GEN. FRIEL: Many of the cities I've gone to, for example, I've found that, that, that we begin, for example, about six months out with a city visit in which we discuss the program and the fact that we're going to come to train. And we arrange, as I said earlier, training of the city officials with what we call a senior officials workshop all the way to the end. After we complete the training we conduct what we call a tabletop exercise and, where we bring all the, the state, the regional, and the city emergency response planners to the table, along with senior members of the federal response community, and we actually work a scenario through the city.

I've found that the cities are extremely well prepared when we arrive to begin that discussion. They've thought through their vulnerabilities, they've done an analysis of, of where terrorists could potentially use those agents, and what it would do to their city.

And so, as I said earlier, it's the best of all worlds and the worst of all worlds. We've raised the expectations of America's cities, and simultaneously the leadership in DOD and the rest of the federal government is now well-attuned to the potential threat that, that, or the potential asymmetrical threat that, that this country now faces and what it could do to our, both our political will and our, and our military capability to play our forces in the interest of the United States.

And, and so, having said all that, it's raised both the, the awareness of the threat throughout DOD and all of its forces, at the senior levels all the way to the, to the operating level, and a, and a thirst and a demand for education among our DOD components, additional support for our, our developmental programs that will bring special equipment to DOD forces, and both DOD and Congressional support for funding to do that. So the result of the DP program is that, is that we're not only doing more R&D, more research, we're also better equipping, I think, our forces as a result of it. So it's, it's having a synergistic effect on DOD, as well as, I think, the rest of the country.

So I see it, I see it as a, as not a drain. It's, in fact I think it's a, it's having a, an important impact on the, on the specialized DOD community that's responsible for CB(?) defense, both by organization as well as the medical community that's responsible for, for those aspects of, of treating casualties and assisting the communities.

INTERVIEWER: ... national domestic preparedness, where do you see room for improvements?

GEN. FRIEL: I, I think the, the, the current program is, it is focused properly on the, on the 120 cities but I believe that, that we can improve the domestic preparedness program by, by making sure that we, that we coordinate and bring the synergy from the other federal agencies, as I mentioned earlier, that, that bring a special capability to, to assist the states, cities, and the federal government in a, into our emergency response capability.

The, the focus on the 120 cities is only the beginning process. There are, I think, two major components to ensure that we sustain and maintain what we have begun as time goes by. As, as many may not be aware but once the 120 cities are, are, are trained, then DOD's lead role and responsibility for training those cities basically goes away, and we're not planning to continue beyond that. What we will do is plan to assist the other federal agencies that are responsible for emergency response--FEMA, the Department of Energy, the Public Health Service, and others--in their role and responsibility for institutionalizing the program.

I think what we need to do is, is, is revert from what I call the push method which is curr--we're now pushing this training to the cities, although it's, they're not resisting it. In fact, they're welcoming it. But, but we need to get to the, to these, to the state in which the institutions of America who are responsible for training emergency responses across our country have basically imbedded it in their current program. So that when a doctor graduates from a university, a medical school, and receives his, his degree, he's been trained in the fundamentals of chemical and biological defense; and that if he becomes a emergency room physician, part of his accreditation and certification process will require that he have this training. And it will be provided in the institutions that normally do that.

So that a firefighter who goes through the, a state or a national institute to receive special firefighting training, when he gets his certificate to become a senior firefighter or a, a trainer, he also has received the same chemical and biological defense emergency response training. Law enforcement officials will do it, as well. And our medical institutions across America will begin training those who operate emergency rooms. And, and, and support EMTs and fire rescue teams will have that imbedded in their training.

So we need to institutionalize so that it, it, rather than us pushing it to the cities, it will be pulled because they will desire it. In order to be certified in three or four years from now I would hope that individuals would have, would have been required to take this training to be, to receive the certification. That's the first piece.

The second thing, and I think it needs to, to occur to sustain the training, is a, is a national system to maintain the awareness and provide the training outside the 120 cities, to sustain it beyond the 120 cities. And we're beginning to do that now by inviting the states and other emergency responsible officials--public health officials at the state level, emergency response agencies, and the regional agencies, federal and state--to also attend our training programs, to begin to learn how we're managing the training within the cities today. So that the states can now take over the training, using national guard resources, their fire and emergency rescue training academies, their police academies. Also use the training, use these resources to continue to train the cities and small towns that, that are not currently on the, on the list of 120.

And so that three to five years from now we have also provided, not only to the institutions responsible for certifying emergency responders but also the agencies responsible for managing it, the wherewithal and the capability to, to do it for their own, their, their own states and the, and the other cities.

And finally, that a national training of the federal response capability needs to continue and in something that will, that will maintain the validity of the training program, which is a series of exercise programs, I think, are needed, both at federal, state, and local level, that would continue beyond our, our, our training and, in the, of the 120 cities that will ensure that we continue to hone, improve the research and development into, into new techniques, procedures, and, and better equipment for our cities, and, and also give the states something that they can use to measure how well they're being trained.