US security 'not good enough'

The report calls for greater defence spending

By Jonathan Marcus BBC defence correspondent

A new report into America's national defence apparatus says the US Government is not doing enough to bolster domestic security.

The study, to be published on Tuesday, says the US Government is neglecting areas of concern and needs to spend up to $10bn more a year on improvements.

The study urges greater powers for the homeland security director

The report, perhaps surprisingly, gives the Bush Administration's principal innovation - the much-criticised Office of Homeland Security - a reasonably good report card.

But it says the US Government has just too many agencies involved in different aspects of security for them to be consolidated into a single organisation.

Effective coordination is the key - though some of the report's authors believe that the Homeland Security Director, Tom Ridge, probably needs statutory powers to bolster his position.

New agency

Nonetheless, the study by the influential think-tank the Brookings Institution, argues that some consolidation is needed - it backs a federal border agency to take over the jobs currently done by some six other bodies.

The proposed new agency would deal with airport and maritime security; it would issue visas; it would conduct customs inspections, provide immigration services and so on.

The reports says the US is focusing too much on existing threats

The report also says that much better coordination is needed between federal, state and local authorities.

But above all it is critical of the Bush Administration's focus on airport security and bio-terrorism, suggesting that this is, in some sense, a response to the threats that have happened rather than those that might lie ahead.

It says, for example, that much more attention needs to be paid to the security of shipping containers.

It says the Bush administration needs to spend some five to 10 billion dollars more each year on homeland security over the $38bn requested in the 2003 budget.

And it says that private companies should be encouraged to pay for some aspects of improved security themselves - for example they might be offered reduced insurance premiums if they install filters against biological agents into their air-conditioning systems.