From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: FBI Says Some U.S. Cities Vulnerable To Attack Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 17:56:32 -0500 To: believer@telepath.com Source: Fox News - Reuters FBI Says Some U.S. Cities Vulnerable To Attack 2.13 p.m. ET (1814 GMT) October 16, 1998 WASHINGTON — Some U.S. cities are unprepared for an attack by weapons of mass destruction with biological agents a greater danger than nuclear or chemical weapons, an FBI official said Friday. "Some American communities are very unprepared. They certainly don't have the equipment and resources necessary to handle a major attack,'' Robert Blitzer, chief of the FBI's domestic terrorism section, said. "The real weakness that we have right now is the ability to detect and counter a (biological weapons attack) because it's much more insidious and much more difficult to detect,'' he said. The FBI official, who was unable to give numbers on how many cities were unprepared, said communities were better able to deal with chemical and nuclear weapons attacks. Many fire departments have units that deal with hazardous materials and are ready to handle chemical weapons, he said. "On the nuclear side, there's a pretty robust capability to handle those kinds of issues and has been for many years,'' Blitzer said. He appeared at the weekly Justice Department news conference with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who announced a new office at the FBI to help state and local governments better respond to terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction. Reno said the office would help create training standards for local police, firefighters and rescue squads and would try to make sure they have the necessary equipment. "I want this new office to be a center for assistance and solutions, not a new bureaucracy,'' she said. "We are not interested in a top-down, one-size-fits-all solution.'' © Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ****************************************************