QHSR Following Up Ideas 09-06-09

As a part of my promised effort to track chemical security related issues, I went back this morning to the QHSR Dialogue to see what had transpired overnight. No communications from readers yet, so I just went back and checked those ideas that I had previously commented upon (no replies to my comments) as well as the idea that I posted yesterday. Finally, I posted a new idea. Controlling Access When I went back this morning to the QHSR Dialogue and found a reply to my earlier idea. It was, as is typical for most of the comments on this site, interesting and intelligent and brought up some points that I glossed over in my earlier comment. Of course, I posted a reply (reader’s from this blog should not be surprised at that). If you want to see the discussion, go to the QHSR. Interdicting Threats I posted a new idea dealing with the interdiction of attacks at high-risk chemical facilities. Long-time readers of this blog will recognize the concepts outlined in this proposed idea. Stop by and add your insights. Reader’s Ideas Once again, I would like to challenge my readers to participate in the QHSR Dialogue. This is an historic opportunity to become personally involved in the development of public policy at one of the largest departments of the United States government. Don’t let it pass you by.

Chemical Security and QHSR

As I promised yesterday, I am working on identifying those portions of the QHSR Dialogue that might be of specific interest to the chemical facility security community. I am ready with my first pass on that identification. I have gone back and looked through each of the ‘ideas’ discussed under the Counterterrorism heading. I have broken them out into a couple of my own categories. The Current Ideas in Counterterrorism First there are the ‘ideas’ that reflect directly on issues of interest to the chemical facility security community. As of noon (EDT) today I found three. Two of these three issues I have contributed my own comments to the discussion, but I have rated all three. Those issues are “Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Use: CBRN or Non-CBRN” “Railroad Infrastructure” “Federalize Railroad Police” Next there were the ‘ideas’ that I thought were interesting enough in their own light that I wanted to participate in the discussion even though they did not reflect directly on chemical security issues. I certainly did not agree with all of the ideas, but find that their discussions were well thought out and reasonable. They certainly deserved my evaluation and comments. I found four such issues. They were: “Airport Security - General Aviation” “Prevention of EMP over CONUS “ “QHSR process is unwieldy” “Stopping the Spread of Violent Extremism Demands The Fortification of Our Anti-Torture Laws” Now this is only seven of the 43 ideas posted to the Counterterrorism section on noon today. There were some interesting ideas and opinions expressed. There were some that were not so interesting. And there were more than a few that seemed downright strange. I’ll not try to spoil that review and selection for you. Counterterrorism Goal #2 With Counterterrorism Goal #2 dealing with preventing terrorists from using chemical, biological and radiological weapons, I was more than a little surprised to see no one addressing this field. Obviously, with my background I could not let that stand, so I submitted a new idea; Controlling Access to Chemical Agents at Water Treatment Plants. Since this builds on something that I have been discussing here in the blog for a number of weeks now I guess this should be no surprise. The difference is that I am not analyzing a piece of legislation, here I making a personal recommendation for how I would like to see DHS and Congress proceed. I invite readers of this blog to join in the discussion of this issue. Disappointed in Readers With five full days of QHSR Dialogue #2 now behind us, I am disappointed not to have seen more contributions by readers of this blog. To date I have only been able to identify one reader’s contribution, and unfortunately that was not a chemical security related issue. If I have missed your participation, please let me know. I’ll be more than happy to provide links to the comments of any of my readers. I don’t care if your participation was in the formulation of a new ‘idea’ or to comment upon someone else’s idea. Point me at your post and I’ll provide a link so that other members of our community can add to the participation.