"Dirty Bomb Simulation" Operation Topoff4 has commenced

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

in Oregon, Guam, and Arizona.

Billed as a comprehensive drill, Topoff4 is a simulation of a dirty bomb attack. As many as 15,000 fed, state, and local authorities are role-playing along.

While it sounds like a good idea to keep our first responders in tune, this drill also involves dealing with the chaos after a calamitous event, including crowd control, emergency supply allocation, contagion containment, and implementation of martial law. The only private-sector role players specifically mentioned are members of the local media.

These drills promote anxiety, naturally. "Actual" attacks have taken place before, right in the middle of drills (9/11 immediately jumps to mind). The location of Portland, too, is troublesome; Bush Sr. once referred to Portland as "Little Beirut" after particularly vehement protests during his visit. BushCo. himself doesn't dare visit these parts, and Cheney only comes here without advance notice, kinda like the surprise Executive trips to Bagdad.

Here's the official government pap

[warren pease]

1. One interesting thing...

First, please note that I use the words "simulation," "drill" and "exercise" because I sincerely hope that's as far as this lunacy goes.

Now then... Prior to this week, there has been an open official acknowledgment of two drills that are supposed to run concurrently -- TOPOFF 4 and Vigilant Shield 08 -- happening simultaneously in Phoenix, Portland and on Guam, as well as in selected countries near you.

TOPOFF 4 is supposed to be a simulation involving detonation of a "dirty bomb" by the Steel Bridge and the measures first responders, transportation managers, hospital ERs and so forth have to deal with in the subsequent chaos -- injuries, deaths, radiation poisoning, evacuations and so on. Other locations for bomb blasts, such as Hwy. 26 and farther south toward Oregon City, have been mentioned on the web but not in any official materials.

Vigilant Shield 08, the fact sheet for which is still up on the NORAD website and downloadable as a pdf file here, is a crowd control drill scheduled to run after today's 9:00 AM detonation and ratchets all the way up to simulated imposition of martial law.

Now it gets a little odd... Yesterday, we picked up some DHS press kits at the airport Sheraton and, flipping through the materials several times, there are no references to Vigilant Shield at all. Nor was there any mention of it at the kick-off news conference, nor in a procedures manual for civilian participants that we happened to stumble across.

I can't help but think that the disappearance of Vigilant Shield 08 is weird, particularly since this is the part of the whole exercise that seemingly can't be faked.

Either you run a drill simulating imposition of martial law, which it seems must involve interaction with the local population, or you don't. I don't see a third option, except the one where they run it and, surprise!, it's not a drill at all. Further, it doesn't take upwards of 10,000 participants to set off a bomb at the race track and run around like first responders with their heads cut off.

Anyway, the complete absence of any reference to VS 08 makes me very curious indeed.

If we can get an opportunity to ask anything at today's news conferences, I'm hoping we can ask the FEMA official something like, "Could you describe the nature of Vigilant Shield 08, provide some specifics on how the exercise is going to be carried out and discuss what that exercise is designed to accomplish?"

If allowed to follow up, the second question is obviously dependent on the first answer, but one line of attack would be to ask why there's no mention of VS 08 in any of the press briefing materials. With luck, those questions would:

- inform a room full of mass media androids of the existence of VS 08.
- make them either confirm or deny, and if they deny then hold up the NORAD/USNORTHCOM fact sheet.
- possibly embarrass the hell out of them.

All in good fun, of course. After all, it's just a drill.

Further reports as warranted.


wp

[me b zola]

2. No sign of the insanity yet

I'm here in North Portland waiting to see what's going to happen.

[me b zola]

3. Did it just begin?

5:25pm power went off.

5:30 heard sirens

5:39 power back on.

I will go check the local news.