Saturday, April 29, 2000
Maybe we could survive attack
Pentagon denies Cincinnati used in readiness test
By Robert Anglen
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A Pentagon spokesman says the Department of Defense doesn't know whether Cincinnati would be able to cope with a massive terrorist attack because it was never discussed.
Lt. Col. Steve Campbell confirmed Cincinnati was named during a series of secret discussions about how cities would survive the detonation of a weapon of mass destruction.
But he said a story in Friday's Washington Post was wrong when it claimed the exercise showed “Cincinnati's hospitals, police and other services are woefully unprepared.”
“There was never any look or assessment of Cincinnati's capability,” Mr. Campbell said. “In that perspective, nobody did any kind of analysis.”
Post reporter David A. Vise, who wrote the story, said Friday the newspaper stands behind it.
“The story speaks for itself,” he said.
Citing unnamed sources, the story outlines secret “table top” simulations by the Pentagon to determine how Cincinnati, as a typical city,
would react to a terrorist threat.
Mr. Campbell acknowledged that after the story ran the DOD received a flurry of calls from angry city officials.
They contend the exercise had nothing to do with the city.
“It was a slap in the face, probably to the hospitals more than anything else,” said Fire Chief Robert Wright. “Whoever (the Post writer) is, I think he was out to do a butcher job on us.”
Public Safety Director Kent Ryan said he was surprised by the story and that no city officials were invited to participate in the exercises.
Mr. Campbell agreed, saying the table-top discussion was limited to federal responses and not local ones. Table top refers to round-table discussions that, in this case, were held at the Pentagon and attended by top-ranking officials with the U.S. Attorney General's office and the FBI.
After the findings were presented earlier this year to Attorney General Janet Reno, then-Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre and senior FBI officials, the Post story said, senior officials immediately ordered the formation of interagency working groups to address problems posed by a major terrorist attack.
Although the exercise was nicknamed “Project Cincinnati,” the city was used only as an example of a medium-sized city with a metropolitan area that includes three states, Mr. Campbell said.
“Cincinnati was just a city thrown into a scenario,” he said. “It was not intended as an analysis.”
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