A Month With Gore As The President...

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because missiles are the most effective method of delivering these weapons, it is not as simple as opening a container in a public place, some of the more lethal biological strains need to be delivered with other agents in an aerosol, otherwise they would die on contact with the nitrogen in the air

 

Not really, haven't you been watching the FOX show: 24? Terrorist hid a nuclear warhead somewhere in LA, and if it weren't for magical agents who can do anything, the whole city would go: BOOM!!!

Also look at what's going on between Israel and Palistine. Sucide bombers are running a muck over there.

[ February 19, 2003, 21:57: Message edited by: Kitrax ]

 

whats to stop him? the bomb would detonate and destroy antyhign but the most resilient chemical agents with it

 

It's all about spreading the damage out [in the case of nuclear weapons] or spreading the chemicals / bacterial agents etc.

It's not for nothing that a nuclear warhead is not made to explode on impact, but about a mile or so up in the air.

Maximum damage can only be obtained from a missile based system. You simply would not get the spread from a ground based system.

As far as spereading using crop dusters, I'm unsure if you can reach the concentration levels required for any real damage by spraying it into the air like that.

As far as worrying about nuclear devices being smuggled into the US? This has to be very low risk indeed. If these were massmarket then I'm sure we'd have a problem, but they're not. It's hard to make, it's hard to get hold of the materials required, and for a home made device, it would be hard to transport inconspicuously.

We are certainly all at a far greater risk getting killed in a car accident than in a terrorist attack. I know I don't worry about car accidents on a daily basis.

 

This has gone off topic a bit from the original question, but I'll put my 2 bits in on delivery systems. With a missile, you don't risk any of your own people on that operation (as opposed to a bomber, who has to be over the target and can therefore be attacked by anti-aircraft systems). Now, Al-Quada has proved that they don't need a missile system to make an impact, but suicide missions are not viable in the long run -- it's basically like playing chess with absolutely no defence. A missile system (particularly an Intercontinental system) lets you strike with no risk to a soldier. The problem is, if the other guy has a missile system that is superior to yours, he's going to use some simple math, backtrack your missile, and eliminate your ability to ever strike him again. In the case of America, nukes aren't even necessary to do this. But America doesn't want to lose assets to a primary attack, even if they can counterstrike with superior force, so they are trying to stop anyone from getting a missile delivery system. I'm sure that they are also trying to deal with the problem of other, more insidious and less easily tracked attacks, like BTA's cropduster spreading biological disasters, or a nuke hidden in a semi-truck.

[ February 20, 2003, 18:47: Message edited by: Depaara ]

 

missiles are much easier, the only reason the planes got to the WTC was because there was a massive hostage situation on board the planes, they couldnt just shoot them down, if you used a crop duster, you would be intercepted long before you reached civilisation

 

Well, I imagine a crop duster is used for, eh, spraying crops?

It's a matter of concentration, crop agents are sprayed very fine which would be damned near useless for a chemical or biological agent aimed at humans.

Amy Smithson, Washington Post

Full article here attempting to dispell some of the myths anyway.

 

There are other nasty things that could be mounted in a crop duster, and the duster does not have to come all the way from a foreign country. What about some sort of agent that doesn't effect humans per se, but infects crops, destroying the economy of rural states like Kansas? You smuggle the stuff in or create it in some little lab in the Ozarks (easily done; just look at all the meth labs in North America), mount it in a crop duster, and wipe out a few crops! Not a weapon of mass destruction, but certainly an economic attack that could be painful for the target country.

 

Man, the awareness factor hasn't lifted much since last I was around.

Not only will a crop duster do the job, but there were also reports of Saddam moving small planes away from inspectors. Going speculation is that those were cropdusters.

And the next time someone tries to hijack a plane, two things will stop him: a crewload of pissed off Americans who will give their lives to stop the *******, and a fighter jet that will shot it down before it can do any damage. President Bush has already announced that that's what will happen.

 

Shralp,

The awareness facor eh?

Like:

And there're gonna fly these straight from Iraq to spray cities in the US right? Which is kinda what we were talking about...

[ February 22, 2003, 01:32: Message edited by: Viking ]

 

I suppose that comment would go straight to the point that it's not just America in danger from Iraq's volatility.

 

This will probably be dismissed as I cant refer to a source but I know I saw an interview with an expert on biological and chemical weapons who said that there is absoletely no threath from crop dusters. It is a pointless way to spread anything, what it sprays down would blow away and disperse before it could do any harm. If it had been an working weapon dont you think that the military forces of the world would have had some in their arsenal? Or atleast experiemented with it?

 

If what you say is true, Joaqcuin, then why do people crop dust? Did you mean that it isn't an effective way to poison or effect people, as opposed to crops? I was always under the impression that Agent Orange was spread by water bombers, which are kind of like crop dusters. I know for a fact that Agent Orange had some pretty heinous effects on people as well as foliage, but I could be wrong about its delivery method.

 

What I generally are saying is that dusting crop and dusting people are two far different things. Chemical and biological warfare just isnt very effective compared to conventional arms. What the cropduster do the crops is to cover it in the toxin which the insects then eat, they dont die because they are getting sprayed at but because they eat the poison. Would you lick off the stuff the cropduster sent down on you in a chemical attack BTA?

Agent Orange probably were delivered like waterbombing but it was designed to kill foilage. That some people in the area later developed cancer or got sterile isnt a trademark for a terrible anti-personell weapon. Atleast not a very efficient one.