The Coming Attack

www.jrnyquist.com | June 24, 2002 | J. R. Nyquist

[Washington-Husky]

If they wanted to really test them ahead of time, they probably would have sent Achmed (or his little 12-year-old brother Faizal) out to Anytown, USA with a test kit, and he would have tried it out already. Who knows?

[inflorida]

I think that the greatest concern is cargo ships. They come and go continually throughout U.S. ports. Actually, this has been a concern since the 80's but no one bothered to pay too much attention to the threat.
A sophisticated bomb is not the worry, it is either a dirty bomb or an old nuclear bomb from a "prior" 3rd world country.

[Poohbah]

Hey, maybe the guy who sold them the nukes gave 'em cases of old pinball machine parts.

[aristeides]

There was a very noticeable air presence over D.C. today. But I suppose that, just because D.C. is such an obvious target, it will not be the target our enemies choose this time.

[freeperfromnj]

If they wanted to really test them ahead of time, they probably would have sent Achmed (or his little 12-year-old brother Faizal) out to Anytown, USA with a test kit, and he would have tried it out already. Who knows?

Probably the Tampa accutane suicide teen

[PoisedWoman]

W Husky, I don't want to be on the ferry with the likes of Ahmed Ressam. Blowing 1200 people and 250 cars out of the water would be a piece of cake. It may be crude, but I take it very personally. And it would wreak havoc in this city, which would be overcome with fear. The fear factor is as powerful as nukes, in a sense.

[Washington-Husky]

Well, living here in Seattle not too far from the shores of Puget Sound, I couldn't agree with you more. Many a time I have wondered about the various large cargo ships I see plying the waters of Puget Sound on their way into, or out of, Seattle/Tacoma harbor.

Who knows what evil lurks below decks? It has already been well documented that many cargo ships in-chopping Puget Sound from Asia have cargo containers filled with illegal aliens, being smuggled into the U.S. So, why not a couple of nukes?

Still, I think that nuclear bombs are inherently sophisticated enough to dictate that lots of technical people have to be involved with their procurement, use, implementation, smuggling, deployment, detonation, etc. etc. There has got to be a trail, so to speak. So I don't put lots of credibility into some motley crew such as "al-qaeda" being fit to pull this off without our intelligence services being fully in the loop on it. Of course, I could be wrong, in which case... well, we can all kiss our collective fannies goodbye, can't we!

[bvw]

Coming into the waning moon. Bush at Camp David. Media yelling terr attcks claimed to be set for July 4th. Bush said we'd preempt.

What a lazy summer evening this is. The talk is of the weather, of the stock market, of John Entwhistle's death, of layoffs, of the Pledge fiasco.

Hope the talk continues in that same old summer doldrums style.

[Judith Anne]

Thanks for your post. It's not the only one I've seen, with similar information in it. I expect something to happen on or before the 4th; I don't know exactly why I think this, but having mulled over all the information I can get, and trying to evaluate it, I can't, logically...but I still think so.

[Washington-Husky]

Oh, I totally agree, I think our intelligence services, and the INS, and the local citizenry (i.e., people like you and me) need to be eternally vigilant - even at the risk of being accused of "racial profiling" (and yes, like you, I'm still reeling over that Seattle Sheriff's Deputy Herzog's tragic murder...).

I don't doubt that further havoc lies in store, but, that being said, I will become more than a little skeptical, IF that havoc takes the form of WMD (i.e., nuclear/biological/chemical weaponry). I am a little skeptical of a bunch of renegades hanging out in the caves of Afghaistan having this type of sophistication. Of course, anything is possible....

[Washington-Husky]

I think I met that guy when I was on shore leave in Cairo, Egypt in 1980: "You buy one nuke from me, I give you good deal on many pinball machines, no bullshit!"

[Poohbah]

Actually, I got the line from Back to the Future.

[Washington-Husky]

Oh, NOW ya' tell me!! lol ;)

[freeperfromnj]

I am a little skeptical of a bunch of renegades hanging out in the caves of Afghaistan having this type of sophistication. Of course, anything is possible....

The real threat lies with the couple of thousand operatives who have already passed through the training camps, infiltrated our country and set up shop.

[Vermont Lt]

This isnt a TV show or movie. The bad guy doesnt explain himself, or leave cryptic messages for Jack Ryan or James Bond to figure out. If they were going to kill us, they would not warn us. If they had a nuke, you'd not know until NYC or DC was gone. If they had smallpox, they would have used it on the French.

I don't believe any of it. They will hit when they want, in ways that are either so obvious or diabolical that we have no defense.

[Quix]

I wouldn't file this under the category of "reasons to sleep better."

[Washington-Husky]

I agree, but also I think there is a threat from the failure of a "dumbed down" populace to recognize a threat when they see it staring them in the face. This "racial profiling" nonsense has got to go!

If you see somebody taking pictures of a nuclear plant, or a dam, or an airport (or any other strategic facility), well, act on it! Don't stop and worry about being sensitive to the guy's skin color, for Christ's sake!

(And I'm worried about Canada, too. Seems Canada is a real liberal haven for all sorts of ME cells...)

[Pharmboy]

Now is the time for quiet diplomacy. We need to quietly tell the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Yemenis, the Iraqis, the Iranis, the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Qataris, etc., that if they do not help us deter terrorism aimed at us we will blow them and all their relatives to Allah: it is in their hands not ours (I think we are likely doing this already).

[NELSON111]

Guess you are not well versed on the strength of a suitcase nuke. Most yeilds are below 1-2 KT. That is not a lot of damage (as say...compared to a 8.0 earthquake). You would wipe out several city blocks...but even that will not cause death to all within the blast radius. If you detonated a couple in each of the cities you stated...my guess would be about 500,000 - 800,000 dead. That's still a lot. However, I think all this is a moot point because Al Qeada doesn't have them. If they did...they would have used them already instead of plowing airplanes into buildings. They would have detonated the thing between the trade centers at 10 am...and walked up to the capitol building. They would have used them. They are crazy...not stupid.

BTW...there is a neat little XLS program on the web called "nuke.xls" located at http://nuketesting.enviroweb.org/hew/Library/Nukesims.html , look it up and download the nukexls.zip file. You can input various yields and get a good idea of the blast damage. That way...you can get an idea the damage of the suitcase nuke (.001 MT). One thing this program will not take into account though is that the buildings will deflect a lot of the blast...so instead of buildings 1000' away destroyed in a downtown area...you're probably looking at a couple of hundred feet max. Just some FYI.

[inflorida]

I guess everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop and we are hoping it is later rather than sooner. Of course, if the proper measures were taken we wouldn't have to worry at all (no more PC policies)