I wonder someone might be planning to take down vital highway structures.
If they did it this way, they would have to first learn how to drive those rigs. Then, either get jobs in the industry or plan to steal a truck. (not as easy as it sounds)
Oh and then you have to have a target. Or several targets. There are that many vital places where traffic could not easily be diverted. Yes it may be a hassel for several months while the bridge was being repaired but big whoop.
And this sort of attack doesn’t accomplish killing very many infidels, which is something terrorists seem to enjoy doing. In fact they would probably rather blow a vital pizza joint with lots of people in it rather than a bridge.
So dont’ worry about the bridge.
Y’know, I’ve often wondered about terrorism along these lines. Think of the chaos you could cause by stealing a semi, jack-knifing it or even flipping it accross traffic immediately before rush hour and then just wandering off. And if you had 5 buddies doing the same thing at strategic points all over town…talk about disruption!
Or rent one. A big U-Haul or two full of AMFO could do a hell of a lot of damage.
Sure there are. Washington, DC only has five bridges leading in from Virginia, not couting the ones on the Beltway. Closing them would effectively shut down our capital indefinately.
Have you forgotten about 9/11?
BTW: it doesn’t have to be Middle Eastern terrorists. A group of Timothy McVeighs can have the same effect.
Indeed, in the 1980s and 1990s, the IRA used to perform “economic sabotage” in London by blowing up infrastructure points, not people.
Assuming that the only intention behind Al Qaeda is to kill “infidels” is to get the wrong end of the stick. I recommend subscribing to the newsletter at Stratfor.
Can’t be much harder than breaking into a cockpit and learning how to fly. Since there aren’t any metal detectors around trucks, it shouldn’t be very difficult to pull a Saturday Night Special out of your pocket and convince a truck driver to hand over the keys (If they’re not still in the ignition)
No I haven’t forgotten about 9/11 and the 3000 DEATHS! And I live in NYC and my traffic pattern was hardly disrupted. My train was making it’s regular stop at WTC in a very short time.
Blow up all the bridges leading into DC and the army core of engineers will have at least one temp bridge up in less than 12 hours. Look at the bridges they built during WWII in combat zones.
Al Quada has better things to do than tie up traffic.
McVeigh didn’t do much to tie up traffic but he did KILL LOTS OF PEOPLE.
Terrorism is about KILLING PEOPLE, not causing delays. If they blew up the Lincoln Tunnel they would do it when it was full of people and they would do it to kill those people, not to cause traffic delays.
Yes I know that Al Quaedia also has other things on it’s mind than killing people. The WTC was also an economic target as were the embassy bombings.
There is a difference however, between terrorism and an inconvenience. Diverted traffic is an inconvenience. Jack knifing several semis and walking away is a inconvenience.
Seeing new terrorism where it is just an inconvenience is silly and going around trying to scare people by calling it terrorism is, IMHO irresponsible.
This truck didn’t even take out the bridge. It ‘charred the underside of an overpass ramp’, what is the big deal? Why does this make the NEW TERROR POSSIBILITY alarm go off? It is just a traffic accident!
Well before this accident here in DC, there was a much more devastating occurrence in Baltimore that was basically identical to this one except for the overall amount of damage. Up at the intersection of I-695 and I-83, a tractor-trailer came around a downhill ramp too fast, lost traction, and slid into the pillars of the underpass, engulfing the I-695 deck and pavement in a fireball. The overpass was usable but considered a total loss in terms of structural integrity – the fireball had cooked the steel, asphalt, and concrete and put all manner of unnatural stresses on them. They had to rebuild the overpass, and traffic up there was awful for almost a year while they routed both directions of flow over the one remaining span.
But you know what? People still got to work, and other than the four or five people who died in the crash, and maybe someone who had a heart attack because of high blood pressure caused by the bad traffic, it was basically a non-event.
This accident was the same thing: an accident.
The hijackers’ ultimate goal was to wreck a symbol of capitalism, not killing people.
Do you have any idea of how bad traffic is in the DC area? Second only to Los Angeles.
Again, why’s it have to be Al Quada?
He was pissed at the IRS, not trying to kill people.
No? A few months ago, the FBI took a videotape out of the hands of a couple with ties to Hamas. That video reportedly contained closeups of the structural work of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, not your typical vacation scene.
There’s a bit more than what’s in the article. That area has three levels of overpasses, two of which were closed for several hours while engineers studied them to make sure they were safe to reopen. What if this wasn’t just some routine accident but the first step in discovering what would it would take for a single truck to bring down a section of highway?
Ya know, all I really wanted to say was, “If it turns out something bigger is afoot, you heard it here first.” Since this thread has taken a different tack, perhaps it should be kicked over to GD.
Really?!?! So why didn’t they do it on a Sunday or at night when the buildings would be empty? That is the absoulute first time I’ve heard the idea that the goal was to destroy a symbol of capitalism and that killing was accidental.
Gee, you just might have to use the subway there in DC for a day.
No it doesn’t have to be them but WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE TERRORISM?
Really? It was the ATF/FBI he was pissed at and yes he wanted deaths or he could have struck on the weekend as well. Are now a McVeigh apologist? *He wasn’t trying to kill people?!?!
- Tell that to the girl I went to HS with, OH wait, you can’t because Timmy blew her to bits.
You know with that whole six degrees of seperation thing you have ties to Hamas. Oh and here in NYC people take pictures of bridges all the time. It actually is a rather typical vacation picture to take. But they have nothing to do with today’s accident now do they? It is just alarmist to claim otherwise.
So, any new developments? Does the driver have ties to the Red Brigade? Maybe a radical splinter group of Ayn Rand readers? Look, saying 'this could be a new 9/11 anytime something goes BOOM is not a real sensible way to live your life, and if someone disagrees with you, saying “Don’t you remember 9/11?” is a fairly idiotic response, which, btw, really pissed me off. I don’t know if you ment to offend me by asking me that question, but you really did. To me, in this thread, you have come off like one of those people passing around those emails right after 9/11 about “MISSING UPS UNIFORMS” or “ARAB GUY BUYS LOTS OF CANDY AND MAY POSION ALL OUR KIDS THIS HALLOWEEN”. Except you are doing it here.
The other night, I noticed an abandoned suitcase on the subway platform. This is a classic, well documented terror tactic. The Madrid train bombers left backbacks on the train. I alerted the booth clerk and stayed till the police came and took the suitcase out. It was just a lost suitcase.
Terrorists do not go after symbols. Not OBL. He and his gang have definite tangible goals in what they do. But taking lives is always part of it. The Bali bombings hoped to lessen the influence of Austraila on the people of Bali by making them not come to the country. It also killed a lot of people in a night club. The destruction of the embassys in Africa, not only killed people but stopped the work that the embassys do, like getting people visas to come to America and promoting US business interests in the region. Probably the attack on the USS Cole may be seen as symbolic but not if you consider how much money the US pays to refuel it’s ships in the region and the US stopped refueling there for a while. This cuts ties between the US and another Arab world nation.
If it was to KILL PEOPLE, why not do it when the buildings were COMPLETELY FULL?
Yeah, right. The subway is barely adequate to handle 4th of July crowds. They weren’t operating at all after 10am on 9/11 and most people stayed home on 9/12. You expect them to handle a massive influx of commuters?
You tell me. I never said it did.
Terry Nichols, then.
He was targeting a building, just like the hijackers on 9/11. People were ancillary.
Including closeups of structural supports? I think not and neither did the FBI. *
No, just a counter to your position that a terroist’s only goal is to kill.
Now you’re just getting carried away.
I disagree with you on the point that a terrorist’s goal is to KILL LOTS OF PEOPLE.
Hardly. Those are urban legends.
Really? What about the World Trade Center (a symbol of Capitalism), the Pentagon (a symbol of our military), the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (a symbol of the government in general), and the Los Angeles IRS office (another government symbol - which survived because the bomb was a dud)?
Yes, but taking lives doesn’t have to be a primary goal, as indicated by jjimm.
If DC area traffic is brought to a standstill, the government would be effectively shut down until Congress can set up shop elsewhere.
I thought I was the only one thinking along those lines.
Because security at Boston was most stretched, and therefore least capable, during the morning rush.
Yep, I’ve seen that happening in Britain. And anyway, have you got a cite for this Hamas tale?
Um, in the case at hand, the gentleman who died was a local who was making a scheduled delivery to the gas station just south of the Pentagon. It was indeed a tragic accident. So no Hunt The Boeing or They Walk Among Us here. It’s in the Washington Post if you want more details.
I normally commute on Washington Blvd. to my job in Crystal City. I had to detour around that area that day. They were still working on the inbound lane when I drove past on the way home.
Now, of course, the terrorists most certainly could use such a tactic to inflict mayhem, but I don’t see it being all that likely, since like some have said, it’s not big and scarey enough, or whatever.
And seeing how there are many other ways to cross a river other than a bridge, it wouldn’t even effect the operation of our government.
Subway under the river.
Boats across the river.
Temp bridge across the river.
Helicopter over the river.
Sure Lute may be inconvenienced, and that feeling of being stuck in traffic may induce terror in him but not very many other people.
OH in (In response to me asking why this is terrorism)
What is the title of YOUR THREAD? Is it:
Innocent Accident…or are terrorists up to something new?
You have been wondering if this is a terror attack all along.
(emphasis mine)
You are the one wondering if this is terrorism. I came in and said it’s not and you have been argueing with me ever since. Even to the point of saying that McVeigh and the 9/11 terrorists didn’t really want to kill people.
Wrong. It would be worse than when the government tried to reopen three days after a blizzard dumped three feet of snow on the area. Traffic was so bad that they decided to close again the next day. Subway, boats, ACE, and helicopters are not a viable solution for transporting hundreds of thousands of government workers if a majority of the bridges are cosed.
The key word being if. Where did I say it has to be a terror attack?
Yes, arguing that terrorists aren’t always just trying to kill.
No, I’m saying that killing people isn’t necessarily their only, or even primary, goal. And I’m not the only one. Why is this so hard for you to accept?
Thank you for the reasonable response. 
You sort of get what I’ve been saying. Yes, it could happen. As for the likelyhood, who knows? Who’s to say what is big and scary enough and what isnt? Who would have thought it likely that four planes would be hijacked within minutes of each other then purposely crashed into buildings?