Terrorists Are They Are Real Threat? Hype?

[Amillia]

I woke up this morning in a real panic attack. I had just had a not fully awake and not fully asleep premonition of real terrorist attacks ripping through our country.

Do you think it will happen?

[Cal]

Originally posted by Amillia@Jan 25 2005, 04:01 PM

I woke up this morning in a real panic attack. I had just had a not fully awake and not fully asleep premonition of real terrorist attacks ripping through our country.

Do you think it will happen?

Not just because somebody dreams about it.

Unless Bush and his gang start getting their priorities straight on homeland security, it is almost inevitable---my suggestion, more resources into monitoring world nuclear stock piles and radiation detection at our ports.

[Amillia]

Originally posted by Cal+Jan 25 2005, 07:33 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Cal @ Jan 25 2005, 07:33 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Amillia@Jan 25 2005, 04:01 PM

I woke up this morning in a real panic attack. I had just had a not fully awake and not fully asleep premonition of real terrorist attacks ripping through our country.

Do you think it will happen?

Not just because somebody dreams about it.

Unless Bush and his gang start getting their priorities straight on homeland security, it is almost inevitable---my suggestion, more resources into monitoring world nuclear stock piles and radiation detection at our ports.

How do we deal with it on a home level? What places are most likely to be a target?

[Cal]

Originally posted by Amillia+Jan 26 2005, 10:54 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Amillia @ Jan 26 2005, 10:54 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by -Cal@Jan 25 2005, 07:33 PM

<!--QuoteBegin--Amillia@Jan 25 2005, 04:01 PM

I woke up this morning in a real panic attack. I had just had a not fully awake and not fully asleep premonition of real terrorist attacks ripping through our country.

Do you think it will happen?

Not just because somebody dreams about it.

Unless Bush and his gang start getting their priorities straight on homeland security, it is almost inevitable---my suggestion, more resources into monitoring world nuclear stock piles and radiation detection at our ports.

How do we deal with it on a home level? What places are most likely to be a target?

I'm not expert, but it seems to me that sea ports are vulnerable as well as land ports of entry---but nothing can be made 100% secure. We live in an insecure world. You just have to vote for the people that seem to have the most intelligent plan for security--not just chest-beating, but logical plans with logical priorities.

After that, you can't worry too much about it, but just go about your daily life. After all, all things considered, the odds of dying from a terrorist attack on american soil, pale in comparison to many other hazards---like automobile accidents etc.

[Guest TheProudDuck]

After that, you can't worry too much about it, but just go about your daily life. After all, all things considered, the odds of dying from a terrorist attack on american soil, pale in comparison to many other hazards---like automobile accidents etc.

True. The only caveat I'd add would be if terrorists got their hands on a nuclear weapon, in which case I think you'd probably see the end of urban civilization as everybody rushed to find some backwater town that wouldn't be worth a bomb.

It must be much harder for terrorists to pull off something like that than you'd think, because they'd do it if they could, and they haven't.

[Cal]

Originally posted by TheProudDuck@Jan 26 2005, 06:13 PM

After that, you can't worry too much about it, but just go about your daily life. After all, all things considered, the odds of dying from a terrorist attack on american soil, pale in comparison to many other hazards---like automobile accidents etc.

True. The only caveat I'd add would be if terrorists got their hands on a nuclear weapon, in which case I think you'd probably see the end of urban civilization as everybody rushed to find some backwater town that wouldn't be worth a bomb.

It must be much harder for terrorists to pull off something like that than you'd think, because they'd do it if they could, and they haven't.

I've often thought the same thing, PD. What little I know about nuclear devices tells me that indeed it is pretty complicated. I think the most important bottle neck is not so much getting the material, but getting scientists and engineers "nutty" enough to participate in such an endevour. It does take pretty sophisticated engineering to make uncontrolled fission actually work, without taking yourself and half the city with you in the process of making it.

You actually need several pounds of enriched Uranium or plutonium---which I hope is not too easy to come by. You can't get it just from, say, spent nuclear fuel rods. The actual enriched material has to be specially made for that purpose and only certain nations and installations can make it---I assume they are pretty careful with it. YOu would have to infiltrate the organization and probably get some high level engineers to slip it too you--which would probably require a real foul up in security checks on the location and handling of the material.

A dirty bomb (just spewing around a bunch of spent fuel rod material would be a nasty clean up, but probably wouldn't kill that many people, perhaps a few hundred. (not like a nuclear weapon going off in a populated area)

[Guest TheProudDuck]

Cal,

And I would hope that the few nations with the capacity to produce enriched fissile material would be worried enough that foreign intelligence services had penetrated their enrichment programs, that they wouldn't feel comfortable letting terrorist allies borrow a bomb or two for free-lancing, lest that intelligence allow the target to analyze fallout residue, trace the bomb material's origin like in The Sum of All Fears,, and send a few ICBMs down the return bearing.

But since CNN seems to be better at gathering intelligence than the CIA, I get a little nervous that this kind of deterrence is trustworthy.

[Amillia]

I was thinking more along the lines of chemical warfare....like poisoning our water systems.

[pushka]

Amilia, I think you have to accept that your nightmare was a product of the increased media coverage of all sorts of terror activity, threats and counter action by others, and try your best to live each day as it comes, to the best of your ability, without worrying excessively about what may or may not occur.

Tragically terrorist activity does occur, as in the 9/11 attack and others, but it is not wise to dwell on these events at all times as it will only make you anxious...

Live life wisely and happily.

All the best, Michele

[Amillia]

Originally posted by pushka@Jan 27 2005, 09:41 AM

Amilia, I think you have to accept that your nightmare was a product of the increased media coverage of all sorts of terror activity, threats and counter action by others, and try your best to live each day as it comes, to the best of your ability, without worrying excessively about what may or may not occur.

Tragically terrorist activity does occur, as in the 9/11 attack and others, but it is not wise to dwell on these events at all times as it will only make you anxious...

Live life wisely and happily.

All the best, Michele

Thanks Michelle. I think you are right.

[Guest TheProudDuck]

Originally posted by Amillia@Jan 27 2005, 12:03 AM

I was thinking more along the  lines of chemical warfare....like poisoning our water systems.

The problem with that kind of approach lies in the saying "the dose makes the poison." Reservoirs hold really, really large amounts of water. You could pour deadly poisons into them by the truckload and by the time any poison got to your faucet, it would be so diluted that your body wouldn't even notice it.

Poisoning water systems worked a lot better when the whole town got its water from one well. With a modern municipal water system, you'd have to pour concentrated poison into the system somewhere really close to the faucet, like somehow getting it into a water branch line for a block, to avoid it being too diluted to have any real effect. And if you did pull something like that off (somehow avoiding questions as to why you're digging up a city water pipe in the middle of the street), you'd only sicken or kill a few people on one street.

And if killing ten or so people is your objective, it would be a lot easier just to park a cheap used car on the train tracks and derail a commuter train, like that pathetic loser did in LA the other day. (He wanted to kill himself by parking his car on the tracks, but wussed out at the last minute. A Metrolink train derailed and crashed into another passing commuter train, killing eleven people. Dude -- why not just pull a Anna Karenina and throw your worthless hide in front of the train, sans car?)

[Cal]

Originally posted by TheProudDuck@Jan 26 2005, 06:40 PM

Cal,

And I would hope that the few nations with the capacity to produce enriched fissile material would be worried enough that foreign intelligence services had penetrated their enrichment programs, that they wouldn't feel comfortable letting terrorist allies borrow a bomb or two for free-lancing, lest that intelligence allow the target to analyze fallout residue, trace the bomb material's origin like in The Sum of All Fears,, and send a few ICBMs down the return bearing.

But since CNN seems to be better at gathering intelligence than the CIA, I get a little nervous that this kind of deterrence is trustworthy.

I hear you--that is probably one of the biggest deterrents we have in our favor.

[Cal]

Originally posted by Amillia@Jan 27 2005, 12:03 AM

I was thinking more along the lines of chemical warfare....like poisoning our water systems.

Poisoning the water system is much harder to do than you might think. First, the metropolitan water districts monitor the water supply constantly. Second, in order to do much to a water supply in most places, you would have to dump huge quantities of the stuff into reserviors to avoid the diluting effect, even the most potent toxins are pretty harmless in very small quatities and--even the most potent toxins tend to break down after they have been in a water supply for very long.

Third, high concentrations of a toxin would probably be detected long before they actually reached you tap. I wouldn't worry that much about the water supply. You might spend a little more time reading the scientific literature about Global Warming--that is much more likely to be a serious problem, at least for our children and grandchildren, but I digress.