Obama and Bush Teams Play War Games
EmailABC News’ Jennifer Duck reports: Teams 43 and 44 unite at the White House today to play out a hypothetical terrorist attack. The mock attack exercise will include improvised explosive devices hitting transportation, infrastructure and economic targets in numerous U.S. cities.
Top officials from the incoming Obama team will meet their counterparts on the outgoing Bush team for a 90-minute orientation in the Situation Room, the nerve center of the White House. Following orientation, the teams will head across the street for a two hour disaster exercise in a large room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The incoming Obama team will be seated next to its predecessors at tables with big screen monitors displaying slides explaining the scenario.
Senior officials from both teams, include Cabinet secretaries, national security advisers and anti-terrorism officials. Representatives from the press office will also participate in the drill. Attendees include Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who is serving as the incident manager, and FBI Director Robert Mueller III and Deputy FBI Director John Pistole.
"They have the utmost participation as well as we do in making sure that everybody understands," incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told reporters outside the White House as he stood alongside Josh Bolten, the current chief of staff. "And as Josh said, there’s nothing perfect to this, but you only get good by practicing."
Bolten first recommended the exercise when he met with Emanuel after the election. Emanuel thanked both Bolten and President Bush for their efforts in a "seamless … handoff to president-elect Obama’s administration."
"In the post-9/11 world, this isn’t just good mannered, good government; it’s a national security responsibility," Bolten said before the meeting. "In keeping with that understanding of the national security responsibility, we are today undertaking an unprecedented homeland security exercise."
Orchestrated by the Department of Homeland Security, the joint practice run is unprecedented but both teams agree it’s necessary in this wartime transition.
"As Republicans and Democrats, we disagree on a lot of policy issues, but we agree completely that we want this new team to be as successful as they possibly can be especially in the areas of national and homeland security," Bolten explained. "And this morning’s activities, I think, will be an important contributor to that."
Emanuel praised Bolten for his hard work in helping the incoming administration. "I’ve now been over with Josh one way or another four separate times. I’m going miss you," Emanuel said, smiling. "The good news is I have his cell phone, and I’ll be able to reach him because, at the end of the day, as we said at that breakfast, all of us, we were here as employees of the American people working on their behalf every day to ensure both their safety and their security."
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LOl….we
have to teach Obama’s team before he takes office. What? Did he pick an unqualified cabinet to go along with his unqualified abilities?
Posted by: chattyway | January 13, 2009, 6:20 am 6:20 am
Sounds like fun.
Posted by: Huh | January 13, 2009, 6:27 am 6:27 am
chattyway
So you don’t think that our leaders should normally have drills on how to protect us?
Posted by: jock59801 | January 13, 2009, 6:30 am 6:30 am
Wait a minute…….I thought Obama and his team were the most qualified for the job?? Why do they need so much hand holding from a “failed administration”??? I thought we were going to see “change”??
SUCKERS!
Posted by: Ken | January 13, 2009, 6:34 am 6:34 am
Ken
Both Administrations, as well as most of us, think that our national security is more important than partisan bickering. You apparently do not.
Posted by: jock59801 | January 13, 2009, 6:42 am 6:42 am
Trevor – All of the Americans I know want Gitmo closed. The entire world wants Gitmo closed. It has become a symbol of our national embarrassment. A sign that maybe America is not so exceptional after all. Since the Muslim extremists already believed that, I doubt they care either way.
Posted by: jock59801 | January 13, 2009, 6:51 am 6:51 am
When you start a new job, do you get handed the keys to the office and the boss says “here ya go!” with no orientation? Whats the problem with new people learning from the experience and mistakes of the previous administration?
Posted by: dave | January 13, 2009, 6:52 am 6:52 am
@ Trevor – Which Americans want Gitmo open? The 25%ers that still nuzzle Bush’s lower appendage? The rest of us have figured out that they stocked the place mostly with dirt farmers, hand picked by other dirt farmers who got paid by US to “show ‘em the terrorists”. If these people are the “worst of the worst” as Rumsfeld, et.al have proposed on numerous occasions, why can’t they get ONE conviction? Why have they let so many of the worst of the worst go without even an indictment? How does Gitmo conform to international treaties, i.e. THE RULE OF LAW? How does Gitmo enhance our moral standing in the world, which we claim to hold, and hold over other countries when it suits our need? Close Bush’s torture fantasy porn house! Tell the world what these people did wrong and punish them, or let them go. It’s that simple.
Posted by: wakeup people | January 13, 2009, 6:53 am 6:53 am
appauled – And why should we care what Rupert Murdoch thinks?
Posted by: jock59801 | January 13, 2009, 6:54 am 6:54 am
Wow. What a bunch of sore losers. Do you guys read your own comments? You’d think the election was still on. In case you hadn’t noticed, you lost the election, which means you are in the minority. The rest of us hope you will cease this non-productive whining and come join us do our best to rebuild this nation. BTW, I’m very glad the surge worked. It’s one of the only strategies that did. Bush deserves credit where credit is due. But his 8 years are up, and there is still no way I would ever have voted for Palin/McCain. If you want to have any hope of success in 4 years you better find a better pair of candidates than those two…
Posted by: cwm9 | January 13, 2009, 6:58 am 6:58 am
After Obama guts the intelligence community and prevents us from detecting future attacks, he will need this practice. If this happens on Obama’s watch, he will be impeached for stupidity.
Posted by: brian | January 13, 2009, 6:59 am 6:59 am
Let’s just give the new administration a chance. Besides, it is the “United” States future that is at stake.
Posted by: bk | January 13, 2009, 7:02 am 7:02 am
applauded: ready for another shock? al-Quaida in Iraq did not even exist until AFTER we invaded Iraq. It was formed there as a response to our attacks. So we attacked a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, that had no weapons of mass destruction, and no al qaeda presence. We created the situation for al-Quaida in Iraq to form, and now we’ve supposedly gotten rid of the last remnants of the group that we allowed to form by our own irresponsible actions. Doesn’t seem like much to brag about.
Posted by: charles | January 13, 2009, 7:13 am 7:13 am
Wonder if the outgoing team will instruct the incoming team about such things as torture, rendition and illegal wiretaps on American citizens?
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 7:25 am 7:25 am
The point about Gitmo is that we do not know how many of the detainees are criminals. They have never been charged nor tried.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 7:31 am 7:31 am
Then send them back to their countries. Do not give them asylum in USA like Obama wants to give them unless you want them living next door to you.
Posted by: Simon | January 13, 2009, 7:33 am 7:33 am
How about those Muslim Americans who got booted off the AirTran flight recently? American citizens, born here, not naturalized. That was pure profiling and is reminiscent of our incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII, a shameful part of our history.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 7:35 am 7:35 am
“asylum in the USA”
No one is talking about that.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 7:38 am 7:38 am
Simon
I think he can walk and chew gum at the same time. But the closing of Gitmo is as much a symbolic act as anything else. A sign to the world that America is ready to act like America again. I can’t think of anything much more important than that.
Posted by: jock59801 | January 13, 2009, 7:45 am 7:45 am
Well stated, Jock. We are a nation of laws and respect for human rights and due process, something seemingly forgotten over the last eight years.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 7:47 am 7:47 am
Simon – And when did he say that he would let anyone free “whether they are a threat to the USA or not?”
He didn’t. He won’t. Grow up.
Posted by: jock59801 | January 13, 2009, 7:47 am 7:47 am
appauled
No, they were just getting a lot of practice on how to kill American troops. They should he getting really good at it by now.
Posted by: jock59801 | January 13, 2009, 7:49 am 7:49 am
“LOl….we
have to teach Obama’s team before he takes office.”
Maybe next time the President won’t respond by sitting down and staring blankly at elementary school children and then bombing a completely unrelated third party back to the stone age.
Posted by: Silky | January 13, 2009, 7:53 am 7:53 am
Lot’s of whiners on this site. McCain lost, Obama won…deal with it.
Posted by: Dave | January 13, 2009, 7:55 am 7:55 am
Some of the childish remarks on here are almost (but not quite) unbelieveable. These practice sessions have been held at least quarterly since 9/11 by the Bush team and they are doing their duty in sharing their knowledge with the incoming team. Both sides are to be commended, not critizised for putting out country first.
Posted by: Herb Gray | January 13, 2009, 8:00 am 8:00 am
Herb: very well stated.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 8:02 am 8:02 am
Closing down Gitmo doesn’t mean the detainees go free. It means they go back into incarceration in much nicer places like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, etc. Wake up!!!
Posted by: Joe Igotta Bigbanana | January 13, 2009, 8:03 am 8:03 am
Joe, wait until they get to prisons in those countries. They’ll think Gitmo was the Ritz-Carlton by comparison.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 8:05 am 8:05 am
This gives me a very bad feeling. Isn’t this exactly what was going on at the same time 9/11 was happening?
Posted by: keredte | January 13, 2009, 8:14 am 8:14 am
@appauled – “thanks to our military and the current administration blahblahblahblah” – HOW!?! Name one policy that Bush implemented that can be PROVEN to have stopped an attack? Any of the attacks that you might want to mention (liquid bombs on planes (impossible I might add), the Chicago “plot” (with what?), the supposed attack on the Fort (again, with what?) have all been proven as either in-operable or thought up by clueless idiots who never would have had a chance to harm a fly much less attack anything of significance. people can still walk across the border with weapons, ship them in containers, drive them across, etc. – so tell me how that’s solved anything? How hard is it for a terrorists to drive a gas truck in to a crowded area? If the world is so awash with terrorists and people who want to do us harm, why haven’t they? It ain’t that hard to get here, it ain’t that hard to get a gas truck or some explosives if you know the right people…think about it for a minute, perhaps an answer will percolate up through the grey matter…because I find it hard to believe that every single terrorist in the world is right now in Iraq….
Posted by: wakeup people | January 13, 2009, 8:22 am 8:22 am
This is a good idea. It’s always helpful to know how NOT to do things…
Posted by: pt | January 13, 2009, 8:23 am 8:23 am
Obama can get tips on fighting terrorism from his friend Bill Ayers. After all, this guy was a terrorist. We are going to need help since Obama is going to set free the terrorists at GITMO.
Posted by: CW | January 13, 2009, 8:25 am 8:25 am
Another squashed story from Iraq…
Iranian demonstrators burned photographs of Barack Obama today as they protested against America’s inaction over Gaza.
Dozens of people gathered in Tehran waving Palestinian flags and defacing and setting fire to images of the President-elect.
Iranian demonstrators have often burned effigies or pictures of US presidents in the past but this appeared to be the first time Mr Obama’s picture had been defaced, a week before his inauguration as president.
Posted by: appauled | January 13, 2009, 8:25 am 8:25 am
Didn’t they hear his concern…there is only one president at a time…wussie way out, trademark of o.
Posted by: appauled | January 13, 2009, 8:27 am 8:27 am
I think Gitmo should NOT be closed. By closing it we are telling the world to go ahead and do what they want with us, all we’ll do is slap their hand and send them home at our expense..And Bush has helped BHO and his little elves any way he can, also he worked hard to try to clean up Clinton’s mess. Now BHO gets it, I hope he can wave his little wand and puff, everything is as he said would be when he gets to the White House,LOL— Boy there are alot of people fixing to get a rude awakening and all I can say you wanted him, now we all have to pay the price and, GOD HELP AMERICA!!!!!!!!
Posted by: countrygirl_74 | January 13, 2009, 8:28 am 8:28 am
Trevor wrote:
“The world is not just made up of Muslims. There are many countries that support Guantanamo. So the Muslim countries’ support for closing it doesn’t equate world opinion.”
Well, I live in Denmark and I can testify to the fact that America’s standing in the world has suffered greatly because of Guantanamo. That is because most people here don’t support torture and indefinite detention. Especially when, via Bush’s extraordinary renditions-program, any of us could end up in Guantanamo for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
War crimes have gone out of fashion, you are in the minority now. Get used to it and try to make the best of it.
Posted by: Dane | January 13, 2009, 8:29 am 8:29 am
The real sad thing here is seeing how divided we still are. I didn’t vote for Obama, but hey he won so nothing I can say or do will change that. I agreed with some, not all of Bush’s policies. I think 8 years was enough and some new ideas are needed. The military has done their job. They don’t make policy they follow orders. It’s not their job to debate weather it’s a good idea or not, they just do it. I am very thankful for them. We have been attack free for 7 years, and I hope under Obama that continues. The joint training is a good idea. Passing the knowledge to your replacement is a good thing, anyone who thinks it isn’t is just being ignorant. I just hope policies over the next 4 years turn things around. I hope we can win in Iraq and Afghanistan and that we can spend that money in America and not a war. I just hope this country can undivide itself and concentrate on helping one another.
Posted by: Saddened | January 13, 2009, 8:58 am 8:58 am
Interesting, W’s Admin is helping Team PEBO to assure the country continues to be safe, while Clinton’s drones removed all the “W’s” from the computer keypads to help the new Bush Admin during their transition.
Posted by: DonG | January 13, 2009, 9:01 am 9:01 am
“Interesting, W’s Admin is helping Team PEBO to assure the country continues to be safe, while Clinton’s drones removed all the “W’s” from the computer keypads to help the new Bush Admin during their transition.”
Apples and oranges. Practical jokes between outgoing and incoming administrations are as old as the wind.
Posted by: Silky | January 13, 2009, 9:10 am 9:10 am
Let’s hope that the Guantanamo detainees end up receiving Asylum visas to US and end up living next to Democrats who support them so they can enjoy their fellowship. LOL What a bunch of morons!
Posted by: Hope for Liberals | January 13, 2009, 9:13 am 9:13 am
“Let’s hope that the Guantanamo detainees end up receiving Asylum visas to US and end up living next to Democrats who support them so they can enjoy their fellowship. LOL What a bunch of morons!”
Right, we’re the morons, not the people who actually think that Obama is going to set the Gitmo population loose in the US.
Posted by: Silky | January 13, 2009, 9:21 am 9:21 am
With OBie and the Dems in power, terrorists, dictators, and despots around the world have already won. Even our so-called “allies” know that he’ll roll over for them.
Posted by: John Kantor | January 13, 2009, 9:25 am 9:25 am
“With OBie and the Dems in power, terrorists, dictators, and despots around the world have already won. Even our so-called “allies” know that he’ll roll over for them.”
MORE FOIL!!
Posted by: Silky | January 13, 2009, 9:29 am 9:29 am
John Kantor: please name a despot or dictator that has “won” since Obama was elected. Oh, and be specific about what they have “won.”
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 9:39 am 9:39 am
…and if our allies are only “so called,” you can thank George W. Bush for that debacle.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 9:40 am 9:40 am
People are talking about asylum for Muslim terrorists in the USA since sending them back to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan may mean that they are tortured there. That may or may not happen. But Obama wants to protect them from torture and may give them asylum here to live in your neighborhood.
Posted by: Lili von Shtupp | January 13, 2009, 10:00 am 10:00 am
Hey Silky,
Constitution is there to protect Americans first. Without protection first, there are no rights. Rights come second. Read your history.
Posted by: Lili von Shtupp | January 13, 2009, 10:05 am 10:05 am
“Read your history.”
Oh, I have. And, as it pertains to this subject, it goes a little something like:
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Posted by: Silky | January 13, 2009, 10:17 am 10:17 am
“People are talking about asylum for Muslim terrorists”
Oh, really? He’s going to let “terrorists” loose in the US? Please, supply some evidence of that.
Posted by: Silky | January 13, 2009, 10:19 am 10:19 am
Oh….right….evidence. Who needs it.
Posted by: Silky | January 13, 2009, 10:29 am 10:29 am
It just did my heart good, when I read this story about the President Elect Obama’s transition team and our departing presidential team work together for the good of the country. It is so refreshing to hear something about the transition from one political administration to another political administration without the back biting and criticising of one administration by the other. I believe America has reached a new plateau and I am proud to be apart of this political process.
Posted by: Rah Rah | January 13, 2009, 10:33 am 10:33 am
That’s the problem with liberals. They don’t think about consequences like sophomoric teenagers on dope. They just hope for the best because Obama is the Messiah. Yes, the terrorists will be sent to Great Britain and the most extreme ones will stay in USA in your neighborhood.
Posted by: Lili von Shtupp | January 13, 2009, 11:10 am 11:10 am
That’s the problem with the Neo-Clowns from the radical right. They just blindly follow gunslingers like Bush with his phony-baloney wars, alienating former allies across the planet. All the while engaging in torture, extraordinary rendition and spying on American citizens, trampelling the Constitution. If you don’t agree with the conservatives, you are an enemy.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 11:14 am 11:14 am
Conservative Neo-Clowns have made an absolute mess of everything: two wars, the worst economy since the Great Depression, unemployment getting close to double-digits, business meltdown, torture, Iran, an increasingly militant Russia. Yeah, great job.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 13, 2009, 11:20 am 11:20 am
@Lili – an excerpt from the article YOU sourced – “Britain has been formally approached by GEORGE BUSH’S US Government in one of his last actions before leaving office.” Capitals are my addition…funny how you guys can never seem to get your facts straight…
Posted by: wakeup people | January 13, 2009, 11:55 am 11:55 am
if this nation has any emergency we will in next 8 years see how a real president should help the people and get things done instead of doing fly overs and hiding.
Posted by: T | January 13, 2009, 11:55 am 11:55 am
Bush administration did not cause the two wars. They were caused by the enemy. The worst economy was caused by the government, but by the lending practices promoted by Fannie Mae/Freddy and the Democrat policies from the 1990s. You can thank your buddy Barney’s Frank and Nancy Pelosi for that. Iran was not caused by US government. As far as I know, an Islamic revolution happened there a long time ago causing the discord. Same with increasing militant Russia. Not caused by our government but various other factors. It is easy to generalize . . . let’s see how the Messiah handles these problems. So far he seems like a coward who has no business experience in leading our economy or the world in political issues.
Posted by: Lili von Shtupp | January 13, 2009, 11:59 am 11:59 am
Brian babbled “If this happens on Obama’s watch, he will be impeached for stupidity.” If we could impeach a POTUS for stupidity, Bush would have been gone YEARS ago.
Posted by: SamTyler1973 | January 13, 2009, 1:13 pm 1:13 pm
as an american i feel that i like most others are being forced into a life of an economic slave. this meeting was nothing more than the passing of the torch to futher put us under the sumission of the powers that be. homeland security was one of the many ways to come that rape us of rights that all people posses. as far as change nothing will unless we as people actually want it
Posted by: bob | January 13, 2009, 11:53 pm 11:53 pm
War games what a sham. The bailout for wall street where did all the money they have already received go/ No accountability for this bail out yet the auto industry must account for every penny. who employed every common citizen like you and me that labor to make a living and who gets mega millions in salary and then doesn’t have to account for the bailout money that my taxes is being used for .. Where is the fairness in this? There is something very wrong with this picture and who is going to fix it?
Posted by: Rose Szymanski | January 14, 2009, 5:03 am 5:03 am
Obama wants to do the same. Spend billions of taxpayer money with no accountability. Time to reduce the debt and introduce fiscal responsibility with the government. Why is his treasury secretary accused of IRS fraud? This administration is looking like bunch of thugs trying to make a buck off of the American taxpayer while telling them that they are working for them.
Posted by: James P | January 14, 2009, 5:13 am 5:13 am
Tag, your it.
Posted by: Huh | January 14, 2009, 12:27 pm 12:27 pm
“mock attack exercise”
Sounds like what was happening on 9/11 and 7/7.
Posted by: visor | January 14, 2009, 1:56 pm 1:56 pm
I wonder if this is going to be an eye opener for Obama or will he keep his head in the sand, like many who comment?
Posted by: Waggdogg | January 14, 2009, 5:41 pm 5:41 pm
Not sure if the Bush guys would tell the Obama guys about the techniques that make many Americans scared so that they would be behind the White House… :-)
—————— (Don’t know why. The ABC News has blocked my ids from posting comments on its site. They also deleted some of my comments. And they refuse to tell me why. I can only post in this blog section now. Guess the freedom of speech is no longer in ABC News’ vocabulary.)
Posted by: cbs_bull | January 15, 2009, 9:39 am 9:39 am
I remember when the Clinton transition to Bush happened. Clinton people trashed the offices tore off the “W’s” on all the computer boards and were outright ugly. Bush’s Secretaries were not in place in Sept. due to the radical Democrats looking in every nook and corner for dirt. We were hit with 9-11. I applaud Bush for his decency and professionalism and good will which is present in the Republican Party but is sadly missing with the Democrats.
Posted by: anne | January 20, 2009, 7:23 am 7:23 am