The overnight explosion of American flags and never-ending lines
at airport security checkpoints are not the only changes the nation
has seen since that tragic day in September. U.S. national policy
has been altered and expanded to address many issues not covered
prior to Sept. 11, 2001.
Recent national policy changes have left some urging the
government to take further action, and others feeling their
personal freedoms have been violated.
The first response was the formation of the Homeland Security
Department, established by President Bush in September and headed
by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. Its purpose is to secure the
nation from terrorist attacks.
Samuel Culbert, a professor of human resources and
organizational behavior at the Anderson School at UCLA and author
of “Don’t Kill the Bosses!,” is skeptical of the
Homeland Security Department’s effectiveness under the
direction of Ridge.
He says Ridge should “position himself as a problem solver
and facilitator between agencies”, rather than act as another
boss for agents to report to.
The second reaction to Sept. 11 was Bush’s signing of the
USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, otherwise known as the Terror Bill, on
Oct. 26.
According to a summary by the Congressional Research Service, it
gives federal agencies more authority to track and intercept
communications, attempts to close more U.S. borders to foreign
terrorists, and moves to detain and remove those within our
border.
Amy Zegart, a UCLA professor of policy studies who worked on the
National Security Council staff, feels the policy is a step in the
right direction, but that there are three main gaps.
Zegart would like to see the government better integrate
intelligence, create a national threat assessment agency that could
guide authorities on how to effectively spend their money on
terrorist prevention, and create a system for cities to share their
best anti-terrorism practices with each other.
“Every city is reinventing the wheel,” Zegart said
of the current system under which the country is operating to face
terrorism on the local level.
The Homeland Security Department and the Terror Bill focus on
four major areas of reform: cyberspace, defense, bioterrorism and
immigration.
Cyber security is a controversial issue because it raises
questions about invasion of privacy and stifling information. The
Center for Democracy’s Web site addresses sections of the
Terror Bill that it finds potentially problematic for Internet
companies and users.
These sections cover issues such as increases in money spent on
electronic surveillance, information obtained from grand juries and
wiretaps becoming available to more government officials, increases
in roving wiretapping, seizure of voice mail and e-mail messages
via search warrants, tracing of Internet traffic and expanded
nationwide search warrants.
The Department of Defense has been revitalized, according to the
White House, with the approval of the 2002 Defense Appropriations
Bill. It included significant increases for the defense science and
technology programs.
Bush has also proposed a $369 billion budget for the DOD in
2003, with an additional $10 billion to fight the war on terrorism,
if needed.
According to Geoff Garrett, vice provost of the UCLA
International Institute, Bush’s radical preemptive plans for
Iraq is not receiving the scrutiny or criticism it would have a
year ago because of Sept. 11.
Garrett noted that the possible war with Iraq receives notable
support at home even though it is not an act of retaliation and has
no real evidence to support it.
“(Americans feel that) if other countries don’t want
to support us (in the possible war with Iraq), at the end of the
day that’s OK,” Garrett said.
He also said this attitude is “ironic because what Sept.
11 showed us was that the U.S. is not invulnerable.”
Americans were in fact feeling very vulnerable amid the
post-Sept. 11 fear of terrorist attacks and wave of anthrax
scares.
Bioterrorism has been addressed in the Public Health and
Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002,
which creates more grants for conducting evaluations of public
health emergency preparedness. It authorizes $1.6 billion for state
and local programs.
Along the same lines, the Center for Disease Control provided
$918 million to state and local government to help them improve
their readiness.
According to the White House, combating the war on terrorism on
the home front has lead them to restructure the Immigration
department.
They have established a foreign terrorist tracking task force,
and become very thorough in their visa approval process.
The government wants to ensure that those who enter this country
on a visa only use it for its intended purpose.
In order to do this Bush contended that they would have to
“ask a lot of questions that heretofore have not been
asked”.
Whether these policy changes have made any impact on
Americans’ daily lives remains up for debate.
Zegart worries because, “we don’t feel like we are
at war, and we are. Life is too much like normal and it gives us a
false sense of security.”