By Wilson Ring, The Associated Press
ESSEX, Vt. - Local, state and federal agents met Tuesday with their Canadian counterparts for one of the first cross-border terrorism drills between the two countries.
They were trying to work through the details of how they would respond if a weapon of mass destruction were to be used along the Vermont-Quebec border.
“We know how porous our border is,” said Vermont State Police Lt. Dan Begiebing, the commander of the St. Albans barracks, which covers the border with Quebec in Franklin County.
“It’s something we take very seriously. Is Vermont a target? I don’t think so. Could Vermont be a corridor (between Canada and the United States)? Absolutely,” Begiebing said.
More than 150 people from Vermont and Quebec participated in the daylong meeting called Operation Border Safe. They spent the day responding to a mock incident that was played out on screens with audiovisual equipment.
“If they have to make a very fast-moving decision on either side of the border, how would they do that?” Marcel Savard, the head of the counterterrorism branch of the Quebec Provincial Police, said before the exercise began.
Participants worked through the difficulties that would follow an attack along the border, such as whether local firefighters or police can cross the border to respond to an attack on the other side.
And it goes beyond just firefighters and police. Legal teams from the U.S. attorney’s office and the Vermont attorney general’s office were there to answer legal questions.
The Department of Homeland Security has authorized similar exercises for all 16 states along the U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican borders. The Vermont exercise was the first.
The scenario that was played out at the Inn at Essex was developed by police and other agencies who work along the border and are aware of the threats they could face. But officials would not describe the specifics of the mock attack out of security concerns.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Domestic Preparedness paid about $75,000 for the cost of the exercise. The Vermont State Police paid to rent the room where the exercise took place.
And as much as the mechanics of responding to an attack, the exercise gave officials on both sides of the border a chance to get to know each other.
Under existing law and practice, fire departments routinely cross between Vermont and Quebec to fight fires, but police and border agents from the United States cannot carry their weapons into Canada.
Savard said officials were considering a full-scale field exercise in the spring.
The tabletop drill involved 29 federal and state agencies from Vermont as well as 20 counterpart agencies from Quebec and the government of Canada. The agencies involved ranged from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Missisquoi Valley Rescue Squad to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Quebec Provincial Police and the Bedford, Quebec, ambulance service.
Swanton Volunteer Fire Chief Peter Prouty said his department has a mutual aid agreement to fight fires in Philipsburg, Quebec. But under existing rules he cannot take the state-provided hazardous materials response truck into Canada.