No-Frills Agency Accelerates Fielding of Anti-Terror Tools.

• Author: Stanton, John J.
• Position: Technical Support Working Group

In 1999, there were 169 terrorist attacks against U.S. interests abroad that resulted in 184 casualties, according to the U.S. State Department. Of those terrorist attacks, 111 involved the use of explosive devices.

The obvious conclusion is that explosive devices remain the preferred terrorist weapon, assert experts from the U.S. government's so-called Technical Support Working Group.

The TSWG is a unique federal interagency panel that works in relative anonymity to stimulate the research, development and deployment of novel antiterrorist technologies and techniques.

The TSWG--located in Arlington, Va.--is convinced that high-tech weapons are the least likely to be employed in a terrorist attack. "The biggest threat across the board is explosive devices, because it takes a lower level of resources to build one and transport it to the target," said one senior Defense Department official, who is a member of the TSWG.

The TSWG's $62 million budget for counter-terrorism programs is small by Pentagon standards. But the TSWG's unconventional approach to developing technology defies the accepted Beltway wisdom. Members of the TSWG from the Defense and State Departments told National Defense that they are not interested in increasing their budget by any significant amount and that gee-whiz gadgetry means very little unless it has practical use.

Indeed, a $62 million budget is just fine with them. One of the benefits, according to these officials, of having a small budget is that it keeps it somewhat transparent to other large and "predatory" federal agencies. "First, we can manage a lot better when we have what we believe is the right amount of money and no one wants to take us over. Secondly, a big pot of money usually means strings are attached. Finally, we don't have a large staff. Our staff comes from other agencies," said a TSWG State Department official.

The TSWG's funding and program direction is the responsibility of the State Department's office of the coordinator for counter-terrorism, the Pentagon's office of the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict.

The most substantive action takes place within the eight TSWG subgroups, which are responsible for determining what counter-terrorism technologies or methods are needed.

Those needs often are based on classified threat assessments from the TSWG's intelligence and law-enforcement member agencies, such as the CIA and FBI, along with other...