Regards, Ivan
Posted on 08/09/2004 3:28:30 AM PDT by MadIvan
A terror plot to detonate a bomb inside a Tube tunnel beneath the Thames has been uncovered by MI5 chiefs, it was reported yesterday.
The explosion would pierce the bed of the river, leaving tens of thousands of rush- hour commuters to be drowned or trampled underfoot in the panic as people tried to flee.
Blueprints for an attack on the Underground and maps of the tunnels were reported to have been discovered at an al- Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, a Sunday newspaper reported. It is the latest in a series of terror scares.
Last week, reports suggested Heathrow airport was a target of Islamic fundamentalists.
Security has been stepped up at the entrances to the hundreds of miles of Tube tunnels stretching underneath London. Anti-terror chiefs recently highlighted that the radio systems of some emergency services do not work in the deepest Tube stations.
Richard Barnes, deputy chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said: 'Radio incompatibility could be a matter of life and death.'
Transport for London, which is responsible for the Tube, said it was working closely with the police to ensure security systems were up to date. Its spokesman added: 'Our radios and the British Transport Police's radios do work in the deepest tunnels.
'We are also working on a new system called Connect to improve communications technology in two years.
'In the interim, our radios and the British Transport Police radios would be used in any such terrorist incident.'
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
DAMN.
Frightening!
They better keep an eye on the Chunnel too. Especially since France is on the other end.
Regards, Ivan
These AQ guys don't seem to have an original idea among them.
Flying a plane into the Capitol came from Clancy.
Didn't I see a Sylvester Stallone movie a few years back about flooding a tunnel?
Adolf Hitler did it at the end of the war. Got into a funk, decided the German people had let him down, and ordered some floodgates open that let a river into the bomb shelters. Ugly.
London subways (tubes) are very deep compared to other cities. In a dense urban environment it is less expensive to build a deep subway system than a shallow one. (Has to do with rerouting utilities.)
< Terrorists win if we let them disrupt our lives. I have no intention of letting them disrupt mine. >
I can't agree more. I refuse to let them make decisions for me as to where I will go and when. To live in fear is to let them win.
Anti-terror chiefs recently highlighted that the radio systems of some emergency services do not work in the deepest Tube stations.
The ability of radio waves to penetrate deeply into underground structures and substructures (by reflection) is frequency-dependent. The most recent 900-MHz and higher-frequency radios and telephones (most 800-MHz phones date from about 10-15 years ago, more recent services are above 1200 MHz) will perform in the subway tunnels, but older VHF and UHF radios tuned to the 100-MHz to 460-MHz bands will tend, like FM radio signals, to fade out inside the tunnels.
They might be able to salvage existing frequencies (avoiding the horrendous expense of wholesale changes) by introducing small repeaters throughout the tunnel network. That could work.
Anything to keep Inspector Tennyson fully supported against the horrid Wuzzies.
If this happened it would be the UK that nuked Mecca. Not Israel or the US.
I am curious about the details of this plan. I am sure the tunnels are far beneath the river, and it would take a lot of explosives to crack the rock above. I would think the police/subway employees might get suspicious if someone tried to bring a thounsand pounds (or kilos, in this case)of packages on a single car.
Precisely the right attitude -- stay safe and alert, but also brave!
Quite right!
These terrorists win if we live our lives in fear.
I like your attitude!
Actually the underground is not in rock. The tunnels were dug through a deposit called the London Clay. The clay is from the deposits of the Thames River. It would take a hell of an explosion to go through the clay and into the Thames. The clay is plastic in nature and therefore self sealing. For this to work they would literally have to blow a crater up to the river bottom. The nauture of explosions would make most of the explosive force follow the path of least resistance which would be down the tunnels.
Then there are the odds to consider:
1) The probability of their overall mission success,
2) The chance that out of 100's of thousands of commuters that any individual will be affected,
3) The probability that the explosion will occur at the right location,
4) The probability that intelligence will not get them before they get us.
I would say the odds are in the favor of any given commuter.
**Didn't I see a Sylvester Stallone movie a few years back about flooding a tunnel?**
Yes, you did.(DAYLIGHT). I watched it also and half way through I realized I knew who was going to be killed next and I had seen this plot before. Remember THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE? Same story, different setting.
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