-Caveat Lector- Friday � February 14 � 2003 http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id={B1C45323-E31C-4B37- A6F5-E2999A91E20B}
Triple crisis fuels alarm in U.S. Jan Cienski National Post, with files from news services Thursday, February 13, 2003 WASHINGTON - The three international crises facing the United States seemed to converge on Washington yesterday, raising public alarm to a level not seen since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Administration officials simultaneously warned of the imminent danger of war with Iraq, the possibility of a terrorist attack and the ability of North Korea to launch nuclear weapons at the U.S. "You are dealing with ... three layers of people that are very difficult and of great concern to the American intelligence community," George Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told a Senate committee. Across the country, Americans crowded stores to stock up on plastic sheeting, duct tape and other supplies to guard against chemical or biological attack. "The mood of the nation is grim," said Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat who has been a U.S. Senator since 1958. Bush administration officials scurried from hearing to hearing on Capitol Hill, pausing to issue updated warnings of the threat to the nation and advising Americans to prepare for the worst. The Federal Emergency Management Agency urged families to prepare a disaster kit, identify places to gather in case of an attack and to keep important documents in a watertight container able to survive a cataclysmic event. "People are going to be on their own for the first 24 or 48 hours," said David Paulison, the U.S. fire administrator and a defence planner for the new Department of Homeland Security, established in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. People quickly heeded the advice, jamming hardware stores to stock up on necessities in case of a calamity: food, water, and materials to build temporary chemical and biological warfare shelters. "The plastic and the tape sold out yesterday, sold out again this morning, sold out this afternoon, and we have another shipment coming in now and we expect to sell out tonight," said Natalie Green, a manager at Strosneider's Hardware in Montgomery County, just north of the U.S. capital. "Some people are in a panic." At a Home Depot in Alexandria, Va., shoppers spent the day debating the protective merits of thin plastic film over thick tarps, and wondering exactly how much of their home would need to be sealed off and for how long. "How am I going to keep my kids sealed up in one room? And what about the bathroom? We won't all fit in the bathroom if we try to stay there," one shopper said. Authorities added to the mood of foreboding by visibly beefing up security around the capital, deploying heat-seeking Stinger anti-aircraft missiles mounted on Humvee vehicles at important sites, including the Pentagon, which was hit by a hijacked airplane during the Sept. 11 attacks. Overhead, Black Hawk helicopters and F-16 jet fighters were placed on 24- hour alert in Washington and at other U.S. cities, including New York and Boston. Police stepped up their patrols on the streets and in subway tunnels, where electronic signs that normally alert commuters to arriving trains and broken elevators instead flashed "Security Alert" messages asking commuters to report anything suspicious. The extent of the preparations was questioned by some critics of the government, who accused the administration of encouraging a sense of panic to boost support for its war plans in Iraq. "People are warned of imminent terrorist attacks with little guidance as to when or where such attacks might occur," Mr. Byrd said. "Family members are being called to active military duty, with no idea of the duration of their stay or what horrors they may face. Communities are being left with less than adequate police and fire protection." But the administration maintained the precautions were justified. Appearing before a House committee, Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, made clear the United States is more determined than ever to proceed against Iraq, with or without approval from the United Nations. "We are reaching a moment of truth as to whether or not this matter will be resolved peacefully or will be resolved by military conflict," he said. While Americans have become resigned to the inevitability of war with Iraq, the threat to the United States itself has seemed distant and unreal. The administration is working to change that. On the weekend it raised the U.S. threat level to orange, the second-highest level, based on intelligence indicating Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network is planning a new round of attacks. After months of downplaying the danger of a nuclear attack by North Korea, Mr. Tenet said yesterday the communist state has the potential to hit the West Coast of North America with an experimental long-range missile. "I think the declassified answer is yes, they can do that," Mr. Tenet told the Senate armed services committee. North Korea has issued numerous threats of war since the United States cut off oil supplies last year and has restarted a mothballed nuclear program. Yesterday, the International Atomic Energy Agency voted unanimously to refer the confrontation to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions, a step the North has warned will be treated as a declaration of war. Mr. Tenet also told the committee the threats issued by bin Laden in his latest audio tape mean real danger for Americans. "What he's said is often followed by attack," the CIA director said, adding that intelligence pointed to possible attacks against the United States and against targets on the Arabian Peninsula. "Al-Qaeda is also developing or refining new means of attack, including the use of surface-to-air missiles, poisons and air and surface and underwater methods to attack maritime targets," he said. Another danger to the United States is Iraq's unmanned aerial vehicle program, which Mr. Tenet said could be used to distribute chemical or biological poisons and which, if launched from a ship, could threaten the United States, a contention challenged by some analysts. If attacked, Saddam is likely to use whatever weapons of mass destruction he still has, warned Vice- Admiral Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defence Intelligence Agency. "The assessment is that he will employ them when he makes the decision that his regime is in jeopardy," he said. Finally, Mr. Tenet said the CIA has intelligence that Iraq has provided training in poisons and gases to two al-Qaeda associates. That buttresses the White House contention there are ties between al- Qaeda and Iraq. Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said the charge is further proved by the audio tape, released on Tuesday, in which bin Laden exhorts Muslims to resist the coming U.S. invasion. "If that is not an unholy partnership, I have not heard of one," said Mr. Fleischer, dismissing bin Laden's criticism of Iraq's government as "infidels" as unimportant. "This is the nightmare that people have warned about, the linking up of Iraq with al-Qaeda." [EMAIL PROTECTED] � Copyright 2003 National Post Copyright � 2003 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. All rights reserved. Optimized for browser versions 4.0 and higher. --> Forwarded for your information. 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