Just when you thought the news couldn't scare you anymore...

[msbae]

Well, you were wrong if you thought that way...

Nuclear or Bioterror Attack on U.S. Likely by 2013, Panel Warns
Tuesday , December 02, 2008
AP


WASHINGTON — The United States can expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study being briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

It suggests the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.

"Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing," states the report, obtained by The Associated Press. It is scheduled to be publicly released Wednesday.

Here's the report the article mentioned. How I'm able to get access to that report a full day before it's scheduled release is a little confusing, to say the least.

It's times like this that I really wish I owned one of those missile silos that were converted into underground mansions...

 

[TheBrew]

I would find a bioterror attack incredibly more likely than a nuclear attack. The only people that could attack us with nukes are nation-states. The best a rogue group could do is use a dirty bomb. Even then, the death toll will be in the hundreds which sounds like a lot, but really isn't. In a city with say 3.5 million people, we are talking about 0.01% of the population. I also doubt that New Orleans will be the subject of a terror attack. When you live your life in fear, the terrorists have beaten you.

 

[Captain Intrepid]

//yawns//

Wake me up when terrorists pose a real threat.

I forsee sleeping for a very long time.

9/11 killed what, 3000 people? That's less than the number of people to die in traffic collisions every month in your country. Please excuse me if I'm being rational and not being concerned, let alone freaking out.

 

[Data Holmes]

I've been saying that we could get hit like that since I was in fifth grade... The ignorance of the population of this country to the risks of attack for years not has always amazed me...

I would find a bioterror attack incredibly more likely than a nuclear attack. The only people that could attack us with nukes are nation-states. The best a rogue group could do is use a dirty bomb. Even then, the death toll will be in the hundreds which sounds like a lot, but really isn't. In a city with say 3.5 million people, we are talking about 0.01% of the population. I also doubt that New Orleans will be the subject of a terror attack. When you live your life in fear, the terrorists have beaten you.

See, you would think that, but it isn't always death toll that matters. Set off a few radiological bombs in the mid west and you could radiate a large chunk of farm lands and cities based on wind patterns at the time of explosion and amount of radiological material within the bomb.

I agree that Bio/Chem weapons are more likely to be used in the major population centers, though.

 

[Captain X]

//yawns//

Wake me up when terrorists pose a real threat.

I forsee sleeping for a very long time.

My feelings as well. They've been harping on about how the terrorists are going to kill us all since 9/11. The media does it for ratings and the government does it so they can scare us into letting them pass questionable legislation.

 

[Cutter John]

ME. Best thing we can do to let these bastards win is to start running around like scared chickens (you know, 'terrorized').

I've not read extensively on the matter, but from what I have seen, pulling off a large scale bio attack is a lot harder than just dumping a test tube of virus in the local reservoir, or loading up a crop duster. You need tons of the stuff, plus a place to grow it and a way of keeping the bugs alive while you transport the stuff to location.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

I have to echo a lot of the other responses. Even if a terror attack is very likely, I'm much more worried about getting killed on the highway on my way home from work, or getting cancer, or getting mugged when I jog through the park.

Terrorism is like a plane crash - its deadly and scary and makes HUGE headlines, but directly affects a miniscule number of people.

That would be different, of course, in the case of a nuclear attack, but that seems pretty unlikely at this point.

 

[John Picard]

I seem to remember mass hysteria and panic, shortly after 9/11, where the government told people to keep plastic and duct tape on-hand so they could wrap their houses. A lot of nimrods went out and actually *did* wrap their houses in plastic.

 

[DanCPA]

In all honesty, I do think that we can expect a terror attack some time during the Obama administration.
I know that George Bush and company have kept our nations safe since 9/11
I think that Barack Obama is going to try to play nice with the people we have detained and our enemies over seas, and they will take that as a weakness and attack. Barack Obama is likely going to restrict what is being done to keep our nation safe... And the terrorists won't applaud us for our gesture, they will punish us for it.

 

[Trekker4747]

We need one man.

Jack Bauer!

 

[RJDiogenes]

I know that George Bush and company have kept our nations safe since 9/11

Nope. The people in charge of keeping us safe have kept us safe before and after the 2001 attacks; the scale of the 2001 attacks was an anomaly. Our risk will be no greater next year than it is this year.

The risk of a nuclear or large-scale biological attack are next to nil; the risk of a small-scale biological attack is greater, but unlikely to do much actual harm-- except in the sense of freaking everybody out, which is the point of terrorism.

 

[Good Will Riker]

If this were a film, are we talking The Andromeda Strain type scenario here, or Outbreak?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Fearing terrorism on a daily basis in the US is silly. 9/11 killed about .037% of the population of New York City and .001 of the population of the country. Even in the city that is by far the most likely target your chances of being killed in a terrorist attack are miniscule and not even remotely comparable to the other dangers people face every day that they take for granted.

A biological attack of the kind terrorists are capable of would likely kill far less people than 9/11 did anyway, and nukes are too complex for most small, hidden, cell-based organizations to construct. Their only hope would be for a nuclear capable nation like Pakistan to simply hand them one or more to use, which is highly unlikely even if it were to be completely taken over by radicals, because if the terrorists don't simply turn it back around and use it against you to gain power, whomever they attack is going to be coming after you with a nuke next, because the signature of nuclear weapons (yield, materials, etc.) is fairly easy to trace back to a country of origin.

Despite the paranoia of some I don't see any proposals by Obama that encourage nuclear/biological/chemical proliferation. But by all means keep using cowardice as an excuse to diminish our freedoms, to pursue warlike policies that encourage the very thing you fear so much, and to further divide you from your own countrymen, because that is exactly what the terrorists want to happen, and you're playing right into it. Well done.

 

[Sheliak]

 

[Locutus of Bored]

As Picard put so aptly, "turn the page".

Well, it was vastly more apt in that situation, and even then he was corrected on it if you recall. How is it apt here? Is our society and our way of life truly in jeopardy from terrorism? If anything it's more in jeopardy from our own overreactions and divisiveness as a result of terrorism than from the terrorist acts themselves, and even then it's extremely unlikely to suddenly come crashing to an end.

 

[Trekker4747]

As Picard put so aptly, "turn the page".

Well, it was vastly more apt in that situation, and even then he was corrected on it if you recall. How is it apt here? Is our society and our way of life truly in jeopardy from terrorism? If anything it's more in jeopardy from our own overreactions and divisiveness as a result of terrorism than from the terrorist acts themselves, and even then it's extremely unlikely to suddenly come crashing to an end.

Indeed. Look at all that happened simply because a handful of men got lucky and managed to crash some planes into some buildings. -Something it took it an incredible ammount of mistakes and luck to have happen.

The USA PATRIOT Act got passed, harming our rights.

Among other things.

We're doing more damage to ourselves than the terrorists are. All the terrorists can do is blow up buildings and set off bombs, only our Government can restrict our freedoms and they are.

 

[DanCPA]

I know that George Bush and company have kept our nations safe since 9/11

Nope. The people in charge of keeping us safe have kept us safe before and after the 2001 attacks; the scale of the 2001 attacks was an anomaly. Our risk will be no greater next year than it is this year.

The risk of a nuclear or large-scale biological attack are next to nil; the risk of a small-scale biological attack is greater, but unlikely to do much actual harm-- except in the sense of freaking everybody out, which is the point of terrorism.

I realize it's difficult for you to give dub-ya credit... But our nation has been attack free since 9/11. I doubt it's because they stopped trying... And I give the ultimate credit to the people setting the policies which keep us safe

 

[Squiggy]

I know that George Bush and company have kept our nations safe since 9/11

Nope. The people in charge of keeping us safe have kept us safe before and after the 2001 attacks; the scale of the 2001 attacks was an anomaly. Our risk will be no greater next year than it is this year.

The risk of a nuclear or large-scale biological attack are next to nil; the risk of a small-scale biological attack is greater, but unlikely to do much actual harm-- except in the sense of freaking everybody out, which is the point of terrorism.

I realize it's difficult for you to give dub-ya credit... But our nation has been attack free since 9/11. I doubt it's because they stopped trying... And I give the ultimate credit to the people setting the policies which keep us safe

Clinton kept us safe too. As long as you ignore the worst day in American history...Bush kept us safe.

 

[Mr Awe]

I'm not too worried about a WMD attack. It's very hard to weaponize biological weapons. A top U.S. scientist working in an anthrax lab could could only kill 5 people. If it's hard for him, it'll be even harder for a terrorist. Iran has had a nuclear program since when? The 80s or so? They still don't have them. So, a nuclear terrorist attack is very unlikely.

Future terror attacks are likely to be the familiar conventional type. Guns and bombs. These are relatively simple to do.

Mr Awe

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I realize it's difficult for you to give dub-ya credit... But our nation has been attack free since 9/11. I doubt it's because they stopped trying... And I give the ultimate credit to the people setting the policies which keep us safe

They didn't stop trying, they just attacked other places. Not because it's impossible to attack the US right now or over the past seven years, but because their war is against the entire West, and not just us.