Panel wants tighter U.S. security

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Hummmmmmmmm 5 years and 200 million.

Panel wants tighter U.S. security By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer
11 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government should replace more than 1,000 irradiation machines used in hospitals and research facilities because terrorists could use the radioactive materials inside to make a "dirty" bomb, a government advisory panel has concluded.

"Any one of these 1,000-plus sources could shut down 25 square kilometers, anywhere in the United States, for 40-plus years," according to panel documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The machines are in relatively unprotected locations such as hospitals and research facilities all over the country, and may be a tempting source of radioactive materials for terrorists who want bombs that explode and disperse radioactive debris over a large area, rendering it uninhabitable, the board found.

The irradiators contain Cesium-137, one of the most dangerous and long-lasting radioactive materials. They are used for radiation therapy and to sterilize blood and food.

Swapping the Cesium irradiators for X-ray machines or irradiators that use other materials would cost about $200 million over five years, but it would take the most accessible source of dangerous radioactive material inside the United States "off the table" for terrorists, the panel says.

The recommendation is part of an as-yet-unreleased report that describes how unfriendly nations or terrorist groups could undermine the computers and satellites the U.S. military relies on and attack the United States with radiological or biological weapons or blackmail the U.S. government with a threat of a nuclear detonation, all while manipulating world opinion against the United States in the media and on the Internet.

The report comes from the Defense Science Board, a panel of retired military and CIA officials and defense industry experts who offer the Pentagon possible solutions to actual and potential national security problems. It is expected to be released late this year.

The board wants the Pentagon to create a joint military force able to locate and seize illicit nuclear materials and weapons when they are still in transit, and to safely destroy nuclear weapons captured from terrorists or defeated states.

It says U.S. intelligence has failed to determine what countries or groups are developing or trying to obtain nuclear, radiological and biological weapons and how and when they are likely to use them.

"No adversary can exercise all options; but we don't know which options they can exercise," the documents state.

The report recommends creating "unfettered X-treme intelligence teams" to improve the "poor intelligence community posture." Exactly what the teams would do is classified.

The board advocates diplomacy and trying to influence world opinion so the United States is less likely to be attacked or lured into a foreign war it might not win.

"We are unprepared," state the documents. "At best we will be deterred. Worse, we will enter the fray and then quit when we appreciate the cost of success. Instruments of national power other than the military, such as strategic communication, will assume greater importance."

The U.S government should be promoting universally accepted values like human dignity, economic well-being, health care and education rather than "democracy" and "freedom," the panel states.

"What we say is often not what others may hear __ concepts such as 'democracy,' 'rule of law' and 'freedom' have different meanings in different cultures and at different stages of their development," the documents state. "It is about them, not only about us."

It recommends that the State Department spend $250 million over five years to create an independent "Center for Global Engagement" to conduct opinion research and analyses on media and culture that the government can use to design projects and messages that will advance those values.

It also recommends deploying more hospital ships for medical and humanitarian relief; releasing spy imagery to help other countries in crop management, weather forecasting, and environmental studies; and adopting policies that will help create jobs in key strategic nations such as Lebanon, Pakistan and Iraq.
Panel wants tighter U.S. security - Yahoo! News

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@mlurp,

Amazing that is about the quoted cost of securing our ports...which is supposedly too expensive.

1 Reply

@92b16vx,

Your right. The ports need not have people in country to cause an damage.
But this plan would require the bad guys doing a robbery like thing to get the material. So why not just secure the ports and boarders?
Hummmm who makes these devices? Follow the money! Once again another way to dispense the almighty $ to friends and create more greed by the elite.
And the results for more security for America is another lie.

1 Reply

@mlurp,

mlurp;40933 wrote:

Your right. The ports need not have people in country to cause an damage.
But this plan would require the bad guys doing a robbery like thing to get the material. So why not just secure the ports and boarders?
Hummmm who makes these devices? Follow the money! Once again another way to dispense the almighty $ to friends and create more greed by the elite.
And the results for more security for America is another lie.

Funny you said that, when you did something clicked. Blackwater donated millions to Bushs administration, and when we went into Iraq Bush fished around until he found generals that supported Rumsfelds poor plan, and now we have Blackwater, and other no bid contracts picking up slack that an increased military would have, and they are making billions....hmmmmmm, follow the money indeed.

1 Reply

@92b16vx,

Dirty bombs are a joke scare tactic. Know how far radioactive material will go if it is contained within conventional explosive? Exactly the distance of the blast. Without nuclear yield (ie, fission or fusion), the only damage done would be by the explosive itself (say c4, or semtex) and the radiation poisoning caused by the radioactive material to the immediate area. 25 sqaure km is a LIE, just like the prospect of a binary liquid being used to destroy a plane is a LIE. These are scare tactics designed to convice the US populace to cede their rights to the government.

The most effective means of attacking Americans and causing immense fear (ie, the terrorist objective) would be the use of small explosive devices pervasively throughout the country. Lightbulb bombs, homemade napalm, pipebombs, all small enough and simple enough to avoid detection or failure could easily be planted in mall bathrooms, store fitting rooms, or anyplace else a public area meets a private one. These devices wouldn't kill many people, but would injure quite a few, and sew fear into the minds of the American populace (as if they needed more fear). Dirty bombs, binary liquids, suitcase nukes; these are all terrorist plots from MOVIES, ie FICTION. What happened on 9/11? Terrorists armed with box cutters, not specially hidden AK-47's forced their way into airliner cockpits, and simply flew them into buildings. No nerve gas was hidden on board, no ransom demands made, no dealines set. Americans live in this fantasy world where CIA operatives and Army Rangers storm terrorist camps at night and capture leaders, and all terrorist groups are linked in a struggle against America. IT JUST ISN'T TRUE PEOPLE.

1 Reply

@mlurp,

http://www.cracked.com/img/articles/primer/alert.jpg

0 Replies

@Freeman15,

Freeman15;40991 wrote:

Dirty bombs are a joke scare tactic. Know how far radioactive material will go if it is contained within conventional explosive? Exactly the distance of the blast. Without nuclear yield (ie, fission or fusion), the only damage done would be by the explosive itself (say c4, or semtex) and the radiation poisoning caused by the radioactive material to the immediate area. 25 sqaure km is a LIE, just like the prospect of a binary liquid being used to destroy a plane is a LIE. These are scare tactics designed to convice the US populace to cede their rights to the government.

The most effective means of attacking Americans and causing immense fear (ie, the terrorist objective) would be the use of small explosive devices pervasively throughout the country. Lightbulb bombs, homemade napalm, pipebombs, all small enough and simple enough to avoid detection or failure could easily be planted in mall bathrooms, store fitting rooms, or anyplace else a public area meets a private one. These devices wouldn't kill many people, but would injure quite a few, and sew fear into the minds of the American populace (as if they needed more fear). Dirty bombs, binary liquids, suitcase nukes; these are all terrorist plots from MOVIES, ie FICTION. What happened on 9/11? Terrorists armed with box cutters, not specially hidden AK-47's forced their way into airliner cockpits, and simply flew them into buildings. No nerve gas was hidden on board, no ransom demands made, no dealines set. Americans live in this fantasy world where CIA operatives and Army Rangers storm terrorist camps at night and capture leaders, and all terrorist groups are linked in a struggle against America. IT JUST ISN'T TRUE PEOPLE.

Nothing with these people is a joke. They outlaw laughter, a joke!. I only hope it doesn't happen. Because our elite will use it to gain full control and yake land from the private sector. Freeman15 your smarter than that. Look at the total picture. And stop spouting propaganda! We need to take these people at their word! They won't stop till the own the whole ball of wax. Then what will you say? opps I might have been wrong? Believe them they want us , Israel and all other western governments dead! Then the way to capture the rest of the world will be easier. Look back in Europe they invaded up into Spain. And whom started what isn't the point so don't go there, please.

1 Reply

@mlurp,

I dont think he is saying do not take them seriously. Just do not buy into the government scare tactics.

1 Reply

@mlurp,

mlurp;41085 wrote:

Nothing with these people is a joke. They outlaw laughter, a joke!. I only hope it doesn't happen. Because our elite will use it to gain full control and yake land from the private sector. Freeman15 your smarter than that. Look at the total picture. And stop spouting propaganda! We need to take these people at their word! They won't stop till the own the whole ball of wax. Then what will you say? opps I might have been wrong? Believe them they want us , Israel and all other western governments dead! Then the way to capture the rest of the world will be easier. Look back in Europe they invaded up into Spain. And whom started what isn't the point so don't go there, please.

Actually, only Wahhabist Sunnis (Saudis, a few Jordanians, and al Qaeda) espouse a belief in the creation of a global caliphate of Islam, and they are EXTREMELY rare, except the Saudis, who we think are our best friends ever.

I'm spouting propaganda? Do you even know how a nuclear weapon works? It requires a little more skill than the average Madrassa-educated Arab has at his disposal. Unlike the movies, unless fusion or fission occurs, NO NUCLEAR BLAST OCCURS. Since the premise of a dirty bomb is the lack of any nuclear trigger (hence the need for an explosive), the radioactive material can only blow as far as the bomb can explode. To cover 25 square miles like the total sham of a report indicated, you would need more explosive than has ever been used in any terrorist attack, ever, in the history of time and space. THEN, you would need more radioactive material than has ever been collected, ever, in the history of time and space for any cases of potentially lethal radiation-poisoning to occur. STOP BEING AFRAID.

0 Replies

@Drakej,

And what about my reply beside what you pointed out? Freeman15 makes sense and I am posting nothing? We are both right in my mind.

But I would say and even better attack would be hitting many small towns with several diaper heads in several pick up trucks and small arms going down residential streets shooting as it came closer more people would come to their front door as the sounds would draw them and some would get hurt. But the effect would be worst that 9/11 and they wouldn't kill as many. Yet get America in an uproar and scared to death. What would you do from that time onward. Yea start to place weapons by the front door and maybe even carry one illegally.

1 Reply

@mlurp,

mlurp;41118 wrote:

And what about my reply beside what you pointed out? Freeman15 makes sense and I am posting nothing? We are both right in my mind.

But I would say and even better attack would be hitting many small towns with several diaper heads in several pick up trucks and small arms going down residential streets shooting as it came closer more people would come to their front door as the sounds would draw them and some would get hurt. But the effect would be worst that 9/11 and they wouldn't kill as many. Yet get America in an uproar and scared to death. What would you do from that time onward. Yea start to place weapons by the front door and maybe even carry one illegally.

This plot would require foreigners to be able to purchase/rent trucks, purchase firearms and ammunition of such a nature and volume as to arise suspicion, and assume that no cops patrol the streets of small towns. Of the speeding tickets I have gotten ALL have been in small towns (one in Luling was a bitch, still fighting it). Terrorism is HARD WORK. You're living in a fantasy land. 9/11 was actually a pretty smart plan, but it took them TWO YEARS once entering this country to carry it out.

You or I, as American citizens, would have a hard enough time purchasing many weapons, since it's SUSPICIOUS. If foreigners want handguns they have to either buy on the street, thus exposing them to police, or buy at a gun show. Gun shows don't happen everyday, so they'd have to stock up at only a few, making their behavior SUSPICIOUS, and alerting gun-owners (who in my experience are very friendly towards cops), and thus the police.

Then, they have to secure vehicles. They could do private buys from people with a simple written contract and a cash payment, but then they have to worry about registration, inspection, and of course, the seller alerting police. If they fail to get the vehicles registered, they risk getting stopped, searched, and arrested.

Then, assuming they bought enough guns and ammo to start a small war, they have trucks, and they've reached a town, you have to deal with police forces, who have modern body armor, assault weapons, RADIOS, and in LA, an APC.

The plan isn't feasible, and that's why terrorists keep it simple.

1 Reply

@Freeman15,

Come on in Bicknell, IN. We have 5 cops and direct acess to HWY 67 and then HWY 41 north to Intersate 70 or south to Intersate 64. And why not just carry the needed stuff over the boarder as they cross. Who is in a fariy tale? I guess you have never lived in a town of 3,000 or less. A lot of towns in Indiana, are 300 population with no police force at all. And here in Kansas there are many towns under 3,000 population. There are just over 3,300 counties in America. Ask Silverchild79, how many towns in his state are around these populations. And there are a lot more places to hide there than here.
Why is it you just won't accept others ideas? At least give it more time to consider than you did to reply behind me.

1 Reply

@mlurp,

mlurp;41126 wrote:

Com eon in Bicknell, IN. We have 5 cops and direct acess to HWY 67 and then HWY 41 north to Intersate 70 or south to Intersate 64. And why not just carry the needed stuff over the boarder as they cross. Who is in a fariy tale? I guess you have never lived in a town of 3,000 or less. A lot of towns in Indiana, are 300 population or less. And here in kansas there are many towns under 3,000 population. There are just over 3,300 counties in America. Ask Silverchild79, how many towns in his state are around these populations. And there are a lot more places to hide there than here.
Why is it you just won't accept others ideas? At least give it more time to consider than you did to reply behind me.

I won't accept your idea because it ignores facts.

Mexico has some of the tightest gun control laws in the world, and so the terrorists in question would need to purchase their weapons (deer rifles and .22's won't cut it) in Cuidad del Este, Paraguay, where firearms traffiking is accepted. Then, from just south of Brazil, they'd need to transport weapons and ammunition across Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico, and then the US. All of these countries patrol their borders, and in the cases of Columbia and Mexico, their southern borders are patrolled by their Army to catch drug smugglers and arms dealers.

Then they'd certainly need to find a way over the border other than roadways, since roads have Customs and BP on them, so they have no vehicles, are carrying weapons and ammo, and risk being caught by Border Patrol or local cops anyway.

You assume terrorists are stupid, they're not. Stop living in a world where death is lurking over your shoulder and live your life. That way, if someday a terrorist does drive around the corner with an MP5 and blow you away, you've enjoyed your time on this planet.

By the way. I'm not one for PC, but diaperhead reeks of ignorance of Islamic culture and places your arguments on an even lower level than previously established. Having worn a makeshift turban while hiking, I assure you it is the greatest thing an arab herder or farmer could have ever developed.

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