War Plans Drafted To Counter Terror Attacks in U.S.
Domestic Effort Is Big Shift for Military
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 8, 2005; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/07/AR2005080700843.html
COLORADO SPRINGS -- The U.S. military has devised its first-ever war
plans for guarding against and responding to terrorist attacks in the
United States, envisioning 15 potential crisis scenarios and anticipating
several simultaneous strikes around the country, according to officers
who drafted the plans.
The classified plans, developed here at Northern Command headquarters,
outline a variety of possible roles for quick-reaction forces estimated
at as many as 3,000 ground troops per attack, a number that could
easily grow depending on the extent of the damage and the abilities of
civilian response teams.
The possible scenarios range from "low end," relatively modest
crowd-control missions to "high-end," full-scale disaster management after
catastrophic attacks such as the release of a deadly biological agent or
the explosion of a radiological device, several officers said.
Some of the worst-case scenarios involve three attacks at the same
time, in keeping with a Pentagon directive earlier this year ordering
Northcom, as the command is called, to plan for multiple simultaneous
attacks.
The war plans represent a historic shift for the Pentagon, which has
been reluctant to become involved in domestic operations and is legally
constrained from engaging in law enforcement. Indeed, defense officials
continue to stress that they intend for the troops to play largely a
supporting role in homeland emergencies, bolstering police, firefighters
and other civilian response groups.
But the new plans provide for what several senior officers acknowledged
is the likelihood that the military will have to take charge in some
situations, especially when dealing with mass-casualty attacks that could
quickly overwhelm civilian resources.
"In my estimation, [in the event of] a biological, a chemical or
nuclear attack in any of the 50 states, the Department of Defense is best
positioned -- of the various eight federal agencies that would be involved
-- to take the lead," said Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the head of
Northcom, which coordinates military involvement in homeland security
operations.
The plans present the Pentagon with a clearer idea of the kinds and
numbers of troops and the training that may be required to build a more
credible homeland defense force. They come at a time when senior Pentagon
officials are engaged in an internal, year-long review of force levels
and weapons systems, attempting to balance the heightened requirements
of homeland defense against the heavy demands of overseas deployments
in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Keating expressed confidence that existing military assets are
sufficient to meet homeland security needs. Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe,
Northcom's chief operations officer, agreed, but he added that "stress points"
in some military capabilities probably would result if troops were
called on to deal with multiple homeland attacks.
Debate and Analysis
Several people on the staff here and at the Pentagon said in interviews
that the debate and analysis within the U.S. government regarding the
extent of the homeland threat and the resources necessary to guard
against it remain far from resolved.
The command's plans consist of two main documents. One, designated
CONPLAN 2002 and consisting of more than 1,000 pages, is said to be a sort
of umbrella document that draws together previously issued orders for
homeland missions and covers air, sea and land operations. It addresses
not only post-attack responses but also prevention and deterrence
actions aimed at intercepting threats before they reach the United States.
The other, identified as CONPLAN 0500, deals specifically with managing
the consequences of attacks represented by the 15 scenarios.
CONPLAN 2002 has passed a review by the Pentagon's Joint Staff and is
due to go soon to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and top aides for
further study and approval, the officers said. CONPLAN 0500 is still
undergoing final drafting here. (CONPLAN stands for "concept plan" and
tends to be an abbreviated version of an OPLAN, or "operations plan,"
which specifies forces and timelines for movement into a combat zone.)
The plans, like much else about Northcom, mark a new venture by a U.S.
military establishment still trying to find its comfort level with the
idea of a greater homeland defense role after the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks.
Military officers and civilian Pentagon policymakers say they
recognize, on one hand, that the armed forces have much to offer not only in
numbers of troops but also in experience managing crises and responding to
emergencies. On the other hand, they worry that too much involvement in
homeland missions would diminish the military's ability to deal with
threats abroad.
The Pentagon's new homeland defense strategy, issued in June,
emphasized in boldface type that "domestic security is primarily a civilian law
enforcement function." Still, it noted the possibility that ground
troops might be sent into action on U.S. soil to counter security threats
and deal with major emergencies.
"For the Pentagon to acknowledge that it would have to respond to
catastrophic attack and needs a plan was a big step," said James Carafano,
who follows homeland security issues for the Heritage Foundation, a
conservative Washington think tank.
William M. Arkin, a defense specialist who has reported on Northcom's
war planning, said the evolution of the Pentagon's thinking reflects the
recognition of an obvious gap in civilian resources.
Since Northcom's inception in October 2002, its headquarters staff has
grown to about 640 members, making it larger than the Southern Command,
which oversees operations in Latin America, but smaller than the
regional commands for Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. A brief tour
late last month of Northcom's operations center at Peterson Air Force
Base found officers monitoring not only aircraft and ship traffic around
the United States but also the Discovery space shuttle mission, the
National Scout Jamboree in Virginia, several border surveillance
operations and a few forest firefighting efforts.
(this is only a part of the article - granny)