Office Of The Inspector General - 1681 Words

Office of the Inspector General: Review of TOPOFF 2005 The Top Officials Exercise (TOPOFF) held in April 2005, is the third iteration of the mandated biennial national exercise for top officials and key personnel in emergency management, domestic response and consequence management; that included planning events and seminars in order to strengthen the U.S. to assist in the preparation to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from a large scale attack (A Review, 2005). It has been sponsored by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Homeland Secuirty (DHS), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In 2009, it was announced that the exercise would be renamed Tier 1 National Level Exercises and would still be†¦show more content†¦According to the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) document (2005), the exercise starts 30 days prior to the simulated event and involves the Intelligence Community (IC). While the exercise is fictional, it is based off of real world events and actual terrorist groups . It was designed to test law enforcement personnel and the IC to detect and disrupt the terrorist strategy as early as possible and react to unclear and evolving information. The exercise was to let the IC and law enforcement agencies employ operational procedures, engage analysis, and provide timely and correct information to the participants of the exercise (â€Å"A Review†, 2005, p. 4). There were 15 different types of simulated attacks that played throughout the years. A 10-kiloton improvised nuclear device, explosives attack, biological attacks – anthrax, influenza, and plague, food contamination, and foreign animal disease (zoonotic); chemical attacks of blister agent, toxic industrial chemicals, nerve agent, and chlorine attacks; natural disasters (earthquake and hurricane); radiological attack, and a cyber-attack (â€Å"A Review†, 2005, p. 6). Event 1. TOPOFF 1, May 2000. TOPOFF took place before the events of 9/11 were realized, and was a congressionally mandated drill which lasted 10 days. The simulated bioterrorism attack in Denver and a chemical warfare attack (mustard gas) in New Hampshire were the main targets of the exercise. Lessons learned included the quick