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Sat, 8 Jul 2006

If I were a terrrrrrrst ...

Following on from my post a few months ago on effective suicide bombing, here's what I would do if I wanted to cause widespread terror.

One quiet Sunday afternoon, a car blows up in an ordinary residential street like the one I live in. It would have been left there a week or more ago, and its presence wouldn't alarm anyone. Naturally, there would be no warning, and neither would there be a silly press release claiming responsibility. That, to my mind, puts a face on The Enemy, and a complete unknown is FAR more frightening.

A week later, the same happens again. It's even the same make, model and colour of car (stolen, naturally).

And again. At which point I've established a pattern, everyone's reporting their neighbour who doesn't drive very often, and I'll change patterns. If the aim of terrorism is to cause terror and to undermine social norms, this really does seem quite easy.

Please join in and play this fun what-if game in the comments.

Posted at 22:46 by David Cantrell
keywords: politics
Permalink | 4 Comments

Bruce Schneier constantly says that if real criminals/terrorists read the plots of books/films we'd be in trouble. Thankfully most are too stupid of lazy to bother, which make life very easy for the police/millatary.

Every now and then a nobody does something unexpected, and society over-reacts, but on the whole criminals/terrorists are not the brightest in the bunch...

Posted by Adam on Mon, 10 Jul 2006 at 22:13:52


Aha, but there is a fatal flaw in your brilliant plan!

I know about it. ;-)

Posted by Ben on Tue, 11 Jul 2006 at 17:31:28


Ben's a co-conspirator! Ben's a co-conspirator! He must be if he knows what's going to happen!

Posted by David Cantrell on Tue, 11 Jul 2006 at 23:46:09


If I were an Islamic Terrrrst I would put on a yarmulke, paint my van with a Star of David, fill it with explosives and drive it into an american military outpost to encite the Americans to goto war with Israel.

Posted by Jack on Thu, 3 Aug 2006 at 23:24:20


Sorry, this post is too old for you to comment on it.

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