The next wave of attacks will come from truck bombs

StrategyPage.com ^ | November 16, 2001 | Q & D Headlines

[Pericles]

November 16, 2001; Many security officials are convinced that the next wave of attacks will come from truck bombs (a favorite of al Qaeda) rather than more airplanes. Police found that Nabil al-Marabh (linked to bin Laden) had attended a truck driving school and had obtained a permit to haul hazardous materials. When police went to arrest him, they found two Arab immigrants who had also attended truck driving schools. Further investigation found 18 Middle Eastern men in Pennsylvania, all of whom had licenses for large trucks and hazardous materials. There are estimated to be 770,000 trucks on the road in the US every day with hazardous materials (gasoline, nuclear waste, chemicals, explosives), including 50,000 gasoline tankers (each of which carries about 10,000 gallons, the fuel load of a trans-continental airliner. Trucking companies have been warned to check everyone who has a hazardous materials permit. Truck driving licenses are fairly easy to get, and in many states a hazardous materials license requires only passing a multiple choice test of ten questions.

[ChemistCat]

I was pretty convinced that the logical next step for the terrorists would have been a bio hit with something contagious (anthrax simply hasn't worked out very well from the terrorist point of view.) Maybe the FBI caught enough of their people here, or maybe the ones who pulled off 9/11 were the Most Reliable and the ones who are left maybe balk at following in those particular footsteps. I'm not saying nothing more is going to happen, but Al-Quaeda must be significantly injured because of their losses at "home" and because of the assets we've frozen. Remember that the terrorists here lived off of money machines. It could be that when we took the action on the financial front, we hamstrung their operations just enough to foil some attacks and take the wind out of their sails.

That said, even after Al-Qaeda is gone there will be others coming up out of the human swamps all around the world. The world now knows that nineteen plane tickets and a few boxknives can be turned into weapons of mass destruction. Pandora's box is open wide.

[Pete-R-Bilt]

“ I know truckers as the ones driving their 80,000 pound rigs 85 mph in 55 zones six feet behind the bumper of anyone not fast enough to get out of their way. I glance up at them and they are (often) long-haired freaky looking dudes who look very much like they are on crystal meth. Or that they MANUFACTURE crystal meth and are hauling a shipment. When I was growing up (a hundred years ago) truckers were well known as the most responsible and courteous drivers on the road. “

My guess is you’re trying to bait someone for a reaction, because I find it hard to beleive anyone could have such an ignorant thought as this and believe it.
But stranger things have happened so may I offer you a bit of advice.

The next freaky truck driver you see call the FBI ‘cause if he ain‘t a terrorist
he still needs to be removed from the highway. Oh and I’ve been out there for over
Twenty years and have documented over 2.5 million miles. I’ve seen a few freaks in 4 wheelers too.

[rebdov]

How hard could it be to get a tanker, attach bomb, go to a bridge and detonate? Imagine hundreds at the same time.

[American Preservative]

Call out the troops! ; )

Now if we had Germans or Swiss on our case, then I would be too scared to leave the house.

The Swiss Cheeseheads are coming! The Swiss Cheeseheads are coming!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Thanks, OKCSubmariner, I know I can count on you to cut through the b.s. Flag for Uncle Bill.

[Brad’s Gramma]

I think I'm in love.

[SBprone]

Very funny guys!

I'm just glad the folks who really hate us are clumsy with explosive ordnance and have trouble showing up on time.

[rightofrush]

Let's hope that they think it was a truck bomb that brought down the Murrah building in OK City.

[celtic gal]

Regarding the hits for the trojan horse attempts... I too have had several in the last several days. Day before yesterday I counted up a total of 33 over about a week to 10 days. I have BlackIce Defender and of course my antivirus program. I have also had a couple of Proxy Port probes whatever that is. I don't much like this. On another thread this subject was mentioned so we are not alone here.

[Theresa]

I just don't know. Everything is so normal in my home town. The kids ride their bikes up and down the block, people shop, the kids go to school. And yet we are on high alert and fighter jets patrol the skies. I really have not been scared. Well I freaked out a little bit when everybody was writing articles about small pox. But that has died down as it has become clearer that it is very difficult to get and spread the stuff.

So I keep thinking there won't be any more attacks because of the increased law enforcement, public vigilance and new laws and so on. And now that the Taliban is about done in and the hunt is on for binLaden I think the terrorists are going to be discouraged and more than that, realize that the more mayhem they commit the more the world turns against them.

But then I start thinking it really could be EASY to do certain things. Not big things like the WTC, but small things like the truck bombs in malls. But nothing has happened so far and I wonder why. If as is suspected the terrorists can now act on their own without orders from headquarters why have they not done anything? One might beging to think that the government has exaggerated the threat. Not on purpose but out of an excess of caution. Then you think of the WTC and you can't blame them for all the actions being taken. It's a strange time in our history.

[rightofrush]

Old truckers never die they just get a new (your post name).

[Pete-R-Bilt]

Just got mine!!! (see profile)

[glock rocks]

Just got mine

i'll bet that put a grin on yer lady's face.

so... what caliber is it?

[American in Israel]

We can only hope they try to make home made nitro-glycerin. That is one bear to manufacture and handle without blowing oneself up. Any highschooler can get these formulas, it takes an adult to know what to do and what not to do. If they actualy had the formulas for Nitro, they are not adult enough to survive.

[dread78645]

Remote address,service is (199.174.169.42,1955)

localhost.root# dig -x 199.174.169.42

; <<>> DiG 8.3 <<>> -x
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2
;; QUERY SECTION:
;; 42.169.174.199.in-addr.arpa, type = ANY, class = IN

;; ANSWER SECTION:
42.169.174.199.in-addr.arpa. 23h44m15s IN PTR user-33qta9a.dialup.mindspring.com.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
169.174.199.in-addr.arpa. 21h36m IN NS itchy.mindspring.net.
169.174.199.in-addr.arpa. 21h36m IN NS scratchy.mindspring.net.

Can't make much of an attack from a dial-up (and anybody with a Winders box out in front is futbw).
Prolly a 14 yr old l33t d00dz running scans from mommy's computer.

[Pete-R-Bilt]

“ i'll bet that put a grin on yer lady's face. “

If I ever figure out how to drive it!

[ChemistCat]

I wish I could tell you that it's time to feel better but I don't think we will ever enjoy the same feeling of security we used to have, again. Israel is everywhere now, if you know what I mean. As far as smallpox goes, you know, we're going to be vaccinated for it by and by. I think if they had had it it would have been unleashed by now...the same goes for so-called suitcase nukes, et cetera et cetera. Still, the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon were stunningly brilliant. They required an incredible amount of prior planning, and, frankly, were well-executed DESPITE the incredible clumsiness and lack of subtlety of the agents involved. (Come ON, not at least *pretending* to CARE about how to land a commercial jet?) The plans, frankly, were more complicated than they had to be. The terrorists were freakishly LUCKY because they were so clumsy that they should have been caught. A more self-disciplined breed of terrorist would be able to get through ANY amount of security; the degree of security we're striving for probably would only stop the very clumsiest. We couldn't LIVE under security tight enough to stop better ones.

The main problem we face now is that all the bad guys worldwide have been shown that McVeigh did it the HARD way. I hope our intelligence is up for tracking down all the copycats that are probably right now plotting how to get their 15 minutes of infamy, times a million.

[American in Israel]

Three truck bombs going off in three locations around the country in mall parking lots on the same day, during Christmas shopping season, even if they did not kill anyone would cause a huge concern. It would hurt the economy and that would hurt the US.

It is not as bad as you think. Israel has a growing economy yet they have a car bomb a week in a nation that is about the size of a texan backyard. After an adjustment period, you learn to live with about anything.

[mugwump62]

HA HA AH HA HA HA HA HA>>>chuckle snort chuckle ROTFLMAO