[untenured]

Seems like an odd place to bomb if you ask me. Unless they were just parked there waiting to go to some other place.

If this really is the preliminary to an attack (and goodness knows there have been many false alarms) I'll bet Harvard or MIT is or will eventually be a planned primary target. These guys are not as interested in causing fear (as many assume) as they are in practical military objectives. Imagine wiping out thousands of the best scientists and future scientists at once at MIT.

[cajungirl]

You may be right. And MIT has that tall tower that would seem a good target. Or the yard at Harvard. Of course so many insufferable pricks would be gone that we would have an ocean of words written about their great promise.Sorry, I go on a tangent due to my dislike of Haaaaarvard. Oh and beautiful old Boston, that would be horrible beyond anything.

[gumbo]

I'll bet Harvard or MIT is or will eventually be a planned primary target. These guys are not as interested in causing fear (as many assume) as they are in practical military objectives. Imagine wiping out thousands of the best scientists and future scientists at once at MIT

I've had exactly the same thought.

Btw, I've been at the Galleria mall, but it's been many years. Is that the one with the parking garage below? Very near Harvard Square, Harvard Coop?

[monkeyshine]

No, their idea is to cause terror. Yes, the act is an act of terror, and has the potential to kill many people, but their point is not to so much to kill (they know that this can't kill enough people to win the war) but to strike fear into the enemy. As a poster already stated, an attack on shopping malls would be a major economic victory for the terrorists, as people would avoid them just as the holiday season that American retailers need for a boost in this "soft economy". The prospect of crowds and long lines is bad enough, but long lines to check every car and every bag going into the malls (as the Israelis do) is going to put a damper on things.

[Dan Day]

If this really is the preliminary to an attack (and goodness knows there have been many false alarms) I'll bet Harvard or MIT is or will eventually be a planned primary target. These guys are not as interested in causing fear (as many assume) as they are in practical military objectives. Imagine wiping out thousands of the best scientists and future scientists at once at MIT.

The problem is that universities are *extremely* spread out. They really sprawl, with personell scattered among many buildings, over many square miles.

You could set off the biggest truck bomb possible, and even at the optimum location, you might not take out more than a few dozen "best scientists" at a university like MIT.

[pgkdan]

These guys are not as interested in causing fear (as many assume) as they are in practical military objectives. Imagine wiping out thousands of the best scientists and future scientists at once at MIT.

Ah ha...you're making the same point I was making to my co-workers today. They think I'm nuts, but one was saying something about the FBI security warnings and that the terrorists were just trying to scare peopel because that's their goal..to terrify us. I said nonsense, that's the old PLO model used in Western Europe. This is entirely different...these guys are at war. They're interested in killing Americans, wrecking our economy and defeating us. They flew planes into the WTC and caused them to collapse...they didn't threaten to do it, they just did it.

I really don't think they're interested in ruining our Halloween...they're more interested in killing our kids on Halloween. They way be getting a kick out of watching us scramble about because of the latest Anthrax scare, but that's not their primary goal.. Their goal is to kill people. This is really very serious.

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

Everyone from Boston knows . . . NO ONE goes to the Cambridge Galleria Mall!