Red Cell

"Red Teams" or "Red Cells" are United States government terms for National Security Co-ordination Teams (NSCT). These teams or units are designed to test the effectiveness of American tactics or personnel. In a war game, Red Cell can also refer to the opposing side. The name was derived from "Red Team", a term for the opposing force in a war game by Western states during the Cold War, a reference to the predominantly red flags of Communist states (i.e., the USSR and PRC) with the Western forces being the Blue Team. The Warsaw Pact countries used the same colors, but reversed meaning—they were the Red Team and the opposing force was the Blue Team. A new Red Cell team was formed by the CIA following the 9/11 attacks to brainstorm ways to attack America. The goal of renovating the former Red Cell team was to produce better security measures to prevent them. Novelist Brad Meltzer was recruited to write plots as part of this program. ==History==

Creation On July 5, 1983, Commander Richard Marcinko relinquished command of SEAL Team Six to Captain Robert Gormly after leading the unit for three years. Following the change in command, Vice Admiral James "Ace" Lyons met with Marcinko in early 1984 to discuss naval complacency towards the threat of a terrorist attack. Marcinko was given the authority to form a new highly classified unit, officially designated OP-06D, that was designed to demonstrate how unprepared the Navy was against terrorism by conducting mock attacks against naval installations. Marcinko would give OP-06D the unofficial name of "Red Cell". Red Cell was composed of fourteen members; thirteen members were former members of SEAL Team Six, while the remaining member was a Force Recon Marine. The unit was assigned to the Pentagon and reported directly to Vice Admiral Lyons, and had no single base or headquarters. According to Marcinko in his autobiography Rogue Warrior, Red Cell's unofficial headquarters was a bar named Shooter McGee's, located in Alexandria, Virginia. 1985 operations In the spring of 1985, Red Cell conducted a "dress rehearsal" at Naval Station Norfolk, intended to test Red Cell's capabilities. Acting as a fictional leftist guerilla group called the "Victoria Liberation Front", Red Cell members set remote-controlled dummy explosives, planted charges on a pier-side ship, "destroyed" several planes at a nearby airfield, and even attacked a convenience store located on the base. In the final security exercise, Red Cell members kidnapped the Norfolk base commander and two FBI agents acting as the defense minister of Victoria and his wife; the base commander was tied to a chair with explosives attached to it, while the FBI agents were forced to "drink water until they pissed in their pants". Lyons was replaced by Vice Admiral Donald S. Jones, who Red Cell now reported to. Marcinko would later allege in his autobiography Rogue Warrior that Lyons' promotion was a political maneuver meant to stop him from protecting Red Cell. The team was led by Richard Marcinko until he was relieved of duty and charged with conspiracy, conflict of interest and misappropriating funds. Marcinko maintains that these were made-up allegations as part of a vendetta against him, due to anger felt at senior levels at how easily Marcinko and his team had infiltrated bases and procured top secret information from high-ranking individuals. A high-ranking Navy official cited in People magazine said there was no vendetta and that "the general take was that Red Cell was a good thing." 1986 kidnapping incident In March 1986, Marcinko and Red Cell traveled to Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in Orange County, California, to conduct security exercises at the naval installation. Under the guise of a fictional terrorist group called "Nuclear Free America", Red Cell began to execute mock attacks against base defenses. Sheridan and his wife, Margaret Sheridan, had been woken by a phone call at 3:00 AM calling him in to work; although he believed the call to be a hoax, he decided to go to work anyways. After exiting his house, Sheridan was confronted by Red Cell member Frank Phillips brandishing a gun. Phillips displayed a badge, told Sheridan that this was part of the ongoing security exercises at the base, and told him to get into a car, driven by another Red Cell member, Arturo Farias. ==References==