Unprepared for the worst: feds lagging in most disaster scenarios, McHale says.

The federal government has identified 15 homeland disaster scenarios for which it must prepare. They include everything from major earthquakes to terrorists using weapons of mass destruction,

But making lists does not equate to preparedness, according to Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland security and America's security affairs.

The government must have plans at the ready so they can be executed effectively and rapidly in the event of an emergency, he said at a National Defense Industrial Association breakfast. Hurricane Katrina sparked detailed plans for the storm scenario, and the threat of a pandemic flu last year created a second, but so far, that is it.

"We have not planned in detail to the degree that we must for a response to the other 13 scenarios, most of which are ... WMD in character," McHale said.

Response plans for a hurricane on the scale of Katrina were not detailed until after it struck, he noted. And the storm, in his estimation, "was at the low end of catastrophic events."

McHale sees his office at the Defense Department as a primary mover in an effort to coordinate his and other departments and agencies to come up with unified plans.

To meet that end, the Defense Department is currently writing a "draft strategic guidance statement" on each of the scenarios.

One of the elements of that planning will be the need to prepare for "multiple, near simultaneous, geographically dispersed events." This would most likely be chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attacks, he said.

His office will "encourage and require all other [federal] departments to do the same," McHale said. The plans will ultimately be coordinated under the Department of Homeland Security.

McHale said the Defense Department and others must move away from the "home and away" mentality for protecting the United States. This was partly why authority over affairs in North and South America was migrated to his office Oct. 1.

"We need to internationalize homeland defense," he said. The key enabler will be coordination with allies who can provide "accurate, actionable intelligence on the approaching threat."

In terms of identifying weapons of mass destruction before they reach U.S. borders, "I don't think the primary solution will be technological in character," he said.

Computer assisted intelligence that can detect anomalies in shipping containers could play key roles. However, robust information sharing will be the most effective means to thwart an attack, McHale said.

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