Obstacles Confront Antiterror Efforts (WSJ)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(As the resistance to Washington's
invasion deepens, and as the US
and allied forces resort to stepped-
up atrocities [e.g. "Iraqi fedayeen,
dressed in civilian clothing] and
Washington becomes more and
more desperate, we will soon be
hearing the anti-war movement
described as "allies of terrorism".)
=============================

March 25, 2003

WAR IN IRAQ
SPECIAL PAGE

Obstacles Confront Antiterror Efforts
Reluctance to Get Smallpox Vaccinations,
Protests Are Seen Mostly as Hindrances
By GARDINER HARRIS AND
VANESSA FUHRMANS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Across the globe, law-enforcement and health officials are
gearing up their terrorism-alert efforts again but are
facing complicating factors including antiwar protests and
intensified reporting of infectious diseases.

The U.S.-led war in Iraq has spurred officials world-wide to
warn of an increased likelihood of terrorist attacks,
particularly against targets related to the U.S. and its
coalition partners.

In the U.S., one obstacle to preparations for a bioterror
attack is the reluctance of many health-care workers to get
smallpox vaccinations, said Michael Osterholm, director of
the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Complicating homeland-security efforts in San Francisco
have been persistent antiwar protests. More than 2,000
demonstrators have been arrested on civil-disobedience
charges since massive street protests broke out Thursday
in San Francisco. Local police estimate it will cost their
department an extra $500,000 a day to watch over them.
That makes it harder for them to spend money on antiterror
activities. The protests appeared to be simmering down as of
Monday.

Many state emergency officials began beefing up security
following a March 17 conference call with Homeland Security
Secretary Tom Ridge. In Minnesota, state officials brought
in the National Guard to protect two nuclear-power plants,
two oil refineries and a water-treatment facility. Iowa
asked the National Guard and Coast Guard to help local law
enforcement patrol two bridges that cross the Mississippi
River. South Dakota stepped up security at significant
buildings and public gatherings, while Indiana increased
patrols at the state house as well as downtown Indianapolis.

Richmond, Calif., Police Chief Joe Samuels, who is president
of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said
his own department has been doing an increased number of
vulnerability assessments at sites around the community that
are considered sensitive. He wouldn't talk specifically
about sites but said the kinds of things would range from
power plants to "schools, mosques and synagogues."

Chief Samuels, who as IACP president represents 18,000
police chiefs and senior department officials around the
U.S. and the world, said other departments also have done
security assessments of sensitive areas and are increasing
the number of officers they have available by changing their
shifts to 12 hours from 10, creating an overlap.

He and a number of other chiefs are in the application
process to receive grants from the Department of Homeland
Security but until those grants, which will come from $1.3
billion in funding for first responders, start going out, he
said, "we're sucking it up within our own budgets."

In New York state, nearly 700 additional state National
Guard troops and state police troopers were deployed to
patrol and secure commuter trains in the region. Connecticut
and New Jersey troopers were authorized to make arrests and
patrol commuter trains entering New York from those states,
and Monday, an additional 120 state troopers were authorized
to patrol New York's northern border.

Similar efforts were made across Europe. In France, armed
guards were posted at such national landmarks as the Eiffel
Tower and travel hubs such as train stations. In Germany,
police were stationed outside buildings or installations
housing American, British, Israeli or Spanish officials.
German health officials trained doctors around the country
in administering smallpox vaccinations.

Earlier this month, Frankfurt officials were able to test
their bioterror contingency plan on a small but
frighteningly real scenario: the landing of a plane full of
passengers who might have been infected by a Singapore
doctor ill with the mystery pneumonialike virus that has
spread from Asia to other parts of the world. "The chain of
command was followed exactly," said Ricarda Wessinghage, a
spokeswoman for the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University
hospital, whose doctors were dispatched by city officials to
the airport to examine the patients and treat and isolate
the sick passenger, his wife and his mother-in-law.

London's Metropolitan Police launched a five-week campaign
to encourage people to call a confidential hotline if they
had any information about possible terrorist activities. The
police agency said that Monday it increased its presence in
central London by between 800 and 1,500 officers.

Last week, Britain's Home Office updated its advice to
householders on how to protect themselves in the event of a
terrorist attack, suggesting that they keep canned food,
bottled water and a battery-powered flashlight at home.
Supermarkets reported a surge in sales of those items over
the last week or so.

-- Gary Fields in Washington and Shirley Leung in Chicago
contributed to this article.











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