[StockAyatollah]

Is anybody watching the Space Needle? They tried for that one at the Y2K celebration. They will try again. Just like they made 2 attempts at the WTC.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Is anybody watching the Space Needle?"

If I'm not mistaken, the original attack on the Space Needle was to coincide with the Y2K celebration, when tens of thousands of people were expected to be in the vicinity. Right now, during the tourist off-season, the Space Needle would be a much less attractive target for terrorists. The terrorists seem to choose their targets based on the maximum disruptive effect on society, and attacking the Space Needle would not cause nearly as much disruption or death as would attacks on countless other targets here and nation-wide. So I think the Space Needle is probably not on the terrorists' short list. Attacks on the Columbia Tower (80 stories), Key Tower (50 stories, adjacent to I-5), Ross Dam (power grid), or Cedar River (watershed) would be much more devastating.

[jennyp]

They tried for that one at the Y2K celebration.

IIRC, they never did target the Space Needle. I keep hearing that Ressam's explosives were destined for LA Airport.

Anyway, they never should've kept the people away from the Space Needle during the Millenium celebration. Seattle Center (which surrounds the Space Needle) was a restricted access area, with a limited # of entrances, all of which were guarded. Instead, a couple thousand of us ended up watching the fireworks (such as they were) from the sidewalks along the streets that surround Seattle Center. IOW, we were all much more exposed & vulnerable to a carbomb than we would be if we had all been inside the Seattle Center grounds.

(My pet peeve against mayor Schell. :-)

[clamboat]

Is anybody watching the Space Needle? They tried for that one at the Y2K celebration. They will try again. Just like they made 2 attempts at the WTC.

No, not really. Testimony from the FBI and the culprit (I think his name was Ressam) indicated that his real destination was further south at LAX. It is wishful thinking on the part of local officials that he would head to the space needle.

"See we're important, they wanted to bomb us! Now give us some federal funds to beef up our local police."