[ RadSafe ] Nuclear power plants; radiological bombs not on top of list of attacks

[John Jacobus]

Come on, now.  You certainly could of another five or
six terrorism attacks in about 10 minutes.

--- bobcherry at cox.net wrote:

> The mind boggles.
> 
> At a minimum, the military likely would classify
> such a report as FOUO. More likely, it would be
> CONFIDENTIAL. The fact that a website in Hawaii
> accidentally released it does not mean it should be
> turned into a press release, in my mind. Instead,
> take it off the Hawaii website.
> 
> Bob C
> > 
> > From: John Jacobus <crispy_bird at yahoo.com>
> > Date: 2005/03/16 Wed PM 04:35:14 EST
> > To: radsafe <radsafe at radlab.nl>, 
> know_nukes at yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [ RadSafe ] Nuclear power plants;
> > 	radiological bombs not on top of list of attacks
> > 
> > >From today's New York Times
> > 
> > March 16, 2005
> > U.S. Report Lists Possibilities for Terrorist
> Attacks
> > and Likely Toll
> > By ERIC LIPTON 
> >  
> > ASHINGTON, March 15 - The Department of Homeland
> > Security, trying to focus antiterrorism spending
> > better nationwide, has identified a dozen possible
> > strikes it views as most plausible or devastating,
> > including detonation of a nuclear device in a
> major
> > city, release of sarin nerve agent in office
> buildings
> > and a truck bombing of a sports arena. 
> > 
> > The document, known simply as the National
> Planning
> > Scenarios, reads more like a doomsday plan,
> offering
> > estimates of the probable deaths and economic
> damage
> > caused by each type of attack. 
> > 
> > They include blowing up a chlorine tank, killing
> > 17,500 people and injuring more than 100,000;
> > spreading pneumonic plague in the bathrooms of an
> > airport, sports arena and train station, killing
> 2,500
> > and sickening 8,000 worldwide; and infecting
> cattle
> > with foot-and-mouth disease at several sites,
> costing
> > hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
> Specific
> > locations are not named because the events could
> > unfold in many major metropolitan or rural areas,
> the
> > document says. 
> > 
> > The agency's objective is not to scare the public,
> > officials said, and they have no credible
> intelligence
> > that such attacks are planned. The department did
> not
> > intend to release the document publicly, but a
> draft
> > of it was inadvertently posted on a Hawaii state
> > government Web site.
> > 
> > By identifying possible attacks and specifying
> what
> > government agencies should do to prevent, respond
> to
> > and recover from them, Homeland Security is trying
> for
> > the first time to define what "prepared" means,
> > officials said.
> > 
> > That will help decide how billions of federal
> dollars
> > are distributed in the future. Cities like New
> York
> > that have targets with economic and symbolic
> value, or
> > places with hazardous facilities like chemical
> plants
> > could get a bigger share of agency money than
> before,
> > while less vulnerable communities could receive
> less. 
> > 
> > "We live in a world of finite resources, whether
> they
> > be personnel or funding," said Matt A. Mayer,
> acting
> > executive director of the Office of State and
> Local
> > Government Coordination and Preparedness at the
> > Homeland Security Department, which is in charge
> of
> > the effort. 
> > 
> > President Bush requested the list of priorities 15
> > months ago to address a widespread criticism of
> > Homeland Security from members of Congress and
> > antiterrorism experts that it was wasting money by
> > spreading it out instead of focusing on areas or
> > targets at greatest risk. Critics also have
> faulted
> > the agency for not having a detailed plan on how
> to
> > eliminate or reduce vulnerabilities.
> > 
> > Michael Chertoff, the new secretary of homeland
> > security, has made it clear that this risk-based
> > planning will be a central theme of his tenure,
> saying
> > that the nation must do a better job of
> identifying
> > the greatest threats and then move aggressively to
> > deal with them.
> > 
> > "There's risk everywhere; risk is a part of life,"
> Mr.
> > Chertoff said in testimony before the Senate last
> > week. "I think one thing I've tried to be clear in
> > saying is we will not eliminate every risk."
> > 
> > The goal of the document's planners was not to
> > identify every type of possible terrorist attack.
> It
> > does not include an airplane hijacking, for
> example,
> > because "there are well developed and tested
> response
> > plans" for such an incident. Planners included the
> > threats they considered the most plausible or
> > devastating, and that represented a range of the
> > calamities that communities might need to prepare
> for,
> > said Marc Short, a department spokesman. "Each
> > scenario generally reflects suspected terrorist
> > capabilities and known tradecraft," the document
> says.
> > 
> > 
> > To ensure that emergency planning is adequate for
> most
> > possible hazards, three catastrophic natural
> events
> > are included: an influenza pandemic, a magnitude
> 7.2
> > earthquake in a major city and a slow-moving
> Category
> > 5 hurricane hitting a major East Coast city.
> > 
> > The strike possibilities were used to create a
> > comprehensive list of the capabilities and actions
> > necessary to prevent attacks or handle incidents
> once
> > they happen, like searching for the injured,
> treating
> > the surge of victims at hospitals, distributing
> mass
> > quantities of medicine and collecting the dead. 
> > 
> > Once the White House approves the plan, which
> could
> > happen within the next month, state and local
> > governments will be asked to identify gaps in
> > fulfilling the demands placed upon them by the
> > possible strikes, officials said.
> > 
> > No terrorist groups are identified in the
> documents.
> > Instead, those responsible for the various
> > hypothetical attacks are called Universal
> Adversary.
> > 
> > The most devastating of the possible attacks - as
> > measured by loss of life and economic impact -
> would
> > be a nuclear bomb, the explosion of a liquid
> chlorine
> > tank and an aerosol anthrax attack.
> > 
> > The anthrax attack involves terrorists filling a
> truck
> > with an aerosolized version of anthrax and driving
> > through five cities over two weeks spraying it
> into
> > the air. Public health officials, the report
> predicts,
> > would probably not know of the initial attack
> until a
> > day or two after it started. By the time it was
> over,
> > an estimated 350,000 people would be exposed, and
> > about 13,200 would die, the report predicts.
> > 
> 
=== message truncated ===


+++++++++++++++++++
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort." Herm Albright

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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