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CHAIR
Date:
1H. Haniltoii
VICE CHAIR
7
bard Ben- Veniste
TO: TEAM
cdeland (s> - h.-T
IF. Fielding
FROM: Dianna Campagna (_/
ie S. Gorelick
For example, the Energy Department representative in such a group would have known
that nuclear power stations are specifically designed to withstand the impact of an
aircraft flying, into a reactor; intentionally or otherwise. It would only have been a short
step from that well-recognized risk to conceive of aircraft being deliberately used by
terrorists against reactors and other strategic targets, -provided that terrorism risks had
been put before a brainstorming group.
What concerns me is that use of the brainstorming technique may still not be a practice of
the government with respect not only to terrorism but other critical risks to the country.
Don't you think that in these dangerous times such an approach should be a standing
practice of the government? Should there not be a small but senior interdepartmental
group, with ever changing representation depending on the issue, to study and report
from time to time on critical issues directly to the President and his cabinet, rather than
leaving critical issues closeted within single departments with necessarily limited points
of view ?
Such a group^ for example, starting from the inference that railroads must be a prime
target for terrorists these days might readily imagine that trains could also be used a
weapons^iust like airliners. What's to keep terrorists from ramming a train at full speed
into the Washington DC station, or Grand Central, or some critical industrial facility,
perhaps with explosives added to attain maximum effect ?
I hope some member of the Commission will ask questions to ascertain whether some
such guided imagination facility now exists.
Respectfully yours,
1. ^