Admit it, you don’t, but, according to Jeff Stein’s “Spy Talk” in the Wash Post
“Federal, state and local officials carrying out a counter-terrorism drill in Northern California Wednesday played out a scenario in which local marijuana growers set off bombs and took over the Shasta Dam, the nation’s second largest, to free an imprisoned comrade.
According to an account in the Redding (Calif.) Record Searchlight, the 12-hour drill was part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Critical Infrastructure Crisis Response Exercise Program, begun in 2003.
‘More than 250 people from more than 20 agencies took part,’ said Sheri Harral, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation, according to the paper.”
Harral said the drill took 18 months to plan and cost the bureau alone $500,000. The other agencies covered their own costs.
According to Jeff, the “federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program” is worried about an outbreak of a “marijuana war,” but somehow I’m guessing they’re a lot more worried about a “budget cut.”
And, yes, Jeff does say “What were they smoking?” but when you break a story like this, you’re entitled.
