Canada Prepares For Olympics With Mock Terror Drill

Authorities in Vancouver Canada staged a mock terror attack Tuesday in an effort to prepare for the real thing during the 2010 Olympic Games.

The make-believe was part of the final formal security drill “to confirm that federal, provincial, regional, and municipal organizations are prepared to respond in a coordinated manner to any emergency that may occur during the 2010 Winter Games,” said Public Safety Canada.

The week-long exercise in this western Canadian metropolis also includes flyovers by Canadian and American military jets and an incident Thursday at a railway station.

The mock attack involved as many as 2,000 police officers, firefighters, government specialists and military, said Jaimie Tomlinson of Public Safety Canada.

The exercise played out like live theatre in a school playing field in the suburb of Richmond.

Actors pretended to have been poisoned by deadly radioactive isotopes and were rescued by firefighters dressed in hazardous-materials suits who hosed them down in the chilly autumnal air, removed their contaminated outer clothes, and wrapped them in emergency blankets.

“What we have here is a fictional terrorist group planning to disrupt the games in order to draw attention to their cause,” said federal spokesman Ted Sykes.

The script concerned a girlfriend reporting her terrorist boyfriend to police, which set in motion an attack in which deadly radioactive isotopes were released in some 20 public places, including a shopping mall and in the school field, where a rally was being held for Canada’s hockey team.

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Terror Drill In New York Tests Against Seaborne Attack

Federal, state and municipal agencies staged an elaborate drill in the waters off New York City on Tuesday to prepare for the possibility of a nuclear or dirty-bomb attack from the water.

Agencies involved in Tuesday’s test emphasized they did not undertake it because of a specific threat against the city. However, Kelly said the city was taking no chances after a proclamation years ago by Osama bin Laden. “We do know that Osama bin Laden several years ago obtained a fatwah to use nuclear weapons, and our goal is to make certain that that fatwah does not come to fruition,” he said.

In addition to increasing various agencies’ preparedness for a seaborne radiological attack, Kelly said Tuesday’s well-publicized drill was meant to deter those who would perpetrate such an attack.

“It pays to advertise to a certain extent. We want anyone who would do us harm to know that we’re out there, that we have the capability to detect,” Kelly said.

Eight government agencies participated in the drill, ranging from the NYPD to the U.S. Coast Guard. The exercise took place at the entrance of New York Harbor, just south of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge linking Staten Island to Brooklyn.

via Terror drill off New York tests agencies against seaborne attack – CNN.com.

NYPD, FBI Complete Queens Terror Drill Exercise

The multi-agency—including the NYPD and FBI—terror drill that was conducted in Queens over the past few nights was deemed a success by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. He told the AP, “We plan for the worst with the best exercises possible. This one was realistic — at night, in the rain, with traffic. We put our personnel to the test and they performed well.” The exercise involved hundreds of police officers and federal agents, who were on the hunt for a radiological device.

As part of the drill, the NYPD set up a “radiological dragnet,” using various radiation detectors to find the materials before the device was to be detonated. The device was traveling in Queens, which meant the NYPD had to close lanes and inspect cars, ultimately finding a red SUV that had a mock device designed by the Department of Energy to emit safe levels of neutrons (there were technicians protecting it in the SUV, too).

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Obama Participates in Terror Preparedness Test

Health care reform was put aside for a time today as President Obama headed to the White House Situation Room to oversee federal efforts to prevent a terror attack on the United States.

It was part of an exercise for officials at the highest level of the U.S. government, including members of the National Security and Homeland Security Councils.

What made “National Level Exercise 2009″ different from previous training events, is that it focused “exclusively” on preventing a terror attack – as opposed to responding to and recovering from one.

A statement from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says today’s exercise, part of a week-long program, was mandated by Congress to give top officials realistic experience in handling the threat of a catastrophic crisis.

Today’s scenario according to FEMA, began with a terrorist event outside the U.S. It then became the responsibility of Mr. Obama and other top American officials to thwart efforts by the terrorists to enter the U.S. and carry out additional attacks.

Aside from federal departments and agencies, state and local authorities were taking part in the exercise in addition to officials from Australia, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

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Biohazard Drill At Postal Service Center A Success

An exercise to test the biohazard detection system at the U.S. Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center in Richland Township went off without a hitch late Tuesday afternoon.

Dozens of emergency responders with the Richland Township Fire Department and Cambria County’s hazardous-materials team joined local postal officials and postal inspectors from Pittsburgh in conducting the drill at the facility at 235 Jari Drive.

The drill began at 4:30 p.m. with a simulated alert of the system, which is installed on mail-processing equipment at the facility and samples the air, said J. Bruce Hammerle, postal inspector in charge of the drill.

“It seemed like everything went very well,” he said.

Hammerle said the Postal Service periodically conducts drills at all processing and distribution centers to protect its employees and give them the experience of working with the emergency responders.

The mail is extremely safe, Hammerle said, adding that there have not been any anthrax incidents since 2001 and there have been extremely few real hazardous materials incidents at any postal site in the U.S.

Johnstown Postmaster Mike Hudak said there has never been a hazardous materials incident in Johnstown.

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Operation Cassandra – South Florida Terror Drill

The city of Miami Beach police and fire departments will conduct large scale anti-terror drills on Wednesday, according to the city.

The Miami Beach exercise will happen along Pine Tree Drive and 24 Street. It is scenario-based and will feature a mock terrorist attack, simulated shots fired, simulated victim triage, ambulance transports, along with SWAT and hostage negotiators.

The city wants to make sure its residents know about these drills in advance so they are not alarmed.

The drills are part of a larger anti-terror effort effort called “Operation Cassandra.”

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NLE – National Level Exercise Terror Drill Begins Today

US law enforcement agencies led by the Department of Homeland Security has started a process for a major anti-terrorism exercise to test its capabilities to combat attacks on the country.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will launch the Congressionally mandated five-day National Level Exercise 2009 (NLE 09) on Monday that will be directed by the White House and coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

It aims to promote intelligence and information sharing between and among federal, state and international participants — Australia, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the Navajo Nation — in the wake of a fictional terrorist attack somewhere outside the United States.

It will be the “first major exercise conducted by the United States government that will focus exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection, as opposed to incident response and recovery,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in a statement.

NLE – National Level Exercise Terror Drill Begins Today

Tabletop Terror Response Exercise July 24th

TSSI (Total Security Services International Inc.) is hosting a FREE multi-modal, tabletop terror response exercise. The tabletop exercise which takes roughly 3 hours to complete plays upon three possible terrorist attack scenarios in a large  metropolitan area.

The scenarios include: a passenger ferry attack, a large vehicle bomb and a weaponized hazmat incident.

These scenarios involve multiple domains and are appropriate for anyone involved in crisis management or civic leadership in trucking, emerging threats, mass transit, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, ports, HAZMAT, and cargo security.

Update: We’re sorry but registration has reached it’s limit.

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China and Russia In Joint Anti-terrorism Exercise

China and Russia were holding a joint military exercise on Wednesday, with the drill seen as a chance to beef up anti-terrorism cooperation after the recent flare-up of violence in China’s Xinjiang region.

The “Peace Mission 2009″ five-day exercise in northeast China comes weeks after China’s worst ethnic unrest in decades between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in the far-western region of Xinjiang that killed at least 197 people.

“To some extent, the July 5 Xinjiang riot pushed forward anti-terrorism cooperation between China and Russia,” the China Daily newspaper quoted Major Wang Haiyun, a former Chinese military attache to Russia, as saying.

Russia itself has been grappling with rising violence in the North Caucasus regions of Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya. Russia and China are also wary of a rising tide of instability in post-Soviet Central Asia that has spilt over from Afghanistan.

“The situation in Central Asia itself, including Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan is not so good, so that’s the most likely area of practical cooperation. And in fact they’re learning new ways to fight against Islamic insurgents and Uighurs,” said Vassily Kashin, a Chinese military expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Moscow.

via China and Russia in joint anti-terrorism exercise | World | Reuters.

National Level Exercise 2009 – NLE 09 Terror Exercise

National Level Exercise 2009 (NLE 09) is scheduled for July 27 through July 31, 2009. NLE 09 will be the first major exercise conducted by the United States government that will focus exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection, as opposed to incident response and recovery.

NLE 09 is designated as a Tier I National Level Exercise. Tier I exercises (formerly known as the Top Officials exercise series or TOPOFF) are conducted annually in accordance with the National Exercise Program (NEP), which serves as the nation’s overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises. The NEP was established to provide the U.S. government, at all levels, exercise opportunities to prepare for catastrophic crises ranging from terrorism to natural disasters.

NLE 09 is a White House directed, Congressionally- mandated exercise that includes the participation of all appropriate federal department and agency senior officials, their deputies, staff and key operational elements. In addition, broad regional participation of state, tribal, local, and private sector is anticipated. This year the United States welcomes the participation of Australia, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom in NLE 09.

EXERCISE FOCUS

NLE 09 will focus on intelligence and information sharing among intelligence and law enforcement communities, and between international, federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector participants.

The NLE 09 scenario will begin in the aftermath of a notional terrorist event outside of the United States, and exercise play will center on preventing subsequent efforts by the terrorists to enter the United States and carry out additional attacks. This scenario enables participating senior officials to focus on issues related to preventing terrorist events domestically and protecting U.S. critical infrastructure.

NLE 09 will allow terrorism prevention efforts to proceed to a logical end (successful or not), with no requirement for response or recovery activities.

NLE 09 will be an operations-based exercise to include: activities taking place at command posts, emergency operation centers, intelligence centers and potential field locations to include federal headquarters facilities in the Washington D.C. area, and in federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector facilities in FEMA Region VI, which includes the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

EXERCISE OBJECTIVES

Through a comprehensive evaluation process, the exercise will assess prevention and protection capabilities both nationally and regionally. Although NLE 09 is still in the planning stages, the exercise is currently designed to validate the following capabilities:

• Intelligence/Information Sharing and Dissemination
• Counter-Terrorism Investigation and Law Enforcement
• Air, Border and Maritime Security
• Critical Infrastructure Protection
• Public and Private Sector Alert/Notification and Security Advisories
• International Coordination

VALIDATING THE HOMELAND SECURITY SYSTEM

Exercises such as NLE 09 are an important component of national preparedness, helping to build an integrated federal, state, tribal, local and private sector capability to prevent terrorist attacks, and rapidly and effectively respond to, and recover from, any terrorist attack or major disaster that occurs.

The full-scale exercise offers agencies and jurisdictions a way to test their plans and skills in a real-time, realistic environment and to gain the in-depth knowledge that only experience can provide. Participants will exercise prevention and information sharing functions that are critical to preventing terrorist attacks. Lessons learned from the exercise will provide valuable insights to guide future planning for securing the nation against terrorist attacks, disasters, and other emergencies.

For more information about NLE 09, contact the FEMA News Desk: 202-646-4600.

FEMA leads and supports the nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation, to reduce the loss of life and property and protect the nation from all hazards including natural disasters, acts of terrorism and other man-made disasters.

Terror Drill Planned For New York Harbor

New York City police (NYPD) and the U.S. Coast Guard plan a terrorism drill near Ellis and Liberty Islands in New York Harbor next week.

The NYPD Special Operations Division has scheduled the terror drill between noon and 1 p.m. on Thursday.

The terrorism exercise will simulate a report of shots fired on a New York Waterways vessel, followed by lost contact with the crew. Plans also call for the  use of a NYPD helicopter.

Warren Air Force Base Conducts National-level Terror Exercise

A simulated terrorist attack on a 90th Missile Wing ICBM launch facility provided the exercise scenario for Nuclear Weapon Accident/Incident Exercise 2009.

This national-level exercise involving 11 federal agencies and 1,300 personnel was the largest and most complex exercise ever conducted at a missile base.

Accident response and associated consequent management procedures are routinely practiced by local responders and the 90th Missile Wing; however, this exercise was made far more complex by the criminal aspect associated with terrorist activities.

Close and careful coordination with a number of federal agencies, particularly the FBI, was essential to gather information swiftly to identify and capture the terrorists responsible for the attack.

The exercise challenged responders in several ways. Balancing the need for personnel safety in a potentially hazardous situation while allowing law enforcement officials to gather time critical evidence for criminal response, required a clear understanding of the risks involved.

Minutes counted in determining which terrorist group was responsible and developing courses of action to track and capture them.

As response elements arrived from across the nation, the wing’s initial response force transitioned to a response task force with a formal transfer of incident command between the wing commander Col. Mike Morgan, 90th MW commander, and the

Twentieth Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Roger W. Burg.

General Burg then led the federal agency response for consequence management along with supporting the FBI in their counter-terrorism mission.

In addition to the FBI, major exercise players included the Department of Energy providing weapon system technical expertise, Homeland Security and FEMA for consequence management, US Northern Command for operational command of the IRF/RTF, the State of Wyoming and the Wyoming Guard for initial response and logistical support, and Air Force Space Command for filling key RTF leadership positions.

“This is the first time the country has brought together military operators with a very robust interagency package,” said Exercise Director and Director of Nuclear Support at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency U. S. Army Brig. Gen. Ernie Audino “This is a complex exercise with many moving parts.” “It is critical to make the U.S. military the best in the world,” he continued. “And it’s not just the extensive training we go through, but it’s how we capture the lessons learned from that training. It is an endless, necessary cycle.”

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NYC Tests Ability To Detect Dirty Bomb

A New York City test of its response to a so-called dirty bomb involved 700 FBI agents and city police officers and a radiation device created for the drill.

The radiation device, while safe, had the same radioactive signature as a dirty bomb, WPIX-TV reported. Dirty bombs add nuclear material to explosives to spread radiation over a wide area.

The drill tested the ability to detect a radioactive device concealed in a vehicle on the Clearview Expressway in Queens. Other drivers participated in the test without knowing it.

But communities in the area were notified a drill would be conducted between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 2 a.m. Wednesday so they would not be caught off-guard. A recent low-altitude flight by a presidential jet over lower Manhattan sparked panic, including hundreds of phone calls to 911 from witnesses who thought they were seeing another attack like the one on Sept. 11, 2001.

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Empire 09 – Capital Region Practices For Dirty Bomb Scenario

Imagine a “dirty bomb” exploding in downtown Albany.

Now envision two going off only blocks apart.

That very possibility was simulated Tuesday as hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement officials manned would-be command posts on Albany-Shaker Road to prepare for the potentially catastrophic event.

The mock reaction, part of a three-day exercise called “Empire 09,” was staged around a hockey facility near Albany International Airport. It featured radiation screenings, officials in white “space suit”-type outfits and aircraft to surveil contaminated areas from the sky.

The exercise, hosted by the New York State Disaster Preparedness Commission, was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. It comes only weeks after the FBI arrested four alleged conspirators in a plot to blow up two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at Stewart Airforce Base in Newburgh.

“Our enemies are patient and they are ruthless,” said Mary Kavaney, assistant secretary for public safety in Gov. David Paterson. “We can’t let our guard down and this exercise shows we will not let our guard down.”

The “attack” showed the aftermath of two radiactive dirty bombs going off during the workday – one at Eagle and State streets, the other at Eagle and Madison Avenue. Projected maps show evacuations, from mandatory to voluntary, would stretch from a wide range of downtown Albany across the Hudson River to the city of Rensselaer.

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