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by Jock Elliott
Many Americans, I suspect, felt sadness, frustration and rage as a result of the terrorist attack of September 11. I know I did.
But we needn’t feel helpless, not by a long shot. We can learn a lesson or two from history.
Radio is a weapon that can help win the war on terrorism, strike a blow for security on the Home Front and give people a positive means of contributing to everyone’s safety. Just as the British had their Royal Observer Corps during WWII and the Pacific Campaign had its Coast Watchers, I think it’s time for the creation of a Citizens Radio Corps to empower properly trained ordinary citizens to keep watch on potential targets of terrorism and provide early warning of possible terrorist activity.
During World War II, when the German Luftwaffe was trying to reduce Britain to rubble, tens of thousands of people participated in the Royal Observer Corps. They kept watch on the coasts, spotting incoming aircraft and reporting their position and heading so that fighters could be scrambled to fight back. It was an enormous success.
And in Pacific island chains, the Coast Watchers kept a careful eye on Japanese ships and troop movements, radioing their observations to those who could take action where it would do the most good.
In the same way, the purpose of the Citizen Radio Corps (CRC) would be to observe, detect, and notify authorities – what I call “watch, point and scream." There is plenty of reason to keep such a watch on the Home Front. There are literally millions of potential targets for terrorists in the United States: power stations, water supplies, natural gas pipelines, tunnels, bridges, hospitals and factories to name just a few. Civil authorities simply do not have the manpower to keep watch over all of these.
But you and I can. We can extend the eyes and ears of the authorities to the benefit of all. A widespread force of civilians keeping watch would greatly expand low-level intelligence gathering throughout the nation and provide early warning of suspicious activity.
It emphatically would not be the job of the CRC to respond to a potential threat, any more than it was the job of the Royal Observer Corps to shoot down German aircraft. Dealing with actual or potential terrorists is the duty of properly trained authorities.
A number of national experts have already observed that it is time that we start thinking the way terrorists do. I agree. Perhaps the CRC should maintain a low profile, operating with stealth and cunning . . . becoming, in effect, a guerrilla observer corps. As a result, potential terrorists could never be sure if someone is watching their activities or not. A friend says this notion is “positively Orwellian.” Maybe so, but as I recall, 225 years ago, some dissatisfied colonists defeated a world power by wearing buckskin and shooting from behind rocks and trees, while the enemy marched in straight lines wearing red coats. The Bad Guys are “thinking sneaky,” so should we.
The place to start building the CRC is with the existing base of amateur radio operators. Ham radio already has a considerable communications infrastructure in place that can provide both local and coast-to-coast communications. Many hams have emergency capabilities that would permit them to operate even when parts of the civil infrastructure – cell phone towers, phone lines, and the like – are down. Radio hams have been licensed by the federal government and have unique callsigns. That lowers the possibility of people hiding behind anonymity to make false or misleading reports.
In addition, many ham radio operators have computer and Internet capability. That makes it easier to coordinate across the country. So, for example, if someone in California detects a possible threat to dams, that information could be quickly spread to other locales where dams might be a target.
CRC observers would have to be trained and procedures put in place for coordination and reporting to proper authorities. A model for the CRC already exists. For the past five years, I have spent thousands of hours running a Ham Radio Commuter Assistance Network in the Albany area of New York State. The Network detects problems on the roadways and reports them to the authorities. More than 130 hams have reported thousands of incidents, ranging from disabled vehicles to life-threatening accidents, with me funneling them to the proper jurisdiction for action. This operation is unique in the country and has been very successful.
There still are problems to be solved in creating the CRC. Security, for example, is an issue. If CRC spotters are operating “in the clear” on readily intercepted frequencies, it would probably be better to say, “there’s activity in Sector 12,” rather than “there’s suspicious activity at the dam."
Here, though, is the bottom line: it isn’t just up to “the other guy” -- the police or the military -- to protect us. We are all in it together. The CRC is a way to rally our resources and help protect each other. I’ve sent a memo on this concept to the President and Secretary of Homeland Security, and I welcome your feedback by mail via Monitoring Times, or to Jock Elliott. [The CRC email address given in the printed article is not active due to server difficulties; please indicate CRC in the subject line of your email.]
(This proposal was sent to the President Sept 26, 2001.)