Michigan is getting its own terror squad.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced Thursday that Michigan will be one of five states awarded a Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team. Composed of 22 members, the team will be charged with assisting emergency personnel in responses to potential chemical, nuclear or biological attacks.
Currently, 27 states have civil support teams, but Alabama, Kansas, Tennessee and West Virginia - along with Michigan - were added to the list Thursday.
“The main mission for this team is to assist local emergency responders and determine what kind of bioterrorist agent might be in the area,” said Maj. Jim McCrone, a spokesman for the Michigan National Guard. “They can advise them on how to get more resources, and how to respond to the agent.”
Members of Michigan’s team will be made up of active members of the Michigan National Guard.
“They are more like technical experts on bioterrorism to help local emergency officials,” he said. “They’ll cover a broad range of specialties. The training they go through is tailored to their role in the civil support team.”
The team will include doctors, analysts and environmental specialists. The initial costs will be $5.13 million, and it will cost $2.6 million per year to maintain.
“This is something the governor has been working with the military affairs department for a number of years to get in Michigan,” said Matt Resch, a spokesman for Gov. John Engler. “Certainly with Michigan’s large population and our international borders with Canada, it is something that Michigan needs and we are glad we have it.”
Engler and several other members of Michigan’s delegation in Washington lobbied to gain a civil support team after the Sept. 11 attacks. State lawmakers said Michigan was at increased risk because of its borders.
“It is basically to be ready, to help protect our state by having in place a team prepared to meet any disaster that might come,” he said.
Michigan’s U.S. senators Carl Levin, D-Detroit, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, said they were pleased the Department of Defense will station a support team in Michigan.
“It is important that Michigan, with so many people and our numerous border crossings, do whatever we can to protect Michigan and its citizens,” said Dave Lemmon, a spokesman for Stabenow. “This is a big step in that direction.”
Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Michigan is a key target for would-be terrorists because of its bridges, tunnels and transit routes.
“The new civil support team in Michigan will assist the state’s law enforcement officials who have been overburdened in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in working to protect our neighborhoods and communities from the threat of future attacks,” Levin said in a statement.
