Asheville NC: Secret Army training raises troubling questions

http://www.mountainx.com/news/2005/0420wargames.php

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Apr 20, 2005 / vol 11 iss 37

Who's in charge here?

Secret Army training raises troubling questions
by Jon Elliston

Asheville resident Craig Sloan was just drifting off to sleep last Aug. 19 when helicopters with their lights off began buzzing low overhead, and he heard what sounded like gunfire and percussion grenades. For a moment, Sloan wondered whether prisoners had broken out of the nearby Buncombe County Jail.

Stepping outside, he looked toward City/County Plaza, the apparent locus of the commotion. "It was so black and so dark," remembers Sloan, an Army veteran who works at Mission Hospitals. "The jailhouse lights were off, and the courthouse lights were off. All you could see was flares. It was frightening. ... With the elevation of the terrorist threat, the first thing I was thinking was, we're being attacked."

What Sloan was seeing was indeed a raid of sorts – but not by any foreign force. Instead, it was an elite U.S. Army commando unit that swept into Asheville that night in a training operation quietly hosted by the Buncombe County Sheriff's Department. Cloaked in secrecy, the exercise left many Asheville residents feeling startled and confused (see "Ground Zero: Asheville?" Sept. 1, 2004, Xpress).

Top local officials first learned about the Army's plans in a hush-hush meeting in 2002 that some say may have run afoul of the state's open-meetings law (see "None of Your Business?"). At the time, the Army apparently assured these local leaders that the public would not be endangered, and indeed, the Aug. 19 exercise doesn't seem to have done lasting harm. But similar operations elsewhere have caused extensive property damage and even loss of life. And while the mayors of some other cities, citing the risks, have said no to hosting military training, city and county leaders here appear willing to accept whatever the Army tells them.

..more..

Good God this is a very frightening article G j! :scared:

~snip~

Originally scheduled for 2003, the exercise was put off for more than a year. An Army officer later explained to local law enforcement that many Delta Force personnel had been busy helping lay the groundwork for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and then assisting in the operation that tracked and killed Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay. And in May 2004, NBC News reported on other Delta activities in Iraq. Citing "two top U.S. government sources," the network reported that the Pentagon's inspector general had launched an investigation of the commando unit for allegedly torturing Iraqi detainees. "Delta Force soldiers routinely drug prisoners, hold a prisoner under water until he thinks he's drowning, or smother them almost to suffocation," the network said.

and why Asheville, home to many progressives and anti-war activists?
Asheville is a small city.

tell me again how the USA is not like the USSR?

While the history of the USA contains many terrible things, it also had the promise of freedom and the hope for a better tomorrow. That's been largely lost in the past 25 years. My sons do not know the America I once knew. It may be harder for people who have never known that good side of America to invest in the fight to reclaim it.

gotta let the state rise supreme over the people, because the people need protecting from those who hate our freedoms.

Do they hate us for our health care?.. oh never mind..

I give credit to the mayors of the cities who said NO to this bullshit!


~snip~

Before the local officials left the conference room, however, the Army representatives presented everyone with a one-page "nondisclosure agreement." By signing the secrecy pledge, local leaders were agreeing not to discuss the training exercise for 50 years, according to one person present.

City Manager Westbrook, a Vietnam veteran who rose to the rank of colonel in the Army Reserve, refuses to discuss the meeting, saying, "Any kind of briefing like that I was in – if I was in one at all – was classified, and I can't talk to anybody about it." Asked if city government had kept any minutes of the meeting, Westbrook said: "I don't know how I can answer that. I would say probably not; it wasn't a public meeting."

It would be hard to make up a story as creepy as this.

or do you know anyone who did?

I guess there was a story in the mountain express, but I missed it.
I did notice that the county sheriff's dept have a special unit with new uniforms that look military. At a contentious anti-gay rally, they were there buffering the counter demonstrators. I asked one of them who he was, and he just said he was with the Buncombe County sheriff's Dept.

We have also noticed that the City police dept. has had a military type vehicle parked in it's parking lot (for about three years now).
The police also film all the protests, but that is nothing new. :-(

(this one I missed somehow)

http://www.mountainx.com/news/2004/0901military.php

Sep 1, 2004 / vol 11 iss 5

Ground zero: Asheville?
Unannounced military training alarms city residents

by Jon Elliston

Some Asheville residents felt they were living in a war zone one recent evening, as explosions and gunfire echoed through downtown for several hours. Beginning around 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 19, three military helicopters – a hulking Black Hawk and two smaller MH-6 Little Birds – circled the city, touching down atop the Buncombe County Courthouse to drop off commandos. With little to no warning of the populace, Asheville had hosted a military training exercise.

And city residents weren't the only ones caught off guard by the mock assault: Key local officials seem to have been similarly in the dark about the exercise.

"I don't have any information," said Asheville Public Information Officer Lauren Bradley, referring questions about the matter to the city manager. "I probably was in the same boat as you. I was in my bed last night and heard helicopters circling overhead and thought, what on earth is going on?"

For his part, City Manager Jim Westbrook said he had no information on the exercise "other than the fact that it was put on." He says he was informed in advance that it would occur but was given no details. "The city tries to cooperate with the military anytime they need training, in case they need a road blocked off or something like that. Other than that, we didn't have anything to do with it." Westbrook is no stranger to military operations: A Vietnam veteran, the city manager also served in the Army Reserve during his 30-year military career, retiring as a full colonel in 1997.

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arresting a dangerous gay (sarcasm!!)
check out the uniform

was posting about military helicopters near his place in the mountains.
He'd never seen helicopters there before, IIRC.

about a half hour from here.

A side note, when the hurricanes hit last season military aircraft, including some that were 'secret', were brought to the Asheville airport for protection. This was reported in the local news.

I would think the people living there in the
midst of all of this would be seriously considering
moving.
I know I would.
Heck, makes me consider moving and
I am thousands of miles away from NC...
BHN

there is probably next to nowhere in this country that is completely immune to this sort of thing.