Global terrorism: it could happen here

By CATHERINE MASTERS, HELEN TUNNAH and ANGELA GREGORY

Take a look at a map of the world and watch the advance of terrorism.

Many people think that because New Zealand is so remote, we are safe. But Australia has issued a national warning, Indonesia is in turmoil and last week Fiji was subject to a scare.

Every time terrorism is mentioned here, people's thoughts turn to the Viaduct Harbour and the high-profile America's Cup.

While authorities say they have no intelligence to indicate that there is even a slight threat, as terrorism inches closer to New Zealand they are prepared - just in case.

Australia - reeling from the Bali bombings followed by an intelligence report that key targets may be hit within months - has placed armed guards at strategic locations such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

An Australian political analyst, Dr Michael McKinley, says New Zealand cannot rest on its laurels. Terrorists are not terribly well-informed about the world, and to a member of al Qaeda there is little difference between New Zealand and Australia - it's all the same part of the world to them.

If Australia was a target, he says, there would be virtually no discrimination between the two countries.

At the Viaduct, Inspector Mark Hall heads the police operation.

Yes, there is a risk, he says. No, it is not a high risk. But while any number of New Zealand locations, concerts and high-rise buildings could be potential targets, the America's Cup is dripping with wealth and Westerners, just what the terrorist despises.

Terrorists have already proved they are not discriminating in what they hit, he warns.

"A terrorist attack has been shown overseas as anything that will raise the profile of their cause, cause an outrage of some description and get media attention."

The America's Cup already has a high media presence - about 2000 members of the world media are accredited - ready to beam any outrage across the world as it happens.

On the other hand, New Zealand has a different population base from Australia. We are not such a multi-cultural melting pot and are not a "radicalised" country.

Down at the Viaduct you never know who you are sitting next to. You won't see police officers wandering around with dogs, but that does not mean the police are not there.

Hall says a number of plain-clothes officers can be there at any time, loitering around unnoticed.

"It's amazing what you see when you're not in uniform."

Out on the harbour is the Coastguard. They train with the police, fire and ambulance services, and although their task is to rescue people at sea, they are aware of the need to be vigilant during the cup.

If they see anything suspicious, they have communications equipment sophisticated enough to relay encrypted messages to the police.

There are plans to cope if a bomb does go off at the Viaduct Harbour, or multiple bombs, as was the case in Bali.

Within minutes of a blast, the surrounding area would become a cacophony of sirens as emergency services arrived from all directions.

Within three to four minutes fire engines would be there, coming from the Pitt St station in central Auckland and down the hills from Parnell and Ponsonby.

At any one time there are 31 to 33 paid crews on standby in Auckland and, depending on the scale of the attack, they would all head to the Viaduct.

Others would follow from all around Auckland and then farther afield - Hamilton and Tauranga - including volunteers. They would keep coming until there were enough, says Cliff Mears, assistant commander with the Auckland Fire Service.

Stagecoach and other bus companies would be alerted and would arrive to carry the "walking wounded" to hospital. Police would cordon areas off if possible to minimise casualties and neutralise the threat. The area would be evacuated as fast as possible.

But, says Mears, as in any disaster it would be chaos for the first hour.

Soon after the fire engines would come the ambulances. Triage teams of experienced emergency doctors, nurses and paramedics would assemble to make urgent -and difficult - choices, deciding which patients requiring huge amounts of medical resources should be left to die, so more of the injured with a better chance of survival could be treated.

That second tier of badly injured patients would be taken to hospital for resuscitation and other life saving treatment. They would quickly fill the intensive care department and operating theatres, and many would be transferred to the specialised burns service at Middlemore - which would be bursting at the seams.

The ambulance service would have set up large tents close to the disaster scene to treat patients with minor wounds and burns.

Others would be referred to community medical centres or private hospitals, and the rest treated on the spot and sent home.

If the badly injured numbered above the dozens, they would be flown to Whangarei, Waikato, farther afield in New Zealand or even Australia.

Burn patients would probably go to specialist units in Australia.

Civilians would start rushing in to donate blood.

If the attack was severe enough, Mayor John Banks could issue a civil defence declaration.

A new Civil Defence Act puts the onus on local bodies to make sure they have a co-ordinated response to anything from an earthquake to a volcanic eruption, and most already have plans in place.

When emergency services are overwhelmed, a Civil Defence controller is appointed, co-ordinating the response and making decisions about whether to bring in the Army or Navy, or whatever is needed.

The above scenario may not cover a chemical attack, but the likelihood of one is considered remote.

Chemicals are extremely difficult to use, and not something Mark Hall at the Viaduct Harbour is particularly worried about.

"Chemicals have not been used successfully anywhere overseas. I mean, apart from Saddam Hussein using mustard gas on the Kurds in the 80s and on the front with the Iran-Iraq war."

In the mid-1990s, there was the Sarin nerve gas attack on the densely packed Tokyo subway. Only a dozen people out of the tens of thousands of potential casualties died.

The October hostage drama in a Moscow theatre proved that chemicals can be lethal, and Hall concedes that an attack might be possible in New Zealand at a packed event.

But he says the difference was that the Russians had to introduce huge amounts of gas into the ventilation system.

"Literally there were truckloads of gas that was injected in, that's my understanding. And we're talking about terrorists. If they came along with truckloads of anything, I think we might notice."

The Fire Service believes it would be semi-prepared for a chemical attack. After all, firefighters regularly handle chemical spills.

Just last week there was a chlorine leak at the Waitakere swimming pool: "All those people got out and were treated and safely moved on," says Mears.

And while there has never been a big, devastating bomb in New Zealand, Auckland has had its share of small-time bombings.

Mears says that during the rugby tensions in the 1970s and 1980s, Rugby Union House in Albert St was bombed and someone blew the doors off the High Court.

Every year there is a large-scale exercise at Auckland International Airport, involving all the agencies. One last month included transporting injured to Middlemore Hospital.

"So you could uplift a lot of that pre-planning and take it downtown. I mean, a 747's got a lot of people on, as has the Viaduct Basin."

Mears said fire crews already went out with police during America's Cup racing and would be there if anything happened on the water.

"I'm not trying to play down terrorism because I think it's the concern of the next five years. Like other emergency services, the Fire Service is thinking about how we would react and respond to it."

But the main thrust of anti-terror planning remains prevention. Stopping terrorists entering the country, rather than cleaning up afterwards.

Intelligence is gathered inside and outside New Zealand.

The counter-terrorism squad identified protesters likely to use violence when security operations were planned for the cup.

Senior police officers are stationed in Washington and London for counter-terrorism work and intelligence gathering.

When Anzus was suspended, the United States made it clear it would not stop intelligence-sharing, and this is unlikely to change, especially now.

Dr Michael McKinley says the whole system is geared around joint collection and co-operation. Politically, America needs support and is unlikely to withhold anything.

"It would not just be New Zealand that got pissed off. If New Zealand was the victim of intelligence with-holding, a lot of other nations would be looking at their relationship with the US."

One of the biggest headaches is from the sea. New Zealand has 11,000km of coastline, which Customs considers "high-risk" as an entry point for potential terrorists.

In a recent speech, Customs controller Robin Dare said the service faced growing pressure at entry points, including ports with increasing visits by cruise ships.

Customs has recently formed a Risk Response Group which is staffed nationwide to be available at a moment's notice to check suspicious ships, aircraft or small vessels.

But even with an injection of $6.5 million over three years through the Government's counter-terrorism package, resources are stretched.

"For example, one x-ray machine for checking containers costs $5 million to $6 million."

Nearly half the $6.5 million is for intelligence, the rest for extra examination of goods and visitors.

It was precisely our isolated position and kilometres of beaches that made us vulnerable during the last and best-known attack on New Zealand soil - the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior.

As Prime Minister David Lange said at the time: "The fact is that international terrorism is portable. It is violent, it is unprincipled, it is sometimes desperate, and the best protection cannot render us all safe from it."

Herald feature: Defence