By Phil Gingrey

“First, do no harm.”

The Hippocratic Oath I took as a student at the Medical College of Georgia is prescient advice for my colleagues in Congress as we consider the recommendations put forward by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

Experts from the commission and the Pentagon testified recently before the House Armed Services Committee. The hearings reinforced to me that there are no easy answers when it comes to securing the homeland from terrorists determined to murder innocent civilians and cripple our economy.

We Georgians got a taste of the fear that grips residents of Washington and New York City when we learned recently when a man in Charlotte was suspected of “casing” buildings. The video also had footage of infrastructure in Atlanta, as well as other cities.

Regardless of whether that man has any attachment to terrorist organizations, our fears are well-grounded. We know al Queda has operatives in this nation plotting their next deadly attack. Interviews with suspected terrorists captured in Pakistan recently suggest strongly that al Queda wishes to hit us hard and soon, aiming to influence this November’s election just as the Madrid bombing did in Spain.

The Congress, along with President Bush, has taken critical steps since Sept. 11 to take the fight to terrorists and prevent a similar attack. While al Queda still poses an ominous threat to this nation, President Bush’s detractors overlook an important fact: Since Sept. 11, the United States has stopped terrorists from attacking inside this nation. The proof is in the pudding.

Now, with the release of the 9/11 Commission Report in late July, the House and Senate have acted expeditiously to review the 43 recommendations issued in the report. Numerous congressional committees met this month to review the report’s findings and recommendations.

Already, the president has adopted one of the commission’s most important ideas: an intelligence chief who will coordinate some 15 government intelligence agencies.

We know that one of the major obstacles to capturing the Sept. 11 terrorists before they struck was lack of communication between our various government agencies. A bureaucratic mindset and turf battles between agencies played a role in letting those 19 killers slip through our safety nets.

An intelligence chief will assure that our various agencies share information – making sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

The president and the Congress will act expeditiously to consider all of the commission’s recommendations. Some in the minority party have carped that we should implement all of the 9/11 Commission Report’s suggestions immediately.

I want to shore up our intelligence operations as quickly as anyone, but I’d advise against rash overhauls. With a massive reform of our intelligence community, such as we’re considering, even a tiny mistake in the law could result in catastrophic consequences for our nation.

We’ll have to remember to “do no harm” as we put in the time and effort to get this reform right the first time.