WASHINGTON - The nation is preparing for its biggest terrorism exercise ever next week when three fictional "dirty bombs" go off and cripple transportation arteries in two major U.S. cities and Guam, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
Yet even as this drill begins, details from the previous national exercise held in 2005 have yet to be publicly released — information that's supposed to help officials prepare for the next real attack.
House lawmakers were expected to demand answers Wednesday, including why the "after-action" report from 2005 hasn't been made public. Congress has required the exercise since 2000, but has done little in the way of oversight beyond attending the actual events.
Next week will be the fourth Top Officials exercise — dubbed TOPOFF. The program costs about $25 million a year and involves the federal government's highest officials, such as top people from the Defense and Homeland Security departments.
"The challenge with TOPOFF is not the exercise itself. It's to move as quickly as possible to remedy what perceives to be the problems that are uncovered," former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in an interview with AP this week.
Ridge, who launched his own security consulting company on Monday, said he's a big fan of the TOPOFF exercises. But he said "it's not acceptable" that the review from the 2005 exercise is still not released publicly.
The House Homeland Security emergency communications, preparedness and response subcommittee was holding a hearing Wednesday on the terrorism exercise program.
This year's TOPOFF will build on lessons learned from previous exercises, according to the Homeland Security Department, which runs the program. The agency said the Oct. 15-19 exercise would be "the largest and most comprehensive" to date.
According to an internal department briefing of next week's exercise obtained by AP, a dirty bomb will go off at a Cabras power plant in Guam; another dirty bomb will explode on the Steel Bridge in Portland, Ore., impacting major transportation systems, and a third dirty bomb will explode at the intersection of busy routes 101 and 202 near Phoenix.
Local hospitals and law enforcement agencies will be involved in the "attacks" by the dirty bombs, which are conventional explosives that include some radioactive material that would cause contamination over a limited area but not create actual nuclear explosions.
"Lessons learned from the exercise will provide valuable insights to guide future planning for securing the nation against terrorist attacks, disasters and other emergencies," according to the department's Web site.
The after action report from TOPOFF 3, which deals with issues that came up in the 2005 exercise, is supposed to identify areas for improvement. That report is still going through internal reviews.
According to a brief summary of the 2005 exercise — marked For Official Use Only, but obtained by AP — problems arose when officials realized the federal government's law for providing assistance does not cover biological incidents.
The exercise involved a mustard gas attack from an improvised explosive device in Connecticut and the release of the pneumonic plague in New Jersey. This caused certain federal disaster programs to be unavailable to some residents suffering from the attack, according to the summary.
A 2005 Homeland Security inspector general report suggested the department start tracking the lessons learned from these exercises.
And a 2006 White House report on Hurricane Katrina criticized the department for not having a system to address and fix the problems discovered in the TOPOFF exercises.
"The most recent Top Officials (TOPOFF) exercise in April 2005 revealed the federal government's lack of progress in addressing a number of preparedness deficiencies, many of which had been identified in previous exercises," according to the White House.
Previously, a more detailed version of lessons-learned from TOPOFF 2, held in 2003 was not released to states for security reasons.
Source: Associated Press
Bomb scare disrupts Topoff drill
The Oregonian | October 19, 2007
Joseph Rose
The Topoff dirty-bomb drill turned into a real-life bomb scare this afternoon after a trio of bomb-sniffing dogs alerted authorities to possible explosives on the first floor of the parking garage of the Doubletree Hotel Portland at 1000 NE Multnomah Street. Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was scheduled to be at the hotel for part of the Topoff counterterrorism exercise later in the day.
Here is what Faith Cathcart of The Oregonian found at the scene:
Portland police cordoned off several blocks around the Lloyd Center, marking off the area with hundreds of feet of yellow tape blowing in the afternoon wind. They also shut down MAX trains through the area, and alerted people inside the hotel and surrounding buildings. Some in chose buildings chose to evacuate, while others remained in place.
By 3:45 p.m., Police spokesman Brian Schmautz said officials "were comfortable" there was nothing sinister going on. Shortly after that, TriMet spokeswoman Peggy LaPoint said the red and blue MAX lines were back open in both directions through the area.
Nonetheless, Topoff activities at the hotel were quickly canceled earlier in the afternoon. Schmautz said officers had been sweeping the area in advance of visits by Chertoff and high-ranking military personnel using a pair of "explosives sensitive" police dogs. "One dog got an alert at this car. The second dog was called in and also gave an alert." A third dog later came to the parking garage, and had the same reaction as the first two.
Authorities initially focused on one vehicle, which turned out to be owned by a participant in the Topoff exercise. The car's owner was quickly located and cooperated, and police later expanded the search to other vehicles on the first floor of the garage. It was windy, Schmautz said, so it's possible the dogs picked up smells from any of several vehicles in the area.
There are a number of military and Homeland Security employees in the area for the counterterrorism exercise, so Schmautz says it's possible one of their vehicles inadvertently picked up explosive residue or something else that might set off the dogs.
"It's very unusual to have a concentration of military and law enforcement vehicles in the same place," Schmautz said. He said explosive residue can get "baked in" to vehicles, noting that members of the Portland Police explosives team frequently set off alarms in airports because residue is in the fabric of their clothing.
Before 2 p.m., a crowd of people, many them streaming out of the mall and unable to get to their cars in a parking lot, gathered at Northeast 13th Avenue and Multnomah Street. Some asked officers near the yellow police tape if scene was part of the terror drill. "This is not a drill, m'am," said one officer. Others complained about not being able to catch buses and the MAX trains.
A street preacher stopped on the corner, warning people walking past that they were witnessing the end times. "It's time to come to Jesus Christ," he said.
The Topoff drill is scheduled to resume tomorrow morning with a wrap-up briefing, as participants evaluate how things went this week.