01/28/04

The four men arrived in Hermiston the morning of Jan. 7, immediately arousing suspicion.

They asked questions around town about security at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. They conspicuously took pictures of the depot. They called the airport and asked about controlled airspace over the 20,000-acre base where the U.S. Army has stored chemical agents for decades.

They did their job. They got people worried about a possible terrorist threat.

Local police and state troopers fanned out looking for the men based on descriptions of their car. They knew they were strangers in town, so they went looking where strangers might go.

"They drove from motel to motel looking for people matching the descriptions," said Oregon State Police Lt. Darin Helman. "It was a good piece of investigative work."

Within hours, troopers arrested two of them at a motel.

Only then did police learn that the men were with the Army's force protection antiterrorism unit, testing local law enforcement agencies' reactions to a terrorist threat.

The other team of two made it onto the depot before being nabbed by base security, said James Hackett, a spokesman at the base. "They were taken into custody before they got to any secure areas."

Civilian police had been warned that there would be security tests. But no one, not even the security teams at the base, knew the actual day -- nor did they know the exercises would be held in town for the first time.

Local police responded well, as did base security, Hackett said. The goal was to test "real-world responses to a possible terrorist threat." Hermiston police called the FBI and the depot security office when they got their first call about the men acting suspiciously.

Police Chief Daniel Coulombe said his department realized it was an exercise as they were interviewing their first witness about the men. Police got several calls from the community about suspicious behavior.

Although he said he has no problem with the federal government conducting training exercises, he thinks his department should know about such drills beforehand. The depot held a pretest briefing a month earlier, which Hermiston police and Oregon State Police didn't attend, but the date and nature of the test remained secret.

Coulombe said he has concerns about the safety of his officers and the people pretending to be the bad guys. "I don't mind being tested, but that's not the way to test the system."

Hackett said that the Army antiterrorism teams are trained to defuse potential problems with police officers and that they carry federal identification to clear up any misunderstandings.

Libby Bovent, who manages the Radio Shack store in Hermiston, called police to tell them about the pair of suspicious men asking questions about depot security -- after they tipped their hand.

One man bought a police scanner and asked about frequencies used by depot security forces.

"They walked out the door, and the one who bought the scanner came back in and handed me a note," said Bovent, 60.

"He said, 'Call this number and tell them there were a couple of suspicious guys in here asking about the depot.' Then I knew it was a test."

The test was a success because it showed that the community is willing to pass on information to authorities, Hackett said, and it exposed shortcomings that will improve security and communication between the base and civilian police.

Bovent thought the exercise was fun, once she realized it was not the real thing. "It was exciting when I realized that I got to call and get someone else shook up."

Mark Larabee: 503-294-7664; marklarabee@news.oregonian.com