Homeland security - pork or protection?

Indeed, at some new centers, most "antiterrorism" training is the same drilling that's been done for decades. In Sunrise, Fla., for instance, a long-desired police shooting range is now touted as an antiterrorism center.

At the Oakland Community College near Detroit, William Furtaw says the new antiterrorism elements at the training center he directs include a double-thick coil of barbed wire "like you would find at a nuclear power plant" - as well as plans to insert mock pipe bombs into regular training exercises.

Also, he insists, enabling police, fire, and medical teams to train all at once is very realistic for terrorism response. Before Sept. 11, his $13-million project was proceeding slowly on a shoe-string budget. Now it's expected to be fully operational in 2003.

The center is designed as a mock town that will include streets with traffic lights, a bank with real vault, three single-family homes, and a "rollover, flashover" unit that engulfs firefighters in flame.

Meanwhile, out in Nevada, boosters claim their spot is unique.

"We can do things here, you can't do anywhere else," says Lt. Larry Ayala, a broad-shouldered Nevada Test Site paramedic, sweating in the hot desert sun after the exercise last month.

Indeed, the site's arid climate, remote location, and deep water table mean, for instance, that toxic chemicals can be used in training exercises without fear of harming surrounding populations.

Others hope for new funds, too. There's the planned "one-stop" terror-training center in a highway tunnel at a National Guard facility in West Virginia. There's the planned $52 million Center for Anti-Terrorism and Security Training at Maryland's Aberdeen Proving Ground. And there's the Center for Domestic Preparedness at the US Army's former chemical-warfare training center in Anniston, Ala.

Yet having a big center "pop up in every state in the country ... wouldn't be advisable," argues Amy Smithson of the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington.

She says it makes more sense to send a few first responders to specialized schools.

"The money is better spent in equipping hospitals and fire departments" with decontamination or other equipment, she says. Besides, the "time-tested" way to train the majority of first responders is to have police and fire academies incorporate specific procedures in their curriculums, she says.

Furthermore, training exercises alone are far from sufficient, says Dave McIntyre of the Anser Institute of Homeland Security in Arlington, Va. That's because terrorism is so different from natural or other disasters.

"Next year's tornado won't be any smarter than last year's tornado. But a terrorist will plan his event so that however you respond will hurt you," he says.

He says that means teaching first-responders to out-think terrorists. Helping them see their own vulnerabilities, he adds, is crucial to America's counter-terror success.

Page: 1 | 2