145;US not ready for any major terror attack146;

A report by a bipartisan group of experts and former federal officials says the United States is drastically underfunding emergency personnel and is 8216;8216;dangerously ill-prepared to handle a catastrophic attack on American soil.8217;8217;

Relying on information from emergency-response groups nationwide, the report cited shortages in protective gear for police and firefighters, archaic communications systems and inadequate capacity in hospitals and public-health labs.

It called for spending 98 billion over the next five years 8212; nearly four times as much as the federal government is slated to spend. 8216;8216;This is a crisis of national proportions,8217;8217; said former Republican Sen. Warren Rudman, a co-author of the report with Richard Clarke, who left the Bush administration as a presidential adviser on computer security.