Lee H. Hamilton
Lee H. Hamilton
Lee Herbert Hamiltonis a former member of the United States House of Representatives and currently a member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the Democratic Party, Hamilton represented the 9th congressional district of Indiana from 1965 to 1999. Following his departure from Congress he has served on a number of governmental advisory boards, most notably as the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth20 April 1931
CountryUnited States of America
The president has a lot at stake here. This is the first major test of his political clout after the election, ... He's said over and over again, 'I support this bill.' Now, if he fails to get that bill through, he has to be worried about the signal that sends about his own political clout with his own party. I think the Congress has a lot at stake. But aside from politics, what is really important here is the safety of the American people.
What's lacking here is a sense of urgency, a political will to get these things done.
U.S. officials and outside experts agree that China is undertaking a comprehensive modernization of its military. The Chinese military has gotten smaller but smarter.
Reforms are at risk from inertia and complacency. Reforms must be accelerated or they will fail.
It is fair to ask how long the FBI will take to reform itself ... The terrorists will not wait,
I was personally kind of discouraged with that statement. This is not a new problem.
When I get on an airplane, I am less worried about the passengers than what is going into the hole below. I worry about containers being shipped into this country. I worry more about rail security than I do air security.
We have thought about what to do, a global strategy, and how to do it: A different way of organizing our government.
I hope the product is being sharpened from what we saw. We saw a lot of things that were unsubstantiated, that were almost in the rumor category.
Anyone watching that storm knew it was going to affect Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. This is not a disaster for the mayor of New Orleans to deal with.
The U.S has acquired reservoirs of goodwill around the globe over many years. But it is clear - from polling data and ample anecdotal evidence - that America is losing its allure in much of the world.
We don't really have an ethics process any more in the Congress, so that these things are not exposed or considered until this becomes a criminal law case.
What struck me after Katrina was we were not as safe as I thought we were,
We are a mobile, dynamic society. We depend upon open, accessible transportation systems. Terrorists know that. It's the reason they target transportation, and it's why we must stop them.