Promoting Khalid Sheik Mohammed
The most enterprising effort to make political hay from breaking news this week came from Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island).
Putting out a release headlined, “Mohammed Confession Makes Strongest Case for Risk-Based Formula for Anti-Terror $$," Fossella argued that he terrorist’s New York-heavy target list should be “a wake-up call to Congress and the President to end the pork-barrel politics of anti-terror funding.”
Pointing to Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s assertion that he considered blowing up the New York Stock Exchange, New York-area suspension bridges and the Empire State Building, Fossella said: “If anyone ever doubted al-Qaida’s strategy, Mohammed confirmed it in chilling detail. . .New York City and other major metropolitan areas face the greatest threat.”
Fossella's goal is to influence the conference committee charged with reconciling conflicting House and Senate homeland security bills. The House passed legislation in January that would allow relatively more money to go to places like New York by reducing the state minimums to 0.25 percent of the pot of federal antiterror money. The Senate bill would likely reduce funding to New York by setting state minimums at 0.45 percent, and would more than double the number of cities eligible for risk-based grants.
Carol Eisenberg