Security Gaps 10 Years After 9/11
HOLMES: Nearly ten years after the 9/11 terror attacks, the U.S. still has major security shortfalls. That's the conclusion of a new report from the 9/11 Commission. Our Pentagon correspondent has more.</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 9/11 Commission's new progress report says ten years later, some emergency responders still can't communicate by radio in crisis. Some cops can't talk to firefighters who can't talk to EMTs.</s>THOMAS KEAN, CO-CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: They died because of that in 9/11. They died because of that in Katrina, and they will die in the future, unless, this particular problem is not solved.</s>LAWRENCE: The report gave a thumbs down to the airport's new hold body scanners, saying they failed to detect some explosives hidden within the body.</s>LEE HAMILTON, CO-CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: Our conclusion is that despite 10 years of working on the problem, the detection system still falls short in critical ways.</s>LAWRENCE: The report did credit the government for better screening passengers before they get on planes and doubling its spending on intelligence.</s>JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: If you look at the number of recommendations the commission made and the number that have been filled (ph), it's a very high percentage.</s>LAWRENCE: But the commission issued its original list back in 2004. And of the 41 shortcomings, nine have still not been addressed.</s>CARNEY: Which doesn't mean that we don't constantly look for ways to improve.</s>LAWRENCE: But that improvement will have to come in an economic environment where every dollar counts.</s>GOV. JAMES THOMPSON, 9/11 COMMISSIO: The question should be not how much is this, but is this worth paying for? Is this good security? Is this the best we can get?</s>LAWRENCE (on-camera): You know, the commission says Homeland Security has set up a system that tracks people who come into the U.S. and ensures they are who they say they are, but the commission says the exit part of that system has still not been completed. So, the government doesn't know who is staying or who's left the country. They say a system like that could have helped authorities track at least two of the 9/11 hijackers who had overstayed their visas --</s>T.J. HOLMES: All right. Chris Lawrence for us at the Pentagon. Thank you, Chris. Former Bush White House officials now in a he said/she said dispute. Condoleezza Rice said she never came into Dick Cheney's office in tears. The story ahead in our "Political Ticker."