In June, the United States Naval Institute hosted the Homeland Port Security Conference, highlighted by a hypothetical situation and reality check.
A stirring speech delivered on Ellis Island, a call tor a "maritime security regime," and a nightmarish hypothetical scenario involving a dirtynuclear explosion were among the memorable elements of the U.S. Naval Institute's Homeland Port security Conference held in New York City on 6-7 June. Attendees from the military, law enforcement, tlrefighting. and private sectors gathered at one of America's busiest harbors to witness discussions and debates among top strategists on the front line of the complex, daunting port-security issue.
The conference featured a security briefing at the Statue of Liberty, an opening ceremony on Ellis Island, the first public pronouncements from the new Commandant of the Coast Guard, and panel discussions at the historic U.S. Customs House in lower Manhattan-fittingly and poignantly within walking distance of the site of the destroyed World Trade Center towers.
The grand, high-ceilinged main building at Ellis Island provided an evocative venue for the conference's opening address, delivered by Navy Admiral Timothy J. Keating. commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM). He spoke of the effort to ramp up the United States' preparedness for oceanborne terror threats. The recently signed Maritime Defense Order embodies this effort, he said, but didn't divulge its content as its details are still classified. He described partnering between jurisdictional levels-local, state, and national, plus the private sector-as the key to the future. And he spoke of the foe: "Our enemy is transient, invisible, and hiding in plain sight. ... He is technologically fluent. He's elusive. . . . Understanding our enemy is key to defeating him-and defeat him we will."
It was the first of a pair of speeches highlighting the conference. The following day. Admiral Thad W. Alien, who had assumed office as 23rd Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard in May. gave a rousing keynote address that broke down homeland security issues into "geophysical domains": air, land, space, cyber-and, of course, water.
Admiral Alien spoke of the need to move beyond the port-security perspective to a broader goal of ensuring a "maritime security regime." He also unveiled the news that a major report, delineating the direction the Coast Guard will take during his tenure, will be released by August.
He was met with loud, sustained applause when he called for a Navy-Coast Guard effort, more joint than ever before, to keep the homeland shores safe from terror. Speaking of the Coast Guard, he said, "We do not want to be the world's second best navy. We want to be the world's best coast guard. We already have the world's best navy, and with the world's best navy and coast guard combined we will have the best possible force for the maritime security regime."
Nightmare Time
The conference played host to some worst-case-scenario wargaming that, particularly in light of the location, was chilling. Stephen Flynn. author of the eye-opening hook America the Vulnerable: How Our Government Is Failing to Pmtect Usfmm Terrorism (New York: HarperColliiis. 2(XM), moderated a dramatic session featuring a panel that ran the gamut from local police and fire department officials to representatives from the FBI and the Department of Defense.
To set the scene, a frighteningly realistic re-creation of a cable news report-"Shots Fired On Container Ship En Route To Port of New York"-was played on a movie screen behind the panel. It was followed by a second clip with a fictional news anchor describing an incident unfolding with escalating grimness-"Container Ship Accident in New York May Be Act of Terrorism." As the situation worsens, the container ship collides with a Staten Island ferry.
Fortunately, such a catastrophe could be dealt with expediently (hanks to existing interrelations between the New York Police Department, the Coast Guard, and the FBI. said Assistant Chief Phil T. Pulaski of the NYPD.
But the hypothetical doomsday scenario was only going to get worse-"New York City Terrorist Explosion Releases Radioactive Material"-the faux news broadcast now declared. It turns out the container ship is being used as a conduit to deliver a nuclear device. What now?
Deputy Chief Ahdo Nahmod. FMS Command. FDNY, and Deputy Chief William Siegel, Rescue Services. FDNY. detailed how EMTs and other first-responders would be unleashed to contain the situation as best as possible. Transportation problems, evacuation logistics, and hospital locations and space availability all would be salient factors.
Offering some federal perspective on the hypothetical nightmare scenario. Admiral Keating spoke of the "wide variety of response options we have." but also pointed out that "we wouldn't just come barging in." but rather would respond at a level in harmony with what the local New York authorities would need. Federal civil support teams located state by state most likely would be on the first wave of the federal response Io a regional event.
Also on the federal front. Navy Vice Admiral Mark P. Fit/gerald. commander of the U.S. second Fleet anil Striking Fleet Atlantic, explained how the initial Navy role could include helicopter assets and large amphibious craft capable of quick conversion to hospital platforms.
But the scenario, already having escalated to awful. was only going to get more dire. The next fictional news blurb made clear that things had entered a new dimension of bad-"oil Tanker Boat On Fire and Leaking Near Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel." Moderator Flynn fleshed out the story: An anonymous phone tip indicates that the tanker detonated a mine, and that several more mines are floating out there somewhere.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense Paul McHaIe described how the recently developed Maritime Operational Threat Response now streamlines the "who does what" questions that naturally arise between the relevant responding agencies.
But as the hypothetical doomsday story continued to reach new levels, debate increasingly arose among the panelists. Do you ratchet up the alert level nationwide yet'.' If so. to what degree? What about the problem that, by so doing, you burn out personnel prematurely'.' As governors begin to voice concern up the authority chain, what kind of federal leadership decisions get made?
Reality Check
There were no easy answers. In the subsequent panel, which pro- j vided the private-industry perspective. Dr. James Carafano. senior research fellow for Defense and Homeland security with the AIIison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, declared that no matter how detailed the planning and how thorough the training, once the incident occurs, things unfold unpredictably because of that age-old x-factor. "the fog of war."
His reality check comments were buttressed by sentiments expressed in the next panel, which afforded one of the high points of the day: commentary by Captain Al Fuentes. FDNY (Retired), author of American by Choice: One Man's Journey (New York: Fire Dreams Publishing. 2004). Fuentes. who almost lost his life-and who endured seeing comrades perish alongside him-attempting to rescue victims of the World Trade Center disaster, knows firsthand about the limitations of planning and the unpredictability of events during an emergency situation. "I was a foot-soldier in 9/11," he said. Commenting on the earlier panel's detailed answers to how the hypothetical scenario would he efficiently, professionally dealt with, Fuentes remarked, "This reminded me of pre-9/11 ... we talk about . . . great ideas, what we're going to prevent, this and that, hut the bottom line is that ... it doesn't happen that way. The situation will arise when the event hits, and now we have to react, and now we're behind the 8-ball. ..."
Mr. Mills, an acquisitions editor with the Naval Institute Press, is the author of Chesapeake Bay in the Civil War, Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties, and, forthcoming in 2007, The Spectral Tide: Great True Ghost Stories of the U.S. Navy.