Posted on 10/23/2008 7:50:28 AM PDT by harwood
..."documents found by a team of intelligence a number of countries in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan revealed that bin Laden wanted al-Qaeda devastating fires in the forests of the United States, Australia, Europe and South America to build the so-called "a bullet around the world," Or "global fire."..
(Excerpt) Read more at 209.85.171.104 ...
He lives in a desert cave and hasn’t seen a real tree in over a decade. What does he know about burning them?
Japanese tried that in WWII by floating balloons with incendiaries into the jetstream to come down in the Pacific Northwest. It was innovation born of desperation that failed.
The japs nearly pulled this off, too.
It could be a real problem.
So his terror against man is expanding into terror against nature.
Allah must be proud.
What's next will he be putting flaming bags of doggie-do on the capital steps, ringing the bell and hiding?
my how the mighty have fallen.
Actually, that's not such a bad idea.
“so now he’s an eco-terrorist?”
On the bright side, maybe the tree-huggers will declare war against Islamic terrorists. They were with okay them when they were targeting people (overpopulation and such), but the killing of trees and owls just might put them over the edge :)
No...
...they didnt.
/smirk
You are correct. In this case, there are sleeper cells in the US that can easily get fires started. I remember last year a Native American in AZ was arrested for starting a fire. His goal, however, was to provide jobs for other Native Americans who would fight the fire.
Forest fires are probably difficult to do as a terror weapon. Sure, you might burn a few acres, or even a few hundred, but they’ll probably be in remote areas, and are subject to weather. It’s almost impossible for a forest fire to burn much if there’s any snow cover, and winds and rain can also impact success.
Better get Smoky the Bear prepared!
Time to round up the usual suspects: ELF, PETA, ....
What do you need to know beyond road flare?
This same scenario was reported years ago. Besides, Osama might tick off his Mexican Drug cartel friends by burning up their pot farms.
That reminds me of a Gary Larson cartoon where the cows ring the farmers door bell and then go back to eating grass.
this ought to stoke the spiritual fires of environmentalists...*pun intended*
This could be a nightmare, not just the fires but the measures that would have to be taken to stop the attacks from continuing each year, and talk about simple and low tech.
Here is a little description of two recent fires in San Diego, If resources were so in demand that they were unavailable to be shifted here from other areas...well.
“In October 2003, the Cedar fire burned in eastern and northeastern areas of San Diego County.
According to the County of San Diego’s October Wildfires Damage Assessment Update, the Cedar fire burned 280,278 acres and destroyed 2,464 residential, commercial and industrial units. The North County Times reported that 15 people died in the fire.
Brooke Walsh was a freshman at USD when the fires hit in 2003.
“It was incredible to see the orange sky and the ground covered in ash,” Walsh said. “It made common places eerie and unfamiliar.”
Until this week, the Cedar fires were geographically the largest in California. Those fires, however, pale in magnitude to the current fires burning.
According to a toll on the San Diego Union-Tribune’s website on Tuesday afternoon, a collective 241,000 acres and 1,250 homes have burned since the fires started Sunday. With no immediate end in sight, these numbers should surpass those of the Cedar fire.
In addition, CNN.com reported that as of Tuesday, 513,000 residents of San Diego County were ordered to evacuate their residences. This number is far greater than the number of evacuees in the Cedar fire.
The Vista, October 25, 2007”
Um, yes, they did.
Between November 1944 and April 1945, Japan launched over 9,000 fire balloons toward North America. Carried by the recently-discovered Pacific jet stream, they were to sail over the Pacific Ocean and land in North America, where the Japanese hoped they would start forest fires and cause other damage. About three hundred were reported as reaching North America, but little damage was caused. Six people (five children and a woman) became the only deaths due to enemy action to occur on mainland America during World War II when one of the children tampered with a bomb from the balloon near Bly, Oregon in the United States and it exploded. Recently released reports by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian military indicate that fire balloons reached as far inland as Saskatchewan. A fire balloon is also considered to be a possible cause of the final fire in the Tillamook Burn. One member of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (United States) died while responding to a fire in the Northwest 6 August 1945; other casualites of the 555th were two fractures and 20 other injuries.
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