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Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 SPECIAL EDITION -- TERRORISM -- 26 JUNE 1984 has trained with US military and Euro- pean anti-terrorist forces. According to Webster, it is designed to deal with ‘‘a major-scale terrorist incident’? and will be standing by at the Summer Olympics, the presidential nominating conventions, and the World’s Fair. During the demonstration for report- ers, agents in black jumpsuits acted out scenarios. They slid down ropes from helicopters to ‘‘rescue’’ hostages in a mock bank. Marksmen with live bullets ‘killed’ cardboard terrorists at the far end of a shooting range. It was a dem- onstration of what the FBI calls ‘‘sur- gical shooting,’’ because sitting next to the make-believe terrorists was Assistant FBI Director Oliver Revell. In another scenario, agents broke into ‘‘Tire City,”’ a roofless, seven-room ‘‘house’’ made of sand-filled tires. Once inside, they shot more ‘‘terrorists’’ and rescued more hostages. Other preparations include ‘‘gam- ing,’’ the acting out of terrorist incidents. “We have simulated hijackings,’’ ex- plains Wayne Gilbert, who is in charge of the FBI’s terrorism section. ‘‘We might do it at night when planes are available. United Airlines might say, ‘You need a DC-10? We have one sitting at Dulles until ten tomorrow morning.’’’ Members of the squad are presented with different scenarios. In some, the terrorists claim to have a nuclear explo- sive. In others, an official of a big com- pany or the government is held hostage. Or the agents are told that there has been an explosion. ‘‘Sometimes the hostages are our own people,’’ says Gilbert. ‘‘Sometimes they’re from the military. Men and women. We brief them ahead of time to “6 In some scenarios, the terrorists claim to have a nuclear explosive. In others, an official is held hostage. tell them what to expect. They’re going to be treated badly; told when to go to the bathroom. They may be fed inade- quately or get lousy food. They’ll be harassed and shouted at. When there’s a rescue, they have to be prepared for ex- plosions, gas, and firing.’’ Were a terrorist incident to occur, the command post would be Room 5005 in the FBI Building, a quieter but no less graphic embodiment of preparations in the war on terrorists. It even looks like a war room. Beneath clocks showine aif- ferent time zones and across from maps of Washington and local airports are the two banks of desks of the Emergency Operations Center. The upper tier would be manned by the FBI's top people, such as Webster, Revell, or Gilbert. The semicircular banks have direct lines to the White House, the US attorney gen- eral’s office, the Pentagon, the State De- partment, and FBI field offices. There are computers on which agents can call up data on terrorist groups, plus police monitors, television monitors, and a glassed-in meeting room. On a recent day, a prepared hijacking log could be seen hanging on the wall. Empty slots are to be filled in if a hi- jacking occurs. The slots are labeled ““Scheduled route,’’ ‘‘Air carrier,’’ *‘Number of crew members,’’ ‘‘Weap- ons,’ and ‘‘Demands.’’ There is one other prepared log—it’s for nuclear extortion. Nuclear extortion is a major concern of the FBI. It has happened only once in the US—in 1979, when an employee at a nuclear plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, threatened to release uranium oxide into the atmosphere if he wasn’t given $100,000. He was arrested, but law-enforcement officials realize the po- tential for more incidents. Playing a key role in any nuclear-ex- tortion case would be a highly secretive group called the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST). Technically under the jurisdiction of the Departn.ent of En- ergy, NEST is made up of energy-phys- icists, explosive and electronic experts, and other scientists and technicians. It was NEST members who, during the 1976 bicentennial celebration, drove around Washington in unmarked vans and checked radiation levels at federal build- ings. A year earlier, NEST personnel dressed as businessmen conducted a ra- diation search at the Union Oil Company of California after a threat was received there. The detection devices were hidden in briefcases. In both cases, the team found nothing. In addition to the bicentennial inves- tigations, NEST has been used twice to check out nuclear threats in Washington. In 1976 they investigated a van parked outside the White House after someone received a tip that it contained a nuclear explosive. Inside they found a 50-gallon oil drum holding a ticking recorder. And in 1978 the team was called in when someone sent a package containing a brown substance to a congressional of- fice with a note saying it was radioactive. Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RG96-00788R000100330001-5 The substance was dirt. Today, about 30 NEST experts work out of Andrews Air Force Base. In the event of a nuclear threat, they would be contacted by the FBI and would have to be ready to leave the base within two hours. Even before the November bombing, Capitol police were staging their own terrorist scenarios in the Capitol at night when no tourists were around and Con- gress wasn’t in session. Although au- thorities are reluctant to reveal details, at least one of the simulated terrorist at- tacks involved the seizure of the Senate chamber. As part of their training, mem- bers of the Emergency Response Team practice traversing the Capitol with ropes and swinging down on windows. “‘They’re expert shots with special weapons,’’ says Chief Powell. ‘‘They’ve done a lot of training in Maryland, away from the general public, to keep down panic.”’ The biggest attempt to coordinate hos- tage-situation tactics in Washington oc- curred two years ago when the DC police organized Operation Speelunk, built around the takeover of a Metro train. In this operation, an escaping bank robber took hostages on a Metro train, but the situation was similar to what it would be in a terrorist takeover. ‘‘We were trying to find out how well we could interface all the agencies involved,’’ says Lieu- tenant George Bradford, who organized the scenario. In addition to the DC po- lice, the FBI, Secret Service, transit po- lice, the telephone company, PEPCO, — the Department of Highways, and Metro officials participated. The operation would later serve as the model the various agen- cies followed in December 1982, when an anti-nuclear activist threatened to blow up the Washington Monument. He was _ killed during the incident. The experts say that kind of coordi- nation is crucial in dealing with urban terrorism. Kupperman, in his report to the Army, points out that ‘‘while ama- teurs may continue to rely on the time- tested tactics of terrorism like skyjack- ing, the imaginative professional terror- ist has a number of avenues open for future attack: a ‘‘Attacks on the infrastructure of metropolitan areas (electric or gas net- works, communications, or computer fa- cilities), with a level of disruption be- yond the capabilities of the local police or the National Guard. a ‘Threats to thousands of people with agents of mass destruction such as nu- clear explosives, chemical, biological, CONTINUED NEXT PAGE