During March Madness, the New Jersey National Guard’s 21st Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Team (WMD-CST), Delaware National Guard’s WMD-CST, and Idaho’s National Guard WMD-CST conducted a hypothetical search for domestic nuclear terrorists inside the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, New Jersey.
The U.S. Army reported that the New Jersey, Idaho, and Delaware National Guard participated in interagency biological, chemical, nuclear, radiological, and explosives training from March 25 to 28, during the height of college basketball’s March Madness tournament.
Guard members, FBI agents, and state law enforcement officers were given a hypothetical scenario that stated, “In just a few hours, more than 10,000 people will crowd the facility to listen to the vice president of the United States.”
The scenario continued, “The FBI has just received intelligence that a well-resourced domestic terrorist group has planted bombs, including one with cesium-137 – a radioactive isotope –in the arena.”
After being given the domestic terroristic scenario, Guard members were commanded to search for the nuclear bomb inside the stadium that seats over 8,000 people.
Feds Search Basketball Arena for Domestic Nuclear Terrorists in Their Own March Madness https://t.co/zQFp7we8yN by @kenklippenstein https://t.co/zQFp7we8yN
— The Intercept (@theintercept) April 8, 2024
Per The Intercept:
AS THE NCAA finishes up March Madness, another type of madness is unfolding as the U.S. military retools its weapons of mass destruction response apparatus to focus not on attacks by familiar foreign terror groups like Al Qaeda or ISIS, but by American citizens.
Late last month, for the first time ever, the National Guard conducted an exercise simulating a frantic search for a nuclear dirty bomb at a basketball and hockey arena in Trenton, New Jersey. What made the exercise different from hundreds of such similar war games held since 9/11 is that purely domestic terrorists were identified as the perpetrators.
“The FBI has just received intelligence that a well-resourced domestic terrorist group has planted bombs, including one with cesium-137 — a radioactive isotope — in the arena,” the military said about the scenario for the exercise. “The clock is ticking.”
The CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton is a multipurpose facility able to seat 8,000. The arena aims to attract more college basketball matches, having hosted Princeton vs. Rutgers in November.
The New Jersey, Delaware and Idaho National Guard participated in interagency chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives training with the FBI and state and local law enforcement March 25-28.
Read more ➡️ https://t.co/VdpLxiMDbB@USNationalGuard pic.twitter.com/2NUcVsJDdP
— FORSCOM (@FORSCOM) April 9, 2024
