It took over a year to get officials to admit it, but finally, through FOI requests, they can no longer hide it.
Documents from the Ohio National Guard prove that 2nd Amendment supporters with “anti-government” opinions were portrayed as domestic terrorists in a disaster drill. Expect much more of this to come.
On January 18, 2013, WSAZ (NBC Huntingon/Charleston, WV) reported that Scioto County, OH held a mock disaster drill
in conjunction with Scioto County first responders and the Ohio Army National Guard 52nd Civil Support Unit.
The mock “ENEMY”? Two school employees who were disgruntled over the government’s interpretation of the Second Amendment.
The Ohio National Guard 52nd Civil Support Team training scenario involved a plot from local school district employees to use biological weapons in order to advance their beliefs about “protecting Gun Rights and Second Amendment rights.”
Portsmouth Chief of Police Bill Raisin told NBC 3 WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia that the drill accurately represented “the reality of the world we live in,” adding that such training “helps us all be prepared.”
Internal ONG documents provided to Media Trackers after repeated delays provide further context to what WSAZ-TV reported last winter.
In the disaster-preparedness scenario, two Portsmouth Junior High School employees poisoned school lunches with mustard gas, acting on orders from white-nationalist leader William Pierce.
The ONG team discovered biological weapons being produced in the school, requiring activation of containment and decontamination procedures.
Participants in the disaster drill located documents expressing the school employees’ “anti-government” sentiments, as well as a note identifying Pierce as the fictional right-wing terrorists’ leader.
According to that report, the first responders who handled the mock emergency took special note of what appeared in the classroom of a school that was searched during the exercise.
“On the chalkboard as well as the tables there were several statements about protecting Gun Rights and Second Amendment rights,” the summary read.
…Although it’s not referenced specifically in the incident summary report, the 38 pages of documents obtained by MediaTrackers also includes a 2011 article pertaining to gun control that’s on file alongside other evidence obtained from the school, including the name and phone number purportedly belonging to William Pierce, a now-deceased notorious neo-Nazi.
The 2011 article contained among the released documents is a CNN piece entitled “Why the NRA won’t talk gun control with Obama.”
Click here to download the documents obtained and released by MediaTrackers.org.
The MediaTrackers article notes that when ONG’s 52nd Civil Support Unit participated in a similar drill involving left-wing terrorists with Athens County first responders late last year, public officials apologized the next day in response to complaints from local environmentalist groups.
The mea culpa, released in December 2013 by Athens County officials, said “the scenario caused distress to people who have spent countless hours striving to protect the environment and our citizens.”
Thus far, no apology has been issued in this case involving Second Amendment supporters.
Scioto County Emergency Management Agency director Kim Carver refused to comment, telling Media Trackers she was “not going to get into an Ohio Army National Guard issue that you have with them.”
Ohio National Guard Communications Director James Sims II suggested Media Trackers was “inferring” from the ONG document’s contents as opposed to “what’s actually in the report.”
After excerpts of the report were read to him, Sims said it was “not relevant” to understand why conservatives may feel unduly targeted by ONG’s training scenario.
“Okay, I’m gonna stop ya there. I’m going to quit this conversation,” Sims concluded. “You have a good day.”
“The revelation of this information is appalling to me, and to all citizens of Ohio who are true conservatives and patriots, who don’t have guns for any other reason than that the Second Amendment gives them that right,” Portage County TEA Party Executive Director Tom Zawistowski said in a separate Media Trackers interview.
Zawistowski has sent a letter to Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan demanding an immediate investigation into what he calls “an even more onerous type of targeting” by the federal government.
Since the article was published, it has received international attention thanks to a link from DrudgeReport.com that as of 7:00 a.m. February 12 is entering its third day of being highlighted on that site.
Last evening (February 11, 2014), a statement was posted at the official website of the Ohio National Guard:
“In January 2013, Ohio National Guard 52nd Civil Support Team members participated in a one-day training exercise in Portsmouth that was created and run by the West Virginia National Guard. The exercise — one of more than 20 the Team did last year — was designed to test team members’ ability to respond to an unknown chemical, biological, radiological or high-yield explosive incident. To maximize the realism of the exercise, the Ohio National Guard wasn’t involved in the creation or execution of the exercise’s fictitious scenario and was deliberately not informed of its details in advance. It’s not accurate to suggest that certain details of the exercise somehow reflect views or opinions of officials of the Ohio National Guard.”
In the Athens County incident last year, it was similarly noted that the scenario was not created by the ONG. In speaking of that scenario, which involved a left-wing anti-fracking extremist group, Athens Co. Commissioner President Lenny Eliason observed that “you want to have it as realistic as possible, but you don’t want to single out an issue as emotional as that.”
Indeed.
Critics say it is telling that a government group’s chosen bogeyman would be Second Amendment supporters.
“They were characterizing gun owners and Second Amendment supporters as white extremists,” Chad Baus, of the Buckeye Firearms Association, told FoxNews.com. “It was a month after Sandy Hook. There was a large debate where gun owners were being blamed. I think the timing of it was extremely important here.”
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Law Enforcement Training Makes 2nd Amendment Advocates “Domestic Terrorists”
