Arizona anti-terrorism funds halved

Why is Omaha, Neb., a more attractive terrorist target than the Valley? Or Milwaukee? Or Louisville, Ky.? Or even Columbus, Ohio? That’s what those planning the defense of Arizona and the Valley against terrorist attacks are demanding to know as they scramble to cope with deep cuts in federal antiterrorism grants from the Department of Homeland Security.

So far they’ve received no answers.

All of those metropolitan areas will be getting more counterterrorism funds through the federal grants than the Valley. Yet federal Homeland Security officials refuse to explain how they weighed the risks as they determined how to dole out $1.7 billion meant to help state and local governments prepare for a terrorist attack.

Arizona’s overall allocation will be cut in half, to about $20 million this year. Money allocated to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks in the Valley is being sliced by more than 60 percent, from $10 million last year to $3.9 million.

State and local officials say they have received no explanation for why Arizona took such a big hit in the new allocations. And they hold out little hope they will be able to increase the amount of homeland security money they can expect.

“I don’t know what Washington is thinking or why they are cutting us,” said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a member of the regional planning council that divvies up the federal funds to emergency response agencies like police and fire departments throughout the Valley.

Arpaio rattled off some of the obvious terror risks in the Valley. It’s a large metropolitan area with an international airport. Phoenix is the nation’s largest city near the Mexican border. The Palo Verde nuclear plant west of Phoenix is the nation’s largest. The area is reliant on a series of major dams and in two years will be hosting the Super Bowl.

“These are terrorist targets and I don’t know why they are not considering that,” Arpaio said.

Some reductions in antiterror money were expected, said Julie Mason, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Homeland Security. Overall, the total allocation of federal homeland security grants nationwide was cut by about a third this year.

But what was not expected was the size of the reductions to Arizona, which has received about $178 million since the grants were created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Federal officials have ignored repeated demands to explain why cities like Omaha, Milwaukee, Louisville and Columbus are getting more money to prevent and respond to terror incidents than the Valley, she said.

The Valley ranks fourth from the bottom among metropolitan areas in the new round of grants, just ahead of Toledo, Ohio, which will receive $3.85 million. Louisville is in line to receive $8.5 million and Omaha has been allotted $8.3 million.

“Certainly we should get what Omaha gets,” said Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who also is a member of the regional council. “If you want to have homeland security, that means protecting cities as well as fighting overseas to get the bad guys. You’ve got bad guys here.”

Officials at the federal Department of Homeland Security did not respond to numerous requests from the Tribune for an explanation on how the grant money was allocated.

Arizona has long been a hotbed of terrorist activity, dating back to the 1980s when terrorist leaders were active in the Tucson area, according to numerous federal investigations following Sept. 11. Two of the terrorists involved in those attacks had lived in the Valley. The pilot of the jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, spent time in Arizona off and on since about 1990 and received extensive flight training at Valley aviation schools in the years before the attacks.

The grant money is to help state and local agencies, which will be the first to respond to the scene of a terrorist attack, better prepare. The money falls into two categories — overall state funding and special accounts for certain urban areas.

The risks in Arizona remain high, said John Lewis, special agent in charge of the Phoenix FBI office, who cited the same potential targets and vulnerabilities as Arpaio. Lewis said he is at a loss to explain why the homeland security grants to the state were cut so deeply.

The FBI had no role in determining how much money each state or urban area would receive.

Lewis said he is particularly concerned about Arizona’s proximity to the Mexican border. International terrorists are aware that their best chance of sneaking into the United States undetected is through Mexico, he said.

“Phoenix is a very large city, very attractive” to terrorists, Lewis said. “If you want a stage on which to create a well-known event seen all over the world, this is as good a place as any. If there is somebody bent on committing an act of terrorism in the United States, the size of this city, the notoriety of this city, is such that they can certainly achieve that sort of notable event, as opposed to some other small city that is just not on the scope.”

Since the new allotments were announced May 31, Arizona politicians have pressed for answers.

Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, both R-Ariz., have asked for Senate hearings on how the grant decisions were made. Under pressure from Kyl, federal officials will meet with Gordon on July 14.

The homeland security directors of the four states that border Mexico — Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas — protested the grant allocations and asked for an explanation in a letter to Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff.

They got no response.

Local homeland security planners say it is too early to know how the federal cuts will affect their plans to pay for the training and equipment they need to deal with terror threats.

Lt. Tony Lythgoe of the Mesa Police Department, the city’s homeland security representative, said applications for money are ranked by the state and regional councils. With less money available than expected, trying to figure out what city priorities will get funded would only be a guess, he said.

Last year, Mesa got $3 million from the federal grants. The plan this year was to use the money to buy additional equipment, pay for training and refine plans on how to respond to a catastrophic incident like a chemical or biological attack.

In past years, Mesa has used the federal grants to pay for a hazardous materials response truck for the fire department and additional training and equipment for the police department’s SWAT and explosives teams, Lythgoe said.