Rail Road Choke Point and Potential International Terrorist Targets
By: Lance Winslow
A choke point is a place where there is only one way thru and where there are few options. Sometimes a choke point for a highway system or set of roads is the same place where oil pipelines come thru, power lines, water supplies, railroad and even communication systems. Consider a Mountain Pass scenario.
I have observed some 40 choke points that worry me, but not just from international terrorism target standpoint, from accidents too and Natural Disasters like Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Ice Storms, etc. I put together a worst-case scenario list of potential rail attacks and started working thru the potential; How, what, when, where, why and how. I was shocked at several very problematic places in Washington, California, TN, AR, IL, MD, VA, GA, PA, OH, KY, MS, MA, NY, NJ and WV.
But in the end felt that the International Terrorists standed a better chance where they would not stand out and thus would most likely consider; WA, OR, CA, TX, MI, OH, MD, NY, NJ, CO or even NM or AZ. As a Middle Easterner would not look out of place due to the closeness in skin color and features to Hispanic Populations. In the other states they would not stand out due to the high populations of Muslim folks in those states.
Other potential states which should look out are states like FL, AL, GA, SC, NC, VA too if you had a Black America Muslim convert who was snuckered into a radical Islamic cultish type group full of their obvious brain washing techniques, but again, they might say something to the wrong person and they are caught via a tip from a good Samaritan. Considering of course six degrees of separation theories.
In the states that I considered problematic; the choke points for full effect included areas where International Terrorists could trigger one event causing a full effect with very little manpower if perfectly executed. One part of me says they are not that smart to pull it off, yet the other says sure they are and as look at 9-11. I have thought here in along these lines from a “reverse war planning” scenario and then backwards of how best to defend it all, via video cameras, etc to catch in advance the casing of the area and then look into the backgrounds. We need to consider these issues as we continue to secure our Homeland. Think on this in 2006.
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