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"We
couldn't possibly have known this."
"We didn't know that airlines are subject to this kind of attack."
The CIA and
FBI were warned by at least eight secret services and had thirty to forty
indices about a possible attack with planes. The FAA had sent out five warnings
to the airports about possible hijacks or similar incidents.
On August 6,
2001 the CIA delivered a memo to George Bush about a terrorist attack. On August
23 the FBI released an "urgent cable".
But the most
damning evidence that something was known was the enactment of at least eight to
ten bio- or regular terrorist exercises during 2000 and 2001.
The last big
one took place in June 2001 and another CIA exercise was confirmed for the day
of September 11th!
"In
what the government describes as a bizarre coincidence, one U.S. intelligence
agency was planning an exercise last Sept. 11 in which an errant aircraft would
crash into one of its buildings." [1]
It was not
the only one of its kind. During 2000-2001 the US Government organised various
exercises regarding possible terrorist attacks.
1.
On Jan. 22, 2000 James Woolsey, ex-CIA director participated in a Council
on Foreign Relations (CFR) project run as a war-game simulation at its
Manhattan headquarters.
For the simulation, the CFR enlisted 75 people, including bankers, former
Treasury Secretaries, and former State Department officials.
Participants were divided into four teams, sent into four rooms, with the
ability to communicate with each other and with a command headquarters through
the computers.
2.
In May 2000 James Woolsey participated in a bioterrorism exercise
at Andrews Air Force Base.
The Johns Hopkins Center for
Civilian Biodefense Strategies, already in collaboration with the ANSER
Institute for Homeland Defense, the Center
for Strategic and International Studies, and the Oklahoma City National Memorial
Institute for the Study of Terrorism jointly organised this event.
Former Senator Sam Nunn played the President. David Gergen played the National
Security Advisor. Governor Frank Keating played himself, Frank Wisner was
Secretary of State, ex-CIA director James Woolsey (ironically) played CIA
Director, John White played Defense Secretary, and Dr. Margaret Hamburg was HHS
Secretary. The Attorney General was played by George Terwilliger, William
Sessions was FBI Director, and Jerome Hauer played FEMA Director.
"One
of the striking observations of this exercise was the unfamiliarity of these
distinguished and experienced professionals with the basic decisions and
trade-offs associated with managing the response to the epidemic." [2]
Observant was Tara
O'Toole, MD, MPH Senior Fellow, Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies and at
that time Deputy Director of Johns Hopkins Institute.
This started a series of different "war games." The May 2000 exercise
involved key emergency management personnel. The result was named "TOPOFF"
-- because of the engagement of top U.S. government officials.
The $3 million TOPOFF drill tested the preparedness of top government officials
in responding to three simulated terrorist attacks against the United States: a
chemical weapons assault in Portsmouth, NH, a nuclear terrorism event in the
greater Washington, D.C. area, and a bioweapons attack in Denver, CO. In the
fictional scenario, an aerosol of pneumonic plague has previously been released
at the Denver Performing Arts Center. The release has gone undetected, so the
exercise starts with a hypothetical, unconfirmed attack. [3]
3.
From July 12-13, 2000 Woolsey was part of yet another CFR
"conference" called "The Next Financial Crisis: Warning Signs,
Damage Control and Impact."
This was played out before a high-powered audience of 250 people, comprised
largely of bankers, investors, corporation officials, and policymakers, mostly
from the United States, but also from Europe, of the possibility that the U.S.
stock market, and potentially the world financial system would undergo a melt
down. [4]
4.
5.
In June and July 2000, Dr. Thomas Inglesby of Johns Hopkins Institute
organised other bioterrorism scenarios in Atlanta and St.Louis called
"Public Health Scenario of a Bioterrorism Incident." In three
storyboards by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDD), they
"confirmed" the bio agent Yersinia pestis (the black plague). [5]
6.
On Nov 3, 2000, Don Abbott (Command Emergency Response Training,
eFilms) organised a simulated crash on the Pentagon with miniature planes and a
model of the Pentagon.
"Washington,
D.C., Nov. 3, 2000 -- The fire and smoke from the downed passenger aircraft
billows from the Pentagon courtyard. Defense Protective Services Police seal the
crash sight. Army medics, nurses and doctors scramble to organize aid. An
Arlington Fire Department chief dispatches his equipment to the affected areas.
Don Abbott, of Command Emergency
Response Training, walks over to the Pentagon and extinguishes the flames. The
Pentagon was a model and the "plane crash" was a simulated one.... [6]
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7.
On November 28, 2000 Dr. Inglesby (Hopkins) participated at the Second
National Symposium on Bioterrorism. Other guests included Jerry Hauer, Tara
O'Toole, Margaret Hamburg, Michael Osterholm and Laurie Garrett. [7]
Inglesby's biggest project, however, was Dark Winter. He was the principal
designer, author and facilitator of the BioTerror Exercise of June 2001.
8.
On June 22-23, 2001, the US government organised their last big
scenario before September 11th: Dark Winter. Its focus was a possible smallpox
attack. Jerome Hauer (ex-OEM) participated, again playing the director of FEMA.
The entire list is still mirrored at:
·
Dark Winter -
A Bioterrorism Exercise
Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies, Johns Hopkins University
http://www.hopkins-biodefense.org/darkwinter.html
Summary and Participant List
http://www.hopkins-biodefense.org/participants.html
Dark Winter Exercise Script (PDF format)
http://www.hopkins-biodefense.org/DARK%20WINTER.pdf
Dark Winter Briefing / Slide Presentation
http://www.hopkins-biodefense.org/darkwinterslides/slide1.html
Shining Light on Dark Winter: Lessons Learned
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/journal/issues/v34n7/020165/020165.html
July 23, 2001 House hearing on Combating Terrorism:
Federal Response to a Biological Weapons Attack
http://www.house.gov/reform/ns/web_resources/briefing_memo_july_23.htm
Shining Light on "Dark Winter"
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/journal/issues/v34n7/020165/020165.html
·
MIPT -
Programs: Dark Winter
Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism
http://www.mipt.org/darkwinter06222001.html
·
ANSER
Institute For Homeland Security - dark winter
http://www.homelanddefense.org/darkwinter/index.cfm
Among the active participants were, once again, James Woolsey, ex-CIA director,
Hon. Sam Nunn, George Terwilliger, etc. Observing, among many others, was Thomas
Inglesby, at that time Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute. The
testimony on Dark Winter was held on July 23 2001 in the U.S. House of
Representatives. [8]
9.
From a DU (democraticunderground.com)
member, we recently learned about another terrorist exercise at the Tyndall Air
Force Base in Florida on June 1-4, 2001. Participants were "members of the
513th Air Control Group deployed to Florida for the Amalgam Virgo cruise missile
defense exercise. The multi-service exercise tested the defense and response
capabilities to a cruise missile attack on Tyndall Air Force Base." [9]
A 35-page PDF document details this event. The source is a June 2001 committee
powerpoint slide presentation from the National
Defense Industrial Association (NDIA)'s The
Strike, Land Attack and Air Defense Division (SLAAD). [10]
The presentation includes disturbing highlights about a possible "terrorist
attack" on the USA "based on perceived threats" [emphasis
in original], mentions Phoenix Air --
whose Flight School was
where the FBI monitored some of the alleged hijackers -- and includes a quote by
former DoD Secretary William Cohen:
Washington
Times, May 29, 2000
Cohen Says Terrorist Threat Is `Real'
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen yesterday warned the United States faces a
"quite real" threat of a terrorist nuclear, chemical or biological
weapon attack on national soil within 10 years.
Also on June 18, 2001 a Gulf of Mexico Exercise (GOMEX) terrorist
preparedness exercise occured to test "Force Protection Readiness:"
"Next
time, however, the attack could be for real. But with the training ships
participating in Gulf of Mexico Exercise (GOMEX) 01-2 are receiving for the
first time, they'll be better prepared to handle just such a scenario in the
future. . . .
"`I think it's important that we're finally realizing in the Navy that a
terrorist threat can happen anywhere and we need to be prepared for it. Force
protection is a key part of that,' explained Dallas-native, Lt. Chris Rawley,
Commanding Officer, Inshore Boat Unit 15. `An attack could happen anywhere. It
could be in Corpus Christi, Oklahoma City or in the Arabian Gulf. We have to be
ready anywhere, any time.'" [11]
How many more
secret terrorist preparation exercises do we have to find before the population
of the nation state called United States wakes up?
The
"Agency planned exercise on Sept. 11 built around a plane crashing into a
building" event [1]
cited at the beginning of this article was at least Number 10.
Until we are
able to establish verifiable answers to the preponderance of unanswered
questions surrounding what happened on September 11 2001, and the events
that led up to it, there is only one explanation for it: They let it happen on
purpose!
Ground Zero
www.lebensaspekte.de
Ground Zero Forum NYC
http://forums.delphiforums.com/ground_zero2001/
Footnotes
