[IPSM] URGENT: Terror exercise to be held at NWT oil facility

[Macdonald Stainsby]

*please forward far and wide*

Please let people know about this; northern nations and others concerned 
are already formulating a response-- this is designed to intimidate 
those of us who think that their plans for oil are completely insane! 
This is just like the recent manual flap. Enough!


--

Terror exercise to be held at NWT oil facility
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070402/terror_exercise_070402/20070402?hub=Canada
Updated Mon. Apr. 2 2007 6:43 PM ET

Canadian Press

EDMONTON -- The Canadian military, law enforcement agencies and two of 
the country's largest energy companies are preparing for a possible 
terrorist attack on Canada's oil and gas infrastructure.

More than 200 military personnel will mass in the Northwest Territories 
later this month to practise their response to a simulated attack on 
major oil facilities by a fictional Edmonton-based al Qaeda sleeper 
cell, said Lt.-Col. Kevin Tyler of the Yellowknife-based Joint Task 
Force North.

The task force is the branch of the Canadian Forces charged with 
defending the Arctic.

The fake scenario involves the RCMP calling in the military for help 
after an attack on oil-pumping and pipeline facilities at Norman Wells 
by an "al Qaeda-type'' terrorist group, said Tyler.

"This is a small cell of two (terrorists) in Edmonton who have travelled 
up to the N.W.T. who have received orders to mount an attack. They have 
tried to plant some small explosive devices to try and disrupt the flow 
of oil.''

Imperial Oil (TSX:IMO) owns extensive oilfields near the town, located 
west of Great Bear Lake along the Mackenzie River.

The field is served by an 870-kilometre pipeline linked to the Rainbow 
Pipeline system at Zama, Alta. That pipeline, owned by Enbridge Inc. 
(TSX:ENB), is designed to carry up to 30,000 barrels of oil a day.

The April 16-27 exercise, dubbed Operation Narwhal, will involve 150 
primary reservists from the Maritimes operating in both Norman Wells and 
Fort Simpson, N.W.T., to the south. Aurora surveillance aircraft, 
Griffon helicopters and Twin Otter airplanes based in Yellowknife will 
also be brought in, involving 140 support staff and air crew.

RCMP officers and emergency preparedness officials will also take part, 
as will representatives from Imperial and Enbridge.

"The idea is (prevention), and if there is an attack, the idea is to 
mitigate,'' said Tyler.

Two soldiers will be designated as terrorists and will play out a script 
written by the exercise's management.

As part of the practice, infantry soldiers will patrol critical pieces 
of infrastructure such as pumping stations to try to prevent an attack. 
Soldiers will be armed, but will not be carrying live ammunition.

"The army will be out near the infrastructure, looking for terrorists 
and protecting the pipeline repair group,'' Tyler said.

Imperial Oil spokesman Pius Rolheiser said the exercise is not expected 
to disrupt the company's operations.

"We see this as an opportunity to test our own security systems,'' he said.

"We aren't actually going to be deploying people. It's primarily to test 
our communications links with outside agencies.''

RCMP officers will be available mostly to consult with military 
officials, said Sgt. Larry O'Brien in Yellowknife.

"We have people who are overseeing certain aspects of it, to say, `This 
is what we would do in this case.'''

Operation Narwhal is the result of years of planning by the Arctic 
Security Working Group that started in 2004, said Tyler.

It's the latest in a series of such emergency simulations. Three years 
ago, the military mounted an exercise in the waters off Pangnirtung, a 
Nunavut community on southeast Baffin Island, premised on a foreign 
country attempting to retrieve a satellite that had fallen from orbit 
into the waters of the Davis Strait.

"We have to do these exercises,'' said Tyler. "The lessons will be 
applicable anywhere in Canada.''


-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.