Drills being conducted this week at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, were reportedly designed to help federal, state and local authorities practice their response skills in case of a nuclear attack.
Dubbed Operation Gotham Shield and conducted with officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the drills “simulate a scenario in which a 10,000-ton improvised nuclear device goes off on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel,” according to local news station WNYW.
These drills reportedly followed another one conducted last October. Moreover, the drills were not limited to East Rutherford, which is about 15 miles from Manhattan. Similar ones were also occurring in Washington, D.C., and Albany, New York.
Advertisement - story continues below
As noted by NewJersey.com, the odd timing of these drills has been met with ample speculation from online conspiracy theorists, despite claims from local officials that there was nothing fishy about them.
What bothered folks was that the drills were being conducted during the same week that the rogue regime of North Korea was performing live-fire drills. Plus, this week President Donald Trump held an “all-hands” briefing on North Korea at the White House that included nearly the entire Senate.
Some conspiracy theorists worried that the drills were a “false flag” designed to hide an attack on U.S. citizens planned by the U.S. government itself.
Advertisement - story continues below
Just for the record, that idea sounds absolutely absurd.
Operation Gotham Shield is code for dropping a ten kiloton nuke on innocent Americans. 9/11 started as a drill too. #operationgothamshield
— Shadilay (@gabethewhiteboi) April 24, 2017
A more reasonable concern was that the U.S. government was justifiably concerned about the potential for an attack by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, whose behavior has grown increasingly belligerent and bizarre in the past couple of months.
Just last week, for instance, Kim’s regime released a propaganda video that featured San Francisco being destroyed by a nuclear attack. The release of this frightening video was a part of “Day of the Sun” festivities honoring late founding father Kim Il Sung.
And on Thursday of this week the regime posted another propaganda video showing a simulated attack on the White House.
Advertisement - story continues below
With tensions between the United States and North Korea this high, many Americans are rightly concerned, to the point that legislators in Hawaii recently passed a resolution urging lawmakers and citizens to begin taking steps to prepare for the worst.
What remains unknown is whether the drills in New Jersey were part of a similar effort — or whether they really were just routine exercises.
Please share this story on Facebook and Twitter and let us know what you think about concerns regarding these oddly-timed drills in New Jersey.
What do you think about these drills? Scroll down to comment below!
