WASHINGTON, D.C. –In a national press conference today President Bush stated that “we are making progress” in the war on terror. But four years after 9/11, there are a record number of terrorist attacks and the markers of success are not necessarily clear.

“Terrorists have launched attacks in Tunisia, Bali, Mombasa, Jakarta, London, Madrid and Sharm el Sheik. Despite the President’s comments today, we are not as safe as we need to be,” said Rep. Markey (D-MA), a senior Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee. “It is a mistake for the President to gloss over the very real threats that we face and the deficiencies in the security of our cities, aviation system, railways, chemical and nuclear facilities that remain.”

According to State Department figures on “significant terrorist attacks” the number of attacks has tripled and reached the highest level since the State terrorist research began 20 years ago.

“The New York Times reports that 198 of the 651 “significant terrorist attacks” launched this year took place in Iraq. There are nine times as many terrorist attacks in Iraq this year as there were last year—what kind of progress is that?” asked Rep. Markey.

“Last month, President Bush said FEMA was doing a‘heck of a job’ responding to Hurricane Katrina. Today, he told the American people we’re making progress in the war on terror. Seeing is believing and the evidence strongly suggests that terrorists
continue to perpetrate devastating attacks against our troops and civilians around the world. The Bush Administration should put forward real policy proposals to plug our homeland security vulnerabilities instead of trying to convince the American people that we are safer today than we were on Sept. 11, 2001.”

More information on Representative Markey’s work close existing loopholes in aviation, chemical, transport, nuclear and hazmat security can be found at http://www.house.gov/markey/ .