Movies, high tech simulates war of terror in Metroplex

Volunteers lined up to get in the movie, cops from everywhere assisted - and the show was on with Urban Shield.

Anyone who has seen a second director working the crowd scenes of a "pic-cha" in principle photography will recognize the role this man was playing at a simulated "Columbine" attack at Stipes Elementary School in Irving organized by Cytel Group, Inc., for DHS in cooperation with police agencies from throughout the 16-county North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), a grant-chasing association of cities and counties with headquarters at the Six Flags campus in Arlington…"Okay, places, everyone. We're 10 minutes out…Ready with lights, camera - Action!"

Tony Cimaglia, a volunteer actor whose wife is a teacher at Stipes Elementary School, Irving, Texas, where DHS enacted a "Columbine Style" shooting attack…Michelle Massey, a teacher with a simulated .223 Remington wound that in reality would have torn her shoulder completely off her body…Urban Shield, 11/9/13 by Cytel Group, Inc.

If you wonder where blogsters got fake pictures of the Boston Marathon bombing, look no further. They likely weren't pictures of the bombing, but of a simulated drill that took place earlier. The same company, Cytel Group, Inc., is doing similar drills throughout the D/FW Metroplex over the

weekend of 11/8-10/13.

This man, Taka Yokoyama, was one block away from the Boston Marathon disaster, working as a cameraman for a local network affiliate, when the explosion occurred. The force of the blast? "It rocked my van," he replied. 

He has since transferred to a Dallas station. According to his recollection, the media was not allowed to film or take pictures of the simulated Boston attacks arranged by Cytel for the DHS. So pictures of known commandos wearing prosthetic devices that look like legs severed by bomb blasts could have come from simulated attacks…Do the math.

Cytel Group, Inc., is a Dublin, California, outfit ramrodded by Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern that helps the government train local cop shops in the art and science of crowd control, bomb squad tactics, SWAT assaults and live shooter scenarios. The company did the training drills that happened to precede the Boston Marathon attack in April.