If I were the Terrorist ...

Scenario One:

I would steal several gasoline tank trucks and one mini-van in a single operation and drive them to one of the numerous bridges crossing the Mississippi River. 

Older bridges will likely have a flat road surface, that is, the road is level across most of the length of the span.  Such a bridge would not be a good target for this scenario as will be apparent shortly.

In the case of the newer bridges, the road surface will arc across the river with the result that both approaches slope upward until meeting at the crest.  At the top of the span, the trucks would be parked to block the lanes and the valves would be opened to let the gasoline flow down one side of the span.  The mini-van would wait on the "dry" side of the bridge -- no suicide martyrs required for this scenario.  The gasoline would be ignited by the most fearless of the crew who would all then depart in the mini-van for a go elsewhere. 

There would likely not be any explosions but the heat of the fire would damage the structure of the bridge sufficiently to force closure of the span.  Interstate trucking would be disrupted for a good while.

If the terror crew was large enough to target multiple spans at the same time, the economic disruption would be significant.  And the cost of repairs would be possibly staggering.

In the case of the older spans, some carry both highway and rail traffic so if an attack were made against such a span, interstate transport would be even more effectively disrupted.  However, as alluded to earlier, older spans tend to be flat and thus might be harder to effectively torch.

A starting list of targets:

US 18, Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin

US 61 / US 151, Dubugue, Iowa

US 20, Dubugue, Iowa

US 52, Savanna, Illinois

19th Avenue, Clinton, Iowa

US 30, Clinton, Iowa

Chicago & Northwestern RR Bridge, Clinton, Iowa

I 80, Davenport, Iowa

I 74 / US 6, Davenport, Iowa

2nd Street & RR Bridge, Davenport, Iowa

US 67, Davenport, Iowa

Railroad Bridge, Davenport, Iowa

I 280, Davenport, Iowa

Macarthur Bridge, Burlington, Iowa

Burlington Northern RR Bridge,

US 136, Keokuk, Iowa

Railroad Bridge, Quincy, Illinois

Quincy Memorial Bridge, Quincy, Illinois

Maine Street Bridge, Quincy, Illinois

Norfolk Southern RR Bridge, Hannibal, Missouri

I 72, Hannibal, Missouri

Madison St Bridge, Louisiana, Missouri

Gateway Western RR Bridge, Louisiana, Missouri

Clark Bridge, Alton, Illinois

I 270, St. Louis, Missouri

Terminal RR Association of St. Louis Bridge, St. Louis, Missouri

McKinley Bridge, St. Louis, Missouri

Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Bridge, St. Louis, Missouri

Eads Bridge, St. Louis, Missouri

I 55 / I 64, St. Louis, Missouri

I 255, St. Louis, Missouri

Mo 34 / MO 146, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Union Pacific RR Bridge, Thebes, Illinois

I 57, Cairo, Illinois

US 60, Cairo, Illinois

I 155, Dyersburg, Tennessee

I 40, Memphis, Tennessee

I 55 / US 61 / US 64, Memphis, Tennessee

US 49, West Helena, Louisiana

US 82, Greenville, Mississippi

I 20 / US 80, Vicksburg, Mississippi

US 64 / US 85, Natchez, Mississippi

LA 70, Louisiana

Veterans Memorial Bridge, Gramercy, Louisiana

I 310, Destrahan, Louisiana

Huey P. Long Bridge, Metairie, Louisiana

US 90 Twin Spans, New Orleans, Louisiana

If I were one of the good guys ...

... what would I do to prevent and/or mitigate such a scenario?  Your comments should address this, if you don't mind.

 

Tags: terror, terrorism, bridges, gasoline, sabotage, Homeland, security

I do not understand ...

... the Stock Market and Financial Analysts. 

Analysts apparently study different companies' performance, listen to conference calls offered by the companies they study, think long and hard, and then make predictions about the future performance of said companies.  These predictions are usually tied to quarterly financial reports.

The end of the quarter arrives and the companies reported numbers do not match the predictions of the the analysts.  So what happens?  The value of the companies declines in that their stock sells for lower prices.  And the analysts start working on their predictions for the next quarter.

Wait a minute!  It was the analysts who were wrong!  The companies did what they would have done with or without the reports from the analysts. 

Why are the companies punished by seeing their stock fall in value when it was the analysts who were wrong in their predictions?  Shouldn't folks stop using the analysts who get it wrong instead.

Tags: Wall Street, Stock Market, Analyst, Quarterly, Reports

Churrascaria in Baton Rouge?

This is a most interesting ... well, to me, at least, an advertisement for a Brazilan churrascaria chain.  Notice the ones listed under "Coming 2007"!

It appeared in the January 2007 issue of American Airlines in-flight magazine.

Tags: churrascaria, restaurant

FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency, new manual

http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/672198221/m/5200068301001?r=7940020501001#7940020501001

From the issued FM 3-24 (http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-24.pdf), Appendix B-8:

"The Importance of Perceptions in Operation Uphold Democracy

"One proposed psychological operations action developed for Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti in 1994 illustrates why perception assessment is necessary. Before deployment, leaflets were prepared informing the Haitian populace of U.S. intentions. The original leaflet was printed in Dutch, the language of the Haitian elite. However, the one actually used was published in Creole, the official language of Haiti, because an astute team member realized the need to publish to the wider audience.

"If a flier in Dutch had been dropped, it could have undermined the American mission to the country in several ways. The majority of the population would have been unable to read the flier. The subsequent deployment of U.S. forces into the country, therefore, could have been perceived as hostile. The mission, which was intended in part to restore equity within Haiti’s social structure, could have backfired if the Haitians viewed the Dutch flier as an indication of U.S. favoritism toward the Haitian elite."

The two official languages of Haiti are French and Creole (CIA WorldFact - Haiti, last updated 19 December 2006).

I knew Dutch was incorrect without having to find a citation. I would think those in charge of the document would have validated such a major item being presented as an important example. In my opinion, such an error can call much into question regarding the document.

 

Tags: terrorist, terrorism, military, counterinsurgency, FM 3-24

Letter to the Editor

http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/5126476.html

Letter: Military unable to defeat terrorists

Published: Jan 9, 2007

In the editorial of 22 December “Our Views: Violent culture at root of war,” your editorialist(s) cite Muhammed Yunus as saying terrorism cannot be defeated militarily, a view with which you do not agree, and then cite the possibility “many Americans are simply not likely to agree” either.

As an American theorized by you as being in the minority, I concur 100 percent with Mr. Yunus’ view. I cannot think of any instances in which the military defeated the terrorists, aka guerillas, aka freedom fighters, aka resistance, aka insurgents, where the population supported, to some extent, those fighting the military.

The instances wherein the violence ceased were all obtained via political, combined with economic, solutions.

The military is simply unable to deal with a nonmilitary, nontraditional opponent receiving support from the local population.

James R. Madden
Information Technologies Consultant and father of a U.S. Marine
Baton Rouge

 

Tags: terrorist, terrorism, military