EvanL
11-15-2003, 02:23 PM
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=1f3ba7b4-f3bf-4d39-aabc-bba04c33156e
Sheldon Alberts
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, November 15, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Canadian and American commanders are quietly preparing plans for a joint military response to future terror attacks on the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy, including possible assaults on Parliament Hill and Capitol Hill in Washington.
Members of the recently formed Binational Planning Group are also drafting proposals that could see the creation of a Canada-U.S. maritime command to protect against coastal terror attacks, an organization modelled after the joint aerospace defence command at Norad.
"If Canada and the United States can deal with these scenarios, we pretty well have all the possibilities of how to deal with a terrorist, a weapon of mass destruction or a natural disaster," Col. David Fraser, the Canadian co-director of the planning group, said yesterday.
The 50-member group, divided equally between Canadian and U.S. personnel, expects to report to the Pentagon and the Department of National Defence by next September on how best to increase co-operation between each nation's militaries in the event of another major threat to the continent.
Col. Fraser acknowledged that one of the options is for a new treaty to establish an integrated command structure for maritime forces, a move that would be the biggest expansion of the Canada-U.S. military relationship in 50 years.
"That is a viable option," said Col. Fraser, whose group is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, also the home of Norad.
Opponents of increased military co-operation were furious last year when the Department of National Defence said the Binational Planning Group would look at disaster scenarios in which U.S. troops would be deployed onto Canadian soil.
Critics charged that Canadian sovereignty would be diminished if U.S. forces crossed the border.
Col. Fraser and his colleagues have mapped out a set of eight potential disaster scenarios that might require a joint Canada-U.S. military response.
They include "direct attacks on U.S. Congress and (the) Canadian Parliament," the detonation of a dirty bomb at the Windsor/Detroit border crossing and a major earthquake in the Vancouver/Seattle corridor.
The Canadian and U.S. militaries are also trying to develop plans to co-operate in the event of:
- A biological or chemical attack from offshore trawlers.
- The detonation of a nuclear device on a container ship docked at a major port.
- The infection of homeless people in major cities with smallpox.
- Terrorism on Canadian and U.S. bridges, locks and tunnels.
- Attacks on shared power grids and pipelines.
Sheldon Alberts
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, November 15, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Canadian and American commanders are quietly preparing plans for a joint military response to future terror attacks on the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy, including possible assaults on Parliament Hill and Capitol Hill in Washington.
Members of the recently formed Binational Planning Group are also drafting proposals that could see the creation of a Canada-U.S. maritime command to protect against coastal terror attacks, an organization modelled after the joint aerospace defence command at Norad.
"If Canada and the United States can deal with these scenarios, we pretty well have all the possibilities of how to deal with a terrorist, a weapon of mass destruction or a natural disaster," Col. David Fraser, the Canadian co-director of the planning group, said yesterday.
The 50-member group, divided equally between Canadian and U.S. personnel, expects to report to the Pentagon and the Department of National Defence by next September on how best to increase co-operation between each nation's militaries in the event of another major threat to the continent.
Col. Fraser acknowledged that one of the options is for a new treaty to establish an integrated command structure for maritime forces, a move that would be the biggest expansion of the Canada-U.S. military relationship in 50 years.
"That is a viable option," said Col. Fraser, whose group is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, also the home of Norad.
Opponents of increased military co-operation were furious last year when the Department of National Defence said the Binational Planning Group would look at disaster scenarios in which U.S. troops would be deployed onto Canadian soil.
Critics charged that Canadian sovereignty would be diminished if U.S. forces crossed the border.
Col. Fraser and his colleagues have mapped out a set of eight potential disaster scenarios that might require a joint Canada-U.S. military response.
They include "direct attacks on U.S. Congress and (the) Canadian Parliament," the detonation of a dirty bomb at the Windsor/Detroit border crossing and a major earthquake in the Vancouver/Seattle corridor.
The Canadian and U.S. militaries are also trying to develop plans to co-operate in the event of:
- A biological or chemical attack from offshore trawlers.
- The detonation of a nuclear device on a container ship docked at a major port.
- The infection of homeless people in major cities with smallpox.
- Terrorism on Canadian and U.S. bridges, locks and tunnels.
- Attacks on shared power grids and pipelines.