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Hey Folks, hope all is well. Haven't been around due to a desire to keep our current commander-in-chief in that position for another 4 years. Living in New Jersey has been a bit off kilter since the governor decloseted himself.
Something occurred to me earlier in the day and would like to get an opinion or two.
There has been much concern re: more bombings, dirty bombs or contaminated cargo and it's too logical. That is the type of in the box thinking that caught us napping.
People are drawn to the loud, to the fiery, it catches our attention. With the upcoming RNC convention, here is a different kind of nightmare scenario that's quiet as a churchmouse. A biological attack would be the most effective and disruptive on several different levels and it could be launched without a sound:
1. Limited detection capabilities. Bio-agent saturated garments, backpacks or other possessions or infected individuals could pass through security measures virtually undetected.
2. Unlimited contact within concentrated groups of people of varied social backgrounds maximizes the likelihood of exposure to agent.
3. No explosion or event that would trigger suspicion a terrorist event has occurred.
4. Multiple attackers arriving from multiple departure points on varied types of transportation would afford some measure of success.
5. Infection and incubation rate would allow dispersal of infected individuals throughout national population based upon the speed provided by means of transportation to destination, not by distance from infection point.
6. Every infected individual becomes a new weapon. Creating a casualty and a new weapon with each new they infect.
7. Multiple hundreds of thousands across the country and internationally will become symptomatic almost simultaneously stressing medical services. Primary care, lab, hospital, research will be stress to the point of collapse as new cases appear, wave after wave.
8. Contamination of currency and mass medical absence affect the economy and cause economic depression.
9. Illness and disease related death would change the electoral landscape, without predictability.
There are some who believe a play about plotting the assassination of a president passes for comedy, I fail to see the humor. I would prefer to spend my time as an attentive citizen to the threats this great nation faces. Maybe it's being an alarmist, but I owe a debt to the country where I was fortunate enough to be born. I don't want what I have written misinterpreted and if it doesn't meet the standards of this thread PLEASE REMOVE IMMEDIATELY!!!
Ever Forward
Respectfully,
onc

You aren't being an alarmist.
Your post pretty well summarizes our many threads which in essence (and generalizing here) are about terrorism from all angles.

Thinking out of the box -- thinking like a terrorist is a very good thing. It helps one prepare for terror.

The down side of thinking out of the box on this thread is that apparently not all lurkers are pro-America and/or for the war on terror. Their ideas and agendas are different than ours.

Thanks for your post.

Thoroughly toooo plausible for comfort.

I hope they have that all factored in and with censors on duty somehow. Perhaps they could use your suggestions.

At least you are thinking...even most conservatives I know seem to be "reactionary"

I was thinking about that old apartment threat that the FBI had...about middle easterns filling apartments with explosives. What if some long time sleeper agents have been filling their apartments with fertilizier/diesel fuel?

Or what is some jihadist just got on an aviation radio in NYC Center and said "We got more planes" or some other phrase, just to divert attention from some other plan. The FAA, Air Force, etc would be scrambling to find any plane in the area...maybe shoot down the wrong one?

What if you caused an event within the SECURED Madison Square Garden (like a mortar attack) that force everyone to flee into UNSECURED areas with secondary treats waiting for them?

I have been stocking up on water (watching those Hurricane Charley had me thinking I needed more stuff)

The janitorial, food service and "rent-a-cop" security staff will have broad access to the convention areas. The "rent-a-mob" anarchists will be present in large numbers outside. Any or all of these groups could be employed as unwitting "mules" for a bioweapon attack of the variety you suggest. Some could also be actively engaged in delivering a substance. The Republican convention is a relatively high value target.

I was thinking along different lines, 9/11 and the WTC was a near perfect terrorist attack.

It didn't have the subtlety or elegance of your scenario, but it did have dramatic visuals, lasted long enough for most of the country to watch the fall live, and provided a clear division in time between peace and war (except to lib-uh-rhuls).

The next attack needs to be drawn out long enough to get full coverage, yet not days and weeks of incubation.

I think the convention is ideal for a violent attack, not on the convention itself, but close enough for the gathering of newsies to switch over to cover it instead.

I'm not clever enough to figure out exactly what form it will take, but know that they want it to last hours, destroy infrastructure, and cause mass casualties.

Unlike the WTC attack, they want us to see lots of body parts, blood, and burns.

Not showing the Americans all the WTC gore is the only way the US media failed them last time.