Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff is not getting a lot of sleep this week.
In addition to his regular duties, he is also a participant in a large-scale terrorism response exercise and has to react to simulated chemical and biological attacks.
The exercise, called Top Officials 3 (TOPOFF 3), involves 12,000 participants from three countries and is the largest such exercise ever conducted in the US. It simulates a biological attack in New Jersey and a chemical attack in Connecticut.
In addition to nearly 300 US agencies, officials from Canada and UK keep participants informed of the latest developments through a secure link.
Real newspapers and broadcasters were not given details about the simulated emergency to avoid tipping off participants.
The exercise is intended to test reactions in an environment that is as realistic as possible. To simulate a car bomb site in Connecticut, piles of rubble and cars were carefully arranged and scores of volunteers played victims.
Makeup specialists made wounds appear realistic and "victims" were given instructions on how to behave. For example, victims of the biological and chemical agents are carrying prompter cards that describe their symptoms so they know how to answer the questions of medical personnel.
"Players don't know what will happen," said DHS spokesman Marc Short.
The simulation is so realistic that some "patient" volunteers are playing the role of people who think they have the disease, and show up at medical facilities demanding treatment for symptoms they have heard on the fake news reports on VNN.
Volunteers who wanted to participate in TOPOFF 3 had to undergo a background check, Short said, to ensure that terrorist groups would not gain insight into the US response system.
Although the exercise is operating on a broad regional scale, it will not adversely impact actual emergency services or the agencies involved, said Short. That is why Chertoff, one of the high-ranking participants, will pull double duty during the exercise.
The types of attack chosen are not based on specific intelligence. Instead, Short said, the chemical and biological attacks represent events that could take place based on the capabilities officials believe terrorists have.
In all, planning and evaluation of TOPOFF 3 took two years and cost US$16 million dollars. Officials say the expenditure is worth it.
"There is no question that our coordination, precision and practice today will save countless lives tomorrow if our nations are ever again attacked by terrorists," Chertoff said.
He said that the simulation excercise offers emergency responders and top officials "a rare opportunity" to practice and validate their capabilities in response to a coordinated terrorist attack.
"It offers the chance to understand the challenges posed by biological and chemical weapons and to witness the cooperation among organizations at every level of government in protecting our homeland against the threat of terrorism," he said.
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
RSS