Emergency.Blog

Shopping Malls Another Vulnerable Target of Terrorism?

February 13, 2007, 21:07 PM EST

LEAD STORY

Malls Emerge as Another Front in Terror War

WASHINGTON, DC/SALT LAKE CITY, UT: The mall security guard scrutinizes the black backpack lying by the garbage bin. Should he open it? Ignore it? Call police?

In a world increasingly vulnerable to terrorism and random acts of violence like the rampage in a Salt Lake City mall Monday, security experts say that low-paid private security worker may be the front line of protection in one of the nation's most heavily trafficked places. And they question the adequacy of his training -- or of the malls' security measures -- to detect or deter an attack.

"For suburban America, the mall is the gathering place," said Mitchell Moss of New York University's Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response. "It's much more than just a place to shop. It's where huge numbers of people gather to go to the movies, eat and socialize -- therefore, making it a potential terror target."

Roosevelt Field, the state's largest mall, may draw as many as 100,000 people a day at holiday peak -- one reason Nassau police conducted a training exercise there a year after 9/11, based on the scenario of a plane crashing into the mall's food court.

The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly warned that malls are potentially attractive targets for terrorists, although officials say there is no credible intelligence of imminent plots.

It cites al-Qaida training manuals that identify "places of amusement" and "vital economic centers" as targets and a pattern of such attacks worldwide. A Rand Corp. survey documented over 60 attacks since 1998 on shopping centers in places as diverse as Russia, Turkey and Israel.

This country has seen only lone-wolf attacks -- one of the bloodiest Monday night when an 18-year-old Bosnian refugee opened fire on shoppers in a Salt Lake City mall, killing five and wounding four before being gunned down by an off-duty police officer. Police are still investigating his motive.

But such cases underscore how potentially vulnerable the nation's malls and shopping centers are to acts of violence, according to a recent Justice Department report, which found that while many malls have tightened security since September 2001, much more could be done. The report cited inadequate training for low-paid, high-turnover security workers, as well as insufficient drilling and coordination between mall security and first responders.

"Turnover in private security is huge," said author Robert Davis, citing rates as high as 100 percent in some places. "So even if you have a good program and people are trained in it, chances are that at any given moment, half your staff won't know what the plan is."

(Article continues: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usmall0214,0,6107775.story?track=rss ) -- Source: newsday.com, Carol Eisenberg, Feb.13, 2007, 9:07 PM EST

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U.S. Mall Security Assessment
By C. L. Staten, Sr. National Security Analyst

ERRI national security analysts have been warning of potential attacks on shopping malls for several (at least five) years, and have been concerned about the level of preparedness and training for private security personnel who patrol these heavily populated properties.

Terrorists, in recent years, have shown a propensity for trying to create "high body counts," and malls fit a profile that could satisfy the deadly objectives of the "bad guys." additionally, and with all due respect to many hard-working mall security personnel...most malls in America just aren't prepared for an assault like we saw in Salt Lake City...or worse, an attack by a team of trained terrorist operatives.

Finally, ERRI analysts said that repeated attacks on malls in multiple locations could have a very negative effect on retail sailes and accomplish another form of "economic warfare" as ascribed by Ayman Zawahiri and other Al-Qaeda proponents (including Abu Zubaydah -- please see reference below). We remain particularly concerned about this threat, particularly during the holiday season, when the malls are often full of shoppers.

ERRI Reference: "11:00CDT - 24 Apr 2002, Another Unconfirmed Zubaydah Statement Provokes Concerns At Shopping Malls," which can be found at: http://www.emergency.com/2001/ter-advsry-sum.htm

[Editor's note: ERRI counter-terrorism analysts prepared a briefing/instruction module to be presented to mall security personnel, in regard to this possible terror threat, shortly after the above April 24th advisory was issued. At that time, little interest was shown by corporate mall owners, as few seemed to believe that malls could emerge as targets of mass casualty incidents.]