1. Strike in August, when the country is on vacation, so it takes a couple of days to get enough attention for somebody to actually do something.
2. Strike outside the main urban centers of New York, LA, Chicago or Washington, where people aren’t so well-prepared to deal with a big calamity.
3. See if you can get Mother Nature to help you. Take out a dam or levee and cause a flood. Start a few fires and burn down a statewide forest. Blow up an oil tanker near a coastline and pollute the whole place. Place a small nuclear device at a strategic spot on the Andreas fault and cause an earthquake that will destroy all of California.
4. For maximum death and suffering, strike at black America instead of white America. Let’s face it, if New Orleans had been a white city instead of a black one, the Federal government would’ve had rescue teams down there on Day One.
Found this interesting? More stuff like it at Adam Ash.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - trace my IP address
Why stop with a post? Why not just write a book that encourages terrorist leaders (what, engineers, physicians, oil magnates, unemployed men?), w/often unknown military training, to capitalize on U.S. strategic weak-points.
Contrary to what you may believe, said weak-points are not necessarily evident to enemies of the U.S. If a fire is set or a tanker is blown, and they likely will be, can you guess one of the names that U.S. authorities are going to be pointing fingers at courtesy of the WWW?
2 - alethinos59
Oh ease up trace my cleverly stupid screen name! The terrorist already know the basics of what to do! Why do you think they did what they did on September 11th?
Secondly, it is not NEARLY as easy to blow up a damn as one would think - trust me on this one...
Third... Did I mention LIGHTEN UP?
3 - Dave Nalle
>>4. For maximum death and suffering, strike at black America instead of white America. Let’s face it, if New Orleans had been a white city instead of a black one, the Federal government would’ve had rescue teams down there on Day One.<<
I'm just curious why you need two separate posts to spread this bigoted lie word for word.
Dave
4 - trace my IP address
"The terrorist already know the basics of what to do!"
-I take it you are using the events of September 11, 2001 to support your assertion that "terrorists already know the basics of what to do."
"Why do you think they did what they did on September 11th?"
-Reasonably, the answer is that "they" were unsuccessful on a previous attempt at knocking down the WTC in 1993.
Why did terrorists attempt to destroy the WTC in 1993?
-Reasonably, the answer is that it is a target of value, the destruction of which would bring them some benefit, symbolically or otherwise.
Does any of the aforementioned suggest that terrorists "already know the basics of what to do?" No, it suggest that, on September 11th 2001, terrorists completed the job of destroying a "target of value, the destruction of which would bring them some benefit, symbolically or otherwise."
I see nothing to support your assertion that terrorists "already know the basics of what to do!" I see only that terrorists apparently know how to successfully take control of jetliners and use them to impact tall buildings.
If you do wish to consider potential terrorist actions, then keep it to yourself or otherwise seek employment with an organization that can utilize your considerations for the greater good of your country. In sum, Weigh Yourself Down.
5 - DrPat
Alethinos59: it's "dam", not "damn" -- one holds back water, the other isn't worth a damn in a flood!
Trace: I once attended (in the early 70s) a symposium on security against terrorist acts by radical groups such as SDS. Attendance at the symposium was strictly regulated; they checked our IDs going in and coming out; they confiscated notes. Serious concerns about word leaking out!
Then the proceedings of the symposium were published two months later.
As far as I know, no SDS or other radical ever managed to take out the entire Western power grid (strategically-placed explosives at TWO sites were all it would have taken then). No one poisoned the water supply in any of the five cities where it would be easy to do (then). And there was never any attempt (that I heard of) to steal nuclear material from any of the eight ready, poorly-defended sources that existed at that time.
6 - billy
my advice, the next terrorist that wants to attack stick the nuke up trace's ass. youll do us all a favor. find out his ip adress as you wish. im sure terrorists know how to do it.
7 - trace my IP address
"Then the proceedings of the symposium were published two months later."
Publishing in the 1970's mostly involved the printing press and its inherent limits regarding the distribution of the written word.
Publishing today consists of...well, you are presently participating in some of what publishing consists of today.
You make certain statements about power grids, water supplies, and nuclear material. Though this information has apparently been "available," no matter how inefficently, for 30-some years, it seems that you have discovered a way to efficiently bring it new attention.
8 - alethinos59
Oh please Trace! Stop playing thought police here! All the information any terrorist would ever need or want has been available for decades - poo-pooing (DrPat, did I spell THAT correctly??) the poster here about this is nonsense...
There's got to be better places for you to play cyber-den mother...
9 - Bennett
Yeah Adam,
Mums the word!
:-]
10 - DrPat
Yep, the word is out -- 30-plus-year-old information, though. In case you missed it, the symposium was about how to guard and protect against, and remedy the situations that opened us to such terror attacks.
It's totally amazing what you can find in libraries. (There may be a reason for that clause in the Patriot Act, after all...)
11 - chris franklin
"All the information any terrorist would ever need or want has been available for decades"
-I would agree with you, if you had provided support for this statement.
The common stores of information, the public library, the book store, the university, generally do not have "Committing Terrorist Actions for Dummies" books to browse. Such information may have been available for quite sometime, in certain circles. But, it was, by no means, widely disseminated.
12 - Dave Chappelle
Glad I'm in South Africa :)
13 - Dave Chappelle
Glad I'm in South Africa with 50 million. 50 million buys a lot of protection, biatches!
14 - alethinos59
Sure Dave... As to Chris... Good lord you people are naive! Do you really think anyone wakes up one day and wonders, "Hmmm... How to become a successful terrorist? Should I strike out on my own? Maybe open a franchise?"
Really folks... Terrorists are NOT perusing BLOGCRITICS looking for great new ideas for another target...
Wow...
Anyone else want off the good ship Lollypop?
15 - trace my IP address
You are right, Chris is definitely naive. Terrorists don't use internet-connected computers. Terrorists don't understand how to use search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Their keyword searches on such "engines" would never lead to a site such as this one.
16 - DrPat
Chris may be naive, trace, but you give yourself, Adam Ash and Blogcritics entirely to much weight as a resource for terrorists.
Especially with such compilations as this just a Google away.
17 - trace my IP address
You are correct. I looked at dhs.gov and saw references to the optimum date for a terrorist attack, the optimum urban location-type for attack, references to the setting of forest fires, the destruction of oil tankers, the use of explosive devices in areas with unstable geography, and the attack of certain populations. Or, was I looking here?
18 - alethinos59
Oh please - AGAIN! I can guarantee you that terrorists are not waiting with abaited breath, even as I type this, for a juicy idea to use on an unsuspecting American population!
Without going into personal history I can ASSURE you they do NOT visit sites like this and say to themselves, NOW THAT ADAM DUDE - HE'S GOT SOME SMARTS! WHY DIDN'T WE EVER THINK OF THOSE SITES!
Good lord folks! You act as if these terrorists were being manufactured somewhere COMPLETELY clueless.
How the insurgency in Iraq must have SUFFERED for Adam not posting this earlier! Left to their own devices it's a wonder they managed to kill anyone!
19 - alethinos59
By the way Adam, the THOUGHT POLICE wanted me to give them your address... I said they should have NO PROBLEM figuring it ALL out just by reading BLOGCRITIC.
20 - trace my IP address
You can be your own "thought police."
And, you "assure" us. Thank you. I realize, now, the error of my ways.
21 - kittygogo
This event certainly does seem to serve as a best case scenario for terrorists, doesn't it?
For anyone who say that this incident has nothing to do with national security - what happens during the next big earthquake when all of our limited supplies here (cause they are all in Iraq!) are tied up dealing with that natural disaster, and suddenly terrorists set off a dirty bomb or two or a couple of suicide bombers pull a London-type attack in another US city or two or three...
We have revealed our weaknesses to the world and are now more vulnerable than ever before. They are watching our failures and probably getting some ideas on how to best strike next. I doubt the terrorists would hit largely black pop. though. They can see how the fed. govt. really doesn't give a shit about poor people (not as much racist, as simply ambivalent towards the plight of the poor), so why waste the energy? Strike the Hollywood Hills instead, can you imagine that coverage?
I wonder how that democracy is going in Iraq. Really seems like a huge priority now, doesn't it?
22 - alethinos59
Trace, have you skipped your medication for the paranoia? Remember what the doctor said...
I don't know how you can write these posts for want of peeking out the window there at Bunker Central...
23 - alethinos59
Yes Kitty, right now they're doing the math, trying to figure out how to stir up another hurricane...
And of course it never occurred to all the folks in the Pentagon that terrorists might, just MIGHT use the cover of the hurricane to do us harm - thank goodness you all pointed that out to them!
Come on folks... Pull yer heads... Oh forget it..
24 - Oh I'ma Bin Laden
...add the seven and carry the one...
I do wish you guys would stop bugging me while I'm trying to calculate the next natural disaster!
25 - kittygogo
Did I say they were going to manufacture a hurricane? I wouldn't even reply to this, but I am so sick of every post that is in disagreement, the first thing said is "yeah, he started the hurricane" or "you can't just start a hurricane." DUH!! I am not an idiot! But I'll bet that Al Queda is a bit leaner, with less red-tape than our govt. My guess is a moments notice is all that it takes. Stop with the stupid you can't start a hurricane crap. It is getting really, frickin' old.