America’s terrorism-defense system pulsed Thursday in response to the London attacks, from military headquarters in Colorado that fielded the first bulletins to prairie towns where newly trained police watched railways.
But officials said the system, honed after the 9/11 attacks, offers only limited protection.
“I believe that someday – in fact – we will be attacked,” Gov. Bill Owens said. “(But) I think we are far better prepared today to respond to that attack than we were on Sept. 11. We’re actually better prepared to try to prevent that attack than we were on Sept. 11.”
When government bulletins flashed before dawn at the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Homeland Security and other federal agencies in Washington were notified, said Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly, spokesman for the military headquarters that coordinates nationwide homeland defense.
That led to a Homeland Security “orange” alert advising heightened local vigilance around the transit systems that 30 million Americans take to work.
The military combat air patrols of national airspace, directed from Colorado Springs, continued as scheduled.
Intelligence analysts at computer screens in the FBI’s new field intelligence office in Denver labored at their task of connecting the dots from disparate bits of intelligence. And local security coordinators fell in line.
In Las Animas on the southeastern prairie, John Dombaugh of the Colorado Emergency Management Association sent out an e-mail urging police across six counties to watch for anything or anybody suspicious hanging around railways. That sort of communication is an example of how things have changed since 9/11, Dombaugh said.
But for the most part, officials said, their work Thursday after hearing about the attacks in London was pretty much the same as any day.
“Can you really step up vigilance?” said Kelly at Northern Command. “If you are really vigilant, can you be more vigilant? We are always working on these things.”
After 9/11, as federal officials in Washington hashed out new national security architecture, the first of some $2.5 billion in homeland-security grants began moving to states. Colorado has received $136 million – money distributed to local authorities based on proposals to the governor’s Department of Local Affairs.
That money has funded new equipment such as radios, respirators and night-vision goggles and multi-agency training drills that many security experts believe are most useful in developing sustainable public protection against terrorism.
Key federal players based in Denver at the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI’s regional headquarters began holding meetings with local authorities more frequently.
“We are a lot more snapped into local agencies,” said Monique Kelso, FBI spokeswoman.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch contributed to this report.
Staff writer Bruce Finley can be reached at 303-820-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com.
