Just In - TOPOFF3 Terror Drill Fake News Report from 2005

This series of 4 fascinating videos have recently appeared on Youtube, and seem worth posting here just for their chillingly convincing nature. Although the source of the videos have not been officially confirmed, they purport to be from the joint US-UK-Canadian anti-terror drill "TOPOFF3", back in 2005 - and judging by this link http://www.fcw.com/print/11_16/news/88622-1.html, they certainly appear to be.

NOTE: WE'VE JUST DISCOVERED AS OF THE 28th MARCH 2008 THAT THIS SERIES OF VIDEOS HAS BEEN CENSORED FROM YOUTUBE. WE'LL TRY AND FIX THE LINKS WHEN WE FIND OTHER COPIES, BUT FOR NOW LET IT BE NOTED THAT SOMEONE HAS SEEN FIT TO DEMAND YOUTUBE REMOVE THESE VIDS...

Manuscripts Don't Burn finds the appearance of these videos interesting. Firstly, for the fact that they clearly show that the US-UK establishments consider it necessary to rehearse the media response to terror incidents - as though news is somehow something that needs "rehearsing" to "get it right". We consider this proposition deeply dubious, unless of course the purpose of "news" is in fact to act as a government mouthpiece and present the "official line" of a story. Secondly, the videos are interesting in that they show just how easy it is to fake news. Can you tell that these videos are of a fake incident? Would you be able to make that call if they appeared in the guise of live news on the TV? Thirdly, how have these videos come to be released, of all places, on Youtube? Is it with official blessing - in which case the timing, coinciding as it does more or less with the NIE, is interesting. If not - well, this has all the hallmarks of a leak.

At the moment Manuscripts Don't Burn considers this a breaking story on the blogosphere, and we'll try and find out more. One thing to bear in mind: on 911, the US military were conducting a drill involving the terrorist hijack of airplanes and attacks on New York and Washington; on 7/7 the UK intelligence services were conducting a drill involving terror attacks on the London underground: neither of these facts are open to doubt, and are a matter of public record. The uncanny coincidence that EXACTLY the same events happened at the same time as the drills should make us all view government-faked terror news reports from "anti-terror drills" with some seriousness.

As a final note, the people in this video are real - it's interesting to Google some of the main players, such as Rear Admiral David Pekoske. The powers that be are putting an awful lot of money into making sure the news agencies "get it right", this time, unlike the howlers we got on 911.

Watch this space.