Xinhua - EnglishBush fails to help prevent attack on commuters, says senator Clinton
www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-09 06:09:25
NEW YORK, July 8 (Xinhuanet) -- New York senator Hillary Clinton on Friday criticized the Bush administration for failing to deliver needed rail and subway security to deter a London-style attack on commuters.
Clinton, who is pushing for more federal dollars for high-tech terror prevention, said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been slow to distribute most of the 150 million dollars given by Congress for rail and transit protection.
"I'm absolutely outraged by the failure of the administration to release the funding that Congress approved last year," said Clinton. "I just don't understand what the holdup is." Clinton and eight other Democratic senators sent a letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff Friday urging him to distribute the unused money quickly.
The agency has looked at high-tech ways to improve transit security but has not instituted anything since testing a system last year.
The United States has earmarked about 300 million dollars for rail security since Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.
Senator Clinton argued that New York and other metropolitan areas should use more of the security cameras prevalent throughout London. Investigators piecing together clues from Thursday's bombing are reviewing many tapes from those cameras to try to identify the culprits.
Many lawmakers from densely populated areas have complained that since 2001, the federal government has wasted homeland security money by spreading it out to rural areas where the risk of terror attacks is relatively low.
Clinton argued the London attacks are another sign that the government needs to send a greater share of anti-terror money to cities.
"Too much money has been wasted. It's just been sent around the countryside it hasn't been focused on what the major targets are," she said. Enditem