Concrete Barriers go up at sears tower

nbc5chicago

[MrFred]

just reported on local news, concrete barriers installed around sears tower. Also metal detectors being installed on observation deck (still closed). I know they said there were no real threats, but someone must think the building is a very credible target. Doesn't make me feel good as I work two blocks away and walk past it every day.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Read this....

[Brad’s Gramma]

This just in....

[keithtoo]

I just heard an ex-Muslim speaker on the radio who said that a true Jihad attack should come in 3 waves.

He indicated that for it to only involve one attack, or set of attacks would not be true to Jihad as the Koran defines it.

He said he would be very surprised NOT to see more attacks following soon after the first.

[BunnySlippers]

Until the world is rid of this scum the Sears Tower (and other targets) are vulnerable. We must eliminate these people!

[usconservative]

PING.

concrete barriers are already up around the Dirksen Federal building in Chicago, as well as the Post office. Daley Plaza is literally ringed with sheriff's police cars every day, and the State of Illinois building has increased the number of cement posts to protect the building.

[retrokitten]

I live in Willowbrook and the Sears Tower is clearly visible down 75th Street and I know that when my husband lived south of Frankfort on clear days the Sears Tower was visible. I cannot imagine seeing it crumbling and on fire like we saw the WTC do on TV and I believe many in the Chicago area feel the same way and would rather err on the side of caution even if there wasn't a threat.

I personally believe there was a threat, but we'll have to wait 50 years before we hear it officially. I think it would cause alot of chaos in that area they were to come out with specifics about a threat now.

[marylina]

Thanks for the PING. Frightening.

[MrFred]

I agree there probably was some real and credible threat to the sears tower. Walking by it everyday, I have seen security get tighter every day for the last week. Fisrt just paper "No Parking" signs, but cabs were still pulling up, then yellow caution tape and cabbies shooed away, then wooden police barricades and no traffic allowed to stop, and now the concrete.

[JustPiper]

Bump thanx gramma! Saw the 10pm news...whatchya think, precautionary?

[Mr_Magoo]

Thanks for the ping.

Concrete barriers won't stop a plane. (Another brilliant idea from king Richie II) BTW, I will not go into the city of Chicago as long as king Richie II bans handguns, so I guess that I am safe...

[Brad’s Gramma]

You have mail!

[MrFred]

from chicago trib

On another subject, the mayor scoffed at concerns about how the Loop would be evacuated in case of a terrorist incident.

“One thing you know in any emergency (is), you get away from it,” Daley said. “You don’t rush up to a fire, you don’t rush up to an accident. When you come out of a building -— it proved it at the World Trade Center — you keep walking. You keep going. You have to get away. That is common sense.”

[MrFred]

and the mayor on airport employee screening:

Addressing the issue of airport safety, the mayor said that security problems at a Touhy Avenue airline employee entrance to O’Hare have been “corrected” after a Tribune report last week detailing lapses.

“Now we are searching everybody, and all the employees are mad at us,” the mayor said. In remarks directed at airport workers, he said, “Well, go to work two hours earlier like everybody else...You can’t have it both ways. If the (airline) customers need patience, you need patience.”

[boycott]

Post #4.

They should be shaking in their boots if they plan another attack. There will be a backlash like they never imagined.

[The Iron Duke]

I believe you mean Chicago's Amoco building is built like the WTC, with the top floors having the same circumference as the bottom floors and with the exterior walls containing the supports.

The Sear Tower, on the other hand is built on the concept of supporting one very tall narrow cardboard box by piling three shorter boxes around its base. In this case, however, the boxes are 40, 70+ and 100 stories tall. As a result, the top floors contain much less square footage than the middle floors, which contain much less square footage than the lower floors.

Could a plane bring it down. Yes, but it would collapse in far different manner than the WTC because the weight distributions are not at all the same.

[Magician]

Concern about the Sears tower is well justified. It is thought that the aircraft that was diverted to St. Louis was intended to be crashed into the Sears Tower.

A followup attack involving a single aircraft hijacked from O'Hare is easy to imagine.

[HiTech RedNeck]

There's a naval base right on Lake Michigan in Chicago. I wouldn't worry too much about Sears Tower now that we're on the alert.

[gonzo]

Don'tcha just love those Airline Stocks now?

Hey, you 'MIGHT' have an Air Marshall on board, but you know damned-well that the Pilot is un-armned!

Thanks, President Bush!!

Y'know, I'm a plastics-Engineer - been one for 40 years. I can injection-mold an 12" knife in fibreglass and PAN carbon-fibre-filled nylon or Polycarbonate, that you could shave with, then tape 10 of them to my legs, and board a Commercial Aircraft! They only have to slice once, and they stab forever!

The illusion of aircraft safety now, is just that - an illusion. I suspect that it will be proven soon, much to our chagrin. We might yet lose the Sears Tower. I'll fly again when the Pilot is armned with a gun!....FRegards