Beware the Ides of May

by Barbara Honegger
May 15, 2003

On Monday, May 12, the U.S. Government begins a week-long "first large-scale counterterrorism exercise since Sept. 11", in Seattle and Chicago. What it's not telling the public is that the last time it held a large-scale counterterrorism exercise was on Sept. 11, 2001 - when real hijackers somehow learned the secret 'wargame' plans for that morning and piggybacked the real thing on top of the 'exercise', turning it horribly real. That compromised Sept. 11 'exercise' involved the highest levels of the U.S. Government -- NORAD, the CIA, the military/Pentagon, and even the exact 'scenario' of what actually took place that morning, a plane-into-building 'exercise' at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in the Washington, D. C. area.

To not tell the citizens of Seattle and Chicago of this shocking but heavily-documented truth and not to warn them that it could happen again on May 12-16 -- indeed to 'warn' of the exact opposite with false certainty, that 'no actual agents' will be released during the week May 12-16 -- is an unconscionable dereliction of duty given the facts of what happened on 9-11. This dereliction of official duty is further compounded by the fact that there is no evidence that whoever betrayed the secret Sept. 11 'exercise' plan to the 9-11 hijackers and/or their controllers is not still 'on the inside' and capable of betraying the Seattle-Chicago TOPOFF2 'scenarios' to Al Qaeda again.

Is it a coincidence that the May 12-16 'TOPOFF 2' exercise is billed as 'testing the ability of authorities to respond to simultaneous Weapon of Mass Destruction attacks', and that Al Qaeda's spokesman just told a London-based magazine it is planning new mass attacks against the U.S. "on t he scale of 9-11 or greater"? (Associated Press, May 8). Is it just a coincidence that the Bush Administration has publicly warned that Al Qaeda has tried to obtain nuclear material for a radiological 'dirty' bomb, and chose that very 'scenario' for the Seattle WMD exercise? Is it just a coincidence that SARS actually struck one of the two co-'players' in the 'mock' bio-terrorism 'scenario' slated for Chicago and across the border to the north -- Canada? These may seem outlandish suggestions, until one reads page after page of documented proof by Eleanor Hill in the public report of the Joint House and Senate 9-11 Inquiry, that the President and his top advisors had multiple, even urgent warnings, of Al Qaeda's known plans, as well as past attempts, to use planes as weapons. In fact, that is why the Bush Administration 'wargamed' that very scenario on the morning of 9-11. The proof that the Administration knew about the plane-into-building 'possibility' is that very 9-11counterterrorism exercise, on precisely that scenario.

Given all of the above, and especially Al Qaeda's penchant for 'repeat' or 'twin' attacks, it would be unconscionable for the Government to proceed with the TOPOFF 2 counterterrorism exercise without first fully informing the American public -- and especially the citizens of Seattle and Chicago -- of the similar exercise that 'became real' on Sept. 11, and what, if anything, it has done to ensure that such a disastrous 'piggybacking' can never happen again.

If it does go forward with the exercise, however, it is absolutely essential - both to minimize potential loss of life and maximize the speed and success of response -- that specific 'fail safe' mechanisms be put into place, up front, to clearly separate the channels and personnel for reporting on and responding to real attacks from those dedicated to 'mere' fake attacks and 'game' reports; and to ensure that every possible mechanism is in place so that actual first responders, not 'game' responders, are called to respond to any actual attacks. On 9-11, it was confusion over whether actual hijacking reports were expected 'terrorism game' reports by responders that caused the critical delays that allowed the terrorists to succeed so horribly. As just one example, of many reported in the mainstream press and documented to the editor of this site, Major General Larry Arnold of NORAD, which was holding a major counterterrorism communications exercise that morning called "Vigilant Guardian", then at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, said that when he heard of the hijacking, "The first thing that went through my mind was, 'Is this part of the exercise? (or) Is this some kind of screw-up?'" (ABC News, 9/11/02).

We must not allow the Government's refusal to come clean with the American public about the 'wargame' they negligently allowed to become compromised and 'turn real' on 9-11, to interfere with possibly needed actual emergency responses on May 12-16 in Chicago and Seattle.

It is also interesting that the Government chose May to hold its massive TOPOFF 2 counter-terrorism exercise, for much of what it has chosen to cover up and lie about has happened in May. On May 8, 2001, President Bush created the new Office of National Preparedness and named Vice President Cheney to head its review of the consequences of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil (Time magazine). That same month, May 2001 - only four months before 9-11 - Dept. of Defense medical personnel from the tri-Service DiLorenzo Health Care Clinic and the Air Force Flight Medicine Clinic trained inside the Pentagon "to fine tune their emergency preparedness to a plane hitting the building." (U.S. Medicine magazine, October 2001). Indeed, on the morning of 9-11 itself, Pentagon medic Matt Rosenberg was reviewing a new medical emergency disaster plan "based on the scenario of an airplane crashing into the place." Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2001).

The proof that the President, Vice President, and their top advisors were completely and totally aware that a plane might be used as a weapon to strike buildings is that they had a long-planned 'emergency game' on exactly that scenario that very morning. In fact, 'the' piece of intelligence Vice President Cheney was most worried had leaked to the public -- because, his office said, of its precise wording - was the National Security Agency (NSA) intercept of 9-11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and lead hijacker Mohammed Atta on the day before the attacks, Sept. 10, saying "The Match is about to begin." Could it be the Vice President was worried that the public would realize that the unusual choice of word - "Match" - might refer to a game, or exercise, and that this intercept was proof that the hijackers and/or their controls had a high-level informant 'inside the U.S. military-intelligence counterterrorism system that he was supposed to control? And is it possible that the Vice President was particularly worried because the public might put two and two together and realize it was probably he who had been in charge of exactly the kind of 'emergency response' evaluation scheduled for the morning of 9-11, as head of the President's new Office of National Preparedness? Perhaps, even, Vice President Cheney has been fighting turning over the records of his Energy Task Force so hard because he doesn't want to set a precedent that would force him to also turn over records from the other group he headed - the Office of National Preparedness focused on responses to terror attacks on U.S. soil -- like 9-11.

If whoever tipped off Mohammed Atta and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed about the counterterrorism exercise on the morning of 9-11 is still 'on the inside', he almost certainly knows the details of the May 12-16 Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) 'exercises' -- and so does Al Qaeda. And, given Al Qaeda's penchant for 'repeat' performances - twice attacking the World Trade Center Twin Towers, and attacking two U.S. embassies in Africa almost simultaneously -- as well as 'piggybacking onto a secret U.S. Gov't counterterrorism exercise on 9-11, the 'first' time, now looking for a 'second', if I were on the real emergency response team in the twin 'exercise' cities of Chicago or Seattle, I'd be very worried.

If I were the President -- or the highest ranking official in the exercise, Secretary of State Colin Powell - I'd also call it off.


Supporting articles and cites:

Federal Agency to Simulate Plane Crash on September 11, 2001

Associated Press
Aug. 22, 2002
by John Lumpin
(202) 776-9859
2021 K St, N.W., Wash, D.C. 20006
(Text was also reprinted at:
http://www.airdisaster.com/news/0802/22/news.shtml)

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. But the cause wasn't terrorism - it was to be a simulated accident.

Officials at the Chantilly, Va. based National Reconnaissance Office had scheduled an exercise that morning in which a small corporate jet would crash into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building after experiencing a mechanical failure.

The agency is about four miles from the runways of Washington Dulles International Airport.

Agency chiefs came up with the scenario to test employees' ability to respond to a disaster, said spokesman Art Haubold. No actual plane was to be involved - to simulate the damage from the crash, some stairwells and exits were to be closed off, forcing employees to find other ways to evacuate the building.

"It was just an incredible coincidence that this happened to involve an aircraft crashing into our facility," Haubold said. "As soon as the real world events began, we canceled the exercise."

Terrorism was to play no role in the exercise, which had been planned for several months, he said.

Adding to the coincidence, American Airlines Flight 77 - the Boeing 767 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon - took off from Dulles at 8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 50 minutes before the exercise was to begin. It struck the Pentagon around 9:40 a.m., killing 64 aboard the plane and 125 on the ground.

The National Reconnaissance Office operates many of the nation's spy satellites. It draws its personnel from the military and the CIA. After the Sept. 11 attacks, most of the 3,000 people who work at agency headquarters were sent home, save for some essential personnel, Haubold said.

An announcement for an upcoming homeland security conference in Chicago first noted the exercise. In a promotion for speaker John Fulton, a CIA officer assigned as chief of NRO's strategic gaming division, the announcement says, "On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team ... were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come true in
a dramatic way that day."

The conference is being run by the National Law Enforcement and Security
Institute.


The below cites are from the "Day of 9-11" Sub-9-11-Timeline at 911pi.com, webmaster Paul Thompson:

September 8 through 11, 2001: NORAD is conducting a week-long semiannual exercise called 'Vigilant Guardian' [Newhouse News, 1/25/02; Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02]. Colonel Robert Marr, in charge of NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector, says "We had the fighters with a little more gas on board. A few more weapons on board" [ABC News, 9/11/02). The exercise poses "an imaginary crisis to North American Air Defense outposts nationwide." [Newhouse News, 1/25/02] Accounts by participants vary on if 9/11 was the second, third or fourth day of the exercise [Newhouse News, 1/25/02, Ottawa Citizen, 9/11/02, Code One Magazine, 1/02; Miami Herald, 9/14/01; Slate, 1/16/02).

Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Powell, a member of the Air National Guard at NEADS, the Northeast U.S. sector part of NORAD, takes the call from Boston Center [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02, Newhouse News, 1/25/02]. He gives the phone to Lt. Colonel Dawne Deskins, regional Mission Crew Chief for the Vigilant Guardian exercise: "I picked up the line and I identified myself to the Boston Center controller, and he said, we have a hijacked aircraft and I need to get you some sort of fighters out here to help us out." Deskins then tells Colonel Robert Marr, head of NEADS, "I have FAA on the phone, the shout line, Boston Center. They said they have a hijacked aircraft." Marr then calls Major General Larry Arnold at NORAD's command Center in Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, and says, "Boss, I need to scramble [fighters at] Otis [Air National Guard Base]." Arnold says, "I said go ahead and scramble them, and we'll get the authorities later" [ABC News, 9/11/02). Deskins later says that she and "everybody" else at NEADS thought the call was part of the Vigilant Guardian exercise. After the phone call she had to clarify to everyone that it was NOT a drill [Newhouse News, 1/25/02]. NORAD Commander Major General Larry Arnold at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, also says that when he hears of the hijacking at this time, "The first thing that went through my mind was, is this part of the exercise, (or) is this some kind of a screw-up?" [ABC News, 9/11/02]


Al-Qaida Reportedly Plans Big New Attack
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/may/08/050805585.html

May 8, 2003 -- 8:37:35 PDT
by SARAH EL DEEB
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - An Arabic weekly is reporting an interview with a purported new spokesman for al-Qaida who claims the terror network has completely reorganized. He says old operatives have been replaced by new ones who are planning an attack against the United States on the scale of Sept. 11.

The claims were based on e-mail interviews conducted this week by the London-based magazine Al Majalla with al-Qaida spokesman Thabet bin Qais, the magazine reports in an issue to appear Friday.

The magazine provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the story.

"The Americans only have predictions and old intelligence left," the magazine quoted bin Qais as saying. "It will take them a long time to understand the new form of al-Qaida."

The magazine quoted bin Qais as saying al-Qaida remains "way ahead of the Americans and its allies in the intelligence war, and American security agencies still are ignorant of the changes the leadership has made."

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were aware of the report and that bin Qais has been authorized in the past to communicate messages on behalf of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. The officials cautioned, however, that e-mail interviews can be difficult to authenticate.

Western officials remain convinced that al-Qaida poses a threat despite the arrests of key figures and the loss of its base in Afghanistan.

The FBI's counterterrorism chief, Pasquale D'Amuro, told a congressional committee in Washington on Tuesday that while al-Qaida may very well be in disarray, "it is a severe threat to this nation."

Top legal and security officials from the United States and seven other major nations, meeting this week in Paris, said al-Qaida has apparently moved its operational centers to new locations in central Asia.

Al Majalla correspondent Mahmoud Khalil, who conducted the interviews, told AP he received an e-mail two months ago from the man purporting to be bin Qais, saying he was the new spokesman and was using a list of contacts maintained by his predecessor, Abdel Rahman al-Rashed.

Khalil said he was suspicious until bin Qais reminded him of a private exchange between him and al-Rashed about an interview he was trying to arrange with an al-Qaida operative.

Khalil said bin Qais gave no information on his own background but claimed he took the job of media contact as part of al-Qaida's restructuring, which followed the international crackdown after the Sept. 11 attacks.

In a message received Tuesday, bin Qais warned of plots "the size of the Sept. 11 attacks" being devised against the United States. "A strike against America is definitely coming," he said.

Bin Qais said the arrests of key al-Qaida figures, including suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would have little effect on the organization because old timers had been replaced by newcomers "who have a very good security cover."


Arabic Weekly Says Al-Qaida Has Reorganized, Planning Attack on the Scale of Sept. 11
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAQTJAWGFD.html

by Sarah El Deeb
Associated Press Writer
Published: May 8, 2003

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - An Arabic weekly is reporting an interview with a purported new spokesman for al-Qaida who claims the terror network has completely reorganized. He says old operatives have been replaced by new ones who are planning an attack against the United States on the scale of Sept. 11.

The claims were based on e-mail interviews conducted this week by the London-based magazine Al Majalla with al-Qaida spokesman Thabet bin Qais, the magazine reports in an issue to appear Friday.

The magazine provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the story.

"The Americans only have predictions and old intelligence left," the magazine quoted bin Qais as saying. "It will take them a long time to understand the new form of al-Qaida."

The magazine quoted bin Qais as saying al-Qaida remains "way ahead of the Americans and its allies in the intelligence war, and American security agencies still are ignorant of the changes the leadership has made."

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were aware of the report and that bin Qais has been authorized in the past to communicate messages on behalf of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. The officials cautioned, however, that e-mail interviews can be difficult to authenticate.

Western officials remain convinced that al-Qaida poses a threat despite the arrests of key figures and the loss of its base in Afghanistan.

The FBI's counterterrorism chief, Pasquale D'Amuro, told a congressional committee in Washington on Tuesday that while al-Qaida may very well be in disarray, "it is a severe threat to this nation."

Top legal and security officials from the United States and seven other major nations, meeting this week in Paris, said al-Qaida has apparently moved its operational centers to new locations in central Asia.

Al Majalla correspondent Mahmoud Khalil, who conducted the interviews, told AP he received an e-mail two months ago from the man purporting to be bin Qais, saying he was the new spokesman and was using a list of contacts maintained by his predecessor, Abdel Rahman al-Rashed.

Khalil said he was suspicious until bin Qais reminded him of a private exchange between him and al-Rashed about an interview he was trying to arrange with an al-Qaida operative.

Khalil said bin Qais gave no information on his own background but claimed he took the job of media contact as part of al-Qaida's restructuring, which followed the international crackdown after the Sept. 11 attacks.

In a message received Tuesday, bin Qais warned of plots "the size of the Sept. 11 attacks" being devised against the United States. "A strike against America is definitely coming," he said.

Bin Qais said the arrests of key al-Qaida figures, including suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would have little effect on the organization because old timers had been replaced by newcomers "who have a very good security cover."

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