The US government isn’t fully prepared to handle a nuclear terrorist attack or a large-scale natural catastrophe, lacks effective coordination, and in some cases is years away from ensuring adequate emergency shelter and medical treatment, congressional investigators have found.
The report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, obtained by The Associated Press before its release, found that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, did not always keep track of disaster efforts by agencies, hampering the nation’s preparedness even after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
That storm hit a large swath of the eastern US that received federal disaster money. “FEMA is not aware of the full range of information,” according to the report.
The investigation relied in part on internal documents from the Homeland Security Department, which oversees FEMA, including previously undisclosed details from a 2013 disaster plan that highlights needed improvements in the event of an attack from an improvised nuclear device.
The Government Accountability Office said it would still take one to five years to develop a strategy to determine whether people were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation and five to 10 years to plan for a full medical response.
Guidance also was lacking as to communication among first responders and making shelters and other basic needs available. Investigators said FEMA, which leads an interagency group in creating a disaster response plan, needs to set clear deadlines and estimated costs to ensure that agencies fulfill the goals.
It is one of several reports that the office plans in the coming months on the US level of disaster readiness.
“This report makes clear that there are some areas of our country’s preparedness that need strengthening up,” said Sen. Bob Casey, who co-chairs the US Senate Caucus on Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism.
With the emergence of non state actors and terrorist activities, a major growing concern of all the nuclear weapon state is to avoid the chances of nuclear terrorism or unauthorized use of nuclear technology which terrorist can do for their materialistic benefits and goals. There is a need for all the nuclear weapon state to gather at one platform and to make proposals and commitments in order to counter the ever growing concern and threat of nuclear terrorism.
It’s a time that US should accept this that it has actually failed in addressing the deadly phenomenon of terrorism. No matters it was Global War on terror which involved the whole globe actually made the superpower failed. What we are experiencing today is the product of US wrong doings in handling the terrorism and non-state actors. No one not only the US can bear the blow of nuclear terrorist attacks. We need to work on facts than mythical fears.
Because US is busy in making terrorists in the form of ISIS in various regions. US' led war against terror is unfortunately turned to an unending conflict where terrorists are emerging with more strength. US policies have led the world towards perpetual instability. Yet White House has no alternative policies to give peace a way ahead. In future, this unending military adventurism will further harm US interests elsewhere in the world.
What are the chances that Americans will stage a 911 style event on a power plant to use as an exscuse for international intervention in Syria and Iran? Complete misdirection intended to ramp up fear to justify spying and more "homeland security" (outsourced military contracting to the likes of Academi nee XE nee Blackwater, etc.). Notice how after a few weeks of Snowden there is suddenly a "major terror alert" that demends the closing of embassies due to "intercepted information"? A convenient and blatantly manufactured ploy to turn attention away from illegal and unconstitutional activity. The real threat is catastrophic failure (Fukushima, Chernobyl), waste disposal, WMD material production, etc., none of which is being planned for or constructively dealth with.
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