QB Sneak

The Department of Homeland Security has thrown up a Coast Guard anti-terror watch around the port of Houston just in time for the Super Bowl. But for some reason the feds decline to name the object of the said "temporary security zone," which is quite obviously the friggin' football game.

The zone triggers strict oversight of "Certain Dangerous Cargoes" which include explosives, poisonous gas, poisonous liquid, radioactive material, and flammable gases or liquids. Ships with such cargo must phone or fax ahead to get a Coast Guard escort before entering the Houston ship channel.

Heads or tails?

(via Cryptome)

Comments

[mike]

There go my plans for world domination that begin with the port of Houston. Guess I'll just stay home and rent "Black Sunday".

[The Lonewacko Blog]

In other reports, they refer to it as the "Big Game." This is smart, because if they'd said "Super Bowl" they would have had to pay royalties to the NFL.

[Jennifer]

Can't the terrorists deduce the existence of a football stadium by consulting an almanac?

[John Ashcroft]

Jennifer-

You are hereby ordered to report to Gitmo under the Patriot Act. Your suggestion of using almanacs constitutes providing advice to terrorists. You will be detained as an enemy combatant indefinitely.

[Stephen Fetchet]

There's a cold wind blowing in this country, when the government starts inspecting incoming ships for explosives and radioactive material. Our freedoms are evaporating before our eyes when the jack booted Federalistas (really the sneaker-wearing Coasties, but please indulge me on this) infringe on our free religious expression by preventing us from carrying out apocalytpic fatwa-fueled attacks on the massive Superbowl crowds.

Next up: the oppressive thumb of government steps on our necks, by violating church/state separation, expressing mild disdain toward holy wars, crusades and jihad.

I blame Ashcroft.

Alls I can say is Vote Dean. He's the lunatic that 3 out of 5 Libertarians for Dean chose most often in a recent Reason.com poll.

[stubby]

Well, I live in Houston, less than .5 miles from the [place] where the [thing] is going to happen. I'm more worried about traffic (I plan to hunker down and stay close to home over the weekend) than I am about a terrorist strike but, yeah, it has occurred to me and it does kind of worry me. But what are you going to do?

[Dan]

Can't the terrorists deduce the existence of a football stadium by consulting an almanac?

What makes people think the Feds are trying to conceal this information from terrorists? They aren't doing anything of the kind. They're refusing to mention the Super Bowl because they don't want to deal with the media hype that would follow a public admission that they fear an attack on the Super Bowl.

By refusing to admit that the Super Bowl is the area of concern, the feds mute the potential terrorism-related media feeding frenzy. If they came right out and said "we think terrorists might attack the Super Bowl", the press would hype the threat, and then if no attack occurs it looks like the feds were crying wolf. This way, if no attack occurs, they can say "well we never said we thought there would be one".

[Warren]

By the way, Houston is only about 30 miles north of the site of perhaps the largest industrial accident in US history, where a shipload of amyl (SP?) nitrate fertilizer exploded most of Texas City. A shipload of fertilizer, especially if it is saturated with diesel fuel, becomes one incredibly huge bomb, basically of the same design as the Oklahoma City bombing but orders of magnitude larger. I still think that the danger of a group sailing such a ship up to downtown seattle or under the golden gate bridge is one of the more likely terrorist scenarios out there.

Everyone seems to worry about taking over a plane and crashing it into something. To my thinking, that approach doesn't work once people know the danger, and for that reason did not work even 30 minutes after the world trade center was hit (though the plane tragically crashed killing all on board, it did so without crashing into anything).

[Stephen Fetchet]

Warren - a shipload of amyl nitrate?

I think you're referring the the French freighter carrying ammonium nitrate, which caught fire and set the dockside chemical works of Texas City, Texas on (explosive) fire.

Amyl nitrate is what comes in little ampules you crush and snort at orgies.

Unless you are saying that massive amounts friction and "poppers" had something to with the explosion that killed thousands.

In which case I can't understand why San Fran and West L.A. haven't simply spontaneously combusted.

[Dan]

Everyone seems to worry about taking over a plane and crashing it into something. To my thinking, that approach doesn't work once people know the danger, and for that reason did not work even 30 minutes after the world trade center was hit

The reason it didn't work 30 minutes after the WTC is *because* it was 30 minutes after the WTC. The passengers knew for certain that their hijackers were on a suicide mission.

I'm less certain that it would still work today, especially if the hijackers claimed that they were on a non-suicidal mission. If a couple of armed hijackers said "we just want hostages to trade for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay", I think there's a good chance they could get away with it.

[thoreau]

Dan-

Perhaps, if the terrorists had enough time to make their speech about hostages, they might get away with it. But I don't think they'd have enough time to make their speech. The passenger revolt would be in full swing the moment the tweezer-wielding terrorist threatened to pluck the flight attendant's eyelashes, or clip her fingernails so short that it hurts 😉

OK, enough jokes about TSA confiscating tweezers and nailclippers. Point is, the passengers would fight back immediately. And I have no doubt that after American passengers successfully fought off terrorists the TSA would do even more intrusive searches.

Funny story: After 9/11, my mother worried about getting on a plane. Being a nurse she told me that in the emergency room they have a special cream that, when applied to the skin in even tiny quantities, instantly knocks a person out. She wanted to steal some from the emergency room. If her flight was attacked she'd put on rubber gloves from her purse, put the cream on the gloves, then lunge at the nearest attacker. One touch and he's out.

I have no doubt that she could have pulled this off. She's tough. However, the cream is nitroglycerin. (It's used for certain heart diseases. Normally people take safe slow-acting pills, but in some emergencies the fast-acting cream is used.) I pointed out that the TSA would not react well to a tube labeled "nitroglycerin." I also said that they wouldn't respond any better to "Oh, no, it's not explosive in this form, it's just a weapon that I stole so I can knock people out instantly."

She wisely decided not to steal the cream.

[Kevin Carson]

thoreau,

I wonder if the cream contained DMSO (which is quickly absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream). An old yippie trick was to mix LSD with DMSO and smear it on the door handles of police cars.

[Lonewacko]

"West L.A." is a pretty fruity area, in the sense of yuppie scum. However, I think you mean West Hollywood.

[Walter Wallis]

As an engineer and as one who remembers Texas City and Port Chicago [Ammo ship explosion 1944] and several ammo dump explosions in Korea, I hesitate to even talk about potential risks.

We can not fence terrorists out from everything they might harm here, so the only alternative is to fence them in. Talk trash about the U.S., stay home.

[AJMB]

The reason for mentioning the 'Big Game' is that only a selct few sponsors are allowed to actually use the copyrighted name: SUPER BOWL. All others get nasty letters from the NFL. Probably even the TSA.

[thoreau]

I don't know whether to be relieved or scared at the thought that the TSA would fear the NFL... 😉

[Citizen]

As if anyone else even bothered to watch The Sum of All Fears ...

Do the Feds think that if they don't explicitly mention the *uper *owl, it'll fly right under the radar of terrorist plotters? You know, with a line up of New England v Carolina, nobody cares about this game anyway, why should terrorists bother?

[Trey]

Jeez!

"Explosives, poisonous gas, poisonous liquid, radioactive material, and flammable gases or liquids"

That means every ship will need a coast guard excort. They'll be backed up to New Orleans.

[AJMB]

thoreau: If I'm the TSA I am definitely afraid that Paul Tagliabue (NFL commish) might sic his legal eagles on me. Or better yet, he could arrange to boycott next season until Patriot is thrown out . . . hmmmm

Tagliabue in '08!!!!

[stubby]

DJ - believe me, I looked into it. I'd even settle for Lake Charles. Alas, jobs and other responsibilities keep us homebound this weekend..

[dj of raleigh]

DJ - believe me, I looked into it. I'd even settle for Lake Charles. Alas, jobs and other responsibilities keep us homebound this weekend..
=================

Get out the duct tape and plastic as they say.
I don't think there is anything going to happen,
but you know, in 96, when the hurricane hit,
we already had that stuff and more, and it helped,
for we wrapped the ladder in plastic, bound by duct tape,
and put it thru the window and under the hole in the ceiling,
and the water flowed out that trough to the ground.
There ought to be a way for you to make some money out of this odeal.

[Warreb]

OK, my memory sux. I'm over 40, so I have an excuse. Too much aluminum in my diet, I guess. I was ammonium nitrate, per this link http://www.ezl.com/~fireball/Disaster20.htm, but I was right that it was fertilizer and not ammo or something else

[dj of raleigh]

> I live...less than .5 miles from the [place]
...and it does kind of worry me.
But what are you going to do?

[dj of raleigh]

> Heads or tails?

[Lonewacko]

As an addendum to my previous comment, I would like to make it perfectly clear that when I said that West L.A. was infested with yuppie scum, I intended to mention that Reason's office was definitely in a yuppie-scum-free part of West L.A.

[Jacob Sarah]

EMAIL: [e-mail]
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DATE: 05/20/2004 02:23:23
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