IP: One-Stop Shopping for Anti-Terrorism Aid

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

From: believer@telepath.com
Subject: IP: One-Stop Shopping for Anti-Terrorism Aid
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 17:55:09 -0500
To: believer@telepath.com

Source:  Fox News - AP

Reno offers one-stop federal anti-terrorist aid
 3.37 p.m. ET (1938 GMT) October 16, 1998

 By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press

 WASHINGTON (AP) � Attorney General Janet Reno trumpeted a new FBI office
Friday that will offer local police, fire and rescue workers one-stop
shopping for federal training and equipment to respond to chemical,
biological or nuclear attacks by terrorists. 

 The FBI's new National Domestic Preparedness Office, staffed by officials
from a variety of federal agencies, "will assume overall responsibility for
coordinating the government's efforts to prepare America's communities for
terrorist incidents involving weapons of mass destruction,'' Reno told her
weekly news conference. 

 After an attack, "the first few minutes are very critical,'' Reno said.
Usually, the first to arrive at the chaotic and dangerous scene are local
rescue squads, firefighters and police. "For many victims, what these first
responders do in those first few minutes can mean the difference between
life and death.'' 

 State and local officials responsible for these efforts have complained in
recent years that federal aid � either training or equipment � is hard to
find and inadequate and that some federal agencies duplicate the work of
others while gaps remain. 

 The new program "is trying to address the issues that first responders
have raised and create a two-way street so that we hear from them, that we
provide one central place where they can go, knowing that they will get the
best information, both from the FBI, Department of Defense, the Department
of Energy, the Public Health Service, and that they will get the latest
information with respect to equipment,'' Reno said. 

 Under a new interagency agreement, Justice and the FBI will take over from
the Defense Department as the coordinator, funded by $49 million from the
Pentagon in the coming fiscal year. 

 The program will train state and local workers, distribute money to buy
equipment, set up joint federal-state-local practice exercises and work
with state and local officials to draft contingency plans unique to each
local situation, Reno said. "State and local governments (will be) a full
partner in the planning effort, since they know what they need there at the
front line.'' 

 The FBI has been investigating a rising number of suspected biological,
chemical or nuclear-radiological incidents � 68 in 1997 and 86 in 1998. But
Bob Blitzer, chief of the FBI's domestic terrorism unit, said, "the vast
majority of these are hoaxes.'' 

 He said the bureau believed it had averted four or five potential attacks
in the last couple years. 

 Many fire department have good hazardous materials units to deal with
chemical attacks, and for many years there has been "a pretty robust
capability to handle'' nuclear-radiological attacks, Blitzer said. 

 "The real weakness that we have right now is the ability to detect and
counter a (biological attack), because it's much more insidious and much
more difficult to detect,'' Blitzer added. "There's certainly less
protection, particularly on the medical side.'' 

                  � 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
-----------------------
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