April 4, 2005
Bloomberg
The U.S. today began a five-day exercise, the largest of its kind, simulating twin terrorist attacks with biological and chemical weapons on New Jersey and Connecticut and testing the nation's ability to respond.
At least 10,000 people representing more than 275 government agencies, private organizations and international bodies are participating, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The congressionally mandated drill was to begin with reports that terrorists had spread a biological agent through New Jersey's Middlesex and Union Counties -- less than an hour's drive from New York City -- and had detonated a chemical weapon in New London, Connecticut. The attacks trigger a U.S. health crisis.
"We are going to push our plans and our systems to the very limit,'' Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at a news conference this morning in Washington. "We're actually going to go beyond what we might really expect, to test our operational assumptions and our policy assumptions in the most stressful possible environment. That's how you really tell if you are prepared.''
Chertoff declined to offer any initial assessment of how government agencies are performing, including how U.S. intelligence agencies responded to a simulated stream of clues in the days leading up to the mock attacks.
`Work Out the Kinks'
Frank Cilluffo, a former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush, said such exercises expose weaknesses even though officials have time to prepare in advance.
"We want to be able to work out the kinks and make the mistakes in the practice field, not in Main Street USA when the next incident occurs,'' said Cilluffo, who heads the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington.
Since the terrorist hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. has stepped up preparations for possible attacks using biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. A report released last week by a presidential commission on intelligence said U.S. officials underestimated the progress made by terrorists worldwide in developing biological weapons.
"There are critical intelligence gaps with regard to each al-Qaeda unconventional weapons capability -- chemical, biological and nuclear,'' the report said.
Lacking Preparedness
In a December report, the Washington-based Trust for America's Health, a private advocacy group, said only six of 50 states are prepared to distribute and administer vaccines and drugs the federal government stockpiles for bioterrorist attacks.
This week's drill, the third since 2000, tests whether a national plan released in January improves coordination among federal, state and local governments.
In the exercise, government officials rush to provide medicine, deal with contamination and investigate. In New Jersey, volunteer victims show up at hospitals with cards describing their symptoms, and law enforcement officials recover the vehicle used to disburse the biological agent. Federal officials deploy the Strategic National Stockpile, the nation's repository of antibiotics, antidotes, antitoxins and medical supplies.
At Fort Trumbull State Park in New London, the setting for the mock chemical weapon strike, urban rescue teams pull dummies from a giant pile of rubble while other first responders disinfect volunteer victims.
Unknown Details
The scenario is "plausible but purely fictional,'' according to a Homeland Security fact sheet. Though participants know about the drill in advance, many details will emerge as it progresses.
"All the participants know is what has been reported in the papers, that there is a biological attack in New Jersey and a chemical attack in Connecticut,'' said Marc Short, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department. "They're not aware of the agents or how they are transmitted. Nor do they know how quickly these agents can be spread.''
In concurrent exercises, Canadian officials will help investigate the plot and monitor cross-border traffic for signs of contagious people while the U.K. copes with a separate attack. Mexico and 12 other nations have representatives observing the exercises in Washington, Chertoff said.
The Securities Industry Association and the Bond Market Association will test their emergency notification procedures and review how the simulated attacks might affect market operations.
Howard Sprow, director of business-continuity planning with the securities association, said a drill tomorrow will activate a sequence of calls among financial firms, regulators, exchanges and service providers.
Two-Year Cycle
"There are literally dozens of calls that would take place in a 24-hour period'' after a disaster or attack, Sprow said. "This is a test to see how that sequence works. It's not a test of how the market would respond to any type of event.''
More companies and private groups than ever will be involved in the program, said Jim Kish, director of the national exercise program at Homeland Security. The exercise is called TOPOFF 3, shorthand for Top Officials.
The live exercise completes a two-year cycle of planning and seminars. Each cycle costs about $16 million.
A similar drill in 2003 involved the simultaneous release of pneumonic plague in Chicago and detonation of a radiological dispersal device, or dirty bomb, in Seattle. The Homeland Security Department declared that exercise a success and a "tremendous learning experience.''
Novel Inspired
Among other lessons, it revealed confusion about what actions agencies should take when the Homeland Security Advisory System is raised to red, or severe, according to a report released in December 2003. The exercise also highlighted problems with coordinating the collection of data on the released radiation in Seattle.
The report also said the mock attack in Chicago overwhelmed telephone and fax communication capabilities and showed how difficult it is to ration limited medication across a wide area.
The first exercise took place in 2000, inspired in part by "The Cobra Event,'' a 1998 novel about a bioterrorism attack that caught the attention of then-President Bill Clinton, Kish said. The program was expanded after the Sept. 11 attacks.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Laurence Arnold in Washington at larnold4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Joe Winski at jwinski@bloomberg.net
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