NYT: Experts say US at risk of being hurt by same 'failure of imagination' blamed for 9/11

RAW STORYPublished: Friday August 11, 2006

Experts say that the United States is at risk of being hurt by the same "failure of imagination" blamed for 9/11, according to a front page article in Saturday's New York Times, RAW STORY has found.

"The Department of Homeland Security has taken significant steps since the Sept. 11 hijackings to make it much harder to turn a plane into a flying weapon," write Eric Lipton and Matthew L. Wald for the Times. "But a nearly obsessive focus on the last terror attack may have prevented the federal government from combating new threats effectively, according to terrorism experts and several former agency officials."

"The arrests this week of plotters overseas accused of planning to use an explosive that would be undetectable at airports illustrates the significant security gaps, they said," write Lipton and Wald.

"While the department has hardened cockpit doors and set up screening aimed at detecting guns and knives, the agency has done far too little to protect against plastic and liquid explosives, bombs in air cargo, insuring that airport maintenance workers do not become threats, and even shoulder-fired missiles, experts say," reports the Times.

"The nation is at risk of being hurt by the same "failure of imagination" cited by the 9/11 commission as having contributed to the success of the last attack, several experts argued," the article continues.

FULL TIMES ARTICLE CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK