Nightly News   |  August 31, 2011

9/11 Commission: US still unprepared

The work of the 9/11 Commission, appointed after the Sept.11 attacks, was a landmark in America’s response. Now, members of the commission have issued a report card on how things are going 10 years later. NBC’s Pete Williams reports.

Share This:

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> . in less than two weeks, america and the world will mark ten years since the 911 attacks. it was shortly after those attacks and largely at the insistence of the victim's family that a commission recommended ways to make the nation safer, but tonight, members of that commission say a lot of things are still not right. we get a report tonight from our justice correspondent pete williams .

>> members of the original 9/11 commission say the u.s. is still unprepared for a major catastrophe. with no common system for emergency communications and no consistent rules for who should be in command.

>> we are not yet in the place in this country where the first responders can talk with one another.

>> ten years after 9/11 we are not yesterday at the place where we know who's in charge at the site of a disaster.

>> their report card out today says that was clear from the chaos after hurricane katrina , it says the response to last year's massive oil spill in the gulf was better, but local efforts were at odds with the overall cleanup. among other shortcomings, a lack of national id standards, a deficienciy of -- state id cards to board planes.

>> if you can forge identifications, then a terrorist can get in and out of the country, get in and out of buildings, in and out of airports and planes without being detected.

>> reporter: while the u.s. still tracks arrivals from overseas there's no way to track someone staying here illegally. but the government is now much more prepared for disasters, working more closely with the states routinely putting supplies in states before disaster hits and setting a clear chain of command zbch.t and the 9/11 commissioners do cite progress, they say better intelligence, more information and improved watch lists have made the nation safer. pete williams , nbc news, washington.