Page 15 of 25 FirstFirst ... 51314151617 ... LastLast
Results 281 to 300 of 487

Thread: Terrorism in the USA:threat & response

  1. #281
    Council Member bourbon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Boston, MA
    Posts
    903

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Stan View Post
    A simple pipe bomb with that much of a blast effect and secondary’s intended to bounce victims back and forth is not some average bomb maker on a lone quest. They had help and these were not some ordinary pipe bombs in backpacks. It’s also clear that some of these failed devices were intended for First Responders.

    Imagine how many people yesterday had backpacks on. How many put them down, discarded their trash, etc. ?

    As far as fragmentation goes, detonated at ground level against a wall and direct the Sierra forward up to 50 yards low level. Claymore anyone ?
    Thanks Stan, I know you can only share so much on such topics. This is helpful insight.
    “[S]omething in his tone now reminded her of his explanations of asymmetric warfare, a topic in which he had a keen and abiding interest. She remembered him telling her how terrorism was almost exclusively about branding, but only slightly less so about the psychology of lotteries…” - Zero History, William Gibson

  2. #282
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Estonia
    Posts
    3,817

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post

    Hey Stan: They say it was not a high explosive and I think the smoke was white. Would a black powder bomb do the trick?
    Hey Carl,
    I wouldn't go jumping to conclusions based on a white cloud of smoke before X-spray samples are in with forensics. Black powder, that is the real stuff made of sulfur, etc., is rare these days in ammunition like shotgun shells which contain pelletized powders. These so-called smokeless powders or even pyrodex are class C vs A and among other things easier to obtain.
    If you want to blend in, take the bus

  3. #283
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Estonia
    Posts
    3,817

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bourbon View Post
    Thanks Stan, I know you can only share so much on such topics. This is helpful insight.
    Glad to help where I can and there is always PM
    If you want to blend in, take the bus

  4. #284
    Council Member carl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Denver on occasion
    Posts
    2,460

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Stan View Post
    Hey Carl,
    I wouldn't go jumping to conclusions based on a white cloud of smoke before X-spray samples are in with forensics.
    Wise words. I get all wrapped up in trying to figure things out and can't stop myself.

    You can buy black powder ready made here. I checked one web site and they can ship up to 50#. There is a big market for muzzle loading hunting, re-enacters and those who like to shoot black powder guns and cannon.
    "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Gen. Nathanael Greene

  5. #285
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Estonia
    Posts
    3,817

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
    Wise words. I get all wrapped up in trying to figure things out and can't stop myself.

    You can buy black powder ready made here. I checked one web site and they can ship up to 50#. There is a big market for muzzle loading hunting, re-enacters and those who like to shoot black powder guns and cannon.
    No worries, we all have our days !

    All you need is some hot water and a little of this and that, and you still get basic black powder with less risk of blowing yourself up

    50 pounds is a lot of Sierra. Wonder why we can't keep the criminals from playing around
    If you want to blend in, take the bus

  6. #286
    Council Member carl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Denver on occasion
    Posts
    2,460

    Default

    Stan:

    They deliver it Fed-Ex ground to an actual house, no PO Box, and they require a name and a birthday. So that may discourage the riff-raff. Of course if you were planning on clearing out of the country...

    If it was low order, doesn't that mean if properly done, there may be no record of commercial purchase? Mixing up black powder yourself or maybe matchheads even, wouldn't leave much of a trail to follow.
    "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Gen. Nathanael Greene

  7. #287
    Council Member ganulv's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Berkshire County, Mass.
    Posts
    896

    Default Time will tell.

    As soon as I heard about the explosions my thought was that it might have had as much to do with Tax Day and Patriots’ Day as with the Marathon.
    If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)

  8. #288
    Council Member bourbon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Boston, MA
    Posts
    903

    Default Compliment or contradiction my "marketing" perspective.

    “[S]omething in his tone now reminded her of his explanations of asymmetric warfare, a topic in which he had a keen and abiding interest. She remembered him telling her how terrorism was almost exclusively about branding, but only slightly less so about the psychology of lotteries…” - Zero History, William Gibson

  9. #289
    Council Member carl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Denver on occasion
    Posts
    2,460

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by ganulv View Post
    As soon as I heard about the explosions my thought was that it might have had as much to do with Tax Day and Patriots’ Day as with the Marathon.
    If it was directed against the gov instead of the Americans, a gov facility would be a much more likely target I think.

    Besides, nobody much outside MA, ME and WI has ever heard of Patriots Day.
    "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Gen. Nathanael Greene

  10. #290
    Council Member ganulv's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Berkshire County, Mass.
    Posts
    896

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
    Besides, nobody much outside MA, ME and WI has ever heard of Patriots Day.
    Which may or may not be suggestive. (PD is very much a “real” holiday in Mass—banks are open, but schools and state offices are closed.)
    If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)

  11. #291
    Council Member Dayuhan's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Latitude 17° 5' 11N, Longitude 120° 54' 24E, altitude 1499m. Right where I want to be.
    Posts
    3,137

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bourbon View Post
    At this point we don't know if the devices were timed or detonated by cell phone. In fact we know so little at this point that speculation is just that - speculation. I know the impulse to speculate is overwhelming, but there's neither a basis nor a need for assumptions or conclusions.
    “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”

    H.L. Mencken

  12. #292
    Moderator Steve Blair's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Montana
    Posts
    3,195

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
    If it was directed against the gov instead of the Americans, a gov facility would be a much more likely target I think.

    Besides, nobody much outside MA, ME and WI has ever heard of Patriots Day.
    I'd second this, if we're calling stuff in from the sidelines. I'd also postulate that most Americans outside of a specific socioeconomic circle really don't care about the Marathon. If you wanted to hit "heartland America" where it hurt, you'd go for NASCAR or NCAA football. We also shouldn't assume that the bombs went off when they were supposed to.

    Actually, some of this reminded me of the old-school IRA stuff. And after all, this was only decided on Monday. Not saying that it's necessarily linked to this, mind, but some folks have long memories and not everything that happens today has to be about what happened today (or even yesterday).
    "On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
    T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War

  13. #293
    Moderator Steve Blair's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Montana
    Posts
    3,195

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Dayuhan View Post
    At this point we don't know if the devices were timed or detonated by cell phone. In fact we know so little at this point that speculation is just that - speculation. I know the impulse to speculate is overwhelming, but there's neither a basis nor a need for assumptions or conclusions.
    Quite. There's been plenty of uninformed blather so far.
    "On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
    T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War

  14. #294
    Council Member carl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Denver on occasion
    Posts
    2,460

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
    I'd second this, if we're calling stuff in from the sidelines. I'd also postulate that most Americans outside of a specific socioeconomic circle really don't care about the Marathon. If you wanted to hit "heartland America" where it hurt, you'd go for NASCAR or NCAA football. We also shouldn't assume that the bombs went off when they were supposed to.
    Most Americans don't care much about the Boston Marathon or know much about it, but is that true about people overseas? I don't know. NASCAR might be a more lucrative target but how many overseas people know about it? Again, I don't know.

    (I was just thinking too that maybe the South scares foreigners, violent rednecks and all that. I know that if you tell people overseas you are from Chicago they can be just a little scared of that. All those movies had an effect.)

    Perhaps all this talking about this is to no point, but it is entertaining, sort of like the old men sitting around the general store discussing the world. Most of us around here are old.
    "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Gen. Nathanael Greene

  15. #295
    Council Member ganulv's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Berkshire County, Mass.
    Posts
    896

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
    I'd second this, if we're calling stuff in from the sidelines. I'd also postulate that most Americans outside of a specific socioeconomic circle really don't care about the Marathon. If you wanted to hit "heartland America" where it hurt, you'd go for NASCAR or NCAA football. We also shouldn't assume that the bombs went off when they were supposed to.
    I wasn’t necessarily suggesting that the date was significant for the American public at large, but rather than it might have been significant for whoever planned and carried out the attack. Forensic psychologists probably have a term for that, though I don’t know what it would be.
    If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)

  16. #296
    Council Member TheCurmudgeon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Woodbridge, VA
    Posts
    1,117

    Default Patriots Day

    Quote Originally Posted by ganulv View Post
    As soon as I heard about the explosions my thought was that it might have had as much to do with Tax Day and Patriots’ Day as with the Marathon.
    If you were a home grown group or individual who wanted to "start a revolution" in the US against the government Patriots Day is the perfect day to do it - the day that Paul Revere made his famous ride almost to Concord where the local militia fired the "shot heard round the world" - it would have huge significance to a US based anti-government group.
    "I can change almost anything ... but I can't change human nature."

    Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan
    ---

  17. #297
    Council Member carl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Denver on occasion
    Posts
    2,460

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by TheCurmudgeon View Post
    If you were a home grown group or individual who wanted to "start a revolution" in the US against the government Patriots Day is the perfect day to do it - the day that Paul Revere made his famous ride almost to Concord where the local militia fired the "shot heard round the world" - it would have huge significance to a US based anti-government group.
    There are two things wrong with this view (or my view may turn out to be completely wrong).

    First is, why would anybody would wanted to strike at the gov, not strike at the gov? Why blow up average people? That would be alienating the prime audience.

    Second, most of the people in the country never heard of Patriots Day. I never did until yesterday and I thought it was one of those contrived 3 day weekend holidays like Presidents Day. It might have huge significance in MA but in OH or IL people never heard of it.
    "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Gen. Nathanael Greene

  18. #298
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Posts
    4,818

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bourbon View Post
    As far as breaking out the class-struggle lenses? I wouldn't consider most Kenyan pro-marathoners to rich and powerful.
    Sorry, that wasn't what I was getting at. Having worked on both Public and Private Security details they are hard Targets compared to Joe or Jane Doe. So my point was supposed to be that he/she/group X/or whatever went for the most vulnerable group of Targets, which was the general public in this case.

  19. #299
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Posts
    4,818

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bourbon View Post
    the daily foot-traffic at the boylston st starbucks had the highest concentration of attractive women in all of new england. Someone detonated a bomb in front of it.

    I'm thinking ugly chicks are responsible.
    :d:d:d don't know why the smiley faces didn't come up!
    Last edited by slapout9; 04-17-2013 at 05:06 AM. Reason: stuff

  20. #300
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Posts
    4,818

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
    If you wanted to hit "heartland America" where it hurt, you'd go for NASCAR or NCAA football.
    Except NASCAR and NCAA football venues are much harder Targets than a 26 plus mile open air type event.

Similar Threads

  1. Sunni and Shi'a Terrorism: Differences That Matter
    By Jedburgh in forum Adversary / Threat
    Replies: 25
    Last Post: 02-21-2009, 08:44 PM
  2. Terrorism: What's Coming
    By Jedburgh in forum Adversary / Threat
    Replies: 24
    Last Post: 12-11-2007, 08:56 PM
  3. Country Reports on Terrorism 2006
    By SWJED in forum Adversary / Threat
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-02-2007, 09:33 AM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •