US lawmakers warned of dark winter in case of bioterrorist attack

[Guest guest]

Friends/colleagues:

Two sentences in this article attached below raise my curiosity and my ire

--- and is it my overactive imagination, or does the " group of prominent

security experts " describe in its " warnings " to the House Subcommittee on

National Security what is essentially a military coup?

<< ...a rift opens between federal and local authorities. Members of the US

National Security Council suggest " nationalizing " the national guard, while

state governors insist on keeping the local troops under their control. >>

<< " We though we were really gathering together to talk about the mechanics of

government, " Hamre said. " What we ended up doing is thinking how we save

democracy in America. " >>

Here we have the former Deputy Secretary of Defense Hamre saying " What

we ended up doing is thinking how we save demoncracy in America. " How we

SAVE DEMOCRACY in America? It's not clear to me how that gets to be a

question in this scenario --- unless someone WANTS democracy to be a matter

in question.

Why can't this be handled like any other domestic disaster, like a flood,

hurricane, etc.? What legal authority does the NSC have to even broach the

question of whether National Guard troops are under federal or state control?

Are they suggesting that the National Guard would be under U.S. military

control? Are they implying that federal troops would be rolling over state

borders?

The article paints a picture of public places being closed: " schools

nationwide are forced to close, and public gatherings are limited due to fear

of contagion. " People will be in their homes too scared to venture out.

Expressways, downtowns will be empty. If the U.S. military wanted to drive

into cities and take them over, there would be no resistance. It could be

done under the rationale of martial law and the guise of " protecting "

Americans. It would hardly raise an eyebrow in the context of fear and panic.

If our military bioweaponeers understand bioweapons to be able to bring

entire nations to their knees -- in principle, what would stop them from

salivating over conquering the greatest country on earth even if it happens

to be their own? Military coups happen all the time. Bioweapons don't create

new opportunities just for terrorists, they create opportunities for

organized groups of any sort to wield disproportionate power and the threat

of destruction over a large population --- without there being means of self

defense in the target population.

Funny the DOD never points this out. They tell us it is always " terrorists "

who do this stuff and typically FOREIGN terrorists. Seems to me the spectrum

for abuse is a whole lot broader than what we read in domestic propaganda and

theoretically includes actors such as the DOD itself. It includes anyone who

has access to these organisms and the technology for dispersing the

organisms. If that's the definition of who could terrorize a population with

bioagents, then the scope includes our own DOD and its agencies.

The difficulty in tracing the source of an outbreak would work to the benefit

of not only foreign terrorists, but it would work to the benefit of any

domestic group. Like the hysteria in the wake of the Oklahoma bombing, the

assumption was that this was the work of a foreign terrorist - but it turned

out it wasn't.

In the case of a bombing, there were ways to trace the evidence back to Tim

McVeigh. That's essentially impossible to do with organisms associated with a

bioattack. Theoretically, the attack could be staged by a U.S. military group

and alleged to be by foreign terrorists. There would likely be no way to

challenge this assertion. Those who weren't part of the planned overthrow

would be bamboozled into thinking it was a foreign threat and then

participate in the mobilization.

The stuff of fiction? Let's hope so. But keep in mind these are the sorts of

imbalances of power warned about by the Founding Fathers and which shaped

their construction of our present form of government. It seems to me the

Second Amendment has been rendered a meaningless antique by the advances in

biotechnology.

Lynn

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http://sg.news./010723/1/19mqc.html

Tuesday July 24, 7:11 AM

US lawmakers warned of " dark winter " in case of bioterrorist attack

WASHINGTON, July 23 (AFP) -

A chilling scenario of possible national collapse was presented Monday to US

lawmakers by a group of prominent security experts, who warned that a

biological terrorist attack on US soil could bring the country to the brink

of disintegration.

The panel, which included former deputy secretary of defense Hamre,

Oklahoma governor Keating and former senator Sam Nunn, presented their

conclusions after holding a two-day exercise code-named " Dark Winter, " which

featured a computer-simulated bioterrorist attack on three US states.

Members of the House Subcommittee on National Security closely listened as

participants painted a picture of the world's most powerful nation descending

into chaos in a matter of several weeks.

The game starts with a brief television report that about two dozen people

checked into an Oklahoma City hospital with an unidentified illness. Doctors

soon find the patients have smallpox, a highly contagious and deadly disease

unseen in the United States since 1949.

Similar smallpox cases are reported in Pennsylvania and Georgia. By day six,

300 Americans are dead and 2,000 others are infected. Cases of smallpox are

reported in Mexico, Canada and Britain, according to the scenario.

Meanwhile the US heath system is overwhelmed, the 12 million doses of

smallpox vaccine quickly disappear, schools nationwide are forced to close,

and public gatherings are limited due to fear of contagion.

Droves of Oklahomans anxious to flee stream toward Texas -- but the Texas

governor, eager to protect his own residents, closes the border and deploys

the state National Guard. Shots are fired.

As the standoff between Texans and Oklahomans deepens, a rift opens between

federal and local authorities. Members of the US National Security Council

suggest " nationalizing " the national guard, while state governors insist on

keeping the local troops under their control.

On day 12 of the scenario, when the death toll reaches 1,000, interstate

commerce grinds to a halt and stock trading is suspended. Demonstrations

demanding more smallpox vaccines turn into riots. The United Nations moves

its headquarters from New York to Geneva, Switzerland.

Less than two months after the outbreak, when the number of dead reach one

million and three million more are infected, the president, played in the

exercise by Nunn, gathers his top aide to considers imposing marshal law.

Dead silence reigned in the hearing room as Hamre and Nunn presented their

findings with the help of colorful " emergency newscasts " prepared by the

nation's leading television broadcasters, who also took part in the exercise,

which took place at s Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C. in June.

" I think we felt it would cripple the United States if it occurred, " Hamre

said.

" We though we were really gathering together to talk about the mechanics of

government, " Hamre said. " What we ended up doing is thinking how we save

democracy in America. "

To Republican Congressman Gilman, scenarios like this no longer

belong to the realm of science fiction.

" Sadly, events of the last few years, with bombings ... in New York, Oklahoma

City, have transformed the bioterrorism debate from the question of 'if' to

the seeming inevitability of 'when, " he said.

Nunn, who had sat on the Senate Armed Services Committee for more than two

decades, said the exercise raised more questions than answers.

If there is only one dose of smallpox vaccine for every 23 Americans, whom do

you vaccinate? he asked.

" Do you seize hotels and convert them to hospitals? Do you close borders and

block all travel? What level of force do you use to keep someone sick with

smallpox in isolation? " he asked.

No clear answer was offered by those present.