White House Rehearses for a Domestic Attack

[Jeanette in FL]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17302994/site/newsweek/

White House Rehearses for a Domestic Attack
Critics say the 'tabletop exercise,' aimed at testing responses to an IED assault, stokes a state of fear.

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
Updated: 5:24 p.m. ET Feb 23, 2007

Feb. 23, 2007 - The White House is staging a high-level exercise Saturday to test responses to the prospect of a massive domestic terrorist attack involving IEDs (improvised explosive devices)—the same deadly roadside bombs that have been used by insurgents against the U.S. military in Iraq.
White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend will preside over a group of senior officials—including Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence John (Mike) McConnell—as they attempt to deal with the latest nightmarish scenario cooked up by government counterterrorism planners.

As part of the exercise, the officials will be handed a thick binder which lays out a scenario involving simultaneous terror attacks by “sleeper cells” of 20 to 25 individuals each dispersed in five cities across the country: New York, Washington, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles. The officials will then be tested on how they direct their respective agencies to respond. “We’ve designed this to overtax the system, to push the system beyond the breaking point,” said one senior administration official familiar with planning for the event, who declined to be identified talking about it before it takes place.

While planning for domestic terror attacks is not new, the focus on IEDs in this weekend’s exercise seems at least tacit recognition that the wave of such attacks that have been killing soldiers and civilians in Iraq and to a lesser extent Afghanistan could spread to the United States.

More at link

Interesting, need to keep that fear up. Any mention of this on MSM?

[Esra Star]

1. I guess they'll have the kids in schools doing the old

"Duck & Cover" dance again soon.
That should be fun

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Last night John Stoessel did a program on the culture of fear in this country.

Unfounded and exaggerated fears of probabilities getting attacked by sharks, food poisoning from processed foods, being on a plane falling from the sky, etc.

He failed to mention the government yelling "Terra! Terra! Terra!" when unwarranted, both explicitly and surreptitiously. That should have been the bulk of the program.

[napi21]

3. This is just as crazy asit was back in the 50's!

There's a Commie under your bed!

I happen to think Osama, if he's still alive, is LHAO at how our gov't hs scared a lot of Americans into freely giving up so many of their rights that they claim to value so much! Nothing HEcould docould have accomplished as much aswe've done to ourselves!

[Hubert Flottz]

4. America living in constant fear...EMBOLDENS the terrorists.

Never let 'em see you sweat George!

[global1]

5. Some Exercise - No Element Of Surprise - Do You Think The Agencies......

will be prepared for this one?

"The officials will then be tested on how they direct their respective agencies to respond."

[windbreeze]

6. didn't 9/11 happen when they had "staged" exercises? n/t

[lonestarnot]

7. yes it did.

[tanyev]

8. Yep. Today sounds like a real good day to stay at home.

[Flubadubya]

9. Serves dual purpose...

A) Reinforces the atmosphere of fear of the bogey man in American citizens and...

B) Provides the Bushies an opportunity to hone up on their skills for combatting any future "domestic terrorist attacks", i.e. civil disobedience in the form of anti-administration/war protests.

:eyes::eyes::eyes::eyes::eyes: