If Al Qaeda really wanted to mess with us...

[suzzer99]

At one time it used to be a pretty controversial theory that Al Qaeda was leaving us alone on our own turf on purpose. I think by now you pretty much have to accept it as nothing has happened since 9/11 and possibly the anthrax scare. But signs seem to point to someone domestic on that.

I don't agree with the handling of the war in Iraq or the decision to invade. But I do worry that one of the administrations central tenets about needing to "fight an away game" will come true once we are out of Iraq. At that time I'm a little nervous Al Qaeda and other related groups might start focusing their efforts inside our borders or on our interests outside Iraq/Afghanistan.

Furthermore, I feel fairly safe that no one from Al Qaeda is going to get a brainstorm from this particular forum. So I thought it might be interesting/terrifying to think about the stuff they could be doing to us right now:

1) Forest fires in the west. These billion $ blazes are always being started by accident or by some local yahoo. Imagine what kind of damage a dedicated team could do.

2) DC-style sniper attacks. Again look at what those two losers were able to accomplish with a high-powered rifle and a car. I'm thinking of LA, where everyone is outside all the time. All it would take is to knock-off a few random people scattered around the metro area - including maybe a few kids at soccer games - to really bring down the quality of life for 12 million people. Many people will take the risks of getting shot themselves, but be reluctant to take even a ghost of a chance with their kids' lives. The key would be to make it clear kids aren't safe AND the whole metro area is at risk.

3) Dirty nukes. This has been discussed a lot, and I'm no expert on the subject. But I did have an interesting discussion with a guy who works at Los Alamos in NM about the feasibilty of a dirty nuke. He listed 5 incredibly simple ways you could basically make a 10-square block section of Manhattan uninhabitable. Some including off the shelf products. I won't go into any more detail on that.

Anyway, if this thread is dangerous somehow please delete it. But I feel relatively safe that from this forum we're not going to give anyone any ideas that they haven't already thought of, or I wouldn't post it.

BUT OBVIOUSLY NO FORMULAS OR SPECIFICS PLEASE!