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Ottawa Airport to Receive Dirty-Bomb Detectors
Canada plans to install dirty-bomb detection equipment at the Ottawa International Airport over the next year, the Ottawa Citizen reported today (see GSN, Oct. 4). The project is part of a five-year, $138 million initiative aimed at bolstering Canadian border security against the threat of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The Canadian government’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Research & Technology Initiative will place sensors in the airport’s halls and on patrol vehicles. Sensors will monitor the air and airline passengers for radiation. Once the Ottawa pilot project is completed and studied, the technology is expected to be installed in other airports and cargo shipping docks throughout Canada, beginning as early as 2006, the Citizen reported. The Ottawa airport was chosen for the pilot project because of several high-priority targets in the area, including the U.S. Embassy, according to John Thompson, director of the Mackenzie Institute, which researches counterterrorism initiatives. “The Americans are especially worried about dirty bombs and we are catching the edge of that,” he said. “Especially since al-Qaeda was talking last spring about what they are calling their ‘Cave of Darkness’ operation. They implied that they had been working on a dirty bomb for some time.” This level of security is “the new reality,” Thompson added. “This is not just for a couple of years against al-Qaeda,” he said. “This is for the foreseeable future, all the time” (Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 8).
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