Experts question US$16 million US terror drill

NEW YORK - The largest-ever US terrorism drill was staged this week in New Jersey and Connecticut with a cast of thousands and a cost of US$16 million ($22.76 million), but experts wonder how much it will help in the face of another attack.

The five-day exercise replicated a bioterrorism attack in New Jersey and a chemical blast in Connecticut, setting in motion more than 200 government agencies and local organisations and businesses poised to respond.

First responders rushed to the scenes in Union, New Jersey, and in New London, Connecticut. Dummy victims were taken to hospitals, medicines were rationed and more than 10,000 people acted out roles in the operation.

All that was missing was the element of surprise and the panic a real attack would trigger.

"It's like any drill. You get advance notice, make sure the key people are not on vacation and line up your ducks in a row," said Joseph King, an associate professor of law and police science at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

"An actual event is a different issue," added King, who has 35 years of service with US Customs and Homeland Security.

Images of robotic vehicles circling a suspicious van and hospital personnel attending mock victims filled local newscasts in what popular northern New Jersey blog baristanet.com called "the most important week in fake terrorism, ever."

Most New Yorkers, however, take the threat of terrorism seriously. A Marist College poll this week said 68 per cent do not think their community is ready to respond to attack.

Eighty-four hospitals in New Jersey were included in the exercise, an enactment of the outbreak of pneumonic plague.

Unlike a real attack, the course of events was slowed. On the first day the attack occurred, on the second day victims were taken to hospitals, and so on.

Still, not everything went smoothly.

As part of the drill, US Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff raised the threat level to "red," or severe after the bioterror outbreak, but travel restrictions in the affected area were not imposed as prescribed, increasing the danger of infected people passing on the plague throughout the state.

The mock "death toll" was reset to nearly 4000, over 1000 more than died on September 11, 2001, in the attacks at the World Trade Centre.

While the massive co-ordination needed in such an emergency was tested, one expert wondered whether the nuts and bolts of addressing the danger was tackled.

"In basically every city in America, EMS (Emergency Medical Services) providers are neither trained nor equipped to manage patients exposed to nuclear or chemical agents," said Scott Phelps, director of the emergency and disaster management programme at New York's Metropolitan College.

"In New York City, we have less than 25 ambulances that would do anything other than run away from such a situation."

King said making the exercise a surprise was not practical. "You can't, for fear of causing panic. I guarantee there would be some who would watch these drills ... run home and jump out the window."

Robert McCrie, professor of security management at John Jay College, questioned the focus of the exercises.

"The assumption has been there are atomic, biological, chemical and nuclear risks that put society on edge," he said. "A future attack might be much different.

"People that hate government or hate America are likely to turn to something cheap and surprising .. like an attack on our poorly protected technology infrastructure. That would be symbolic."

- REUTERS