True, but natural gas ignites fairly easily. I don't think you'd have too many problems blowing an LNG tanker.
Greater American terror attack scenarios
- Thread starter Melvin Loh
- Start date
True, but natural gas ignites fairly easily. I don't think you'd have too many problems blowing an LNG tanker.
AmIndHistoryAuthor
Banned
Efficient is exactly what 9-11 attacks on the WTC were. It was the biggest financial center in the country. The 9-11 attacks caused a TRILLION dollar loss to the US economy and sent the country in to recession.
Most of the scenarios proposed on this thread couldn't come anywhere close to 9-11. People are assuming Al Qaeda are foaming at the mouth and bloodthirsty for its own sake, only wanting body counts.
No, they think of themselves as soldiers. (And not holy warriors either. Contrary to what many think, it's nationalism that drives them more than religion.) They wanted to damage and humiliate the US as much as they could given their numbers and resources. to drive the US out of the Mideast. That is why they chose to focus on attacking US soldiers in Iraq rather than much easier civilian targets in the US. Homeland Security is still relatively inept.
From a military standpoint (leaving out the appalling moral callousness) the attacks made far more sense than simply trying to kill high numbers of civilians for no reason. They see themselves as modern day Saladins, not the Manson Family.
Orville_third
Banned
Good point. In addition, they have stated that their goal is to bankrupt the USA just like they helped bankrupt the Soviet Union. And, by tying up our forces in Afghanistan, Somalia, the Philippines, and by us going into Iraq and letting them in, they are getting just what they want...
However, while others had thought of using planes as weapons before 9/11 (Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, Thomas Harris, "Max Barclay" (Novelists), Various Japanese, German, Russian and American pilots (Including Joseph Kennedy, Jr. and Charles J. Loring, Jr.(MOH Korea)) (pilots/military), the Tamil Tigers, the GIA and Samuel Byck), Al Quaida was the first to actually use an airliner as a weapon, thus getting the credit. If they thought outside the box yet again, they could cause a great deal of economic damage, and frighten the american people. (As one of the Al Quaida members put it, in his plans for something like 9/11, "Boom, Boom, Boom, and America is on standby.")
However, while others had thought of using planes as weapons before 9/11 (Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, Thomas Harris, "Max Barclay" (Novelists), Various Japanese, German, Russian and American pilots (Including Joseph Kennedy, Jr. and Charles J. Loring, Jr.(MOH Korea)) (pilots/military), the Tamil Tigers, the GIA and Samuel Byck), Al Quaida was the first to actually use an airliner as a weapon, thus getting the credit. If they thought outside the box yet again, they could cause a great deal of economic damage, and frighten the american people. (As one of the Al Quaida members put it, in his plans for something like 9/11, "Boom, Boom, Boom, and America is on standby.")
Given the same time and resources that Al Quada spent on 9/11 I knew a simple plan that could destroy any American City.
And No -- I would tell, don't want to see it happen in RL.
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However To shut down any trans-river city takes ony 500 pound of Explosives and 20 men.
Divide your explosives into 10 - 50 pound packages, place the packages on the supports of the top 5 major Bridges. Just below the Water line.
Detonate the Bombs just as Morning Rush Hour begins.
No I don't expect the Bridges to Collapse, an no one should be hurt by the Attack. [The Traffic Accidents from the Panic is different]
However the Police will shut down the Bridges, canceling Rush Hour as thousands of Commuters decide to turn around and go Home and thousands of Others decide to not try.
By that evening questions of Safety will be raised. The NTSB and the Highway Safety Board, and a host of other Government Agencies will get into it.
It will be days [if not weeks] before the bridges are reopened. With all the Economic costs of no-one able to get to work.
And No -- I would tell, don't want to see it happen in RL.
===
However To shut down any trans-river city takes ony 500 pound of Explosives and 20 men.
Divide your explosives into 10 - 50 pound packages, place the packages on the supports of the top 5 major Bridges. Just below the Water line.
Detonate the Bombs just as Morning Rush Hour begins.
No I don't expect the Bridges to Collapse, an no one should be hurt by the Attack. [The Traffic Accidents from the Panic is different]
However the Police will shut down the Bridges, canceling Rush Hour as thousands of Commuters decide to turn around and go Home and thousands of Others decide to not try.
By that evening questions of Safety will be raised. The NTSB and the Highway Safety Board, and a host of other Government Agencies will get into it.
It will be days [if not weeks] before the bridges are reopened. With all the Economic costs of no-one able to get to work.
Well, had Al Qaida hit the first WTC tower 20 minutes later (i.e. after 9:00am, when a lot of people showed up for work) and 20+ floors lower than it did (as it hit around the 96th floor, further down would have trapped that many more floors worth of people), you probably would have easily tripled (probably even more than that) the number of fatalities.
Orville_third
Banned
Actually, suicide bombers blowing up cars in rush hour traffic in major cities would cause quite a lot of panic...
As for using other portions of the infrastructure to attack civilians, there are numerous chemical plants around the country that would be far easier targets than nuclear facilities. I know of one facility (not in my hometown) that is conveniently located near a major target. Or, alternatively, stealing some toxic chemicals from those facilities and THEN using them would be nasty. (In IRL police in my area have warned some thieves that they took some toxic gases as opposed to the hazardous Anhydrous Ammonia they may have planned to use for methmaking...)
As for using other portions of the infrastructure to attack civilians, there are numerous chemical plants around the country that would be far easier targets than nuclear facilities. I know of one facility (not in my hometown) that is conveniently located near a major target. Or, alternatively, stealing some toxic chemicals from those facilities and THEN using them would be nasty. (In IRL police in my area have warned some thieves that they took some toxic gases as opposed to the hazardous Anhydrous Ammonia they may have planned to use for methmaking...)
I see where you're going with this. Its not so much the fact that they actually collapsed a bridge. Its that they tried in the first place.
Using an airliner as a weapon against nuclear power planzs is harder than anyone here might think. The reactor itself is a tiny target close to ground which is hard to hit with a fast moving plane (think a bullet into a bullseye from 500 m in heavy storm), and you would need a straight head-on hit to destroy the pressure vessel. Most probable result from a near-miss would be the destruction of the generator hall, maybe compromising the reactor containment building, forcing an instant shutdown and possibly resulting in moderate radioactivity spill.
Modern light-water reactors remain stable even in case of instant shutdown. Now the older graphite-moderated RBMK reactors... well, Tschernobyl accident was an instant shutdown/powerup experiment gone wrong.
Modern light-water reactors remain stable even in case of instant shutdown. Now the older graphite-moderated RBMK reactors... well, Tschernobyl accident was an instant shutdown/powerup experiment gone wrong.