Operation Dark Winter
Encyclopedia
Operation Dark Winter was the code name for a senior-level bio-terrorist attack simulation conducted from June 22–23, 2001. It was designed to carry out a mock version of a covert and widespread smallpox
attack on the United States. Tara O'Toole and Thomas Inglesby of the Johns Hopkins
Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies (CCBS) / Center for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS), and Randy Larsen and Mark DeMier of Analytic Services
were the principal designers, authors, and controllers of the Dark Winter project.
Dark Winter was focused on evaluating the inadequacies of a national emergency response during the use of a biological weapon against the American populace. The exercise was solely intended to establish preventive measures and response strategies by increasing governmental and public awareness on the magnitude and potential of such a threat posed by biological weapons.
Dark Winter's simulated scenario involved a localized smallpox attack on Oklahoma City
. The simulation was then designed to spiral out of control. This would create a contingency in which the National Security Council
struggles to determine both the origin of the attack as well as deal with containing the spreading virus. By not being able to keep pace with the disease's rate of spread, a new catastrophic contingency emerges in which massive civilian casualties would overwhelm America's emergency response capabilities.
The disastrous contingencies that would result in the massive loss of civilian life were used to exploit the weaknesses of the U.S. health care infrastructure and its inability to handle such a threat. The contingencies were also meant to address the widespread panic that would emerge and of which would result in mass social breakdown and mob violence. Exploits would also include the many difficulties that the media would face when providing American citizens with the necessary information regarding safety procedures.
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
attack on the United States. Tara O'Toole and Thomas Inglesby of the Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins was a wealthy American entrepreneur, philanthropist and abolitionist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland, now most noted for his philanthropic creation of the institutions that bear his name, namely the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Johns Hopkins University and its associated...
Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies (CCBS) / Center for Strategic and International Studies
Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Center for Strategic and International Studies is a bipartisan Washington, D.C., foreign policy think tank. The center was founded in 1962 by Admiral Arleigh Burke and Ambassador David Manker Abshire, originally as part of Georgetown University...
(CSIS), and Randy Larsen and Mark DeMier of Analytic Services
Analytic Services
Analytic Services is a not-for-profit institute based in Arlington, Virginia which provides analysis and studies in the areas of national security, homeland security, and public safety...
were the principal designers, authors, and controllers of the Dark Winter project.
Dark Winter was focused on evaluating the inadequacies of a national emergency response during the use of a biological weapon against the American populace. The exercise was solely intended to establish preventive measures and response strategies by increasing governmental and public awareness on the magnitude and potential of such a threat posed by biological weapons.
Dark Winter's simulated scenario involved a localized smallpox attack on Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
. The simulation was then designed to spiral out of control. This would create a contingency in which the National Security Council
United States National Security Council
The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...
struggles to determine both the origin of the attack as well as deal with containing the spreading virus. By not being able to keep pace with the disease's rate of spread, a new catastrophic contingency emerges in which massive civilian casualties would overwhelm America's emergency response capabilities.
The disastrous contingencies that would result in the massive loss of civilian life were used to exploit the weaknesses of the U.S. health care infrastructure and its inability to handle such a threat. The contingencies were also meant to address the widespread panic that would emerge and of which would result in mass social breakdown and mob violence. Exploits would also include the many difficulties that the media would face when providing American citizens with the necessary information regarding safety procedures.
Key participants
| President | The Hon. Sam Nunn Sam Nunn Samuel Augustus Nunn, Jr. is an American lawyer and politician. Currently the co-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative , a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Nunn served for 24 years as a... |
| National Security Advisor | The Hon. David Gergen David Gergen David Richmond Gergen is an American political consultant and former presidential advisor who served during the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He is currently Director of the Center for Public Leadership and a professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School. Gergen is... |
| Director of Central Intelligence | The Hon. R. James Woolsey |
| Secretary of Defense | The Hon. John White John White -Musicians:* John White , English musician* John White , American country music singer, writer on the genre of western music* John Simon White , American vocal coach and opera director-Politicians:... |
| Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff | General John Tilelli (USA, Ret.) |
| Secretary of Health & Human Services | The Hon. Margaret Hamburg |
| Secretary of State | The Hon. Frank Wisner Frank Wisner Frank Gardiner Wisner was head of Office of Strategic Services operations in southeastern Europe at the end of World War II, and the head of the Directorate of Plans of the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1950s.... |
| Attorney General | The Hon. George Terwilliger George Terwilliger George Terwilliger was an American film director and screenwriter of silent and early sound-era films. He directed 76 films between 1912 and 1936. He also wrote 54 films between 1910 and 1939.... |
| Director, Federal Emergency Management Agency | Mr. Jerome Hauer Jerome Hauer Jerome Hauer is the Chief Executive Officer of The Hauer Group LLC, a consulting firm and has served as a member of the Hollis-Eden Pharamaceuticals board of directors since June 2004.... |
| Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation | The Hon. William Sessions William S. Sessions William Steele Sessions is a civil servant who served as a judge and 4th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation... |
| Governor of Oklahoma | The Hon. Frank Keating Frank Keating Francis Anthony "Frank" Keating is an American politician from Oklahoma. Keating served as the 25th Governor of Oklahoma. His first term began in 1995 and ended in 1999... |
| Press Secretary, Gov. Frank Keating (OK) | Mr. Dan Mahoney Dan Mahoney Dan Mahoney was an Irish-American journalist who was investigated in the 1950s by Joseph McCarthy and James Eastland for possible Communist activities and party membership.... |
| Correspondent, NBC News | Mr. Jim Miklaszewski Jim Miklaszewski James Allen Miklaszewski , better known as Jim or "Mik" Miklaszewski, is chief Pentagon correspondent for NBC News. "Mik" was reporting live for the Today Show on September 11, 2001 when a plane hit the Pentagon, where his office is based.... |
| Pentagon Producer, CBS News | Ms. Mary Walsh Mary Walsh (journalist) Mary Walsh is a producer at CBS News. She graduated from University of Texas at Austin College of Communication in 1977. At UT she was a member of the Friar Society.She won a 2002 and a 2004 duPont-Columbia Award. She was a media gamer in Dark Winter.... |
| Reporter, British Broadcasting Corporation | Ms. Sian Edwards Sian Edwards Sian Edwards is an English conductor, best known as music director of English National Opera in the 1990s.Edwards was born in West Chiltington, West Sussex. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and later with the conductors Sir Charles Groves, Ilya Musin and Neeme Järvi... |
| Reporter, The New York Times | Ms. Judith Miller (journalist) Judith Miller (journalist) Judith Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, formerly of the New York Times Washington bureau. Her coverage of Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction program both before and after the 2003 invasion generated much controversy... |
| Reporter, Freelance | Mr. Lester Reingold |
External links
[Only two of these links are live—2/18/10]- Dark Winter - Terrorism Information Center
- Operation Dark Winter
- Journal/Issues/Dark Winter PDF
- Dark Winter Research
- Local Response to a National Threat
- Preventing “Dark Winter”
- CNN: Dark Winter and lack of USA Preparedness
- Dark Winter Teaches Bioterror Lessons
- Dark Winter at SourceWatchSourceWatchSourceWatch is an internet wiki site that is a collaborative project of the liberal Center for Media and Democracy...