08 October 1998
(Country prepared to "act first" in self-defense) (670) By Susan Ellis USIA Staff Writer Washington - The Clinton administration will reorganize its structure for responding to a terrorist attack involving chemical or biological weapons following complaints that "it has been woefully fragmented," says the National Coordinator for Security, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Counter-Terrorism. Speaking October 7 at a conference on countering threats from poison gas and germ warfare, Richard Clarke said Attorney General Janet Reno is completing the new structure, which she is expected to announce the week of October 12. The new structure will provide what he called "one-stop shopping" for state and local officials seeking federal aid in training and buying equipment to protect citizens from biological or chemical weapons. Clarke said the plan would require cities and states to produce their own emergency response plans to attacks before receiving federal money. It would also authorize centralized federal purchasing of most of the equipment that states and localities now buy individually to detect a chemical or biological attack and much of the protective clothing for emergency service personnel. "But before we spend a single dollar," Clarke added, "we'll figure out to whom local officials should turn" in the event of a biological or chemical emergency. Clarke also warned terrorist groups seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction that Washington is prepared to strike them first in self-defense. "The United States reserves for itself the right of self-defense, and if that means our taking the first step, we will do so," he said. "We will not tolerate terrorist organizations acquiring or maintaining stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction." In an interview after his speech, Clarke emphasized that countries that harbor such terrorists also risk becoming targets. He pointed to the recent missile attacks against Sudan, and said the United States would "definitely do something" about such countries, and that the measures taken would be appropriate to the situation. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) counter-terrorism expert Robert Blitzer agreed that the United States "cannot sit...and wait until we have a major disaster before we do something." He said that in 1997, the FBI opened 68 new investigations into the threatened or actual use of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear materials. As of this September, the FBI had opened more than 86 similar investigations. While he sees "more threats from bio toxins, primarily ricin" than from chemical agents, Blitzen believes "the overall threat is low and will be for the foreseeable future. "The real cases are a handful. It's the hoaxes that drive us crazy, but you can't walk away from a hoax. You have to look at it," he added. Both speakers addressed a conference on countering chemical and biological warfare held in Washington October 6-7 sponsored by Jane's Information Group, a publisher of information on military topics. "There is almost a one-to-one copy," Clarke told conference participants, between the State Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism and a secret Central Intelligence Agency list of countries that have chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. He praised Congress for approving most of the administration's requests to transfer more than $300 million to federal programs combating terrorism from other programs. But he criticized legislators for failing to approve the $50 million requested to improve the nation's public health system, which he described as the key to detecting and identifying a biological weapons attack. "It does no good to have put people in suits if a biological weapon is released and people don't know it. If the health providers and the HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) and the emergency rooms cannot diagnose a biological weapons release, then we have wasted the entire rest of the program," he said. Clarke said that although "it looks like the Congress will not appropriate that money this year," he is hopeful they will next year "because the president will ask for it again next year."