Military prepares for terrorist attacks at home

As the military campaign to topple the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein unfolds in the Middle East, military officials in southern Virginia and Colorado are developing plans for a different sort of campaign-here at home, in response to attacks on U.S. soil.

"I'm sure you've seen reports of the increase in threats against the United States. We're evaluating all of these and planning accordingly," said Maj. Jeffrey Parks, spokesman for the Norfolk, Va.-based Joint Force Headquarters-Homeland Security. "We don't respond directly to [an elevation in] the Homeland Security Department threat level, but we continue to monitor events and plan contingencies."

Joint Force Headquarters-Homeland Security is the military unit responsible for providing military assistance to civil authorities and planning land and maritime military operations for the continental United States. The unit is part of Northern Command, the command-and-control organization established by the Defense Department last October at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., to consolidate and oversee military operations in the continental United States. The command has few permanently assigned forces; when troops are required, they are assigned for specific operations.

"Basically there are two elements to our mission. The first is the standard unified combatant commanders' statement: Deter, prevent and defeat threats and aggression aimed at the United States, its territories and interests in our area of responsibility," said Air Force Col. Robert J. Hinger, chief of staff for Joint Force Headquarters-Homeland Security. "What is unique is that when directed by the president or the secretary of Defense, we provide military assistance to civil authorities."

It's no secret that civilian authorities could quickly be overwhelmed with the requirements of responding to a terrorist attack. Much of the planning for military assistance falls to a subordinate unit, Joint Task Force Civil Support, based at Fort Monroe, Va.

"We try to pre-identify what resources, what units, what capability [the military has] that we could bring to the fight, so to speak-in other words, be able to mitigate the effects of whatever event might occur," said Army National Guard Col. Patrick Murphy, director of operations for Joint Task Force Civil Support.

"We're not a traditional war-fighting organization," said Murphy. "We think of our enemy as being the effects of an attack." Those effects include the health and safety of the people affected as well as the psychological, environmental and economic consequences.

Such effects could be devastating. As Army Col. Tom Haddan, a senior planner and strategist for the unit, noted: "We specialize in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive events and their effects."

Task force members work with federal, state and local officials to anticipate the potential needs of communities. Because they know they can't possibly predict every contingency, the task force maintains a file of generic plans for a range of threats, which can then be tailored to the specific needs of a particular situation and locale.

The capabilities of medical, fire and law-enforcement officials around the country vary considerably, says Haddan. "Surprisingly, some of our smaller cities have very comprehensive and detailed plans, while some of our largest cities have plans that are not very well put together because of the scope and complexity and money that's required.

"Most American cities are under great financial stress, and since planning costs money and people, they don't have a lot of assets to put in that area. It's a challenge for every mayor of every major city," he says.

To improve response operations, Northern Command last month participated with about 40 other agencies in a table-top exercise dubbed United Defense 03. The exercise, which posited a series of maritime and land attacks, some of which involved weapons of mass destruction, was designed to test interagency communications as well as help Northern Command refine its planning, said Army Lt. Gen. Edward Anderson, Northern Command's deputy commander.

When the exercised was planned early last year, war with Iraq wasn't on the minds of the planners, he said. Nonetheless, the exercise proved especially useful given the heightened security environment.

Military officials are quick to emphasize that they will respond to events only when such support is requested by civilian authorities.

"We are not police or first responders, and we don't conduct law enforcement operations, although we can support law enforcement," says Hinger. The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from conducting domestic law enforcement operations unless specifically authorized to do so by the president or Congress-something both the White House and Congress have shown an increasing willingness to do in recent years.

Some members of Congress have suggested the Posse Comitatus Act needs to be revised, giving the military greater flexibility in domestic operations. Not surprisingly, civil libertarians are opposed. Says Anderson: "From our perspective, it makes great sense to review anything that existed prior to Sept. 11. Now, having said that, at this point we have identified no problem with Posse Comitatus."