U.S. told how to prepare for future terrorist attacks
Copyright APonline
By JANELLE CARTER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON
(October 5, 2001 02:47 p.m. EDT ) - Officials told lawmakers Friday that the best way the federal government can prepare for another terrorist attack is by developing a coordinated response that utilizes federal, state and local resources.
"I think the rules of engagement for law enforcement have changed forever inside this country," Baltimore Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris told a House Government Reform subcommittee. "It may once have made sense for the federal agencies to withhold from local police their information about developing cases."
"Today, we all need each other if we are as a nation going to successfully counter threats that can come from virtually anywhere, at any time in any form, including forms that could destroy whole cities," Norris said.
His comments came at a House hearing to assess whether state and local governments are prepared to deal with a chemical or biological attack.
A congressional report released last week said the national government is unprepared to respond to a bioterrorist attack, and the situation is even worse at the local level. The General Accounting Office report said federal agencies have failed to come up with a coordinated plan to deal with such an attack.
Indeed, Norris said federal agencies must do a better job of sharing locally relevant information with the nearly 650,000 state and local police officers in the country. Police chiefs should get regular briefings on even highly classified information to help them direct their own efforts.
"I think the threat is so great we should use every police officer in America in this fight," Norris said. "We have to know more about what there is to look for in our own communities so we can better protect our own people and be more effective gatherers of intelligence for the FBI."
Others stressed the need for federal anti-terrorism dollars to filter down to local governments to help with training and purchasing equipment.
"The key to domestic preparedness lies not in bigger terrorism budgets and more federal bureaucracy, but in smarter spending that enhances readiness at the local level," said Amy Smithson of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.
In a letter last week to members of Congress, the U.S. Conference of Mayors said that of a current $10 billion federal terrorism budget, only 4.9 percent is allocated to state and local activities. "And of this amount, most of the funding is provided to states, not directly to local governments," the mayors wrote.
Congress in 1996 passed a measure to enhance terrorism response capabilities in 120 large cities through training, equipment and planning programs.
But "somewhere along the way the good intentions got slightly skewed under the federal bureaucracy," said Donald Lynch, director of emergency management for the city of Shawnee and Pottawatomie County in Oklahoma.
Lynch described a seemingly endless list of activities before the actual training began, including regional kickoff meetings and other briefings he said were wasteful.
"In my opinion, all that money could have been better spent in providing those communities with equipment," Lynch said. "We need more equipment."
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