A meeting of the CELL

A meeting of the CELL. - A direct observation
02/23/2012

Posted on Thursday February 23, 02:39:05 GMT-0500 2012 by flamberge

I attended a public conference organized by the Counter Terrorism Education Learning Lab (“The Cell”) which was held in Denver, Colorado on February 22 at the Denver Art Museum.

Admission was by reservation-only, but the event organizers had been very liberal in passing out complementary invitations. Seating was available for about 600 people, but close to 700 actually showed up. The VIPs gathered before the opening session in an exclusive reception area that was open to selected attendees, presumably ones who actually paid for their tickets.

A number of State officials were present from the major parties. The session panelists were:
•Senator Mark Udall (D-CO)
•Admiral James Winnefeld Jr. (Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)
•Ambassador Christopher Hill (former ambassador to Korea, Iraq, and Macedonia)
•Kenneth Wainstein (former DHS Security Advisor to the President)

There were a dozen or so uniformed military officers who appear to be part of the Admiral’s staff.

The Uninvited Ones (911 “Truthers”) held a small rally on the north curbside facing the museum entrance, accosting the conference goers with a gauntlet of large posters and blaring megaphones. Inside, one could barely hear them. Periodically the police and sheriffs officers would go outside and quiet them down.

Security, in uniform and plainclothes, was plentiful, as one might expect, but fairly unobtrusive. A young man dressed in an expensive-looking suite, and carrying an incongruous backpack was quietly taken aside and asked to check his pack. He returned to the session a few minutes later.

Another young man in a pin-striped suite was ejected from the session when he pulled out a video camera and attempted to record the proceedings. There was a press pool and the local news channel was videotaping the entire session, so I guess “pin-stripe” simply failed to get journalist credentials.

The session format was a panel discussion lead by a moderator. There was a “question and answer” segment after the discussion using selected written questions obtained from the audience of the VIP reception.

Topics included:


•Countries that should not have nuclear programs or weapons ( Pakistan, North Korea, Iran)
•Civil Unrest [in Muslim countries] (Syria, Libya, Egypt)
•What are we leaving behind (Iraq, Afghanistan)
•Cyber-terrorist attacks against the US

The panelists appeared to be in complete agreement on every topic offered by the moderator and questions seemed designed to avoid controversy. Senator Udall and Ambassador Hill did most of the talking.

Senator Udall said “The idea that attacking Iran will destroy their nuclear program is flawed thinking”. “We must give sanctions more time to work”. On the other hand he said “All options are on the table”. Both points were repeated by Ambassador Hill.

Rather pointedly the Senator mentioned that he is opposed to sending troops to Teheran. He is also opposed to sending arms to the rebels in the Syrian insurrection, saying that “sometimes the enemy of your enemy is still your enemy too”.

After ten years of war that followed the 911 attacks the country has too much debt. “We are weak at home, said the Senator. The Senator also said “We must audit Defense spending”. “We can trim the Defense budget in ways that won’t leave scars”.

Oddly enough, the Senator advocated a one billion dollar “investment” in Tunisia to support the trend toward democracy in that national government.

The Senator suggested that President Karzai of Afghanistan would probably step down and leave the country after 2014. He said “we are on the right trajectory in Afghanistan”.

The Senator advocated a long-term solution to the terrorist problem: “energy independence” with thirty percent of our supply obtained from “renewable sources”.

About ten percent of the audience left during the panel discussion. I was particularly alerted to the six young men who walked out together - in matching short-sleeve shirts and with tattoos on their arms.

SOURCE: Free republic