Washblog

* And why isn't the media reporting the story? *

United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
May 3, 2008

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7411/

TACOMA, Washington -- Although spectacular terrorist attacks on Seattle are the kick-off for a large-scale terrorism-preparedness drill now underway in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have reported nothing about the "national level exercise," which will continue next week.

On Saturday, the News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) published a front-page article (http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/351006.html) on what it called a "six-day national emergency management exercise now underway at Camp Murray, Fort Lewis, and other Northwest sites," supposedly to "help prepare the Northwest for the 2010 Winter Olympics in British Columbia."[1]  

News Tribune reporter Mike Gilbert didn't name the exercise (National Level Exercise 2-08, or NLE 2-08) or very many of the "local, state, and federal agencies -- particularly the state and federal military" involved.  He didn't say how many persons are being mobilized.  And he didn't explain what is "national" about it, either.  

CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS TRAINING

In particular, the News Tribune reporter didn't mention that part of the scenario for the disaster-preparedness exercise involved "a Category 4 hurricane [that] slams into the East Coast," as Air Force Times reported (http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/04/airforce_norad_northcom_042908w/) Thursday.[2]  

This part of the scenario means that also in play are top-secret Continuity of Operations (COOP) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_of_operations) activities -- government plans for maintaining a functioning federal government that were first devised in planning for a nuclear attack during the Cold War.  (In a recent book, author James Mann has described how in Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney have acted as team leaders in a secret "extralegal and extraconstitutional" COOP program to set up three teams able to "proclaim a new American 'president'" and assume command of U.S. in the event of nuclear attack [Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet (Viking, 2004), pp. 138-45].)

For more on this dimension of the NLE 2-08 exercise, which includes a "COOP Hot wash" (a review of COOP plan operations) and a "Credible Threat Against NCR" (NCR = National Capital Region"), and which involves a considerable portion of the national security apparatus, including Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in Tampa, Florida, see here. (http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7394/)  

Further to the south, the Olympian (Olympia, WA) (http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/437754.html) was a little more informative, naming the exercise and giving a fuller description of the disaster scenario in a short article.  But like Mike Gilbert, reporter Christopher Hill omitted any mention of the East Coast hurricane and continuity of operations.[3]  

An Apr. 28 article in the Eastern Oregonian (http://www.eastoregonian.info/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=48&ArticleID=76932&TM=2 5479.67) also said nothing about the national dimension of the exercise.[4]  

NOT SO "UNIQUE"

The Olympian called the exercise "unique," but in fact such exercises are increasingly common.  

On the weekend of April 12-13, an exercise called Operation Sudden Impact (http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7368/) that participants called "unprecedented" took place in a six-county region of Memphis, TN, and involved large numbers of arrests and the seizure of computers belonging to local businesses.  Yet like NLE 2-08, it received no national media coverage.

40-55 "FUSION CENTERS" AROUND THE COUNTRY

One goal of these exercises may or may not be to put a little-known national system of "fusion centers" through its paces.  Dozens of fusion centers have been set up around the United States with funding from the Dept. of Homeland Security.  They "work in conjunction with the military arm of the DHS, NORTHCOM," according to an April 2008 article in the Washington Post. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040103049_pf.html)  

Washington States's fusion center is WAJAC, the Washington Joint Analytical Center, located in the Seattle division of the FBI and made up of a central anti-terrorism intelligence analytical center and nine regional intelligence groups located through the state.  

In March, the web site Security Management posted a long account (http://www.securitymanagement.com/article/smashing-intelligence-stovepipes?page=0%2C1) of the "rapidly growing national network of state, regional, and urban intelligence fusion centers," focusing on WAJAC as a "success story."[5]  

According to SM's Joseph Straw, "Nearly all of the country's more than 40 centers were established between 2003 and 2007, and as many as 15 more are planned."  The fusion centers gather information not only from government sources, but also from "private sector partners."  

WASHINGTON STATE DIVIDED INTO 9 "REGIONAL INTELLIGENCE GROUPS"

Straw provided an account of Washington State's "Statewide Intelligence Network," divided into nine "regional intelligence groups (RIGs)."  

WAJAC gets $2.4m annually from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP), and employs five "civilian intelligence analysts" (mostly "retired law enforcement personnel, former military intelligence specialists, and veteran analysts from the region's multi-jurisdictional High-Intensity Drug-Trafficking Task Force") along with "four sworn law enforcement officers:  two Seattle Police Department detectives, another from the King County Sheriff's Department, and one from the Bellevue Police Department."  

WAJAC has "unrestricted access to FBI computer systems," and "all of WAJAC's analysts and law enforcement personnel [have] top secret clearances."  

Straw reported that "the intelligence operations of the Seattle Police Department and the King County Sheriff's Department, which together cover the Seattle metropolitan area, [are slated to] move into the floor below WAJAC."  "[E]ven the smallest law enforcement agencies from every region in the state . . . participate in the fusion system."  

WAJAC issues "daily intelligence bulletins to RIG-7 law enforcement officials, combining national and international open-source material, items drawn from bulletins issued by the country's 42 other state and regional fusion centers, and law enforcement sensitive material from within Washington State."  

CORPORATIONS PART OF THE SYSTEM

The Boeing Company, Straw reported, is seeking "to place a full-time company intelligence analyst at WAJAC," despite "legal hurdles."  

As examples of WAJAC's work, Straw reported two incidents:  the detection of "a local golf course groundskeeper struggling amid a state ban on gopher traps" who "poured homemade, heavier-than-air chlorine gas into their holes," and the detection of a still unidentified "pair of men riding ferries in the region, acting suspiciously, and snapping photographs" who were made the object of a media manhunt (http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/6650/) despite the lack of any illegal behavior last summer.  

It is interesting to note that the role of WAJAC was never identified in last summer's reporting on the incident.  

Archival web searches indicate that WAJAC's existence has never been mentioned by the News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) or the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and has only been mentioned once, without explanation, by the Seattle Times (on Sept. 2, 2007).

--Jim O. Madison can't sleep at night and is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County (WA).