National Level Exercise 2-08 (NLE 2-08).
Also posted at United States Northern Command | Norad 

 The Department of Homeland Security’s National Exercise Program (NEP), the nation’s overarching homeland security exercise program, will conduct a combined exercise in May 2008 that will test hurricane preparedness planning, assess federal interagency Continuity of Operations (COOP) procedures, exercise a response to terrorist attacks in Washington State and test Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA).These linked exercises are referred to as National Level Exercise 2-08 (NLE 2-08).

The exercise takes place May 1-8 with a wide range of participants from federal and state departments and agencies.NLE 2-08 will consolidate into a single exercise the following:Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Continuity Programs’ (NCP) Eagle Horizon 2008;U.S. Northern Command’s (USNORTHCOM) Ardent Sentry 08 exercise; FEMA’s Disaster Operation’s Hurricane Preparedness Exercise (HPE); The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program and Army Service Response Force tests for emergency plans, procedures, skills and equipment in response to an accidental chemical agent release.

The overall exercise scenario unfolds as a Category 4 hurricane threatens the National Capitol Region (NCR) while events in the Pacific Northwest include terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the state of Washington and an accidental release of a chemical agent at chemical stockpile facility in Umatilla, Oregon.The scenario culminates with the hurricane’s imminent landfall combined with a credible terror threat to the NCR which causes the federal government to invoke continuity plans and capabilities.Planning for NLE 2-08 began in late spring 2007 and is designed to achieve the following objectives:Exercise and evaluate federal government continuity capabilities and management of emergencies from dispersed locations.

Exercise our response to terrorist WMDs threat and attack capabilities with integration of Defense Support of Civil Authorities; and Exercise hurricane preparedness and response capabilities.For more information on NLE 2-08 please contact FEMA Office of Public Affairs at 202-646-4600 or USNORTHCOM Public Affairs at 719-554-688

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARDWith the clock ticking on our “commitments” in Iraq — the international mandate expires in less than a year — the Bush administration is left in an interesting position. It could create a plan for a troop withdrawal; instead, the plan being negotiated with the Iraqi government focuses on reasons to stay there, something The New York Times reports is seen by Democrats as a plan that would “bind the next president by locking in Mr. Bush’s policies and a long-term military presence.”

And we’re starting to learn about the byzantine tactic being employed to get this done. Senior administration officials will say they’re not interested in permanent bases in Iraq. They use terms like “long-term” and “enduring” (U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said as much on Thursday). It’s all a matter of slyly edited statements, woven to obscure their true meaning and aim: What’s being crafted is a treaty. Iraqi leaders seem to know this, and describe what’s being negotiated (formally named “Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship Between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America”) as a “long-term treaty.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Mak | King5

Governor Christine Gregoire says, it’s a small inconvenience to save lives. She’s pushing to institute sobriety checkpoints in Washington State. But critics say, it’s a violation of your Constitutional rights…
Gregoire says, the checkpoints would have to be authorized by a judge, and publicized ahead of time. She believes the State Supreme Court may have left an opening to create checkpoints, though the idea has failed before in this state.

Is the public ready to accept a checkpoint? The ACLU and others have already lined up in opposition, saying a law-abiding citizen should not be stopped without reason. Gregoire says the inconvenience is only 20 seconds: “Is it wrong that I’m a law-abiding citizen when I go into a federal courthouse today and I go through a check to see if I’m armed? Is it wrong when I have to go through check points at the airport? I’m sorry this country has come to this, but it has. It’s reality.”

Your thoughts?

Piper’s Pit: A Common Reality
by Saab Lofton/Seattle Sinner

“Science is a way of talking about the universe in words that bind it to a common reality. Magic is a method of talking to the universe in words that it cannot ignore. The two are rarely compatible.”
–Neil Gaiman, The Books of Magic

Science usually saves the day, not from a technological standpoint but a sociological one. The military-industrial complex may avoid the laws of man (for now), but it can’t possibly evade the laws of physics. Therefore, since physics dictate bullets can’t zig zag in mid air, the Warren Commission’s “magic bullet” theory was completely discredited. As a result, it’s known, though still not admitted, that the C.I.A. was the only force on Earth powerful enough to both kill J.F.K. and get away with it.

Likewise, science – this time, the twin fields of archeology and anthropology – ensures that my black ass will NEVER AGAIN be equated with an animal by white supremacists (of course, anal retentive animal rights activists equate all Humans with animals, but fuck them). Now science comes to the rescue once again, this time in the form of groups such as WeAreChangeSeattle.org. They have dedicated themselves to pointing out how, scientifically speaking, a plane crashing into a skyscraper is not always enough to bring down said skyscraper. In other words, in order for those New York towers to have fallen the way they did on 9-11, some kind of demolition had to have simultaneously occurred at their foundations. That’s right, 9-11 was an inside job, science says so.
Read the rest of this entry »

Giving just one week’s notice, the Federal Communications Commission announced Friday it will hold a hearing in Seattle next Friday on proposals to ease long-standing limits on how many local media outlets a single company can own.

The announcement drew immediate fire from opponents of the proposals, who charged the short notice is part of a plan by the commission’s Republican majority to short-circuit public involvement and push major changes through before Christmas.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Sara Jean Green/SeattleTimes.com

Nearly 3,000 members of the Washington Army National Guard received official word today that they should begin preparing for a possible deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.

The 81st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, which also includes roughly 1,000 members from the California Army National Guard, received an alert order from the federal Department of Defense along with National Guard units in Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Hawaii and Oklahoma.

Read the rest of this entry »

By James Montgomery/MTV
When Death Cab for Cutie guitarist/producer Chris Walla woke up on Monday, his “To Do” list probably read something like this:

1. Call MTV News to discuss upcoming, long-delayed solo record.
2. Call U.S. Department of Homeland Security to discuss seizure of hard drive containing said long-delayed solo record.
3. Head into town for weekly tuque fitting.

Yes, it seems that recently, Walla’s solo record (which has been scheduled to come out at various points over the past, well, four years) took another step toward oblivion when the master hard drive — containing all song files — was confiscated by Homeland Security at the Canadian border, for reasons not abundantly clear, and sent to the department’s computer-forensics division for further inspection.
Read the rest of this entry »