Posted on: Tuesday, October 9, 2001
The September 11th attack
Highest state of vigilance sweeps nation
By Tom Kenworthy
USA Today
Suddenly, it seems the entire nation is at DEFCON 1. That chilling phrase, used by the military to describe its highest alert status, now seems to apply from Maui to Maine.
With retaliatory strikes under way against terrorist and Taliban regime targets in Afghanistan, the United States is on high alert, bracing for a renewed round of attacks on our own soil that national leaders are calling all but inevitable.
Where will the terrorists strike next and will we be ready?
The FBI yesterday began treating the twin cases of anthrax in a south Florida office building as a potential terrorist or criminal attack. The agency is urging law enforcement across the nation to operate at "the highest level of vigilance."
"Every American should be vigilant," Attorney General John Ashcroft said. "We are counting on each American to help defend our nation in this war."
In Hawai'i, National Guard troops assumed duty at Honolulu International Airport and would be at Neighbor Island airports by the end of the week, military bases tightened security and new emphasis was placed on protecting power stations and water supplies.
To protect U.S. shores, the Coast Guard has established dozens of security zones at ports and along coastlines. In San Francisco Bay, armed sea marshals stand watch in the wheelhouse of every cargo ship sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Security has been tightened anew at sensitive Energy Department sites, nuclear missile silos, drinking water reservoirs, even Hollywood studios. Train passengers now have to show identification before boarding.
Armed guards and restrictions on traffic and visitors at dams and reservoirs. Careful inspections of hazardous material trucks. Backpack and cooler bans at sporting events. Makeshift security checkpoints at Disney World. Anxious parents buying gas masks.
Even as President Bush seeks to reassure the nation that the government is "taking strong precautions" to deter new attacks, other national leaders are issuing dire warnings. "I don't know when or where or how, but you can just about believe that there are going to be more attacks," said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Not since World War II — when lookouts scanned the Atlantic horizon for Nazi submarines and ordinary citizens hung blackout curtains, rationed gas and grew victory gardens — has the United States so tightly embraced the notion of homeland security.
As former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge took over yesterday as director of the newly created White House Office of Homeland Security, it was clear that fundamental changes are in store. But what is less clear as a long campaign in Afghanistan began is what a permanent homeland defense will look like — and whether the country is up to the task.
Among the issues:
• What roles various levels of government — federal, state and local — will play in deterring attacks and coping with their aftermath, and how well they are prepared.
• Whether emergency preparedness for one scenario translates into readiness for others.
• What ordinary citizens should do and how fundamentally their everyday lives could change.
• What the proper balance is between protection of lives and protection of civil liberties.
• Whether a comprehensive system of homeland security can be made permanent.
Part of the challenge is determining exactly where the nation is most vulnerable.
Breaching the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River near Las Vegas sounds like a tough proposition. The concrete behemoth is 726 feet tall and 660 feet thick at its base. But could it withstand the impact of a large jet loaded with fuel?
"Nobody's ever looked at that, to my knowledge," said Bob Walsh, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Of all the terrorist possibilities, experts said, the nation is least prepared for a biological attack, the outlines of which would emerge slowly and sorely test health care systems that may be too decentralized to respond adequately.
A major federal exercise in several cities in 2000 revealed numerous shortcomings, in communications, coordination among agencies, and the ability of health care providers to respond adequately to a biological attack.
"We are not ready for that," said John Thomasian, director of the National Governors Association's think tank.
Homeland security has been well studied in recent years, with several high-level commissions issuing reports on how the threat of terrorism on U.S. soil should be met.
Two of the panels, one led by former Sens. Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, and another by Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, presciently warned in a series of reports beginning in 1999 of imminent danger from terrorists and argued for an integrated national strategy to combat it. Both commissions urged creation of a powerful new federal office to spearhead homeland defense and closely coordinate with states and cities.
Those studies drew little attention. But today, homeland defense tops almost every American's agenda, from New York civil-defense planners and Pentagon strategists to retirees watering their lawns in Phoenix.
A hot line to Arizona's Department of Public Safety, created as part of its "Operation Vigilance," is averaging 40 to 50 calls a day from citizens reporting everything from furtive neighbors to speeding hazardous-waste trucks. Detectives take down the information and pass it on to the state Criminal Investigation Bureau and the FBI.
"It makes people feel like they're part of helping — and they are," said Cmdr. Jeffery Resler of the Department of Public Safety. "This is a very big puzzle, and they may have a very important link in the puzzle."
High-level architects of homeland defense don't mince words about the scope of the challenge.
"It's not going to be a federal answer" if disaster strikes again, said George Foresman, a member of the Gilmore Commission and an emergency-management official in Virginia. "It's not going to be a state answer. It's not going to be a local answer. It's going to be a national answer."
As the weeks and months pass, how will homeland defense affect most Americans?
At the outset, perhaps largely in the form of jitters. In Atlanta, for example, mortgage banker Victoria Highfill teaches her daughter Tori "to look for things out of the ordinary and to not be shy about reporting something strange to the police."
But aside from long lines at airports and more rigorous workplace security measures, most Americans won't encounter major changes in their everyday lives, said California Highway Patrol Commissioner Spike Helmick.
"Obviously, all the big truckers — hazardous materials, petroleum — are seeing our people more often," Helmick said. "Do I think the average person is going to have their movement or any of their rights infringed upon? The answer is no."
But for public officials, homeland defense is an urgent priority. Despite great strides in emergency planning since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, state and city officials recognize that Sept. 11 and the current military strikes have altered basic assumptions about public safety.
A survey taken Sept. 21 by the National League of Cities reveals that two-thirds of cities with more than 100,000 people are reassessing their emergency plans, although 83 percent have a terrorism response plan in place. "Communities are going to have to think outside the box," Executive Director Don Borut said.
