Hermiston Herald
Jan. 24, 2003:

Army replaces key demilitarization personnel

By Frank Lockwood
Staff writer

In a national shakeup of chemical demilitarization, several top Army
officials, some of whom visited Hermiston last year, are being replaced, and
agencies are being combined.

Amidst the changes, anti-incineration groups, now disillusioned with last
year's leadership, have disclaimed Assistant Secretary of the Army Mario
Fiori, welcoming the Army's decision earlier this month to remove oversight
of chemical demilitarization from Fiori.

Resistance to a Umatilla-style CSEPP program was a factor: Intercepted
e-mail revealed that Fiori had planned to force such a program into effect
as part of the federal agenda for Alabama, but his plan backfired.

Only a year ago, oversight of chemical demilitarization was moved to the
Army's Environmental Office, which was under Fiori. Incineration opponents
had hoped at the time that they would make progress in their
anti-incineration agenda with Fiori in charge. The Army had charged Fiori
with the mission of building strong, collaborative partnerships with
appropriate Federal agencies, State and local regulatory agencies, and other
stakeholders.

"Our objective is to streamline management of the Chemical Demilitarization
Program by eliminating ... layers of oversight, clarifying responsibility,
and improving accountability," the 2001 orders read. And Chemical Weapons
Working Group welcomed Fiori in pubic announcements as he took over
programs. Now, however, unhappy over what they view as too-little public
input, too-secret information, the CWWG have changed their opinion.

"We thought putting de-mil in the Army Environmental Office made sense at
the time," said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working
Group, "but we didn't count on a management style based on covert operations
and the total exclusion of public participation."

Williams sided with Alabama officials after, in October, news came out of
the Army's plan to "challenge" Anniston, Alabama emergency planners to join
in a series of monthly, emergency training sessions. Via e-mail, Army
officials had discussed ways to implement a Umatilla-style CSEPP readiness
program.

Since then, a major leadership shakedown has occurred. On Jan. 15, the
secretary of the Army ordered the chemical weapons disposal program moved
out from under Fiori and the Army's Environmental Office, back under back
under Acquisitions, Logistics and Technology where it had been a year
earlier.

Representing another break from the past, the Office of Acquisitions,
Logistics and Technology will manage both storage and disposal. In the past
those were handled by separate entities. Both will soon be under Assistant
Secretary Claude Bolton, Jr., and Army Materiel Command Gen. Paul Kern, a
four-star general.

E-mail War Shakes up Program

In a much publicized E-mail War or, as a Birmingham News opinion called it,
the "perverse public relations war," e-mail messages revealed wide a
difference of opinions between federal emergency managers and elected
Alabama officials concerning how they should approach emergency training.

The rift widened as the e-mail became public, revealing what appeared to
many to be a plan to embarrass the Anniston, Ala., CSEPP community into
monthly emergency drills whether they wanted them or not.

The e-mail war, reported by newspapers including Birmingham News, Anniston
Star, and Tri-City Herald, was, ostensibly, an attempt to document the
Army's efforts to help the Anniston community prepare for an accident at the
incinerator. E-mail circulated by CWWG cited Lawrence Skelly, a special
assistant with the Pentagon, as having written, "This (CSEPP) model has
worked exceptionally well at the Umatilla site and we believe it will work
in Anniston too."

But critics described it instead as a plot to discredit recalcitrant local
officials, and Calhoun County officials objected to spending time and money
on the training exercises when they had not received necessary equipment
such as protective suits.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., wrote Army Secretary White calling the plan,
"a perverse and irresponsible attempt to deflect attention away from the
Army's failures." The Anniston Star called the federal move an "Army ambush"
and a "scheme" whereby the Army could "launch into a frontal public
relations assault."

Bolton in Charge of "One Roof"

In a Jan. 15 memorandum, Secretary of the Army Thomas White directed
Assistant Secretary Claude Bolton, Jr. to take over the Chemical
Demilitarization Program and, along with the Army Materiel Command's General
Kern, to establish an agency to "execute chemical demilitarization plant
construction, operation, and closure, as well as chemical weapons storage."

As Williams remarked, "This will put the stockpile storage and disposal
responsibilities under one roof." In the past, the Soldier and Biological
Chemical Command has been in charge of storage, with the Program Manager for
Chemical Demilitarization over the destruction of chemical weapons.
Personnel changes, both national and local, had been anticipated for some
time. Nationally, Jim Dires has replaced Lawrence Skelly, who was the target
of criticism over the E-mail War.

In the past, CSEPP Governing board members have expressed a concern that
future Army administrators might not remember promises and assurances made
by the old guard they replace. In May last year, Denzel Fisher, a high-up
from the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, and the one
who negotiated for Umatilla's original FEMA money in 1988, visited the
Oregon CSEPP Governing Board and told them, "The Army is responsible for
the demilitarization program and always will be." He said, "Emergency
preparedness will always have the Army's support, "regardless of who is
calling the shots."

UMCD officials do not expect the change at the top to bring about any major,
immediate changes in the day to day operations a UMCD, according to Mary
Binder, the UMCD public information person.

Locally, Lt. Col. Fred Pellisier will rotate out of the command in July, but
that is a routine command change, unrelated to larger events.