Policy Memo: Kerry's Seven Point Plan Vs. What President Bush Has Already Done
1. KERRY: "DESTROY TERRORIST NETWORKS"
The United States has waged two wars since September 11, taking away terrorists' foreign operating bases and liberating fifty million people from two of the world's most brutal and aggressive regimes.
Of the senior al Qaeda and associated leaders, operational managers, and key facilitators the United States has been tracking, more than two-thirds have been detained, captured, or killed.
2. KERRY: "PREVENT NUCLEAR TERRORISM"
President Bush spearheaded the establishment of the G-8 Global Partnership, which over 10 years will provide $20 billion in nonproliferation and weapons reduction assistance to the former Soviet Union.
The United States is working with its allies and the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that Iran meets its commitments and does not develop nuclear weapons.
Together with its partners in Asia, America is insisting that North Korea completely, verifiably, and irreversibly dismantle its nuclear programs.
President Bush led the creation of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a broad international partnership of more than 60 countries that is interdicting lethal materials in transit. These nations are sharing intelligence information, tracking suspect international cargo, and conducting joint military exercises.
On February 11, 2004, President Bush called for swift passage of the resolution he proposed in September 2003, requiring all states to criminalize proliferation, enact strict export controls, and secure sensitive materials within their borders. In April 2004, the United Nations Security Council voted on this proliferation security resolution. The unanimous United Nations Security Council vote was a clear affirmation for the initiative the President launched to stop the spread of WMD.
3. KERRY: "CUT-OFF TERRORIST FINANCING"
We have frozen more than $142 million in terrorist-related assets, designated 383 individuals and entities as terrorist supporters, apprehended or disrupted key terrorist facilitators and deterred donors from supporting al Qaeda and other like-minded terrorist groups.
President Bush has secured two UN resolutions regarding terrorist financing and worked with more than 170 different countries to have blocking orders freezing an additional $72 million in terrorist assets issued.
The 9/11 Commission determined that: “The death or capture of several important facilitators has decreased the amount of money available to al Qaeda and has increased its costs and difficulty in raising and moving that money. Captures have additionally provided a windfall of intelligence that can be used to continue the cycle of disruption.”
4. KERRY: "PROTECT THE HOMELAND"
With strong bipartisan support President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security - the most comprehensive reorganization of the Federal government in a half-century. The Department of Homeland Security consolidates 22 agencies and 180,000 employees, unifying once-fragmented Federal functions in a single agency dedicated to protecting America from terrorism.
For the first time, the President has made countering and investigating terrorist activity the number one priority for both law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The Bush Administration has transformed the FBI into an agency whose primary mission is to prevent terrorist attacks and increased its budget by 60 percent.
The Administration has made unprecedented efforts to protect America's critical infrastructure against the threat of terrorism -- including strengthened security for chemical plants, nuclear facilities, and other potential targets of terrorists. The President's FY 2005 budget includes $864 million for DHS information analysis and critical infrastructure protection -- a seven-fold increase over FY 2002 levels.
To improve border security, more than 1,000 border patrol agents have been added, and remote video surveillance and unmanned aerial patrols have been increased.
Today, all cargo entering the US is screened, and 100 percent of high-risk cargo is physically inspected.
Aviation security has been improved by hardened cockpit doors, more air marshals, stricter baggage checks and canine teams are now positioned at every major airport to search for explosives.
The President has partnered with chemical facilities to enhance security and supported legislation to require minimum security standards.
President Bush signed into law Project BioShield, an unprecedented, $5.6 billion effort to develop vaccines and other medical responses to biological, chemical, nuclear, and radiological weapons.
The President's 2005 budget reflects a 680 percent increase in funding for first responders since September 11th.
5. KERRY: "DENY TERRORISTS SAFE HAVENS AND NEW RECRUITS"
Today, more than fifty million people who lived under brutal and backward regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq are on the road to democracy. Iraq is on its way to becoming the first democratic nation in the Arab Middle East.
President Bush has made a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East a cornerstone of his foreign policy. This means supporting the rise of democracy, and the hope and progress that democracy brings, as the alternative to hatred and terror.
In March 2002, President Bush announced the Millennium Challenge Account, which proposed a 50 percent increase in America's core development assistance by 2006 and tied this record increase in aid to political, legal, and economic reforms in the recipient countries. The Millennium Challenge Account provides the largest increase in US development assistance since the Marshall Plan.
6. KERRY: "SUPPORT DEMOCRACIES IN THE ARAB AND MUSLIM WORLD"
At the Sea Island Summit this year, the G-8 Leaders committed to a historic "Partnership for Progress and a Common Future with the Region of the Broader Middle East and North Africa" to support political, social, and economic reform in the region. This Partnership builds on President Bush's "forward strategy of freedom," which he announced last November. Specifically, the G-8 committed to…Establish a Forum for the Future, which will root the new Partnership in a regular dialogue on reform, bringing together in one forum G-8 and regional foreign, economic, and other ministers, with business and civil society leaders participating in parallel dialogues. The first meeting of the Forum for the Future was held in the fall of 2004.
The President has launched the Middle East Partnership Initiative and has started an initiative to establish a U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) by 2013.
President Bush has proposed doubling the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy to focus its new work on the development of free elections, free markets, free press, and free labor unions in the Middle East.
To cut through the barriers of hateful propaganda, the Voice of America and other broadcast services are expanding their programming in Arabic and Persian, and a new television service is providing news and information across the region.
7. KERRY: "RESTORE ALLIANCES TO COMBAT TERRORIST NETWORKS ACROSS THE GLOBE"
America has put together a strong coalition to help defeat terror - nearly 40 countries in Afghanistan, some 30 in Iraq, and over 60 countries involved in the Proliferation Security Initiative.
The 9/11 Commission judged that international cooperation in the War On Terror is now "on a vastly enlarged scale."
So what is Kerry going to do?