Las Vegas Urges Officials To Cancel Mock Nuclear Blast

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is asking the Department of Homeland Security to cancel it’s plans for a simulated nuclear explosion scheduled to take place in Las Vegas next May.

In a letter Wednesday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Rossi Ralenkotter said the premise of an upcoming emergency preparedness drill “will generate undue anxiety about visiting or conducting business in Las Vegas.”

FEMA has been planning its 2010 “national level exercise” since last year. The simulation, which is designed to test the capabilities of first responders to catastrophic events, involves the response to a mock nuclear blast in Clark County.

Nearly 10,000 local, state, and federal agents are expected to participate in the exercise.

In the letter to FEMA’s regional office in Oakland, Calif., Ralenkotter asked FEMA to consider “a non-nuclear scenario” for the exercise. He also requested that the simulation not be associated with the resort corridor.

“Our destination already receives a disproportionate amount of attention when the Department of Homeland Security releases even the most routine bulletin,” Ralenkotter wrote. “This exercise has the potential to escalate that attention and potentially harm our economy.”

Ralenkotter also sent his letter to Nevada’s congressional delegation and other local politicians.

Sen. Harry Reid, in a letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano today, weighed in with objections to the exercise.

“I am deeply sympathetic to the need of our first responders to conduct preparedness training, and I look forward to revisiting this issue when Nevada’s economy has improved,” Reid wrote. “However, at this time, economic recovery efforts would be stymied, or reversed entirely, by artificially creating anxiety surrounding tourism and investment in Las Vegas.”

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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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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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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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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.

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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Turning Point 3 – Israel Terror Drill Not A Fictional Scenario

The upcoming home front drill, Turning Point 3, is based a scenario in which “a combined missile and rocket attack on Israel from all sides combined with terror attacks from within,” and is “not a fictional scenario,”, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilan’i told members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Matan Vilan’i describes upcoming home front drill simulating war on three fronts

Vilna’i briefed the committee on the state-wide drill, scheduled to begin on May 31. The threat of missiles hitting mainland Israel “is not unrealistic,” Vilna’i continued. “If a war breaks out, that is probably what would happen.”

According to Vilna’i, “In conducting this national home front drill we aren’t looking to scare anyone, but rather prepare ourselves for a threat which has its writing on the wall.”

The drill will include all emergency response teams, all government ministries as well as the entire civilian population. According to the military, people will be asked to choose secured rooms or bomb shelters, and ensure that they know what to do in the event of war.

During the exercise, 252 local councils and municipalities will open ‘crisis rooms’ and will respond to various simulated emergency scenarios.

via Vilna’i: Home front drill scenario not fictional | Israel | Jerusalem Post.