-> NP> And as a sidebar, I really find it interesting that the military
-> NP> is now conducting "training" exercises by attacking and
-> NP> declaring martial law on eastern seaboard cities.  Part of
-> NP> Pittsburg just last week got attacked and placed under martial
-> NP> law for a day.  It's "training", it's "necessary", it "helps".
-> NP> Ok. And the military opposes any public notifications of
-> NP> this..."training".
-> Once again, please provide plausible documentation for this.
The current issue of Gun Week has a story on this, Cloyce.
BEGIN QUOTE ***********************************************************
Not to worry.  Those nine army helicopters that swooped down over parts
of Pittsburgh for a four-hour military training exercise the night of
June 3 were not painted black.
They were "dark olive green," according to the Washington Times which
quoted Lt. Col. Ken McGraw, a spokesman for the US Army Special
Operations Command based at Fort Bragg, NC.
The sudden arrival of the helicopters about 10 pm over several parts of
Pittsburgh, accompanied by the drop of some 50 Green Berets from the
craft and the sound of gunfire and explosions, frightened a number of
people in the western Pennsylvania city and sent one pregnant women into
labor, according to her husband.  More than a hundred people called the
Pittsburgh Police Department's 911 operators soon after the exercises
began, and many more jammed the airwaves on local and national radio
shows.
. . . The exercises were originally scheduled to have continued
throughout the week, but were promptly canceled after the public outcry.
McGraw told the Times the the Special Operations Command had conducted
similar training exercises in Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles and Miami,
with few complaints.  However, Gun Week does recall that there were a
significant number of complaints about the exercises from residents of
Detroit at the time those exercises were held.
"In the past we received complaints," McGraw said, "but we received more
complaints on this one than for any other exercises we've conducted."
He also explained the purpose of the exercises.
"The Special Operations force has to be able to deploy in any place in
the world at a moment's notice.  The only way you can train for urban
deployment is to train in that environment."
He noted that the unit has trained in jungles, deserts and mountains
and, said with the increased urbanization worldwide, the fact that the
unit is more likely to be deployed in urban areas, and must train in an
urban environment.
"Ther are some urbanized areas that have been specially built (on
military bases) for that purpose,"  McGraw said, "but they lack
high-rise buildings and their lighting conditions vary from those in
actual cities."
McGraw said police and residents in the "immediate vicinity" of the four
trianing sites in Pittsburgh were notified several hours before the
exercise began.  However, he said the command does not put out any
broad, sweeping advance statement because it does not want to alarm
people, and it does not want to attract masses of spectators who could
pose a safety problem.
END QUOTE *************************************************************
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