SAN DIEGO (AP) - Move over vampires, goblins
and haunted houses, this kind of Halloween terror aims to shake up even
the toughest warriors: An untold number of so-called zombies are coming
to a counterterrorism summit attended by hundreds of Marines, Navy
special ops, soldiers, police, firefighters and others to prepare them
for their worst nightmares.
"This is a very real
exercise, this is not some type of big costume party," said Brad Barker,
president of Halo Corp, a security firm hosting the Oct. 31 training
demonstration during the summit at a 44-acre Paradise Point Resort
island on a San Diego bay. "Everything that will be simulated at this
event has already happened, it just hasn't happened all at once on the
same night. But the training is very real, it just happens to be the bad
guys we're having a little fun with."
Hundreds of military, law
enforcement and medical personnel will observe the Hollywood-style
production of a zombie attack as part of their emergency response
training.
In the scenario, a VIP and
his personal detail are trapped in a village, surrounded by zombies when
a bomb explodes. The VIP is wounded and his team must move through the
town while dodging bullets and shooting back at the invading zombies. At
one point, some members of the team are bit by zombies and must be
taken to a field medical facility for decontamination and treatment.
"No one knows what the
zombies will do in our scenario, but quite frankly no one knows what a
terrorist will do," Barker said. "If a law enforcement officer sees a
zombie and says, 'Freeze, get your hands in the air!' What's the zombie
going to do? He's going to moan at you. If someone on PCP or some other
psychotic drug is told that, the truth is he's not going to react to
you."
The keynote speaker beforehand will be a retired top spook - former CIA Director Michael Hayden.
"No doubt when a zombie
apocalypse occurs, it's going to be a federal incident, so we're making
it happen," Barker said. Since word got out about the exercise, they've
had calls from "every whack job in the world" about whether the U.S.
government is really preparing for a zombie event.
Called "Zombie Apocalypse,"
the exercise follows the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's campaign launched last year that urged Americans to get
ready for a zombie apocalypse, as part of a catchy, public health
message about the importance of emergency preparedness.
The Homeland Security
Department jumped on board last month, telling citizens if they're
prepared for a zombie attack, they'll be ready for real-life disasters
like a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack. A few
suggestions were similar to a few of the 33 rules for dealing with
zombies popularized in the 2009 movie "Zombieland," which included
"always carry a change of underwear" and "when in doubt, know your way
out."
San Diego-based Halo Corp.
founded by former military special ops and intelligence personnel has
been hosting the annual counterterrorism summit since 2006.
The five-day Halo
counterterrorism summit is an approved training event by the Homeland
Security Grant Program and the Urban Areas Security Initiative, which
provide funds to pay for the coursework on everything from the
battleground tactics to combat wounds to cybersecurity. The summit has a
$1,000 registration fee and runs Oct. 29-Nov 2.
Conferences attended by
government officials have come under heightened scrutiny following an
inspector general's report on waste and abuse at a lavish 2010 Las Vegas
conference that led to the resignation of General Services
Administrator Martha Johnson. The Las Vegas conference featured a clown,
a mind-reader and a rap video by an employee who made fun of the
spending.
Joe Newman, spokesman of
the watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight, said he does
not see the zombie exercise as frivolous.
"We obviously are concerned
about any expenditure that might seem frivolous or a waste of money but
if they tie things together, there is a lesson there," Newman said.
"Obviously we're not expecting a zombie apocalypse in the near future,
but the effects of what might happen in a zombie apocalypse are probably
similar to the type of things that happen in natural disasters and
manmade disasters. They're just having fun with it. We don't have any
problems with it as a teaching point."
Defense analyst Loren Thompson agreed.
"The defining
characteristics of zombies are that they're unpredictable and resilient.
That may be a good way to prepare for what the Pentagon calls
asymmetric warfare," Thompson said.
Organizers can also avoid
the pitfalls of using a mock enemy who cannot be identified by
nationality, race or culture, potentially offending someone.
"I can think of a couple of
countries where the local leaders are somewhat zombie-like," he joked.
"But nobody is going to take this personally."
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