Events of September 2001

gogol — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:53:27 +0200

The events of September 2001 have shown that the United States cannot afford to ignore this warning given by its top intelligence analysts. The events have also shown that conventional attacks and explosives remain a major threat at a time when it is still not possible to predict when and how attackers will emerge with the capability and willingness to use WMD in the U.S. homeland. It is a fact, however, that there are already a number of potential threats from foreign states and terrorists, and that such attacks will become increasingly easy to execute. There will also be a growing risk that such attacks can inflict levels of damage far beyond any previous act of terrorism or the kind of natural disasters with which federal, state, and local governments must normally deal.

Attacks involving large amounts of high explosives or chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) attacks have long been technically feasible, and the “globalization” of chemical and biological technologies and production facilities is making some weapons easier to develop or acquire. Nuclear proliferation continues and the levels of control over weapons, fissile material, and radioactive material are uncertain. Attacks using such weapons can involve a wide range of different levels of casualties, but they can involve attacks that could kill well over ten thousand to one hundred thousand Americans with economic, physical, psychological, and political effects that are radically different from any covert, terrorist, or extremist attacks that have occurred to date.

These risks help explain why the Clinton and Bush Administrations have seen these risks as a critical aspect of homeland defense. The United States has steadily refined its policy toward terrorism and the risk of such attacks since the Vice President’s Task Force on terrorism issued a report in 1985 that highlighted the need for improved, centralized, interagency coordination of the significant federal assets to respond to terrorist incidents. The U.S. response to potential threats from covert attacks by state actors, their proxies, or independent extremists and terrorists has changed even more since the mid-1990s.

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Events of September 2001