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DHS Report: "How Terrorists Might Exploit a Hurricane"
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 08:49:34 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org> Date: September 22, 2005 8:30:27 AM EDT To: Infowarrior List <infowarrior () g2-forward org> Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: DHS Report: "How Terrorists Might Exploit a Hurricane" Arkin's blog is quite good and his statistics that appear later in this entry about FEMA/DHS priorities is sobering, if not unexpected. -rfhttp://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/09/ the_pressure_co.html
< snip >DHS likes to say that it is thinking out of the box in getting inside the minds of terrorists. Its main vehicle to do so is its so called "Red Cell,"
a group of consultants established "to complement traditionalintelligence-based threat projections by taking an 'out of the box' approach that is achieved by drawing on the talents of a broad range of individuals, such as best-selling authors, academics, the military, and pop musicians."
A year ago, the Red Cell published a "For Official Use Only" report HowTerrorists Might Exploit a Hurricane and published here for the first time, to respond to a DHS request "to speculate on possible terrorist exploitation
of a high category hurricane." The only reason I can imagine why the four page report is stamped "ForOfficial Use Only" and carries the warning that "any release, dissemination,
or sharing of this document, or any information contained herein, is not authorized" is to hide the fact of how inane the analysis is. "Terrorists are unlikely to exploit a hurricane," the report’s summarybegins. It took "experts" to conclude this? And why go on for four pages if
that’s what they came up with?I guess there are two reasons. First, I suppose that the 35 experts who took
the taxpayer's money, drank the taxpayer's coffee and ate the taxpayer's donuts as they toiled away in their Booz Allen Hamilton conference room, felt obligated to report back something. Second, I guess they felt they needed to warn federal and local law enforcement agencies. "It is conceivable that a terrorist group likeal-Qaida, if it had plans in place for an attack elsewhere in the region or country, might attempt to time such an attack to a hurricane," the Red Cell
concludes. < snip > How Terrorists Might Exploit a Hurricanehttp://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/files/ HowTerroristsMightExploit
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- DHS Report: "How Terrorists Might Exploit a Hurricane" David Farber (Sep 22)