Addition: Academies Detail War Plan
By Wil Lepkowski
Number 10a, posted January 3, 2002

While the U.S. government expands its war against terrorists and terrorism worldwide, the National Academies are propagating their own antiterrorism plans through their contracting arm, the National Research Council (NRC). Academies executive officer William Colglazier says new items will continue to percolate as people meet and talk. Everything not classified will be listed on the Academies’ web site (www.nas.edu) sometime in January. Colglazier’s telephone number is 202-334-3000. Here is essentially the complete list so far.

Prioritizing vulnerabilities and developing mitigation strategies

A 12-month project that will employ various fact-finding, forecasting, consensus-building, and risk analysis techniques to understand why and how terrorists do what they do. It will rank the seriousness of threats against the vulnerabilities of such key infrastructures as communication systems, financial networks, water supplies, and other critical structures.

Collaborative Work with Russia

Multi-faceted studies directed toward:

  • Preventing terrorists from obtaining nuclear materials in Russia. A white paper will be produced with Russian counterparts outlining how nuclear materials can be kept out of the hands of terrorists. Ways will be studied to protect plutonium and enriched uranium supplies at minimal in a struggling economy.
  • Understanding high-impact terrorism and, separately, sources of conflict in multiethnic societies.
  • Monitoring current Russian germ warfare research at former Soviet research facilities. The hope is to gain regular access to both facilities and specialists and thus to promote openness. One hope is to prevent Russian scientists engaged in that work from moving to potentially hostile countries. Another is to produce research of potential use in public health, agriculture, and counter-terrorism.
Evaluating and Protecting Vulnerable U.S. Industrial Targets

Consists only of meetings so far—between chemical industry sources and National Research Council (NRC) Board on Chemical Sciences, and between public health and agriculture experts with Academies Boards on Life Sciences and Agriculture and Natural Resources. Many more are planned.

Naval Forces’ Defense Capabilities Against Chemical and Biological Warfare Threats

Funded by Chief of Naval Operations. Will examine existing and potential chemical and biological warfare threats to naval force operations on shoreline and deep-ocean regions of the world. Will look into various defenses against them, and examine research, development, testing, and evaluation needs.

Improving Cybersecurity Research in the U.S.

A study by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board to assess the extent and quality of current federal R&D in this area.

Enhancing Information Management and Data Mining Capabilities for Combating Terrorism while Protecting Civil Liberties

Examination of research opportunities in data mining while assessing ways of protecting the privacy of people while government and commercial concerns are collecting comprehensive sets of information about them.

Issues Affecting Universities 

Information-sharing thus far on such issues as visa and foreign student tracking policies; diversion of biological agents from laboratories performing critical infectious disease research; and implications of restrictions on biomedical research, scientific communication, and graduate student participation in such research.

Improving Research Standards and Practices to Prevent Misuse of Biotechnology Research

A review and assessment of current rules, regulations, and institutional setups that oversee research and development work on dangerous pathogens. Issues will include how research choices are made, and how data on relevant research is collected and shared, and safeguards over the handling and transport of materials.

Communicating to Local Governments and Private Citizens about Preparedness for Terrorism Events

Essentially a notice concerning a January meeting among state and federal government officials to discuss state role in national R&D and anti-terrorism policies.

Public Health Initiatives

Workshops assessing response capabilities to biological threats and on antibiotic resistance to infectious agents, a study for the Defense Department on the safety and efficacy of anthrax vaccines, and revision of a 21st century vision for public health to with special reference to terrorism.

Agricultural Bioterrorism

A study by the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources to assess the ability of the U.S. to deter, prevent, detect, thwart, respond, and recover from biological attack against U.S. agriculture.

What Terrorists Value

A study by the NRC Division of Behavioral, Sciences, Social Sciences, and Education to determine what motivates “high profile” terrorists with the intent of deterring and defeating them.

Aviation Security

A study by the National Materials Advisory Board for the Federal Aviation Administration on assessing the operational performance of passenger screening, explosives detection systems, and hardened cargo containers. Also a review of the effectiveness of pulsed fast neutron analysis for detecting explosives in cargo and luggage.

Advanced Energetic Materials and Manufacturing Technologies

A Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design study for the Defense Department on developing and manufacturing innovative, hard-to-detect explosive materials.

Materials and Manufacturing Processes for Advanced Sensors

Another study for the Manufacturing and Engineering Design Board to develop accurate, low-cost, continuously operating sensors for detecting biological agents within times frames of one minute.

Transportation Security

An overall study by the Transportation Research Board on prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery from terrorist acts against transportation systems. Other activities include an assessment of state anti-terrorism planning efforts, an upcoming meeting to examine multi-modal transportation redundancies to enhance defense against terrorism, a meeting on improving emergency evacuation problems in communities, and another meeting on improving defenses of electric power transmission and distribution systems.

Water Supply Protection

Short term security and longer term research needs including how natural disaster experiences can contribute to engineering design, public awareness, evacuation and recovery planning, monitoring of public health risks, public health system needs, and mental health consequences in connection with disruption from terrorist acts.

Forum on Terrorism

A Committee on Law and Justice activity which will summarize what the social sciences have to say about the roots of terrorism in both the United States and the Muslim world. Several meetings will be organized and numbers of papers will be commissioned on understanding international terrorism in general and specific ways based on sociological and political science research. Other studies will look into aspects of terrorism in the Middle East, how terrorists organize themselves, use of profiling in combating terrorism, money laundering, and collective behavior of populations under terrorist threats.

General Education of the Media and Public on Terrorism Vulnerabilities and Responses

Nothing much here yet, except for a meeting with media people held on December 6, 2001, on media coverage homeland defense issues.

Cybersecurity and Authentication Technologies

Mainly a report so far by the Academies Computer Science and Telecommunications Board that summarizes needs in the field and lays out recommendations. A pamphlet on national identification systems is coming out shortly.

Chemistry and National Security

A January 2002, workshop is planned on issues revolving around chemical aspects of national security.

Mathematics and Homeland Security

An April workshop is planned by the Board on Mathematical Sciences on such issues as pattern recognition and data mining, epidemiological modeling, and voice and image recognition.
 

End