Yesterday in Pittsburgh PA, At P.N.C. Park, there was a disaster. No the Pirates weren't playing, but a mock disaster was held to rehearse in case of a terrorist attack. The city had gotten a gift from Homeland Security, of $75,000 to use for this drill. The organizers of this event expected 13 to 14 thousand volunteers to take place in the drill, but only 7,000 participants showed up to help out. Organizers blamed the low turn-out on the weather, rain and 58 degrees at the start. By the half way mark it turned out to be sunny and 64. The participants were treated to a free concert by a local band, and tickets to a Pirates game. At about the end of the concert, a lady appeared with a bomb strapped to her chest in one of the sections of the stadium, and then there was an explosion and a white smoked was released as poisonous gas. Then a couple of hundred people were given tags with their injuries, and symptoms on it. Officials, say that the drill went well.
Now why I really decided to write this article.
In 2002-2003 the Department of Homeland Security set aside 2.2 billion dollars for states, and only 14% of that to this date has been spent. Where's the rest?
Moreover J. Richard Berman told lawmakers, "Out of the 882 million of funds set aside for first response, none had been spent as of that date."Berman also told them that, "This was do to, incomplete risk assessment and unclear federal guidelines."
New York has spent 86% of 103 million, that was awarded to the state in 2004, more than any other state."Congress has issued billions of dollars, Chairman Christopher Cox remarked, Is this like Enron? Where did the money go?!" Now that is a damn good question, where did billions of dollars go? Doesn't it seem funny, [odd] that all this money is being allocated to all of these programs by the Bush administration, and great amounts of it come up missing. 90 million for the Iraq war, missing, only 20% of the 82 billion Kerry voted on, then didn't because Bush wanted to put it on the nations credit card, only 20%, or 16.4 billion made it to Iraq. The list goes on.
With all the money earmarked for Homeland Security, the question still remains, ARE WE SAFER? Well according to a article in the "Washington Post, by Christopher Lee,4-1-2004 "Most Americans don't feel safer." In fact, 1/4 of Americans, feel safe, and 3/4 feel that we are less safe, and that not much in the way of home land security has changed. They also feel that The U.S.A. will be the target of another major attack, if not abroad, at home. Since that survey was taken in 4-2004, Americans now rank the economy, a higher priority that home land security.
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