America's Hiroshima

This will put everything into perspective:  "An American Hiroshima" by By Nicholas D. Kristof

If you don't want to go and get the full dose, here's a clue:

If a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon, a midget even smaller than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, exploded in Times Square, the fireball would reach tens of millions of degrees Fahrenheit.

It would vaporize or destroy the theater district, Madison Square Garden, the Empire State Building, Grand Central Terminal and Carnegie Hall (along with me and my building). The blast would partly destroy a much larger area, including the United Nations. On a weekday some 500,000 people would be killed.

Could this happen?

Unfortunately, it could - and many experts believe that such an attack, somewhere, is likely. The Aspen Strategy Group, a bipartisan assortment of policy mavens, focused on nuclear risks at its annual meeting here last week, and the consensus was twofold: the danger of nuclear terrorism is much greater than the public believes, and our government hasn't done nearly enough to reduce it.

Graham Allison, a Harvard professor whose terrifying new book, "Nuclear Terrorism," offers the example cited above, notes that he did not pluck it from thin air. He writes that on Oct. 11, 2001, exactly a month after 9/11, aides told President Bush that a C.I.A. source code-named Dragonfire had reported that al-Qaeda had obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon and smuggled it into New York City.

The C.I.A. found the report plausible. The weapon had supposedly been stolen from Russia, which indeed has many 10-kiloton weapons. Russia is reported to have lost some of its nuclear materials, and al-Qaeda has mounted a determined effort to get or make such a weapon. And the C.I.A. had picked up al-Qaeda chatter about an "American Hiroshima."

President Bush dispatched nuclear experts to New York to search for the weapon and sent Dick Cheney and other officials out of town to ensure the continuity of government in case a weapon exploded in Washington instead. But to avoid panic, the White House told no one in New York City, not even Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

(If you're not too depressed to move, you can click HERE to read the rest.)

This is the kind of thing I've been hearing for quite awhile now, from people in a position to know.

I wonder if all the political correctness will seem worth it, if this happens.

The "American Hiroshima" chatter is nothing new, but it's being resurrected by, believe it or not, an elected official who thinks we should perhaps do something about it.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a staunch critic of the federal government's lax immigration and border enforcement policies, said yesterday he would request a briefing from the Justice Department on information it has on plans revealed by WND this week for a nuclear attack on the U.S. by al-Qaida terrorists.

Tancredo said he was greatly alarmed by the report and would seek whatever information he could get from the nation's law enforcement authorities – either in classified or unclassified reports.

Tancredo also plans to meet with the author of a book that provides new evidence al-Qaida has used the insecure Mexican border to bring nuclear devices into the country along with thousands of sleeper agents.

The rest is here.

It's refreshing to know that someone other than three conservative talk show hosts has noticed that our borders are a joke, and even realized that in an era where every third Muslim is trying to kill as many of us as possible, we might want to rethink handing out free toasters to everyone who slithers across.

Not that it would do any good to lock that particular barn door, now that the horses are all out and shopping at the Gap.

Comments

[Nancy French]

YIkes... Hard to digest my coffee after that. Especially living in a big city and near NY.

[Joshua]

Karen,

With all due respect, if you think that three conservative talk show hosts are the only folks to have commented upon our porous borders, then you are listening to only conservative talk shows. It's been commented on in liberal circles many times (I am not identifying myself as a liberal or a conservative, only a pragmatist) in fact, the much hated Micheal Moore included a section of that in his film, demonstrating how easy it was and still is to get inside our borders.

This while our president holds hands with the Saudi Prince. He doesn't want border security because if we are safe, we don't need him . . . and I believe, in the case of border security, we have conservatives to blame for it . . . they have control of the WH, the House & Senate and they are doing nothing . . . nothing about it.

The last attack on our soil happened while this crew was in charge, and that was for a reason. They are not interested protecting us, only their own interests. That's why we are in Iraq, a county that had nothing to do with the attacks on our country and was not an immediate or direct threat to our soil.

That's what I believe.

[Chris]

Karen, be careful. The site linked to "Chatter about Americna Hiroshima" promotes Bayside visionary Veronica Leuken, who has been condemned by the Church.

The "American Hiroshima" theory is compelling, however, it's no use worrying about because if these weapons are indeed here, it's a done deal.

God will take care of His children. The dead will be martyrs, the living will be given sufficient grace to overcome.

That said, I'm not sure about Paul Williams. If he were divulging anything sensitive, he would be silenced. Big, scary horrible threats that make it into the mass media almost always turn out to be so much fiction. It's the threats we don't hear about that will come true. No one - apparently not even MI6 - saw the suicide bombings coming. That's the object of non-stop chatter. Hit us where we're not looking, and when we're not looking.

[carey]

"God will take care of His children. The dead will be martyrs, the living will be given sufficient grace to overcome."

Chris, please note I am not attacking you, or your beliefs in any way on a personal level before I say this. But, as a Christian in a modern, ugly, depraved and frankly scary world, those kinds of phrases are troublesome to me. I'm fairly certain you don't have any intention of promoting a 'don't think, just believe' mentality, but still. I wonder if the Christian community is thinking clearly about this sort of eminent danger. Reactionary responses certainly are unneeded, unnecessary and unhealthy, but I wonder sometimes if we Christians are thinking and acting pragmatically.

Are we?

[Joshua]

"but I wonder sometimes if we Christians are thinking and acting pragmatically"

It would be nice to hear more statements such as the above -

For the record, I am a Buddhist and great believer in peace, and I think that far too much violence is done in the name of religion.

I don't think anyone should support a politician because he "says" he believes in god - how would anyone know for sure? Isn't faith simply and truly between that person and whatever awaits?

It would be best if we could leave religion out of politics completely and absolutely.

[Karen]

"Big, scary horrible threats that make it into the mass media almost always turn out to be so much fiction."

As I believe I said above, I'm hearing this from people who know what they're talking about.

(For the record, I should say that I'm hearing NOTHING from my NSA brother.)

But...

Two of our advisors are terrorism experts, talking heads on CNN, etc. And we keep being briefed by visiting terrorism experts. NO ONE is painting a rosy picture, and everyone says it's going to be "spectacular", and it's "when" and not "if".

[Farahnot]

http://kurtnimmo.com/blog/index.php?p=630

[Tapati]

I second that liberals are already talking about nuclear threats pretty regularly. It's pretty obvious that they've been working on something they feel will top 9/11, nuclear materials are unaccounted for around the globe and I'm sure they can and have gotten their hands on some.

Meanwhile our chemical plants are vulnerable and our food supply is almost totally unprotected. We are vulnerable on so many fronts, not just our southern borders. We also have miles and miles of coastline and not all of the northern border is secured either.

Just a few of the many reasons we should all stop fighting among ourselves and get together against the real danger. Nuclear bombs don't care if you're liberal or conservative.

<>

I know that nukes don't care what we believe, but I am convinced that God DOES. So the closer we get to being nuked, the more I am not going to be willing to "get together" with people who are trying to tell me that black is white.

[Karen]

Oops. That was me above. I hate anonymous posters, so I don't want to be one.

[Tapati]

It's all in how you define "get together" I suppose. It doesn't have to mean sharing belief systems. It could simply mean less time sniping at each other and more time doing whatever constructive things we can do about the big threat.

I was musing after reading this that when we thought we were fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here, they thought, "Hey, let's keep 'em distracted over here and spending all their money on this war while we slip over their borders over there."

[just me]

Whether it is the 'American Hiroshima" or the big quake, it is nearing the end for all of us! Each day we are one day closer to eternity. So we must seek to be in a state of grace each day and keep one eye on eternity and live each day as though we know we only have a short time to live. Love God and neighbor and family. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Have a nice cup of coffee while you are at it :)

[Tapati]

Amen!

[Sr. Lorraine]

And pray the rosary for peace.

[Guyot]

To quote Tim McGraw (cuz I can't remember the name of the guy who wrote the song)...

I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn't
and I became a friend a friend would like to have
and all the sudden going fishin
wasn't such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad
well I finally read the good book
and I took a good long hard look
at what I'd do if I could do it all again