The Clinton administration is taking the possibility of terrorism at home very seriously.  The former belief that terrorism is something that Americans need only worry about abroad is fast giving way under the impetuous of such incidents as the Oklahoma City bombing and the attempt to blow up the world trade center.  Not only is terrorism now becoming increasingly real to Americans, but the U.S. government is espousing preparedness not only against traditional means of terrorism - bombs, grenades, light arms - but is also taking steps to guard against non-conventional attacks.

Countering Chemical, Biological, and Cyber Terrorism
Among the steps recently taken by the Clinton administration was the signing of a presidential directive for the establishment of a special office for counter-terrorism within the National Security Council.  This office will be headed by Richard Clarke, and will serve as an umbrella for a wide range of counter-terrorist activities, both domestic and international.  Though this office will not have its own budget, and may in the end be largely an advisory position, security experts agree that it is a step in the right direction.

A second presidential directive calls for "a national effort to assure the security of the increasingly vulnerable and interconnected infrastructures of the United States . . ."  Security experts have been saying for some time that the civilian infrastructure in the U.S. is among the most vulnerable in the world to the disruption of terrorism.  Now the weakest links in the system - telecommunications, banking, energy, transportation and municipal services - are coming under review, in order to pinpoint vulnerabilities and devise ways of protecting these vital systems from willful disruption.

Of more immediate impact is the allocation of $50 million for the creation of special response units in the National Guards in 10 states - California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and
Washington.  These units will be trained to respond quickly to terrorist attacks involving chemical, biological, and even nuclear weapons.  The units will work with local emergency forces in the event of an attack.  Each unit will have 22 full-time members, and 22 reserve members, and will be equipped with the technical means to identify the nature of the attack.

Last week Defense Secretary William Cohen gave the go ahead for the vaccination of  2.4 million members of the armed forces against anthrax, at a cost of some $130 million over six or seven years.  In an effort to extend the protection against biological weapons to the civilian population the administration has begun stockpiling vaccines in major cities and training hospitals and health centers to cope with the consequences of a biological attack. This process will take years of research and billions of dollars to complete.  At present there are no federally approved vaccines against any biological agent except anthrax.  By the end of 1998, the Department of Health and Human Services aims to have 27 medical response teams ready to go into action across the United States.

Operation "Cloudy Office" Tests Pentagon Preparedness
As if to bring the threat of terrorism home to the highest echelons of the defense establishment, on may 31st the Pentagon got into the act, literally.  In a mock terror attack, radicals infiltrated the Pentagon in the guise of tourists, took Defense Secretary William Cohen's staff hostage and released the nerve gas sarin - the same agent used in the lethal Tokyo subway attack in 1995 - into the corridors of the Pentagon.  The scenario tested response capabilities of civilian and federal emergency services.  Over 500 people took part in the exercise, including the Pentagon's SWAT team, the FBI, local police and a metropolitan medical strike team charged with decontamination.  In the attack scenario the accidental release of toxic gas resulted in 26 deaths and the exposure of over 100 to the toxin.  Emergency vehicles rushed to the scene to evacuate and decontaminate those caught in the building.  The 10 hour-long exercise ended with the capture of the terrorists.

Similar exercises have been held in some 20 communities across the country, however, security experts point out that most municipalities are still woefully unprepared to deal with a mass bio-chemical attack.  A large-scale exercise in April dealing with the release of a virus along the border with Mexico pointed up the lack of resources and organization needed to deal with a major biological emergency.  That exercise, along with recent threat-analysis reports helped to give impetuous to the present presidential decisions. Security experts maintain that more than 20 terrorist organizations presently possess the means to carry out non-conventional attacks, while between 15 and 20 nations have developed chemical and biological weapons in contravention of international conventions.  Over the next year bio-chemical exercises will be held in 60 American cities, and municipal emergency personnel will undergo extensive retraining to cope with the effects with today's "high-tech" terrorism.

Sources: Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News, BBC, United States Information Agency

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