[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 2 (Thursday, January 24, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S93]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             PROJECT ALPHA

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, during consideration of the Defense 
appropriations bill on Friday, December 7, my distinguished colleagues, 
the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator 
Inouye, and Senator Harkin, a member of that subcommittee as well as 
the chairman of the Agriculture committee, engaged in a colloquy 
regarding the George Washington University's, proposed Project Alpha. I 
support this unique effort to deal with potential terrorist threats to 
the U.S. food supply. I have been working with GWU since May on this 
project. In July, Iowa State University joined the consortium at my 
request. I want to point out that support for this very worthwhile 
program and requests for its expeditious implementation come from both 
sides of the aisle. I am glad that Iowa State University can contribute 
its expertise in this area as a major partner in this effort and that 
the National Animal Disease Center will also be a key player.
  An important component of the Project Alpha formula is its ``National 
Decision Assessment Immersion Center,'' to be located in existing 
facilities at the Virginia Campus of the George Washington University 
and to serve as a model for replication by those wishing to pursue 
individual variations of this new approach to complexity management in 
national security.
  As was pointed out in the December 7 colloquy, Project Alpha is a 
proactive approach to terrorist threats to U.S. national security, a 
concept initiated and developed long before the tragic events of 9-11. 
It utilize advanced technology in complexity-analysis techniques 
designed to help us both predict and prevent or ameliorate critical 
situations before they can become real-world disasters. Project Alpha 
combines sophisticated information-gathering and data-mining 
methodologies with high-performance data analysis, professional-level 
subject and issue expertise, decision support systems of proven 
efficacy, and state-of-the-art technology for communication and 
information dissemination.
  Project Alpha offers the opportunity for exploration of the broadest 
range of threat possibilities, available options and their effects and 
ultimate consequences, especially those that would normally remain 
unforeseen and unpredicted. The program will allow rapid exploration of 
a massive range of relationships and interactions that are beyond the 
ability of our liner-reductions minds alone to follow or foresee. 
Project Alpha provides a mechanism for complexity consequence-
projection of far greater scope, magnitude and immediacy than has ever 
before been available. The crucial element that makes this possible is 
the rapidly expanding supercomputing technology that has not yet been 
harnessed for this purpose. Through its use, Project Alpha can 
facilitate direct encounters with the unexpected and the unintended in 
order that potential terrorist events may be anticipated and rendered 
preventable, manageable and unsurprising. The purpose of Project Alpha 
is to help use learn more what we don't know in ways that we might 
never imagine, so that real-life catastrophes can be avoided. 
Protecting the U.S. food supply is high on the list of national 
security priorities, and the application of Project Alpha to this 
critical need can be of significant public benefit in dealing with the 
threat of agroterrorism now and in the future.

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