http://www.oregontruthalliance.org/files/PRforNobleResolve.pdf

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — August 13, 2007 — Portland, Oregon

Portland to Host Terrorism Drill “NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2” Aug. 20 to 24...
Citizens Warn of Established Pattern for Such Drills to go “live”

Contact: Info@OregonTruthAlliance.org

This is an urgent advisory notice from concerned citizens of Oregon and Washington about an upcoming U.S. Joint Forces Command emergency management exercise known as NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2 that will simulate terrorism or disaster scenarios in the Lower Columbia River Basin between Aug. 20th and Aug 24th, 2007.

NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2 was designed and will be directed by U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) and the Department of Homeland Security. We are aware of no public notice concerning this exercise, but preliminary investigation has revealed that Oregon National Guard officials and federal officials will conduct the drill. Details from official sources are minimal.

This advisory is to document our concerns, raise public awareness and urge citizen action based on the following facts:

1. NOBLE RESOLVE is a computer-based simulation of a large-scale emergency situation (e.g. earthquake, hurricane, tsunami, or terrorist attack with nuclear weapon) in order to train for managing all aspects of the emergency response through comprehensive software.

2. Military exercises such as NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2 have a recent history of coinciding with lethal “live” events. This occurred on 9/11/01 when five or more major military or security exercises were in progress on the very day of the actual attacks. The same phenomenon occurred with the London Bombings of 7/7/05 during which a drill concerning multiple bomb attacks was being staged on that day.

3. Vice President Cheney, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff and former Senator Rick Santorum have all warned of a new 9/11 attack this summer, but are giving no evidence in support. Chertoff based his prediction on a “gut feeling”.

4. The May 2007 Presidential Directive NSPD 51 (HSPD 20) addressing “continuity of government” in the event of a massive emergency, includes secret "annexes" which are pertinent additional documents. Some US Congressional Committee on Homeland Security members such as Rep. Peter DeFazio have written to formally request permission to review these secret "annexes" and have twice been denied access by the White House.

5. This particular exercise, NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2, includes one scenario involving an unaccounted for, "loose," ten kiloton nuclear weapon, exactly as Vice President Cheney hinted in recent interviews. Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff claims he fears the same.

6. The plummeting support for the GOP has triggered comments from its members and analyses of its current political strategy that point to a new 9/11 attack as a contributing factor to GOP political salvation. Moreover, it appears that legends or back stories are being disseminated to support just such an event.

Transparency concerning NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2 is vital for the public safety of everyone in the Lower Columbia River Basin. We call on the planners, directors and participants in NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2 to be vigilant and to maintain transparency with respect to these military exercises. We also urge citizens and our elected officials to monitor the activities of participants connected with the exercises and alert authorities to any suspicious behavior. These exercises have an established pattern of becoming “live” events. (Please read references below.) We recommend that officials of the Ports of Astoria, Longview, Vancouver and Portland on the Lower Columbia River take extra care in their monitoring and examination of all shipping on the Lower Columbia River while NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2 is in progress. Finally, we urge all concerned to voice that concern in letters and calls to elected officials and civil servants requesting full transparency and citizen oversight.

~~ see .pdf for list of references

August 14, 2007 -- Guest Column -- The hijacking of a terrorism plot

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/14/3157/

author/source: Maher Osseiran

August 14, 2007 -- Guest Column

The hijacking of a terrorism plot! – The hijacking of Al-Qaeda and the nurturing of the Terrorism Fairy.

By Maher Osseiran

A spectacular attack on the United States was on the wish list of Zbegniew Brzezinski as far back as 1997, without it, there would be no internal support within the United States for the sacrifices needed to implement his plans for American hegemony. In his book “The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives”, Mr. Brzezinski writes:

Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.

The Project for a New American Century, a Washington think tank that took the reins at the Pentagon and the Bush White House, was just as convinced of the importance of the “spectacular attack” as the catalyst for their plans, which mirrored Brzezinski’s, that they felt the need to convey it in their September 2000 white paper, Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century, thusly

Furthermore, the process of transformation [rebuilding America’s Defenses], even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.

These expansionist policies affecting Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and the military support they require, can only be accelerated and such acceleration acceptable to the American public if there were a new Pearl Harbor and the public felt a continuous outside threat of unpredictable catastrophic attacks.

As men of planning, and since those documents were published, clearly men of action in the Bush administration, did they sit and wait for the “Terrorism Fairy” to grant them their wish, the new Pearl Harbor in the form of the 9/11 attacks, or did they lend a covert hand and made those attacks possible?

From the early days after 9/11, American and International truth movements believed that the U.S. government is complicit in the attacks. Since some within the movements held what might be considered as extreme beliefs, it became easier for the government and mainstream media to brush off legitimate concerns with the wide and indiscriminate strokes of the conspiracy theory defense.

Recently though, these concerns have forced their way into mainstream through mainstream politicians such as French Housing Minister Christine Boutin and former German minister Andreas von Bulow, and public figures such as Rosie O’Donnell and Charlie Sheen.

Still, because of the wide variety of issues and questions raised by the 9/11 truth movement, concerned citizens – According to a Zogby poll 66% or New Yorker (56.2% overall) called for another full investigation – yet find it difficult to follow and stay focused on so many complex issues.

What is needed is to simplify and focus on the weakest links in the official story. A focus on the issues that are simple, easy to investigate, where the evidence is readily available and strongest, and most importantly on issues that any person, regardless of affiliation, could rally behind and generate the strongest call for a new and transparent international investigation into the attacks on 9/11 and the wars that followed.

The weakest links are the collapse of the building known as WTC 7 located at a The World Trade Center in New York, and, the “Bin Laden Confession Tape”, released by the Pentagon on December 13, 2001, as proof of Bin Laden’s complicity in the 9/11 attacks.

WTC 7 is a building that did not suffer any direct hit, that collapsed in its own footprint, a hallmark of controlled demolition. There is ample evidence that the collapse was the result of a controlled demolition and there should be a concerted effort to make such evidence part of the mainstream public discourse until all the facts are established.

If the facts establish that WTC 7 was intentionally demolished, and the method was controlled demolition, logic forces us to strongly consider the possibility that WTC 1 and 2, the twin towers, were also brought down in the same manner; controlled demolition. After all, a controlled demolition of those towers would result in a predictable and quantifiable loss level that would be limited to their footprint.

Proof of controlled demolition of those buildings would be proof that the U.S. government, knew about the attacks in advance, very likely aided in their execution, minimized the loses, and capitalized on them as the cornerstones of its future foreign policy and geopolitical ambitions.

The other weak link is the “Bin Laden Confession Tape”. It is probably the weakest since the evidence is still available to the general public, mainstream media, law enforcement, and international investigative bodies, to probe and analyze and quickly reach the following narrative:

“The Bin Laden Confession Tape” is the product of a two-part sting operation run by U.S. intelligence with the help of Saudi intelligence. “Part One” of the sting was to tape Bin Laden confessing to his involvement in the attacks on 9/11; this part was conducted on September 26, 2001, ten days prior to the invasion of Afghanistan, in a village in Ghazni province where Bin Laden’s family lived.

For “Part One”, U.S. intelligence had at least 4 days advanced notice of the date of the meeting; 24 hours advanced notice of its exact location, and knew that Bin Laden would be at that location for at least 3 hours, and possibly in the village overnight to visit with his family.

“Part Two” of the sting was his capture and that came with little notice and no control over the capture parameters. For ‘Part Two”, a Saudi operative was left behind after the taping and his task was to alert U.S. Special Forces of Bin Laden’s return to the village. Bin Laden returned on November 2, 2001, a bad weather day - freezing rain.

That evening, around 11 pm Afghan time, two Special Forces helicopters, a Predator drone, and an unknown number of F-14 fighter jets converged on that village.

What we know is that the Predator collided with one of the helicopters and they both crashed. The second helicopter rescued the crew of the first, and an F-14 bombed the wreckage in order to conceal evidence of the capture operation. The Pentagon reports the two incidents as separate incidents attributed to bad weather but the Pentagon also inadvertently provided photographic evidence that these two aircraft collided.

In my earlier reporting on this crash, I ducked the conspiracy theory defense by accepting what I had proof of, video proof of frozen rain and sleet precipitation in that village, and video of intermingled helicopter and Predator parts. Back in February of 2007, the intelligence source that confirmed the Predator engine identification objected to my conclusion and insisted that the Predator purposely rammed the helicopter in order to sabotage the mission while bad weather was used as a cover.

Either scenario could be easily proven if there were to be a transparent investigation. Even though the implications of the two scenarios are very different, the net result of this collision is the same; it is a fact that the capture mission failed and Bin Laden is still a free man.

To be fair to the intelligence source, the next event in this chain strongly supports the assertions the source made. On December 13, 2001, the Bush administration, after what we were told was ample deliberation at the White House and Pentagon, decided to release the product of the “Part One” of the sting; The Bin Laden Confession Tape.

The tape, which Bin Laden would eventually view, would reveal to him that it was taped covertly by intelligence services, that intelligence operatives had full control of the taping location, and that they could have captured him or killed him if they had chosen to; the release of the tape exposed the sting and made it so much more difficult to get that close to Bin laden again.

Such a gift to Bin Laden could only be possible because of a controversial practice by the Bush administration, the declassification of intelligence material for political purposes; in this case, they declassified a sensitive by-product of a failed intelligence operation.

The laws that were broken as a result of this sting operation targeting Bin Laden and the acts that followed, one of which is the illegal war against Afghanistan, span many jurisdictions, from laws covering the locality of Manhattan, NY, to International Law, and those crimes are quite easy to prove.

There is a need to focus on what is easy to prove in order to prevent similar acts that might be coming upon us very soon. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum predicted on July 7, 2007 that a terrorism attack would take place prior to November. On July 10, by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff who informed us that he had a “gut feeling” that such an attack will take place this summer. Will their wishes come true or is it that the Terrorism Fairy would be allowed to strike again?

It is common knowledge that since 9/11, the American military is only weaker, the American coffers emptier, very few of the 9/11 commission recommendations implemented, and Homeland Security under Chertoff is highly understaffed to the tune of 500 mid and senior level positions. Since 9/11, the only successful war waged by the Bush Administration is the war on civil liberties and Bush’s recent executive order is just another nail in the coffin. Is that how a country is secured or is it that the country is purposely left vulnerable in order to secure future plans?

Many old hands under Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, and even Carter himself, are wondering where Bush is taking the U.S. and the world.

The answer, if we add to the above Seymour Hersh’s revelations that the U.S. government, through surrogates, is currently financially supporting Muslim extremists and supplying them with weapons, Bolton’s support for a new round of civil war in Lebanon, and add to that the recent U.S. position vis a vis Musharraf’s Pakistan, a clear picture emerges; a symbiotic relationship between the Bush administration and Bin Laden, nurtured by the president and the neo-cons, with congressional and senate approval, has developed and bent on destabilizing a whole region.

By actively radicalizing Muslims worldwide, a process that parallels the radicalization of the West Bank and Gaza in Palestine, and pushing them into the arms of Al-Qaeda and other similar organizations, the Bush administration is creating a large, contiguous, and highly unstable, swath of land between Pakistan and Lebanon that will be perceived by the American public as the hotbed for hatching future spectacular and unpredictable terrorism plots against the U.S.; a new and lasting cold war would be achieved. When nuclear weapons are added to this mix, another World War is not too far away.

Again, it is left to the average person who is looking for sanity to prevail to focus on what is easy to prove, the Terrorism Fairy cannot be allowed to strike again, there is no time to waste.

Note to the reader: please sign the petition and try to get involved in the national action (also found at http://www.mydemocracy.net/misprision_of_treason.htm) of informing federal Judges of these treasonous acts.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/363448.shtml

Two 2005 Portland Biz Journal articles about Noble Resolve/Top Off
author: Mr_DNA

I just stumbled upon these, though I am not sure if they have been posted here before or not. Interesting info on the development of these exercises in Portland.
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2005/03/07/story1.html

The national lens will focus on Portland's streets, bridges and port as the region serves as a major Homeland Security test laboratory in May 2007.

The Department of Homeland Security has chosen Portland and Phoenix as the two sites for "TopOff 4," a shorthand term for tests that ascertain ways that top federal, state and local officials handle major security-breaching events.

The designation means that several drills -- testing preparedness for attacks involving biological, radiological and various explosives -- could occur in and around Portland, said Miguel Ascarrunz, the city's Office of Emergency Management director.

The Homeland Security Department has yet to determine exactly which tests will occur in Portland.

It selects only two test sites each year -- 15 cities applied for the 2007 program. Former Portland Mayor Vera Katz and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski had applied to DHS in early 2004 to serve as a test site.

The test-site designation still requires formal go-aheads from Portland Mayor Tom Potter and Kulongoski. Ascarrunz said his office may need to seek state and local funds to accommodate the tests; federal grants will contribute at least some of the necessary money, he said.

"The ball is in our court," he said. "It's a lot of work, there's a lot of funding that's thrown at it, but it's good in that it will foster relations between federal and local emergency response systems."

Ascarrunz said the TopOff 2 exercise held in King County in 2003 cost the Seattle area some $1.5 million. Oregon hopes to fund the drills with various Homeland Security grants targeted for local exercises, as well as corporate donors. The feds will also pay for various planning costs -- including flying officials to and lodging them in Washington, D.C. to discuss preparations for the event -- and provide five staffers who'll work on the project's Portland logistics.

The state has received an estimated $30 million over the past few years in Homeland Security monies for equipment and smaller-scale exercises.

John Doussard, a spokesman for Potter, said his office "is very excited about the whole thing, and won't do anything to impede it."

Anna Richter Taylor, a spokeswoman for Kulongoski, said the upcoming test-site announcement pleased the governor.

"It's an opportunity for the city and state to collaborate and assure that policies and systems we have in place can respond to any terrorism or bioterrorism threats," Taylor said. "It's also a great opportunity for us to offer something that will help other states learn from us, to see what we've done is successful and identify what we need to do to be as prepared as possible."

Portland is also still awaiting an official letter from Homeland Security officials confirming its selection as the TopOff 4 site. Ascarrunz was in Washington, D.C., this week meeting with department leaders to discuss Portland's logistics.

The tests involve hundreds of senior-level federal officials, and will include heavy input from the Department of Homeland Security Administrator Michael Chertoff, Ascarrunz said.

Ascarrunz wants Oregon's business community to provide key input as the region develops its plans.

"I'd like to engage the business community as much as possible," he said. "For example, with this year's exercise, Wal-Mart is going to activate its command centers throughout the country. So we'd like to involve as much of the private sector as possible."

In Portland itself, Ascarrunz said the exercise might encompass drills in downtown, at the Oregon Convention Center, around the city's various bridges and at a port site.

The city has lately received attention on the Homeland Security front for various officials' reluctance to renew the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Seattle served as a TopOff 2 site in 2003. The city was "hit" with a "dirty bomb," or explosives coupled with radioactive material.

Portland officials will travel to Connecticut and New Jersey in April to observe the 2005 TopOff event. Those tests will study how well a complex terrorist campaign plays throughout the Homeland Security system, then determine an appropriate national response.

During the five days of tests in Connecticut and New Jersey, fire departments will conduct search-and-rescue exercises, hospitals will determine how to treat "injured" citizens and governmental types will devise decision-making processes.

Ascarrunz said his department will devote four full-time officers to work on the 2007 program. He also wants to enlist law enforcement agencies from throughout the state, as well as Clark County, Wash., to help prepare for the Homeland Security tests.

Ascarrunz added that the Portland-area tests could examine whether the country's cybernetworks are secure. If so, the Portland-based Regional Alliances for Infrastructure and Network Security, or RAINS, could play a role in any of the 2007 exercises, he said.

"TopOff will bring a major opportunity for national visibility to Portland, and create a complete convergence of federal, state and local security and defense-related agencies around this exercise," said Charles Jennings, CEO of Swan Island Networks and chairman of RAINS. "We're excited about this exercise and very much looking forward to it."

Contact Andy Giegerich at agiegerich@bizjournals.com.
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http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2005/03/21/story5.html?...

The city of Portland's ongoing budget struggles could threaten its status as a host for a major Homeland Security Department exercise in 2007.

The development came during a budget meeting March 15 as officials discussed a recommendation to merge Portland's Office of Emergency Management with the city's 911 Emergency Communications office.

In analyzing various aspects of the move, Carl Simpson, the communications office's director, said that Portland should consider not participating in the TopOff 4 exercise if it cannot use Homeland Security grants to fund it.

The federal government uses the exercises to gauge how well top officials respond during various counterterrorism defense tests. The Homeland Security Department chose Oregon as one of two 2007 test sites; much of the testing could take place in and around Portland.

City leaders don't want to contribute any city dollars to the exercise at least partly because Portland faces a $16.4 million shortfall over the next five years. If city leaders merge the two emergency bureaus, Miguel Ascarrunz, director of the emergency management office and a huge proponent of bringing TopOff to Portland, could lose his job.

Despite the developments, Ascarrunz said he doesn't believe Portland's participation in the exercise is in jeopardy.

"It's still being looked at," he said. "The state will eventually sign an agreement to do it, but we won't get to that until the summertime."

Officials estimated that hosting the high-profile TopOff exercise could cost the city and state as much as $2 million. Some questioned during the March 15 budget meeting whether the exercise would bring any attendant economic impact.

Beverlee Stilwell, Oregon's director of Homeland Security, said the state remains committed to bringing the exercise to the Portland area.

Stilwell said her office wants to meet with Portland Mayor Tom Potter to discuss ways the area can nonetheless host the exercise.

"The federal government picks up a large share of this, but it's too early to tell" what Oregon's jurisdictions must ultimately pay, Stilwell said. "But the commitment of the governor is that we'll be as supportive as we can to do this."

City officials, during the March 15 meeting, also questioned whether any federal grants directed toward regional Homeland Security activities could fund such a localized exercise in Portland. Ascarrunz argued that the TopOff exercises are actually regional events, qualifying them for regionally aimed federal money.

"I know that [Potter] and the council are concerned that we have regional buy-in, and so am I," Ascarrunz said. "That's why we're having further discussions on it. In the best of both worlds, the state will fund most of it."

Ascarrunz said that he's received verbal commitments from officials representing the five counties in and around Portland to help with TopOff program funds. The state collected a $270,000 grant earmarked for local Homeland Security exercises.

If Portland hosts the Homeland Security event, the tests would take place in May 2007.

"TopOff 4" is shorthand for tests that ascertain ways that top federal, state and local officials handle major security-breaching events. Should officials find funding for it, several mock attacks involving biological, radiological and various explosives could occur in and around Portland.

Hundreds of senior-level federal officials regularly visit the test sites, bringing TopOff cities healthy economic benefits, said Kerry Dugan, senior public outreach and information representative of Portland's Office of Emergency Management. Any decision on the fate of the Office of Emergency Management, as well as the TopOff event, could come before the budget is ultimately approved.

Contact Andy Giegerich at agiegerich@bizjournals.com.