Homeland Securtiy. Post-Mortem of the US Governments Response to the Essay

Homeland Securtiy. Post-Mortem of the US Governments Response to the Times Square Cesium Terrorist - Essay Example On the day of the attack, Times Square had its normal amount of visitors and wind conditions were calm. Immediately after the attack, NYPD and NYFD were quick to respond, but later crisis and radiation management efforts by the EPA were slow and hindered rescue efforts. Abstract This memo was created as the result of a post-hoc examination of the Times Square cesium terrorist attack. It aims to highlight the significance of long- and short-term fatalities, cost of property damage, and loss of public confidence in safety as outcomes of radiological attacks; and because of this significance, uses these outcomes to measure the relative success of the federal government’s response to this attack. Furthermore, this memo attempts to highlight areas that could have been improved before the attack to prevent this level of devastation, including better management of existing resources, better protection of existing radiological supplies, and a better understanding of the nuclear terrorist threat. Lastly, this memo aims to highlight the previously unexpected outcome of wind to show the effect confounding variables can have on the federal, state, and local governments’ responses to crises like this. ... Kelly stated that, â€Å"The Committee will undoubtedly agree that the danger presented by modest radiological sources that are comparatively easy to obtain is significant,† (Kelly 2002). In his article â€Å"Nuclear Terrorism Reconsidered†, Gavin Cameron offers an explanation of a terrorist’s motivation to use these weapons by saying, â€Å"The technical feasibility of radiological terrorism make it by far the most likely form of nuclear weapon. [†¦] Radiological weapons would, like nuclear-yield weapons, set a group apart and take its terrorism to a different level† (Cameron 1999). In this quote, Cameron shows why radiological terrorism remains such an appealing style of attack for many terrorists: this type of attack instills the same public fear as a nuclear attack yet is much more technologically in-reach for many terrorist groups. There are several factors that contribute to the effectiveness of a radiological terrorist device. Among these are à ¢â‚¬Å"the amount of material released, the nature of the material, the details of the device that distributes the material, the direction and speed of the wind, other weather conditions, the size of the particles released, [†¦] and the location and size of buildings near the release site† (Kelly 2002). All of these variables are important in the process of assessing the damage caused by an attack and potential evacuation and decontamination plans. Because of these uncertainties, estimations of the impact of such a weapon are extremely inaccurate and difficult to interpret. Outcomes Fatalities Fatalities are the most obvious measureable outcome of a radiological terrorist attack, yet may not be the most informative in this attack. In a radiological attack, fatalities must be divided into short-term and long-term fatalities.