Live Portion of TOPOFF 2 Concludes

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of State, and more than a dozen other federal agencies, state and local governments, and Canadian government agencies concluded the 'live' exercise portion of a large-scale counter-terrorism exercise on 15 May. The exercise, called "TOPOFF 2" for "Top Officials," included the simulated detonation of a radiological dispersal device in Seattle, and the release of a biological agent in Chicago. Officials moved through the partially-scripted scenario beginning on 12 May, and continued for four days, incorporating thousands of first responders, federal, state, and local government officials and volunteers. A statement by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said, "A greatly scaled down, table-top exercise will continue" through 16 May. AP reported that "hundreds of evaluators," who have observed the proceedings, will "report their findings for later study." The goals of the exercise are "to improve the nation's capacity to manage extreme events; create broader frameworks for the operation of expert crisis and consequence management systems; validate authorities, strategies, plans, policies, procedures, and protocols; and build a sustainable, systematic national exercise program to support the national strategy for homeland security."

ANALYSIS: A preliminary assessment of the largest terrorism exercise since the 2001 attacks indicated that "severe gaps" exist "in the nation's ability to respond quickly and effectively" to such attacks, the Seattle Post - Intelligencer cited government officials and terrorism specialists as saying. The simulated radiological explosion demonstrated the need for better training at the local level, the report said, adding that the "mock outbreak of pneumonic plague a day later in Chicago severely stressed health agencies in diagnosing and treating diseases that could be covertly spread in highly populated areas." In addition, Garrison Courtney, a spokesman in Seattle for DHS' Border and Transportation Security Directorate said "the reorganization of federal agencies created challenges, particularly in establishing new lines of communication. I was thankful for the exercise because we were able to address these problems before something big did happen. We really had the opportunity to improve the way we communicated with other agencies at the federal, county and local level."