Panic Press


November 10, 2001


BOB GARFIELD: A recent article in U.S. News & World Report detailed the security vulnerabilities of the American trucking industry. It was chock full of detail on how terrorists could hijack dangerous chemicals, smuggle explosives over the border and so on.

A previous story in the magazine similarly exposed security soft spots in the chemical industry. Joining us now is David Whitman, the author of both articles. David, so I'm talking to my brother the other day, and he says to me, hey - why not tell your media pals that loose lips sink ships. He thinks that stories like yours are not only terrifying readers but giving lots of good ideas to lots of bad people.

DAVID WHITMAN: Well I think there are a lot of people who share your big brother's sentiments, including my father who raised questions about whether it was really useful to be writing these kind of stories. Jay Leno a, a couple of weeks ago quipped, only half in jest, that he was getting sick of these television networks where there was a reporter standing outside of a water treatment plant and the reporter's going, you know, and, and if they poured the poison here, it could wipe out thousands cause the guard's off duty from noon until one every day -- and Leno's response to the reporter was shut up.

BOB GARFIELD: Do you have that in mind when you're writing a story about for example the potential danger of the trucking system?

DAVID WHITMAN:Sure, and I believe that reporters should do what they can to avoid providing any terrorist targeting tips. I don't think we should be in the business of providing a kind of how-to manual for terrorists.

BOB GARFIELD:One of the answers that I've heard to these questions in the past is that oh, well all of this information is out there. All you have to do is go to the Internet and scour it and look for this site and that. Does a news weekly like U.S. News have a different responsibility for protecting the commonweal than some obscure Internet site?

DAVID WHITMAN: I think we do, and I think we lived up to it. I'll give you an example of when I worked on the chemical plant security story -- I came across one facility that handled extremely hazardous substances that had a memorandum from the Environmental Protection Agency still posted on its web site after September 11th that specifically addressed a part of the facility that was vulnerable to terrorist attack, and the EPA had been assured back in 1998 that this vulnerability would be addressed.

When I called the facility, they indicated that they had not yet addressed this vulnerability. Now I didn't put that in our story, but it's up there on the web.

In general I've found it rather horrifying what was up on the web. What was up there before September 11th -- some of the information has come down on - from the web since then but was up there before September 11th was a-- veritable home shopping network for terrorists.

BOB GARFIELD:Now let me ask you this -- to what degree does it do my brother or anyone else any good to kind of pretend that this stuff isn't there? Isn't calling the public's attention to potential threats ultimately for the purpose of protecting the society, not for giving bad guys good ideas?

DAVID WHITMAN: Well that's how I think of it. It doesn't really do any good to stick your head in the sand about these kind of vulnerabilities and that's pretty much what the public and, and, and journalists and industry and government have been doing for the last several years.

In the case of chemical plants, for example, intelligence and security experts have warned for the last 5 years that these plants are vulnerable to terrorist attacks -- the same kind of discussions and warnings have taken place about the trucking industry.

BOB GARFIELD: So then what's our final message to your father and to my big brother - is it just--shut up.

DAVID WHITMAN:No, I don't think so. I mean I, I think the, the final message should be we hear your concerns; at the same time it's important to write about some of these vulnerabilities and not pretend that they don't exist and not to pretend that there's not something that can be done about then.

BOB GARFIELD: Thank you very much!

DAVID WHITMAN: My pleasure.