President Bush signed two homeland security directives Wednesday to improve the nation’s readiness for terrorist attacks, including sharpening federal efforts to protect industrial facilities whose destruction could lead to mass casualties. One directive updates a Clinton-era directive on protecting critical infrastructure such as the electrical power grid, pipelines and railways. It “deals with the new realities, our understanding of the Al Qaeda’s targeting preferences and the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security,” said a senior administration official. Agencies are instructed to make their highest priority protecting physical infrastructure that, if attacked, could lead to “catastrophic loss of life or health effects,” the official said. Full Story