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Originally posted by mbkennel
my own personal numerical order of #e hitting the fan, actual
underappreciated threats:
liquid natural gas tanker ships. The total energy in the large ones, if fully combusted turns out to be the energy equivalen of a 700 kilotons of TNT. A strategic nuke, but without the radiation. Of course not all of this could be detonated fully, but even a small fraction of this would be a major disaster near a port. Note that the ships come from the mideast, and if infiltrated by saboteurs and rigged carefully over the sea voyage, they could be a major weapon.
I also believe that LNG tankers and trucks are VERY underated as a means of devastating attack. In the 80s when I was reading of Spetznaz operations in CONUS this was one of the items stated to disrupt C3I prior to an attack and it has worried me ever since because it would be really easy to pull off. An LNG tanker contains the equivalent energy of a 1-2 Kioloton bomb! Imagine the damage caused by a tanker truck in a heavy urban area!
Notice that all recently warned citys were PORT cities with two exceptions being Los Vegas and Washinton.
[Edited on 11-1-2004 by Phoenix]