Ever since 9/11, terrorism has been at the forefront of Americans' minds. People have become more vigilant, and with a program called Eagle Eyes, the U.S. Air Force is trying to educate citizens about how to spot terrorist activity.

Eagle Eyes is taught by members of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) in communities near Air Force installations, such as Lompoc and Santa Maria. It emphasizes what people should look for during the seven steps terrorists typically go through before an attack.

The program was started about a year after the 9/11 attacks. It can be taught within a few hours and OSI agents teaching it can come to whoever is interested in the program.

The OSI has not kept statistics on how many people in the area have gone through Eagle Eyes.

“We feel it's very effective here and it's stopped planning activities around the world,” said OSI Special Agent Mathew Ferguson from Vandenberg Air Force Base. “We brief it to the locals like it's a global Neighborhood Watch.”

Eagle Eyes incorporates lessons learned from 9/11 and from attacks on military installations overseas, and will incorporate anything law enforcement may learn in the future.

It has been taught in the area to police, hotel staffs, school staffs, and civic organizations.

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“I think overall it's a great program to make the public aware,” said Toby Simmons, general manager of the Embassy Suites in Lompoc. “That's the first line of defense, being aware and everyone being eyes and ears. They give some eye-opening information.”

Simmons said going through Eagle Eyes has made him more vigilant when he sees unusual travel patterns before launches at the base. Spotting such trends has led Simmons to call the base sometimes when things seem out of place.

Although terrorists are not lining up to come to the Central Coast, the area is not immune from such activity, Ferguson said.

He pointed to an incident a few years ago where one man being investigated by a terrorism task force in Denver was seen taking pictures of part of Vandenberg Air Force Base. Investigators were tipped off by someone who spotted the suspect driving by the area, Ferguson said.

The seven steps that Eagle Eyes teaches include surveillance with cameras or other means; elicitation, in which someone is gathering information about a base, military operations or people; testing security by measuring reactions to security breaches or getting response times to getting on a base without authorization, for example; acquiring supplies, whether it be explosives, passes, badges, ammunition or something else; and suspicious people who appear out of place.

The last two steps, the dry run and deploying assets, tend to be harder to spot. A dry run is when people are positioned to carry out an attack, routes are mapped out and the timing for a terrorist act is determined. Deploying assets involves final positioning to commit an attack.

“The dry run and deploying of assets, that's when it's really hard to detect,” Ferguson said. “That's why we brief these first five steps. That's where we want to get them (terrorists). It benefits the community as well as the base,” Ferguson said.

For more information about Eagle Eyes, call Ferguson at 606-1852.

Mark Abramson can be reached at 737-1057 or mabramson@

santamariatimes.com.

May 1, 2006