WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (AFP) - Relatives of victims who died in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks urged lawmakers Tuesday to move without delay in implementing proposed reforms intended to plug holes in the US intelligence network.
"Some in Washington have warned it may take three to five years to enact all the measures needed. That is not acceptable to the families of 9/11 or the American people," said Mary Fetchet, whose son Brad died on September 11 when hijackers commandeered a jet plane into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.
"When American lives are at stake, indifference or inertia is unacceptable," said Fetchet, founder of a group called 'Voices of September 11th', at a hearing of the Senate's Committee on Government Reform.
Stephen Push, founder of another group called 'Families of September 11th,' also urged speedy action.
"Otherwise we may have yet another terrorism commission analyzing the opportunities that the government missed today to thwart the next major attack," he said.
"If the status quo continues, and if terrorists obtain weapons of mass destruction, future attacks may take tens of thousands, or even hundred of thousands, of lives," said Push.
"Al-Qaeda and its offspring continue to plot attacks against Americans. Time is not on our side."
Their testimony was given at one of three separate congressional hearings held Tuesday -- with more planned over the course of the week -- to review last month's findings by the 9/11 Commission into intelligence lapses that allowed the attacks to be carried out.
The commission's chairman Thomas Kean, and vice-chair Lee Hamilton at a hearing Tuesday of the House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee, also urged lawmakers to rapidly overhaul the US intelligence system by adopting the bipartisan panel's findings, which included creating a national coordinator of US intelligence.