WASHINGTON (AFP) – The outgoing White House administration will next week hold a joint “disaster scenario” exercise with top members of the incoming team of president-elect Barack Obama, US officials said Friday.
“I’m not going to go into the details of it, but it is a disaster scenario where the government would be very much tested,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
“It is an exercise scenario, a hypothetical scenario that is designed to test and tax the capabilities of the federal government,” he added.
He did not specify whether Obama or vice president-elect Joe Biden would take part in Tuesday’s three-hour long exercise, saying merely it was part of regular training events and had not been motivated by any specific threat.
A huge security blanket is being thrown over Washington for Obama’s inauguration on January 20, with up to two million people planning to converge on the US capital to witness the nation’s first African-American president being sworn into office.
“It is a very public event … and one that gathers, you know, leaders in a very small environment, essentially. So obviously we have a lot of concern about it,” Stanzel said.
“But there is no credible threat at this point to the inauguration that is precipitating this.”
Stanzel said Tuesday’s exercise was part of President George W. Bush’s commitment to ensuring a smooth handover of powers in the first transition to take place since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
He said senior members of Obama’s team had been invited “to attend 90-minute orientations and briefings followed by a three-hour exercise intended to familiarize the incoming administration with domestic and international incident management procedures used by the current administration.”
“The exercise is a regular thing. We have these exercises at various levels throughout the administration, at several different levels on a regular basis every year,” he added.
“This just happens to be an exercise that we were having at a very senior level that we had planned that we can also include the incoming team on that exercise.”
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We all know that on 911, Northcom was conducting an “exercize”. And on 7-7, the British military were conducting an exercize, simulating an attack on the exact subway that got attacked. Man you could not PAY me to be within 15 miles of that inauguration.There is a 99.9% chance that everything will be fine, with no harm done. But I would still not want to be there.
i agree with kshatriya. colin powell, madeline albright and joseph biden have all said they guarantee us that there will be an event around jan. 20-23 that “will test obama’s ability to lead this country”. you can find them saying this on youtubes. this may begin as an excercise, but it’s obvious that something more is being planned. as kshatriya said, this is how they have done things in the past. if we can find out what the excercise is, that should tell us what to expect in more real terms. it will probably look like an outside force is responsible, but it will be another inside job. don’t believe it when it happens. the fear it creates will be used to further wars that line the elite’s pockets, and it will further restrict our dwindling freedoms. stop the federal reserve now. it’s the main engine of the elitists.