Posted on 03/04/2002 1:21:01 PM PST by Asmodeus
Mon Mar 4, 2002
Bloomberg: NY Should Have Been Told About Nuke Fear
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday New York officials should have been told about alleged fears of a nuclear attack on the city last October as reported by Time magazine.
Time magazine reported on Sunday that a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, top federal officials feared a nuclear weapon obtained from the Russian arsenal was being smuggled into New York.
The White House's Counterterrorism Security Group, part of the National Security Council, was alerted to the danger through a report by an agent code-named DRAGONFIRE, according to the magazine, but New York officials and senior FBI officials were not informed in an effort to avoid panic.
"I do believe the New York City government should have been told" of the alleged nuclear threat, Bloomberg said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was not notified and was "not unduly distressed that I was not."
"I don't think I could have done much with the information," Annan added. "What was important is that the authorities who have the responsibility for security did what had to be done."
The threat was later determined to be false, but the magazine said counterterrorist investigators went on their highest state of alert -- without coordinating plans with New York officials, including then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
what are 8 million New Yorkers going to do?
Well, I don't have any short-term solutions for them, in the event of an imminent attack. But I do have a long-range suggestion that applies directly to saving their a$$es as well as their assets:
Stop voting RATS into office!
If they can clean up their own idiot PC politics, they will go a long way towards making their own city, as well as our whole country, safer.
Anytime. But don't forget I am just 50 miles outside of Indian Point. So we can have dinner and glow in the dark at the same time. Save on my Con Edison bill that way! ;-)
The complaint is that New York officials were not informed.
Aside from B'way bombs, does anybody else who grew up in NY remember the bomb drills we had in the 50's? Obviously, if you were gonna be nuked, you were gonna be nuked, and terrifying kids in advance with horrifying scenarios (I lived uptown, and actually remember wondering if I could run all the way home before the firestorm hit!) did not help one bit then, and is not going to help today.
Advance notification would only give the pols time to get hysterical - and I doubt that one life would be saved because of it.
Prevention is the only way - get them before they get us.
Not to make lite of the sacrafice made by the people who made those last calls to their loved ones before dying, but they knew that there was no way out. There comes a certain peace from knowing that your minutes are numbered. More bluntly put, there were so many heros at the Alamo because there was no back door. Look at what happened during the little radio show that Orson Wells put on. You know, the one about aliens invading the Earth. Take that, add the fear (yes, fear. It's not a dirty word given the environment) from the 9/11 attacks and multiply it by ten kilotons. You get several million scared men, women, and children on a 14 mile long island who will do whatever it takes to get the hell out of Dodge. Human nature eventually takes over. Maybe not for some, but for enough to look like world's most vicious version of musical chairs mankind has ever seen.
They can't afford to send him by boat. The water displacement alone would cause devastating flooding, not to mentio the tsunami that would ensure if he fell overboard.
If a 10 KT nuke actually did go off in a very populated area such as New York City, and the people had no advance warning, what would your reaction to the government be if you found out that a credible threat was identified before the bomb went off?
What if you had lost loved ones in such an attack?
What if you lived in the area of the attack?
On the other hand, I can imagine the panic, terror, and utter chaos that would envelop the city if it's people had been told of a credible threat of a nuclear attack.
Does New York City or any other major city have evacuation plans for such an eventuality?
What is more preferable: 100,000+ people killed in a terrorist nuclear attack, or the death of thousands caused by the mass chaos of the warning of the attack?
What I would like to see from my fellow FReepers is a very serious and candid debate about the pros and cons of issuing nuclear bomb attack warnings for major cities.
What is wise and what is not wise in such a situation?
Perhaps the best way to ask the question is: If you were the President of the United States and you had a credible warning of a terrorist nuclear attack on a major city, what would you do?
The Tampa Kamakazi pilot's suicide note mentioned that he had met with members of Al-Qeda (but did not join). It also mentioned that there would be a nuke detonated at the Super Bowl. That was probably key to why the letter was not released beforehand.
And just how many people in New Orleans were notified of that threat?
Living in NYC or DC (especially after 9/11) should be taken with a certain level of risk from terrorists and sabotage.
In wartime, I figure that Houston has to be on the list too (with the medical center, refineries, NASA, etc.).
The safest move is "out of the area" (like moving to another city). Barring that, know that effort will be made to prevent the detonation in the first place and that your death will be avenged will greater kiloton weapons.
Is Dom kosher ? You're always welcome here ; even though I don't " keep kosher ". I'll buy new plates ... LOL
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