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U.S. Response: Security Improvement Needed on Several Fronts, Panel Says By Greg Seigle Global Security Newswire The United States must improve its readiness for terrorist attacks by making sweeping changes, including creating a nationwide chemical and biological detection system and reorganizing the federal agencies responsible for protecting the country’s critical assets, a panel of national security experts said yesterday. In releasing its report, Defending the American Homeland — the first in a series of planned reviews by the Heritage Foundation — panel members said the Bush Administration should prioritize infrastructures that need protection, free National Guard and Reserve troops to boost port security, and coordinate with several other countries, especially Canada and Mexico, to bolster U.S. prevention and response capabilities to a weapons of mass destruction attack. Click here to read Heritage Foundation report. Some of the report’s 25 recommendations echo those made in recent years by the Hart-Rudman and Gilmore commissions — suggestions that received considerable attention then went largely unheeded — while several other proposals, including one for U.S. Customs agents to search U.S.-bound ships at their point of origin, are new and seemingly unattainable without widespread international cooperation. “I hope this commission’s recommendations are, unlike the other ones, in fact carried out,” said L. Paul Bremer, a co-chair of the report who served as ambassador at large for counterterrorism for former President Ronald Reagan. The panel’s report “demands new thinking,” Bremer added. “In some cases it demands new bureaucratic cultures, particularly within the FBI and the [new Office of Homeland Security]. There isn’t one quick fix, there’s no magic silver bullet here.” “This is the start, not the finish,” said the report’s other co-chair, Edwin Meese, the former attorney general under Reagan. Cooperation, trust and the flow of information needs to be improved not only between federal agencies that must now work together, but also among federal and local officials, Meese added. “This has to be a two-way street,” he said. “It also means having security clearance for [select] people at the local level.” The task force charged with studying the issues for the report includes former generals, microbiologists, governors, intelligence analysts, ambassadors, lawyers, police chiefs and host of other knowledgeable sources. The report’s findings have been presented to President George Bush and Tom Ridge, director of the Office of Homeland Security, and are currently under consideration, White House officials said. Web of Detection One top priority stressed in the report is the need for the United States to build a web of monitoring systems for early detection of terrorist attacks, particularly those that unleash deadly biological agents. “In order to mobilize a rapid response to such an attack, government leaders must be able to recognize the outbreak of a catastrophic illness or an attack on food and water supplies,” the report stated. “Such information would increase government’s ability to recognize an attack in its earliest stages and limit its effects.” Creating such an elaborate system would require state governors and mayors of large cities, with federal guidance, to establish their own monitoring networks, the report said. The networks of cities — which would monitor hospital intakes, 911 calls and employee sick lists — would feed their data to state officials, who would in turn pass it on to national officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the report said. “Any national surveillance network must operate from the ground up,” the report noted. “In this way, alerts about a possible [biological attack] unfolding could be sent out nationwide to alert communities to step up their detection efforts and response preparations.” Reorganize U.S. Agencies The panel also strongly urged the president to reorganize the federal agencies charged with protecting the country’s infrastructure. In May 1998 former President Bill Clinton issued a directive for “critical infrastructure improvement,” but the measure left a lack of accountability and oversight and did not establish a clear chain of command within the top 12 federal agencies, the report said. Satellite Security While President Bush has recently moved to secure many of the country’s vital assets, including the plethora of communication and navigation satellites heavily relied upon by businesses, the military and numerous sectors of society, he needs to do more to protect the nation’s information systems from sabotage, the report concluded. A good first step would be designating Global Positioning System devices as critical national infrastructure, the report noted. “GPS is very vulnerable because it uses a very low-power signal that can be corrupted or interrupted, causing loss of information,” the report said. “Russia is actively marketing handheld GPS jamming equipment that can block receiving equipment for up to 120 miles.” Securing Spent Fuel The report also called for the United States to hasten the development of the nuclear storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada so that used nuclear fuel can be safely stored and monitored (see related GSN story, today). The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act mandated that the Energy Department begin transferring nuclear byproducts to Yucca in 1998, but the facility is not slated to be ready until 2010, leaving 77,000 tons of U.S. spent nuclear fuel to be stored at various locations, usually adjoining nuclear power plants, with varying degrees of security. “Spent nuclear fuel, if acquired by enemies of the United States, could be used to build a ‘dirty bomb’ that could be exploded to spread radiation across a designated area,” said the report. “The destruction of infrastructure caused by such a bomb would be much less than the human toll, but it would still be immense.” Cross-Border Threats Because of the possibility someone would try to launch weapons of mass destruction attacks without even entering the United States, there must be greater cooperation with Canada and Mexico to protect the border regions near large U.S. cities, the report said. The report depicts detailed scenarios that portray attacks from across the border — anthrax attacks near Detroit and San Diego, and nuclear detonations near Buffalo, New York, and El Paso, Texas. Using actual meteorological data from late November, when the winds were blowing from either Canada or Mexico into the United States, panel members estimate such cross-border attacks could kill up to 90 percent of people in the path of spreading anthrax spores or nuclear radiation. “A terrorist could release a toxic agent into the air in Mexico or Canada that would flow into communities in the United States,” the report noted. “The opposite is true as well: an attack on the United States could have devastating effects on Mexico or Canada [and] quickly overwhelm local [response] capabilities on both sides of the border … Local first response teams on both sides of the border should be prepared to work together.” Activate Reserves, Improve Checks on Shipping Another panel recommendation is to designate various units of military reservists for homeland and port security. The report observed that the Army and Air Force cannot deploy for a conventional war without calling up large numbers of reservists, particularly those designated for support roles. “However, these same Reserve and Guard components are the primary units to support homeland security requirements,” the report stated. “They must be freed from their support of the active forces to defend the homeland against terrorism.” The National Guard and Reserve soldiers could, among other duties, augment customs officials searching incoming ships, the report said. Only about 2 percent of cargo containers aboard large ships are now searched, a percentage U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and other agencies have pledged to boost dramatically. Because U.S. seaport security has become a major concern, the panel suggests U.S. officials strive to persuade various countries to let U.S. Custom officials search ships bound for the United States at their ports of origin. While the Agriculture Department already does this on a very limited basis, a wide-scale approach would greatly enhance safety at U.S. ports, panel members said. “It’s not going to be easy” to convince other countries to let the United States set up inspection operations in their home ports, Bremer noted. “It’s going to take some robust diplomacy, but I think it can be done.” Whether or not the Bush administration embraces the recommendations issued in its report, the panel members stressed one crucial point: the United States is likely to endure more terrorist attacks in the future, incidents that will probably utilize weapons of mass destruction. They also concur that there are seemingly countless holes the country must plug to make it safe from such attacks. “No matter how good your defenses are,” observed panel member Joseph Muckerman, a retired Army colonel who is a former director of emergency management at the Defense Department, “something’s always going to get through.” Other Recommendations The report suggested several other measures, including: * Closer monitoring of those entering the United States through airports and seaports. This includes more careful issuances of visas from embassies and the expulsion of visitors violating the terms of their visas. * Requiring federal law enforcement, military and intelligence agencies to share more information with each other and with local law enforcement officials. * Encouraging drug companies and the Food and Drug Administration to “fast track” development and distribution of antibiotics and vaccines to treat and prevent diseases caused by biological agents, including anthrax and smallpox. * Improving public education programs so federal, state and local governments can better communicate with the public in the event of attack or increasing threats. * Creation of new systems for airlines and governments to share passenger information to prevent potential terrorists from boarding planes. The report demands that airport and seaport administrations ensure that only authorized people can enter secure areas. * Establishing a network of federal weapons of mass destruction specialists who train, assist and prepare local first responders for attacks. * Rapidly improving intelligence gathering at all levels of government — and demanding that federal, state and local authorities share their information. * Eliminating opportunities for identity theft and fake documents in state identity programs, namely motor vehicle divisions. * Creation of a mechanism to monitor recent anti-laundering initiatives to obstruct the financing of terrorists groups. * Protecting the U.S. borders, coasts, cities and critical infrastructure from ballistic missile threats by developing and erecting national and regional missile shields.
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