[ALBSA-Info] NYTimes.com Article: How to Protect the Homeland

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How to Protect the Homeland

September 25, 2001 

By JOSEPH S. NYE


 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Five years ago, with James Woolsey,
former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, I
headed a government study that found a lack of preparedness
to face catastrophic terrorism. Our warnings and those of
similar groups went largely unheeded. On Sept. 11,
complacency was wiped away, but the fragmented bureaucratic
structure and procedures of our government remain a barrier
to action, despite President Bush's decision to name Gov.
Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania to head a new Office of Homeland
Defense. 

By using the rhetoric of war to frame our response to the
terror attacks, President Bush has marshaled the public's
patriotism and persuaded Congress to provide financing. But
the danger in the rhetoric is that the new office may be
structured like a military organization. 

There are many types of terrorism and many kinds of
terrorist weapons. Even if we succeed in eliminating Osama
bin Laden, we have to remember that Timothy McVeigh was
home-grown. And as we succeed in battening down the
cockpits to prevent civilian aircraft being used again as
giant cruise missiles, terrorists will be exploring other
vulnerabilities in our open society and investigating even
more devastating weapons. 

Fortunately, nuclear and biological weapons are not as easy
to make as popular fiction suggests, but there have been
reports that Mr. bin Laden and others have tried to
purchase stolen nuclear weapons from the former Soviet
inventory. We also know that a few years ago the Japanese
Aum Shinrikyo cult killed people with both chemical and
biological agents. 

Suppressing terrorism is very different from a military
campaign. It requires continuous, patient, undramatic
civilian work and close cooperation with other countries.
And it requires coordination within our government. 

The C.I.A. and F.B.I. must improve their ability to work
together on detection and must reconcile their different
authorities and programs in intelligence and law
enforcement. The F.B.I., the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, the Customs Service, the Defense Department and
other agencies must improve their cooperation. Because of
poor coordination, two suspects were able to enter this
country even after their names had been placed on a watch
list, and the jet fighters that scrambled after the Federal
Aviation Administration notification of the hijackings
arrived too late. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has to work with
local governments on domestic responses. New federally
funded research and development programs are needed to
address each phase of a crisis, as well as to accelerate
new technologies and devise special training and testing
exercises. 

It would be a mistake if the Office of Homeland Defense
merely added another layer of bureaucracy. Instead,
Governor Ridge should head a committee of deputy
secretaries from the agencies with control over budgets and
programs involved with terrorism defense. He should create
a small staff that works closely with the Office of
Management and Budget to monitor plans to be carried out by
existing agencies. 

His office should be supported by new research corporations
created to deal with terrorism, as the RAND corporation was
created in the cold war to deal with the nuclear threat.
These groups should not be bound by the rigidities and
inadequate salaries of the federal bureaucracy. Their
independence should allow them to plan an antiterror system
that can find gaps and overlaps in government agencies'
antiterror efforts and examine weaknesses in private
systems like computer networks. 

Planners should conduct regular exercises with teams
simulating terrorists and defenders, trying to outsmart
each other. Had we done this for our airport security
system, we might have realized that it was designed to
detect guns and bombs but not to stop suicide pilots armed
with knives and box cutters. 

As recently as last spring, a commission on national
security headed by former Senators Gary Hart and Warren
Rudman also warned of our lack of preparedness. Sadly, the
commissioners were right. Now we must organize ourselves
effectively to combat terrorism. 
Joseph S. Nye, dean of the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard, was chairman of the National Intelligence Council
and an assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton
administration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/25/opinion/25NYE.html?ex=1002466317&ei=1&en=760c4b601e0210e2



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