If I were a terrorist...

... oh, boy.
This is a post I've long contemplated, but have never quite worked up the nerve to write.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a terrorist!
This post is written as a public service for DHS & FBI.

Basic message: forget about high-tech - focus on maximum impact (physical & psychological) low-tech.
The Hutaree militia provide a good model.

You all are worried about shoe bombers and underpants bombers, and about dirty bombs, and weaponized anthrax, and dual-component liquid explosives.
I have to take off my shoes and submit to sophisticated scans to get on an airplane.
I can't take more than 2 oz. of shampoo on the plane in carry-on.
Okay - these are legitimate concerns.
[... tho' I do wonder: has anyone ever demonstrated the feasibility of a dual-component liquid explosive, fabricated in a garage laboratory?]

BUT... how have we been attacked?
With box-cutters. (Which were illegal on airplanes BEFORE 9/11!)

How did Chechen extremists strike terror in Russia?
With low-tech (and relatively low impact) suicide bombers on subways.

How did Timothy McVeigh destroy the OKC Federal Building?
With fertilizer, diesel fuel, and a blasting cap.

Worry about low-tech.

If I were a terrorist, I'd first pick a target.
Well, actually, I'd pick a collection of targets.
I'd start with high-visibility, symbolic infrastructure:
- The Golden Gate bridge
- The Chesapeake Bay tunnel
- The Verrazzano bridge
- The Eads bridge
For maximum effect I'd try really hard to make the attacks simultaneous.

McVeigh provides the method: fertilizer, diesel fuel, and a blasting cap.
Two of these I can get easily. I don't know how to get or make a blasting cap, but bet one could be fabricated from a standard .45 caliber round.

This would be a beginning.

I'd target a few of the largest grain elevators.
Heck - the dust is explosive all by itself.
Not many grocery stores would run out of Cheerios as a result, but the attack on the food-distribution system would have a powerful psychological effect.

For maximum psychological impact I'd target a high-profile public event.
The SuperBowl comes to mind... maybe Game 1 of the World Series.
This would take a bit of planning and advance preparation.
I'd get my guys on the vendor crews and on the delivery crews (this makes the SuperBowl an easier target than a World Series game: the SuperBowl venue is chosen well in advance!).
Weapon of choice? Again, fertilizer, diesel fuel, and a blasting cap.
A couple of bags of diesel-impregnated fertilizer is all it would take, in each quadrant of the stadium.
You may not kill a lot of people, but the blast would be televised!

Finally, I'd heed Calvin Coolidge's dictum: "Any well-dressed man who is willing to die himself can kill the President of the United States."
Your folks have to look like our neighbors... and they have to be willing to die in the attack.

Because we are a high-tech nation, we imagine our enemies will attack us using high-tech methods.
We spend tons of $$$ devising protection against nukes smuggled into our ports.
We worry about high-tech biochemical attacks on our water systems.
[Aside: missile defense is a symptom of this same syndrome. A none-too-creative scenario has bad guys launching nukes using crude V-1 cruise missiles from ships parked just a few miles from our shores... against which missile defense is useless.]

Our obsession with high-tech blinds us to the real threats - box-cutters & fertilizer.

What weapons constituted the greatest FEAR in Iraq?
IEDs: IMPROVISED explosive devices.
IMPROVISED - using stuff ready-to-hand.
NOT chemical or biological weapons.
Certainly not nukes.
IMPROVISED explosive devices.

Again, I am NOT a terrorist, and this post is intended ONLY as a public service for the folks at DHS & FBI who are tasked with protecting us.