Thread: IA TREYNORGATE EMA Drill Update

www.nebraskansadvisorygroup.org
　　
Dear Activists: This email deals with an update and offers a sample letter along with contact information regarding the Iowa Emergency Management Agency - Pottawattamie County drill scenario that was scheduled and cancelled at Treynor High School. Thanks to Lenny S of Meetup Group Council Bluffs Teaparty for arranging the meeting and speakers and thanks to KPTM42 and KMTV3 for covering the PCBOS meeting today. Their links are: www.kptm.com and www.action3news.com video link to KMTV3: Fallout from Emergency Drill in Iowa
HYPERLINK "http://www.action3news.com/global/Category.asp?c=170799&clipId=5722337&flvUri=&partn erclipid=&topVideoCatNo=0&autoStart=true&activePan e=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv"

NOTE: Below the sample letter is an article from The Iowa Republican dubbing this debaucle as TREYNORGATE and claims of government misleading information. Please read the article before sending your letter.

UPDATE: On Monday, April 4, 2011 citizens from Iowa and Nebraska spoke to the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors. We appreciate the PCBOS for having a conversation with us regarding our concerns. What we found out is that PCBOS writes checks for the PCEMA but they were not in on the scenario planning and do not have authority over the exercise. However, the Chairman said he believes the EMA is aware of how a scenario like this should not take place in the future.

WHO TO CONTACT: Shown below is a sample email along with contact email address and phone numbers. I'm asking everyone to please take a few minutes to either email and/or call. We need to make sure that everyone who has the authority to keep this from happening in the future hears from us. Again, thank you all for everything you do. Susan

SAMPLE LETTER and CONTACT INFORMATION:
　
TO: Local Emergency Management Commission: Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan 712-328-4601 email via his Administrative Asst. Inky Westfall iwestfall@councilbluffs-ia.gov , Jefferey Danker, Pottawattamie County Sheriff 712.890.2200 jdanker@pottcosheriff.com Local Emergency Management Contacts: email forms for each of these individuals is at http://co.pottawattamie.ia.us/html/EMA_Overview.asp# and the phone numbers for them is Office: 712.328.5777 Office, Secondary: 712.328.5778 Jeffrey J. Theulen, Emergency Management Coordinator Eva Fisher, Emergency Management Administrative Assistant Terry Lindsley, Emergency Management Planner/Trainer & Pottawattamie County ARES Coordinator Doug Reed, EMS Coordinator The Executive Committee: President Gary Brown president@iowaema.com , Vice President Steve O'Neil vicepresident@iowaema.com , Secretary/Treasurer Gina Hardin secretary@iowaema.com

SUBJECT: Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Agency Exercise Scenario for Treynor H. S.

Dear Mayor Hanafan, Sheriff Danker, Mr. Theulen, Local EMA contacts and Excecutive Committee members:

This letter is a formal request for an investigation into the creation and authorization of the scenario that was to be used for the Treynor High School mock drill exercise.

Information in an article in The Iowa Republican http://theiowarepublican.com/home/2011/ ... eynorgate/ seems to indicate a lack of honesty in the PR handling of this situation both in the media and to individuals who had called or emailed their concerns. I have heard complaints from citizens who were either hung up on, rudely spoken to, misdirected or who received no call back at all. The PR theme has been that there was never any intention of political views involved in this scenario - however, one cannot come to that conclusion after reading the specifics used to describe the "suspects".

Unfortunately this scenario has stereotyped, maligned and allows for families and students be to considered a "red flag" if they oppose illegal immigration; support gun rights; live in rural areas, do not participate in school activities; the student is an underachiever in sports and grades; is bullied; is quiet in personality etc.

My suggestion to avoid this type of situation in the future would be to make the exercise scenario generic. In the meantime, I would like a response as to if you will conduct an investigation and when you think a report would be available to the public. If that is not possible then I would like to request to speak at the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
YOUR NAME, Contact information
　
http://theiowarepublican.com/home/2011/ ... eynorgate/
Last weekend a fake school shooting was cancelled to avoid a real one, but the bigger story is the misrepresentation by local officials. The Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) cancelled a planned training drill at the Treynor Community School District due to a threat left on the school’s voicemail.

Sheriff Danker told The Iowa Republican (TIR) that the Ohio caller left school officials a profanity-riddled message telling them to stay home because "the shooting scenario was actually going to take place for real." Though Jeff Theulen, the EMA Coordinator, had issued a statement referencing more then one threat, Danker stated his office was only aware of the single threat left on the voicemail.

The drill had gained nationwide attention because the antagonist of the mock school shooting was an anti-immigration gun enthusiast. According to the exercise plan for Operation Closed Campus: "In the past 6 months, the City of Treynor and Treynor Community School District has received a significant influx of minority residents…that has sparked…racial tensions with a few embedded, typically silent, white supremacy affiliates."

The primary suspect is Timothy Jasper, a white, 18-year-old high school senior who "lives in isolated rural area in Treynor School District…The student has been seen with anti-immigration demonstrators and community rumors indicate a violent, quick-tempered father with ties to an underground white supremacy group…The family is known to be firearm enthusiasts, if not fanatics."

The Pottawattamie EMA has claimed that the scenario was not politically motivated, arguing that it was necessary "to define this FICTITIOUS INCIDENT as a domestic terrorism event" in order to get funding from the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

But records obtained from the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department (HSEMD) reveal a different story. The Pottawattamie EMA never submitted a grant request to DHS for any terrorism training. Rather, the HSEMD submitted a 136-page grant application to DHS for, among many other things, the "development of exercises that challenge, test knowledge, skills, plans and abilities of personnel and organizations."
HSEMD planned to hold three exercises by the end of this year, and provided HSEMD Region IV, which includes Pottawattamie County, $6,000 to "conduct a full-scale or functional WMD, mass fatality, and/or mass casualty exercise. Four counties will exercise, the other 14 counties will provide victims evaluations" as well as exercise direction and planning assistance.

According to HSEMD’s work plan, the initial exercise planning conference wasn’t supposed to be held until July, with the actual exercise taking place by November. Why, then, did Region IV jump the gun? Because Pottawattamie had already planned the mock school shooting as a county-only training drill and was keenly interested in getting the $6,000 to pay for gas and over-time pay.

But HSEMD wasn’t convinced. In an internal email, the grant officer wrote: "Bottom Line: There wasn’t enough information to convince me that this supports regional objectives v. those of a scheduled county exercise. If grant funding is sought for this, there needs to be clarification of that, as well as what specific costs to fund and confirmation that the costs aren’t otherwise locally funded."

Though TIR was able to obtain records from HSEMD within a day, an entire week has passed without similar cooperation from Pottawattamie. EMA Coordinator Theulen first ignored TIR’s Freedom of Information Act requests, then he said that TIR could only view the material in person, then he said he didn’t have the documents, then finally he said he would refer our request to the County Attorney’s Office, who in turn have yet to respond.
Despite Theulen’s belligerence, however, the evidence obtained by TIR shows that the Pottawattamie EMA office greatly exaggerated the number of threats, misrepresented the planning for the drill, and falsely stated that the exercise had to be a "domestic terrorism event." Why?

Thanks for the update, things in our everyday life get hectic and we forget what happened a week or two ago. I knew "we" stopped this so called exercise from happening, now it's really nice to know that someone is still hot on the trail for the truth!

SusanSmithNAG, if you come back to read the comments I don't want to seem stupid but I have to know: what does the NAG stand for? LOL! At first I thought it was a joke as in"nagging housewife", but now I feel there is probably some other explanation. I'm dying to know!

Hi Nomas - yes there is a reason why we picked NAG - it stands for Nebraskans Advisory Group but the NAG part comes in that we found that is what we have to do (and in numbers) before our government representatives will listen to us. Our motto shown on our website is "If you can't beat 'em NAG them!"

In the end they may choose to jerk us around or ignore us, but atleast we know that we have caused them some discomfort by our emails and phone calls.