JOIN USThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will launch the Congressionally mandated five-day National Level Exercise 2009 (NLE 09) on Monday that will be directed by the White House and coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
It aims to promote intelligence and information sharing between and among federal, state and international participants -- Australia, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the Navajo Nation -- in the wake of a fictional terrorist attack somewhere outside the United States.
It will be the "first major exercise conducted by the United States government that will focus exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection, as opposed to incident response and recovery," the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in a statement.
"The National Level Exercise allows us to test our capabilities in real-time to refine and strengthen our strategies for preventing terrorist attacks," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The NLE 09 scenario focuses on preventing a terrorist from entering the United States to carry out additional attacks in the aftermath of a terrorist event outside of the country, prioritizing intelligence and law enforcement activities that detect, disrupt and deter preventable terrorist incidents.