Major Terrorism Readiness Exercise
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the United States and abroad are preparing to go on high alert as part of a massive terrorism prevention exercise. An exercise like this has never been attempted.
The 5 day scenario is that an attack occurs outside of the U.S., followed by the receipt of intelligence that a follow-up attack is planned inside the U.S., forcing agencies inside and out of the country to test their coordination, intelligence and terror prevention skills.
The National Level Exercise 2009 includes Britain, Mexico, Canada, and Australia and “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.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano gave some quotes on the event:
“Coordinating with our partners across the United States and around the world is critical to protecting the nation from terrorists attacks.”
“The National Level Exercise allows us to test our capabilities in real-time to refine and strengthen our strategies for preventing terrorist attacks.”
The exercise aims to test intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism investigation, border security, infrastructure protection, security alerts and international coordination, “lessons learned from the exercise will provide valuable insights to guide future planning for securing the nation against terrorist attacks, disasters, and other emergencies,” FEMA said.
