DOMESTIC PREPAREDNESS

Emergency Responders need to be aware of domestic preparedness issues, which includes biological, nuclear and chemical weapons preparedness for acts of terrorism.

Regarding biological weapons, the vast majority of diseases associated with bioterrorism are also diseases of animals. These animals get sick before the humans do when both are exposed at the same time. Using veterinarians to monitor sickening animals can help responders understand if there has been such a biological weapon used on the civilian population, and can provide extra time to respond before the full effects are observed in the human population.

For information and updates about Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical weapons, click on: www.nbc-med.org

For information about the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its efforts in protecting the United States from terrorist activities, try the FBI homepage at www.fbi.gov, or http://www.fbi.gov/programs/ansir/ansir.htm for the FBI's Awareness of National Security Issues and Response Program.

The Awareness of National Security Issues and Response (ANSIR) Program is the FBI's National Security Awareness Program. It is the "public voice" of the FBI for espionage, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, economic espionage, cyber and physical infrastructure protection and all national security issues. The program is designed to provide unclassified national security threat and warning information to U.S. corporate security directors and executives, law enforcement, and other government agencies. It also focuses on the "response" capability unique to the FBI's jurisdiction in both law enforcement and counterintelligence investigations.

The FBI is the lead agency for a variety of national security concerns. Critical infrastructure protection, both cyber and physical, is also a major focus of the FBI and the ANSIR program helps to identify these infrastructures and ensure that communication with the FBI is established.