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CNN Sunday Morning
Homeland Security Department to Conduct Drills in Seattle, Chicago
Aired May 11, 2003 - 08:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The Department of Homeland Security will begin a drill tomorrow in two major cities to test the reactions of local, state as well as federal agencies to a simulated terror attack. We talked about it a little bit with Kelly McCann.
Right now, our Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Right here at 3:00 Monday afternoon, a dirty bomb will detonate, spewing radioactivity. On Tuesday hospitals in Chicago will start to see an influx of victims of pneumonic plague. None of it will be real.
TOM RIDGE, SECRETARY, DEPT. HOMELAND SECURITY: Let me be very, very clear. This is a simulation. This is a test. This is an exercise.
MESERVE: Like red teaming exercises conducted by the military, TopOff 2, as the exercise is called will involve an enemy, in this case a terrorist group called GLOTO, probing to expose weaknesses.
They are a fantastic way to identify gaps, friction points, areas that haven't -- you know, of concerns that haven't been fully addressed.
MESERVE: The last TopOff exercise certainly did. It simulated a radiological attack in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and a biological attack in Denver, Colorado.
RIDGE: The lessons that they learned with regard to TopOff 1 in Denver, Colorado in public health and the pharmaceutical stockpiling and the distribution mechanism, affected policy. And frankly affect what HHS and Centers for Disease Control did. So, there are lessons to be learned that can be applied across the country.
MESERVE: Another exercise, Dark Winter simulated a smallpox epidemic and its aftermath.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if you just heard that. That was a shot fired. We've heard -- there's another one.
MESERVE: Jerome Hauer played the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
JEROME HAUER, DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: It was a real struggle because we only had 16 million doses of smallpox vaccine available. And one of the huge challenges what we had, was deciding who got vaccinated. We rapidly ran out of vaccine.
MESERVE: The concrete result, the government now has enough vaccine to cover the entire country.
(on camera): Because of precooked scenarios and watered down after action reports, not every lesson that could be learned has been learned from previous exercises. With a price tag of $16 million, some Homeland Security official say this one has the potential to be either a real boon to Homeland Security or a real boondoggle.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Chicago>
Aired May 11, 2003 - 08:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The Department of Homeland Security will begin a drill tomorrow in two major cities to test the reactions of local, state as well as federal agencies to a simulated terror attack. We talked about it a little bit with Kelly McCann.
Right now, our Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Right here at 3:00 Monday afternoon, a dirty bomb will detonate, spewing radioactivity. On Tuesday hospitals in Chicago will start to see an influx of victims of pneumonic plague. None of it will be real.
TOM RIDGE, SECRETARY, DEPT. HOMELAND SECURITY: Let me be very, very clear. This is a simulation. This is a test. This is an exercise.
MESERVE: Like red teaming exercises conducted by the military, TopOff 2, as the exercise is called will involve an enemy, in this case a terrorist group called GLOTO, probing to expose weaknesses.
They are a fantastic way to identify gaps, friction points, areas that haven't -- you know, of concerns that haven't been fully addressed.
MESERVE: The last TopOff exercise certainly did. It simulated a radiological attack in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and a biological attack in Denver, Colorado.
RIDGE: The lessons that they learned with regard to TopOff 1 in Denver, Colorado in public health and the pharmaceutical stockpiling and the distribution mechanism, affected policy. And frankly affect what HHS and Centers for Disease Control did. So, there are lessons to be learned that can be applied across the country.
MESERVE: Another exercise, Dark Winter simulated a smallpox epidemic and its aftermath.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if you just heard that. That was a shot fired. We've heard -- there's another one.
MESERVE: Jerome Hauer played the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
JEROME HAUER, DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: It was a real struggle because we only had 16 million doses of smallpox vaccine available. And one of the huge challenges what we had, was deciding who got vaccinated. We rapidly ran out of vaccine.
MESERVE: The concrete result, the government now has enough vaccine to cover the entire country.
(on camera): Because of precooked scenarios and watered down after action reports, not every lesson that could be learned has been learned from previous exercises. With a price tag of $16 million, some Homeland Security official say this one has the potential to be either a real boon to Homeland Security or a real boondoggle.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Chicago>
