Word: bomb
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...After all, there are certainly drawbacks to being blunt. From George “Macaca” Allen to John “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” McCain, not to mention Joe “Indian Accents at 7/11” Biden, many candidates have felt the sting of the “gaffes” that result from attempts at undiluted honesty. But the cautious, soundbite, consultant-approved language that others practice does not have to be the only alternative. It is a difficult balance to strike, but a candidate who lives in a soundbite-obsessed...
...cover the press conferences at which officials will congratulate themselves on lessons learned. But while everyone else plays him- or herself in the simulation, the media and the public are only invited as props. That's a shame since - especially in the case of a dirty bomb - there are no more important players in a terrorism incident. "We need to train with the media so the media becomes part of the team. You gotta build trust and relationships with the local media," says one veteran emergency manager who has been through a previous TOPOFF exercise. "But everyone is afraid...
...training would look like, Clarke says: Not only would the media be invited, but the main players would not know exactly what was going to happen in advance. The element of surprise is what makes terrorism attacks so challenging. So why do we already know that the first dirty bomb will go off in Guam, followed, hours later, by similar attacks in Portland and Phoenix? (This is from a Homeland Security press release, by the way.) And last week, the AP did a story telling us the exact locations of the attacks - at a power plant in Guam...
...fact, one of the five goals of TOPOFF 4 is to "practice the strategic coordination of media relations" in a WMD attack. After all, if regular people understand that a dirty bomb is generally not dangerous beyond the immediate vicinity of the explosion, they might keep going to work and school and not overreact. If regular people are included in the government's high-profile training simulations, then they might trust the official warnings about where to go and what to do in the event of an actual attack...
...years, ever since 1998 when Congress, concerned about preparing for something like the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, mandated that the government hold them. So far, TOPOFFs have included a plague attack in Denver, a chemical weapons attack in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, another plague in Chicago, a dirty bomb in Seattle (accompanied by a cyber attack), a simultaneous mustard-gas release and bomb in New London, Connecticut, and yet another plague attack in New Jersey. But aside from the miscommunication and tribalism among local, state and federal officials before, during and after the events, none of them have really...