Homeland Security Continues To Be Neglected

President Bush continues to misallocate his attention and your tax dollars on his war in Iraq and major defense systems hardware instead of the more pressing problems of securing the homeland. Indeed, his current blunders continue to reflect the catastrophic error of his first term. You may recall that on September 10 th, 2001 his entire administration and defense resources were focused on the false threat of China. Only in August 2001 had the Chinese returned our spy plane that had collided their jet over the China Sea in April of that year. About the same time the FBI was also mistakenly “cracking down” on Wen-Ho Lee at the National Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico. At least the judge in this latter case apologized for the government’s misbehavior.

George Bush has never apologized for his own culpability in the September 11 th tragedy. You may recall that one of the twenty terrorists was caught before the attack. Had the President been focused on the real threat of terrorism, rather than the false threat of China, perhaps more of the terrorists might have been captured and part, or even all, of their plan foiled. The national security “buck” stops with the White House, but the President has never acknowledged his clear responsibility.

Now we are fighting a war in Iraq that was based on the President’s lies about weapons of mass destruction. We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars there and losing the precious lives of thousands of our men and women in uniform. And, we are diverting resources, manpower and money, that should be used for homeland security. In 2005 we will have spent $500 billion on defense and Iraq. At the same time we are spending only $30 billion on homeland security. Moreover, many of our fire fighters and police personnel are serving in Iraq as military reservists, thus reducing our first response resources if and when terrorist attack the U.S. again.

The UCI Nuclear Reactor Remains a Prime Target

The juiciest target on the west coast of the United States is wide open for even low-tech terrorists. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Information Digest 2004-2005 Edition (available on the internet), there are 26 nuclear reactors on university campus around the country used for research purposes. On the west coast there are four – at Oregon State, Reed College, UC Davis, and yes, UC Irvine. The one at Irvine is located adjacent to one of the wealthiest cities in the US and in the Los Angeles basin and LA news agencies. Terrorist like targets in big news markets so they can communicate their messages to the widest possible audience. UCI makes a much better target than nearby Disneyland or a shopping plaza because on the campus it is quite easy to instantly create a so-called “dirty bomb” that would not only be immediately lethal but would also have long-lasting contamination effects. Another potential target, the larger utility owned reactors at San Onofre have more security and are more isolated.

We might assume that the other campus reactors are easy targets, but certainly the one at UCI is incredibly vulnerable to terrorist truck bombs or other attacks. As the UCI Chemistry building (it houses the reactor) sits today, it would be a simple matter to crash a truck into the heart of the building destroying the reactor (a TRIGA Mark I, critical since 1969) in the basement. Even if the reactor were undamaged, university chemistry buildings are generally loaded with all kinds of dirty (poisonous) chemicals that would be lethally released during an Oklahoma City-like explosion.

Worse still, the Irvine city fire company adjacent to the campus charged with the initial emergency response is chronically understaffed. The meager dollars allocated by Homeland Security haven’t reached local fire companies like Irvine or Newport Beach. Moreover, the war in Iraq has damaged emergency response capabilities at home because many police and firefighters are among the ranks of the reserve soldiers called up for duty there. Incredibly the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspects these small research reactors for safety, but not for security. Homeland Security resources should be allocated to fully man fire fighting units here and toward the decommissioning of obsolete research reactors such as the one in the heart of Irvine. Yet, the focus of the Bush administration remains on military adventurism.