On Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:19:17 GMT, John Husvar
wrote:
In article ,
Gunner wrote:
On Tue, 08 Aug 2006 00:25:15 GMT, John Husvar
wrote:
In article ,
Gunner wrote:
a dozen Islamic Jihadists and less than 1000 lbs of explosives could
shut down the Northeast and the Northwest in less than a day..and keep
them shut down for at least a month or longer
Gunner
Always knew you were a closet incurable optimist. 
Im a long term survivalist. Such sceanarios have been gamed for many
years in the survival community. I have some that would make you run
straight out to Walmart and fill every vehicle you own with supplies 2
minutes after finishing reading them.
Probably almost all of the possible scenarios have been gamed by
somebody. Too damn bad the people who might have made the difference on
9/11 maybe didn't take the game scenarios seriously enough. But, then,
how can anyone know _which_ scenario may play out at any given time?
With a little study and planning, they could do it with a couple hundred
feet of 1/4-inch link chain -- thrown across just the right busses. Some
of the bigger substation transformers are virtually irreplaceable. Get
some arcing started and the disconnects won't be able to break their
circuits before the transformers are scrap.
True enough. The explosives were not necessarily for the
substations/towers etc..but the bridges etc leading to them. And
mechanical ambushes IEDs..to take out the skilled labor who show up to
make the repairs. There are only a finite number of such crews. Get a
few of them claymored..and the rest will be far more hesitant to restore
power to various areas.
Bank along a road, posthole digger, 2' capped one end, of 6" cast iron
or steel tubing, 2# homemade fffg black powder sealed in a big Baggie
along with 2 electric matches (redundancy), cheap radio control out of a
RC kids' toy, batteries, pound or two of 6d finish nails, newspaper
wadding. Result? One instant, remote detonated, claymore equivalent --
adequate for from ordinary grunts marching along the road to police
cruisers.
Be sure to bury a 55 gallon drum full of gasoline, with the drum top
pointed to where you expect the wreckage to stop. When EMS/LEOs show up
and you get maximum people density, command detonate the fougass and
you can have a real flambe catching quite a number of individuals. A
real "twofer".
The arab terrorists use secondary bombs to catch medical personel and
have been doing this for years.
Primitive to an extreme, but possible, even practical with off-the-shelf
materials.
And Homeland Security doesn't offer to hire us why?
Because those folks have others far far nastier than us.
Compressed air/black powder chain cannons on timers would be hard to
spot and deadly effective against substations, as would carbon fibre.
Carbon fibre dispensers btw..were used against Iraqi substations to good
effect.
Gunner, get the Hell _outta_ my head!
You have an evil, devious mind. I like that characteristic in a man --
or woman for that matter.
Shrug..its a knack.
1 pound of high explosives, a 50lb box of nails and a bit of enginuity
can remove a trained repair crew from the pension roles in a very short
time. Then who fixes the subs and restores the power, not to mention the
wait time while new transformers are custom fabricated..years.
Yep.
Of course the best times to initiate such actions, particularly in the
Northwest and Northeast would be in December..at Christmas time, through
January. The death toll would be in the hundreds of thousands and
virtally all commerce in those areas would simply cease, after the
rioters dispersed or were shot, and the fires were out.
Given sleeper cells, which it's fairly likely are already set up in many
countries, such tricks could be pulled off in spurts of a few weeks
between actions. Doing it in random locations would add to the effects.
Another sceanario..a couple Jihadists in a plain jane automobile, stops
on any average overpass over a busy freeway just at the onset of rush
hour and unloads a few magazines full auto at the cars passing
underneith. As the giant crash occurse, perhaps a few blazing molotovs
tossed into the wreckage would brighten things up. Reenter the
vehicle..and drive a couple miles to the next overpass on a different
freeway..a connector to the first one would be more effective, and
repeat. Repeat a half dozen times..and that city is shut down for
weeks. Repeat a couple days later..and it gets worse. Mail some homebrew
video explaining that they are members of the Elbonian Underground and
will repeat the actions until such and such occurs.
$50 worth of ammo and the economic havoc is untold.
Look how well those two buffons in DC/maryland did in spreading fear and
panic knocking down a few citizens.
We live in a VERY fragile civilization whose infrastructure was never
designed for such disruptions. Nor are most of our peoples prepared to
turtle down and wait it out, let alone take any sort of defensive
stance.
Well, I don't know that it's _that_ fragile, but there'd surely be a lot
of disruption. the Two above buffoons _did_ have effect far beyond their
real lethality. If people don't feel it safe to go anywhere, things
devolve down to two choices; hunker down, surrender, and maybe die or
get used to it and figure it's like lightning and maybe die. Your odds
are good, but there's no guarantee you won't lose.
Shrug.
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner