[A-List] Fwd: Mighty Derringer

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

Considering the nonchalant attitude of the US Federal Government to nuclear
issues of any type, these archives could be an archive of great interest to
some of us.  I, frankly, find the US attitude to nuclear as so poisonously
unreal compared to the actual dangers, I do not read them.  But, here they
are.  Suzanne

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: National Security Archive <archive at gwu.edu>
Date: Tue, May 29, 2012 at 3:29 PM
Subject: Mighty Derringer
To: NSARCHIVE at hermes.gwu.edu


Mighty Derringer

U.S. Nuclear Terrorism Exercise Leaves Indianapolis in "Ruins"

Fictional Scenario Results in Nuclear Destruction of Large Part of City

1980s Secret Exercise Judged Positively But Underscores Range of Potential
Problems - Bomb Detection, Interagency Coordination, Containment of
Contamination, General "Confusion"

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 380

For more information contact:
Jeffrey T. Richelson
William Burr - 202/994-7000

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, D.C., May 29, 2012 -- A secret exercise in 1986 by a U.S.
government counter-terrorist unit uncovered a host of potential problems
associated with disrupting a nuclear terrorist plot in the United States.
Declassified documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
and posted today by the National Security Archive offer the first detailed
public look at the inner workings of the agencies, military units and other
U.S. entities responsible for protecting the country from a terrorist
nuclear attack.

Today's posting consists of over 60 documents related to MIGHTY DERRINGER,
an exercise that focused on Indianapolis in December 1986. The materials
provide background on the creation, in 1974-1975, of the Nuclear Emergency
Search Team (NEST), a group assigned to respond to plausible threats of
nuclear terrorism or extortion. Today, NEST (now the Nuclear Emergency
Support Team) and conducts exercises to assess its capability to respond to
the possible presence of a terrorist device and test the ability of NEST
and critical cooperating organizations (including military units)to work
together.

While the MIGHTY DERRINGER exercise and resulting documents are over two
decades old, the institutions participating in the exercise retain their
roles today, and the issues confronting them in 1986 are similar to the
ones that they would face in responding to a nuclear threat in 2012 (and
beyond).

This posting is notable for being the first publication of documents that
provide in-depth exposure into all aspects of such an exercise - including
the state-of-play at key points and the array of issues involved in
disabling terrorist devices. Of particular interest are references to the
participation of the Joint Special Operations Command and Delta Force -
mirroring the role they would have in a real-world incident. In addition,
after-action reports reveal the assorted problems that can arise in
coordinating the response to a nuclear terrorist threat among a large
number of organizations.

Check out today's posting at the National Security Archive website -
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb380/

Find us on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/NSArchive

Unredacted, the Archive blog - http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/

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