We have not seen such a serious threat since the Cuban missile crisis (quoted)

Fox News | 10/31/2001 | Fox News

[ET(end tyranny)]

Several systems referred to as "Locks and Dams",

What kind of damage if Locks go? Waterwise? Are there lots of areas with Locks? They would be connected with 'shipping', and there have been threads about tankers being targeted, and one hit near Sri Lanka?? by suicide boats. Just thinking out loud....

[Clinton's a rapist]

Yes, it was cyanide. FYI, the truck carrying the bomb used in the original WTC attack was packed with containers of cyanide, but the gas simply dispersed harmlessly, instead of killing tens of thousands of people, as the islamics had originally hoped. Cynaide, in the form of the insecticide "Zyklon B," was also the Nazis' tool of choice for eradicating the Jews, BTW.

[piasa]

The 'poison' is not new. It's plain old cyanide, otherwise known as rat poison, or 1080, the stuff ranchers out west used for killing coyotes.

THey tried the cyanide thing in the first WTC bombing but it didn't work. The cyanide, when added to an acid like tomato juice or vinegar, will produce gas. Not good to breathe, of course.

As for the reference to suffocation by Saddam, his sentence referred to what the US would do the the world- we would pull the world into a pit where some would suffocate if we weren't stopped- it didn't refer to people suffocating us.

[Don Joe]

"It was a strange word."

It was something like "sensenem" -- I remember thinking at the time that it sounded like "Sen Sen".

[Iowa Granny]

Might be some initial flooding downstream,, believe the last set of locks (going Southward) is just below St. Louis. While messing with the lock and dam system would be a major inconvience to farmers and grain handlers, who typically ship grain down river to the Louisiana Ports at this time of year, I certainly don't see any 'National Threat' to messing with the locks and dams.

[piasa]

The idea was just to use the cans to smuggle the stuff into Italy and beyond, so that the cyanide wouldn't be discovered on the way to the terrorists who were going to use it. The idea was not to put the cans on the shelves for the unwary victim. The cans were just a vehicle to smuggle the stuff, if I remember right. I think in order to be of use the can would be opened and the cyanide retrieved from its vials. It could then be combined with other things depending on whether you wanted gas or just poison. (It's a waste of effort to poison a can of tomatoes when it was only going to be opened by one person in a kitchen at home.) The idea was to get the poison where it wss needed without discovery, so that a terrorist could find a way to use his share creatively to kill as many people as possible. You won't get a chance to buy a can of your own.

[Iowa Granny]

What does Potassium Iodide do for you? What type of preventive medicine are you practicing?

[stlnative]

Several systems referred to as "Locks and Dams", but the reality is they are a Lock system to raise and lower water levels to move barges up and down the Mississippi. No 'real' dams on the Mississippi,, as in Hover Dam.

My hubby works for the Army Corp of Engineers and he is a Lockmaster at one of the smaller Lock & Dams. They are all on high alert (Charlie-sp? Status), all walk in and drive in entry gates are locked at the Lock & Dams and no one can get in without a proper Goverment ID. But thats not to say they cannot enter a lock by boat. But you are right there are no major lock & dams on the mighty Mississippi, I find it hard to believe that they would even mess with them or even find them worth while to attack.

[Don Joe]

OPH: "Thank you for the update, DJ. Now I'm up for a damn good reason. For the zillion dollar question - do the Russians use PAL technology on their warheads (so OBL will be stuck with having to form smaller devices with the Pu available), or can they be detonated in full bore H-Bomb form without those fail-safes?"

DD-HTRN: "Russian nuclear weapons, like American ones, have coded interlocks that prevent their detonation by a crazed individual within the Russian military itself, much less anyone who might steal one"

"BUT, anyone who manages to spirit away such a bomb would presumably be able to partially dismantle it and hack into the code system at leisure... the bomb code is only meant to prevent the bomb being exploded while it remains in situ."

Weren't sub-based missiles launchable by the captain, with the other key held by the KGB political officer? Granted, I'm getting that idea from "The Hunt for Red October", but supposedly Clancy got high marks for accuracy.

[ET(end tyranny)]

we would pull the world into a pit where some would suffocate if we weren't stopped- it didn't refer to people suffocating us.

Sounds good...and it would fit with the previous text. Thanks.

[ET(end tyranny)]

It was something like "sensenem" -- I remember thinking at the time that it sounded like "Sen Sen".

Yep. And that is the word I looked up and I too, thought of Sen Sen! LOL

[Don Joe]

"What does Potassium Iodide do for you?"

It saturates your thyroid with iodine, to prevent uptake of radioactive iodine. The best info resource I've found is www.ki4u.com.

[ET(end tyranny)]

Actually I was thinking more along the lines of the Soo Locks up Michigan way, and wondered of there were any others.

[Iowa Granny]

Thank you for validating my comment, brigette. I am certainly not an expert. I live about 60 M west of Muscatine. We've watched barges move thru the locks many times. It just seems to me that far greater damage could be done somewhere else.

[Sunshine55]

I'm sorry, I got disconnected. Potassium Iodide will protect your body from radiation poisoning.

[Theresa]

FOX just confirmed what you said in exact words. Then went on to other news.

[Don Joe]

If they bought the guys with the codes when they bought the bombs, wouldn't that take care of it? I'm thinking that bombs that go on missiles in subs would be able to be primed without needing "runtime" codes from Moscow, which IIRC was how ours worked until clinton ordered that they be rigged so that unless they got the OK from him, they could not be launched. I remember some pundits raising a stink because if DC was taken out, the subs would be unable to launch, even if they knew they should launch.

I'm just trying to figure out if it's theoretically possible for some payloads taken from sub duty could be used by the terrs.

[Theresa]

Well I don't know about this. I think it's fine that the Administration is giving us these warnings. One thing for sure, if Osama does not go nuclear the press will. They don't seem to like these warnings and they really won't like a stepping up of an already stepped up alert.

[Iowa Granny]

So, can you just pick it up off the shelf,,, or do you need a prescription?