OMAHA- As Ebola struck West Africa in 2014 and the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Wuhan, China last year, federal experts looked to the University of Nebraska. Now, if terrorists ever unleashed a virus as a biological weapon, Washington would yet again look to Nebraska. A top member of the Department of Homeland Security visited Omaha and Lincoln to learn about UNMC's biocontainment program. Now, a DHS exercise in February will test how well the center could handle a bioterrorism attack.
Last year, UNO won a 10-year, $36.5 million federal grant to serve as the nation's hub, making it the center for terrorism research in the country. The Trump Administration has been trying to raise the National Biosurveillance Integration Center's profile. This center is a key part of the biodefense strategy which has been previously criticized as ineffective. The center was created after the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax attacks against political and media figures shortly after.
The extremist groups responsible for the raid on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday are pleased with the results the exercise and are likely to plan similar activities in the future, says Gina Ligon, co-founder of UNO's National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center.
The center's research mostly revolves around monitoring online communications of both foreign and domestic terrorist groups. Ligon says the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were heavily involved in planning the raid. She also called it a "textbook" example of a protest turning violent and that many of the people involved did not participate thinking they would be breaking laws. It is believed that once at the Capitol, leaders of the group decided to invoke the crowd to participate in lawless action.
"The people that were on video breaking the windows, brandishing weapons — those are all terrorist acts," she said.