Editorial: Keep 9/11 report free from politics

Friday, July 23, 2004 | 8:51 a.m.

Here are four of the more telling words in the report of the 9/11 commission: "The nation was unprepared."

The report, 567 pages long and 20 months in the making, includes an assessment of the federal agencies that shared responsibility for protecting Americans against foreign attackers. To understand what the commission learned, think of a roof during a rainstorm -- one with numerous holes and cracks. We had been exposed to this porous system for some time: The February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. The downing in October 1993 of U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters in Somalia, an attack assisted by al-Qaida that killed 18 soldiers. The 1996 truck bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen. The truck bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. The October 2000 attack on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen that killed 17 sailors.

On 9/11, though, the roof caved in.

Here was an attack of such tragic proportion that change was inevitable. Even declaring a war on terrorism, destroying the Taliban in Afghanistan, creating the Homeland Security Department and invading Iraq were not enough. The country needed a whole new approach to the way its government functions in regard to national security. News reports hinted at the problem -- an entrenched federal bureaucracy whose departments are too cloistered to share information and work effectively with each other. Relatives of the 9/11 victims pressured the White House for an independent commission to root out problems and recommend changes. The Bush administration fought the idea but eventually relented, and the commission released its report Thursday.

The commission's recommendations affect many fields, including diplomacy, intelligence, law enforcement, information, economic policy, foreign aid and departmental organization. The commission wisely steered clear of partisan politics in drafting the recommendations and this spirit should continue as they are discussed by the Bush administration, Congress and the public. Equally important, the discussions should begin immediately. There is no time to wait until, say, after the elections or after the new year. Changes are urgently needed -- now.