HARRISBURG -- With little or no public scrutiny, emergency planners across Pennsylvania are spending tens of millions of dollars in federal counterterrorism money on a wide array of equipment, from such big-ticket items as RV-size command centers, SUVs and boats to smaller items such as protective gear, cell phones and biohazard detection devices.

Some of the aid is being spent on equipment much more likely to be used to meet run-of-the-mill public safety needs than to help fight terrorism; for example, the courthouse X-ray machine being purchased by Monroe County.

Yet as emergency wish lists are being checked off, the public is getting little information on how the money is being allocated, even as the pipeline of federal money flowing into Pennsylvania has grown to more than a quarter-billion dollars.

State and regional emergency management coordinators have decided, for the most part, that it is too dangerous to provide a detailed accounting of where the money is going, either for equipment purchases, training or administrative costs. They cite fears they could expose weaknesses to terrorists or others bent on causing trouble.

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, which must approve each expenditure, declined a request filed by The Associated Press under the state's Right-to-Know law to detail expenses since 2003, when the federal government began funding homeland security in earnest.

The agency cited "security reasons" in its denial.

And only one of the state's nine regional counterterrorism task forces, the northwest task force, would provide the AP with a fully itemized account of how it is using its share of the grant money.

"We don't want to broadcast our shortcomings or our vulnerabilities," said Ted Wise, the emergency management director in Cumberland County and chairman of the eight-county southcentral task force.

Accountability report slated
Advocates of greater public disclosure argue that such secrecy fosters waste.

"Secrecy typically hides inefficiency, mismanagement and sometimes corruption," said Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C., government watchdog group.

U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, both R-Pa., said through aides that they understood the general need to withhold information for security reasons, but would be monitoring the actions of PEMA.

Congressional investigators may shed light on how well some programs are being operated. In the coming weeks, the Government Accountability Office is scheduled to release a report on how the counterterrorism funds are being spent and what kind of planning is involved. It studied five states, including Pennsylvania.

The AP contacted all the state's regional counterterrorism task forces to see what kind of information they would make public.

Most of the task forces, which coordinate coverage by police and fire departments in their regions, were willing to discuss only some aspects of spending, with varying reasons for the secrecy.

The five-county northwest task force, based in Crawford County, provided the most information, producing a spreadsheet showing the equipment it proposed buying with its 2004 funds, dollar figures and who would get it.

Many task force officials said they were worried that if they gave out too much information, terrorists or other criminal elements would be able to coordinate attacks that could exploit weaknesses.

"We have to balance the need to know of the press and public with what we believe is actually in the best interest of public safety, which is not providing information to people who could conceivably do the commonwealth harm," said Adrian King, the state's emergency management director.

Many did not want to discuss where equipment was being housed or what kind of devices they had purchased to detect chemical, biological or radioactive agents. One did not want to get into specifics of security measures in a public building.

The Allegheny County-based southwest task force did not want to give dollar figures for fear, it said, of ruining the competitive pricing arrangements the state gets from equipment manufacturers.

And a northcentral task force official, Gary Hutchinson, said that if the state would not release the information, then he couldn't, either.

$280 million to Pa.
King said PEMA audited all the spending, with some federal oversight, and that all purchases and training must fix weaknesses identified in an assessment conducted in 2003.

Federal spending guidelines require that the money be used to improve capabilities to prevent and respond to terrorist acts, but bar spending on weapons, construction or the salaries and benefits of emergency responders.

"We have attempted to do this in an intelligent, deliberate fashion based on what we believe was an assessment that was done in a very expert manner," said King, who was a senior aide to Gov. Ed Rendell before taking the reins at PEMA last week.

Pennsylvania has received $280 million in counterterrorism money for federal fiscal years 2003 to 2005. The figure represents a huge ramping up of aid since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

At least 40 percent of the 2003 grant of $89 million has been spent. Because the process of purchasing and receiving equipment can take months or years, much of the 2004 appropriation remains unspent.

The 2005 dollars have not arrived.

More heavily populated areas get more money, as do areas with more sensitive infrastructure and facilities, such as government offices or nuclear power plants. More than half of the money is supposed to go toward equipment. PEMA and the regional task forces can spend the rest on planning, training and administrative costs, including the cost to respond to an elevated federal terror alert.

Overall, emergency management officials say they have used the money to greatly improve the state's ability to respond to an attack, but that billions more would be needed to fill every gap in coverage.

Perhaps the most expensive item being looked at is a proposed $7 million radio communication system in the Philadelphia region that would link, on the same frequency, emergency management officials and first responders in 10 New Jersey and Pennsylvania counties.

Other purchases and orders disclosed by emergency management officials include 10 bomb-handling robots for places from Allegheny County to Northampton County; five RV-sized mobile command vehicles; and a $1.8 million boat for the Philadelphia Fire Department to fight maritime fires and make river rescues.

The southwest task force is buying a system to wirelessly contact and communicate with first responders and has purchased six infrared spectrometers to help identify hazardous materials. The Warren County sheriff's office would like to buy a $75,000 patrol boat. And the Philadelphia Police Department wants to equip the video cameras on its two helicopters with infrared capability to improve night vision.

Each county in the northeast task force, based in Monroe County, purchased a machine that creates barcoded, photo ID tags for first responders as a way to track who responds to an emergency scene, but the counties also will be able to use the machines to issue IDs for county employees.

'Terrorism is war'
In addition, the task forces are buying pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles to pull trailers full of newly purchased decontamination, bomb-handling and search and rescue equipment. They also buy little things, too: Tyvek boot covers for 75 cents each and $20 rolls of tape emblazoned with a radiation symbol and the words, "Caution: radiation area."

Many items are being purchased with an eye toward using them for more routine emergency responses, from hazardous-waste spills and flooding to hostage situations.

"Do you buy all the tanks and the airplanes and keep them stored and then only bring them out of storage when you go to war?" said Randy Rockey, the Centre County emergency management director and chairman of the eight-county southcentral mountain task force. "Terrorism is war, and that's the way we're going to train."

Larry Frankel, the legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said the public had a right to monitor how all the money was being spent.

"I don't believe that we should have a 'just trust us' attitude that the money is being spent wisely and on the most serious security concerns," Frankel said. "Those should be matters for public discussion and debate. ... This is an area that the Legislature should be willing to take a look at, at this point. It's our money."

Audits and checks of records in other states have found questionable oversight of the spending.

Earlier this month, a Texas audit reported that overseers of the state's grant program had no way of knowing whether local governments were spending the counterterrorism money wisely. And The Washington Post reported that prosecutors in one Maryland county installed an office security system with counterterrorism money while the District of Columbia funded a jobs program.