Sun Sentinel – by Robert Nolin
Amid the explosions, smoke, roaring vehicles and chattering gunfire of a terrorist attack Thursday afternoon at Port Everglades, one fact became chillingly clear:
These weren’t foreign-born America-hating terrorists. These were native-born America-hating terrorists. And they were making things difficult for the good guys.
“They’re moving, they’re taking positions, they have superior firepower,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Saito. “They’re clearly very well-trained, very well-motivated.”
Of course it wasn’t a real terrorist attack, but rather a large-scale SWAT training exercise mounted by the Broward Sheriff’s Office involving boats, bus, bombs and booby-trapped hostages.
“This is really a worst case scenario,” said Saito, the SWAT team member who concocted the training storyline.
In Saito’s plot, seven “sovereign citizens,” or militia-styled revolutionaries who advocate the government’s overthrow, assault the port by boat. Their goal: steal a shipment of arms and ammunition transiting through the facility.
Initially thwarted by deputies, the terrorists seize hostages, wound a deputy, and leave a backpack full of explosives by Terminal 22. Then things get serious.
The terrorists strap bombs to the hostages, take over a bus, and engage in a full-blown gunfight with SWAT team members. The bad guys use paintball guns. The helmeted, body-armor-clad SWAT team responds with simulated ammo.
“It’s all about being prepared,” said SWAT chief Capt. Eddie Grant. “South Florida is a hot area, we have a stadium, two major ports. We have a lot of high-profile targets.”
Among agencies participating were the Fort Lauderdale Police SWAT team and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Coast Guard patrolled the waterway and FBI agents portrayed the terrorists.
The SWAT teams unleashed a full panoply of military-style armament. There were two Bears — massive armored vehicles with turrets for automatic weapons fire — a beefed up front-end loader that lifted an overturned car like a toy and Hummers packed with serious firepower. Machine guns stuttered, and paintball rounds spattered the armored cars.
“It gets your blood going,” Grant said.
“They enjoy being out here,” Saito said. “They look forward to the challenge.”
Team members navigated hallways and rooftops and charged a bus to free hostages. Red-shirted trainers rated their responses and briefed the troops afterward on what was done right and done wrong.
At the end, 12 hostages were rescued unharmed. “The hostages in this situation are most important,” Grant said. “We’ve got to be bullet magnets, that’s your job. Better you than the hostages.”
And the seven terrorists? They were, as Grant put it, “neutralized.”
rnolin@tribune.com or 954-356-4525
Comments posted at original article:
federalist12 at 12:34 PM September 06, 2013:This is a total hit piece on anyone who loves the country, the constitution and wants America to return to the constitution. The “gun nuts” are not going to start shooting without reason, but when confronted with evil then they will defend their lives and their familes and this country and constitution. Marxists beware!This drill is a psyop and the media is being used to propagate the idea people who love the country are crazies when it’s the people who are perpetrating such stories are the crazies!
ccrabill at 12:33 PM September 06, 2013:This article is outrageous propaganda against the only Americans that actually believe in and ABIDE BY the Supreme Law of the Land, aka, The Constitution of the United States!
Of course you would have to demonize law abiding, patriotic Americans when the treasury has been ransacked by foreign banking intersts and the entire country has been taken over by globalists.
Those of us who have not drank the kool-aid are the only ones who stand in the way of the ultimate coup, and THAT is what this “drill” is all about, the declaration of MARTIAL LAW. This administrations is coming apart at the seams. Lie upon lie, CRIME upon CRIME, TREASON upon TREASON!
A massive False FLag event is the only way they know to distract from their wicked deeds and change the subject. The real criminals are in the White House, FBI, CIA, DOJ, DHS, ETC. Heaven help us.
“It gets your blood going,” Grant said.
“They enjoy being out here,” Saito said. “They look forward to the challenge.”
Keep training to take on American Nationals you worthless communists
You sons of bitches try it some day! Your blood will really get going! all over the place.
These lunch money cases love getting toys. They dont care who they kill, just give em more military looking gear they will do anything they are told.
Equip, Arm and Train people. They will be coming soon. And they will be sorry that they ever tried!
Bulldog, Ready and Forward
You better believe “they” will be bullet magnets, and then resupply pods!
“They’re moving, they’re taking positions, they have superior firepower,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Saito. “They’re clearly very well-trained, very well-motivated.”
Superior firepower, maybe.
I’m betting my survival on our sheer NUMBERS.
THAT they are definitely lacking.
I encourage anyone with a training event in their area to attend as an observer even if it is from a hill with binoculars. This is great intell on how these idiots will maneuver.