greater cooperation between the government and the private sector, which now controls approximately 80 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Oil pipelines, nuclear power plants, and public transportation systems are all prime targets for terrorism, yet are inadequately protected, he contends.
Cherkasky cites a July 2003 Conference Board study, sponsored by ASIS International, there has been a median increase of only 4 percent in security spending since September 2001. He advocates a system of rules-based, biometric national identification cards, under which the Department of Homeland Security would oversee the creation of a central database that would store specific security-related information about the cardholder.
