National Public Radio (NPR) ALL THINGS CONSIDERED
9:00 PM ET March 7, 2001, Wednesday
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT INSPECTOR GENERAL MAKES SCATHING ASSESSMENT OF A PROGRAM AIMED AT DEALING WITH TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE US
LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:
The Defense Department inspector general has made a scathing assessment of a $ 140 million program aimed at terrorist attacks here in the United States. The National Guard program organizes teams of specialists to respond to incidents involving chemical, biological or radioactive substances. We profiled one of these teams as it went through testing and training in Utah in December. NPR's Howard Berkes has this follow-up report.
(Soundbite of training)
HOWARD BERKES reporting:
They have impressive names--Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams--and they appear impressive. Twenty-two full-time National Guard soldiers in combat fatigues pouring out of black Chevy Suburbans with tinted windows. They assemble heated tents, decontamination showers and satellite dishes. Some don rubber suits to scour the desert for suspected chemical agents. Michael Glass(ph) supervised the December exercise at the Army's Dougway Proving Ground in Utah.
Mr. MICHAEL GLASS: We've had a long history in the Department of Defense for international chemical and biological incidents. Our troops are well-trained for that. However, domestically, in the past several years there's been an increased awareness that there's a need there. And the WMD Civil Support Teams have been stood up to address that need.
BERKES: This teams expected to be certified and deployed in January. Nine others would follow soon, according to Army and National Guard officials at the December exercise. They also suggested units like this would be deployed at the Winter Olympics next year in Salt Lake City. But they didn't know, or didn't disclose, a key fact: The Defense Department inspector general had already concluded that the units were not adequately organized, trained or equipped and were not ready for duty. The inspector general's report was made public last month and was reviewed by veteran military analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org.
Mr. JOHN PIKE (GlobalSecurity.org): Well, the report is an astonishing catalog of making just about every imaginable mistake in managing a program. The program was initially supposed to stretch over four years. They compressed the schedule to two years and in the process doubled the number of teams that were supposed to be deployed. This basically looked like a crash program that at the end crashed and burned because they tried to do too much too fast.
BERKES: Here are some of the problems cited in the report: respirators with too little air and no refills; filters installed backwards in systems designed to prevent deadly leaks; mobile labs too small to accommodate their equipment; sophisticated communications vans with incompatible software; too little memory on laptop computers; a vague mission.
Charles Cragin is the acting assistant secretary of Defense responsible for the program. He doesn't blame the Civil Support Teams, he blames the unit that organized them.
Mr. CHARLES CRAGIN (Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense): This was a very small and cohesive organizational unit that became insular in its perspective and defensive in its position rather than leveraging and taking advantage of the various resources that were already out there and available throughout the military departments and the Department of Defense.
BERKES: The National Guard teams are now under new management. Their equipment, training and mission are under review. Cragin hopes they'll still be certified for duty in a few months, but he admits that's optimistic. He notes, by the way, that there are no plans to deploy any of these teams at the Winter Olympics in Utah next year despite that suggestion at the December exercise. Howard Berkes, NPR News, Salt Lake City.
Copyright 2001 National Public Radio (R)
