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I heard a bit of Steven Brill (media honcho and American Prepared Campaign founder/chairman) on C-SPAN2 early yesterday morning. He was talking about WMD as part of a 911 Public Discourse Project event held this past Monday.

If you will recall, in January or February of 2004, some NY area newspapers briefly reported that Steve Brill had a litle soiree at his NYC apartment attended by top media execs from the major outlets and Tom Ridge. The topic of the night was how to cover the next attack, presumably a WMD attack. That is all that was shared publicly at the time.

On the program I watched yesterday, Brill offered a few more details about the NYC meeting; I will take great liberty in paraphrasing his comments. Brill stated that the American public was not prepared for a WMD attack. He talked about the Ready Kits his organization distributed to stores and that even though many were sold, they are far from being a household staple.

Most importantly, Brill said that he and Tom Ridge told the media heads back then to basically be responsible and put their WMD television graphics and information packages together. They were also told to get their WMD experts lined up -- this was last year.

Such coverage should be ready to go (like an obituary of a major public figure prepared in advance). They were instructed not to wait until such a WMD attack because of the "heat of the moment" errors and because there is some misleading information out there.

Brill used the dirty bomb scenario as an example. He said if folks tuned into coverage of a dirty bomb attack on New York, they would panic and flee even from places where they were safe because of the misconceptions between a dirty bomb and a nuke. So prompting the media to prepare correct, informational pieces in advance would help guard against unnecessary hysteria.

But I wondered as I listened to Brill whether that was the only angle they talked about at the 2004 meeting; probably not. We know people will panic and people will in the end make their decisions based on what is in their hearts as well as what they hear on the news. For instance, I think people learned a lesson from the 911 casualties caused secondarily (I say this because the evil jihadi killers were the primary cause) by some workers being told in error that Tower 2 was safe and to go back to their offices. So information on tv is good, but folks will do what they want to keep themselves safe.

I think the NYC talk at Brill's place last year also covered how the media can help keep the public order in addition to offering correct information. I mean, we know that public officials downplay events so as to lessen public alarm and to prevent stampeding and clogging of the roadways. Even if we do not appreciate this, that is one of their roles: to control public order. So it makes sense that the officials need the enlistment of the media to help quell panic, rioting, etc.

I guess the bottom line is not a surprise to us here and it continues to be: Not a question of if, but when... a WMD attack of some kind in some place at sometime.

Preparation, education and awareness remains key. The government agencies and the media can certainly help. But -- in the end -- we will all do what we deem essential to keep safe. I believe that in the event of a WMD attack, people will no longer be the Sheeple following orders that they usually are. This is why the government needs the media to educate, and also to downplay, for some semblance of order.

I think the NYC talk at Brill's place last year also covered how the
media can help keep the public order in addition to offering correct
information. I mean, we know that public officials downplay events so
as to lessen public alarm and to prevent stampeding and clogging of
the roadways. Even if we do not appreciate this, that is one of their
roles: to control public order. So it makes sense that the officials need
the enlistment of the media to help quell panic, rioting, etc.

You are correct here, I agree that there is/has been an effort to stop the masses from panic.

If you are not in the west part of the country, you would not
be aware of Dr. Bill Wattenberg, a Nuclear Physicist, who for 30 years has had a weekend radio show on KGO radio.

kgo.com and also pushback.com has a lot of his papers.

Dr. Bill has been on a committee to study the effects of a WMD attack in America, working for the gov.

He has tried to tell his listeners what to expect, but most do not understand what it means.

Dr. Bill says they expect 25 million deaths, this is the people who are fleeing........to no where. More than likely at the most a few hundred from the WMD.

Many do not have any idea of where to go if under attack, do not have supplies at home and will go insane with worry.

If any of you think back, about 8 years ago, a big storm was expected on the east coast and clinton decided to evacuate the areas that were expecting to be hit.

As I understood it, it was a right now, get in your car and run.

At that time it was still the Art Bell Show and he opened the lines to reports from the storm area only.

We heard 4 hours of calls, families split up, families lost to husbands (truck driver) who did not know if they had left or where they went.

Many do not know that once you were on the freeway, you could not get off.

Many are not aware that this was a part of the clinton plan, or the new FEMA plan, that clinton had ordered.....yes, that same plan that many of us thought (think) was setting up the concentration camps for those of us who fought them.

The FEMA plan was ready and as I understand it, was the foundation for Bush's "Homeland Security Department".

The Traffic on the freeways was at a standstill, people talked of being stopped for hours, unable to move forward.

My daughter lived in Huntsville, Alabama, she says that the refugees created problems there, as some came that far, with still no place to go and no money for motels.

Dr. Bill has said that it will not be only the people from the town that is hit, but will be other towns that think they are next.

Hit Los Angeles, and towns all the way to New York will be sure they are next. There is a danger that some will be hit.

I do hope the meeting was a planning meeting, if not then we will really be in trouble.