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Original Message
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On Oct 25-28, 2013 California will be holding a 100+ city, 72-hour, cross agency anti-terrorism drill called Urban Shield.
[link to www.urbanshield.org (secure)]
I bring this up due to the fact that these training drills have a tenancy to "go-live" via drill hijack and become real-world events. A drill hijack is when they use aspects of a drill to provide cover for a real (planned) event that mimics the general theme of the drill itself giving them "plausible deniability" via "miscommunication" (an out) if they happen to be caught prior to the "point of no return" in the hijacked aspect of the operation.
Anyways I just bring this all up so people will keep an extra eye on the Cali area during (and shortly after) this drill, in-case something does actually go down. I personally think if something were to happen, it would happen the day following the official drill (Oct 29,2013). I have various reasons to think this but I am not going to go into them right now, but if a real event does take place around this time it will likely involve a large school campus (likely in San Diego) OR a high traffic airport (likely LAX or SFO) with the combined theme of backpack bombs & assault weapons. Anyways stay safe everyone, and hopefully nothing will happen in Cali around this drill, unlike what happened recently in Boston...
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Urban Shield - The Nations Best First Responder Training Program
This exercise will assess the region’s ability to successfully respond to and manage multiple terrorist events and other emergencies occurring simultaneously throughout the Boston area. The overarching goal of Urban Shield will be to provide a multi-layered training exercise to enhance the skills and abilities of regional first responders, as well as, those responsible for coordinating and managing large scale events. Involved personnel will include regional emergency managers, law enforcement, emergency medical services (EMS), fire, local military, as well as related government and corporate partner personnel. The Urban Shield exercise will not only provide specific training opportunities to these entities, it will also test the region’s ability to integrate multi-discipline entities, including EMS first responders, fire department personnel, EOD, and law enforcement tactical response teams in a large consolidated event...
Urban Shield 2011: [link to www.cityofboston.gov (secure)] / [link to www.bostonurbanshield.org]
Urban Shield 2012: [link to www.cityofboston.gov]
Urban Shield Boston 2012 (video): [link to vimeo.com]
Urban Shield Boston 2012 Event Map: [link to www.boston.com]
Urban Shield Boston is a national model, full-scale exercise, designed to assess and validate the speed, effectiveness and efficiency of capabilities, as well as test the adequacy of regional policies, plans, procedures and protocols. This exercise incorporates regional critical infrastructure, emergency operation centers, regional communication systems, equipment and assets, as well as personnel representing all aspects of emergency response including intelligence, law enforcement, Explosive Ordinance Disposal Units, Fire, EMS, etc.
[link to www.mbhsr.org]
[Urban Shield Boston 2013] The scenario had been carefully planned: A terrorist group prepared to hurt vast numbers of people around Boston would leave backpacks filled with explosives at Faneuil Hall, the Seaport District, and in other towns, spreading waves of panic and fear. Detectives would have to catch the culprits.
Months of painstaking planning had gone into the exercise, dubbed “Operation Urban Shield,” meant to train dozens of detectives in the Greater Boston area to work together to thwart a terrorist threat. The hypothetical terrorist group was even given a name: Free America Citizens, a home-grown cadre of militiamen whose logo would be a metal skull wearing an Uncle Sam hat and a furious expression, according to a copy of the plans obtained by the Boston Globe.
But two months before the training exercise was to take place, the city was hit with a real terrorist attack executed in a frighteningly similar fashion. The chaos of the Boston Marathon bombings disrupted plans for the exercise, initially scheduled for this weekend, forcing police to postpone. Now officials must retool aspects of the training.
“The real thing happened before we were able to execute,” said a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the planned exercise.
[link to www.bostonglobe.com]
[Urban Shield Boston 2012] Prior to the Marathon, the Massachusetts State Emergency Operations Center hosted the annual Pre-Boston Marathon Tabletop Exercise to build relationships between the organizers and responders. This exercise tested plans and procedures for a possible MCI during the Marathon. Participants exercised multiple scenarios, one of which consisted of an IED incident during the Marathon.
[link to www.llis.dhs.gov (secure)]
[Urban Shield Boston 2012] BOSTON MARATHON TABLETOP - On March 14th (2012), the SEOC hosted the annual pre-Boston Marathon Tabletop Exercise. Scores of liaisons from the eight communities that host the race (Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Newton, Brookline and Boston), state, federal, private and volunteer public safety, health, 3 communication, transportation agencies and organizations worked through a number of challenging scenarios. This event is always excellent preparation for those who are going to be part of the Multi-Agency Coordination Center (MACC) at MEMA HQ, for this year’s 117th Boston Marathon.
[link to www.mass.gov]
[Urban Shield Boston 2012] On Saturday, the area will host Urban Shield: Boston, a 24-hour training exercise that simulates large-scale public safety incidents in the metro-Boston area. Urban Shield: Boston will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday and conclude at 8 a.m. Sunday. It will include personnel from the City of Boston, (including Boston Police, Fire, and EMS) Metro-Boston Homeland Security Region, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals and UMass Boston, and the United States Coast Guard. This exercise will assess each team’s ability to successfully respond to, and manage, public safety events and other emergencies occurring simultaneously throughout the Boston area.
[link to www.cityofboston.gov]
[Urban Shield Boston 2012] Urban Shield: Boston will run for a 24-hour period. As a result residents in the area may hear simulated gunfire, observe officers responding to simulated emergencies, or see activity in the Boston Harbor. Each scenario will be run multiple times, and organizers urge residents not to be alarmed...
The drills are intended to be strikingly lifelike. Urban Shield has worked with Strategic Operations, a Hollywood effects company that also helps prepare army medics for the battlefield. (Their disaster scenario staff, Baker says, include an amputee.) With a generous helping of moulage, their drills aim to force officials to confront both the logistical and atmospheric challenges of a disaster...
[link to www.strategic-operations.com]
Boston police trained with Alameda's 'Urban Shield'
[Urban Shield Boston 2012]Boston Law Enforcement has been put to the test this week, and it turns out they've had some training for just this kind of response, training they received right here in the Bay area...
[link to news.yahoo.com]
2012 drill braced for bombs at finish line
[Urban Shield Boston 2012] "...emergency agency ran a training drill in March 2012 that specifically activated a plan for an attack that included bombs at the race finish line..."
[link to bostonherald.com]
*Urban Shield is a DHS funded program.
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Strategic Operations - Hyper-Realistic™ Training Environments
Strategic Operations, Inc. (STOPS) provides Hyper-Realistic™ training environments for military, law enforcement and other organizations, using state-of-the-art movie industry special effects, role players, proprietary techniques, training scenarios, facilities, mobile structures, sets, props, and equipment.
[link to www.strategic-operations.com]
[link to www.youtube.com]
Mission: [link to www.strategic-operations.com]
Hyper-Realistic Training: [link to www.strategic-operations.com]
Clients: [link to www.strategic-operations.com] (notice they go out of their way not to list DHS in this "partial" list... they openly work with Urban Shield so you would think DHS would be a good client to have listed in this line of work...)
Combat Wound FX: [link to www.strategic-operations.com]
Role Players: [link to www.strategic-operations.com]
Battlefield Effects: [link to www.strategic-operations.com] (amazing how their fake explosion on this page looks just like Bostons)
Mobile Training/Support: [link to www.strategic-operations.com]
...
Strategic Operations Helps Boston with Disaster Preparedness
Over the past two years, area hospitals had sent teams of doctors and nurses to citywide training exercises and run internal drills for mass casualty incidents like bombs, plane crashes, and fires. Vivid, citywide disaster simulations – conducted in 2011 and 2012 – put hundreds of officials through hypothetical 24-hour crisis situations...
Urban Shield: Boston will run for a 24-hour period. As a result residents in the area may hear simulated gunfire, observe officers responding to simulated emergencies, or see activity in the Boston Harbor. Each scenario will be run multiple times, and organizers urge residents not to be alarmed...
[link to www.strategic-operations.com]
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Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP)
"The Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) is a capabilities and performance-based exercise program which provides a standardized policy, methodology, and terminology for exercise design, development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning. HSEEP Policy and Guidance is presented in detail in HSEEP Volumes I-III. Adherence to the policy and guidance presented in the HSEEP Volumes ensures that exercise programs conform to established best practices and helps provide unity and consistency of effort for exercises at all levels of government."
[link to hseep.dhs.gov (secure)]
Players
Players are agency personnel who have an active role in responding to the simulated emergency and perform their regular roles and responsibilities during the exercise. Players initiate actions that will respond to and mitigate the simulated emergency.
Controllers
Controllers set up and operate the exercise site, plan and manage exercise play, and act in the roles of response individuals and agencies that are not playing in the exercise. Controllers direct the pace of exercise play; they routinely include members of the Exercise Planning Team. They provide key data to players and may prompt or initiate certain players actions to ensure exercise continuity.
Simulators
Simulators are control staff personnel who role play nonparticipating organizations or individuals. They most often operate out of the SimCell, but they may occasionally have face-to-face contact with players. Simulators function semi-independently under the supervision of SimCell controllers, enacting roles (e.g., media reporters or next of kin) in accordance with instructions provided in the Master Scenario Events List (MSEL). All simulators are ultimately accountable to the Exercise Director and Senior Controller.
What is SimCell?
The SimCell is an exercise area where controllers generate and deliver injects, and receive player responses to non-participating organizations, agencies, and individuals who would likely participate actively in an actual incident. Physically, the SimCell is a working location for a number of qualified professionals who portray representatives of non-participating organizations, agencies, and individuals who would likely participate during an actual incident.
What is a MSEL?
The Master Scenario Events List (MSEL) is a chronological timeline of expected actions and scripted events (i.e., injects) to be inserted into operations-based exercise play by controllers in order to generate or prompt player activity. It ensures necessary events happen so that all exercise objectives are met.
The MSEL outlines benchmarks and injects that drive exercise play. It also details realistic input to exercise players, as well as information expected to emanate from simulated organizations (i.e., nonparticipating organizations, agencies, and individuals who usually would respond to the situation). An inject includes several items of information, such as inject time, intended recipient, responsible controller, inject type, a short description of the event, and the expected player action.
Evaluators
Evaluators evaluate and provide feedback on a designated functional area of the exercise. They are chosen on the basis of their expertise in the functional area(s) they have been assigned to review during the exercise and their familiarity with local emergency response procedures. Evaluators assess and document participant's performance against established emergency plans and exercise evaluation criteria, in accordance with Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) standards. They typically are chosen from planning committee members or agencies or organizations that are participating in the exercise.
Actors
Actors simulate specific roles during exercise play. They typically are volunteers who have been recruited to play the role of victims or other bystanders.
Observers
Observers visit or view selected segments of the exercise. Observers do not play in the exercise, nor do they perform any control or evaluation functions. Observers view the exercise from a designated observation area and must remain within the observation area during the exercise. VIP's are also observers, but they frequently are grouped separately. A dedicated group of exercise controllers will be assigned to manage these groups.
Media Personnel
Some media personnel may be present as observers, pending approval by Emergency Management Agency and the Exercise Planning Team. Media interactions also may be simulated by the SimCell to enhance realism and meet related exercise objectives. A dedicated group of exercise controllers will be assigned to manage these groups.
[link to www.llis.dhs.gov (secure)]
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[link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
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