Making the Nation Safer The Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
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Bush, June 6, 2002 CONTEXT AND CONTENTS OF THE REPORT l errorism is a serious threat to the security of the United States and indeed the world. The vulnerability of societies to terrorist attacks results in part from the proliferation of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons of mass destruction, but it also is a consequence of the highly efficient and interconnected systems that we rely on for key services such as transportation, information, energy, and health care.
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2 MAKING THE NATION SAFER a broad array of potential approaches to reducing the threat of terrorism. Diplomacy, international relations, military actions, intelligence gathering, and other instruments of national policy well beyond the scope of this study all have critical roles to play.
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The areas are nuclear and radiological threats, human and agricultural health systems, toxic chemicals and explosive materials, information technology, energy systems, transportation systems, cities and fixed infrastructure, the response of people to terrorism, and complex and interdependent systems. The chapters on these nine areas each contain a number of recommendations, all describing what the committee believes are critical ways to make the nation safer from terrorism.
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· Search for technologies that reduce costs or provide ancillary benefits to civil society to ensure a sustainable effort against terrorist threats. 3These important technical initiatives do not mirror individual recommendations in the executive summary or the chapters, but instead indicate actions or needs identified in several chapters or provide brief descriptions of key technology applications or research programs.
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Science and technology are essential ingredients of a multilayered systems approach for defending the United States against terrorist attacks involving stolen nuclear weapons, improvised nuclear devices, and radiological dispersion devices. The first line of homeland defense is robust systems for the protection, control, and accounting of nuclear weapons and special nuclear material at their sources.
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The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and states having agreements with this agency should tighten regulations for obtaining and possessing radiological sources that could be used in terrorist attacks, as well as requirements for securing and tracking these sources.
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Thus, investments in research on bioterrorism will have enormous potential for application in the detection, prevention, and treatment of emerging infectious diseases that also are unpredictable and against which we must be prepared. The deciphering of the human genome sequence and the complete elucidation of numerous pathogen genomes, our rapidly increasing understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis and of immune responses, and new strategies for designing drugs and vaccines all offer unprecedented opportunities to use science to counter bioterrorist threats.
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Preparedness for bioterrorist attacks should be improved by creating a public-health reserve system and by developing surge capacity to deal effectively with such terrorist attacks as well as with natural catastrophes. Additionally, new strategies must be developed and implemented for assuring the security, usability, and accurate documentation of existing stocks of supplies at research facilities, hospitals, veterinary facilities, and other host sites.
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could be used by terrorists to contaminate food production facilities or water supplies. Although a good deal of attention has been paid to ensuring safety and purity throughout the various stages of food production, processing, and distribution, protecting the food supply from intentional contamination has not been a major focus of the U.S.
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Attacks on information technology can amplify the impact of physical attacks and diminish the effectiveness of emergency responses. Reducing such vulnerabilities will require major advances in computer security, with the objective of consequently improving information and network security.
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A strategic long-term research and development agenda should be established to address three primary counterterrorism-related areas in IT: information and network security, the IT needs of emergency responders, and informa
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The R&D to address IT needs of emergency responders would include but not be limited to ensuring interoper-ability, maintaining and expanding communications capacity in the wake of a terrorist incident, communicating with the public during an emergency, and providing support for decision makers. The R&D in information fusion for the intelligence, law enforcement, and emergency response communities should include but not be limited to data mining, data integration, language technologies, and processing of image and audio data.
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Therefore existing surveillance technologies developed for defense and intelligence applications should be investigated for their usefulness in defending against terrorist attacks, as well as against simple right-of-way encroachments, on widely distributed oil, gas, and electrical transmission assets. The dependence of major infrastructural systems on the continued supply of electrical energy, and of oil and gas, is well recognized.
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Compelled to act quickly in enhancing civil aviation security, TSA is now beginning to examine the security needs of all transport modes and to define its own role in meeting them. To help meet its obligation to strengthen security in all transportation modes, TSA should create a multimodal strategic research and planning office.
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As TSA seeks to develop and deploy security system concepts, consideration of human factors will be critical. Human factors expertise is necessary for crafting layered security systems that, as a whole, increase the perceived risk of getting caught and maximize the ability of security personnel to recognize unusual and suspicious patterns of activity and behavior.
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The urban setting provides access to a set of highly integrated infrastructure systems such as water, electrical, and gas supplies; communications; and mass transit as well as to numerous major buildings and places of public assembly. Major buildings have been recognized as especially attractive targets, and, based on the events of September 11, they have also become the subject of serious structural reexamination in particular, to determine what weaknesses must be corrected to prevent catastrophic collapse following an attack, as happened with the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
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Appropriate and trusted spokespeople should be identified and trained now so that, if a terrorist attack occurs, the government will be prepared to respond not only by supplying emergency services but also by providing important, accurate, and trustworthy information clearly, quickly, and authoritatively. To strengthen the government's ability to provide emergency services, indepth research should be conducted to characterize the structure of agencies responsible for dealing with attacks and other disasters.
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Information about threats must come from communities knowledgeable about chemical, biological, nuclear weapons, and information warfare, while vulnerability analysis will depend on information about critical infrastructures such as the electric-power grid, telecommunications, gas and oil, banking and finance, transportation, water supply, public health services, emergency services, and other major systems. In all these areas threat assessments and red-team activities will be essential.
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Important information about vulnerabilities can also be gained by modeling of critical infrastructures. Computational or physical-analogue models of infrastructure for use in simulating various counterterrorism activities can help with identifying patterns of anomalous behavior, finding weak points in the infrastructure, training personnel, and learning how to maintain continuity of operations following terrorist attacks.
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. Modeling and simulation also have great value for training first responders and supporting research on preparing for, and responding to, biological, chemical, and other terrorist attacks.
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Most important is that there be a federal office or agency with central responsibility for homeland security strategy and coordination and that this organization have the structure and framework necessary to bring responsibility, accountability, and resources together to effectively utilize the nation's science and engineering capabilities. The committee believes that the technical capabilities to provide the analysis necessary to support this organization do not currently exist in the government in a unified and comprehensive form.
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The federal government must take the lead in the national counterterrorism effort, but effective use of existing technologies, research and development activities, and deployment of new approaches to mitigating the nation' s vulnerabilities will depend critically on close cooperation with other entities: nonfederal governments, industry, universities, not-for-profit laboratories and organizations, and other institutions. Primary responsibility for response to and recovery from terrorist attacks will fall to cities, counties, and states.
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Most of the recommendations in this report, if acted on, will not only make the nation safer from terrorist attacks but can also make it safer from natural disasters, infectious diseases, hackers disrupting the Internet, failures in electric power distribution and other complex public services, and human error causing failures in such systems. This promise will help sustain the public's commitment to addressing the terrorism threat, and suggests that it is not inappropriate that many of the research and development programs to counter terrorism should be pursued in close coordination with similar efforts to improve the quality of life in civil society.
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The world will become safer, faster, if the scientific and engineering contributions to counterterrorism are based on cooperative international efforts.
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