Nuclear Terrorism

The optimum place for detonation is in Yellowstone National Park - it closes down the US and brings the world into totally decline. Best value bang for the buck

Are Homeland Security Planning Scenarios just jobs for the boys or money well spent?

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what do you think the likelyhood for smuggled N-weapons being detonated in major U.S. cities is?

Very likely over an infinite timeframe...
My plans to deal with this possibility? Carry on. I've been dealing with such possibilities (death, murder) since my birth; as have all species.

Jim

Well, as someone who works well within the effective "kill radius" of a low-yield nuke (downtown Seattle), I have my concerns. I've been scouting prevailing wind directions (fallout) from there vis-a-vis my suburban home, collecting an emergency kit, etc.

Am I being a worry-wart?

Is this the type of threat you are worried about?

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Those who claim that these nuclear weapons were stolen suggest that the thefts took place in the early 1990s. If so, then it is surprising that there have not been any attempts to use these weapons, or to credibly threaten their use.

Eto byl ne nash chemodanchik
More suitcase stuff

I am sure that your local chapter of Homeland Security will be only too glad to answer any of your questions and put your mind at rest.

I wonder what response one could expect from GW to a dirty nuclear bomb on US territory? A strategic low yield nuclear strike against the Pakistan/Afganistan border? Far enough away from major centres of Western population and surgical enough to ensure the total removal of the popular training camps and any AlKy leaders studying their Koran for get-out clauses.

Smuggling large radioactive sources into major urban areas isn't like bringing conventional explosives into the same area and I'm quite sure that many major cities in the US (DC & New York) are equipped with the relevant kit to detect such movements.

Secondly, detonating such a device (or even constructing a weapon which will detonate) isn't as simple as lighting a match or pushing a plunger.

I would worry more about driving your car.

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Originally posted by sonofcolin:
I would worry more about driving your car.

Oh crap, you've seen me drive??? ...

Actually, the smaller nukes are light enough that they could be transported in lead-lined containers. One bit of intelligence I read asserted that they are hidden in urban mosques; unlike churches, non-believers (and law enforcement) cannot walk in and look around.

Roy T,

Homeland Security? .... .... Hahahaha! Seriously though, the other links you provided were comforting to this paranoiac ex-hippie.

I'd love to be resting comfortably in some rural Home Counties sanatorium right now...

Frazzled in America

Real cynics might suggest that if the CIA had never existed the world would be a very much safer place. There are those who say americia's constant meddling now has them hoist so far up their own petard you can see their dirty knickers from right around the globe.

Some might ask if there has ever been any dictator who hasn't enjoyed strategic US support. Now even the evil Karimov has just raised two fingers to gw.com. So americia's open support for yet another mass murderer has dismally failed to achieve the desired end result. The world's biggest and ugliest bully just been given a shiner by one of the world's smallest and nastiest!

Every move that americia makes seems to produce the very enemies out of the woodwork that their secret services so-o-o desperately need. Just to continue on their wanton path to total global destruction. "Puppeteers" has taken on a whole new meaning. It could be argued that Bin Loaded is really jumping to americia's string-pulling. Not the other way round. The leader of "the greatest power on earth" has no clothes. Only dirty laundry. That nobody with two jobs on minimum wage and no health-care wants to touch. Unless they score first. Americia, you are your own (absolutely) worst enemy!

I would expect that after following the exploits of George Clooney & Nicole Kidman as they tracked a suitcase sized nuke across the globe from one of the poor behighted 'stans right through to only a few blocks away from the UN building and then managing to disarm the device you would be feeling quite secure . But if you live in the real world then Homeland Security seems to be your best choice and after browsing a few links I get the general opinion that they are making good use of your tax dollar.

Wired News: Battening Cargo Against Terrorism
Wired News: Warning: May Contain Explosives
Wired News: More Watchful, Probably Not Safer
"CRS Report RS21079, Maritime Security: Overview of Issues." - Google Search

I reckon living in your part of the world I'd be more worried about an economic attack on Microsoft and Bill Gates as the loss of both the company HQ and Bill would I think throw the US economy into a spin for some while.

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Originally posted by Roy T:

I'd be more worried about an economic attack on Microsoft and Bill Gates as the loss of both the company HQ and Bill would I think throw the US economy into a spin for some while.

True. But they'd probably make Bin Loaded head of the UN or even US President for "services rendered".

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Originally posted by bhazen:
t they could be transported in lead-lined containers. One bit of intelligence I read asserted that they are hidden in urban mosques; unlike churches, non-believers (and law enforcement) cannot walk in and look around.

Adam, you missed this bit.

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Originally posted by bhazen:
... what do you think the likelyhood for smuggled N-weapons being detonated in major U.S. cities is?

Inevitable.

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What are your plans to deal with this possibility?

My plan is to grab my ankles, put my head between my legs, and kiss my ass goodbye.

.

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Originally posted by fred simon:

My plan is to grab my ankles, put my head between my legs, and kiss my ass goodbye.

.

Good plan! Unless you want to run or are carrying a firearm.

http://thegreenman.net.au/mt/gun_deaths_in_usa.htm

quote:

Originally posted by fred simon:
My plan is to grab my ankles, put my head between my legs, and kiss my ass goodbye.

Not so likely to happen in (non-urban) Anytown, though...at least one person I know (who has infinitely greater financial resources than I do) has bought a home in a rural town, upwind of Seattle, with lots of local produce/dairy production and artsy folks. The sort of place that should do alright if downtown Seattle is a smoking radioactive crater.

As a philosophical issue, I'm not sure I want to live in a post-Apocalypse era; everything I've grown up caring about would be history.

As a practical matter, I hope it doesn't happen until after the Stones tour.

You know what? After airing this fear (with the long-suffering Padded Cell inmates) I feel better; N.T. is the worst that can happen, so however life turns out in reality, it'll be alright!

Of course there's always the supervolcano...

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Originally posted by JonR:
Of course there's always the supervolcano...

I'll see your supervolcano and ... raise you an incoming asteroid. Should be quite warm round here in the future. And there was I investing in winter down gear. I was promised an ice age in my youth. Just my luck!

Y'all ought to come live in Belfast. probably teh safest capital city in th eworld now thet SF/IRA have declared peace. Again.

Willy.

PS If the global warming/rising sea level is for real forget this.It's built on a bog.

I would suggest that a "dirty" nuclear bomb is actually rather unlikely.

A suitcase bomb? Maybe.

A "dirty" nuke is a sort of half-assed nuclear bomb made by amateurs. It detonates poorly, but spreads lots of nasty fallout.

The most likely of all is a "conventional" dirty bomb. Radioactive dust surrounding conventional explosives. There is no nuclear reaction (ie either fission or fusion), but the radioactive material still causes a fallout plume which would be sufficient to make large areas of a US city uninhabatable.

Why a US city? The radioactivity would increase cancer rates in the area. The theory is that the litigious US system would make any cancers be someone's "fault" (eg lack of clearup, etc), and therefore liable to a multi-million dollar lawsuit.

The land would thus become "economically unviable".

cheers, Martin

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quote:

Originally posted by Nime:

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Originally posted by JonR:
Of course there's always the supervolcano...

I'll see your supervolcano and ... raise you an incoming asteroid.

Actually, supervolcanic eruptions can easily be equivalent in devastation to some asteroid impacts, and what's more is that they're 5 to 10 times more likely to occur.

Have a nice day!

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quote:

Originally posted by Martin Payne:
The most likely of all is a "conventional" dirty bomb. Radioactive dust surrounding conventional explosives. There is no nuclear reaction (ie either fission or fusion), but the radioactive material still causes a fallout plume which would be sufficient to make large areas of a US city uninhabatable.

Why a US city? The radioactivity would increase cancer rates in the area. The theory is that the litigious US system would make any cancers be someone's "fault" (eg lack of clearup, etc), and therefore liable to a multi-million dollar lawsuit.

The land would thus become "economically unviable".

cheers, Martin

Cheers, indeed.

Studies of the possible effects of dirty conventional bombs find that they may not necessarily cause that many cancers, but the health care system of a city suffering the attack could collapse due to mass panic and the mass demands to be tested and/or "disinfected."

The main target of a dirty conventional bomb is the economy; experts conjecture that it would actually be less expensive to abandon an attacked city (or area of a city) than to try to clean it. If such bombs were unleashed in several major US cities on the same day, its economy, and therefore that of the global community, could be strained beyond recovery.

Sleep tight!

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Just when I'm feeling better...supervolcano???

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Originally posted by bhazen:
Just when I'm feeling better...supervolcano???

Don't take any notice of them. They've just been watching too much telly that's all.

Bye bye....

quote:

Originally posted by bhazen:
Just when I'm feeling better...supervolcano???

Yep. There's one under your very own Yellowstone National Park. And it's overdue...

As fred says, have a nice day!

[Not that I want to unduly alarm anyone of course...]