The U.S. Homeland Security Department plans this week to order about 7,000 companies and organizations to secure stockpiles of dangerous chemicals that terrorists could target to use as weapons, the Associated Press reported Friday (see GSN, Dec. 13, 2007).
According to U.S. intelligence officials, terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda are interested in targeting such stockpiles due to the widespread damage that chemical attacks are capable of causing.
"I'm trying to complicate these guys' lives," Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Bob Stephan told journalists Friday. "This is never going to be an impregnable target set, but I want to introduce enough complexity into the mix that al-Qaeda's going to go somewhere else."
After roughly 32,000 businesses with large chemical stores completed an online questionnaire earlier this year, Homeland Security officials narrowed the sites to 7,000 deemed to have the highest risk of being targeted.
The institutions in question -- including universities, hospitals, food processing facilities and chemical plants -- are required to complete new security assessments that the department will use to separate them into four risk categories.
Facilities placed in the highest-risk category would eventually receive annual federal checks to ensure they are enforcing federally mandated security measures. Facilities that fail to comply could be fined or shut down until they adopt the required measures.
The assessments are expected to consider the physical security of each facility; the vulnerability of the site's computer systems; the ability of employees to compromise security; the threat a chemical release would pose to the local population; the volatility of the stored substances once they mix with water; and how easily materials could be stolen from the site (Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press/Miami Herald, June 20).