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The Home Front
Security threats, personal protection and the full-time job of “playing terrorist” in Minnesota;
Kim Ketterhagen of Homeland Security speaks to SD 41
By John Swon IV
The question that was on the lips of the entire capacity crowd at Senate District 41’s January Full Committee dinner---including that of speaker Kim Ketterhagen---was whether or not terrorism could occur right here in Edina/West Bloomington. Ketterhagen, the Regional Program Coordinator for the Minnesota Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, provided the unfortunate but accurate answer of “yes.”
Ketterhagen’s program, “Terrorism Response: A Community Responsibility,” provided his audience a step-by-step PowerPoint presentation on the potential dangers of terrorism in Minnesota and how as citizens and community leaders, individuals could prepare, prevent and respond to a terrorist-related incident. Viewing his job as “playing terrorist” for Minnesota, Ketterhaugen described his daily task as determining terrorist targets and assessing their vulnerability. Or, simply put, asking, “How I can hurt Minnesota? Or Edina?”
Minnesota’s connection to international terrorism was brought into stark attention with the case of alleged “20th hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui who received his flight training in Eagan before his arrest. But other internationally related terrorism cases have a local connection according to Ketterhagen. Ilyus Alia, a local resident, is accused of a drugs-for-weapons plot. Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, arrested for allegedly directing a Detroit al-Qaeda cell had moved from Minneapolis.
Yet while the scourge of international terrorism remains a high-profile source of intelligence efforts, Minnesota is far more likely to suffer the effects of domestic terrorists. Violent, radical organizations like the white supremacists of the  National Alliance or the National Socialist White People’s Party (NSWP) have ties here in Minnesota and the NSWP even has its headquarters and “national commander” in the state. Other groups have made a successful cottage industry out of preaching ethnic and racial hatred here as well, including Panzerfaust Records, a music store which sold up to 15,000 white supremacist CDs and DVDs before being shut down. Still more violent organizations like Posse Comitatus or the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have roots within Minnesota.
Even with such violent and potentially violent groups around, the assumption of many is that terrorist attacks have yet to happen here. Ketterhagen quickly dispels that notion with a variety of otherwise low-profile cases that fall under the terrorism heading according to Homeland Security. Two incidents in 2002 saw terrorist activity: Firefighters ending a blaze at a University of Minnesota research facility in January of that year discovered a trip wire to a bomb meant for them, fortunately before it was detonated. And in December of ’02, police arrested a man in Todd County carrying 1.5 pounds of military grade explosive in a suitcase along with blasting caps. The suspect’s intentions are still not clear as police arrested the man purely by happenstance.
Nor are terrorist-related attacks new here. An Alexandria local, mad at the sheriff, attempted to brew a batch of the deadly toxin ricin in 1994. But the disgruntled resident was, in Ketterhagen’s description, “no chemist” and failed to deploy the ricin in a manner which could harm his intended victim or others and was arrested.
So how can Edina and West Bloomington residents prepare for a worse case scenario involving a terrorist act? Beyond consulting www.ready.gov for advice, Ketterhaugen told listeners to understand that their community expects them to take a certain amount of initiative in their own protection. Come up with a designated area for your family to meet if separate and unable to return home. Have a personal protection plan and kit accessible. “I’ve trained many of your police and firefighters here…and each of them expects you will do a lot to take care of yourself [in the event of a terrorist attack],” Ketterhagen said.
Does this mean Homeland Security isn’t prepared here in Minnesota? “We’re better then we’ve ever been,” Ketterhagen reassured but cautioned, “We have a long, long, long ways to go.”
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