New Mexico town gears up for 'bombings,' 'poisonings' (Anti-Terror Training Center)

Washington Times ^

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

PLAYAS, N.M. — This former company town on the edge of New Mexico's economically depressed Hidalgo County is about to become the first U.S. community wholly devoted to the war on terror. In late September, without much fanfare, the Department of Homeland Security helped a subcontractor, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, buy Playas in its entirety for $5 million in order to convert it to a fully integrated counterterrorism training center. Because the whole town is now in the hands of homeland-security experts, they will be able to use it to stage mock bombings, hostage takings, water-supply poisonings and anthrax and chemical-weapons attacks, officials said. They can even explode a fake "dirty bomb" to see how "radiation" could spread over still impeccable lawns, adobe-colored houses and the outlying rattlesnake-inhabited plain. The first exercise featuring simulated suicide bombings is scheduled for Dec. 2 and will involve all of the largely abandoned town, which boasts more than 250 homes, a community center, a clinic, an independent water-supply system and the local pride and joy — the Playas bowling alley. "Nobody expected this turn of events," laughs Tommy Townsend, the jovial former city manager and one of the local old-timers. "But everybody is happy we are getting the jobs back."

[EggsAckley]

*ping*

[Tijeras_Slim]

I'd rather they use Santa Fe and Taos.

[EggsAckley]

Santa Fe, yeah. Turn "Bedrock" into bedrock.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Fat Billy can be Barney Rubble.

[EggsAckley]

Heheheh.