Posted on 01/01/2006 6:41:58 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
Weapons of Disruption
C 2006 Frederick J. Cowie, Ph.D.
Whereas we have no masses, it certainly would be seriously challenging to deliver a "weapon of mass destruction" in the vast majority of geographical areas in the American West, as well as in many areas in the East and South. For instance, Montana is approximately the size of Germany, yet the population hovers only around a million (we have one representative in the House). There is no "metropolitan" area anywhere around, though Spokane is about three hundred miles away. Wyoming has more sheep than people. Utah has Salt Lake City and a few nearby populous areas. Nevada has two populated regional areas, Las Vegas and Reno. North and South Dakota have, well, a few folks here and there. Idaho folks are few and far between. I swear you can drive from San Antonio to El Paso without seeing a city policeman, because I've done it several times. Then there are Arizona, New Mexico, eastern California, inter alia. The point is we have a few population points, while the rest of the states are empty excepted for isolated small communities.Thus, out West we probably need to talk more about "weapons of disruption." (Some folks say "weapons of mass disruption," but we have no masses!)
You must ask yourself: What would I do if I were a terrorist (or a terrorism preparedness instructor) looking into the ramifications of launching a rural terrorism attack? Personally, I would concentrate on considering the consequences of disruption rather than mass destruction. Here are a few scenarios you might want consider when your local rural emergency management/response group gathers to discuss terrorism exercises.
1) Wildland Fire Incidents: Incendiary (mostly wildland) warfare has been used by military strategists for at least 2500 years, over a thousand years before the use of gunpowder. The western U.S. is disrupted, seriously disrupted, every year by wildland fires. Quite a few are started by humans, accidentally and purposefully. Starting dozens of major fires in a dozen western states could be a brilliant line of attack if militants wished to disrupt America. Thousands of security personnel could do nothing and the perpetrator/s would probably never be implicated, much less captured. Are you prepared?
2) Railroad Chemical Incidents: Many railroad main lines go through tunnels. A few strategically placed armor-piercing shells in a series of chlorine cars, along with appropriately staged derailments leaving the leaking cars in the tunnels, could shut down many main line routes in the West. Spin-off scenarios are numerous. Ready?
3) Flammable Liquid Incidents: Bridges are not easily brought down from below and approaches to bridge support structures are often highly visible and randomly monitored. However, on CNN we all have seen many tanker truck accidents involving burning hydrocarbons which have made bridge structures unusable. How hard would it be to have a few terrorists steal trucks and drive them (as opposed to hijacking planes and flying them) to strategic bridges over wide rivers or narrow gorges, ignite the gasoline (or diesel or crude), block the approaches with other incendiary or chemical releases, and make the structures extremely dangerous and impassible to highway traffic? Gotcha!
There are many variations of these themes. You probably have or can make up many more plausible, novel, and easily implemented rural-specific attack scenarios. Design exercises around them. If you want to stop terrorist events you must think like a terrorist and quit fighting last year's war!
Peace, thanks, Fred
Please check out my website at fredcowie.com
To find recent presentations, Google (with quotation marks) "Fred Cowie"
Frederick J. (Fred) Cowie, Ph.D. E-mail: fredcowie@aol.com Phone: (24 hr cell) 406-431-3531 Website: fredcowie.com
Christians' beheadings fuel religious terror
Muslim militants have killed about 1,000 people in Indonesia between 2000 and 2002
http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/news/ci_3367072
From Russia with cash
However in 2000, he was the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Paris magistrates investigating alleged arms-for-oil deal with Angola in the early 1990s.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/4577494.stm
Iran's nuclear capacity 'can be destroyed'
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1136289366856&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_Ontario&call_pageid=968256289824&call_pagepath=News/Ontario
Try searching; statesman.com
While Russia and China might very well represent the armies of Gog and Magog, I don't think they represent the 10 nations that will make up the region from which the AntiChrist will emerge. I think that has been established as "old Europe." I keep my eyes on the Heavens everyday, anyway: RAPTURE READY?
Finally, just so you know....not all Russians are bad guys. I'm Russian. My father was a white Russian with roots in the family of the Czar. My dad was born in a small town just southwest of Moscow. He eventually came to this country through Ellis Island, but not with the poor folks. Nope, pop came over first class. He eventually graduated from Miami senior High school in 1924 and went to M.I.T. After earning his degrees in mechanical engineering and architecture he started his own engineering firm and eventually wound up entwined with the U.S. space program. His top secret clearance helped me get mine. He passed in 1980. I really miss him. ~sigh~ I'll see him again, someday.
Still making my way through this thread.
I did see this when checking my "plane" alerts:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1551696/posts?page=4
Western Embassies, U.N. Order Personnel Out of
Gaza
Arutz Sheva ^ | 1-4-06
Posted on 01/04/2006 7:34:14 AM PST by SJackson
The United Nations and western countries have ordered most relief
and non-governmental workers out of the Gaza region, according to
the Mideast Newsline agency. The U.N. has only three international
workers in the area, and they are not allowed to stay overnight.
The news agency quoted a diplomatic source, "The only Westerners
left in Gaza are peace activists who believe that the Palestinian
factions will defend them. Instead, they have become the target of
some of these factions." Terrorists last week abducted a volunteer and
her visiting parents for two days before releasing them. She said she
has returned to the area because the abduction increased her
fondness for the local Arabs.
On KDWN (Las Vegas) Radio, a few minutes ago.
The Las Vegas Police have asked for help finding the identity of a burned body that was found December 18th, 2005.
I think he said about 5'4", sorry did not make a note of it.
A square belt buckle and a gold ring that says:
"Carolina y Jesus 1963" (inside inscription?)
What a great story, ExSoldier!
I wonder if it was this incident?:
Burned body found near northwest Las Vegas power substation
LAS VEGAS Police now say a body found this morning near a power substation in northwest Las Vegas had been burned.
No word yet on the circumstances surrounding the discovery -- and no word on the identity of the dead person.
Police were notified about 10-30 A-M the body was near a block wall surrounding the substation off Brent Lane near Shadow Ridge High School.
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=4299587&nav=9qrx
more on the San Jose Airport incident:
SAN JOSE, Calif. - A Frontier Airlines passenger was taken into custody Wednesday on the tarmac at Mineta San Jose International Airport after reportedly making statements about bombs on a flight from Denver, police said.
The man was taken from Frontier Flight 169 at about 10 a.m. after it taxied to a halt short of the gate. He was questioned by the FBI and San Jose police, who were in charge of the investigation, authorities said.
A passenger told flight attendants the man was acting suspiciously, talking about bombs and writing in a notebook, said FBI spokeswoman LaRae Quy.
"It was a journal, and somebody had handwritten in this journal 'suicide bomber,'" Quy said. "The other thing he was doing was clutching a backpack."
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/13549164.htm
Davey, you are correct about the white vans for all purposes by the thousand.
But, as you know, it is one of those thoughts that keep biting me and until recently, the car bombs all over the world were also white, it might be only a small Toyota, but it is white.
Even the government has come out and said that they are now using red and black vehicles.
Remember all the fuel trucks that were having accidents last year, a small white car was often in the newspaper stories, and it always got away.
They did not have to cause an accident by touching the truck, the only need is to cause the truck driver to make the wrong move and then he will crash.
I started catching the truck accidents shortly after 9-11, seemed they always happened on a bridge or at the overpass support.
The bus accidents were all happening then also.
If you can find the accident photos, study them, try to figure out why a bus goes 400 feet on flat, clean land, on the wrong side of a guard rail and crashes into a bridge support at high speed......think that one was in Texas.
I saw on the Washington Highway Patrol's web cam, the same scene for a gas truck accident.
Flat, level, no rocks and no reason for the crash.
And yes, I took into consideration the sleepy or drunk driver, maybe.
Maybe, I should have thicker tinfoil tonight.
AS RUSSIA IS DOWNGRADED TO "UNFREE" IS IT UNFIT TO HEAD THE G-8?
By Taras Kuzio
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
It is perhaps fitting that the Ukraine-Russia gas conflict has rekindled debates whether Russia truly belongs in the prestigious Group of Eight (G-8) advanced liberal democratic market economies. As the Wall Street Journal Europe (January 3) editorialized, "All of this makes Russia's assumption of the G-8 presidency this month not just ironic but almost as absurd as when Sudan chaired the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Moscow's inclusion in the club was never (and still isn't) justified on economic grounds." The conservative Daily Telegraph (January 3) was even blunter: "The West has to tell Russia that, plainly and simply, its conduct is unacceptable if it wishes to remain part of the club of civilized nations."
In its 2006 world human rights report, the New York-based human rights group Freedom House downgraded Russia from "partly free" to the status of "unfree" (freedomhouse.org). It upgraded Ukraine from "partly free" to "free."
The Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute is therefore no longer a conflict between two former Soviet republics but a conflict between an autocratic, non-democratic regime headed by "Putin's Mafia Politics" (Wall Street Journal Europe, January 3) and a democratizing regime headed by Viktor Yushchenko. As the Daily Telegraph (January 3) pointed out, "The methods of gangsterism and blackmail now being used by [Russian gas giant] Gazprom are reminiscent of the Soviet era."
Russia's downgrading to "unfree" places it on a par with other autocratic, non-democratic post-Soviet regimes, such as Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan was promoted to "partly free" due to its "Tulip Revolution" in March 2005.
Russia was downgraded in part due to its growing hostility toward non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society. In late December 2005 both houses of the Russian parliament approved a new law requiring NGOs to re-register and making it more difficult for re-registered groups to obtain foreign funding.
Such restrictions on civil society are only Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest move against the media, regional governors, oligarchs, and democratic political parties. Russia's attitudes towards civil society place it squarely in the same camp as the last dictatorship in Europe—Belarus—which is propped up by Russian gas subsidies.
Both Russia and Belarus believe that civil society only exists because of foreign funding, an attitude inherited from the former USSR when dissidents were routinely accused of being CIA or "Zionist" agents. This wariness is complicated by another Soviet-era holdover: conspiracy theories that blame the democratic "color revolutions" on the United States.
Freedom House downgraded Russia to "unfree" because of the marginalization of the political opposition, state control of the media, declines in judicial independence, growing "anti-democratic tendencies," and pressure on civil society. Freedom House noted Ukraine's improvement in all of these areas.
Even before the latest gas conflict erupted, Freedom House had condemned Russia's attempts at undermining democratic progress in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
In contrast, Ukraine is the first CIS state to join the "free" group of countries in the world, vaulting ahead of the other three post-communist states to experience "color revolutions": Serbia (2000), Georgia (2003), and Kyrgyzstan (2005). Twelve of the post-communist East-Central European states are also designated as "free."
These rankings show how quickly the post-communist states in East-Central Europe and the CIS are radically diverging. They also confirm that 2004 and 2005 were pivotal years, during which Russia turned toward autocracy and Ukraine toward democracy.
Few Western commentators have bothered to connect Russia's growing autocracy and undemocratic regime at home with a return to a neo-Soviet foreign policy. It is now evident that Russia's aggressive stance towards Ukraine, evident both in the gas conflict and during Ukraine's 2004 presidential elections, indicates how closely Russia's domestic and foreign policies are interwoven.
The resignation of Russian presidential adviser Andrei Illarionov on the eve of the gas conflict brought home this inter-connection. The use of gas pressure, Illarionov claimed, was first tested inside Russia during elections for regional governors. After their success, the Russian authorities decided to apply them towards foreign countries (grani.ru, December 21).
The gas dispute is merely the latest evidence of the close connection between Russia's undemocratic domestic policies and its support for autocratic regimes abroad. Of the six CIS states that are designated by Freedom House as "unfree," four are politically aligned with Russia: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Russia's support for Uzbekistan's brutal massacre of civilians in May 2005 led to Tashkent's re-alignment away from the United States and toward Russia.
During President George W. Bush's second term the United States has gradually become more aware of the links between Russia's undemocratic domestic and aggressive external policies. But it is "old Europe," inside the European Union, that is now finally having to come to terms with the real Russia under Putin.
Germany's new government has already changed that country's view of Russia. But traditionally Russophile France continues to view Putin's Russia favorably, a stance that, as the gas conflict proves, is out of touch with reality.
http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2370624
US May Free Terrorist Posada Carriles
Washington, Jan 4 (Prensa Latina) Having frozen his deportation to Venezuela, the US government is now considering releasing terrorist Luis Posada Carriles on parole.
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B78036822-2AA3-4D9E-A2F6-4BC28AEEC862%7D)&language=EN
Hundred of Artifacts Found in Temple Mount Rubble
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=96039
Muslim Cleric Calls for Israeli Archaeological Project to Stop
http://iqna.ir/NewsBodyDesc_en.asp?lang=en&ProdID=38917
White House to Israel: Don't deny vote to E. Jerusalem Arabs
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters
U.S. President George W. Bush "wants Palestinian elections to go forward as scheduled" on Jan. 25, a White House official said yesterday, and that Israel should not bar Palestinians from voting in East Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/665825.html
Israeli police questioned a billionaire Russian immigrant over money-laundering suspicions
http://jta.org/page_view_breaking_story.asp?intid=756
Landfill Fire Still Burning
The fire was still burning by nightfall. And of some concern to people is the toxins that may be escaping into the air.
People working to extinguish the fire say they don't know what started it. And may never know
http://wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=7758
some of these wildfires might not have been
targets of opportunity. Not particularly symbolic, though, not a
terrorism MO if there is nothing symbolic, in their eyes, anyway.<<<
Yes, the targets of opportunity is true.
I think some of them are by the radical liberal groups, some that hear calling the radio talk shows, would do it, in certain areas of the country, to strike fear in the hearts of the American who supports the troops.
The ELF group love to set fires.
Those groups that march in the protests to support the terrorist, would have no problem setting the fires.
Now we have the same protesters marching to support the "Keep the Borders OPEN" crowd.
And in my small town setting, we have had an arsonist for 30 years, who sets homes on fire. Here it is mainly mobile homes and few are saved.
My local info comes from the firemen over the years.
Arson is bad enough when done for the insurance, but to do it out of spite is treated as murder. For good reason.
My mind is full of the fact that the take over of the businesses in Russia is not that different from the lawsuits that Clinton did against the cigarette companies.
You sue a company, fine them as much as you can, force them to combine the different companies into one, then the government takes over the country.
Take a look at our well known food companies.
When I was young, they were all started by "Grandpa" and there was pride in owning them for 50 or 100 years.
Today they are owned by one or 2 companies.
I have suspected that soros plays a part in the take over and that he does not loose the company to Russia, but rather he took over the company with plans to give it to russia.
He does his magic in all the countries, always working to destroy the country, never to help it.
Moveon.org is a fine example.
"Onging"?
Good post granny.
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