Getting ready for terrorism

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 1999 | 11:03 a.m.

Faced with the reality of terrorism throughout the world, Nevada authorities are preparing emergency personnel for the worst.

For the past 18 months, the state's Hazardous Material and Fire Training Center, part of the Fire Marshal's Office, has been training people across the state in how to respond to a terrorist attack, while at the Test Site, Bechtel Nevada has been developing a training program it hopes will become a "graduate school" for anti-terrorism techniques.

This week representatives from Bechtel Nevada and agents from the local FBI office are participating in a States' Terrorism Policy Summit in Williamsburg, Va., where more than 165 participants from at least 48 states and the federal government will discuss developing a coordinated strategy to prepare for and deal with the consequences of domestic terrorism.

The New York City World Trade Center bombing on Feb. 26, 1993, and the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, were a double-jolt of reality for America -- revealing that American soil is not immune to terrorism.

The anthrax scare in Las Vegas a year ago this month gave the nation yet another jolt of reality -- the realization that terrorists don't use only bombs. Biological weapons can be as effective as explosive ones.

"They were watersheds, the turning point in our attitude about terrorism," said James Hawke, superintendent of the state's Hazardous Material and Fire Training Center.

Those events prompted Congress to authorize $1 billion in 1996 to fight terrorism -- $40,000 of which went to each state for terrorism training. Hawke's center has headed up the state's effort in Nevada.

Another $4.7 million in federal money has come to the Test Site for its training program, one of five members of an anti-terrorism consortium that also includes Louisiana State University, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Texas A&M University and Jacksonville State University.

And as part of the anti-terrorism campaign, the National Governors Association is conducting the States' Terrorism Policy Summit today and Wednesday in Williamsburg, Va. The summit is a result of the formation of the National Domestic Preparedness Office within the FBI, announced in October by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

A representative of Bechtel Nevada, operators of the Nevada Test Site, will be there, said David Harrison, head of the organization's Counter-Terrorist Training Program.

The program is developing counter-terrorism training as part of its drive to use the Test Site, which stopped testing nuclear weapons in 1992, for more private projects.

"We're hoping we will become the graduate school for this kind of training," said Greg Cook, communication specialist for Bechtel Nevada.

The facilities, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, are ideal for large, realistic exercises to complement classroom training, Cook says.

Two training courses already have been held at the site, and two more are scheduled for March.

A curriculum of nine courses is being developed, covering such topics as weapons of mass destruction, Harrison said.

While the program has a national scope, Southern Nevada will benefit because of the location.

"We try to pay special attention to Southern Nevada-based first responders," Cook said. "They are where we live. It's an advantage having (the training) close by." First responders include firefighters, police, emergency medical personnel, Red Cross workers and anyone else who might be the first to respond to a terrorist attack.

"The training makes everybody more cautious, helps them to understand what to do and what not to do," Hawke said.

The training takes two approaches, Hawke said: responding to the consequences of terrorist activities and responding to the threat of terrorism.

The FBI responds to the threat, and first responders respond to the consequences -- the exploded bombs, discharged weapons, release of biological weapons.

"We prepare first responders for terrorist incidents," he said. "And we train in risk assessment, to see if there are any chinks in the armor and where they might be. We look at hardening easy targets."

A major issue in dealing with the threat of terrorism is deciding how much personal freedom to give up in exchange for security against terrorism.

"In talking to my counterparts across the country, we're torn in taking away even the most modest freedoms to offset the potential for terrorism," Hawke said. "In a state like Nevada, which is very open -- government officials are accessible, the infrastructure is accessible -- we don't want to give up those freedoms. So our concentration is on preparing for the consequences of terrorism."

Hawke said Las Vegas will benefit from federal funds in the future that will go to the 122 largest metropolitan areas in the country, money that will be used to further prepare against terrorism.

"The (Southern Nevada) first responders down the line will be getting that money, but their number hasn't been called yet," he said.

"You like to think the United States would never suffer from terrorism," Hawke said. "You would like to think that Nevada would not. But preparedness is a big part of the equation."

Even if a terrorist act never occurs in Nevada, Hawke noted, the training is not wasted.

The same information that may be applied to acts of terrorism may be useful when applied to such things as chemical spills or criminal activity.

"This training speaks to all that," he said.