White House conducts bomb drill

Dozens of high-level officials joined in a White House drill Saturday
to see how the government would respond if several cities were
attacked simultaneously by the type of the roadside bombs used against
American troops in Iraq.

White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend presided over the
three-hour exercise that brought the government's highest level
homeland security officials to the Eisenhower Executive Office
Building next to the White House. All Cabinet agencies were
represented by their secretaries or other high-ranking officials, with
a total of about 90 participants, said Scott Stanzel, a White House
spokesman.

Stanzel said the drill revealed gaps in the government's ability to
respond, but also showed that there have been many improvements since
Hurricane Katrina exposed federal inadequacies when it devastated the
Gulf Coast in 2005. For instance, coordination with state and local
authorities and the ability to get federal resources in place quickly
- key missteps after Katrina - appeared much better now, Stanzel said.

President Bush went on a bike ride not far from the White House
Saturday morning, and did not take part in the test.

Townsend and the Homeland Security Council that she heads mapped out
in advance a massive disaster involving improvised explosive devices,
or IEDs, in 10 U.S. cities at the same time, using a combination of
large and small towns, said a senior administration official, speaking
on condition of anonymity.

IED attacks are being used by insurgents in Iraq with regularity to
kill hundreds of civilians and soldiers in Iraq. Recently, the Bush
administration has said that IEDs and other weaponry in Iraq are
coming from Iran.

But Stanzel said the test was not inspired by new intelligence or any
increased chatter about terrorists' desire to use IEDs inside the
United States. He noted that both the World Trade Center bombing in
1993 and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 involved homemade bombs.

"The threat of an IED goes back 14 years," he said. "It's important
for the administration to prepare for any eventuality, just as we have
prepared for a PANDEMIC FLU, a smallpox outbreak or a major
hurricane."

Indeed, this was the administration's fourth such "tabletop" exercise
since the first in December 2005 on a BIRD FLU or other PANDEMIC
outbreak.

Townsend's scenario envisioned requests pouring in from state and
local authorities, and also assumed many local abilities would be
diminished by the scale of the disaster. The discussion began with the
period immediately after the attacks, then moved to circumstances
gamed out for weeks later. At each point, the agency representatives
were directed to detail what they would do, the official said.

The next step is for the Homeland Security Council to study the role
play and report on what gaps were revealed, Stanzel said