Title:
How Technology Has, and Has Not, Changed Since 9-11
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Much has been done to improve security in the United
States since the terrorist attacks of September
eleventh, two thousand one. Intelligence sharing and
cooperation between federal, state and local
government agencies is said to be at an all-time
high. There have also been improvements in airport
security. But a new report says the United States is
not as safe as should be. It says America "is not
yet prepared for a truly catastrophic disaster." The
report is from the National Security Preparedness
Group at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The group is
led by former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean and
former congressman Lee Hamilton of Indiana. The two
men also led the 9-11 Commission. Congress
established the commission to investigate the
hijacking attacks and to make proposals for guarding
against future attacks. The new report noted that
nine of the reforms proposed by the commission have
either been carried out ineffectively or completely
ignored. For example, the 9-11 Commission found that
communication problems were a major issue during the
attacks ten years ago. Police, firefighters and
medical crews had trouble talking to each other
because they were using different radio frequencies.
Officials said this lack of communication led to
needless loss of life. The commission said the
government should identify radio frequencies that
would be used only for emergency communications.
However, this has yet to be done. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton commented on the report. She said
radio frequencies for first responders was an issue
she had worked on in the Senate "and is long overdue
for completion." On another issue, border security,
she said "We have emphasized innovation. For
example, we are now using sophisticated new
biometric screening tools to improve border security
and the visa process." The report praised the
deployment of US-Visit, a biometric entry system in
the United States. The US-Visit system uses digital
fingerprints and photographic images to identify
people entering the United States. The report notes
that a similar system for those leaving the country
has yet to be established. It says such a system
could have helped officials find two of the
hijackers involved in the 9-11 attacks.For VOA
Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal. To read and
listen to more stories and to learn English, go to
voaspecialenglish.com.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
