DHS Report: "How Terrorists Might Exploit a Hurricane"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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.  -rf


http://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 traditional
intelligence-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 How
Terrorists 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 "For
Official 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 summary
begins. 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 like
al-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 Hurricane
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/files/ 
HowTerroristsMightExploit
aHurricane15Sept2004.pdf




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