Fake Attacks, Real Anxieties In Israeli National Drill

TERROR WARS

An Israeli policeman portraying a Palestinian militant runs during a mock attack against an Israeli school in Ramat Gan close to Tel Aviv, 20 March 2007. In a two-day drill, one of the largest ever held in Israel, thousands of security forces personnel and emergency workers were to respond to simulated attacks on seven different locations, including a mock chemical attack on a school and a rocket strike on a power station. Photo courtesy AFP.

Israel And US Hold Simulated Missile Defense Exercise
Jerusalem (AFP) March 20 - Israel and the United States on Tuesday concluded a joint computer-based exercise simulating a non-conventional missile strike, military sources said. The joint air-defence drill, called Juniper Cobra 2007, was designed to improve "understanding and cooperation" between Israeli and US military forces, the Israeli army said. The exercise included the testing of Israel's Arrow missile interception system as well as the US-produced Patriot system. No real missiles were intercepted during the computer simulations, which took place over several days, but "both sides were pleased with the results of the exercise," the sources said. Israel has in recent years been concentrating efforts on countering the threat of missile attacks from neighbouring Arab states and Iran, which has conducted several long-range missile tests in recent years. Coupled with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's calls to wipe Israel "off the face of the map," the Jewish state -- believed to be the region's sole nuclear power -- has come to consider Iran's controversial nuclear plan as an "existential threat." Israel and the United States accuse Iran of using its civil atomic energy programme as a cover for developing nuclear weapons, something Tehran strongly denies. Israel and the United States conduct bilateral training exercises "on a regular basis," the army said.

by John Russel
Ramat Gan, Israel (AFP) March 20, 2007
Soldier Itamar Ron spent the day playing sick as a fake victim of a fake chemical attack by fake terrorists -- an actor in a nationwide drill that underscores very real anxieties in Israel.

"I'm a 49-year-old woman. I'm sweating and crying and I can't see. I'm salivating. I have pressure in my chest," the 19-year-old infantryman says, reading from a sign hung around his neck.

He is one of the players enacting a chemical attack on an elementary school in this town just north of Tel Aviv -- one of eight such drills taking place over two days this week across Israel with the aim of preparing police, medics, firefighters and soldiers for various attack scenarios.

The drills include a simulated rocket barrage against the southern town of Sderot, a toxic plume in Beersheba and a missile strike on a Tel Aviv chemical plant. A "mega-terror attack" is scheduled for Wednesday at 11:00 am in the coastal enclave of Netanya.

The focus on chemical attacks comes a week after a chlorine bomb in Baghdad sent hundreds to the hospital with burning eyes and breathing difficulties. But despite mounting anxiety among Israelis about the Iranian nuclear programme, none of Tuesday's mock attacks were nuclear.

"The nuclear matter is not a threat in the coming year," National Fire and Rescue Commissioner Shimon Romasch said.

The massive two-day drill, the biggest and first of its kind here, includes 5,000 police officers, or 25 percent of the force's total manpower, more than 1,000 soldiers and close to 1,500 medics and firefighters.

Michal Orr and her five-year-old son watch as two "terrorists" with red checkered head scarves pour out of a rented Mazda waving Kalashnikov rifles. The pop-pop-pop of firecrackers simulate machine gun fire. Yellow plumes of faux-toxic smoke billow skyward from the basketball court.

"It's very frightening. I have a child in kindergarten and it makes me nervous just watching this even though I know it's only practice," says Orr, who lives near the elementary school in Ramat Gan.

Dozens of ambulances and fire trucks scream into the parking lot. Medics in yellow chemical suits and gas masks plod out to treat the would-be victims, playing dead and covered in stage blood.

A man in a neon vest paces back and forth barking orders in a bullhorn. The sign on his chest reads simply "Director."

Teenage soldiers who have been pulled away from their regular duties manning West Bank checkpoints, act the parts of screaming children, frantic parents and meddlesome journalists.

"They ordered us to be journalists, to run up with cameras and just be annoying," said army border guard Moses Cohen, 22. The sign on his chest reads "Journalist BBC."

A medic scurries to clear people out of the path of ambulances trying to scream away with the wounded, but hesitates to allow the real cameramen covering the drills to linger a minute longer in order to capture the dramatic footage for their evening newscasts.

Authorities said this week's drills were held in order to implement the lessons of last year's war with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia -- a conflict many here consider a failure. "It seems like a publicity stunt," says Orr. "But it's too late for this government. They already messed up and we don't have much faith in them anymore."

However, Israelis know they occupy a precarious piece of Mideast real estate, surrounded by foes who would prefer they settled themselves elsewhere.

Israel has fought half dozen wars with its neighbours since it proclaimed independence in 1948 and faces a constant threat from Palestinians who have endured military rule and occupation for four decades.

"These drills are important. I think something big will happen one day and we have to be ready," says Tal Rakia, 31, a mother of one who lives across the street from the site of the mock siege.

"Since forever we have always had wars and suicide bombers."

Source: Agence France-Presse

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TERROR WARS

Americans Continue To Not Trust Department Of Homeland Security

Washington (UPI) March 9, 2007
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration remain among the least trusted of all U.S. agencies, a new survey finds. Indeed, the DHS came in dead last of all 74 federal agencies that the survey respondents were asked about. Ironically, the survey showed the TSA and the DHS got slightly higher trust figures from the even lower ones they received last year.

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