Terror Threats: Are They a Ploy?
SK Bubba thinks the terror threats are a ploy.
These alleged terrorist threats to U.S. financial institutions today are a transparent, cynical ploy to make the stock markets tank tomorrow. Then next month the GOP and their talking wobbly bobble-heads can be all serious and somber about how the markets reacted to the Democratic convention and Kerry's plan for America.
Oliver Willis is willing to credit the threats.
I don't know but my instincts tell me, mostly due to their specificity, that the threats are real and not a ploy. Better a false alarm than no notice.
I also wonder whether we are getting the whole story. For example, Secretary Ridge said in his remarks (text available here), “We’re concerned about targets beyond these and are working to get more information.” He also referred to security measures being taken “in our public places and cyber space; on air, land, and sea.”
The "beyond these" and the "in cyberspace" caught my attention. Is the threat broader than the New York area? Does it involve electronic sabotage of our financial markets? Is there an "electronic Jihad" on the way? Is it just a coincidence that American Airlines and U.S. Air were grounded today by "computer glitches?" Or are conspiracy theorists at work again?
Secretary Ridge also mentioned that “thousands of radiological pagers” would be distributed to law enforcement to enable the detection of radiological disbursement. Is there a real concern that conventional explosives will be mixed with radiological ones, which, if it's the case, would increase the damage that would be inflicted?
How serious is the new threat to U.S. assets? What other cities might be involved? Chicago has the Chicago Board of Exchange. Miami, Seattle and Houston could also be targets according to intelligence alert services to which we subscribe.
Oliver asks, if it is a real alert, what can we do? I always tell the TL kid who lives in New York to keep lots of bottled water on hand. Obviously, in a real emergency, that won't be enough. According to the Northeast Security Network, here are the instructions to follow for emergency preparedness--a Major Disaster Survival Kit. You might want to print them and keep them handy. Just in case. And one other thought. If the internet and television go down, you might want to have a short-wave radio on hand.
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