Shotgunning or target shooting? This is the first strategic question confronting the next head of the Department of Homeland Security. As outgoing DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said in his public exit interview in USA Today (http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/12/as-one-threat-f.html), his successor faces limitless challenges and a new life of being on call 24 hours a day. But doing everything or allocating the same time and effort to every task is the same as doing nothing. Such is the power of diluted effort. So one of the things for any new executive to decide, whether in Homeland Security, or in any other department, is where to make one’s mark. Like aiming for the goal in a team sport, it is all a question of picking your spot and concentrating your play for best effect. What should that be?
The threat of a biological weapons attack. Why?
The two most potentially devastating attacks which would take the highest tolls in American lives at home are nuclear and biological ones. Nuclear attacks, however, are difficult to carry out. As Chertoff says, they would most likely require adversaries to get their hands on nuclear materials that remain difficult to obtain and that also take considerable sophistication and logistical support to weaponize. Besides, there are a number of other aspects of the nuclear threat that require strategic intervention by all the instruments of American diplomacy and might, particularly when it comes to exerting pressure on North Korea and Iran to keep them from developing a flourishing nuclear weapons capability that would then become the most likely source of material for nascent nuclear terrorists. Bottom line: this job is a national security priority that extends far beyond the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, and the greatest work to be done is on the international stage.
A biological weapons attack on the home front is another story, however. Laboratories abound, and with Internet access and online databases, the know-how for developing such a weapon is more within the reach of a lethal malefactor than a nuclear bomb. Patience and steady investment over time is all it takes to get to the point of being able to develop and introduce a biological weapon at home.
What should the new DHS Secretary do? Take this bull by the horns and give it the attention it deserves. America has no single government focal point concentrating on the biological threat. But we have military, Department of Energy, regulatory bodies, and international agencies that focus exclusively on nuclear weapons. So this vacuum cries for the attention of Homeland Security. And the Secretary who takes the time and effort to make the biological weapons threat priority #1 will at least not be plowing ground that has already been trampled or re-solving problems that have already been over studied, over funded, and managed into the ground, like a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
– Nick Catrantzos
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Nick Catrantzos + Tom Goff
- All Secure
- NICK CATRANTZOS is the lead author of the All Secure website and is the emeritus security director for a large public organization. He has also managed security aspects of corporate takeovers, response to international hostage situations, and finding and keeping secrets. He has been board certified in security management, licensed as a private investigator, and certified as an incident commander. He worked as a case officer for a discreet branch of public service. He protected stealth technology at Lockheed and, later, as a consulting security director for both Kroll and Control Risks, he assisted executives with workplace violence cases and with protecting VIPs and critical assets globally in volatile areas. Nick's partner, TOM GOFF, was a captain in the Military Police Corps, U.S. Army Reserve and has a law degree from the University of California at Davis. He is a former reporter for Fortune Magazine, was senior editor at New York Magazine and Esquire, and has provided crisis and communications counsel to senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, including Lockheed, ARCO, Microsoft, Nissan, and Sony Pictures.