White House Says TOPOFF Exercise Showed Preparedness Lapses

A secret White House report on a federal terrorism preparedness exercise held last May found that the effort was plagued by communications failures, medical supply shortages and confusion, Bush administration officials said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 31).

TOPOFF 2, a five-day exercise held in Chicago and Seattle, tested the response of federal officials to simultaneous biological and radiological attacks.

The Homeland Security Department said that many of the problems identified in the report have been addressed.

“This was conducted in the first months of the department, before many of the response systems that we now have were in place,” said Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. After studying the results of the exercise, he said, “we have created new systems by which to communicate with federal, state and local officials.”

Administration officials, however, said they were disturbed by the report on the exercise (Philip Shenon, New York Times, Dec. 19). 

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