FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Working Group, and the Washington, D.C. Planning Group was provided by Mr. Eugene Major participants in Exercise MIRAGE GOLD included field elements from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Washington headquarters elements of these agencies were simulated by controllers located in the WDC SIMCELL at the exercise site. The Exercise Command Post (ECP), DOD/DOE Command Post (CP), Joint Operations Center (JOC)/FBI CP, FEMA CP (Consequence Management Cell [CM Cell]), and the Technical Operations Center (TOC) were located in various buildings at the Brown and Root Warehouse Complex, Engineer Road (Route 3017), Gretna, Louisiana. A Visitor's Center was also established in a portion of the building housing the CM Cell. Personnel involved in the exercise from Headquarters, FEMA included: Ms. Lisa Weldon who attended as an observer of the Senior FEMA Official (SFO) operations particularly as they related to the interface with the FBI Special Agentin-Charge (SAC); and Manager. Mr. Eugene Richard who served full-time as the Visitor's Operations FEMA Region VI personnel participating in the exercise included: participating as SFOS; Mr. R.L. "Buddy" Young, Mr. Jim McClanahan, and Mr. Jim LeGrotte, Mr. Charles Barnes, Mr. Graham Nance, Mr. Dale Hoff, and Mr. Danny Rawson, all serving as members of the SFO's staff; Mr. Leland Wilson, Ms. Reba Kestler, Mr. Bob Hendrix, Mr. John Roberts, and Mr. Larry Earp, functioning as members of the Consequence Management Cell; Mr. Billy Penn, Mr. Kyle McCain, and Ms. Sherry Wainright participating as Public Affairs Officers and potential members of the Joint Information Center, and Mr. Leland Peyton and Mr. Russ Bookser, serving as WDC SIMCELL and CM Cell Controllers, respectively. In addition to these named personnel, FEMA Region VI partially activated the Regional Operations Center (ROC) in Denton, Texas, to support the deployed exercise participants. This activity was terminated when the actual disaster response to the flooding in Texas intervened. Individuals participating from the State of Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness included: Mr. Brett Kriger, playing as the Director of the State EOC; and Contractor support to FEMA was provided by the following individuals from TITAN: FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Controllers in the WDC SIMCELL and CM Cell, respectively; and Visitor's Center. Mr. Dick Leadbetter who assisted Mr. Richard in the operation of the It should be noted that the list of participants from FEMA Region VI changed on the first day of active exercise play for the Agency due to a real world disaster situation in the State of Texas and the necessity for several players, including the Regional Director to leave. The remaining personnel from the Region reorganized and continued their participation in the exercise. Objectives for Exercise MIRAGE GOLD consisted of those applicable to all agencies (Interagency/General Objectives) and those detailed by individual agencies (Specific Objectives). The Interagency/General Objectives for the exercise were: Test the command and control systems in a full field deployment against existing Given policy decisions from MICA DIG, test how well these decisions are Evaluate the OPSEC, protection, and security of personnel and equipment against Evaluate the transition of control of an investigative crisis management operation Given the results of MILD COVER, evaluate the procedures, hardware, and Evaluate the policies, procedures, and training for public affairs functions, Given that the resolution of a malevolent nuclear threat results in some concerns about the spread of radioactivity, evaluate the transition from the law enforcement The FEMA exercise-specific objectives included the following: 6. FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Exercise and evaluate FEMA's on-scene response coordination functions for a Exercise the concepts and operations of a Disaster Field Office (DFO) and Joint SCENARIO The scenario for Exercise MIRAGE GOLD was developed to provide for the following: : DOD tactical and technical (Explosive Ordnance Demolition (EOD)) play; FEMA play in conjunction with the FRMAC/NEST, State, and local officials operations in planning the consequence phase of the incident. Active exercise play began with intelligence received from an FBI confidential informant that a domestic terrorist group, the Patriots for National Unity (PNU) was in the New Orleans area plotting to assemble and use nuclear explosive devices in the United States. Subsequent investigation by the Bureau, combined with intelligence inputs and results of searches conducted by various methods, resulted in the identification of several target areas where terrorists and improvised nuclear devices (INDs) were or could be located. These locations were in diverse locations in the greater New Orleans area and comprised actual operating points for the activities of operational forces. Notifications of the incident were made to appropriate agencies (i.e., DOE, DOD, and FEMA) and personnel and equipment were directed to deploy to the New Orleans area. Subsequent exercise events, scripted and free play, focused on the procedures for tactical and technical operations conducted to resolve the situation and the interaction and information exchange between various organizations at the national and local level. 7. GUIDANCE FOR EXERCISE PARTICIPANTS Guidance for players in Exercise MIRAGE GOLD was provided in a Player's Guide (Annex N, Exercise MIRAGE GOLD OPLAN) distributed to all participants prior to the exercise. This document contained a brief history of the New Orleans area, climatological data for the area, and general information regarding the exercise including: FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Exercise MIRAGE GOLD Information Administrative Details Safety Plan Objectives of the exercise were presented; however there was nothing regarding the lead-in scenario. Individuals designated as Controller's for the event received the MIRAGE GOLL CONTROLLER HANDBOOK (Appendix 4, Annex B, MIRAGE GOLD OPLAN). This comprehensive document included information on: Control Philosophy and Operational Concepts Safety Security Exercise Command Post Exercise Control Center Scenario Control Requirements Tabs A-G providing information on the control staff organization, various facility layouts, a controller training schedule, and controller turnover (shift change) procedures. FEMA participants were provided two additional publications to assist them in the exercise. The first document entitled, "EXERCISE MIRAGE GOLD SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION FOR FEMA PLAYERS," provided the concept and objectives, background scenario and start of exercise (STARTEX) information, and a discussion of the concept of consequence management as it was envisioned to apply in the exercise. The second publication, "EXERCISE MIRAGE GOLD SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION FOR FEMA CONTROLLERS," contained the exercise concept, a listing of FEMA and State participants (both player and controllers), the FEMA exercise objectives, evaluation/data collection guidance and worksheets, an exercise time line, a chronological MSEL listing, and all of the FEMA MSEL implementers. Documentation of the exercise was provided through the use of both photo and video recording teams as well as written means in the form of Lotus Notes, a commercial software package. This software enabled controllers to annotate the MSEL data base as implementers were injected and to document player's actions in response to them. In addition, controllers could make comments in the Lotus Notes data base as a primary means of coordinating control activities and documenting all player activities, not just those occurring in response to implementers. Exercise MIRAGE GOLD began with three days of training for controller personnel. FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY The training was designed to: (1) familiarize controllers with the operation of the communications and software used to control and document the exercise; and (2) to familiarize controllers with the contents of interagency agreements and the structures developed to implement them so that interagency and individual agency objectives could be tested. Controllers were also provided a tour of selected exercise target and search areas. This tour was valuable in providing controllers with first hand knowledge of the characteristics of these areas, the distances between them, and an appreciation of what the players would actually be doing at each location. The exercise began on October 16, at 7:55 A.M. (160755 STARTEX) with twenty-four hour a day play continuing until the end of the exercise (ENDEX) on October 21, at 1:38 A.M. (210138). A "Hot Wash" was conducted at 10:00 A.M. on October 21, 1994. Senior representatives from each participating agency were provided the opportunity to comment on the exercise and provide their perceptions of success in attaining the exercise objectives, both interagency and agency-specific. 10. OVERALL EVALUATION OF THE EXERCISE The Exercise MIRAGE GOLD scenario provided an excellent opportunity for participating organizations and agencies to evaluate their performance against the majority of both general and agency-specific exercise objectives. Tactical and technical elements from the FBI and DOD were provided challenging and realistic situations in which command and control systems could be exercised and the transition from investigative to technical processes practiced and evaluated. The scenario provided for the examination of policies, procedures, and training for public affairs and media issues and the interaction between participating organizations to prepare for the transition from a primarily technical, law enforcement, and tactical problem to one of consequence management. It appeared that investigative, technical, and tactical aspects of the exercise were generally conducted in accordance with accepted standards. Deficiencies were noted, however, in the interaction between the FBI (the Lead Federal Agency [LFA]), FEMA, and the State of Louisiana in the planning for and transition to the consequence management phase of the exercise. In addition, the procedures for responding to media inquiries and the sharing of information with organizations and agencies outside technical and tactical channels could be improved. The deficiencies that were noted as they relate to the FEMA objectives are discussed below. 11. EVALUATION OF THE FEMA EXERCISE OBJECTIVES The FEMA objectives for Exercise MIRAGE GOLD were developed to provide an opportunity to examine the interaction between FEMA (represented by staff from FEMA Region VI), the State, and the other major participating organizations (DOD, DOE, and the FBI) that would usually be involved in responding to a domestic terrorist incident involving nuclear material, the type of situation portrayed in the scenario for this exercise. While there are plans for dealing with the effects of a release of radiological material (the Federal Response Plan [FRP] |