WASHINGTON -- When he was asked for casualty estimates in the hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's reply -- "more than any of us can bear" -- went into the annals of crisis management.
When Homeland Security Secretary Thomas J. Ridge raised the national terror-alert level in February, a subordinate official's televised hint -- duct tape and plastic sheeting might shield rooms from biochemical attack -- spurred a run on hardware stores and went into the annals of late-night comics.
Now Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy seeks a new law to bridge the gap of what he calls the "psycho-social" aspect of the war against terrorism -- pushing the government closer to the Giuliani model of calm reassurance and preventing replays of the duct-tape panic.
Flanked by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, a leading mental health advocate, and quoting Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous admonition against "fear itself," Kennedy yesterday unveiled "The National Resilience Development Act of 2003." The bill would create a federal task force to study how to minimize panicky responses to terrorism, promote "mental health preparedness" and treat the psychological damage that terror can wreak.
Under the bill, which has no cosponsors yet, the Homeland Security Department would adopt the task force's recommendations and give the states cash grants to follow suit.
Kennedy said his idea might be considered a defensive version of "psy-ops" -- a counter to the psychological operations that are integral to terrorism, as well as to the U.S. military's offensive arsenal.
When asked to evaluate the Homeland Security Department's color code of terror alerts, Kennedy said, "We do not need a chaotic communications system, we need a cohesive and coherent communications system" to respond to terrorist threats.
Ridge's office did not respond to a request for comment on Kennedy's bill or his criticism of the department.
But several experts said Kennedy has touched on a key aspect of terrorism -- its use of fear to disrupt the public order -- although some questioned whether a congressionally mandated task force is the way to handle it.
"The problem is so central to the planning response" to terror that the newly formed Homeland Security and other agencies must work on it routinely, said Michael Greenberger, an official of the Clinton administration's Justice Department who now runs the University of Maryland's Center for Health and Homeland Security.
Greenberger said state and local governments and "corporate America" have long since recognized the importance of communications planning and interagency cooperation in dealing with the terror threat.
In fact, he said state and local officials have reported that their response to a recent spate of disastrous tornadoes was much improved over past storm seasons because of the rigorous rehearsals they have done over the past 18 months for terror attacks. That echoes the reports of Rhode Island officials who tracked the emergency response to February's deadly nightclub fire in West Warwick.
If federal officials are coming up short, Greenberger said, Congress should prod Ridge and his staff to better perform by the traditional means: critical hearings before the committees with jurisdiction over homeland security.
Indeed, Greenberger said, "a lot of lessons were learned" at the Homeland Security Department during the "poorly handled" duct-tape episode. He said, "Representative Kennedy is right" to suggest that the off-hand survival tip by Ridge's subordinate suggested a flawed system of putting out a clear terror alert and backing it up with useful, concrete suggestions for the public.
"Kennedy is onto something," said Dave McIntyre of the ANSER Homeland Security Institute, a Washington-area think tank, "but I'm not sure that a government task force is the answer."
He said Kennedy's approach might also encourage what McIntyre deemed a worrisome tendency of state and local officials to believe that "the cavalry is coming," meaning Washington will handle their antiterror responsibilities.
"Giuliani is a great example" of a productive official response to a terrorist attack, "but I'm not sure any federal program, any federal agency, any federal law can require the mayor of San Antonio to act like Rudy Giuliani," said McIntyre.
McIntyre said Americans have much to learn from Israel about the social element of terrorism. "They teach it in the public school curriculum," he said. But he said that in this country, from official antipanic planning to the treatment of terror-induced depression months after the fact, local and state institutions -- not the federal government -- bear the lion's share of the cost and responsibility for homeland security.
"I don't think we'll ever get a federal Grief Counseling Corps," he said.
Ridge's department should provide standards, education and some "seed money," but governors and mayors should not wait to make their own plans, he said.
Nevertheless, Kennedy did attract some blue-chip support for his bill, including the endorsement of former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, the Republican chairman of a federal commission studying the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In the war against terrorism, Kean said in a printed statement issued yesterday, "protection is security," including safer airports, top personnel and high-tech tools. "But it is also psychological hardiness and confidence that we are resilient," he said.
