[DuncanWaring]

Intercontinental missiles are not necessary to attack NYC and LA.

A good-sized fishing boat would work well.

[meatloaf]

It wouldn’t surprise me. If we get nuked it will be by ship. Plenty of ship yards where a ship could go in for repairs. The weapon would be placed on board and concealed. Maybe one or two of the crew might know. Ship would resume work. At some point it would pick up cargo destined for NY/NJ. Weapon is detonated on the Hudson. Nothing unusual would give the plot away until it was too late.

[Wallace T.]

The possibility of a sneak attack is worrisome, as the military is demoralized and gutted under Obama. Remember that the reaction to the 9-11 attacks was lethargic to say the least. As I recall, the only available fighters in the Northeast belonged to the Massachusetts National Guard even though we had no overseas engagements at the time of the attack. Crashing a passenger jet into the Pentagon itself was inexcusable and demonstrated poor preparedness.

The only saving grace is that if Iran were to undertake a sneak attack, it would be signing its national death warrant.

[BwanaNdege]

Intercontinental missiles are not necessary to attack NYC and LA.

A good-sized fishing boat would work well.

Exactly! Why is everyone so fixated on an ICBM?

However, instead of a fishing boat, a small yacht, say a 35' to 45' Bertram, would be able to cruise right up the Hudson, Potomac, St. Lawrence, Mississippi/Ohio/Missouri, etc. You could not get LA this way, but San Francisco or Seattle would be sitting ducks.

If they really want an air burst, use their recently granted Airline landing rights & load their shiny new bomb on one of their Iran Air Boeing 747SP airliners, file a flight plan for JFK or Dulles and program the in-flight entertainment system with the latest "Allahu Akbar" DVDs...

[Ancesthntr]

Intercontinental missiles are not necessary to attack NYC and LA.

A good-sized fishing boat would work well.

Agreed. Just stick a Scud on a fishing boat or garbage scow owned by some Liberian or Panamanian front company, and you pass under the radar (literally and figuratively).

I am, however, far more worried about the Ragheads exploding such nukes 150-250 miles up and destroying our electrical and digital infrastructure via EMP. That'd kill far, far more people (up to 90% of the population within a year due to starvation, disease and fighting over food, etc.) than directly nuking a city, and would have the added advantage of destroying us as a power (let alone a superpower) forever. EMP is the ultimate in assymetric warfare.

[Salgak]

Heck. . .ship it in a CONEX. . . they never get inspected.

For a bonus, surround it with mildly radioactive ore, make it into a dirty bomb.

I’m sure the Iranians, and likely the Chinese (actually, ESPECIALLY the Chinese. . .) have thought of this.

As for losing NYC and/or LA . . . . that’s almost a feature, not a bug. . .