Re: Fun with (In)Security

[Drsolly <drsollyp () drsolly com>]

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006, Paul Schmehl wrote:

> > I've never really understood why people conflate "war on terror" with "US
> > porous borders". I can only think of two major (or minor, come to that)
> > terrorist attacks on the USA in the last decade or so, and they didn't
> > come from either Mexico or Canada.
> The big fear is terrorists entering the country from Mexico or Canada with 
> suitcase nukes.  From what I've read, suitcase nukes are a fantasy.  The 

Thinking about Little Boy and Fat Man, you might not be able to get a nuke 
in a suitcase, but you would be able to get one in a cabin trunk. It would 
be too heavy to carry by hand, but you'd be able to transport it in a 
small truck.

> amount of nuclear material that could be carried in a suitcase, with an 
> explosive mechanism, is negligible and the half-life of the radioactive 
> material makes them worthless in a relatively short period of time.

The half-life of U-235 is 700 million years. So you've be just fine for 
the first few million years. And if I were building a nuke, I'd use U-235, 
centrifugally separated, with a Little Boy design. That is using 1940s 
technology, so not too difficult. 

But if I had lots of dosh and wanted to bugger up the US, I'd just pour
money into the fundamentalist Christian, the White Power, the KKK and some
of the other home-grown organisations that are already keen to wreck your
country.
 
> But that doesn't stop people from freaking out over the idea.
>
> > Of the two major attacks I can think of, one came from a home-grown
> > nutter  (Oklahoma) and the other flew in legally via scheduled airlines.
> > The  anthrax stuff is unproven, but seems to be generally thought to be
> > of  US origin.
> You're assuming rationality enters into the picture when people are worried 
> about bogey men.
>
> I don't mean to minimize the threat.  There are definitely bad men who want 
> to sneak into the country and kill a lot of people (as London unfortunately 
> learned)

If you're talking about the 7/7 bombings, we learned nothing of the kind. 
The bombers were British born. Indeed, one of the most chilling things 
I've ever heard, was the video tape made by one of the bombers. The scary 
thing wasn't what he said, that was the usual stuff. The scary thing was 
the very distinctive and totally Birmingham (Brummy) accent he spoke with.

> and we need to find rational and efficient ways of stopping them 
> before they strike.  But irrational fears about fantastic weapons that 
> don't really exist only serve to enrich lobbyists and politicians at our 
> expense.

Cui bono.

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