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Unthinkable? (terrorists nuking cities)
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | November 21st, 2004 | Charles Burrress

Posted on 11/21/2004 9:19:23 PM PST by Mount Athos

Imagine a relatively small nuclear bomb of 10 kilotons exploding in San Francisco's Union Square. "Everything to the Museum of Modern Art would vaporize," writes Harvard security analyst Graham Allison in his chilling new book, "Nuclear Terrorism." "Everything from the Transamerica building to Nob Hill would be sites of massive destruction; everything within the perimeter of Coit Tower and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge would go up in flames." No survivors would be found amid nearly 100 square blocks, and buildings in about 400 square blocks would be totally destroyed or left looking like the Oklahoma City federal building after it was crushed by a truck bomb. To alert Americans to the intimate extent of the peril, Allison's book is linked to an Internet "Blast Map" showing the radius of destruction for such a nuclear device anywhere in the United States. It can be viewed by ZIP code at www.nuclearterror.org. Allison and other experts agree that the most likely form of nuclear terrorism is a "dirty bomb," where radioactive material is scattered by a conventional explosive or perhaps an attack on a nuclear reactor. But some analysts are worried more by the less likely but far more catastrophic detonation of a terrorist nuclear bomb. "The gravest danger, however, and the one requiring the most urgent attention, is the possibility that terrorists could obtain highly enriched uranium or plutonium for use in an improvised nuclear device," according to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, and former Sen. Sam Nunn, now head of the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: War on Terror
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1 posted on 11/21/2004 9:19:23 PM PST by Mount Athos
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To: Mount Athos

uh sorry about formatting, auto-edit dumped it all into a single paragraph.


2 posted on 11/21/2004 9:19:51 PM PST by Mount Athos
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To: Mount Athos

Imagine a relatively small nuclear bomb of 10 kilotons exploding in San Francisco's Union Square.


3 posted on 11/21/2004 9:20:10 PM PST by BenLurkin (Big government is still a big problem.)
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To: BenLurkin

No more grossly overpriced SF real estate, that's for sure.


4 posted on 11/21/2004 9:23:12 PM PST by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
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To: BenLurkin

I guess we could dream about the consequences of sucha device being deployed by terrorists in any bastion of socialism,...but a wrong thing done in a wrong manner is still wrong,...(sigh).


5 posted on 11/21/2004 9:23:47 PM PST by Cvengr (;^))
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To: Mount Athos

So what, San Fran voted Kerry, they must love Muslim Terrorists, and I'm sure the terrorists love them back and would never bomb them.


6 posted on 11/21/2004 9:23:51 PM PST by jocon307 (Jihad is world wide. Jihad is serious business. We ignore global jihad at our peril.)
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To: Mount Athos
All this is very ironic, since

1) the scenerio is highly plausible

2) San Francisco is most democrat party infested, anti-American, pro-IslamoFascist place in America.

7 posted on 11/21/2004 9:24:07 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (Free Republic is 21st Century Samizdat)
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To: Mount Athos

While I take the threat of a nuclear yeild seriously, I suspect that the parameters needed to effect an explosive yeild would be too difficult master.

I have always been under the impression that so many things must be "just right" for there to be a blast.

Yes? No?


8 posted on 11/21/2004 9:25:01 PM PST by baltodog (Feel free to believe that you descended from monkeys. I'm not gonna' stop you.)
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To: FormerACLUmember

visualize nuclear terrorism


9 posted on 11/21/2004 9:25:25 PM PST by fooman (Get real with Kim Jung Mentally Ill about proliferation)
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To: Mount Athos; BenLurkin

Imagine?





All your gerbil are belong to us.


10 posted on 11/21/2004 9:25:47 PM PST by uncleshag (Send the Light)
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To: Cvengr

Are you sure about that? Don't a couple of the wrongs nullify each other?


11 posted on 11/21/2004 9:25:48 PM PST by little jeremiah (Moral absolutes are what make humans human.)
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To: BenLurkin

If the sheetheads are gonna nuke a city, San Francisco would be my 1st choice.


12 posted on 11/21/2004 9:27:12 PM PST by clee1 (Islam is a deadly plague; liberalism is the AIDS virus that prevents us from defending ourselves.)
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To: jocon307

Those who think our southern border should remain undefended and unfortified need to ask themselves this:

If the terrorists do destroy one or several of our cities, what kind of measures to you think the American people will demand then?

Think mile-deep minefields and razor-wire...


13 posted on 11/21/2004 9:27:22 PM PST by EternalVigilance (Allah's real name is Lucifer...)
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To: clee1
Probably wouldn't be Michael Savage's choice.

....or the choice of any our SF Freepers (of whom there are many).

14 posted on 11/21/2004 9:29:24 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: clee1

Personally, my first choice would be Tehran.


15 posted on 11/21/2004 9:30:45 PM PST by rivercat (Welcome to California. Now go home.)
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To: little jeremiah

;^),...double negation = true, but doubly wrong is doubly wrong,..


16 posted on 11/21/2004 9:31:40 PM PST by Cvengr (;^))
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To: EternalVigilance

"If the terrorists do destroy one or several of our cities, what kind of measures to you think the American people will demand then?"

Well EV, we will see. I'm astonished that we haven't really demanded nor gotten border control. we haven't really demanded not gotten a ban on all entrance from Muslim/terrorist supporting nations.

Hopefully it won't take the nuking of San Fran to get these things. But, let's face it, even if they are all killed in a nuclear attack, they will still vote the "peace & freedom" party, that is, the dems.


17 posted on 11/21/2004 9:32:06 PM PST by jocon307 (Jihad is world wide. Jihad is serious business. We ignore global jihad at our peril.)
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To: clee1
If the sheetheads are gonna nuke a city, San Francisco would be my 1st choice.

Good first choice! And we could only hope they kill every man woman and child in San Fransisco. Oh, and then maybe they can do the same thing in Boston, oh and NY too, where Hillary is a Senator. I'm sure we can think of some more American targets for the enemy to hit.

Good thinking clee1 !

18 posted on 11/21/2004 9:34:20 PM PST by Joe Hadenuf (I failed anger management class, they decided to give me a passing grade anyway)
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To: Mr. Mojo

Not to mention that the Robinson's and the FR servers are located in the bay area. Yikes!


19 posted on 11/21/2004 9:37:34 PM PST by GaltMeister (The only time a Democrat should only be allowed in the White House is to visit the President.)
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To: clee1
If the sheetheads are gonna nuke a city, San Francisco would be my 1st choice.

Too bad that the most beautiful city in America is also a modern-day Gomorrah.

20 posted on 11/21/2004 9:38:32 PM PST by ExtremeUnction
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