Bush administration seeks FEMA's help with terrorism

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 9, 2001

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration, under the direction of Vice President Dick Cheney, is asking the agency that normally deals with floods and tornadoes to tackle terrorism as well.

President Bush is creating an office within the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate the government's response to any biological, chemical or nuclear attack, Cheney said on Tuesday.

"The threat to the continental United States and our infrastructure is changing and evolving and we need to look at this whole area oftentimes referred to as homeland defense," said the vice president. He will lead a new task force on these new threats, which he described as "a hand-carried nuclear weapon, or biological or chemical agent."

Together with FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh, Cheney's task force will "figure out how we best respond to that kind of disaster of major proportions that in effect would be manmade or man-caused," Cheney said.

The National Security Council will review his final report.

At a Senate hearing Tuesday, administration officials told Congress that combating terrorism has grown more difficult because of new technology and growing economic connections between nations.