Updating the NYC subway threat: According to the New York Times, “One official said the information suggested an attack could happen as early as [Friday]; another pointed to the middle of the month.” (Yom Kippur is next Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 12-13. Just throwing it out there.)
Meanwhile, the feds are pointing to the “false alarm” button:
While not dismissing it, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security described it as “specific yet noncredible,” and an antiterrorism official stressed that the details could not be verified.
Umm… okay, can someone explain to me how the word “noncredible” qualifies as “not dismissing it”? Later in the article, the same spokesman is quoted as saying, “The intelligence community has concluded that this information is of doubtful credibility.” So yeah, I’m going to say he’s pretty much “dismissing it.”
Anyway… in the comments on my earlier post, my dad reports that my mom safely rode the subway to Canal Street earlier tonight. “Let no Terrorist think that Leanna Loomer is going to Let them Win,” he added. Heh.
On a different but related note, another commenter on that same NYC discussion linked to this post by wacko right-wing blogger Atlas Shrugs detailing far-right website WorldNetDaily creator Joseph Farah’s July warning about a possible “American Hiroshima” in October or early November — with October 29 (the day before my 24th birthday) being perhaps the most likely date, and the likely targets being New York, Washington D.C., Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Chicago. I say “different but related” because of this comment by Atlas:
My take on these global al qaeda “brushfire” bombings (i.e. this weekend’s bombing in Bali, [the July bombing in] London, [the March 2004 bombing in] Madrid etc)? I believe it is a deliberate strategy to disarm us, trick us if you will…….to deceive us into thinking this is their modus operandi……bomb subways, buildings, discos…….wherein we prepare for one thing, when if fact they have quite another attack in mind.
An interesting theory, and it would cast this whole New York threat business in quite a different light. And hey, just because they’re right-wing nutjobs doesn’t mean they’re necessarily wrong! :) However, it seems to me that if Al Qaeda’s already got the suitcase nukes in this country, as Farah suggests, then such “strategy” isn’t really necessary. We ain’t going to be able to stop them, if that’s the case, so why bother trying to distract us with head-fakes? Just blow the damn things up already. Which is precisely why I think Farah is very probably wrong: if Al Qaeda had had nukes in this country since July, we wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation right now.
Joseph Cannon, an anti-Bush liberal (and the only non-right-winger I could find who is even paying attention to Farah), agrees that Atlas and Farah are probably wrong:
I’m skeptical. Very skeptical.As long-time readers know, I believe that a mini-nuke attack is likely. (Of course, I hope history will prove me wrong.) That’s one reason we should note of any new scraps of information concerning this possibility.
But this particular tale has the odor of what my ladyfriend likes to call “bunky-doody.”
Indeed. Still, combined with warnings about the EMP threat (also coming from the ever-optimistic Mr. Farah), even the whiff of a possibility of an “American Hiroshima” later this month is enough to make me think perhaps I’ll speed up my personal disaster preparations by actually putting together a disaster kit. Can’t hurt, right? Hmm… a project for this weekend, in between catch-up reading and Moot Court writing, perhaps?
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October 7th, 2005 at 12:02:43 am
Leanna Loomer has now returned, unruffled :), to her Washington Heights artstudio/apartment, having traversed nearly the full Length of the Isle of Manhattan via subway. / The terrorists Lose. / Again. :)
October 7th, 2005 at 1:46:30 am
An effective EMP attack, while certainly Fearsome in its Potential, calls for a Delivery System capable of attaining a very considerable Altitude over the central-continental U.S. ~ per the linked piece, “altitudes above a few dozen kilometers above the Earth’s surface.” Above a Few Dozen Kilometers is Pretty Damn High Up.
IOW we’re talking a significant Missile, here ~ and one that can Reach such Apogee from a rather Remote launch platform, to boot ~ whether on Land or on the High Seas ~ OR else, a Remarkably highflying longrange aircraft.
IOW, the EMP Doom Assault is more likely to come from a militarily-robust Nation State, than from yer man Holed up in the old Tora Bora. :|
Yes, Iran & North Korea probably ~ and Russia & China, certainly ~ possess such Means of Delivery. / But, are they going to Share?
(Hey, don’t ask Mee, I dunno. Whaddoo I looklike here, some kinda furrin’ Mole in the VPOTUS’s office? :)
October 7th, 2005 at 11:58:22 am
Um, what makes Atlas Shrugs blog so “wacko right-wing”? Not that I’ve ever heard of or visited the site, unless I followed a link from Instapundit or something….
October 7th, 2005 at 12:24:50 pm
Ummm … small problem with the ‘Chicken Little’ EMP threat … Senator Gore had the great foresight to protect this Fine Nation’s communications when he invented (or was it created) the InterNet …
A very significant motivation for the development of DARPANet which became ARPANet which seguÈd into Bitnet which became the Internet was its comparative immunity to EMP …
When that is combined with the accelerating propagation of fibre-optic (non-metal) data communication paths, then EMP goes from being a widespread disaster to being a very local disaster and a medium-range to long-range nuisance …
EMP can only be effective if there is a conductor in which the EMP can induce current flow … fibre-optics (glass!) are very poor conductors of current flow …
At more than a comparatively short distance from an EMP source, the resulting current surge can be handled by GFI technology and surge protector technology …
Will this stop an ill-informed terrorist from trying it ? Not necessarily …
Will it cause informed citizens to lose significant sleep about EMP risks ? Not significantly …
Should an informed citizenry (and non-citizenry) be putting together each their own personalised disaster preparedness kits, suitable for local and plausible risks ? Oh yeah !
Yer average hacker is a much more credible threat, nowadays, than EMP can be, given current and developing technology …
Now, your average BlueTooth *may* happen to find itself fried, if its sensitive circuitry isn’t shielded when the EMP pulse happens … (grin) … ironically, a well-grounded tinfoil hat is probably the best defence against EMP … so the barking moonbats may yet have the last laugh …
October 7th, 2005 at 12:56:41 pm
*There’s* your slogan-for-the-day …
Prepare It Now Before It’s Moot !
October 7th, 2005 at 1:52:55 pm
Um, what makes Atlas Shrugs blog so “wacko right-wing”?
I found a post — on a different blog, but written by the same blogger — in which Atlas went on and on about how we’re at war against Islam, all those liberal fucks need to get in line, stop being a fifth column, etc.
October 7th, 2005 at 2:41:25 pm
Are you sure you didn’t just click on a link to Charles blog by accident?
October 7th, 2005 at 2:48:15 pm
Heh.
No… I don’t recall Charles saying that we’re at war with Islam.
He certainly has commented extensively on those liberal fucks, though. :)