Threat Assessment:  War With Iraq Could Bring Domestic Terrorism

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said yesterday that an attack on Iraq could cause an increased threat of terrorist attack in the United States (see GSN, Feb. 28).

“There may be more threats, there have been more threats, if we go to war,” he told reporters.

While U.S. officials said there is no evidence of an imminent terrorist plot, Washington believes terrorists want to time an attack to coincide with a U.S. military conflict in Iraq.

“I think we can anticipate more noise in the system, more threats, because of potential invasion,” Ridge said.  “I mean, it’s fairly predictable, and we see some of that now,” he added.

Ridge also said an invasion would be an integral part of the war on terrorism.  The potential collaboration of terrorist groups with Iraq, and its suspected weapons of mass destruction, must be prevented, he said.

“Those are partnerships that we never want to see develop,” according to Ridge.

He added that the national threat alert level could be raised if the United States attacks Iraq.

“I think it certainly would be incumbent on us to take into consideration military involvement as we determine the level of protection we need for homeland security — we’d be foolish if we didn’t,” Ridge said (Philip Shenon, New York Times, March 4).

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U.S. Response:  Border Inspectors Begin Radiation Screening

U.S. border inspectors began using pager-like radiation detection devices Saturday to screen all incoming visitors to the United States for signs of carrying radioactive materials, a spokesman for the new Bureau of Customs and Border Protection said Saturday (see GSN, Oct. 21, 2002).

Inspectors use the devices, strapped to their belts, to check people at U.S. points of entry while asking to see their passports, said Customs spokesman Dean Boyd.  “If a source of radiation passes close by or within a certain distance, the pager will begin beeping or alerting, and you can look down at the pager and see the amount (of radiation) that the pager is picking up,” Boyd said (Emily Gersema, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2).

Some visitors to the United States were already screened for radiation when they went through U.S. border checkpoints staffed with inspectors equipped with portable detectors, according to the New York Times.  Now, however, the detectors will be more widely distributed, allowing inspectors to screen all of the 500,000 people who enter the United States each day, officials said.

All 18,000 U.S. border inspectors — 9,000 customs agents, 6,000 immigration agents and 3,00 agriculture agents — will be equipped with detectors and trained in their use by the middle of next year, Homeland Security Department officials said.  They also said they plan to begin complete screening of air- and sea-delivered cargo within a year (Philip Shenon, New York Times, March 2).

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