MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS WASHINGTON, Dec. 23  Government officials, from President Bill Clinton on down, said Wednesday they were taking all possible precautions to prevent terrorist attacks and insisted they do not know of any specific, credible threats against targets in the United States. But, privately, authorities told NBC News they are taking seriously new but unconfirmed intelligence reports that international terrorists may be plotting to attack millennium celebrations in at least three U.S. cities: New York, Washington and Seattle. http://msnbc.com/news/349437.asp?cp1=1#BODY

-- Duke 1983 (Duke1983@AOL.com), December 23, 1999

Answers

Who was it several months ago that said the key word was TRANSPARENCY?

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), December 23, 1999.

See the thread below. Plant half a dozen "suspicious packages" and make some phone calls. The local bomb disposal and CNN will do the rest. Cleeeeear streets.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 23, 1999.

Servant, you've got a devious train of thought going there. Almost like someone working for a government agency which might want to avoid mass casualties in someplace like Times Square.

If I get your drift your idea would be to clear the place on the pretense of having found "suspicious devices". Then once the place was empty any real devices could go off without causing any serious harm. The media could simply be told undetected secondary devices went off.

Of course that's assuming that the crowd would be willing to evacuate for their own good. Most members of the Times Square crowd would likely resist being forced to leave. After all, they paid good money to be there and who's who to try and make them give up their good time, regardless of the danger.

Heck, there might turn out to be higher casualties in a riot as members of the crowd would fight off their would-be saviors.

But I personally wonder why only the three locations mentioned, NY, DC and Seattle? Why not San Fran or Las Vegas instead of Seattle? What is the large gathering scheduled for Seattle over New Year's that I don't know aboout, the WTO New Year's soiree?

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), December 23, 1999.

I don't care how many police or troops they put on the street in Times Square there is NO POSSIBLE WAY to prevent an attack there. All it takes is one 'dropped' backpack or purse and a minute or two to get away and BOOM! The stampede will do the rest. The place is surrounded by office buildings, theaters, restaurants, hotels, etc. Just no possible way they are going to be able to secure every room on every floor of every building. And that includes the side streets since those will be packed with people too.

Let's face it folks, if the bad guys want to make a statement, we will hear it.

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), December 23, 1999.

You're assuming that whomever has the packnuke really cares about getting away. Martyrs always die (that's why they're martyrs).

-- Phread (lurking@y2k.com), December 23, 1999.

Phread,

No packnuke needed. Just a small, regular old run of the mill bomb in the center of the crowd would be enough to get the stampede started. More people would die from trampling than the bomb itself. Hell, if they really wanted to kill people all they'd have to do is start the herd running, wait a minute or two for everyone to flood the side streets and then set off a few secondary devices there. Maximum carnage with minimal effort/risk.

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), December 24, 1999.