Operation Dark Winter

Operation Dark Winter

Operation Dark Winter was the code name for a senior-level bio-terrorist attack simulation conducted from June 22–23, 2001.[1][2][3] It was designed to carry out a mock version of a covert and widespread smallpox attack on the United States. Tara O'Toole and Thomas Inglesby of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies (CCBS) / Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Randy Larsen and Mark DeMier of Analytic Services were the principal designers, authors, and controllers of the Dark Winter project.

Dark Winter was focused on evaluating the inadequacies of a national emergency response during the use of a biological weapon against the American populace. The exercise was solely intended to establish preventive measures and response strategies by increasing governmental and public awareness on the magnitude and potential of such a threat posed by biological weapons.

Dark Winter's simulated scenario involved a localized smallpox attack on Oklahoma City. The simulation was then designed to spiral out of control. This would create a contingency in which the National Security Council struggles to determine both the origin of the attack as well as deal with containing the spreading virus. By not being able to keep pace with the disease's rate of spread, a new catastrophic contingency emerges in which massive civilian casualties would overwhelm America's emergency response capabilities.

The disastrous contingencies that would result in the massive loss of civilian life were used to exploit the weaknesses of the U.S. health care infrastructure and its inability to handle such a threat. The contingencies were also meant to address the widespread panic that would emerge and of which would result in mass social breakdown and mob violence. Exploits would also include the many difficulties that the media would face when providing American citizens with the necessary information regarding safety procedures.

Contents

Key participants

President The Hon. Sam Nunn
National Security Advisor The Hon. David Gergen
Director of Central Intelligence The Hon. R. James Woolsey
Secretary of Defense The Hon. John White[disambiguation needed ]
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Tilelli (USA, Ret.)
Secretary of Health & Human Services The Hon. Margaret Hamburg
Secretary of State The Hon. Frank Wisner
Attorney General The Hon. George Terwilliger
Director, Federal Emergency Management Agency Mr. Jerome Hauer
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation The Hon. William Sessions
Governor of Oklahoma The Hon. Frank Keating
Press Secretary, Gov. Frank Keating (OK) Mr. Dan Mahoney
Correspondent, NBC News Mr. Jim Miklaszewski
Pentagon Producer, CBS News Ms. Mary Walsh
Reporter, British Broadcasting Corporation Ms. Sian Edwards
Reporter, The New York Times Ms. Judith Miller (journalist)
Reporter, Freelance Mr. Lester Reingold

See also

References

  1. ^ O'Leary, N. P. M. (2005). "Bio-terrorism or Avian Influenza: California, The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, and Protecting Civil Liberties During a Public Health Emergency". California Western Law Review (California Western School of Law) 42 (2): 249–286. ISSN 0008-1639. 
  2. ^ Chauhan, Sharad S. (2004). Biological Weapons. APH Publishing. pp. 280–282. ISBN 9788176487320. 
  3. ^ Kunstler, James Howard (2006). The Long Emergency. Grove Press. pp. 175–178. ISBN 9780802142498. 

External links

[Only two of these links are live—2/18/10]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Dark Winter — refers to Operation Dark Winter, a mid 2001 biodefense exercise. Dark Winter (music publisher), a music label. [1] Dark Winter (book), a book by William Dietrich (ISBN 0 446 61197 2) Dark Winter (novel), a novel by Andy McNab, featuring Nick… …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Big Buzz — was a U.S. military entomological warfare field test conducted in the U.S. state of Georgia in 1955. The tests involved dispersing over 300,000 yellow fever mosquitoes from aircraft and through ground dispersal methods. Contents 1 Operation 2… …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Big Itch — was a U.S. entomological warfare field test using uninfected fleas to determine their coverage and survivability as a vector for biological agents.[1] The tests were conducted at Dugway Proving Ground in 1954. Contents 1 Operation 2 Results …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Dew — refers to two separate field trials conducted by the United States in the 1950s. The tests were designed to study the behavior of aerosol released biological agents. Contents 1 General description 2 Dew I 3 Dew II …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Drop Kick — Operation Drop Kick[1] was a 1956 U.S. entomological warfare field testing program that deployed Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to carry a biological warfare agent. Operation Drop Kick apparently included a 1956 test in Savannah, Georgia, where… …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Magic Sword — was a 1965 U.S. military operation designed to test the effectiveness of the sea borne release of insect vectors for biological agents. Contents 1 Operation 2 Results 3 See also 4 References …   Wikipedia

  • Operation May Day — was a series of entomological warfare (EW) tests conducted by the U.S. military in Savannah, Georgia in 1956. Operation Operation May Day involved a series of EW tests from April to November 1956. The tests were designed to reveal information… …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Polka Dot — was a U.S. Army test of a biological cluster bomb during the early 1950s. Operation Operation Polka Dot was a field test of the E133 cluster bomb undertaken at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah during the early 1950s.[1][2] The operation was detailed …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Whitecoat — A Consent Statement (1955) for one of the Operation Whitecoat experiments at Fort Detrick Operation Whitecoat was the name given to a medical research program carried out by the US Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland during the period 1954–1973. The… …   Wikipedia

  • Operation LAC — A C 119 Flying Boxcar, the type of plane used to release the chemicals Operation LAC (Large Area Coverage), was a U.S. Army Chemical Corps operation which dispersed microscopic zinc cadmium sulfide (ZnCdS) particles over much of the United States …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”