S T R A T F O R
THE GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE COMPANY
http://www.stratfor.com
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11 September 2001
Emergency Response in High Gear
2110 GMT, 010911
An alphabet soup of government agencies is scrambling to respond
to large-scale attacks on U.S. soil. Although additional airline
hijackings are unlikely, the U.S. government cannot be sure that
more attacks are not being planned.
As a result Washington is putting military, law enforcement and
emergency assets on high alert to respond to any further
incidents.
Because the attacks occurred within U.S. borders, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation is primarily responsible for coordinating
response teams. According to a Federal Emergency Management
Agency press release, the FBI's Strategic Operation Information
Center has been activated.
Local emergency agencies are in charge of disaster assistance,
such as emergency medical services. Sources in New York report
that off-duty police have been called up and that 10,000 rescue
personnel are deployed in lower Manhattan.
For the first time in its history, the Federal Aviation
Administration has shut down the nation's air grid, grounding all
aircraft. Flights that were in the air at the time of the crashes
at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were rerouted and
landed at alternate sites.
The U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico have been closed to
ground and air traffic.
The military is officially under the direction of the FBI.
Regular troops are being used, as are National Guard members, who
are often closer to the scene of the emergency. Members of the
National Guard are on the scene in New York City.
The military was ordered into high alert at about noon today. The
Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, including some ballistic missile
submarines, have been put to sea. Elements of U.S. Special
Forces, such as the Army's Delta Force and Navy Seals, have been
activated.
Two U.S. aircraft carriers, the John F. Kennedy and the George
Washington, are moving to their prearranged duty stations off the
East Coast between New York and Washington, D.C.
American fighter aircraft have been seen patrolling the skies of
New York, and reports of military helicopters flying over
Washington and Los Angeles have circulated.
In Pennsylvania, local news reports have speculated that the
United Airlines flight that crashed near Shanksville in Somerset
County was in fact shot down by a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter
jet. According to the Associated Press, a passenger on the
airliner used his cell phone to report that the flight was being
hijacked.
The National Security Council is the primary crisis team for the
president. Condoleezza Rice, Bush's NSC adviser, has already
convened the group.
Bush, who was in Florida at the time of the attack, spent the
morning at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Barksdale is a
communications and operational hub for the U.S. military and was
probably the closest appropriate base of operations for the
president. Bush will soon be leaving Barksdale for an unknown
location.
Extra security precautions are being taken across the country.
Florida's Disney World, Seattle's Space Needle, the Gateway Arch
in St. Louis and Knott's Berry Farm in southern California have
all closed, the Associated Press reported.
Evacuations were ordered at the United Nations building in New
York and at the tallest skyscrapers in Chicago, Los Angeles,
Boston, Cleveland and Minneapolis.
Extra security was added at the Department of Energy's nuclear
weapons and research complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and at the Los
Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Security was also
beefed up at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., which is home to the
Army's main germ warfare defense laboratory.
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Copyright 2001, Strategic Forecasting, LLC
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