Posted on 10/29/2001 2:04:30 PM PST by HEFFERNAN2
Attorney General Ashcroft news conference alerting that there may be addtional terrorist attacks this week.
Sure, there are Armenians in California, but there are even more of them in the Niagara Falls area, and they FUR SHUR don't grow date palms there!
I think the A-rabs in Fullerton and to the South to El Centro far outnumber the Armenians, particularly the ones who foster that Saddam Hussein look.
But, can they do anything in time to stop a plane launched from very nearby, flying low, perhaps painted black and flying lights out?
I'm sure they've thought of this, I was just curious. Once you can effectively rule out certain things, it's easier to anticpate what is possible. Or as Spock put it, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Sherlock Holmes
We are approaching this question ethnocentrically, I must observe. These diaperheads don't know and don't care about trick-or-treating or about some sporting event that calls itself 'World Series' for some odd reason when the only teams that ever play it are Yankees. You can talk to some immigrants who have been here for decades and still don't relate to such purely American events.
Certainly, it wouldn't take much effort for them to research and find what the important American events and occasions are, but somehow I doubt they would do that. Keep in mind that on 9/11 they attacked targets which represent and symbolize American power outside the borders of this country. Attacking the Yankee stadium or a kids' Halloween party would not resonate where the diaperheads want it to resonate, in their own evirons, because such targets don't represent or symbolize anything to all other diaperheads there. I think that in addition to being ignorant and ethnocentric themselves, in choosing targets the terrorists seek out symbols and meaning.
Food for thought.
Sherlock Holmes
Botulinum Toxin (Bot Tox)
It is the most toxic substance in the world. C. botulinum can be isolated from its natural habitat, the soil. It grows rapidly on common bacterial media. The conditions for achieving optimum toxin production have been well researched in Cuba. Cuba has the capacity to produce several grams in one day.
Box tox is relatively stable, and can be stored in crystalline form. It can be absorbed through the mucous membranes, so aerosol dispersal is a likely way to be used. It can also be added to a municipal water or food supplies. Box tox is tasteless and odorless. Depending on the dosage, symptoms appear between 2 to 14 days. The symptoms include double vision, difficulty in swallowing and speaking, vomiting, and eventually respiratory failure.
The protein is a neurotoxin and once the symptoms appear, the damage is irreversible. The only treatment involves passive antibody shots against the strains. The known disadvantages are that bot tox is unstable in the air if exposed to sunlight and dry conditions.
There are plenty of things that could happen other than nukes or dirty bombs...don't think for a moment that since anthrax is on the been-there-done-that list, there won't be other bioterror attempts. On the other hand, I'm not hiding under my bed. Yet. :)
To all: Read backhoe's thread for useful tips.
This is a mish-mash of different rumors, and doesn't make any sense the way it's written here.
First, the allegedly missing "suitcase nukes" wouldn't be missing their fissionable material. Even with the fissionable material, the tritium necessary to make it go "boom" with a sub-critical mass would have decayed to uselessness by now, and it would *not* be possible for a group like Al Qaeda to recharge it, it's a very high-tech operation.
Second, if the alleged "suitcase nukes" *were* missing the fissionable material, it's not like you could just buy some and stuff it in there with a spatula. Shaping and installing the new plutonium would hardly be a low-tech operation either.
...apparently it's not that simple.
There was no need to treat AuntB that way. She lives in a rural area that probably has no Middle Easterners in residence.
Good grief! She said nothing to justify your response.
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