Sunday February 25 12:55 PM ET Nat'l Guard Teams Found Unprepared

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - After three years and $143 million, the Army National Guard has no anti-terrorism teams ready to respond to nuclear, chemical, or biological attacks because of defective safety equipment and poor training, an internal Pentagon (news - web sites) review found.

The Pentagon inspector general report said preparedness is so bad that Guard members at one point were given mobile labs with air filters installed backward and gas masks with incompatible parts.

``The (team) commanders and personnel lack confidence in the unknown, untested and unsubstantiated reliability of the equipment that they were issued,'' investigators said.

Pentagon officials are ``moving as fast as we can'' to fix the problems, said Charles L. Cragin, who oversees the National Guard.

``All I can say is, everyone is working with great perseverance to resolve all the issues that the inspector general has identified,'' said Cragin, the acting assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs.

Pentagon planners authorized 10 teams in 1998 with a goal that they be ready for duty in 2000. But the National Guard so badly bungled preparations that none met last year's deadline, the report said.

An additional 22 teams authorized by Congress in 1999 and 2000 are in various stages of formation.

After investigators presented their preliminary findings last fall, the Pentagon transferred management of the teams and launched an official review. Many of the problems arose because officials tried to get the teams ready very quickly, Cragin said.

The National Guard units, each with 22 full-time members, are supposed to help local authorities respond to a terrorist attack by identifying what nuclear, chemical or biological agents were used.

But Pentagon investigators concluded that defective safety equipment could put team members at risk of succumbing to the very weapons they were meant to identify.

Investigators found that air filters had been installed backward in the teams' mobile laboratories and team members were given gas masks with parts that were not designed to work together.

One team commander, referring to the gas masks, told investigators, ``It probably would work. I'm just not willing to bet my life on it.'' Cragin said that problem has been fixed.

Plans originally called for the teams to be stationed near Air National Guard bases so they could be flown to the site of a terrorist attack. A second draft of those plans, however, called for team members to drive their personal cars to attack scenes, which could be hundreds of miles away. The guidelines have not been completed.

Coinciding with the recent release of the Pentagon report, a congressional commission recommended focusing the National Guard on protecting U.S. territory from weapons of mass destruction.

President Bush (news - web sites) last week said he would like to see the Guard and Reserve ``more involved in homeland security.''

Frank Hoffman, a researcher for the U.S. Commission on National Security, said the problems with the National Guard response teams show the Pentagon is not paying enough attention to terrorist threats.

``Everyone knows we're not prepared,'' said Hoffman, an officer in the Marine Corps reserves.

Cragin said all safety problems identified by the inspector general will be fixed before he recommends that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld certify the teams ready for duty. Cragin said he did not know when he that would be.

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2001