Tuesday, November 28, 2006 1:29 AM CST
Experts: Small towns may be susceptible to terror acts too
By KATE HENDERSON, Staff Writer
khenderson@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- Small towns are not immune from terrorism.
A former member of the Soviet KGB was part of a panel discussion Monday at Eastern Illinois University that focused on how local agencies can learn from global terrorist attacks.
Vladimir Sergevnin, who spent several years with the Russian Police and has also taught at various universities in America, pointed out that the Beslan hostage crisis in 2004 resulted in 331 deaths and 783 injuries after three terrorism groups took over a school.
Sergevnin said Beslan has a population of only 30,000.
“You would think, ‘Who’s going to attack a town like Beslan or Charleston?’” Sergevnin said. “They are soft targets who don’t have much security and terrorists are not looking for a fight, but for numbers and bloodshed.”
Sergevnin joined a representative from the Secretary of State’s office, a retired U.S. marshal, and a member of the Chinese Consulate in Chicago in discussing terrorism and what local agencies can learn.
Sergevnin pointed out several lessons learned from Beslan.
He said the first tactical lesson was that the terrorists impersonated guards and law enforcement, something commonly seen in many terrorist operations. He also said one thing that surprised the KGB and Russian authorities was that even after three days of holding hostages, the terrorists had enough resources to launch a counter-attack.
Sergevnin gave other tips to law enforcement like establishing a single negotiator in terrorist situations, rather than many.
“This generation of terrorists is quite different,” Sergevnin said. “They don’t want to negotiate; they want to make a statement.“
Sergevnin listed the five “D’s” for law enforcement to combat terrorism: denial, divert, delay, detect and destroy.
Sergevnin said the “delay” part of his solution is based on drills.
“We have the legislation in Illinois to do terrorism drills,” Sergevnin said. “They have done drills with school children for fires and how many children were killed in (school) fires last year? None. But from violence, a lot.“
Sergevnin and other presenters said to cut down on terrorism, countries need to develop a common approach and terminology. He said defining and using terrorism terms correctly is a good start.
Robert Moore, a retired U.S. marshal, said communication between agencies is difficult during a crisis.
“How do we communicate with one another?” Moore questioned. “That is a challenge.”
Moore said antitrust laws prevent one company from taking over all U.S. law enforcement agencies’ communications.
“How do we maintain safety, protect individual’s rights and communicate with each other while maintaining competition?”
Moore said a key issue has been the inability to seamlessly communicate with all law enforcement agencies in the nation.
He said the first step in making the communication and terrorism defense processes more effective is assessment.
“Every agency needs to find out where the vulnerabilities are,” he said.
One agency working on assessment is the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. Jim Burns, inspector general for the Secretary of State, said federal and state authorities are working on a program called Real ID that would standardize guidelines for all states when issuing driver’s licenses. Burns said the IDs would be similar to a national ID card, but won’t be called that due to “big brother” fears.
“I’m not sure you would’ve seen something like this but for 9-11,” Burns said.
The Real I.D. cards would have certain information required on the card.
“The hook is that if you don’t have a Real ID certified by the Department of Homeland Security, you will not be able to get on planes or go into federal buildings,” he said.
Burns said if a state chooses not to adopt the Real IDs, they can make their own, but they will still not be considered registered and state residents with those IDs will still not be able to board planes or go into federal buildings.
Burns said although the IDs will be an “implementation nightmare,” they will be the best form of ID. They will help prevent identity theft and have digital pictures compatible with face recognition software.
Hui Zun Zhang from the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, which represents nine states, said the Chinese government has adopted all United Nations policies for terrorism and has been working with the U.S. in another way to prevent terrorism.
“China will host the 2008 Olympics in two years,” Zhang said. “They have visited several U.S. cities that hosted the Olympics and learned what they have done to protect participants from terrorism.”
Contact Kate Henderson at khenderson@jg-tc.com or 238-6858
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 Ken Trevarthan (JG/T-C)
Hui Zun Zhang of the Chinese Consulate in Chicago gives the Chinese perspective on terrorism Monday afternoon during the terrorism panel discussion presented at the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union in Charleston.
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Stephen wrote on Jul 17, 2006 8:22 AM: