I get sick when I read this nonsense...the only real terror that exists are the criminals wearing $5000 suits. America has been hijacked. 911 was an inside job.
In advance of a new report to the White House, Bob Graham talks about the possible nature and likelihood of a WMD terrorist attack over the next few years.
I get sick when I read this nonsense...the only real terror that exists are the criminals wearing $5000 suits. America has been hijacked. 911 was an inside job.
I have an idea, why don't we kill all the would-be terrorists like our grandfathers did? I suppose that would take all the fun out of watching our country being destroyed by psychotic radicals. It's as if the US government is sitting there with their thumb up their nose wondering what to do. Try using all that state-of-the-art weaponry we paid for.
Love your comment on all the money wasted on "state of the art" weaponry" - it was never about safety just welfare mommas in the military industrial complex bleeding us.
Welfare momma's don't get as much money as the welfare corporations and welfare rich got under Bush's dictatorship
" I have an idea, why don't we kill all the would-be terrorists like our grandfathers did?"
Which side did your grandfather fight for?
Wow, wreat idea dude! Let's round up all the muslims and put them in death camps. WQe could include anyone from the Middle East, just to make sure we didn't miss any potential terorists. We could gas them en masse. That would be a Final Solution for sure. Sieg Heil!
While we are at it, we had better include anyone with a Scottish name too. Remember Timothy McVeigh?
Now that's sarcasm!
I have read that some consider the economic crisis to be a greater threat to our (and the World's) security that WMD poses.
Does that, along with the increase in natural disasters worldwide mean we are heading for a Malthusian catastrophe?
It is interesting to note that mainstream media (Newweek as well) has bashed current policy as "fear mongering," when reference has been made to our vulnerability in this sector. Now will it be politically correct?
this isnt fear mongering. this seems to be a well thought out investigation into the odds of a pandemic outbreak of disease. and its a great warning and something to consider. at least its out in the open for people to think about. the odds of it happening really is more likely than osama getting his hands on a nuclear arsenal with capabilities of long range attack. in fact, a bioligical attack would be easier, cheaper, and more effective for a terror group or other country to carry out. all they would have to do is send over some imported good with the disease all over it and wham... those goods get shipped to every major city in america. think if just one walmart had an outbreak. and the disease in question didnt show symptoms until days or weeks later. think how fast it would spread, especially if it is engineered to be transmitted by touch and in the air, and in a way to hibernate until a week after contact. or think if our water management systems were attacked.
this is not fear mongering. this is a very very plausible scenario, and could be carried out from just about any country that exports goods to the united states...
Why does everyone seem to be thinking in terms of terrorism? Natural disasters, lethal pandemics, etc. occur with out any terrorists being involved. The point is to be prepared to deal with catastrophes that will surely occur, with or without human criminal intent.
It's that imminent threat of the atomic mushroom cloud from Saddam that still has my motor all revved up.
A 40 year republican
Anyone recall Oklahoma City? Ted Kaczinsky?
Frankly, there are enough nuts running around in this country who would use WMD's - why are we always so convinced the attack will come from a foreigner? Seems to me there is more than enough hate right here in the good ol' U. S. of A.
Rather than worry about where the threat MIGHT come from, so we can fool ourselves into thinking we've eliminated the bad guys (we haven't and we won't) let's just assume the attack WILL come, and figure out how to mobilize quickly. Give everyone a gas mask, stock pile water and supplies, and teach people how to protect themselves and their immediate family members.
Empower people to protect themselves, instead of paralyze them with fear and paranoia.
That way, we stay in the solution, instead of in the problem.
Thanks for your comment - you are right on the mark. Look at our emergency medical response capability - or rather, don't look - it's too frightening. I've heard " the Bush administration will protect us!" - yeah, a lot of noise while the real work for public safety was left undone. Hopefully, we will start to really combat terror - by running our brains, not our mouths. Thanks again.
Fear mongering.Or setting up the scene for future use. There is the issue of the missing Nuke. Which traveled with about 6 other live nukes from one air base in the US to another was left unguarded for 10 hours and is now MISSING. This happened several years ago.
Not to worry. WMD's don't' exist. Saddam Hussein said so.
Yeah and the CIA agreed with Saddam Husein. What are the odds?
12 years of sanctions, 12 years of taunting the world with WMD's, then suddenly they just disappear because Hussein said so! Doesn't quite add up.
So where are they?
Syria
Saddam's WMD were like a guy robbing a bank with his hand in a paper bag, claiming to have a gun. He didn't have them, as verified by very thorough search of his country after we had control of it. I repeat, Saddam didn't have em, and the CIA, US Army etc agrees. But what do they know, they only searched every part of the country, examined all the documents. You on the other hand know Saddam had the WMD because he said he did. So who should we believe: a murderous dictator or our own military and intelligence people?
How can you believe someone who is hawking for a cush position on the government payroll with the excessive benefits?
Terrorists attack with out warning and in different ways. They can use our pier system against us, our technology, our own security systems. A perfect example is our terror alert system stating exactly what the danger is and what level it is. Unless we are not stating the facts truthfully, this redictulous.Terror of any kind is simply what the word implies,TERROR,you get no warning in the real world.Look at vietnam,suprise,hit and run,we lose.We need to clean up these countries like we did japan,no warning,we win.
soooo just nuke an entire country...say ...pakistan? no, that wouldnt have an reprocusions at all...
yea, we did a great job in japan. we only wiped out entire generations of people, napalmed and fire bombed the country into ruins even before we dropped the ONLY TWO nukes ever used in warfare. yea, we did a great job.
The lesson of Hiroshima: Do not wage total war and lose.
everybody lost that day...everyone...
Not sure I follow you.
are you talking about japan waging total war and losing?
i was talking about the use of such force and how the world lost when we used such destructive power on other humans. and its vice versa as well, if they would have surrendered instead of sending kamikazi fighters at us and relentlessly coming at us hiroshima wouldnt have happened.
the united states also shouldnt have provoked them into attacking pearl harbour. at the time we were neutral, but once we started sanctioning them and cutting off imports/exports to them they got pissed and labeled it an act of war basically. thats what ive gotten from history anyway...could be very wrong on that assumption.
"the united states also shouldnt have provoked them into attacking pearl harbour"
Oh...look what we MADE them do!
Were we also responsible for the rape of Nanking?
we didnt make them do anything, im saying from they're point of view it was an act of war, it took us out of neutrality because we chose sides at that point.
An embargo is not an act of war.
Which countries?
Graham and his colleagues are right to focus on the potential bioterror risks that could flow from the dramatic increase in money thrown at research labs and scientists throughout the country. The sheer multiplication of scientists allowed to work on highly dangerous pathogens is inherently a security risk. Take a look at the map of BS-3 and BS-4 labs around the country in the Marcus Stern article at www.flypmedia.com.
The solution, however, is not more bureaucracy as proposed by the Graham Commission, but a serious scaling back of the research free-for-all launched by the Bush Administration.
This is the kind of propaganda by the disaster capitalists that have been inbued in the American minds. Please be aware that the dangers from the US made pathogens are higher then the posibility of it coming from Pakistan. This article/interview is just a beginning blame game with a clear motive of blaming others due to the any intentional mishap from within the US itself, just like India pointing fingers on Pakistan for the Mumbai mayhem without any tangible proof! The fact still remain that the disaster capitalists have the greater capacity of using the flu bacteria on the US population knowing that the government has to acquire the antidote manufactured by the same manufacturers who can produce the pathogens! These disaster capitalists have got their people within government to protect their interests. Americans are again taken for a ride!
DOC-
IN RESPONSE TO YOUR QUESTION "WHAT'S IT LIKE TO LIVE IN CONSTANT FEAR?"
THE ANSWER IS: "INFINITELY BETTER THAN LIVING IN PERPETUAL IGNORANCE. " YOU'RE ARGUMENT WAS BETTER MADE IN THE 1950'S. "WHAT GERMS? I CAN'T SEE THEM, SO WHY SHOULD I TAKE PRECAUTIONS." IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO BE CONCERNED WITH THIS, THEN FINE, GOOD FOR YOU AND GOOD LUCK. I EXPECT MY GOV'T TO BE PROACTIVE WHEN IT COMES TO GLOBAL SECURITY THREATS AND THE HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC. TO CALL THAT FEARMONGERING IS TO UNDERESTIMATE THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.
Well, if you wish to live with a bunker mentality, that's your option.
We have other concerns that are actually dangers to the republic. Our economy is circling the bowl, and our "government" is spending like there's no tomorrow. Civil liberties have been seriously impacted by our response to terrorism, with little or nothing to show for it.
The sledgehammer approach hasn't worked. Neither will living in fear...which is precisely what the terrorists were after in the first place.
maybe from your standpoint your perception is to "live in fear".
Vigilance is not "living in fear". it is far better than the alternative you suggest which is living in ignorance and denial of a problejm which definitely exists.
Vigilance? What do you have in mind? What measures do you suggest that would be justified by a (literal) 1/million chance of me (or you) being killed by a terrorist?
Tell that to the Americans and British citizens who were rounded up and killed in the very recent Mumbai attacks.
What, now we're supposed to police India, too? Don't you think the Indians might have a beef with that?
nah beef is sacred to them
It is an INDIVIDUAL vigilance here at home. you really do have to be aware that you are and forever wil be a target ( as an American) do you not think that this could happen here?
Of course it can happen here. However, statistically speaking, I'm better off just paying attention in traffic, rather than obsessing about terrorists under the bed.
yeah a problem our government created
Are the only options "sledgehammer" or "denial?" What about an appropriate response, somewhere in the middle... more than living in fear and less than a religious crusade .
Don't oversimplify a complicated issue. It's ironic how the citizens who fight and complain against our government the hardest are the same people who are afraid to stand up to an outside threat when the time comes. Show some BACKBONE!
No, there are other options besides sledgehammer and denial. However, we seem to be completely incapable of using them.
Fact is, a citizen's odds of being killed in the USA by terrorism during the last 10 years were literally one in a million. With odds like that, it makes more sense to punish the responsible parties as required than to further bankrupt ourselves, and/or diminish our civil liberties.
Problem is, the last major terrorist event in the USA was punished haf-heartedly, as we seemed to be more interested in attacking a completely unrelated country.
Doc-
Your argument doesn't hold water. Just because we have a 1 in how-ever-many chance of being struck by lightning doesn't mean we should all go stand under a tree in a thunderstorm. You say that traffic is a bigger threat than terrorism... are they mutually exclusive? Can you imagine a world where we all drove carefully AND remained vigilant against terror threats? The biggest threat facing this country isn't terrorism, and it sure isn't traffic, it's COMPLACENCY. You are allowing yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security - and if you choose to go that route YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN.
I'm on my own, anyway. The government has already proven that they can't handle a real crisis (911 aftermath, Katrina, etc). I simply refuse to give in to fear, and to allow myself to go into a fortress mentality. Fact: Civil liberties are more important that an alleged "safety" that the government can't even provide. If I have the choice between an open society fraught with danger, or a closed, "safe" society, I will take the open society any day. Liberty was never a safe proposition. Patrick Henry knew that, and that's good enough for me.
Note: I'm consistent on this...ie, I am against gun control, etc, for exactly the same reasons.
A fortress mentality would require isolationism, and if there's anything the U.S. is NOT, it's isolationist. The problem with ignoring a problem is that at the end of the day you will have Two Problems, the original as well as the ramifications of avoiding it. Your "free" society behavior (translation: blissful, self absorbed, self indulgent, preoccupied with the excess of personal gain) led to the first and second World Wars, 50 years of espionage by everyone from the Isrealis to the Chinese, and culminated with the attacks on 9/11. The only way society gets to "relax" is by first doing the hard work and due diligence to ensure safety - confidence comes from being aware of your surroundings, knowing where your threats lie, and being prepared to respond. As a fellow gun owner I would think you'd recognize that!
"A fortress mentality would require isolationism,"
Not at all. Israel has spent the last 50 years in a fortress mentality, and they are not isolationists at all.
"Your "free" society behavior (translation: blissful, self absorbed, self indulgent, preoccupied with the excess of personal gain) led to the first and second World Wars, 50 years of espionage by everyone from the Isrealis to the Chinese, and culminated with the attacks on 9/11."
LOL. So refusing to live like a rat in a trap caused 911? Is that what you're saying?
"The only way society gets to "relax" is by first doing the hard work and due diligence to ensure safety - confidence comes from being aware of your surroundings, knowing where your threats lie, and being prepared to respond."
This doesn't require crap like the "Protect America Act", or torture, etc.
Isreal doesn't have a fortress mentality, they have a justified response to the very real threats that they face from all sides. There are thousands of Muslims living in Isreal... how could that be a fortress?
"Refusing to live like a rat in a trap caused 911"... wow, you lost me there, sir. Not taking threats seriously and refusing to be proactive caused 9/11. We knew Bin Laden wanted to bring down the WTC towers and we didn't do anything about it until it was too late. We knew Saudi nationals were trying to learn how to fly planes w/o bothering to learn how to take off or land them... but we didn't do anything about it until it was too late. Now we are being told to be concerned by the most informed group our country has to offer on the subject and you don't want to hear about it!
Whether the "Protect America Act" is successful or not, Acts designed to Protect America are exactly what this situation requires. Your use of the catch phrase "torture" is weak, too. Is putting panties on a guys head and taking a picture in Guantanamo torture? Or is dragging bodies thru the streets of Fallujah "torture" to every free person that sees it? Who is really guilty of human disregard here? "Torture" is having to live with the concern that there will be another attack - so I guess YOU'RE the only person who isn't going to be dealing with torture because you refuse to acknowledge the threat. And, ironically, the person responsible for the torture is also YOU because you refuse to recognize the threat and thus allow it to grow.
What a shame, bud. You're too intelligent to be on that side of this argument.
What are you talking about? This article is about WMDs. As for influenza of 1918, I don't see it. But sometning else just as deadly,
Every state in the union should start secession proceedings and claim their sovereignty and not allow a single police state style troop action start this should be stopped before it even starts. We need to put a stop to this idiocy it makes me sick. to think that people actually think the government is actually helping anything. they are the cause. people need to read their history and stop repeating the stupid things that so many other countries have done and our own past mistakes as well. Other countries used to be Jealous of us now they laugh at us or just plain hate us. This is what our government has done for us and they are making it worse.
Rather than Succession, illegaly if you remember your history of the Conferacy by the way (sarcasm), why don't WE, the POEPLE the government works for, pull our collective heads out of the Party's (Dem and Rep) rear ends, get rid of all the crooks in DC and elect some people that actually care abou the country?
Let me know when you find some.
Instead of Succession from the Union, Thats illegal if you remember the history of the Confederacy by the way (sarcasm). How about WE the POEPLE that our government is supposed to work for, pull our collective heads out of our collective "Rear ends" and get rid of the crooks that we have sent to DC and elect people that actually care about the country.
After killing so many Iraqians in the name of 911 and Sadam, there plenty of reason for a WMD attack. The children of every Iraqi killed, like the Italian Mafia, will be there to get even with anything that represent America. Give a job to terrorist, and he'll drop his weapon. I think is too late for that. Thank the decider is going back to Crawford where he belongs
He's going back a little late, though, don't ya think?
Not late enough. A nice long stop in Ft Leavenworth would be suitable.
I believe, by "thoroughly fumigating" w/o any hesitation" Pakistan and Afganstan boards and there by flushing-out and getting rid of the Al Qaeda, all its sympathizers and the terrorists they are breeding and incubating, the WMD threat level including the threat from biological weapons) to the world at large will be reduced at least by a factor of 10. Probably, that is the immediate and best solution we have to consider..
yea, i love genocide. lets just drop mustard gas on pakistan and afghanistan, that wouldnt piss ANYONE off..
"Fumigating"?
Informing people about possible terrorism is by no means meant to send anyone into a panic about it. I think the fact that the senior intelligence advisor is giving the American people a heads up is a nice gesture. We certainly didn't have that kind of warning with 9/11.
Let's
How about the independent investigation of Saddam's WMDs?
I have a better and more accurate estimate of when a WMD may hit U.S. soil. "Between now and infinity." What a dumb way to make the people in this country worry more than they are. The Media loves to play with peoples minds. I guess this is a way for the economy to bounce back. Make the people of this country worry and buy massive amounts of food and water. That'll get the consumers back in the stores and Wall Street back on it's corrupt greedy feet. Get the banks to open their wallets and support the people keeping them open, the hard working American. The Democrats have a lot to prove and it's not looking too good so far. (Oh and so you know, I am a registered Republican).
I'm surprised that they haven't already called you a poser. That's what 'they' do to everyone else.
Good god I hope Americans can see what this really is just another scam to try and control American citizens Just like the bailout that did absolutely nothing for the economy but sure as hell made a bunch of bureaucratic pukes richer. This is just another scare tactic period.
"There has been a series of policy issues in which proliferation was posited against either an economic or a geopolitical objective. And in the large majority of those cases, proliferation has lost.' Hell, proliferation lost completely in the Plame outing. A worldwide organization charged with stopping the proliferation of nuclear material, including on the black market, was destroyed when Bush/Cheney/Rove outed Plame. Even under cloud of TREASON, proliferation loses in the Bush Administration. No news there. This report is a Bush Administration report.
As long as we keep screwing around and spending valuable resources in Iraq, we have our eyes off the ball. These nut-jobs arent done by a damn sight, and Bush has us spread so thin and off hitting this fly with a sludgehammer, we are totally vulnerable. 5 guys on a suiside mission walking around airports with the smallpox virus is all itll take, but instead of developing a vaccine, we spend 10 bil a month over there. We could have had a functional vaccine, and all you could drink of it 5 years ago if this maniac didnt have us over there. Shame on him, andhe should be charged with treason.
Florid,
FYI.... There is a vaccine for Smallpox.... Small pox was "erdaicated" in the late 70's/Early 80's due to the World Health Organizations efforts. You should have a small scar on your upper arm to prove this. The last case of Small pox was in Dhaka in the early 80's. Today Smallpox Virus is housed in only two places 1) the CDC in Atlanta and 2) a depository just outside Moscow....
3 places. England also has a sample.
Enter comments if any for reporting abuse
Discuss