Nuke Drill to "Go Live" Scoffed At By Post & Courier (Charleston,SC)

[Lecky]

I can't believe this story made the first page of my local paper.

http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=36369§ion=localnews

"For the past week, conspiracy theorists have been spinning an elaborate tale of how the U.S. government will turn a terrorism drill in Charleston into a nuclear attack. Why? To give the country a reason to invade Iran, of course...

Still, this chatter has stirred up folks all over the Lowcountry, worried that nuclear fallout could seriously ruin their weekend. Officials with Charleston County, the state's emergency management personnel and even the Department of Defense have gotten worried calls from folks scanning the skies for mushroom clouds over Fort Sumter...

Problem is, the terrorism drill, which will focus on bad guys getting nukes, will take place this week at Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Va. -- about 400 miles up the coast. Charleston was apparently mentioned on a lark. The organization charged with homeland defense has no plans to stage a drill in the Lowcountry...

Fueling the speculation locally is the fact that there actually was a sort of terrorism drill here on Aug. 5. More than 100 state, local and federal officials gathered at the Passenger Terminal to discuss a weapons of mass destruction attack. But it was all just talk. "It was a tabletop exercise, there weren't police out running around all over the place," said Joe Farmer, spokesman for the state's Emergency Management Division..."

The article is pretty long and very snarky :P, it covers all the conspiracy theories floating around the internet, even mentions Kevin Byrnes. I think this article will interest and amuse those of us who have been following this internet rumor.

[NJCher]

1. I'm so glad it was just a rumor!

Whew! (wipes brow). We know our government would never do anything like this!

Anyway, here's the bugmenot password if you want to read the whole article:

tikhon
nov19bw

Cher

[greyl]

17. how stealthy of you nt

[shance]

30. Was it just a rumor?

Could be, doubt it. Seems the word got out, which seems more logical. There are more drills scheduled so we have more opportunities to 'be on our toes'.

The drills of 7/7 and 9/11, there apparently was no such luxury, or if people did find out, the Administration turned their head and ignored them.

[SoCalDem]

2. "...nuclear fallout could seriously ruin their weekend..."

Goodness knows... It's really all about their weekend fun :silly:

[Lecky]

5. LOL, I'm pretty sure he was being a smart ass

[all.of.me]

9. that was my favorite line, too!

it must be the big weekend before school starts up again. can't lose THAT one! it's the last hurrah - ha! no pun intended! :rofl:

[goforit]

20. LOL!!!.....Too funny.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Oh what a relief

Charleston is such a beautiful city. I'd much rather they nuke Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Va.

[wli]

4. phew! the odds just went down!

Excellent news.

[Lecky]

8. I can't believe it was front page news...

My personal speculation is that the phones were ringing off the hook with people worried about this drill.

[mom cat]

12. My thoughts exactly. Three cheers to the tinfoil hatters who made the

nuking of Charleston more unlikely.
:toast: :tinfoilhat: :yourock::tinfoilhat::toast:

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. Redstate Charleston was never the target.

But while national attention, and military, response, and FEMA are all focussed on the southeast, a ship pulls into dock in (bluestate) Seattle...

[goforit]

21. Hmmmm..........that wouldn't be good.

Is this why cheney flew off to Alberta?

[mom cat]

27. The issue is that they have been exposed before it could happen anywhere.

I if something happens here now...Seattle, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, we will have exposed their evil in advance. What we should notice is how many Red Staters were accepting the possibility of Bush launching such an attact.

[lovuian]

6. Yes were all silly little people!!!

Don't worry!!!

[wli]

7. at least they're reporting on how terrified people are of BushCo

And it's about time that someone finally did.

[Lecky]

10. True

Maybe there are lots of LIHOP/MIHOP believers in the area...

[goforit]

22. The most Christian State of this country?

[seemslikeadream]

11. Well maybe it would take care of that 1 billion clean-up cost

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4353992

[Skip Intro]

13. I really dislike that paper

the editorial pages are always filled with rw garbage praising bush and downing Democrats in general. Occaisionally an LTTE might make to the page, sharing the truth about America under bush, but even that is uncommon.

The paper more than leans right, in a area of SC that, imho, is about evenly split.

...

Another Charleston DUer! :hi:

[Sperk]

14. good way to get the story out BEFORE the drills, without sounding

like you believe in the rumors. We're on to you *.

[KoKo]

16. What's good about this might be that Bush is Bad for Tourist Business

I'm surprised this made front page of "P&C" but there's nothing Charleston depends on more than tourism and real estate. If Bush starts being seen by folks as bad for Business,particularly among all the "high rollers" on the resort islands, it could further hurt his poll numbers.

Thanks for the post. I got a chuckle out of the read. :D

[deacon2]

18. Important perception shift in progress

Please note that many took this possibility as plausible and acted to "save" themselves by calling. What the hell does that say about shifting public perception of this administration?
Plenty.

[Eloriel]

19. Excellent point. And just what DOES it say about this administration

that there is ANYone who worries about such things, let alone enough of them to warrant a page 1 article?? Hmmmmmmm??????

[goforit]

23. Yes indeed. There is No Trust (amongst their own kind)

They earned it so well.

[Corgigal]

24. guess my nuke pills

will stay in the safe. I live 25 miles from downtown Charleston.

[theearthisround]

25. Fascinating article, its interesting how convincing it is...

The humorous sarcasm is used quite effectively. If I didn't know better this article would have me scoffing at the elaborate tale-telling conspiracy theorists.

[tblue37]

26. Let them mock these fears.

As long as they report them, no matter how snarkily, it will make it harder for BushCo to get away with anything.

[shance]

33. They didn't report them, concerned citizens did.

n/t

[JesterCS]

28. Nuclear Terror Drill was pushed to today....

August 17 8pm EDT -- Naval source says U.S. Navy drill scheduled for Charleston Harbor today, Aug. 17, has been RESCHEDULED for Thursday afternoon, at approximately 3:30pm .

Source confirms drill is tied to NORTHCOM nuclear terror command drill at Ft. Monroe.

Undermanned Naval Hospital told to prepare extra beds.

[Theres-a]

31. Yikes!

:hide:

[loudsue]

29. Maybe spreading the word has foiled their little terrorist attack...

And I agree with a poster up thread: I think left-coasters should also be on the watch. It still looks like the chimp&cheney act has gone to safer harbors.

Anybody that TRUSTS these two with the reins of government, needs to do some serious re-thinking. It looks like there are one helluva lot of people who DON'T trust 'em .... not as far as we can throw 'em.

:kick:

[Minstrel Boy]

32. Imagine if, before 7/7, someone had posted

a warning to London, of an anti-terror simulation scheduled for the morning of July 7, of simultaneous detonations of three bombs at three, specific London tube stations - what would have happened? Or not?

From something I posted on my blog a couple of days ago:

When the other shoe drops, it probably won't be the one we're expecting. But you know what? After all our studious anticipation, we'll know enough to know it's a shoe, and who dropped it. And there's also this: there is the possibility that public expectation - raising our own terror alert over "chatter," suspicious movements and exercises - could possibly forestall synthetic terror events. Why not? It's the same logic Tom Ridge applied to measure the success of Homeland Security. It can never be verified but I have to wonder what might not have happened if, before 7/7, someone had got wind of the drills and posted "Look out, London: the morning of July 7 there's an 'anti-terror' simulation of simultaneous detonations of three bombs at the following stations." (A "fear-mongerer" might have added "OMG, Giuliani's going to be in town!") If the news of the drill had entered public conciousness beforehand to the degree that Fort Monroe's drill has in Charleston - this was a front page story - it's difficult to imagine the bombings proceeding as planned. And so, when no bombs exploded, those who had sounded the alarm would likely think they'd gotten excited over nothing, and might be reticent to do the same again. In such a scenario, this is the price of success: ignorance.

So we shouldn't be shy on Thursday, after the world hasn't blown up more than usual on Wednesday, about sharing what we see, next time we see an ominous convergance of opportunities. It's not forecasting - we've already done that to the limits of our knowledge when we say Americans can expect 90% probability of more of the same - it's saying This is probably nothing, but - Heads up. We're not crying wolf here. After all, we know there is a wolf, and we know him well enough to know he'll strike again when he has the chance and the need. But perhaps, the closer we observe him, and the more vocal we are about it, the more we reduce his chances. His need - there's not much we can do about that.

There may be some magical thinking involved in this. If you don't want doomsday to come, assign a date to it. But given the times, we could do worse.
http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2005/08/doom-days.html

[loudsue]

34. I agree. They're wanting a "surprise" attack, 'cause if they "knew

about it ahead of time, <they> would have done something about it"? (As per kindasleezy rice, before the 9/11 commission.)

Vigilance on our part, will help foil their "carelessness", or their "not knowing" story when it comes.

:kick:

[Professor Chronotis]

35. OT: 100 bombs detonated in Bangladesh; leaflets call for "Islamic law"

Apologies in advance that this is a horribly off-topic post.

But I don't have enough posts yet to start a new thread, and I was wondering if somebody could post the AP story about the 100 bombs detonated in Bangladesh by an Islamic militant groups. It's dated 17 August but not published 'til 18 August.

Here's a link to the printer-friendly version.