[NYTr] StratCom Hides Offensive Mission Behind Search for WMD

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StratCom Hides Offensive Mission Behind Search for WMD

Omaha World Herald - October 7, 2007 
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10151654

StratCom guides network of agencies in WMD fight 

BY TIM ELFRINK
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

FORT BELVOIR, Va. - The nightmare scenario for U.S. military planners
starts simply.

A small amount of nuclear, biological or chemical material slips
through security in a foreign country and passes unnoticed across
international borders.

Any such slip-up anywhere in the world could put that dangerous
material - the building blocks of a weapon of mass destruction -
in the hands of a terrorist hoping to use it against the United
States.

"The most serious strategic threat to the U.S. today is the threat
of non-state terrorist groups gaining control of and using weapons
of mass destruction," said Air Force Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, the new
head of the U.S.

Strategic Command.

In 2005, Offutt Air Force Base's StratCom [in Omaha, Nebraska] was
assigned to coordinate all of the Defense Department's far-flung
efforts to prevent the nightmare scenario.

The hub of that mission is StratCom's Center for Combating Weapons
of Mass Destruction, headquartered at the Army's Fort Belvoir,
southwest of Washington, D.C.

StratCom's traditional role is head of U.S. nuclear forces. Its
missions have expanded since 2002 to include overseeing the military's
space, missile defense, computer network warfare, global strike
capabilities, combating weapons of mass destruction, and global
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work.

To do all that, StratCom officials established separate commands
around the country for each major mission, including the Center for
Combating WMDs. Each command reports directly to StratCom.

While the WMD center has filled only about 30 of its 50 staff
positions since it began operating in January 2006, it's making
progress in uniting all Defense Department groups combating weapons
of mass destruction.

"Between crawl, walk and run, we're somewhere between crawl and
walking," said Army Col. Michael Holland, the WMD center's chief
of staff. "But we've accomplished a lot."

Work continues to find staff members from within the military service
branches. Projections are that the center will be fully staffed and
fully operational by September 2009.

With only 50 staffers of its own, the center won't directly lead
the complex job of preventing WMD attacks.

Rather, its role is to act as a central hub for more than 40 armed
forces agencies dealing with the problem.

The center's focus is on synchronizing those efforts, compiling the
agencies' information on WMD threats and sharing it with all branches
of the military.

"Even fully staffed, I don't anticipate (the center) actually leading
anything. But we generate the momentum, we jab the right muscles
so people do the right things," said Rear Adm. William P. Loeffler,
the WMD center's deputy director.

Some of the center's staff also will work with civilian government
agencies to more closely align their WMD efforts and the military's
programs.

"This is a huge, complex mission . . . and the number of (military
and civilian) people involved in it is huge. The center's mission
is to gain awareness of what everyone is doing, so we can move
toward a coherent national strategy," Loeffler said.

Key elements of the center's work:

. At a high-tech operations center, specialists compile global WMD
intelligence reports - about who is seeking weapons material and
where - to offer a "one-stop shop" for military agencies needing
the information.

. Staffers work with Defense Department agencies and commands around
the world to draft action plans for dealing with WMD threats.

. If the United States needs to quickly locate and dismantle a WMD
anywhere in the world, the center pulls together a special 30-person
joint military team that could deploy quickly to coordinate such an
effort.

"This whole concept . . . came about because of (Operation Iraqi
Freedom),"

Holland said. "When we went into Iraq and started looking for WMDs,
we didn't have an organization that could do this."

. It represents StratCom at the Proliferation Security Initiative, a
group of about 80 nations working to prevent the transporting of WMD
materials across their borders.

The goal of it all, Loeffler said, is to foster cooperation between
all Defense Department groups and international partners working
on the WMD problem.

"It's vital that we get all the stakeholders around the table to
work on this
. . . so we have a unified approach, instead of a bunch of different
organizations out there doing their own thing," Loeffler said.

So many organizations worldwide are involved because combating the
WMD threat requires a range of actions - everything from diplomacy
to military interdiction, Loeffler said.

The easiest way to prevent a WMD attack is to make sure terrorists
can't get their hands on such potent weapons. Defense Department
agencies work with international partners to help build better
security around nuclear, chemical and biological stockpiles and to
police international borders.

Should such efforts fail, the military has a range of more active
options:

from deploying teams to safely disarm WMDs or intercepting those
seeking to buy and sell the weapons, to bombing raids or ground
attacks.

Defensive options, including the fledgling U.S. missile defense
system and the deterrence of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, also fall
under the broad mission of combating WMDs.

Finally, if a terrorist or rogue nation managed to launch a WMD
attack, a host of military and outside agencies have plans and
personnel ready to respond.

It's probably too early to judge how much StratCom's efforts have
improved cooperation among the dozens of Defense Department agencies.
But WMD experts say it's a worthy goal.

"Anything that improves interagency coordination . . . is a welcome
step, especially six years after 9/11, when we know that terrorist
groups like al-Qaida have been seeking nuclear weapons-useful
material," said Leonor Tomero, a nuclear nonproliferation expert
at the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

If the United States did face a terrorist group with WMDs, the
difficulty of disarming them makes interagency coordination within
the Defense Department vital, said Baker Spring, a research fellow
at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.

On all its projects, the center uses the expertise of the Defense
Threat Reduction Agency, a 1,900-person Defense Department group
that researches and develops technology for combating WMDs and helps
train military specialists.

StratCom's center is located in the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's
headquarters, and Dr. James Tegnelia, a physics expert who once led
the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., serves at
head of both organizations.

"Thanks to the partnership, we are now StratCom's premier agency
for these abilities and assessments on combating WMDs," said Holland,
the center's chief of staff.

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