At 06:12 PM 3/25/03 -0500, John Kelsey wrote:...
>Maybe the FBI caught them and disarmed the >bombs before they went off.
And they didn't claim any credit? This doesn't jibe with the puffery one observes.
Well, there's puffery, and then there's trying to avoid panic. Though I'll agree this looks less plausible after the "all Americans should have duct tape and plastic to wrap their houses" announcements. But I'm trying to imagine the fallout (sorry) from announcing on CNN that they'd just found and disarmed a nuke that had been hidden in an apartment building in Manhattan. ("Officials said the bomb, which had approximately the same destructive power as the one used at Hiroshima, would have killed more than a million people if set off. In related news, the 200-mile-long traffic jam caused by refugees flooding out of the city continued today, and the NYSE announced that they would be moving operations to an undisclosed location in New Jersey for the forseeable future.")
>And for a third alternative, it's quite possible (I don't know how
>likely) that one or more groups have smuggled nukes into the US, planted them
>in US cities, and offered proof to the US government, as a way of
>establishing a nuclear deterrent. (C.f. Ross Anderson's "Guy Fawkes Protocol.")
But they've *already* declared their goals in numerous fatwas by now,
what do you want, a UN resolution?
I wasn't thinking of Al Qaida. There are a *lot* of people who might like to have a last-ditch deterrent against a US invasion or other action.
...
Again, the operational risks with extortion, traced communications, the faith-based motivations and psyop saavy of Al Q indicate Use It or Lose It.
Probably true for Al Qaida, but not necessarily for everyone.
--John Kelsey, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
