WASHINGTON — Three years after Congress passed legislation requiring tighter controls on ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a common ingredient in improvised explosives used by terrorists and suspected in the deadly Norway attacks, the law has yet to be implemented in the United States.
Under the 2008 law, which Congress wanted ready for enforcement by 2009, dealers and purchasers of the fertilizer would be required to register with the government and be checked against the U.S. terrorist database.
The law also calls for ammonium nitrate dealers to record sales and for dealers and purchasers to report theft or loss of the material to federal authorities. Mixed with fuel, the fertilizer concoction can be a powerful explosive. The fertilizer was the main component in the 1995 Oklahoma City truck bomb.
Department of Homeland Security officials, charged with enforcing the law, said the agency still is formulating rules that will govern the reporting process for more than 100,000 industry users, ranging from agriculture to construction to mining.
On Tuesday, Homeland Security published a set of "proposed" rules that will be subject to a four-month comment period during which industry representatives and the public will be invited to voice concerns. No date has been set for the "final" regulations.
"In today's ever-evolving threat environment, we must continually reinforce the security of substances, such as ammonium nitrate, which can be used for legitimate purposes or exploited by terrorists," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
The timeline has frustrated some congressional officials, including Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., who said the "delay was unacceptable." This year, Casey sought to cut off supplies of ammonium nitrate from Pakistan to Afghanistan, where it was being used to construct deadly explosives targeting Afghan forces and U.S. troops.
Said Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee who authored the bill: "I am disappointed that more progress has not been made to put reasonable protections in place … since we acted to fix this in 2007," Thompson said, adding that the release of proposed rules is "a positive development, especially given the events in Norway."
Last month, Anders Behring Breivik, 32, is alleged to have bombed an Oslo government office building, using an ammonium nitrate explosive. The bombing and a shooting rampage resulted in 77 deaths.
The call for more controls on the fertilizer date to the Oklahoma City bombing in which Timothy McVeigh used 2 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel to assemble a truck bomb that killed 168 people, the most deadly attack on U.S. soil prior to 9/11.
"I think most Americans would be outraged to know that we haven't made much progress on ammonium nitrate since Timothy McVeigh," Casey said.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire