by Joe Tarr
You're driving along Kingston Pike through Sequoyah Hills one night after work on your way to Kroger to pick up some milk for the kids and some beer for yourself. You flip on the radio and hear NPR's All Things Considered. Alex Siegel—normally all confident and steady—sounds flustered. You listen a little closer and hear that the country has just been put on code red alert.
You turn up the volume, but unfortunately there aren't many details. The government announced that some imminent terrorist attack has been discovered and that people should be on guard. The grocery is packed, everyone anxious and rushed, as they toss cans of food, batteries, and bottled water into their carts. You grab two extra six-packs just in case.
The checkout clerk says he's heard that people are supposed to be off the streets during code red, but his boss says he needs everyone he can get manning the registers. The clerk doesn't know what to do.
Out in the parking lot, people scurry to and from their cars. A guy in a gray suit stares at you for a few seconds before he fumbles with his keys and jumps into his BMW. The doors quickly lock behind him. You notice there seem to be a lot of cops driving around.
Back in your car, you start to get a little more nervous when you realize NPR has been replaced by the sharp whine of the emergency broadcast system. You pull your car over and wait for the announcement.
But then you're distracted again as several fire trucks barrel down the road, their sirens roaring. As they pass you can see the fire fighters all wearing what look like gas masks. You try the cell phone but you can't get through to your spouse because all the circuits are busy.
OK, maybe it won't go down like that. Probably, it won't go down at all.
This country—from the federal government on down to every little podunk backwater town—is spending an untold amount of money, time, and energy to prevent or prepare for a terrorist attack.
But what are these agencies actually doing with the time and money they're spending to prevent and prepare for an attack? And will these preparations do any good? And what are we giving up in the name of security? And what are the odds of another attack, anyway?
We may never know the answers to some of these questions. But here is a look at what local governments and police agencies say they're doing.
Code Red
So what would happen during a code red? The New Jersey director of counter terrorism has described code red as essentially martial law, with the population expected to stay home and anyone out on the street considered suspect.
"I've never heard that as a contingency," says Lt. Jeff Stiles, the homeland security officer for the Knoxville Police Department. "We encourage people to be cautious."
Rick Shipkowski, deputy director of the Tennessee Office of Homeland Security, says the action during various threat levels depends on what the perceived threat is. "If we went to orange tomorrow because of a perceived threat against rail cars or the rail system, I would focus my protective measures along that line, as opposed to sporting events or state buildings," Shipkowski says. "There's not a cookie cutter approach, but there are a lot of molds we can pick from."
The Tennessee Office of Homeland Security is not a huge office. With a budget of less than $800,000, its primary purpose is to act as a clearinghouse for information. The office gives local governments advice about how to prepare, and if there's a threat, warns the appropriate agencies through the state' emergency operation center.
R. Joe Clark, who heads the FBI office in Knoxville, says code red means there's an imminent terrorist threat. Many government offices would close. An amicable man with a full head of white hair and a neatly trimmed mustache, Clark speaks with a caution that suggests he's well aware of the politics of his job and the arguments against some of the federal government's actions. (At one point he calls the war with Iraq "the action taken by the coalition forces against Saddam's government.")
"Convenience and security are mutually exclusive. The more secure something is, the less convenient it is," Clark says. It depends on the threat, but generally there will be a lot more inconveniences, he says. "Airlines would take more time doing searches. You're not going to be able to park near the airport or federal buildings. Mail, if it's an anthrax threat, is not going to be delivered on time. It might be X-rayed, checked and possibly quarantined."
If there's a concern about sensitive chemicals, tractor-trailers could be ordered off the highways or ordered to check in with authorities.
"And I would probably turn all of my agents into counter-terrorism agents," Clark adds.
Ed Martelle, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, says that you're unlikely to see a nation-wide code red alert. "The threat level red, as defined by the Department of Homeland Security, is pretty much a locale-specific event. The very nature of it is that DHS has specific information," he says.
In the event of a terrorist attack, the FBI is the ranking investigative authority, Clark says. If there were an attack in East Tennessee, FBI agents would move in and gather evidence and look for suspects.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack, his office's priorities shifted to terrorism. The office has doubled the number of agents who work full-time on anti-terrorism to nine. They investigate three types of terrorism: domestic, international, and weapons of mass destruction.
After Sept. 11, Clark also formed a Joint Terrorism Task Force, as did every other FBI office.
The Knoxville JTTF is made up of 12 full-time officers from other law enforcement agencies, including KPD, the Knox County Sheriff, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Customs, INS, a district attorney investigator, the Transportation Security Agency, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and TVA (the JTTF also has part-time investigators from the Postal Service, the IRS, and U.S. Marshal's office.) All of the agents get anti-terrorism training. This month, the group will get its own office.
"I pay their overtime. If they need a car, I lease a car for them. I buy their cell phone. For all intents and purposes, they're working as FBI agents," Clark says.
But how likely is a terrorism threat in East Tennessee? Clark says there haven't been any terrorism arrests here yet.
"I get raw intelligence reports sent to me every morning. Obviously, the sources of some of the information is not credible or cannot be validated," he says. "If I were a timid person, some of this information would scare me to death. Until I get a specific target, time, date, place and people, I can't go around scared."
Clark says there are several ongoing terrorism investigations in this area, both domestic and international. Some of cases involve financing of charity organizations that have suspected terrorist ties. "We investigate individuals who have links—and we're not sure how strong the links are—to people who have ties to terrorist organizations," he says.
The number of calls and tips to the FBI office typically goes up when the threat level is raised, he says. A lot of the tips are bogus or unverifiable. "I hate to put a percentage on it. Immediately after 9/11, I knew where every Middle Eastern family who lived here [was] because neighbors on both sides called in. Most calls are not that credible to terrorist activity," Clark says. "Some are indeed credible to general criminal activity going on."
As part of a nationwide program, the FBI interviewed several Iraqi immigrants in the Knoxville area, as well as others from Arab, Muslim and Jewish countries—a total of 74 people. The interviews were done to gather intelligence on the Iraqi government and to introduce themselves to the Muslim community, Clark says.
What's Enough?
How prepared we are for a terrorist attack is hard to say. It is difficult to get many specifics on homeland security. Officials at government agencies are quick to assure journalists and the public that they're on top of whatever threat there may be. But they are pretty vague about what it is exactly they're doing.
"We tend not to discuss our perceived vulnerabilities," says Shipkowski. "If I told you our biggest vulnerability was the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville, any bad guy would look at that and go, 'Oh, hey.'"
The ranking security official at McGhee Tyson Airport referred any questions about security to a spokesman in Dallas, Ed Martelle with the TSA. Martelle didn't have much to say about what precautions are being taken at airports. "We're certainly not going to talk about it," he says. "We tried very hard under this last code orange to tailor our security to the needs of each individual airport. Some things that never change are the thoroughness of which we screen passengers and bags."
While the sensitivity is understandable, it makes it tough to evaluate how worthwhile are the efforts of the various government agencies. And is it tax money well spent?
What most agencies will say they're doing is beefing up security around critical infrastructure, limiting access to certain places, and training. "We have officers on assignment guarding critical infrastructure, things I'd rather not identify," said Lt. Stiles, back when the country was on code orange during the war with Iraq. "We also have an increased level of communication with other agencies."
Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the Department of Energy, says the department has spent millions more on security since the 9/11 attack. "You might find this surprising but the impacts to Y-12 were the smallest because it's always been a high security facility. It's the Fort Knox of enriched uranium," he says. "But there were some changes to the site. You have more guards and security offices at the fringes of the site. Bethel Valley Road was shut down. It's always been a DOE road, but now it's no longer open to the public."
Security at other DOE buildings in Oak Ridge has been greatly increased. "There's a lot that goes into that—guards, guns, gates, cyber security," Wyatt says.
Outside of Oak Ridge's Y-12 plant, TVA might have the most sensitive places to protect in East Tennessee. (And for that reason the agency has two agents working full-time for the JTTF.) Gil Francis, a TVA spokesman, says TVA has beefed up security, decreased access to certain areas, and extended the boundary around which the public is allowed at some facilities. There's also more care taken at loading docks and deliveries are checked more carefully, he says.
For the first few days of the Iraqi war, when the country was on orange alert, KPD opened its Emergency Operations Center. Staffed around the clock, the center is basically a room with officers from the area's police and emergency squads, along with representatives from utilities, Stiles says. If something goes wrong, they can immediately communicate with these agencies, he says. But the center was closed after a couple of days, he says.
Since the war with Iraq, parking has been restricted at the City County Building to city and county employees only. As of this week, the garage remains closed to the public. A guard at the entrance directs visitors to other lots. The move has irked some people, including a lawyer who has sued to have it reopened and Mayor Victor Ashe, who was urging the Public Building Authority to reopen it.
During the war, the traffic lane closest to Riverview Towers was also closed. And there were more police out.
Some people think it's all for naught.
"They don't have a clue what to do. At this point, I think they're doing things to say they're doing things," says Mike Whalen, a defense attorney. "The only thing that I've seen they're doing is putting those stupid saw horses out. I don't see that much else has changed.... Just the silliness of seeing those sawhorses in front of the Riverview. But they don't have any by Nation's Bank. How many floors do you have to have before you get a sawhorse?"
But it's mostly a guessing game. "How do you know if it's enough? If nothing happens, it was either enough or too much," says Councilman Joe Hultquist. "If something else happens, it could bring into question whether it was enough. And are the things we're doing even the right thing. I've heard people say if someone wanted to blow up the City County Building, they wouldn't need to pull into the garage. Just park a truck of explosives near or underneath the building. And that's true. If you really sit down and try to figure out what the most effective measures would be, some of those would be draconian."
Acronym-ics
There are so many organizations and agencies developing terrorist attack plans, it's hard to get a handle on them all.
While the FBI is the lead agency for a criminal investigation, there are several other agencies preparing to deal with the calamity of a potential attack.
The Knoxville Emergency Management Agency (KEMA) has been working with local fire and police departments, rescue squads, hospitals, volunteers and others to prepare for an attack. Above them is the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). And then there are public health investigation teams, one for Knox County (headed up by Dr. Stephanie Hall of the Health Department) and two other teams for the East Tennessee region (there are eight teams in the state). Even organizations like the Knox County Schools, Knoxville Area Transit and Community Action Committee are involved in the mix.
So who exactly is in charge if something happens?
"It really depends on the scenario," says Hall. "Ultimately, the feds end up being in charge. If we're doing surveillance and we realize we have a botulism outbreak because someone has released spores, we call in the feds. It always starts out as a local event and depending on the severity and criminal intent, it will move rapidly up to the state and federal level. There's a hierarchy of response depending on the nature and severity."
"When the crisis is over, the feds pull out and the state pulls out and the clean-up [is] left being a local problem. So it's good to have a local plan. For example, that facility in West Palm Beach [where anthrax was spread] is still unoccupied."
The local governments are left having to handle the clean-up and deal with the
economic effects, such as a drop in tourism, she says.
In the event of any terrorist attack, FEMA and TEMA are the agencies in charge of emergency response and rescue. The Knoxville-Knox County Emergency Management Agency is the local arm of FEMA and TEMA and has been working with emergency personnel throughout the region to prepare for a terrorist attack.
The Knox County Health Department—like every health department in the country—was charged with putting together a plan to prepare for a small pox attack. The plan was broken into three phases, only the first of which has been implemented so far, says Larry Hutsell, emergency response coordinator for the health department. In phase 1, vaccinations were given to about 500 people, public health investigators and those who would be giving out vaccinations in the event of an attack. Phase II would involve more health workers, emergency workers, police and hospital workers. The third phase involves the general public. There's no telling if the third phase would ever be implemented.
Most likely, phase three would only happen if there were an outbreak. But the health department is planning how it would carry out such a massive undertaking.
To do it, the health department enlisted the help of the Knox County School District. Some schools would be used as vaccination centers, with teachers working as volunteers and the cafeteria system being used to feed people. KAT would help transport people to and from the vaccination centers, he says.
The health department office off Central Avenue will be used as the command center. The health department hopes to test the system, but first it's identifying the 3,000 volunteers needed to pull it off.
The odds of an outbreak of smallpox are still probably pretty small—the disease was last seen in Somalia in 1977 and hasn't occurred in the United States since 1947. But Hall says there's still a great benefit to having a mass immunization plan.
"I think some of the planning and resources we're using provide a benefit for public health infrastructure. A smallpox immunization clinic can be used as an influenza immunization clinic. I don't think it's a waste," Hall says.
But there is the possibility that health workers will spend too much time and money on something that probably won't happen, while more serious, prevalent problems like childhood obesity, heart disease, smoking, and others get neglected. "There's a point at which there's a diminishing return. Somebody has to be monitoring that," Hall says. "We skirt on the edge of that."
Costly Caution
It isn't just the health department that runs the risk of spending too much time on something that may never happen. Every government agency and many private ones are spending a lot of time and energy on anti-terrorism measures.
Figures are hard to come by. It's not that new jobs are being created, but people are spending time and resources creating plans, getting training, and working longer hours.
The City of Knoxville estimates it spent an extra $3,500 a day during the orange alert during the war, most of which is from overtime costs for security and police.
For now, the federal government is covering none of these costs. Randy Vineyard, the city's finance director, says the city hopes to be reimbursed for some of the expenses. "There are multiple bills out there," he says. "I think there's a potential some of the money could be flowing to local governments this fall."
There are no estimates for how much homeland security measures are costing local and state governments. The amount would likely be staggering. "It's a huge unfunded mandate. Now, there is some money it looks like going into the federal budget this year. But I don't think it's adequate," Hultquist says.
Shipkowski says Tennessee has been awarded $11 million in federal funds for homeland security, $7.7 million of which will be used to buy equipment—things like medical supplies, decontamination equipment, and reference manuals. The state government will use some of the money, but 80 percent will be passed on to local governments. "Probably in about a month or so, we'll be sending letters to local leaders, telling them what they can use the money for," he says.
There's a growing concern about whether the country is going overboard on security spending and whether it's money well spent. Randall Larson, executive director of ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, told NPR, "The thing that scares me most is uncontrolled spending. This country could spend itself into bankruptcy, like the Soviet Union did in the Cold War."
Others worry about the erosion of civil liberties, such as the government's ability to hold people without charging them or letting them speak to an attorney. There are also downright absurd results of homeland security. Privacy International recently started a Stupid Security Awards—among this year's winners was the Delta security person at JFK International Airport, who ordered a woman to drink three bottles of her own breast milk (seized from her child's diaper bag) before they'd let her on the plane.
It may be decades before we know the true cost of the war on terror, both the financial and the social costs. Whether the things we're doing are worthwhile or not, we may never know.
Special Agent Clark says there are some things the public cannot be told regarding the war on terrorism. Clark admits that the color-coded alerts can be confusing and perhaps frightening to the public, without giving people a lot of information. What is the average person supposed to think when we're at code orange? A lot of information can't be given out because it's classified. And information behind a threat that has passed often can't be released because there is "spinoff" information on other possible threats.
"The public thinks we know more than we do. I watch CNN to get most of my information," he says. "Not everybody needs to know everything. The changing of the threat levels is going to raise some people's blood pressure. And if we do it too much, people will become complacent. What everyone needs to keep in mind is these terrorism groups' goal is to inflict massive civilian casualties in the United States. I don't want to give readers any ideas, but the first time someone walks into a movie theater and blows themselves up, it's going to be the end of the movie business for a while.
"I don't see it going away for a long while and the FBI is structuring itself to that end."
May 1, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 18
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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