Posted on 08/26/2006 6:31:06 PM PDT by SandRat
The federal government has mapped out a few places that could be targets for a major terrorist attack.
NORAD, in Colorado Springs, Colo., for one. The West Wing of the White House. Or another New York City landmark.
But the director of an organization that analyzes the country's level of disaster response offers up one more — Tucson's elementary schools.
In his new book "Americans at Risk," Irwin Redlener blasts what he calls a slow emergency response by the government to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and last year's Hurricane Katrina. He lists five worst-case scenarios to further illustrate this lack of preparedness and what can be done to improve it: a tornado near Springfield, Mo.; a nuclear detonation in Chicago; an earthquake in Seattle; a flu outbreak in New York City; and an attack on two elementary schools in Tucson.
What is it about our local schools that has Redlener, the director of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness, on alert? He points to the September 2004 terrorist takeover of an elementary school in Beslan, Russia.
"What we learned from the Beslan experience is that in this age of terrorism, there's no place that's invulnerable to the realities of modern terrorism," he said. "It's got a very long reach and looks to demoralize America as much as possible."
More specifically, he says he picked Tucson for its proximity to the Mexican border, which he says is too open, and the city's purported links to three of the conspirators of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "I was just trying to make people aware of the fact this wasn't just a Northeast (United States) problem," Redlener said.
He used details, some of which have not been publicly substantiated, from Christopher Farrell of Judicial Watch, a nonprofit conservative foundation with a mission of fighting government corruption, to link the three terrorists to Arizona.
Redlener said schools are natural targets for terrorists because campus security officers rarely carry guns. He devotes 10 pages of his book to a graphic rendition of the takeover of two unnamed elementary schools.
First, "radical Islamists" enter the United States through one of three entry corridors on the U.S.-Mexican border and immerse themselves in society. The schools, "a large public elementary school with just over nine hundred students in kindergarten through grade 6 and a Catholic parochial school of more than four hundred students in pre-kindergarten through grade 8," would be taken simultaneously by terrorists with guns and grenades. Those who resist are killed execution-style and thrown out the windows, "where television crews capture the scene with long-range lenses."
The emergency response to the situation is severely hampered in this scenario, Redlener continues, by suicide bombers at the Tucson Police Department headquarters and the pediatric emergency ward at University Medical Center.
Twenty-eight hours later, the standoff ends when "commandos rush through the corridors, breaking down doors." More than 400 people, including students, have died.
Redlener, a father of two, said he's not out to incite panic and there is no government intelligence that proves Tucson is being targeted. What he hopes to do is awaken the public's consciousness that such an event could happen, and that the proper response agencies need to be making the right plans to prepare for it and the other four scenarios he mentions.
"It's simply to illustrate the kind of thinking that our intelligence community has to start having," he said.
Rural/Metro Fire Chief Les Caid said Tucson's responders include all school situations in their disaster planning.
"To say that this could never happen would be a real mistake in anyone's planning efforts," Caid said. "I'm sure the people in Columbine or the folks in Russia never thought it would happen to them."
But he said a suicide bomber could never get into police headquarters, and UMC employees are vigilant of suspicious people. Still, he said citizens should be made aware of all the possible dangers that they face.
"The challenge is not to scare everyone to death," he said.
Tucson Unified School District spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander said officials would rely on law enforcement in the event of such a situation. Schools would go into a "hard lockdown," she said, which means all classrooms would be locked and no one allowed to leave.
"Ever since Columbine, TUSD has been planning and preparing for any situation," Hill Lander said.
Redlener said he simply wants America to be more alert. "The only reason to do this is this is a time where we need to have our eyes open," he said. "We have to be vigilant with our planning."
* Contact reporter Jeff Commings at 573-4191 or jcommings@azstarnet.com
Frightening of America or a valid warning and worry?
It's definitely something that concerns me and I don't have kids.
"He used details, some of which have not been publicly substantiated, from Christopher Farrell of Judicial Watch, a nonprofit conservative foundation with a mission of fighting government corruption, to link the three terrorists to Arizona."
Ugh. Shame that this article was imbued with that idiotic stench. Cheapens what should be a vital argument about school safety and preventing a Beslan on US soil.
I could think up all sorts of easily carried out attacks that would cause a lot of death and destruction...but I have no interest in doing so. Hopefully, law enforcement will remain on track to catch people who are interested in carrying out such attacks and to prevent new ones from arriving from outside the country, in the case of foreign linked terrorism, because such attacks are nearly impossible to prevent once the terrorist is here. It would have been cool to have started on this after the 1993 WTC bombing....
My FRiend, with as close as we are to the Canadian boarder, especially at Lake Erie Metropark where they can damn near walk over, it's one of the reasons why I homeschool.
I dont think an attack on an American elementary school would demoralise America, If anything it would convince even the liberasl that its time to break this BS up by hitting the Middle east with attacks they can only dream of in their worst nightmares. Attacks on Islamics in this country would find a lot of dead muslims at 7-11's and motels and anywhere else they tend to launder their money at. It would probably be the single most stupid place in this country to attack.
"It's definately something that concerns me and I don't have kids."
I do and I can't tell you how many times I have thought of this possible scenario.
If the terrorists want to enfuriate an entire nation behind this war and open the gates to hell (nuclear engagement) start killing our children. Much as I like some Russians, we aren't them and we practically spoil our children with the attention that they get.
Kill them and gloves are going to come off so fast the muslim world would be terrified to see. NO ONE has seen what the USA can do fighting without restraint for the last 60 years.
It's probably a valid enough concern--but then, how can the government possibly safeguard us against every possible thing? Schools, yes, but also water supplies, power, and on and on. At some point, Americans are going to have to get serious about the WOT on their own. The government can only do so much.
I fear the low level suicide bomber attack is their next move. Think of the chaos that would ensue if 20 malls across the US were suicide bombed or shot up at the same time. It brings to mind the Sheepdog email we see from time to time. I wish teachers could use the CCW's at school. I know I use mine as often as possible. One guy with a .380 could have held those evil kids at Columbine off long enough for the SWAT to arrive. That might not be the case with the jihadis, but it beats dying while pleading for your life.
Actually you don't have to kill them all, just enough to convince the others that they will be killed if they try anything.
Yes there are stooges who will kill themselves willingly, but they need the infrastructure provided by the group and the group leaders do NOT want to die no matter how much they speak in glowing terms of martyrdom.
I've also been very worried about this happening. Any school system, or individual school would be a very pleasing target for multiple reasons. It's like a ball sitting on a tee waiting to be hit.
The lefites will lose all but their most hardened supporters and all hell will break loose. There will be demands from most of the American people to do something serious and forget this whole PC BS. If the muzzies think they are profiled and treated badly now, just wait ... it'll be very ugly.
I tend to agree with sgtbono that it would be the biggest mistake terrorists could possibly make.
I'm concerned that we have allowed mosques in this country. I was not concerned before 9/11 but by midnight on 9/12 after just a bit of reading on the internet I became convinced that islam should not exist in the US.
[Snort.] I am no longer sure what, if anything, would convince the liberals.
Hopefully, law enforcement will remain on track to catch people who are interested in carrying out such attacks and to prevent new ones from arriving from outside the country, in the case of foreign linked terrorism, because such attacks are nearly impossible to prevent once the terrorist is here.
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Closing out borders would have been so much easier, but of course, the White House and the Senate will have nothing to do with jeaporizing Mexican votes and the ONE AMERICA agenda....so just send them the clean-up bill for the next big "9/11" catastrophe....they just keep letting them in...anyone and anything.
As long as there are idiots who insist that tightening the borders and clamping down on illegal immigration from everywhere is somehow "racist" nothing will be done. PTBs are inherently lazy and addicted to the status quo--it will take a huge outcry, and I mean huge enough to make them fear for their jobs, to get them to move on this.
I think we have enough evidence that terrorists will do ANYTHING. This scenario laid out by the author is one that is quite plausible. The only way to combat this is to round up all Arabs/muslims and put them through a screening process to find out who is friend or foe and secure our borders. Will this happen? Only once this the this scenario actually happens and the sheeple of this country open up their eyes to the fact that islamo fascists want us dead.
"I dont think an attack on an American elementary school would demoralise America, If anything it would convince even the liberasl that its time to break this BS up by hitting the Middle east with attacks they can only dream of in their worst nightmares."
It'd be like what happened on September 11, 2001; we stay united for a while, then go right back to bickering and partisan politics.
From
The Weekly Standard
Fuss and Feathers
Pandemic panic over the avian flu.
by Michael Fumento
11/21/2005, Volume 011, Issue 10
"But the winner in this grim game of one-upmanship is Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, who claimed on ABC News's Primetime on September 15, "We could have a billion people dying worldwide."
"When I later questioned him on this figure, he rather sheepishly admitted he meant to say "one billion ill." Quite a faux pas."
From
http://www.weeklystandard.com
One can be an alarmist like Redlener who said we could have a billion die from avian flu (see above) and he could still describe a horrendous situation at a school, but I see it as a possibility, not as much as a probability.
I think that if an American school becomes a terrorist target, muslims will be rounded up by large segments of the American population ... but not for screening. The leftists, ACLU, CAIR, etc can scream all they want, no one will listen to them. There will be a lot of smoking ruins that used to be mosques.
Disclaimer: I am not saying this is something that I WANT to happen, but I think it WILL happen.
Why don't they take over ACLU headquarters and an ABA convention.
That would solve everyones problems.
I remember who the EU and the UN reacted to the Beslan massacre. "We're sorry about your children and we urge restraint".
who = how
Spell check still doesn't catch stupid.
If our children are specific terrorist targets, would you care what the ACLU and others say? They could start all the lawsuits, petitions, meetings (or whatever) they want, it won't help.
It would be mass chaos. I would not want to be a muslim during this period, that's for sure. Actually, I don't want to be a muslim during any period of time. =)
"If anything it would convince even the liberasl that its time to break this BS up..."
I sincerely doubt it. They would blame it on the war and the President and foreign policy and conservatives. Liberals don't think logically, but emotionally; with fear running through their veins instead of resolve.
I think American would be enraged beyond what we can comprehend.
Amoung other things, I'd hate to be a RAT following an attack on our schools.
I'm with you, buddy!!!!!
And they would be talking to a pretty small audience. All but the most delusional far-left liberals will turn ... at least I hope so.
If your child's life was in danger would you let some screaming libbie stand in your way of protecting them? I wouldn't, and I think most parents would feel the same way. I'm sure more than a few would kill to protect their children.
You got that right. I think most people would not sit still and wait for another attack. There are a lot of people in this country who would totally snap if this happened.
Amoung other things, I'd hate to be a RAT following an attack on our schools.
Or anyone standing in the way and preaching appeasement/tolerance once all hell breaks loose.
All they have to do is to ban firearms and this threat will go away.
Not to pick but is this author not aware that Springfield MO has experienced several severe tornados in recent years and the locals didn't wait on the government to respond. We took care of our own.
Of course, our schools are SO WELL PROTECTED. We have made them "gun free". Wheee!
With "no guns" in our "gun free" schools, how can anything bad ever happen? After all, "guns" are the root of all evil and without them, all is groovy.
"Gun free"--and hopelessly defenseless.
school security officers don't carry guns? bwahaha! WHAT school security officers????
Scary, ain't it?
I really hope nothing like this ever happens.
Isn't that like saying "Jumbo Shrimp".
It is a scenario I hope we never see unfold in this country.
Ditto
I have children in school. It's the biggest nightmare we have involving terrorism. I can't imagine the reaction I'd have to something like this occuring anywhere in the US, even a thousand miles away from our area.
Well...duh....is all I can say.....where in America is it guaranteed there are NO guns? (Generally speaking)
Re: your post #7:
I dearly hope you are right.
You mean guys like Dane.
And isn't that a shame?
IED kills too few kids, attacking a school forcing the principal to order a lock down during the attack will allow the terrorist to go classroom to classroom with explosive for the door locks, grenades for mass casaulties and submachineguns to pick off the survivors from the grenades. Several attack teams of 2 men, two team for each floor and corridors, each team coming in opposite directions can corner, kill and maim hundreds of kids within 30 minutes plus two teams for the roof overlooking the school grounds. Most schools instruct the teachers to keep the kids in the class room, lock the doors and wait for instructions from the PA. Guess what, if I were the attackers, the location of the PA microphone is the first room I take and disable. It would be 10 to 15 minutes before the teachers figure it out. Try a mass escape and the terrorist teams on the roof will spray the grounds with automatic gunfire and inform the teams within to open fire from the windows and cut the kids down as they emerge from the school to escape. Cops take time to arrive and the SWAT teams take hours to mobilize. Don't forget the attackers do not fear the arriving cops because they intend to die anyway. I know this is a nightmare scenario but Bin Laden had instructed his followers to find a way to kill 4.0 million Americans and half of them must be children. I figure 12 attackers can take out a suburban school of 500 to 1000 kids. Elementary schools would make great targets because the kids are too small to fight back or run away.
Scary scenario.
So do the Russians. Russians are appalled that we spank our children, just to cite one example. Probably explains why they seem to need such a strong state, far too many of them are spoiled brats with no self discipline.
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