108P8P
Print Request:
Selected Document(s): 4
Time of Request: December 30, 2004
Job Number:
1821:25561360
Client ID/Project Name:
12:42 PM EST Number of Lines: 73
Research Information:
Note:
LA Times article
4 of 4 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
All Rights Reserved
Los Angeles Times
September 3, 2004 Friday
Home Edition
SECTION: CALIFORNIA; Metro; Metro Desk; Part B; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 908 words
HEADLINE: ON THE LAW;
City Has an 'Archangel' Overseeing Its Security; Local agencies develop
anti-terrorism plans and, with help from U.S.
authorities, redefine how best to protect high-risk locations.
BYLINE: Andrew Blankstein, Times Staff Writer
BODY:
When authorities warned last month of a possible terrorist plot
against Eastern financial institutions, the Los Angeles Police
Department dispatched special teams to high-profile Los Angeles-area
banks to help guard against the possibility of a similar attack.
But efforts to protect those potential targets, and hundreds of
others across the city, have gone well beyond merely reacting to the
latest terror warnings, LAPD officials say.
Department counterterrorism officials have been working for the last
18 months to redefine the way the city secures its high-threat
locations as part of a regional security cooperative they call
"Archangel."
"When I came here, I found there was no threat assessment system for
our critical assets, and the information we did have was outdated,
paper-based or got stale very quickly," said John Miller, the LAPD's
counterterrorism chief.
"There were just lists [of possible targets]."
Los Angeles features nearly every kind of security challenge
imaginable, Miller said, from a dense urban core with gleaming high
rises to suburban sprawl and bucolic mountain hideaways.
The city draws critical resources from a far-flung power grid and an
intricate system of aqueducts, features a bustling port and airport,
and has nationally recognizable landmarks such as Hollywood Boulevard,
movie studios and entertainment venues.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, Al Qaeda attacks on New York City and
Washington, D.C., the LAPD identified more than 600 so-called critical
sites across the city.
Other agencies had done similar reviews. State government had
already ranked threats using a method devised in World War II to
identify enemy bombing targets. And federal officials concentrated
their attention on potential national security targets.
Yet those lists didn't answer a fundamental question that would help
local officials prepare for the inevitable terror attack, according to
Lt. Tom McDonald, the LAPD's point man for operation Archangel: "What
exactly is a high-threat location?"
Coming up with a working definition required looking beyond
traditional -- and narrow -- police perspectives.
Locally, the LAPD brought together a core group of agencies, which
meets monthly to coordinate anti-terrorism plans.
They included the Los Angeles Fire Department, Department of Water
and Power, Department of Recreation and Parks, the port and airport
departments, the Los Angeles Unified School District, Department of
Transportation and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the
Department of Health.
The LAPD also sought advice from the Terrorism Early Warning Group,
Joint Terrorism Task Force including the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the U.S.
Defense Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as
well as the U.S. and California departments of Homeland Security.
The consensus is that a high-threat location can be many things at
different times of the day, week or month.
Highest priority is given to sites that deliver or produce life's
basic necessities, or are a fundamental part of the way society
functions on a daily basis, whether it be transportation,
communications, agriculture, or water and power, McDonald said.
But officials also want to protect locations that if attacked could
cause mass casualties, including storage or production plants for
nuclear energy, chemicals or military weaponry.
And like the World Trade Center buildings, there are symbolic or
iconic sites that may be attractive targets to terrorists because they
are considered emblematic of the American way of life, McDonald said.
Counterterrorism officials say that by trying to protect everything,
authorities can fail to protect anything.
So in addition to ongoing threats, Archangel personnel must be
mindful of transitory threats lasting hours, days or weeks.
The bottom line, Miller says, is that "intelligence drives the
process" and threats "can ebb and flow."
Still, preparation makes all the difference, he said. Archangel has
developed action plans for businesses and government alike and the goal
is to have the most updated information available to first responders
so they can hit the ground running.
With the help of businesses and government, Archangel teams have
assembled dossiers on hundreds of key buildings to help first
responders. Information includes a rundown on every entrance or exit,
location of elevators and air conditioning systems, possible landing
areas for helicopters so that when police, firefighters or hazardousmaterials crews roll up, they know exactly what they are facing and
quickly can form an action plan.
Sites already targeted by terrorists include the Los Angeles
International Airport and the U.S. Bank Tower, or Library Tower, which
a captured Al Qaeda operative had said the group planned to hit in a
second wave of attacks.
Archangel officials want to give enforcement and other participating
agencies, including national entities such as the CDC, the ability to
access the collected information immediately through a secure Internet
site and provide guidance as events unfold. Local officials hope the
security cooperative can ultimately be used as a national model for
terror threat analysis.
Miller said Al Qaeda's training includes surveillance to assess the
layout of potential targets. Counterterrorism officials believe Al
Qaeda armed assault teams could use that information to take over and
hold a building.
"Our countermeasures have to be at least as good," Miller said.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: PROJECT ARCHANGEL: Members of a regional security
cooperative gather information on key buildings to help guide first
responders in the event of an attack. Eventually, agencies will be able
to get the information immediately through a secure Internet site.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Annie Wells Los Angeles Times
LOAD-DATE: September 3, 2004