Last week, the Bush Administration issued a thinly
veiled reminder to Iraq that the use of weapons of mass destruction against the
United States or its allies may result in American retaliatory strikes with nuclear
weapons. That is the international outlook. Meanwhile, an optimistic vision for
our local tourism-dependent economy was issued last week by Stephen Perry, the
new president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau and
Gov. Mike Foster's former chief of staff.
"[T]he future, we believe, is brighter than
ever," Perry told the Press Club of New Orleans last Monday during a summary
of his first 100 days in the CVB job. "The stars have all aligned in the right
way."
Perry's post-9/11 outlook is rooted in his
belief that the sometime churlish sectors of the tourism and hospitality industry
as well as state and local governments are primed to unite for "an economically
and culturally vibrant city."
Perry is unshaken by the threat of more terrorist
attacks. "We have almost a great advantage here because we are in the south-central
United States. ... And that is an advantage for public safety," Perry said.
"Right now is probably the safest time to travel that we have ever had." Furthermore,
he says, the local public safety community has prepared a number of terrorism
response plans that will help protect visitors at individual hotels.
"Frankly, I think we are going to be in a
better posture than ever, primarily because we have run this drill with some
of the major events like the Super Bowl," Perry said, referring to joint anti-terrorism
preparations at the Superdome earlier this year, led by the U.S. Secret Service.
"We are actually way ahead of the curve."
As the state prepares to celebrate the bicentennial
of the Louisiana Purchase, we share Perry's optimism for the tourism industry.
We also applaud his efforts to lead a better-coordinated marketing and "branding"
effort among the various sectors of the hospitality industry. But we take a
more cautious view of the potential dangers posed by terrorists. Our cover story
last week on port security ("Preparing for al Qaeda," Dec. 11) suggests that
much work must be done to protect our city better from the threat of a major
attack. We also fear that our geographical advantage may contribute to a dangerous
sense of complacency -- a belief that it can't happen here.
It can happen here, and U.S. Attorney Jim
Letten knows it. Letten would assume control of a 13-parish federalized communications
network in the event of a terrorist attack. "Southeast Louisiana is a very target-rich
environment that requires an enormous amount of vigilance to keep free of potential
terrorists," he says. Potential targets include some 6,000 ships and hundreds
of barges that pass through the Port of New Orleans each year, the 100-mile
petrochemical corridor, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the oil and gas industry,
and the nuclear power plant at Taft.
All of those sites are of "strategic, military
and economic value to the United States," says Letten, who also serves as a
commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve intelligence division. "Here in New Orleans,
homeland security and port security are indivisible."
The resurgent cruise ship industry berthed
downtown near the Riverwalk shopping mall brings, along with jobs, "the very
spectacular threat" of a terrorist attack, says the head of the local FBI office.
A recent congressional report warns of the "low-probability but high-consequence"
of a nuclear attack. If terrorists smuggled and detonated a Hiroshima-sized
bomb in a United States port, the blast would destroy buildings within a two-mile
radius, set fires, and spread radioactive fallout, killing "thousands of people,"
the report states.
How prepared are we? Federal, state and local
law enforcement agencies are working together like never before to protect us
from terrorism, but their cooperation is not enough. The Bush administration
has delayed at least until January $1.5 billion in anti-terrorism assistance
to local police departments and emergency management agencies, according to
The New York Times. This means that Harbor Police Chief Robert Hecker
might have to wait for the $46 million in needs he has identified for a "satisfactorily
secured port."
We were also chagrined to learn that top officials
in the local offices of the FBI and Coast Guard -- the two biggest players in
port security -- were unaware of enemy surprise attacks on merchant shipping
off the Louisiana coast during World War II. As retired U.S. Sen. Gary Hart
recently warned: "This country isn't going to be secure until we reorganize
it that way we did after the end of World War II to prepare to defend ourselves
in the new age."
Finally, although re-tooling law enforcement
is necessary, the public also needs to hear more about what we as individuals
and families can do to protect ourselves. The first step in minimizing new dangers
is to recognize them. It can happen here, and it's up to all of us to prepare
as much as possible.
