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Delta's down with it

                BY RICK ANDERSON

                The Justice Department and the elite Delta Force pushed
for
                Seattle crackdown against WTO protesters. 

                It wasn't merely the Secret Service that wanted Seattle
secure before President Clinton arrived for his World Trade Organization
visit December 1 (see "Protesters riot, police riot," SW, 12/2). Two
separate sources now say the crackdown on demonstrators was pushed
hardest by the US Justice Department based on the concerns of undercover
units in the streets--among them, members of the secretive US Army Delta
Force seeking to prevent terrorist chemical attacks in Seattle. The
Delta contingent, known for its clandestine global assaults and rescue
operations, has quietly been assigned some domestic security roles--such
as its recently revealed involvement in the Branch Davidian standoff. 

"They thought the security preparations here were the worst they've ever
seen," says
a former Special Forces Ranger who met with the Delta contingent. 

Seattle Mayor Paul Schell has accepted the blame for the costly WTO
security breakdown after initially insisting the city was so prepared
for the marches and
demonstrations that Seattleites should come downtown and shop. Instead,
out-of-control rioting one day led to a violent show of force by local,
state, and federal officers the next. In the following days, 600
demonstrators were arrested and downtown was virtually deserted, with
businesses suffering an estimated $20 million in lost sales and property
damages (much of it covered by insurance). 

A Justice official asking anonymity confirms the elite Army special
force, operating
under its cover name of Combat Applications Group (CAG), was in Seattle
a week in
advance of the Clinton visit to scope out possible terrorist acts. Under
the control of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort
Bragg, North Carolina, the
contingent took up residence in a Regrade motel and fanned out downtown
dressed as demonstrators, some wearing their jungle greens. 

The potential terrorist chemical or bomb attacks never materialized in
Seattle as a
serious threat, says an official. But using high-tech equipment, the
force mapped out potential problem areas as well as identified possible
violent demonstrators. Some Deltas wore lapel cameras, continuously
transmitting pictures of rioters and other demonstrators to a master
video unit in the motel command center, which could be used by law
enforcement agencies to identify and track suspects. (Coincidentally,
apparently, the FBI last week was holding a terrorist suspect who
entered the US at
the Port Angeles crossing. Officials said he carried a bomb timing
mechanism and an
explosive liquid that might have been intended for a major Seattle
bombing--the Space Needle?--on New Year's Eve. The suspect, curiously,
had made a reservation and planned to stay, as the Deltas did, at a
Regrade motel.) 

Department of Defense undersecretary Walter Slocombe has acknowledged
that covert action teams such as Delta Force are deployed to combat
terrorism. 

"These guys are the Army hot shots, the cowboys," says the former Ranger
who
shared a few beers with the unit in Seattle. "They were wigged out about
security
here. They thought something drastic had to be done. I'd say they got
heard."