Smart Terrorism: How Safe Is The US?

The goal of terrorists is as the name suggests to strike terror into their targets. To make people fearful, to disrupt the normal lives of a population, which in turn affects the government’s ability to govern.

You do not have to kill thousands to do this – not at all. You just have to kill and sicken enough people to make the rest of the population aware of what can happen, to show them how simple it is to control the masses, to make them alter their behaviour. A few geographically spaced incidents can bring a country to its knees in a very short space of time.

A few dozen deaths and a few thousand people sickened by Sarin could do just that. Easily. 500 times more lethal than cyanide and also going by the name GB, it’s volatile and spreads quickly through the air. (source)

When we use the term chemical weapons we think of just that, a weapon that can disperse dangerous chemicals. Sadly this is not the case with many chemical agents. They don’t actually require a method of dispersal, they do not have to be weaponized. Just allowing the agent to be released in a crowded area is enough to sicken and kill.

On June 27th 1994 the Aum Shinriko cult drove to a residential area of Matsumoto and using a computer system remotely released a cloud of Sarin gas. Their targets were three judges that lived in the area, and they were using it as a trial run for an attack they were planning. 7 people died in the Matsumoto attack, and hundreds were sickened.

Nine months later on March 20th 1995 five members of the cult boarded underground trains in Tokyo. They placed plastic bags of liquid Sarin on the floors, pierced them with sharpened umbrella tips and left the trains. As the liquid evaporated into gas people started feeling ill, stuck down with nausea and vomiting, uncontrollable trembling, foaming at the mouth and convulsions 13 people died and over 3800 were injured, hundreds of them permanently. (source)

Robert Mueller, outgoing director of the FBI has made it quite clear that he thinks the United states will once again be hit by something as devastating as  9/11. He has even said he fears another plane attack. He mentions EMP weapons and says there are terrorists and extremists ready to target the United States at the drop of a hat.

At no point did I hear Mueller mention the possibility of a chemical attack within the United States. I have not heard any politicians mention the possibility of a chemical attack within the United States. The government, along with the UK and European governments, are appalled at the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Not appalled enough, however, to have mentioned the possibility of a chemical attack on  home soil.

Why not?

It’s as feasible as any other form of attack, and it’s one possibility that worries me greatly.

According to the Center for Disease Control Sarin ((RS) Propan-2-yl methylphosphonofluoridate) is a nerve agent of lethal toxicity. Just 1 milliliter on the skin can prove fatal.

It’s odorless and tasteless, and death occurs within minutes of exposure. It can contaminate food and water. It can be released into the air WITHOUT being weaponized because the liquid readily turns to gas once exposed to air. It’s this vapor that caused the deaths in Japan. If it is weaponized and takes aerosol form, death would be swift over a wide area. Widescale crop contamination could cause death by ingestion if an aerosol release occurred over agricultural land.

So, here we have a tasteless, odorless liquid that could be put into a regular handbag perfume atomizer. The kind of atomizers that are available almost anywhere, the kind that allows women to move a small amount of perfume from a large bottle into a small carry-around bottle.

All a ‘tourist’ has to do is get it into the country. Possibly  masquerading as a large bottle of perfume in their hold luggage. Or as mouthwash, shampoo,cough mixture or bubble bath…the possibilities are almost endless.

Once ensconced in their hotel there is a myriad of  ways our tourist can think of to use the stuff. As the Aum Shinriko demonstrated the perpetrator does not have to die in the attack. Simply piercing a plastic bag and dropping it in a waste bin at a shopping mall would do the trick, ditto a subway station. It’s almost too easy and yet we hear nothing from our leaders about the possibility and what they propose to do to prevent such a nightmare from happening, if it can be prevented at all,, that is.

They have obviously considered that it may happen, otherwise the CDC would not have the information on public display regarding how to deal with such an event.

If our tourist did decide to use the atomizer, because it delivers the Sarin in liquid form which is the most dangerous, it’s easy to think that the damage would be limited. After all you can’t just go around spraying nerve agents on people without them noticing can you?

Well yes, you kind of can. It wouldn’t be at all difficult in a crowded place to use your little atomizer. As long as you are moving in the opposite direction its unlikely you will contaminate yourself. Any Sarin on the victims clothing will remain effective for about half an hour giving it time to contaminate first responders, family, friends or other people who just happen to be in the vicinity of the initial target.

Maybe the atomizer is too risky to use repeatedly in case you slip up and get some on yourself. You could lace the handrail on an escalator or stairway and just let people touch it, that would work.

A couple of pumps of the atomizer will quickly kill anyone the liquid lands on and sicken hundreds of others. This is the whole point of terrorism, to terrorize people. You don’t have to kill thousands. Killing a few dozen people and sickening hundreds in several different locations would indeed strike terror into the population.

Once it was known what had caused the deaths and illness, panic would ensue. Malls would be deserted, as would movie theaters and restaurants. Sporting events would be hit. Public transport would be shunned for fear of another attack. Regular life would be disrupted.

This is the goal of terrorists, to disrupt, to terrify, to let people know they are here, amongst us, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Those that wish us ill will evolve their methods over time; they will become more sophisticated in how they can bring the United States to its knees. It’s entirely possible that far less people will die in future attacks as the terrorists realize that they can destroy the fabric of life in the United States with very little effort and with the real possibility of not getting caught.

There are many ways to terrorize a country and one of the worst is not knowing who the enemy is, not knowing where he is, not knowing when or where, or even if, he will strike again.