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Container Ships The Next Terrorist Weapon?
NEWSMAX ^ | 4/15/02 | Dave Eberhart

Posted on 04/14/2002 5:58:25 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection

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To: harpseal
Remember last year when a train loaded with HAZMAT crashed and burned in a tunnel under Baltimore? Imagine an ANFO container bomb in the middle of that HAZMAT cargo, going off "contained" in a tunnel under a city.

Are they bringing LNG tankers back into the terminal in New England? I know they suspended that for a while. Would LNG really explode, or just burn back to the tank, and then gassify the LNG as it came out and burn in a spectacular fashion?

41 posted on 04/15/2002 9:49:40 AM PDT by Travis McGee
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To: Travis McGee
Yes indeed ...back when they were the pinnacle of civilization..LOL...and our ancestry were mere barbarians from the steppes..LOL
42 posted on 04/15/2002 9:56:04 AM PDT by wardaddy
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To: Travis McGee
Are they bringing LNG tankers back into the terminal in New England? I know they suspended that for a while. Would LNG really explode, or just burn back to the tank, and then gassify the LNG as it came out and burn in a spectacular fashion?

A very good question.

Regards

J.R.

43 posted on 04/15/2002 10:02:02 AM PDT by NMC EXP
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To: Travis McGee
Remember last year when a train loaded with HAZMAT crashed and burned in a tunnel under Baltimore? Imagine an ANFO container bomb in the middle of that HAZMAT cargo, going off "contained" in a tunnel under a city.

Or how about maybe five or ten such containers goingoff at the same time on the same train with all the other stuff aboard such a freight train? Such is possible and easily arranged.

Are they bringing LNG tankers back into the terminal in New England? I know they suspended that for a while. Would LNG really explode, or just burn back to the tank, and then gassify the LNG as it came out and burn in a spectacular fashion?

When they brought up the whole issue in public hearings a few years back it was pointed out that given a sufficent breach of the tank it would be possible to have the tanker explode and have a total detonation of about 15 to 20 twenty KT equivalent. According to Local notice to mariners they have resumed.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

44 posted on 04/15/2002 10:02:49 AM PDT by harpseal
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To: wardaddy;dennisw;Joe Brower
Cut the Americas, or even just the USA, totally off from world trade for ten years.

Do the same for the middle east.

Check back in a decade, and see who has a tightened belt, and who has starved to death.

45 posted on 04/15/2002 10:02:58 AM PDT by Travis McGee
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To: harpseal;NMC EXP
How close do they offload the LNG tankers to a certain New England city?

Imagine that HAZMAT train in the tunnel under the city, with the ANFO containers detonating at each end.

46 posted on 04/15/2002 10:06:03 AM PDT by Travis McGee
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To: Travis McGee
Found this with a quick search. Will check more when time permits.

A GLOBAL FUEL IN ITS OWN RIGHT

MAY, 1997

SIDEBAR: A new "big bang" theory

Mention oil and the environment, and it is easy to conjure up images of exhaust fumes and the tar strewn beaches around the Exxon Valdez. Natural gas, on the other hand, has a much better reputation. It burns more "cleanly" than other fossil fuels, and if a liquid natural gas (LNG) tanker goes aground, its cargo reverts to gas and escapes into the air.

Why then, are cargos of the eco-friendly fuel treated with such caution. Because as Lieutenant Commander Mark Skordinski of the United States Coast Guard in Boston points out, "There is a great potential for energy." The chances of a disaster transporting LNG gas are widely regarded as minimal, but there is a caveat-if it happened, the cost would be measured in human lives rather than environmental damage.

Natural gas-largely methane-is much more explosive than crude oil, and experience storing and transporting it on dry land has shown that catastrophic accidents can happen. In 1973 an LNG storage tank on Staten Island, New York, blew up, killing 40 people. Eleven years later, 334 people died in Mexico City when a gas storage area exploded, and over 600 died in 1992 after a pipeline explosion in the former Soviet Union.

To prevent a LNG tanker from exploding near an urban area, elaborate precautions are taken. Most LNG tankers, though large, are double hulled and the LNG is contained in separate compartments further limiting any large scale leaks.

When a LNG tanker calls on the port of Boston, where the city surrounds the harbor, everything stops. It can only enter the harbor after it has passed a stringent safety inspection, transit only during daylight hours under good visibility and proceed very slowly while all other vessels stand clear up to a minimum of 2 miles ahead and 1 mile astern of the ship. And when it passes by Logan International Airport, all planes must be rerouted so as not to fly over the tanker.

The flight restriction over these vessels is not only in place to protect the ship from any crashing planes-they also aim to protect the aircraft. The LNG inside the ship could unexpectedly and embarrassingly vent, creating a gaseous cloud which would rise up to greet incoming planes. If the weather is still that day the gas cloud might not dissipate and could be ignited by the planes engines.

-By Omar Younes

Regards

J.R. © The WorldPaper (US). All Rights reserved.

47 posted on 04/15/2002 10:12:27 AM PDT by NMC EXP
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To: Tumbleweed_Connection
bump
48 posted on 04/15/2002 10:13:01 AM PDT by foreverfree
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Comment #49 Removed by Moderator

To: Travis McGee
I kindly ask anyone to point out where I have missed some vital protection which would negate this type of attack.

Yes,I see a better and less complicated method of attack utilizing the same material,and NO,I will NOT comment on it.

As for "protection to prevent it",there ain't no such critter,other than luck. Granted,you make a lot of your own "luck" in the intelligence business by the way you conduct yourself and treat your assets,but even then there are no guarantees. The sooner people wake up to the fact that the government can NOT give them 100% protection for all harm,the better off everybody will be.

50 posted on 04/15/2002 10:34:00 AM PDT by sneakypete
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To: Travis McGee
LNG Tankers are offloaded in Boston, MA. within sight of the Tobin bridge and close enough to everything to make such an event a total disaster. Back when the shipments were first proposed it was estimated that the area at least to the Prudential center would be wiped out. Large parts of Cambridge, Somerville, and Chelsea would also be taken out. The former Charlestown Navy Yard would be wiped off the planet. Likewise Quincy Market. Mass General Hospital would be well within the total destruction zone and If the event took place at the dock there would be even greater devastation.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed -Yorktown

51 posted on 04/15/2002 11:20:01 AM PDT by harpseal
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To: sneakypete
See this month's SOF magazine for an outstanding review of former CIA paramilitary and case officer Robert Baer's scathing new book "See No Evil".

It will not give you much hope that the limp wristed PC analyst clones running CIA ops worldwide could find their rear ends with both hands, since they don't speak the languages, never leave the embassy rows, and consider getting down into the allies dirty, dangerous, and to be totally avoided at all costs.

52 posted on 04/15/2002 11:46:48 AM PDT by Travis McGee
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To: harpseal
Then it must be assumed that the LNG tankers are given "nuclear weapons grade" security, yes?
53 posted on 04/15/2002 11:48:09 AM PDT by Travis McGee
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To: NMC EXP
I think since the obvious mega danger potential latent in LNG tankers is so well known, they are given ultra security, and therefore terrorists will go after "lower hanging fruit".
54 posted on 04/15/2002 11:50:15 AM PDT by Travis McGee
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To: Travis McGee
Then it must be assumed that the LNG tankers are given "nuclear weapons grade" security, yes?

ROFLMAO -The level of security is better than nothing but not very high. It is a disaster waiting to happen.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

55 posted on 04/15/2002 12:08:21 PM PDT by harpseal
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To: RichardsSweetRose
This could make your life a bit more interesting. Send it to your SIL, if you think she cares.
56 posted on 04/15/2002 12:55:04 PM PDT by Liberty Belle
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To: Travis McGee
Read Jeff's book.
57 posted on 04/15/2002 1:39:13 PM PDT by patton
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Comment #58 Removed by Moderator

To: Travis McGee
Sounds like a doable plan to me....
Requires no inventions, low tech and inexpensive, little risk to the "bombers" - difficult to stop, difficult to assign responsibility...

It sounds like something "our guys" should be considering for delivery of a powerful "bitch slap" to our former friends and allies in the desert.....
Semper Fi

59 posted on 04/15/2002 3:24:43 PM PDT by river rat
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To: Travis McGee
And how many containers get inspected at their ports of debarkation - about 3% (in the US)?

It's a grim situation.

60 posted on 04/15/2002 7:23:53 PM PDT by Matthew James
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