(Redding.com) Bomb blasts that blew apart a car and a bus at Shasta Dam were distractions to allow terrorists time to take hostages and control of the nation’s second-largest dam.
Luckily for the north state the dramatic scenario Wednesday was part of a 12-hour terrorist drill at the dam and not real. The goal was to ensure local, state and federal agencies could respond to such a situation and reclaim the dam.
More than 250 people from more than 20 agencies took part, said Sheri Harral, Shasta Dam’s spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation.
The Shasta Dam scenario began with the two mock bomb blasts followed by the “Red Cell” terrorist group taking over the dam in an effort to free one of their fellow marijuana growers from prison. Holding three people hostage, they threatened to flood the Sacramento River by rolling open the drum gates atop the dam. Those gates hold back the nearly full lake.
Of all the possible scenarios for a mock terrorist drill you fabricate a cell of marijuana growers drowning thousands of innocent Americans in order to free somebody like Eddy Lepp? That’s your realistic scenario? You couldn’t pick, say, an al Qaeda sleeper cell, a militia-sympathizing vet, a psycho holed up in a cabin, Christian extremists, or any of the numerous examples of domestic terrorism in just the past 25 years?
When you type “marijuana terrorists” into Google, you get results from this story and from 2007, when the drug czar was pushing the notion that we marijuana smokers were funding the terrorists through our illegal drug purchases. Even then, he was implying we were funding al Qaeda, not Al’s Kush Farm in Humboldt County. What you don’t find is terrorist violence by marijuana growers against civilians to extort the government. However, you can find many stories of terrorist violence by our government against civilian marijuana growers.
Besides, we’d come up with a better name than “Red Cell”. ”Green Cell” is too obvious and below our community’s creative capacity. ”The Humboldt Cell” would fit our predilection for “THC” acronyms. ”The Shastanators” vs. “The Governator”? How about “Ridiculous and Offensive Reefer-Madness-Level Figment of Propaganda Cell”? Eh, probably too long.
Kidding aside, this is a disgusting example of government slander of marijuana consumers. Can you imagine the outrage if the mock terrorists were cast as black separatist radicals or left-wing revolutionaries or Christian prophets, even though those groups have some history of violence in America?
Loading ...
Actually, since blacks and latinos are arrested at much higher rates than statistics say their races use marijuana, it sort of is a race war issue and characterizes blacks and latinos as terrorists, at least in the “back of the mind” kind of way.
“Can you imagine the outrage if the mock terrorists were cast as black separatist radicals or left-wing revolutionaries or Christian prophets, even though those groups have some history of violence in America?”
Quite! Why not write a parody sketch on this, casting Malcom X and The Black Panthers (Sort of a 60′s-70′s equivalent to a contemporary Rapper&Co. for those too young to remember.) in the leading roles. (Very funny!) That should put the cat among the pigeons and jar a few brain cells into action.
I’ve been waiting for this since 9/11.and during Bush2 was surprised they didn’t push the drug financing angle harder. There was a little chatter about opium from pre-invasion Afghanistan terror cells.
The surprise here is that this is Democrat WarBama in North West USA ??? This guy is the biggest disappointment in US political history…maybe that’s just my opinion;nevertheless, each day he shrinks as a messenger of peace,change or hope.
THIS IS SCARY SHIT, WE GOTTA MOBILIZE, THEY ARE PUSHING BACK TRYING TO KILL ANYTHING INTELLIGENT. 2012!
This one really gets me, I dont get it, this is how they look at us? we are that evil and that dirty that marijuana growers would endanger someone or anyone? Come on now! And yes had this been a mack black group attacking the dam we would have a race war on our hands, so instead the choose the least likely of terrorists? I guess if anything the government is scared of us, think we are more organized and stronger than we really are. If they only knew the truth, what a waste of time an money that mock drill was. Marijuana terrorists, what a joke, do they really think this is a possible threat, I think they did it knowing that they would piss off every other group had they chosen them instead. Maybe a little unrest is a good thing, but making up a story about killer potheads just doesnt fly!