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- Global Outlook, No 8, Spring 2004
- www.globalresearch.ca 20 June 2004
The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO406C.html
In October 2000, a military exercise was conducted which consisted in establishing the scenario of a simulated passenger plane crashing into the Pentagon.
The exercise was coordinated by the Defense Protective Services Police and the Pentagon's Command Emergency Response Team.
According to a detailed report by Dennis Ryan of Fort Myer Military Community's Pentagram, "the Pentagon Mass Casualty Exercise, as the crash was called, was just one of several scenarios that emergency response teams were exposed to on Oct. 24-26":
"The fire and smoke from the downed passenger aircraft billows from the Pentagon courtyard. Defense Protective Services Police seal the crash sight. Army medics, nurses and doctors scramble to organize aid Don Abbott, of Command Emergency Response Training, walks over to the Pentagon and extinguishes the flames. The Pentagon was a model and the "plane crash" was a simulated one.
On Oct. 24, there was a mock terrorist incident at the Pentagon Metro stop and a construction accident to name just some of the scenarios that were practiced to better prepare local agencies for real incidents.
To conduct the exercise, emergency personnel hold radios that are used to rush help to the proper places, while toy trucks representing rescue equipment are pushed around the exercise table.
Cards are then passed out to the various players designating the number of casualties and where they should be sent in a given scenario.
To conduct the exercise, a medic reports to Army nurse Maj. Lorie Brown a list of 28 casualties so far. Brown then contacts her superior on the radio, Col. James Geiling, a doctor in the command room across the hall.
Geiling approves Brown's request for helicopters to evacuate the wounded. A policeman in the room recommends not moving bodies and Abbott, playing the role of referee, nods his head in agreement.
An Army medic found the practice realistic.
"You get to see the people that we'll be dealing with and to think about the scenarios and what you would do," Sgt. Kelly Brown said. "It's a real good scenario and one that could happen easily."
Abbott, in his after action critique, reminded the participants that the actual disaster is only one-fifth of the incident and that the whole emergency would run for seven to 20 days and might involve as many as 17 agencies.
"The emergency to a certain extent is the easiest part," Abbott said. He reminded the group of the personal side of a disaster. "Families wanting to come to the crash site for closure.
"In this particular crash there would have been 341 victims.1
The Bush Administration is lying
This Pentagon exercise simulated a plane crashing into the Pentagon. The report serves to refute unequivocally claims by the Bush Administration that they could not have predicted that an airplane could be used in a terrorist attack.
In the words of Condoleeza Rice at her 16 May 2002 Press Conference:
"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile."
Sec Donald Rumsfeld, whose office is on the third floor of the outer ring of the Pentagon, stated "I didn't know". "The Pentagon Mass Casualty Exercise" had been ordered by senior Pentagon officials and Rumsfeld says he did not know.
Below is an excerpt of his testimony at the 9/11 Commission in March 2004 (in response to Commissioner Ben-Veniste):
BEN-VENISTE: ... So it seems to me when you make the statement, sir, that we didn't know that planes might be used as weapons in the summer of 2001, I just have to take issue with that.
RUMSFELD: Well, I didn't say we didn't know. I said I didn't know. And if I just was handed a civil aviation circular that people did know. And they sent it out on June 22nd, 2001 (See complete transcript of testimony at http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/COM403A.html)
Simulated versus Actual Disaster
The objective of the exercise, in the words of its Pentagon organisers was
"preparation for any potential disasters "This is important so that we're better prepared," Brown said. "This is to work out the bugs. Hopefully it will never happen, but this way we're prepared."2
Were they prepared ten months later on September 11, 2001, when the actual disaster occurred?
What was the purpose of conducting this exercise?
Note
1. Dennis Ryan, Contingency planning, Pentagon MASCAL exercise simulates scenarios in preparing for emergencies, MDW NEWS 3 Nov 2000. http://www.mdw.army.mil/
2. Ibid.
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