Operation Mountain Guardian: A Preview of Aurora Shooting?

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | JULY 26, 2012

In modern society, terror attacks and mass shootings are not isolated events and preparation for these kind of events is not left at random. Even though mass shootings and terror attacks — real ones — are very rare, the United States government continuously carries out military exercises known as drills or operations that mimic scenarios where someone — or a group of people — invades a town, city or government facility in order to murder people or destroy infrastructure. In recent history, the world, but especially the US has seen several examples of imaginary scenarios that became real life nightmares and all of them were preceded by a drill or military exercise that replicated such mass shooting or terror attack.

Shootings, bombs attached to buses, cars, hijacked planes and dirty bombs are just a few of the scenarios the US government trains for all over the nation and also abroad. The most significant in the 21st century was the 9/11 attacks. On 9/11, government agencies were executing a drill that was almost a carbon copy of what turned out to be the hijacking of 4 commercial airplanes that would be used as missiles against American infrastructure. Later in the decade came the London 7/7 terror attacks, where subway lines and buses were blown out by supposed terrorists. In the case of the 7/7 attacks, government agencies in Great Britain had also planned for such a type of attacks and were running a drill that resembled the terror attacks that killed 52 people.

Previous to these two attacks, there was the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred Murrah building, which was also a scenario trained for by US government law enforcement agencies. The attack on the federal building cost the lives of 168 people and left 680 injured. As in-depth research has shown after many years of research, the Oklahoma City bombing was a false flag attack conducted by US Intelligence agencies and law enforcement in order to curb the rise of the liberty movement. That is what is exposed on the film A Noble Lie: Oklahoma City 1995, a documentary that accounts details about the attack that never saw the light of day before, and that conclusively proves that the government was involved all along.

Before Oklahoma City came the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center towers, a prelude of what would come later in 2001. Many people in the intelligence community believe that 1993 was a live drill, one of the options entertained to carry out a meaningful attack in New York City, except that this time it was done in the place where the self-inflicted terror attack would take place.

Note that there are some similarities with all terror attacks or mass shootings we’ve cited before and others that have happened throughout history. First, they were all trained for by authorities. Second, they all occurred the same way or close to the way law enforcement trained for. Third, the government is always the victim of such attacks or a false scenario of danger is created by the government which is later megaphoned by the media. When real shootings or terror attacks,  occur the media limits itself to report it for 3 days and then forgets about it. Fourth, the government always emerges with more power, while the people always surrender more freedom.

The case of Aurora, Colorado, where a gunman entered a movie theater and shot 12 people dead is not the exception. A year before the shooting that took place a few days ago, law enforcement agencies conducted a drill that resembled much of what happened in Denver. Operation Mountain Guardian was an exercise that required police and other agencies to respond to a simulated terrorist attack that was based on the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, where bombs and shots went off almost simultaneously. Those attacks killed a total of 164 people. It is interesting to note that no matter how much police and intelligence agencies prepare for attacks of this nature, because they always occur and for the benefit of government, always come at times when it is more convenient.

“One of the things we have been doing is doing a lot of training around the country on how to respond to different types of terrorist — potential attacks,” said US Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano. “One of the scenarios we had been training across the country for is something along the lines of a Mumbai-style attack, where you have multiple shooters organized, and we had actually coincidentally just done that training in Colorado.” It is not irrelevant to mention that police are looking into the possibility that more shooters were active in Aurora, as reported by some witnesses who saw more than one shooter and other people who suspect that James Holmes was let in the theater by a person who walked out the emergency exit door to speak on a cellphone. If these two caveats are confirmed to be true, the Aurora shooting will be that much closer to being a carbon copy of the Mumbai event.

Operation Mountain Guardian took place in September 2011, and was a larger scale simulation of what happened on Friday in Colorado. In the case of the drill,  law enforcement trained for coordinated attacks conducted by terrorist cells. Having said that, many details are similar to the ones obtained from the outcome of the shooting in Aurora. For example, in Operation Mountain Guardian, police trained to respond to a mass casualty event, and prepared police to respond to attacks on movie theaters, schools, transport hubs, hospitals and others in the Denver metro area.

During the drill, local police, SWAT officers and emergency responders trained to help with victims of a simulated  bombing and shooting during a football game. A PDF document prepared by the Denver Urban Area Security Initative, labeled as “OMG”, is an executive summary of what Operation Mountain Guardian intended to achieve. Just as in the case of the terror drill conducted a year ago, the shootings in Aurora, Colorado caused the local hospital to be flooded with injured and shot people who were arriving directly from the movie theater.

Although after concluding operation Mountain Guardian police and emergency responders were awarded a “pass” for their performance in the drill, in the case of the shooting last Friday, they were not able to prevent the killing of 12 people. This is another confirmation that the government cannot protect you. Police cannot protect everyone at all times. Your security is your responsibility now more than ever. If there is one conclusion that can be safely taken out of the Aurora shooting is that no matter how much the government says it can protect us, in reality it can’t. Such imaginary protection is as rare as the chance of getting killed in a terror attack or a shooting. That is why you never give up liberty in exchange for security.