| Date: | Sunday December 28, @09:58AM |
|---|---|
| Author: | ewing2001 |
| Topic: | News |
| from the CNN dept. | |
Since 2000, biodefense specialist Jerome Hauer and many other government related persons, supported U.S. BioDrills like Topoff 1 (May 2000), Dark Winter (June 2001), Silent Vector (October 2002), Topoff2 (May 2003) or Determined Promise (August 2003).
CNN -Sunday, December 28, 2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A drill testing U.S. agencies' ability to distribute and administer antibiotics in the event of an anthrax attack found the federal government unable to respond quickly enough to prevent large numbers of deaths, officials said Sunday.
The simulation -- held in mid-November and dubbed Scarlet Cloud -- demonstrated that perhaps thousands of fatalities might have occurred had such a widespread attack been real, according to a Department of Homeland Security official.
"It's an exercise to find our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities," the official said. "We did. It showed us how to determine where to apply our different efforts and energies.
"The drill showed we are much better at protecting Americans from an anthrax attack than we were two years ago or before September 11."
The two-day classified drill involved simulating the simultaneous release of anthrax in different types of aerosols in several American cities, said the officials, who declined to identify which locations were involved.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and John Gordon, the head of the White House's Homeland Security Council, oversaw the exercise, the official said. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson also was to participate but was involved in interviews regarding the flu outbreaks.
The Department of Homeland Security will take measures to make the antibiotic supply chain more efficient and improve the coordination of national disaster medical teams as a result of the drill, the department official said.
There is no plan to declassify any portion of Scarlet Cloud's results since it was done on the federal level and did not involve local or state agencies, the official said.
The drill was described as a routine exercise, part of a series of tests that the Department of Homeland Security will be conducting with other federal agencies to test vulnerabilities in protecting the country, the official said.
Related links: (*thx to Michael Kane) Tampatrib.com
The "other Scarlet Cloud"
...He was called Makhpiya-luta which means Scarlet Cloud. He was probably named for the red meteor that streaked across the sky on the day he was born.
Red Cloud (September 20, 1822 - December 10, 1909) was strongly opposed to the white expansion in the west and virtually shut down the Bozeman Trail. During a peace conference at Fort Laramie in 1866 Red Cloud stormed out of the meeting realizing the military was just going to expand it's reach by building additional forts. These events lead to the Fetterman Massacre and the Wagon Box Fight in northern Wyoming. For a period of a year and a half no wagons moved along the trail to the goldfields of Montana. .
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printed from Scarlet Cloud: Classified BioTerror Drill in November on 2004-03-01 07:28:24