Sam 489 unit 9 - Assignment Example

Emergency Management Chapter 9: Emergency Management and the New Terrorist Threat Question The purpose of the 911 commission was to establish a complete account of the circumstances that caused the terrorist attacks in 2011. As a result, the commission was to come up with resolutions for preparedness and response of such calamities to avert future occurrences. Another purpose of the 911 commission was to ensure that the Americans were protected from terrorism or future attacks (Haddow, Bullock & Coppola, 2011).

The commission comprised of 10 members drawn from the Republican and Democrat Parties and was created by Congressional legislation. In this regard, the 911 commission conducted investigations across the government’s security departments and presented its findings to the then president George Bush (Haddow, Bullock & Coppola, 2011).The major findings/recommendations of the 911 commission were that the security intelligence failed to prevent the attacks. It emerged that the intelligence failed to disclose vital information obtained at the airports, before and after the attacks, to the military and police forces.

This is because the commission realized that there were loopholes at the airport when the terrorists accessed the country to execute the attacks (Haddow, Bullock & Coppola, 2011). The commission also found that most of the attackers were Saudi Arabian citizens drawn from the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization. The evidence was derived from video footages obtained from the airport control unit (Felzenberg, 2006). As a result, the commissioners recommended more funding to be added towards the security kitty to enable them to adequately prepare.

The Bush administration received grades from the commission on their efforts towards national security. For instance, the Congress performance was low because it failed to mark terrorism as a major policy to handle. The intelligence agencies were also ranked below average because of their failure to liaise with other security department for maximum protection (Haddow, Bullock & Coppola, 2011). It is apparent that the government did not consider threats from Al-Qaeda to be serious and ignored calls for tight security measures along the borders.

The report grading also indicated that the citizens should be vigilant by cooperating with the security teams in case of threats or risks in their neighborhoods (Haddow, Bullock & Coppola, 2011). The grading provided a challenge to the US government to design new measures of approach the emergent terrorist extremism. This is because the occurrence of the 911 attacks exposed considerable challenges and infighting in the FBI and CIA departments (Felzenberg, 2006).I agree with the findings of the 911 commission because it revealed the different reasons that might have facilitated the US attacks.

For instance, the intelligence service did not identify the possibility of an attack on the land. This implies that the department was not ensuring enough security around the border areas and within the country. The establishment of the funding program towards terrorism response teams was a step towards enhancing preparedness. Similarly, I think the 911 commission was right with the report linking the terrorist act with the deadly Al-Qaeda unit because there were threats issued before the attack.

This indicates that the group required more attention to avoid similar occurrences across the world and the security agencies should be quick to respond to intelligence information. It is apparent that the 911 commission’s report enabled the government to identify its weaknesses in fighting extremism and terrorism.ReferencesFelzenberg, A. S. (2006). Governor Tom Kean: From the New Jersey statehouse to the 9-11 Commission. New Brunswick, N.J: Rivergate Books/Rutgers University Press.Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2011).

Introduction to emergency Management (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Butterworth Heinemann.