Friday, April 28, 2000
Cincinnati unprepared for terrorist acts
Pentagon exercise finds emergency services lacking
By David A. Vise
The Washington Post
A secret exercise to determine how a medium-sized U.S. city would fare after detonation of a weapon of mass destruction by a terrorist showed that Cincinnati's hospitals, police and other services are woefully unprepared for such a disaster, sources said Thursday.
The findings were presented earlier this year to Attorney General Janet Reno, then-Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre and senior FBI officials in two closed-door Saturday sessions at the Pentagon, sources said.
The senior officials immediately ordered the formation of interagency working groups to begin addressing the mammoth problems that would result from a major terrorist attack.
In addition to hundreds of thousands of casualties, the list of problems revealed by the table-top simulation conducted by the Pentagon included what to do with the large number of bodies, a shortage of hospital beds and emergency medical personnel, and inadequate equipment and training of local law enforcement and health officials.
Major legal issues also were identified, including whether the government has the right to force someone dying from contagious biological agents to remain in quarantine to avoid infecting others.
The exercise “is just responsible government officials coming together and doing a responsible thing,” said Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin. “It was about getting together and thinking about ways to handle various situations.”
Cincinnati was selected because it is a typical medium-sized city, not because it faces any terrorist threat or is less capable of coping with an attack than other places, federal officials emphasized Thursday.
“There is no such thing as being prepared for meeting all the potential deaths that would occur with an attack from a weapon of mass destruction,” Cincinnati Health Commissioner Dr. Malcolm Adcock said Thursday night.
In January 1999, Cincinnati was among 120 U.S. cities receiving anti-terrorism training from the Department of Defense's Domestic Preparedness Program.
The goal was to teach local officials and disaster response teams how to respond to weapons of mass destruction, which include nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
In March 1999, local authorities conducted a table-top exercise for a bioterrorist attack with Defense Department personnel present, Dr. Adcock said. He said it did not appear to be the same exercise alluded to by Defense sources on Thursday, because that was reported to have been conducted by the Pentagon itself.
“As far as being prepared relative to our training and resources,” Mr. Adcock said, “... we did very, very well in comparison to a lot of other cities.”
Fire Chief Robert Wright declined comment Thursday night; efforts to reach other city officials were unsuccessful.
Also Thursday, the Justice Department announced that a cadre of federal agents, professional actors, presidential Cabinet members and local officials will conduct large-scale mock terrorism raids and responses to the use of biological and other weapons over 10 days next month.
The drills will be in Washington, D.C.; Prince George's County, Md.; Denver; and Portsmouth, N.H.
The exercises in Colorado and New Hampshire were mandated by Congress, which provided $3.5 million for the drills.
Jim Hannah contributed to this report.
Cincinnati unprepared for terrorist acts
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