Shaffer
08-20-02, 06:43 AM
STANDARD, W.Va. - One of America's best hopes to handle a terrorist attack
effectively lies in West Virginia coal country, down a dirt road and past a
speck of a town cradled between huge shoulders of mountainside. Retired Army
Sgt. Mel Wick, program manager for the Center for National Response, leads a
tour through a dingy mobile home, showing off the living room, kitchen and
bedroom like a real estate agent who can't wait to retire.
He pulls a clock off a wall to reveal a small hook. He unlatches the hook
and opens a panel leading to a concealed room.
"What we have here is a hidden lab," he said.
Inside the bedroom-size laboratory, a digital pH meter, a centrifuge,
beakers and a chemical oven sit on countertops.
"This is what they use to make the sarin gas," he said, picking up a stalk
of dried castor beans next to the oven. "You can grow it at home in a pot."
If terrorists set off a chemical or biological weapon such as sarin gas in
the United States, the chances are good the emergency response team will
have trained at Memorial Tunnel outside this town of 125 persons south of
Charleston.
Last week, a 30-member team from the Marine Chemical-Biological Incident
Response Force (CBIRF) based in Indian Head, Md., trained at the site. At
the same time, other Marines from their unit were surveying the Washington
Metro system.
U.S. Army units trained at Memorial Tunnel in recent months before they were
sent to Afghanistan to search caves for evidence al Qaeda terrorists were
making bombs, chemical or biological agents, or nuclear devices they
intended to unleash on the United States.
Staging area for Metro
The Marine response team plans on-site training on the Washington Metro
system at an undisclosed place and time in the near future. Although details
remain secret, a similar training session was staged in December at the
Smithsonian Metro station.
"I have briefed the D.C. Metro people a couple of times," Sgt. Wick said.
They have expressed an interest in tunnel decontamination and plan to train
their own emergency personnel at the Center for National Response soon but
have not made an appointment, he said.
Metro officials would neither confirm nor deny their training plans.
"We're not very specific about what we do and who we do it with," said Polly
Hanson, Metro's deputy police chief. "I'm not going to go into great
detail."
However, the Marines say the Washington Metro and New York subways are among
the top targets for which they are training.
"Right now, we are training with the D.C. Metro," said Lt. Paul Cabellon,
CBIRF spokesman. He would not disclose details.
On two training days last week, the Marines practiced the kind of
"high-angle rescues" that might be expected with bomb victims trapped under
large buildings. They lowered a rescue basket down a steep hillside and from
a second-floor platform, then practiced raising it with ropes.
In between such warnings as, "Take up the slack," or, "Careful," they talked
about which commander said what to whom. While eating, they demonstrated how
the chemical pouch that reacted with water to heat their meals ready to eat
could be sealed in a plastic bag to make a water bomb.
effectively lies in West Virginia coal country, down a dirt road and past a
speck of a town cradled between huge shoulders of mountainside. Retired Army
Sgt. Mel Wick, program manager for the Center for National Response, leads a
tour through a dingy mobile home, showing off the living room, kitchen and
bedroom like a real estate agent who can't wait to retire.
He pulls a clock off a wall to reveal a small hook. He unlatches the hook
and opens a panel leading to a concealed room.
"What we have here is a hidden lab," he said.
Inside the bedroom-size laboratory, a digital pH meter, a centrifuge,
beakers and a chemical oven sit on countertops.
"This is what they use to make the sarin gas," he said, picking up a stalk
of dried castor beans next to the oven. "You can grow it at home in a pot."
If terrorists set off a chemical or biological weapon such as sarin gas in
the United States, the chances are good the emergency response team will
have trained at Memorial Tunnel outside this town of 125 persons south of
Charleston.
Last week, a 30-member team from the Marine Chemical-Biological Incident
Response Force (CBIRF) based in Indian Head, Md., trained at the site. At
the same time, other Marines from their unit were surveying the Washington
Metro system.
U.S. Army units trained at Memorial Tunnel in recent months before they were
sent to Afghanistan to search caves for evidence al Qaeda terrorists were
making bombs, chemical or biological agents, or nuclear devices they
intended to unleash on the United States.
Staging area for Metro
The Marine response team plans on-site training on the Washington Metro
system at an undisclosed place and time in the near future. Although details
remain secret, a similar training session was staged in December at the
Smithsonian Metro station.
"I have briefed the D.C. Metro people a couple of times," Sgt. Wick said.
They have expressed an interest in tunnel decontamination and plan to train
their own emergency personnel at the Center for National Response soon but
have not made an appointment, he said.
Metro officials would neither confirm nor deny their training plans.
"We're not very specific about what we do and who we do it with," said Polly
Hanson, Metro's deputy police chief. "I'm not going to go into great
detail."
However, the Marines say the Washington Metro and New York subways are among
the top targets for which they are training.
"Right now, we are training with the D.C. Metro," said Lt. Paul Cabellon,
CBIRF spokesman. He would not disclose details.
On two training days last week, the Marines practiced the kind of
"high-angle rescues" that might be expected with bomb victims trapped under
large buildings. They lowered a rescue basket down a steep hillside and from
a second-floor platform, then practiced raising it with ropes.
In between such warnings as, "Take up the slack," or, "Careful," they talked
about which commander said what to whom. While eating, they demonstrated how
the chemical pouch that reacted with water to heat their meals ready to eat
could be sealed in a plastic bag to make a water bomb.